Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1874-01-19
A CENTURY AGO.

How odd this new year date appears
1t was. of course. just SO odd a century
ago. and yet 1874 looks very odd ana
indifferent to us. 1t was, however.
rough year in American politics and a
wondrous era was just about to open up
on the world. How many men of sub
seousnt note were then living in obscu-
rity Tom Paine was an humble ex-
ciseman in England Washington was
chiefly known as an opulent planter and
land surveyor Nathaniel Greene, who
was to be one of his efficient co-opera-
tors in the war of independence, was
working at blacksmith forge in Rhode
Island Alexander Hamilton was study
inc law, an ambitious youth Of seventeen,
while Aaron Burr had just left college,
and was sojourning with ''old Father
Bellamy." as he was called. He was
then under the power Of serious thought,
which he soon east away, and it never
returned. Father Bellamy was noted
divine. whose name still lives in church
history. George III. was a young man
of thirty three. and had even then com:
PEELED to submit to the stern lnvectlve
of Junius and the bold republicanism of
John Wilkes-preparations for the more
painful humiliation of acknowledging
the independence of his thirteen colonies.
Walter Scott was tame. uncouth boy.
whose head was soon to be filled with
traditions and border ballads. Napole-
on was one of thriving family in hum
bic life. and was. in five years, to enter
the military school of Brienne. An Irish
lad, then hardly in his breeches, was
subsequently the famous Wellington.
What terrible men these boys become :"
one inevitably exclaims. Voltaire and
Rousseau were the chief writers in En-
rope, and the latter was soon to be lift
ed by death almost to literary apothe-
osis. Gibbon, then in his thirty-seventh
year, was working on the first part of
his Decline and Fall" and had become
a member of the House of Commons.
Hume was approaching his end In nav
igation, Captain Cook had just sailed
round the globe, and his dead body was
soon to find a grave in the Sandwich Is
lands, murdered much as General Candy
was by Captain Jack. The great repub-
lie of the United States was then mere
" patriotic dream. cherished most OF
all by John Adams and few kindred
spirits. The united population of Phil
adelphia, New York. Albany, Boston,
Newport and Savannah, was not more
than 10000. and the wealth Of Cincin.
natl is equal to that of the entire colo.
MES at that time. in which indeed there
was not bank The only American Of
foreign note was Benjamin Franklin
who had reached distinction as MAJ
of SCIENCE. He was then living in Lon
don as agent of the Colony of Massachu
sets Bay. and continually startling thu
Government by his adroit diplomacy
Whitfield, the greatest preacher tn,
world has ever seen since the apostolic
time was just closing his glorious ca
reer. In Continental Europe, Fredericl
the Great had recently elevated Prussi;
from duchy to a kingdom, while Loui
the XVI was about to ascend the thron
from which ne was to be removed by tn
guillotine. Such are some Of the out
lines Of the year 1774, which. as al
know. vas the opening Of wonderful
era The world has progressed some
what since then, but what further devel
opments may not be before Us ?