The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1857-07-21
ORATIoN:
DSeV96 at Hillstlale, July 4th. 1857.
BY PROF. n. NJ. HAM.


of America.
We read in history of the rise and fall o
States, of the causes that led to the one, ant
the consequences arising from the other; W.
are able to trace with critical eye their whole
progress from the first, faint, feeble start to tho
grand crash or slow decay by which they per
ished. We know of all their glorious deeds
their conquests and defeats; we have read O
their days OF prosperity when the sun shone
upon them but to ripen all enterprises into
success; we have read of their days of troub
.lc and dependency, when the sun shone upon
them but to light their path to decay; we
are fully conversant with the distinguishing
characteristic of each age, and can readily
point out the distinctions by which they dif.
fered from each other. History, that philos.
ophy which teaches by examples, enables Us,
without the least hcsitancy to discuss fully
and truthfully all the great deeds of the past,
and tn assign causes and effects to their ap-
propriate spheres with the same precision that
the tyro of school class will follow out his
mathematical demonstration. But with the
present it is different The moment We leave
the past aud come to our own times, we en-
ter upon new ground wholly unexplored and
unknown. To judge Alright of our own age,
Of our own deeds, and the motives by which
we are actuatcd, is a task no less laborious
than difficult. 1t has been said that every
man knows Others better than himself. He
only understands lis own nature who under
stands the nature Of Others Just so it is in
the iucrmeit we would pass upon the pres
cnt age. 1t is almost impossible to form a
correct opinion upon that in which VIC are so
much interested and for which VIC arc go
much prcjudced.
The best, and rs il seems to rnc, tho only
true way of judging of our own times, aud
the condition Of our country, is by cool and
impartial study into the characters of those
men whose minds stamp their impress upon,
and whose influence most effects the age
These men are the mirrors which reflect that
which We can see in no other way. The Pc
culiar characteristics of any age or cline, can
not be so well understood as by n view OF the
lives of those who best cmbody these charac-
teristcs. How can we so well get an ade-
quate idea Of the bitter old fcuds between
the Cavaliers and Roundhcads, how so we'll
learn the character of the psalm singing, hard
fighting Puritans of the seventeenth century,
as 10y a perasal of the life of Oliver Cron-
we'll? How so well get n clear and satsfac-
tory knowledge Of the horrors, the havoc,
and the murders Of the French Revolution,
as by tracing the career of Robespierre p
How so well learn tho zeal and ardor and
..'n'o""ial ..;" temperament Of the French them
Napoeon How HSTGSS So xc Pr pant at % to ' ourselves
the noble motives the persevcring toll and
hardy endurance of the men of our own Rev
olution, as by lingering over the records left
us of Washington?
Perhaps it might be objected that tho &C
tions of individuals would teach us the history
of parties rather than that of States. This
would be no objection. On the suppositon
that every individual labored wholly for the
attainment of party ends, yet their conflicting
falacies like those of advocates would correct
each other. 1t has always been held in the
mot enlightened nations that a tribunal will
decide question most fairly, after hearing two
men argue, as unfairly as possible, on the
two opposite sides of it; and it would seem
that this opinion is just. Sometimes, it is
true, superior eloquence and dexterity will
make the worse appear the better reason; but
it is at least certain the Judge will be COM
PEELED to view the case under two diferen.
aspects.
Those who have studied history with dis
know the falacy of those pane
gyrics and :nvectivos which represent single
individuals rs etfecting great mental and
moral revolutions, subverting established sys-
tens, and imprnting a new character OH the
age. The difference between one man and
another is by no means SO great as the crowd
There is great deal of homely
truth in the old saying that circumstances
make the man. 1t is the age that makes the
man, not the man that makes the age
Great minds do indeed react upon the socie
ty which has made them what they are; but
they only pay with interest what they have
received. Events which happen would have
transpired whether the men by whose instru-
mentality they are brought about had lived
or not If Luther had been man of the
tenth century he would have effected no ref
ormation. If he had never been born at all,
it is evident the sixteenth century could not
have elapsed without schism in the church.
1t was long disputed whether the honor Of
inventing the method of f1axions belonged to
Sir Isaac Newton, or TO Leibneitz, the Ger
man philosopher. 1t is now allowed that
these great men made the same discovery Mt
the same time. Mathematical science had
then indeed made such progress that if neith-
or of them had ever existed the discovery
must have been made within few years.
So in our own times, the invention of the
telegraph was claimed BY three or four. Pre-
creeding philosoI hers had been blundering at
it for long time, and it could not much lon
ger have escaped the most needless inquirer.
believe that with respect TO every great O.
vent that dots the history of the world tho
case has been similar; that without Colum-
bus, America would have been discovered;
that without Washington we should have
been nation of frecmen; that without JEFF
ferson we should have had democratic form
of government. Society indeed, has its great
men and it's little men, as the earth has its
mountains and its valleys. But the inc
qualities of intellect, like the inequalities of
the surface of the globe, bear SO small pro-
,,oytion In the moss that in calculating its