Year 1793. Year 1851.
Number of States 15 31
Representatives and Senators in Congress 135 295
Population of the United States 3,929,328 23,267,498
Population of Boston 18,038 136,871
Population of Baltimore 13,503 169,054
Population of Philadelphia 42,520 409,045
Population of New York (city) 33,121 515,507
Population of Washington . . . 40,075
Population of Richmond 4,000 27,582
Population of Charleston 16,359 42,983
Amount of receipts into the Treasury $5,720,624 $52,312,980
Amount of expenditures $7,529,575 $48,005,879
Amount of imports $31,000,000 $215,725,995
Amount of exports $26,109,000 $217,517,130
Amount of tonnage (tons) 520,764 3,772,440
Area of the United States in square miles 805,461 3,314,365
Rank and file of the army 5,120 10,000
Militia (enrolled) . . . 2,006,456
Navy of the United States (vessels) (None.) 76
Navy armament (ordnance) . . . 2,012
Treaties and conventions with foreign powers 9 90
Light-houses and light-boats 12 372
Expenditures for ditto $12,061 $529,265
Area of the Capitol 1/2 acre. 4-1/8 acres.
Number of miles of railroad in operation . . . 10,287
Cost of ditto . . . $306,607,954
Number of miles in course of construction . . . 10,092
Lines of electric telegraph, in miles . . . 15,000
Number of post-offices 209 21,551
Number of miles of post-route 5,642 196,290
Amount of revenue from post-offices $104,747 $6,727,867
Amount of expenditures of Post-Office Department $72,040 $6,024,567
Number of miles of mail transportation . . . 52,465,724
Number of colleges 19 121
Public libraries 35 694
Volumes in ditto 75,000 2,201,632
School libraries . . . 10,000
Volumes in ditto . . . 2,000,000
Emigrants from Europe to the United States 10,000 299,610
Coinage at the Mint $9,664 $52,019,465
In respect to the growth of Western trade and commerce, I extract a few
sentences from a very valuable address before the Historical Society of
Ohio, by William D. Gallagher, Esq., 1850:--
"A few facts will exhibit as well as a volume the wonderful growth
of Western trade and commerce. Previous to the year 1800, some
eight or ten keel-boats, of twenty or twenty-five tons each,
performed all the carrying trade between Cincinnati and Pittsburg.
In 1802 the first government vessel appeared on Lake Erie. In 1811
the first steamboat (the Orleans) was launched at Pittsburg. In
1826 the waters of Michigan were first ploughed by the keel of a
steamboat, a pleasure trip to Green Bay being planned and executed
in the summer of this year. In 1832 a steamboat first appeared at
Chicago. At the present time the entire number of steamboats
running on the Mississippi and Ohio and their tributaries is more
probably over than under six hundred, the aggregate tonnage of
which is not short of one hundred and forty thousand; a larger
number of steamboats than England can claim, and a greater steam
commercial marine than that employed by Great Britain and her
dependencies."
And now, fellow-citizens, having stated to you this infallible proof of
the growth and prosperity of the nation, I ask you, and I would ask
every man, whether the government which has been over us has proved
itself an infliction or a curse to the country, or any part of it?
Ye men of the South, of all the original Southern States, what say you
to all this? Are you, or any of you, ashamed of this great work of your
fathers? Your fathers were not they who storied the prophets and killed
them. They were among the prophets; they were of the prophets; they were
themselves the prophets.
Ye men of Virginia, what do you say to all this? Ye men of the Potomac,
dwelling along the shores of that river on which WASHINGTON lived and
died, and where his remains now rest, ye, so many of whom may see the
domes of the Capitol from your own homes, what say ye?
Ye men of James River and the Bay, places consecrated by the early
settlement of your Commonwealth, what do you say? Do you desire, from
the soil of your State, or as you travel to the North, to see these
halls vacated, their beauty and ornaments destroyed, and their national
usefulness gone for ever?
Ye men beyond the Blue Ridge, many thousands of whom are nearer to this
Capitol than to the seat of government of your own State, what do you
think of breaking this great association into fragments of States and of
people? I know that some of you, and I believe that you all, would be
almost as much shocked at the announcement of such a catastrophe, as if
you were to be informed that the Blue Ridge itself would soon totter
from its base. And ye men of Western Virginia, who occupy the great
slope from the top of the Alleghanies to Ohio and Kentucky, what benefit
do you propose to yourselves by disunion? If you "secede," what do you
"secede" from, and what do you "accede" to? Do you look for the current
of the Ohio to change, and to bring you and your commerce to the
tidewaters of Eastern rivers? What man in his senses can suppose that
you would remain part and parcel of Virginia a month after Virginia
should have ceased to be part and parcel of the United States?
The secession of Virginia! The secession of Virginia, whether alone or
in company, is most improbable, the greatest of all improbabilities.
Virginia, to her everlasting honor, acted a great part in framing and
establishing the present Constitution. She has had her reward and her
distinction. Seven of her noble sons have each filled the Presidency,
and enjoyed the highest honors of the country. Dolorous complaints come
up to us from the South, that Virginia will not head the march of
secession, and lead the other Southern States out of the Union. This, if
it should happen, would be something of a marvel, certainly, considering
how much pains Virginia took to lead these same States into the Union,
and considering, too, that she has partaken as largely of its benefits
and its government as any other State.
And ye men of the other Southern States, members of the Old Thirteen;
yes, members of the Old Thirteen; that always touches my regard and my
sympathies; North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina! What page in your
history, or in the history of any one of you, is brighter than those
which have been recorded since the Union was formed? Or through what
period has your prosperity been greater, or your peace and happiness
better secured? What names even has South Carolina, now so much
dissatisfied, what names has she of which her intelligent sons are more
proud than those which have been connected with the government of the
United States? In Revolutionary times, and in the earliest days of this
Constitution, there was no State more honored, or more deserving of
honor. Where is she now? And what a fall is there, my countrymen! But I
leave her to her own reflections, commending to her, with all my heart,
the due consideration of her own example in times now gone by.
Fellow-citizens, there are some diseases of the mind as well as of the
body, diseases of communities as well as diseases of individuals, that
must be left to their own cure; at least it is wise to leave them so
until the last critical moment shall arrive.
I hope it is not irreverent, and certainly it is not intended as
reproach, when I say, that I know no stronger expression in our language
than that which describes the restoration of the wayward son,--"he came
to himself." He had broken away from all the ties of love, family, and
friendship. He had forsaken every thing which he had once regarded in
his father's house. He had forsworn his natural sympathies, affections,
and habits, and taken his journey into a far country. He had gone away
from himself and out of himself. But misfortunes overtook him, and
famine threatened him with starvation and death. No entreaties from home
followed him to beckon him back; no admonition from others warned him of
his fate. But the hour of reflection had come, and nature and conscience
wrought within him, until at length "_he came to himself_."
And now, ye men of the new States of the South! You are not of the
original thirteen. The battle had been fought and won, the Revolution
achieved, and the Constitution established, before your States had any
existence as States. You came to a prepared banquet, and had seats
assigned you at table just as honorable as those which were filled by
older guests. You have been and are singularly prosperous; and if any
one should deny this, you would at once contradict his assertion. You
have bought vast quantities of choice and excellent land at the lowest
price; and if the public domain has not been lavished upon you, you
yourself will admit that it has been appropriated to your own uses by a
very liberal hand. And yet in some of these States, not in all, persons
are found in favor of a dissolution of the Union, or of secession from
it. Such opinions are expressed even where the general prosperity of the
community has been the most rapidly advanced. In the flourishing and
interesting State of Mississippi, for example, there is a large party
which insists that her grievances are intolerable, that the whole body
politic is in a state of suffering; and all along, and through her whole
extent on the Mississippi, a loud cry rings that her only remedy is
"Secession," "Secession." Now, Gentlemen, what infliction does the State
of Mississippi suffer under? What oppression prostrates her strength or
destroys her happiness? Before we can judge of the proper remedy, we
must know something of the disease; and, for my part, I confess that the
real evil existing in the case appears to me to be a certain inquietude
or uneasiness growing out of a high degree of prosperity and
consciousness of wealth and power, which sometimes lead men to be ready
for changes, and to push on unreasonably to still higher elevation. If
this be the truth of the matter, her political doctors are about right.
If the complaint spring from over-wrought prosperity, for that disease
I have no doubt that secession would prove a sovereign remedy.
But I return to the leading topic on which I was engaged. In the
department of invention there have been wonderful applications of
science to arts within the last sixty years. The spacious hall of the
Patent Office is at once the repository and proof of American inventive
art and genius. Their results are seen in the numerous improvements by
which human labor is abridged.
Without going into details, it may be sufficient to say, that many of
the applications of steam to locomotion and manufactures, of electricity
and magnetism to the production of mechanical motion, the electrical
telegraph, the registration of astronomical phenomena, the art of
multiplying engravings, the introduction and improvement among us of all
the important inventions of the Old World, are striking indications of
the progress of this country in the useful arts. The net-work of
railroads and telegraphic lines by which this vast country is
reticulated have not only developed its resources, but united
emphatically, in metallic bands, all parts of the Union. The hydraulic
works of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston surpass in extent and
importance those of ancient Rome.
But we have not confined our attention to the immediate application of
science to the useful arts. We have entered the field of original
research, and have enlarged the bounds of scientific knowledge.
Sixty years ago, besides the brilliant discoveries of Franklin in
electricity, scarcely any thing had been done among us in the way of
original discovery. Our men of science were content with repeating the
experiments and diffusing a knowledge of the discoveries of the learned
of the Old World, without attempting to add a single new fact or
principle to the existing stock. Within the last twenty-five or thirty
years a remarkable improvement has taken place in this respect. Our
natural history has been explored in all its branches; our geology has
been investigated with results of the highest interest to practical and
theoretical science. Discoveries have been made in pure chemistry and
electricity, which have received the approbation of the world. The
advance which has been made in meteorology in this country, within the
last twenty years, is equal to that made during the same period in all
the world besides.
In 1793 there was not in the United States an instrument with which a
good observation of the heavenly bodies could be made. There are now
instruments at Washington, Cambridge, and Cincinnati equal to those at
the best European observatories, and the original discoveries in
astronomy within the last five years, in this country, are among the
most brilliant of the age. I can hardly refrain from saying, in this
connection, that the "Celestial Mechanics" of La Place has been
translated and commented upon by Bowditch.
Our knowledge of the geography and topography of the American continent
has been rapidly extended by the labor and science of the officers of
the United States army, and discoveries of much interest in distant seas
have resulted from the enterprise of the navy.
In 1807, a survey of the coast of the United States was commenced, which
at that time it was supposed no American was competent to direct. The
work has, however, grown within the last few years, under a native
superintendent, in importance and extent, beyond any enterprise of the
kind ever before attempted.
These facts conclusively prove that a great advance has been made among
us, not only in the application of science to the wants of ordinary
life, but in science itself, in its highest branches, in its adaptation
to satisfy the cravings of the immortal mind.
In respect to literature, with the exception of some books of elementary
education, and some theological treatises, of which scarcely any but
those of Jonathan Edwards have any permanent value, and some works on
local history and politics, like Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Jefferson's
Notes on Virginia, the Federalist, Belknap's New Hampshire, and Morse's
Geography, and a few others, America had not produced a single work of
any repute in literature. We were almost wholly dependent on imported
books. Even our Bibles and Testaments were, for the most part, printed
abroad. The book trade is now one of the greatest branches of business,
and many works of standard value, and of high reputation in Europe as
well as at home, have been produced by American authors in every
department of literary composition.
While the country has been expanding in dimensions, in numbers, and in
wealth, the government has applied a wise forecast in the adoption of
measures necessary, when the world shall no longer be at peace, to
maintain the national honor, whether by appropriate displays of vigor
abroad, or by well-adapted means of defence at home. A navy, which has
so often illustrated our history by heroic achievements, though in
peaceful times restrained in its operations to narrow limits, possesses,
in its admirable elements, the means of great and sudden expansion, and
is justly looked upon by the nation as the right arm of its power. An
army, still smaller, but not less perfect in its detail, has on many a
field exhibited the military aptitudes and prowess of the race, and
demonstrated the wisdom which has presided over its organization and
government.
While the gradual and slow enlargement of these respective military arms
has been regulated by a jealous watchfulness over the public treasure,
there has, neverthless, been freely given all that was needed to perfect
their quality; and each affords the nucleus of any enlargement that the
public exigencies may demand, from the millions of brave hearts and
strong arms upon the land and water.
The navy is the active and aggressive element of national defence; and,
let loose from our own sea-coast, must display its power in the seas and
channels of the enemy. To do this, it need not be large; and it can
never be large enough to defend by its presence at home all our ports
and harbors. But, in the absence of the navy, what can the regular army
or the volunteer militia do against the enemy's line-of-battle ships and
steamers, falling without notice upon our coast? What will guard our
cities from tribute, our merchant-vessels and our navy-yards from
conflagration? Here, again, we see a wise forecast in the system of
defensive measures which, especially since the close of the war with
Great Britain, has been steadily followed by our government.
While the perils from which our great establishments had just escaped
were yet fresh in remembrance, a system of fortifications was begun,
which now, though not quite complete, fences in our important points
with impassable strength. More than four thousand cannon may at any
moment, within strong and permanent works, arranged with all the
advantages and appliances that the art affords, be turned to the
protection of the sea-coast, and be served by the men whose hearths they
shelter. Happy for us that it is so, since these are means of security
that time alone can supply, and since the improvements of maritime
warfare, by making distant expeditions easy and speedy, have made them
more probable, and at the same time more difficult to anticipate and
provide against. The cost of fortifying all the important points of our
coast, as well upon the whole Atlantic as the Gulf of Mexico, will not
exceed the amount expended on the fortifications of Paris.
In this connection one most important facility in the defence of the
country is not to be overlooked; it is the extreme rapidity with which
the soldiers of the army, and any number of the militia corps, may be
brought to any point where a hostile attack shall at any time be made or
threatened.
And this extension of territory embraced within the United States,
increase of its population, commerce, and manufactures, development
of its resources by canals and railroads, and rapidity of
intercommunication by means of steam and electricity, have all been
accomplished without overthrow of, or danger to, the public liberties,
by any assumption of military power; and, indeed, without any permanent
increase of the army, except for the purpose of frontier defence, and of
affording a slight guard to the public property; or of the navy, any
further than to assure the navigator that, in whatsoever sea he shall
sail his ship, he is protected by the stars and stripes of his country.
This, too, has been done without the shedding of a drop of blood for
treason or rebellion; while systems of popular representation have
regularly been supported in the State governments and in the general
government; while laws, national and State, of such a character have
been passed, and have been so wisely administered, that I may stand up
here to-day, and declare, as I now do declare, in the face of all the
intelligent of the age, that, for the period which has elapsed from the
day that Washington laid the foundation of this Capitol to the present
time, there has been no country upon earth in which life, liberty, and
property have been more amply and steadily secured, or more freely
enjoyed, than in these United States of America. Who is there that will
deny this? Who is there prepared with a greater or a better example? Who
is there that can stand upon the foundation of facts, acknowledged or
proved, and assert that these our republican institutions have not
answered the true ends of government beyond all precedent in human
history?
There is yet another view. There are still higher considerations. Man is
an intellectual being, destined to immortality. There is a spirit in
him, and the breath of the Almighty hath given him understanding. Then
only is he tending toward his own destiny, while he seeks for knowledge
and virtue, for the will of his Maker, and for just conceptions of his
own duty. Of all important questions, therefore, let this, the most
important of all, be first asked and first answered: In what country of
the habitable globe, of great extent and large population, are the means
of knowledge the most generally diffused and enjoyed among the people?
This question admits of one, and only one, answer. It is here; it is
here in these United States; it is among the descendants of those who
settled at Jamestown; of those who were pilgrims on the shore of
Plymouth; and of those other races of men, who, in subsequent times,
have become joined in this great American family. Let one fact,
incapable of doubt or dispute, satisfy every mind on this point. The
population of the United States is twenty-three millions. Now, take the
map of the continent of Europe and spread it out before you. Take your
scale and your dividers, and lay off in one area, in any shape you
please, a triangle, square, circle, parallelogram, or trapezoid, and of
an extent that shall contain one hundred and fifty millions of people,
and there will be found within the United States more persons who do
habitually read and write than can be embraced within the lines of your
demarcation.
But there is something even more than this. Man is not only an
intellectual, but he is also a religious being, and his religious
feelings and habits require cultivation. Let the religious element in
man's nature be neglected, let him be influenced by no higher motives
than low self-interest, and subjected to no stronger restraint than the
limits of civil authority, and he becomes the creature of selfish
passion or blind fanaticism.
The spectacle of a nation powerful and enlightened, but without
Christian faith, has been presented, almost within our own day, as a
warning beacon for the nations.
On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses
licentiousness, incites to general benevolence and the practical
acknowledgment of the brotherhood of man, inspires respect for law and
order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric, at the same time
that it conducts the human soul upward to the Author of its being.
Now, I think it may be stated with truth, that in no country, in
proportion to its population, are there so many benevolent
establishments connected with religious instruction, Bible, Missionary,
and Tract Societies, supported by public and private contributions, as
in our own. There are also institutions for the education of the blind,
of idiots, of the deaf and dumb; for the reception of orphan and
destitute children, and the insane; for moral reform, designed for
children and females respectively; and institutions for the reformation
of criminals; not to speak of those numerous establishments, in almost
every county and town in the United States, for the reception of the
aged, infirm, and destitute poor, many of whom have fled to our shores
to escape the poverty and wretchedness of their condition at home.
In the United States there is no church establishment or ecclesiastical
authority founded by government. Public worship is maintained either by
voluntary associations and contributions, or by trusts and donations of
a charitable origin.
Now, I think it safe to say, that a greater portion of the people of the
United States attend public worship, decently clad, well behaved, and
well seated, than of any other country of the civilized world. Edifices
of religion are seen everywhere. Their aggregate cost would amount to an
immense sum of money. They are, in general, kept in good repair, and
consecrated to the purposes of public worship. In these edifices the
people regularly assemble on the Sabbath day, which, by all classes, is
sacredly set apart for rest from secular employment and for religious
meditation and worship, to listen to the reading of the Holy Scriptures,
and discourses from pious ministers of the several denominations.
This attention to the wants of the intellect and of the soul, as
manifested by the voluntary support of schools and colleges, of churches
and benevolent institutions, is one of the most remarkable
characteristics of the American people, not less strikingly exhibited in
the new than in the older settlements of the country. On the spot where
the first trees of the forest were felled, near the log cabins of the
pioneers, are to be seen rising together the church and the
school-house. So has it been from the beginning, and God grant that it
may thus continue!
"On other shores, above their mouldering towns,
In sullen pomp, the tall cathedral frowns;
Simple and frail, our lowly temples throw
Their slender shadows on the paths below;
Scarce steal the winds, that sweep the woodland tracks,
The larch's perfume from the settler's axe,
Ere, like a vision of the morning air,
His slight-framed steeple marks the house of prayer.
Yet Faith's pure hymn, beneath its shelter rude,
Breathes out as sweetly to the tangled wood,
As where the rays through blazing oriels pour
On marble shaft and tessellated floor."
Who does not admit that this unparalleled growth in prosperity and
renown is the result, under Providence, of the union of these States
under a general Constitution, which guarantees to each State a
republican form of government, and to every man the enjoyment of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from civil tyranny or
ecclesiastical domination?
And, to bring home this idea to the present occasion, 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? Here, too, a citizen of the
great republic of letters,[2] a republic which knows not the metes and
bounds of political geography, has prophetically indicated his
conviction that America is to exercise a wide and powerful influence in
the intellectual world, by founding in this city, as a commanding
position in the field of science and literature, and placing under the
guardianship of the government, an institution "for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge among men."
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.
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.
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!"
Fellow-citizens, what contemplations are awakened in our minds as we
assemble here to re-enact a scene like that performed by Washington!
Methinks I see his venerable form now before me, as presented in the
glorious statue by Houdon, now in the Capitol of Virginia. He is
dignified and grave; but concern and anxiety seem to soften the
lineaments of his countenance. The government over which he presides is
yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free from troubles at home, he sees
the world in commotion and in arms all around him. He sees that imposing
foreign powers are half disposed to try the strength of the recently
established American government. We perceive that mighty thoughts,
mingled with fears as well as with hopes, are struggling within him. He
heads a short procession over these then naked fields; he crosses yonder
stream on a fallen tree; he ascends to the top of this eminence, whose
original oaks of the forest stand as thick around him as if the spot had
been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performs the appointed
duty of the day.
And now, fellow-citizens, if this vision were a reality; if Washington
actually were now amongst us, and if he could draw around him the shades
of the great public men of his own day, patriots and warriors, orators
and statesmen, and were to address us in their presence, would he not
say to us: "Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank God for being
able to see that our labors and toils and sacrifices were not in vain.
You are prosperous, you are happy, you are grateful; the fire of
liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while DUTY and the
LAW restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive
conflagration. Cherish liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities,
as you wish to preserve it. Maintain the Constitution which we labored
so painfully to establish, and which has been to you such a source of
inestimable blessings. Preserve the union of the States, cemented as it
was by our prayers, our tears, and our blood. Be true to God, to your
country, and to your duty. So shall the whole Eastern world follow the
morning sun to contemplate you as a nation; so shall all generations
honor you, as they honor us; and so shall that Almighty Power which so
graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its
everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity."
Great Father of your Country! we heed your words; we feel their force as
if you now uttered them with lips of flesh and blood. Your example
teaches us, your affectionate addresses teach us, your public life
teaches us, your sense of the value of the blessings of the Union. Those
blessings our fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still taste.
Nor do we intend that those who come after us shall be denied the same
high fruition. Our honor as well as our happiness is concerned. We
cannot, we dare not, we will not, betray our sacred trust. We will not
filch from posterity the treasure placed in our hands to be transmitted
to other generations. The bow that gilds the clouds in the heavens, the
pillars that uphold the firmament, may disappear and fall away in the
hour appointed by the will of God; but until that day comes, or so long
as our lives may last, no ruthless hand shall undermine that bright arch
of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Washington to
California.
Fellow-citizens, we must sometimes be tolerant to folly, and patient at
the sight of the extreme waywardness of men; but I confess that, when I
reflect on the renown of our past history, on our present prosperity and
greatness, and on what the future hath yet to unfold, and when I see
that there are men who can find in all this nothing good, nothing
valuable, nothing truly glorious, I feel that all their reason has fled
away from them, and left the entire control over their judgment and
their actions to insanity and fanaticism; and more than all,
fellow-citizens, if the purposes of fanatics and disunionists should be
accomplished, the patriotic and intelligent of our generation would seek
to hide themselves from the scorn of the world, and go about to find
dishonorable graves.
Fellow-citizens, take _courage_; be of _good cheer_. We shall come to no
such ignoble end. We shall live, and not die. During the period allotted
to our several lives, we shall continue to rejoice in the return of this
anniversary. The ill-omened sounds of fanaticism will be hushed; the
ghastly spectres of _Secession_ and _Disunion_ will disappear; and the
enemies of united constitutional liberty, if their hatred cannot be
appeased, may prepare to have their eyeballs seared as they behold the
steady flight of the American eagle, on his burnished wings, for years
and years to come.
President Fillmore, it is your singularly good fortune to perform an act
such as that which the earliest of your predecessors performed
fifty-eight years ago. You stand where he stood; you lay your hand on
the corner-stone of a building designed greatly to extend that whose
corner-stone he laid. Changed, changed is every thing around. The same
sun, indeed, shone upon his head which now shines upon yours. The same
broad river rolled at his feet, and bathes his last resting-place, that
now rolls at yours. But the site of this city was then mainly an open
field. Streets and avenues have since been laid out and completed,
squares and public grounds enclosed and ornamented, until the city which
bears his name, although comparatively inconsiderable in numbers and
wealth, has become quite fit to be the seat of government of a great
and united people.
Sir, may the consequences of the duty which you perform so auspiciously
to-day, equal those which flowed from his act. Nor this only; may the
principles of your administration, and the wisdom of your political
conduct, be such, as that the world of the present day, and all history
hereafter, may be at no loss to perceive what example you have made your
study.
Fellow-citizens, I now bring this address to a close, by expressing to
you, in the words of the great Roman orator, the deepest wish of my
heart, and which I know dwells deeply in the hearts of all who hear me:
"Duo modo haec opto; unum, UT MORIENS POPULUM ROMANUM LIBERUM RELINQUAM;
hoc mihi majus a diis immortalibus dari nihil potest: alterum, ut ita
cuique eveniat, ut de republicâ quisque mereatur."
And now, fellow-citizens, with hearts void of hatred, envy, and malice
towards our own countrymen, or any of them, or towards the subjects or
citizens of other governments, or towards any member of the great family
of man; but exulting, nevertheless, in our own peace, security, and
happiness, in the grateful remembrance of the past, and the glorious
hopes of the future, let us return to our homes, and with all humility
and devotion offer our thanks to the Father of all our mercies,
political, social, and religious.
[Footnote 1: The following motto stands upon the title-page of the
original pamphlet edition:--
"Stet Capitolium
Fulgens;
late nomen in ultimas
Extendat oras."]
[Footnote 2: Hugh Smithson, whose munificent bequest has been applied to
the foundation of "The Smithsonian Institution."]