Newberry Library - Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Eliab W. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1848, 1851

Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Eliab W. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1848, 1851

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Open book Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Eliab W. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1848, 1851

Title Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Eliab W. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1848, 1851

Creator Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, 1822-1898

Date 1848, 1851

Place United States

Subjects Bowdoin College, Brothers and sisters, DuQuoin Coal Company, Illinois Central Railroad Company

Format Business records, Correspondence, Diaries, Genealogies, Invoices, Manuscripts, Personal narratives, Records

User-Contributed Transcription upon the Continent and the world. Engaging, under whatever pretext, in a war of conquest, seems such an outrageous departure from the whole spirit and tendency of our institutions, and one likely to be productive of such dreadful results. And then too the spirit and feeling it engenders, and which seems to be so much developing itself through the country, a spirit which until lately we had fondly hoped our country was too wise ever to give way too, a spirit & feeling which have been the destruction of all, especially of Republican Governments.
It almost makes me sick to hear men talk of the destiny of the U.S. and the Anglo Saxon race; to spread over the whole continent &c. and to think that people are imbibing such sentiments the very sentiments into which destroyed Republican Greece, and Republican Rome; which so dreadfully destroyed the Republican France of the last Century. Oh that this Country, with its beginning, its advancement, and its institutions, should thus turn aside from the higher & more glorious destiny which seemed opening before it; upon which it seemed to be so fairly entering. Its field of glory & ambition might have been so different, so new, so grand. It did seem destined to surpass all predecessors: but how? In the old blood stained darkened path in which the nations of the earth have trod, and by the sides of which their mouldering bones like bleaching, it could not hope to exceed, or to gain new glory. The days of Cannae & Phillippi, of Austerlitz & Bodorino, we hope are passed. But there is a nobler destiny, a field of higher glory, an ambition to render our country the light & the blessing of the nations, the foremost of the new grand advance of peace, liberty, and religion.
But while our own beloved and favored land seems thus going backwards, receding from its high advance ground; the mighty events now going

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Isaac Stevens Metcalf papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Metcalf Box 7 Folder 189

BibID 821787

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 3078px × 3992px 70.35 MB

Filename 998217878805867_mms_metcalf_box_07_fl_189_001_002.tif

Unique Identifier NL11FK28

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