Part 3 (1/2)
The word which John uses to describe the manner in which this beast comes up is very expressive. It is [Greek: anabainon] (_anabainon_), one of the prominent definitions of which is, ”to grow or spring up as a plant.” And it is a remarkable fact that this very figure has been chosen by political writers, as the one which best ill.u.s.trates the rise of our government. Mr. G.A. Townsend, in his work ent.i.tled, ”The New World Compared with the Old,” p. 462, says:--
”Since America was discovered, she has been a subject of revolutionary thought in Europe. The mystery of _her coming forth from vacancy_, the marvel of her wealth in gold and silver, the spectacle of her captives led through European capitals, filled the minds of men with unrest: and unrest is the first stage of revolution.”
On p. 635, he further says:--
”In this web of islands, the West Indies, began the life of both [North and South] Americas. There Columbus saw land, there Spain began her baneful and brilliant Western Empire; thence Cortez departed for Mexico, De Soto for the Mississippi, Balboa for the Pacific, and Pizarro for Peru. The history of the United States was separated by a beneficient Providence far from this wild and cruel history of the rest of the continent, and _like a silent seed, we grew into empire_; while empire itself, beginning in the South, was swept by so interminable a hurricane that what of its history we can ascertain is read by the very lightnings that devastated it.
The growth of English America may be likened to a series of lyrics sung by separate singers, which, coalescing, at last make a vigorous chorus, and this, attracting many from afar, swells and is prolonged, until presently it a.s.sumes the dignity and proportions of epic song.”
A writer in the _Dublin Nation_ about the year 1850 spoke of the United States as a wonderful empire which was ”_emerging_,” and ”_amid the silence of the earth_ daily adding to its power and pride.”
In Martyn's ”History of the Great Reformation,” Vol. iv, p. 238, is an extract from an oration of Edward Everett, on the English exiles who founded this government, in which he says:--
”Did they look for a retired spot, inoffensive from its obscurity, safe in its remoteness from the haunts of despots, where the little church of Leyden might enjoy freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions over which in _peaceful conquest--victoria sine clade_--they have borne the banners of the cross.”
We now ask the reader to look at these expressions side by side: ”Coming up out of the earth,” ”coming forth from vacancy,” ”emerging amid the silence of the earth,” ”like a silent seed we grew into empire,” ”mighty regions” secured by ”peaceful conquest.” The first is from the prophet, stating what would be when the two-horned beast should arise; the others are from political writers, telling what has been in the history of our own government. Can any one fail to see that the last four are exactly synonymous with the first, and that they record a complete accomplishment of the prediction? And what is not a little remarkable, those who have thus recorded the fulfillment have, without any reference to prophecy, used the very figure which the prophet employed. These men, therefore, being judges--men of large and cultivated minds, and whose powers of discernment all will acknowledge to be sufficiently clear--it is certain that the particular manner in which the United States have arisen, answers most strikingly to the development of the symbol under consideration.
We now extend the inquiry a step further: Have the United States ”come up” in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? Has their progress been sufficiently great and sufficiently rapid to corresponds to that visible and perceptible growth which John saw in the two-horned beast?
Every person whose reading is ordinarily extensive, has something of an idea of what the United States are to-day; he likewise has an idea, so far as words can convey it to his mind, of what they were at the commencement of their history. The only object, then, in presenting statistics and testimony on this point, is to show that our rapid growth has struck mankind with the wonder of a constant miracle.
Said Emile de Girardin, in _La Liberte_ (1868):--
”The population of America, not thinned by any conscription, multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and the day may before [long be] seen, when they will number sixty or eighty millions of souls.
This _parvenu_ [one recently risen to notice] is aware of his importance and destiny. Hear him proudly exclaim, 'America for Americans!' See him promising his alliance to Russia; and we see that power which well knows what force is, grasp the hand of this giant of yesterday.
”In view of his _unparalleled progress and combination_, what are the little toys with which we vex ourselves in Europe? What is this needle gun we are anxious to get from Prussia, that we may beat her next year with it? Had we not better take from America the principle of liberty she embodies, out of which have come her citizen pride, her gigantic industry, and her formidable loyalty to the destinies of her republican land?”
The _Dublin_ (Ireland) _Nation_, already quoted, says:--
”In the east, there is arising a colossal centaur called the Russian Empire. With a civilized head and front, it has the sinews of a huge barbaric body. There one man's brain moves 70,000,000.
There all the traditions of the people are of aggression and conquest in the west. There but two ranks are distinguishable--serfs and soldiers. There the map of the future includes Constantinople and Vienna as outposts of St. Petersburg.
”In the west, an opposing and still more wonderful American Empire is emerging. We islanders have no conception of the extraordinary events which amid the silence of the earth are daily adding to the power and pride of this gigantic nation. Within three years, territories more extensive than these three kingdoms [Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland] France and Italy put together, have been quietly, and in almost 'matter of course' fas.h.i.+on, annexed to the Union.
”Within seventy years, seventeen new sovereignties, the smallest of them larger than Great Britain, have peaceably united themselves to the Federation. No standing army was raised, no national debt sunk, no great exertion was made, but there they are. And the last mail brings news of three more great States about to be joined to the thirty: Minnesota in the north-west, Deseret in the south-west, and California on the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific. These three States will cover an area equal to one-half the European continent.”
Mitchel, in his School Geography (4th revised edition), p. 101, speaking of the United States, says:--
”When it is considered that one hundred years ago the inhabitants numbered but 1,000,000, it presents the most striking instance of national growth to be found in the history of mankind.”
Let us reduce these general statements to the more tangible form of facts and figures. A short time before the great Reformation in the days of Martin Luther, not four hundred years ago, this Western Continent was discovered. The Reformation brought out a large cla.s.s of persons who were determined to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d according to the dictates of their own consciences. Being fettered and oppressed by the religious intolerance of the Old World, they sought, in the wilds of America, that measure of civil and religious freedom which they so much desired. A little more than two hundred years ago, Dec. 22, 1620, the Mayflower landed one hundred of these voluntary exiles on the coast of New England. Here, says Martyn, ”New England was born,” and this was ”its first baby cry, a prayer and a thanksgiving to the Lord.”
Another permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. In process of time other settlements were made, and colonies organized, which were all subject to the English government till the declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.
The population of these colonies, according to the _U.S. Magazine_ of August, 1855, amounted in 1701, to 262,000; in 1749, to 1,046,000; in 1775, to 2,803,000. Then commenced the struggle of the American colonies against the oppression of the mother country. In 1776, they declared themselves as, in justice and right, an independent nation. In 1777, delegates from the thirteen original States, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachussets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, in Congress a.s.sembled, adopted articles of confederation. In 1783, the war of the Revolution closed by a treaty of peace with Great Britain, whereby our independence was acknowledged, and territory ceded to the extent of 815,615 square miles. In 1787, the Const.i.tution was framed and ratified by the foregoing thirteen States, and on the 1st of March, 1789, went into operation. Then the American s.h.i.+p of State was fairly launched, with less than one million square miles of territory, and about three millions of souls.
Thus we are brought to the time when, in our interpretation of Revelation 13, this government is introduced into the prophecy as ”coming up.” Our territorial growth since then has been as follows: Louisiana, acquired from France in 1803, comprising 930,928 square miles of territory. Florida, from Spain in 1821, with 59,268 square miles.
Texas, admitted to the Union in 1845, with 237,504 square miles. Oregon, as settled by treaty in 1846, with 380,425 square miles. California, as conquered from Mexico in 1847, with 649,762 square miles. Arizona (New Mexico), as acquired from Mexico by treaty in 1854, with 27,500 square miles. Alaska, as acquired by purchase from Russia in 1867, with 577,390 square miles. This gives a grand total of three million, five hundred and seventy-eight thousand, three hundred and ninety-two (3,578,392) square miles of territory, which is about four-ninths of all North America, and more than one-fifteenth of the whole land surface of the globe.
And while this expansion has been thus rapidly going forward here, how has it been with the other leading nations of the globe? Macmillian & Co., the London publishers, in announcing their ”Statesman's Year Book”