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will sustain every expense compatible with the honor, dignity, prosperity, and happiness of the nation.

12 These, sir, are treasures, with which millions, nay, with which all the riches of Potosi, and all the treasures of Golconda will not bear a comparison. Finally, sir, virtue and intelligence, are the two great pillars, on which rests your republican edifice, the ark of your political safety, which was projected by superior wisdom, and erected by the purest patriotism; the materials of which were bought with the choicest blood that ever besprinkled the altar of liberty; and unless these pillars are constantly kept, well propped and guarded, your fair fabric, which stands without a parallel in the history of nations, and the admiration of the civilized world, will totter-fall-and crumble to ruins.

SECTION VII.

Importance of general information, in popular Governments:-Extracts of a letter from the Hon. JAMES MADISON, addressed to the chairman of the school committee of the legislature of Kentucky, dated Montpelier, August, 4, 1822.

1 The liberal appropriations made by the legislature of Kentucky, for a general system of education, cannot be too much applauded. A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will ever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

2 Throughout the civilized world, nations are courting the praise of fostering science and the useful arts; and are opening their eyes to the principles and the blessings of representative government. The American people owe it to themselves, and to the cause of free government, to prove by their establishments for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge, that their political institutions which are attracting observation from every quarter, are as favorable to the intellectual and moral improvement of man, as they are conformable to his individual and social rights. What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of liberty and learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

3 I know not that I can offer, on the occasion, any suggestion not likely to occur to the committee. Were I to

hazard one, it would be in favor of adding to reading, writing and arithmetic, to which the instruction of the poor is commonly limited, some knowledge of geography, such as can easily be conveyed by a globe and map, and a concise geographical grammar. And how easily and quickly might a general idea even be conveyed of the solar system, by the aid of a planetarium of the cheapest construction.

4 No information seems better calculated to expand the mind and gratify curiosity, than what would thus be imparted. This is especially the case with what relates to the globe we inhabit, the nations among which it is divided, and the characters and customs which distinguish them. An acquaintance with foreign countries, in this mode, has a kindred effect with that of seeing them as travellers: which never fails, in uncorrupted minds, to weaken local prejudices, and enlarge the sphere of benevolent feelings.

5 A knowledge of the globe, and its various inhabitants, however slight, might moreover create a taste for books of travels and voyages; out of which might grow a general taste for history, an inexhaustible fund of entertainment and instruction. Any reading not of a vicious species, must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

SECTION VIII.

Prospects of America:-from the address of JONATHAN ROBERTS, Esq. President of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, delivered at their first annual Exhibition, October, 1823.

1 It is impossible to survey the progress of human affairs, without being devoutly impressed with the wisdom and beneficence of the Creator in opening to man endless hopes of improvement. What wonderful ameliorations of his condition do we find through that period to which history extends?

2 What clearer demonstration can be required, that further and higher improvements are to him attainable? How short a time since this extensive and flourishing republic was overrun by a few hordes of wretched savages, who existed in a state little advanced above the irrational creation.

3 Our ancestors were permitted to bring with them to these newly found shores, the civilization of thirty centuries: and to leave very many of the errors and vices handed down from darker periods, in the land of their fathers. They seem to

have been led by one of those signal dispensations of Providence, which promise mighty blessings to the human family.

4 Though formidable obstacles were opposed, yet what amazing results have a period of less than two centuries produced. It was not merely a wilderness, separated from the civilized world by a watery expanse of a thousand leagues, that was to be tamed and cultivated—the unjust restrictions of the mother country were to be courageously resisted; even though supported by tremendous power, and maintained with ferocious obstinacy.

5 Thanks to a kind Providence, a brighter prospect opens on us. No soil seems left in which the seeds of future conflicts can vegetate. Our country is called upon to realize all the philanthropist can wish or hope.

6 In establishing for themselves and their posterity the rights of a separate and independent community, and in consecrating the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty as the corner stone of their polity, our fathers planted the seeds from which we, their children, may hope to gather, under the blessings of that Providence which has so eminently watched over us, an abundant harvest of individual and social happiness.

7 It would be little reasonable to expect that the great results, which in the economy of Providence may be reserved for this western world, should reach an early consummation. The history of all times proves that moral advancements are the more durable for having been gradually attained. Their solidity, it would seem, was in the ratio of their march.

8 The cultivation of the youthful mind is the lever which must raise individuals and communities-It is not the business of a day to diffuse through a whole community a taste for reading and a relish for knowledge. It must be the work of time, under the influence of wise laws faithfully and diligently administered.

9 A high state of moral improvement can justly be looked for only when a people are happy-plenty is an essential ingredient in the elements of individual and social happiness. Among the pursuits promotive of public prosperity, the cultivation of the soil, and rural industry, stand pre-eminent. It would be useless to insist upon a truth so obvious.

10 With us the rural population will ever be most numerous. Though individually they may not be the most wealthy, they must collectively be the possessors of the greater portion of national wealth. In the community of public bur

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dens, they will ever sustain a full share. I claim for them, however, no extraordinary merit or virtue.

11 The tilling of the soil has every where been deemed honorable, but the farmers of United America seem destined to form a more respectable and more intelligent body of men than those of any other country. Their numbers, and our political institutions, secure to them much considerationEducation is within their reach. They are invited to the acquisition of knowledge. Intelligence and virtue are every where secure of respect.

12 After a long period of calamity and carnage, suffering humanity has demanded, not in vain, a pacificated world. A state of peace has thrown nations very much upon their own resources; such is emphatically our attitude at present. We must seek to produce those things at home, which we can obtain no longer abroad on the principle of exchange, and they are only so to be obtained without certain and speedy ruin. It ought to be our felicity, that the resources of this widely spread and growing empire are immense, and that the energies of a free people may be directed to develope them.

13 Our heretofore national prosperity has given us a taste for productions which we must either seek to domesticate or forego their use. Wine, silk and tea, may be named among these conveniences.-Millions are annually exported and expended to obtain for us those articles.

14 Household industry comprehends an essential interest in rural economy. It is the department in which the influence of that sex, to whom we are bound by the strongest ties of love and gratitude, is most conspicuous-it is the scene where the thrift, the ingenuity, the taste and intelligence of woman, has full latitude of operation.

15 How many comforts-how many enjoyments are accumulated how many endearments are secured, by raising her to her proper elevation! A community will be formed, refined and happy, in proportion as woman is secure of respect. Employment is ever the shield of innocence, and the nurse of virtue.

16 In a farmer's house it is the best maxim, to make what you can, even when foreign commodities are most depressed. Who would not prefer having their spinner, their dyer, their clothier, for their neighbors, rather than in a foreign land? Independently of all interested considerations, we must delight to cultivate an interchange of kindnesses and mutual

good offices. How much must life languish where they are wanted!

17 It is not in relation to the comforts of families only, that household manufactures deserve high regard and consideration: They are of essential importance to national prosperity. The community whose time is the most carefully and usefully employed, will be the most flourishing. Where there is no household manufactures, much time will be consumed to little purpose, and much expense must accrue, to purchase that which is not produced.

Thus

18 The wealth sent abroad for foreign conveniences, as things now are, will slowly, perhaps not at all, return. the nation will become impoverished. National penury must militate against individual and domestic happiness. It is a point of sound policy, to nourish a taste for household manufactures-It is for the ladies to facilitate and effect their es tablishment-Teach them it is for their country's good, and they will do their duty.

SECTION IX.

Persuasive to early Piety and Moral Rectitude:-from an address delivered by FREDERICK BEASLY, D. D. Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, to the senior class of the students, on the 22d of July, 1821.

MY YOUNG BRETHREN,

1 Your intentions, are, no doubt, at this time upright, and all your views laudable.-The evil propensities and passions which are common to your race, you must be presumed to possess, but they have not yet gained the ascendency over your better powers. If vicious inclinations have occasionally transported you into excess, this excess has been speedily succeeded by remorse and penitence, which have operated as an immediate corrective of such evil.

2 Whatever may have been the follies or vices, into which you may have been hurried, habits of irregularity and excess are not yet contracted, and evil propensities have not subjected you to their dominion. From your commerce with a corrupt world, and exposure to the allurements of its pleasures, and its temptations to dishonor, you have not yet relaxed your principles or tainted your morals.

3 If you are beginning to lisp the language of profanity, a delicate and sensitive conscience gives you warning of the outrage you are committing against God. If you have given way to the impulses of unbridled passions, the pangs of

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