es, shall
be a Plural Unit, with one Constitution, one Liberty, and one Destiny.
The theme was also taken up by the poet, and popularized in the often
quoted lines:--

"No pent-up Utica contracts your powers,
But the whole boundless continent is yours."[97]

Such grandeur may justly excite anxiety rather than pride, for duties
are in corresponding proportion. There is occasion for humility also, as
the individual considers his own insignificance in the transcendent
mass. The tiny polyp, in its unconscious life, builds the everlasting
coral; each citizen is little more than the industrious insect. The
result is accomplished by continuous and combined exertion. Millions of
citizens, working in obedience to nature, can accomplish anything. Of
course, war is an instrumentality which a true civilization disowns.
Here some of our prophets have erred. Sir Thomas Browne was so much
overshadowed by his own age, that his vision was darkened by "great
armies," and even "hostile and piratical attacks" on Europe. It was
natural that D'Aranda, schooled in worldly affairs, should imagine the
new-born power ready to seize the Spanish possessions. Among our own
countrymen, Jefferson looked to war for the extension of dominion. The
Floridas, he says on one occasion, "are ours on the first moment of war,
and until a war they are of no particular necessity to us."[98] Happily
they were acquired in another way. Then again, while declaring that no
constitution was ever before so calculated as ours for extensive empire
and self-government, and insisting upon Canada as a component part, he
calmly says that "this would be, of course, in the first war."[99]
Afterwards, while confessing a longing for Cuba, "as the most
interesting addition that could ever be made to our system of States,"
he says that "he is sensible this can never be obtained, even with her
own consent, without war."[100] Thus at each stage is the baptism of
blood. In much better mood the good Bishop recognized empire as moving
gently in the pathway of light. All this is much clearer now than when
he prophesied. It is easy to see that empire obtained by force is
unrepublican, and offensive to that first principle of our Union
according to which all just government stands only on the consent of the
governed. Our country needs no such ally as war. Its destiny is mightier
than war. Through peace it will have everything. This is our talisman.
Give us peace, and population