Mexico weekly ledger., 1881-10-27

The Battiefieia ef the Eigh.
teenth Century IL MaAe Dt.
vine by the Morale u tho
.Nineteenths - ,s|-;s -.-
tProfessor Sviasl ser
1t ought 10 be as sweet and beautiful
to live for ones country - to die for it
The vast number landing from every ship
should at once enter upon life as new
in. morals as in climate or in agricul
ture. The church, the mission church,
the mission Sunday school, the cheap
moral newspaper, the rest Of Sunday,
temperance laws, schools Of industry and
of all practical callings. should reach the
wilderness or the prairie along with the
emigrant. T.s II .:.s.s+ 3.'}
Patriotism not being required any
longer to shoulder the musket, must
take up moral weapons and accomplish
by the school house and church and lit
ersture what our fathers may have
sought by the sword-the safety and
welfare of the nation. The sword has
been beaten into q ploxshare, the spear
into pruning-hook, and learning war
no more, the heroes of to-day and Of to
morrow must be heroes in q spiritual
warfare or else sink into unworthy
graves.
It would seem q defect in the economy
of our earth if there could be no sub
lime patriotism except that which is caus-
ed or revealed by the bloody field, because
such a law weufd make war mors useful
than peace; but the economy. Of our
world is wise if there are spiritual channels
along which the heart may pour its love
of country. s,. IL :,
George Peabody was one of those sol
diers upon the second battlefield. In
the first struggle of our nation its physi.
cal forces were to be met-the early
French, the Indians, and the British.
Such conflicts are brief but terrible.
Then comes the long spiritual contest in
which the struggle is with indolenee, ig-
norance and vice. Manhood must be
created out of coarse material.
Washington was hero in the former
shape of battle; George Peabody in the
latter contest; and the courage which led
among musketballs was no greater or
grander than the one which gave six
millions of dollars for his country's per-
petual good. In Baltimore and in all
the south there are five millions, the in
Come of which turns into education, and
will do so for generations to come This
is the union of patriotism and morals
which might so carry forward this nation
that in twenty-five years it would shame
all history in the education and morality
and industry of its millions. Nothing
but patriotism thus directed can meet
the incoming host and the native-born
host and make them worthy citizens Of q
noble republic.', -
So amazing has been the growth of the
material riches of the United States that
George Peabody was poor compared with
many Americans who are now living.
There are many citizens who could pre-
sent to public instruction ST, 900, 900 and
still be much richer than ever was the
American banker of London.
A million has greatly lessened its size
in the last twenty years. It is only .
fraction now of some colossal fortunes;
but in the good it would achieve among
the common people a million possesses
angelic power. It would help transform
quite an army Of children, it would
transform new state into a picture of
civilization. What is called the refine
ment of the older states has come greatly
from that kind of application of money
which has built colleges and schools and
libraries and churches. No good comes
| without a cause.
For all the excellence of the Atlantic
society we see causes eveywhere-causes
acting and long continuing. What mill
ions of money have been given 10 Yale
and Harvard and Princeton, and to the
libraries and schools of every artl A
patriotism besides that of the battlefield
has passed all over the eastern states, and
has verified for the hundredth time the
adage that the pen is mightier than the
sword. At least the sword is drawn in
vain, unless the soldiers of morals follow
the soldiers Of the sword and make into
men those whom war has made into citi-
zens.
In the old centuries, after the sword
came the collector of taxes, or the draft
er of conscripts, and peace had no fruits
and empires no security. In our land
war has been only temporary task from
which the whole population has turned
quickly as possible to mental and in
dustrial pursuits. What has given such
meaning and grandeur to the struggle of
1776 has been the zeal in the pursuit of
morals which followed the zeal Of Concord
and Yorktown. The battlefield Of the
eighteenth century is made divine by the
morals of the nineteenth. .t