the brows of our mountains, and to
roll the tide of desolation at their bases; the hurricanes which sweep
our vales, and the volcanic fires which issue from a thousand flaming
craters; the thunderbolts which perpetually descend from heaven, and
the earthquakes, whose trepidations are felt to the very center of our
globe, have superinduced a degeneracy through all the productions of
nature. Men have been frightened into intellectual dwarfs, and the
beasts of the forest have not attained more than half their ordinary
growth.

While some of the lines and touches of this picture have been blotted
out by the reversing hand of time, others have been added, which have,
in some respects, carried the conceit still farther. In later days, and,
in some instances, even down to the present period, it has been
published and republished from the enlightened presses of the Old World,
that so strong is the tendency to deterioration on this continent that
the descendants of European ancestors are far inferior to the original
stock from which they sprang. But inferior in what? In national spirit
and patriotic achievement? Let the revolutionary conflict--the opening
scenes at Boston and the catastrophe at Yorktown--furnish the reply. Let
Bennington and Saratoga support their respective claims. Inferior in
enterprise? Let the sail that whitens every ocean, and the commercial
spirit that braves every element and visits every bustling mart, refute
the unfounded aspersion. Inferior in deeds of zeal and valor for the
Church? Let our missionaries in the bosom of our own forest, in the
distant regions of the East, and on the islands of the great Pacific,
answer the question. Inferior in science and letters and the arts? It is
true our nation is young; but we may challenge the world to furnish a
national maturity which, in these respects, will compare with ours.

The character and institutions of this country have already produced a
deep impression upon the world we inhabit. What but our example has
stricken the chains of despotism from the provinces of South
America--giving, by a single impulse, freedom to half a hemisphere? A
Washington here has created a Bolivar there. The flag of independence,
which has waved from the summit of our Alleghany, has now been answered
by a corresponding signal from the heights of the Andes. And the same
spirit, too, that came across the Atlantic wave with the Pilgrims, and
made the rock of Plymouth the corner-st