St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-07-29
st. Charles City, Iowa, July 90. 1858.
Progress.

Progress.
This is world Of progress, and the
present age is emphatically an age
of progress. To verify this, we are
not compelled to travel far back in
the perspective Of human history.
Passing over the whole period from
the revelation on Mount Sinai to the
declaration of American independence,
through the whole Of which we find
the human race progressive, or pre-
pairing for progress, and leaving all
other countries and communities, we
will merely review our own, from that
ever memorable day when it began its
march in nationality.
Has our country improved since
that suspicious morning? Has its
improvement indicated that it was
charged by the Great Ruler of nations
with mission of political and moral
instruction, and that it has been full
filling this mission. Physically, our
country has expanded from thirteen to
thirty-two States, and from three to
twenty-cight millions of the human
family. And this expansion is the re-
clamation of the wilderness to the gar
den of civilization-the extension Of
Freedoms domain-the multiplication
of Freedoms children-and the aug
mentation of their physical comfort.
Nor is our country's intellectual less
than it's physical expansion. We
have not only thirty-two instead of
thirteen states, and twenty-eight in
stead of three millions of people, but
the present twenty-eight millions are
better fed, clothed and lodged than
were the three millions. All these i'm.
provemcnts-all are produced by the
progress of science and art. In every
state agriculture has become more pro-
ductive through the aid of science,
roads are increased and improved,
mineral wealth is explored and de-
veloped, steam, one of the triumphs of
American genius, has supplied navi.
cation with wings swifter than the
wind, and has enabled travel by land
to outstrip the fleetcst race-horse.
The electrict telegraph, another tri.
umph of American Genius, has made
valuable our whole country by bring
ing its inhabitants within speaking
distance of each other, or rather it is
the messenger of thought to the re-
hottest corners of the land, totally an
Initiating time and space.
In almost every State, manufac-
tories of all kinds, scarcely one of
which was known in the days of l776,
literally dispense their means Of phys
ical comfort to all, and furnish even
the poorest with more numerous ap-
plianccs to daily convenience or COM
fort, than ever money could purchase
late as Franklins Ia latter days s'i the in:
tcrcourse between Boston and Phila-
delphia by mail required two weeks T!
Now a traveller can breakfast in
Boston and sup in Philadelphia. Then,
thought could travel no faster than
the mail, now, it travels with the
speed of lightning, and performs its
mission before the ink dries in which
it is written.
Has our country morally improved ?
We venerate the generation Of the
Revolution they were wise and vir-
tuous men. But the political and So
cial fabric which they erected has
continually improved in the hands of
their descendants. Constitutions and
laws have been amended and i'm
proved, giving securer rights and
more equal privileges. Churches
have multiplied, and are better en-
dowed and more punctually attended.
Temperance has reared her standard,
and summoned her thousands from the
abyss of physical and moral ruin.
In viewing the past we can judge
of the future. We can see that oul
nation will continue to progress till il
shall cover the whole continent, bind
ing all its parts firmly in the
bonds of mutual interest and confeder.
ate freedom, the guarantee of perpet.
ual peace that the garden will bloom
in place Of the wilderness, and the
regions now trod by savage beasts,
will feed, clothe and lodge millions of
freemen that science will continue
to explore the fields of creation, and
that art, closely following, will apply
its discoveries to human improvement;
that religion and morals will proceed
together, making all wiser and better;
and that the day is not far distant
when this continent will exhibit the
pleasing spectacle Of the greatest,
freest and happiest people since the
creation of man.
We arc comnellad arain for tho