Fortune of the Republic: Lecture Delivered at the Old South Church, March 30, 1878 |
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America aristocracy art of war bar-rooms Berk Berkeley Berkeley UNIVERSITY better guidance bill of rights born brave burn tobacco CALIFORNIA Berkeley Berkeley CALIFORNIA Berkeley LIBRARY CALIFORNIA LIBRARY candidate caucus charity church cities common sense congress continent corn cotton democ duties easily English Europe faith fate favorable fear feel feudal Flaxman force FORNIA FORTUNE genius give globe higher honest human race humblest individuals and races interest of civilization justice labor land and sea less levity liberty LOAN DEPT mankind manufacturers Metternich mind mobs moral nations nature never numbers opin organiza party person plant political poor practical precious principle questions racy religion religious REPUBLIC revolutions secure self-reliance Selfish social society spirit success taste terest things thought tion torpor town meeting trade Union UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA voice vote wheat Whilst whole wine
Popular passages
Page 3 - What is a weed ? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered, — every one of the two hundred thousand probably yet to be of utility in the arts.
Page 24 - America was opened .after the feudal mischief was spent, and so the people made a good start. We began well. No inquisition here, no kings, no nobles, no dominant church. Here heresy has lost its terrors.
Page 34 - There never was such a combination as this of ours, and the rules to meet it are not set down in any history. We want men of original perception and original action, who can open their eyes wider than to a nationality, — namely, to considerations of benefit to the human race, — can act in the interest of civilization ; men of elastic, men of moral mind, who can live in the moment and take a step forward.
Page 41 - I could have it, — [ free trade with all the world without toll or custom\ houses, invitation as we now make to every nation, to every race and skin, white men, red men, yellow men, black men ; hospitality of fair field and equal laws to all. Let them compete, and success to the strongest, the wisest and the best. The land is wide enough, the soil has bread for all. I hope America will come to have its pride in being a nation of servants, and not of the served.
Page 7 - At every moment some one country more than any other represents the sentiment and the future of mankind. None will doubt that America occupies this place in the opinion of 516 THE FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC...
Page 33 - Let the passion for America cast out the passion for Europe. Here let there be what the earth waits for, — exalted manhood. What this country longs for is personalities, grand persons, to counteract its materialities. For it is the rule of the universe that corn shall serve man, and not man corn. "They who find America insipid, — they for whom London and Paris have spoiled their own homes, can be spared to return to those cities. I not only see a career at home for more genius than we have, but...
Page 35 - Jefferson : and the Genius or Destiny of America is no log or sluggard, but a man incessantly advancing, as the shadow on the dial's face, or the heavenly body by whose light it is marked. The flowering of civilization is the finished man, the man of sense, of grace, of accomplishment, of social power, — the gentleman.
Page 43 - Our helm is given up to a better guidance than our own; the course of events is quite too strong for any helmsman, and our little wherry is taken in tow by the ship of the great Admiral which knows the way, and has the force to draw men and states and planets to their good.
Page 19 - ... any disaster grows, the people wake and correct it with energy. And any disturbances in politics, in civil or foreign wars, sober them, and instantly show more virtue and conviction in the popular vote. In each new threat of faction the ballot has been, beyond expectation, right and decisive.
Page 6 - When the cannon is aimed by ideas, when men with religious convictions are behind it, when men die for what they live for, and the mainspring that works daily urges them to hazard all, then the cannon articulates its explosions with the voice of a man, then the rifle seconds the cannon and the fowling-piece the rifle, and the women make the cartridges, and all shoot at one mark ; then gods join in the combat ; then poets are born, and the better code of laws at last records the victory.