provement could be attempted, with a prospect of fair experiment and full success, because there is no spot safe from foreign interference; and no member of the general system so insignificant, that his motions are not watched with jealousy by all the rest. The welfare and progress of man in the most favored region, instead of proceeding in a free and natural course, dependent on the organization and condition of that region alone, can only reach the point, which may be practicable in the general result of an immensely complicated system, made up of a thousand jarring members.

Our country accordingly opened, at the time of its settlement, and still opens, a new theatre of human development.-Notwithstanding the prodigious extent of commercial intercourse, and the wide grasp of naval power among modern states, and their partial effect in bringing us into the political system of Europe, it need not be urged, that we are essentially strangers to it ;-placed at a distance, which retards, and for every injurious purpose, neutralizes all peaceful communication, and defies all hostile approach. To this it was owing that so little was here felt of the convulsions of

the civil wars, which followed in England so soon after the expulsion of our fathers. To this, in a more general view, we are indebted for many of our peculiarities as a nation, for our steady colonial growth, our establishment of independence, our escape amidst the political storms which, during the last thirty years, have shaken the empires of the earth.-To this we shall still be indebted, and more and more indebted, with the progress of our country, for the originality and stability of our national character. Hitherto the political effects of our seclusion, behind the mighty veil of waters, have been the most important. Now, that our political foundations are firmly laid; that the work of settlement, of colonization, of independence, and of union is all done, and happily done, we shall reap, in other forms, the salutary fruits of our remoteness from the centres of foreign opinion and feeling.

I say not this in direct disparagement of foreign states; their institutions are doubtless as good, in many cases, as the condition of things now admits; or when at the worst, could not be remedied by any one body, nor by any one generation of men; and the evil which requires

for its remedy the accord of successive generations, at the same time that it may generally be called desperate, ought to bring no direct reproach upon the men of any one period.

But without disparaging foreign institutions, we may be allowed to prefer our own; to assert their excellence, to seek to build them up on their original foundations, on their true principles, and in their unmingled purity. That great word of Independence, which, if first uttered in 1776, was most auspiciously anticipated in 1620, comprehends much more than a mere absence of foreign jurisdiction. I could almost say, that if it rested there, it would scarcely be worth asserting. In every noble, in every true acceptation, it implies not merely an American government, but an American character, an American pride. To the formation of these, nothing will more powerfully contribute than our geographical distance from other parts of the world. The unhealthy air of Europe is purified in crossing the waves of the Atlantic. The roaring of its mighty billows is not terrible, it does but echo the voices of our national feeling and power.

In these views there is nothing unsocial; nothing hostile to a friendly and improving con

nexion of distant regions with each other, or to the profitable interchange of the commodities, which a bountiful Providence has variously scattered over the earth. For these and all other desirable ends, the perfection, to which the art of navigation is brought, affords abundant means of conquering the obstacles of distance. It is idle, in reference to these ends, to speak of our remoteness from the rest of the world, while our commerce is exploring the farthest regions of the earth; while, in exchange for the products or efforts of our industry, the flocks on the western declivity of the Peruvian Andes are supplying us with wool; the northeastern coasts of Japan furnishing us with oil and the central provinces of China, with tea. At this moment, the reward of American skill is paid by the Chieftains of inner Tartary, wrapped up in the furs, which, in our voyages of circumnavigation, we have collected on the North Western Coast of our Continent. The interest on American capital is paid by the haughty viziers of Anatolia, whose opium is cultivated and gathered for our merchants. The wages of American labor are paid by the princes of Hindostan, whose plantations of in

digo depend on us for a portion of their market. While kings and ministers, by intrigue and bloodshed, are contesting the possession of a few square miles of territory, our commerce has silently extended its jurisdiction from island to island, from sea to sea, from continent to continent, till it holds the globe in its grasp.

But while no one can doubt the mutual advantages of a judiciously conducted commerce, or be insensible of the good, which has resulted to the cause of humanity, from the cultivation of a peaceful and friendly intercourse with other climes, it is yet beyond question, that the true principle of American policy, to which the whole spirit of our institutions, not less than the geographical features of the country, invites us, is separation from Europe. Next to union at home, which ought to be called not so much the essential condition of our national existence, as our existence itself, separation from all other countries, in policy, spirit, and character, is the great principle, by which we are to prosper. It is toward this that our efforts, public and private, ought to strain; and we shall rise or decline in strength, improvement, and worth, as we observe or de