Latest / The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3 / 048 - Chapter 31 - Part 9

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048 - Chapter 31 - Part 9 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section forty eight of History of the Rise of Frogress
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  Speaker 1: and Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by mucy
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  Speaker 1: Otis Warren. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information of the volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise Fogress
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  Speaker 1: in Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by mercy
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  Speaker 1: Otis Warren, Chapter thirty one, Part nine in the Zene
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  Speaker 1: of the British Monarchy and the Golden Age of Nobility,
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  Speaker 1: while Republicanism has been quite out of passion, has not
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  Speaker 1: the cause of Christianity suffered by the fascinating men of
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  Speaker 1: a Gibbon, whose epithet's charm while they've shock, and whose
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  Speaker 1: learned it eloquence leads the believer to pause and tremble.
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  Speaker 1: From the multitudes that may be allured by the sophistry
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  Speaker 1: of his arguments is the wit, the elegance of his diction,
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  Speaker 1: and the beautiful antithesis of many of his periods. The
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  Speaker 1: elegance of his style confers and alarming popularity on the
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  Speaker 1: licentiousness of his opinions. The Rise and follow of the
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  Speaker 1: Roman Republic will probably be read by many or if
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  Speaker 1: not the inclination or the opportunity to study the writings
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  Speaker 1: of Locke, Boyle, Butler, Newton, Clark, and many others, who have,
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  Speaker 1: by their example and by the pen supported and defended
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  Speaker 1: the Christian system on principles of reason and argument that
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  Speaker 1: will forever adorn the character of Englishmen. A writer of
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  Speaker 1: Ngenolity has observed that there are probably more skeptics in
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  Speaker 1: England than in any other country. Yet we do not
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  Speaker 1: infer that the examples of infidelity that disgrace the world
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  Speaker 1: by blasting the principles of truth, though nurged unto princely patronage,
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  Speaker 1: are in consequence of the cherishing influence of monarchy. Nor
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  Speaker 1: is it more justice supposed that the writings of French philosophists,
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  Speaker 1: or the june to trumpery, that as for years exuded
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  Speaker 1: from the brain of other theorists of that nation, is
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  Speaker 1: the result of speculative opinions with regard to civil liberty.
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  Speaker 1: It is neither a preference to republican systems, nor a
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  Speaker 1: detachment to monarchic or aristocratic forms of government, that disseminates
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  Speaker 1: the wild opinions of infidelity. It is licentious manners of
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  Speaker 1: goods of every description, the unbibled luxury of wealth, and
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  Speaker 1: the worst passions of men let loose on the multitude
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  Speaker 1: by the example of their superiors. Bent on gratification at
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  Speaker 1: the expense of every Morald's eye, they are broken down
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  Speaker 1: the barriers of religion, and the spirit of infidelity is
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  Speaker 1: nourished at the found. Hence the poisonous streams run through
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  Speaker 1: every grade that constitutes the mass of nations. It may
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  Speaker 1: be further observed that there is a variety of additional
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  Speaker 1: causes which have led to a disposition among some part
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  Speaker 1: of mankind to reject the obligations of religion, and even
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  Speaker 1: to deny their God. This propensity in some may easily
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  Speaker 1: be elucidated without casting any part of the odium on
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of inquiry. Relative to civil and political liberty,
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  Speaker 1: which had been widely disseminated and had produced two such
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  Speaker 1: remarkable revolutions as those of America and France, it may
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  Speaker 1: be imputed to the love of novelty, the pride of opinion,
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  Speaker 1: and an extravagant propensity to speculate and theorize on subjects
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  Speaker 1: beyond the comprehension of mortals, united with the desire of
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  Speaker 1: being released from the restraints on their appetites and passions
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  Speaker 1: dictated both by reason and revelation, and which, under the
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  Speaker 1: influence of sober reflection, forbid the indulgence of all gratifications
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  Speaker 1: that are injurious demand. Further elucidations are more abstruse causes,
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  Speaker 1: which contribute to lead the vain enquirer who steps over
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  Speaker 1: the line prescribed by the author of nature to deviations
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  Speaker 1: from and forgetfulness of its creator, and to involve him
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  Speaker 1: in a labyrinth of darkness from which his weak reasoning
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  Speaker 1: can never disentangle him. May be left to those who
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  Speaker 1: delight in better physical disquisitions. The world might reasonably have
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  Speaker 1: expected from the circumstances connected with the first settlement of
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  Speaker 1: the American colonies, which was in consequence of their attachment
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  Speaker 1: to the religion of their fathers, united with the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of independence relative to civil government, that there would have
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  Speaker 1: been no observable our election of those honorable principles for
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  Speaker 1: many ages to come. From the sobriety of their manners,
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  Speaker 1: their simple habits, their attention to the education and moral
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  Speaker 1: conduct of their children, they had the highest reason to
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  Speaker 1: hope that it might have been long, very long before
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  Speaker 1: the faith that their religion was shaken or their principles corrupted,
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  Speaker 1: either by the manner's opinions or habits of foreigners. But
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  Speaker 1: in the courts of despotism or the schools of licentiousness,
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  Speaker 1: its hope shall not yet be relinquished. There has indeed
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  Speaker 1: been some relaxation of manners, and the appearance of a
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  Speaker 1: change in public opinion not contemplated when revolutionary scenes virtue
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  Speaker 1: of the Western world. But it must be acknowledged that
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  Speaker 1: the religious and moral character of Americans yet stands on
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  Speaker 1: a higher grade of excellence and purity than that of
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  Speaker 1: most other nations. It has been observed that a violation
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  Speaker 1: of manners has destroyed more states than the infraction of laws.
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  Speaker 1: It is necessary for every American with becoming energy to
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  Speaker 1: endeavor to stop the dissemination of principles evidently destructive of
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  Speaker 1: the cause for which they have bled. It must be
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  Speaker 1: the combined virtue of the rulers and of the people
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  Speaker 1: to do this, and to rescue and save their civil
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  Speaker 1: and religious rights from the outstretched arm of tyranny, which
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  Speaker 1: may appear under any mode or form of government. Let
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  Speaker 1: not the frivolity of the domestic taste of the children
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  Speaker 1: of Colombia, nor the examples of strangers of IOWO degree
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  Speaker 1: that may intermix among them, or the imposing attitude of
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  Speaker 1: distant nations, or the machinations of the bloody tyrants of Europe,
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  Speaker 1: or have united themselves into the utmost to exerting their
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  Speaker 1: strength to extirpate the very name of republicanism, rob them
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  Speaker 1: of their character, their morals, their religion, or their liberty.
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  Speaker 1: It is true the revolution in France had not ultimately
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  Speaker 1: attended to strengthen the principles of republicanism in America. The
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  Speaker 1: confusions introduced into that unhappy nation by their resistance to
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  Speaker 1: despotism and the consequent horrors that spread dismay over every
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  Speaker 1: portion of their territory have startled some in the United
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  Speaker 1: States who do not distinguish between principles and events, and
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  Speaker 1: shaken the firmness of others who have fallen off from
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  Speaker 1: their primary object and by degrees returned back to their
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  Speaker 1: former adherence to monarchy. Thus, through the real or pretended
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  Speaker 1: views of similar results. When the freedom of opinion disseminated
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  Speaker 1: through the United States, dissensions have originated relative to subjects
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  Speaker 1: not known in the Constitution of the American Republic. This
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  Speaker 1: admits no titles of honor or no pilit most powerful
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  Speaker 1: springs of human action, And from the rage of acquisition,
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  Speaker 1: which is spread far and wide, it may be apprehended
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  Speaker 1: that the possession of wealth will, in a short time
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  Speaker 1: be the only distinction in this young country. By this
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  Speaker 1: an ap fear that the spirit of avarice will be
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  Speaker 1: rendered justifiable, in the opinion of some, as the single
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  Speaker 1: road to superiority. The desire of distinction is inherent in
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  Speaker 1: the bosom of man, notwithstanding the equality of nature in
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  Speaker 1: which he was created. Fewer the numbers of elevated souls
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  Speaker 1: stimulated to act on the single motive of disinterested virtue,
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  Speaker 1: and among the less powerful incentives to great, immobile actions,
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  Speaker 1: the pursuit of honor, rank, and titles is undeniably as
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  Speaker 1: laudable as that of riches. The last two generally narrows
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  Speaker 1: the mind, debases it by meanness, and renders it disgracefully selfish,
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  Speaker 1: both in the manner of hoarding and squandering supropolous wealth.
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  Speaker 1: But the ambitious stimulated by a thirst for rank, consider
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  Speaker 1: the want of generosity a stain on the dignity of isstation.
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  Speaker 1: It may be asked, are not those states that most
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  Speaker 1: likely to produce the greatest number of wise and row
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  Speaker 1: experience with some mark of elevation. Instead of pecuniary compensation
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  Speaker 1: is affixed to the name and character of such as
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  Speaker 1: have outstripped it contemp rose in the fields of glory
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  Speaker 1: or integrity. A Roman knight innobled verse patriotism or his valor,
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  Speaker 1: though his fair trimonial in evidence was insufficient for a
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  Speaker 1: modern flower garden, was beheld with more veneration than the
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  Speaker 1: most wealthy and voluptuous citizen. But we shall not here
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  Speaker 1: decide how far honorary rewards are consistent with the print
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  Speaker 1: supposed republicanism. Indeed, some have asserted that nobility is the
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  Speaker 1: Corinthian capital a polished states. But an ingenious writer has
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  Speaker 1: observed that a title of nobility is the most undisputed
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  Speaker 1: progeny of feudal barbarism, that the auguste fabric of society
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  Speaker 1: is reformed and encumbered by such Gothic ornaments. The mass
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  Speaker 1: dric that sustains it is labor, and the splendid variety
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  Speaker 1: of arts and talents that solves and embellished life form
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  Speaker 1: the decorations of its Corinthian and Ionic capitals. It is
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  Speaker 1: to be regretted that Americans are so much divided on
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  Speaker 1: this point, as well as on many other questions. We
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  Speaker 1: hope disputed division will never be brought up to such
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  Speaker 1: iide as to terminate in a disseration of the states,
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  Speaker 1: or any internal hostilities, any civil convulsions would shake the
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  Speaker 1: fabric of government has entirely subvert the present excellent constitution.
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  Speaker 1: A strict adherence to which it may be affirmed, is
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  Speaker 1: the best security at the rights and liberties of a
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  Speaker 1: country that has bled at every vein to purchase and
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  Speaker 1: transmit them to posterity. The sword now resheathed, the army dismissed,
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  Speaker 1: a wise, energetic government established and organized. It is to
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  Speaker 1: be hoped many generations will pass away in the lapse
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  Speaker 1: of time before America again becomes a theater of war. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: the United States of America embrace too large a portion
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  Speaker 1: of the globe to expect their isolated situation will ever
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  Speaker 1: secure them from the encroachments of foreign nations and the
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  Speaker 1: attempts of potent Europeans to interrupt their peace. But if
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  Speaker 1: the education of youth, both private and public, is attended
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  Speaker 1: to their industries and economical habits, maintained their moral character,
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  Speaker 1: and that assemblage of virtue supported which is necessary for
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  Speaker 1: the happiness of individuals and of nations. There is not
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  Speaker 1: much danger that they will, for a long time be
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  Speaker 1: subjugated by the arms of foreigners, or that their republican
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  Speaker 1: system will be subverted by the arts and domestic enemies.
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  Speaker 1: Yet probably some distant day will exhibit the extensive continent
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  Speaker 1: of America a portrait analogs to the other quarters of
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  Speaker 1: the globe, which have been laid waste by ambition. Until
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  Speaker 1: misery has spread her safe avail over the inhabitants. But
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  Speaker 1: this will not be done until ignorance, civility, and vice
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  Speaker 1: have led them to renounce their ideas of freedom and
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  Speaker 1: reduce them to the grade of baseness, which renders them
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  Speaker 1: unfit for the enjoyment of that rational liberty which is
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  Speaker 1: the natural inheritance of man. The expense of blood and
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  Speaker 1: treasure lavish with the purchase of freedom to teach Americans
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  Speaker 1: to estimate its real worth, nor ever suffered to be
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  Speaker 1: depreciated by the vices of the human mind, which are
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  Speaker 1: seldom single. The sons of America ought ever to bear
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  Speaker 1: in grateful remembrance the worthy band of patriots who were
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  Speaker 1: supported in opposition to the tyrannic measures of Great Britain.
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  Speaker 1: Of some of them have long since been consigned to
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  Speaker 1: the tombor a tribute of gratitude is ever due to
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  Speaker 1: their memory. While the advantages of freedom and independence have
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  Speaker 1: felt by their latest posterity, the military character of the
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  Speaker 1: country has run with deserved applause. Many of the heroes
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  Speaker 1: who have been sacrificed in the field are justly recollected
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  Speaker 1: with the sigh. But the laborious statesmen, who, with ability
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  Speaker 1: in precision, defined the rights of men and supported the
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  Speaker 1: freedom of their country, without whose evers American never would
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  Speaker 1: have at an army, are many of them neglected or forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: Private virtue may be neglected, public benefits disregarded as they
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  Speaker 1: affect the individual, while at the same time society feels
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  Speaker 1: their cherishing beams, which like the silent rills that water
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  Speaker 1: the great garden of nature, who a forth their bounties
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  Speaker 1: unasked on the whole family. Of a ungrateful man and
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  Speaker 1: of Section forty eight