The True Greatness of Our Country: A Discourse Before the Young Catholic Friends' Society, at Baltimore, December 22, 1848J. & G. S. Gideon, 1848 - 24 pages |
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The True Greatness of Our Country: A Discourse Before the Young Catholic ... William Henry Seward No preview available - 2018 |
The True Greatness of Our Country: A Discourse Before the Young Catholic ... William Henry Seward No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
abundance and scarceness action activity and resolution adaptation adequate agencies ALPHEUS FELCH altar ambition American appointed arbitrary benefi beneficence canals cities citizen civil colonial complex comprehensive condi conflicts Continent corrupted counsel danger DECEMBER 22 defence Democracy DISCOURSE domestic doth fall effeminate elements emulation equal eral error Europe fair seeds Federal authorities Federal Government free countri freedom freemen G. S. GIDEON God's human incapable increase institutions islands laws less lian's boast liberty mankind ment mental activity MICHIGAN DATE millions moderation modify moral motives are form MUTILATE CARD nation oppression Pacific coast passion perish philosophy plete political population power and forces prince public enterprises public virtue rekindled religion REMOVE OR MUTILATE Republic Republican Roman magnifice seas sedition SEWARD slavery SOCIETY AT BALTIMORE sovereignty subsistence task so arduous territory tion treasures tribes ture universal suffrage UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN wealth WILLIAM H wisdom ye laborers YOUNG CATHOLIC FRIENDS
Popular passages
Page 21 - ... from under the tyranny of physical force to the gentle sway of opinion — from under subjection to matter to dominion over nature. It was ours to lead the way, to take up the cross of republicanism and bear it before the nations, to fight its earliest battles, to enjoy its earliest triumphs, to illustrate its purifying and elevating virtues, and by our courage and resolution, our moderation and our magnanimity, to cheer and sustain its future followers through the baptism of blood and the martyrdom...
Page 21 - No public virtue can withstand, none ever encountered, such seductions as these. Our own virtue and moderation must be renewed and fortified under circumstances so new and peculiar. Where shall we seek the influence adequate to a task so arduous as this? Shall we invoke the press and the desk? They only reflect the actual condition of the public morals, and cannot change them. Shall we resort to the executive authority? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around...
Page 20 - Behold here, then, the philosophy of all our studies on this grateful theme. We see only the rising of the sun of empire — only the fair seeds and beginnings of a great nation. Whether that glowing orb shall attain to a meridian height, or fall suddenly from its glorious sphere — whether those prolific seeds shall mature into autumnal ripeness. Or shall perish yielding no harvest — depends on God's will and providence.
Page 22 - Shall we resort to the executive authority? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around it. Shall we go to the Senate? Conspiracies, seditions, and corruptions, in all free countries, have begun there. Where, then, shall we go, to find an agency that can uphold and renovate declining public virtue? Where should we go, but there where all republican virtue begins and must end — where the Promethean fire is ever to be rekindled, until it shall finally expire...
Page 20 - Whether that glowing orb shall attain to a meridian height, or fall suddenly from its glorious sphere — whether those prolific seeds shall mature into autumnal ripeness, or shall perish yielding no harvest — depends on God's will and providence. But God's will and providence operate not by casualty or caprice, but by fixed and revealed laws. If we would secure the greatness set before us, we must find the way which those laws indicate, and keep within it. That way is new and all untried. We departed...
Page 6 - And this not to singular persons alone, but likewise to whole families; yea to cities, and sometimes to nations. Add to this their custom of plantation of colonies; whereby the Roman plant was removed into the soil of other nations. And putting both constitutions together, you will say that it was not the Romans that spread upon the world, but it was the world that spread 'Daniel iv.
Page 22 - Terra potens aique ubere glebce"— but that more than Spartan valor and more than Roman magnificence is required of her. Go, then, ye laborers in a noble cause, gather the young Catholic and the young Protestant alike into the nursery of freedom; and teach them there that, although religion has many and different shrines on which may be made the offering of a
Page 22 - Where shall we seek the influence adequate to a task so arduous as this ? Shall we invoke the press and the desk ? They only reflect the actual condition of the public morals, and cannot change them. Shall we resort to the executive authority ? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around it. Shall we go to the senate ? Conspiracies, seditions, and corruptions, in all free countries, have begun there. Where, then, shall we go, to find an agency that cau uphold...
Page 22 - They only reflect the actual condition of the public morals, and cannot change them. Shall we resort to the executive authority? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around it. Shall we go to the Senate? Conspiracies, seditions, and corruptions in all free countries have begun there. Where, then, shall we go to find an agency that can uphold and renovate declining public virtue? Where should we go but there, where all republican virtue begins and must end? where...
Page 17 - The only danger now apprehended (1848) is the secession of one or more of the States. Since the expansion of the Union, and the increase of the number of its members, it is apparent that even a secession of one or more of the States would not now, as it might have done formerly, subvert the whole structure. It would still exist, yielding protection and dispensing prosperity to the members which should remain If, at a future time, separation shall become necessary, let us hope that long habits of...