Charles Kendall Adams

“ The graces of Southern social life counted for little with Puritan or pioneer, and when the fight was begun the moral enthusiasm of the one, and the shrewd sense, plain morality, and superb energy of the other, would insure the victory for freedom. The election of Jackson, who, although partly a Southerner, was more a Westerner, meant, therefore, not merely the triumph of a new democracy, but that the center of political power had crossed the Alleghanies, and that the control which the South had exercised over the Union from the first was passing to stronger hands. ”

“ Ignoring that which ought not to be ignored concerning divine and natural right and the right judgment of reason, he introduced and commenced to establish such principles and to sow such seeds that there originated and grew from them such a deadly and pestilential herb, and one which produced such deep roots, that it has been sufficient to destroy and devastate all these Indies, without human power sufficing to impede or intercept such great and irreparable evils. ”

“ The supposition became general that a new governor had been appointed, and that he was about to seize his predecessor and perhaps even put him to death. The smothered discontents now burst forth into flames. Those who fancied themselves aggrieved by the rigour of the Admiral’s rule, those who had found the life of adventure only a life of hardship, those who complained either of the wars or of the tribute, all the malcontents of every race and kind, now hastened to greet the new governor and to denounce the old.
168 It was immediately evident that the authority of Columbus was in peril. ”

“ Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. ”

“ Vasco da Gama had shown that navigation beyond the Cape of Good Hope was practicable, and Pedro Cabral had not only gone as far as the marts of Hindostan, but had returned with ships laden with precious commodities of infinite variety. The discoveries in the West had thus far brought no return; and yet, according to every theory that Columbus had entertained, the islands he had discovered were only the border-land—only the fringe, so to speak—of that vast Eastern region that was flaming with Oriental gold. There must be a passage from the west that opened into the Indian Sea. ”

“ We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ”

“ The great man of such a time is the one who shows that he knows the law of development, and, bringing all possible knowledge to his service, works, with a lofty courage and an unflagging persistency and enthusiasm, for the object of his devotion in accordance with the strict laws of historical sequence. Such was the method of Columbus. ”

“ We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ”

“ It was in the narrow pass at the foot of Mount Elvira, a few miles from Granada, that the swift messenger of this good news overtook Columbus on his dejected retreat. No very fertile fancy is required to imagine with some confidence the emotions of the explorer as he listened to the story of the queen’s new decision. Turning the rein, he hastened his jaded mule with all possible speed to the royal court at Santa Fé. ”

“ As no satisfactory reason for his retreat could be given, Washington ordered Lee to the rear, and, galloping along the disordered mass of retreating troops, shouted for a halt, and then reformed the lines. The results of the winter’s drill were at once felt, for in the face of the enemy and under a hard fire the American troops fell into order, wheeled about, and rushed forward to a new attack. The British were driven from the ground they had gained; but night came on, and the two armies occupied the positions held before the battle. Before morning the British resumed their way to New York. ”

“ American life might at the close of the eighteenth century seem dull and narrow to travelers from Europe, but we know that a happy, brave, free, religious people inhabited a land that yielded abundant returns to their labors, and we may readily believe that their lives were fully as useful as ours are to-day. Nor should it ever be forgotten that amid these provincial surroundings arose the greatest figure that modern history can show, and that the American people were wise enough to choose electors who would make him President. ”

“ It has been fortunate for the memory of Columbus that the act of suspension was carried out with such total disregard of what the navigator had accomplished. In accordance with a well-known impulse of human nature, the sympathies of all generous minds from that time to this have been enlisted in his favour. These sympathies have often led to a forgetfulness of the grievances under which the colonists were suffering. But in the light of all the facts that are accessible, it is difficult to believe that the sovereigns were wrong in providing for his removal. ”

“ On the other hand, the number of people who thought slavery morally wrong had increased in the North and Northwest, and the way in which new slaveholding and non-slaveholding states had been admitted into the Union by pairs, so as not to disturb the balance of power in the Senate, showed that many Southerners were alive to the dangers of the situation. Yet, after all, so great was the general desire for internal harmony that most persons were startled when the debates concerning the admission of Missouri revealed the fact that the existence of slavery was a menace to the Union. ”

“ Indeed, the sovereigns had given orders that all those who should be found guilty should be sent to Spain. The way was thus opened for an iniquitous traffic by a royal order that simply provided for an inevitable flexibility of interpretation under an imperfect administration of justice. There was no reason to anticipate that there would in the future be any insurmountable obstacle to a profitable exercise of the trade in slaves. Human nature, as it revealed itself in the fifteenth century, might well be trusted to find the means. ”

“ Nevertheless, it seems clear that the masses of the people live wholesome lives, and that the public conscience of America will not tolerate abuses when once these are made plain. The churches are very active, and no other people have ever had better school and library facilities or made fuller use of them. No other nation has ever shown such interest in organized charities or in reforms of various sorts, such as those directed against the evils of easy divorce and of intemperance. In morals, as well as in wealth and industry, the century just closed marks a great advance for America. ”

“ In the third place, these beliefs were confirmed by certain vague reports of sailors that had been driven to the far west, and by such articles as had been thrown by the waters upon the islands lying west of Portugal and northern Africa.
What may be called the approaches to the discovery of America were, in their general characteristics, not unlike those which have generally preceded other great discoveries and inventions. Seldom in the history of the human race has the conception and the consummation of a great discovery been the product of a single brain. ”

“ Urban life did not attract country people as it does now, but the towns had grown and prospered. New York was in 1830 a city of two hundred thousand inhabitants. Philadelphia was not far behind. Cincinnati had grown from a mere village to a town of nearly twenty-five thousand people. Throughout the North, East, and West, therefore, the watchword was “Development.” Even in the South, which was rendered conservative and sluggish by the presence of slavery, there were not wanting proofs that many energetic men would like to imitate their more fortunate brothers of other sections. ”

“ What was the chagrin of Columbus and of all his friends to find that what was only a wretched joke of one of the ship’s commanders had been taken in serious earnest even by Ferdinand and Isabella. When the truth came to be known, it was found that the bars of gold were only slaves kept behind bars, with the design of converting them into gold in the market of Seville. It is not difficult to imagine the indignation of Isabella when the truth came to be known. The other affair alluded to was the personal altercation that occurred between Columbus and Breviesca, the treasurer of Fonseca. ”

“ We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. ”

“ The more one becomes familiar with the thought and the enterprise of the fifteenth century, the more clearly one sees how impossible it would have been for America to have long remained undiscovered, even if there had been no Columbus. We shall hereafter see how a Portuguese fleet, in the year 1500, when sailing for Good Hope, and with no thought of a western continent, was driven by storms to the coast of Brazil. ”

“ After a tremendous fire of one hundred and thirty cannon for two hours, for the purpose of throwing the Union line into confusion, this division, made up of the flower of the Confederate army, rushed forward to the assault. For about one mile they were within range of the Federal guns. No men ever fought more bravely, but success was impossible. The dead and the dying strewed the ground along the way. Only a few of the fifteen thousand reached the Union line, and most of these were obliged to give themselves up as prisoners. ”