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All this has been done before the eyes of men and angels and God, and we are permitted to behold the glorious triumph of the right. This day, liberty in the United States of America is more perfectly defined, and armed with a more potential life, than could ever have been possible if "the vilest slavery that ever saw the sun," "the sum of all villanies," had not been here to assault and try its strength, and, by the severest discipline to which the right on earth was ever subjected, augment and develop its power, and energize its action. Such transcendent skill has characterized the plans of God, that, by striking down oppression in America, he has destroyed its dominant force, for the whole race, and for all time to come.

CHAPTER VII.

A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD.

The two or three main ideas which constitute the basis of the social theory of the United States were first combined in the Northern British Colonies, the States of New England. They now extend their influence over the whole American world.” — DË TOCQUEVILLE.

WE now turn to a different quarter of the heavens, and behold the morning star of freedom rising. Its soft and 'pleasing light gives promise of a charming day.

We have traced the plans and movements of Providence in the colonization of the South. We have seen the principle of liberty, struggling with old aristocratic forms, gradually gaining position, and working its way upward and outward with the growing population. We have been struck with its simplicity, vitality, and power.

At the same time, the principle and passion of despotism have shown great strength. They have insisted with energy upon the divine right of kings, upon the hereditary claims of the governing class, and upon the right of sovereignty over the New World. Whatever they have yielded to the spirit of manly independence, rousing itself in Europe, and assuming greater boldness in America, they have yielded slowly, and with great reluctance. They continue through the whole period of preparation, varying with the narrow or broader views of the reigning sovereign, sustained by the usurpations of a State religion, and finally grasping and tenaciously holding all the power of human slavery. We watch the struggle with alternate hope and fear. We almost involuntarily ask, Will the power of despotism extend over the western hemisphere, and last forever? Is there no home

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