John D Sullivan, The Great Nation of Futurity (1839) 15

The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National Independence being entirely based onthe great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our disconnected position as regards any other nation ; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history ofany ofthem, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. Onthe contrary, our national birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development of the natural rights of man, in moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity.

It is so destined, becausethe principle upon which a nation is organized fixes its destiny, and that of equality is perfect, is universal. It presides in all the operations of the physical world, and it is also the conscious law of the soul-the self-evident dictate of morality, which accurately defines the duty of manto man, and consequently man's rights as man. Besides, the truthful annals of any nation furnish abundant evidence, that its happiness, its greatness, its duration, were always proportionate to the democratic equality in its system of government.

Howmanynations have had their decline and fall, because the equal rights ofthe minority were trampled on bythe despotism ofthe majority ; or the interests of the many sacrificed to the aristocracy of the few ; or the rights and interests of all given up to the monarchy of one? These three kinds of government have figured so frequently and so largely in the ages that have passed away, that their history, through all time to come, can only furnish a resemblance. Like causes produce like effects, and the true philosopher of history will easily discern the principle of equality, or of privilege, working out its inevitable result. The first is regenerative, because it is natural and right; the latter is destructive to society, because it is unnatural and wrong.

What friend of human liberty, civilization, and refinement, can cast his view over the past history of the monarchies and aristocracies ofantiquity, and not deplore that they ever existed ? What philanthropist can contemplate the oppressions, the cruelties, and injustice inflicted bythem onthe masses of mankind, and not turn with moral horror from the retrospect ?

America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminiscences of battle fields, but in defence of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, ofthe rights ofconscience, therights ofpersonal enfranchisement. Our annals describe no scenes ofhorrid carnage, where men were led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another, dupes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in thehuman form called heroes. We have had patriots to defend our homes, our liberties, but no aspirants to crowns orthrones; nor havethe American people ever suffered themselves to be led on by wicked ambition to depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that a human being might be placed on a seat of supremacy.

We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress, andwho will, whatcan, set limits to our onward march ? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that "the gates of hell"-the powers of aristocracy and monarchy-" shall not prevail against it."

The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifestto mankind the excellence of divine principles ; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High-the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere-its roofthe firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood—of " peace and good will amongst men"

But although the mighty constituent truth upon which our social and political system is founded will assuredly work out the glorious destiny herein shadowed forth, yet there are many untoward circumstances to retard our progress, to procrastinatethe entire fruition of the greatest good to the human race. There is a tendency to imitativeness, prevailing amongst our professional and literary men, subversive of originality of thought, and wholly unfavorable to progress. Being in early life devoted to the study ofthe laws, institutions, and antiquities of other nations, they are far behind the mind and movementofthe age inwhich theylive: so muchso,thatthespiritofimprovement, as well as ofenfranchisement, exists chiefly in the great masses-the agricultural and mechanical popu lation.

This propensity to imitate foreign nations is absurd and injurious. It is absurd, for we have never yet drawn on our mental resources that we havenotfound them ample and of unsurpassed excellence ; witness our constitutions of government, where we had no foreign ones to imitate. It is injurious, for never have we followed foreign examples in legislation; witness our laws, our charters of monopoly, that we did not inflict evil on ourselves, subverting common right, in violation of common sense and common justice. The halls of legislation and the courts oflaw in a Republic are necessarily the public schools ofthe adult population. If, in these institutions, foreign precedents are legislated, and foreign decisions adjudged over again, is it to be wondered at that an imitative propensity predominates amongst professional and business men. Taught to look abroad for the highest standards of law, judicial wisdom, and literary excellence, the native sense is subjugated to a most obsequious idolatry ofthe tastes, sentiments, and prejudices of Europe. Hence our legislation, jurisprudence, literature, are more reflective offoreign aristocracy than ofAmerican democracy.

European governments have plunged themselves in debt, designating burthens on the people " national blessings" Our State Legislatures, humbly imitating their pernicious example, have pawned, bonded the property, labor, and credit of their constituents tothe subjects ofmonarchy. It is by our own labor, and with our own materials, that our internal improvements are constructed, but our British-law-trained legislators have enacted that we shall be in debt for them, paying interest, but never to become owners. With various climates, soils, natural resources, and products, beyond any other country, and producing more real capital annually than any other sixteen millions of people on earth, we are, nevertheless, borrowers, paying tribute to the money powers of Europe.

Our business menhave also conned the lesson ofexample, and devoted themselves body and mind to the promotion of foreign interests. If States can steepthemselves in debt, with any propriety in times ofpeace, why may not merchants import merchandise on credit? Ifthe one can bond the labor and property ofgenerations yet unborn, whymay not the other contract debts against the yearly crops and daily labor of their contemporary fellow citizens?

And our literature !-Oh, when will it breathe the spirit of our republican institutions ? When will it be imbued with the God-like aspiration of intellectual freedom-the elevating principle of equality? Whenwill it assert its national independence, and speak the soul-the heart ofthe American people? Why cannot our literati comprehend the matchless sublimity of our position amongst the nations of the world-ourhigh destiny-and cease bendingthe kneeto foreign idolatry, false tastes, false doctrines, false principles ? When will they be inspired by the magnificent scenery of our own world, imbibe the fresh enthusiasm ofa new heaven and a new earth, and soar uponthe expanded wings of truth and liberty? Is not nature as original-her truths as captivatingher aspectsas various, as lovely, as grand-her Promethean fire as glowing in this, our Western hemisphere, as in that ofthe East? Andabove all, is not our private life as morally beautiful and good-is not our public life as politically right, as indicative of the brightest prospects of humanity, and therefore as inspiring ofthe highest conceptions ? Why, then, do our authors aim at no higher degree ofmerit, than a successful imitation ofEnglish writers of celebrity?

But with all the retrograde tendencies of our laws, our judicature, our colleges, our literature, still they are compelled to follow the mighty impulse of the age ; they are carried onward by the increasing tide of progress ; and though they cast many a longing look behind,they cannot stay the glorious movement of the masses, nor induce them to venerate the rubbish, the prejudices, the superstitions of other times and other lands, the theocracy of priests, the divine right of kings, the aristocracy of blood, the metaphysics of colleges, the irrational stuff of law libraries. Already the brightest hopes of philanthropy, the most enlarged speculations of true philosophy, are inspired by the indications perceptible amongst the mechanical and agricultural population. There, with predominating influence, beats the vigorous national heart of America, propelling the onward march ofthe multitude, propagating and extending, through the present and the future, the powerful purpose of soul, which, in the seventeenth century, sought a refuge among savages, and reared in the wilderness the sacred altars of intellectual freedom. This wasthe seed that produced individual equality, and political liberty, as its natural fruit; and this is our true nationality. American patriotism is not ofsoil ; weare not aborigines, nor ofancestry, for we are of all nations; but it is essentially personal enfranchisement, for "where liberty dwells," said Franklin, the sage of the Revolution, "there is my country"

Such is our distinguishing characteristic, our popular instinct, and never yet has any public functionary stood forth for the rights of conscience against any, or all, sects desirous of predominating over such right, that he was not sustained by the people. And when a venerated patriot ofthe Revolution appealed to his fellow-citizens against the overshadowing power of a monarch institution, they came in their strength, andthe moneyed despotwas brought low. Corporate powers and privileges shrink to nothing when brought in conflict against the rights of individuals. Hence it is that our professional, literary, or commercial aristocracy, have no faith in the virtue, intelligence or capability of the people. The latter have never responded to their exotic sentiments, nor promoted their views of a strong government irresponsible to the popular majority, to the will of the masses.