the gallant ship, in which all our hopes are embarked, will yet outride the storm; saved alike from the breakers and billows of disunion, and the greedy whirlpool, the all-engulfing maelstrom of executive power; that, unbroken, if not unharmed, she may pursue her prosperous voyage far down the stream of time; and that the banner of our country, which now waves over us so proudly, will still float in triumph, borne on the wings of heaven, fanned by the breath of fame, every stripe bright and unsullied, every star fixed in its sphere, ages after each of us, now here, shall have ceased to gaze on its majestic folds forever.

THOMAS EWING.

AMERICA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD.

WHAT, it is asked, has this nation done to repay the world for the benefits we have received from others? Is it nothing for the universal good of mankind to have carried into successful operation a system of self-government, uniting personal liberty, freedom of opinion, and equality of rights, with national power and dignity, such as had never before existed only in the Utopian dreams of philosophers? Is it nothing, in moral science, to have anticipated, in sober reality, numerous plans of reform in civil and criminal jurisprudence, which are but now received as plausible theories by the politicians and economists of Europe? Is it nothing to have been able to call forth, on every emergency, either in war or peace, a body of talents always equal to the difficulty? Is it nothing to have, in less than half a century, exceedingly improved the sciences of political economy, of law, and of medicine, with all their auxiliary branches; to have enriched human knowledge by the accumulation of a great mass of useful facts and observations; and to have augmented the power and the comforts of civilized man by miracles of mechanical invention? Is it nothing to have given the world examples of disinterested patriotism, of political wisdom, of public virtue, of learning, eloquence, and valor, never exerted save for some praiseworthy end? It is sufficient to have briefly suggested

these considerations; every mind would anticipate me in filling up the details.

No, Land of Liberty! thy children have no cause to blush for thee. What though the arts have reared few monuments among us, and scarce a trace of the Muse's footstep is found in the paths of our forests, or along the banks of our rivers, yet our soil has been consecrated by the blood of heroes, and by great and holy deeds of peace. Its wide extent has become one vast temple and hallowed asylum, sanctified by the prayers and blessings of the persecuted of every sect and the wretched of all nations. Land of refuge, land of benedictions! Those prayers still arise and they still are heard: "May peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces!" "May there be no decay, no leading into captivity, and no complaining in thy streets!" "May truth flourish out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven!"

GULIAN CROMMELIN VERPLANCK.

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE OLDER THAN INDE

PENDENCE.

(Address before Parliament, 1775.)

FOR some time past, Mr. Speaker, the Old World has been fed from the New. The scarcity which you have felt would have been a desolating famine, if this child of your old age, if America, with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity, had not put the full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent. Turning from the agricultural resources of the colonies, consider the wealth which they have drawn from the sea, by their fisheries. Pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it? Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the whale-fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits; whilst we are looking for them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that

they have pierced into the opposite region of Polar cold,-that they are at the Antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Ser. pent of the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry.

Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the Poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterity and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.

When I contemplate these things; that the colonies owe little or nothing to any care of ours; that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of a watchful and suspicious government; but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection, I feel all the pride of power sink and die away within me. My rigor relents! I pardon something to the spirit of liberty!

JOHN WILKES.

THE AMERICAN UNION A GEOGRAPHICAL

NECESSITY.

(Extract from Address at Randolph Macon College, Virginia, at Commencement, 1854.)

THE name "American," itself, is sufficient to inspire within the bosom of every one, who so proudly claims it, a holy zeal to preserve forever the endearing epithet. This Union must and will be preserved! Division is impossible! Mind has never conceived of the man equal to the task! Geographical lines can

never separate the interests of the American people, can never dissever the ties which unite them. Each claims the beautiful lakes and flourishing cities of the North. Each claims the extended prairies of the West and the rich productions of the sunny South. Each claims Massachusetts' patriot. Each claims Kentucky's sage. Who has not an inheritance in the ashes of Vernon's tomb? New England as loudly and as affectionately proclaims him Father of his country, as does Virginia. New England never will relinquish her claim; Virginia, never, never suffer those ashes to be touched!

The Divine Architect of Nature, Himself, has said in His lofty mountains and majestic rivers, "Be united!" Observe their ranges and courses. The Blue Ridge, the Alleghany, and the Rocky Mountains all run north and south; the great Mississippi with her vast tributaries, parallel with them, waters the whole extent. There must be design in all this. The ancient poets and philosophers pictured a far-off land, across the waters, a fairer abode, a land of equal rights and a happy people. This, surely, is that land; and through this people the Supreme Legislator has decreed that the true principles of government shall be taught all mankind. And as the blue arch, above, is in beauty shown us, so surely will it span the mightiest domain that ever shook earth.

As surely as art and labor are now adorning, and science exalting, a land which religion has sanctified and patriotism redeemed, so surely will the Goddess of Liberty yet walk abroad in the gardens of Europe, and to our country shall belong all the honor. Then, no longer will be obscure our resplendent and glorious Constitution! No more will our bright escutcheon be tarnished! No more will our banner droop; but, in his original strength and pride, the American eagle, pluming himself for loftier flights and brighter climes, shall, fearlessly, while gazing on the beauties and splendors of his country's flag, shriek the downfall of tyranny; and the longest, loudest, proudest shout of Freedom's sons, in honor of Freedom's triumph, shall be,—

"The star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

ALEXANDER HOGG.

UNION LINKED WITH LIBERTY.

(From Inaugural Address, 1883.)

WITHOUT union, our independence and liberty would never have been achieved; without union, they can never be maintained.

The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. The eyes of all nations are fixed on our republic. The event of the existing crisis will be decisive, in the opinion of mankind, of the practicability of our federal system of government. Great is the stake placed in our hands; great is the responsibility which must rest upon the people of the United States. Let us realize the importance of the attitude in which we stand before the world. Let us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let us extricate our country from the dangers which surround it, and learn wisdom from the lessons they inculcate. Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I shall continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of the Constitution, and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of our Federal Union.

At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate, by my official acts, the necessity of exercising, by the General Government, those powers only that are clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity and economy in the expenditures of the Government; to raise no more money from the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner that will best promote the interests of all classes of the community, and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind that, in entering into society, individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the resť, it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster with our brethren, in all parts of the country, a spirit of liberal concession and compromise; and by reconciling our fellow-citizens to those partial sacrifices which they must unavoidably make, for the preservation of a greater good, to recommend our invaluable Government and Union to the confidence and affections of the American people. Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom now I stand, and who has