try are amply sufficient for even twice the number contemplated.

In the meantime, China, India, and most of the older and riper kingdoms of the eastern hemisphere, are nearly stationary; and there are physical as well as political and moral causes, which must hold the great empire of Russia, in respect to the increase of her population, far in the rear of America. These facts show us with what surprising rapidity we are gaining numerical ascendency over the other nations of the globe.

Look now at the physical resources of this country. Presenting an eastern and southern coast to the Atlantic and the gulf of Mexico of more than two thousand miles, indented with numerous bays and harbors, and affording the outlets to more than a hundred navigable rivers, some of which are the noblest that ever flowed;-stretching thence to the west three thousand miles, across the great American continent, to receive the salutations of the Pacific ocean and present another coast for the commerce of the old world; extending through all the most valuable varieties of clime, through thirty degrees of latitude, from the burning to the frigid zones, and containing nearly two millions of square miles;-having a bright and salubrious sky; affording soil surpassed by none for the variety and abundance of its productions; containing

RESOURCES.

ENTERPRISE.

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numerous inland lakes of unequalled size and beauty, and coursed by innumerable rivers in every direction, thus conveying to its very centre all the privileges of free intercourse with the whole commercial world—is it not clearly destined to become the richest, greatest, most powerful and influential nation upon the earth?

Look next at the enterprising character of its inhabitants. Every desert is in the progress of being explored; every mountain is scaled; every forest is subdued; every river is laid under contribution to commerce or manufactories; by the force of unparalleled enterprise, the deepest and most desolate wilderness is beginning to bud and blossom as the rose; the interior lakes and streams are converted into high-ways, to bear off the superabundant productions of our own soil to foreign ports, and bring back, in return, the productions of other climes; where nature has failed to cast up a highway, invention and industry are constructing canals and railroads; the vallies are exalted, the mountains and hills are made low, the crooked is made straight, and the rough places plain; on every hand, as by enchantment, large villages and cities, once the work of a century, now spring up in less than half a score of years; states and territories are yearly added to the nation, and all the treasures of invention, art, industry, and wealth are borne

upon the mighty wave of population, that is constantly rolling farther and wider over this vast continent.

Look next at the influence which our civil and political institutions are already exerting over other nations. Moved by our example, Mexico, Guatimala, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, comprehending most of the territory and strength of South America, have shaken off the yoke of despotic power, and assumed republican governments; while also Guiana and Brazil are tending to the same result. In less than twenty years, probably all South America, and perhaps also the Canadas, led on by our example, will become free and independent nations.

Next extend your vision to the other continent, and see how the leaven of our influence is felt there. We do not ascribe the present tendency there to civil, political and religious freedom wholly to America; but that it is chiefly our due, who can doubt?

Britain combines the three principles of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy; but, since the American Revolution, has been gradually becoming more republican. In France, until the revolution of 1830, the Roman Catholic was the established religion; but no one sect has now any advantage over another; while the government,

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although a nominal monarchy, is of the most limited kind, the peerage by a late law being no longer hereditary, the chamber of deputies being chosen by the electoral colleges, and the legislative power residing with the peers and deputies, in connection with the king.

Germany was an hereditary despotism till 1806, when, through an impulse from our revolution, it was broken up by Napoleon; and has now become a confederation of independent States, regulated by a federative diet, where all the States are represented.

Switzerland is now a confederacy of independent cantons; and all the other governments of Europe, through the influence of example and of growing knowledge, are tending towards freedom. Even Russia herself, the seat of the stern autocrat, whose most lenient emperor, Alexander, banished to Siberia a poet, for writing an ode to liberty, is beginning to feel the operation of those elements which are destined either to revolutionize her, or so to reduce her monarch's power, that her subjects will, ere long, enjoy the rights of men and Christians. Asia, too, with her Celestial Empire, and her various other civil and spiritual despotisms of power exercised over ignorance, abjectness, superstition, and lust, is beginning to feel the operation of causes from this country and from Britain, promising to produce great, glorious, and lasting results to the

cause of national liberty, human elevation, and pure religion.

Nor is benighted and oppressed Africa entirely unaffected. The western and southern colonies, planted by America and Britain, are opening a way to light and freedom; while the messengers of Christian benevolence, and the general influence of growing knowledge, are preparing the way for Ethiopia to stretch forth her hands unto God. As fast as Africa shall become enlightened and Christian, her civil institutions will be essentially modeled after ours; that is, they will maintain some form of free republican government.

Still more are we impressed with the influence which our nation is destined to wield over the world, if we consider our institutions of learning and religion. These are, after all, the most essential elements of power. A little handful of men, like our pilgrim fathers, enlightened by knowledge and sanctified by religion, will ultimately put forth more power over the world, than a whole army of physical force. The legions of a Xerxes, a Cæsar, or a Napoleon, are not half so mighty. One shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. To say nothing of other enlightened and efficient portions of our country, our little New-England, though but a speck on the grand map of America, owing to her elevated learning and piety, has already