Tarquins from Rome, emancipated Switzerland and Holland, restored the
Prince to his throne, and brought Charles to the scaffold. And the sword
redeemed the pledge of the Congress of '76 when they plighted to each other
"their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." And yet, what would
the redemption of that pledge have availed towards the establishment of our
present government, if the spirit of American institutions had not been
both the birthright and the birth-blessing of the Colonies? The Indians,
the French, the Spaniards, and even England herself, warred in vain against
a people, born and bred in the household, at the domestic altar of Liberty
herself They had never been slaves, for they were born free. The sword was
a herald to proclaim their freedom, but it neither created nor preserved
it. A century and a half had already beheld them free in infancy, free in
youth, free in early manhood. Theirs was already the spirit of American
institutions; the spirit of Christian freedom of a temperate, regulated
freedom, of a rational civil obedience. For such a people the sword, the
law of violence, did and could do nothing but sever the bonds which bound
her colonial wards to their unnatural guardian. They redeemed their pledge,
sword in hand; but the sword left them as it found them, unchanged in
character, freemen in thought and in deed, instinct with the immortal
spirit of American institutions.
T. S Grimke.


VI.

DUTY OF LITERARY MEN TO THEIR COUNTRY.

We cannot honor our country with too deep a reverence; we cannot love her
with an affection too pure and fervent; we cannot serve her with an energy
of purpose or a faithfulness of zeal too steadfast and ardent. And what is