Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-07-06
One Hundred Years.

a century old 1t is not much in
the life of nation, especially in the
life of nations that, unlike our own,
were bullded far in the past, yet we
think of it somewhat as we do of mans
life. There comes to us vision of age
and we are almost ready to beast that
we are old. But the vision is not one
of trembling old age, a gray spectre
creeping to its grave, and lying down
i'll darkness and decay. a century old,
but the vision that comes is one of luS-
ty manhood. No halting step, no de-
crepltude, no dimness of vision, no fee
bleness of voice do we celebrate at this
opening second century of the nations
life. The shouts which greet the morn
ing of 0nr Centennial birthday are filled
with Hope and Faith. The nation has
lived one hundred years, and its life is
larger than ever before. 1t has not
lessened but increased in power. 1t
rises before us, not feeble, but giant.
We are looking not upon evening shad-
ows, but upon the glad light of MORN
ing, its glorieS overspreading all the
sky.
And what a wonderful hundred years
it has been. No preceding century has
equaled it 1t is century crowded full
of inventive Thought. The grandest
discoveries of the world have been
wrought out since the closed century
began, more than enough to equal
thousand years of the knowledge of any
other time. Steam enchanted and
taught obedience to man i'm its hun
dreds of applications; lightning harness
ed and sent submissively on mans
farthest errands; the improved process
es OF the printing press, the power
loom, the cotton gin, and ten thousand
other applications of mans inventive
genius in this century of inventions and
discoveries, can be fully appreciated
only if we imagine the world suddenly
deprived of them all. Yat. at the be-
ginning of the just receding century,
humanity knew them not. And now
they have become to us necessities of
our daily life.
Well may we boast of our century of
years, for most of the greatest triumphS
of mans genius were born in the new
nation which has lived only the brief
span of its first hundred years. The
progressive spirit of man has not slum-
bered or slept. 1t has continually NOV
ed with accelerating power, thoughts
of beauty and usefulness, slumbering
long, suddenly awoke to life; the mists
have vanished away, and disenthrall-
ment has come to the minds and the
moral nature of men. The crust has
been broken; all repressive tendencies
have been dashed away, and man is
free under the sunlight of God. The
great moral contests that have shook
the world have resulted in the triumph
of the righteous side. The Rights of
Man" hung in the balance. The voice
of the century's opening spoke victory
when it declared that all men are Great
ed equal, endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
1t was Il decisive hour, and the new
spirit of progress triumphed. And !
there came another fateful hour, a de- |
cisive one of the struggle between Free /
dom and Slavery. When they enter |
ed the lists in deadly contest the re-
suit could not be doubtful Freedom |
won, and Slavery passed away forever.
This was the browning triumph of the /
century, and now at the vestibule of /
the second hundred years, the nation /
may ''look the whole world in the face"
and boast that none but freemen are |
jewellers under the flag
All hail this glad day of the nation.
Ii is, and of right ought to be the ma
tons jubilee. Let every breeze bear
songs of JOY over the earth. Tenderly /
and lovingly we lay a chaplet on the /
past hundred years, and turn to face 4
the incoming century with confident I
hope.
The minstrel OF the future strikes his Tyre
In matelless strains, filled with celestial fire;
Aud ~ the echpcs die,
Amidst tumultuous shOat aud joyful cry
The president intent with rapture hears
Them suunling down another hundred years."
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