our government and adapted it to the work of subduing the continent, and developing its unlimited sources of wealth and physical power, in order only to make them contribute to the fulfillment of its higher and holier duty of securing to every man, over whom its flag floats, the freest and fullest development of all his faculties, and establishing here the most perfect civilization of which the race is capable. And they made. it strong enough to do all this, and yet reserved to the states power enough to prevent the possibility of its ever defeating the high end for which, under God, they had created it.

It was the ushering into the astonished family of nations of such a government, recognizing such principles and with such resources of power to enforce them, that so clearly and sharply defined the character of this new epoch, the manhood of the race, as to place it far above and beyond all that had preceded it. The destiny of man then took such a stride onward that the whole earth shook beneath its majestic tread; for

"When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from East to West; And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb

To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime

Of a century bursts full-blossom'd on the thorny stem of Time.

Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe,
When the travail of the ages wings earth's systems to and fro;

At the birth of each new era, with a recognizing start,
Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart,

And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future's heart."

France was the first to feel the trembling vibrations of the new impulse across the sea, and:

"The brute despair of trampled centuries

Leap'd up with one hoarse yell and snapp'd its bands,

Groped for its right with horny, callous hands,

And stared around for God with blood-shot eyes."

It was but anarchy and crime that, in her blindness, she mistook for the freedom she had dreamed of in her dull and troubled sleep; and, like a child, soon tiring of this bloody plaything, she cast it away for the glittering bauble of Napoleon's glory. But such a live, free nation, like ours, cannot exist in the world without still, at times, making the pulsations of its great strong heart felt across the ocean. It is then that

the crushed and besotted peoples of Europe start wildly from their leaden sleep, and groping, like a blind giant, for the pillars of despotism, only bury their own hopes under the ruin they make.

The feebleness and fruitlessness of these pregnant convulsions, as well as all the experience of history, teach us this important lesson: that, as new wine cannot be put into old bottles-as the vigor of youth cannot be infused into the palsied limbs of age-so the vital principle of a new civilization cannot be galvanized into the withered forms of the old. The doctrine of self-government is too vital and powerful an element of progress to be compressed into the effete systems of Europe. It requires new and higher social and political forms to embody it; a wider theater, with grander scenery and a new set of actors, for its representation. This idea of a government created by the people and for the people, is adapted only to the manhood of the race; and can only be fully realized on this continent, by this form of government and by this great American race, formed by the assimilation with the Anglo-Saxon of all the best blood of all the historic nations, and educated by the lessons of all past history, and disciplined by the stern experience of its own career, up to the comprehension of its power and its duty.

But above and over all the influences shaping and determining our national career, controlling and vitalizing them all, is Christianity. Freed from the corrupting influences of government, which had made it the instrument of oppression; and the senseless mummeries and lifeless forms which had cramped and perverted it, it has here the opportunity to accomplish the mission for which its Divine Founder intended it. Wrested from the control of a bigoted hierarchy, it here becomes the common heritage of the people; and instead of the handmaid of slavery, it becomes the bulwark of liberty. Combining in its doctrines all the fragments of truth that lie scattered through all history-uniting the idea of the infinite and the finite, divinity and humanity in the office and person of Christ -it becomes the sublimed expression of the philosophy as well as the religion, the reason as well as the faith, of this third and last phase of historical development. It was only when, through religious freedom, the masses of the people

were taught to comprehend fully the meaning of this great central idea of Christianity, the union of the divine and the human, and to recognize in Christ the true type of all human perfection, and consequently the true dignity and immortal destiny of man, that a government based on the essential equality of all men, and their inherent right, in virtue alone of their manhood and their responsibility to God, to be free, became possible. Thus we find that spiritual always precedes and begets social and political freedom. It was only when Luther had unlocked the Bible, and the printing-press had given it to the people, that the essential living principles of Christianity sank down into the hearts of the masses and awakened the desire for civil liberty. It was freedom to worship God, above all else, that our fathers sought for in the New World. The idea of religious liberty was the germ they planted in the wilderness, and watered with their tears and their blood, until it grew and blossomed and bore the rich fruit of social and political equality.

Thus we see how the uniform tendency of the forces of nature, the great outlines of the continents, the characteristics of the races, the grand march of history through the ages, and above all, the sublime doctrines of Christianity, all conspire to teach us the importance of our high position, as well as the magnitude of our responsibility as a nation.

The question now forces itself upon us, and we could not evade it if we would, have we, as a people, comprehended the lesson, or met the responsibility? Have we not rather forgotten the universal law of moral compensation, as applicable to nations as to individuals, that the richer the blessings the higher the duty; and while enjoying our blessings have we not forgotten our duty? Have we not forgotten that, in making us "the heirs of all the ages," God intended to exact of us in return the most heroic performance and the most generons sacrifice for the principles of eternal right and justice that any nation was ever required to pay? These are questions which four years ago the nation impiously thrust aside as fanatical and even treasonable, but which God is now thundering into its ears from the brazen throat of the cannon, and it cannot help but hear. By the flashes of the lightning that gleams from this fearful thunder-cloud of war, we can now see the

frightful precipice on which we stood, and look shuddering into the abyss of utter ruin into which another step would have plunged us; and by the glare of the same light, we can now look back over the slimy path of compromise and concession to wrong down which we basely crawled to the very brink of destruction. We, who would not listen to the silent admonitions of conscience, nor learn the lessons of nature and history, cannot help but read this terrible curse written in blood wherever we turn:

"Because ye have broken your own chain,

With the strain

Of brave men climbing a nation's height,
Yet thence bear down with brand and thong

On the souls of others, for this wrong

This is the curse.

Because yourselves are standing straight

In the state

Of Freedom's foremost acolyte,

Yet keep calm footing all the time

On writhing bond-slaves, for this crime
This is the curse.

Because ye prosper in God's name,
With a claim

To honor in the old world's sight,
Yet do the fiend's work perfectly
In strangling martyrs, for this lie
This is the curse."

God is now only exacting, in the form of a bloody retribution, what we refused to pay in faithfulness to the responsibilities of our high position, and it is a fearful penalty we are paying; yet it is God's price, high as it is, for what we basely bartered away in the past. But life and money are cheaper commodities than principle; and we may be thankful if we can cancel the debts of the past and secure our national integrity for the future at the immense cost of blood and treasure we are now paying. It will be cheap even at that price.

As, in the human body, the chemical forces of dead matter, while under the control of the vital principle, work together harmoniously to build up and sustain the living organism, but when the vitality has left it, go to work, like vandals, to pull down the structure they had reared, and resolve it into its

original dust, so under the control of the vitalizing, harmonizing principle of liberty and equality, the independent sov ereign states combined together to build up the beautiful fabric of our government; but when the hideous vampire of slavery had sucked the life-blood of the nation, until there was scarcely virtue enough left to resist its impious demands, then the disintegrating elements of state sovereignty, which our fathers repudiated, began to tear to pieces the fair form they had helped to create. And so far had the work of disintegration gone, that the head of this great nation was forced, by the traitors in the cabinet, to declare, in his official capacity, that the government had no power "to coerce a state into obedience to its authority;" that this young republic, for which all history has been a preparation, with its work before it scarcely begun, had not vitality enough to save it from falling to pieces. So completely had the piratical crew dismantled the ship of state, that, amid the howling of the storm, the man at the helm was heard, in whining tones, proclaiming that there was not strength enough left in the "old hulk" to hold its planks together. No wonder that the stoutest hearts quailed before the dangers of that dark hour, and patriots gazed with mute despair into the threatening gloom of the future! But God did not mean to destroy us. Even in the last extremity deliverance came. The pirates, who were madly driving us on the breakers, were hurled overboard, and now, with a loyal crew and a firm, unflinching hand at the helm, the old ship has righted; and as she gallantly rides the heaving billows, the sun-light breaks through the rifts in the thunder-cloud, with the assurance that she will yet weather the storm, and bring her rich freight of human hopes safe into port at last!

God means to save us; but he means to try us by fire. All that is ruthless and wicked in us will be burned up, but all that is worth saving in us will only be purer and better for the fierce ordeal. God intends to make us fit for the work he put us here to do; and to make us willing to do it. As the duty is noble to which we are called, so the chastisement that is to prepare us for it is severe; nor will it end until our repentance is thorough. But already the nation, from the depths of its humility, is looking anxiously toward Heaven FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XVIII.—2