the citizens of New Orleans, ever famed for deeds of charity and
benevolence. Freely leave your hearts and purses opened, heretofore, to the
call of suffering humanity. Nobly did you respond to oppressed Greece and
to struggling Poland. Within Erin's borders is an enemy more cruel than the
Turk, more tyrannical than the Russian. Bread is the only weapon that can
conquer him. Let us, then load ships with this glorious munition, and, in
the name of our common humanity wage war against this despot Famine. Let
us, in God's name, "cast our bread upon the waters," and if we are selfish
enough to desire it back again, we may recollect the promise, that it shall
return to us after many days.
S. S. Prentiss.
LVII.
THE NEW ENGLAND COMMON SCHOOL.
Behold yon simple building near the crossing of the village road! It is
small, and of rude construction, but stands in a pleasant and quiet spot. A
magnificent old elm spreads its broad arms above, and seems to lean towards
it, as a strong man bends to shelter and protect a child. A brook runs
through the meadow near, and hard by there is an orchard; but the trees
have suffered much, and bear no fruit, except upon the most remote and
inaccessible branches. From within its walls comes a busy hum, such as you
may hear in a disturbed beehive. Now peep through yonder window, and you
will see a hundred children with rosy cheeks, mischievous eyes, and demure
faces, all engaged, or pretending to be so, in their little lessons. It is
the public school,--the free, the common school,--provided by law; open to
all; claimed from the community as a right, not accepted as a bounty.
Here the children of the rich and poor, high and low, meet upon perfect
equality, and commence, under the same auspices, the race of life. Here the
sustenance of the mind is served up to all alike, as the Spartans served
their food upon the public table. Here, young Ambition climbs his little
ladder, and boyish Genius plumes his half-fledged wing. From among these
laughing children will go forth the men who are to control the destinies of
their age and country; the statesman, whose wisdom is to guide the Senate;
the poet, who will take captive the hearts of the people, and bind them
together with immortal song; the philosopher, who, boldly seizing upon the
elements themselves, will compel them to his wishes, and, through new
combinations of their primal laws, by some great discovery, revolutionize
both art and science.
The common village-school is New England's fairest boast,--the brightest
jewel that, adorns her brow. The principle that society is bound to provide
for its members' education as well as protection, so that none need be
ignorant except from choice, is the most important that belongs to modern
philosophy. It is essential to a republican government. Universal education
is not only the best and surest, but the only sure, foundation for free
institutions. True liberty is the child of knowledge; she pines away and
dies in the arms of ignorance. Honor, then, to the early fathers of New
England, from whom came the spirit which has built a school-house by every
sparkling fountain, and bids all come as freely to the one as to the other.
S. S. Prentiss.
LVIII.
CHRISTIANITY THE SOURCE OF REFORM.
The great element of reform is not born of human wisdom: it does not draw
its life from human organizations. I find it only in Christianity. "Thy
kingdom come!" There is a sublime and pregnant burden in this prayer. It is
the aspiration of every soul that goes forth in the spirit of Reform. For
what is the significance of this prayer? It is a petition that all holy
influences would penetrate, and subdue, and dwell in the heart of man,
until he shall think, and speak, and do good, from the very necessity of
his being. So would the institutions of error and wrong crumble and pass
away. So would sin die out from the earth; and the human soul living in
harmony with the Divine Will, this earth would become like Heaven. It is
too late for the reformers to sneer at Christianity,--it is foolishness
for them to reject it. In it are enshrined our faith in human
progress,--our confidence in reform. It is indissolubly connected with all
that is hopeful, spiritual, capable in man. That men have misunderstood
it, and perverted it, is true. But it is also true, that the noblest
efforts for human melioration have come out of it,--have been based upon
it. Is it not so? Come, ye remembered ones, who sleep the sleep of the
just,--who took your conduct from the line of Christian philosophy--come
from your tombs, and answer!
Come, Howard, from the gloom of the prison and the taint of the
lazar-house, and show us what philanthropy can do when imbued with the
spirit of Jesus. Come, Eliot, from the thick forest where the red man
listens to the Word of Life;--come, Penn, from thy sweet counsel and
weaponless victory,--and show us what Christian zeal and Christian love
can accomplish with the rudest barbarians or the fiercest hearts. Come,
Raikes, from thy labors with the ignorant and the poor, and show us with
what an eye this Faith regards the lowest and the least of our race; and
how diligently it labors, not for the body, not for the rank, but for the
plastic soul that is to course the ages of immortality. And ye, who are a
great number,--ye nameless ones,--who have done good in your narrow
spheres, content to forego renown on earth, and seeking your reward in the
Record on High,--come and tell us how kindly a spirit, how lofty a purpose,
or how strong a courage, the Religion ye professed can breathe into the
poor, the humble, and the weak. Go forth, then, Spirit of Christianity, to
thy great work of Reform! The Past bears witness to thee in the blood of
thy martyrs, and the ashes of thy saints and heroes: the Present is hopeful
because of thee; the Future shall acknowledge thy omnipotence.
E. H. Chapin.
LIX.
NORTHERN LABORERS.
The gentleman, sir, has misconceived the spirit and tendency of Northern
institutions. He is ignorant of Northern character. He has forgotten the
history of his country. Preach insurrection to the Northern laborers! Who
are the Northern laborers? The history of your country is their history.
The renown of your country is their renown. The brightness of their doings
is emblazoned on its every page. Blot from your annals the words and the
doings of Northern laborers, and the history of your country presents but a
universal blank.
Sir, who was he that disarmed the Thunderer; wrested from his grasp the
bolts of Jove; calmed the troubled ocean; became the central sun of the
philosophical system of his age, shedding his brightness and effulgence on
the whole civilized world; whom the great and mighty of the earth delighted
to honor; who participated in the achievement of your Independence,
prominently assisted in moulding your free institutions, and the beneficial
effects of whose wisdom will be felt to the last moment of "recorded
time?" Who sir, I ask, was he? A Northern laborer, a Yankee
tallow-chandler's son,--a printer's runaway boy!
And who, let me ask the honorable gentleman, who was he that, in the days
of our Revolution, led forth a northern army,--yes, an army of Northern
laborers,--and aided the chivalry of South Carolina in their defence
against British aggression, drove the spoilers from their firesides, and
redeemed her fair fields from foreign invaders? Who was he? A Northern
laborer, a Rhode Island blacksmith,--the gallant General Greene, who left
his hammer and his forge, and went forth conquering and to conquer in the
battle for our Independence! And will you preach insurrection to men like
these?
Sir, our country is full of the achievements of Northern laborers. Where is
Concord, and Lexington, and Princeton, and Trenton, and Saratoga, and
Bunker Hill, but in the North? And what, sir, has shed an imperishable
renown on the never-dying names of those hallowed spots, but the blood and
the struggles, the high daring, and patriotism, and sublime courage of
Northern laborers? The whole North is an everlasting monument of the
freedom, virtue, intelligence, and indomitable independence of Northern
laborers! Go, sir, go preach insurrection to men like these!
The fortitude of the men of the North, under intense suffering for
liberty's sake, has been almost godlike! History has so recorded it. Who
comprised that gallant army, without food, without pay shelterless,
shoeless, penniless, and almost naked, in that dreadful winter,--the
midnight of our Revolution,--whose wanderings could be traced by their
blood-tracks in the snow; whom no arts could seduce, no appeal lead astray,
no sufferings disaffect; but who, true to their country and its holy cause,
continued to fight the good fight of liberty until it finally triumphed?
Who, sir, were these men? Why, Northern laborers! Yes, sir, Northern
laborers! Who, sir, were Roger Sherman, and--but it is idle to enumerate.
To name the Northern laborers who have distinguished themselves, and
illustrated the history of their country, would require days of the time of
this House; nor is it necessary. Posterity will do them Justice. Their
deeds have been recorded in characters of fire!
C. Naylor.
LX.
BROUGHAM'S ATTACK ON CANNING DESCRIBED.
Upon that occasion, the oration of Brougham was, at the outset, disjointed
and ragged, and apparently without aim or application. He careered over the
whole annals of the world, and collected every instance in which genius had
degraded itself at the footstool of power, or principle had been sacrificed
for the vanity or the lucre of place; but still there was no allusion to
Canning, and no connection that ordinary men could discover with the
business before the House. When however, he had collected every material
which suited his purpose,--when the mass had become big and black, he bound
it about and about with the cords of illustration and of argument; when its
union was secure, he swung it round and round with the strength of a giant
and the rapidity of a whirlwind, in order that its impetus and effect might
be more tremendous; and, while doing this, he ever and anon glared his eye,
and pointed his finger to make the aim and direction sure.
Canning was the first who seemed to be aware where and how terrible was to
be the collision; and he kept writhing his body in agony, and rolling his
eyes in fear, as if anxious to find some shelter from the impending bolt.
The House soon caught the impression, and every man in it was glancing his
eye fearfully, just towards the orator, and then towards the Secretary.
There was, save the voice of Brougham, which growled in that undertone of
muttered thunder, which is so fearfully audible, and of which no speaker of
the day was fully master but himself, a silence as if the angel of
retribution had been flaring in the face of all parties the scroll of their
personal and political sins. A pen, which one of the Secretaries dropped
upon the matting, was heard in the remotest part of the house; and the
voting members, who often slept in the side-galleries during the debate,
started up as though the final trump had been sounding them to give an
account of their deeds.
The stiffness of Brougham's figure had vanished; his features seemed
concentrated almost to a point; he glanced toward every part of the House
in succession; and, sounding the death-knell of the Secretary's forbearance
and prudence, with both his clinched hands upon the table, he hurled at him
an accusation more dreadful in its gall, and more torturing in its effects
than ever had been hurled at mortal man within the same walls. The result
was instantaneous--was electric; it was as when the thunder-cloud descends
upon some giant peak--one flash, one peal--the sublimity vanished, and all
that remained was the small and cold pattering of rain. Canning started to
his feet, and was able only to utter the unguarded words, "It is false!"
to which followed a dull chapter of apologies. From that moment, the House
became more a scene of real business than of airy display and angry
vituperation.
Anonymous.
LXI.
SOUTH CAROLINA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
It is with unfeigned reluctance, Mr. President, that I enter upon the
performance of this part of my duty. I shrink almost instinctively from a
course, however necessary, which may have a tendency to excite sectional
feelings and sectional jealousies. But, sir, the task has been forced upon
me, and I proceed right onward to the performance of my duty. Be the
consequences what they may, the responsibility is with those who have
imposed upon me this necessity. The Senator from Massachusetts has thought
proper to cast the first stone, and if he shall find, according to the
homely adage, that "he lives in a glass house,"--on his head be the
consequences. The gentleman has made a great flourish about his fidelity to
Massachusetts. I shall make no professions of zeal for the interests and
honor of South Carolina--of that my constituents shall Judge.
If there be one State in the Union, Mr. President, (and I say it not in a
boastful spirit,) that may challenge comparison with any other for a
uniform, zealous, ardent, and uncalculating devotion to the Union, that
State is South Carolina. Sir, from the very commencement of the Revolution
up to this hour, there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not
cheerfully made; no service she has hesitated to perform. She has adhered
to you in your prosperity, but in your adversity she has clung to you with
more than filial affection. No matter what was the condition of her
domestic affair's--though deprived of her resources, divided by parties, or
surrounded by difficulties,--the call of the country has been to her as the
voice of God. Domestic discord ceased as the sound--every man became at
once reconciled to his brethren, and the sons of Carolina were all seen
crowding together to the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar of their
common country.
What, sir, was the conduct of the South during the Revolution? Sir, I honor
New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle; but great as is the
praise which belongs to her, I think at least equal honor is due to the
South. They espoused the cause of their brethren with generous zeal which
did not suffer them to stop to calculate their interest in the dispute.
Favorites of the mother country, possessed of neither ships nor seamen to
create commercial rivalship, they might have found in their situation a
guaranty that their trade would be forever fostered and protected by Great
Britain. But trampling on all considerations, either of interest or of
safety; they rushed into the conflict, and fighting for principle, perilled
all in the sacred cause for freedom. Never was there exhibited in the
history of the world, higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering,
and heroic endurance, than by the Whigs of Carolina during that Revolution.
The whole State, from the mountain to the sea, was overrun by an
overwhelming force of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the
spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The "plains of
Carolina" drank up the most precious blood of her citizens,--black and
smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitations of her
children! Driven from their homes into the gloomy and almost impenetrable
swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and South Carolina,
sustained by the example of her Sumters and her Marions, proved by her
conduct, that though her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her people
was invincible.
R. Y. Hayne.
LXII.
INCOMPETENCY OF PARLIAMENT TO PASS THE UNION BILL.
Sir,--I, in the most express terms, deny the competency of Parliament to
abolish the Legislature of Ireland. I warn you, do not dare to lay your
hand on the Constitution.--I tell you that if, circumstanced as you are,
you pass an act which surrenders the government of Ireland to the English
Parliament, it will be a nullity and that no man in Ireland will be bound
to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately,--I repeat it and I call on
any man who hears me, to take down my words;--you have not been elected for
this purpose,--you are appointed to act under the Constitution, not to
alter it,--you are appointed to exercise the functions of legislators, and
not to transfer them,--and if you do so, your act is a dissolution of the
government,--you resolve society into its original elements, and no man in
the land is bound to obey you.
Yourselves you may extinguish, but Parliament you cannot extinguish,--it is
enthroned in the hearts of the people,--it is enshrined in the sanctuary of
the Constitution,--it is immortal as the island which it protects. As well
might the frantic suicide hope that the act which destroys his miserable
body should extinguish his eternal soul. Again I therefore warn you, do not
dare to lay your hands on the Constitution; it is above your power. Sir, I
do not say that the Parliament and the people, by mutual consent and
cooperation, may not change the form of the Constitution.
But, thank God, the people have manifested no such wish,--so far as they
have spoken, their voice is decidedly against this daring innovation. You
know that no voice has been uttered in its favor, and you cannot be
infatuated enough to take confidence from the silence which prevails in
some parts of the kingdom; if you know how to appreciate that silence, it
is more formidable than the most clamorous opposition,--you may be rived
and shivered by the lightning before you hear the peal of the thunder! But,
sir, we are told we should discuss this question with calmness and
composure. I am called on to surrender my birthright and my honor, and I am
told I should be calm and composed.
National pride! Independence of our country! These, we are told by the
Minister, are only vulgar topics fitted for the meridian of the mob, but
unworthy to be mentioned in such an enlightened assembly as this; they are
trinkets and gew-gaws fit to catch the fancy of childish and unthinking
people like you, sir, or like your predecessor in that chair, but utterly
unworthy of the consideration of this House, or of the matured
understanding of the noble lord who condescends to instruct it! Gracious
God! We see a Perry re-ascending from the tomb and raising his awful voice
to warn us against the surrender of our freedom, and we see that the proud
and virtuous feelings which warmed the breast of that aged and venerable
man, are only calculated to excite the contempt of this young philosopher,
who has been transplanted from the nursery to the cabinet, to outrage the
feelings and understanding of the country.
W. C. Plunkett.
LXIII.
WASHINGTON.
Sir, it matters very little, what immediate spot may have been the
birthplace of such a man as Washington. No people can claim, no country
appropriate him. The boon of Providence to the human race,--his fame is
eternity, and his residence, creation. Though it was the defeat of our
arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in
which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered, and the earth rocked,
yet, when the storm had passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared!
How bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet which it revealed to
us! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if Nature was
endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the
ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the
new.
Individual instances, no doubt there were,--splendid exemplifications of
some single qualification. Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was continent,
Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all
in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit,
in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model and the
perfection of every master.
As a general, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by
discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the
policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general
advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his
counsels, that, to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the
character of the sage! A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of
blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for
aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the
command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned
it.
If he had paused here, history might have doubted what station to assign
him; whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her
patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all
hesitation. Who like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere,
resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the
adoration of a land he might be almost said to have created! Happy, proud
America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy! The
temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism.
C. Phillips.
LXIV.
EDUCATION.
Of all the blessings which it has pleased Providence to allow us to
cultivate, there is not one which breathes a purer fragrance, or bears a
heavenlier aspect than education. It is a, companion which no misfortune
can depress, no clime destroy no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave; at
home a friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a solace, in
society an ornament; it chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once a
grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave!
A reasoning savage, vascillating between the dignity of an intelligence
derived from God, and the degradation of passion participated with brutes;
and in the accident of their alternate ascendency, shuddering at the
terrors of a hereafter, or embracing the horrid hope of annihilation. What
is this wondrous world of his residence?
"A mighty maze, and all without a plan:"
a dark, and desolate, and dreary cavern, without wealth, or ornament, or
order. But light up within it the torch of knowledge, and how wondrous the
transition! The seasons change, the atmosphere breathes, the landscape
lives, earth unfolds its fruits, ocean rolls in its magnificence, the
heavens display their constellated canopy, and the grand animated spectacle
of nature rises revealed before him, its varieties regulated, and its
mysteries resolved! The phenomena which bewilder, the prejudices which
debase, the superstitions which enslave, vanish before education.
Like the holy symbol which blazed upon the cloud before the hesitating
constantly, if man follow but its precepts, purely it will not only lead
him to the victories of this world, but open the very portals of
Omnipotence for his admission. Cast your eye over the monumental map of
ancient grandeur, once studded with the stars of empire and the splendors
of philosophy. What erected the little State of Athens into a powerful
Commonwealth, placing in her hand the sceptre of legislation, and wreathing
round her brow the imperishable chaplet of literary fame? What extended
Rome, the heart of banditti, into universal empire? What animated Sparta
with that high, unbending, adamantine courage, which conquered Nature
herself, and has fixed her in the sight of future ages, a model of public
virtue, and a proverb of national independence? What but those wise public
institutions which strengthened their minds with early application,
informed their infancy with the principles of actions, and sent them into
the world too vigilant to be deceived by its calms, and too vigorous to be
shaken by its whirlwinds?
C. Phillips.
LXV.
CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.