every

No candid man ever read it without seeing and feeling that word of it was dictated by deep and earnest thought, and that every sentence of it bears the stamp of philosophic generality. It is the summing up of the results of the philosophical development of the age; the practical embodiment of the progressive ideas, which, far from being confined to the narrow limits of the English colonies, pervaded the very atmosphere of all civilized countries.

ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

RICHARD S. STORRS, D.D.

OT out of books, legal researches, historical inquiry, the careful and various studies of language, came the Declaration of Independence; but out of repeated public debate, out of manifold personal and private discussion, out of Jefferson's clear, sympathetic observation of the feeling and thought of men, out of that exquisite personal sensibility to vague and impalpable popular impulses which was in him innately combined with artistic taste, an ideal nature, and rare power of philosophical thought. The voice of the cottage as well as the college, of the church as well as the legislative assembly, was in the paper. It echoed the talk of the farmer in homespun, as well as the classic eloquence of Lee, or the terrible tones of Patrick Henry. It gushed at last from the pen of its writer, like the fountain from the roots of Lebanon, a brimming river when it issues from the rock; but it was because its sources had been supplied, its fulness filled by unseen springs; by the rivulets winding

far

up among the cedars, and percolating through hidden crevices in the stone; by melting snows, whose white sparkle seemed still on the stream; by fierce rains, with which the basins above were drenched; by even the dews, silent and wide, which had lain in stillness all night upon the hill.

The Platonic idea of the development of the state was thus realized here: first ethics, then politics. A public opinion, energetic and dominant, took its place from the start as the chief

instrument of the new civilization. No dashing manoeuvres of skilful commanders, no sudden burst of popular passion, was in the Declaration; but the vast mystery of a supreme and imperative public life, at once diffused and intense-behind all persons, before all plans, beneath which individual wills are exalted, at whose touch the personal mind is inspired, and under whose transcendent impulse the smallest instrument becomes of a terrific force. That made the Declaration; and that makes it now, in its modest brevity, take its place with Magna Charta and the Petition of Right, as full as they of vital force, and destined to a parallel permanence.

TH

A NATION BORN IN A DAY.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

HE Declaration of Independence! The interest which in that paper has survived the occasion upon which it was issued, the interest which is of every age and every clime, the interest which quickens with the lapse of years, spreads as it grows old, and brightens as it recedes, is in the principles which it proclaims. It was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner-stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the inalienable sovereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was no figment of the imagination, but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. They were no longer children, appealing in vain to the sympathies of a heartless mother; no longer subjects, leaning upon the shattered columns of royal promises, and invoking the faith of parchment to secure

their rights.
taining by war its own existence.

They were a nation, asserting as of right and main-
A nation was born in a day.

"How many ages hence

Shall this, their lofty scene, be acted o'er

In states unborn, and accents yet unknown?"

It will be acted o'er, fellow-citizens, but it can never be repeated. It stands, and must forever stand, alone; a beacon on the summit of the mountain, to which all the inhabitants of the earth may turn their eyes for a genial and saving light, till time shall be lost in eternity, and this globe itself dissolve, nor leave a wreck behind. It stands forever, a light of admonition to the rulers of men, a light of salvation and redemption to the oppressed. So long as this planet shall be inhabited by human beings, so long as man shall be of a social nature, so long as government shall be necessary to the great moral purposes of society, so long as it shall be abused to the purposes of oppression,-so long shall this declaration hold out to the sovereign and to the subject the extent and the boundaries. of their respective rights and duties, founded in the laws of nature and of nature's God.

THE BIRTHDAY OF THE REPUBLIC.

THOMAS PAINE.

[September 3, 1783, there was concluded at Versailles a Treaty of Peace, by which the thirteen united colonies were acknowledged to be "Free, sovereign, and independent states."]

ΤΗ

HE times that tried men's souls are over, and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew is gloriously and happily accomplished. To see it in our power to make a world happy, to teach mankind the art of being so, to exhibit on the theatre of the universe a character hitherto unknown, and to have, as it were, a new creation intrusted to our hands, are honors that command reflection, and can neither be too highly estimated nor too gratefully received. In this pause, then, of recollection, while

the storm is ceasing and the long agitated mind vibrating to a rest, let us look back on the scenes we have passed, and learn from experience what is yet to be done.

Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this. Her setting out in life, like the rising of a fair morning, was unclouded and promising. Her cause was good, her principles just and liberal, her temper serene and firm. Her conduct was regulated by the nicest steps, and everything about her wore the mark of honor. It is not every country-perhaps there is not another in the world--that can boast so fair an origin. Rome, once the proud mistress of the universe, was originally a band of ruffians; but America need never be ashamed to tell her birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire. The remembrance, then, of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most laudable of all ambition,—that of adding to the fair fame she began with. The world has seen her great in adversity; let then the world see that she can bear prosperity, and that her honest virtue in time of peace is equal to the bravest virtue in time of war.

The debt which America has contracted, compared with the cause she has gained and the advantages to flow from it, ought scarcely to be mentioned. The world is in her hands. She has no foreign power to monopolize her commerce, perplex her legislation, or control her prosperity. With the blessings of peace, independence, and a universal commerce, the states, individually and collectively, will have time to regulate their domestic concerns, and to put it beyond the power of calumny to throw the least reflection on their honor.

But that which must much more forcibly strike a thoughtful, penetrating mind is the union of the states. On this our great national character depends. It is this which must give us importance abroad and security at home. It is through this only that we are or can be nationally known to the world. It is the flag of the United States which renders our ships and commerce safe on the seas or in a foreign port. All our treaties, whether of alliance, peace, or commerce, are formed under the sovereignty of the United

States of America, and Europe knows us by no other title or name. The division of the empire into states is for our own convenience, but abroad this distinction ceases. We have no other national sovereignty than as United States. Sovereignty must have power to protect all the parts that compose and constitute it, and as United States we are equal to the importance of the title. Our union, well and wisely regulated and cemented, is the cheapest. way of being great, the easiest way of being powerful, the happiest invention in government which the circumstances of America can admit of.

MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.

CHARLES SUMNER.

VERTOPPING all others in character, La Fayette was conspicuous in debate. Especially was he aroused whenever human liberty was in question; nor did he hesitate to vindicate the great revolution in France, at once in its principles and in its practical results, boldly declaring that its evils were to be referred, not so much to the bad passions of men, as to those timid counsels which instituted compromise for principle. His parliamentary career was interrupted by an episode which belongs to the poetry of history-his visit to the United States upon the invitation of the American Congress. The Boston poet at that time gave expression to the universal feeling when he said:

"We bow not the neck, we bend not the knee,

But our hearts, La Fayette, we surrender to thee."

As there never was such a guest, so there never was such a host; and yet, throughout all the transcendent hospitality binding him by new ties, he kept the loyalty of his heart-he did not forget the African slave. But his country had further need of his services. Charles X. undertook to subvert the charter under which he held his crown; Paris was again aroused, and France was heaving. Then did all eyes turn to the patriot farmer of Lagrange, to the hero