JK
1763 F7
1880
1
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, March
30, 1878.
BY
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
BOSTON: HOUGHTON, OSGOOD AND COMPANY. (Pe
Htoermfce Ipreacf, (JDarabnUff* .
1880.
Copyright, 1878,
BT RALPH
WALDO
All rights reserved.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND FEINTED BY H- 0.
HOUOHTON AND COMPANT.
JK 7
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
IT
is
a rule that holds in economy as well
you must have a source
as in hydraulics, that
higher than your tap.
The
mills, the shops,
the theatre and the caucus, the college and
the church, have
The lose
sailors sail
all
two or three seconds
Newton explained
way
found out
to
this secret.
by chronometers that do not to
in
a year, ever since
Parliament that the
improve navigation was to get good
watches, and to offer public premiums for a better
time-keeper than
any then in
use.
The manufacturers
rely on turbines of hy-
draulic
the carpet-mill, on mor-
perfection
;
iants and dyes which exhaust the skill of the chemist
;
the calico print, on designers
2
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
of genius
who draw
the wages of artists, not
Wedgewood, the eminent potbravely took the sculptor Flaxman to
of artisans. ter,
counsel,
who
museums
" Send to Italy, search the
said,
for the forms of old
sels of all kinds."
called
their
They
Etruscan vases,
and
urns, water-pots, domestic
sacrificial ves-
built great
works and
manufacturing village Etruria.
Greek
Flaxman, with
his
combined the
loveliest
executed in English clay
taste, selected
sent boxes of these
;
as gifts to every court of Europe,
the taste of the world. of the breakfast table
It
and
and
which were
forms,
and formed
was a renaissance china-closet.
The
brave manufacturers made their fortune. The jewellers imitated the revived models in
sil-
ver and gold.
The
theatre avails itself of the best talent
of poet, of painter,
make
and
of
amateur
the ensemble of dramatic
marine insurance
office
has
counsellor to settle averages
its ;
of taste, to
effect.
The
mathematical
the life-assur-
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
The wine mer-
ance, its table of annuities.
chant has his analyst and
He
quisite the better.
3
taster,
the more ex-
has also, I fear, his
debts to the chemist as well as to the vineyard.
Our modern wealth
stands on a few staples,
and the interest nations took in our war was exasperated by the importance of the cotton trade. of
And what
is
cotton
One
?
plant out
some two hundred thousand known to the
botanist, vastly the larger part of
And what
reckoned weeds.
is
which are
a weed
?
A
plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered, every one of the two hundred thousand probably yet to be of utility in the arts.
As Bacchus
wheat, as
of the vine,
Ceres of the
Arkwright and Whitney were the
demi-gods of cotton, so bring an inventor
to
prolific
Time
every plant.
not a property in nature but a mind to
seek and find
it.
For
it
is
will yet
There is
is
born
not the plants
or the animals, innumerable as they are, nor
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
4
the whole magazine of material nature that
sum
can give the
of power,
but the
new
thinking man, every equivalent to a
new
infinite
hands of
applicability of these things in the
application being
material.
Our sleepy civilization, ever since Roger and Monk Schwartz invented gun-
Bacon
powder, has built fortification
its
whole art
by land and
sea,
of
all
all
war, drill
and
military education, on that one compound,
an extension of a gun-barrel,
all is
and
is
very scornful about bows and arrows, and reckons
Ages
Greeks and
little
Romans and Middle
better than Indians
arrow times.
As
if
and bow-and-
the earth, water, gases,
lightning and caloric had not a million energies,
the discovery of any one of which could
change the art of war again, and put an end to
wai by the exterminating forces man can
apply.
Now,
if
this is true in all the useful
in the fine arts, that the direction
and
must be
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
drawn from a superior source be no good work, does social
and
or there will
hold
less in
our
civil life ?
In our popular
politics
who
each aspirant
however
it
5
at first
rises
making
ticeship in party tactics,
you may note that above the crowd,
his obedient apprenif
he have sagacity,
by no means by obeythe of his party, the weathercock ing vulgar of it, that the and whims resentments, fears, soon learns that
is
it
power is gained, but that he must often and resist the party, and abide by his that the resistance, and put them in fear real
face
;
title to
only
their
a larger following, is
permanent respect, and to is to see for himself what
the real public interest, and to stand for
that
;
that
is
a principle, and
all
the cheer-
ing and hissing of the crowd must by and
accommodate afford
itself
to
it.
Our times
you very good examples. of water and all fluids
The law wit.
Prince Metternich
said,
is
by
easily
true of
" Revolutiona
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
6
begin in the best heads and run steadily to the populace."
It
down
a very old observa-
is
tion; not truer because Metternich said
and not
it,
less true.
There have been revolutions which were not in the interest of feudalism and barba-
And
rism, but in that of society.
these are
distinguished not by the numbers of the com-
batants nor the numbers of the slain, but
No
the motive.
interest
now
by
attaches to the
wars of York and Lancaster, to the wars of
German,
French,
and
emperors,
Spanish
which were only dynastic wars, but to those These in which a principle was involved. are read with passionate interest and never lose their pathos is
aimed by
by time.
ideas,
convictions are behind
what they
live for,
When
the cannon
when men with it,
die for
and the mainspring that
works daily urges them to hazard the cannon articulates voice of a
religious
when men
its
man, then the
all,
then
explosions with the
rifle
seconds the can-
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
7
non and the fowling-piece the rifle, and the women make the cartridges, and all shoot at one mark
;
then gods join in the
combat
;
then poets are born, and the better code of laws at last records the victory.
Now
the culmination of these triumphs of
humanity
and which did
the extinction of slavery
virtually include is
the planting of
America.
At
every
moment some one country more
than any other represents the sentiment and the
future of
mankind.
None
will
doubt
that America occupies this place in the opinion of nations, as
is
proved by the fact
of the
vast immigration into this country from all the nations of Western and Central Europe.
And when the selves
the
adventurers have planted them-
and looked about, they send back
money they can
all
spare to bring their
friends.
Meantime they
find this country just pass-
ing through a great
crisis
in its history, as
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
8
necessary as lactation or dentition or puberty to
the
days
human
We
individual.
settling for ourselves
are in these
and our descend-
ants questions which, as they shall be deter-
mined
in one
or the other, will
way
make
the peace and prosperity or the calamity of
The
the next ages.
questions of Education,
of Society, of Labor, the direction of talent, of
and habits
character, the nature
American,
may
of the
well occupy us, and more the
question of Religion.
The new
conditions of
mankind in America
are really favorable to progress, the removal of
absurd restrictions and antique inequali-
ties. is
The mind
used, and here
humblest
is
is
always better the more
it is
daily challenged to give his opin-
ion on practical questions, social
freedom
sense.
trance -mediums,
and while
civil
and
exists, nonsense even has a
favorable effect.
common
it
The
kept in practice.
Cant
The
is
good to provoke Church, the
Catholic
the rebel paradoxes,
exas-
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
common
perate the
The
sense.
paradox, the more sure
is
Punch
9
wilder the
to put it in
the pillory.
The lodging
the power in the people, as in
republican forms, has the
common
things closer to
effect of
holding
sense; for a court
or an aristocracy, which must always be a
more
run into
small
minority,
follies
than a republic, which has too
to allow its :
easily
many
each with a vote in his hand,
observers,
nonsense
can
head
to
be turned by any kind of
since hunger, thirst, cold, the cries
of children,
and debt, are always holding the
masses hard to the essential duties.
One hundred
years ago the American peo-
ple attempted to carry out the bill of political rights to
have since.
an almost ideal perfection.
made great
They
are
by their success, to
strides
now
bill of
human
duties.
They
direction
proceeding, instructed
and by
carry out not the
in that
their
bill of
many
failures,
rights,
but the
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
10
And
look what revolution that attempt
of
in-
Hitherto government has been that
volves.
the single
person or of the aristocracy.
In this country the attempt to it is
elements,
resist these
must throw us into
asserted,
the government not quite of mobs, but in practice
of
politicians,
an inferior
class of
who by means
of
professional
newspapers and
caucuses really thrust their unworthy minority into the place of the old aristocracy
one
side,
and
taught but unambitious other,
win the posts
direction to affairs.
and
on the
of the good, industrious, well-
legislatures
of
population on the
power, and give their
Hence
ordain,
liberal congresses
to
the surprise of
the people, equivocal, interested, and vicious
measures.
The men themselves
are suspected
and charged with lobbying and being lobbied. No measure is attempted for itself, but the opinion of the people place,
and the
is
measures
Carried through as
courted in the are
secondary.
first
perfun.ctorily
We
do not
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. choose our
own
man's
choice,
first
candidate,
11
candidate, no, nor any other
whom,
but only the available
perhaps, no
man
We
loves.
do not speak what we think, but grope after the practicable and available. Instead of there
character,
tered.
mind
are
They
country
is
is
a studious exclusion of
The people
character.
not
are feared
and
flat-
The
reprimanded.
governed in bar-rooms, and in the
of bar-rooms.
The low can
best
win
the low, and each aspirant for power vies
with his rival which can stoop lowest, and depart widest from himself.
The
partisan on moral, even on religious
questions, will choose a proven
can answer the tionate, noble
ing to be a
The
tests,
gentleman ; the partisan ceasthat he may be a sectarian.
man
spirit of
and degrading.
our political economy
The
own
is
low
precious metals are not
so precious as they are esteemed. for his
who
rogue
over an honest, affec-
sake, and not to
Man
exists
add a laborer
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
12
to the state.
The
spirit of
our political ac-
most part, considers nothing less than the sacredness of man. Party sacrifices tion, for the
man
to the measure.
We have seen
the great party of property
and education in the country
drivelling
and
Huckstering away, for views of party fear or
advantage, every principle of humanity and the dearest hopes of mankind; the trustees of
power only energetic when mischief could evil was to
be done, imbecile as corpses when be prevented.
Our great men succumb of the
day
so far to the forms
as to peril their integrity for the
sake of adding to the weight of their personal character the authority of
ing a real government are full of adventurers, cation
and
social
the state, break
office,
titular.
or
mak-
politics
who having by edu-
innocence a good repute in
away from
the law of hon-
esty and think they can afford devil's party.
Our
to join the
'Tis odious, these offenders in
13
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. high
life.
You
rally to the support of old
charities
and the cause
there, to
be sure, are these brazen
of
literature, faces.
and In
you are puzzled how to meet them; must shake hands with them, under this innocence
We
protest. ister
feel
toward them as the min-
about the Cape Cod farm,
time when the minister was
still
make a prayer
the spring, to
ing of a piece of land, to
in the old
invited, in
for the bless-
the good pastor
the spot, stopped short
being brought " No, this land does not want a prayer, this :
land wants manure." " 'T
is
virtue which they want,
Honor no garment
and wanting
it,
to their backs can fit."
Parties keep the old names, but exhibit a surprising fugacity in
creeping out of one
snake-skin into another of equal ignominy
and
and the grasshopper on the
lubricity,
turret of Faneuil Hall gives a proper hint of
the
men
below.
Everything
yields.
The very
glaciers are
14
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
viscous or regelate into conformity,
and the
and compromise; so patriots that will cannot be depended on to save us. falter
Btiffest
How
rare are acts of will to custom
living according
people do,
all
;
and shrink from an act
Every such act makes a can
We
!
we do
man
count the few cases,
when a
our time,
are all as
of our
other
own.
famous, and we half a dozen in
public
man
ventured to
act as he thought, without waiting for orders or for public opinion.
was a man
John Quincy Adams
of an audacious independence that
always kept the public curiosity alive in regard to what he might do. dict his word,
not gainsay
it
None
could pre-
and a whole congress could when it was spoken. General
man of will, and his phrase on one memorable occasion, " I will take the Jackson was a
responsibility,"
is
a proverb ever
since.
The American marches with a swagger to the height less of his
own
of
careless
power, very heed-
liberty, or of other peoples',
FORTUNE OF THE EEPUBLIC. in his reckless confidence that all
he wants, risking
human
of the
revolutions
race,
and
all
15
he can have
the prized charters
bought with battles and
religion,
gambling them
all
for a paltry selfish gain.
away
He
sits
secure in the possession of his vast
domain, rich beyond
all
experience in re-
sources, sees its inevitable force unlocking itself in
year
;
elemental order day by day, year by looks from his coal-fields, his wheat-
bearing prairie, his gold-mines, to his two oceans on either side, and feels
.the security
no famine in a country reaching through so many latitudes, no want that cannot be supplied, no danger from any that
there can be
excess of importation of art or learning into
a country of such native strength, such im-
mense digestive power. In proportion to the personal ability
of
each man, he feels the invitation and career
which the country opens to him. fed with
He
is
easily
wheat and game, with Ohio wine, but
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
16
his brain is also
by
political
pampered by finer draughts, power and by the power in the
railroad board, in
This elevates his
the mills, or the banks.
spirits
and
gives, of course,
an easy self-reliance that makes him willed and unscrupulous. I think this levity
is
self-
a reaction on the peo-
ple from the extraordinary advantages and invitations of their condition.
When we
are
most disturbed by their rash and immoral voting,
They
it is
not malignity, but recklessness.
are careless of politics, because they do
not entertain the possibility of being seriously
caught in meshes of
legislation.
strong and irresistible.
They
They
feel
believe that
what they have enacted they can repeal if it. But one may run a risk once too often. They stay away from the
they do not like
polls,
saying that one vote can do no good
!
Or they take another step, and say one vote can do no harm and vote for something !
which they do not approve, because
their
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
17
Of course
this puts
party or set votes for
them in the power
it.
any party having a which does not
of
steady interest to promote, conflict manifestly
of the voters.
with the pecuniary interest
But
if
they should come to be
interested in themselves
and in
their career,
they would no more stay away from the election than
from their own counting-room or
the house of their friend.
The people
are right-minded
enough on
but they must pay their debts, and must have the means of living ethical
well,
questions,
and not pinching. So it is useless to them to go to a meeting, or to give a
rely on vote,
if
money
any check from
side arises.
If a
at their newspaper, or of
this must-have-the-
customer looks grave
damns
their
member
Congress, they take another newspaper,
and vote for another man.
They must have
a certain style of living fast bemoney, comes necessary ; they must take wine at the for
hotel, first, for the look of
it,
and second,
for
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
18
the purpose of sending the bottle to
two
or
and presently, because they have got the taste, and do not feel that they have dined without it. three gentlemen at the table
The
record of the election
alarms
people by the
choice of a rogue
was
it
;
done
?
now and
but
all
and brawler.
What
lawless
mob
then
unanimous
But how burst into
the polls and threw in these hundreds of bal-
the magistrates?
This
was done by the very men you know,
the
lots
defiance
in
most
mildest,
The
of
sensible,
best-natured people.
only account of this
is,
that they have
been scared or warped into some association in their
mind
of the candidate
with the in-
terest of their trade or of their property.
Whilst each cabal urges at last brings, with cheers strations,
men whose names
in
candidate,
and
are a knell to
all
good and wise are hidtheir active retirements, and are quite
.lope of progress, the
den
its
and street-demon-
out of question.
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. '
These we must join
That
to wake, for these are of the strain
justice dare defend,
Yet we know, integrity,
all
and
will the
age maintain."
over this country,
the public, mortified
disgrace,
men
of
capable of action and of affairs,
with the deepest sympathy in 2erns
19
and quite capable
all
that con-
by the of
any
national sacrifice
except of their honor.
Faults in the working appear in our system, as in edies.
all,
but they suggest their own rem-
After every practical mistake, out of
which any disaster grows, the people wake and correct it with energy. And any disturbances in
politics, in civil or
foreign wars,
sober them, and instantly show more virtue
and conviction in the popular
new
vote.
In each
threat of faction the ballot has been,
beyond expectation, right and decisive. 'Tis ever an inspiration, God only knows whence; a sudden, undated perception of eternal right coming into and correcting
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
20
that were wrong; a perception that
things
thousands
through
passes
as
readily
as
through one.
The
gracious lesson taught
this country
from less tion,
first
is,
by
science to
that the history of nature
to last
incessant advance from
is
more, from rude to finer organiza-
to
the globe of
matter thus conspiring
with the principle of undying hope in man.
Nature works in immense time, and spends individuals
new
and races prodigally to prepare
individuals and races.
The lower kinds
are one after one extinguished
forms come
in.
The
;
the higher
history of civilization,
or the refining of certain races to wonderful
power
of performance,
best civilization yet
is
is
analogous
;
but the
only valuable as a
ground of hope. Ours is the country
Here of poor men. here is the human democracy; practical race pouredout over the continent to do itself
is
'ustice
;
all
mankind
in its shirt-sleeves
;
not
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
men
grimacing like poor rich
21
in cities, pre-
tending to be rich, but unmistakably taking off its coat
really, it
when
labor
though you see wealth in the
and
at sparse points
population is
twelfth
is
;
sure
For
capitals,
men
in the
the bulk of the
In Maine, nearly every In Massachusetts, every
poor.
a lumberer.
man
is
the country.
all
only a sprinkling of rich
is
cities
man
to hard work,
This through
to pay.
a shoemaker, and the rest,
is
millers, farmers, sailors, fishermen.
Well, the result
instead of the doleful
is,
experience of the European economist, who " In almost all countries the conditells us,
tion of the great
body
of the people is
poor
and miserable," here that same great body has arrived at a sloven plenty,
;
ham and
enough have an unbuttoned comfort, not
corn-cakes, tight roof,
been attained
and
coals
clean, not thoughtful, far
from polished, with-
out dignity in his repose
;
and
restless
if
the
man awkward
he have not something to do,
22
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
but honest and kind, for the most part, understanding his
own
rights
and
stiff
to
main-
and disposed to give his children a better education than he received. tain them,
The
steady
improvement of the public and the country enables
schools in the cities
the farmer or laborer to secure a precious
primary education. It is rare to find a born American who cannot read and write. The with which
facility
young men and
are
clubs
formed
by
for discussion of social, political,
intellectual topics secures the notoriety
of the questions.
Our
institutions, of
unit, are
all
educates
fast.
which the town
educational,
The town meeting
the high school, a higher school. islature,
once on
The tion,,
to
is
the
for responsibility is,
The
after leg-
which every good farmer goes
trial, is
a superior academy.
result appears in the
power
of inven-
the freedom of thinking, in the readi-
ness for reforms, eagerness for novelty, even
23
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. for
all
the follies of false science
antipathy to secret societies, in the
in the
;
predom-
inance of the Democratic party in the politics of the Union,
and in the voice
of the public
even when irregular and vicious,
the voice
because
of
mobs, the voice of lynch law,
is
thought to be, on the whole, the verdict,
it
though badly spoken, of the greatest number. All this forwardness and self-reliance cover self-government; proceed on the belief that as the people have
can
make another
are not in their
and condition. can easily ster's
made
;
memory, but in their blood they unmake a law, they
If
make a new
In Mr.
one.
Web-
imagination the American Union was Rupert's drop, which will
a huge Prince
snap into atoms,
if
end be shivered
off.
different
from
law-abiding. xio
a government they
that their union and law
so
much
Now
as the smallest
the fact
is
quite
this.
The people
are loyal,
They
prefer order,
and have
taste for misrule
and uproar.
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
24
America was opened after the feudal miswas spent, and so the people made a
chief
start.
good
We
No inquisibegan well. no nobles, no dominant
tion here, no kings,
Here heresy has
church.
lost
its
terrors.
We
have eight or ten religions in every large town, and the most that comes of it a degree or two on the thermometer of
is
-
fashion
an
a
;
pew
in a particular church gives
easier entrance to the
We
subscription
ball.
began with freedom, and are defended
from shocks now for a century by the facility with which through popular assemblies every necessary measure of reform can instantly be carried. tion,
A
is
congress
a standing insurrec-
and escapes the violence
grievance.
As
of
the globe keeps
by perpetual change,
accumulated its
identity
so our civil system,
by
perpetual appeal to the people and accept-
ance of
its
reforms.
The government opinions
of
all
is
classes,
acquainted with
the
knows the leading
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
men
in the middle
knows the
class,
leaders
The President comes
of the humblest class.
near enough to these
25
;
he does not, the
if
the primary ward and town
caucus does,
meeting, and what
is
important does reach
him.
The men, shrill
the women,
indignation at
becoming of
all
over this land
their exclamations of impatience
what
in the
is
short-coming or at the
government,
humanity, of morality,
grounds of general
justice,
is
and un-
want
ever on broad
and not on the
which narrows the perception German people at home.
class-feeling
of English, French,
In this
we are a' nation of inwe have a highly intellectual that we can see and feel moral
fact, that
dividuals, that
organization, distinctions,
and that on such an organizamust tell,
tion sooner or later the moral laws to
such ears must speak,
hope.
For
if
in this
is
our
the prosperity of this country
has been merely the obedience
of
man
to
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
26
the guiding of nature, prairies,
is
yet
choose to speak this language; is
and
fate in corn
and
of great rivers
there fate above fate,
cotton, so
if
is
we
there
or, if
there fate
this, namely, that the largest
in thought,
thought and the widest love are born to victory,
and must
The
prevail.
revolution
the work of no man, but
is
the eternal effervescence of nature.
And we
did not work.
It
never
say that revolutions
beat all the insurgents, be they never so de-
termined and
politic
;
that the great interests
mankind, being at every moment through ages in favor of justice and the largest liber-
of
ty, will always,
from time to time, gain on Never
the adversary and at last win the day.
country had such a fortune, as tune, as this, in
and
its
men
call for-
its
history,
geography,
in its majestic possibilities.
We
have much to learn, much to correct,
a great deal of lying vanity. eagle must
fold his foolish wings
The spread and be
less
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. of a peacock
must keep
;
the thunderbolt
must
Our
realize
when he
it
is
wings to carry
commanded.
our rhetoric
national flag
be, because
his
is
27
and our
not affecting, as
We
rituals.
it
should
does not represent the popula-
some Balti-
tion of the United States, but
more or Chicago or Cincinnati
or Philadelphia
caucus; not union or justice, but selfishness
denial,
If we never put on the libertywe were freemen by love and selfthe liberty-cap would mean some-
thing.
I wish to see
and cunning. cap until
America not
like the
old powers of the earth, grasping, exclusive,
and narrow, but a benefactor such country ever was, hospitable to legislating for all nationalities.
made were
to help each other as ;
and
all
advancement
no
Nations were
much is
as
all nations,
by
as families ideas,
and
not by brute force or mechanic force.
In this country, with our practical understanding, there
is,
at present, a great sensual-
Ism, a headlong devotion to trade
and to the
28
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
conquest of the continent,
to each
man
as
large a share of the same as he can carve
an extravagant confidence in
for himself,
our talent and activity, which becomes, whilst successful,
a scornful materialism,
the fault, of course, that
it
reserved force whereon to
but with
has no depth, no fall
back when a
reverse comes.
That repose which ripeness of
man
is
is
the ornament and
That
not American.
re-
pose which indicates a faith in the laws of the universe, selves,
a faith that they will
gressed, or accelerated. slight
fulfil
and
vain.
easily depressed.
Our people
They See how
too
fast they extend
not at
considering the remote reaction and bank-
ruptcy, but with the same the
are
are easily elated and
the fleeting fabric of their trade, all
them-
and are not to be impeded, trans-
moment and
Esquimaux who
Our people
abandonment
to
the facts of the hour as the sells his
act on the
bed in the morning.
moment, and from
ex-
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. ternal impulse.
and
They
of his merit.
low
They
other,
and not from insight
follow a fact
and not
success,
some
lean on
all
this superstitiously,
29
skill.
fol-
they
;
as
Therefore,
soon as the success stops and the admirable
man
him
blunders, they quit
;
already they
remember that they long ago suspected judgment, and they transfer the repute judgment
to the next prosperous person
Of course
has not yet blundered.
makes them
as easily despond.
his
of
who
this levity
It
seems as
history gave no account of any society in which despondency came so readily to heart if
as
we
see
it
and
and even
vivacity,
and
prise
if
Young men
feel it in ours.
at thirty
earlier lose all spring
they
fail in their first
and
enter-
throw up the game.
The ficulty
source of mischief
with which
men
torpor of every day. tates the mass, breaks
gins motion.
is
the extreme dif-
are roused from the
Blessed
is all
this torpor,
up Corpora non agunt
that agi-
and be-
nisi soluta
,
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
30
the chemical rule
is
true in mind.
Contrast
change, interruption, are necessary to tivity
If
new
ac-
and new combinations.
a temperate wise
man
should look over
our American society, I think the
first
dan-
ger that would excite his alarm would be the
European buy much
men
better
which
is
:
country.
We
Europe that does not make us and mainly the expensiveness
ruining that country.
We
import
dancers, singers, laces, books of pat-
trifles,
terns,
influences on this of
modes, gloves, and cologne, manuals of
Gothic architecture, steam-made ornaments.
America
is
It
provincial.
is
an immense
Halifax.
See the secondariness and aping
of foreign
and English
life,
that runs through
this country, in building, in dress, in eating,
in books.
Every
village,
every city has
its
architecture, its costume, its hotel, its private
house, its church from England.
Our
politics
threaten her.
Her manners
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. threaten us.
Life
costly, that
it
31
grown and growing
is
threatens to kill us.
A
so
man
coming here as there to value himself on what he can buy. Worst of all, his ex-
is
not his own, but a far
is
pense
Osborne House or the of this is to
make
Elyse*e.
all
men
channels of inspiration from
We
lose
our
own
life.
bread
book of
It is
makes
tailor ;
man no
up
God
all
in
and descend
invention
A
copy of
alike; to extin-
guish individualism and choke
imitation.
off
The tendency the
man. into
longer conducts his
manufactured for him.
your dress
;
The
the baker your
from an imported your furniture; the Bishop
the upholsterer
of patterns
London your
faith.
In the planters of this country, in
the
seventeenth century, the conditions of the
country combined with the impatience of arbitrary
power which they brought from Engthem to a wonderful personal in-
!and, forced
dependence and to a certain heroic planting
.
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
32
and trading.
Later this strength appeared
in the solitudes of the
made
a hero
by
West, where a
man
is
the varied emergencies of his
and neighborhoods must combine
lonely farm,
against the Indians, or the horse-thieves, or
the river rowdies, by organizing themselves into committees of vigilance.
Thus the land
and sea educate the people, and bring out presence of mind, self-reliance, and hundred-
handed
These are the people
activity.
for
an emergency. They are not to be surprised, and can find a way out of any peril. This rough and ready force becomes them, and
makes them if
fit
citizens
we found them
tions,
and
civilizers.
But
clinging to English tradi-
which are graceful enough at home, as
the English Church, and entailed estates, and distrust of popular election,
we should
feel
this reactionary, and absurdly out of place. Let the passion for America cast out the
passion for Europe. the
earth
waits
Here for,
let there
exalted
be what
manhood,
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
What
country longs for
this
33
is personalities,
grand persons, to counteract its materialities. For it is the rule of the universe that corn shall serve
man, and not man corn.
They who
America
find
whom London and own homes,
can be spared to return to those
I not only see a career at
cities.
more genius than we have, but there
is
The
which
play whist
;
in
They
cities,
for
make themselves sit
in decorated
and burn tobacco and
the country they
sit idle in
and bar-rooms, and burn tobacco, and
gossip and sleep.
American
ness of sions,
I speak
duties.
club-houses in the
stores
home
more than
for
in the world.
class of
merry without
They complain life
;
no romance."
tion oi its destiny.
The
felon
is
of
of the flat-
" America has no
They have no They
illu-
percep-
are not Americans.
the logical extreme of the
epicure and coxcomb.
end
they for
insipid,
Paris have spoiled their
both, though
Selfish luxury
in one it
is
is
the
decorated
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
34
with refinements, and in the other brutal.
But
my
point
now
is,
that this spirit
not
is
American.
Our young men lack idealism. A man for must not be pure idealist, then he
success
will practically fail
must obey
;
but he must have ideas,
ideas, or
the horse he rides on.
he might
A man
be
as well
does not want
to be sun-dazzled, sun-blind; but every
man
must have glimmer enough to keep him from knocking his head against the walls. And and good and friendship, that I dread to hear well-born, gifted and amiable men, that
it is
in the interest of civilization
society of
they have this indifference, disposing them to this despair.
Of no use
men who study to do who can never is a new There to-day day.
are the
exactly as was done before,
understand that
never was such a combination as this of ours,
and the
any
rules to
history.
meet
We
it
are not set
want men
down
in
of original per-
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. ception and original action,
eyes wider
their
35
who can open
than to a nationality,
namely, to considerations of benefit to the can act in the interest of race,
human
civilization;
mind,
men
who can
a step forward.
of
elastic,
live in the
men
of
moral
moment and
take
Columbus was no backward-
creeping crab, nor was Martin Luther, nor
John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor Thomas and the Genius or Destiny of Jefferson ;
no log or sluggard, but a man incessantly advancing, as the shadow on the dial's face, or the heavenly body by whose
America
light it
The
is
is
marked.
flowering of civilization
man, the
man
is
the finished
of sense, of grace, of accom-
plishment, of social power,
the gentleman.
What hinders that he be born here? The new times need a new man, the complemental man,
whom plainly
this
Freer swing his arms
;
country must furnish.
farther pierce his eyes
more forward and forthright
his
;
whole build
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
36
and is
than the Englishman's, who, we
rig
much imprisoned 'T
is
certain that it
incomplete,
our civilization
is
yet
has not ended, nor given sign
ending, in a hero.
of
see,
in his backbone.
'Tis a wild democ-
racy; the riot of mediocrities and dishonesties
and fudges.
Ours
is
the age of the om-
nibus, of the third person plural, of
Tammany
Hall. Is it that nature has only so force,
and must
dilute
tiplied into millions ?
Then
it
if it is
The
much
vital
to be
mul-
beautiful
is
never
loins,
and Indiana, with must needs be ordi-
It is not a question
whether we shall be
plentiful.
their
spawning
Illinois
nary.
a multitude of people.
No, that has been,
conspicuously decided already
we
shall
;
but whether
be the new nation, the guide and
lawgiver of
all
nations,
as
having clearly
chosen and firmly held the simplest and best rule of political society.
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
Now, this
if
37
the spirit which years ago armed
country against rebellion, and put forth
such gigantic energy in the charity of the Sanitary
be waked to the
Commission, could
conserving and creating duty of making the laws just and humane, it were to enroll a great constituency of religious, self-respecting, brave, tender, faithful obeyers of duty, lovers of
men,
filled
with loyalty to each other, and
with the simple and sublime purpose of carrying out in private and in public action the desire
and need
Here
is
of
mankind.
the post where the patriot should
plant himself ; here the altar where vii'tuous
young men, those
to
whom
friendship
the
is
dearest covenant, should bind each other to loyalty,
where genius should kindle
and bring forgotten truth men.
to
the
its
fires
eyes
of
Let the good citizen perform the duties ^ut on him here and now. It is not possible to extricate yourself
from the questions
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
38 in
which your age
is
involved.
It is not
by
heads reverted to the dying Demosthenes, or to Luther, or to Wallace, or to
George Fox, com-
or to George Washington, that you can
bat the dangers and dragons that beset the
United States at this time.
I believe this
cannot be accomplished by dunces or idlers, but requires docility, sympathy, and religious receiving from higher principles like religion, is a short like all
power
;
for liberty,
and hasty
subsists only
fruit,
by new
and
rallyings
on the source of inspiration. Power can be generous. The very grandeur of the means which offer themselves to us should suggest grandeur in the direction of
our expenditure.
If our
mechanic
unsurpassed in usefulness, the river
to'
make
and the bolt
of
if
arts are
we have taught
shoes and nails and carpets,
heaven to write our
like a Gillott pen, let these
letters
wonders work
for
honest humanity, for the poor, for justice, genius, and the public good.
Let us
realize
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. that this country, the last found,
charity of
God
to the
America should
human
affirm
is
39 the great
race.
and establish that
in no instance shall the guns go in advance of
We
the present right.
shall not
make
and afterwards explain and pay, proceed like William Penn, or what-
coups d'etat
but shall
ever other Christian or treats
humane person who
with the Indian or the foreigner, on
principles of honest trade tage.
We can
and mutual advan-
see that? the Constitution
and
the law in America must be written on ethical principles, so that
spiritual
the entire power of the
world shall hold the citizen
loyal,
and repel the enemy as by force of nature. It should be mankind's bill of rights, or Royal Proclamation of the Intellect ascending the throne, announcing its good pleasure, that
now, once for
by common The end
all,
the world shall be governed
sense and law of morals. of all political struggle
is
to
es-
tablish morality as the basis of all legislation.
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
40
'T is not free institutions, racy that
means.
is
Morality
We
ment.
want a
't is
not a democ-
no, but only the
the end,
is
the object of govern-
state of things in
which
crime will not pay, a state of things which allows every ible
man
the largest liberty compat-
with the liberty
Humanity
of
every other man.
asks that government shall not
be ashamed to be tender and paternal, but that democratic institutions shall be more thoughtful for the interests of women, for the training of children, and for the welfare
and unable persons, and serious care was ever any the best gov-
of sick
of criminals, than
ernment
The
of the old world.
genius of the country has marked out
our true policy,
opportunity.
Opportunity
of civil rights, of education, of personal power,
and not
less of
could have
without
If I
free trade with all the world
it,
toll
wealth ; doors wide open.
or custom-houses, invitation as
we now make
to every nation, to every race
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC. and
skin, white
black
men
laws to
41
men, red men, yellow men, and equal
hospitality of fair field
;
Let them compete, and success
all.
to the strongest, the wisest,
and the
The
soil
for
land
wide enough, the
is
best.
has bread
all.
I
hope America will come to have its pride and not of the
in being a nation of servants,
How can men have any other ambiwhere the reason has not suffered a dis-
served. tion
astrous eclipse ? to the
I serve,
I apply in
my
my
Whilst every whole extent
man of
faculty to the service of
can say
my
being
mankind
he therein sees and
especial place,
shows a reason for his being in the world, and is not a moth or incumbrance in it.
The
distinction
stituted
man
is
and end
on
all his faculties.
he
exists.
a
man
As
for his
of a
Use
soundly con-
Use
his labor. is
the tree exists for
work.
A
is
inscribed
the end to which its fruit, so
fruitless plant,
an
idle animal, does not stand in the universs.
FORTUNE OF JHE REPUBLIC.
42
They
are
all
toiling,
however secretly or and
slowly, in the province assigned them, to a use in the
of the world
economy
;
the
higher and more complex organizations, to
higher and more catholic service.
seems to play, by
his instincts
a certain part that even
tells
And man
and
activity,
on the general
face of the planet, drains swamps, leads rivers
dry countries for their
into
perforates forests
irrigation?
and stony mountain-chains
with roads, hinders the inroads of the sea on the continent, as
if
dressing the globe for
happier races.
On
the whole, I
know
that the cosmic re-
be the same, whatever the daily events may be. Happily we are under better sults will
guidance than of statesmen. coal mines, labor,
and
though not
Pennsylvania
shipping, and free
idealists, gravitate
in the
less large
than jus-
can keep them in good temper.
Justice
ideal direction. tice
New York
satisfies
Nothing
everybody, and justice alone.
No
43
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
monopoly must be
foisted in,
no weak party
or nationality sacrificed, no coward compro-
mise conceded to a strong partner.
one of these ,
national
is
Every
the seed of vice, war, and It
disorganization.
is
our part to
carry out to the last the ends of liberty and justice.
We
shall stand, then, for vast in-
and south, east and west,
terests; north
will
be present to our minds, and our vote will
be as
if
they voted, and
we
shall
know
our vote secures the foundations of the
that
state,
good-will, liberty and security of traffic
and mutual increase
of production,
and
of good-
will in the great interests.
Our helm
is
than our own
given
up
to a better guidance
the course of events
is
quite
too strong for any helmsman, and our
little
;
wherry is taken in tow by the ship of the great Admiral which knows the way, and has the force to draw
men and
states
and planets
to their good.
Such and so potent
is
this
high method by
44
FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC.
which the Divine Providence sends the est benefits
under the mask
I do not think
we
shall
chief-
of calamities, that
by any perverse
in-
genuity prevent the blessing.
In seeing this guidance of events, in seeing example that has rested
this felicity without
on the Union thus
will
far, I find
new
and endeavor were more
to the work.
confidence
I could heartily wish that our
for the future.
But
light breaking.
active parties
I see in all directions the
Trade and government
will
not alone be the" favored aims of mankind,
but every useful, every elegant
art,
every
exercise of imagination, the height of reason,
the noblest affection, the purest religion will find their
home
in our institutions,
our laws for the benefit of men.
%/Ti
and write
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book
is
DUE on
SEP 2 3
the last date stamped below.
1988
REC'D LD-URL FEB o 7
JAN 16
OCT082