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formed a supreme national government, with power to command and use all the means necessary to execute its laws, to maintain its supremacy, and to attain all the purposes and objects for which it was established; and not a mere compact or league between sovereign and independent states, dependent on the will and caprice of each state for its continued existence. Hence the grants of power made by the constitution invest the law-making power of the nation, with power and authority to judge of the extent of the powers of the government, and of the several departments and officers

thereof.

SEC. 13. COL. BENTON'S VIEW OF THE NATURE OF OUR GOVERNMENT.

In the great debate in the United States senate, in 1830, Col. Benton, then senator from Missouri, said,

"That whatever may be the wishes or the opinions of the people of Missouri on the subject of the extension or non-extension of slavery, to the territories, they have no idea of resisting any act of congress upon the subject.

They abide the law when it comes, be it what it may, subject to the decision of the ballot box and the judiciary. I concur with the people of Missouri in this view of their duty, and believe it to be the only course consistent with the terms and intention of our constitution, and the only one which can save this Union from the fate of all confederacies, which have successively appeared and disappeared in the history of nations. Anarchy among the members, and not tyranny in the head, has been the rock on which all confederacies have split. The authors of our present form of government knew the danger of this rock, and they endeavored to provide against it. They A federal legislature to act upon persons, formed a UNION-NOT A LEAGUE. not upon states; and they provided peaceful remedies for all questions, which They provided a could arise between the people and the government. federal judiciary to execute the federal laws when found to be constitutional, and popular elections to repeal them when found to be bad. They formed a government in which the law and the popular will, and not the sword, was to decide questions; and they looked upon the first resort to the sword for the decision of such questions, as the death of the Union.

The old confederation was a league, with a legislature acting upon soveeighties, without power to enforce its decrees, and without union except at the will of the parties. It was powerless for government, and a rope of sand for union.

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It was to get rid of the evils of the old confederation, that the present Union was formed; and, having formed it, they who formed it undertook to make it perpetual, and for that purpose had recourse to all the sanctions held sacred among men-commands, prohibitions, oaths. The states were forbid to form compacts or agreements with each other; the constitution and the laws made in pursuance of it, were declared to be the supreme law of the land; and all authorities, state and federal. legislative, executive, and judi[See Thirty Years' View in the cial, were to be sworn to support it." United States Senate," by Thomas H. Benton, vol. 1, p. 360 to 362.]

CHAPTER IV.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES AND PEOPLE. FANATICISMS AND DELUSIONS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. CHARACTER AND CORRUPTIONS OF AMERICAN POLITICS,THE INCREASING DISREGARD OF LAW, OF THE UNION, AND THE

FEDERAL CONSTITUTION; AND THE CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY PREVIOUS TO THE REBELLION.

SEC. 1. TYPES OF CIVILIZATION AND NATIONAL CHARACTER.

The principal elements which form types of civilization and national character, are,

1st-Climate, and the influences of climate upon the constitution of man, which become, to some extent, permanent and hereditary, and are transmitted from one generation to another, for thousands of years.

2d-Education; and

3d-Religious opinions and creeds.

Mens' opinions on subjects other than religion, are formed by the joint operation of their education, their religious creeds and opinions, and their own personal experience, observation, associations with others, and reflection. Their habits and industry arise from their education, their wants and opinions, and the climate and condition of the country in which they live.

Constitution, habits, and opinions form the character of men ; but climate, education, and modes of living form their habits, and in conjunction with the hereditary tendencies arising from the animal economy, they form the constitution also. Man is an imitative creature, and learns mostly from imitation and practice. The

mass of mankind imbibe and acquire their opinions mostly by and through their education and religion. By education, I mean the whole training and exercise of the faculties during childhood and youth, by play, amusements, and industry, as well as at school. An industrial training and discipline tends to develop the faculties, and is as much a real part of education, as that obtained at schools and institutions of learning. Thousands grow up in idleness and play, in the streets of cities and villages, whereby certain faculties and propensities are developed and disciplined, which constitute their education. In this view of the subject, every adult human being has been educated; his faculties have been developed; and he has acquired capacities and tendencies which fit him for some end or purpose, for good or for evil; though he may be called, in common parlance, uneducated.

Individual character depends immediately and directly on constitution, habits, and opinions; but ultimately on climate, education, and religion. Types of civilization and national character, are therefore really based on climate, education, and religion, as their natural foundations, and chief corner stones; to which slavery may be added as a chief corner stone in some communities and nations; but it is entirely artificial and unnatural.

The wide, and clearly marked differences between races and peoples of hot and cold climates, and the great similarity of those of the same latitude and climate, when other causes are nearly the same, furnish full and incontestible evidence of the powerful influence of climate upon the intellectual and moral nature and character of man, as well as upon his physical constitution.

The history of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations, and also the Mahometans, and the different sects of christians in modern times, sufficiently attest the wonderful influence of religion and religious institutions, upon the character of a people. Even the differences between different denominations of christians, who all derive their religious instruction from the same bible, have contributed largely to form distinct types of character and civilization. Where Catholics and several sects of Protestants have lived together in the same community for half a century or more, as they have in the United States, sectarian prejudices gradually wear off, and the rising generations, educated at the same

schools, become more and more assimilated to each other. The philosophy of Confucius, in China, the Mahometanism and Boodhism in the old world, and Mormanism in the new, have produced distinct types of civilization and human character.

The influence of education in forming and moulding the intellect and character of man is so obvious to all, as to be universally admitted.

It is impossible to obtain a correct view of the character of the American people, and of their institutions and tendencies, or of any other people of modern times, without taking into careful consideration their religious opinions and character, and also their origin and history. Education has for centuries been intimately connected with religious opinions, and very generally dependent upon christian churches for its encouragement and support. The United States are indebted mostly to the Puritans and Presbyterians for the universal education of the people of the free statės at the present day; but they are indebted to the Baptists, Quakers, Roman Catholics, and Dutch Reformed, for religious liberty.

SEC. 2. ORIGIN AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN

COLONIES.

The Colony of Virginia.

The Episcopalians and Cavaliers planted the first permanent Anglo-American colony in this country, at Jamestown, on the James river, in Virginia, in 1607. The Episcopal became the established church of the colony of Virginia, and continued so until the American revolution. The Quakers, Puritans, and other schismatics and separatists were driven out, and generally prohibited from settling in the colony, until the English revolution, of 1688; after which the doctrine of toleration was established for all christian sects, except Roman Catholics.

The Puritan Colonies.

The Puritans of England settled four colonies in New England; first, Plymouth, in 1620; secondly, Massachusetts Bay, at Salem, in 1628; third, New Haven, at Saybrook, in 1635; and, fourthly, Connecticut, at Hartford and Windsor, in 1636.

The colonies of Connecticut and New Haven were united under one charter and one colonial government, in 1665, and the two

colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were united in like manner, under one colonial government, in 1692.

The Puritans were the most exclusive in their associations, the most rigid and inflexible in their action and manners, the most intolerant in their feelings and principles, and the most proscriptive and persecuting in their practice, of any of the American colonists.

The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, at an early day, established a theocratic colonial government, in which they disfranchised all inhabitants, and even all freeholders, who were not members of the orthodox church; and limited the privilege of voting and eligibility to office, to adult male members of the Congregational church. That theocratic and exclusive system was maintained about sixty years, and until after the English revolution of 1688, and the reorganization under a new charter in 1692.

No churches, religious societies, clergymen, or religious teachers of any kind, except the Congregational, were allowed in any of the Puritan colonies, until after the English revolution of 1688. Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, andQuakers, as well as other Protestants and Catholics, were all excluded from those colonies by law-and many that came there were cruelly persecuted, fined, and banished, and four Quakers were hung, because they returned to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, after having been banished. Some Quakers and Puritans also were banished from Virginia ; but no persons were judicially murdered on account of their reli gious opinions or worship, in any of the Anglo-American colonies, except Massachusetts.

Even the Congregational churches or societies enjoyed no prac tical independence or liberty, except the privilege of managing their own secular affairs, selecting their own clergymen from those recognized as orthodox, and disciplining their own members in accordance with the rules of discipline prescribed by synods and conventions. There were at first wide differences of opinion among the Puritan colonists themselves. Many came over whose opinions differed very little from the creed and doctrines of the Episcopal church; but their creed, doctrines, and modes of wors ship and discipline, were gradually settled and reduced to a system by synods and conventions; and all the churches and people were required to conform strictly to them.

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