but a temporary one. Though citizen transfers to citizen his deeds of pecuniary interest, his moral relation to the soil is one of sacred trust. All governments are commissions of trust, and prosperity and true glory await them only as they are faithfully executed.

The Indian, the steward of one talent, buried it, and made no interest. “From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." We are endowed with more talents, and they involve corresponding responsibilities. If our work is of any account, it makes a part of that Providence which numbers the hairs of our heads, and directs the destiny of nations. If it be any thing, it is one of vast concern and strict accountability.

Placed upon a continent of great extent, we are favored with that variety of climate and soil necessary to the countless products suited to the condition of man. Watered by mighty rivers and lakes, commerce moves its wealth upon them to every region of our land. The mountains meet the clouds in their heights, and send to our fields and valleys their fertilizing streams. Bound on every side with coasts and harbors, the products of our country are carried to every clime, and those of other nations are brought to ours. Enlivened and enriched by the spirit of enterprise, the valleys are exalted, the mountains are made low, and roads of iron radiate from every city, and are traversed with stupendous freights with the speed of the wind; and with the speed of lightning, intelligence is

must forever bind together the American Union. Indeed, when we look upon the American revolution, the framing of our Constitution, the addition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Oregon, our everextending area, products, and population, our triumphs in war and peace, we must be blind to the past, and close our eyes upon the fulfilling realities of the future, if we cannot perceive and gratefully acknowledge that a higher than an earthly power still guards and directs our destiny, impels us onward, and has selected our great and happy country as a model and ultimate centre of attraction for all the nations of the world."

transmitted from boundary to boundary of the entire continent. Steamships plough every ocean, and, with the aid of the mighty press, report all our acts to other nations, and they in return report to us. Experiments of governments, of science, and reform, are closely watched and studied by every people.*

OUR GOVERNMENT IS THE RULE OF THE PEOPLE.

It is a republic that secures, as from a common centre to its entire circumference, equal rights and freedom to all. It gives freedom to mind, security to body, and protection to interests.

The democracy of the republic is in process of development. The people are sovereign. Man stands alone, in his dignity, representing both government and subject. He acts for himself and for the greatest good of the whole people. The virtue of the masses is blended in action, and conscience is beginning to rule. Every man being made to feel that he is accountable to his God for the acts of his country, he is ever ready to serve her with unyielding integrity. He lives and rejoices in her glory, and suffers in her shame. Early taught at the district school, he knows the power of knowledge, and

* See Appendix B.

"If the men of our time were led by attentive observation, and by sincere reflection, to acknowledge that the gradual and progressive development of social equality is at once the past and future of their history, this solitary truth would confer the sacred character of a divine decree upon the change. To attempt to check democracy, would be, in that case, to resist the will of God; and the nations would then be constrained to make the best of the social lot awarded to them by Providence." "Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight of God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of the law. But, by a singular concourse of events, religion is entangled in those institutions which, democracy assails, and it is not unfrequently brought to reject the equality it loves, and to curse that cause of liberty as a foe, which it might hallow by its alliance." - De Tocqueville.

the sad penalties of ignorance. He fears nothing but wrong, and claims nothing but right.

Originating in millions of moral and intelligent beings, what a fearful aggregate of power to be delegated to rulers! And with its privileges, what duties of fearful magnitude are imposed upon them! What trusts from the nation, from the world, and from God!

An independent child of one of the greatest powers upon earth, our nation is looked upon as the great beacon of liberty and self-government throughout the world. The cause of democracy is the universal cause of equal rights and freedom, and it is placed with us, more than with any other people, to be protected, preserved, and advanced. It is not the cause of a day, but of all coming time; not of a people, but of a world.*

* Our national charities, our educational and religious missions, our constant commercial intercourse with all countries, serve to conciliate differences which separate the people of different nations from our own, and to impose upon us those additional duties, which gratitude in others, and success in ourselves, are sure to originate, as the high reward for the privileges of doing good.

"Nothing can be more desirable," says a sensible writer, "than to raise the minds of the American people to a level with their station,' and to call off their thoughts from the narrow pursuits of personal or national aggrandizement. A nobler object is set before them in the great moral enterprise to which this nation is called. Our field is the world. It is our influence on the whole human race that principally constitutes, it may be hoped, the peculiarity of American destiny.

"It was long ago said, respecting the leader of our revolution, the great and good Washington, that he had filled the world with his own and his country's glory-that the Arab and the Tartar conversed about him in their tents. This was rhetorically uttered, but with sufficiently near approach to the truth to redeem the remark from mere declamation.

"Our opinions have been embraced, and our example has been followed, in too many instances, not to indicate the general estimation in which the country is held abroad. Wherever revolutions in gov

We can utter, with a cheerful heart and fearless spirit, "Our country, however bounded; our country, right or wrong." Not to be continued in error; but to be sustained when right, and to be righted when wrong. We have an individuality, as a nation, as we have personal identity as citizens. There should be a national consciousness, a national identity. All that makes the man helps make the nation, and all that makes the nation helps make the world.

THE DESTINY OF OUR NATION

has been alluded to by some of our public men with an eloquence befitting the cause of truth, and with a judgment indicative of rare attainments. Others, we regret to observe, have spoken of the subject as one of frivolous assumption, and as the forced conviction of party, and for party purposes.

We can understand and respect a man who honestly contends against our faith, for we are equally concerned in all the great objects of existence. Truth is our common friend; but there is a withering levity in the spirit that would ponder lightly the solemn convictions of any one who believes in a destiny, whether concerning his own soul or his own country. It is an inspiration of high sentiment, if not of logical deduction; and the faith, whether from instinct or knowledge, is entitled to be reverenced and honored. We are not beings of chance; our country is not an accident in the providence of God. If we have evil, it is the legitimate fruit of sin, — a warning to men and nations doing wrong. If we are blessed

ernment have been attempted, or realized, in modern times, the model has evidently been America, the encouragement America's success. France, Greece, Belgium, Mexico, and the republics of South America, each strove to change their condition, in the expectation of securing somewhat of the freedom and happiness of these United States." · Christian Spectator, March, 1834.

These remarks were published in 1834. What a chapter of national events, which have transpired since that time, might be made up, our readers have no occasion to be advised.

with goodness, the examples endure forever, as encouragements to those doing right. Every person and every nation has a destiny marked by an Almighty hand. What that has been to us and to our country in past time, is a matter of history, the beginning of its being; but what it is to be, no human wisdom can predict, affirm, or deny. If we believe in a God of infinite power and love, our aspirations in sentiment should elevate us to that condition of confident hope unknown to the atheist, the anchor to the soul that is true to its divine integrity. (See Appendix.)

3*