war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation may
renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it;
if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation,
they will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests. It were but a
trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty
pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the
dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall
reconstruct the fabric of demolished government? Who shall rear again
the well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty? Who shall frame
together the skilful architecture which unites national sovereignty with
State rights, individual security, and public prosperity? No, if these
columns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the Coliseum and the
Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a melancholy
immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them than were ever
shed over the monuments of Roman or Grecian art; for they will be the
remnants of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw, the
edifice of constitutional American liberty.
But let us hope for better things. Let us trust in that gracious Being
who has hitherto held our country as in the hollow of his hand. Let us
trust to the virtue and the intelligence of the people, and to the
efficacy of religious obligation. Let us trust to the influence of
Washington's example. Let us hope that that fear of Heaven which expels
all other fear, and that regard to duty which transcends all other
regard, may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our
country still onward in her happy career. Full of these gratifying
anticipations and hopes, let us look forward to the end of that century
which is now commenced. A hundred years hence, other disciples of
Washington will celebrate his birth, with no less of sincere admiration
than we now commemorate it. When they shall meet, as we now meet, to do
themselves and him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue
summits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, so surely as they
shall behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on whose banks he
rests, still flowing on toward the sea, so surely may they see, as we
now see, the flag of the Union floating on the top of the Capitol; and
then, as now, may the sun in his course visit no land more free, more
happy, more lovely, than this our own country!
THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION
FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 7,
1850[44]
[Sidenote: For the preservation of the Union.]
Mr. President,--I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor
as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the
United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United
States; a body not yet moved from its propriety, not lost to a just
sense of its own dignity and its own high responsibilities, and a body
to which the country looks, with confidence, for wise, moderate,
patriotic, and healing counsels. It is not to be denied that we live in
the midst of strong agitations, and are surrounded by very considerable
dangers to our institutions and government. The imprisoned winds are let
loose. The East, the North, and the stormy South combine to throw the
whole sea into commotion, to toss its billows to the skies, and disclose
its profoundest depths. I do not affect to regard myself, Mr. President,
as holding, or as fit to hold, the helm in this combat with the
political elements; but I have a duty to perform, and I mean to perform
it with fidelity, not without a sense of existing dangers, but not
without hope. I have a part to act, not for my own security or safety,
for I am looking out for no fragment upon which to float away from the
wreck, if wreck there must be, but for the good of the whole, and the
preservation of all; and there is that which will keep me to my duty
during this struggle, whether the sun and the stars shall appear, or
shall not appear, for many days. I speak to-day for the preservation of
the Union. "Hear me for my cause." I speak to-day, out of a solicitous
and anxious heart, for the restoration to the country of that quiet and
that harmony which make the blessings of this Union so rich, and so dear
to us all. These are the topics that I propose to myself to discuss;
these are the motives, and the sole motives, that influence me in the
wish to communicate my opinions to the Senate and the country; and if I
can do anything, however little, for the promotion of these ends, I
shall have accomplished all that I expect.
[Illustration: _Henry Clay._]
[Sidenote: Peaceable secession impossible.]
Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard from every member on
this floor declarations of opinion that this Union could never be
dissolved, than the declaration of opinion by anybody that, in any case,
under the pressure of any circumstances, such a dissolution was
possible. I hear with distress and anguish the word "secession,"
especially when it falls from the lips of those who are patriotic, and
known to the country, and known all over the world, for their political
services. Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are
never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast
country without convulsion! The breaking up of the fountains of the
great deep without ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish--I beg
everybody's pardon--as to expect to see any such thing? Sir, he who sees
these States now revolving in harmony around a common centre, and
expects to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion,
may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their
spheres, and jostle against each other in the realms of space, without
causing the wreck of the universe. There can be no such thing as a
peaceable secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is
the great Constitution under which we live, covering this whole
country,--is it to be thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows
on the mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun, disappear
almost unobserved, and run off? No, Sir! No, Sir! I will not state what
might produce the disruption of the Union; but, Sir, I see as plainly as
I see the sun in heaven what that disruption itself must produce; I see
that it must produce war, and such a war as I will not describe, in its
twofold character.
Peaceable secession! Peaceable secession! The concurrent agreement of
all the members of this great republic to separate? A voluntary
separation, with alimony on one side and on the other! Why, what would
be the result? Where is the line to be drawn? What States are to secede?
What is to remain American? What am I to be? An American no longer? Am I
to become a sectional man, a local man, a separatist, with no country
in common with the gentlemen who sit around me here, or who fill the
other house of Congress? Heaven forbid! Where is the flag of the
republic to remain? Where is the eagle still to tower? or is he to
cower, and shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, Sir, our ancestors, our
fathers and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living amongst
us with prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and our children
and our grandchildren would cry out shame upon us, if we of this
generation should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the government
and the harmony of that Union which is every day felt among us with so
much joy and gratitude. What is to become of the army? What is to become
of the navy? What is to become of the public lands? How is each of the
thirty States to defend itself?
[Sidenote: The idea of a Southern Confederacy.]
I know, although the idea has not been stated distinctly, there is to
be, or it is supposed possible that there will be, a Southern
Confederacy. I do not mean, when I allude to this statement, that any
one seriously contemplates such a state of things. I do not mean to say
that it is true, but I have heard it suggested elsewhere that the idea
has been entertained, that, after the dissolution of this Union, a
Southern Confederacy might be formed. I am sorry, Sir, that it has ever
been thought of, talked of, or dreamed of, in the wildest flights of
human imagination. But the idea, so far as it exists, must be of a
separation assigning the slave States to one side and the free States to
the other. Sir, I may express myself too strongly, perhaps, but there
are impossibilities in the natural as well as in the physical world, and
I hold the idea of a separation of these States, those that are free to
form one government, and those that are slave-holding to form another,
as such an impossibility. We could not separate the States by any such
line, if we were to draw it. We could not sit down here to-day and draw
a line of separation that would satisfy any five men in the country.
There are natural causes that would keep and tie us together, and there
are social and domestic relations which we could not break if we would,
and which we should not if we could.
[Sidenote: Liberty and Union.]
Instead of speaking of the possibility or utility of secession, instead
of dwelling in those caverns of darkness, instead of groping with those
ideas so full of all that is horrid and horrible, let us come out into
the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air of Liberty and Union; let
us cherish those hopes which belong to us; let us devote ourselves to
those great objects that are fit for our consideration and our action;
let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the importance of the
duties that devolve upon us; let our comprehension be as broad as the
country for which we act, our aspirations as high as its certain
destiny; let us not be pygmies in a case that calls for men. Never did
there devolve on any generation of men higher trusts than now devolve
upon us, for the preservation of this Constitution and the harmony and
peace of all who are destined to live under it. Let us make our
generation one of the strongest and brightest links in that golden chain
which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the people of all the
States to this Constitution for ages to come. We have a great popular,
constitutional government, guarded by law and by judicature, and
defended by the affections of the whole people. No monarchical throne
presses these States together, no iron chain of military power encircles
them; they live and stand under a government popular in its form,
representative in its character, founded upon principles of equality,
and so constructed, we hope, as to last forever. In all its history it
has been beneficent; it has trodden down no man's liberty; it has
crushed no State. Its daily respiration is liberty and patriotism; its
yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, courage, and honorable love
of glory and renown. Large before, the country has now, by recent
events, become vastly larger. This republic now extends, with a vast
breadth, across the whole continent. The two great seas of the world
wash the one and the other shore. We realize, on a mighty scale, the
beautiful description of the ornamental border of the buckler of
Achilles:--
"Now, the broad shield complete, the artist crowned
With his last hand, and poured the ocean round;
In living silver seemed the waves to roll,
And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole."[45]
THE ADDITION TO THE CAPITOL
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE ADDITION
TO THE CAPITOL OF THE UNITED STATES, AT WASHINGTON, JULY 4, 1851
Fellow-Citizens,--I greet you well; I give you joy on the return of this
anniversary; and I felicitate you, also, on the more particular purpose
of which this ever-memorable day has been chosen to witness the
fulfilment. Hail! all hail! I see before and around me a mass of faces
glowing with cheerfulness and patriotic pride. I see thousands of eyes
turned towards other eyes, all sparkling with gratification and delight.
This is the New World! This is America! This is Washington! and this the
Capitol of the United States! And where else, among the nations, can
the seat of government be surrounded, on any day of any year, by those
who have more reason to rejoice in the blessings which they possess?
Nowhere, fellow-citizens! assuredly, nowhere! Let us, then, meet this
rising sun with joy and thanksgiving!
[Illustration: _The Capitol at Washington._]
This is that day of the year which announced to mankind the great fact
of American Independence. This fresh and brilliant morning blesses our
vision with another beholding of the birthday of our nation; and we see
that nation, of recent origin, now among the most considerable and
powerful, and spreading over the continent from sea to sea.
Among the first colonists from Europe to this part of America there were
some, doubtless, who contemplated the distant consequences of their
undertaking, and who saw a great futurity. But, in general, their hopes
were limited to the enjoyment of a safe asylum from tyranny, religious
and civil, and to respectable subsistence by industry and toil. A thick
veil hid our times from their view. But the progress of America, however
slow, could not but at length awaken genius, and attract the attention
of mankind.
[Sidenote: Bishop Berkeley's prophecy.]
In the early part of the second century of our history, Bishop Berkeley,
who, it will be remembered, had resided for some time in Newport, in
Rhode Island, wrote his well-known "Verses on the Prospect of Planting
Arts and Learning in America." The last stanza of this little poem seems
to have been produced by a high poetical inspiration:--
"Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last."
This extraordinary prophecy may be considered only as the result of long
foresight and uncommon sagacity; of a foresight and sagacity stimulated,
nevertheless, by excited feeling and high enthusiasm. So clear a vision
of what America would become was not founded on square miles, or on
existing numbers, or on any common laws of statistics. It was an
intuitive glance into futurity; it was a grand conception, strong,
ardent, glowing, embracing all time since the creation of the world, and
all regions of which that world is composed, and judging of the future
by just analogy with the past. And the inimitable imagery and beauty
with which the thought is expressed, joined to the conception itself,
render it one of the most striking passages in our language.
[Sidenote: Independence Day.]
On the day of the Declaration of Independence our illustrious fathers
performed the first scene in the last great act of this drama; one in
real importance infinitely exceeding that for which the great English
poet invokes
"--a muse of fire,...
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"[46]
The Muse inspiring our fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire
with a sense of oppression, and a resolution to throw it off; the whole
world was the stage, and higher characters than princes trod it; and,
instead of monarchs, countries and nations and the age beheld the
swelling scene. How well the characters were cast, and how well each
acted his part, and what emotions the whole performance excited, let
history, now and hereafter, tell.
On the 4th of July, 1776, the Representatives of the United States of
America, in Congress assembled, declared that these United Colonies are,
and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.
This Declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in
the justice of their cause and the protection of Heaven, and yet made
not without deep solicitude and anxiety, has now stood for seventy-five
years, and still stands. It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers, and
overcome them; it has had enemies, and conquered them; it has had
detractors, and abashed them all; it has had doubting friends, but it
has cleared all doubts away; and now, to-day, raising its august form
higher than the clouds, twenty millions of people contemplate it with
hallowed love, and the world beholds it, and the consequences which have
followed from it, with profound admiration.
[Sidenote: Liberty the inheritance of every American.]
This anniversary animates and gladdens and unites all American hearts.
On other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in
controversies more or less important to the public good; we may have
likes and dislikes, and we may maintain our political differences, often
with warm, and sometimes with angry, feelings. But to-day we are
Americans all; and all nothing but Americans. As the great luminary over
our heads, dissipating mists and fogs, now cheers the whole hemisphere,
so do the associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy and
sullen weather in the minds and hearts of true Americans. Every man's
heart swells within him; every man's port and bearing become somewhat
more proud and lofty, as he remembers that seventy-five years have
rolled away, and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his:
his, undiminished and unimpaired; his in all its original glory; his to
enjoy, his to protect, and his to transmit to future generations.
Fellow-citizens, this inheritance which we enjoy to-day is not only an
inheritance of liberty, but of our own peculiar American liberty.
Liberty has existed in other times, in other countries, and in other
forms. There has been a Grecian liberty, bold and powerful, full of
spirit, eloquence, and fire; a liberty which produced multitudes of
great men, and has transmitted one immortal name, the name of
Demosthenes, to posterity. But still it was a liberty of disconnected
States, sometimes united, indeed, by temporary leagues and
confederacies, but often involved in wars between themselves. The sword
of Sparta turned its sharpest edge against Athens, enslaved her, and
devastated Greece; and, in her turn, Sparta was compelled to bend before
the power of Thebes. And let it ever be remembered, especially let the
truth sink deep into all American minds, that it was the _want of union_
among her several States which finally gave the mastery of all Greece to
Philip of Macedon.
[Sidenote: The Corner-stone of the original Capitol laid by Washington.]
Fellow-citizens, fifty-eight years ago Washington stood on this spot to
execute a duty like that which has now been performed. He then laid the
corner-stone of the original Capitol. He was at the head of the
government, at that time weak in resources, burdened with debt, just
struggling into political existence and respectability, and agitated by
the heaving waves which were overturning European thrones. But even
then, in many important respects, the government was strong. It was
strong in Washington's own great character; it was strong in the wisdom
and patriotism of other eminent public men, his political associates
and fellow-laborers; and it was strong in the affections of the people.
Since that time astonishing changes have been wrought in the condition
and prospects of the American people; and a degree of progress witnessed
with which the world can furnish no parallel. As we review the course of
that progress, wonder and amazement arrest our attention at every step.
The present occasion, although allowing of no lengthened remarks, may
yet, perhaps, admit of a short comparative statement of important
subjects of national interest as they existed at that day, and as they
now exist. I have adopted for this purpose the tabular form of
statement, as being the most brief and significant.[47]
COMPARATIVE TABLE
Year 1793. Year 1851. Year 1900.
Number of States 15 31 45
Representatives and
Senators in Congress 135 295 476
Population of the United
States 3,929,328 23,267,498 76,303,387[48]
Population of Boston 18,038 136,871 560,892
Population of Baltimore 13,503 169,054 508,957
Population of Philadelphia 42,520 409,045 1,293,697
Population of New York (city) 33,121 515,507 3,437,202
Population of Washington ... 40,075 278,718
Population of Richmond 4,000 27,582 85,050
Population of Charleston 16,359 42,983 55,807
Amount of receipts into
the Treasury $5,720,624 $52,312,980 $669,595,431
Amount of expenditures $7,529,575 $48,005,879 $590,068,371
Amount of imports $31,000,000 $215,725,995 $849,941,184
Amount of exports $26,109,000 $217,517,130 $1,370,763,571
Amount of tonnage (tons) 520,764 3,772,440 5,164,839
Area of the United States
in square miles 805,461 3,314,365 3,616,484[49]
Rank and file of the army 5,120 10,000 67,587
Militia (enrolled) ... 2,006,456 10,149,184[50]
Navy of the United States
(vessels) (None.) 76 140
Navy armament (ordnance) ... 2,012 ...
Treaties and conventions
with foreign powers 9 90 ...
Light-houses and light-boats 12 372 843[51]
Expenditures for ditto $12,061 $529,265 ...
Area of the Capitol 1/2 acre. 4-1/3 acres. 3-1/2 acres.[52]
Number of miles of
railroad in operation ... 10,287 190,833[53]
Cost of ditto ... $306,607,954 $11,692,817,066[54]
Number of miles in course
of construction ... 10,092 1,329
Lines of electric telegraph,
in miles ... 15,000 210,000[55]
Number of post-offices 209 21,551 76,945
Number of miles of post-route 5,642 196,290 511,808
Amount of revenue from
post-offices $104,747 $6,727,867 $111,631,193
Amount of expenditures
of Post-office Department $72,040 $6,024,567 $115,554,920
Number of miles of mail
transportation ... 52,465,724 ...
Number of colleges 19 121 484
Public libraries 35 694 5,383[56]
Volumes in ditto 75,000 2,201,632 44,591,851
School libraries ... 10,000 ...
Volumes in ditto ... 2,000,000 ...
Emigrants from Europe
to the United States 10,000 299,610 448,572[57]
Coinage at the Mint $9,664 $52,019,465 $141,351,960
[Sidenote: The City of Washington.]
Who does not feel that, when President Washington laid his hand on the
foundation of the first Capitol, he performed a great work of
perpetuation of the Union and the Constitution? Who does not feel that
this seat of the general government, healthful in its situation, central
in its position, near the mountains whence gush springs of wonderful
virtue, teeming with Nature's richest products, and yet not far from the
bays and the great estuaries of the sea, easily accessible and generally
agreeable in climate and association, does give strength to the union of
these States? that this city, bearing an immortal name, with its broad
streets and avenues, its public squares and magnificent edifices of the
general government, erected for the purpose of carrying on within them
the important business of the several departments, for the reception of
wonderful and curious inventions, for the preservation of the records of
American learning and genius, of extensive collections of the products
of nature and art, brought hither for study and comparison from all
parts of the world; adorned with numerous churches, and sprinkled over,
I am happy to say, with many public schools, where all the children of
the city, without distinction, have the means of obtaining a good
education, and with academies and colleges, professional schools and
public libraries,--should continue to receive, as it has heretofore
received, the fostering care of Congress, and should be regarded as the
permanent seat of the national government?
With each succeeding year new interest is added to the spot; it becomes
connected with all the historical associations of our country, with her
statesmen and her orators; and, alas! its cemetery is annually enriched
by the ashes of her chosen sons.
[Sidenote: Its associations.]
Before us is the broad and beautiful river, separating two of the
original thirteen States, which a late President, a man of determined
purpose and inflexible will, but patriotic heart, desired to span with
arches of ever-enduring granite, symbolical of the firmly cemented union
of the North and the South. That President was General Jackson.
On its banks repose the ashes of the Father of his Country; and at our
side, by a singular felicity of position, overlooking the city which he
designed, and which bears his name, rises to his memory the marble
column, sublime in its simple grandeur, and fitly intended to reach a
loftier height than any similar structure on the surface of the whole
earth.[58]
[Illustration: _Washington Monument._]
Let the votive offerings of his grateful countrymen be freely
contributed to carry this monument higher and still higher. May I say,
as on another occasion, "Let it rise; let it rise till it meet the sun
in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and
parting day linger and play on its summit!"[59]