could stand proudly before the world as bright ornaments of their race and country, sell their | souls through perfidy for the simple gambler's | delight-gain, present gain. Their sight is wilfully blinded to the future. Even the people are so involved in this reckless course, that they dare not condemn boldly, through fear of condemning themselves; and all whom chance has disappointed in their partisan aims, look forward to the time when, by more consummate practice of artful villany, the spoils may fall into their power. Seriously, is not this a sad prospect for American liberties? When the all-absorbing theme is the success of our party at the next election; when men are selected as fit candidates for the suffrages of their fellow-citizens, not at all for their capacity and moral worth, but for the votes they are likely to command; when our legislative halls become the receptacles of contemptible ruffianism and immorality; is it not time for the community to awake from their slumbers, buckle on the good old armor, and once more, with holy resolution, breast the storm, that moral force may be reëstablished throughout and become the governing power of the land? Can a reflecting parent desire a son to finish his education in committee-rooms, at primary elections, or even at the polls, in the service of either of the leading parties of the day? Could he select a more apt school for the destruction of every innate conception of right and wrong within his youthful mind, a better school in which to teach him braggadocio, lying, and self-conceit, or to divert his mind from paths of honor and honesty to those of trickery and deception? We would imagine not. Yet, can it be possible that parents have overlooked these most probable results, or that, perceiving them, they should have neglected to present a remedy? One or the other is evidently the case. It is time, therefore, that the matter be seen to. In former days, the results were not so pernicious as at present; many have passed the ordeal harmless, although somewhat tried; and, consequently, if they love their country, its institutions and liberties, it becomes a matter of duty for them to point out to the youth a remedy for the evils, or acknowledge one, if it be found existing. The youth has the matter for reflection and decision to himself; he must choose a path; and upon the alternative whether honor, for its intrinsic worth, be his aim, or present political preferment, to be obtained through the action of a self-degraded rabble, be his choice, depends in a great measure the future of our country. THE FAREWELL ADDRESS AND THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.-As the demonstrations made in various parts of the country on the late Birth-day Anniversary encourage us with a renewed assurance that the admonitions of Washington have not become entirely obsolete, we have ventured to string together a few gems from the mass of jewels found in his Farewell Address, which may serve, by a ready reference, as land-marks for the American mind, well worth pointing at now and then. We begin with his PRAYER FOR OUR COUNTRY. That Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. PRESERVE THE UNION. It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indig nantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of your country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. AMERICAN PATRIOTISM AND THE BAPTISM Of "76. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. BEWARE OF INNOVATIONS. Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanancy of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretext. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. FOREIGN INFLUENCE. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, too, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. PARTY SPIRIT. I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them upon geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passion. Thus the policy and will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. THE BASIS OF GOOD GOVERNMENT. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. THE FIDELITY OF AN OATH. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in the courts of justice? POPULAR EDUCATION. Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. NON-INTERVENTION. The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial ...... 151 relations, to have with them as little political con- HIS OWN PURE LOVE OF COUNTRY. If I may even flatter myself that [these my my counsels] may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit; to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue; to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. Thanks, Father, that you have left to us these blessed counsels; and we pray that the day may never come when party spirit, foreign intrigue, or false patriotism shall wean us from them. "It is a matter of question whether any people is fit for freedom until it is in a condition to achieve it without foreign aid, and in opposition to all odds."-Boston Transcript. "It should be no matter of question with American Republicans. Our fathers were not in a condition to achieve their independence without foreign aid and in opposition to all odds.' Had they waited until they should be in the condition' stated by the Transcript, they would have left oppression instead of freedom as a legacy to their children."-New-York Sun. So, Do think you Master Sun? Pray tell us, then, if you have any arithmetic to arrive at the conclusion, what amount of foreign aid did " our fathers" receive, and where did they receive it? Was it at Lexington or Bunker Hill, where the great resolve was first sealed with blood? our fathers" count on Did " foreign aid then? Was it at Monmouth, At the Cowpens, Trenton, or Saratoga? Guilford, Eutaw? Was it at Brandywine, White Plains, or Germantown? And do you really think that "our fathers" were not in a condition to achieve their independence without foreign aid? Ye who in these days, for the filth of lucre, so love to underrate the achievements of 'our fathers," should be informed that they who secured to you the right to publish a "penny paper," and express therein your free thoughts, neither sought nor expected foreign aid when they commenced the death-struggle that made you what you are, and gave you "freedom" instead of "oppression;" and if they did receive a moiety of foreign aid in that 152 struggle, it was not given from sympathy, nor from love, nor from a desire to stablish a free government, but solely with a view to wreak a collateral vengeance upon a common foe. Moreover, the great battles of the Revolution were fought without it, and our independence would have been achieved without it, against "all the odds" that Great Britain could bring to bear against it. By asserting the contrary, you only prove that, although "our fathers" brought you from bondage, they could not purge out of your souls that innate and abject spirit of servility which, under a boasted freedom, compels you to bow down to a foreign influence that brings pennies to the counter. Ye are not true sons of "our fathers" thus to insult their memories, and we are compelled to apply to you, and such as you, the exclamation of an outraged parent: "Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou showest thee in a child, SUNDAY DISPATCH.-This ably conducted sheet frequently gives outlines of the political and other doings of our neighbors at Brooklyn and Williamsburg. In a late number is an article entitled, "Brooklyn and her Botherations," from a correspondent, to which the editor has been pleased to add some racy remarks. We make an extract or two, which will be found both amusing and instructive. "WHIGS-SPINOLA-FISKE.-The Whigs, having pretty much every thing their own way, are fain to get up the most bitter feuds among themselves. Frank Spinola, within the last five years, has entangled them all, as in a net; and, at the last election, Mr. Fiske, the Whig candidate for senator at Albany, was defeated by Whig votes, because he was a political crony of Frank's." [Questionable as to the cause; see Republic for November.] "Since the defeat of Fiske, the Common Council meetings have been the frequent scenes of rage, recrimination, and wordy war. Frank Spinola, who is an alderman, as well as harbor-master, is accused of going over to the enemy (the 'Democracy,') and voting on their side, which causes great tribulation, for the Board is nearly equally divided between the two parties, and Frank almost holds a casting vote. "Meanwhile the Democrats look on in great glee, and you may be sure lose no opportunity of fanning the flames." [All right! fun on both sides.] On the subject of Ferries, the editor remarks, in his off-hand, pleasing style, that "The Brooklyn Corporation, at their last meeting, voted to take the ferry matter in their own hands, and appropriated the magnificent sum of $1000 to engage in a hip-and-thigh contest with one of the richest cities in the world, on a point she considers vital-her ferry prerogatives! Bravo for Brooklyn! She illustrates the spirit of the Honorable Samuel Smith, after he was nominated for Mayor, who became so excited with the glory of the Mayor's baton in perspective, that he desperately announced his intention of going to the incredible outlay of thirty-five dollars,' rather than lose his election! Does Brooklyn expect to crush New-York into the dust with one thousand dollars? Homeopathy never showed any thing equal to this. The celebrated joke of the South Carolina Legislature setting apart $60,000, to be increased in case of necessity to $100,000, for the purpose of making a dead set against the Federal Government, may now retire to the shades of private life. Brooklyn goes ahead! New-York Common Councilmen have behaved like ninnies from the beginning in the whole affair, and are now capping the climax, by fighting for the beautiful privilege of putting some tight ligatures on what would be a flowing and health-infusing artery of profit to their own constituents." The "THE FUTURE OF ROMANISM."-The Univers, a French paper, presents the following view of the possible return of Russia to the Political Church, which can be presented in three pretty groups; as thus, first, the SUBLIME: "The Church prays for the nations who are in the shadow of death. [All who are not Romanists?] She abandons none of them; she implores Almighty God for them all, and asks his mercy for their resurrection.” . . . Now..."Every one is struck, for example, by the grandeur of the results which the conversion of England or of Russia [to Romanism] would produce; it is therefore natural that in all parts of the earth the prayers of Catholics should incessantly ascend to the throne of God to obtain the return of those two nations." "Neighboring to England, and remote from Russia, Catholic France is so preoccupied with the former as to be perhaps a little too forgetful of the latter. It will therefore be not without its use summarily to recall the facts from which it follows that the conversion of that people [the Russian] would be an immense event for the future of the world; and to indicate some of the reasons which permit the Christian to hope for it." Next in order comes the RIDICULOUS, illustrating as a fact that "the grandeur of the conversion," which is to be simply the cheatresults" would flow from the nature of "the ing of the people into the belief that they are consciousness. Catholics without their suffering change or "In Russia, it would perhaps suffice that the great-that is to say, the government and some Bishops-should be converted, for the whole nation to follow them. The Catholic missionaries who have lived in Russia for thirty years attest that, looking at the submission, the good faith, and the attachment of the people to every ancient usage, especially religious, a conversion, if it came from the high clergy, might operate in such a way that the masses, ignorant as they are of the causes which separate the two Churches, would not even perceive this change. Now, Russia reckons nearly 55,000,000 of schismatics, and there are nearly 18,000,000 others outside of her bosom, who would be in a given time led forward by the example of this empire." Thus seventy-three millions of souls (or rather bodies) are to be converted into an army of the faithful, "of the true faith," and that without perceiving it; and such grand result is to be effected through the example of "the government and some Bishops." Truly it is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous. The text serves to show us the high estimation that Romanists place upon ignorance in a people, and may it also serve as an admonition to all Americans, prompting them to educate their youth not as Roman priests would dictate, but so that they may possess righteous comprehension. Witness the end so devoutly to be prayed for by the Church: "The return of Russia to the Church would bring about the conversion of a great number of Jews of the empire. Catholic Russia would no longer dispute with France in Turkey; the common efforts of these two great nations would facilitate the conversion of the votaries of the Koran. It must be remembered that the Popes whose genius prepared the crusades, took care, almost all of them, to send in to Russia agents charged to negotiate its alliance against the Turks. If Russia were Catholic, this alliance would be as certain and sincere as it was then impracticable." Thus the murderous crusade would again be "certain and sincere," in the event of this wholesale conversion of ignorance in the mass to a mass of ignorance, seeking none other than a bigoted control of mankind, body and soul. Well, God defend Jew, Turk, and Gentile!-especially the Turk, who has lately given us such good practical lessons that we are prone to call his acts Christian. The next group is the IDOLATROUS. "Among causes, one of the most powerful, and that which inspires at Rome the greatest hope, is the [idolatrous] devotion of the people of Russia to the [graven image of the] Blessed Virgin. The following are some details which we find on this subject in the sufficiently recent narrative of a German traveler, M. Kohl: 'It is at the most frequented point of Moscow that we find the little chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Iberia, (Georgia,) by reason of an image of the Holy Virgin, where it has remained for several centuries. This image, adorned all over with diamonds of the greatest value, still retains its Greek inscription. Scarcely any one among those who pass beside this chapel omits to make a visit for an instant to the Holy Virgin, whether by entering her sanctuary, or by kneeling at her door, to make a short prayer. On entering the chapel, each makes the sign of the cross, kneels down, kisses the ground, recites some devout prayers, rises, approaches the holy [graven] image, and respectfully kisses the hand of the Holy Virgin and the foot of the Infant Jesus. I have watched with astonishment for a long while the powerful impression produced by this image on the mind of the visitors. "The Monk who is guardian of the chapel assured me that it is visited not only by those who pass near it from one place in Mo-cow to another, but also by numerous pilgrims who come expressly to honor Our Lady of Iberia from Armenia, Greece, Moldavia, and all the Sclave countries."" [graven?] Virgin has been transmitted by tradition "The devotion of the Russians to the Blessed from father to son down from the most Catholic ages, and scarcely a single house is to be found throughout all Russia, how poor soever, which has not an image of the Blessed Virgin, inherited from its ancestry. "Unless we lost all belief in supernatural laws, it is impossible to despair of the return [in idolatry] of a nation which thus honors the Mother of God, and whose conversion would have so decisive an action on the spiritual destinies of so many nations. We believe, therefore, that God will grant this grace to the supplications of his Church." To the reflecting mind, the above is but a frank acknowledgment that there is an essential similarity between Russian idolatry and the practices of the Political Church, its graven images, pictures of martyrs, saints, &c.; but God forbid that it should be foundation for even a hope that He “will grant this grace" of "conversion" "to the supplications of His Church" political. ORGANIZED PROPAGANDISM.-The growing political influence of foreigners, and the audacity with which they are now beginning to employ it for purposes at war with our national policy and peace, must ere long awaken our people to a true sense of its danger. We have before called attention to the recent formation of foreign political and military associations, the former of the Red Republican and Socialist school, and the latter under their distinctive national European characters, names, and uniforms, and both decidedly antiAmerican in spirit and in fact. It now appears that these organizations are a part of a system of propagandism adapted to the promotion of European revolutions, the foreign revolutionists having established a League at Philadelphia, with auxiliary associations and military corps in every city and county of the Union, an executive board and a general con gress, the first session of which is to be held in this city, on the 17th of May next. The following condensation of their programme we copy from the Philadelphia Ledger: "It will be seen by the articles of this organization, that the design of the League is to overthrow monarchy and establish republican democracy throughout Europe. For the accomplishment of this purpose, the first object is cooperation of the democratic elements, and their fusion into one grand party, looking only to radical revolution in Europe as their aim. Heretofore the democratic elements have been disunited through national antipathies, and warring against each other. They are now to be united for the destruction of the common enemy, until which time the contest for "the spoils," which usually begins with the first revolutionary effort, is to be postponed. The means to accomplish this object are to have agitation in Europe as well as America, accumulation of a revolutionary fund, and the formation of armed organizations in this country, ready for the struggle when it comes. Military companies are to be formed in every city and county in the Union, and auxiliary associations, who pay weekly contributions to the fund. The whole supervision of affairs is to be under the control of a congress of all the associations, and during its recess to an executive board. A political committee of three persons, elected by this congress, has unrestricted powers to act in concert with other nationalities, to take steps necessary to accomplish European revolution. This, in brief, is the organization and object of this association; and the question arises, how far they are consistent with the duties which American citizens owe to their own laws and the treaties entered into by the United States with the nations of Europe. It is a great scheme of intervention in the affairs of foreign nations, if not by the government, at least by the people of the United States. If the organization succeeds to the extent of its wishes, how long would the government of the United States be able to keep from meddling with foreign quarrels ?" Is it not time for a National American Association? PETITIONS.-In the present method of getting up petitions, a printed or written head, setting forth the matter prayed for, is made upon a page of paper, to which other pages in blank are added successively, as the former ones become filled with names. A ready method of disengaging signatures from an original petition, and of transferring them to others of widely differing, or even directly opposite characters, is thus presented to the minds of designing men. Through the public press we find that this species of fraud, amounting to absolute forgery, has been pretty extensively practised of late, and the community have to abide the consequences. Cheated out of their rights of petition, many have the mortification of finding their names apparently subscribed to doctrines they abhor. As a remedy, we propose that hereafter no sheet attached in blank to a petition be signed on the one hand, or received on the other; that, in future, legislative and other bodies should invariably require, when petitioned, that each distinctive page of the scroll bear the original heading imprinted or written in full thereon, or at least in part, so that its relation to the original may be identified. Through such simple requirement, a great amount of partisan villany would be easily done away with. THE TIMES AND MESSENGER.-A large portion of our community, as the week comes round, look eagerly for this valuable paper. journal, the following excellent remarks on We find in a recent editorial article of that the subject of the Public Lands: "The only proper custodian of the real estate owned in common by the people of the United far more just to equitably divide the public lands States, is the general government; but it would be among the States of the Union, than to vote them railroads, canals, &c., whose philanthropy, however away by millions of acres at a time to projectors of comprehensive it may seem to be, has self-interest for its source and centre. "The project of bestowing the public lands gra tuitously on actual settlers, has no foundation in justice or legal precedent. Unless all the owners of a piece of property agree to convey it either by a deed of sale or a deed of gift, the conveyance is not valid; and nothing but the unanimous consent of the entire citizen population of the United States would justify the giving away of the public land to private individuals for private purposes. Besides, the government cannot afford thus to dispose of the unoccupied soil. It is a source of revenue, a basis for loans. In case of war, it could be pledged for such sums as might be needed to carry on the contest, and the annual sales would pay the interest of the debt, without rendering a resort to onerous taxation necessary. We are too apt to underrate the value of the national domain; and should it be frittered away in gifts of sections and half sections, or squandered wholesale in grants of millions of acres, our descendants will curse in their graves the spendthrift statesmen who now seck to alienate from them their lawful patrimony." INCREASE OF CRIME-ITS CAUSE.-A gentleman Providence, R. L., writing from Freyburg to the who was formerly a teacher in the High School of Providence Journal, sends a translation from a Hamburg paper, stating that Frederic Esslinger and John Arbogast were "discharged from the penitentiary that they might emigrate to America." The next time these names turn up, says the Observer, we suppose it will be in connection with |