Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/27

Rh ten; the traits and characteristics which were always found arrayed in hostility upon the Eastern Continent, were here blended harmoniously together; and those prejudices calculated to diminish or impair the strength of the alliance, were softened and subdued by the consciousness that its preservation was essential to our safety. The terms "Anglo-Saxon," and "Anglo-American," are often applied to us; but is not this the language of mere affectation and cant? Surely they are inapplicable to us and to our children. We have sprung from the Saxon, the Norman, and the Celt, with here and there an admixture of nearly all the other races of the earth. We are Americans!—neither more nor less—and why should we claim a different title from that which Washington and his contemporaries were proud to own? This is ours, justly ours; and it has become a passport to respect and confidence throughout the world.

While engrossed in the prosecution of those peaceful pursuits, for the security of which their government was formed, the American people have not been unmindful of the efforts that have been made to establish institutions similar to their own, in other quarters of the globe. Their sympathies were never withheld from the oppressed, nor their assistance denied, when it could be rendered consistently with their duties and obligations as a nation. Neither have they failed to assert, at all proper times, and on all proper occasions, their rights as a separate and independent sovereignty. The martial spirit of a republic, whose independence was secured by force of arms, could not be easily subdued. Every citizen among us shares the privileges and the responsibilities of government; each one can say, like the French monarch, though in a far different