CHAPTER XIII.

I.

Prohibitions to Prevent the Exercise of Arbitrary Power.

THE specific Prohibitions which appear in the Constitution of the United States were placed in it to prevent the exercise of arbitrary power, either by the authority of the General Government, or by that of any State government, over the freedom of religious worship, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the Press, or over any of those constitutional rights of life, liberty, and property, to which every citizen of the nation has a just claim. "Constitutions are made to restrain Governments. Laws are made to restrain Persons."

II.

Patriotism of the Defenders of the Nation.

The great civil war of modern times having resulted, not only in the failure of a very powerful effort to dissolve the Union, but in the destruction of that system of human slavery which was introduced into the English Colonies in America by the policy of the British government, the friends of "Liberty and Union," in all future times, ought to remember with gratitude the patriotism, courage, and sufferings of the soldiers and the statesmen who carried

the Nation triumphantly through the sanguinary conflict that it was forced to maintain in defense of the freedom, sovereignty, and unity of the people of the United States.

III.

Restoration of Harmony among the Citizens of the Union.

The Government of the United States has passed through the period of danger from the hostility of external enemies; and, henceforth, the People, from whom it derives its strength, look for a wise, beneficent, and constitutional exercise of its great powers. In pursuing a wise policy, it will, by the use of all proper means, promote, between the steady friends of the Union and those who were its enemies, that kind of reconciliation which will be favorable to the public welfare, and to a restoration of friendly and fraternal personal intercourse among the citizens of the United States.

CHAPTER XIV.

I.

Growth of the Region West of the Alleghany Mountains.

THE most remarkable results which have been produced by the influence of the general principles of the Government of the United States of America, appear in those numerous and wonderful changes and improvements which have been made, since the year 1776, within the boundaries of the national territory westward of the Alleghany mountains. History does not contain another example of a national growth so marvellous in a period so brief. The strength and the patriotism of the people of this vast region were triumphantly manifested in the great war for the preservation of the Union.

II.

Western Pioneers.

The names of the early settlers of the regions lying westward of the Alleghany mountains show that those settlers were emigrants, directly or remotely, from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Holland, and France. Different, in some respects, from any of these, and different

from each other, were the emigrants from the New England States, of which Massachusetts was the type, and the emigrants from the Southern States, of which Virginia was the type.

Each of the different races of Western Pioneers could remember with pleasure many bright pages in the history of the nation, or State, from which they emigrated; and each race knew, perhaps, that there were, imprinted in its history, dark pages enough to restrain a disposition to indulge in arrogant claims of superiority over other races. It is probable that the people of every Christian nation would, if they could, blot out from the pages of History, and from the memory of mankind, the records and the recollections of their national crimes, and leave, for the admiration of the world, only the memorials of the Christian virtues of their ancestors, and of their triumphs in the works of science, industry, and peace.

The people who emigrated from old nations, or States, to establish new communities in a vast wilderness, carried with them, not only their religious creeds, their political opinions, their various manners and customs, and their knowledge of the sciences and of the industrial arts, but also the popular superstitions, the old plays, the old stories and traditions, and the old songs and ballads of the nations or States from which they emigrated. Consequently, legends, and stories, and songs, and old ballads concerning Robin Hood, and Fairies, and Hobgoblins, and Ghosts, and Banshees, and Wolterkens, and Witches, were brought from France, and Germany, and Ireland, and Scotland, and old England, and New England, to be repeated at every pioneer settlement on the western side of the Alleghany mountains; and mingled with Indian traditions relating to the existence of spirits, good and evil, in rocks, caves, lakes, mountains, and springs.

III.

Commingling of Diverse Races.

A writer in the North British Review says: "Remarkable as are many of the phenomena presented to us in the New World, the most remarkable, as it seems to us, is the extraordinary commingling of diverse races which is being accomplished on its soil. Navigation has now so bridged the ocean, that from every country in Europe settlers have reached the American shores; and Railways have so facilitated locomotion by land, and so quickened the movements of social life, that these diverse peoples from Europe are shaken together and amalgamated in the New World, till the original distinctions disappear, and a new national type is formed."

IV.

Immigrants.

In a late special Report of the Bureau of Statistics, of the Treasury Department, it is stated that seven million five hundred and fifty-three thonsand eight hundred and sixty-five "alien passengers arrived in the United States during the fifty-one years ended December 31, 1870." Of this number of persons,

2,700,495 emigrated from Ireland.
2,267,500 emigrated from Germany.

516,192 emigrated from England.

245,812 emigrated from France.

153,928 emigrated from Sweden and Norway.

109,502 emigrated from China.

84,623 emigrated from Scotland.

61,572 emigrated from Switzerland.

31,118 emigrated from Holland.

23,998 emigrated from Italy.