The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
It will readily be perceived that since industrial and commercial
development is necessitating dependence and unity, it is equally true
that the natural varieties of soil and climate are, also, conditions of
like dependence and unity. When these diversities of soil in different
sections are fully developed, and the exchange of products readily made
through improved commercial facilities, and human wants multiplied by
means of civilized culture, agricultural specialization creates the
demand, not for political division and isolation, but for more extensive
organization. That New England manufactures is no reason that she should
separate her government from that of the other States, but just the
reverse. That the Middle States are more distinctively a mining region,
and the great West agricultural, is no reason that their general
government should be distinct, but precisely the reverse. That the South
produces cotton, rice, and sugar, is no reason for her seceding from the
Union, but exactly the reverse. These diversified interests, we repeat,
create interrelation and dependence, unitizing the commercial and
industrial polity; and the political organization should, as far as
possible, be coextensive therewith. There are physical necessities which
prevent the formation and maintenance of a comprehensive political
organization in the earlier stages of civilization, but these never have
obtained in the United States, and every hour's improvement carries us
farther beyond them.
All the results of a progressive civilization are constantly
complicating the dependence and interrelation of various sections of our
country. Roads, railroads, canals, and lines of telegraph, by their
connections and intersections, are so many bonds of union between the
various districts of our country--so many bonds of union between the
various States of the confederacy--and forbid its dissolution. Even
Nature conspires with civilization to the same end. The great valleys
and rivers running north and south are so many natural ties, which the
most incorrigible perverseness, on the part of man, could alone prevent
from performing the office to which they seem so happily adapted in the
play of the civilized elements.
As we have seen in our brief view of Europe, greater political
unitization has been the result of growth in civilization. In the United
States, all natural, commercial, and industrial bonds of union are
becoming more fully developed. This evinces the direction of progress.
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