MORAL LAW FOR NATIONS. 199 impossible as long as an American heart beats in an American bosom, or the Almighty sends His wisdom and His goodness to guide and bless us. 94. THE MORAL LAW SHOULD GUIDE NATIONS. THE HE most ancient of profane historians has told us that the Scythians of his time were a very warlike people, and that they elevated an old cimeter on a platform as a symbol of Mars, for to Mars alone, I believe, they built altars and offered sacrifices. Το this cimeter they offered sacrifices of horses and cattle, the main wealth of the country, and more costly sacrifices than to all the rest of their gods. I often ask myself whether we are at all advanced, in one respect, beyond those Scythians. What are our contributions to charity, to education, to morality, to religion, to justice, and to civil government, when compared to the wealth we expend in sacrifices to the old cimiter? I am not now speaking to those who have no political power, who are at work from the dawn of the day to the evening, and who have, therefore, limited means of informing themselves on these great subjects. I am privileged to speak to a somewhat dif ferent audience. You represent those of your great community who have a more complete education, who have on some points greater intelligence, and in whose. hands reside the power and influence of the district. I am speaking, too, within the hearing of those whose gentle nature, whose finer instincts, whose purer 200 MORAL LAW FOR NATIONS. minds, have not suffered as some of us have suffered in the turmoil and strife of life. You can mould opinion, you can create political power; you cannot think a good thought on this subject and communicate it to your neighbor, you cannot make these points topics of discussion in your social circles and more general meetings, without affecting sensibly and speedily the course which the government of your country will pursue. May I ask you, then, to believe, as I do most devoutly believe, that the moral law was not written for men alone in their individual character, but that it was written as well for nations, and for nations as great as this of which we are citizens. If nations reject and deride that moral law, there is a penalty which will inevitably follow. It may not come at once, it may not come in our lifetime; but rely upon it, the great Italian is not a poet only, but a prophet, when he says, The Sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite, We have experience, we have beacons, we have landmarks enough. We know what the past has cost us, we know how much and how far we have wandered, but we are not left without a guide. It is true we have not, as an ancient people had, Urim and Thummim, those oracular gems on Aaron's breast, - from which to take counsel; but we have the unchangeable and eternal principles of the moral law to guide us, and only so far as we walk by that guidance can we be permanently a great nation, or our people a happy people. OUR DEFENDERS. 201 95. OUR DEFENDERS. UR flag on the land and our flag on the ocean, OUR An angel of peace wheresoever it goes: Nobly sustained by Columbia's devotion, The angel of death it shall be to our foes! Still shall our eagle fly, Though bearing the olive branch, Still in his talons stanch Grasping the bolts of the thunders of war! Hark to the sound! There's a foe on our border- Of scythe and of sickle keen; The axe sleeps in peace by the tree it would mar; Swelling the battle shout, Grasping the bolts of the thunders of war! Our brave mountain eagles swoop from their eyrie, Our lithe panthers leap from forest and plain; Out of the West flash the flames of the prairie, Out of the East roll the waves of the main; Down from their northern shores, Swift as Niagara pours, They march, and their tread wakes the earth with its jar; Under the Stripes and Stars, Each, with the soul of Mars, Grasping the bolts of the thunders of war! 202 FACTIOUS OPPOSITION. Spite of the sword or assassin's stiletto, While throbs a heart in the breast of the brave, Echoing the northern lakes, And ocean replies unto ocean afar, Yield we no inch of land While there's a patriot hand Grasping the bolts of the thunders of war! 96. FACTIOUS OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT. LE ET us now consider the defence which gentlemen have made for their opposition to the war, and the policy of their country - a subject which I conceive to be of the greatest importance, not only as affecting the result of the present contest, but our lasting peace and prosperity. They assume as a fact that opposition is, in its nature, harmless. "Opposition," "Opposition," say they, "is a very convenient thing; a wicked and foolish administration never fail to attribute to it all their miscarriages." I shall readily acknowledge that there is a species of opposition both innocent and useful. When it is simply the result of that diversity in the structure of our intellect which conducts to different conclusions, and is confined within those bounds which love of country and political honesty prescribe, it is one of the most useful guardians of liberty. It excites gentle collision, prompts to due vigilance, and results in FACTIOUS OPPOSITION. 203 the establishment of an enlightened policy and useful laws. Such are its qualities when united with patriotism and moderation; but when it is joined with faction and ambition, it bursts those limits within which it may usefully act, and becomes the first of political evils. am A factious opposition no reflecting man will ever consider as harmless, for it is composed of the fiercest and most ungovernable passions of our nature bition, pride, rivalry, and hate. Thus constituted, who can estimate its force? Is love of country strong enough to counteract its progress? Alas! the attachment to a party becomes stronger than that to our country. Wide-spread adversity is its life, general prosperity its death. It is this opposition which gentlemen call harmless, and treat with so much respect; it is this moral treason which has in all ages and countries proved the most deadly foe to freedom. Without breaking forth into rebellion, without resort to open violence, it is able, in a thousand ways, to counteract and deaden all the motions of government, to render its policy wavering, and to compel it to submit to schemes of aggrandizement on the part of other gov ernments. Do gentlemen ask for instances? Where can they not be found? Admired and lamented republics of antiquity, Athens, Carthage, and Rome, you are the victims and witnesses of the fell spirit of factious opposition! Fatal fields of Zama and Chæronea, you can attest its destructive cruelty! What is the history of Polybius, and that of the |