tisms of light and love, which are fast converting our nineteenth century into one grand Pentecost. It is the voice of resurrection, saying, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

The unity of the American race includes also the mingling of blood, which, subject to the control of true instincts and sound conventional propriety, obeys the physiological laws of animal regeneration and strength, and must gradually bring out proportions and powers fitted for great achievements, a physique which shall rise to possibilities, only indicated by the endurance and stalwart might of our armies in all the wars through which we have yet passed.

Our varied climates, invigorating air, and inevitable activity, have contributed to this result. In subduing the forests, cultivating our vast prairies, and developing the mechanical industry and commerce of the country, our people have added much to the size of bone and strength of muscle, the power of nerve and energy of will, which tend to give the true American unparalleled powers of endurance and triumph in any field of conflict which God may require him to enter.

No doubt, disobedience to the laws of health, and deepseated immoralities, have often antagonized and defeated this great providential plan of forming a mighty race of men for achievements above the reach of dwarfed and enfeebled humanity. It is the mission of true Christian education to counteract these depraved tendencies; the grand purpose of a true inward and outward regeneration, and a progressive scientific system of moral and physical health, to rescue our new and vigorous race from these destructive agencies, and test the rights of purified, elevated humanity to long life and great deeds in a sphere as much above that which we have yet reached, as our present is above that of the wasting savages of these continental forests.

Then the magnificent scenery of our mountains and rivers and lakes, the vastness of our country, and the ever-increas

44

ing demands upon our utmost powers, will come in to help God and conscience make us great.

Freedom relieved from the taint of slavery, and the sovereign rights of freemen exercised by Americans, without the restrictions of caste, will give dignity and power to the true American; while the far-famed ingenuity, industry, versatility, and energy of the Republic will render her exhaustless resources available.

With these advantages, under the prestige of a mighty past, and with these healthy, vitalizing forces working against our vices, thirty-four millions six hundred and five thousand eight hundred and eighty-two American people are now, under the control of Providence, moving onward in the front ranks of modern Christian civilization.

CHAPTER II.

DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY.

"Freedom of a low and limited order is mere caprice. Freedom does not exist as original and natural. Rather must it be first sought out and won, and that by an incalculable medial discipline of the intellectual and moral powers. Freedom is spirit in its completeness. Society and the State are the very conditions in which freedom is realized. Reason is the comprehension of the divine work. The strength of a nation lies in the reason incorporated in it. The conception of God constitutes the general basis of a people's character."- HEGEL.

THE earliest struggles of liberty are indications of torture under the wrongs of oppression. Men in pain seek relief; and the right to relief from the miseries inflicted by despotism is an instinct which moves the sufferer to act in self-defence, without waiting for a logical vindication: hence the violence which struggles with power, without regard to the question whether there is any hope or possibility of relief, but which must sometimes be followed by a conviction of impotence, and a feeling of sullen despair, and finally of unavoidable submission.

But God does not permit this submission to pass into satisfaction. He rouses up the soul to a consciousness of its individuality, of its own dignity, of its felt claims to freedom. He stirs up the reason; and a higher sense of justice takes position, and begins to question the rights of despotic rulers, and to demand release from exactions which are unjust and oppressive. When these demands are resisted and denied, then comes the question of power. If the reason is low, and its arguments are unreliable, the attempts at self-vindication are likely to be premature and reckless. In the higher exercise of reason, two questions are considered,—

can the wrong be conquered by force? and are not moral means, without force, due under the circumstances, and hopeful of success?

The founders of the Great Republic had passed through all these stages, — first in England, then in America. They had shown the higher manifestations of reason in the persistent struggles of logic before resistance in battle. They had passed through the conflicts of the Revolution, and found themselves free, in the sense of release from foreign domination. They had, moreover, settled the form of government, determined that it should not be monarchical, but republican; that it should not be irresponsible, but constitutional; that it should be democratic, but representative; that the paramount allegiance of the citizen should be to the General Government, and all State authority should adjust itself to the good of the nation. This was the evident purpose; and it was undeniably in the scope and intention of the Constitution which superseded the old Articles of Confederation. But it was not universally acknowledged. It was contested by the States-right party, through a period of nearly a hundred years, with great ability and zeal; and the opposition to a true nationality finally led to treason and blood. The question was left to the arbitrament of the sword; and the vindication of national over State sovereignty followed one of the most gigantic and cruel wars of modern times.

This, however, was the growth of liberty. The freedom of the individual seemed, at first, all that could be expected, and almost too much to ask. Deliverance from persecution on account of religious belief and practice, from unjust and tyrannical executions, seemed the greatest blessing that could be conferred. When, however, the struggle rose to a complete emancipation from foreign power, and American independence had been proclaimed, vindicated, and acknowledged, large ideas of personal rights were the natural result; and the growth of national feeling and intelligence was at

first slow, revealing only gradually its organic existence and power. When, however, it rose distinctly to sight, it was found to be the true American idea; and the feeling that the national character and rights of the people must outgrow, or conquer by force, all local and State assumptions inconsistent with it, at length became strong and irresistible.

PERSONAL LIBERTY.

It was not easy to ascertain precisely what the colonists had gained. Liberty was the word instinctively used to express it; but the people, generally, were far from a clear apprehension of the meaning of the term. The great statesmen of the Revolution excluded from the idea many of the radical and irresponsible notions of the masses, but differed widely as to what it did actually include. Indeed, broad and comprehensive views of liberty cannot be claimed for the times in which our republican institutions had their birth. From the very necessities of historical civilization, these must be an outgrowth from the radical principles, obtaining position amid the life-and-death struggles of a great revolution.

Reflection is subsequent to passion or sentiment; and, when it commences its examinations, it condemns and excludes much which feeling asserts and demands. Consciousness finds free volitions within. The mind, from the mere love of power, exercises itself in willing; takes excursions in various directions to show to itself that it can determine one way and another, that it can resolve exact opposites. It receives and repels influences from without; weighs motives, and first accepts, then rejects them; even choosing to be governed, apparently, for the mere independence of the thing, by those which are felt and acknowledged to be by far the less in strength and claims.

This is primary liberty, the starting-point of all free action and free institutions; and, in the perverseness of human