arW 
 
 37606] 
 
 TOWNE 
 COLLEGCS 
 
 TRee 
 
 INSTITUTIONS 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031787066 
 
C0Utps m)s im %niMian. 
 
 A 
 
 DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERBD AT THE 
 
 €mt\ %mikxmi 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL 
 EDUCATION AT THE WEST, 
 
 CENTRAL OHUROH, WORCESTER, MASS., 
 GoTOBBE 23d, 1853, 
 
 REV. JOSEPH H. TOWNE, 
 
 PASTOR OP THE FIBST OONQKEGATIONAl CHUROH, BIUDQEPOET, CONN. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49 ANN STREET. 
 
 1854. 
 
" The thanks of the Board were presented to thg Rev. Joseph H. 
 TowNE, for his Discourse in behalf of the Society, delivered in the 
 Central Church, on Sabbath evening, and a copy was requested for 
 publication." 
 
 An extract from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Directors 
 of the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Educa- 
 tion at the West, at their Annual Meeting at Worcester, Mass., Oct. 
 26th, 1853. T. Baldwin, Secretary. 
 
 Note. — The publication of the Discourse has been delayed that the 
 Society might have the benefit of a repetition by the Author in sundry 
 pulpits. 
 
DISCOUESE 
 
 " The children ought not to lay up for the parents, hut the parents for 
 the children." — 2 Cor. xii. 14. 
 
 The principle of the text is applied by the Apostle 
 to the duty of spiritual fathers towards their spiri- 
 tual offspring. With equal propriety we may give 
 it still greater latitude of interpretation, and extend 
 it to the duty of every preceding age to the ages 
 which are to follow. God has so ordained it, that 
 the future is dependent on the past. This is espe- 
 cially true with respect to those who inherif the soil 
 and succeed to the institutions of their predecessors. 
 How extensively are we of the present day indebted 
 to our early forefathers? If the solitudes of this 
 mighty continent have given place to the abodes of 
 civilized life ; if the wildernesses are transformed 
 into gardens of luxuriance and beauty, we owe it in 
 part, and in no small part, to the hardy culture 
 commenced by those brave pioneers of liberty who 
 stepped from the deck of the Mayflower upon Ply- 
 mouth Rock. 
 
 It should be our endeavor, as it is plainly our 
 
duty, to repay our debt of gratitude to the fathers 
 by being ourselves thoughtful for posterity. This 
 fair inheritance of freedom is given to us in trust for 
 those who shall come after us. Precious, sacred, 
 momentous trust ! When, since the world began, 
 have men been invested with a greater or more 
 solemn responsibility ? The destiny of this nation 
 infolds the weal or the woe of millions yet unborn ; 
 and that destiny may be determined, and in all 
 probability will be determined, by what is done, or 
 left undone, by the generations now upon the stage. 
 
 We know not what may be the secret purpose 
 of the Almighty Ruler, who not unfrequently brings 
 to pass results which no human sagacity could have 
 predicted ; but if natural causes are here to be left 
 to their legitimate tendency, it is certain that the 
 permanence of the institutions of this country is con- 
 ditioned upon the diffusion of an enlightened public 
 sentiment. To provide m eans for forming^ preserv- 
 ing^ and diffusing such a sentiment, is heyond con- 
 t/roversy the great duty which as Christian patriots 
 we owe to posterity. 
 
 These thoughts indicate, with sufficient clearness, 
 the line of argument which we intend to pursue. 
 
 An impression still adheres to not a few minds, 
 that the continuance of the American Government, 
 for any considerable length of time, is something 
 rather to be wished than expected. This deficiency 
 of faith is to be deprecated. We know not which 
 is the more injurious to a cause, extravagant fear or 
 unwarrantable hope. If the latter betrays it by 
 encouraging a false security, the former as often 
 
ruins it by paralyzing the sinews of action. The old 
 Roman maxim never to despair of the Eepublic, 
 saved the Commonwealth more than once from fall- 
 ing a prey to its enemies. We are not surprised 
 that serious doubts respecting the stability of our 
 government should have extensively prevailed, both 
 in Europe and in this country, at the period of the 
 formation of the Federal constitution. The world 
 had then settled down in the belief that an heredi- 
 tary monarchy and privileged orders were essential 
 to the very subsistence of government. When, 
 therefore, the framers of our constitution rejected 
 those props which were so universally deemed indis- 
 pensable, and sent forth the Ark of their hopes on 
 what appeared to be an uncertain, as it was confess- 
 edly an untried sea ; we wonder not that the politi- 
 cal leaders of Europe looked on with amazement, 
 and prophesied a speedy failure of the experiment, 
 nor that many honest and well-meaning patriots 
 were troubled with painful solicitudes and misgiv- 
 ings. But the brilliant success of the experiment, 
 thus far, a success transcending^ the expectations of 
 the most sanguine, and surpassing even the visions 
 of poetic fancy, has greatly modified the views of 
 European diplomatists, and should, we think, efface 
 from our own minds every suspicion of inhei'ent 
 weakness or imbecility in the mechanism of our in- 
 stitutions. No political fabrics constructed by the 
 wisdom of man are absolutely perfect. No system 
 of government can convert this earth into a Para- 
 dise, or effectually rid it of sin and misery. We 
 may, however, confidently appeal to our past history. 
 
and ask — in what particulars has the American gov- 
 ernment failed to accomplish the ends for which it 
 was instituted ? Has it not secured the administration 
 of justice ? Has it not insured domestic peace ? Has 
 it not encouraged internal improvement ? Has it 
 not established our credit round the globe ? In war 
 has it not proved itself adequate to our defence ? 
 Does not our flag give ample protection to a com- 
 merce which whitens every sea ? Is there another 
 land, where the people live more quietly and hap- 
 pily under their laws ? where there is more solid 
 contentment and less wretchedness ? where industry 
 is better or so well protected and rewarded ? where 
 greater improvements have been made in the arts 
 of life ? where literature and science are more suc- 
 cessfully cultivated, and the masses of the people 
 are rising so rapidly in intelligence and moral worth? 
 Is there another land, on the wide surface of the 
 globe, where Christianity is so fairly unbound, or 
 where she walks at large, in her native simplicity, 
 achieving such victories and erecting such monu- 
 ments of peace and love as here ? If we were called 
 to choose a portion of the earth in which to leave 
 our children, what country should we prefer to our 
 own ? Would it be Turkey ? Russia ? Austria ? 
 Spain ? Italy ? France ? No — neither of these. 
 Would it be England? England, if any one. For 
 England must ever have charms for us. There was 
 the home of our ancestors, the country of Locke and 
 Newton, of Hampden and Chatham. We rove with 
 delight amidst the gardens and palaces of merry old 
 England, and feel a conscious pride in having sprung 
 
from so noble a stock ; but when we lift the gor- 
 geous and dazzling drapery, which royalty and the 
 muses have thrown over the sunniest portions of the 
 British Isles, and look beneath upon the actual con- 
 dition of the more humble tenantry ; when we see 
 religion fettered and corrupted by State patronage ; 
 the peasantry shut out from the possession of the soil 
 by legal barriers which they can neither break down 
 nor remove ; and the lower strata of her populace 
 riveted immovably to the degradation and shame 
 of hopeless poverty ; what wanderer from these 
 shores does not turn his moistened eye westward 
 over the sea, and thank God that he is an Ameri- 
 can? 
 
 If we look at the question of the stability of 
 governments with the eye of a philosopher, and take 
 deliberately into consideration the material to be 
 subjected to their influence, we shall easily frame 
 conclusions favorable to our own institutions. For 
 what system must, in the judgment of reason, em- 
 brace the most reliable elements of permanence, the 
 artificial or the natural ? governments founded in 
 fiction, or a government founded in truth ? govern- 
 ments responsible wholly or chiefly to themselves, 
 or a government responsible to society? govern- 
 ments whose quiet depends on the ignorance and 
 passivity of the masses, and which therefore dread 
 light as the day of judgment ; or a government which 
 invokes light, and whose vital breath is the intelli- 
 gence of the people ? governments which cramp 
 and dwarf human nature, like the bandage around a 
 Chinese foot, and which a healthy and vigorous de- 
 
velopment is sure to burst asunder ; or a govern- 
 ment whicli leaves room for the full growth of every 
 limb, and gives free play to every faculty ? 
 
 As the result of Christian civilization there have 
 sprung up what are termed the middle classes of 
 society. These assume an importance just in pro- 
 portion to the degree of liberty enjoyed. With us 
 they are the country, the nation, the people. Our 
 most enterprising citizens are from their ranks, and 
 those who stand foremost in all the walks of profes- 
 sional life. Christianity gathers from these classes 
 her richest trophies, and her ablest defenders. Now 
 it is only under American institutions that tke inter- 
 est of this part of the population of a country are 
 fully and fairly represented. Europe has not yet 
 reached the great verity, that all men, as members 
 of the civil community, are by right equal. Indi- 
 viduals have indeed reached it, and sigh to see it 
 every where practically acknowledged. But ours is 
 the only country where it is adopted as a funda- 
 mental maxim of government. Here only the civil 
 polity recognizes no distinctions, but such as industry 
 and worth must ever earn when all are dealt with 
 impartially. It is only here that the sons of hum- 
 blest parentage have an equal chance with their 
 fellows of more fortunate birth. Now must we be- 
 lieve that the only institutions in the world which 
 harmonize with Christianity in thus elevating the 
 people, cannot survive ? must inevitably perish ? 
 This would seem to imply that Christianity is itself 
 destined to prove a failure. Then we must abandon 
 all our political maxims. Then we must repudiate 
 
that imtnoi'tal document, the Declaration of Ameri- 
 can Independence, and denounce it as a tissue of 
 falsehoods. Whatever has been gained for liberty 
 by the struggles of centuries, must be regarded as so 
 much waste of treasure and blood. All our ideas 
 of the progress of society must be discarded, all our 
 hopes of the final emancipation of the race from po- 
 litical thraldom must be relinquished. We must 
 return to those odious dogmas of despots, which our 
 fathers flung from them with disgust. We must 
 shrink back into the darkest night of Time, and be- 
 lieve that the earth was created for a privileged 
 few, while the many are doomed by an iron and re- 
 lentless fate to be slaves. Surely we may assume, 
 at once, not as a matter to be reached by argument, 
 but as intuitively certain, that fears which lead to 
 such absurdities must be groundless. 
 
 Let us, however, inspect somewhat closely the 
 mechanism of American institutions, and we shall 
 quickly perceive that they possess certain qualities 
 peculiarly faworaUe to their perpetuity. 
 
 In the first place, their very structure affords a 
 sure guarantee against revolutionary conflicts hetween 
 government and society. Where governments are 
 powers in themselves, sustained by forces within 
 themselves, and depending for their subsistence on 
 the physical array which they can marshal upon an 
 emergency, to intimidate the populace, they are im- 
 pelled by a principle of self-preservation to augment 
 their own strength by, curtailing as much as possible 
 the privileges of their subjects. Their elevation 
 above society makes them arrogant and exacting. 
 
10 
 
 Their relative position makes them jealous. Every 
 demand of the people, however reasonable in itself, 
 and however respectfully presented, is regarded 
 with suspicion as a designed encroachment upon 
 royal prerogative. And being themselves fixtures, 
 beyond the reach of removal by peaceable mea- 
 sures, if they choose to be arbitrary and oppressive, 
 there is no remedy for the people but an appeal to 
 arms. The entire reign of Charles the First, of 
 England, is an apt illustration of these remarks. 
 The battle of Edge-hill, where open hostilities com- 
 menced ; and of Chalgrave-field, where Hampden 
 and Falkland fell ; and of Marston-Moor, where 
 Cromwell first began to distinguish himself; and 
 the last act of the tragedy before Whitehall, where 
 Charles laid his royal head upon the block, — all 
 were the results of the obstinacy with which that 
 unfortunate monarch contended for his prerogatives 
 against the rightful claims of the people. Was not 
 this in fact the cause which severed the American 
 colonies from the British crown ? But it is difficult 
 to see how such contests can ever arise in a nation 
 of enlightened freemen, living under institutions of 
 their own choice. For where the prime source of 
 all the authority exercised over the people is in the 
 people themselves; where all public trusts return 
 periodically to their hands, and all public function- 
 ariep, from the chief magistrate to the humblest ap- 
 pendage of state, are responsible to them for their 
 fidelity, what power has government to assume a 
 hostile attitude towards society ? Or what infatua- 
 tion could ever drive society to arms, for a redress 
 
11 
 
 of real or imaginary grievances, when thei'e is a 
 more effective and peaceable remedy at the polls ? 
 In the working of our political machinery, we cer- 
 tainly as yet have discovered very little disposition, on 
 the part of government, to encroach upon the liber- 
 ties of the people by an enlargement of executive 
 authority. Indeed, how can there be any motive 
 to attempt this, where the functionaries of govern- 
 ment are simply the agents of the people, and liable 
 to be thrown fi'om their temporary elevation by the 
 next turn of the political wheel ? The excitement 
 of party frequently runs high amongst us. This is, 
 however, no very grave source of alarm. The ex- 
 citement of party is not revolutionary, like that re- 
 vengeful and exasperated spirit of faction that comes 
 up from the unhealthy marshes of oppression as the 
 scourge of tyranny. Parties are the safeguards of 
 freedom. And the excitement of party is on the 
 whole salutary, a summer gust that serves to purify 
 the atmosphere. There is little of terror in it. More 
 good than harm is effected by it. The great mind 
 of the nation would become indifferent to public 
 affairs but for the excitement of party. It is a kind 
 of political gymnasium, a gentle shaking of the 
 ' community that we may not sleep too soundly over 
 our rights. Who has not admired the genius of our 
 institutions in witnessing, on the evening after an 
 election, how quietly the storm passes off? The 
 heavens over our heads are not marred by it ; and 
 the landscapes smile around us as aforetime, 
 wearing no footprint of wrath. With the excep- 
 tion, perhaps, of a few expectants of office — and 
 
12 
 
 they must always be comparatively very few — 
 neighbors part as they came together — good friends. 
 The exultation of the victors is chastened by the 
 feeling that they are put upon their good behavior, 
 and is satisfied with giving itself vent in a few hearty 
 cheers, or in a few rounds of harmless powder. And 
 if the vanquished may feel a little mortification in 
 dousing a flag that perhaps flaunted too boastfully 
 in the breeze, the disappointment of defeat is mod- 
 erated by the hope of better success in future. 
 
 .Another quality of our institutions favorable to 
 their perpetuity is their adaptedness to an almost 
 unlimited extension of territory. If our Republic 
 resembled those of ancient Greece, where the people 
 took part directly in the aifairs of state, it probably 
 could not have survived to this day. Or if the 
 American confederacy were constructed on the prin- 
 ciple of a central power, like that of Rome, it must 
 eventually break, in pieces by its own magnitude. 
 But representative sovereign republics, united by a 
 most felicitous distribution of powers, present a me- 
 chanism essentially unlike those famous common- 
 wealths, and admirably suited to our inevitable des- 
 tiny. For American civilization is going forth to 
 possess this entire continent with the tread and the 
 strides of a giant. Some seventy jg&ts ago, the 
 territory claimed by the United States was bounded 
 on the soutli by the thirty-first degree of noi'th lati- 
 tude, and on the west by a line drawn through the 
 middle of the river Mississippi. We had then but 
 thirteen States. Since that not very remote peiiod, 
 running back no further than the childhood of our 
 
13 
 
 oldest citizens, the number of States has considera- 
 bly more than doubled ; we have crossed the Mis- 
 sissippi, we have gone beyond the Kocky Moun- 
 tains, and the stars and stripes this day wave over 
 a sister State stretching along the coast of the Pa- 
 cific. Our country now lies between the two great 
 oceans. This almost infinite space, sixteen times 
 as large as England, Scotland, and Ireland, and 
 nearly equal to the whole empire of Britain, is filling 
 up with human beings with a rapidity that has no 
 parallel in history. The primeval forests disappear ; 
 solitudes that have slept undisturbed since the 
 morning of the creation, resound with the strokes 
 of the axe; the green field smiles where the wild 
 beast of the wilderness had been accustomed, for 
 ages, to find a secure covert from the intrusive foot 
 of man ; the smoke of the cottage curls where but 
 yesterday the Indian kindled his council fire ; and 
 hamlets, villages, cities, states are springing up over 
 the whole face of the continent, as if by the wand 
 of an enchanter. What is to be the end of all this? 
 Shall our constitution cover this immense extent of 
 empire ? Or in attempting to stretch it over such 
 space must it inevitably tear asunder ? Not inevi- 
 tably — not inevitably. We see the admonitory fin- 
 ger pointed to the ancient republics. But there is 
 no analogy. They were necessarily weakened by 
 extension of territory. But by a wise distribution 
 of powers, in its two great departments, intrusting 
 to the Federal branch what is for the common ad- 
 vantage of the whole, and reserving to the several 
 States perfect jurisdiction over matters purely local. 
 
14 
 
 our government is wonderfully suited to unlimited 
 expansion. This peculiar felicity of structure secures 
 the country, not only against tlie evils accruing from 
 the delays and inefficiency of a government oppress- 
 ed with a multiplicity of minor cares, but also 
 against the dangers arising from the conflicting inter- 
 ests of dijBferent and widely separated communities. 
 Those questions which are the most likely to excite 
 the passions, and about which we could hardly ex- 
 pect any general harmony of opinion, pertain to 
 interests which are local. Questions of common inter- 
 est to the country at large we may more safely leave 
 to a general government. No central power, how- 
 ever, would be likely to meet satisfactorily the exi- 
 gencies of States, exigencies arising from an endless 
 variety of local peculiarities. Hence it is a fortu- 
 nate circumstance, that matters of this nature are 
 not submitted to the general government. If angry 
 collisions arise, the storm does not overspread the 
 entire political heavens, but is confined to a small 
 district, perhaps to the town-meeting. In conse- 
 quence of this structure of government, experiments 
 of doubtful expediency may be tried by separate 
 States, without putting in jeopardy the common 
 safety. If our government were a central power, 
 and should require for instance the abolition of capi- 
 tal punishment throughout all the States of the con- 
 federacy, the result of such a measure would pro- 
 bably be mischievous in the extreme. But if Michi- 
 gan chooses to dispense with this penalty, within her 
 own borders, her sister States have only to look on 
 as spectators, and watch the working of the experi- 
 
15 
 
 ment. If it prove a failure, they may learn wisdom 
 from her folly. 
 
 Some have surmised that when our territory 
 shall be densely populated, like portions of the old 
 world, there will be a want of strength in the civil 
 arm to maintain the supremacy of the law. A 
 government that has no power to act against society, 
 may be thought to lack the requisite energy to act 
 for society. Where is its guard ? where is its pano- 
 ply ? where is the force on which it may rely in 
 an emergency ? What is there to inspire its Execu- 
 tive with confidence and bravery ? There is no 
 support like that o? public sentiment. The conscious 
 want of this makes the despot distrustful, timid, 
 and jealous, even within the walls of his castle. 
 Why was the march of Napoleon to regain the 
 palace of the Tuileries more like a funeral cortege 
 than a triumphant procession ? He had indeed an 
 army, but France was not with him. And if there 
 were times when he was not like himself, on the 
 field of Waterloo, it was because he felt that he 
 had no country to fall back upon. But who is 
 ignorant of the energy of an individual will, when 
 an applauding community inspires it ? It seems to 
 concentrate in itself the strength of society. If a 
 government be conscious of such support, what shall 
 intimidate it? And where the laws are not the 
 decrees of tyranny, but the expression of the popu- 
 lar will, government in executing the laws must 
 feel assured that the enlightened sentiment of the 
 community is with it, and ready to rally at its call. 
 Indeed the impression that government, in carrying 
 
16 
 
 the laws into effect, acts only as tie agent of society, 
 and is therefore backed up by the force residing in 
 society, renders a resort to physical power almost 
 entirely unnecessary. Who shall dare to provoke 
 the strength of the civil arm, when it is felt that 
 the energy of society is hid in it ? If, therefore, we 
 have no soldiery in this country, it is because we do 
 not need them. We have a better guard, a more 
 efficient police, invisible to the eye, but ever present^ 
 and encircling us on every side, like the horses and 
 chariots of fii'e round about Elisha ; and that guard, 
 that police, that standing army, is public sentiment. 
 The foreigner, upon reaching these shores, may be 
 surprised at not meeting an armed sentry at the 
 corner of every sti-eet, and think it an indication of 
 imbecility ; but let him understand that, under a 
 government of equal laws, the sentiment of an in- 
 telligent community renders this indispensable para- 
 phernalia of royalty an almost useless toy. He may 
 be tempted to smile at the simplicity of our tribu- 
 nals. He may wonder at the absence of all physical 
 parade in our halls of justice. He may be amazed 
 at the appearance of a magistracy in the ordinary 
 costume of the citizen. But the modesty of our 
 courts, the easy and unostentatious manner in which 
 the administration of justice proceeds, the safety 
 with which the highest functionaries of state mingle 
 promiscuously in the crowd, and the security with 
 which the private citizen lays his head upon his 
 pillow, under no guardianship but that of the civil 
 patrol, prove conclusively the potency of this invisi- 
 ble police. It is the most effectual of all human re- 
 
17 
 
 straints in preventing crime, the most alert and 
 vigilant in detecting it. It annihilates the thought 
 of resistance. For though an offender might per- 
 haps contend against a government, how shall he 
 contend against society ? The reflection that his 
 crime has arrayed not simply a government but 
 society against him, and that his fellow-citizens 
 are interested to see the laws impartially executed, 
 is withering to the very thought of withstanding 
 the regular course of justice. And this moral force 
 seems to be effective in proportion to the density of 
 the population. For if the laws are ever set at de- 
 fiance, it is in the more recently opened territory, 
 whose population is made up chiefly of wandering 
 adventurers, too sparsely scattered to exercise a pro- 
 per surveillance and control over each other. As 
 those sections of country, however, become filled 
 with permanent inhabitants, public sentiment is felt 
 as a check to the spirit of insubordination; and 
 under its influence law gradually assumes its right- 
 ful supremacy. 
 
 To these properties of American institutions 
 favorable' to their perpetuity, permit me to add the 
 peculiar felicity of our position. Europe has been 
 convulsed by the disputes of rival princes, not less 
 frequently than by contests between the prince and 
 his own subjects. But thousands of miles of great 
 waters protect us from quarrels of this description. 
 We have no ambitious neighbors to dread, no family 
 feuds to involve us in difficulty. The continent is 
 clear before us. We have nothing to fear but our- 
 selves. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 But while there is so much of encouragement in 
 these considerations, a conyiction that the fate of the 
 Republic is suspended upon the character of the 
 sentiment that shall pervade the nation, cannot be 
 too deeply rooted in the hearts of Americans. 
 European governments are powers in themselves. 
 They do not ask the people permission to be. And if 
 the populace over whom they preside are immersed 
 in ignorance, the more fit are they to serve as their 
 tools. Our government, on the contrary, is not a 
 power but an agmt. This is its grand peculiarity. 
 It is the servant of the popular will. The force 
 that actuates and controls it, is not in itself, but in 
 society — a fact never to be lost sight of. If there- 
 fore there be not virtue enough in society to regu- 
 late the machinery of government, it must run 
 down. We do not affirm that every member of 
 society must be a truly virtuous man. This may 
 be very desirable — but it is not indispensable. 
 There is an analogy between society, in the aggre- 
 gate, and a regenerated individual. There may 
 be in this individual much ignorance and much de- 
 pravity ; yet, if the seminal principle of piety be in 
 him ; if it lives in him, and makes progress, he is at 
 least safe, and God will not cast him away. So 
 there may be in the state, much ignorance, much 
 infidelity, much superstition, much vice ; and yet, if 
 there be, underlying all this, an enlightened ^jublic 
 sentiment, working like leaven through the L Irrupt 
 mass, effectually, though it may be gradually and 
 almost imperceptibly, society may hold together, 
 and we hope that God will regard it favorably for 
 
19 
 
 the salt that is in it. But this salt there must be ; 
 this sentiment there must be ; a sentiment combin- 
 ing, if we analyze it, an enlightened love of country ; 
 an enlightened attachment to the great principles 
 of civil and religious liberty ; an enlightened appre- 
 ciation of the value of the Federal Union ; an en- 
 lightened conviction of the solemn responsibility of 
 the elective franchise, and of the importance of the 
 moral character of rulers ; above all, a deep re- 
 ligious feeling, a reverence for the God of our 
 fathers, as the source of all political power, as the 
 Ruler of nations, whose wUl is above all human 
 statutes, and the only supreme law. This must be 
 the sentiment of the land ; the national sentiment ; 
 belonging to no one party exclusively, but dif- 
 fused among all ; confined to no one locality, but 
 pervading all sections, the great Western valley as 
 well as New England underlying American society, 
 and ready upon an emergency to rally around the 
 altars of Freedom, generously sacrificing all minor 
 considerations to the demands of patriotism. With 
 such a sentiment, permeating, like the currents of 
 life, through the arteries and veins of society, no 
 institutions are so durable, none so efficient as our 
 own. Without it none so weak — none whose de- 
 struction is so sure. We sometimes call public sen- 
 timent the basis of our institutions. It is something 
 more — it is their soul — their breath-r-or rather the 
 atmosphere which supplies the vital air. Poison 
 the atmosphere that wraps us about on every side, 
 and we perish. Let public sentiment in this country 
 become generally corrupt ; let patriotism die out of 
 
20 
 
 it ; let religious reverence and tlie principle of con- 
 science die out of it ; and these glorious fabrics, 
 reared by the wisdom, and cemented by the blood 
 of our fathers, would instantly fall in pieces, and be 
 blown away like dust before the whirlwinds of 
 anarchy and faction. 
 
 To every American, then, the question presents 
 itself as one of infinite magnitude : How shall an 
 enlightened public .sentiment he created, p-eserved, and 
 diffused through this country ? What are the agen- 
 cies on which under God we must chiefly rely foi' 
 this purpose ? 
 
 First, we will name the common school. 
 
 It is not merely by imparting the rudiments of 
 knowledge that this agency helps to form a genuine 
 American sentiment, although this is of fundamen- 
 tal importance. The common school is highly de- 
 mocratic in its influence. Here the children of all 
 classes meet on a principle of equality. No superi- 
 ority is acknowledged here, but that of scholarship 
 and merit. The daily lesson subdues the arrogance 
 of rank ; and the sports of the playground soften, if 
 they do not entirely efface, the prejudices of sect, 
 and fuse the diverse feelings of foreigner and native 
 born into one common American sentiment. We 
 may forget the things of yesterday, but we never 
 lose the impressions of early life. Every scene of 
 that susceptible and retentive period is painted on 
 the leaf of memory in colors that never fade. The 
 most trifling incidents, the tree we used to climb, 
 " the gate on which we used to swing," the hills, 
 woods, and lakes, the favorite resorts of the sum- 
 
21 
 
 mer holidays — all are retained to the very last in 
 their original freshness. With the majority of people, 
 even the political principles imbibed when they were 
 schoolboys continue to exert a powerful influence 
 in^ all after years. Hence the foundation of good 
 citizenship, which is laid in the hearts of American 
 children at school, is of prime importance. But to 
 accomplish their ends, these institutions must remain 
 what they now are, common schools. Let this feature 
 be obliterated ; let them cease to be common 
 schools ; let the public funds, which are now devot- 
 ed to the general education, be distributed among 
 the different sects, that each one may train their 
 youth to their own peculiar notions of government 
 and religion ; and the field that this day smiles so 
 propitiously, under the more liberal culture first in- 
 troduced by the fathers of New England, and which 
 waves with golden fruit, will produce a harvest of 
 spears. From our own soil will spring forth hostile 
 nations, babbling the confusion of Babel, having no 
 mutual sympathy, but separated from kindly fel- 
 lowship by the impassable barriers of deep-rooted 
 prejudices, and burning with unquenchable animosi- 
 ties and jealousy. 
 
 Another agency on which we must rely, is a 
 pxir^ Protestant literature. What nature so rude, 
 what temper so obdurate and unyielding, as to re- 
 sist altogether the moulding influence of philosophy, 
 eloquence, and poetry ? The fable of Orpheus 
 hardly more than literally images forth the power 
 which literature possesses, to shape the sentiment, 
 
22 
 
 and form the taste of a people. For how many- 
 centuries was the influence of the famous Stagyrite 
 felt in the republic of letters ? and how often has 
 popular feeling been stir/ed to its lowest depths 
 by a simple national ballad ? Poetry has had not 
 a little to do with the lately revived tendency of 
 Protestants towards the Romish Church. " The 
 Christian Year," to quote from one of our reviews,* 
 ' " was a precursor of the Oxford tracts. It strewed 
 the way with the sweetest flowers of poesy. It 
 burnished the Apostolical chain to a wonderful 
 brightness. It intermingled and hallowed the 
 usages of the Church with the most delicate affec- 
 tions of the heart, and the most musical cadences of 
 the voice. It almost beguiled the stern noncon- 
 formists into a love for the feasts and the fasts of 
 the usurping church. As we read the soothing and 
 mellow verses of Keble, our affections flow, involun- 
 tarily, towards the objects of his passionate admira- 
 tion. We cannot stop to analyze the sentiment 
 which is couched beneath the delicious strain. It 
 seems like vandalism to hunt for heresy amid the 
 flowers scattered along by one so gentle and so 
 loving." The poetry of this school awakens, insen- 
 sibly, " a fondness for antiquity," " an attachment 
 to what is time-worn and venerable in the Church." 
 It makes us linger among the "gothic aisles, and 
 towers, and arches of the old cathedrals," until we 
 begin to feel a kind of contemptuous disrelish for 
 puritanical nakedness and simplicity. As the voices 
 
 * American Eclectic, vol. iii. pp. 2 & 5. 
 
28 
 
 of music quiver, and run along the fretted roof, till 
 they die away and fall faintly upon the ear as angel 
 whispers, we find ourselves unconsciously rapt in 
 an ecstasy of devotion, and quaff without suspicion 
 the luscious idolatry of the song : — 
 
 "Ave Maria! Thou whose name 
 All but adoring love may claim, 
 Yet may we reach thy shrine ; 
 For He, thy Son and Saviour, vows 
 To crown all lowly, lofty brows 
 With love and joy like thine." 
 
 " Give us this divine auxiliary on our side," says 
 one of the Oxford writers, " and we will let you 
 dictate, denounce, proscribe, and even persecute, as 
 you please. Providence has placed in our hands 
 ,, powers that laugh to scorn your petty dominion. 
 Shall not mind prevail over matter ? We will en- 
 snare and lead away your captains, your chiefs, your 
 mightiest men of war, your garrisons and your mul- 
 titude ; yes, and you yourselves ; and bring about, 
 that you shall humbly and cheerfully keep for us 
 the lines and /ortresses you are now rearing, as you 
 vainly suppose, against us. For here and there shall 
 spring up, in the very midst of your array, kindred 
 spirits that, catching but the distant sounds of our 
 solemn strain, shall at once be drawn to it, as by a 
 secret charm which every where claims its own. 
 No bulwark so strong, no partition so impermeable, 
 shall obstruct its unseen attraction. When for the 
 appointed time your eyes have marvelled at our 
 mystic order, and in your ears have thrilled our 
 heaven-blest tones, then shall your walls fall down. 
 
24 
 
 and we shall peaceably advance to occupy our 
 destined heritage. To us must you come for 'a 
 cunning player upon the harp,' to lay the evil spirit 
 when it troubleth you. One by one, as the minis- 
 ters of your wrath, and the messengers of your 
 fierce decrees advance against us, soon as they list 
 our awful theme, they shall throw aside their 
 weapons and their defences, and enter the prophetic 
 choir; till you at last, seeking us in the worst ex- 
 tremity of your rage, shall suddenly leave your 
 earthly power and state, and in the humble guise 
 of peace and sanctity, crave an entrance to our 
 company." Such is the confidence which writers of 
 the Oxford school express in the power of min- 
 strelsy and an exquisitely polished literature. They 
 seem to regard themselves as possessing this instru-, 
 mentality by a second gift of Apollo or Mercury, 
 by which, if they cannot stop the rivers in their 
 courses, nor cause the everlasting mountains to bend, 
 they hope at least to be able to turn back the cur- 
 rent of the age, to arrest the progress of Protestant 
 civilization, and to envelope the human mind in the 
 mists and darkness of a dreamy past. Now we 
 know not what miracles might be wrought amongst 
 us by the witchery of their charms. But we are a 
 nation of readers. The American mind will seek 
 some aliment to appease and gratify its quickened 
 appetite. If, therefore, a literature is abroad, leagued 
 with superstition, or tainted with the poison of in- 
 fidelity, its influence must be counteracted by pro- 
 viding something better. To surrender this field to 
 the enemy would be perilous in the extreme. We 
 
25 
 
 must have a literature that is American, Protestant, 
 Christian; a philosophy that bows with reverent 
 homage before the oracles of the living God ; elo- 
 quence that breathes the true spirit of liberty ; his- 
 tory that will kindle the glow of a pure patriotism ; 
 poetry, bold and beautiful as our own natural 
 scenery, inspiring elevated and manly thoughts, and 
 shedding kindly and wholesome influences on the 
 charities of life. 
 
 Another agency is the Press. A single news- 
 paper may be a very insignificant affair. But the 
 American press is prolific beyond example, scatter- 
 ing its daily sheets thick and fast as the snow-fiakes 
 of a driving storm. These winged messengers are 
 every where, and every where almost at the same 
 instant. Who can compute the sum total of influ- 
 ence which is through this medium put forth on the 
 national intellect? That it may be perverted to 
 mischievous purposes is undoubtedly true. Chan- 
 nels are hereby opened for an unlimited and un- 
 ceasing circulation of whatever is false in ethics, 
 morals, and religion. But this only shows the ne- 
 cessity of bringing this engine of power under the 
 control of minds disposed and able to cope with 
 error in all its Protean forms. Where the press is 
 free, let truth and error grapple. We have no fears 
 as to the issue. 
 
 Another agency is the Pulpit. No argument is 
 necessary to prove the indispensable importance of 
 the religion of the Bible, in forming and preserving 
 a healthful public sentiment. What guards the 
 sanctity of an oath ? W^hat gives reality to moral 
 
26 
 
 law ? What invests the civil magistracy with the 
 dignity and sacredness of a divine commission? 
 Whence the power that acts effectually on the princi- 
 ples of evil ? Is conscience that power ? Apart from 
 Christianity, conscience is a name only and a shadow. 
 Is it philosophy ? Withdraw the influence of re- 
 ligion, and can you charm men into the paths of 
 virtue by the beautiful abstractions of philosophy ? 
 Can you allay the force of temptation by motives 
 drawn solely from this life? Can you reduce to 
 order the stormy passions of the human bosom by 
 arguments which carry with them no divine au- 
 thority? As well might you hope to arrest the 
 march of the tempest by breathing against it. Let 
 the influence of the Bible die out of the land, and 
 religion would die out of it, virtue would die out of 
 it, morality would die out of it. But what shall 
 preserve and diffuse this influence ? There can be 
 but one answer, — the Chi'istian pulpit, the living 
 Christian ministry. This is God's special agency. 
 There is no substitute ; there can be none. All 
 other appliances for throwing the influence of re- 
 ligion over the minds of men owe not only their 
 efficiency, but their very existence to this agency. 
 Withdraw the living ministry from a New England 
 village, and the Bible will have no readers ; and the 
 Sabbath itself will soon cease to be regarded as holy 
 time. Then, on the other hand, send it into some 
 untrodden wilderness, where only the smoke of the 
 wigwam curls above the tops of the forest trees, and 
 the genial breath of spring will pass over the savagG 
 and wintry features of the landscape, making the 
 
27 
 
 solitary place glad, and causing the desert to rejoice 
 and blossom as the rose. 
 
 Now then, at this point, arises the question which 
 we have been almost impatient to reach : What is 
 the relation of colleges to these several agencies f 
 The relation of the fountain to the streams that 
 issue from it ; the relation of a central luminary to 
 the satellites that circle about it, and are dependent 
 upon it for their light. If we would have schools, 
 we must have teachers. If we would have a litera- 
 ture and a press worthy of the age, and of attrac- 
 tions and ability to counteract the mischievous 
 influence of error, and to neutralize the poison of 
 immorality, we must have educated mind to enter 
 these respective fields. If we would have a ministry 
 capable of interpreting the word of God, and of 
 commanding the respect of an intelligent community, 
 men must be educated for the sacred office. But 
 how can this be done without colleges ? We do not 
 affirm that men may not be useful teachers, and ac- 
 complished editors and authors, without the pre- 
 liminary discipline of a liberal education. This 
 would be a statement in palpable contrariety to 
 facts. We might point to many examples of indi- 
 viduals, eminent in the several professions, who 
 never conversed with Plato in the academic shades. 
 But from what source have even these persons de- 
 rived the helps by which they were enabled to carry 
 on a process of self-culture successfully ? Blot the 
 colleges from existence ; extinguish the lights which 
 they have kindled, and which they keep bright as 
 the vestal fire ; deprive society of its supply of dis- 
 
28 
 
 ciplined and cultivated mind, and how long should we 
 have teachers for our schools, or schools for teachers ? 
 What would soon become of literature ? What would 
 soon be the character of the pulpit ? Educated mind 
 is the spring of all the educational agencies in the 
 community. It controls them ; it must ever control 
 them, where thought is free. And if we would 
 have educated mind, we must have colleges. 
 
 The college then is not, as some seem to have 
 imagined, the mere ornamental part of the social 
 edifice, contributing, it may be, to its beauty, but not 
 to its strength and compactness. It is one of the 
 chief corner-stones. Or to change the figure, it is 
 the grand reservoir, from which flow those educa- 
 tional influences which are to form the sentiments, 
 and mould the taste, the manners, and the habits of 
 the people. This is the light in which our fathers 
 viewed them. If they had regarded colleges simply 
 as seminaries where the sons of the aristocracy of 
 the land might receive the finishing touch of a polite 
 education, they would have left them as the last 
 thing to be provided for, as a luxury not suited to 
 their simple times, as establishments useful only to 
 a privileged few, and which might safely be com- 
 mitted to the spontaneous generosity of private 
 wealth. But considering them as the sources to 
 which society must look for the supply of those 
 educational influences which were to form the 
 character of a free people, they had hardly cleared 
 away the forest sufficiently to let in the light of 
 the sun upon their humble cabins, before they 
 caused the foundations of Harvard to be laid, " by 
 
29 
 
 an appropriation," says Mr. Everett, " out of the 
 scanty means of the country, of a sum equal to the 
 whole amount raised during the year, for all the 
 other public charges." Let us hear them speak for 
 themselves. " After God had carried us safe to New 
 England, and we had builded our houses, provided 
 necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient 
 places for God's worship, and settled the civil 
 government, one of the next things we longed for 
 and looked after, was to advance learning, and per- 
 petuate it to posterity ; dreading to leave an illite- 
 rate ministry to the churches, when the present 
 ministers shall be in the dust." And were our fore- 
 fathers wrong in their estimate of these institutions ? 
 Was it an error to rank them among the pi-imary 
 elements of American civilization ? Did they attach 
 too much importance to them ? If we will institute 
 comparisons between things that are alike indis- 
 pensable, which shall we esteem the more important, 
 the water that sparkles in the goblet to refresh the 
 parched lip, or the spring by the hill-side from 
 which it is drawn ? Which is the more important, 
 the fruit that is gathered for your table to-day, or 
 the tree that yields the annual supply, and will 
 bear fruit for posterity ? Which is the more im- 
 portant, the cloud that floats over the village, and 
 distils its fertilizing dews on a few acres of the soil, 
 or the ocean, from which for ages continue to come 
 forth those vapory treasures, that irrigate the land- 
 scapes of a continent ? 
 
 And now, what is the aim of the Society for 
 Collegiate and Theological Education at the West 
 
30 
 
 but simply to carry out tlie policy of our fore- 
 fathers ? We would help our brethren, who have 
 pitched their tents in the Great Valley, to lay the 
 foundation of society there on the good old New 
 England basis. We would furnish them with the 
 means of establishing those institutions which are 
 seen to be elementary to American civilization, and 
 on which alone we can rely as perennial sources of 
 influence. And if there is a portion of the Amer- 
 ican soil where it is peculiarly urgent that this 
 work should be accomplished, the Great Valley is 
 surely that portion. Time forbids me to enlarge 
 upon this point, and the information which you 
 already possess relieves me from the necessity. It 
 must be sufficient barely to call to mind, the extent 
 of that valley, the exuberance of its soil, its pre- 
 sent population and. prospective growth, the tide of 
 foreign immigration that is rolling in upon it like 
 the waves of the sea, the rapidity with which 
 public sentiment is there assuming its permanent 
 stamp, and the influence which it will very shortly 
 exert on the destinies of the Union, and you will 
 acknowledge that, whatever region of the country 
 or of the earth be neglected, the valley of the 
 West must be cared for. If our brethren there 
 are not able to lay foundations without us, as 
 plainly they are not, to withhold our aid would be 
 suicidal. " The locks now clustering on the brow 
 of childhood will scarcely be gray " ere the seat of 
 empire will be there. They who are now children 
 upon that soil, and they who, for a few years to 
 come, shall compose its youthful population, will 
 
31 
 
 occupy tlie places of power, give tone to public 
 sentiment, cast the votes, support or defeat the 
 measures, which perhaps shall determine the fate 
 of the republic. This consideration throws around 
 the population which is so rapidly advancing to fill 
 that valley, an interest to my own mind that I have 
 no power of language to express. If the friends of 
 a monarchial government may justly regard with 
 intense solicitude the youthful heir to the throne, 
 and feel deeply anxious that he should grow up 
 under good influence, because the prosperity and 
 happiness of a kingdom is to be essentially affected 
 by the character which he will possess when the 
 sceptre passes into his hands, surely we must be 
 wanting, both in patriotism and humanity, if we 
 are reckless as to the training of that youth, to 
 whom is so soon to be intrusted the great interests 
 of freedom. 
 
 The urgency of the crisis would be sufficient, if 
 it were only possible, that, through our indifference 
 or neglect, the population of the West niight enter 
 into possession of political ascendency without dis- 
 cipline or culture of any kind. Could free institu- 
 tions stand an hour on the basis of an ignorant 
 populace ? There is, however, a more serious cause 
 of alarm than even this. A rival is already in that 
 field. An enemy is abroad in those glorious acres 
 sowing tares. The valley of the Mississippi has 
 been mapped and surveyed by emissaries of the 
 Vatican. A plan has been projected to seize upon 
 the educational agencies. And this plan is being 
 prosecuted with the utmost assiduity and perse ver- 
 
32 
 
 ance. Papal colleges are planted at all the most 
 eligible points. Aided by the treasures of Euro- 
 pean monarchies, the Hierarchy have systematically 
 undertaken to educate the population of the valley, 
 to train the young heir apparent to the inheritance 
 of the free ! Let them be successful in this scheme, 
 and the country is theirs. The balance of power 
 will quickly pass into the hands of the Church. 
 The seat of the American government will be vir- 
 tually transferred from Washington to the city of 
 the seven hills. Measures of public policy will be 
 adjusted and put into efficient operation, not in the 
 halls of the Capitol, over which the flag of the 
 Union now proudly floats, but under the dome of 
 St. Peter's. And what then ? To say nothing of 
 the feelings of hatred and jealousy which some of 
 the mouarchs of Europe have not hesitated to ex- 
 press towards this rising republic, from which, in 
 the event of papal ascendency, we could augur only 
 evil, who knows not that the very principles of the 
 Romish religion supply motives for the most bitter 
 and savage intolerance? Popery cannot endure 
 difference either of opinion or vi^orship. To harbor 
 a thought in opposition to the church is a damning 
 sin. The doctrine of the independency of the civil 
 power is the pestiferous heresy of the politicians, 
 which is to be driven from the face of the earth by 
 fire and sword. Hence, let that fierce church once 
 gain the ascendency in the Western valley, and 
 " farewell, a long farewell, to all our greatness." 
 The favorite measure by means of which she has so 
 often succeeded in reducing the most powerful gov- 
 
ernments of the earth to a state of vassalage, " Di- 
 vide et impera," divide and rule, would be imme- 
 diately set into active operation. With a view to 
 create the necessity of a mercenary soldiery, and 
 thus pave the way to a system of boundless and 
 uncompromising coercion, this nation would be rent 
 into fragments. 
 
 The consideration which appeals with over- 
 whelming power to the heart of the Christian pa- 
 triot, when contemplating such an event as possi- 
 ble, is the certainty that with the dismembermenb 
 of this republic, the social, intellectual, moral, and 
 religious progress of the race must be arrested for 
 ages. Such a catastrophe could not take place 
 without its being followed by a most heart-sicken- 
 ing retrocession of the human mind. The shadow 
 on the dial-plate of time would go back many de- 
 grees instantly. What though we might be safe in 
 our New England fastnesses? What though Lib- 
 erty might still linger around the cradle of her 
 birth ? Our usefulness as men and as Christians 
 would be greatly curtailed. That field, that broad 
 field, which we now love to call our country, and 
 which we fondly hope is destined by high Heaven 
 as the chosen theatre on which Truth is yet to 
 achieve her noblest victories, would be lost to us ; 
 and a gloomy, cruel, ghostly despotism would usurp 
 dominion over the minds and consciences of untold 
 millions. A great light would be extinguished. A 
 great example would be lost to the world. The' 
 reformations, so auspiciously commenced, would be 
 suspended, and a thousand fountains, which are 
 
34 
 
 now sending forth their streams for the healing of 
 the nations, would be dried up. Those clouds of 
 superstition, idolatry, and ignorance, which for cen- 
 turies have brooded in sullen gloom over almost 
 the whole earth — but through whose breaking 
 folds some beams of the sun now shine, painting 
 on their dark surface the bow of promise, and giv- 
 ing the cheering hope of a clear and serene sky — 
 would return like clouds after the rain, overspread- 
 ing the entire heavens, and shutting out the light 
 of the sun, and the light of the moon and the stars 
 for many days. 
 
 This must not be. The venerable shades 
 of our forefathers look sternly upon us from the 
 fields of their toil and glorj^, and ask if we will 
 suffer this calamity without an effort to prevent it. 
 Posterity rises before us with the imploring cry, 
 " Save us, save us from this ruin ! Do for us what 
 we can never do for ourselves, if the work be de- 
 ferred till we appear on the stage ! Do for us what 
 your fathers did for you. Lay the foundations of 
 society where "vye are one day to suffer and enjoy 
 the allotments of humanity, as they laid them 
 Stop not at diificulties ; the crisis calls for haste 
 and is worth any sacrifice. Listen not to objec 
 tions ; there are no objections, there can be none, 
 against a necessity. Whoever shall control the col 
 leges, will control the educational agencies; and 
 whoever shall control the educational agencies, will 
 control the country. Take them into your own 
 hands. Let not superstition, let not infidelity an- 
 ticipate you. Coming centuries wait in breathless 
 suspense for your action ! " 
 
85 
 
 If we will hear this cry, it would be a species of 
 atheism to despair of our country. God is on the 
 side of liberty. The spirit of the age is on the side 
 of liberty, and is at this moment shaking terribly 
 the thrones of despotism. Christianity demands 
 liberty ; and she selected this continent that she 
 might have free scope to achieve her victories, and 
 give an example to the world of what she can 
 accomplish for man. Aroused, then, by these mo- 
 tives, let us resolve to carry out the policy of our 
 fathers, on a scale commensurate to the exigencies 
 of the country. Wherever communities are spring- 
 ing up, as integral parts of the American con- 
 federacy, let us take care that they commence 
 their growth under influences that have made 
 New England what she is. We may then in- 
 dulge in bright visions respecting the future. 
 This country, as it increases in population and 
 wealth, shall then rise in intelligence and humanity, 
 and stand before the whole earth the peerless 
 model of republican beauty. WhatCYcr is now 
 inconsistent with the genius of Christianity shall be 
 peacefully effaced. Truth shall be mighty here. 
 Vice shall flee before it. Infidelity shall wither 
 under its reproach. Popery shall shrink from its 
 searching glance. Slavery shall dissolve under its 
 magic touch. The virtues that characterized those 
 good men who laid the foundation of freedom in 
 the wintry solitudes of the North, shall live in the 
 bosoms of their descendants, and diffuse their influ- 
 ence over the wide territory shadowed by the 
 American eagle. The spirit of the Pilgrims shall 
 
86 
 
 be tlie gaaTdian angel of the future, as it has been 
 of the past. Happy nation ! Thy glory shall not 
 then depart, No star shall fall from thy banner ! 
 As it waves this day over us, it shall wave over a 
 distant and grateful posterity, spangled with new 
 gems; and majestically unfurl its ample folds to 
 greet the millennial morning ! 
 
Cornell University Library 
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