It may be supposed by some that this position assumes too much; but our own opinion is, that it may be brought almost down to a demonstration. Such a social wreck as follows the violent segregation of members of the same family or community, to form in new communities, must be followed by a corresponding civil prostration. But wild and incoherent ideas of government will be entertained, and the strength of the masses in such communities, or in old ones, either, that have been much affected by these separations, may, upon any wild and great excitement, although in reality springing but from trivial causes, be organized to overturn rather than to sustain a government. Without intending in the least to be sectional, or even to verge, in the slightest degree, on the brink of politics, we will venture to say that the history of events in this country within the last few years will sustain this position. Too much liberty—such as is usually enjoyed in new communities free from proper social restraints—confuses the reason. Law, as a centre of action, is the only safeguard of any people; and to be law, it must be firmly planted in constitutions beyond the reach of the passions of the populace. To maintain law as a centre, there must not be too many flying forces connected with it at a distance from those regular and steady communities which have developed it. For, unless the system of law is equally developed, and the structure of society (upon which the law is founded) is equally perfected in every part of a country where the central source of labor is equally controlled by law-givers from every part, we must expect a general deterioration of morals, corresponding to the mixture of good and bad elements which are the active forces of the lawmaking power. Too many "territories," and too many new States at a distance from the older communities, tend, in our judgment, to unsettle the morals of the country, and, through the morals, the laws, and ultimately through the laws, the government itself. We have divided our people into fractions too fast. It would have been better for our own, and for the interests of humanity, if we had held more firmly together in better connected and more contiguous communities. Our people would not then have had the same wild ideas about "law" that many of them have to-day, and the better united interests of the country would have made a more loving and united people.
Unity, in the affairs of men, is certainly a great desideratum. Immense geographical and social divisions between people usually produce a spirit of alienation, and, in many instances, of absolute hostility. Mere navigable streams of water and railroad connections cannot so connect a people at the distance of many hundreds of miles from each other as to make them but one people. The nearest possible approach that can be made to a close social and sympathetic connection between peoples who are separated from each other by so much space, is to bridge the space over by densely packed masses of human beings, and then we establish lines of mental and social sympathy which will make them but one people. This is the only method, aside from the bond of religious unity, by which a close and hearty cooperation can be secured between people even of one blood and living under the same laws. The human bridge connecting together remote parts of a country is the most complete.
The true policy, then, is not to plant colonies or "settlements" at distances from the centres of settlement, and to bridge over, with human beings, the intervening space, by degrees. But on the contrary, for us to advance in a body, closely connected, and to carry, unbroken, our civilization with us as we go. There will then be no spasmodic disturbances of the law. The wild passions of the wild tribes who roam our borders will not then be incorporated (as is now too often the case) by our people, who go in fragmentary bodies to great distances from the solid settlements, and there make their dwellings amidst the rude timbers of nature. There would be, under this plan of settlement, an equipoise and a balance. It would be regular, steady, and not as now fragmentary. The arrangement of the State divisions—as a form of government—would not, in the least, be interfered with. We only propose that, instead of disjointed masses of human beings going off by themselves at great distances from the main settlements, people hold, as they go, more together as a body, and that we encourage wild schemes of emigration less. They have had upon our people, upon our laws, and upon society, a most disastrous and unsettling effect. The policy which we propose does not interfere with commerce or with healthy travel, but is only against the wild spirit of emigration which has seized upon the world, and which moves those not engaged in commerce to seek new homes.
The charms of nativity will be greatly increased by educating the mind to look upon our earlier homes as the theatres in which we are to act our parts in life. It will develop in us a more conformatory spirit in life, and will secure for us the measureless blessings of a compact and united society. A different training and a different practice are the fruitful sources of those wild idiosyncrasies in society which teach us that all men should be to us alike, and that there are no sacred fountains of the affections where the faith of the heart ever beams bright, and where the hallowed altars of love and confidence have established their holiest worship. In a word, the home-training, continuing through a life, and ending, for the most part, where begun, that is, under the genius of the same state laws, and amongst people of a kind, is indispensable to happiness, and to the natural enjoyment of life. It is equally, alas! indispensable to a full understanding of the genius of law and to the development of that conservative spirit in us which will teach us to value the blessings of social life far too much for us ever to interfere in their sacred enjoyment by other people. The man of home, then, as against the emigrant and the wanderer, is a man of peace, a man of law, a man of religion, and a man of society. He does not go with his rifle to destroy, nor with his individual will to make it the law of the surrounding country; but he is content to stay at home, and he accepts the developments of society there as he finds them, and labors conscientiously, when improvement is needed, to improve them; but always within the boundaries of those barriers which Christianity and conscience have set up as the landmarks of his labors. If we would preserve our stability, then, as a people, and make our government and society what they ought to be, we must change our wandering habits, and must cultivate the flowers of home-love as the only sure guarantee of peace and happiness. We must not allow our wandering ambitions to stretch away into other domains; but we must put upon ourselves the bridle of wisdom, and must be content to people our fields at home with the laborers which we now offer to other lands, to other climes, and to other states. This policy will make us truly great.
A Mother's Prayer.
The regent of a goodly realm,
A sovereign wise and fair,
Gazed fondly on her youthful son,
And breathed her earnest prayer;
The one wish of her loving heart,
Her ceaseless, solemn thought,
Sole boon her love had craved for him,
The only prize she sought.
Was it new conquests? blood-bought gems
To deck his kingly hand?
Fair realms by cruel triumphs wed
Unto his rightful land?
Rich trappings? robes of royal state?
A fawning courtier throng?
Or minstrels' ringing lays, to pour
The flatteries of song?
Nay, nay, no earthly leaven base,
No worldly dross could cling
Unto that pure, maternal prayer
For France's youthful king.
'My precious son! more dear than life,
More prized than aught on earth,
In all this false and fleeting world
My only gift of worth!
"Oh! loved and treasured as thou art,
Far rather would I weep
Above the bier where thou wert laid
In thy last, dreamless sleep,
Than live to know this form of thine
Held, foully shrined within,
A tarnished gem, a soul defiled,
By e'en one mortal sin.."
Well answered was that mother's prayer:
No foul, polluting taint
E'er marred the white and shining soul
Of France's royal saint.
His pure baptismal robe of grace
Unstained through life he wore;
The lily sceptre of the just
King Louis brightly bore.
O Christian matron! in thy heart
This lesson fair enshrine;
And let the blest, heroic prayer
Of holy Blanche be thine.
For what are all the gifts of earth,
The charms of form and face,
If the immortal soul hath lost
Its bright, baptismal grace?
Ay! what avails the wealth of worlds,
If, lured by syren vice,
God's heir hath sold his birthright fair,
His only "pearl of price"?
In vain may proud ambition grasp
Vast realms to tyrants given,
If from his guilty hand hath passed
The heritage of heaven.