The Ideas and Feelings Necessary to National Greatness

WARREN The Ideas and Feelings Necessary to National Greatness, THE IDEAS AND FEELINGS NECESSARY TO NATIONAL GREATNESS, DEL1VEKKD BEFORE THK <$*ttutttoe inttr GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, ANNUAL ELECTION, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 2, 1867. BY HENRY WHITE WARREN, 1'A.STOR OF THK HARVARD STRRRT METHODIST BPISCOPAL CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE. BOSTON: WRIGHT & PO.TTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 SPRING LANE. 1867. THE IDEAS AND FEELINGS NECESSARY TO NATIONAL GREATNESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE (feotiifxe anb • GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, • AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION, Wednesday, January 2d, 1867. BY HENRY WHITE WARREN, •*v PASTOR OF THE HARVARD STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUBCH. CAMBRIDGE. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 SPRING LANE. 1867. of iiitssadntsctts. SENATE CHAMBER, BOSTON, January 8, 1867. Rev. HENRY W. WARREN: DEAR SIR, — Agreeably to an Order unanimously adopted, the undersigned were appointed a Committee to present you the thanks of the Senate for the very able Discourse delivered before the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government of the Commonwealth, on the 2d inst, and to request a copy of the same for the press. Hoping you will be pleased to comply with the above request at an early day, We remain, Very respectfully yours, LUCIUS W. POND, GEORGE S. BALL, MOSES A. DOW, Committee. 71 PROSPECT ST., CAMBRIDGEPOET, January 10, 18.67. GENTLEMEN: — Your note of the 8th inst., informing me of the action of the Senate in regard to the Election Sermon,, is received. I am glad that the principles enunciated in the Discourse meet the approval of so high and important a branch of the Government of Massachusetts. I inclose a copy as requested. With sentiments of sincere respect for the body you represent, and for yourselves personally, I am, yours truly, HENRY W. WARREN. Lucius W. POND, GEORGE S. BALL, MOSES A. Dow, Committee of the Senate. IN SENATE, January 11, 1867. ORDERED, That four thousand copies of the Election Sermon, preached before the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government of the Commonwealth on the 2d instant, be printed for the use of the Legislature.

S. $. GIFFORD, Clerk. EXODUS iii. 14. I AM HATH SENT ME UNTO YOU. You have been elected executive and legislative officers, gentlemen, for the purpose of preserving and advancing the interests of the. State. Massachusetts brings forward all the interests of her one million two hundred thousand people, and says, JC Take care that for a whole year, over all my territory, from the capes to the western hills, these interests receive no detriment." One billion of dollars ask of you conditions of safety and channels for development. An army of two hundred and fifty thousand children look to you for systems of education that shall fit them for advancement, and save from the poor-house or prison. Helpless paupers stretch their empty hands for aid, and those bereft of reason plead with wild or vacant eyes for Christian charity. More than this. A nation of thirty millions is in 8 REQUISITES TO NATIONAL GREATNESS. confusion. Anarchy reigns over an area large enough for an empire. Civilization and barbarism are at war. Our troubled ocean, swept by blasts of passion and hate, casts up mire and dirt. There is need that some omnipotent voice should cry, w Peace be still." But if this is top much to expect, we insist that Massachusetts speak amid these elements of discord, with a voice so loud as to be heard, so clear as to be unmistakable,, on a key-note so high and sweet that all brayings of dissonance shall be hushed, and all voices drawn to join in an anthem of peace and love. These, gentlemen, are your responsibilities. They are neither few nor small. They pertain to interests most numerous and momentous; and by reason of their diversity and importance are most difficult to meet. The greatest men of all ages, gifted with genius, taught by experience, and inspired by revelation, have brought all their pow- • ers to bear upon the question of human . government. What is the result? The earth shows barren deserts, miasmatic marshes, and putrid seas as memorials of their lamentable failures. They have uniformly raised a few to a pernicious and calamitous elevation; they have crushed the happiness of the many, and so failed in both direcREQUISITES TO NATIONAL GREATNESS. 9 tions. The past is the blackness of darkness, relieved but not illumined by rising and falling stars, but no steady sun of national prosperity anywhere shines. The government under which we have lived, seemed to be a more successful effort. But, even here, the wily and power-debauched few were able to peril and well nigh ruin the interests and hopes of the many. And when those interests and hopes seemed secured at inconceivable cost, a single trusted traitor was able to turn back the tide of national prosperity for years, give the truest patriots over to the tender mercies of the wicked, pour upon the conquerers the woe that belongs to the conquered, and well nigh cause that thousands of martyrs had died in vain. The problem of government is not clearly solved as yet, even here. Honest men fall into perplexities, and blunderers and knaves find ways of wickedness into which they either fall or leap. To assist in solving this problem of government, you are called. It is for you to look over the work of your predecessors, to discover what principles are true and elevating, what are false and destructive; to see where mistakes have ruined and where wisdom blessed ; to embody your wisdom into legisla10 REQUISITES TO NATIONAL GREATNESS. tive enactment, and cause our revered Commonwealth to pass a year of prosperous growth, setting herself yet stronger on right principles, and rising yet higher in the sight of less prosperous States, their light and guide for coming time. You will agree with me that the causes of national permanence and growth are not native or imported wealth. For Africa has had golden sands; India, pebbles worth a kingdom; galleon loads of wealth were poured into Spain; Rome was never more gaudily decked nor sumptuously fed than when dying; yet national greatness came not to all, nor permanence to any. Indeed, no material advantage within the scope of human conception can make a nation permanently great; for every material advantage conceivable by man or conferable by God, has blessed and cursed the nations whose blackened wrecks strew the past. "We must turn to something higher, even to ideas and feelings, for the cause of greatness. In these a people live and die. Are these exalted, the starry heavens are not high enough or wide enough for that nation's rise and growth. Do these become grovelling, a whole wide empire can only afford room for a grave.