"In this web of islands, the West Indies, began the life of both
[North and South] Americas. There Columbus saw land, there Spain
began her baneful and brilliant Western Empire; thence Cortez
departed for Mexico, De Soto for the Mississippi, Balboa for the
Pacific, and Pizarro for Peru. The history of the United States was
separated by a beneficient Providence far from this wild and cruel
history of the rest of the continent, and _like a silent seed, we
grew into empire_; while empire itself, beginning in the South, was
swept by so interminable a hurricane that what of its history we
can ascertain is read by the very lightnings that devastated it.
The growth of English America may be likened to a series of lyrics
sung by separate singers, which, coalescing, at last make a
vigorous chorus, and this, attracting many from afar, swells and is
prolonged, until presently it assumes the dignity and proportions
of epic song."
A writer in the _Dublin Nation_ about the year 1850 spoke of the United
States as a wonderful empire which was "_emerging_," and "_amid the
silence of the earth_ daily adding to its power and pride."
In Martyn's "History of the Great Reformation," Vol. iv, p. 238, is an
extract from an oration of Edward Everett, on the English exiles who
founded this government, in which he says:--
"Did they look for a retired spot, inoffensive from its obscurity,
safe in its remoteness from the haunts of despots, where the little
church of Leyden might enjoy freedom of conscience? Behold the
mighty regions over which in _peaceful conquest--victoria sine
clade_--they have borne the banners of the cross."
We now ask the reader to look at these expressions side by side: "Coming
up out of the earth," "coming forth from vacancy," "emerging amid the
silence of the earth," "like a silent seed we grew into empire," "mighty
regions" secured by "peaceful conquest." The first is from the prophet,
stating what would be when the two-horned beast should arise; the others
are from political writers, telling what has been in the history of our
own government. Can any one fail to see that the last four are exactly
synonymous with the first, and that they record a complete
accomplishment of the prediction? And what is not a little remarkable,
those who have thus recorded the fulfillment have, without any reference
to prophecy, used the very figure which the prophet employed. These men,
therefore, being judges--men of large and cultivated minds, and whose
powers of discernment all will acknowledge to be sufficiently clear--it
is certain that the particular manner in which the United States have
arisen, answers most strikingly to the development of the symbol under
consideration.
We now extend the inquiry a step further: Have the United States "come
up" in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? Has their progress been
sufficiently great and sufficiently rapid to corresponds to that visible
and perceptible growth which John saw in the two-horned beast?
Every person whose reading is ordinarily extensive, has something of an
idea of what the United States are to-day; he likewise has an idea, so
far as words can convey it to his mind, of what they were at the
commencement of their history. The only object, then, in presenting
statistics and testimony on this point, is to show that our rapid growth
has struck mankind with the wonder of a constant miracle.