NICARAGUA AND GENERAL WALKER.
SPEECH
OF
HON. GEO. W. PECK, OF MICHTIAN,
DELIVERED AT
THE MASS MEETING
HELD IN THE PARK, NEW YORK,
MAY 23, 1856.,
WASHINGTON:
PRINTED AT THE UNION OFFICE.
1856.








SPEECH.
Mr. PECK, being introduced as a citizen of Michigan, but a native
of the City of New York, spoke as follows:
FELLOW-CITIzENS: I come here to-night not as a partisan, not as a
citizen of the State of Michigan, proud as I am of my loved peninsular
State-not as a native-born citizen of New York, proud as I might
well be of that, but, claiming a title prouder than all these, as an
American citizen, to join my congratulations with your own at the
occurrence of an event which I believe-and he must be blind to the
teachings of the past who does not see it-will prove a link connecting
the glories of the past with the magnificence of our future. I mean
the recognition of that government recently established in Nicaragua
by the grey-eyed man, the man of destiny, who represents the energy,
the enterprise and the free spirit of the American people; this representative man, the pioneer of American enterprise, is now assuming
in Central America that task which the Spaniard has abandoned, but
which the Anglo-American takes up with a calm, confident reliance:that he, and he alone, can carry out the glorious destiny which God,:and nature seem to have designed for that country.
It is no ordinary event. We who live in the midst of the events,
— which through all time are to shed lustre upon our name and characQ-ter as a nation, with our minds intent upon the details of what is,"going on around us, are hardly able to glance over the whole field or.-comprehend fully the vast influence they are to exert upon the future.
FiLet me tell you that when the genius of America shall write her next
page upon the roll of history, the name of the grey-eyed man will be
there inscribed, and the record of his deeds will prove him to have
been indeed the man of destiny, the very man required for the time
and the occasion.
Gentlemen, it is good for us to be here and exchange congratulations with each other upon the great events now occurring in Central
America. But is it simply for the purpose of indulging mere national
vanity-to pride ourselves upon what we have done, or may do? Have
we accomplished all that we see around us to-day for the gratification
of any feeling as selfish as that? Not so. It has been reserved for
this people, of all people that ever flourished upon the earth, to demonstrate for the first time the capability of man for self-government.
We alone, of all nations, have been able to establish for ourselves
self-government, and we alone will be able to bequeath to posterity
those institutions which secure the equal rights, and.on which the prosperity of the people depends. This government was the first that
tested the capability of man bor self-government. All that preceded
it were more or less based upon the opposite doctrine, of the right of
the few to govern the many-based upon the supposed superior intel



4
ligence of the few over the many. All the governments of the Old
World which have arisen and fallen, and all which now exist, are
based upon a doctrine directly antagonistic to that which controls us
in our action as a body politic. That doctrine is, that the masses are
not able to take care of themselves, and the few, who are rich and powerful, must take care of the many. Their theory is that of force; ours
that of universal charity, based upon the grand idea of universal
brotherhood and the equality of man. When our fathers founded
this confederacy and these institutions of ours, based upon this doctrine, they were met with the sneers of the despots of the Old World,
and were derided for their faith in the ability of man for self-government. Their opponents cast contempt upon the effort; they doubted,
or if they did not doubt, they pretended to doubt, the success of this
grand doctrine, contending that it must fail, as all experiments of the
kind had failed before. Our fathers contended that the doctrine of
self-government, when carried out in practice, would result in the diffusion of universal happiness among the people, and maintained that
a republic was more conducive than all other forms of government to
the happiness of the citizen. Another objection, and one still urged
by the despots of the Old World against the establishment of republics, is this, that republicanism will not answer for large communities.
They tell you that it will work well enough perhaps in walled towns,
or small communities.  Our mission has been to teach the reverse
of this. In pursuing the grand design proposed by our fathers, we
have demonstrated the truth of this doctrine-that republicanism is
not only most conducive to the greatest happiness and prosperity of
the citizens, but contributes as largely and surely to national greatness and permanence: in fact, that it is the only form of government
which will elevate a State to such a degree of power, strength and
magnificence, as to make it impregnable against all external assaults.
We havebeen called a land stealing race. My friend Greeley says that
democrats are land pirates; and he says, too, that they have acquired
all the territory which has been acquired by this government from its
foundation to the present time. So they have, and I glory in it. We
have acquired it for the purpose of carrying out the great doctrine of the
equality of the human family, the great gospel of democracy, the universal brotherhood of man; and when we have acquired'territory, we have
extended over it the equal laws which govern us.'We depress none.
We make no subject-people bend in submission to us, but we extend to
them the hand of universal brotherhood, and raise them up. This is
what we have done heretofore, and this is the glorious task in which
we are now engaged. We have done it in the spirit of universal
charity, and with the conviction indelibly impressed upon our minds
that republicanism is most conducive, of all forms of government, to
the glory and greatness, as well as security and happiness, of a people.
When our fathers founded this government of ours, what did they do,
and in what spirit did they act?' Did they close the doors of the
republic against the people of other countries who might desire to
seek a home and a refuge here?  Did they, like political Pharisees,
stand before the altar of their country, and, puffed up with a sense of
their own superiority, say to the down-trodden of other climes,




(Stand back! we are holier than thou."  No; they invited men of
all races, of all creeds, to come here and worship at the holy shrine
of freedom. The fire they lighted on that altar was meant to be seeni
of all men, from one extremity of the world to the other; and it has
been. Until now, where in any clime, or under any rule, there lives
the man who has faith in his fellow-man, and hope for the political
regeneration of his race, he turns to that light as the beacon that
will point his way, as surely as the Pillar of Fire led the children
of Israel, to their promised land.
From the small beginning which our country in its original area
presented, we now exhibit the spectacle of a people inhabiting a land
of more magnificent proportions and varied resources than God ever
before intrusted to human guardianship. American enterprise and
American energy, in their more than Roman march to empire over the
western continent, have step by step gone on, crossing one by one the
great barriers which nature seems to have put in our way, until, passing from the Atlantic over the Mississippi and the Rocky mountains,
we find to-day the only fitting terminus of our empire in the majestic
waters of the Pacific. Thus far we have gone in that direction. In the
south we have taken from Mexico, but fairly and honorably, an empire almost equal in extent to our original inheritance. What have
we done?  What do we see going on before our eyes?  What do we
exhibit to the world upon this field of action? Why, a nation diffusing in this way more intelligence and happiness than any that ever
before existed. I say this for the purpose of giving you an idea of
what strikes my mind as the great leading idea-in short, the whole
philosophy of American politics. We need this area. Why?  Because our policy is to throw open our doors to men of all climes-to
the lovers of liberty of every nation under heaven; and we ask them to
come in and do what? To unite with us to build up the temple. They
have come. We never could have accomplished in the short space
of time what we have, with our strength alone, nor without adding
in this way to our population. We needed the strong arms and high
hearts of men of all climes to help us. Now, increased territory became necessary for our increased population; the one has followed the
other, and it is a signal fact, worthy to'e noticed by every student of
our history, that as we have made room the men have come. They
were sent as by a mission from the God of freedom, to work out the
problem by our side. Now, the despots of the Old World say, here
is your danger. You are getting in all sorts of discordant materials,
and you will find by and by that these men, born under different
rules and educated under different systems of government and religion, will be at war with one another; discord will reign; each man
thinks himself right; each man insists upon his own superiority and
his judgment of the right, and it must follow that you fall into confusion. They point us to the history of all great empires of the Old
World, and say, your republic stands because it is small; but the
great empire of' the world, Rome-the mistress of the world-fell to
pieces of her own weight. They say that the great Persian empire,
which had dominion over the then known world, together with the
Assyrian empire, both fell from the same cause; that the larger the




territory, the weaker the government; and that the more you increase
the territory, the greater must be the power at the centre to keep that
government together. Now, we are to demonstrate that this is false.
Can we do it?  Let me tell you how. There is no analogy between
the cases. In the great empires of the olden world —Rome, and Assyria, and the rest-'power radiated from the centre to the circumference. The government was the source of all individual rights, and
gave or withheld them at its pleasure.
In the Roman Empire, it was a comparatively small but extremely
vigorous central power that held the parts of that extended empire
together; but when, in the course of time, wealth followed conquest,
and corruption followed wealth, when vice had sapped the old Roman
virtue that was the secret of their strength, then it was that the central government, becoming weaker and weaker, lost the control of
power, and the empire fell apart?
But mark the difference between us and them. Our central government gives us no right, our central power gives power to no extreme.
The case is exactly the reverse. With us the central governmentthe government of the Union-is a deposit of power, a power which
goes from each one of you, according to the constitution and the laws
of the land. It is deposited in the central government in trust for
you, and each American citizen in this broad land stands, not a dependant upon his government, but a support to it. Yes, in this great
temnple of freedom each man stands a pillar of the State. Thus, therefore, it is, thatwe stand justified before the nations, before all the
earth, and before all posterity, in extending the area of our territory.
The more territory the more men; the more men the more pillars, and
the firmer stands the temple.
Now, gentlemen, you must have perceived that I am one of those
who are called " manifest destiny" men. I am a manifest destiny
man. That doctrine which is so sneered at by political prudes, that
doctrine which some of the proud, pharisaical priests of the country
look down upon with such contempt-let us look at this doctrine of
manifest destiny, and see what it is. Now, I ask these good pious
souls out yonder, who sneer at the American mob, who talk of manifest destiny —I ask these fogies in petticoats —I mean the old women
in breeches, (and we have a great many of them) —I ask them what
manifest destiny is?
It is a doctrine of religion, and it is a doctrine confirmed and approved by all humafn reason, that "not a sparrow falls to the ground
without the will of our Heavenly Father," and He cares for it. It is
the doctrine of religion, and it is the doctrine of philosophy, that no
human being comes into this living, breathing world, but has a task
imposed upon him by the Creator. He has a work to do. We talk
of human responsibility, and of the duties of our station, and what
do we mean?  When God invested you with life and reason and
physical energy, he imposed upon you certain obligations resulting
therefrom; and so in all ages and among all classes and creeds of
men, men have believed in what some call "Providence,"' and in
what some call " destiny;"-but call it what you will, there it is,
rooted in the heart of every man, woven by the finger of God in every
filament of his heart and brain, that he is sent here for the purpose




of doing something-to perform some duty —that God puts him in
the very place he ought to be, and that He means that he shall do
that duty in the place in which he puts him.
Can you believe, my friends-is it credible, that the Creator, the
God of nations as well as of men, has permitted the various nations
of the world to rise and fall without a motive or without a purpose?
attaching to these aggregations of men, greater, beyond all calculation, in their magnificent power and influence, than the individuals
composing them, less responsibility than he has imposed upon the
inferior individual man? No, gentlemen, no. There is a Providence
which shapes the ends of nations as of men. There is a destiny for
every people. God has imposed upon every people a certain business
to do; certain responsibilities to be met; certain wise purposes to be
wrought out, indicated by the circumstances with which He, in his
providence, has placed them, and corresponding with the magnitude
of their power and influence. This is a solemn truth, and hence I
say I believe in manifest destiny.: We have gone on step by step
perfecting this race, perfecting this one race out of many, as well as
this one government out of many, and we have done what, under
Heaven, we have done, because Providence has made us what we arethe very people for the very land. Anglo-Americans for the continent of America. What do we see in all this, but that, acting upon
the instinct of the American people, we have gone on and acquired
this territory, opened the door to men of all nations, and made not
only one government out of many governments, but one people out of
many, whose past history indicates clearly that this continent is its
inheritance. Now, we have gone out and acquired the territory of
the West. We have acquired a portion of the territory of the South;
and the question comes up, what shall we do more? The eyes of the
American people now turn to the South, and every ear is turned to
hear the tidings that may be brought back to tell us of another march
in the giant race of empire over the continent. Walker is a representative man, working out in his sphere the obvious destiny of his
country and his race. We find him there taking the broken down
relies and remnants of the old Spanish colonization-that colonization
which they have been unable to perfect, and infusing American principles and American energy; and we cannot but feel a sympathy in
the doings of this man who thus fitly represents our people and our
destiny. We are told that we are inspired with the lust of conquest,
because we seek to acquire Central America and Mexico. I grant it,
we do. But why?  Because we wish to work out still further the
great problem of which I have spoken; because not only the acquisition of Central America and Mexico now becomes necessary for us in
order to defend the territory which we own upon the Pacific coast, but
because we are impelled by a much higher motive-which is, that we
would carry out, in every corner of the continent, the task which Go4
has imposed upon our race.
There are always events which decide the fate of nations, wholly
within their own control, and dependant entirely upon themselves.
While we are talking here to-night, the crisis may be pending og
which the success or failure of Walker may depend, and with it the




8
cause of Anglo-American progress in Central America be wholly or
for a long time retarded.
It is, then, necessary that we act, and act promptly and efficiently, to
sustain him and his cause. The man of destiny must be sustained.
He must have men and money. Whence must they come?  From
you —you must come forward and prove your faith by your works.
All can do something. Let this be done, and there can be but little
doubt that the States of Central America, under the influen6e of AngloAmerican intelligence and enterprise, will soon become peaceable and
prosperous communities. Under those influences we shall see them
one by one arise to claim their places in our great confederacy of
sovereign States. Younger brothers, it is true; but each, like Banquo's line, rising "like the issue of a King, and wearing on its infant brow the round and top of sovereignty."
And now a word more, of Cuba —Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles-Cuba, the key of the great Gulf-that floats upon our summer
seas, the paradise of the New World. Shall we have Cuba? Prompted alike by the necessities of our situation and the instincts and interests of the Anglo-American people, I say we must have her. Then
only shall we have accomplished our manifest destiny as a nation, and
proved to the world that we are worthy of it.