Can we be far wrong in such a view? Think of our republic embracing in its wide extent, one, two, three, or more hundred millions of human beings, all in political union, enjoying the largest liberty possible in the present life, as well as the ever-increasing influence and light of religion, science, and education, giving augmented power to preserve and rightly use that liberty. Extent of territory in the present age, is no bar to the union of very distant regions. When the telegraph, that modern miracle, brings the shores of the Pacific within three hours' time of the Atlantic seaboard—when railroads contract States into counties, and counties into the dimensions of an average farm, as to the time taken to traverse them—when spaces are thus brought into the closest union, it is but the counterpart and prophecy of the close moral and industrial union of the people who inhabit the spaces. When slavery, that relic of barbarism, that demon of darkness and discord, is destroyed, we can conceive of nothing that shall possess like power to sunder one section of the Union from another—of nothing that shall not be within the power of the people to settle by rational discussion or amicable arbitration. No! Slavery once destroyed, an unimagined Future dawns upon the republic. The Southern rebellion, and the utterly unavoidable civil war thence arising—as these are the two instrumentalities by which slavery will be cut clean away from the vitals of the nation, and the Union left untrammelled, to follow its great destiny—these twin events, we say, will, in after ages, be looked back upon as blessings in disguise—as the knife of the surgeon, that gives the patient a new lease of a long, prosperous, and happy life.
We have contemplated the Union, and seen something of its matchless symmetry, beauty, and indefinite capabilities, ever unfolding, to promote human welfare, through its unity with variety, its liberty with order, its freedom of action of each part in its own sphere, coëxisting with the harmonious working of all together as one grand whole—all of which arises, as was said, from the unconscious modelling (on the part of its authors) of our political structure upon the Divine and universal plan of organization in mineral, in plant, in animal, in the planetary systems, and, above all, in man himself, body and mind.
We saw that the method of this organization was the grouping of individual parts into wholes around a centre; of many such compound units around a yet higher centre, and so on, indefinitely, onward and upward. That by such an organization, individual freedom was secured to each part, within a certain limit, wide enough for all its wants, and yet perfectly subordinated to the freedom and order of all the parts collectively, revolving or acting freely around the common centre and head. We saw that in the Divine creations—in all the objects of the three kingdoms of nature, the two great principles of liberty and order were thus perfectly reconciled and harmonized (true order being only the form under which true liberty appears, or can appear); and, further, that in proportion as human affairs and institutions obey the same law, or, rather, in proportion as men individually and collectively advance in virtue and intelligence, do they unconsciously, and more or less spontaneously, come into this Divine order, both in the regulation of personal motive and conduct, and in outward political and social matters.
Hence, as has already been stated, the near approach to this method in the political organization of the United States was the result of an amount of moral and intellectual culture, first in the colonies, and afterward in the contrivers and adopters of our political framework, without which it could never have been formed; and in the degree that this mental condition is maintained and advanced yet more and more, will the citizens of the Union apply the same method of organization to the less general affairs of industrial and social life. Now, all this is not fancy; human progress in the direction indicated, can be scientifically demonstrated.
WAR SONG:—EARTH'S LAST BATTLE.
Dedicated To
THE SOLDIERS OF THE UNION.
Up with the Flag of Hope!
Let the winds waft her
On through the depths of space
Faster and faster!
Up, brave and sturdy men!
Down with the craven!
He who but falters now,
Fling to the raven!
Chorus: On while the blood is hot—on to the battle!
Flash blade and trumpet sound! let the shot rattle!
Come from your homes of love
Wilder and faster!
Hail balls and sabres flash!
Wrong shall not master!
Strike to the throbbing heart
Brother or stranger!
Traitors would murder hope!
Freedom's in danger!
Chorus: On for the rights of man—just is the battle!
Flesh deep the naked blade! let the shot rattle!
Men of the rugged North,
Dastards they deem you!
Wash out the lie in blood,
As it beseems you!
Glare in the Southern eye
Freedom, defiance!
Traitors with death and hell
Seal their alliance!
Chorus: On—shed your heart's best blood! glorious the battle!
Freedom is born while death peals his shrill rattle!
Down with, the rattlesnake!
Armed heel upon it!
Rive the palmetto tree—
Cursed fruit grows on it!
Up with the Flag of Light!
Let the old glory
Flash down the newer stars
Rising in story!
Chorus: On—manhood's hot blood burns! God calls to battle!
Flash, blades, o'er crimson pools! let the shot rattle!
Death shadows happy homes;
Faster and faster
Woe, sorrow, anguish throng;
Blood dyes disaster!
Men doubt their fellow men:
Hate and distraction
Curse many a council hall;
Traitors lead faction!
Chorus: Cease this infernal strife! rush into battle!
Blast not all human hope with your cursed prattle!
God! the poor slave yet cowers!
Call off the bloodhounds!
Men, can ye rest in peace
While the cursed lash sounds?
Woman's shrill shrieks and wails
Quick conquest urges;
Bleeding and scourged and wronged,
Wild her heart surges!
Chorus: Wives, mothers, maidens call! God forces battle!
Stay the oppressor's hand though the shot rattle!
Hark! it is Mercy calls!
Will ye surrender
Freedom's last hope on earth?
No,—rather tender
Heart's blood and life's life
'Neath our Flag's glory:
Scattered its heaven stars,
Dark human story!
Chorus: Strike, for the blow is love! Despots force battle!
'Good will to men,' our cry, wings the shot's rattle!
Up from the cotton fields,
Swamps and plantations,
Drinking new life from you,
Swarms the dusk nation.
Send them not back to pain!
Strike and release them!
Hate not, but succor men;
Sorrow would cease then!
Chorus: On—let God's people go! Mercy is battle!
Freedom is love and peace,—let the shot rattle!
Oh, that ye knew your might,
Knew your high station!
God has appointed you
Guardian of nations!
Teach tyrants o'er the world,
Bondage is over;
Bid them lay down the lash,
Welcome their brothers!
Chorus: Pour oil in every wound, when done the battle!
Man now must stand redeemed though the shot rattle!
On—till our clustering stars
No slave float over,
Man joins in harmony,
Helper and lover!
Ransom the chained and pained,
Nations and stations!
On—till our Flag of Love
Floats o'er creation!
Chorus: Strike, till mankind is free, mute the chains rattle!
Fight till love conquers strife—Freedom's last battle!
Yes, we shall stand again
Brother with brother,
Strong to quell wrong and crime,
All the world over!
Heart pressed to heart once more,
Nought could resist us,
Earth cease to writhe in pain,
Millions assist us!
Chorus: On till the world is free through the shot's rattle!
When love shall conquer hate, fought earth's last battle!