re, I
doubt not, now educating the very generation during whose lifetime this
great question will be decided. The present generation will, to a great
extent, be responsible for the result, whatever it may be. We are,
therefore, called upon, as American citizens and Christian
philanthropists, to do all that in us lies to secure to this experiment
a successful issue; to make _this_ the leading nation of the earth, and
a model worthy of imitation by all others. Never before this has a
nation been planted with so hopeful an opportunity for becoming the
universal benefactor of the race.

If for the next fifty years the population of these American States
shall continue to increase as during the last fifty, we shall exceed a
hundred millions; and in a century, allowing the same ratio of increase,
the population will equal that of the Old World. Here, then, is a
continent to be filled with innumerable millions of human beings, who
may be happy through our wisdom, but who must be miserable through our
folly. We may disregard such considerations, but we can not escape the
tremendous responsibilities rolling in upon us in view of the relations
we sustain to the past and the future. We delight to honor, in _words_,
those heroes and martyrs from whom we have received the rich boon of
civil and religious liberty. Let us then, in _deeds_, imitate the
examples we profess to admire, and contribute our full quota, as
individuals and as a generation, toward perfecting and perpetuating the
institutions we have received, that they may be enjoyed by those
countless millions who are to succeed us in this broad empire.

"In this exigency," to adopt the language of an enlightened practical
educator and eminent statesman, "we need far more of wisdom and
rectitude than we possess. Preparations for our present condition have
been so long neglected, that we now have a double duty to perform. We
have not only to propitiate to our aid a host of good spirits, but we
have to exorcise a host of evil ones. Every aspect of our affairs,
public and private, demonstrates that we need, for their successful
management, a vast accession to the common stock of intelligence and
virtue. But intelligence and virtue are the product of cultivation and
training. They do not spring up spontaneously. We need, therefore,
unexampled alacrity and energy in the application of all those
influences and means which promise the surest and readiest returns of
wisdom and probi