The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-03-24
"A Letter f rom st. Paul.
cur Future.
For the Telegraph.

2OF tut lclcBTdPn'
We, as nation, have great expecta-
tons. We look over the fifty years past
and are amazed at the wonderful strides
we have made in progress, in the arts,
sciences and inventions. We behold
millions of money invested in mines, cot
ton and wooden mills, furnaces and manu-
factories of all kinds.
Our rivers float on their bosoms steam
craft and sail that are mammoth in size,
pallatial in finish, and like the steed oe
crossed by railroads whose trains fly
with the speed of the wind from the
Atlantic, through tunnels, over bridges,
crossing mighty rivers, over mountains
whose summit is in the Clouds to the
sunny shores of, the Pacific. Our canals
and acqueducts are the won Ter of the be-
holder. Our telegraph system gives us
the news of the world as it tanspires.
Our cities are thronged with business.
and the massive stores OF iron and marble,
ard the richness Of their contents are no
where surpassed in the world. Our COM
nerce whitens eveW sea and ocean and
river with its sails Our steamers pillow
the waters Of every cline and nation
Our schools are noted for their freedom,
advantages and number; Cur colleges
and professional schools for the facilities
they afford all classes for acquiring an
education. Our churches for their num-
Der, their agencies and instrunentalties
to spread the religion of the Bible, con-
vert the world to God, and for the
marked manner in which an Almighty
Ruler has specially blessed and prospered
them in proclaiming the truth of his re-
'vealed word, and sending the word to
the dark corners of the earth.
Our people are noted for their intelli
gence, for the comforts of home life, their
manly independent bearing, their liberal
ideas, freedom 10 think and act, and to
worship God We speak today OF the
present, and since we find it so hopeful
may we not reasonably expect that in fifty
years from now, the blessings of civil
liberty, with the propitiary smiles of a
God who loveth and prospereth those
who do his will, will behold us far in ad
vance of the present, holding up as now
the liberties and freedom of our country as
beacon light, and refuge to the home
less and oppressed Of other countries
But alas the car Of our destiny that for
nearly century has bourne us safely
through revolution and rebellion, through
financial and political catastrophe,
has stopped on the track the
watchful engineer has deserted
his post, the conductor Is doing
with the sleeping passengers, while de-
struction is coming from behind IN a
train that proves their death, but would
never have over taken them had they
kept moving. And now let US look at
the result: The hum of our cotton and
WOODEN mills is no longer heard Our
mines are worked by slaves that once
were freemen The fire of our furnaces
no longer illume the darkness of the
night Our manufactures are silent as the
deserted receptacle Of the dead; Our
sails and steamers no longer cast the
foam from their prows on river, ocean
and sea Our warehouses of merchandise
are empty, and the grass green streets
echo not to the tread of the footed
mendicant as he plods from door to door,
begging for his daily bread; Pack mules
take the place of our long disused and
worn out railroads; Our canals and &C
queducts are cracked and broken; Our
telegraph and press have ceased to furnish
news to enlighten those who do not read,
and the wind signs mournful dirge DER
a broken wire left standing here and
there of the one, and the rust has fasten-
ed on the other for its prey; Our Schools
have become the the asylum of chanting
priests, who teach that the Virgin is supe
ricr to God, and that any saint canonized
for shedding protestant blood is more to
be reverenced than Jesus Christ, that to
be educated only in these dogmas is
heresy, and that to read the word of God
is of the devil, and deserves excommuni-
cation, and the severest pains of hell;