764 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary 

 spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends 

 with more or less force to every species of free govern- 

 ment. ! Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with in- 

 difference upon attempts to shake. the foundation of the 

 fabric ? Promote, then, as an object of primary import- 

 ance, 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. n 



Andrew Jackson says: 



"In the legislation of Congress, also, and in every 

 measure of the general government, justice to every 

 portion of the United States should be observed. No free 

 government can stand without virtue in the people, and a 

 lofty spirit of patriotism; and if the sordid feelings of 

 mere selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to be 

 filled by public spirit, the legislation of Congress will soon 

 be converted into a scramble for personal and sectional 

 advantages. ' J 



The hope of the Republic is to educate the people to 

 a higher standard of moral purity. It is the duty of the 

 clergy, it is the duty of the press, religious and secular, 

 it is the duty of every patriotic citizen to labor to that end 

 if we hope to save the Republic from the throes of a 

 revolution, more horrible even than that which convulsed 

 France in 1789. 



"Suppose that thirty years ago another star of Beth- 

 lehem had appeared, and at some rural village, into the 

 family of a poor mechanic, there had been born another 

 Messiah, who, after working at a trade for years, in com- 

 pany with the poorest and humblest people, studying with 

 infinite wisdom and brooding with infinite pity over the 

 condition of mankind, should just now be entering upon 

 his ministry, in what condition would he see the world after 



