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Whipple, John
A discourse, delivered before the municipal authorities
and citizens of Providence.
Providence, 18 38.

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MR. WHIPPLE'S

B I S C O U R S E,

JULY 4, 1838.

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BISCOURSE,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES
AND CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE,
ON
' THE SIXTY-SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,
JULY 4, 1838.

BY JOHN WHIPPLE.

PROVIDENCE:
KNOWLES, VOSE & COMPANY.
1838.

Cbl9. A-'^Ow

I . H . f .

Providence, July 18, 1S38.
Dear Sir —
It is with pleasure that I communicate the annexed copy of
a Resolution ofthe City Council, passed on the ICth instant.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. EVERETT,
John Whipple, Esq. For the Committee.
¦City of Providence, sc. In City Council, July 16, 1838.
Resolved, That the thanks ofthe City Council be presented to John
Whipple, Esq., for the eloquent Oration delivered by him before the
Municipal Authorities, on the 4th instantj and that the Committee of
Arrangements for that occasion, be requested to solicit a copy for the
press. A true copy ; Attest, RICHARD M. FIELD, City Clerk.

Providence, July 18, 1838.
Dear Sir —
I have received yours of this date, enclosing the Resolution
ofthe City Council; and in compliance with their request, send you
herewith a copy ofthe Oration, which is at their disposal.
Your obedient servant, JOHN WHIPPLE.
A. Everett, Esq.
For the Committee of Arrangements.

DISCOURSE.

It has been usual, upon this, our national Sabbath, not
only to pour forth our gratitude to God, for the signal
blessings He has showered upon us, but to exult in
ardent and glowing language, at the splendid achieve
ments of our ancestors. In poetry and in prose, here,
and throughout the civilized world, has the great event
of our Revolution been the theme of constant admiration.
Its influences on the great family of nations, have been
mild and gentle, but permanent and progressive. While
it has been admired by the people of other nations, on the
one hand, it has, aided by other causes, lowered the tone
of the monarch, and softened the ferocity of the despot,
on the other. Upon the Mother Country, in an especial
manner, its effects have been as salutary and benign, as
they will probably be durable and lasting.
She first violated the bond of union between us, sacrifi
ced the lives of thousands of her subjects, expended an
hundred millions of her treasure, and finally submitted to
defeat and disgrace. She struggled in order to retain us
in the fetters Avllich had so long restrained our spirit and
impaired our strength, until the indignant voice of her
people, forbade her to struggle longer. She struggled

6
against the independence of a nation by which her own
brilliant progress was to be carried forward, by which the
largest and richest market in the world was to be opened
to her productions, and by which her copious language
and literature were to be transmitted to future ages.
Fortunately for her, she struggled in vain. Fortunately
for her, instead of the stinted growth of a manacled race,
she has seen, within the first half century of our sepa
rate existence, what no mother country ever saw before ;
she has seen fifteen millions of her children spread over
thousands of miles of varied and exuberant soil, building
upon, but enlarging and expanding her own institutions,
enriching and fertilizing her own literature, rivalling her
in arts and in arms, and destined at some future day, to
stand with her, side by side, as a rampart against the des
potism of the North. Should that despotism advance its
gigantic strides much farther, should the predictions of
many of the profoundest statesmen of the age be verified,
and the attempt be made by Russia to bring within her
dismal lines all the freer states of Europe, our country
could not long remain an idle spectator. Profound policy
and popular feeling would alike demand, that our power
and our treasure should be devoted to the great cause of
freedom, upon which our institutions entirely depend. It
would be subversive of our prospects as a commercial and
maritime nation, and even unsafe to our own independ
ent existence, to allow the whole Avealth and naval power
of England and of France to pass into the hands of the
sternest despotism of the age. One of the unforseen re
sults therefore of the heroism of our ancestors and our
subsequent unparallelled progress in we'alth and national
strength may be, that we shall be obliged to interpose
that strength as a shield to our Mother Country ; that

having once performed the daring task of defending our
own rights, we may be called upon to perform the nobler
task of protecting all that reraains of freedom and civili
zation to the rest of the world. The Countries of West
ern Europe, through the power of steam, have become to
us, neighboring nations ; and whether those nations will
continue to aid us in our great efforts to ameliorate the
condition of mankind, by encouraging commerce, agricul
ture and manufactures, by disseminating light and knowl-
-edge, and building up a vast moral and religious influence
adverse to war and human butchery; or whether all these
bright and balmy hopes are to be abandoned, and the
darkness of despotism once more succeed the lights of
science and of freedom; are questions in which we have
as deep and momentous an interest as either England or
France. Whether we look back then, upon the struggles of our
illustrious ancestors, or forward upon the proud and lofty
position of our descendants, we have reason to rejoice at
the destiny of our Country. Never since the creation of
the world, has such a spectacle been presented to the eye
of man ; the greater part of a whole continent subjected
to one government, and that government in the hands of
a free and inteUigent people.
The value of these blessings no one will dispute. The
interest we all have in the perpetuation of our free insti
tutions, will be readily admitted. How far our own ef
forts may conduce to that end, and what means will be
most likely to promote it, are questions of vital importance,
to which I propose to call your attention. Instead of the
usual language of unmixed panegyric, deemed in general
most appropriate to the occasion, I shall endeavor to

point out such errors of opinion, and such increasing evils
in our social habits and condition, as tend very strongly
to weaken and undermine our national strength, and to
mar and deface the beauty of our republican institutions.
To prevent misunderstanding on a subject of so much
delicacy, I shall employ the plainest language ; and if
less of exciting interest and patriotic fervor belongs to
such a course, some compensation may be found in the
hope that it may by possibility be quite as useful. •
The first erroneous opinion to which I shall call your
attention, is one supported by ancient and very respecta
ble authority. It was maintained by most of the writers
upon Government, of former times, that a Republic was
the best form of government while it lasted, but that
little reliance could be placed upon its durability. That
opinion has been adopted by most of the writers of mod
ern times, and prevails to a considerable extent in our own
Country. It is received in Europe, almost as an indis
putable truth, and operates as a considerable check upon
the efforts of the friends of freedom, to mitigate the seve
rities of their own stern and less beneficent systems. It
is rapidly spreading. in this country. It begins to alarm
the wealthy, and to damp the hopes of the patriotic. In
their view, every little cloud in our political firmament
portends an overwhelming storm, and every swell and
surge of the great ocean of our free population, threatens
to ingulph our republican bark. That such fears may
damp our energies by impairing our confidence, and grad
ually prepare the public mind to seek the shelter of a
stronger government, upon the occurrence of evils com
mon to all, cannot be doubted. For there are many ex
periments, the success of which mainly depends upon the
energy and confidence of those who conduct them. I

propose therefore, to examine the correctness of the al
most universal opinion upon which these fears are founded.
Opinions are prevalent, according to the learning, tal
ent, and reputation of those who originally advance them ;
and it may be that the great mass who have adopted
these views, have never examined the grounds upon
which they rest. The learned men of modern days em
braced them because they were found in the treatises of
learned men of ancient days ; and the bulk of mankind
Embraced them on the authority of learned men, caring
little whether they were true or false.
I will call your attention to the only source from which
any safe conclusion can be drawn, in the hope, either to
disprove the correctness of this opinion, or to surround it
with so many doubts as to render it unsafe and unwise to
place any reliance on it. I know of no other test than
experience. What has been, will probably be again. If
Republics have weathered storms as severe, and naviga
ted oceans as dangerous, as either Monarchies or Despo
tisms, there is no reason to fear our destinies under them.
The four principal Republics of ancient days were
Carthage, Rome, Athens, and Sparta. Carthage retained
its republican government seven hundred years, Rome
four hundred and ninety eight, and Athens and Sparta
five hundred years each ; making an aggregate of twenty
two hundred, and an average duration of five hundred
and fifty years each. So far, therefore, as the experience
of ancient times furnishes a guide, five hundred and fifty
years may be taken as the average duration of Republics.
If we include modern Switzerland, which has existed
five hundred and thirty years, it will not materially vary
the result. 2

10
Of the principal Monarchies, Egypt, from the time of
Menes, to its conquest by Persia, existed sixteen hundred
and sixty-three years ; the first Assyrian empire, accord
ing to Herodotus, five hundred and twenty years ; the
second, two hundred and ten years; the Medean empire,
one hundred and fifty-two years, when it was united to
the Persian ; Lydia, six hundred and sixty-one years ;
Persia, down to its conquest by Alexander, two hundred
and six years ; and Macedon, four hundred and seventy-
three years, when it was divided among the successors of
Alexander. The aggregate of these seven principal king
doms, is three thousand eight hundred and eighty-five
years, making an average of five hundred and fifty-five
years each ; being but five years more than the average
duration of the four principal Republics.
But, it may be urged, that the basis of this opinion is
found in the fact that arbitrary governments have more
generally prevailed ; that upon the overthrow of the four
principal Republics, there was an end of the republican
form throughout the world ; but that the termination, by
conquest, of the seven kingdoms selected, did not termin
ate absolute governments; but that, on the contrary, these
same conquered kingdoms continued kingdoms still,
though under a different name and nation ; that in point
of fact, Egypt and Persia have always been under abso
lute governments, and that five thousand instead of five
hundred years should be taken as the average duration of
that mode of government.
This brings into question the true meaning of durability
when applied to a constitution of government. When
we speak of the comparative strength of the constitutions
of two individuals, we have reference to their inherent
construction. The liability of either to be blown up by

11
steam, or swallowed by an earthquake, equally as fatal to
the strong as to the weak, is never taken into the estimate.
&o in an estimate of the relative durability of the Monar
chical and Republican forms, we confine ourselves to the
internal machinery, and ascertain which moves with the
least friction, or is accompanied with the fewest tumults
and rebellions. Monarchies have always existed, and so
have Republics! They have both been conquered by for
eign power, and both have become victims of internal dis-
. eases ; but this leaves the question of their relative dura
bility just where it found it. Carthage, with Athens,
Sparta, and all the other Grecian Republics, came to their
end by foreign power. Had they been Monarchies they
would have died the same deaths. Rome, being a military
Republic, contained the seeds of dissolution in her own
bosom. If the ancient Republics had expired under dis
eases peculiar to Republics, while surrounding Monarchies
stood firm in their positions, some foundation for the opin
ion I am combating would have existed. The Monarchies
conquered the Republics, because there were four Mon
archies to one Republic. Absolute governments contin
ued and prevailed merely because they were the most
numerous. But if, in the beginning of these ancient con
tests, the Republics had outnumbered the Monarchies and
overpowered them, the countries thus conquered would
have become Republican, Monarchies would have gone
out of fashion, and the opinion of the learned would have
been that Monarchies were the best governments, but not
as durable as Republics.
I do not contend that, in point of fact, free governments
have existed for so large a portion of time since the cre
ation of the world, as absolute governments. What I do
contend for, is, that that fact has no necessary connexion

12
with the inherent principles of durability belonging to
either. Force and fraud have maintained a more permanent
and durable empire over the transactions of individuals
than have either honor or justice, but it would be difficult
to maintain that honor and justice have not as deep and
abiding a home in the human heart as either the love of
power or of fraud. In order to test the permanency of
these antagonist principles, the mind of man must be pre
pared for their reception. The mind of a large portion '
of the civilized world was so prepared in ancient days,
and Republics not only existed until they were crushed
by barbarian force, but all the light that has reached mod
ern days, proceeded from their learning, their arts, and
their patriotism. Since that period until the last century
or two, there has been no atmosphere in which Republics
could exist. The millions of barbarians who crushed the
empire of the Romans and extended themselves over the
whole of the civilized world, not only destroyed every
vestige of refinement, but choked up the fountains of learn
ing, defaced or destroyed nearly all the monuments of the
arts, and drove even the Christian religion to the shelter
of the cave or the cloister. The art of free government
fell by the same overwhelming power that crushed all the
other arts, and annihilated all the sterner and more en
during principles of our moral nature ; and we may as
well contend that the long reign of barbarian darkness
which reached almost down to the present day, is proof
that there is nothing enduring in the religion of Christ,
or in the moral principles of man, as to apply a similar
conclusion to free governments.
It must be shewn that Republican governments have
died of republican diseases, not that they have been crush-

13
ed by brute or barbarian force, before the slightest ground
to doubt their durability, is furnished. Switzerland has
existed five hundred and thirty years. Where one tumult,
rebellion, revolution or other disease, indicating debility
in her government has occurred, ten have visited Eng
land, France, Spain and most of the other arbitrary gov
ernments of Europe. Suppose one or more of these
kingdoms, considermg her government as of dangerous
example, should pour in her myrmidons and overwhelm
her; could this termination of republican Switzerland be
fairly urged as proof of the inherent weakness of her form
of government ?
The same remark applies to nearly all the ancient Re-
pubhcs. Carthage for the first five hundred years, as
Aristotle informs us, was not visited by a single tumult
of any magnitude. This fact alone is conclusive evi
dence of the durability of her form of government, espe
cially when contrasted with the frequent rebellions that
stain the history of surrounding nations. Her territory was
two thousand miles in extent. Her pursuits, like ours,
were agricultural, mechanical, and commercial. At the
end of seven hundred years, she fell a victim to the ambi
tion of mihtaryRome, whom, we have reason to beheve,
she excelled, in all that ennobles the character of man.
The works of her historians have not reached us. All
that we know of her citizens, is from th6 mouths of their
bitterest enemies, the Greeks and Romans, by whom they
are painted in the most detestable colors. But the facts
which they are obliged to admit, go far to prove, that in
all the arts of peace they were unequalled by either Greek
or Roman.
Having thus very briefly examined that class of opin-

14
ions in relation to our form of government which denies
to it much chance of durability, I will glance at another
class, wholly opposite in their character, and more dan
gerous in their tendency. So general are they, that they
may be said to characterize the country. Those who
maintain these opinions, commence with the unhesitating
assertion, that the men who achieved our independence,
were beyond all question, the wisest, purest, and greatest
men that ever lived, that as statesmen in council and war
riors in the field, they left far behind them the similar
efforts of all preceding times ; that upon the termination
of the great struggle, they adopted a plan of government
based upon principles before undiscovered, and so judi
ciously adjusted it to our wants, that, like a self-moving
machine, it requires no other aid than an occasional appli
cation of the vivifying oil of public opinion; which pub
lic opinion, it is taken for granted, will always prove the
wisest and most renovating in its tendency. Censure, if
censure is allowable, should be lightly awarded to those
who have adopted these erroneous views of our revolu
tionary struggle, of our constitution of government, and
of the unerring wisdom of our people.
Our revolution lasted seven years. It was signalized
by twelve or fifteen considerable battles, fought under
discouraging circumstances, with the spirit that has sel
dom failed to animate men, contending for their freedom.
Had greater trials been required, they would have been
manfully and heroically borne, for the spirit of patriotism
was abroad in the land ; the spirit which added the names
of Washington, Greene, Hamilton, and many others, to the
splendid galaxy furnished by ancient and modern times.
For one of these, without the slightest national vanity,
we may justly claim the most enduring crown of glory.

15
Other great and distinguished men we can analyze. The
elements of their character can be separately and coolly
viewed. Poetry, and eloquence, and marble can fasten
upon their intellect, their heroism, or their power, and im
part to them undying beauty. But all these features
which he possessed in the highest degree, were lost in
the moral grandeur of Washington. The keenest visions
of poetry, the loftiest bursts of eloquence, the most im
pressive power of marble, cannot reach it. There it
stands, undescribed, indescribaible.
Ofour revolution and our state papers we have also rea
son to be proud ; but it is time that we dismiss the misdi
rected zeal which represents them as surpassing those of
all preceding nations.
In their contests with the Austrians, which ended in
the establishment of their independence, five hundred and
thirty years ago, the Swiss fought sixty long and bloody
battles. At a later period, the Dutch, for forty years, fought
against the Spaniards, for their religion and their firesides.
Theirs was a revolution unparallelled in the history of
human suffering. Many of its battles resembled the tales
of romance. The women and children fought side by
side with their husbands and fathers. Their state papers,
including their Act of Abjuration, passed in 1581, and
enumerating their reasons for renouncing their allegiance
to Spain, are filled with the most noble and lofty spirit,
and precisely the same great principles of freedom, which
shine so conspicuously in our own. In many parts of that
Act, the language and sentiments are so similar, as almost
to lead the reader to forget whether it is the Dutch or the
American Declaration of Independence.
In the face of facts like these, it is hardly a pardonable
vanity which induces us to represent ourselves as the first

IG
and greatest advocates for freedom which the world has
produced. It merely creates a smile in other countries,
but it misleads the people of our own. No new princi
ples have been discovered. There is nothing in the
whole machinery of our government, substantially differ
ent from the other free governments of ancient and mod
ern days. To rely upon such a fallacy, and to act upon it,
is to rely upon what will surely fail us. Our ancestors
fought heroically, and so have other nations when con
tending for their independence. Our state papers contain
a plain, lofty, and commanding enumeration of the inalien
able rights of a free people ; so do the state papers of other
nations, both in ancient and modern times. But that any
new principles were discovered by our ancestors, or any
new mode of securing old ones — that we may safely sit
down relying upon those principles, leaving the task of
government to be performed by a few interested leaders
of political parties, is not mere folly and delusion ; it is
subjecting our institutions to a trial, which no free insti
tutions can endure.
So far from an improvement upon the ancient repub
lics we have admitted one principle which they uniformly
rejected as wholly impracticable, the principle of univer
sal suffrage. At the same time, all the checks and safety-
valves which they deemed indispensable as guards against
the sudden passions of the people, we have abandoned.
So far as the free suffrage system extends, so far our
government may be considered an experiment, and an
experiment which requires the constant and increasing
activity of every intelligent man to bring to a successful
issue. While there is not the slightest reason therefore to
doubt the durability of the republican form, so far as the

17
form alone is concerned, there is also no reason to trust
to that orany other form of free government,, unaccom
panied by extraordinary exertions on the part of the
people. A Republic is as durable as a Monarchy, if its require
ments are faithfully obeyed. Under a Monarchy, the peo
ple have but few duties to perform. The appointments
to office, aufi most of ,the laborious work of government,
are in other hands. Obedience is the cardinal virtue of
the subject. No government can be well administered
without constant and unremitted labor in the depositories
of its power. If that power is in the hands of an individ
ual, his wh6le time and intelligence must be devoted to
the task. His own individual concerns claim but a sub
ordinate share of his attention. So with an Aristocracy,
and so with a Republic. If the people assume the powers
and privileges of the government, they are bound to per
form its duties. Those duties constitute the first claim
upon their time and intelligence. In all the ancient Re
publics, this theory was strictly carried into practice. The
claims of the public came first, and their individual con
cerns were made secondary to them. In this country we
changed ourform of government, but continued our British
habits; and with us, our private affairs come first, and the
claims of the public are often entirely neglected. With
us, the test of a good citizen is, to take good care of him
self. He acknowledges no claim on the part of the public
provided he pays his taxes. This is his precise duty un
der an absolute government ; but is a total abandonment
of it, under a Republic.
These are the principal errors of opinion which m,ay
fairly be deemed of national importance. They are-^-a
dangerous distrust of the permanency of a Republic, on

18
the one hand, and a blind and equally dangerous confi
dence in it, on the other.
There are, however, evils of habits and practice, of a
more active and influential character; to some of which, I
will briefly call your attention.
In the later periods of all the free governments of an
cient days, property, in some form or other, never failed
to divide the people into parties, always dangerous to
their moral advancement. A great portion of their his
tory is but a series of broils between the rich and the poor.
Under the freest modern constitutions, this old controver
sy has been equally fruitful of disputes, and oftentimes, of
open rebellion; and at a recent period, it has been appeal
ed to, in our own country, as the distinctive line of future
party warfare. It has always existed among us, but to a
limited extent. It threatens, unless checked by the most
self-denying and patriptic conduct on the part of property-
holders, to become an evil of the most alarming magni
tude. That there is no hostilityto property itself, except per
haps among an inconsiderable number of the more recently
imported voters, is a proposition that admits of but little
doubt. The vast mass of oiir people consists of farmers,
manufacturers, mechanics and merchants. Among the
farmers, whose social habits are those of kindness and
equality, the owner of a thousand acres is as popular as
the owner of but twenty. Among the (Quakers, the same
absence of all radical feeling is manifest. I am not sure
that the same remark will not as well apply to the great
body ofthe mechanics. If it exists at all, it is to such a
limited extent as to produce no perceptible effect. Its
action is confined mainly to the larger cities; and those

19
who manifest this hostility are not merely the free suf
frage class, but a considerable proportion of tbe farmers
and mechanics, who have the same interest in the preser
vation of the substantial rights of property as the weal
thiest merchants of the largest cities.
Why is it, then, that the rich merchant, often among
the most temperate, moral; and talented men, is generally
destitute of political influence; while the equally rich far
mer, Cluaker, or mechanic, is estimated not by his wealth,
but fairly and impartially by his general merit ? The
answer is found, partly in the different habits and modes
of life which their different pursuits require, but mainly
in the manners of a few of the weaker minded, vain, and
thoughtless of the class of city merchants. It is the of
fensive display of wealth, the unkind port and bearing,
the swell and strut of a few, which confer a character on
the whole ; that not only deprive them of theii: just influ
ence, but render them as a class, an incumbrance upon the
party to which they becorae attached. Your own obser
vation must have convinced you, that the farmers in the
neighborhood of large cities, are more generally hostile to
them, than those more remote, because they are more fre
quently overshadowed by the large space occupied by
men of new made wealth. Over and above this hostile
and unfriendly influence, there is a disposition in many
of the more frivolous inhabitants of our larger cities, in
their intercourse with the country or smaller towns, to
measure themselves by the size of their city; and they
spread all their hght sails, and loom up accordingly.
So far as these manners are personal and individual,
they are below the dignity of the present occasion. But
so far as, in the aggregate, they affect our social relations,

20
and tend to create undue predjudices of one class against
another, they are of vast importance. I know of nothing
that has a stronger influence upon the welfare and repose
of a Republic, than the bearing of the wealthier classes
towards the farmers and mechanics.
In another point of view, the manners ofour cities are not
only intimately connected with our social relations, but
with our national dignity and national strength. I allude
to the servile imitation of the habits and follies of foreign
nations. I am ready to adrait, that in a strict legal sense,
every citizen of this Republic may expend his property
upon what objects his fancy dictates ; but in a moral point
of view, comprehending the whole circle of his duties as
a member of such a system as ours, I deny that the rights
of property extend to uses so directly repugnant to our
repose and national welfare. With the most grand and
imposing principle as the basis of our government, with
liberty and equality stamped upon all our institutions, we
are totally destitute of a corresponding feature in our hab
its of life. The great object, with many, seeras to be the
accumulation of wealth, for the purpose of a tame and ser
vile imitation of European society. If the short-sighted,
weak and vain property-holders of our cities will persevere
in aping the manners of foreign countries, in establishing
a style of living which practically excludes all free and
friendly intercourse with the agricultural population of
the country, they must expect to be excluded from all
participation in political influence. They will destroy
the great bond of sympathy. Jealousy and suspicion will
be more and more engendered. Radical demagogues
will seize upon the advantages of this estrangement of
feeling, represent the whole class of wealthy merchants
as so many aristocrats aiming at absolute power, and the

21
sound practical and patriotic farmer, a sturdy supporter of
all the rights of property, will throw his weight into the
radical scale, for no other reason, than that he has been
mortified by the gigantic swell of sorae city dandy.
By these remarks, I mean not the slightest censure
upon the spirit of gain, nor upon the holders of property
generally. On the contrary, that spirit has made our
country what it is. In general, property is accumulated
through the agency of some of the principal virtues. In
dustry, sobriety, temperance, and practical intelligence
are no where more conspicuous than araong the raass of
property holders in our cities. In most of the great ques
tions of government, their advantages of position and oc
cupation give to their opinions a peculiar value, a value
which is almost entirely lost to the nation, bythe love of
vain display and ostentatious aud offensive parade indul
ged in by a few of their class.
When a free and friendly intercourse shall be renewed
between town and country; when the families of the mer
chants and the farmers shall reciprocate as they formerly
did, those kind and unostentatious interchanges of hospi
tality, which tend more strongly than even a community
of interest, to bind them together ; then, and not till then,
will the great working classes of society, the farmer, the
mechanic, the manufacturer and the merchant, unite, heart
and hand, to put down the radical demagogues, who, tak
ing the lead of the free-suffrage and imported voters of
the nation, destroy one half the value of our republican
institutions, by destroying all their imposing dignity and
majestic beauty.
Another evil, more malignant in its nature, and quite as
unmanageable as the one just considered, is found in the

22

frequent appeals to the sour and radical feelings of the
very lowest class,by wicked and unprincipled demagogues.
Their minds are poisoned by the most dangerous false
hoods. The property-holders, in general, are represented
as aiming at a degree of political power inconsistent with
the rights of the laboring poor. The men who achieved
our independence, — who, by their intelligence, industry,
temperance, and skill in trade and commerce, built up our
cities, contributed largely to the construction of our rail
roads and canals, established manufactures which have
cheapened every article of daily use, and in conjunction
with the efforts of our farmers, brought our country to
its present strength and power, — these men are hunted
down as aristocrats ; and imported voters almost of yes
terday, not only possessing no stake of any sort in the well
being of society, but in general, totally destitute of every
virtue necessary to its acquisition, are drummed together
in squadrons, to confirm the charge at the polls.
More or less of this bitter feeling, excited into action by
political ambition, has been manifested under every free
government. But to no government that ever existed,
did it carry with it half the danger that it threatens to
our own ; for in no other country, was resort ever had to
this visionary and Utopian scheme of universal suffrage.
In no country in the world,' does there exist so urgent a
necessity for a raost harraonious union of feeling and so
cial intercourse among the merchants, mechanics, farmers
and manufacturers; in fact, among the honest and indus
trious of all classes. The free-suffrage feeling is a power
which neither logic nor legislation can reach. The dem
agogues who appeal to it, are in general as destitute of
good sense and moral virtue, as of republican habits and
feelings. Most of these venomous political insects are in

23
pursuit of power; which when attained is exercised with
a moderation somewhat akin to that of Robespierre or
Marat. If there is one truth better attested by the whole
history of human experience than another, it is, that the
man who flatters one class of society into hostility to
another, is either an impostor and a knave, or destitute of
experience and comraon sense.
Another evil of a permanent and national character,
chargeable, not upon rich or poor, but entirely upon the
leaders of the great pohtical parties which divide the
country, is what has very expressively been termed the
" Spoils System," It has been pretty rigidly followed
by all parties, in most of the States, for many years. I
can perceive no great difference between them in this
respect, unless it be that to one of them belongs the addi
tional raerit of having engrafted it upon the policy of the
General Government. Its advocates consist of all who
are ambitious of office, manifested as that ambition usually
is, by an extraordinary zeal in favor of the party upon
whose success their expectations rest. Their opinion
upon such a question is entitled to about as much weight
as a sermon from the pulpit, in favor of high salaries, or
an argument at the bar, in aid of large fees. It is a sys
tem which no argument can render plausible ; for, disguise
it as we may, it is a system of bribery. I am aware that
political men of both parties inform us, that the people
themselves will not be satisfied without such a system.
This is merely shifting the responsibility from the shoul
ders of one set to those of another. The evil is not
lessened by a change of parentage. If the mass of the
people are ready to sanction such a principle, they have
become politically corrupt much earlier than was predict
ed. Besides the corrupting influence of this system, its

24
tendency is to lower the standard of merit, and to estab
lish an artificial standard, to which none but those ex
tremely arabitious of this kind of elevation, will conform.
It requires a servility to mere party dictation, to which
those who have a high regard for their own honor, will
not submit. The consequence is, that public men very
generally are mere aspirants for office, and well drilled in
all the little arts of a low and selfish ambition. I am
well convinced that it would redound more to the
honor and profit of the nation, occasionally to remove all
the old soldiers in party warfare, from the president down
to the door keepers, and to supply their places with men
unhacknied by party discipline. We should suffer less
by the blunders of ignorance, than we now do, by the sel
fish and scheray designs of raen wholly bent upon their
own aggrandizement.
These kre the principal evils of a permanent and na
tional character, to which I have thought it necessary to
call your attention. If man is so constituted that the
acquisition of wealth necessarily engenders a feeling of
superiority, that a failure to obtain it is necessarily pro
ductive of the levelling disposition, and if the spoils of
office are required to quicken us in the perforraance of
our most solemn duties ; the sooner we abandon all the
beau ideal part ofa republican government, — the less pa
rade we raake of the superior virtue and intelligence of
the people, — the less we shall be ridiculed by the discern
ing and intelligent of other nations.
Is there no remedy ? Does there not exist a hope that
Man will, at last, assert his moral dignity; that the spirit
of this age and nation will, in time, elevate itself above the
grovelling passions, and individual and private virtue

25
qualify and mitigate the absorbing lust for private gain,
and the low ambition for public office ? In no country
in the world, is there more of all the various elements of
benevolent and expanded feeling. In none have greater
or more successful efforts been made for the general im
provement of the condition of man. Societies of various
kinds, but all with benevolent objects, have expended vast
sums of money and devoted years of arduous labor, here,
and in foreign lands, for the accomplishment of this great
object. It is worthy of consideration, whether a concen
tration of these laudable exertions, upon some plan of na
tional improvement, which raay insure the performance of
the high promise we have made to the world, is not among
the most pressing of our duties. May it not be fairly
ranked among the first of missionary objects ? What will
it profit us, or the great faraily of man, to succeed in
Christianizing a portion of the Hindoos, or liberating a
few of the Africans, — should our free government fail, for
want of raoral virtue and moral light ? Upon its success
alone, depends the cause of Freedom and Christianity
throughout the world. That it will fail in most of its
higher and noble objects, unless loftier passions are en
listed in its favor, cannot be doubted. The complaint is
increasing, that all our tendencies are downward, and that
principles subversive of order are daily gaining ground.
Ought not this to be expected ? What single counter
acting power has been interposed to prevent it ? — no na
tional feeling, no national manners, not even a national
costume. The test of good government, is the low price
at which it can be purchased. In fact, the government
itself is a mere abstraction. It puts forward no visible
evidence of its existence, nothing around which our sym
pathies can collect, and consolidate into national and pat
riotic feeling. We have a Virginia feeling, and a Mas-
4

2G
sachusetts feeling; because Virginia and Massachusetts are
spots upon which traces of their own legislation are every
where visible. But what visible monuments exist. of a
National Government ? What is there to call out our pat
riotism by exciting our pride ? What spot, where the rich
and the poor can meet, and connect themselves by the
comraon feeling, — this is my country ? We have a na
tional city, but what has been done for it by the National
Government? One building and one alone, worthy of
this great people, has it erected. The offices for the four
Departments resemble county jails, rather than the repos
itories of the records of fifteen raillions of people. Instead
of the niggardly policy of our public men, adopted in
obedience to a supposed similar feeling of the people, ev
ery effort should be raade to render the seat of our National
Government by far the most splendid and attractive city
in the world. For the next twenty or thirty years, our
surplus revenue should be employed to beautify and adorn
it, with the most exquisite specimens of architecture and
statuary. Public baths of American marble, wrought by
American artists, should be erected in every street. In
and around it, should stand forth the statues of the found
ers of our Independence. A National University and
Library, second to none in the world, should be establish
ed ; while rail-roads, as permanent as iron and stone can
make them, should lead from the Capital of every State
to this our National City. The facility and cheapness of
communication and the attractive objects which would
grace our city, would call many a farmer and mechanic to
an occasional visit. Their pride of country, thus excited,
would call out kindred feelings in relation to the char
acters of the men who rule us. The gifted statesman,
and the lofty patriot, would stand by the side of the low,
crafty, and contemptible demagogue ; and every honest

27
man who aided the elevation of the latter, would be made
to feel the force of the comparison.
I am aware, that these and similar remarks will be deem
ed visionary and Quixotic, by raany who sincerely believe
that the elements of our greatness are already established.
In one view, they are visionary in the extreme; for in the
present state of public feeling, there is not even a hope of
their adoption. I am also ready to admit, that in raany
respects, our efforts have been of the raost brilliant char
acter, and are deserving of all praise. If to discover a
before unknown and wilderness country, to cut down the
forests, clear out the rivers, and fertilize the soil ; to stud
it all over, for thousands of railes, with peaceful villages,
and with populous cities, enriched with the produce of
every clime, and decked with the trophies of every art ;
to establish a Constitution and a system of laws the poor
man's refuge and the rich man's shield ; within the short
space of two hundred years, to grace and adorn these
achievements, with some cf the noblest bursts of eloquence
that ever thrilled the human heart, and some of the choi
cest beauties of literature that ever captivated the human
mind, if this is national greatness, — we are truly a great
and an astonishing people.
But it must be remembered, that it is a kind of great
ness in which other nations have ascended to quite as
lofty an elevation. Greece, and Carthage, and Rome, like
us, colonized thousands of miles of territory occupied by
semi-barbarous races ; by the united powers of their al
most unequalled mental and physical vigor, forced it into
an exuberant fertility ; spread out their coramerce upon
the ocean, and their armies upon the land; built up cities,
which in point of architectural beauty have never been

28
equalled ; perfected the languages in which Tully and
Demosthenes spoke, and Virgil and Homer wrote ; and
spread over all these monuments of their never-dying
fame, the panoply of a legislation, of which liberty, equal
ity, and the rights of man were the vital principles. But
Greece, and Carthage, and Rorae, where are they ? In
their early days, as in ours, justice, temperance, moral vir
tue, and an abiding sense of man's accountability, consti
tuted the basis of individual action, and of national legisla
tion. They rose, as we have risen, as if by some magic
power. But with them, as with us, the love of gain, in
time, banished the love of country ; from a principle of
action, it becarae an absorbing passion ; and they fell, not
through the weakness of their form of government, but by
the accumulated vices of a luxurious people.
The fate of our free institutions depends entirely- upon
ourselves. While, on the one hand, there is not the slight
est reason to fear the want of a sufficiently enduring prin
ciple in a Republic ; on the other, there is as little to rely
upon it, unaided by the constant watchfulness of the peo
ple. How we shall exist, depends entirely upon our pas
sions, our habits and our manners. If wealth continue to
be an object of engrossing ambition, if it continue to be
accumulated for a vain and offensive display, we shall
pass through a series of dissensions between rich and poor,
emaciate under the corrupting influence of luxurious hab
its; until, in time, both rich and poor fall under the yoke of
some popular and unprincipled demagogue.
But if loftier and nobler passions can be called to our
aid ; if a higher and purer standard can be established ; if
the benevolent and humane philanthropists who are now
wasting their health and wearing out their lives upon

29
foreign soils, will turn the tide of their fertilizing efforts
back upon their native land, — lay the foundation of a na
tional feeling, and shew us by their exaraple the force and
beauty of moral virtue : if from earliest infancy our chil
dren can be made to feel that honor and truth are the
only titles of American nobility, and a well spent life its
only crown ; that they are born not for themselves alone,
but for their country and the world ; some ground of
hope will be furnished, that the boasted spirit of the age
is indeed a spirit of light. This, and all this, can be ac
complished. Moral virtue is within the reach of every
son of raan. Justice, generosity and the love of truth are
breathed into us by the influences that surround our in
fancy. What is noble, lofty, and heroic, is what public
opinion and private exaraple pronounce to be so. So long
as fathers and mothers devote their whole lives to the ac
cumulation of wealth alone, so long will their children
believe that wealth is the noblest object of acquisition.
Within us all, God has established a basis broad enough
for all the virtues. Genius, He has conferred on a few
only of our race. Mental and physical vigor. He has dis
tributed unequally among us. But a sense of right and
wrong is coramon to us all. A consciousness of account
ability in a future state, is implanted in every huraan bo
sora. We can no raore pluck it out than the heart that
throbs within it. Every roll of the ocean quickens it into
action, every flash of lightning calls it to our aid. It is
the foundation of all that is grand and sublime in moral
virtue, all that is permanent and enduring in national
power. If then we would reach a higher elevation than heathen
Greece or heathen Rome ; leave far behind us on the
pathway of national glory, the chivalry and heroic bearing

30
of raodern France, and the compact and well-earned fame
of the British Isles, — if we would go down, through all
time, as the people who first successfully vindicated, by
their example, the moral dignity of man ; we must begin
the great work, not with the pride of wealth, but with the
humility of virtue.

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