Are We a Nation?: Address of Hon. Charles Sumner Before the New York Young Men's Republican Union, at the Cooper Institute, Tuesday Evening, Nov. 19, 1867 |
Common terms and phrases
according adopted afterwards Alexander Hamilton American Commonwealth American Liberty announced authority became independent began beginning born called central power character Charlemagne citizen City-State civilization claim coercive power common defence Confederation continent Continental Congress Convention country and living Declaration of Independence dedicated to Human defence of American denationalizing pretensions E pluribus Unum eignty Eliot's Debates empire England Equality ernment exclaimed Federal feudal Franklin Germany Gouveneur Morris guaranty Hamilton Human Rights Ibid implies National indissoluble ington insisting Italy John Adams language Magna Charta Massachusetts mother country National act National Constitution National Flag National Government National Motto National Name National Unity Patrick Henry patriotism pendence promises and covenants Prussia Rebellion represented Republic republican government rights of citizenship rights of Human sacred principles Samuel Adams says self-government sovereignty stars supreme law territory things thirteen stripes tion title-deed Union flag United Colonies utterance voice Washington Webster whole word Nation
Popular passages
Page 24 - Its stars of white on a field of blue, proclaim that union of states constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new state. The two together signify union past and present. The very colors have a language which' was officially recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and all together — bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky — make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by...
Page 23 - People, instead of We the States? States are the characteristics and the soul of a confederation. If the States be not the agents of this compact, it...
Page 23 - There is the national flag! He must be cold, indeed, who can look upon Its folds rippling In the breeze without pride of country. If he be in a foreign land, the flag Is companionship, and country Itself, with all Its endearments. Who, as he sees it, can think of a State merely? Whose eye, once fastened upon Its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of the whole nation ? It has been called ' a floating piece of poetry ; ' and yet I know not if It have any intrinsic beauty beyond other...
Page 19 - Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power. I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation without having lodged somewhere a power, which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the State governments extends over the several States.
Page 16 - tis a thing impossible to frame Conceptions equal to the soul's desires; And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain.
Page 20 - That a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive and Judiciary.
Page 24 - that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
Page 22 - In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American — the consolidation of our Union — in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence.
Page 33 - But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation...
Page 17 - ... there is an option still left to the United States of America, that it is in their choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable, as a nation.