The Portland daily press., 1878-01-04
M. Il. A. COURSE.
Rev. Joseph Cook on ''The Ultimate of
America,

The last lecture in the Mercantile course, by
Rev. Joseph Cook last evening drew but about
half of house full of people. Why there should
have been SO many empty seats when such
celebrated speaker was announced is har1 to
tell. The subject Of Mr.. Cooks lecture was
'"The Ultimate of America" and for one hour
and ffty-fve minutes he discoursed in his usual
rapid strain upon this theme. He commenced
abruptly by saying that Sir Charles Dixie, the
English traveller, says that after he had seen
cultured New England, he looked back and did
not seem to himself to have seen America.
After his tour through the South and West, he
had the same feeling. 1t was only after he
had sailed on the Pacific out of sight of the
Continent that he obtained conception of
America and the American character.
1t is very trite to say it, and yet it is an in
spired truth, that the Roman eagles, when their
wings were strongest, never few as far as
from Plymouth Rock to the Golden Gate.
Open the compasses until they touch on the
one side Thebes and on the other side London,
and they will not span the green fields and the
steepled cities between the Bay of Fundy and
the Pacific coast. Do not forget that Califor-
mia is larger than England, Wales, Scotland
and Ireland, and Texas than France. OF
course, do not forget that bigness Is not great
ness. But bigness is opportunity, and oppor-
tunty employed is greatness. De Tocquevile
has never been unwise because he said that
North America alone would some day sustain
150,00O,00O people. Crowd our 4O,O0O,O0O of
population into Texas and they would have
oil bo ha pnnY1o of
From this crowding comes the danger Said
Macaulay: Gas for America, appeal to the
Goth century, Later he said, "The time will
come when your government will be elected by
men who have not had breakfast enough and
who do not expect to get dinner enough, and
then unless Caesar or Napoleon sezes the
reins OF government. your country will be as
plundered as was Rome in the 9Th century,"
You say that we have yet heard nothing of the
Huns and Vandals, but remember that we
have not yet heard the footsteps of the goth
century. Notlong ago we beheld thin stream
Of fire creep out of the earth from Maine to
California What il dense population had
dwelt along that line?
1t is not commonly known that the amount
of arabic soil in North and South America is
greater than that in Europe, Asia and Africa
put together, and can therefore sustain more
lives. Our continent is narrow, aud therefore
the winds Of ocean water it well. Some of US
who are not yet very old have seen onr popula-
ton increase from IL 900, 900 to 40 100000. 1n
1890 the pivotal point, about which, if it were
solid body, our population would swing, was
a lutte east of Baltimore. Now it is little
east Of Cincinnati. AS Prof. Walker shows,
it has changed forty-fve feet since morning. l
ask you to pause over this pivotal point, for
perhaps our faults chiefly arise from the fact
that we have been frontier people. Around
this point have gathered many of the causes of
our National peculiarties.
Suppose that there are 100.000,000 persons in
all America in the year 1000. This is surely
moderate estimate, for now there are 84,000,000.
Suppose that after the year 1000 our increase is
PER cent a year, or less than the present in
crease 10 England and Germany 1t is said
that the Imagination is audacious, but the re-
suit is more so. On this oasis, what do we find
the future of America to be? Its population in
the year 2600 would be 6,400, 100000. The
"Encyclopedia Britannica" atfirms that North
and South America can furnish sustenance for
$500 COO 900. Europe has an average popula-
tion of eighty persons to the square mile. We
have an area of 5000, GOO square miles. If we
conclude (and why may we not?) that we shall
some day have as large an average, our popula-
tion will be 1 200, 100000.
Gods plans for the future are not less grand
and majestic than have been his achievements
in the past. 1t is probable that eventually the
English language will be universal medium
OF thought, and, although the prediction seems
wild, even at distance of three centuries,
governmental alliance of all English speaking
nations is to be hoped for and expected. In the
event of such an alliance, the Pacific will be to
America only what the Mediterranean was to
the Roman Empire. Standing anywhere east
of the Rocky Mountains, you can see the spire
Of the New York Tribune, while if you put
your ear to the ground anywhere west of Can
ton you hear the roar and rlmble of the Lon
don Times.
Undoubtedly America will be land of great
cities-let 5000 be the smallest plumber that can
form a city, The fraction of our population
living in them, from one-ffteenth at the form
alton of our government has rapidly increased
until it is now oae-sixth. Our people have gone
from Jerusalem to Jericho-and fallen among
thieves. This great augmentation of urban
population, while it must be admitted to con-
duce to social culture and refinement fosters all
the most dangerous elements in the nature of
man, all the most dangerous enemies to civili-
zation. Boston, with one-sixth of the popula-
ton of Massachusetts, has one-half of the
criminals. New York, with three times Bos-
toms population. costs seven times as much to
govern, and is governed seven times as poorly.
But New York is not America, in any such
sense as London is England, or Paris France.
There are five great civilizing powers through
whose combined aid we alone can avert from
America the impending evils which threaten
her-the parlor, the pulpit, the press, politics
and the police; the parlor embracing all social
influences; the pulpit all emanations from the
rostrum; the press the whole field of literature;
politics and the police the system of govern
ment