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ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES.

ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES

THE DESTINY OF AMERICA.'

THIS scene is new to me, a stranger in Ohio, and it must be in a degree surprising even to yourselves. On these banks of the Scioto, where the elk, the buffalo, and the hissing serpent haunted not long ago, I see now mills worked by mute mechanical laborers, and warehouses rich in the merchandise of many climes. Steeds of vapor on iron roads, and electrical messengers on pathways which divide the air, attest the concentration of many novel forms of industry, while academic groves, spacious courts, and majestic domes, exact the reverence always eminently due to the chosen seats of philosophy, religion, and government.

What a change, moreover, has, within the same short period, come over the whole country that we love so justly and so well. High arcs of latitude and longitude have shrunk into their chords, and American language, laws, religion, and authority, once confined to the Atlantic coast, now prevail from the northern lakes to the southern gulf, and from the stormy eastern sea to the tranquil western

ocean.

Nevertheless, it is not in man's nature to be content with present attainment or enjoyment. You say to me, therefore, with excusable impatience, "Tell us, not what our country is, but what she shall be. Shall her greatness increase? Is she immortal?"

I will answer you according to my poor opinion. But I pray you first, most worthy friends, to define the greatness and immortality you so vehemently desire.

1 Oration at the Dedication of Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, September 14, 1853. VOL. IV.

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