378 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



eers of Switzerlaud. I have seen, and conversed, and sat 

 down in their cottages with them all. I have found often 

 among them simple goodness ; ignorance, oppression, can- 

 not trample oat that. I have witnessed patience under 

 hopeless toil, resignation beneath grievous wrongs; I have 

 met with civility, kindness, a cheerful smile, and a ready 

 w^elcome. But the spirit of the man was not there ! — the 

 spirit that can lift up its brow with a noble confidence, and 

 feel that, while it is no man's master, neither is it any man's 

 slave. Between them and the favored of capricious for- 

 tune, one felt — they felt — there was a great gulf fixed, broad, 

 impassable. 



Far other is it even in the lowliest cabin of our frontier 

 "West. It is an equal you meet there ; an equal in political 

 rights; one to whom honors and ofiice, even the highest, 

 are as open as to yourself You feel that it is an equal. 

 The tone in which hospitality is tendered to you, humble 

 though means and forms ma}' be, reminds you of it. The 

 conversation, running over the great subjects of the day, 

 branching off, perhaps, to questions of constitutional right, 

 or international law, assures you of it. 



I have heard in many a backwoods cabin, lighted but by 

 the blazing log heap, arguments on government, views of 

 national policy, judgments of men and things, that, for 

 sound sense and practical wisdom, would not disgrace any 

 legislative body upon earth. 



And shall we grudge to Europe her antiquarian lore, her 

 cumbrous folios, her illuminated manuscripts, the chaff of 

 learned dullness that cumbers her old library shelves ? A 

 *' pang of envy and grief" shall we feel ? Out upon it ! 

 Men have we ; a people ; a free people ; self-respecting, 

 self-governing ; that which gold cannot buy ; that which 

 kings cannot make ! Grief! Envy ! Theirs let it be, who 

 look upon this young land, in her freshness, in her strength ! 

 Let them feel it who behold, from afar, our people bravelj^ 

 battling their onward way ; treading, with liberty at their 

 side, the path of progressive improvement ; each step up- 

 ward and onward ; onward to the great goal of public vir- 

 tue and social equality. 



Equalitj' ! I spoke of our citizens as equals ; equals in 

 the sense of the Declaration of Independence; equals in 

 political privilege ; in the legal right to the pursuit of hap- 

 piness. Equals, in a restricted sense of the term, men 

 never can be. The power of intellect will command, while 

 the world endures ; the influence of cultivation will be felt, 

 while men continue to live upon earth ; and felt the more. 



