The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1874-03-05

The Gleveland Pied pen1eg copies
from the Press Of week before last
the list of the aged people Of Nelson
/ townshipship and adds the fol- owing
interesting remarks:
Here is food for retrospsctions The
most Of these lives ante-date the cen-
tnry, aud one of them began before
our country was nation. Fra Tuller,
born june 18th, 17S2, was one year
old when, on September Sd, 1888, the
| defnitive treaty of peace between this
4 republic and Great Britain was signed
at Paris Ito be ratified by Congress on
the 4th of January folloWing>. Nine
Of the lives began with the century
in the memorable year IN which Ma
poleon crossed the Alps and won the
bloody field of MarengO. IT We follow
even the youngest of the lives back
ward it will bring us alm0sta within
sight of the cradle and swaddling
ciothea of the republic. The world
has seen strange events and changes
while the quiet existence Of these now
venerable people has been ebblng
away. We wonder if their minds
ever contemplate the wondroQR span
of the worlds life embraced within
the years they have passee Somelof
them had grown into q sturdy youth
hood while yet the country was in its
first exercise of freedOu. The period
comprises the close of Washington's
life, which went out in the last year
of the eighteenth century. 1t goes
back TO the first groupings after prac-
tical realizatIou of the railway prob
lem. We recall Trevethick and Vivian
working over their quaint Iandels,
taught amid the ,damps and darkness
of an English mine, as the real raii-
road pioneer. The United states
have been through three MaEs-th she
second war with England, the Mexi-
can war and the great Rebellion and
the world has beheld that marvellous
spectacle Of the career of Napoleon
Bonapart, from the clearing Of Farfsian
streets with cannon, through all the
brilliant and dramatic scenes which
succeeded d-ItaIy, Egypt Austerlitz,
jena, Aspern, Wagram, Borodino, and
Moscow the death struggle on French
soil the banfehment ths Hundred
DAYS ss-xFsd Waterloo All this has
happened while these life cnFrents
have been flowing On so smootEly and
llnrufied. And what industrial TIRE
umphs are embraced within the period
OF those fivesa First the real rise and
growth Of water navigation by steam.
What q contrast between Robert Full
toms CIermont, on the Seine, and the
Great Eastern The graduation from
the stage coach and diligence to- the
railway train-hying over the land al
most with the speed of lighs. The
lightning tanned in way to mske old
Ben. Franklin turn Ia his eofin--tam-
ed so as to- permit of instantaneous
communication between two worlds,
under the seal And what world of
political history have they. seen enact
ed At home, the days of federalism,
Repablicanism, Whiggery, Democra-
or. Radicalism. They can go backto
Jefferson and follow the succession of
struggles all the way down through
each succeeding phase to our modern
school of extraordinary legislation
and corruption. 1t is mighty step
from Jefferson fsome of these men can
go back TO Washington and Adans)
20 Grant; and We leave Il for 0nr
readers to say whether the contrast
between the two executives-between
the political 1850 and the political 1874
reflects any creditupon our ciViliza-
ton. The stride of the country ma
terially, has been wonderous; can it
be possible that politically We have
refograded. Contemporary with their
existence were the doings of the blue
light burners and Hartford Conven-
tionists of Madison's day, and that
strange healing of party bitterness, the
Ezra of Good Feeling of the Monroe
administration. Those citizens of old
Portage have also lived throRgh the
jackson episode in our politics, which,
terminating amid the cotton bales OF
New Orleans, eveutuated in an ad-
of the government which
every patriot loves to look back ata Ii
our aged friends are ever given to re-
6ecEion. they may extract abundant
material therefore from the corruption
In every shape and form which has
kept with the nations advances in
power, wealth and stature. Do you
ever ask themselves whether the adj
vantaxessof our day have been pur-
chased too dearly and read in the
moral degeneracy, which it requires
no dcmagoguess eyes to perceive, the
eventual failure of our experiment in
They have beheld one
consnmmation of this long war Of pO-
litics which, in its abstract right and
Justice, atones for some Of the abom-
nations which have befalien as, viz,
the extfrpation of slavery, which per-
mits the literal application Ofthe De-
of Independence TO oil the
people. They have seen q similar So
ciaI change taking place in Europe,
showing that the cause Of human
rights 10 not suffering with the march
of time. Speaking Of ssbhe old
its political history for the
century has furniahed d succession of
events, grandiy momentous. Run
over the bewildering list from Maren-
go to Sedan, and we shall have to
search the worlds chronicles Dong for
another series of happenings af equal
variety aud import in the same space
of time.
With this we Ieave our venerable
friends's Their own lives have been
given to men's eyes to behold such 3
panorama of human experience as
they have seen.