Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-07-14


this conspicuous trait in our National
character as the faithful provision and ex-
tension of the means and opportunities of
this education are the cherished institu-
tion OF the country. Learning, literature,
science, art are cultivated in their widest
range and highest reach, by larger and
larger number of our people, not, to their
praise be 1t said, as personal distinction
or selfish possession, but mainly as a
generous leaven, to quicken and expand
the healthy fermentation of the general
mind, and lift the level of popular fnstruc-
tion. SO far from breeding distempered
spirit in the people, this becomes the
main prop of authority, the great instinct
of obedience. =" 1t is by education, /" says
Aristotle, 81 have learned TO do by choice
what other men do by eonstraint Of fear"
The " breed and Opposition" of peo-
pie, in regard of courage, public spirit
and patriotism, are, however the test of
the working of their institutions which
the world most values, and upon which
| the public most depends. 1t has been
made a reproach Of democratic arrange
ments of society and government that the
| sentiment OF honor and of pride in public
duty decayed in them. 1t has been pro-
| fessed that the fluctuating currents and the
trivial pertubations of their public life
discouraged strenuous endeavOr and last
| ing devotion in the public service. 1t has
been charged that, as consequence, the
distinct service of the state suffered, office
and magistracy were belittled, social
| sympathies cooled, love of country droop-
ed, and selfish affections absorbed the
| powers of the citizens, and eat into the
heart of the commonwealth.
The experience of our country rejects
l ,1.Ns. \ 1
fears a. illusory. They belong to CON
dition of society above which we have
long since been lifted, and toward which
the very scheme Of our National life pro-
hibits a decline. They are drawn from
the examples of history, which lodged
power formally in the people, but left
them ignorant and abject, uafurnshed
with the means of exercising it in their
own right and for their own benefit. In u
democracy welded by the arts, and to the
ends of Il patrician class, the less worthy
members of that class, no doubt, throve
by the disdain which noble characters
must always feel for methods of decep-
ton and insincerity, and crowded them
from the authentic service of the State.
But, through the period whose years we
count to-day, the greatest lesson of all is
the prepOnderance of public over private,
of social over selfish, tendencies and pur-
poses in the whole body of the people,
and the persistent fidelity to the genius
and spirit of popular institutions of the
educated classes. the liberal professions,
and the great men of the country. These
qualities transfuse and blend the hues and
virtues of the manifold rays of advanced
civilization into a sunlight of public spirit
and fervid patriotism which warns and
irradiates the life of the Nation Excess
of publicity as the animating spirit and
stimulus of society more probably than its
lack will excite our solicitude in the fu-
ture. Even the public discontents take on
this color, and the mind and heart of the
whole people ache with anxieties and
throb with griefs which have no meaner
scope than the honor and the safety of the
Nation.
Our estimate of the condition of the
people ut the close of centurv-as bear.
ing on the value and efficiency of the
principles on which the Government was
founded, in maintaining and securing the
permanent well-being of Il nation-would
indeed, be incomplete if we failed tC
measure the power and purity of the re
ligiOus elements which pervade and ee
vate our society. One might as well ex
pect our land to keep its climate, its fer
tility, its salubrity were the globe lOOsencd
from the law which holds it in an orbit
where we feel the tempered radiance OF
the sun, as to count upon the preservation
of the delights and glOries of liberty fOl
a people cast loose from religion, whereby
man is bound in harmony with the mora
government of the world
1t is quite certain that the present day
shows no such solemn absorption in the
exalted themes of contemplative piety ~
marked the prevalent thought of the peo
pie "A hundred years ago; nor so hopeful
an enthusiasm for the speedy renovation
of the world as burst upon us in the mar
velous and wide system of vehement re
ligious zeal and practical good works il
the early part of the nineteenth century
But these fires are less splendid only be
cause they are more potent and diffusC
their heat in well-formed habits and man
fold agencies of benefcent activity. They
traverse and permeate society in every di
rection. They travel with the outposts o
civilization, and outrun the. caucus, th,
convention and the suffrage.
The church, throughout this land, up
held by no political establishment, rest
all the tirmer on the rock on which it
founder built it. The great mass of ouI
countrymen to-day find in the Bible-th,
= schools, the Bible in their households
the sufficient lessons of the fear of Goo
J and the love of man which make then
7 obedient servants to the free Constitution
of their country, in all civil duties, anC
3 ready with their lives to sustain it on thu
fields of war. And now at the end of
g hundred years the Christian faith collect
{ its worshipers throughout our land, as a
7 the beginning. What half century arr
was hopefully prophesied for our fa
g future goes on to its fultillment: "As th,
sun rises on a Sabbath morning and ira
) vels westward from Newfoundland to the
Oregon he will behold the countless mil
lions assembling as if by a common i'm
4 pulse, in the temples with which ever,
Y valley, mountain, and plain will be adorn
e ed. The morning psalm and the evening
e anthem will commence with the multi
= tudes on the Atlantic coast be sustained
e by the loud chorus of ten thousand time
A ten thousand in the valley of the Missis
5 sippi, and be prolonged by the thousand
= of thousands on the shores of the Pacific.
What remains but TO search the spirit o
the laws of the land as framed by an,
g modelled to the popular government b
, which our fortunes were committed by tn
4 Declaration of Independence | do nc
|
state, or general, by which the affairs o
4 the people have been managed, sometime
-, wisely and well, at others feebly and i'll
; nor even the fundamental arrangement o
5 political authority, or the critical treat
4 ment of great junctures in our policy ant
!, history. The hour and the occasion con
! cur TO preclude so intimate an inquiry
4 The chief concern in this regard, TO us ant
e 10 the rest of the world, is, whether tn
n proud trust, the profOuBd radicalism, tn
1 wide beneovlence which spoke in tn
= " Declaration" and were infused into tn
: Constitution" at the first have been il
$ good faith adhered TO by the people, an,
$ whether now these principles supply tn
n living forces which sustain and direC
$ government and society
G He who doubts needs but TO look aroun
I 10 find all things full of the original spiri
i and testifying TO its wisdom and strength
r We have taken no steps backward, no
n have we needed TO seek other paths in on
n progress than those in which our feet wer