Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-05-31

til such time as the battle is to be renewed.
1t is not by such citizenship as this that 4
country is honored or advanced. We can
not expect the fountain TO rise above its
source; the character of a government like
ours must be the reflection of the character
of the governed. The physical strength Of n
nation lies in the number of those who own
the soil, its moral strength in the virtue of
the people. Virtue among the elected can
only be secured by virtue among the electors.
1t is not by spasmodic morality that we can
purify the political atmosphere, but by daily
well ordered life. Such a contamination can
not be reached by legislation, it is slow pro-
cess, beginning with the tender years of in
fancy. 4 celebrated French essayist has
said that ''the greatest and most important
difficulty of human science is the nurture
and education of children. And it is said of
Socrates, that he often declared that if he
could reach the highest place in the city he
would make this proclamation, "what mean
you, fellow citizens, that you thus turn every
stone to scrape wealth and take so little care
of your children to whom one day you must
leave it ALI" Lycurgus, the great law-giver
Of Sparta, based his code on the careful train
ing of the youth, who by the daily association
and conversation with the wise and good,
learned courage and 1rugality, love of coun-
system of education that one can be made
good citizen, and so far as it is wise and prop
er for the State in its corporate capacity to
undertake this grave responsibility, this end
and this alone should be constantly in view.
1t is not desirable that any system of popular
public education should aim higher than this
it is not the function of the State to make
men lawyers or physicians or poets or priests,
not to teach science or art or religion, bat re-
spect for and obedience to the laws. Let us
leave to the higher schools the subtiltes of
learning which do not of necessity make men
either useful or happy or great; we should
learn the mysteries of our little world before
we study the mysteries of the stars. Let US
relegate religious training to the family and
the church, where it belongs, and we shall
have less strife and more virtue. Here is the
true spring of loyalty and foundation of a
worthy citizenship, by the fresidc at home;
for what is love Of country but logical de-
velopment of that filial love which is first
and purest Of all, love of parents, of home,
simple faith and obedience, truth, honor.
sincerity, modesty, reverence for wisdom
and age and worth; these are domestic viz
tues which are the foundation OF good govern
ment, on which alone it can be built secure
With such training should go hand in
hand the training Of the public schools -
Not alone the education Of books which of
itself is little, an ornament. not foundation.
but also the education of good manners and
good examples. Here the future citizen ac-
quires those rudiments of knowledge which
are the tools with which he is to make his
own career. Here he is taught the history Of
his native land, from its feeble beginnings to
its present majestic growth. His mind is en-
larged by the thought of a nation spreading
in the resstless march of its industries from
ocean to ocean, from the Gulfto the great ill.,
land seas. His soul is stirred by the contem-
plation Of the great examples OF the fathers
who laid the foundations on which we try to
build, and of those truly great of later days,
whose noble purpose and unsullied lives are
beacon lights in the gloom. He learns with
wonder and pride of the varied climate, the
sublimity and beauty of nature, the fruits Of
the earth, the treasures hidden in its bosom,
the eXhaustless power stored in its great rv-
ers its channels of trade marked out by the
finger Of God. lie hears the whole story of
our f0llies and faults, our mistakes our wrong
doing and is saddened and humbled; but he
hears also of great wrongs righted at last and
of our patient endeayors and victories, both
in war and peace. And so whether rich or
poor, whether a man of letters or of simpler
learning, whatever his walk or calling in life,
he remains an exemplary citizen, not boastful,
or arrogant, but modest, self-contained ready
TO give his best energies for the advance
ment OF good government, and ready to hazard
his life in its defence.
| have not sketched an impossible picture;
we all know such men, who look upon the
right Of suffrage as a sacred right, and its
exercise as a solemn duty. But, alas how
many there are who prostitute this sacred
RICH. by practices which destroy independence
INs,,x "a Law
and dishonor into the halls of legislation and
the tribunals of justice, and make our very
name reproach. A Thessalian when asked
by some one which OF his countrymen were
the meekest replied, "Those that have re-
ceived their discharge from the wars" Com
rades, it becomes US to exemplfy this truth in
ourselves. 1t was only through much priya-
ton and suffering and disaster that We reached
the end. 1t does not become us to forget our
own errors; it does become us, remembering
them, to resolve to make the future more
glorious than the past. A country that is
worth dying for, is worth living for; the victo-
tories Of peace are no less renowned than
those of war. We are no longer soldiers but
simple citizens; let us take off these symbols
of that time of strife and mingling with those
loyal masses whose work at home was no less
honorable and enduring than ours in the field,
remains to be done.
Fellow citizens we should not forget, on
this day and in this place, that ours is a diyid-
ed allegiance. In sight of yonder capitol,
where repose the tattered flags of our regi-
ments; in sight of this majestic and historic
river, whose shores greeted the first English
colony in New England, and in later years wit
messed the toilsome march of that heroic band,
who stormed with Arnold the gates of Quebec,
we should be reminded that we are not only
citizens of the United States, but citizens of
Maine. In each relation we have rights and
duties, equally sacred and equally imperative.
Our State is one of the youngest of the broth
crhood, but our history sntedates them all,
reaching far back to the misty past, when
the adventurous Mortimer coaSted along
tins northeastern peninsula, nine hundred
years ago, and Venetian sailors, from the
great republic of the Adriatic, sighted our
shores a century before Columbus sailed to
find in the West the islands of the East. Ri
valling even the gorgeous fances of Spanish
adventure, are the legends of those days.
There is little doubt, however, that, during
the sixteenth century, the flags of the princi-
pal maritime powers Of Europe were often
seen in our waters. There is no doubt that
nearly twenty years before the Pilgrim Fa-
Tiers landed at Plymouth, there were French