Fortune of the Republic: Lecture Delivered at the Old South Church, March 30, 1878 |
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America ance aristocracy art of war bar-rooms better guidance bill of rights born brave burn tobacco candidate caucus charity chemist church cities common sense congress continent corn cotton democ despond direction duties easily English Europe faith farmer fate favorable fear feel feudal Flaxman force FORTUNE genius give globe Greek higher honest human race humblest hundred individuals and races interest of civilization invitation justice labor land and sea less levity liberty mankind manufacturers Metternich mind mobs moral nations nature never numbers opin organiza party passion perception person plant political poor popular practical precious principle prosperity questions racy religion religious REPUBLIC revolutions rogue secure self-reliance Selfish social society spirit stand success talent taste terest things thought tion torpor town meeting trade Union voice vote wake wheat Whilst whole wine
Popular passages
Page 35 - 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.
Page 3 - And 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 18 - Whilst each cabal urges its candidate, and at last brings, with cheers and street demonstrations, men whose names are a knell to all hope of progress, the good and wise are hidden in their active retirements, and are quite out of question. " These we must join to wake, for these are of the strain That justice dare defend, and will the age maintain.
Page 32 - 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.
Page 38 - Power can be generous. The very grandeur of the means which offer themselves to us should suggest grandeur in the direction of our expenditure. If our mechanic arts are unsurpassed in usefulness, if we have taught the river to make shoes and nails and carpets, and the bolt of heaven to write our letters like a Gillott pen, let these wonders work for honest humanity, for the poor, for justice, genius, and the public good. Let us realize that this country, the last found, is the great charity of God...
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 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 34 - ... 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...
Page 35 - ... act in the interest of civilization ; men of elastic, men of moral mind, who can live in the moment and take a step forward. Columbus was no backward-creeping crab, nor was Martin Luther, nor John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor Thomas 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,...
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.