Part 37 (1/2)

”Nor can it be forgotten that fro of the first House of Burgesses until the abdication of Jae onists to all that pertained to liberty of conscience and to popular rule Whatever there was of progress during the seventy years--barring the brief period of the Colish Revolution, and the crowning of Willia hostility of the Stuart Dynasty During this period the lives of Englishmen at home were as the dust in the balance It witnessed the very heyday of the infamous Star Chah wearing judicial ermine) of Charles the First, that Macaulay said: 'If justice, in the whole range of its wide armory, contained one weapon which could pierce him, that weapon his pursuers were bound, before God and man, to employ'

”And for all time, the Stuart Dynasty itself remains impaled by the pen of the same master:

”'Then came those days never to be recalled without a blush--the days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality without love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and narrow ot, and the slave The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the _anatheh place worshi+p was paid to Charles and Jaland propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children Crirace, until the race, accursed of God and man, was a second time driven forth to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a byword and a shaking of the head to the nations'

”It is our pleasing task to turn now frolish forebears to the stupendous events of which that we to-day celebrate in the historical forecast With the passing years, a continuing tide of e in fro into being, and the Plantation in its distinctive sense had given way to the Colony, to be succeeded yet later by the State The glory of Ja, and yet later to the now splendid city upon the Jainia authority New England, despite natural obstacles and constant peril, was surely working out her large place in history

Puritan, Quaker, Dutch better than they knew'--had established permanent habitations froe of settleer--had pushed their ard, and laid the sure foundations of future colish-speaking colonies, with a population aggregating near two nity of distinctive States Their allegiance, , and in her fierce struggle with France for the mastery of the continent, America had sealed her loyalty with the best blood of her sons

”The successors to the first House of Burgesses had learned well the lessons gleaned froes of their earliest history

Attempts to tax the unrepresented colonies soon encountered concerted hostility 'No taxation without representation' becaan The words spoken in the British Parliahts of Abraham--near a century and a half after the eventcelebrate, will quicken the pulse of all coenerations of American patriots Said he:

”'Your oppressions planted them in America They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, unhospitable country where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardshi+ps to which hue foe; they grew by your neglect of thean to care for the persons to rule them, to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within thehest seats of justice, son country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own The colonists have nobly taken up arms in your defence; have asserted a valor amid their constant and laborious industry for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood And, believe me--remember, I warn you--the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still'

”And how prophetic now seereat debate:

”'There is America, which at this day serves for little e men and uncouth manners, yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world'

”Standing at his hour al distance of the spot that witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis and the ter strange if we should fail to catch so of the inspiration of the impassioned words of Barre and of Burke, and their wondrous associations

”It is said that in Venice there is sacredly preserved a letter written by Columbus a few hours before he sailed from Palos With reverent expression of trust in God--hue to 'that famous land' His dreas, and while keeping lonely vigil upon the deep, was the discovery of a new pathway to the Indies Yet who can doubt that to his prophetic soul was even then fore-shadowed so of 'that famous land'

with the warp and woof of whose history, tradition, and song his name and fame are linked for all time Can it not truly be said of the esses, as was said of Columbus and his compeers, 'They were pioneers in the ress of freedom which was to have no backward steps?' They only 'opened the gates' and lo! there cahty nation

”Had it been given to the Virginia--the Aislators whose memories we honor this day, 'to look into the seeds of ti years and centuries, would have passed before their visions They would have seen the colony they had planted in the wilderness, day by day strengthening its cords, enlarging its borders, and with fir the nations They would have beheld the savage foe--giving way before the inexorable advance of the hated 'pale face'--sadly retreating toward the ever-receding western verge of civilization It would have been theirs to witness the symbols of French and Spanish authority disappear forever fro the sun a thousand laddened by the great river flowing unvexed frohty realovern They would--near a century and a half later than the esses--have beheld their descendants listening in rapt attention to the impassioned denunciation by Patrick Henry of the tyranny of the royal successor of Ja for the seven years' struggle with the inian, in the wondrous assee at Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence; under the inian yet more illustrious than Jefferson, the Colonial army, with decimated ranks and tattered standards, would have passed in review--all past suffering, sacrifice, huotten in the hour of splendid triureat convention over which Washi+ngton presided, and in which Madison was the chief factor, they would have witnessed the deathless principles of the historic Declaration crystallized into the Federal compact, which was destined forever to hold States and people in fraternal union They would have seen a gallant people of the Old World--catching inspiration froh baptis a Republic upon that whose liberties they had so signally aided to establish Yet later, and not France alone, but Mexico and States extending far to the southward, substituting for monarchical rule that of the people under written Constitutions reat American Republic And yet s an exploded doge the Third only a cereovernle; all real political power centred in the Couise of rand factor Virginia has been in all that pertains to hu the past three centuries Froe Mason, cahts'--now in its essentials embedded by the early amendments into our Federal Constitution; froreat Declaration, but the statutes securing for his own State religious freedoacy of British ancestors His sword returned to its scabbard with the achievement of the independence of the colonies, and the arner up the fruits of successful revolution by ensuring stable govern the loftiest states our first treaty of peace with Great Britain have been truly defined, 'our period of greatest peril' It was fortunate, indeed, that Washi+ngton was called to preside over the historic convention of '87, and that his spirit--a yearning for an indissoluble union of the States-- permeated all its deliberations Fortunate, indeed, that in its councils was his colleague and friend, the constructive statesman, James Madison Inseparably associated for all tireat covenant are the naes illustrious Americans --Madison, the father, and Marshall, the expounder of the Constitution

”It reh place to which he had been chosen, to enunciate in trenchant words, at a crucial nation of 'the Monroe doctrine,' has been the coenerations of his country bar to the establishovernment upon this western he of the hour that noted the inevitable 'breaking with the past,' it remained to still another illustrious successor of Jefferson--alike of Virginian ancestry, and born within her original domain--by authoritative proclaive enlarged and grander hts

”My countryo near the spot upon which we have to-day assehty nation Eighty millions of people, proud of local traditions and achieve beyond the mere confines of their distinctive coreat Republic

The mantle of peace is over our own land, and our accredited representatives in the world's conference, at this auspicious hour, are outlining a policy that looks to the establish all the nations To-day, inspired by the subliratitude to God for all he hath vouchsafed to our fathers and to us in the past, let us take courage, and turn our faces hopefully, reverently, trustingly to the future”

XLIII A NEW DAY ADDED TO THE CALENDAR

THE HIGH CHARACTER OF STERLING MORTON AS A MAN AND A PUBLIC SERVANT --HONORED BY CLEVELAND--ORIGINATOR OF ARBOR DAY

I recall with pleasure years of close personal friendshi+p with J Sterling Morton He was a gentlenized ability Much of his life was given to the public service As Secretary of Agriculture he was in close touch with President Cleveland during his last official term

At the dedication of the monument erected to his memory at his home, Nebraska City, October 28, 1905, I spoke as follows:

”I count it high privilege to speak a feords upon an occasion so fraught with interest to this State, and to the entire country

I gladly bear my humble tribute to the man whom I honored in life, and whoseMorton, one htful, kind, considerate, self-reliant, hopeful, I have not known Truly--

'A man he seemed, of cheerful yesterdays, And confident to-morrows'