nificent principle of the Fourteenth Amendment, these addressers approach the first and greatest champion of civilization, the defender which defies opposition and is itself indestructible. They invoke the majestic name of the public press, that great director of the course of human events whose sublime mission it is to fight the battles of free thought and to guide the current of public opinion. Upon this noble benefactor of mankind devolves the pleasing duty of diminishing the power of evil and increasing the dominion of good. It is the most progressive, the most expansive, the mightiest, widest, and most important instrument of all our glorious civilization. Accustomed to grapple with difficulties, it is capable of unfolding the most involved truths and exposing the most intricate and subtle errors. It imparts the hidden spiritual forces which cause the steady progress and the eternal development of the human mind. By inculcating obedience to the voice of reason, from what source soever it may proceed, and by affording a rational amusement, it confers the greatest blessings upon society. From its lips fall diamonds, amethysts, rubies, emeralds, all the jewels of truth; its thoughts are ever refulgent with reason, language brighter than the stars, deeper than the seas, fairer than the flowers. It has established higher tests for national respect and confidence, by substituting protracted and patient investigation, as well as acute and severe analysis, in the place of passionate declamation. Its wealth of illustration and splendor of diction, its variety of knowledge, its copiousness of style, by communicating the best ideas of the most qualified minds in the most capable way, have elevated the tone of society and cultivated popular sensibilities in the highest degree to noble and ennobling ends. It has rendered knowledge what it ought to be, the great bulwark of civil tranquillity, the deep foundation of social virtue, and the vital cause of human civilization. Its resources seem the measure and day-spring of the intellectual wealth of the age: like Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre, who fought the battles of the Reformation, it empties its jewel rooms to win the richer jewel of liberty. Like the fabled Grecian horse from the tread of whose hoofs sprung fountains of living water, the press pours forth continuous and copious
