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copyright by Cornell University
Library 1994.SERMON
PREACHED ON
THANKSGIVING DAY,
NOVEMBER 25th, 1847,
IN THE FIRST WESLEYAN CHAPEL,
,	VESTRY-STREET, NEW-YORK.
BY REV. GEORGE F. KETTELL.
fJubltsljeir bg request.
NEW-YORK:
PRINTED AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE,
200 MULBERRY-STREET.
1848.SERMON.
** Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his
sons, Why look ye one upon another ? And he said, Behold, I have heard
that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from
thence; that we may live and not die.”—Genesis xlii, 1, 2.
The history of Joseph presents one of the most
beautiful and striking- illustrations of the mysterious
workings of divine providence to be found in the
Bible. It is woven out of a series of events more
romantic and singular than many that have given life
and interest to the fictions of modern times. To one
of these events allusion is made in our text; and,
that we may understand the application we design
this morning to make of it, let us briefly review the
history with which it stands connected.
An artless lad, unwittingly exciting the spleen and
jealousy of his elder brethren, was by them heart-
lessly sold to strangers, and dragged away into a
distant land, apparently to pass his life in bondage,
and die in obscurity. Far from his kindred and his
father’s house; among a strange people, speaking a
strange language, and practicing strange arts; with-
out friends or patronage, and bearing the chains and
the stigma of slavery—what prospect had he, but4
that his forlorn life would soon be ended, and his
name die with him ?
But the God who watcheth the sparrows held the
poor exile in especial remembrance. Guiding him
through mysterious paths, and protecting him with
a mighty hand, he at length raised him up to a
position as splendid as his former condition had been
groveling. Under the dispensation of Providence,
we see circumstances opening which brought his
singular virtues and his lofty piety into notice ; we
see opportunities occurring for the exercise of his
great abilities; we see him gaining the favor of the
king, rising to eminence in the state, occupying a
prominent place in the royal councils, and finally
wielding the almost supreme control of civil affairs;
so that, in the expressive language of Moses, “with-
out Joseph no man lifted up his hand or his foot in
all the land of Egypt.”
The wonderful rise of this obscure lad to great-
ness was but a link in the chain of great events by
which God was raising up a mighty people to glorify
his name in the earth. It was the finger of the
Almighty that traced the path of his journey into
Egypt; it was the Spirit of the Almighty that gave
him wisdom; it was the power of the Almighty that
made the famine and the plenty, and raised him to
the right hand of the throne. God placed him in a
position of great power and trust, that he might in-
fluence the destinies of his chosen people. But we
must observe, that God only employs suitable instru-
ments in the accomplishment of his purposes ; andhe chose Joseph because of the high moral and
religious qualities which he so illustriously displayed
in his life and conversation. He trusted in God;
he practiced virtue; he resisted sin; he cherished
righteousness; he was gifted with singular intelli-
gence and talent, consecrated by a pure heart to the
service of God—and therefore God raised him up.
But it is necessary to our present purpose to remind
you, that these qualities which fitted him for the
purposes of God were brought with him from his
father’s house, they were the fruit of his father’s
instructions ; they were not of Egyptian growth, but
were choice exotics, brought from his native soil,
and, under the fostering hand of God, formed in the
maturity of their growth the elements of his great-
ness, the foundation of his power, and the attributes
of his government. He was good, and he was made
great; he feared God, and God exalted him; and
through him gave unexampled prosperity to the nation
governed by his counsels, and animated by his spirit.
But while we see the poor and friendless exile
thus grown powerful and prosperous, we are called
to notice an equally striking, though opposite, change
which had come over the house of his fathers. The
land where he had learned his wisdom and his piety,
the very family whence he had drawn the elements
of his greatness, were now cursed with dire and con-
suming famine. His elder brethren, in the extremity
of their hunger, looked wishfully to the land where
bread still abounded; and the aged father, whose
strength had departed, said unto his sons, “ Get you6
down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we
may live and not die.” Obedient to this mandate,
the elder brethren of Joseph came down into Egypt,
to procure food from him who but a few years be-
fore they had driven out with reproach, and sold
among strangers. And thus, through the mysterious
operation of divine Providence, they were fed with
the fatness of the land which had been made rich
and prosperous by the blessing of God upon their
despised younger brother.
Now does not this singular history, exhibiting
strange reverses of national fortune, and illustrating
the care of an overruling Providence, find an almost
exact counterpart in the history of our own country 1
Something more than two hundred years ago, a
little bark, struggling with the tempestuous waves
of the Atlantic, was bearing a small company of per-
secuted exiles to a distant and unknown country.
They landed upon a bleak and wintry coast, among
a wild and hostile people; with no friends to welcome
them, no prospects of security or support but such
as were afforded by an unshaken trust in their God.
They came, like Joseph, driven out by his brethren,
because they were not suffered to dwell in peace in
their own land. They were driven out, and forced
to take refuge in a land, where, though poor, and
naked, and strangers, with none to take them in, they
might at least sit down by the wayside, and call
upon the God of their fathers.
But who that saw the little band standing dejected
and sad upon the rock at Plymouth, could have an-7
ticipated the splendid results destined to arise from
their forlorn and hazardous enterprise ? Could one
of their number, gifted with a prophet’s eye, have
looked down the vista of future years, with what
wonder would he have gazed upon the splendid
visions rising upon his sight! The wilderness pass*
ed away, as by the touch of an enchanter; the savage
no more seen in the land, but an enlightened and
thrifty people, tilling with joy broad and verdant
fields, where then the primeval forests waved in their
gloomy grandeur; the hum of innumerable manufac-
tories filling the land with the music of a gladsome
activity; an extensive and flourishing commerce
crowding the ports of populous and wealthy cities ;
and a degree of civilization and refinement abound-
ing, then unknown even in the mother country.
Could they have seen this, would not their aston-
ishment have been equal to that of Joseph, if, when
a poor captive lad, it had been shown him that he
would one day sit upon the throne of Pharaoh? Yet
that which might then have been the visions of pro-
phecy has come to be realized in our actual history.
From those small and feeble beginnings, a great peo-
ple have grown up. The little companies which
landed upon the American coast brought with them
an indomitable spirit, which no discouragements
could subdue; a serene and lofty piety, which no
hardships could ruffle; and a trust in God, and a
love of freedom, which nothing earthly could shake.
They rapidly multiplied, and spread themselves over
the continent, pushing their settlements into the in-8
terior with unexampled vigor; developing, with sin-
gular skill, the natural resources of the country and
climate; and creating all the artificial wealth of
manufactures and commerce. They built cities;
they founded polities; they established governments.
They now stand forth in the first rank of nations;
with unbounded resources of national wealth and
power; possessing in an unparalleled degree all the
means of social happiness; quite unexampled in all
the essential elements of prosperity and greatness.
As God elevated Joseph to great power and wealth,
so has he raised up a great people from the little
pilgrim bands that landed upon these shores.
And may we not discern a further parallel between
the distress that came upon his brethren, and the
present condition of the land of our fathers ? She
has fallen upon evil times. Dark accounts of sore
distress and wide-spread suffering come to us across
the waters. We hear of our elder brethren perish-
ing for want of food. We learn that their wonted
supplies are cut off; that commercial derangement
has spread consternation and gloom through all the
departments of society; that industry meets with no
reward, and enterprise with no encouragement; that
the poorer classes, thrown out of employ, and de-
prived of their ordinary means of subsistence, are
reduced to the lowest extremity of suffering; that
gaunt famine and the consuming pestilence stalk
abroad through the land; and many, with prophetic
voice, proclaim that this is but the commencement of
the evil days.9
And may we not push the parallel still another
step. As the sons of Jacob went down into Egypt,
to buy corn of their younger brother, so the ships
of our elder brethren now come across the water,
to procure from us the bread which can no longer be
procured at home. And we thank God that we are
not only able to sell, but to give it to them.
Yes, there is com in America ! A kind Providence
has blessed us; the smiles of Heaven have rested
upon our happy land; we have enough and to spare.
So great is our abundance, that, while we distribute
liberally to the needy, it may truly be said, “ Giving
will not impoverish us.”
Our unexampled prosperity is indicated by a sin-
gle event, which has never had a parallel in the his-
tory of nations. Ourselves in the midst of an ex-
pensive war, we have been enabled to send out our
very frigates, laden with presents of grain, to those
who were starving in time of peace.
But in this, our great prosperity, there is no cause
for boasting; but rather for devout and humble
thankfulness to Almighty God. If we are great, he
hath made us so. His bounties have made us rich;
and his power hath hitherto protected us from inward
convulsion and from outward peril. And if at this
moment we enjoy a greater degree of prosperity than
our elder brethren, there is no reason for us to
triumph over them; for as Joseph brought the springs
of his prosperity from his father’s house, so our pros-
perity and greatness have proceeded, under the good
providence of God, from the operation of those prin-
2la
eiples which our fathers brought with them from the
mother country. They came animated with the
spirit of Englishmen. They brought with them
English liberty, English laws, English civilization,
intelligence, enterprise, and industry; and these have
been the potent springs of our national greatness.
The mighty tree that now spreads its luxuriant
branches over this extended land, sheltering and
feeding millions, has sprung up from a vigorous off-
shoot of the English stock. It was indeed trans-
planted in a genial soil. It has been cultivated with
jealousy and care: it has been both pruned and
grafted. But it has expanded and grown with a
native vigor, derived from the parent stem.
And we should, moreover, remember that our
fathers came not only in the spirit of Englishmen,
but in the spirit of Christians. Indeed it was the
entire predominance of the Christian principle above
all other considerations that brought them to these
shores. They were holy, God-fearing men: they
were animated by a fervent zeal, and a pure, devo-
tional spirit. Their regard for the great interests of
religion and the honor of God has been a distin-
guishing feature of their history. And as they
honored God, so God honored them, and made their
name great in the earth. It is through his blessing
upon the virtue, intelligence, and piety, of our fa-
thers that we have this day so much to be thankful
for.
But, while we thus acknowledge our indebtedness
to England for the elements of our greatness, may11
we not also take a lesson from her, which may be
of use in preserving our prosperity ? While we re-
joice that it is in our power to minister to the wants
of the needy among her population, may we not in-
quire into the cause of their need; and ask why it is,
that, possessing those native elements of prosperity
and strength, which, transmitted to us, have made us
so great, they should be in a condition to require our
aid ? What blighting influences have been there at
work, to neutralize the effects of those qualities
which here have brought forth universal plenty and
well-being 1
We commenced by observing that, in our view, the
famine, or extreme scarcity, and consequent suffering,
among the poor in Great Britain and Ireland, cannot
be accounted for, simply by the casualty of a
commercial panic or a short harvest. The same
casualty in this country might diminish our comforts
for a season, but it could not reduce us to the same
extremity of distress. There is enough of available
wealth diffused through the land, and in the hands
of the people, to carry them safely through one year
of disaster, even should all supplies be cut off.
The loss of a single harvest, or a revulsion in money
affairs, might impoverish the nation upon the whole,
as much as it would England; but it never could
produce absolute starvation, or that depth of suffer-
ing which has existed for the past year in Great
Britain. In 1837 a revulsion took place in this
■country, equal in severity to that which now exists
in England. It was the cause of much privation, of12
a great reduction of luxuries, and even comforts; but
who heard of an individual actually starving, or even
suffering the extremities of hunger? Such is the
universal well-being of the people in this country,
that there are few who cannot procure the means of
subsistence even in a year of the greatest scarcity.
But in Great Britain it is not so. Notwithstanding the
vast wealth of the nation, there are among the lower
classes a constantly existing poverty and a scantiness
of means, which in the best of times just permit them
to live, and preclude the possibility of laying up any-
thing against a day of trouble. They just support life
from the product of their daily labor, and in Ireland
from the produce of their potato-patch; and if these
supplies are cut off, they have not the smallest re-
sources to fall back upon, so that when the pressure
of a short harvest, or any other unusual disaster
comes, it finds the mass of the poor in a condition
utterly unable to meet its severity.
Now this previously existing poverty has resulted
from manifest causes—causes, which, if we would
retain our prosperity, it becomes us particularly to
notice at the present time. What are these causes?
We might mention several, but it suits our present
purpose to mention only two.
1. Expensive Foreign Wars, which have not only
drained England of incalculable treasures, but have
seriously interfered with industrial pursuits; thus
diminishing, in a two-fold manner, the capabilities of
the laboring classes of acquiring a subsistence which
could be available in time of need. The constant13
drain of wealth from the country to support foreign
war, and the constant interruption of trade by which
the laboring classes get their bread, necessarily
forced them during the wars into habits of poverty,
and into a degraded style of living, which from long
continuance came to be regarded as their proper and
legitimate state. They were during the long wars
sunken in the social scale, until it came to be for-
gotten that they had any claims to a higher position,
and being, from the very fact of long poverty, deficient
in the means of raising themselves up, their condition
has become permanently lowered in the scale of
society. So that while the higher classes—having
education, intelligence, and capital, at command—
have rapidly recovered from the disastrous effects
of the wars, the laboring people, being deficient in
all these requisites, remain in the same degraded
state to which the wars reduced them. And this we
take to be one of the great causes of the low con-
dition of the laboring classes in Europe. The long
continuance of wars has reduced them to habitual
poverty and privation, from which they have been
unable afterward to recover. That the causes
which we name are adequate to produce the
result, will appear from the single statement,
that while, in 1813, the manufactured exports of
England were reduced twenty millions of pounds
sterling, or one hundred millions of dollars, in con-
sequence of the war—producing the most appalling
distress throughout all the manufacturing districts—
the war expenses of the same year amounted to one14
hundred and eighteen millions of pounds sterling, or
six hundred millions of dollars; thus cutting off a
hundred millions from their means of support, and
at the same time taking six hundred millions out of
their pockets. We may well conceive that a con-
tinuance of such a state of things for a long course of
years must effectually work the degradation of the
laborer, and entail upon him hopeless and perpetual
poverty. Must we not then cease to wonder at the
present condition of the poor in England, when we
consider that, from 1688 to 1815, a period of one
hundred and twenty-seven years, she was engaged
sixty-five years in foreign war, thus having, during
that long period, her prosperity crippled and impeded
by the disastrous operation of these combined causes
—the drain of wealth to support foreign war, and
the interruption of trade by which alone the streams
of wealth could be replenished.
But the most serious result of these foreign wars,
and one which is most palpably felt at the present
moment, was the accumulation of an enormous pub-
lic debt, which continues, and always must continue,
to hang as an incubus upon the neck of the English
nation.
The debt began in the war of the revolution of
1688, which cost twenty millions of pounds sterling.
It was followed in five years by the war of the
Spanish succession, which cost thirty-five millions
more; and it has gone on increasing in a rapidly
advancing ratio with every successive wrar, until at
the close of the war with Bonaparte, in 1815,15
it amounted to eight hundred million pounds, or
nearly four thousand millions of dollars.
Now it is particularly worthy of notice, that scarce-
ly the smallest portion of this vast amount of wealth
was consumed on English soil. It was almost all
carried out of the country, and expended in support-
ing foreign soldiers, or English soldiers on foreign
soil, and in subsidizing foreign governments. In
1813, for example, England paid to the different
European governments sixty millions of dollars in
gold, and, in the short space of two months, sent
into Germany the entire military equipments for
one hundred and fifty thousand men; besides sus-
taining the enormous cost of her own armies and
navies, which amounted in the same year, for the
army, to two hundred, and for the navy, to one
hundred millions of dollars.
But further, the amount of this vast debt has not
only been actually carried out of England, thus tak-
ing away so much active capital from the nation,
but it has left a grievous curse behind, in the shape
of an annual charge for interest on that enormous
sum ; which amounts to no less than thirty millions
of pounds sterling, or one hundred and fifty mil-
lions of dollars—more than five times the entire cost
of the whole government of the U nited States. And
this is a charge, let it be observed, from which the
people of England can never be relieved. The
principal of the debt can never be paid; it is a thing
allowed on all hands to be utterly impossible. The
capabilities of the people are taxed to the utmost to16
meet the interest, which must from this very circum-
stance be a perpetual burden—a burden from which
nothing can relieve them, but causes which would
overthrow the government, and shake the very
foundations of society.
2. We will now call your attention to another
cause of the present low condition of the laboring
classes in England, and one closely connected with
the foregoing, namely,
The Acquisition of Foreign Territory.—The only
return which England has ever gained for her un-
paralleled expenditures in supporting foreign war,
has been in the shape of various foreign settlements.
With the exception of the American war, she has
come out of every contest with some addition of
territory, which, together with constant acquisitions
by purchase, discovery, or diplomacy, has so en-
larged her dominions, that she has now, in all parts
of the world, no less than forty-five colonial depend-
encies ; so that, as it is graphically said, “ the sun
never sets on the British empire, and the roll of her
morning drum-beat encircles the earth.” But what
solid benefit has accrued to England from this vast
accumulation of territory it is difficult to say. It
is doubted, even by many of her own wisest states-
men, whether they are an addition of wealth or of
poverty, a source of strength or of weakness. The
policy which dictated this extension of territory,
was, that it would open markets for the sale of
British manufactures; (a string which is violently
pulled upon by some, in other lands, who advo-17
cate acquisitions of territory;) but the rapid ad-
vance of mechanical skill, in other countries, has
raised up successful competitors to England even
in her own colonial markets, so that these dependen-
cies, which were at first looked upon as a source of
strength, are from this cause becoming a source of
weakness, and in the opinion of many sagacious
statesmen are working her downfall.
Sir Robert Peel, with many misgivings, and much
hesitation, declared, before parliament, that it would
perhaps be unwise to abandon the policy which led
to the acquisition of foreign territory, because it
“ opened an outlet for British population and enter-
prise.” The wisdom of this reason may be judged
of from the fact, that by far the greater proportion
of the persons who emigrate from Great Britain,
avoid the British colonies, and come to the United
States. Men will go where their interests lead
them, and not simply where statesmen may desire
them to go.
Much has been said of foreign territory support-
ing itself, but the experience of England has shown,
that it must ever be a heavy charge upon the home
government. To acquire and maintain the rock of
Gibraltar has probably cost one hundred and fifty
millions of pounds sterling, yet it is doubtful whether
a single Englishman has gained a bushel of wheat
in return for it.
To sustain and protect these numerous and wide-
ly-scattered colonies, acquired by such a doubtful
policy, has created the necessity for the vast naval
318
armaments of Great Britain, equal to the united
navies of all the rest of the world. It requires
moreover an enormous standing army to garrison
the numerous military posts.
That the necessity for these naval and military
establishments is occasioned by the foreign territory
of England, is directly asserted by Sir Robert Peel,
in a late speech in parliament, in which he declares,
that of the immense navy of England, only nine or
ten sail of the line are available for home service;
and of the army not one-fourth were actually in
England, all the rest being employed on foreign sta-
tions. Now the expense of the army and navy, in
time of peace, and reduced to its lowest possible
point, is about eighteen millions of pounds, or ninety
millions of dollars. This, added to the amount of
interest on the national debt, makes an annual charge
of two hundred and thirty millions of dollars,—a
charge, let it be observed, occasioned exclusively by
foreign war and foreign territory, entirely indepen-
dent of the ordinary expenses of the government.
Now the number of tax-payers in Great Britain is *
about six millions; and having to pay two hundred
and thirty millions, it makes nearly forty dollars a
year to each man. When, now, we consider that
the laborer in England does not earn above one
hundred and fifty dollars a year, on the average ;
and that out of this he must pay forty dollars, or
full one-fourth, for war and foreign territory, besides
all he has to pay for the ordinary support of govern-
ment—we can readily see that he is in a condition19
which must preclude the possibility of ever rising
above the lowest poverty; and that a short harvest,
or a commercial panic, or a stoppage of manufac-
tures, must of necessity throw him upon charity or
starvation. It may be said that we have erred in
estimating the taxes as falling equally upon all; that
the property-tax falls exclusively upon the wealthier
classes. We answer, that the property-tax is com-
paratively small: four-fifths of the entire tax is laid
upon consumable articles, of which the poor man
has to pay by far the largest proportion, as we could
easily show were this a proper time.
That the interest paid on the national debt is
kept in the country, and therefore does not impover-
ish the nation upon the whole, we admit; but the
operation of the funding system is such as to con-
centrate the wealth of the nation in the hands of the
fundholders. One hundred and fifty millions of
taxes are every year collected from the poor, and
paid over to the few who hold government stock:
so that the one class is thereby made richer, and the
other poorer. And this is not owing to any injustice ;
but must of necessity, we think, be the case where
a nation is largely taxed on account of a public
debt. Where the debt is owing out of the country,
the effect must be still more disastrous; for then
the interest is entirely lost to the nation.
Such then are some of the burdens entailed upon
the people of England by foreign wars. And we
ask not now whether these wars were just or unjust;
we simply deal with the fact, that, right or wrong?20
they did cost so much, and such are the results which
they have left behind them. Granting that they
were patriotic and necessary, these results are still
the same, and prove most conclusively that foreign
war is of all things the greatest enemy to national
prosperity, and especially to the well-being of the
laboring classes.
Here then is an answer to the question, Why
does Britain now send to us for bread? She has
intelligence, enterprise, industry, skill—everything
that can make a nation great and rich; but war has
made her people poor. Here is a terrible explana-
tion of the fearful havoc which famine and pestilence
have wrought, and are destined still to work; and
who will not say that the streams of evil flow from
a legitimate fountain ?
In return for her wars and her conquests, England
has gained great national glory—a name encircled
with a splendid halo of martial renown. But she
has gained also popular wretchedness, misery, want,
starvation. The mighty achievements of England
will ever stand out with surpassing brilliancy in the
great drama of history; but who that beholds the
tears, the sweat, the blood, of her people, staining
the page upon which these deeds are recorded, will
not think that her glory is dearly bought ? For a
hundred and fifty years, the military science and
bravery, the mechanical skill, the commercial enter-
prise, the agricultural toil, of all England, have been
taxed to the utmost, to erect a stupendous monument
of national glory ; but it stands forth before the21
world like a whited sepulchre—beautiful to look
upon, but filled with dead men’s bones. The trum-
pet of Fame may proclaim her great deeds on the
earth; but we can almost fancy that wo hear its
proudest notes hushed in the cries of her orphans,
the moans of her widows, the lamentations and
wailings of her poverty-stricken laborers. So far
from wondering at her present distress, we may
well marvel that she has so long maintained her
place in the van of nations.
As we have before observed, we come not together
this day to triumph over the land of our fathers—to
make a boastful parade of our own superior pros-
perity; but we come to acknowledge with gratitude
the sources whence we derive our greatness, and at
the same time to learn, from the experience of others,
how we may best preserve the fair inheritance which
has been placed in our hands.
It would ill become me to make a direct applica-
tion of these remarks to the present circumstances
of our country. Such was not my intention; but
simply to lay before you some historical statements,
which may lead you to infer what are the greatest
hinderances to national prosperity. I do not under-
take to explain the lesson which these statements
teach us, as to the effect which the great events
of the present may have upon the destinies of the
future. I am not a statesman, nor am I a politician,
but I claim to love my country, and I profess to
believe in God:—and both piety and patriotism
admonish me not to disregard the lights which his22
hand has hung out for our warning upon the path-
way of history. I behold his goodness exemplified
in our nation’s greatness; but I see foreshadowed the
exhibitions of his anger, if as a people we despise
that goodness, and forsake his commands.
I would see my country, and my country’s rulers,
sacredly observing those principles which have
hitherto been our safety and our strength, and
which, in their practical development, have crown-
ed us with blessings above all other people ; and I
would see them religiously avoiding those fatal
rocks upon which, if the land of our fathers has not
split, she has at least received grievous damage.
Our country has become great, rich, and prosper-
ous, because God has been over us, and because
hitherto we have honored him as a people. Our
institutions were founded in religion; they were
nurtured in righteousness; they have been main-
tained with a sacred regard to justice. God forbid
that these principles should ever forsake the councils
of the land.
We conclude these remarks with two observations:
1. All history exemplifies the truth of the Scrip-
ture declaration, that ‘’righteousness exalteth a
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people:” most
strikingly is this exemplified in the nation mentioned
in our text. It was through the blessing of God
upon the virtue and truth of Joseph, that the vast
physical capabilities of Egypt were developed,
and rendered available in time of need: but
when another king arose who knew not Joseph23
-‘—who did not recognize the principles which
pervaded his administration—the curse of God
rested upon her, and in fulfillment of the divine
denunciation she became the “ basest of the king-
doms.” With a luxurious climate, and a soil unparal-
leled for fertility; with an unequaled felicity of posi-
tion for commercial enterprises—lying at the head
of the Mediterranean, where she might command
the commerce of the world, she is inhabited by a
wretched, enslaved, starving people.
We may boast of the extent of our territory, of
the fertility of our soil, of the abundance of our
resources—these advantages are only available to
our real and permanent prosperity, so long as God
shall bless us in the use of them, and he will only
bless us so long as we continue to observe his word,
and in our public and private dealings follow the
light of his truth.
2. History teaches that every republic, that has
heretofore existed on the earth, has come to ruin in
consequence of foreign war. The necessary result
of war is to give undue ascendency to the military
power, which must, if any faith is to be placed in
history, inevitably prove the destruction of a re-
public. So clear and unequivocal is the testimony
of history to this point, that at the time of our Revo-
lution it was almost looked upon as an established
law. At the settlement of our constitution it was
confidently proclaimed throughout Europe, that our
nation, following the course of all other republics,
must terminate in a military despotism. Sixty24
years of successful progress had seemed to belie the
prediction; but at this moment the triumphant note
is raised across the water, that the prediction is at
length on the eve of fulfillment.
God help us to be wise in season, and avoid those
fatal errors which have been so disastrous to the
land of our ancestors, and which have proved the
ruin of so many by-gone nations!