Morning journal and courier., 1881-06-28

And thus in murmurs low the whispering elms
 Recalled the scenes and incidents of old,
 Until the tide of time which overwhelms
 Our happy college years, seemed backward rolled.
 Their voices were as sweet as is the flow
 And summer's sun, which leap in silver spray
 And hasten down along their mountain way
 To join the river flowing far below.
 And as the rivers stream is deep and still,
 Contrasting grandly with the laughing ril
 Fen thus to-day the elms their songs have changed
 And speak again, their words from mirth estranged They tell of life, where they more may spread
 Their fond protecting arms above our head" "Thus speak she elms, as to and fro The leafy branches toss and sway. Like cadencss from far away Their voices greet to-day With sails spread wide and flags unfurled, To battle with the stormy world We write resolves upon the shore, But they behold, with eyes of age, The waves where such were writ before.
 Oh, prophets ret E grand, aHd your I words ord. are sage; And though. like us. ye have your birth From dust, though ye are things of earth, Your branches point to realms of stars "
 To seek, as Jason did of old,
 The fabled, shining fleece of gold. | The world is with all the strife | And stern realities of life;
 The faces. familiar grown, Boon miles of land and sea shall hide; The voices of familiar tone
 | ehal1 soon be heard in dreams alone. But classmates, though must divide, And bound by fadeless friendships tic, | Shall reach cen leagues of ocean through, And time and death itself defy.
 Dear college walls, where duty hand in hand With pleasure walked; dear elms, whose arches
 Like those of some cathedral old and grand; | Is broken by the trumpet's battle call.
 May God be with and keep us oID and all. | The oration was by James Leighton, of Glenburn, Pa, and was an able effort, de- void of pyrotechnics in oratory, but solid, vigorous and commanding. His subject was s'The Land We Live In; the Excellence and Permanence of its Form of Government" | The delivery was without gesture but forci-
 ble, clear, sonorous and effective. It was we'll maintained effort and showed Q breadth of thought which honored the speaker As said Q distinguished Yalensian who had listened to it with great
 pleasure, 'the future of the speaker is prom ising' His oration was plea for higher opinion among Americans for America, plea
 for a self reliance and independence of judgment in the formation of opin- | ions in regard to American institutions
 and less humble dependence and
 submission to foreign estimates After a comparison of our form of government with | that of Great Britain came the ablest portion of his effort.
 | "Now how was this to be made right :? Theodore Parker said when lying at the point of death in Florence There is glorious future for America, but the other side of the Red Sea- There had to be another war of independence of regenera- l ton rather, a war in which the North and the l SouthSmight suffer in proportion to their ! erI1i1f-thnIr omit TuoS ha io 1i,,I | though different in degree. l "And now I ask what was decided by that war? It decided that the Constitution which Garrison at one end and Calhoun at the other
 had been striving so long and so hard to de- stroy should live It decided that the ex- treme doctrine of State sovereignty, but for which there would have been no secession by the South or threats of secession by the North at an earlier day, should die. It de- cided that civil war which had overthrown every republic hitherto, which had overthrown 1 for the time being the English monarchy could not overcome our Constitution and the government built upon it. The gates of hell I could not prevail against it, for it was found ed upon a rock. It decided that everywhere l there should be free speech, free soil, free labor and free men; that henceforth there should be anti-slavery bible, an anti slavery Constitution and an anti-slavery God. | In that terrific struggle this nation began the | task of working out its own salvation in fear and trembling, and what is more it went far on the way toward it's consummation. Moreover we have found that this Consti- tuition of ours, written as it was and as it ought to have been for people so uncon- servative, has yet been sufficiently expansive and elastic to meet the scores of problems that have arisen under it, and to adapt itself to all the varying circumstances and condi- tions to which it has been exposed. Some of
 this success is doubtless due to our physical | environments and to the character of the people. Although we must have been great nation under any form of government, yet firmly believe that under our peculiar system a greater degree of material development, of 1 individual and collective happiness and intel igence has been reached than would have
 been possible under any other system what soever.
 | a system such this, seeing that it has stood firm against so many racking strains Now am better read in the dark side of
 our country's history, in it's present and past | iniquities, than in laudatory orations deliv- cred upon it. am the last to ignore the | seeds of evil among us that seem likely to germinate to our detriment in the future And yet after making full allowance for all this do not hesitate to avow an unqualified and unbounded faith in, E ultimate Ameri- ca,' and in the permanent propriety of the institutions that individualize it. Now it is clear and unmistakable induction from the recent history of the world that the power of the people is upon great and rap i'd increase. But no one need fear the pros- pect of this coming characterization. Alt great liberal movements of modern Europe
 have come from below and not from above
 Dickens has generalized this into signif-
 cant phrase, .My faith in the people who
 govern is on the whole infnitesimal; my
 faith in the people governed is on the whole
 illimitable'
 ''Seldom does permanent injury come from
 the increased power of the people. History
 proves that any measure which the governed
 generally demand and consistently and per-
 sistently demand, is right. Vor popuSiis 0or
 Des after all when governments are just. It
 is only when governments are inefficient, ty-
 rannical or corrupt that COG popatE becomes
 DOE diGbOH. Our history as Q whole, though
 GIIad otas,,s and irco,, ,eiekanciar fa NAV-