Great Powers

“ The powers, therefore, belonging to any branch of our government, are to be construed and settled, not by remote analogies drawn from other governments, but from the words of the grant itself, in their plain sense and necessary import, and according to an interpretation consistent with our own history and the spirit of our own institutions. ”

“ It is essential to such a Government, that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their Government the honorable title of republic. ”

“ Replete with interest are these two great centres of learning, Cambridge and Oxford, England's Yale and Harvard. How the destinies of men and nations, the civilized world over, have been not only influenced, but made and controlled by their influence! What hallowed grounds are these classic walks amid these trees, by the River Cam! How interesting are these venerable weather-worn walls, these courts, these half-destroyed stairs of stone, rasped away, and deep into, by feet of men distinguished and great in all the departments of intellectual life! ”

“ Here are tombs of men too great to have their dust mingle with common soil. We are delighted with the ivy, climbing at random,—sometimes very thick and grand in its mantling power. We pass out of the side door, and are in the burial-ground of two or three acres. Not cared for by mortals, Nature—in great unison with her possessions and conscious of her sacred trust—prohibits the intrusion of rambling vine or unsightly weed. How varied are the views of tower and gable, of buttress unbroken or in partial ruin! ”

“ Here we were beside an object that had been visible to us at least a hundred miles distant; an object of interest, for we knew that beyond it was our new home—the country of our adoption, and that when we reached it, our long and wearisome journey would be, comparatively speaking, at an end. We were but seven souls, deep in the heart of the great wilderness, far from kindred and friends, and the enjoyments of civilized life, yet we had an unshaken confidence in that protecting Power in the hollow of whose hand we stood. ”

“ In what profusion are the antique slabs, with their great brass crosses. How the very atmosphere of the place is fragrant with the memory of the sainted dead! In visiting these cathedrals, in looking on the ruins of ancient abbey or monastery,—so complete in themselves, and exhibiting such evidence of former grandeur,—one is inclined to feel that each is the cathedral of all England,—the Mecca of all the Church; for what is lacking? Not capacity or costliness; not lack of graves of kings, earls, barons, or lords, for here beneath our feet repose the dust of enough such for an entire kingdom. ”

“ In one word, we mean to build up a Republic, greater, more populous, freer, more prosperous, and more powerful than any state history tells us of; a Republic having within itself all that can make a people great, good, and happy, and being so strong, that its pleasure will be consulted before any power on earth will undertake to disturb the peace of the world. [Loud cheering.] This, my Lord John Russell, is the Empire we are fighting for, and this Empire we mean to have. ”

“ The Light One gave his mother's body to the earth, the Great Mother from which springs all life. He made great mountains, and covered them with forests from which beautiful rivers ran. The Dark One threw down the mountains, gnarled the forests, and bent the rivers which his brother had made. ”

“ Once a tribe of the Iroquois became very warlike and cruel. They liked to follow the warpath rather than the hunting trails.
These warriors thought only of the war dance. They forgot to give thanks for the sweet waters of the maple, and for the planting season. Neither did they remember to praise the Great Spirit, in song and dance, for the juicy strawberries, and the waving green corn, as once they had done.
To fight was the one desire of their lives, the one thought that filled their minds. They boasted that none were so fierce and bloodthirsty as they. ”

“ A wide door is opened when one in meditative mood goes into a town like this, knows of the great past, sees the present, and then, in spite of himself, projects his thoughts into the future,—the near and the distant blending into one.
The sweet chimes on the bells proclaim the end of an hour; then the short pause,—how still! and now how clearly marked is the new hour. The great diapason bell of the tower solemnly pronounces its four strokes, and we wend our way to the station for Gloucester. ”

“ Thus spoke Jesus to them.
Jesus was aware that all the nations of the world had no knowledge of the Gospel. They knew nothing of the happy home in heaven. They knew nothing of the Devil's home in the great fire. Jesus knew that the soul of a man is truly precious; that it is more precious than all the money and everything else in the world. So He wished His people, His missionaries, to go everywhere, and to help all the people to leave the Devil's way, and to find the way of Jesus. ”

“ And the book in which the Great Spirit spoke wisdom to men continued to be absent, to the length of many sleeps, from among the Flatheads—who, in climax of all this criss-crossed illusion, killed the man who finally brought it. ”

“ We are sprung from a woman, although we are unlike in many things. We cannot be made over. You are as you were made and as you were made you can remain. We are just as we were made by the Great Spirit and you cannot change us. ”

“ Civil power, properly organized and exerted, is capable of diffusing its force to a very great extent; and can, in a manner, reproduce itself in every part of a great empire, by a judicious arrangement of subordinate institutions. ”

“ You will thus enable them to perceive the serious import of the responsibilities which, like a mantle of power, descends upon them, as the representative working units of this great republic. You can so inspire them that they will be eager and proud to take up with honor the burden of these responsibilities. You can so change and elevate the lives of these people and a multitude of others, that first they shall become masters of themselves; later, masters of the republic; through the controlling force, the imperial dominancy of scientifically developed, symmetrical minds ”

“ A popular government of this extent, it was evident, could be framed only by carrying into full effect the principle of representation or of delegated power; and the world was to see whether society could, by the strength of this principle, maintain its own peace and good government, carry forward its own great interests, and conduct itself to political renown and glory. ”

“ They see around them all the paraphernalia and power of a great government—its splendid capital, its armies, its fleets, its Chief Magistrate, its legislature, and its judiciary—and they find it difficult to realize the fact, that all this grandeur is not self-created, but the offspring of the States. ”

“ Then why should children of one mother and one father quarrel? Why should one mistreat the other? I do not be lieve that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men the thing they must do. ”

“ In all directions is a view never excelled. There lie the quiet fields, extending from the base of the hill, while the river, like a serpent of gigantic but graceful proportions, curves across them. Here and there are charming groves and solid woodlands, and on, in the distant west, are the famed Highlands. To the north and east are the Ochil Hills, with their companions, the Campsie Hills, on the south; and on the rear lies Stirling town, naïvely antique.
How natural is it to look farther over the great landscape. ”

“ In the great scale of empire, you will decline, I fear, from the decision of this day; and the Americans will rise to independence, to power, to all the greatness of the most renowned states! For they build on the solid basis of general public liberty. ”

“ He must exhibit the nature of the government, the manners, the administration of law, the state of useful and fine arts, of commerce, of foreign relations. He must let us see the decay and rise of great principles and conditions—till we look on a tottering sovereignty, a rising creed, an incipient war, as distinctly as, by turning to the highway, we can see the old man, the vigorous youth, or the infant child. He must paint—the council robed in its hall—the priest in his temple—the conspirator—the outlaw—the judge—the general—the martyr. ”

“ Then the man stood up and threw off his ragged blanket and worn moccasins. His face shone like the sun, and he was very beautiful. The woman shrank into the shadow of the wigwam. She could not look upon his face, for the light.
"I am the Great Spirit," said he, "and you are a selfish woman. Women should be kind, and generous, and unselfish. You shall no longer be a woman and live in a warm wigwam, with plenty of cakes to bake. You shall go to the forest and hunt your food in the bark of trees. ”

“ Both wish for self-government; and, however grave the drawbacks under which in one or both it exists, the two have, among the great nations of the world, made the most effectual advances toward the true aim of rational politics. ”

“ When all the mice were gathered about the council tree, the leader spoke thus: "My brothers, listen! The Great Spirit did not give men strength, that they should fight and kill one another. The Great Spirit did not make men powerful, that they should strike down and kill the weaker animals. ”

“ Is it strange that, penetrated and nerved with the high motives to be derived from these solemn considerations, the American people are prepared to accept the responsibilities of the great occasion, and even to wade through blood for the realization of the grandeur of those human hopes which are now intrusted to their keeping? One nation—one government—one universal freedom within those imperial boundaries which have heretofore been the theatre of our glorious achievements as a people! ”

“ No monarchical throne presses these States together, no iron chain of military power encircles them; they live and stand under a government popular in its form, representative in its character, founded upon principles of equality, and so constructed, we hope, as to last for ever. ”

“ All that reading and learning could do; all that talent and intelligence could do; and, what perhaps is still more, all that long experience in difficult and troubled times and a deep and intimate practical knowledge of the condition of the country could do,—conspired to fit them for the great business of forming a general, but limited government, embracing common objects, extending over all the States, and yet touching the power of the States no further than those common objects require. ”

“ They shot their arrows into every bird or animal they saw, just for sport.
The great trees—their silent brothers of the wood—trembled and sighed when they heard these Indians coming. The [Pg 120] squirrels darted into hollow trees, and birds flew in alarm at their footsteps. The deer and rabbit ran from the trail.
At last the Great Spirit became very angry with this tribe. Always he had taught the Indians never to kill an animal, unless for food and protection; never to fell a tree, unless for fuel or shelter; never to dig up shrubs or plants, unless for some good use. ”

“ But one by one they dropped to earth; for when they had reached the Great Sky Trail beyond the clouds, they were too tired to take it.
At last the eagle arose and stretched his great wings. [Pg 81]
"Listen," he said, "for the Chief of Birds speaks. No other bird is so swift and so strong as the eagle. He has circled the earth. He has flown to the rim of the world. The eagle will fly the Great Sky Trail and bring the song to earth."
A little brown thrush sat near the eagle. ”

“ I have now only to add the hope that your deliberations may be characterized by that wisdom and harmony so essential to the attainment of those great ends for which you are here assembled; with my fervent desire that all your labors may, under the guidance of Heaven, give additional force and energy to all those principles of private and public virtue so indispensable to the stability, prosperity, and success of the Government and people of the Republic. ”

“ Our noble President has bowed to the will of the Supreme Power and by the guidance and sustaining spirit of that Power will, I trust, lead our country successfully through the great and fearful struggle and place it upon a firm and more enduring basis. ”

“ The race that extorted from kings the charter of its political rights has won, from the princes and powers of the air, the earth and the water, the secret of supreme dominion, the illimitable franchise of beneficent progress. ”

“ When Yeh sen noh wehs told him that she had not a drop of Indian blood running in her veins, he looked very solemn. At last he spoke. He told the interpreter to tell her,—for he spoke but a few words of English,—that the Great Spirit made a snake, a snake; a fox, a fox; a muskrat, a muskrat; a coon, a coon; a bear, a bear; [Pg 26] an Indian, an Indian; a White Indian, a White Indian. Each must be snake, fox, coon, bear, Indian or White Indian, as long as he lived. Each must be himself. ”

“ Finally, he throws a government—which is at once feeble, profligate, divided, and conscious of its own incapacity,—into the hands of a man of great genius, by whom he expected to be rewarded, and who, upon the whole, seemed the one most capable of steadying the course, promoting the prosperity, and elevating the destiny of his country. ”

“ It is plainly said that the beast represents the great civil or governmental power in its final stage, the shape it will be in at the end when these events occur. [161] The chief dominating political power of the world will have passed through a succession of changes, seven kingdoms successively following each other. ”