The Telegraphic Report Of The Victory Was Received
With Rejoicing, And The Ship Which Conveyed It To Boston Was Saluted With
Thirty-One Guns By The States Artillery.
The glory of the republic is based upon its advanced social principles and
its successful prosecution of the arts of peace.
As the old military
despotisms cannot compete with it in wealth and enlightenment, so it
attempts no competition with them in standing armies and the arts of war.
National vanity is a failing of the Americans, and, if their military
prowess had never been proved before, they might seek to display it on
European soil; but their successful struggle with England in the War of
Independence renders any such display unnecessary. The institutions of the
States do not date from the military ages of the world, and the Federal
Constitution has made no provision for offensive war. The feeling of the
educated classes, and of an immense majority in the Free States, is
believed to be essentially English. Despotism and freedom can never unite;
and whatever may be the declamations of the democratic party, the opinion
of those who are acquainted with the state of popular feeling is that, if
the question were seriously mooted, a war with England or a Russian
alliance would secure to the promoters of either the indignation and
contempt which they would deserve. It is earnestly to be hoped, and I
trust that it may be believed, that none of us will live to see the day
when two nations, so closely allied by blood, religion, and the love of
freedom, shall engage in a horrible and fratricidal war.
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