The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1872-07-11

capabilities i? What will another hundred
years do for Us? We have an area OF three
millions, five hundred and fifty-fve thous-
and one hundred and forty-six square
miles, or about three millions exclusive of
Alaska. Taking our past ratio of increase
as basis of calculation, when we shall
celebrate our second centenary, We shall
have population of six hundred millions,
or number equal to one half of the pres
ent population of the globe. The material
resources of our vast domain are abundant
ly sufficient to sustain all these millions.
If our country shall become as densely
populated az Great Britain, it will contain
eight hundred and twelve millions, five
| hundred thousand souls as densely as
| Belgium, one billion, five hundred mil
lions of souls, as Massachusetts. six hun
| dred and seven millions, seven hundred and
| fifty thousand or about what we may ex-
pect to number in 1915. We do not doubt
our agricultural, mineral, manufacturing,
and commercial capabilities to meet the
demands of this vast population but what
can we say of our educational and religious
availabilities Are they equal to the grow
ing task {? Well did the great Washington
offer this instruction promote, as an
object of primary Importance, institutions
for the general diffusion of knowledge In
proportion as the structure of govern
ment gives force to the public opinion, it
should be enlightened" Samuel Adams
was once offered reconciliation and great
pecuniary rewards if he would espouse the
Royal cause The sterI,, old christian pa
triot replied Il have long since made my
peace with the King of Kings No con,
sideration would induce me to abandon
the righteous cause of my country. Tel
Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel
Adams to him, no longer to insult the feel
ings of an exasperated people" This is
| the spirit that animated
1.-The handful of brave men
| That in their God put their trust,
| And rushed to battle then.
| The God OF battles heard their cries
| And sent to them the victory"
Such men passed before the poetic vision
of Alc9res when he gave the world his
ideal state:
Not high.raised battlements or labored mounds,
| Thick walls or mOated gate
Not cities proud, with spires and turrels crowded.
| Not bays and broad -afmt ports
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
| Not starred and spangled courts.
Where low-browed baseness watts perfumes TO
pride
No men-high minded men.
| Men who their duties know.
But know their rights and knowing dare main
These constitute State"
We should, when viewing our wondrous
progress, avoid the inflated pride and SELF
adulstion of the Inflated Nebuchadnezzar,
who, walking in the midst of his gorgeous
palaces, impiously exclaimed as not
this great Babylon that I have built for
the house of the kingdom, by the might of
mig power and for the honor of my males
tys" lest by terrible chastisement, we, too,
learn "that the Most High ruleth in the
Kingdoms of men,"
During the long lapse of ages in which
Ninevah, Babylon and Thebes with their
wonderful walls, gardens, gates and tow
ers. Athens with her eloquence
| "That Illuminated Greece
| And shook ArtaXerXes' throne,
Rome, with her proves, rose, reigned.
and fell. This mighty continent Of ours
slept quietly in the arms of the four great
oceans. While the naughty Persian and
Mede rolled their paraphanalied mil
lions upon the immortal handful OF Their
mopelia, the Macedonian hero led his Gre
clan phalanxes across the Indus and sighed
for more worlds 10 conquer the Tiber
born Caesars led their Roman legions on to
a worlds subjugation, and while the war
panorama of the middle ages moved brisk
ly on. America felt no shock of hostile
arms or if so, by what tawny bosom
waged we know not. God, who works by
means and with whom Thousand years
are as one day, had hid this goodly land
beneath the golden beams of the setting
sun, to be revealed in due time, that upon
its virgin soil He might rear government
stronger than that of Rome, with legisa-
ton wiser than that of Scion, and pop.
ulation more numerous than that of Fer
STA. He has read American history to lit
tie purpose, who has not seen the finger of
Providence in all our disciplinary strug-
giles and experiences, pointing to one
preferred destiny.
1t remains to be seen whether we will be
true to the responsible trust committed to
our hands We have abiding faith in the
influence of the martial grandeur, political
acumen, and heroic devotion bequeathed
to US by our ancestors, in the liberty low
ing Teutonic blood that runs in our veins,
our republican institutions, our educational
system, and the Christian religion. These
are the clements of our greatness and OF
our strength. But remember that Gods
ighest blessings become the sOrest curses
when perverted. We are not without our
hesetting dangers. Our very greatness
may feed the icanker of pride, selfglory,
, debauchery and iuidelity that will gnaw
, out the very core of our individual and ma
, tional vitality and leave but the wreck of
, our former greatness, {. sad burlesque on
, what we might have been. We welcome
, to our shores and waiting plains, foreigners
OF every cline, the oppressed of every ma.
2 ton. But these must be educated, Ameri.
= canized, christianized As President Lin,
3 coin once said on another subject "They
may ride with us but zoe must hold the
. TeinS,-it is our wagon and we mean to
drive" We are not to adopt foreign lam
f guages, foreign ideas, and foreign customs
, but those seeking to share the blessings OF
e our country must be moulded by the Amer
D lean pattern. If any are unwilling TO dc
8 this, they are welcome to stay away their
f room is better than their company.
The disintegration of our schools and
school funds for sectarian purposes, the
expulsion of the Bible from the place in
e school which it has long honored, the des
q ecratiOn and abnegation of the Lords day
! | and the efforts to break up the heaven
1 born and century honored marriage rela
, ton, and to foist upon us the atrocities ol
a free lovism are fearful Innovations upon
). our history and in direct antagonism to
, the American ideas that have made US
E what we are and the sanctity and per
petuation of which it should be our glory
as it is our safety, to preserve intact VIZ
Q would not verify in ourselves what John
son once said of the English metropolis
I "Lendon, the needy villains general home,
tlhAn Nx..w.N Dar, Darl..