Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-04
Coo. Davis: ADDRESS.

0OC. DOCCS>:: AOOfeSS.
1t is not without cause that nations. sects.
communities and individuals, by custom
which seems worldwide observe with COM
memorative ceremonies the recurrence Of certain
days with which events of great national, re-
ligious and personal importance commence.
There is a satisfaction in looking back into
the abysm of time into which generations
have been swallowed up and forgotten, to gaze
at some luminous diurnal spot which marks
the occurrence of that without which an en-
pire could never have existed, or faith never
been defined for belief, or human right never
ceased from being an ethical abstraction to
become a concrete and benefcent fact, or q
person never born to taste the joys and SORROWS
of life and to fall heir to the inexpressible her.
itage of Immortality.
At one day in each year the Christian tray
erses the tract of eighteen centuries. and gazing
from obscure Bethlehem over the civilized
world and over the enormous epoch of his faith
traces the sublime consequences of the nativ-
ity. He sees that in period so short that it
attests the miracle, the entire skeptical,
dogmatic and practical Roman
world was penetrated and
possessed by the cardinal idea of faith which
sprung from the despised Semitic province,
and overcame the indurate prepossessions of
the Aryan family. He sees the vast and un-
ending political consequences of the event
which he commentaries. He sees how thoroug-
iy Christianity took possession of the place
proyidentially left for it in the instertices of
the Roman structure and speedily transformed
It in color, shape and proportions.
He appreciates the fact that the functions of
q kingdom not of this world needed to make
efficient it's propagandizing idea of personal
equality the aid of secular institutions. 1t
found them in the marvellous machinery of the
Roman polity. He sees the submergence of
"a a AMI
gence SO complete that nothing but the cross
can at times be seen over that waste of waters.
The hopes of civilization and progress seem
ended. But barbarian itself was in time SUBJ
dued by that which it had conquered. 1t had
brought from its northern forests the practice
of parliamentary participation in affairs by
every free man which by elective affinity COM
bined with the religious dogmas of personal
equality, and the Christian world was at
once placed upon line of logical consequences
which, by asserting the freedom of the indivi-
dual and the equality of man to man, has
found its most perfect development in the
| United States.
| Hegira of the Prophet, commentaries its day,
and standing at Mecca, sees the crescent, within
| the period of seven hundred years, composing
| nations with its arc of conquest, one point
touching Grenada, and the other shining over
Vienna.
| What day more than this thrills every seusi-
| bility of the American citizen-this day Of
! days-when our charter of human rights was
| signed with dedications to its maintenance of
| lives, fortunes and sacred honor-which has
| been for more than one hundred years pre-
served inviolate which has been confirmed by
| an extension of its EXTREMIST declaration that
| all men are created equal, by the emancipation
of the slave ana his participation as free man
| in the administration of the institutions by
/ tod 90 a-,J
| bondage?
| Two hundred years ago the Francis.
can father Hennepin, saw the Falls of st. An
thony He was the first white man who ever
saw and heard the throbbings of that
| great artery of power which now
| gives life to thousands of people
| and moves those great mechanical agencies
which in our. hearing almost, are doing the work
of hundreds of thousands of men. For un-
mum bered ages the cararact had spent it's pow
ers wearing away the ledge over which it fell,
receding nerthward through gorges which it
cut, and in which it has recorded its recess
sion. The widest dreamer of two hundred
years ago could not have foretold of the won.
drous changes which would be worked upon the
| scene.
The indomitable courage of the French in
discovering and opening up the territory west
| of the Alleghanies, their utter failure to hold
| it and its relapse into obscurity form one of
the most interesting aud obscure problems Of
our history,
By the yea- 1850 La Sale, a gentleman by
birth and scholar by education by the Jesuits,
then the best schoolmasters in the world. had
built ship above Niagara Falls. made the cir
cult of the great lakes, landed near the western
extremity of Lake Michigan, traversed what is
now the State of Illinois, and rested at point
on the shores of Peoria lake, where he
built fort. Attached to this company
| of adventurers was Her nepin. He was man
of great resolution, faithful to his vocation,
and of remarkable power of observation-so re.
| markable that his footsteps can be traced to
day in the changed condition of this region,
most distinctly, by the account which he left
of his adventures.
During the winter of 1679-S0 he, with two
companions, had by the order of La Sale, de.
scended the Illinois river to its mouth, and
was directed also to explore the Mississippi
river above the Illinois. They ascended the
river without molestation, probably as far a.
the mouth of the Wisconsin river, when
they were captured by war party oi
| Sioux, and from that time their journey north
wards was an enforced one. Their captors
held debate over their lives, but finally con
cluded to spare them. They were brought BY
the Sioux up the river to 3 point doubtless .
| few miles below where st. Paul now stands
| where the band then left the river and followed
the trail over the country to Mile Lac. 4
Journey of five days brought them to the In