Puslapio vaizdai
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gratitude to Providence for the blessings of the past, and speak to friends of the future as they shall arise. Gentlemen, we cannot shut our eyes—and the intelligent part of mankind does not shut its eyes-to the extraordinary degree of prosperity to which this country has risen under its present popular form of government. And that is the secret of it all. The country is universally prosperous. There may be some things which we might wish. were better-there are many things which might happen for the worse; but, upon the whole, during the course of the sun, from its rising to its setting, where does it throw its beams upon a more prosperous, more enlightened, and more happy country-more growing in the fruits of peace and in renown-than on these States, thus united together.

Now, gentlemen, whence do these blessings flow? Whence comes all this prosperity which we enjoy ? How is it that on this whole continent-from the frozen zone to Cape Horn-there is no happiness like the happiness of the people of the United States; there is no growth like the growth of the United States; there is no government or people that stand up before the world like the government and people of the United Statesstand up boldly and fearlessly before the whole world, like our own free and educated people? How is it? In my opinion, gentlemen, all this, or the greater part of it, is to be referred to our early acquaintance with the principles of public liberty, and to our early adoption of those principles in the establishment of a republican form of government.

4. The tory writers of England, gentlemen, as you

well know, whose labor it has always been to maintain the supremacy of the upper classes, and who have been connected with the control of the government, and have maintained their share of rule, have labored to explain to mankind that those above can govern better than those below. That is not our principle. We hold that there is nothing above and nothing below-each man participating in the public prosperity, and cach man sharing in the formation and in the administration of the government. Dr. Johnson, one of the writers of that school, says :

"How small of all that human hearts endure,

The part which kings or laws can cause or cure!"

Why, gentlemen, kings and laws can cause or cure most of the evils which belong to social or individual life. Kings or laws can establish despotism. They can restrain political opinions. They can prevent men from the exercise of free thoughts, and from the expression of those thoughts. Kings and laws can lay intolerable taxes. Kings and laws can take away from the masses all participation in the Government. And kings and laws can bring about a state of things in which popular freedom and the popular will are repressed and trodden down under the feet of power. And is not that much? Who is there in society that does not feel that these political institutions are for him? They are for good or for evil, and the very elements of his personal freedom. It is true-it is very true-that a man's personal condition. may depend very much upon his personal circumstances -his health, the state of his family, his means of living,

But I And I

his means of educating his children, his fortune, good or evil. But all these things are influenced deeply-mainly -essentially influenced, by the laws and constitution of the country in which he lives. And that, I take it, is the great solution-the great solution of the question now no longer doubted, but heretofore existing all over Europe ―of the true nature of the prosperity and the happiness of the people of the United States. I therefore say, at once, you, gentlemen, know all my sentiments. say to my whole country, you know them also. say more especially to all the crowned heads, and all the aristocratic powers of all the feudal systems of Europe, that it is to self-government-it is to the principle of public representation and administration-it is to a system that lets in all to partake in the councils which are to affect the good or evil of all—that we owe what we are, under the sanction of Divine Providence, and all we hope to be. Why, gentlemen, who does not see this? Who is there among us that supposes that any thing but the independence of the country could have made us what we are? Suppose that mother England had treated us with the utmost indulgence-suppose that the counsels most favorable to the colonies had prevailed-suppose we had been treated even as a spoiled child-I say, as I have said to my friend on my left, that it is not possible for any government, or any country at a distance, to raise a nation by any line of policy to the height to which this has attained. It is independence-it is self-government-it is the liberty of the people to make laws for themselves, that has raised us above the subdued feeling of colonial subjuga

tion, and placed us where we are. It is independence! Hail, independence! Hail! thou next best gift of life and immortal spirit!

5. Gentlemen, I have said that our blessings and our prosperity flow essentially from our form of government, from the satisfaction of the people with that form, and from their desire to forward the general progress of the country. There are but few Americans in the country but what rejoice in the general prosperity of the country. Who does not take delight, day and night, in learning that the progress of the country in general is onwardthat the people are happy, and that we grow more and more successful and renowned every day? Now, this is of itself a source of particular happiness to every honest American heart. The truth is, that whatever a man's personal condition may be--however prosperous or unprosperous-however fortunate or unfortunate-in whatever circumstances of elevation or depression he may find himself--he still participates in the general prosperity of the country. He has, in short, a dividend—if I may be allowed to use a commercial expression--he has a dividend, payable, not quarterly, but daily; not in gold or silver, but in the general happiness and prosperity that he enjoys. And now let me ask, on what portion of the globe-in how many regions that are called civilized-does the same thing occur? There are some instances--there are some nations, among the people of whom a great respect and ardent attachment for the honor of their government and the diffusion of its principles exist; but take the whole of them-look over the continent of Europe--and among the millions

and millions who constitute the subjects of the despotic governments of Europe, how many are there that care any thing for their country, its prosperity, its honor, or its renown; but whose only hope it is that the government of their country will cease to be so oppressive upon their industry-will cease to be so burdensome by their taxation-and instead of considering the means by which one government may be the rival of another government, and by which their government may maintain its position and power among other governments--which is done by means of constant taxation--that it would consider somewhat the thoughts of those who are governed, and their strenuous exertions to maintain themselves while they are obliged to sustain the gorgeous appendages of military power, in order to support their monarchical institutions? Compare our position with that. Why, there are more men in the United States—I had almost said-attached to their government, loving their government, feeling keenly every thing that tends to the disparagement of their government, alive to every thing that conduces to the interest of their government, and rejoicing that they live under this government, than you can find in the thousand millions of acres among nations called civilized in the Old World, but living under their despotic governments.

6. Now, gentlemen, we are all Bostonians-we live here on this little peninsula-little in territory, not little in intelligence-circumscribed in acres, not circumscribed by any known boundary in the respect of the civilized world-but we, as Bostonians, live here on this peninsula of ours, and we partake of the general prosperity of our

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