John L. O'Sullivan

“ We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that “the gates of hell—”the powers of aristocracy and monarchy—“shall not prevail against it.”
The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles ”

“ To maintain man’s capacity for self-government, be it observed, is not maintaining that that capacity is equal among all nations, at all times; or that all can dispense with governmental control in equal degrees. Even in our own community, if a class of people prove incompetent to use without abusing their liberty, we deny them the elective franchise, and perhaps shut them up in a Bedlam or a Penitentiary. They are allowed all the liberty which, if society were entirely composed of such defective natures, they would themselves concede to society. ”

“ In a free competition of labor with the latter, will they or will they not be ground down to a degradation and misery worse than slavery? When we view the condition of the operative masses of the population in England and other European countries, and feel all the difficulties of the great problem, of the distribution of the fruits of production between capital, skill and labor, can our confidence be undoubting that in the present condition of society, the conferring of sudden freedom upon our negro race would be a boon to be grateful for? ”

“ If through any fatuous impulse Mexico should elevate existing difficulties above the dignity of a mere border warfare, and should provoke our government to make a retaliatory invasion, it is impossible to foresee any limit to the contest short of an absolute subjugation of Mexico or of such a prostration of her national independence as to lead at no remote period to a revolution like, both in processes and consequences, to that which threw Texas into our arms. ”

“ When will they be inspired by the magnificent scenery of our own world, imbibe the fresh enthusiasm of a new heaven and a new earth, and soar upon the expanded wings of truth and liberty? Is not nature as original—her truths as captivating—her aspects as various, as lovely, as grand—her Promethean fire as glowing in this, our Western hemisphere, as in that of the East? ”

“ Until a still deeper problem shall have been solved than that of slavery, the slavery of an inferior to a superior race—a relation reciprocal in certain important duties and obligations—is it certain that the cause of true wisdom and philanthropy is not rather, for the present, to aim to meliorate that institution as it exists, to guard against its abuses, to mitigate its evils, to modify it when it may contravene sacred principles and rights of humanity, by prohibiting the separation of families, excessive severities, subjection to the licentiousness of mastership, &c.? ”

“ Already the brightest hopes of philanthropy, the most enlarged speculations of true philosophy, are inspired by the indications perceptible amongst the mechanical and agricultural population. There, with predominating influence, beats the vigorous national heart of America, propelling the onward march of the multitude, propagating and extending, through the present and the future, the powerful purpose of soul, which, in the seventeenth century, sought a refuge among savages, and reared in the wilderness the sacred altars of intellectual freedom. ”

“ THE rapidity with which public opinion matures in this country, is one of the most extraordinary results of our peculiar political system. With our infinite newspaper circulation, and with party-organizations singularly complete and penetrating the uttermost recesses of the nation, a new doctrine can be suggested, discussed and determined on with as much, nay, more promptness than an ordinary suit at law can be begun and concluded. We are impressed especially with this peculiarity, in observing the present state of the public mind upon the subject of our relations with Mexico and Texas. ”

“ It is by its fruits that a good government shall be known; and when its merits shall become manifest, the nations of the earth will not be slow to imitate them. It is by moral influences such as these that this republic is to extend its sway—by a “wise and masterly inactivity” which will bring other nations at our feet, suppliants for protection, not for forbearance. It is in this wise, we make no doubt, that the whole of this vast continent is destined one day to subscribe to the Constitution of the United States ”

“ And whosoever may hold the balance, though they should cast into the opposite scale all the bayonets and cannon, not only of France and England, but of Europe entire, how would it kick the beam against the simple solid weight of the two hundred and fifty, or three hundred millions—and American millions—destined to gather beneath the flutter of the stripes and stars, in the fast hastening year of the Lord 1945! ”

“ Its floor shall be a hemisphere—its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God’s natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood—of “peace and good will amongst men.” ”

“ We have had patriots to defend our homes, our liberties, but no aspirants to crowns or thrones; nor have the American people ever suffered themselves to be led on by wicked ambition to depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that a human being might be placed on a seat of supremacy.
We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. ”

“ That the theory so popular among Europeans, that a democratic government can only be successfully administered upon a limited territory, is absurd. Indeed, it is our firm conviction, for reasons which, on a fitting occasion, we are prepared to render, that a democratic is the only form of government which, over a territory relatively large, can endure and furnish adequate security to the rights of its people. ”

“ A population will soon be in actual occupation of California, over which it will be idle for Mexico to, dream of dominion. They will necessarily become independent. All this without agency of our government, without responsibility of our people—in the natural flow of events, the spontaneous working of principles, and the adaptation of the tendencies and wants of the human race to the elemental circumstances in the midst of which they find themselves placed. ”

“ It is so destined, because the principle upon which a nation is organized fixes its destiny, and that of equality is perfect, is universal. It presides in all the operations of the physical world, and it is also the conscious law of the soul—the self-evident dictate of morality, which accurately defines the duty of man to man, and consequently man’s rights as man. ”

“ Every new Slave State in Texas will make at least one Free State from among those in which that institution now exists—to say nothing of those portions of Texas on which slavery cannot spring and grow—to say nothing of the far more rapid growth of new States in the free West and Northwest, as these fine regions are overspread by the emigration fast flowing over them from Europe, as well as from the Northern and Eastern States of the Union as it exists. ”

“ To enfranchise them, therefore, and give their representatives a voice in our legislature, would doubtless have the double effect of producing anarchy within their own borders, and of embarrassing our own interests to a most disastrous extent. Disregarding entirely the confusion which might result from such a step to the Mexicans themselves, how should we be able to exercise over them that federal supremacy which is necessary to the proper consolidation of the Union. Though that people were allowed to vote, it is doubtful if they could represent such a public sentiment as we would respect. ”

“ But with all the retrograde tendencies of our laws, our judicature, our colleges, our literature, still they are compelled to follow the mighty impulse of the age; they are carried onward by the increasing tide of progress; and though they cast many a longing look behind, they cannot stay the glorious movement of the masses, nor induce them to venerate the rubbish, the prejudices, the superstitions of other times and other lands, the theocracy of priests, the divine right of kings, the aristocracy of blood, the metaphysics of colleges, the irrational stuff of law libraries. ”

“ In view of these considerations, how should we estimate the fitness of the Mexican people to enter into the enjoyment of our political institutions. Taking that people as they are, and are likely to continue for the period within which the integrality of Mexico will probably continue, are they, or will they become, a valuable acquisition to us in any respect? Are there probably as many men in the whole Mexican Republic competent to exercise the elective franchise with the intelligence of the average American citizen as there were righteous men in Sodom when she was destroyed? ”

“ Instead of our present relations with Mexico—instead of the serious risks which have been run, and those plausibilities of opprobrium which we have had to combat, not without great difficulty, nor with entire success—instead of the difficulties which now throng the path to a satisfactory settlement of all our unsettled questions with Mexico—Texas might, by a more judicious and conciliatory diplomacy, have been as securely in the Union as she is now—her boundaries defined—California probably ours—and Mexico and ourselves united by closer ties than ever ”

“ America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminiscences of battle fields, but in defence of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, of the rights of conscience, the rights of personal enfranchisement. ”

“ We believe no American is willing that we should suspend the advancing march of our civilisation, and return upon our steps, or motionless abide the coming of this semi-barbarous people, who are yet ignorant of the very elements of the science of political government, because the fortunes of war or successful revolution had made them subject to our laws; which leads us to consider the means by which free institutions may rightfully be propagated. ”

“ Of course, therefore, every people must grow its own political institutions, and every attempt to engraft a system of government upon a nation uneducated in its forms, or to confer upon it political privileges which its members know not how to exercise, must always result as such attempts always have done, either in revolution or in social oppression. ”

“ It is time now for opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease, all further agitation of the waters of bitterness and strife, at least in connexion with this question,—even though it may perhaps be required of us as a necessary condition of the freedom of our institutions, that we must live on for ever in, a state of unpausing struggle and excitement upon some subject of party division or other. ”

“ If, in these institutions, foreign precedents are legislated, and foreign decisions adjudged over again, is it to be wondered at that an imitative propensity predominates amongst professional and business men. Taught to look abroad for the highest standards of law, judicial wisdom, and literary excellence, the native sense is subjugated to a most obsequious idolatry of the tastes, sentiments, and prejudices of Europe. Hence our legislation, jurisprudence, literature, are more reflective of foreign aristocracy than of American democracy. ”

“ The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history of any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. ”