The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-12-31
the nasty reconstruction scheme of Mr.. John
son; but Judge tor yourself the nature and ex-
tent of the parallel
New England and tao West

~" hhSiduu hdS 10 GredL Britain
the GREAT West is to the Atlantic States. The
population OF the Western States is bone of
our bone. Every year the ties of relation
snip between us are strengthened by new
threads, and the possibility of such a separa-
tion as Democratic politicians were accustom-
ed to talk about few years ago, grows less
and less. The quarrel OF the American colo.
MES was never with the people whom they
had left behind, but with government as
distinct from the British people as from the
Americans. No ingenuity of demagogues
can ever toment such quarrel between the
people OF the West and OF the East in these
States. We have just received an account of
the fifth annual festival OF the New England
Society of Dubuque, in Iowa. More than ff-
ty couples sat down to a supper at the Julien
House, and their pleasant recollections ofhome
found expression in speeches which doubtless
sounded better than they read, but which are
not altogether uninstructive reading. We
copy from the Dubuque Times tie remarks of
Rev. j. w. Hanson, President of the Society.
who will be remembered as a Maine man,
formerly of Gardiner in Ktnnebec county:
Among the moving things of this planet.
the most restless, perhaps of all, is man-ever
active, body, soul and spirit, in the sphere he
fills, as an individual. He is no less so as
race. Emigration is a divinely planted i'm
pulse in his soul, to which he has ever re-
sponded at the appointed time; and the earth
is dinted all over by the tracks OF mankind
from east to west. For with rare exceptions,
tor fo lynax Ill L. .
toward the setting sun. The Celt that first
peopled Western Europe, the Arabian clans.
the German tribes, all point to the east as
their origin, and in later times following the
same instinct, they have continued their tray-
els in the same direction. From east to west
is the great law ofhuman migration. Whatey-
er other causes may have been immediate, this
was ultimate. The waite --towl no more natur-
ally flies north or south at the appointed sea-
son than man follows the sun in his race
round the globe. In what remote era OF the
fathomless past this process began-in what
far more distant period in the future it will
end, it ever, we do not know. But studying
the law in It's phenomena we conclude that
God has given children this instinct that thus
the various Tribes by m:nging. may alwa,s
produce nobler type of humanity and civil
ization. While each race may have been able
to carry forward q single idea or TACT of ciVili-
zation, to certain point, it has needed the
impression of other elements, before further
progress was possible. The Hebrew race
came from such a commingiing, so did the
Greek and Latin, SO did the modern Gothic,
Sclavonic, Anglc-5axon and American. Each
new combination Is step onward, SO that the
advancement and utility of nation is ever In
the ratio ofthe number of tribes combined in
its composition. times noblest empire is its
last" because of the greater variety OF human
tribes composing it, and Westward the star
OF empire takes its way" in order that the
great problem may be wrought out
1t was in observance OF this law that the
"silted wheat of three kingdoms" was moved
two and half centuries AGO from the old 10
the new world, and was planted on the stingy
soil OF Plymouth Rock. Ostensibly to es-
cape persecution, and find "ireedom to wor-
ship God, it was really to further the Divine
plans. The Maytlower Pilgrims and their
coadJutors "builded better than they knew"
They thought they came to prepare homes
Tor themselves, but they were led by Hand
that directed them as agents in accomplish
ing vast destinies. Pausing awhile in sterile
New England-the temporary nursery oil the
new growth-in due time the boundless West
was opened and realm prepared to receive
from all the springs and fountains of
humanity, vast reservoir in which is the
gre atest OF all the human tribes, that here
might be the mightiest OF earth's empires
mightiest not only in population and mate
rial greatness, but in all that ennobles man.
We who celebrate this day claim that the
men who landed on the shores OF New Eng
land in 1920, brought with them some of the
Dobiest elements OF human greatness. Faults
they had, indeed, but only as spots on their
sunlike brightness. They were brave, and
true, and sincere, aud selEsacrificing, worthy
associates of Milton, Hampden, and Sidney,
worthy slres OF Warren, and Hancock and
ADAMS. Ihey were men in the presence
ol whom praise seems faint, and eulo-
sy feeble. Borne on the great wave
or migration, then beginning to move
towards the new world, they carried in their
hearts the principles of a civilization greater
than ever the world had known, the early
developments of which are confided to us.
Those principles have not only survived two
hundred and fifty years, but have gathered
new power with each new generation. They
were never SO mighty in law, education, re
ilglon and life as now. The errors they had
were transient, however dear to them, and
to some OF their descendants. The true
principles arc asserting and will ultimately
Vlndicate their divine excellence in their i'm
mortality.
Ven.rating all that was venerable in their
character, honoring all that was honorable in
them, we are assembled here to night. We
nave country peopled by such an ancestry.
as no other nation ever had, and with such
traditions as two centuries and half never
before yielded to any people. The mind that
undertakes to dwell on the theme is over
whelmed. As we think OF our country and
our ancestry we pause and say, "Come, then
expressive silence, muse their praise"
Ladies and gentlemen of the New Eng
land Society, welcome to the festival of this
hour. obeylng the power that impeled our
ancestors to New England, you have contin-
ued the journey little further And as you
remember the political and religious freedom
they brought to these shores, and have trans
nitted to us, their h2roic lives and all they
were, let the heart expand toward them in
grateful remembrance, and through them to
that Being in whose hands they were the
fruitful agents. May their memory be more
precious than now on the thousandth and ten
thousandth anniversary of that December
day when their feet were first wet with the
freezing spray that dashed ON the wintry
strand of Plymouth!