Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-05-20

WHICH SUMNER GATHERED.
The book which Mr.. Sumner had lust
completed ut the time of his death, the
- prophetic JOiceS COHcerning -4hlerica,"
quotes the visions of poets, philosophers and
statesmen of the past eighteen centuries
These predictions are naturally grouped
into two claSses-the fulfilled and the vet
maccomplished
TIE ACCOMPLISHED PREDICTIONS.
These, as Mr.. Sumner collected them.
range from Seneca downwards. 1t was
400 wears before the discovery of Amer
lea that this Roman wrote his famous lines.
which are thus translated: There shall
come Il time, in later agcS, when ocean
shall relax his claims and vast continent
appear, and pilot shall find new worlds,
and Thule shall be no more the earths
bound" Pulci, the Italian poet. who died
five wears before Columbus sailed on his
first VOYAGE. writes:
The daring mariner shall urge far DER
The western wave, smooth and level plain.
Albeit the earth Is fashioned ike a wheel.
Man In ancient days of groSSer mold.
And Hercules might blush to learn how far
Beyond the limits he had vainly set
The dullcst sea boat soon shall wing her way
Men shall desery another hemisphere,
Since to one common center all things teGd;
earth, by curious mystery divine
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres
At our Antipodes are our cities. states,
And thrOnTed empires nc'er OWNED of ynrc.
But see, the sun speeds on his western path
To glad the nations with expected light.
| Citing also Petrarch, Mr., Sumner passes
next to the . voices uttered subsequently
/ to the discovery of the New World, some
| being familiar to the reading public and
others not. Among the most notable of
those of the colonial period was Cowlev,
| who wrote Il Latin poem, - To the New
| World,' more than 200 wears ago. in which
/ occur these lines or rather its English yer
sion, published in l105:
Long rolling years shall late bring on the times
/ When with your gold debauchel and rpened crimes,
/ Europe the worlds most noble part shall fall;
! Upon her banished gods and virtue call
/ In vain, while foreign and domestic
! AT once shall her distracted bosom tear
Forlorn, and to be pitied even by you:
| Meanwhile your rising glory you >ha view,
Wit, learning virtue. discipline of war,
Shall for protection to your world repair,
/ And fix long illustrlous empire there.
Two centuries ago, also. Sir Thomas
Brown wrote:
When New England shall trouble Spain,
When Jamaica shall be lady of the isles and the ma
When Spain shall be in America hid,
And Mexico shall prove Il Madrid;
| When Africa shall no more sell out their blacks
To make slaves and drudses to the American tracts
When America shall cease 10 send out its treasure
But employ it at !, home in American pleasure;
Nor count them lords but their fellows in trade;
Then think strange things have come to light,
| Whereof but few have had Il foresight.
OF Bishop Berkelys famous poem, il
which occurs the line: . Westward the
course of empire takes its wav,n Mr. Sum
ner SAYS it would be difficult to exaecer
-, =.
there is nothing from any oracle and littl,
from any prophecy which can compar,
with it. But it is not the poet alone from
whom he draws his illustrations. DR.
Darmaut, writing on trade, predicted th
Revolution, and the Marquis D'Argenson
French noble, about 1745, predicted th;l
? the American colonies would sepal at
, from England, and would form a Republi
can nation that would in a short time rem
der itself master of America " And sal,
he, " you will then see how the earth will
be beautiful. What culture, What new
arts and sciences. What safety for com
merce! Navigation will precipitate al
the people toward each other. A day will
8 come when one will 90 in populous an
regulated city of California as one goes il
the stage coach of Meaux."
TO PASS.
OF these some seem probable, some i'm
1 probable, and some impossible. JOIN
t Adams thought he foresaw colonial indie
pendence and the establishment of til
great Republic, not only, but also til
emancipation of slaves, the triumph of on
language, and finally, the establishment c
our republican institutions all over Mort
: America. In 1913 he wrote: Many hun
I dred years must roll away before we sha
q be corrupted. Our pure, virtuous, publ
spirited federative republic will last forever
> govern the globe, and introduce the pei
, fection of man" Gov. Pownal said Amer
S lea would - change the system of Europe,
+. and while its exuberant vitality exposed
to many and dangerous disorders. these
; would at last surmount. Said the Abb
Gregoire in the last century:
It ''Whcn an energetic and powerful NJ
v ton, to which everything presages hig
v destinies, stretching its arms upon the tw
: oceans, Atlantic and Pacific, shall dire
its vessels from one to another by a
e abridged ronte-it may be in cutting tt
e Isthmus of Panama; it may be in formin
!, canal communicating, as has been pr
!, posed, by the river St. John and the lal
L of Nicaragua-it will change the CONNIE
Il cial world, and the face of empires WI
knows if America will not then avenge t