To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris

45 • Address on “National Greatness” (no date)

661 Gouverneur Morris Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University , item 873. On the manuscript Sparks has a note, “An address. date and occasion?” This document, edited by Willi Paul Adams, was also previously published in Amerikastudien 21 (1976): 332–34. 1. Morgan Lewis, letter to Hermanus Bleeker, May 26, 1828. The letter is included in the appendix to David Hosack, Memoir of DeWitt Clinton (New York: J. Seymour, 1829), 250. 45 • Address on “National Greatness” (no date) This was evidently a draft for an address, but the audience and the occasion are not recorded. The classical references suggest that it was to be given to an educated audience, and the absence of topical commentary implies a nonpolitical occasion. Morris had become thoroughly discouraged in his later years about the direction of American politics. He was convinced that the Democratic-Republican party, and especially the Southern slave-holding faction that dominated it, would ruin the country if not checked. He was also convinced that they would begin by ruining the Northern commercial states. Even so, Morris’s “temperament admitted of no alliance with despondency,” and he was convinced that even with all of its problems America had the makings of a great nation.1 •• Had it been permitted to consult my Wishes on this Day I should have selected a Theme more suited to my Talents or rather have shrouded their Weakness in the Veil of Silence. For I feel but too well that in venturing to discuss the Subject of national Greatness I must fall short of the Ideas in your Minds and disappoint your Expectations. Instead of irradiating with the Light of Genius I must take the more humble Course of Investigation and begin by Enquiring what is national Greatness. Does it consist in numbers wealth or Extent of Territory? Certainly not. Swoln with the Pride inspired by such Circumstances the Persians Addressed their Master as the Great King but Darius felt in repeated Discomfiture the Superiority of a great Nation led by Alexander. We see in our Day a Prince who may 662 chaPtEr 45 boast that the Sun never sets on his Domaine yet his Authority superseded in his Ports and insulted in his Capital. It would seem as if his Territory were extended around the Globe only to Display before all the World his ignominious Condition. Such is the State of that proud Monarchy which once menaced the Liberties of Europe. But who trembles now at the name of Spain? There is none so abject. Nay should there exist a Government in which Fear is the incurable Disease no Paroxism would be excited by the Menace of Spain. To the Wise a Word is sufficient and therefore it will be needless before this Audience to prove that a Nation small like Greece may rise to the Heighths of national Greatness while Littleness shall mark every public Act of a numerous People. And equally needless must it be to express what you cannot but feel that in Proportion to the high Esteem Respect & Admiration with which we view the Splendor of Greece in the Day of her Glory is our profound Contempt for those who presiding over a powerful People shall tamely submit to the multiplied Repetition of Indignities . These are Feelings so natural that to disguise them would be vain to suppress them impossible. I could indeed were I to indulge a licentious Imagination suppose a number of Men who without national Spirit or Sentiment shall presume to call themselves a Nation. I can suppose a Herd of piddling huckstering Individuals base and insensible except to Blows who in the Stroke of a Cudgel estimate only the Smart and comparing it with the Labor and expence of Resistance submit Resentment to the Rules of Calculation . I can suppose such Wretches stretched over a wide Surface which they call their Country but which they hold as Tenants at Will to the first Invader. Nay I can suppose them to be governed by Wretches still more vile who derive their Power from the meanest Propensities who sacrificing on the Altar of Avarice to get the means of indulging their Malice and render a beggarly Account of the Saving of Doits while national Honor national Dignity and national Glory are wholly forgotten. All this I say may be figured by a Fancy which disdains the Confine of Reason and Truth. But from such a Picture the ingenuous mind must turn loathing away with Contempt and Detestation. We...