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| The True Greatness of Our Country William Henry Seward |
A Discourse Before the Young Catholic Friends' Society at Baltimore, December 22, 1848
William Henry Seward (1801-1872)
Washington: J. and G.S. Gideon, Printers, 1848
This blog post offered by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com
Remarks by Mary Katherine May
Most of us learned about Seward's Folly in grade school but know little else about the actual man who signed the paper for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million dollars in 1867.
William Henry Seward was United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as Governor of New York and United States Senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was a dominant figure in the Republican Party in its formative years. (source: Wikipedia)
The following selections from the above mentioned discourse reflect Seward's beliefs about American Indians and captive slaves in the United States. The question that may rise from reading The True Greatness of Our Country is whether, at least in 1848, he believed African Americans and American Indians to be equal.
Another example of Seward's political tenets that is actually in heated debate right now during the presidential primary season is in regard to the root philosophy for distribution of wealth and benefits. In this speech Seward states, "it distributes these rewards with impartiality and justice in exact proportion to the intelligence of the people."
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| William Henry Seward Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Definitions unless otherwise noted are taken from the 1828 edition of Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language. LINK
To get the full context of the discourse please click the Google Books LINK to read the entire document.
Right Valuation and True Judgment
The population may appear by numbers, and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet there is nothing among civil affairs more subject to error than the right valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an estate.
Let us attempt to make such a valuation of "the power and forces" of our country; not merely to "blazon and amplify" a theme pleasing to national pride, but to obtain its necessary and useful instructions.
Definition: Aggrandizement (n.): The act of increasing the wealth or prestige or power or scope of something.Seward on Assimilation of Aboriginal and African Tribes
The Americans are a homogeneous people, and must remain so; because however widely they expand, they swell in one great and unbroken flood. All exotic elements are rapidly absorbed and completely assimilated. The remnants of the aboriginal and African tribes, being incapable of such assimilation, have hitherto, in different ways, affected and modified the force of the superior and controlling race. Without speculating on the ultimate destiny of either of those unfortunate classes, we may assume that the feeble resistance they offer to the aggrandizement of the Caucasian family is becoming less and less continually, and finally altogether disappear.
Affects of Slavery vs. Freedom
All men know and admit that slavery and oppression debase and demoralize; but it is seldom duly considered that freedom elevates and invigorates in proportion to the extend and duration of its enjoyment.
Progress in America
Seventy years ago we were a nation without capital, without credit, with very indolent agriculture, without manufactures, and with a commerce struggling for life under restrictions which bound this whole Continent and its islands in colonial vassalage to paternal States in Europe. We were without a Nay, and without canals or roads, and were hemmed in between forest and the ocean by savage tribes. Our schools gave scarcely more than rudimental education, and we were without libraries or literature and without invention.
Definition: Stipendiary (n.): Receiving wages or salary; performing services for a stated price or compensation.It is not presumptuous to say that now we possess adequate capital,, prosperous agriculture, and rising manufactures; that we have redeemed our country and most of the continent from colonial dependence; that we enjoy a commerce second only to that of Britain, and a Navy equal to any but hers; and that we have canals and railroads spread like network over all our populous territory; that the Indian tribes are our stipendiaries; and that we have a system of general education, with universities nobly endowed, charities vigorous and comprehensive, literature aspiring to excellence, and mechanical invention that has brought the world under grateful obligation.
American Revolution: Cutting the Gordian Knot
Definiton: Gordian Knot (n.): The Gordian Knot is A legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (disentangling an "impossible" knot) solved easily by loophole or "thinking outside the box" i.e. "cutting the Gordian knot" (source: Wikipedia).The American Revolution cut, at a blow, the Gordian knot, which science had found it impossible to unloose, and demonstrated to mankind that the only foundation of authority was the consent of the people, who had lawful right to subvert, modify, or change civil institutions at their own pleasure.
American Democracy
Role of State and Federal Governments
Definition: Suffrage (n.): A vote; a voice given in deciding a controverted question, or in the choice of a man for an office or trust.It was well understood that the only true object of Government was the happiness of the people, and that "its four pillars were Religion, Justice, Counsel and Treasure;" but the possible establishment of these pillars in a Republican structure still remained to be demonstrated. This was happily done by the institution of a Democracy, based practically on the principles of universal toleration of conscience, and universal suffrage, which is the perfection of political justice, because it is political equality.
This democracy was made to act with counsel by means of the principle of representation; and the representatives in the various departments of the Government were made more or less independent of popular control according to the danger of passion or prejudice. This system was established in each of the several States, clothed with powers adequate to the maintenance of order, the protection of personal liberty, life, and property, and the conduct of municipal affairs.
The same system was distinctly embodied in a precisely similar federal structure comprehending all the States, relying on the ever-renewing action, not of the States, but of the people, and limited in its powers to the management of foreign relations and others important to the general welfare. The institution of a Judiciary in each State, told hold all the representative agencies within their prescribed spheres, and a supreme independent tribunal at the seat of the Federal Government, with appellate jurisdiction, enabling it to decide all conflicts between State and Federal authority, completed this complex and extraordinary structure.
Honor received begets self-respect; self-respect ambition; ambition animates resolution, quickens mental activity, and discerns the advantages which knowledge and virtue bring to their possessor.
Arbitrary power procures the performance of duty only by the terror of penalties.
A Republic employs emulation; it offers wealth, power, and fame, and it distributes these rewards with impartiality and justice in exact proportion to the intelligence of the people. Nor does such emulation endanger the public safety by encouraging faction. It is manifest that a Republic could not endure in a society divided into unequal masses by aristocracy. But universal suffrage, exercised with wisdom and moderation, would be the most conservative of of all institutions in a country where the dissemination of knowledge and of wealth should be nearly equal.
Affairs merely local are conducted by agents appointed and acting within the proper districts. Matters of more grave moment, relating to the interests of the States, or the rights of citizens, are decided within the States by representatives chosen for that purpose; and only national interests engage the consideration or employ the action of the Federal authorities. Each agent acts subject to checks and supervision, but not to interference by a foreign department, or to central control or popular dictation.
Consumption of Public Wealth
Congress has never committed, and cannot commit, the great crime of Princes--the consumption of public wealth for many generations. On the contrary, we have seen the phenomenon of a Government free from debt, returning superfluous treasures to the people, from whom they had been unnecessarily gathered.
Citizens thus virtually free from taxation, readily engage in public enterprises, either singly or in association; and the States in the same condition complete works which, while beneficial to themselves, are also important to the nation.
Our system is to be judged by, not its partial, but its comprehensive results.
Secession from the Union
United States Able to Exist without Seceded States
The only danger now apprehended is that of a secession of one or more of the States. Since the expansion of the Union, and the increase of the number of its members, it is apparent that even a secession of one or more States would not now, as it might have done formerly, subvert the whole structure. It would still exist, yielding protection and dispensing prosperity to the members which should remain. The certainty of this result could not but exert a great influence, probably a controlling one, against a decision to separate by any discontented state.
Slavery: Right of Government to Interfere
In regard to slavery, the only subject which gives rise to apprehension, whatever is vital to any State is guarded against interference by the other States, and even against Federal interposition. There is not now, and there never has been, in any quarter a disposition to trespass beyond the forbidden limits. Incidental questions have been discussed with heat and acrimony, because liberty of debate was obstructed or denied. Nevertheless they have been decided with various advantages to the conflicting parties, and they have acquiesced. It will be so hereafter, and eminently so, because debate being free it will be seen that Truth is effective when she employs the language of persuasion and of moderation, and that Error owes all her strength to physical resistance.
Definitions:
Sedition (n.): A factious commotion of the people, a tumultuous assembly of men rising in opposition to law or the administration of justice, and in disturbance of the public peace.Heretofore (adv.): In times before the present; formerly.Enervate: Weakened; weak; without strength or force.Secession: Disadvantages Outweigh Advantages
One States Seceding Will Not Lead Others to Join
The question which will arise when any emergency shall come will be, not merely whether there is cause for discontent, but whether it is expedient to secede. He who gives that dangerous counsel will have to show that a miserable local traffic, pent up within the borders of the dissenting State; a timid and hesitating adventure on the seas, exposed to piracy and insult; domestic sedition, mocking and insulting authority that itself is seditious; and perpetual conflict, without naval force or formidable military power, with a great and encompassing nation, are better than an unchecked trade throughout the whole American territory; freedom of the seas under a flag that commands respect; peace, harmony, and social order guaranteed by irresistible power; and a common name and common destiny with the American people. If it were possible that any one State could act a part so infatuated, it is certain that she could draw no other in to share her self-destruction. Such alarms occur under circumstances less ominous now than heretofore. Assimilation of policy and interest increases; the relative greatness of the States diminishes, while that of the nation is aggrandized; local pride declines, and nationality grows and flourishes. Disunion is no longer a real terror, but is sinking into an antiquated superstition, haunting only minds which morbidly court the enervating spell.
Let Secession Happen Without Violence
But, if a separation shall then be necessary, let us hope that long habits of discipline and mutual affection may enable the American people to add another and final lesson on the excellence of republics--that of dividing without violence, and reconstructing without the loss of liberty.
Quote Translation: Video solem orientum in Occidente: I see the sun rising in the West. Such are the words in which Bacon proclaims to the King his vision of the great Western Monarchy that was to be, the champion of liberty and the bulwark against the Roman superstition. (The London Series of English Classics: Bacon's Essays Vol. 1, cxxx. by Edwin A. Abbott. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899.God's Will and Providence
We see only the rising of the sun of empire--only the fair seeds and beginnings of a great nation. Whether that glowing orb shall attain to a meridian height, or fall suddenly from its glorious sphere--whether those prolific seeds shall mature into autumnal ripeness, or shall perish yielding no harvest--depends on God's will and providence. But God's will and providence operate not by casualty or caprice, but by fixed and revealed laws. If we would secure the greatness set before us, we must find the way which those laws indicate, and keep within it.
Republicanism: The form of government that is based on the consent of the people.America, Freedom and Democracy in Biblical Language
Magnanimity: Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul, which encounters danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence, which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, interest and safety for the accomplishment useful and noble objects.Beneficence: The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity.
It was ours to lead the way, to take up the cross of republicanism and bear it before the nations, to fight its earliest battles, to enjoy its earliest triumphs, to illustrate its purifying and elevating virtues, and by our courage and resolution, our moderation and our magnanimaty, to cheer and sustain its future followers through the baptism of blood and the martyrdom of fire.
A mission so noble and benevolent demands a generous and self-denying enthusiasm. Our greatness is to be won by beneficence without ambition. We are in danger of losing that holy zeal. We are surrounded by temptations. Our dwellings become palaces, and our villages are transformed, as if by magic, into great cities. Fugitives from famine and oppression and the sword crowd our shores, and proclaim to us that we alone are free and great and happy. Ambition for martial fame, and the lust of conquest, have entered the warm, living, youthful heart of the Republic.
Parting Words: Go, then, ye laborers....
Go, then, ye laborers in a noble cause, gather the young Catholic and the young Protestant alike into the nursery of freedom; and teach them there that, although religion has many and different shrines on which may made the offering of a "broken spirit," which God will not despise; yet that their country has appointed only one altar and one sacrifice for all her sons, and that ambition and avarice must be slain on that altar, for it is consecrated to HUMANITY.
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