Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-12-04
PROF. SWING ON OUR NATIONS
FUTURE.


justice. If there be greater principles
than they have escaped my observa-
tion. Into our land all these ideas
enter as component parts. Not that
they exist here in a perfect form, but
that they are here In In q power
not equaled In the past. Here, tho
many are poor and homeless, yet
there are more men with homes than
may be found in any other great state.
Che industrial habits of the land,
urged onward by inventions and by
the abolition of caste, which now rem
ders the man of business as noble as
the man of leisure, secure us against
the idleness which helped ruin many
a nation once high in the roll of em-
pires. The love and means OF INTEL
iectual development are q national
quality which are securing US against
the vagaries of some genius or the ca
price Of single General or President.
When Caesar arose, the people of
Rome, like so many children, passed
over to his standard. The crowd
which followed Moses were ready to
follow him with his Jehovah or Aaron
with his calf, but In our day when a
question of merit comes before the
public, the common education comes
between the nation and its detriment.
Next comes the attachment to per-
sonal freedom, for this helps the land
ut once to keep far away all that re-
tards mind or soul. This liberty Of
the individual compels the govern
ment and the church 10 appeal to the
public sense, and whereas king and
priest formerly stood upon authority,
they must now stand upon the aver
age reason of the age and men whom
they once ordered they must now
persuade. The virtue we shall men,
tion is the love of Justice. 1t may
seem almost a satire TO speak of our
nation as possessing love of justice;
out yet this virtue must be included
in our category. Had we the politi-
cal injustice of the old nations, and
perhaps even Of England, we should
long since have possessed and plunder.
ed the Canadas, and have had our tax
collectors in each city and town of
Mexico. We have, indeed, dishonest
men In abundance, but so has Scot
land. France was almost ruined un-
der Louis Napoleon by the criminals
IN the army ranks. Our land contains,
as do all lands, dishonest individuals,
but as a nation 1t has in all Its hum
ired years attempted to be just. Cam
ada and Cuba and Mexico rest In
peace on Its confines, because 1t has
not the political injustice which steals
the property of the weakest.
Such are the elements which COM
pose what we call ''our nation" To
the gifts from nature of climate and
soil, beds of minerals and coal, water
courses, lakes and seas, 1t adds the
pursuit Of education, and property
and common justice, and religion, and
then combines q love of the beautiful
with q constant study of the useful.
There is scarcely an error of the past
which 1t has not rejected, and scarcely
Q virtue Of the past II has not espous-
ed. I appeal not to our self-love but
to history.
y
If even the past, when nations pos
sessed few elements of life and many
seeds Of death, they yet were unable
to perish except BY q most slow eb-
bling away, what may we not expect
Of 9 nation whose people are educated
and whose ideas are those of industry
and liberty, and peace and religion?
Our religion Is NO longer q supersti-
ton that has been wont to degrade
and enslave it's votaries, but 1t Is an
elevated reason which unfolds the
laws Of God as calmly as the states
manshtp of to-day unfOlds the laws
Of nations. The old religion carried
a sword and torch, but our tenn
Piles send forth words Of faith
and wisdom, and ministers, moi
LOT war, but of charity
More blood has perhaps been shed
BY command Of the oracles Of . su-
perstitious religion than by command
Of any political science. In India the
wars sprang out Of religion. Mo
hammedanism slew its myriads In the
oAme Of . divine message. SO Rom.
snism and Protestantism made the
world red with the blood shed In the
name oftheir worship. Our nation
contains NO such seeds Of war and
death, f1r its Christianity has become
charity Of this life and . hope for
the next. Il has fulfilled In part the
dream Of Isailh, and has beaten into
plowshare it, sword, Into 8 pruning.
hook its spear: II, then, nations
which are founded upon some false
ideas with some true ones find It diff.
ficult to die, and cannot possibly be
overthrow In less than hundreds OF
years, what prospect Of life expands
to-day before those who stand In thil
land and look toward the future
This scene, which 10 not painted by
fancy, but by the mighty reasoni
which have made and unmade EN-
pirss, should open before 10 to-day Il
6il every young heart with ambition
and patriotism and hope. All "
young men who are here to-day Cal
build hopes upon this foundation
which We call our country. The wis
dom and love and power Of God or,
In II, acting along with the wisdom
and power and love Of man. Al
greatness 10 comparative, indeed, ans
| the times which surround us now or,
the greatest man has yet seen, bu
happy sll 70 who are in life's morning
for the curtain Of the next centur,
/ will rise upon . country greater in al
the dimensions Of mind and religion
and art and happiness than the LAM
| which-even now 10 90 impressive. =
that dav We older ones will be-
i the sod. but you will be ~ II IA.
ness and welcome and Nd be.
Dor n the enlarged 4
5