United States. Here are concentrated as it were into one focus, the
associations of the past, connected with the great struggle for
independence, and the memory of those names and events which already
belong to history. Whatever may be our political principles, or the
opinions of those who like myself consider all resort to arms as
forbidden under the Christian dispensation, it is impossible to recall
without emotion, transactions which have exerted and will continue to
exert, so marked an influence on the destinies of mankind. This city was
not the scene of those events, but it was erected to be a perpetual
monument of them, and in the limited district of ten miles square, in
which it stands, the Government which was then called into existence
reigns sole and supreme. If a stranger were to inquire here for the
monuments of the fathers of the Revolution, the American would proudly
point to the Capitol, with the national Congress in full session, and to
the levee of the President, crowded by free citizens, and
representatives of foreign nations. The United States were thirteen
dependent colonies, they are now twenty-six sovereign States, rich and
populous, covering the face of this vast continent, and compacted into
one powerful confederacy. But notwithstanding the glowing emotions which
seem naturally called forth by the locality, there is many an American
who bitterly feels that the District of Columbia is the shame, rather
than the glory of his country. Here is proclaimed to the whole world by
the united voice of the American people, "We hold these truths to be
self-evident--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights--that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and here also by a
majority of the same people expressing their deliberate will, through
their representatives, this declaration is trampled under foot, and
turned into derision.[A]