The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-09-13
WASHINGTON, d. c.
For the National Era.
KANSAS AND YOUNG AMERICA.
BY SETH WEBB, JUN.
lCoNcLUDED.l

lCoScLUpEDl
THE only famous emigrants, now in my
mind. worthy to stand side by side with those
&c Kansas and Nebraska, are the Pilgrim
Fathers. The glory of these men has stood
the severest tests of time. 1t is genuine. Its
worry sombreness makes it more striking. 1t
borrows nothing from the fancy. 1t has no
halo of romance. All is stern, solid, majestic,
colossal. There is a terrible stamp Of reality
on the Pilgrims. total absence of pretence
and humbug marks this gloomy company of
heroes. They have the dark dignity OF a
funeral procession. Everything about them
snscks of winter. Their doctrines mark their
characters: their garb typifies their doctrines !;
their features suit their garb; their hard voyage
IS worthy of their features; and all are in keep
inc with the melancholy coast, the snow-laden
mines. the naked rock, the keen north wind,
which welcomed them home. l always read
the story of the Pilgrims in great coat and
mittens. Otherwise / freeze. But, with all
their fierce and narrow bigotry, who is ever
weary of that hundred and one? What thun-
der.scars on them What agony dissolved in
what virtue! What mangled and quivering
heart strings buried in what masses of heroic
will! What crystal clearness of plan! What
preternatural vigor of execution! In one word,
what height and depth and strength of charac-
ter! The result shows all. They have inject
ell themselves through the veins and arteries
Of vast continent. They have not left their
mark on New England alone, where their fierce
old ashes rest The whole nation has received it.
The most worthless vagrant from the States, in
Valparaiso, in Rio Janeiro, in San Francisco,
in Oregon City, partakes of them, and has some
where in him a touch of their condition. They
have become part, a vital part, of the Ameri-
can soul; perhaps its salt; certainly its granite
foundation o, that Europe would cast other
such waits on our shores. But she has them
not The princely dover is sent but once.
They were the one precious and priceless drop
which it took geological epoch to form.
They were the single imperial cub which the
old lion bore to the West. 1t has become a
little fashionable to talk of the Pilgrims as
oyerpraised and Plymouth Rock as overdone.
no doubt much bad rhetoric has been split on
them-for. with us, nothing escapes it-and
that YOU know, would turn nectar into sour
milk But the hundred and one will survive it.
The New England Patriarchs must ever remain
among the most venerable of human FORMS
Unlike the Eastern crusaders, they were prac-
teal men. with vast practical end III view.
Unlike the SpaniardS, they were robed with the
majesty Of an heroic purpose. Unlike the Cal
ifornian and Australian, they were not pioneers
in the dark house Of Mammon. Their Doric
monument is this. They left the Europe they
loved, with the homes of their youth and the
graves of their fathers, to seek in a wintry des
ert at the end of the civilized earth, Freedom
TO worship God"
But the Kansas-man is, if possible, one step
above the Pilgrim. Few men comprehend, in
its length, and depth, and breadth, what is
going on in Kansas and Nebraska-how vital
the strife; how august the issue; how sweeping
The result Look at it.
=" If Asia be the great fountain-head, Europe
is the receiving and America the distributing
reservoir of nations. Kansas and Nebraska
at this time the centre of emigration for the
entire world They lie deep and grand in the
heart of the Continent, waiting among primeval
forests the advancing footsteps of civiizing man.
have read all of note which has been pub
lished of their capacities for population. They
idfc Detn uUueTTdIeu. AZ one JlIQC Il WAS
made to believe that they were deserts. But |
soon found out that fasehood They border
on deserts; but they are not deserts. They
are nch in all that makes great States. They
contain within their own limits all the resources
OF empire. Their position on the continent is
commanding and imperial. 1t foreshadows in
evItabie renown. For the nineteenth century,
they are the royal twins of promise. No mat
q hair ,ot tha
Mater has ceased to be an indispensable ele-
ment OF concentrated population and great
dominion. Wherever iron rails can be laid
On fertile soil, and iron wires hung in salubri-
Gus AR. there cities and nations may spring.
Aansas and Nebraska are in the great caravan
Track from ocean to ocean, and from the lakes
TO the gulf. Natural highways are as eternal
as the mountains they encircle. In Africa
TIE camel treads to-day in tracks three thou
sand years old. Kansas and Nebraska are
The ordained depots of American commerce
ana emigration. Population will crystalline
-'0li them by law as fixed and universal as
"a, which guides the TRANSPORTATION of birds,
=" 'rlves the globe in its orbit. 1t will swarm
'"s. Cities Its various and multiform people,
ra,nered from all the tribes of earth, will be
..ch IN every element of controlling civiliza-
u'n' 1t vii stamp itself indelibly on all sur.
FUNDING States, and on the Federative Repub-
NJ ol North America. And through that, or
"i'h IL, or over it, it will finally become the
Se1' OF Dominion, compared to which the
e'af was a toy, and which will make it,
lA' ASA was IN the beginning, what Europe
= ceasng TO be, what Africa never can be-the
centre of the world
vi what elements shall this vast future
CONSIST? What shall be the seminal principle
" IT'S growth? What blood shall run in the
lis ms OF the young giant now lying in his
f''4e' What primal impulse shall his in
any receive from this generation? In the
Gas s@er 10 these questions is wrapped up the
10: sS.'ny' not of Kansas only, not even of the
n''ed States alone, but of this whole breath
ing world Of men.
les, my friend, for hope, and courage, and
lOISo'ation it is vain to deny that the world is
:, ,oOEHlng TO North America; and North America
, y hahSaS and Nebraska. In spite of sneering
faiiSS and sneering natives, it has been true
d century, and was never more true than
a, gS' mat We inhabit the land of promise Any
,T'sfant ship, any great railroad station, will
MI you that. In the face of her Slavery, her
iisamy' her social vulgarity, and all her
It's America is still the magnet to which
t;o, weary, the poor, the desolate, of every ma
mar are irresistibly drawn; and still the asylum
Up on whose mighty bosom, like chaplet wreaths
,ip1" d c You've altar, all the hopes and aspira-
VI The nineteenth century are flung.
"Gt hearts and hopes are all with thee:
o teartS and hopes, our smiles and tears,
a DuI iaith triumphant DER fears
a., " al with thee. are all with thee
mol, II @kes only few columns of figures to
fa Ag clear beyond dispute that America is
III ccecomlng the ruler of the world. 1t is
sn;r;, More ~ IDLE to deny that the queston-what
imno.. 'lal rule our cOuntry-is of incalculable
Instance TO all mankind. And this vast
and ;, with its thousand may intricacies
-, uvOluuons; with Its rise and fall of Statea,