Daily National Intelligencer

National Intelligencer.

FOR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.

Nothing, it is believed, will more effectually tend to perpetuate our happy form of government, and the invaluable blessings connected with it, than the constant recollection of this truth by every member of the confederacy—that, as there is unquestionably a community of interest between them all, so, likewise, there ought to be an interchange of good offices and affection. The legitimate object of our civil institutions is to secure to the greatest possible number of the people, the greatest possible degree of happiness. Should this truly desirable result not be realised, the unfortunate failure must fairly be ascribed to the unfaithful performance of their respective important duties. The principles on which the fabric of our political and religious liberties is erected are founded in immutable truth. But what avail all the immunities with which we are invested, and the beauty of our government in theory, if we omit properly to appreciate them; and on the contrary cherish opinions, and reduce them to practice, in utter hostility to the very spirit of freedom? This would only prove that declension and decay had overtaken us as it had previously other countries in succession, and would furnish irresistible evidence of the fact, that we are degenerate sons of worthy and patriotic sires. What avail the delightful sky, the bland and charming atmosphere, the smiling face of nature, her luxuriant soil, her celebrity in ancient story, to Italy; whose present moral condition demonstrates to what a depth of disgrace and ignominy she has fallen? Rome, once seated on her seven hills, as mistress of the world, compared with Rome at this period, teaches an impressive lesson of the empty worthlessness of human grandeur. Mouldering ruins, a thinly scattered population, idle, ignorant, and atrociously immoral; furnish a most strikingly painful contrast to the tales of other times. It is a position, as true as it is trite, that, in all ages, and in all countries, similar causes uniformly produce similar effects. It is the part of wisdom to profit by the calamities of others. The procuring cause of the prostration and ruin of all governments, of whose history we have an authentic record, was the prevalence of vice, injustice, and folly.

Signally favored as our country has been, and continues to be, by the smiles of a beneficent and protecting Providence, this enviable state of things cannot be expected to endure should we continue forgetful of the high and imperative duty—equal and exact justice to all men. Should we, therefore, unhappily remain callous on this subject, we may not be awakened to its awful importance until that punishment, which never fails, either sooner or later, to overtake guilt, both individual and national, shall visit us with a vial of woe and destruction. The future historian of his country, when searching among the ashes of this nation for some relics of her former splendor, will drop a tear of bitter regret and unavailing sorrow while reflecting on her fatuity and crime, in which he will not fail to discover the cause of the surrounding desolation. He will exclaim, with emotion—Alas for my country! what might she have been! what is she now! On visiting the sacred tomb at Mount Vernon, where repose in simple majesty the mortal remains of the hero, the patriot, and the Christian what a crowd of mournful reflections will almost overwhelm him! Even inanimate objects will forcibly appeal to his feelings; the weeping willow will be invested with more than its wonted sadness, and all nature, to his eye, will be clothed in the garb of mourning. He will very naturally enquire, How has this unhappy reverse been produced? How could so bright an example be lost upon his countrymen? In the pervading stillness he will distinctly hear the response of truth: By forgetting and disregarding those precepts which emanated from a heart duly impressed with a profound sense of his duties to his country to posterity, and his Creator. Such are every where the baneful consequences of injustice, oppression, and a disregard of the rights of man.

Such is the aspect of this shore:
"Tis Greece—but living Greece no more.

If the slavery of our fellow-creatures should much longer continue, and increase, notwithstanding our boasts of being the only free people on earth, it alone will furnish ample cause for such a melancholy catastrophe. Those who love their country should cry aloud and spare not; for it is, although prevailing to a great extent, and countenanced as it has been in various quarters, a most atrocious crime, with which no terms ought to be kept; an abominable stigma on the character of our free government, and a daring and impious violation of the laws of Heaven. It would be timid and pusillanimous, when adverting to a subject which furnishes a standing jest to the enemies of liberty, to adopt milder terms, and thus disguise the truth. These views of it are not merely coincident with the sentiments of the philanthropist, but also with those of every sound statesman in the United States. Good men in different and distant parts of the Union, should, without delay, band themselves together, for the noble purpose of extirpating from the land the deep and deadly disgrace. As this is a national object, and one which is vitally and indissolubly connected with our political existence, it is one which should command the immediate and earnest attention of every conscientious member of this community; and strenuous exertion should not be suspended or intermitted, until crowned with complete success. Every citizen of this happy country, no matter what particular section of it he may call his home, should be prepared cheerfully to contribute all the aid in his power to advance the glorious work; and, if pecuniary sacrifices should be required, they ought, without any hesitation to be made. Measures of this kind will establish a union, never to be broken. But, as the Members of Congress, and those of the respective State Legislatures will, ere long, assemble in their official capacity, it intimately behoves every one of these to bend all the faculties of his mind to the subject, and awaken and enlist in its behalf all the best feelings of the heart. Every portion of the nation, cherishing an affectionate attachment, and indulging principles of mutual forbearance for each other, should unite for the purpose of exterminating the monster oppression; & by these means draw closer the bands which bind us together in one family, and blot out forever the ignominy which now attaches to our name.

BENJAMIN RUSH.