WiiAT THE Age Owes to America, 
343 
To the frivolous philosophy of human life which makes all the 
world a puppet show, and history a book of anecdotes, the moral 
warfare which fills up the life of man and the record of his race 
seems as unreal and as aimless as the conflicts of the glittering hosts 
upon an airy field, whose display lights up the fleeting splendors of 
a northern night. But free government for a great people never 
comes from or gets aid from such philosophers. To a true spiritual 
discernment there are few things more real, few things more sub¬ 
stantial, few things more likely to endure in this world than human 
thoughts, human passions, human interests, thus molten into the 
frame and model of our state. “ 0 morem prceclaram^ discipUnam 
que,, quam a onajoribus accepimus,, si quidem teneremusl'''' 
I have made no account, as unsuitable to the occasion, of the dis¬ 
tribution of the national power between the general and the state 
governments, or of the special arrangements of executive authority, 
of legislatures, courts, and magistracies, whether of the general or 
of the state establishments. Collectively they form the body and 
the frame of a complete government for a great, opulent, and pow¬ 
erful people, occupying vast regions, and embracing in their pos¬ 
sessions a wide range of diversity of climate, of soil, and of all the 
circumstantial influences of external nature. I have pointed your 
attention to the principle and the spirit of the government for which 
all this frame and body exists, to which they are subservient, and 
to whose mastery they must conform. The life of the natural body 
is the blood, and the circulation of the moral and intellectual forces 
and impulses of the body politic shapes and molds the national life. 
I have touched, therefore, upon the traits that determined this na¬ 
tional life, as to be of, from, and for the people, and not of, from, 
■or for any rank, grade, part, or section of them. In these traits are 
found the “ordinances, constitutions, and customs” by a wise 
choice of which the founders of states may. Lord Bacon says, “ sow 
greatness to their posterity and succession.” 
And now, after a century of growth, of trial, of experience, of 
observation, and of demonstration, we are met, on the spot and on 
the date of the great declaration, to compare our age with that of 
our fathers, our structure with their foundation, our intervening 
history and present condition with their faith and prophecy. That 
^‘respect to the opinion of mankind,” in attention to which our 
statesmen framed the Declaration of Independence, we, too, ac- 
