he same principles, the same
institutions assuming in their application the modifying influences of
local circumstances; I have found the past casting its shadows on the
present, in one place darker, in the other less; I have seen man
everywhere to be man, partaking of all aspirations, which are the bliss
as well as the fragility of nature in man,--but in one place the bliss
prevailing more and in the other the fragility. I saw now and then small
interests of the passing hour, less or more encroaching upon the sacred
dominion of universal principles; but so much is true, that wherever I
found a people, I found a great and generous heart, ready to take that
ground which by your very national position is pointed out to you as a
mission. Your position is to be a great nation; therefore your
necessity is to act like a great nation; or, if you do not, you will not
be great.

To be numerous, is not to be great. The Chinese are eight times more
numerous than you, and still China is not great, for she has isolated
herself from the world. Nor does the condition of a nation depend on
what she likes to call herself. China calls herself "Celestial," and
takes you and Europe for barbarians. Not what we call ourselves, but how
we act, proves what we are. Great is that nation which acts greatly.
And give me leave to say, what an American minister of the Gospel has
said to me: "_Nations_, by the great God of the Universe, are
individualized, as well as men. He has given each a mission to fulfil,
and He expects every one to bear its part in solving the great problem
of man's capacity for self-government, which is the problem of human
destiny; and if any nation fails in this, He will treat it as an
unprofitable servant, a barren fig-tree, whose own end is to be rooted
up and burnt."

Jonah sat under the shadow of his gourd rejoicing, in isolated, selfish
indifference, caring nothing for the millions of the Ninevites at his
feet. What was the consequence? God prepared a worm to smite the gourd,
that it withered. God has privileged you, the people of the United
States, to repose, not under a gourd, but beneath the shadow of a
luxuriant vine and the outspreading branches of a delicious fig-tree.
Give him praise and thanks! But are you, Jonah-like, on this account to
wrap yourselves up in the mantle of insensibility, caring nothing for
the nations smarting under oppression? stretching forth no hand for
their deliverance, not even so much