The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-07-07
later events Of our history and of those things
which concern more nearly our future.
THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL SENTIMENT.

1He WAT OL independence uau 5tCufeu OuA
territorial separation from the mother coun-
try, but it required that Of 1872 to give TO our
countrymen the consciousness and sentiment
of distinct nationality and to secure to our
country its proper position among the ma
lions of the earth.
The later war with Mexico confirmed US
in our sense Of national power and developed
even an excessive faith in our manifest
destiny" The still later conflict with the Re-
bellion sobered us to q just appreciation ofour
real strength and manlier confidence in
ourselves. 1t has taken from us much of
tour youthful nervousness aud sensitiveness
in regard to the opinions of other nations !;
and some Of the boastfulness for which we
are criticised, though we never had better
occasion. 1t has assured US that we are
nation now and that we are inseparably one.
Whatever the future may have in store for
US it seems now certain that the people who
dwell between the great lakes and the gull,
between the oceans which constitute our
eastern and western boundaries, are to have
one common destiny. Hereafter the nation 8
mandate will be obeyed in ell that territory.
Here on this soil, with our varied resources
and distinctive and yet not dissimilar char
acteristics we shall work out together the
great problems of self government.
The Revolution Of 70 left our fathers in
the possession Of independence, but the Con-
stiution which few years later they adopt
ell created government and citizenship
principally of property holders. 1t was
nearly fifty years before universal suffrage
bad obtained in all the Northern States even,
excepting in New England.
1t took nearly fifty years more, three
generations of men, and another conflict
which has been like new revolution, to
hing the Constitution in entire accord with
tie Declaration. Here, as among the other
free nations in this century, liberty has had
new growth. Amid the smoke and car
mage of a hundred battle-fields the nation
has had new birth, and the ideas Of the
men of rs have been embodied at last in
our institutions
CHANGES IN OUR NATIONAL CHARACTER.
We have entered on the second century of
our national existence amid changed condi-
tons and with greatly enlarged capacity
for advancement and usefulness.
The age of sailing vessels and stage
coaches, of spinning wheels and sickle and
fail, of the continental hat and breeches
and queue, has given place TO that of steam
power and railroads aud telegraphs, of
steam mills and reapers and planters and
threshers, of photographs and telephones,
the electric light and the aesthetic Mr..
Wilde
At the time of the American Revolution
the city fathers in Boston heard once
fortnight from those in New York and
Philadelphia. and about once in six weeks
news was received from the old home
across the Atlantic. Men and their meth
DDS were slow. There were no manufactures
of Importance. Lands were everywhere
carelessly titled, much as they now
are in most parts of the South.
The great Northwest was o will
derness. New England was quietly edu-
eating her school masters and celebrating
many Yankee " notion and her invalua-
BILE township system. New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania had their great pro.
pretors, their tenant farmers, their "pOOr
white trash" in the mountains, and their
slaves, as lately in the Southern States.
1t is the school master, the growth of in
telligence, of liberty, of Industrial art, which
has changed it all AMI has given as this fair
heritage of we'll titled farms and thriving
eities.-a land linked asgetheF by railroad
and lake and river, already adorned with
noble monuments Of art which had done
credit to the opuleRt civilizations of the Old
World-a land Allied with q people, than
which none raOue free, more equal, more
generally blessed " in basket and in store"
the sun never looks upon in all his daily
round.
II is Ratuual that in. this transition period
of OH national growth there should have
been some corresponding. changes in our
character and ideas.
Il The Americans of the Revolutionary peri
cd had been assimilated by the. common
| dangers of the forest and savage. Since
that period, and especially since 1870, a
stream of immigration has flowed in upon
us which cannot but have made a deep I'm.
preston upon our national life They come
to us from Ireland and Germany, from Italy
and that old "hiVe of nations in the North
of Europe. They bring US muscle and brain
stout hearts, and passionate love Of liberty.
They comes often with art and culture. In
ssnsibly under the influence we grow to be
another .people-yet thus far no less imbued
with the love of liberty nor less devoted to
material progress.
Between the ages of Washington and Gar
ield--the age of flint locks and that of the
groOved rife and Columbiads--what con-
tras The very difference in the men re-
presents the changes Of our society. There
is Washington, the grand old hero patriot.
whose name and memory the world will
never let die. The man first in war, frs
in peace, first in the hearts of his country
men," You see him, pictured as he was
" crossing the Delaware" as he was sin The
Hall of Independence" as he looked SC
grand and dignifed when he delivered back
to Congress the sword with which he had
achieved nations liberty. Never truel
heart bore in trying hours the burthen Of
his CoNRbFy's destiny. Never nobler sou
than his when he voluntarily laid down the
truly kingly powers, with which he had beer
invested. For such a man so wise and brave
and true the nations had waited for ages in
fond expectancy.
But as you look upon that majestic form
and ever dignifed bearing you are sensible
that you see in him one of the noblest types
of our race, very truly "the fine old Eng
fish gentleman of the olden time but not
the man of the people. Washington was the
representative of the aristocratic element
transplaAted to our shores. He was tbs
grandest product of social system which
has almost passed away. You might wish
that all the world were like him, noble. pure
and true, but the coming man, the man Of
the people. the product of our institutions
was to be like him in spirit, yet greatly diff.
ferent in style and surroundings.
j We have lately seen that man in Garfield
to my mind, the most complete specimen Of
republican manhood in many particulars
which our society and institutions have pro
duced.
He has risen from the tow path to the
Presidential office. His early companions
are not the Fairfaxes and the semi.feudal
BarOns Of Virginia. He grows up among the
people. Earnest, truthful, courageous. pa.
triotic, he passes from one position to an.
other with calm selfpoise, and, with mar.
velOus fitness for each new charge that he
assumes. No more chivalric bearing OF
] heroic heart ever graced battlefield thar
his at Chickamauga. No more accomplished
scholar or polished gentleman has ever
adorned the Halls of Congress. or made his
/ home in the elegant apartments Of the White
, House. His manhood, his culture, his lofty
purpose, his courageous fidelity to the peo-
pies interests, his readiness in word and
thought, his large humanity, his broad gen,