Then was England a Nation; and just in proportion as the national life increased has her sway been felt in the world.

Slowly these denationalizing pretensions were subdued; but at last the flag of the French monarchy,--the most beautiful invention of heraldry,--with lilies of gold on a field of azure, and angelic supporters, waved over a united people.

From that time France has been a Nation, filled with a common life, burning with a common patriotism, and quickened by a common glory.

Strong in the national unity, her kings became lords of the earth.

But these adventurous spirits could have done little, had they not been filled with the exuberance of her national life.

Genius strove in the bitterness of despair, while this exquisite land, where History adds to the charms of Nature and gilds anew the golden fields, sank at last to become, in the audacious phrase of Napoleon, simply a geographical name.

Separate States, renouncing local pretensions, became greater still as parts of the great whole, and Italy stood forth a Nation, to testify against the intolerable jargon of State pretensions.

All hail to this heroic revival, where dissevered parts have been brought together, as were those of the ancient Deity, and shaped anew into a form of beauty and power!

Here, from generation to generation, have State pretensions triumphed, perversely postponing that National Unity which is the longing of the German heart.

Stretching from the Baltic to the Adriatic and the Alps, penetrated by great rivers, possessing an harmonious expanse of territory, speaking one language, filled with the same intellectual life, and enjoying a common name, which has been…

Confederation takes the place of Nationality, and this vast country, with all its elements of unity, is only a discordant conglomerate.

So complete was this disjunction, and such its intolerable pretensions, that internal commerce, the life-blood of the Nation, was strangled.

This universal obstruction slowly yielded to a Zollverein, or Customs-Union, under which these barriers were obliterated and customs were collected on the external frontiers.

But the darling passion of the German heart is still unsatisfied.

Not in fact, but in aspiration only, is Germany one nation.

God grant that the day may soon dawn when all Germany shall be one!

All these, at different times and in various tones, testify that we are one people, under one sovereignty, vitalized and elevated by a dedication to Human Rights.

If on any ground one of the original Thirteen might renounce its obligations to the Union, it would not follow that one of the new States, occupying the common territory, could do likewise.

It is little short of madness to attribute such a denationalizing prerogative to any State, whether new or old.

For better or worse, we are all bound together in one indissoluble bond.

The National Union is a knot which in an evil hour the sword may cut, but which no mortal power can unloose without the common consent.

Enjoyment of common rights was a common bond, constituting an element of nationality.

The rights of citizenship in the Colonies were derived from common relations to the mother country.

No Colonist could be an alien in any other Colony.

As British subject he had the freedom of every Colony, with the right of making his home there, and of inheriting lands.