AND SUBORDINATION. 83 



and thy place shall be foremost among the nations in 

 wealth, in science, and in empire ! Oh ! tyranny, leave 

 these shores forever! There is no chance for thee here ! 

 Away with thy dungeons and thy chains ! It is not in 

 America that enfranchised humanity can ever be incarce- 

 rated ! In this country, men are not disposed to cringe 

 before any despotism, however ancient and colossal. Here 

 we live in peace and charity with our neighbor, although 

 we differ in religious opinions. Is this a condition of 

 things to be lamented ? Have you the effrontery to deny 

 the fact that men live together more happily, now that 

 religious and political freedom is enjoyed by all ? You 

 would have the people to give up this " infidel freedom," 

 (the language of baffled imposture !) those precious liber- 

 ties claimed for them by their greatest statesmen, and pur- 

 chased by the blood of heroes ! You would revive in our 

 midst the bloody massacres, barbarous cruelties, and inve- 

 terate religious hatreds of former ages ! Is it possible that 

 you expect a people, now happy, enlightened, and free, 

 making daily advances in science and in all the arts that 

 humanize mankind, to succumb to your wretched, dark- 

 ening, and enslaving policy ? Yet you are moving for- 

 ward in the dark with slow and stealthy step ; but the 

 friends of freedom are on the watch, and the moment you 

 boldly reveal in the broad glare of day the tyranny of 

 your purpose, Columbia will prove, as ever, the bravest 

 defender of the religious and political liberties of man- 

 kind. Nothing but benevolence and good-will to the 

 human race is written on her youthful, noble, starry brow. 

 This then is the true social policy which is plainly indi- 

 cated by the tree. We see that the sap has a natural ten- 

 dency to pass to the leading branches from the branchlets 

 'and smaller twigs ; so power passes away naturally from 

 the hands of the many, who are, comparatively speaking, 

 without energy, to those of the few who possess it in a 

 pre-eminent degree. But power, accumulated in the 

 hands of any one man or body of men, is ever dangerous 

 to liberty. Human nature is not to be trusted with irre- 

 sponsible power, no matter what the plea. The encroach- 



