lips; the name being suggested in all probability by the Saxons' fondness for that weapon, a fondness which the Anglo-Saxons of the present day do not fail to manifest whenever they have an opportunity of getting to close quarters with an enemy. That they were a warlike people is beyond doubt; for even the Roman name, German, is derived from the old German ger, a spear, and mann, a man. After leaving Asia the Saxons adopted a new name and abandoned their Scythian one, They called themselves Teutons, from Teut, Tuisto, Tuisco, or Thiusco, who is said to have been one of the founders of the race, and who was worshipped after his death as a god. The modern name Deutsch is derived from this, having passed through the modifications, Dutsch, Dietsch, and Teutsch. A Scandinavian branch of the family settled in Scotland about the same period that the Belga emigrated to Britain. The members of this section of the Saxon stock are known in history by the name of Picts, or Caledonians. They are said to be the ancestors of the Lowland Scotch and the Northern Irish-races that are distinguished from their Celtic countrymen by superiority of intelligence, industry, and firmness of character. We have thus briefly traced the origin of the Anglo-Saxon family, and have shown whence it came. We will now prove that from earliest time to the present it has been the consistent champion of freedom, loyalty, and devotion. It cannot be disputed that the AngloSaxons were from the first, and are to the present day, fond of what is delicately termed "annexation." They were ever ready to purchase booty, as the learned Sidonius remarks, with the peril of their lives. A brave people cannot resist the temptation of adventure, and the peril which it involves is, perhaps, its greatest attraction. A notable illustration may be found in Jonathan's love for Cuba. If that island could be acquired quietly and as a matter of course, no one would trouble himself about it. But it is otherwise; and the Anglo-Saxon principles of overcoming difficulties and vanquishing opposition manifest themselves. Those writers who recommend Jonathan to wait until Cuba, like a ripe pear, falls into the lap of her American lover, display but little knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon character. Independently of this restless force of character, however, there is the moral element, which governs and controls its action. If the Anglo-Saxon were a mere marauder, he would rest content with acquisition and pillage. But he does not do so. The land he has fought for, he cherishes. It is thereafter his land; a part of himself, and to be regarded from the elevation of his freedom-loving, noble mind. He may have acquired it by the sword, but he retains it by the law, and by a man-to-man faith and affection. Wheresoever the Anglo-Saxon pioneer goes, he fights first; then builds his chapel, his courthouse, his schools, and his stores. He does not labor to forget civilization, but to exclude barbarism. All the Roman writers expressed their astonishment at the moral sternness and rectitude of the Teutonic character. The reverence with which they treated woman was even a matter of surprise. Tacitus says: "They think their women possess something inherent and foreseeing." Is it not just occasion of pride, that in our day this chivalric feeling still remains, and forms a proverbial characteristic of the American character? Wherever Freedom is found, there is woman emancipated. England is the freest country in Europe, and there the position of woman is little inferior to what it is in our own land. Among the ancient Britons (or Celts) marriage was unknown. Men and women lived together promiscuously, like beasts of the field. The Anglo-Saxons, on the contrary, viewed the custom with abhorrence, and were strict in the observance of the marriage vow. Some of their earliest laws, at least the earliest of which any record is known to exist, relate especially to the crime of adultery. It was looked upon as most heinous, and received the severest punishment of the Anglo-Saxon code. In religion, the same wide difference existed between the The Celts adhered to their Druidic worship, and abandoned their souls to the charge of the priests. The Anglo-Saxons, on the contrary, prayed to their mythological gods with individual two races. fervor, and were content to manage their own conscience, and let others do the same. For a while the Romish religion gained the ascendency in Europe, and Celt and Saxon alike obeyed its tenets. But later, ere the voice of Luther shouted sternly through the darkness of Popery, the Anglo-Saxon Wickliffe had proclaimed liberty of conscience. The Celts, on the contrary, adhered to the old traditions; and even in this day of generally diffused theological knowledge, the Celtic races are obedient to the blind dictates of the Holy See. Thus we perceive, that to the earliest Anglo-Saxons we are indebted not only for the lasting characteristics of our race, but for that inherent reverence for the gentler sex, and toleration of religious opinion, which characterize the American people of the present century. But this is not all. The Anglo-Saxons loved fair play, and could understand no trial that was not based on general principles of equity and justice. In the reign of Ethelred, the following law was passed: "Let there be gemoto in every wapenlace; and let twelve of the eldest thegres go out with the gerefa, and swear on the relics which shall have been given into their hands, that they will condemn no innocent man, nor screen any that is guilty." In other words: "Let there be courts in every district, and let the sheriff summon twelve men to try all prisoners;" our own prized trial by jury! If we had inherited nothing but this boon from our ancestors, it would be sufficient to endear the race to the present and to all after generations. If our space permitted, we could dwell on the memorable deeds of famous Anglo-Saxons. But we have proved sufficient to satisfy the skeptic, that Freedom is not a new word, but an old idea, derived and retained from the earliest pages of their history. We will add to these remarks the final sentence of King Alfred's will. It needs no comment. "It is just that the English should forever remain as free as their own thoughts." Turning to our own history, we find that the Anglo-Saxon element *Sharon Turner. has ever been the potent one. Our present greatness and our future progress alike depend on it. The singular purity of the AngloSaxon stock, particularly in the Eastern States, has been a matter of surprise with some writers; a moment's reflection, however, explains the circumstance. Oppression or intolerance of any kind was so inimical to the character of the Anglo-Saxon, that it became unbearable. Always preferring a certain to an uncertain remedy, he detached himself from the land of his birth, and sought, on the shores of America, a home, free and filled with promise. Privation, sufferings, and hardships were, to his sturdy nature, mere items arrayed against a grand total. The future nerved him for the present, and he had unbounded confidence in his own inherent will. The New England colonies were founded by such men; stern almost to fierceness, but patient, brave, and elevated in their social and moral thoughts. The counties in England whence they came were chiefly those which refused the domination of the Danes and Normans. Additions were afterwards made from the north of Ireland and the Scotch Lowlands; but, as we have before intimated, these were either Anglo-Saxon in their origin, or Pictish-a kindred Gothic race. The last fifty years have witnessed the influx of hordes of Celts and of inferior German tribes. The effect has been trouble and annoyance. We must look to the pure American stock, and to the pure American stock only, for the remedy of these evils. It is intlisputably true, however, that at this moment New England is more Anglo-Saxon, if possible, than Old England. "The names found in a few pages of a Boston Directory, or in the columns of advertisements in a newspaper, if compared with the same number of English names, taken equally at random, will show the far greater proportion of AngloSaxon names with us."* According to an eminent historian,† the old Puritan stock leavens the national character to the extent of twothirds of its aggregation. The other third could, we opine, be traced to the same Anglo-Saxon fountain-head, if necessary. The heading of this chapter intimates that the Anglo-Saxon is the only race capable of sustaining freedom. We base that opinion on the facts we have adduced, and on the additional one, that America is the only country in the world that has sustained institutions perfectly free. The history of the Anglo-Saxon race affords abundant material for the reflective mind. It exhibits in an unusual degree the fact that the national characteristics of a race do not change. It may be objected that scarcely any modern people has not been modified or changed by amalgamation with foreign blood, whether by conquest, immigration, or otherwise; and in confirmation of this the English are sometimes cited. But the truth is, the Anglo-Saxons never settled among the Celta-as the Franks among the Gauls— but drove them out, and, receiving continued accessions of their countrymen from the shores of the Baltic and adjacent islands, repeopled the conquered territory. The unhappy Britons (Celta) in their memorable appeal to Etius, the Roman patrician, forcibly describe the kind of settlement the Teutons were making. “The barbarians," they say, on the one hand, chase us into the sea; the sea, on the other, throws us back upon the barbarians; and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or by the waves. 66 The Danes in the reign of Egbert and later, to the accession of Canute, were but tribes of the Angles or Saxons, differing only from those already settled in England in the fact of being more civilized. To the same race also belonged the Normans; but these latter never intermixed with the conquered in the same manner as the Danes. Introducing the feudal system into England they became a species of caste, and kept themselves aloof from the mass of the vanquished. Eventually the Norman stock became much thinned during the long and bloody wars of the Roses. What remains of it in the English aristocracy has become so softened in its characteristics by contact with the people, that, except in the class distinctions of the feudal system, it is no longer a separate element of the population. Even this last fragment of Norman caste spirit is rapidly passing away. History assists us in drawing certain conclusions from the ex *Bede. |