National Character

National Character, by N. C. Burt

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Title: National Character A Thanksgiving Discourse Delivered November 15th, 1855, in the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church
Author: N. C. Burt
Release Date: October 21, 2006 [EBook #19597]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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NATIONAL CHARACTER.
* * * * *
A
THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED NOVEMBER 15TH, 1855,
IN THE
Franklin Street Presbyterian Church,
BY THE PASTOR,
REV. N. C. BURT.
* * * * *
BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY.
1855.

BALTIMORE, November 17, 1855.
REV. N. C. BURT,
Pastor of Franklin Street Presbyterian Church:
DEAR SIR--We earnestly solicit a copy of the Discourse delivered by you on Thanksgiving day, for publication.
With great respect, yours, &c.
GEORGE S. GIBSON. R. K. HAWLEY. J. HENRY STICKNEY. I. C. CANFIELD. HORACE W. TAYLOR. JOS. B. FENBY. S. PATTERSON. C. D. CULBERTSON. R. H. HUMPHREYS. HENRY D. HARVEY. DAVID FERGUSON. JOHN BIGHAM. E. S. ALLNUTT. CHAS. U. STOBIE. H. W. HAYDEN. HIRAM WOODS. GEO. W. UHLER. E. B. BABBITT. ASHUR CLARKE. M. M. BIGHAM. WM. L. MCCORMICK. JNO. BARBER. ALGERNON R. WOOD. ALEXANDER CLOSE. JOHN R. COLE. M. SHAW. A. COULTER. J. PERKINS FLEMING. JAMES V. D. STEWART. JOEL N. BLAKE. J. HENRY GIESE. W. E. BARBER. ROBERT BUSBY. JOHN S. MCKIM. J. DEAN SMITH. DAVID S. COURTENAY. WM. R. SEEVERS. S. A. LEAKIN. PATRICK GIBSON. J. P. POLK. WILLIAM WHITE. GEO. W. BRADFORD. EDWARD DUFFY. THOS. H. QUINAN. SAMUEL W. BARBER. MATTHEW HORN. MORGAN COLEMAN. STEPHEN WILLIAMS. JAMES WILSON, Howard-St. J. H. PATTERSON. LANCASTER OULD. GEO. C. MORTON. GEO. ROSS VEAZEY. DANIEL HOLLIDAY. D. H. BLANCHARD. E. H. THOMSON. W. J. DICKEY. JOHN P. COULTER. ALEX. E. BROWN. H. C. REED. CORNELIUS E. BEATTY. JOHN T. DICK. WM. H. BROWN. R. H. PENNINGTON. JOHN P. RICHARDSON. ROBERT LESLIE.

BALTIMORE, November 25, 1855.
GENTLEMEN--The request for a copy of my Thanksgiving Discourse, so generally made, I cannot refuse. The manuscript is herewith placed at your disposal.
Very truly yours,
N. C. BURT.
DR. G. S. GIBSON.
R. K. HAWLEY, Esq.
J. HENRY STICKNEY, Esq. and others.

DISCOURSE.
PSALM 33: 12.--BLESSED IS THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD.
We have met to-day, at the call of the Governor of this Commonwealth, to render thanks to the Supreme Governor of the world for his mercies granted us during the past year. Surely we have abundant cause for thanksgiving. In the present instance, our annual festival not only calls us to recognize the common bounties of God's providence most richly bestowed, but also affords a most suitable opportunity for rendering special offerings of gratitude for our happy exemption from that pestilence, which, for months just past, lifted its frowning clouds in our near horizon, and committed its devastations on our very borders,--a pestilence which, if God had permitted it to march upon our City and to do a like deadly work amidst our population, would now be exulting over as many slain victims from among us, as there are persons now assembled in all our Churches for this thanksgiving service. Let us give hearty thanks for this distinguishing sparing goodness.
Being called together by our civil authorities, and that to recognize the hand of God over us as a people, the occasion is suitable for considering the general subject of NATIONAL CHARACTER, and in connection with it, the duties and destinies of our own nation.
What now, to begin at the beginning, is the proper idea of a nation? The idea is a complex one, involving, to a greater or less extent, the ideas of community of birth, community of language, occupation of the same territory, citizenship under the same government.
The word nation signifies a body of men descended from the same progenitor,--those having community of birth. We may, from the sense of the word, call the Jews a nation, though using a diversity of languages, and though scattered over the earth, without distinct territory or separate government.
Community of language commonly follows upon community of birth. Yet community of language does not of itself determine or secure nationality. The English and ourselves speak the same language, yet are distinct nations. The Swiss are one nation, yet speak some of them French, others German, others Italian.
Occupation of the same territory is not essential to nationality. Not only may a nation be scattered,--its parts dwelling in several lands,--as in the case of the Jews, but a nation may migrate in a body and preserve its national character in transit, or it may have no fixed territorial abode whatever. The Tartars and the Arabs are nations ever in motion,