Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-07-13


hundred years finds these prodigious
activities in their fullest play-inces-
SAINT and all-poWerful- indispensable in
! the habits of the people, and impregna-
BILE in their affections. Their public
service, and their subordinati0n to the
public safety, stand in their play upon
one another and in their freedom thus
| maintained. Neither could long exist
IN true ylgOf in our system.without the
other. Without the watchful Omni-
present and indomitable energy of the
press the suffrage would languish.
would be subjugated by the corporate
power OF the legiOnS of placemen which
the administration of the affairs of a
great nation imposes upon it, and fall
prey to that ''vast patronage which, :"
we are told, distracted, corrupted,
and finally subverted the Roman Re-
public" On the other hand. if the
| impressions of the press upon the opin-
ions and passions Of the people found
no settled and ready mode of their
working out, through the frequent and
peaceful suffrage, the people would be
driven, to satisfy their displeasure at
government or their love of change. to
the coarse methods of barricades and
batteries.
We cannot, then, hesitate to declare
that the original principles of equal
society and popular government still in
splre the laws, live in the habits of the
people, and animate their purposes and
their hopes. These principles have not
lost their spring or elasticity. They
have suficed for all the methods of
government in the past; we feel no
fear for their adequacy in the future.
Released now from the tasks and bur
denS of the formative period, these
principles and methods can be directed
with undivided force to the everyday
conduct of government, to the staple
ard steady virtues of administration.
The feebleness of crOWding the statute
books with uneXecuted laws: the dam
ger OF power outgrowing or evading
responsibility; the rashness and tickle
ness OF temporary eXpedients the con-
slant tendency by which parties decline
into factions and end in conspiracies:
all these mischiefs beset all govern
ments, and are part of the life of each
generation. To deal with these evils
the tasks and burdens of the imme-
date future-the Nation needs no other
resources than the principles and ex-
amples our past history supply These
principles, these examples of our
fathers, are the strength and the safety
OF our state to-day: "fori5ats, o1attquis,
stat res no"sG22a, si~isqate.'
Unity, liberty, power, prosperity
these are our possessions to-day. Our
territory is safe against foreign dam
gers; its completeness dissuades from
further ambitions to extend it, and it's
rounded symmetry diScOurages all at
temptS to dismember it. No division
into greatly unequal parts would be
tolerable to either. No imaginable
union OF interests or passions, large
enough to include one-half the country
but must embrace much more. The
madness of partition into numerous
and feeble fragments could proceed
only from the hopeless degradation of
the people, and would form but an in
cident ingeneral ruin.
The spirit of the Nation is at the
highest-its triumph over the Unborn,
inbred perils of its Constitution has
chased away all fears, justified all
hopes, and with universal joy we greet
this day. We have not proved I'M
worthy OF. a great ancestry; we have |
had the virtue to uphold what they so
wisely, so firmly established. With |
these proud possessions of the past, |
with powers matured, with principles |
settled, with habits formed, the Ma |
ton passes as it were from prepare
tory growth to responsible develop |
ment of character and the steady per-
Torrance of duty. What labors await |
it, what trials shall attend it, what
triumphs for human nature, what
glory for itself, are prepared for this
people in the coming century, we may
not assume to foretell. zone genera
ton passeth away, and another genera
ton cometh, but the earth abideth for
ever, and we reverently hope that
these, our constituted liberties, shall
be maintained to the amending line of
our pOsterity, and so long as the earth
itself shall endure.
In the great procession of nations,
in the great march of humanity, we
hold our place. Peace is our duty,
peace is our policy. In its arts, its la
bors and its victories, then, we find
scope for all our energies, rewards for
all our ambitions, renown enough for
all our love and fame In the august
presence OF so many nations, which, |
by their representatives, have done us
the honor to be witnesses of our COM
memorative joy and graduation, and |
in sight of the collected evidences of |
the greatness of their own civilization |