Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-08-25
sTRIpING.

1t is difficult at times not to feel that we
are living In a land of dreams. Good old
tashIone1 thinkers moralize about fsthe even
pace of nations; bttsif1 the latter days il
seems that nations stride, and that over the
whole world there is one continuous rush
and roar. This month of July ended the
most magnificent hundred days IN history.
The hundred days of 1915 are memorable
Tor the multitude of events that crowned
thenh although nothing remained but .
Government which took no root and lasted
thirty years and the exile of man who only
wanted that exile to turn the worlds hatred
into the worlds pity. Th those Hundred
Days Europe was thrown back a century,
Tyranny and superstition and oppression
were all sustained and protected by the great
name Of Wellington, The tinged, expen-
sive and dusty f6hsss that England calls roy
atty, and which cover and clog and check
everything like free thought and free deed,
were FURNISHED anew and wrapped tighter
round the growing limbs of struggling
people. In our Hundred Days we have
completed the overthrow Of the rebellion;
we have reduced our. armies to mere con-
ungent; disarmed navy and sent ships-of
war back to the better duties of carrying
corn and cotton hurled avictorioas army
INTO the mines and canncns Of the Western
Territories, and raised money enough out of
our own farms and looms to pay the extraor-
dlnary expense of the Government Our
victories OF peace are even greater than the
victories of war. On one side our pioneers
are girdling the Rocky Mountains with rail-
roads-on the other we stand waiting to
! grasp the hand of the Englishman who
brlngsus within an hour Of London. There
Is something uneasy in our very ambition.
10 the South we have territory newly
conquered-unsettled, and sadly wanting
Reconstruction and yet we begin to look
longlngly to the North, and TO coHet the st.
Lawrence and the vast Canadian Countries,
and ehave at any boundary this Side of the
Polar Sea. In the majesty of newly asser-
ted strength westEide toward dazzling
destiny
Do we feel that every stem brings ms more
important and burdensome duties? Forthe
second timein theworld' history we are cali
ed upon to rise up and control the destiny of
the world. This is no vain thought. Men
are but representatives of ideas-and ideas
are not bounded by religion, race, or terri
tory. Cromwell, Washington, Franklin,
Mirabeau, Napoleon, Hugo, John Brown,
Lincoln -stepby step the idea of Resistance
to Tyranny has Travelled over the world
saved England, revolutienized, France
destroyed Slavery in America. Those who
look at these men and their times, and see
what they call the ebb and flow, of ideas.
Cromwell followed by Charles, Mirabeau by
Nepoleon, Franklin by Calhoun, Hugo ban
ished By Bonepart, and Brown hanged by
Buchanan forget that generations are but
as days-that whatever temporary ebb may
come the tide always rises-that Cromwell
dead was as powerful as In hfe-and that
when John Browns body went down to
moulder IN the dust, his soul still marched
-on. Nor is our work DONE 1t is merely
beginning When John Stuart Mill tn.
umphed over palace and treasury, aided BY
two hundred workmen,o it was the logical
result of Grant success. Those workmen
took comfort from America, and were strong
and bold when they saw men Of their own
blood and lineage defending their flag and
giving up their lives for a government with
more devotion than royalty ever commanded
America has not triumphed invain. There
is notA desponding Rebubican that crouches
under the Hapsburgs and Boneparte or eats
hard bread away down in dismal mine that
my Lord of Westminster may carry stick
before Her Majesty and eat up thousands of
broad acres in feeding oxes, hounds and
deers, who does not feel stronger,
and more resolute, and more anx-
ious for the hour to strike Men call thisa
selfish, sensual, mereenary age, but only m
our moments of petulence and impatience.
1t is grand old Nineteenth Century, full
OF good deeds and brave endeavors, and
proudly to be remembered in song and story
and over many cup of generous wine In the
good days coming Z s as5