The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-08-31
The American System.

Colonel b. Il. Van Horn in an adj
dress at Fort Scott, Kansas, said that
the student who runs back over the
records of history and marks the mile
stones of human progress will discover
that there has been a law underlying it
all. He will see that America was but
the result of forces long silently at
work, and while kings, mobiles and class
es were vexing the social movements of
mankind there was deep and control
ling under-current gradually lifting up
humanity as it drifted through the
centuries, until at last the higher plain
of its future action and progress was
reached in the establishment of the new
order of government in America. And
he will see that for hundred years this
new force has been at work, one new
State after another has been formed,
each with something dropped of the old,
until at last we have Kansas freed from
these old disabilities in n larger degree
than any of her sisters-a new, virgin
soil, prepared for the highest expert
ments yet tried in human society. That
is by the grace of God and the unfold
ment of human progress the mission
you have before you. And as it has
taken centuries to make a Kansas pos
sible, it teaches you the lesson that you
must devise your own forms and make
your own laws. 1t will not do to bor
row ideas from those who do not under
stand the civilization that has made you
what you are. In other words, the
ideas of reform that are now so COM
mon in agitations in the old world must
not be adopted, for they are born of con-
ditions which you know nothing of.
Communism, socialism, agrarianism,
are all the simple opposites of mon
archy, classes and special privilege. You
have neither, except as you part with
the original powers you hold by the
right of the preamble referred to. And
remedies for all these diseases are not
applicable where there is only political
health.
All these 1 refer to are exotics, But
the essential one is the agrarian idea.
The question of land ownership does
not belong to our system of economy or
our social organization. In time it may
be necessary to restrict the area of land
that any one man may own, but even
that is far in the future, and beyond the
duties of this generation. But our civ
ilization rests on ownership of the soil
by the man who tills it. The American
system of landholding is the exception
to all history, and the farmhouse, with
all its independence, comfort and devo-
ton to soil and country, is unknown
elsewhere in all the world. 1t Is the
basis, the cornerstone, the very ark of
our stability, prosperity and freedom as
q people, and will be for all time. And
come what may in the changes of the
future, it must be guarded as the funda-
mental fact in our civilization. When
that is gone our liberties are the posses
ever afterward. This condition is not
the result of chance or of any of the
consequences of mere governmental
ideas, but from the organic development
of society under law, and above and be-
yond the purposes or aims of mere adj
ministration. 1t is the organic relation
of man and the soil-the basis of all
social order and political stability. The
reverse ideas belong to another civili-
cation entirely: and while demanded,
perhaps, by conditions to be destroyed,
can only be effective in destruction, and
must be superseded when society there
comes to be reconstructed How this is
to be regulated hereafter when popula-
tons crowd this continent as they do in
the old world must be left to the people
and the statesmen of that day--it does
not belong to us-for we cannot under
stand the needs of an age yet to come.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil there
of, is only another way of saying that
sufficient unto the wisdom of man is
the time and circumstances for its exer-
else.