Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

66

these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law. Resolved, N. C. D. 10. It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English Constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power, in several colonies, by a council appointed, during pleasure, by the crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation.

"All and each of which, the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally taken from them, altered, or abridged, by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives, in their several provincial legislatures."

B.

The Press, Railroads, and the Magnetic Telegraph.

"Intelligence is diffused with unparalleled universality; a free press teems with the choicest productions of all nations and ages. There are more daily journals in the United States than in the world beside. A public document of general interest is, within a month, reproduced in at least a million of copies, and is brought within the reach of every freeman in the country."— Bancroft's Hist. U. S.

This was true in 1834; and since that time improvements of every kind have been multiplied to a degree truly astonishing. Steamships arrive from Great Britain, either at Boston or New York, every week; and we have an extent of railroads in the United States of more than 6000 miles; an extent of the magnetic telegraph conductor, completed at the present time of more than 5000 miles, and projected, and advancing rapidly towards completion, about 11,000 miles. Some of the companies are extending a second line between the principal cities. These are embraced in the above estimate.

The following beautiful passage occurs in the speech of Governor Cass, delivered in the U. S. Senate, February 10, 1847, on the Three Million Bill:

"The senator from South Carolina has presented some views of

our augmenting population as true as they are striking. At the commencement of his life and of mine, this country contained three millions of inhabitants, giving a rate of increase which doubles our numbers every twenty-two years. There are those yet living who will live to see our confederacy numbering a population equal to the Chinese empire. This stupendous progress outstrips the imagination. The mind cannot keep up with the fact. It toils after it in vain; and as we increase in numbers and extend in space, our power of communication is still more augmented. The telegraph has come with its wonderful process to bind still closer the portions of this empire, as these recede from its capital. It is the most admirable invention of modern days. We can now answer the sublime interrogatory put to Job: 'Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are!' Yes, the coruscations of heaven man has reduced to obedience, and they say unto him, Here we are. It is yet in its infancy—an experiment, rather than an arrangement. Who can tell where future improvements may conduct it, or what sway it may hereafter exercise over the social and political condition of the world? what people it may bring together and keep together by the power of instantaneous communication? or how the events of distant nations, told almost to the other side of the globe, the very moment of their occurrence, may affect the future destiny of mankind?"

C.

From the Speech of Hon. H. V. Johnson, U. S. Senate, delivered February, 1848.

"In the progress of the discussions on the topics connected with the war, a good deal has been said in ridicule of what is called 'manifest destiny.' Now, sir, I am a believer in this doctrine; but I would not employ precisely these words to express my opinion. I would say, that I believe it to be the manifest design of Providence, either that the whole of North America should be embraced within our Republic, or that, through the influence of our institutions, it is to become the theatre of the highest civilization and freedom. Yet, sir, I am no propagandist. I would not force the adoption of our form of government upon any people by the sword. But if war is forced upon us, as this has been, and the increase of

our territory, and consequently the extension of the area of human liberty and happiness, shall be one of the incidents of such a contest, I believe we should be recreant to our noble mission, if we refused acquiescence in the high purposes of a wise Providence. War has its evils. In all ages it has been the minister of wholesale death and appalling desolation; but, however inscrutable to us, it has also been made, by the all-wise Dispenser of events, the instrumentality of accomplishing the great end of human elevation and human happiness. Civilization, like her heaven-born pioneer mother, Christianity, has been compelled to force on her steady march, for more than eighteen hundred years, amidst the revolutions of empires, which have stained with blood her robe of whiteness. But, converting every obstacle to her progress into a weapon of victory, she shall encincture the globe with her girdle of light. It is in this view that I subscribe to the doctrine of 'manifest destiny.' It is in this view that I believe the whole of North America is consecrated to freedom. Neither legislation nor treaties can set bounds to the triumphant spirit of the age, which threatens thrones and dynasties, and augurs an entire remodelling and renovation of the social and political condition of the world. The results of war and the developments of science are but the echoes of the voice of Prophecy. The one opens the door for civilization, and the other sends its ministers by the power of steam, and speeds them upon the wing of the 'seraphic lightning.""

From the Speech of Hon. Mr. Hunter, U. S. Senate, 1848.

"If my imagination were tasked to select the highest blessing for my countrymen, I should say, May they be true to themselves and faithful to their mission. I can conceive of nothing which it is possible for human effort to attain, greater than the destiny which we may reasonably hope to fulfil. If war has its dreams, dazzling in splendid pageantry, peace also has its visions of a more enduring form, of a higher and purer beauty. To solve by practical demonstration the grand problem of increasing social power consistently with personal freedom-to increase the efficiency of the human agent by enlarging individual liberty-to triumph over, not only the physical, but, more difficult still, the moral difficulties which lie in the path of man's progress, and to adorn that path with all that is rare and useful in art, and whatever is highest in civilization, are, in my opinion, the noblest achievements of which a nation is capable. These are the ends to which our ambition should be directed."

D.

From the Speech of the Hon. R. Johnson, U. S. Senate, Jan. 10, 11, 1848. "Sir, I am not to be driven into a different course by being told that it would leave us a pecuniary loss. With me, Mr. President, loss of money is nothing to loss of character. With me the boundless wealth of the world would be as nothing, compared with what I should esteem the incalculable loss attending the destruction of our national character. But, sir, it is not true that a peace accomplished on the terms to which I have referred would leave us without indemnity. Sir, we have indemnity in the history of this war. It is to be found in the many glorious battle-fields which it has presented to an astonished world. It is to be found in the delight which electrified every American heart at the result of every conflict. It is to be found in the security which it furnishes against the disturbers of our peace hereafter. A few hundreds of millions, (even if it should go to hundreds,) that may be expended, will be forgotten even while spoken of, while the glory and renown which it has heaped upon the American character will be remembered as long as time itself shall endure. I am not, therefore, to be told that peace on such terms would leave us losers, in the true, high, and moral sense of the term."

E.

PLAN OF IGUALA.

"ART. 1. The Mexican nation is independent of the Spanish nation, and of every other, even on its own continent.

"ART. 2. Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its inhabitants profess.

"ART. 3. They shall be united, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.

"ART. 4. The government shall be a constitutional monarchy. "ART. 5. A junta shall be named, consisting of individuals who enjoy the highest reputation in the different parties which have shown themselves.

"ART. 6. This junta shall be under the presidency of his excellency the Count del Venadito, the present viceroy of Mexico.

"ART. 7. It shall govern in the name of the nation, according to the laws now in force, and its principal business shall be to convoke, according to such rules as it shall deem expedient, a Congress for the formation of a constitution more suitable to the country.

"ART. 8. His majesty Ferdinand VII. shall be invited to the throne of the empire, and in case of his refusal, the Infantes Don Carlos . and Don Francisco de Paula.

"ART. 9. Should his majesty Ferdinand VII. and his august brothers decline the invitation, the nation is at liberty to invite to the imperial throne any member of reigning families whom it may select. "ART. 10. The formation of the constitution by the Congress, and the oath of the emperor to observe it, must precede his entry into the country.

66

“ART. 11. The distinction of castes is abolished, which was made by the Spanish law, excluding them from the rights of citizenship. All the inhabitants of the country are citizens and equal, and the door of advancement is open to virtue and merit.

"ART. 12. An army shall be formed for the support of religion, independence, and union, guarantying these three principles, and therefore shall be called the army of the three guaranties.

"ART. 13. It shall solemnly swear to defend the fundamental bases of this plan.

"ART. 14. It shall strictly observe the military ordinances now in force.

"ART. 15. There shall be no other promotions than those that are due to seniority, or which shall be necessary to the good of the service.

“ART. 16. This army shall be considered as of the line.

"ART. 17. The old partisans of independence, who shall immediately adhere to this plan, shall be considered as individuals of this army.

"ART. 18. The patriots and peasants who shall adhere to it hereafter, shall be considered as provincial militia men.

"ART. 19. The secular and regular priests shall be continued in the state in which they now are.

“ART. 20. All the public functionaries, — civil, ecclesiastical, political, and military, who adhere to the cause of independence, shall be continued in their offices, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.

"ART. 21. Those functionaries, of whatever degree and condition,

« ZurückWeiter »