The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-05-30
Ths story OF ,hs socla, Union.

pttuAl ODAARdtlOA OF Lhe leQtTM GulOu, 20
naassean,, and always with reference to politi-
cal principles. Whether its formation was
matter Of compact Of sovereign States, ac-
cording 70 one theory, or fundamental,
irreyocable law" according to another, the
question in the abstract remained at the end
as unsettled a. at the beginning and few
there were among the doctriaaireS Of the times
who dreamed what rude and bloody solu-
ton it would receive. One Of the wisest and
most philosophic Of foreign historians less than
thirty years ago solemnly recorded his convic-
ton that whatever were the defects Of the
American constitution. one vast merit it had
that it made civil war impossible But war
did come, and the result is 70 relegate into
\ 'obsoletism" If We may coin word-all these
doctrinal controversies which have as little
interest now as who wrote the Eikon Basilike
I or the letters Of Phalaris, and to establish as a
fact the pernanence Of the Union for all time,
and the existence Of what old-tme politicians
never wrote Of Ct is not alluded 70 in the
Declaration Of Independence q 'nation.
Hence is it that now that the century has
nearly run out and the grand commemora-
doctrinal controversy is hushed, and in the
actual, and We trust, glorious present We for
get this unpleasant phase Of the past
| But there was once, and if there be not now
We fondly and proudly trust there will be
again, another union which long antedated
tie political one, and without which, like the
eternal hills on which Rome was built, the
( 1pfn ha haav
Rome is in ruins, but the hills remain. 1.-The
mountains" in the grand words Of Holy
Writ. "stil stand around Jerusalem" This
union is the social union, which existed
among the old Thirteen long before anything
political was dreamed of, and on which, in
this season Of centennial commemoration, it
is not amiss to bestow an earnest reverential
\ thought. John Adams once said that ssthe
Revolution was twenty years Old when the
war began" and we say that our Union was
century or three-quarters Of century old
when it was declared to exist Without being
too didactic let Us think of it for moment
The inquiry is very curious as to the precise
or probable period when the North American
colonies began to look upon each other as
friends and brethren. There was no original
principle Of union. They were not one in
language, in origin, in religion or in interest.
/ None could then suppose they would ever be
one in destiny. The infant settlements on
the coast hardly contriyed to conjecture what
sort of folks lived on the other side of the
headlands which iutted out into the ocean,
and when they did peep beyond often saw
strange and hostile faces and heard the sound
Of other tongues than their own. Even when
there was common origin there was no sym
pathy and the Swede and the Dutchman
were better friends far than the Cavaliers and
Independents of old England, who seemed to
have no dearer use for common tongue
than TO rsvile each other conveniently, and
claimed common birthplace as giving them
the privilege to hate each other the more vio-
lendy.
But greater causes higher influences than
OF mans contriving, we're soon made manifest
70 wall out the sure destiny Of social sympa-
thy. Geographical relations favored il.
Looking at the face Of the country, and bear
ing in mind that the primal settlements were
merely on the coast and in depth did not ex-
tend to the first Of the mountain ranges which
run leugthwise through the Continent, there
was no physical barrier to divide the colonists
from each other. No arm Of the ocean was
interposed to prevent free intercourse, no
bay or river that could not be easily crossed.
There we're neither Pyrenees nor Alps, and
the primitive mail carrier Of those days-for
mails Of some sort came early so soon as the
path was cut through the forest and before
the thicket was cleared of the Indian-carried
his little budget slowly, but securely, from one
end Of British North America to the other.
Each great ryer-the Delaware, the Susque-
hanna, the Hudson and the Connecticut
its source beyond the charter limits Of the
colony on whose shores it reached the ocean,
and the riparian privilege which nature gives
Of free navigation in and OUT unquesuoped
at that time, made distant settlers on the
same waters feel like neighbors.
j. is not easy to ascertain when the first
road was made along the seaboard. II 1877,
before the settlement Of Philadelphia. William
Edmundson, public Friend, travelled south
ward from New York to the Delaware, in COM
pany with Swede and Indian guide. In
attempting to cross from Middletown Point
somewhere about our South Amboy-they lost
their way and were obliged to 60 back, 80 as
to find the Raritan al any point and to follow
its margin till they came to q small landing
from New York, and thence by path TO the
/ falls Of the Delaware. "By this means only"
says be, 'did we find our way, and we
saw no tame animals on the route"
Twenty years later, in 1898, one Of
william PENIS companions, in speaking
Of the infant prosperity Of the Quaker
settlement attributed it 10 ats vast and
extended trafique and commerce by sea
and land, and then enumerates the distant
points whittier the vast traffic extended not
Calcutta or Canton or Japan not Lima or