V 
 
 Book. H a^ 
 
 SMITHSONIAM DEPOSIT 
 
THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE EDUCATED MEN 
 OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE 
 
 EUGLOSSIAN AND ALPHA PHI DELTA SOCIETIES 
 
 OF 
 
 GENEVA COLLEGE, 
 
 AUG. 5, 1840, 
 cl^S. HENRY, D.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY AND BELLES LETTRES IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF THE aTY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 (s> -'• 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETIES.C,-- ' 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET. 
 
 
 MDCCCXL. 
 
A-5 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Literary Societies 
 OF Geneva College: 
 
 We meet, on this your anniversary, as a Brother- 
 hood of Scholars ; and perhaps I should best have 
 consulted the spirit of the occasion, if I had selected 
 some subject of purely literary interest, or endea- 
 vored merely to promote the elegant enjoyment of 
 the hour. But I have taken the liberty to give our 
 thoughts a more practical direction. I remember 
 that but few, if any of us, are mere scholars. Those 
 who have come here to day from different places, 
 have come up from strenuous engagement with the 
 intense life that is heaving and strugglmg all around 
 us ; and when v/e go from here, it is to return into 
 the crowd and pressure of that hfe again. And 
 those who are about to be sent out at this time from 
 this seat of learning, must leave "the still air of de- 
 lightful studies," in this quiet and beautiful retreat, 
 and go forth to do honor to theh Benignant Mother 
 in the active service of th eir country and their God. 
 
On this account I have thought it might be ap- 
 propriate and profitable for us, as from this landing- 
 place, to look out over the scene in which it is our 
 destiny to live and vi^ork; and to notice M^hat it pre- 
 sents for v^arning and for guidance : — not forgetting 
 indeed that we are scholars, but on the contrary, 
 bearing in mind that our obligations are specially 
 determined by the fact of our belonging to the edu- 
 cated class in the nation. — It is therefore of the Po- 
 sition and Duties of the Educated men of the coun- 
 try, that I wish at this time to speak. 
 
 It will not be questioned that the scholars of our 
 country have a special vocation, which is determined 
 by all that constitutes the peculiar characteristics of 
 our country and of our age. It is incumbent on us, 
 therefore, to comprehend the spirit of our country and 
 of our age. We are to remember that we have fall- 
 en on the nineteenth century and not on the twelfth 
 — that we live in America, and not in Austria. I do 
 not mean that we should not understand the Past. 
 Unless we understand the Past, we cannot under- 
 stand the Present ; for the Present is born of the 
 Past. Nor do I mean that we should not seek to 
 understand the most general spirit of the world, as 
 well as of the country in which we live ; for our 
 
country stands in manifold relations with other coun- 
 tries, and, rightly considered, moreover, there are, in 
 every age, pulsations which throb throughout the 
 heart of universal Humanity. Still, it is to the ac- 
 tual mind and heart of our own country we must 
 speak, if we mean to live and speak to any purpose 
 in our own times, or even for the times that shall 
 come after us. Rarely in the history of mankind is 
 there to be found any great work of genius, of per- 
 manent and enduring influence, which has not borne 
 the form and pressure of its age. Not always in 
 sympathy, often indeed in resistance to the spirit of 
 their times, yet ever, with few exceptions, as those 
 who knew and felt what was the spirit of their times, 
 have the great thinkers and teachers of the world 
 uttered themselves. And above all things is it re- 
 quisite that the educated men of this country should 
 understand the spirit of the country in which they 
 are to live and work. 
 
 The educated class represent the liberal cultiva- 
 tion of the nation; and, to them, cliiefly, belongs the 
 duty of sustaining and cherisliing the higher and 
 more spiritual elements of social well-being. 
 
 The manifold elements which compose the well- 
 being of a nation may be comprehended under the 
 
two fold division of material or physical, and moral 
 or spiritual. — In the material are included the 
 means of physical support and comfort — food, clo- 
 thing, and shelter ; the security of person and pro- 
 perty ; the arts of life which serve to multiply and 
 refine the sources of material enjoyment; in short, 
 every thing that relates to the useful or to the agree- 
 able — every thing that is implied in the proper 
 meaning of the word civilization. 
 
 On the other hand, the spiritual elements of na- 
 tional well-being result from the unfolding and acti- 
 vity of the principles of man's higher life, as a being 
 capable of the Idea and Love of the True, the Beau- 
 tiful, and the Good, — capable of discerning that 
 these words relate to objects which have a reality 
 and a worth beyond all material objects, a value in- 
 dependent of all consequences of private advantage. 
 Hence, among the spiritual elements of social wel- 
 fare are to be reckoned the pursuits of pure science ; 
 the productions of creative Art ; the sense also of 
 justice, honor, patriotism, loyalty, and reverence ; 
 and the heroic spirit that can dare and endure for 
 unselfish ends ; in short, every thing that is implied 
 in the culture of a nation as distinguished from its 
 mere civilization. 
 
To the proper well-being of a nation it is essen- 
 tial that these elements should exist in a due and 
 proportionable blending-. It is indispensable that 
 the material should be subordinated to the moral in- 
 terests. Wherever and in whatever degree the rea- 
 son becomes enslaved to the senses, there and in 
 that degree do the people sink below their proper 
 life, and fail to realize the true idea of a common- 
 wealth. — Yet it is of the infirmity of our corrupted 
 nature that the sensual life, as in individuals so in 
 nations, is ever tending to predominate over the 
 spiritual. 
 
 In our country this tendency is prodigiously in- 
 creased by causes connected with the physical 
 growth of the country, and with the working of our 
 political institutions. 
 
 Our country offers the most remarkable specta- 
 cle ever presented in the history of humanity. From 
 three milhons, in little more than half a century, we 
 have grown to seventeen millions of people. In- 
 heriting an immense territory, teeming with bound- 
 less resources, we entered upon the first mission of 
 every infant nation— that of subduing the rude yet 
 rich nature that spread out every where around us. 
 In this task we have not been compelled to proceed 
 with the slow steps that have marked the progress 
 
of other nations. To the work of unfoldmg the 
 wealth of the new world, we have brought all the 
 facilities afforded by the mature civihzation of the 
 old world. The science, the skill, and the capital 
 of Europe, which centuries have been slowly accu- 
 mulating there, have been grasped and applied here 
 with a boldness and energy that have wrought in a 
 day the labors of an age. It is but a few years 
 since we entered upon the conquest of a country 
 v/ilder than Germany in the days of Csesar, and ten 
 times more extensive ; and yet in that short space 
 we have reached a point of physical development 
 which twenty centuries have not accomplished there. 
 The forests have fallen down — 'the earth has been 
 quarried — cities and towns have sprung up all over 
 the immense extent of our land, thronged with life, 
 and resounding with the multitudinous hum of 
 traffic ; and from hundreds of ports the canvass of 
 ten thousand sails whitens all the ocean and every 
 sea, bearing the products of our soil and manufac- 
 tures, and bringing back the wealth and luxuries of 
 every quarter of the globe. — Then, too, the tremen- 
 dous agencies of Nature — the awful forces evolved 
 by chemical and dynamic science — have been sub- 
 dued to man's dominion, and have become submis- 
 sive ministers to his will, more prompt and more 
 
powerful than the old fabled genii of the Arabian 
 Tales. Little did our fathers, little did we ourselves, 
 evei] the youngest of us, dream — in the days of our 
 childhood, when we fed our wondering imaginations 
 with the prodigies wrought by those Elemental 
 Spirits evoked by the talismanic seal of Solomon — 
 that these were bat faint fore shade wings of what 
 our eyes should see in the familiar goings on of the 
 every day life around us. Yet so it truly is. Ha! 
 gentlemen, the Steam Engine is your true Ele- 
 mental Spirit; it more than realizes the gorgeous 
 ideas of the old Oriental imagination ; that had its 
 different orders of elemental spirits — genii of fire, 
 of water, of earth, and of air, whose everlasting hos- 
 tility could never be subdued to unity of purpose ; this 
 combines the powers of all in one, and a child may 
 control them! — Across the ocean, along our coast, 
 through the length of a hundred rivers, with the 
 speed of wind, we plough our way against currents, 
 wind, and tide ; while, on iron roads, through the 
 length and breadth of the land, innumerable trains, 
 thronofed with human life and freighted with the 
 wealth of the nation, are urging their way in every 
 direction — flying through the valleys ; thundering 
 across the rivers ; panting up the sides, or piercing 
 2 
 
10 
 
 through the hearts of the mountams, with the resist- 
 less force of lightning and scarcely less swift ! 
 
 All this is wonderful ! I look iipon it with admi- 
 ration, not unmixed with awe. The old limitations 
 to human endeavor seem to be broken through — 
 the everlasting conditions of time and space seem to 
 be annulled! Meanwhile the magnificent achieve- 
 ments of to-day lead but to grander projects for to- 
 morrow. Success in the past serves but to enlarge 
 the purposes of the future ; and the people are 
 rushing onward in a career of physical develop- 
 ment, to which no bounds can be assigned. 
 
 Yet we must remember that all this is only the 
 spectacle of the energies of a great people intensely 
 directed to material ends. It is the unfolding of the 
 conditions of physical enjoyment. And however 
 great and important these are, they constitute but a 
 part, and that a subordinate part, of the elements of 
 social welfare and the true greatness of a nation. 
 Unless interpenetrated and sanctified by the per- 
 vading presence of the higher elements of spiritual 
 culture, their tendency is to corrupt and degrade us. 
 They can make us rich and highly civilized, though 
 they can never give to civilization its highest charm 
 of graceful refinement; for that is a spiritual quality, 
 
11 
 
 and can only come of moral culture. They may 
 make us rich; but may leave us vulgar, purse-proud, 
 ostentatious, and sensual; and never, in themselves 
 and of their own tendency, can they make us a 
 wise, a good, and truly happy people. Besides, it 
 cannot be denied, in a profounder view, that the 
 physical science of the nineteenth century ; the mys- 
 terious forces of Nature which it has evolved ; the 
 tremendous powers which it has subjected to the 
 will of man; and the hnmeasurably greater scope 
 which he thereby gains, for rendering his outward 
 life intense and diversified, have a tendency, not 
 only to foster the spuit of absorbing worldhness, but 
 also to engender a proud, irreverent, and godless 
 spirit. I know that this is not its necessary result ; 
 God be thanked that it is not. To the rio-ht-hearted 
 inquirer, every new disclosure of science may only 
 serve to cherish a lowlier sense of the httleness of 
 man's knowledge, and a profounder reverence for 
 the Great Being, who, though pervading and up- 
 holding all Nature, yet, in his absolute glory and 
 personal attributes, dwelling above all Nature, can, 
 by our mortal vision, be only dimly seen in the 
 glimpses of himself which shine through the enve- 
 loping folds of the material universe. Still, wher- 
 ever, among the mass of a people, phjsical science 
 
12 
 
 is wholly or chiefly prized as it ministers to wealth 
 and enjoyment, the spirit which it tends to engender 
 is any thing but reverent. Imagine a people desti- 
 tute of spiritual culture ; where science is pursued 
 merely for the sake of compelling the powers of 
 Nature to minister to man's physical convenience ; 
 where there are no arts but arts of pleasure ; where 
 the forms of honesty and justice are only outward 
 forms, enacted and observed as politic contrivances 
 for individual and general comfort; — ^ imagine such 
 a people, and you have before your minds a people 
 without honor or magnanimity, without public spirit, 
 loyalty, or heroism, without reverence, morality, or 
 religion. They might be civilized in the highest de- 
 gree ; they might overflow with wealth; the earth, the 
 ocean, and the air, might poiu' forth all their trea- 
 sures ; they might be surrounded with all the means 
 and refinements of material enjoyment, with not a 
 crumpled rose leaf to disquiet the couch of luxurious 
 ease; and yet they would be only a nation of re- 
 fined animals, of civilized hrutes. "We should belie 
 the instincts of our reason and conscience, if we 
 should think otherwise of them. 
 
 Happily, such a picture is only imaginary. — • 
 Thanks to the benignant influences of Divine 
 Grace diffused throughout the world, the reason 
 
13 
 
 and conscience, the spiritual life of man, though over- 
 mastered, can never be wholly crushed out ; and the 
 social and domestic instincts are ever evolvmo- moral 
 affections — love, self-denial, sacrifice, heroism — ■ 
 which serve to exalt and purify the earthly life of 
 man. None the less, however, is it true, that when- 
 ever the material greatly predominate over the moral 
 elements in the life of any people, then the spirit of 
 the nation begins to approximate to the corrupt, tui- 
 hallowed, godless state we have imagined. 
 
 Now, looking at the condition of our country at 
 this mom-ent, have we nothing to fear? I do not 
 quarrel with the prodigious growth of the elements 
 of physical prosperity. I only ask, whether we 
 have not reason to dread an overgrowth ? Is not 
 our danger on this side ? I know there are many 
 w^ho have no other idea of national well-being than 
 riches and greatness. So that a people can subdue 
 the earth to serve the turn of their w^orldly uses ; 
 so that they can accumulate w^ealth and the means 
 of enjoyment; — that is the extent of their solicitude. 
 They laugh at all tliis talk about the higher and 
 more spiritual elements of social w^elfare. I thank 
 God I am not of the number of such persons. 
 
14 
 
 " Contempt is ever tlie growth of a thin soil ; " ^ 
 and contempt of high moral and religious consider- 
 ations is eminently the mark of a poor and shallow 
 intellect. For myself, I must profess my conviction 
 that we are very far from growing wise and good 
 and truly happy as a nation, in the proportion that 
 we are growing rich and great. I believe there is 
 a prodigious and increasing overgrowth of the 
 corrupting spirit of wordliness. I had rather we 
 should be poor as Iceland, yet with its pure faith and 
 morals and its love of letters, than we should go on 
 increasing in wealth and greatness without a corres- 
 ponding increase in spiritual culture and moral 
 worth. I had rather — ^if this must be the alter- 
 native. But it need not be. If God has planted us 
 in a richer land, I do not see but we may unfold 
 and appropriate its manifold resources, Avithout 
 neglecting the culture of our higher life. We may 
 dwell on the earth, and thrive ; yet we need not be 
 mere thriving earth-worms. We may follow worldly 
 callings, and yet not be worldly-minded. We may 
 possess and enjoy wealth, without sinking into the 
 life of mere material enjoyment. The danger is 
 great, it is true ; but corruption is not the necessary 
 
 * Richard H. Dana ; unpublished Lectures. 
 
15 
 
 result of physical prosperity. — I cannot doubt that 
 it is in the intentions of God, in the progress of our 
 race, that the material world shall be still more 
 perfectly subjugated, and its resources of material 
 enjoyment be still more fully unfolded ; and yet the 
 whole physical life of humanity be subordinated to 
 its moral life — pervaded by it — yea, made to sub- 
 serve its growth and perfection. If this be so, the 
 problem is not to arrest the physical growth of the 
 countiy, but to make it the means of more perfectly 
 unfolding out proper humanity, by the culture of the 
 elements of spiritual life. To contribute to the 
 solution of this problem is eminently the vocation of 
 the scholars of our country — of all who have been 
 trained in hberal studies — of all who work in the 
 liberal professions. 
 
 Let us now for a moment advert to the workmg 
 of our political institutions ; for in this aspect our 
 country presents a spectacle no less remarkable 
 than in its physical growth. I beg however a can- 
 did construction of wdiat I am about to say. I am 
 of no political party; and I shall not speak of party 
 questions ; but oi principles and of the tendencies of 
 principles, common to all parties ; and perhaps I 
 may say some things which to neither party will be 
 
16 
 
 entirely acceptable. Yet I cannot think that in a 
 survey of the moral condition of our country, we 
 should be justified in leaving out of view the most 
 pervading and the most powerful of all the influ- 
 ences that affect the character of a nation — ^its po- 
 litical institutions. Nor can I think that courtesy, 
 or the proprieties of an occasion like the present, 
 should exclude all political views, except such as 
 are known to be held in common by all. It seems 
 to me that we should rather suffer every man freely 
 to utter the thought that is in him — whether it be 
 an echo of our own or not — if so it be uttered with 
 deep conviction, with an earnest spirit, and with an 
 honest purpose. Without any party bias, then, and 
 with the highest respect for all those Vv^hose opinions 
 may not coincide with my own, I shall proceed to 
 express myself in my own fashion of thinking and 
 speaking, relying on a kind and candid construction. 
 Theoretically perfect as is the frame of our go- 
 vernment, it implies conditions of virtue and wisdom 
 on the part of the people, which if they do not ade- 
 quately exist, renders ours the most dangerous of all 
 forms of government ; and I must avow my convic- 
 tion that in its practical working, or rather in its 
 abuses, our system is tending with prodigious power 
 to corrupt and demorahze the nation. 
 
17 
 
 It is the fundamental maxim of all political ethics, 
 that political Rights imply political Obligations : so 
 much the more Liberty a people enjoys, and so 
 many the more Rights they possess, so many the 
 more are their Duties. — Yet at the present moment, 
 notions of iJojpular rights appear to me to have 
 sprung up and spread over the country, which are 
 false, absurd, and dangerous. We have got the 
 habit of taking for granted that the people have a 
 right to do, whatever they please to do ; and that 
 whatever they please to do is therefore right. Po- 
 litical Right has thus become separated from Duty; 
 and has practically come to mean nothing but mere 
 Popular Will. 
 
 We are continually told that the sovereign power 
 resides in the people. This is in its naked form 
 but a half-truth : and, as has been well said, a half- 
 truth is often the greatest of lies. It is unques- 
 tionably true that the sovereign power, in a certain 
 sense, resides in the people ; but in the sense in 
 which it is commonly understood, it is a great and 
 pernicious error. — It is God's ordinance, and the 
 necessity of man's nature, that man should exist in 
 Society. To do this he must exist as a State — ■ 
 that is, a community in which justice and social 
 
 order are maintained. Government is the powers 
 3 
 
18 
 
 of the State organized, embodied, and put in action ; 
 and the form of Government, is the particular mode 
 in which the powers of the State are embodied and 
 put in action. 
 
 Now undoubtedly the sovereign power resides in 
 the People, in the sense that the People have the 
 right of determining the form of their Government. 
 This is indeed a natural right, but it is so no fur- 
 ther than as men have a natural riorht to choose in 
 which way among several possible ways, they will 
 fulfil a duty; and it is absurd to lay undue stress 
 upon the term. It is not, however, an absolute 
 right ; but a right growing out of a duty, and limited 
 by duty. Society has the right of choosing the 
 FORM of its Government, because it is the duty of 
 Society to exist as a State for the maintenance 
 of social justice, and must have some form of govern- 
 ment; and it may choose any particular form it 
 prefers, provided it fulfils the duty of the State — 
 maintains the relations of justice — without which 
 Society cannot exist. In this sense, unquestionably, 
 and in so far as relates to the form of government, 
 the sovereign power resides in the People ; still it 
 is not precisely an accurate statement of this truth 
 to say, that the people have the right to choose 
 whatever form of government they please, without 
 
19 
 
 regard to anything but their own mere will; for, 
 unless the various forms of government are as- 
 sumed to be equally adapted to the great ends of 
 society, it is more true to say that the jDeople ought 
 to choose — not that form of government which 
 they may simply prefer, but — that form which they 
 conscientiously beheve to be the best adapted under 
 all the circumstances to secure the true ends of all 
 government. 
 
 Hence it is clear, that the foundation of govern- 
 ment is not in the mere, unlimited will of the people ; 
 and that the sovereignty of the people is not in mere 
 natural right, but in duty. We are too prone in 
 general to forget the great comprehensive truth, 
 that rights and obligations ever go together. There 
 is .scarcely such a thing in all the empire of God, 
 as the ABSOLUTE right of doing w^hat one merely 
 WILLS to do. The only absohite right in the uni- 
 verse, is the right of not heing wronged. And in 
 political affairs, neither the mere will of a majority, 
 nor even of the whole people, can make a thing 
 right, or justify their action. Nothing can be made 
 right by mere w^illing to do it. — Still, as a right 
 which is to be dutifully exercised, I maintain the 
 doctrine that the sovereignty is vested in the people. 
 And in the exercise of the sovereign power residing 
 
20 
 
 in them, the people of this country have organized 
 our form of government — and have defined and 
 distributed the powers of the State. They have 
 done this in our Constitution. Practically there- 
 fore to all intents and purposes, the sovereignty, at 
 this moment, and so long as the Constitution stands 
 unrepealed, is lodged in the Constitution. That is 
 the SUPREME LAW of the land; there resides the sove- 
 reign power of the nation ; and it resides there out of 
 the reach of the present will of a mere numerical ma- 
 jority. The Constitution can be changed only under 
 particular circumstances, and by three fourths of the 
 states. 
 
 To this Constitution the people of the United 
 States at this moment owe an allegiance as loyal 
 and profound, as was ever claimed for the divine 
 right of kings, and much more sacred and enno- 
 bling. To all practical purposes the political rights 
 and duties of the people are just what they are 
 defined and prescribed to be by the Constitution. 
 They have no other political rights than are therein 
 allowed; and are bound to all the duties therein 
 enjoined. — The Idea, of the State in our country 
 is : all the people acting under and according to 
 the Constitution. This is what we mean by a free, 
 Constitutional government, in distinction from a 
 
21 
 
 pure Democracy, like that of Athens, where all 
 the people act without a Constitution. Such is the 
 State in theory. — In regard to the practical exercise 
 of Sovereign powers, it takes three fourths of the 
 people to constitute the State. A mere majority 
 is therefore no more the State, than Louis XIV. 
 was the State; and it is sheer absolutism, in our 
 country, for the majority to set itself up as the State, 
 just as much as it was in France for Louis XIV. to 
 set himself up as the State. The Supreme Power 
 of the nation no more resides in a mere numerical 
 majority than in the minority. The majority pos- 
 sess just those rights and powers which are given 
 by the Constitution, and no others. What are they? 
 As to X\\eh: personal rights — though these are not 
 strictly in the question, yet they may here be 
 stated — in common with all the inhabitants of the 
 land, strangers or citizens, voters or not voters, the 
 majority have the right of being protected as indi- 
 viduals in their persons and property, provided they 
 do no wrong ; and if they do wrong, of being fairly 
 tried according to lav/ by the judgment of their 
 peers. — As to tlieir political rights ; in common with 
 all voters, they have in certain cases, in reference 
 to the appointment of certain pubhc agents, the right 
 of suffrage; and in regard to the questions thus 
 
22 
 
 submitted to the whole body of voters, the majority 
 have the right of deciding. The amount of the 
 pohtical rights of the majority, then, is this : that 
 their will, when legalhj expressed, is decisive in re- 
 gard to a certain number of questions submitted by 
 the Constitution to a popular vote. — So far therefore 
 from constituting the State, a numerical majority of 
 the people in their political action is simply an 
 organic part of the State, just as the Legislative, 
 Judiciary, and Executive, are organic parts of the 
 Government; and its rights and powers, like theirs, 
 are conferred, defined, and limited by the Constitu- 
 tion ; and finally these rights and powers are inse- 
 parably linked with duties — the majority are bound 
 to act within their limits, and to act conscientiously 
 there. 
 
 These are the simplest elements of our political 
 ethics. They belong to the very Primer of our politi- 
 cal science. — Yet how well are they understood; how 
 much are they felt ; how much are they practically 
 regarded? — Alas, gentlemen, I know not how it 
 may appear to you ; but to me it seems that in 
 comparison with their indispensable necessity to 
 our political salvation, these truths are scarcely at 
 all felt. Unless I greatly mistake the spirit of the 
 country, there is a blind feeling, widely prevalent 
 
23 
 
 and rapidly increasing, as if the mere present will of 
 a majority, however expressed, and on all subjects 
 as well without as within its legal limits, is, and of 
 right ought to be, the supreme power of the nation. 
 Whenever the people are told that there is any thing 
 which they cannot rightfulhj do, their impulse is to 
 feel indignant, as if some monstrous outrao-e were 
 perpetrated against the sacred principles of eternal 
 justice, which they were called upon to avenge. 
 To differ from the popular opinion seems to them 
 a crime — a thing to be punished. They cannot 
 understand that you have as good a right to your 
 opinion, as they to theirs; that they diifer from you, 
 as much as you do from them. — In proof that this 
 is so, go and address the popular political assem- 
 blages of our country. Tell them that you honestly 
 believe it to be a possible thing that there shall not 
 be wisdom and virtue enough in the nation to make 
 the experiment of self-government successful ; and 
 in nine cases out of ten you provoke their displea- 
 sure, not merely for being bold enough to utter an 
 unpopular doctrine, but as being guilty of treason 
 against the sacred principles of freedom. Tell them 
 that you think it best for the popular good, and 
 therefore right, that the popular w^ill should be 
 checked by constitutional restraints ; and ten to one 
 
24 
 
 you will be hustled from the stand as an aristocrat, 
 a monarchist, an enemy to the people. Or, if they 
 allow you to remain there long enough, tell them 
 that the original framers of our Constitution w^ere 
 true and genuine lovers of rational freedom, and yet 
 that they have framed the Constitution so as to be a 
 check upon a present numerical majority ; that our 
 frame of government in various respects is full of 
 restraints upon the popular will; — ^and there are 
 thousands and tens of thousands to whom such 
 doctrine would be entirely strange and revolting. 
 They would not even believe you. Yet you would 
 tell them nothing but the truth — nothing which our 
 public men do not know to be true. Why is it, 
 then, that our public men rarely or never tell the 
 people these truths, comment, explain, and urge 
 them ? It is because these truths, however impor- 
 tant and vital, are odious to the people ; and they 
 will not bear them. 
 
 From this erroneous and exaggerated notion of 
 Rights, and this feeble sense of Duties, it is easy to 
 see to what dangers we are exposed. When the 
 people feel as if the cause of popular rights, as they 
 understand them — that is, the right of the majority 
 to do just what it pleases — is not only their own 
 
25 
 
 cause, but the cause of every thing- most sacred, of 
 Truth, of Freedom, and of God; what protection 
 has society against hcentious abuses of power? 
 In private hfe the man who does every thing he has 
 a right to do, in the sense of the word nov/ in ques- 
 tion — that is, every thing which the Law will not 
 punish him for doing — is a villain. That we are 
 not cursed with such villains at every tmii in life, 
 we owe to the influence of conscience and the 
 power of public opinion. But what protection is 
 there in consciencCj or in public opinion against the 
 unjust acting of a people firmly behoving m the Di- 
 vine Right of a majority to have its own way at all 
 events ? How much is the responsibility of a mul- 
 titude felt by the individuals that compose it I Is it 
 not practically as if it were a question concerning 
 the seventeen millionth part of the national con- 
 science? — In the name of Liberty the Jacobins of 
 France cut off the heads of poor decrepid old wo- 
 men for complaining of the national bread ; for not 
 crying out lustily enough the watchwords of revo- 
 lutionary frenzy; and even for the singular crime 
 of being " suspected ofincivism" Hundreds of simi- 
 lar atrocities you may find in the records of then- 
 Revolutionary Tribunals. I do not say that wE 
 shall ever witness any such abominable excesses. 
 4 
 
26 
 
 I do not believe we shall. None the less liowever 
 are we bound to be aware of the dangers to which 
 we are exposed from exaggerated notions of the 
 rights of majorities. Their tendency is to make the 
 popular will overbear all moral considerations, and 
 all constitutional limitations. Popular majorities 
 may come to feel themselves justified in reaching 
 their ends by almost- any and every means. In the 
 strife of party politics the people may come to feel 
 as if it were allov/able to secure a victory in any 
 way right or wrong ; and political corruption, if not 
 openly justified, will be condemned only in the op- 
 posite party, while in reality its heinousness will be 
 lightly thought of, if only it be coupled with the 
 Spartan virtues of dexterity and success. 
 
 In such a state of things all honorable and up- 
 right freedom of political opinion and action in pub- 
 lic men is in danger of becoming next to impossible ; 
 and the truly enlightened patriot, the true friend 
 of the people — who, because he is their true friend, 
 will not flatter their passions and echo all their no- 
 tions, be they right or wrong — is likely to be de- 
 prived of all scope for pubhc action. The demagogue 
 will carry it over him by a thousand to one. There 
 never was a country in the world, from the days of 
 Pericles to the present time, which furnished such 
 
27 
 
 unbounded scope for the demagogue as ours ; and 
 never was a country so cursed with demagogues. 
 The demagogue and the courtier are but opposite 
 poles of the same character. The demagogue per- 
 petually tells the people that they are sovereign — 
 that there is no higher law than their will. Like 
 the courtier he flatters and cajoles the sovereign, in 
 order to mislead and rule him. What chance for a 
 fair hearing has the honest friend of the people ? It 
 certainly cannot be said to be unnatural for men to 
 confide in and yield themselves to the guidance of 
 those who bow to their will, flatter their vanity, or 
 minister to their passions. In point of fact what 
 public man dares resist the current of party opi- 
 nion, and the demands of party discipline? What 
 truths unpalatable to the popular taste, however vi- 
 tally important to the public welfare, do the politi- 
 cians of either party dare to tell the people 1 What 
 popular errors, however dangerous, do they dare 
 expose and denounce? — From the political and 
 party presses, controlled by demagogues, the people 
 almost never hear the truth. Morning, noon, and 
 night, they are fed on falsehoods; and nursed m 
 prejudices, hatreds and animosities. All considera- 
 tions of truth, decency and reverence, give way 
 before the violence of party spirit ; and the blind 
 
28 
 
 and bitter spirit of party is continually stimulated 
 by provocatives addressed to the ignorance, the pre- 
 judices and violent passions of the people ; and m 
 the midst of all their professed homage, love and 
 respect for the people, the demagogues show clearly 
 enough to the discerning eye in what real contempt 
 they hold the knowledge, the wisdom and the virtue 
 of the people, by the boundless impudence of the 
 lies, flatteries and quackeries with which they seek 
 to cajole and lead them. 
 
 And which way tends the political destiny of the 
 nation under these influences of the party presses 
 and of political demagogues ? It tends to throw the 
 absolute power of the nation into whatever party 
 of demagogues, calling themselves friends of the 
 people, can most successfully cajole and corrupt the 
 people. It tends, in short, to a democratic abso- 
 lutism — the worst of all forms of absolutism, the 
 most pervading and the least conscientious. Any 
 party supported by a popular majority, can at any 
 time overbear the Constitution, and absorb into itself 
 all the powers of the State. — -Thus with all the 
 forms of the Constitution remaining, the Constitution 
 itself may be eflectually subverted. And which 
 way tends this state of things T Is not nearly 
 every thing in the country now decided by party 
 
29 
 
 majorities, procured fairly and legally, if i^ossible, 
 ■ but procured at all events ? And what is the great 
 absorbing party question? Every one knows. Not 
 a petty municipal officer in the obscurest village in 
 the country, whose election does not turn on" the 
 Presidential question. To what does this tend but 
 to an absorption of all the powers of the State into 
 the Executive? I do not say this as belonging to 
 either party. I go with neither; and all that I 
 have said is freely apphcable by all parties. I 
 speak only of the dhection m which, unless we 
 shut our eyes to all the lights of past liistory and to 
 all the facts of present observation, we must beheve 
 we ar& at this moment tending. Significant tokens 
 have already displayed themselves, which he M-ho 
 has eyes to read them, cannot fail to interpret. Is 
 not the legislation of the country, at present and to 
 a prodigious extent, originated and controlled by 
 Executive influence? Has not the existence of the 
 Senate, one of the august and inviolable branches 
 of our constitutional government, been openly 
 threatened ? Has not the independence and there- 
 fore the constitutional existence of the Judici- 
 ary been invaded by the proposal to render its 
 judges removable at executive pleasure ?— Have 
 we not come within a few years past to hear 
 
30 
 
 the Executive spoken of as the Government ; to 
 hear of the obhgations of office-holders to regard 
 themselves as servants of the Executive, instead of 
 being holders of puUic trusts for the Nation ; with 
 various other expressions of the like kind — expres- 
 sions never dreamed of in the days of Washington, 
 expressions which would have been heard with hor- 
 ror in those days, but which are now such familiar 
 terms ni our political vocabulary that we use them 
 without thinking of the changes they imply ? 
 
 Now can any one fail to see that these influences 
 of party demagogism, supported upon the false and 
 exaggerated notion of the rightful supremacy of a 
 popular majority, tend to the virtual overthrow of 
 the Constitution? The forms of the Roman Re- 
 public — its senate, its tribunes, and its consuls — 
 remained for ages after all the powers of the state 
 had passed into the hands of an absolute executive 
 supported by prsetorian guards. This may never 
 be our destiny. But how much better off are we 
 likely to be with an absolute executive supported 
 by the unconstitutional powers of a popular majo- 
 rity ? — Many look for salvation in a change of men 
 — in the party tables being turned. I look for no 
 such thing. The danger lies not in any particular 
 party, but in principles held by all parties, or at 
 
31 
 
 least in the necessity which all parties will, I fear, 
 ever be under of echoing, and supporting themselves 
 upon, the erroneous popular doctrine which now 
 lies practically at the ground of our system. I look 
 for no permanent political salvation in a mere 
 change of parties and men.— I look for political 
 salvation only in a return of the people to true 
 notions of liberty— to sound constitutional political 
 opmions, to the spirit of loyalty, of reverence for 
 law and order, and to public virtue. 
 
 It is not, however, gentlemen, chiefly with refe- 
 rence to its bearing upon the integrity of our 
 Constitution, nor with reference to any changes 
 which may hereafter be wrought in our mere 
 political existence, that I have dwelt upon the 
 popular notion respecting the rights of majorities, 
 and upon the spirit and tendencies which have 
 their root in this prevalent notion. For after all, in 
 an abstract view, it matters comparatively little 
 what form of government we have, provided it be 
 well administered, and provided the people be truly 
 cultivated, wise, and good. It is in the virtue, the 
 moral worth, of the people, that the well-being of a 
 nation essentially consists. But I have dwelt upon 
 it, because pohtical institutions, government and 
 
32 
 
 laws, are every where the most powerful of the 
 causes that form the moral character of a people ; 
 because every free government can do more to 
 exalt or corrupt the morals of a nation than all 
 other causes ; and because I cannot resist the con- 
 viction that the actual political influences which are 
 at work in our country, are tending to corrupt the 
 moral spirit of the nation. 
 
 Look at the working of parties among us. Is it 
 not a grand political game — ^ the possession of the 
 powers and patronage of the government being the 
 stake ; demagogues the players ; and the people the 
 pawns ? Is not everything decided by a hot conflict 
 of party tactics 1 Is it not considered and called a 
 hattle, a war ; and by an easy association has not 
 the old corrupt adage : " all is fair in war," come to 
 be a practical maxim ? Hence in our elections what 
 scenes of violence ; what licentiousness of the party 
 press ; what misrepresentations of facts for political 
 effect ; what slander, calumny and abuse heaped in 
 turn upon every eminent person in the nation ! 
 Latterly the temper of people, in these respects, has 
 passed into their great legislative body ; and the 
 scenes of vulgar and indecent violence which have 
 been recently enacted in Congress, are fitter for a 
 bear garden than for the dignified assemblage of the 
 
33 
 
 representatives of a great people. What must be the 
 effect of this, re-acting again upon the spirit of the 
 nation? Does it not tend to eat out of the heart of 
 the people all loyalty — all reverence for justice, law 
 and pubhc order ? Persons may think lightly of 
 this ; but I ask them to tell us how there can be a 
 great heroic people without reverence. It is im- 
 possible. And in order to maintain in the heart of 
 a people reverence for Justice, Law and Pubhc Or- 
 der, the people must reverence also the Forms, the 
 institutions, by which those great Ideas are em- 
 bodied and represented. Form is throughout the 
 Universe the necessary condition of every spiritual 
 manifestation. The moral hfe of a nation is dis- 
 played and seen and felt only in its forms, just as 
 the life of the vegetable and animal world, is seen 
 and felt only in its appropriate forms. When the 
 people cease to reverence the institutions and per- 
 sons which embody and represent the ideas of Jus- 
 tice, Law and Public Order, it is but a short step to 
 cease to reverence the ideas themselves. With the 
 decay of reverence for the forms, dies out also the 
 reverence for the substance. Like the besotted 
 Africans they may indeed continue to set up the 
 Fetisch gods of their self-will, and to dash them 
 down at every caprice of passion ; but all sense of 
 5 
 
34 
 
 loyalty, all profound feeling of the allegiance which 
 they owe to the sacred majesty of justice, law and 
 order, will be merged in a wilful determination to 
 have their own way at all events. 
 
 Then again consider more directly the influence 
 which the popular feeling that politics is a war and 
 that all is fair in war, must have upon the private 
 morals of a nation. How long will it be before 
 that people who stick at nothing in politics will 
 come to stick at nothing in morals ? It is impossible 
 that political profligacy should not in the long run 
 lead to corruption in private morals. All history 
 proves this truth; and, gentlemen, our own obser- 
 vation may suffice to give us more than one token 
 of the direction in which we are moving. Within 
 the last five or six years, there have been more go- 
 vernment defaulters, and more breaches of other high 
 pecuniary public trusts — ten times more in number 
 and amount, than in the whole former period of our 
 national existence. Will any one say that these and 
 many other instances of moral dereliction ; as well 
 as the scenes of lawless violence that so frequently 
 occur, and the comparative apathy with which they 
 are looked upon and forgotten ; cannot be traced to 
 the working of political influences? To me it 
 seems there is no cause so obvious ; no solution 
 
35 
 
 so adequate. Let political corruption once be- 
 come an organized element in the political action 
 of a nation, and it cannot fail to corrupt the private 
 morals of the people. I do not say that corruption 
 has become an organized element in the political 
 action of this nation; but I do say that within the 
 last few years there have been developments 
 enough in this direction, to overwhelm us with 
 shame, and to become the ground of serious 
 apprehension for the future. 
 
 Thus, gentlemen, I have rapidly glanced at some 
 aspects of our country, connected with its physical 
 growth, and with the working of its political insti- 
 tutions. It may perhaps be thought that the repre- 
 sentation is overdrawn and falsely colored. I do 
 not admit that it is so. It .viU not be denied that 
 sources of danger and tendencies to evil exist in all 
 nations. Those which exist in our case are cer- 
 tainly NOT those which result from poverty -desti- 
 tution of physical resources, skill, enterprise and 
 energy; nor from political restraint or oppression. 
 They ARE precisely those to which a rich and free 
 people— an intensely enterprismg and intensely 
 democratic people — are exposed. Besides, it is 
 chiefly oi principles and tendencies I have spoken; 
 
36 
 
 and as to what I have said respecting the evils 
 actually/ existing among ns^the partj press, dema- 
 gogues, unconstitutional notions of popular rights, 
 political corruption — I maintain that it falls below 
 the ^truth of facts. I do not say that these evil 
 inflaences will soon or ever work the actual down- 
 fall of the nation ; but I do say that such is the 
 inevitable result of their unchecked working. I do 
 not say that there exist no checks. I freely and 
 gladly admit that there are manifold conservative 
 powers in action amongst us. But notwithstanding 
 these better influences, the dangers to which we are 
 peculiarly exposed are of such sort and so great as 
 to beget reasonable apprehension ; at all events they 
 show the immense importance of specially cultiva- 
 ting the higher moral elements of national welfare, 
 by which alone the dangerous tendencies to undue 
 worldliness and to political and social corruption can 
 be effectually counteracted. 
 
 It is in this connection that I urge the duty which 
 rests upon the educated men of the country of stri- 
 ving to exalt and purify the intellectual and moral 
 spirit of the nation. Not that I would make an in- 
 vidous distinction ; not that the duty does not rest 
 upon all classes, upon every true patriot and good 
 man. But it is a body of young scholars whom I 
 
37 
 
 address : it is upon the body of the educated men of 
 the country that the duty in question eminently 
 rests. Of the culture of the nation they are the 
 proper representatives, and the special guardians. 
 If they are indifferent and negligent what other 
 class will be earnest and faithful? "What other 
 class could discharge then special obligations ? 
 
 Eminently then upon the educated class rests the 
 obligation of cherishiug the higher intellectual and 
 moral interests of the commonwealth. It is a duty 
 which in this country is not only immensely impor- 
 tant, but surrounded with pecuhar difficulties. — 
 Amidst special tendencies in the spirit of the nation 
 to a predominating worldliness, it is the vocation of 
 our scholars to cherish in themselves and diffuse 
 around them a love of science, of letters, of art — of 
 all that is liberal. — Unaided, and even counteracted, 
 by the working of our political institutions, they are 
 to strive to extend the spirit of political virtue' — 
 public spirit, heroism, reverence for law and order. 
 In their endeavors to exalt and fortify the private 
 morals of the nation, they find their exertions coun- 
 teracted not only by the ordinary temptations v/hich 
 surround mankind, but also by the strongly demo- 
 rahzing tendency of our party politics. Thrown 
 so early, too, as our young scholars are into the 
 
38 
 
 struggles of professional exertion ; isolated from 
 each other in the midst of the intense practical and 
 material life that is around them, they are greatly 
 exposed to the danger of losing the love of good 
 letters, the liberal and cultivated tastes, which they 
 may have gained ; and of surrendering themselves 
 to the very influences which they should strive to 
 counteract. 
 
 But if we cannot expect that the body of our 
 educated men will go forward and perfect themselves 
 in a high and refined cultivation, there is yet one 
 part of their vocation to which it is right to expect 
 them to be faithful. This is to preserve the spirit 
 of the LIBERAL callings. The liberal Professions 
 have indeed utility, and not heauiy, for their end ; 
 and in this respect ihej differ from the liberal Arts. 
 But still they are liheral professions ; because they 
 are, according to the idea of them, free from the 
 necessity of seeking private gain or advantage as 
 their end. They have utility for their end ; but it is 
 the public utility, and not the private advantage of 
 those who pursue them. In other callings, impor- 
 tant as they are in their results to society, and 
 respectable as they are in themselves, the end for 
 which they are pursued is wealth or a livelihood. 
 This is in general the idea of them, and the reason 
 
39 
 
 why they are followed. On this gi-ound rests the 
 expectation that the callings of the merchant, the 
 banker, the farmer, the artisan, will be followed to 
 any extent required by the public interests. But, 
 in the idea, at least, of the liberal professions, 
 although their members must have a livelihood in 
 order to practice them, yet they are not to practice 
 them for the sake of the livelihood. Herein lies 
 the ground of the more dignified position and more 
 respectful estimation which society has accorded to 
 the liberal professions. The clergyman, the phy- 
 sician, the teacher, the lawyer, are supposed to 
 engage in their several callings for the sake of the 
 public welfare ; and in proportion as they make 
 their professions mere means to private ends — 
 even their own livelihood, they degrade their call- 
 ings, and forfeit their title to public respect. 
 
 In the olden times, this idea of the liberal pro- 
 fessions was more distinctly recognized than at 
 present : on the one hand, the members of the 
 liberal professions were expected to perform the 
 duties of their callings without pecuniary charge ; 
 and on the other hand, the people were supposed 
 to be under obhgation to provide freely for their 
 modest yet dignified support ; and to hold them in 
 honorable estimation, all the higher for the worldly 
 
40 
 
 advantages or chances of advantage they snrren- 
 dered. — At the present day also we see the recogni- 
 tion of this idea, in the sentiment of the incongruity 
 of a clergyman being devoted to mere worldly 
 pursuits ; in the indignation which would be felt 
 against the phjsician who should refuse the gra- 
 tuitous succors of his art to the sick and dying 
 poor ; in the disgrace, and probable expulsion from 
 the society of his brethren with which a lawijer 
 would be visited who for the guerdon of pecuniary 
 reward should lend himself to pervert the course of 
 justice and become a villain's tool. — Yet it is to be 
 deeply lamented that there is too little of the true 
 spirit of the liberal callings, both among those who 
 follow them and in the community at large. Let it be 
 cherished, and kept alive and quick in the minds of 
 our educated men, and incredibly great and salutary 
 will be its influence in exalting and refining the 
 spirit of the whole nation. 
 
 Again : let our educated men shun the politician's 
 trade. I do not say they should never accept of 
 public offices of trust and honor, nor that they 
 should never seek them ; but they should never 
 seek them for private ends, and they should only 
 accept them when they believe they can fill them 
 
41 
 
 honorably and independently for the public good. 
 Our scholars and professional men should take a 
 deep interest in politics; and one class of them 
 should study them profoundly; but never should 
 they become mere politicians, partisan aspirants for 
 popular favor and applause, greedy seekers of office 
 and the gains of office. They should aim to be 
 mdependent, free-spoken teachers of political truth 
 and political duty. They should strive to make 
 themselves understood as a body of honest counsel- 
 lors, seeking by pen and tongue and personal influ- 
 ence to make the people truly enlightened on all 
 political doctrines and measures ; to whom the peo- 
 ple may look for fair discussion, true information, 
 and sound advice. Let them tell the people the 
 truth — the truth which the demagogues will never 
 tell them. 
 
 Were it not that a wisdom in the manner, and a 
 blamelessness of character almost more than human, 
 might seem requisite in order not to impair the pecu- 
 har spiritual influence of their office, I would even say 
 that the ministers of religion should become political 
 teachers of the people from the pulpit. I do not 
 mean that they should meddle with party politics, 
 nor that they should treat political subjects — whe- 
 ther general principles or special measures — ^as 
 6 
 
42 
 
 politicians. Let them leave that to others. But 
 that it should be inexpedient (when done without 
 impropriety of language or manner) for them 4o 
 urge distinctly upon the minds and consciences of 
 their flocks the sense of Christian responsibility in 
 the exercise of their political rights, is the fault of 
 the people. To "honor the king" is a sacred in- 
 junction which in Holy Scripture stands in imme- 
 diate connection with the precept to "fear God;" 
 that is to say, a Christian people are as much bound 
 to discharge christianly their political as their other 
 social duties ; and it is the business of the ministers 
 of religion to enforce every branch of moral duty. 
 I can conceive that the clergy might, with such 
 simplicity and affectionate spiritual earnestness, so 
 manifestly free from all selfishness or worldliness of 
 tone or purpose, unite in the habitual practice of 
 urging the obligations of Christian morality in the 
 exercise of political rights, as not to impair, but ra- 
 ther to increase the salutary influence of their ofl&ce. 
 That this can scarcely be expected in fact — that 
 the pulpit must so carefully abstain from coming 
 into contact with the actual beating heart and life 
 of the nation, seems to me a sad necessity. 
 
 Again: upon the educated men rests especially 
 
43 
 
 the duty of sustaining the cause of sound popular 
 education, as well as all higher cultivation of letters, 
 science and art. We must beware of leavintr this 
 great cause in the hands of mere politicians. The 
 system of pubhc instruction indispensable to the 
 w^elfare of every nation, and eminently of ours, 
 requires that moral and religious culture should 
 never be separated from a wholesome and wisely 
 adapted intellectual training. I have no faith in 
 the mere Lord Brougham "schoolmaster." He 
 may be ever so much " abroad among the people," 
 and yet do the people as much harm as good. I 
 have no faith in the mere diifusion of popular 
 knowledge, as an adequate culture of the people. 
 The minds of the young should be trained, strength- 
 ened, formed into right habits, imbued with right 
 principles, with the elements of future self-culture 
 and self-guidance, — not merely stuffed with a crude 
 mass of superficial facts, miscalled " useful know- 
 ledge." 
 
 Above all I have no faith in the merely negative 
 religious character of popular instruction. I regard 
 it as one of the most monstrous solecisms that the 
 popular education of a Christian nation should be 
 organized — if not with an atheistic forgetfulness 
 that there is a God, yet — with such a studied 
 
44 
 
 avoidance of almost everything distinctively Chris- 
 tian. The political vt^elfare of this country can be 
 secured by no diffusion of mere knowledge. Educa- 
 tion — the education of the mass, must be thoroughly 
 Christian. There is no country on the globe 
 where the social virtue and political prosperity of 
 the nation so entirely depend upon the intelligence 
 of the people being pervaded by a deep sense of 
 the old-fashioned Christianity which recognizes the 
 Gracious Influences of God's most Holy Spirit, con- 
 ferred for Christ's sake and through the Church, as 
 the only source of goodness in man, and the only 
 sure safeguard and support of pure morals and true 
 national well-being. 
 
 I have now, gentlemen, given (and very imper- 
 fectly, I am sensible) some brief suggestions as to 
 the position and duties of our educated class, in 
 relation to some of the evils of our times, and more 
 especially to some dangerous tendencies to which 
 we are exposed. If these dangers exist, surely we 
 shall neither diminish nor avoid them by shutting 
 our eyes to the fact. Nor ought the full and frank 
 statement of them to be stigmatised as the croaking 
 notes of feeble alarmists despairing of the republic. 
 
45 
 
 Against all such reproaches I only stand up the 
 more stoutly. I plant myself on the ground estab- 
 lished by phHosophy and by history ; and I deny 
 that there is anything in the human nature of the 
 nineteenth century, or any charm in the frame of 
 our government, which can ensure us against the 
 fate that has fallen upon other nations. — If, then, 
 there are dangers to which we are exposed, the 
 true practical wisdom is, neither to despise, nor to 
 exaggerate them; but to see, to admit— and to 
 guard against them ; neither to rest in a vain con- 
 fidence, nor to abandon the cause of our country as 
 hopeless ; but to extend and quicken all those 
 influences which we know assuredly can and will 
 secure the permanent welfare and tme glory of the 
 nation. 
 
 Let us not shrink, then, from our position. Let 
 us manfully stand up for the truth. Democratic 
 institutions have no intrinsic power to make us a 
 wise and good, a truly and permanently happy 
 people. Riches cannot do it. Diffusion of know- 
 ledge cannot do it. All these together cannot do 
 it; they cannot even ensure us agamst downfall 
 and ruin. But there are things that can do it. Let 
 the influence of Christianity really and practically 
 control the pohtical as well as the social life of the 
 
46 
 
 nation; let the people exercise their rights from 
 a pure sense of duty; let there be a proportionable 
 diffusion of the spiritual elements of national wel- 
 fare ; in a word, with civilization let there be 
 combined a proportionable culture founded upon 
 CHRISTIANITY ; and we shall certainly be not only a 
 rich and great, but a v/ise, a good, and truly pros- 
 perous nation. 
 
 Here, then, in the promotion of these great objects 
 is the vocation of all good citizens, and eminently of 
 the educated men of the country. Let those who 
 belong to this class be true to their high calling, and 
 by the favor of Almighty God we may indulge the 
 noblest hopes for our country and for the great 
 cause of Human Advancement. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 It was not at first my intention that the foregoing Discourse 
 should be printed ; and it is only in compliance with the 
 renewed request of the young gentlemen to whom it was 
 addressed, that it now appears after an interval of several 
 months from the time of its delivery. 
 
 I should not have adverted to these circumstances but for the 
 fact that during this interval we have passed through one of the 
 most intensely exciting political struggles that has ever agitated 
 the country ; and it may perhaps be thought by some that if I had 
 waited till the termination of this contest, I should have written 
 differently ; or at all events that the results of the struggle do in 
 fact go to countervail the force of some of the views presented 
 in the foregoing pages. 
 
 I think it right therefore to add that while my address is (of 
 course) pi'inted as delivered, I am not insensible to one very 
 striking fact connected with the recent elections — the imme- 
 diate subsiding, namely, of the public feeling, the tranquil and 
 good-natured acquiescence in the result, notwithstanding the 
 extreme violence of the previous excitement. It is a pleasant 
 circumstance : it is a good omen. 
 
 As to the rest, however, I must take the liberty to say that 
 the struggle just closed furnishes nothing to impair, but on the 
 contrary strongly confirms the impressions I have expressed in 
 regard to the demoralizing influence of these party conflicts, and 
 to the fact, and great and increasing prevalence, of political 
 corruption. Particularly I believe that our political partisan 
 newspapers — though not without their good uses — are on the 
 whole A VERY GREAT MORAL CURSE to the nation, 
 
 C. S. H. 
 
 New York, Dec. 1, 1840. 
 
r'a m 
 
 Lb N 10 
 
^yCn^Cc , 
 
 
 
 PROFESSOR HENRY'S DISCOURSE 
 
 AT 
 
 GENEVA COLLEGE. 
 
 THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE EDUCATED MEN 
 OF THE COUNTRY.