ful memories will
cluster about that one, though the hearts of the rest were hard as the
nether millstone.

The soil of England will always be dearer to us of English descent than
any except our own. The Englishman will always be more like one of
ourselves than any "foreigner" can be. We shall never cease to feel the
tenderest regard for those Englishmen who have stood by us like brothers
in the day of trial. They have hardly guessed in our old home how sacred
to us is the little island from which our fathers were driven into the
wilderness,--not saying, with the Separatists, "Farewell, Babylon!
farewell, Rome!" but "Farewell, _dear_ England!" At that fearful thought
of the invasion of her shores,--a thought which rises among the spectral
possibilities of the future,--we seem to feel a dull aching in the bones
of our forefathers that lie beneath her green turf, as old soldiers feel
pain in the limbs they have left long years ago on the battle-field.

But hard treatment often proves the most useful kind of discipline. One
good effect, so far as we are concerned, that will arise from the harsh
conduct of England, will be the promotion of our intellectual and moral
independence. We declared our political independence a good while ago,
but this was as a small dividend is declared on a great debt. We owed a
great deal more to posterity than to insure its freedom from political
shackles. The American republic was to be emancipated from every
Old-World prejudice that might stand in the way of its entire fulness of
development according to its own law, which is in many ways different
from any precedent furnished by the earlier forms of civilization. There
were numerous difficulties in the way. The American talked the language
of England, and found a literature ready-made to his hands. He brought
his religion with him, shaped under English influences, whether he
called himself Dissenter or not. He dispensed justice according to the
common law of England. His public assemblies were guided by
Parliamentary usage. His commerce and industry had been so long in
tutelage that both required long exercise before they could know their
own capacities.

The mother-country held her American colonies as bound to labor for her
profit, not their own, just as an artisan claims the whole time of his
apprentice. If we think the policy of England towards America in the
year 1863 has been purely selfish, looking solely to her own interest,
witho