The Footprints of Time: And a Complete Analysis of Our American System of Government, with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States, in Chronological OrderBancroft, Charles
History
The Footprints of Time: And a Complete Analysis of Our American System of Government, with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States, in Chronological Order
Bancroft, Charles
United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
1. We see here again the operation of the constant law that impelled men,
or moved the “Star of Empire,” westward. The form of the continents,
the character of the surface and the climate, provided a natural and
desirable opening only in that direction. The overplus of population,
the discontent of some part of the people with existing government, the
restlessness of adventurers, or the requirements of trade and commerce
produced a migration. The colony, instructed by the experience of the
parent state, was free to improve on its institutions. Colonies have
almost always prospered more than the mother country. Transplanting
seemed to improve both the stock and the institutions. Greece was
colonized from Asia, as was Rome; Miletus, Syracuse, and other Greek
colonies excelled the mother cities in wealth, and though the free
structure of Grecian government allowed a natural development at home and
made Athens the metropolis, yet its marvelous genius was nourished and
stimulated by the colonies. Carthage was greater and stronger than Tyre,
and contended with Rome for the control of the world; the most western
nations of Europe were colonized from Rome and Germany, and have taken
the lead in later progress, while America has always displayed the lusty,
fertile vigor of a young life.
Thus the conformation of the surface of the earth, and the peculiarly
fruitful character of a transplanted civilization, have always furnished
an escape from the embarrassing fixity of an old state, in the same
western direction, and the old and the new unite to establish frequent
stages of progress. In this way a continuous growth has been secured that
impresses on advancing culture the same unity, from first to last, that
we see in the growth and mental development of the individual man.
2. We have seen the aggregation and primary discipline of mankind in the
simple but extensive despotisms of western Asia, varied in Palestine
by a theocratic system which has produced the world’s great religion,
and in Egypt by the predominance of a learned priestly caste. We saw
an improvement made in Greece to meet the demands of intellectual
development. Their intelligence, however, was a spontaneous outburst, of
necessity immature. Two thousand years of training, and the addition of
many new elements were required before mind could _rule_ the world; but
Greece, by the attractiveness of her art and culture, set men at work on
the great problem of politics and life.
Rome followed to organize government and consolidate the civilizations,
to ripen their fruit and transmit the seed to a more favorable time, and
to new and better races. A complete civilization was impossible without
well digested science, which had its remote roots in Greece; and law,
which was gradually produced by the grand Roman republic; and a clear
understanding of the profound yet simple precepts of Jesus Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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