Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
We ought to look at the whole American party, the North and South, to
see the total condition of the people. Now at this moment there is no
lack of cattle and corn and cloth in the United States, North or South,
only they are differently distributed in the different parts of the
land. But still there is a great excitement. Men think the nation is in
danger, and for many years there has not been so great an outcry and
alarm amongst the politicians. The cry is raised, "The Union is in
danger!" and if the Union falls, we are led to suppose that every thing
falls. There will be no more Thanksgiving days; there will be anarchy
and civil war, and the ruin of the American people! It is curious to see
this material plenty, on the one side, and this political alarm and
confusion on the other. This condition of alarm is so well known, that
nothing more need be said about it at this moment.
* * * * *
Let me now come to the next point, and consider the Causes of our
present condition. This will involve a consideration of the cause of our
prosperity and of our alarm.
1. First, there are some causes which depend on God entirely; such as
the nature of the country, soil, climate, and the like; its minerals,
and natural productions; its seas and harbors, mountains and rivers. In
respect to these natural advantages, the country is abundantly favored,
but the North less so than the South. Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama,
certainly have the advantage over Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio. That I
pass by; a cause which depends wholly on God.
2. Then again, this is a wide and new country. We have room to spread.
We have not to contend against old institutions, established a thousand
years ago, and that is one very great advantage. I make no doubt that in
crossing the ocean, our fathers helped forward the civilization of the
world at least a thousand years; I mean to say, it would have taken
mankind a thousand years longer to reach the condition we have attained
in New England, if the attempt had of necessity been made on the soil of
the old world and in the face of its institutions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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