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 ***

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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