1846.] Our Social, Political and Educational System. 103 



ges, his equal share in controling the destinies of the nation, and 

 each alike responsible to posterity for the manner in which he 

 discharges his duty. 



As a consequence of this general responsibility, our citizens 

 are generally intelligent, to a certain extent, as will be found to 

 be the case in every government controlled by the people them- 

 selves. Though there are many charges to which we may be 

 obnoxious, it certainly cannot be said of us that, as a nation, we 

 are stupid; for, however much we may fall behind other countries 

 in some respects, we can, in the common understanding of the 

 people, justly claim to be far in advance of every other nation on 

 the globe. 



Nor has this general intelligence, in the affairs of government, 

 been attended by injurious influences upon the enterprise of citizens: 

 but it has superinduced a certain energetic, business-cast of thought 

 which, while it leads to the acquisition of wealth, and to the at- 

 tainment of those solid comforts, and to some extent, of those re- 

 finements of taste, which are well adapted to the happiness of our 

 people in their individual and social conditions, is at the same 

 time, contributing more, perhaps, to the permanency of our insti- 

 tutions, than any other one cause. 



History teaches us, by the nmnerous illustrations which it fur- 

 nishes, that tyrannies, as a general rule, never contribute to the 

 advancement of literary enterprises, or of moral truths; fort he 

 principles of a tyrannical government render necessary the im- 

 position of restrictions upon thought, or the utterance of it, and 

 the suppression of every thing which leads to the development of 

 man's natural and legitimate spirit of freedom. There are no 

 such restrictions imposed on us here. There is no wintry frigid- 

 ity of tyranny here to blight the luxuriance of our mental or 

 moral growth. So far from placing burthens upon the soaring 

 spirit of freedom, or of suppressing the free development of man's 

 nature, our government, from its organic structure, provides 

 especially for the unrestricted exercise of mind: and a man of 

 genius here, though born in obscurity, and clothed in the habili- 

 ments of poverty, can as loudly proclaim the great lessons of 

 truth and wisdom, educed by the toil of study in his obscurity, 

 and as certainly command for them the admiration of the million, 

 as he who has been born surrounded by all the appliances of 

 wealth and fortune, and been bred in the lap of luxurious ease. 

 This is a distinctive feature of our political system; and one, 

 which, with the natural energy of our people — all other obstacles 

 being cleared away by the prudent forecast of our statesmen — 

 must carry us to a high and glorious destiny among the nations of 

 the earth. 



Thus much has been said generally. I now inquire, have we 



