The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-10-05
The Future of America.

Professor Huxley, in his recent address
st the opening of the John Hopkins Uni
versity, Baltimore, said:
| constantly hear Americans speak of the
charm which our old mother country has
for them; of the delight with whIch they
wander through the streets Of ancient towns
or climb on battlements Of med Ryal strong
holds, the names of which ave IudIssOlupy
associated with the great epOchs of hat
noble literature which is our common IN
heritance, or with the b. God stained steps
of that secular progress by which the de-
scendapts OF the savage Britons and the wild
pirates of the North Sea have become cor
verted into warriors of order and champion s
4 peaceiui freedom, eXhausting what still
remains OF the old BerseIkcr spirit in sub
dung nature and turning the wilderness
into garden. Bat anticipation has no less
charm than retrospect, and to an English
man landing upon your shores for the first
time, travelling for hundreds Of miles
through strings of great and well-ordered
cities, seeing your enormous. actual, and
almost infinite potential wealth IN all com
modities, and in the energy and ability
which, turn wealth to account, there Ia
something sublime in the vista oil the fu ure.
Do not suppose that am pandering to W hat
l. commonly understood 10y national pride.
cannot Say thal l am in the slightest degree
impressed by your bigness, or your material
escurces As such. Size is not grandeur,
AMI territory does not make a nation. The
] great Issue about which hangs true sub
Unity, and the tenor of overhabging fate Is
what are you going to do with all these
! thIHgsi What is 10 be the end to which
! these are 10 be The means2 You are making
a novel experiment in politics on the great
est scale which the world has yet seen.
Forty millions az your first centenary; it is
reasonably to be expected that at the second
these States will be occupied by two
hundred million of English speaking peo-
| pie, spread over an area as large as that OF
Europe, and with climates and interests as
diverse as those of Spain and Scandinavia.
England and Russia. You and your descen
| dants have 10 ascertain whether this great
mass will hold together under the forms OF
u r. public and the despotic reality of uni
versal suffrage; whether State rights will
hold out against centraIizatioG without
separation; whether Capitalization will get
the better without actual or disguised mol
archy; whether shifting corruption is bet
'er than permanent bureaucracy; and as
population thickeus in your great cities and
the pressure of want is felt. the gaunt
spectre Of pauperism will stalk among you
and communism aud socialism will clam to
he heard. Truly America has a great future
before her-great in toll, in care, in respon
sibility; great in true glory If she be guided
in wisdom and righteousness; great in
shame il she fail. l cannot understand why
| other nations should envy you or !ai! 10 set
| that it is for the highest interest of mankind
that you should succeed; buE the one con
ditiOn of success, your sole safegui ard, is
the moral worth and intellectual clearnes- OF
| the individual citizen. Education cannot
give these, but it can cherish them anG
bring them to the front in whatever station
of society they are to be found, and the
universities ought to be, and may be, The
tOrtresses of the higher life of the n ItIon.
May the university which CONNIE noes il,
practical activity tomorrow abundantly
fulfill its high purpose; may its renown as
seat of true learning. a centre of free in
quiry, focus of intellectual light, increase
year by year until meu wander hither ION
all parts OF the earth, as of old they snugh
Bologna, or PARIS or Oxford; and it i
pleasant TO me to fancy that among th'
English students who are drawn to you m
that day there may linger dim tradition
that countryman of theirs was permit ec
70 address you AS he has done to-day, anC
| feel as if your cause were his cause, and
your success his joy. . ...