Ladies & gentlemen
My subject is the Age & our Country
and I shall be as brief as the text will
admit. It is well, something, to pause
in the head long race of business pursuits
if not to think at least to gather renewd
energy for a fresh start - if not to
reflect systematically, at least to
endeavor to comprehend to the extent
a [safer] survey may enable us to
do, the circumstances that surround
us & perhaps to anticipate the future in
imagination, if we can do no
more. It is well, sometimes, to lag
behind at some fair resting place
and to des[...] from that precious []
in search of gold or the means of
acquiring it, which seems to be the
swarm I am regulating the temporal
destiny of all the thousands & millions
of mankind in there latter days
when the world is fast becoming one vast
commercial Bazaar, while the
captain of every merchant man
is a [Mason] & every Continent, Coast
& Island in the Seas is ready
to furnish a gold in fleece.
It is well, I repeat, to separate

Ladies & Gentlemen,

My subject it the Age & our Country,
and I shall be as brief as the text will
admit. It is well sometimes to []
in the heading race of [] pursuits
if not to think at least to gather [round?]
energy for a fresh start-if not to
affect systematically, at least to
endeavor to comprehend to the extent
a [safer?] survey may [] us to
do, the circumstances that surround
us & perhaps to anticipate the future in
imagination, if we can do no
more. It is well, sometimes, to lag
behind at some fair resting place,
and to desist from that furious [car...
in] search of gold or the means of
acquiring it which seems to be the
main law [signalateing?] the tempered
destiny of all the thousands & millions
of Mankind in these [] days
when the world is fast becoming one vast
commercial [] while the
captain of every merchant man
is a [] & every Continent, Coast,
& Island in the seas is ready
to furnish a Golden Fleece.
It is well, I repeat, to separate

occasionally from the vast mob of
money-suckers that hustle each other
along the crowded thoroughfare
of life & to stand still, or to sit
gently down & with our eyes
cast back thro the dim vistas
of the Past terminating on these
cloudy & [trod] stained shores where
Man's History begins, & scourging
the wide fields of present time
as well as we may - & gazing
into the Future with as much
power of Prophecy as our limited
intellectual capacity may permit
make our best efforts to establish
& define those leading ideas by which we
shall be able to ascertain & describe
if only in their [...]test [...]ting,
the conditions of the age in which
we live, & the character it is the
lot of our Country, & of our [...]
as a part of our Country to
sustain in relation to it.
We are now in
January - in the lullest part of it.
The first month of the year one
thousand eight hundred & fifty
five since the birth of Christ.
The Earth that never tires &

never grows old, tho' we grow old & often
tire of it, is now gliding on in
the same broad bright track across
the Sun that was marked out for
it by the Hand of Omnipotence, thousands
of years ago; and its motion is as
noiseless, & its pulse as calm, as
when God conversed with Adam
among the fragrant walks of Para
-dise & then was [...] in Eden. Impression as its own un[...] in
Granite it proceeds on its un[...]ing
way just as if the terrible Lightenings
of a wrathful Expulsion had never
gleamed [...] the darkness of
the Heavens, or if Empires had
never disappeared & been succeeded
by other Empires that had disappeared
on their turn, as if whole Races
had not well-nigh perished out
& been forgotten, as if great systems
of Philosophy, Law & Religion in-
-fluencing the feelings & opinions
of millions while they costed, had
not been [...]ially overthrown, giving
place to other systems, that partook
a similar fate, as it War
Pestilence & Famine er[...]bly
occurring had not decimated
mankind, as if W[...] had

never upreard a [...] Head and
scattered distractive poisons amidst
its throngs of slaves & sufferers; or
as if on the other hand Art [...]
& Science had never illuminated the
pathways of Nations - as if Truth
had never died the holy death of
the [...] or shared the [suppleredness]
principles of the Hero & States [Peace]-
as if Right had never drawn
its [...] sword against the
[...] of Despotism - or F[...],
crownd with Laurels, had never
[...] its [...] on the prest[...]
body of the Tyrant. It has re-
gained all the Labor - all the P[...]-
p,,,[ the [...] & e[...]cated
Changes of Forty Centuries to
proceed that prospect [...] now
belo[...] whose [...] abroad
upon the Face of the world. More
[...]
than the shadows of the [...]
years before followd each other
[...] the Portals of Eternity,
[...] great specific [...]
working that gradual development
cr[...] the law of his Progress

development constituting the law of
progress by which mankind may be
distantly traced from the condition in
those recent ages of barbaric simplicity
when clad in skins, [...] of B[...]
of C[...], or S[...] of the noblest
pursuits of life & all the most [...] of
social intercourse, they [...]
[.......]
of the [...] on the plains of [...]
this all the vast space of time that
has elapsed since then in [...]
We ho[...] of the Earth
[...], Babylon Egypt [...] Phoenicia
Greece, Rome, the [...]
& pass before our vision in this
[...] potential & rely [...]
like the [...] [on] the face of
some immense Pr[...]. It is
plain that all these nations have mountains,
in their natural character some
absolutely others almost entirely,
have disappeared the one after
the other, the last invariably showing
a degree of development and [exhibited]
by that preceding it. It will also appear
clear in any one who will [...] the [equality] subject that the spirit of elements of

of this philosophy now evolution. This last
word being always regarded in a compara
tive & never in a [...] sense - have
combined to establish to the [Superior]
enlightenment of the Era never what
en[...]thing [...], [appearing] it had
been our good fortune to be for a
The Roman & Greek were [for] [...]
The [...]
or the Phoneician in their [moral]
sentiments their religious ideas as-
perations [...] their governmental Policy,
their civil Codes, their Knowledge
of the [...] of War, their [...]
in letters,
in poetry sculptures engraving.
But how much [...] on the People of the Age in
all education [...] to those
Roman or Greek assemblages of
nobles & populace who notwith
-standing the Odes of [Horace], the
[...] & Eneid of Virgil the
[...] of Homer, the tragedies of
Aes[...] the stat[...] of Ph[...]
the integrity of Calo the [...] of
[Brutis] the death of Socrates & the
teachings of Plato [intergrated] in
the [havoc] of gladiatorial slaughter
should with Joy ever their [misery]

captives made in battle which dragged in chains
[from] their [fuller] [], or [contact] one
so its [] [hapiness] while young
girls, innocent children & men in
the [brink] of manhood, in the midst
of their [damness] amphitheaters
were delivered over an [] to the
wonder [of] [] [affinity] of hungry wild beasts.
There is another prominent fact to which
I can [offer] in [] of the []
of my proposition. In Babylon in
Thebes, in [Lyre], in Carthage, in
E[], in Athens & in Rome
in their [words] of all their populations,
[] & [] there was not
a single [] [devastated] to
[] purposes of Humanity - not one
[] [] - or [...] or
[] school or [] in
[] or [] at
this day there is scarcely a villa
in Europe or America in which
one or more [] of
their kind, can [...]
The two propositions I have stated
contain truths that seem to be
unquestionable & present [evidently]
that do not [] [] introduce
the subject to which I desire 
more particularly to [make] your attention

The advent of our Savior cons[...]ly
the dividing line between the [...]
& Modern History.[...] is this
a man er[...] but
it to actually founded in a w[...]
[..........]
Man as a [...] is compard [...]
of elements - mind - conscience
& that physical nature be p[...]
in [common] with the [...]
[............]
me that all the Pagan ages.
I mean than acc[...]
-ring between the Sports of the
[...] & the [...]
[...] gradual [...]
physical nature of Man. The
Christian Era not only inter[...]
a new [...]
& marked the [...] day
of the [...]
never of [...] my transition where

a [master] - no doubt [] or hysterical.
But enough of his honorer. The []
[] from Phila are here - very nice girls.
The older the age of Priss quite destinguisthed
as a poetress, and what is more, and un[]-
-[] in this age of conceit, not at all preten
-ding, but [coneffected] and desirous to please. I
bespeak her for my daughter-in-law, unless
you have a better one in your age. Your
friend Mrs. Carter is here too with her daughters,
and many other for[his] [offer]. Mrs. Carter is as
[quite] and simple as ever. The [...]
Miss [] were about changing their quarters
when [immediately] before them asked Mrs. C. if she
were not very sorry they were going - "why I can't
say I am", says she, "I like the [] very well,
and am glad to be there once in a while
but one gets so tired of people, you know".
She is certainly an original. Charter [...] re
-turns his [] to Mr. Beck - but of yet
nothing seems likely to be the result - at least
not [matrimony] - the difficulty appears to be
to get their own consent - of her's there is very

little apprehension - she is playing a desperate
to be his wife against loss of reputation and everything
else - for of her conduct should suffer old Mr.
Beck he may deprive her of the support he gives her
which is all she has in to [...] on.
Old Bowley has had a fight with Mr. Gregg
Old Mrs. Gregg lives vis a vis - and she commenced the
war by complaining that his chickens destroyed her
oats - at first Sir Rowland turned a deaf ear to her
complaint - but when she threatened to kill the
innocent chickens - Rowland agreed to coop them
up - well the branches of certain trees on the
[] oppor[...]ing and [] to her []
interrupted his view [] - and he determined to rid
himself of the nuisance - behaving as he said
that the proprietor Mr. Canby had given him the
right to do whatever he should with the property-
But, what makes a little against the sportless integ-
rity of the [...] Stephenson is, that he employed
his tree cutter at 11 o'clock at night! but the
old lady was vigilent and discovered the plot of
the enemy - Branden was mounted toward axe
in hand - armed [cop] in [here] on the ladder, when
[] was brought to him from the
good Dame - "bring me no more sports" says

the modern King Dick - not [...] the
way in every form - until the fair [...] her
-self slept for the "friend Stephenson thee smart
not" at those threes. I will prosecute their
[...] make thee [...] heavy damages if then her
[...] "cut away Branden" was then [...[
[...] the Lady again com[...] "Cut"
[...] "Branden" was given the word, "if I hadn't
[...] abroad I'd mount the ladder
[...] without designing my nature of the
[...] as to mounting the ladder he had better
[...] on that subject - and [...]
got himself is not enter - the [...]
is heated and will take long to [...]
will doubtless have to pay for his [...]
the prosecution has commanded [...]
he [...] very badly, and did certainly [...]
much [...] Mr. Canly - who de[...]
gave him any privileges - but the [...]
decide were the learned can't agree.
Your interesting friend

The immortal left here after allowing as to bash
in the [...] shine of his miles two days - and making
as a donation of [...] and eels that
Margaret thought fit to return to their parent
stream - Perhaps Tom fished them up again-
[...] doubt he found a congenial soul in the [...]
Sir Guy - whom I conclude belongs to [...]
quakernicity of the time of George [...]
founder - when the opposed great [...]
[...] = move their [...] - I had some
his but was

[...] to ask
the name of the [...]
opinion [...] detained in this case.
I can [...] take that
any attorneys desk who has [...]
[...] a declaration would del[...] or
opinion as you [...] to your Philadelphia
Cor[...].

of their respective People is the history of this Commerce;
and the history of their Commerce is that of Art, Science,
Literature, general Education, Learning, Law, [fraternity]
Liberty, & Peace. When English Freedom had its
birth in Magna [Carta], English Commerce began:
And while its first act is [] in the first
letter of British [], its last acts are embodied
in the Cottantic Emancipation the Reform
Bill, the Repeal of the Corn Laws [& the [] Train Station of the Atlantic]. []
France its [] manifestation is as written
invocation of a popular Estate-
one of its [laws] has been the abolition
of the privileges of [] [] []
& of the Laws of [] & until 
very recently in investigating the principles of &
in seeking to establish the just solution
social & political, that [right] to []
between the labours & the cap[...], it
has largely [] to that happy
state of things resulting in the
[emphasis] on of the King & the foundation
of a Republic. In Germany, it created the
first anti[government] movement - a movement
followed throughout the Continent - against
the [oppression] of the Scandal Despotisms. It
has since [] practicing, taught the
purest philosophy, & disputed in the finest
Pol[...] - and within a few years hast,
having turned its attention to Politics is
gradually collecting the social & political
materials by means of which Germany is
destined in all probability to be one of the
first European Nations to adopt these great
Doctrines of Republicanism, [which] under God;
[] shall hereafter become [...] univer
sal political fact? In [some] [whatever]

of Wealth, Freedom, & Social Europe now enjoys
it now, either immediately or remotely to its
Commerce, this the broad agents of which
Christianity, proclaiming its glory 
& immortal Truths has taught Peace & []
and established fraternal & reciprocal intents
in that Continent when five hundred years
ago then [] [] of such shameful tyranny,
and [conducted] the European []
put on that [] which leads to international
Brotherhood a [] [] Property.
I pass now in the conclusion of my
subject from Europe to America - from the
Commerce [excel]
of the Old World, to this our noble
& interesting Country - to the Union of
the confederated States where territory
covers half a [] Continent - whose prop
-perty for the period of their existance, has
been unexampled in the world [...]-
whose national glory, effulgent in the Sun, is
without a St[...] - and where [Passer] []
in the majestic principles of free Govt is al-
ready felt everywhere with sentiments of
Joy & engratulation by its friends & with
feelings of fear, respect, & [] by its
enemies?
It pleased almighty [], fellow
Citizens, to her [...] the means of attaining
the blessings of true freedom to mankind in
the principles of the American Constitution,
[beware] citizens, lives of most remarkable
occurrence proceeded by, attended with
[], deeply interesting & solemnly to the [occassion]!!! [compassion]
In a [wilderness] - world - across a wide

[...]pless Ocean, under a strange Sun, upon
another Hemisphere of which the European
Mind had remaind in ignorance for [sixty]
Centuries - it was ordained that the great
standard of Human Emancipation should
be planted, now before unfurld, [...]?
It seems perfectly
[...], f[...] the force of the internal evidence
establishing the fact, that this [...] was
as[...]d for a crowning manifestation of
that benevolent power, with which a wise
& peaceful Creator governs the world.
For Century upon Century, and age upon age,
[...] had been engaged in her [...]ly wanda-
nings, to & fro over the earth - Europe constructed
on the ruins of Empires had themselves pe
-rished & left no [...] - Races had existed
& passed away, like the billows of the seas to
be renewed in other forms & then organic-
[...] the Babylonian - the PErsian - the 
[Arsgecon] - the Egyptian - the Greek - the
Roman - had gradually evolved [...] after
[...] of the [...] of progressive Hu-
manity slowly & with great [...] at each successive
re[...], [...] had [...] elevated & [...] in the scale of [...]
at [...], after a weary probation & travel, the
World became prepard to receive the
revelation of Christianity. Then the Savior
preaches his [...] & mighty doctrines of temporal
& spiritual regeneration. He [...] to the [...] & [...]
had not the capacity to comprehend that
and strange to think the goth was brought down from his
northern forests to the middle & south of Europe [...].
The material has [...] by the [...] to the hands of
[...]cation, was [...] as the mass of
marble new-[...] but was

[...] & double as start & capable of [...] height
en[...]. Fifteen centuries succeeded
the advent of Christ and the Democratic principle He
avowed & taught had from this day
little conception of Human Rights to the Gothic
Mind of Europe. And now precisely in
the moment now before - When the divisive
spark that [...] its of for an instant to the
vision of Hamp[...] & [...] - like a star in chaos -
war thunders with an i[...] for many
weary ages, perhaps [...] this Continent
was discovered & became the Temple wherein
that sacred [...] has found - it is to be
hoped - its [...] Altar
& its conf[...] worshippers? Here, apart from
the factious prejudices - the [...]
the degrading f[...] - the law superstitions - and
all those oppressive [...] that possibly
might have dogged & over[...] every effect
to establish Republicanism in Europe. Here
when no Tyrant had ever voted a subjugated
& miserable [...]. Here when no de[...] had ever
rattled its nasty [...] or groaned with
[...] & violence - here in a land that
c[...] alike an any[...] for the Pilgrim -
Puritan - the Missionary - Catholic - the
Quaker & the Carr[...] - was [...] or
[...] that chosen God we now enjoy
[...] until our fathers [...] since the [...]
streams of the [...] [...] from
its mountains & its Plains, the fort

the capital which has accumulated in the hands of the
millionaires, is immediately after her death, again
diffused thro' the system requiring additional activity
and employing carefully the labor of a thousand
hands. The fine, it may well be said, that everything
the art of man in God [could] do, to put this Country into
a condition to profit most largely & beneficially, by
a generous & powerful commercial extension, has
here done fruitfully & wisely.
Nature has done as much, perhaps
more, for our Union, trace the wise []
of one Govts. One has only to take up a heap
of the N. American Continent & to inspect its
surface to be convinced that Nature intended
in the structure of this Continent that, with such
a People as inhabit the U. States, & such a Govt
as they possess, this this country shoulld be the seat
of the World's Commerce. The Country is nearly
unlimited in extent, and yet there is no
portion of it which has not a ready access
to the Sea. The Eastern Division of the
American Union [] sheltered  along the
throes of the Atlantic for more than
two thousand miles, with its head res-
ting on the Northern Lakes and its base
on the Mexican Gulf. From every part
of this extensive District some noble
stream finds its way thro' a deep, broad,
navigable channel to the Ocean; and
passing at sea along this in[dented] Coast
scarcely a space of one hundred miles is
anywhere measured, which does not afford
some safe place of protection for [] of
any amount of townage - some
Commo[...] H[...] around which might

erected beautiful & thriving cities. The Middle Divi
-sion, commonly known as the Valley of the
Mississippi, is watered for the distance of
three thousand miles, north & south, by the
tides of that mighty River which the [abosiping]
called the "Father of Waters" and by the hundred
Tributaries east & west, of this Continental high-
-way - the comparison with many of which the
largest European Rivers are mere Creeks or Ri
-vulets. The western Division [sits] on the shore
of the Pacific and the Columbian River with
its numerous branches inject the whole
country and is capable of performing the same
commercial offices for those States which may
be hereafter [carried] out of the Region of the
Oregon, 'as the []' new discharge
for the thriving States of that broad & fertile
Valley. From all this it seems clear to
my mind, that nature [now] intended
that any Race of nomadic habits, other than
for some merely temporary [purpose] as is
the case of the Aboriginal Tribes, should accept
any portion of the eastern territories, over what
the American Union holds its jurisdiction.
By the application of art, with very little Labor
and at small cost, a system of internal Im
-provements & Conveyance can easily be
presented, by the means of which, every
bushel of corn, every bale of cotton, every
hogshead of tobacco & [], and all things
else [] raised, which shall make
up the sum total of the [] produc-
tion of the Country, can readily find
a [], [] '[] if the World
[] can be obtained for

them.
Thus we perceive that [] [] [] Govt
we get constructed may accomplish whatever a
beneficial Nation in a miracle of its work-
manship has been able to do, and whatever
the force of Human Capacity would in the
highest possible physical & intellectual
energy, exerting itself in such a Country &
under the genial influences of such a Govt
may [] - all combined can hardly
fail to [clothe] one Union with a vast Com
-mercial Prosperity with which, all the
Nations of the Earth together, cannot
successfully compete. Altho' our Republic is
yet in its [] infancy, a struggle
for commercial supremacy has already
invisibly arisen between it & G. Britain.
In this conflict, every day, adds to the
conviction that we must succeed. Surely
there cannot be a reasonable doubt as to 
the result, when we reflect that our Country
provides nearly everything which we need-
that it is already able with the lands []
under cultivation to supply itself with food
of all kinds most plentifully & then with
its surplus provision to feed the People of
the entire Globe - that it commands an
absolute monopoly of the great staple
of Cotton & raises large quantities of
[sugar], and nearly all the tobacco used 
in foreign lands - and that in addition
to all this, we are rapidly building up
a manufacturing system from which
we shall become in half a century in
all probability, perfectly [] [from] [it] of

of the [], furnaces, & looms of other
Countries.
In fifty years from this time, but a
single day in the history of a Nation's long
life there will be one hundred millions of
inhabitants in the States & Territories of this
Confederacy
[pleasily] indicate, but long before their
intervening [] shall have [explained]
our jurisdiction will extend over lower
California to the [top] [] [] 
the great Road of the asiatic Trade, [first]
[] by way of the Mediterranian, in
[], Egypt, & Italy - afterward & now even
the Cape of Good Hope, [evidencing] G. Britain &
all Western Europe, will again by the
order of a [majestic] Providence, be [].
Then too as a national consequence, all [has]
immensely valuable Commerce, instead of
being carried around the Cape of Good Hope
-a dangerous voyage of eight or nine months
duration, will then be carried for the
most part in American [], across a
smooth sea at six weeks voyage, from
[India] & '[] to the Ports of the Californias.
From these ports it will be [...]ed across
the Continent by steam agencies, to the
cities of the Atlantic side & from there
transhipped over the Atlantic Ocean to
all the [] of Europe. And when
that work takes place, an []
in the course of two generations at most
it will, if [] the Union by not in the
mountain [] to [] by then []
of faction one noble Country will be the
Universal [Carrier].