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losopher. The same poverty which emasculates the merely elegant scholar, who seeks patronage instead of independence, imparts fresh energy to the conceptions, and higher aims to the ambition of the manly student and the robust thinker. The education and training of the scholar, moral as well as intellectual, are calculated to foster generous ideas of development, and an abhorrence of servility, narrowness, and cant. The sequestered path of life in which he willingly walks, attended by his immortal friends, "his master and the angel death," leads him to form a truer estimate of things and a juster conception of character, than he can arrive at whose whole existence is passed in the confusion and hurry of business, or spent in the breathless pursuit of short-lived and inconstant pleasure. And, above all, the natural sympathy with his race, that innate love of his fellow creatures which every manly heart delights to cherish, more than anything else contributes to impel the author to stand forward as the advocate of humanity, the friend of the oppressed, the defender of the rights of man. Thus have we seen the great men of all ages acting or speaking; thus spoke Demosthenes and Henrythus wrote Plato and Montesquieufor this fought Gustavus and Washington-for this lived Howard and Xavier-for this died the Christian martyrs, and that Sublimest of all Martyrs, in whose name and for whose name they died.

The sincerest Christian should be the firmest democrat; for democracy is that creed which teaches peace on earth and good-will toward men, reverence for the innate worth of all humanity,and respect for the equal divinity and ultimate capability of all human souls. Its missionaries are the political highpriests of the ark of state, and they have ever been its Prætorian guard, also. The noble synonyme and badge of freedom, has been so often perverted from its true meaning, to express a vicious unbelief and destructivism, for unbelief's and destruction's sake, that it is too often confounded with it. In its pure sense, an upright democrat is no more, but on the contrary far less, a time-server than a sincere believer in any other political creed. Democracy is a principle not a fashion, and hence appeals neither to prejudice nor passion.

It is supported by justice and humanity, two unfailing pillars. Surely, a rock of defence for ever.

The moralist, the historian, and the poet, the three intellectual characters who include all others, are essentially democratic,--with very rare exceptions, which may be easily reconciled to the general facts.

The sagacious moralist inculcates republican doctrines for obvious reasons. The advocate of freedom of the will, (as the soundest and profoundest ethical theorists have ever been,) must of consequence teach the doctrine of freedom in action-for the one doctrine leads naturally to the other. The free mind only can accept the plain precepts which are enforced by a regard to moral obligation. The licentiousness, an incidental evil accompanying this great good, is merely an incidental evil, and comparatively infrequent. It by no means amounts in importance to a cause sufficient for the extinction of liberty. The freedom of the press has been time and again most eloquently defended on the same general grounds, from the Areopagitica of Milton to the famous speech of Lord Erskine. We need not therefore repeat them here. The highest morality appeals directly to conscience, and truckles not to human creeds, nor that self-constituted authority which is wanting in its approval. It asserts the right of private judgment, implying intelligence and candor, at the same time that it respects the highest of all authorities, the sources of all others, and unadulterated by any admixture with them, Conscience and the Holy Scriptures. Pure ethics is democracy moralized, to speak after the quaint fashion of our forefathers. It would make a man erect, calm, courageous, and forbearing. Its object is, by the practice of self-denial and of uncompromising truth, to form a manly robustness of character.

It coincides with the purest Christian teaching, in striving to arouse the two finest and sublimest of all reliances, the two heart-strings of the human soul formed to create the most melodious music, Love and Faith; by the first of these, to encourage and extend an universal spirit of philanthropy; by the last, to preserve a stedfast hope and sacred trust in the truth, the beauty, and the wisdom of God's providence, and the operations of nature and for

tune, guided by his unerring hand. This morality allows of a reasonable pride and a tolerant ambition: it is especially occupied in promoting the growth of the generous sympathies, the finest impulses of joy and gratitude; in encouraging works of charity and affection; and, in a word, in the cultivation of benevolence in its purest forms. At the same time, it renounces utterly all the meaner springs of conduct and palsies the action of fear. Its policy would make man better by making a friend and a freeman of him rather than a coward and a slave; by acts of mercy rather than by acts or words of harshness; by courting his good will rather than by appealing to his dread and hatred.

The study of history is a study of political importance, and which most effectually demonstrates the progress of the democratic principle. In the earliest ages, the people were considered as little better than a mere rabble rout. The immense armies of the first devastators of the globe were composed of willing slaves or timid mercenaries. Fear was the dominant principle, then. As we advance to wards the progress of Grecian, and later yet, of Roman power, we perceive a republican spirit growing up gradually, which at times appeared maturing and about to promise the revival of a fabulous golden age. Brief experience soon, however, dispelled any such illasion, and the stately Roman no less than the lively Greek, ignorant of the true principles of Christian morality and individual liberty, on which alone democracy can rest, was found incapable of self-government for any length of time. In Greece, the force of intellect served to repress a constant revolutionary tendency in the fickle populace, who certainly wanted not information to become a free people: but in Rome, the intellectual refinements of Greece tended rather to emasculate than to invigorate a naturally stern and stoical people. The history of the middle age in Europe, is almost wholly taken up with the records of noble houses, of knights and courts, and bishops and earls, with their wars and tournaments, and councils and crusades. Feudalism prevailed, which resolved the whole of society into two classes, the patron and the follower, ennobling, as it were, personal depend

ence by peculiar conditions, reciprocal rights, and mutual and generous sentiments of truth and loyalty.

It

After a while, a new class came to be considered, the wealthy mercantile class--the "merchant princes" of Amsterdam and Florence, of Antwerp and Genoa; and, in general, the middle classes in the Hanse towns, and the free Italian cities. Even at a much later date, and nearer to our own time, the middle class was, in effect, the predominant class in the state. But three great revolutions, the three revolutions of modern history, finally settled the question as to which power was to rank supreme-the English_revolution, and the American and French revolutions. The first expelled one dynasty with one set of principles for another dynasty with another set. It did little for the people. The French revolution attempted to do more. may perhaps be said to have attempted too much. Yet horrible as were the excesses it saw, still it was of unquestionable benefit to society and civilisation, if only by attracting attention to that forgotten, though most important class, the third estate; while the revolution itself was less justly responsible for those excesses than the perpetual counter-revolution which was always struggling against it, with all the animosities of a virtual civil war, of which the guillotine was the military engine. The American revolution, of all revolutions the justest, gave independence to the first of modern states, and put an end to foreign tyranny and ignorant despotism. These three great revolutions set in motion by the popular sentiment, if not led on directly in the first instance by the people, yet by their best representatives, have at last taught the world the simple lesson, that the people are the only rightful source of power-that government is a business delegated by them to their elected agents-that the voluntary obedience they pay to righteous law, is only the reasonable tax incurred for surrendering the smallest possible portion of individual freedom to the general guardian of national freedom.

The thorough historical student must therefore become a believer in democracy. It is the only creed which can be borne out by the facts of history: the only theory by acting on which

we may hope to preserve the unity
and integrity of our own republic, and
by means of which we may expect to
arrive at mature glory. We are happy
to see the latest of the great historians,
Bancroft (a name to be placed close to
Hume and Tacitus) tracing the growth
of the democratic principle in our colo-
nial history with nicety and profound
research.- that principle which has
been at work in so many countries, at
so many different epochs, and under so
many controlling hands. What names
and events does it not recall-Pericles,
and Cæsar, and Cicero; Tell, and Wal-
lace, and Washington; Cromwell, and
Mirabeau, and Napoleon; Emmett, and
John Adams and Bolivar; the defence
of the pass at Thermopyla, the Punic
wars, the battle of Marston Moor, the
Declaration of Independence.

The standard authors of history, in
English, have been most of them advo-
cates of royalty, and defenders of the
divine right of kings: popular oppres-
sion, however they aim to do so, they
cannot easily obscure, and hence their
very caution and occasional suppres-
sions are more effective than they
could have anticipated, and in an op-
posite way. The French historians,
until of late, have been in general gos
sipping court writers, retailers of anec-
dote and scandal, painters of manners,
and not of characters. In the present
century Guizot, Michelet, Thierry, and
Dumas, have set their followers a
very different example, and deserv-
edly rank very high. For accuracy
and judgment the Germans are beyond
all praise, but their writers use crayons
instead of painters' brushes; they give
forcible and clear outlines, but meagre
and colorless. From all faithful chron-
iclers we gather that history adds her
testimony to the inherent worth of de-

mocracy.

The remark is often heard that poets should never become politicians, because politics is a business, and a severe study besides, not a pure "business of delight;" and yet we find the greatest poets have uniformly been the warmest partizans, a class of men very unlike ordinary political hacks, yet still the advocates of a particular system, and choosing a side. We learn, too, that, despite of the airy charms of romance and the splendor of glittering gauds, the true poet is inherently and almost necessarily a republican. Of

VOL. XI.-NO. L

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this hardy constitution of intellect and conscientious moral sense, we find Milpatriots. Milton's fellow secretary, ton and Dante, sublime poets, sublimer Marvell, was an elegant poet and a

true man.

was a parliament man, and wrote his noblest copy of verses on the Protector. Even the courtly Waller Cowley, though he was a determined royalist, has written the most admirable eulogium upon Cromwell that has been penned the tribute of praise which even hostility could not conceal. An expression of republican feeling could hardly be looked for among the courtly and heartless wits of Charles' days, nor hardly in those of good Queen Anne. In the present century the Muse of Liberty inspired her freest strains into the youthful lyres of Coleapostatized from their early creed in ridge, Southey, and Wordsworth, who maturer life. Leigh Hunt affords almost the sole instance of a poet becoming a political martyr since the days of Milton and Withers. He was incarcerated for a supposed libel on the Prince Regent. Lamartine, in France, underwent a similar fate. The two noblest lyrical poets of the last half century, Burns and Beranger, were devoted patriots: the one celebrating the ancient glories of his native country, and the other immortalizing the victories of his favorite idol, Napoleon. The German Muse, in the verses of Körner and Schiller, breathed the sublimest aspirations after Freedom, and a recognition of the worth of a manly soul. In our own country, the American Wordsworth, Bryant, who has still not borrowed the political theory, if he has rivalled the poetical beauties of his original, has sung noble hymns to Liberty, that should be engraven on the hearts of his countrymen. And of the first class, Bancroft, Channing, hardly with one exception, our writers Hawthorne, &c., have not only spoken and integrity of the Republic, but have out freely their belief in the stability also expressed themselves plainly in the terms of the democratic creed.

with reason, to be expected: more From American democracy much is, than from the worn-out governments of the old world, and the presumptuous endeavors of other nations. We say presumptuous, because their claims are ill-founded. Our Revolution, the basis of our democracy, was established

upon the firmest foundation. It was commenced in a deliberate, though earnest spirit, after mature reflection, and with a special design. Advocated by cool heads and brave hearts, it was conducted in a spirit of intelligent zeal, and yet a wise moderation, and finally consummated with sagacity and (so far as we may speak of any form of human government) with a fair prospect of permanency. No bloody conspiracies, no Bartholomew massacre, no Sicilian Vespers, marked its course, but wise counsels and eloquent oratory, and fields fairly fought and won. It had a deep meaning, it was stamped with a moral purpose; it was not a revolution in the ordinary sense of a change of rulers; but it was a baptism of a great nation, the political regeneration of a great people.

Correspondent to this should be the character of our literature: colored by the rays of the fair Sun of Liberty, which we trust may never set!-based on the firm foundation of eternal justice, that cannot be moved, and wholly inspired by the universal sympathy of a nation of philanthropists. Our poets, unlike the sycophantic versifiers of a court, will chaunt the praises, not of the conqueror, but of the pacificator: our historians will paint no Reign of Terror, but the everlasting dominion of peace: our philosophic teachers will inculcate all those duties and seek to instil all those principles that strengthen and invigorate the manly character, that support the true Christian, and that distinguish the character of the genuine Patriot.

ANNIE.

PENCILLED IN A VOLUME OF TENNYSON'S POEMS.

THERE'S a fairy with a dimple

Far more cunning, far more simple,
And a witching skill that can

Outwitch thee, “May Lilian.”

There's a flower slight and slender,

Earthward shrinking, meek and tender,
Which around it sweeter throws

Bloom and perfume than the "Rose."

There's a melancholy grace
Faintly shading form and face
Bright as thine, and softer yet,
Jasmine-bowered "Margaret."

There's a sweeter mystery,
Doubtful alway if it be
More of earth or more divine,
Than the shadowy " Adeline."

Witchcraft, mystery and beguiling,
Bloom and perfume, sigh and smiling,
Who in one hath charms so many,
But our darling little Annie!

POLITICAL PORTRAITS WITH PEN AND PENCIL.

NO. XXXII.

THOMAS WILSON DORR, OF RHODE ISLAND.

(With a fine Engraving on Steel.)

"Va victis!"-Wo to the conquered! -is as true now as when the speech broke from the fierce lip of the rude Gaul. And never is it more so, than when, in the civil struggles of parties, the cause of popular liberty sustains a reverse, and its supporters, by force, fraud, or fortune, find themselves compelled to succumb again beneath the pressure of the power they have vainly attempted to overthrow. The defeated are then, always and everywhere, traitors, rebels, caitiffs and brigands! The felon's fate for their bodies-the felon's fame for their memories!

This is a sad truth-and it is still more sad to find the spirit out of which it proceeds not less rife and rancorous among a very large portion of our own population, than it has ever shown itself in the most insolent and bitter ferocity of English Toryism. It is brought strongly to our mind whenever we reflect upon the treatment which within the past few weeks has been showered upon the high-minded and pure-minded man, the courageous and patriotic gentleman, scholar, and democrat, with whose name-in the midst of all the obloquy with which the very air resounds-we esteem it no dishonor to adorn this page.

There is said to be but one unpardonable sin. So far as the affairs of this world are concerned, it is true, and that sin is failure. Of this, Mr. Dorr has certainly been guilty. We are well aware that this is therefore precisely the proper moment at which every friend, whether of his principles or of his person, ought to turn round and abandon and abuse him. Now, though we happen to stand in this double relation toward him, yet, for the very singularity of the thing, we think proper to pursue a different course. When our intention was announced of inserting his engraved portrait in the present series of distinguished American Democrats, it was because we saw

in Mr. Dorr the representative of a great and true democratic principle, to which it was meet and right to do honor in his person. The misfortunes which have caused him to fail in carrying that principle into practical effect, in no respect weakening his identification with at least its abstract truth, constitute no sufficient reason to divert us from that purpose. On the contrary, we are induced by this cause to anticipate by several months the Number in which it was originally contemplated to insert it. However disastrous the event may have been, the principle remains untouched, and not less true and great than it was when it triumphed in the achievement of our own Revolution. And however disgraceful that event may have proved, its disgrace does not attach to Mr. Dorr, whose individual conduct-though he may have been at times mistaken in judgment, and deceived in his estimate of men-has in no single respect been wanting in courage, firmness, disinterestedness, or devotion to the cause at the head of which he stood.

It may have been Alexander, Cæsar, or Hannibal-no matter which-who said, that better was an army of deer with a lion for their chief, than an army of lions under command of a deer. There would probably be not much to choose between the two. Without desiring, by such a juxtaposition of names, to convert Mr. Dorr, from his proper peaceful capacity of a quiet civilian into the military one for which he was probably neither meant by nature nor trained by art, we may yet be permitted to express our doubt whether Alexander, Cæsar, or Hannibal-or all the "three single gentlemen rolled into one"-could have made much out of the greater part of the materials which seem to have surrounded him, in his recent unsuccessful attempt to establish and maintain the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island. It has been

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