Westward empire

by Elias Lyman Magoon

From this general view let us descend to particular details, that we may enumerate sufficient facts to justify the conclusion just stated. The federal union of twelve cities in Etruria into one state, none of which possessed an absolute superiority over the other, and whose affairs were regulated by deputies from each city, and not by a king or any hereditary officer, constituted the most interesting institution of antiquity. Derived from Asia, and exclusively Pelasgic, it was the first form of republicanism that appeared in the history of the world, the masterly element which, infused into the constitution of the states of Greece, and afterward of Rome, gave rise to that political freedom which was the parent of all their greatness, and which has ever since grown increasingly favorable to the development of peaceful arts and social amelioration. Fortified and refined by the discipline of sixty centuries, the diversified elements of consummate power and progress were auspiciously blended in the thirteen original colonies of the United States. Every event down to the seventeenth century, especially in England, had contributed to render the fathers of our republic most happily adapted to their predestined work. During the seven centuries which preceded this great era, our wretched and degraded ancestors became the most highly civilized people the world had ever seen. Macaulay says, "They have spread their dominion over every quarter of the globe—have scattered the seeds of mighty empires and republics over vast continents of which no dim intimation had ever reached Ptolemy or Strabo—have created a maritime power which would annihilate, in a quarter of an hour, the navies of Tyre, Athens, Carthage, Venice, and Genoa together—have carried the science of healing, the means of locomotion and correspondence, every mechanical art, every manufacture, every thing that promotes the convenience of life, to a perfection which our ancestors would have thought magical—have produced a literature abounding with works not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us—have discovered the laws which regulate the motions of the heavenly bodies—have speculated with exquisite subtlety on the operations of the human mind—have been the acknowledged leaders of the human race in the career of political improvement. The history of England is the history of this great change in the moral, intellectual, and physical state of the inhabitants of our own island. There is much amusing and instructive episodical matter; but this is the main action. To us, we will own, nothing is so interesting and delightful as to contemplate the steps by which the England of the Domesday Book—the England of the Curfew and the Forest Laws—the England of crusaders, monks, schoolmen, astrologers, serfs, outlaws—became the England which we know and love—the classic ground of liberty and philosophy, the school of all knowledge, the mart of all trade. The charter of Henry Beauclerc—the Great Charter—the first assembling of the House of Commons—the extinction of personal slavery—the separation from the See of Rome—the Petition of Right—the Habeas Corpus Act—the Revolution—the establishment of the liberty of unlicensed printing—the abolition of religious disabilities—the reform of the representative system—all these seem to us to be the successive stages of one great revolution; nor can we comprehend any one of these memorable events unless we look at it in connection with those which preceded, and with those which followed it. Each of those great and ever-memorable struggles—Saxon against Norman—Vilain against Lord—Protestant against Papist—Roundhead against Cavalier—Dissenter against Churchman—Manchester against Old Sarum, was, in its own order and season, a struggle on the result of which were staked the dearest interests of the human race; and every man who in the contest which, in his time, divided our country, distinguished himself on the right side, is entitled to our gratitude and respect."

After the above summary, we need not stop to portray the steady progress made in the parent land toward efficient colonization through the agency of such men as Clarendon, Capel, and Falkland, Hampden and Hollis, Ireton, Lambert, and Cromwell, Ludlow, Harrington, and Milton. As soon as the English Commonwealth became the central point of European civilization, the focus where all the noblest powers of humanity concentrated themselves in a prodigious activity, the third continent began to be the luminous side of our planet, the full-grown flower of the terrestrial globe. Thenceforth North America became to all nations the land of the future. The fertility of its soil, and the favorableness of its position, the grandeur of its forms and the extent of its spaces, seem to have prepared it to become the abode of the vastest and most powerful association of men that ever existed. If the order of nature is a foreshadowing of that which is to be, certainly the physical aspects of this western world, as well as the historical facts which connect it with the East, are sublime intimations of the will of Providence. The germinal institutions so evolved and localized were new, like the soil whereon they were planted. The selectest specimens of whole peoples, clustered in homogeneous groups, took root and increased with a rapidity which soon enabled their adopted America to take her position face to face with Europe, not as a dependent minor, but as a full-aged daughter, independent and an equal, a fought-for and acknowledged right. The centre of the civilized world had again been removed to a remoter point in the West, and all the mental splendor of the East was brought over to illuminate the immense realms then first redeemed from barbarism both north and south.

From the rude early dialects of India arose the majestic Sanscrit, the copious and redundant mother of all oriental tongues. The Greek was the purest current from that remote source, and was simplified in its westward flow; and the Latin is a still more recently simplified dialect of the Greek. The vernaculars of all modern nations are directly connected with the last mentioned sources, and have still further simplified the original principles. Of linguistic progress the English is a striking example, and may be placed at the head of all the languages of the world, as the most simple. It is the most recently perfected, and at the moment when its vigor was the greatest, and its wealth the most copious, the highest mental abilities coalesced with the noblest political principles and emigrated to America. Our colonial literature began at a period of the highest illumination, and was not unworthy of its foster-fathers Shakspeare and Spenser, Coke and Hooker, Hampden and Sydney, Bacon and Milton. In culminating excellence, Anglo-Saxon literature was transferred to this land in a body, at once; and never was a conception of greater magnitude or evolving more fertilizing effects, started in the vast arena of human progress. That era gave to history a soul and significance, by connecting it with the supreme Deity who anew gathered the divine breath that had swept over the ruins of empires, and with tornado energy dashed down the barriers in the way of man. The colonial period was signalized by a series of pitched battles between the progressive spirit of the seventeenth century and the old feudal ideas, which all the deadly blows of the preceding age had not sufficed to eradicate, and which then threatened to resume their former sway and predominance. Then came the revolution of seventy-six, a yet more potent preliminary to the great struggle destined to throw off the mountains of oppression which still crush the hearts of nations. The morning of this new day was radiant with a numerous galaxy of magnificent intellects. The ages of Pericles, Augustus, and Leo X. were consummated in the epoch of Cromwell, and all was but the vestibule direct to the grander age of Washington. Simultaneous with the advent of the latter, mighty leaders arose who were the personifications and ready agents of whatever appeared necessary to be thought, said, or done. Many of these perished in the struggle, but not their work; from necessitated ruin sprang superior grandeurs, and the general progress paused not needlessly to bemoan its heroes in their individual graves. When the time arrived for old limbs to descend, that new sap might more freely rise and circulate to renew national life and rejuvenate ideas, many colonists in the wilds of America, like Tell amid the glaciers of Switzerland were ready to exclaim, Perish my name, if need be, but let Freedom live! Nor did they doubt the final issue, but devoutly believed that great revolutions, however involved their apparent orbits, like the stars, march in fixed cycles which perpetually tend to the perfection of the common weal. As great and good thoughts, the best gold of earth, are least destroyed when most dispersed, so colonial literature aimed perpetually to equalize all good and hinder none. Public spirit then was an exalted moral virtue, the direct reverse of selfishness, its end being the noblest to which our faculties are capable of aspiring, the welfare of the whole human race. No people ever possessed this in richer abundance than the first writers among our colonists, and the fruits thereof were increasingly conspicuous during their efforts to lay the foundations of that vast temple of liberty they came to rear. Each little community of patriots were almost equally expert with the axe, the sword, and the pen, possessing a brave fortitude which could emulate the magnanimity of the Roman senate, who, though stunned by an unexpected and overwhelming blow, had the spirit to go forth to meet the unfortunate Varro and thank him, because he still had hopes of his country. Not a few of our literary pioneers exemplified the patriotic energy of the individual, who, when Hannibal was encamped at the gates of Rome, went into the market-place, and bought, "at no cheap rate," the ground on which the conqueror's tent was standing. Such especially was the spirit of him who was wiser than the prudent Fabius, greater and better than the great and good Aristides, the unprecedented hero who gave his name to the happy age in which we live.

From 1578 to 1704, under Elizabeth, James the First, Charles the First, the Long Parliament, Cromwell, Charles the Second, James the Second, William the Third, and Queen Anne, the charters of several of the colonies were in succession recognized, contested, restrained or enlarged, lost and regained, which long-continued struggle vigorously exercised and matured all the leading minds. From this and other kindred literary causes resulted the master spirits who achieved national independence and founded the republic. Among these stood Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, Henry, Mason, Greene, Knox, Morris, Pinckney, Clinton, Trumbull, and Rutledge. Perhaps the world never saw a national convention wherein the average of mental power rose higher than in the one which held its first session in Philadelphia, on the 14th of May, 1787, with Washington in the chair. Between that date and the 17th of September following, the Constitution of the United States was formed; and on the 30th of April, 1789, at the very moment when the Constituent Assembly was commencing its session in Paris, the first President of the republic took his oath.

The original cultivators of our virgin soil not only set out with a complete body of ancestral literature, and examples of the highest cultivation derived from anterior nations, but they diligently improved upon what they had received. It was necessary that the first published documents should partake largely of politics; but the mental strength and elaborate excellence of these resolute endeavors excited the wonder and admiration of the chief veterans of the world. In these writings they saw clearly defined and fully inaugurated the glorious age of universal amelioration. It began in the general revolt of the Dutch in Holland, about 1576, resulting in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces; was continued by the edict of Nantes, in 1589, passed by Henry IV. of France; and, in the old world, culminated, through the agency of the Long Parliament of 1641 and 1642, in the English revolution of 1688. Starting at the goal where all previous eras of reform paused in a grand consummation, the American revolution, which dates from 1775, has moved irresistibly forward with a liberating and ennobling influence often seen and felt beyond its own immediate sphere. The French revolution of 1798, which overturned religious and political feudalism on the continent, and the revolutions of the Spanish American provinces in the year 1810, together with the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, which so materially modified the remains of despotism in France, Germany, Prussia, Italy, and Austria, are but offshoots of this great central tree of freedom whose continually-spreading might and beauty shall ultimately protect and refresh the human race.

The first great contributors to our national literature had the ambition and ability to catch the departed spirit of obsolete forms and embody it in new and nobler shapes. In the place of superseded institutions, they substituted such original ones as would mold, vitalize, and impel the existing mass of plastic character, and thus do for the passing and prospective age what the old in their day did for the past. Evil from its nature is akin to death, but all goodness is immortal; and it is the latter which Providence mercifully accumulates along the path of progress, the precious inheritance bequeathed to us by the heroes of humanity, to ameliorate the condition of survivors, and inspire eternal hope. It is fated that freedom can never be asserted without desperate literary strife, nor be fully established until it is cemented in patriotic blood; that it can only be won and perpetuated by those who feel in their own energies the means of asserting it against all odds, and will obtain the invaluable boon at any rate. The emancipation and elevation of the American colonies into a republic was in heroical letters as well as arms the great primary monument of our land. The pages not less than the speeches of great leaders were successive flashes of divine eloquence, such as never before shone over the vanguard of mankind. We can not wonder that comrades in purpose and pursuit gathered in closer admiration, and were thrilled under the power of their lofty genius. They might incur martyrdom, but never sank in despair; nor has a drop of such blood been wasted, since blood ransomed the earth.

The Mayflower brought no pre-eminently distinguished man, but what was better, a written constitution which defined and fortified the united greatness of confederated fellow pioneers. The Pilgrim Fathers, equally exalted by the oneness of their purpose, stood on a sublime level which the cumulative labors of six thousand years had cast up; a social grandeur which was best represented by that cluster of kindred institutions, the family, school, and church, they came thereon to plant. When these elements had been extended westward to the remotest available point, and were liberalized by an expansion over the widest diameter, the freest pen expressed the most perfect equality, indicating a yet loftier terrace which it will probably require a long period fully to reach. At that time a fresh cluster of great men had risen so far in advance of the common mass, that it was only a minority who at first dared to adopt the views of more enlightened minds; and even in the assembly of illustrious prophets themselves, it was only by a majority of one, at first, that the Declaration of Independence was carried. But unlike the old barons at Runnymede, our republican champions could all sign their full names to the new Magna Charta, and were ready, at the greatest hazards, to authenticate the birth and prerogatives of Young America. Never was so mighty an instrument executed by so youthful hands. Of the fifty-five signers, eight had passed fifty years, but were under sixty; twenty-two had reached forty; seventeen were thirty, and two were but twenty-seven years old. Had there been fewer young men at that eventful crisis, it is probable that Jefferson's daring patriotism would have been repudiated, and his sagacious purchase of Louisiana, with all the literary and commercial facilities consequent thereupon, together with all the preliminary advancement toward that great centre of national domain, would have been disastrously postponed.

But, no! Thanks to an overruling Providence, the seasons, agents, and instrumentalities appropriately appear and ultimately conduce to the one great end, beneficent amelioration perpetually increased. All great minds are thus rendered cotemporaneous, and are naturalized among us in the highest sense. Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and Bacon, Molière, Cervantes, and Shakspeare, touch the springs of emotion and sway mental energies on the banks of the Hudson, the Ohio, or the Missouri, as on the banks of the Guadalquiver, the Seine, or the Avon. National literature is no longer limited to its fatherland, whether a contracted island or fragmentary continent, but spreads in a language more comprehensive than that of ancient Greece or Rome, and exhibits full development on the immensity of an entire hemisphere. Mutual pledges are rapidly increased between all literary producers, and their reciprocal labors promise soon to establish a grand brotherhood cast in the mighty mold of the largest liberty, and combined to realize the divine conception which rose in the majestic mind of Milton, of "that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise which God and good men have consented shall be the reward of those whose published labors advanced the good of mankind."

The Puritan colonies were from the beginning pre-eminent in the cause of education. In 1636, steps were taken toward the foundation of a college at Newtown, since called Cambridge, in honor of the English university. Two years later, this purpose was confirmed by the bequest of John Harvard, who gave the new institution a sum of money and a valuable library. The first printing-press in America was set up in Harvard, in the President's house, in 1639. The literary and moral training of all children and youth was regarded as most important, and Massachusetts, as early as 1647, required by law that every township which had fifty householders should have a school-house and employ a teacher, and such as had one thousand freeholders should have a grammar-school. From that time forward the subject of education has received increasing attention, especially in the new western States. Michigan has a public fund for this purpose which yields $30,000 annually, a sum fully equal to that of the oldest commonwealth; and the like fund in Wisconsin yields more than three times that amount, per annum. The last States that are organized begin with the highest improvements extant in the first, and thus carry forward this supreme agent of civilization in advance of all the rest. Since the opening of the present century, colleges in New England have been increased from seven to fourteen; in the Middle States, from six to twenty-two; in the Southern States, from nine to thirty-seven; and in the Western States, from three to forty-seven.

The first newspaper in this country was the "Boston News-Letter," commenced in 1704; followed by the "Boston Gazette," in 1719, and the "American Weekly Mercury," at Philadelphia, in the same year. The "New York Gazette" first appeared in 1725. A half century later, there were but thirty-seven public journals in all the colonies, and these were regarded favorably by both low and high, with a few exceptions. Governor Berkley, of Virginia, in 1675, said: "I thank God that we have no free schools nor printing-presses, and I hope that we shall not have any for a hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libeled governments. God keep us from both!" Lord Effingham, of the same colony, in 1683, was ordered "to allow no person to use a printing-press on any occasion whatever."