most efficacious, but that which we learn from the misfortunes of others is the safest, inasmuch as we receive instruction without pain or danger to ourselves. The "Voice to America" is not the product of any clique; it enforces the opinions of no one party; it has not been prepared under the auspices, nor has it received the sanction, of any set of men organized for political purposes; but the publisher has been cheered on in his purpose, in the confident assurance that, notwithstanding sectiona lfeeling, and the specious pretences of fanaticism and political partisanship, there is yet a sufficient number of true-hearted Americans, pledged for the defence and preservation of the inestimable privileges conferred upon our common country, under the ægis of a glorious constitution. The book, therefore, goes forth to the world, claiming only the deference due to honestly-expressed opinions. It relies alone, for success, on the truth of its arguments, and the sacredness of its mission. NEW YORK, August, 1855. CONTENTS. FALLACY OF SUPPOSING AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS NEED NO SAFEGUARDS Page I.-Secret Societies and Oaths,. II.-Relations of the Pope to the Civil Power,. A VOICE TO AMERICA. THE UNITED STATES-RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE "With America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This era is distinguished by free representative governments, by entire religious liberty, by improved systems of national intercourse, by a newly-awakened and unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge through the community, before altogether unknown and unheard of." DANIEL WEBSTER. WHEN the inhabitants of the old Thirteen Colonies arose against the despotic and mercenary aggression of England, they were three millions of people, mostly scattered farmers. They inhabited a strip of the Atlantic seashore-a half-wild territory between the Alleghanies and the ocean-about one thousand miles long, and a hundred and fifty miles wide, and containing only six towns of any size, three of which had less than ten thousand inhabitants, and none over twenty thousand. It is true that they were an enterprising, industrious, honest, intelligent community-a happy and flourishing nation in fact, though not in form. But whatever were the precise point of prosperity to which they had then attained, it was in spite of the discouragements of their supreme government that they attained it; for the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the colonies were capriciously controlled and restricted for the advantage of English speculators; and the laws and constitutions of the little republics were constantly attacked and insulted by the placemen of the English administration, for the sake of enforcing arbitrary schemes of govern |