The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-03-20
I CENTURY 200.

Ho~ odd this uc9 wear date appears!
II was. Of course, just as odd acentury
ago. and vet l77+ looks very old and
indifferent to Us. 1t was, however, q
rough year in American politics, and
wondrous era was just about to open
upon the world. How many men OF
subsequent note were then living in
obscurity? Tom Paine was 2n humble
cXoiseman in England Washington
was chiefly known as an opUient plant
CT and land surveyor; Nathaniel
Green, who was to be enc of his ell
Cicnt co-opcratoYs in the war of inde-
penleucc, was working at a blacksmith
forge in Rhode island; Alexander
Hamilton was studying law, au arnbi-
tioUs youth Of seventeen, while Aaron
Burr had left college and was soj0ur.l-
ing with old Father Bcllamv," ," as he
was called lie was then under the
power Of serious thought which he
soon cast away, and itneyCr rctu ned.
Father Ee!lamy was noted divine,
whose name still lives in church his
tory. George III was a young man
of thrtY-Lhree, and had been even then
compelled to submit to the stern invcc-
tive Of Jun Us and the bold republican,
ism Of John Wiile5-prcparI for
the more painful humiliation Of ac-
knowlcdging tie independence Of his
thirteen colonies. Walter Scott was
lamc, uncouth boy, whose head was
soon to be filed with traditions and
border ballads. Napoleon was one Of
d thriving family in humble life. and
was in five years to enter the military
tChOCl Of Driennc. An Irish lad, then
hardly in his breeches, was suOsequcnt-
" the famous Wellington. "W hat ter
rible men tn Sc boys become :" orc IN
evitably eXclsims. Yoltairc and Ros-
seau were the chief writers in Europe,
and the latter was soon to be lifted
by death to almost n literary aDothcsis.
Gibbon, then in lis thirty-seycnth
year, was working on the first part OF
his Decline and Fail, and had be-
cone member of the house of com
mons. Hume was approaching his
end. In navigation, Captain Cook
had just sailed around the globe and
his dead body was soon to find grave
i'll the Sandwich islands, murdered /
much rs General Candy was by Cap
tain Jack The Great Republic of the
United States was then merely pa
triotic dream, cherished most of all by
John Adams and few kindred spirits.
The united population of Philatlel-
phia, New York, Albany, Boston, New
port. and Savannah, was not more than
10000, and the wealth Of Cincinnati
j. equal to that Of the entire colonies
at that time, in which indeed there was
not a bank. The on.y American of
foreign note was Benjamin Franklin,
Who had reached distinction rs q man
of science. lie was then living in
London rs agent Of the Colony of
Massachusetts, Bay, and continually
startling the government bv his adroit
diplomacy. Whitfield, the greatest
preacher the world has seen since the
apostolic time, was Just closing his glo-
rious career. In Continental Europe.
Frederick the Great had recently ele-
vate'l Prussia from a duchy to a king
dom, while Louis the NEI was about
to ascend the throne from which he
was To be removed by the guiIlotine.
Such are some of the outlines Of the
year l174, which, as all know, was
the opening of 4 wonderful era. The
world has progressed somewhat since
then, but what further developments
may not be before us?