288 [Assembly 



the apostles of freedom, France and Poland the scenes of their 

 action. 



Thirty years later the standard of revolt was raised on the 

 hills of Greece. The spirits of Miltiades, Leonidas, and Pausani- 

 as seemed to reappear in obedience to the Pythagorian doctrine, in 

 the homes of Bozzaris, Ipsilanti, and Capo d'Istria. 



But it may be asked " what had America to do with this be- 

 yond furnishing a triumphant example of the same principles 

 whicli formed the age of Grecian glory twenty-three centuries 

 ago ?" We answer that that is of itself enough, but it is not all. 

 A nation's sympathy is not lost in air. It fires the patriot's heart 

 and nerves his arm. The first ship that hailed with a national 

 salute the patriot flag of Greece, when it was unfurled in the har- 

 bor of Napoli di Romania, bore the stripes and .*tars on her en- 

 sign. This fact is not forgotten. The aid given by private indi- 

 viduals in this country during that war is still remembered, and 

 at this day the magic words A/xtptxavog eijxj " I am an American," 

 is a passport to the heart of every Greek. 



Nor had Europe only heard the voice of Liberty. South 

 America caught up the spirit of the North, till from the plains 

 of La Plata to the Andes of Columbia, " Independence or Death," 

 was inscribed on every banner. The United Provinces in 1816 

 commenced the war, which, for eight long years, raged from 

 Mexico to Cape Horn, till the battle of Ayacucho, the York- 

 town of Peru, in 1824, made the last Viceroy a prisoner, and 

 terminated for ever the Spanish power on the Western Continent. 

 Even imperial Brazil scorned to be the subject of European dic- 

 tation, and in 1822 declared and won her independence of Por- 

 tugal. 



Meanwhile, the United States was steadily advancing to the 

 place which the God of Nature has assigned her. The freedom 

 of the seas, which combined Europe had failed to wrest from 

 the grasp of England, had been achieved by lier valor. The 

 practical results of the war of 1812 had been to place the sanc- 

 tion of the greateet fharitime power of earth on the new Ameri- 

 can doctrine, that the flag covers the property. Nations, which 



