Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-12-22
4ailp genntbef Journal.
New England's Anniversary.

marks the anniversary OF the landing OF
the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Two hundred
and sixty-two years have rolled away
since that event. The landing amidst
snow and ice on the bleak. inhospitable
shore; the building Of log houses for
shelter during the inclement weather of
winter lust commenced; the clearing of
the forests subsequently and the sharp
struggle which ensued to keep starvation
from the door and Withstand the cruel
purposes of the savages around them; all
these are familiar to readers Of New Eng
land history and need not be recounted.
But the story of the results which have
followed the settlements at Plymouth and
jamestown is always new, always open
ing up wider fields, greater wonders in the
growth and progress Of the American
people, as the years roll on. The Pill
grims at their landing could have had no
conception Of the mighty nation Of which
they were the seed. We. at this period
in the history of our country. can have no
conception of what will stand unfolded
when two hundred and sixty-two years
more have passed away.
In his speech at the Pilgrim festival
of the New England Society of New York.
Dec 22d, 1S43. in commemoratIon OF the
landing at Plymouth, Daniel Webster said :;
at would be great presumption in me to
ego back to the scene of that settlement,
"or to attempt to exhibit it in any colors,
latter the exhibition made today yet il is
ian event that in all time since, and in all
''time to come, and more in times to come
ethan in times past, must stand out In
"great and striking characteristics to the adj
"miration of the world. The suns return
''to his winter solstice, in 1920, is the
.'epoch from which he dates his first ac-
.quantance with the small people. now
lone of the happiest, and destined to be
lone of the greatest that his rays fall up
ION; and his annual visitation, from that
"day to this, to our frozen region. has en-
tabled him to see that progress, progress,
Twas the characteristic of that small peo-
"ple. He has seen them from handful,
that one of his beams coming through
"a kev-hole might illuminate, spread over
"a hemisphere, which he cannot en-
"lighten under the slightest eclipse. Nor
'though this globe should revolve round
"him for tens of hundreds of thousands OF
wears, will he see such another incipient
colonization upon any part of this at
'tendant upon this mighty orb
II do not reckon myself quite among the
"oldest of the land. and yet it so happens
''that very recently required to an exult-
ling speech or Grafton of my own, in
(which spoke of my country as consist
ling of nine millions of people. could
hardly persuade myself that within the
''short time which had elapsed since that
"epoch our population had doubled; and
THAT at the present moment there does
"exist most unquestionably as great a
"prob ability of its continued progress, in
'.the same ratio, as has ever existed in
''any previous time. l do not know whose
'.imagination is fertile enough. do not
"know whose conjectures, | may almost
"say. are wild enough to tell what may
"be the progress of wealth and population
Sin the United States in half century to
"come."
Only thirty-nine years have passed
since Mr.. Webster made the foregoing re-
marks. Eleven years more are necessary
to complete the half century in the flu
ture of which he spoke; and yet this
country has in the time already elapsed
since he made his speech-thirty-nne years
-trebled the population of 1913, and its
progress in many other directions of a
material nature has far outstripped its in
crease in population. During this time
we have had the waste and destruction of
four years of internecine war waged on
gigantic scale, but even with this we are
far ahead of the imaginings of MIR. Web
ster's vast brain. which he no doubt then
considered bold and extravagant. 1t is
probable that the 22d of December 1898 will
bring our population near to one hundred
million, and that the wealth. resources.
and advancement of the nation in the arts
and sciences, in industrial skill. in all
that is regarded as greatest among the
most enlightened people. will continue to
increase in wonderful proportions.
General Butler will soon assume the
robes of office There is good deal of
curiosity in the old Bay State in regard
to his inaugural. Some Of the busy bodies
of the press are tying their hand at franz
ing one for him. but only Butler can write
Buffers inaugural.
Senator Hale has introduced bill in
the Senate to do away with compulsory
pilotage. We hope the bill may receive
passage through Congress and become
law. 1t strikes at an extortion upon the
shipping interests which has lasted too
long already.