SENATORS,
REPRESENTATIVES OF
AMERICA:
That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical
science. On the great moving power which is from the beginning hangs the world
of the senses and the world of thought and action. Eternal wisdom marshals the
great procession of the nations, working in patient continuity through the ages,
never halting and never abrupt, encompassing all events in its oversight, and
ever effecting its will, though mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose with
madness. Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics
flourish and wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that is told; but nothing
is by chance, though men, in their ignorance of causes, may think so.
The deeds
of time are governed, as well as judged, by the decrees of eternity. The caprice
of fleeting existences bends to the immovable omnipotence, which plants its foot
on all the centuries and has neither change of purpose nor repose. Sometimes,
like a messenger through the thick darkness of night, it steps along mysterious
ways; but when the hour strikes for a people, or for mankind, to pass into a new
form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity; an
all-subduing influence prepares the minds of men for the coming revolution;
those who plan resistance find themselves in conflict with the will of
Providence rather than with human devices; and all hearts and all
understandings, most of all the opinions and influences of the unwilling, are
wonderfully attracted and compelled to bear forward the change, which becomes
more an obedience to the law of universal nature than submission to the
arbitrament of man.