Prophetic Voices About America.
Governor Pownall, an English statesman, in 1780, while the Revolution was still in progress, “openly announced, not only that independence was inevitable, but that the new nation, ‘founded in nature and built up in truth,’ would continually expand; that its population would increase and multiply; that a civilizing activity beyond what Europe could ever know would animate it; and that its commercial and naval power would be found in every quarter of the globe. All this he set forth at length with argument and illustration, and he called his prophetic words ‘the stating of the simple fact so little understood in the Old World.’ Treated at first as ‘unintelligible speculation’ and as ‘unfashionable,’ the truth he announced was neglected where it was not rejected, but generally rejected as inadmissible, and the author, according to his own language, ‘was called by the wise men of the British Cabinet a Wild Man, unfit to be employed.’ But these writings are a better title now than any office.” Again he foretells our future thus: “North America is become a new primary planet in the system of the world, which, while it takes its own course, must have effect on the orbit of every other planet, and shift the common centre of gravity of the whole system of the European world. North America is de facto an independent power, which has taken its equal station with other powers, and must be so de jure. . . . The independence of America is fixed as fate. She is mistress of her own future, knows that she is so, and will actuate that power which she feels she hath, so as to establish her own system and to change the system of Europe.” Giving expression to the same conviction in another form he says: “North America has advanced, and is every day advancing, to growth of state, with a steady and continually accelerating motion, of which there never has yet been any example in Europe.” “It is a vitality, liable to many disorders, many dangerous diseases; but it is young and strong, and will struggle, by the vigor of internal healing principles of life, against those evils, and surmount them. Its strength will grow with its years.” “That the new state will be ‘an active naval power,’ exercising a peculiar influence on commerce, and, through commerce, on the political system of the Old World,—becoming the arbitress of commerce, and, perhaps, the mediatrix of peace.” In a letter to Franklin Feb. 28, 1783, he says: “My old friend,—I write this to congratulate you on the establishment of your country as a free and sovereign power, taking its equal station amongst the powers of the world. I congratulate you in particular, as chosen by Providence to be a principal instrument in this great Revolution,—a Revolution that has stronger marks of divine interposition, superseding the ordinary course of human affairs, than any other event which this world has experienced.” As Franklin was about to embark for the United States, he again wrote from Lausanne, July 3, 1785: “Adieu, my dear friend. You are going to a New World, formed to exhibit a scene which the Old World never yet saw.” David Hartley, another friend of America in England, writes concerning the United States May 15, 1777: “At sea, which has hitherto been our prerogative element,155they rise against us at a stupendous rate; and if we cannot return to our old mutual hospitalities towards each other, a very few years will show us a most formidable hostile marine, ready to join hands with any of our enemies.” Count d’Aranda, one of the first of Spanish Statesmen, and diplomats, in 1783, thus wrote of this Republic: “This Federal Republic is born a pygmy, so to speak. It required the support and the forces of two powers as great as Spain and France in order to attain independence. A day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus formidable in these countries.” After introducing other witnesses whose testimony is not especially to our purpose, Mr. Sumner concludes his article with an able summary, from which we quote a few paragraphs: “Such are some of the prophetic voices about America, differing in character and importance, but all having one augury, and opening one vista, illimitable in extent and vastness. Farewell to the idea of Montesquieu, that a republic can exist only in a small territory.” “Ancient prophecy foretold another world beyond the ocean, which in the mind of Christopher Columbus was nothing less than the Orient with its inexhaustible treasures. Then came the succession of prophets, who discerned the future of this continent, beginning with that rare genius, Sir Thomas Browne, who, in the reign of Charles II., while the settlements were in their infancy, predicted their growth in power and civilization; and then that rarest character, Bishop Berkeley, who, in the reign of George I., while the settlements were still feeble and undeveloped, heralded a Western empire as ‘Time’s noblest offspring.’” “These voices are general. Others more precise followed. Turgot, the philosopher and minister, saw in youth, with the vision of genius, that all colonies must at their maturity drop from the parent stem, like ripe fruit. John Adams, one of the chiefs of our own history, in a youth illumined as that of Turgot, saw the predominance of the Colonies in population and power followed by the transfer of empire to America; then the glory of independence and its joyous celebration by grateful generations; then the triumph of our language; and finally, the establishment of our republican institutions over all North America. Then came the Abbé Galiani, the Neapolitan Frenchman, who, writing from Naples while our struggle was still undecided, gayly predicts the total downfall of Europe, the transmigration to America, and the consummation of the greatest revolution of the globe by establishing the reign of America over Europe. There is also Adam Smith, the illustrious philosopher, who quietly carries the seat of government across the Atlantic. Meanwhile Pownall, once a Colonial Governor and then a member of Parliament, in successive works of great detail, foreshadows independence, naval supremacy, commercial prosperity, immigration from the Old World, and a new national life, destined to supersede the systems of Europe and arouse the ‘curses’ of royal ministers. Hartley, also a member of Parliament, and the British negotiator who signed the definitive treaty of Independence, bravely announces in Parliament that the New World is before the Colonists, and that liberty is theirs; and afterwards, as diplomatist, instructs his government that through the attraction of our public lands, immigration will be quickened beyond precedent and the national debt cease to be a burden. D’Aranda, the Spanish statesman and diplomatist, predicts to his king that the United States, though born a ‘pygmy,’ will soon be a ‘colossus,’ under whose influence Spain will lose all her American possessions except only Cuba and Porto Rico. Burns, the truthful poet, looks forward a hundred years, and beholds our people rejoicing in the centenary of their independence. Fox, the liberal statesman, foresees the increasing might and various relations of the United States, so that a blow aimed at them must have a rebound as destructive as itself. Canning, the brilliant orator, in a much-admired flight of eloquence, discerns the New World, with its republics just called into being, redressing the balance of the old. Cobden, whose fame will be second only to that of Adam Smith among all in this catalogue, calmly predicts the separation of Canada from the mother country by peaceable means. Alaman, the Mexican statesman and historian, announces that Mexico, which has already known so many successive races, will hereafter be ruled by yet another people, who will take the place of the present possessors; and with these prophetic words, he draws a pall over his country.” “All these various voices, of different times and countries, mingle and intertwine in representing the great future of our Republic, which from small beginnings has already become great. It was at first only a grain of mustard seed; which is, indeed, the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”