20 i [Assembly 



We are so near tlie point of natjonal superiority, that it seems to 

 some already reached. Soon, very soon — for what is the space 

 of thirt}^, or fifty, or one hundred years, in the life of a people 1 

 we shall be the most powerful nation on the globe, the umpire 

 of all disputes, the arbiter of all fates. Let, then, this sense of 

 national greatness be cultivated and based on a foundation no- 

 bler and safer than preeminence in war — a supciiority in all that 

 can exalt the labor of the human hand. 



It is important to remark that by reason of our vast extent of 

 territory, industrial independence is possible to oar nation. Ev- 

 ery clime, every soil may yield us every product. We have cot- 

 ton and sugar at the South; water power and inventive skill a6 

 the North ; wlieat at the West ; iron and coal in' the centre ; riv- 

 ers on the far Paciiic slope, like those in Eastern Europe,- descri- 

 bed by Strabo, " whose wintry torrents roll down golden sands j" 

 and men everywhere capable of developing all our natural ad- 

 vantages. Such is the country we inhabit. Is it, then, a vision- 

 ary hope that a people dwelling in such a land, may produce 

 within their own borders, all that the highest civilization may 

 require for the supply of human wants I With every function of 

 human industry in healthy operation — every production of art, 

 every invention of genius brought here to the highest perfection, 

 our Nation would be a truly independent and self-sustaining 

 Commonwealth, a complete and perfect body politic. War might 

 rage on every side; leagued assailants might attack us on every 

 quarter; but the grand and perfect machinery of our national af- 

 fairs would move on undisturbed, and our people would pursue 

 their daily occupations unterrif.ed and unharmed, in the con- 

 sciousness of safety and power. 



Not that every possible branch of human industry should be 

 pu^ued in every State. There is a limit to the diversification of 

 human pursuits. We would not attempt to raise oranges in 

 New England, and make ice by artificial means in Florida. Na- 

 ture has given us the true law on this subject, and I apprehend 

 it is this : Every nation should make for itself everything which 

 can be produced by the same amount of human labor as else- 

 where. When more labor is required to produce a given article 



