St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-30

a conception to which the ancient mind
never could rise. A days journey on foot
enabled the Athenian elector to appear at
the voting place. From the moment when
the Roman republic expanded its territory,
so that the voice of the distant citizen could
not be heard in the forum, its form of gov
eminent changed in fact, although it re-
manned, as hollow fiction, republican in
theory; and in this is found the explanation
why it was that long after Rome had con-
quered Italy the republic and the govern
ment remained within the ancient limits.
The conquered regions were merely pro-
vinces. The ancient tradition of central
origin and central governments has sur
vlyed to our own time, and appears in the
colonial systems of England and France.
The great empires which rose and fell be-
fore the art of printing was put to use were
extended by conquest over peoples of the
most diverse characters. That there people
differed in stock, language or faith was little
obstacle to the conquest, anb no reason why
they should not govern themselves. But, as
the world now is, it is true as a general state
ment that for four centuries the tendency
has been that people who speak the same
language form nations by themselves, and
have become free to work out their own des-
TIMES under those mysterious laws of ma
tional Development which each seems to
have, in some degree, peculiar to itself.
Many causes have been assigned to this au-
tomato evolution Of nations, and undoubt-
edly many causes have contributed But
the chiefest, in my judgement, was the
action of the art of printing.
Many books were printed. Each people
read, of course, those which were printed in
its own language. Thought and aspirations
went into the channels of race and lang uage.
The latin ceased to be the imperial languag e
of authority and diplomacy.
Charles the Fifth ruled the Germans, the
Neapoitans, the Dutch, the Spaniards, and
the American provinces of his empire, but
the empire began to disintegrate under his
son, and in the course of time nearly all oil
these people became the constituents of in
dependent states, and wherever was the
boundary of the national speech, no matter
if that boundary was as irregular as the coast
line of the sea, there was the boundary of
that state.
This great rule of national differentiation
has ever since been in operation. Germany
has subdivided into an empire, kingdoms,
duchies, celebrates: bishoprics, almost num-
berless, and yet so remained for several gen.
erations; and yet we have seen in our time
the rule of which I have spoken reassert it
self with such yigor that most of these gov
ernments have united to form one great en-
pire of German speaking people.
In this same fact lies the explanation of
the invlncible nationality of France and
Spain. The Scandinavian governments
have stood indestructible from time older
than tradition speaks of, although almost en-
closed by Russia and Germany.
Napoleon, who rose upon the world like an
Avatar of Sesostris, was an anachronism,
and with all his power he could not thwart
the operation of this rule. That all-emb rac-
ing mind and all-subduing will brooded over
Europe like sky, and yet frem the moment
of his overthrow the flood of conquest sub
sided until the boundaries of language were
reached, and there it remained. In our
time, also, Itaty has resumed her auton-
omy.
OF all the rules which wisest thought has
suggested as the laws of this formation and
growth of states, none is at once so obvious,
so profound and so operative as that one
which attributes them to the elective power
of identity Of language. 1t is the source of
patriotism. 1t Is the mother and the father
tongue. 1t is the music of peoples. 1t is
their ballads, which are stronger than theiI
laws. 1t is that communion of soul with
soul, of the soul of thousand years age
with the aspiring soul of to-day, not through
the medium of fabulous traditions, but
through the medium of speech printed
read, and multiplied, which the monarch
must read with fear because the cottageI
reads with power This is the true exegesis
of the scrptural account of the building
of Babel. Indeed, it is is expressed in the
sacred text purely as political conception.
"And the whole earth was of one Ian
guage and one speech. X = and the Lord
came down to see the city and the tower
which the children of men builded. And
the Lord said, behold the people is one ant
they have all one language. X 90 to-
let us go down and there confound theiI
language that they may not understand one
another's speech. So the Lord scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face Of
all the earth, and they left off to build the
city,
If books have had such an influence in the
the Encouragement OF nations, the newspaper
has continued the work to its present state oil
perfection, and has preserved the results OF
these long processes of human endeavor
During the fifteen years which Immediately
preceded the Shareholders rebellion, the
great1editors thought only of the American
people. The most subtitle attempts to over
reach the truth and the right were detected
and exposed by these watchmen upon the
walls.
The most open assaults found them in the
strongholds of defence. The statesman might
strangle his convictions, and earn the base
wages of his shame, land this was very often
done whereby great names still shine shorn
of their lustre, but throughout that struggle
the editor was unbought and unpurchase
able.
/ do not mean to include In this the lepers
of the profession who, like the witches Of
Macbeth, ''Seem not like the inhabitants oil
earth,' and yet who infest it,and are in YOU
guild yielding themselves to the embraces Of
the most detestable of all prostitutions fol
money or Office. ! mean the men of YOU
profession, who, as the mere natural exposi-
tions of their mental and moral constitutions,
record from day to day for the public benefit
Of their true convictions, without its occur
ring to them that in doing this they do other
wise than they can.
And who in this nation speaks to such g
constituency as the humblest among YOU
The clergyman speaks to his nocIS-too often
in the language of hampered conventonalit,
the lawyer makes his plea over the miserable
pecuniary alterations Of plaintiffs and de-
PENDANTS; the politician bawls and raves in
the fall on the stump; the congressman
writes speech and has leave to print it as
part of the record, and no one ever reads IT,
But the least of you, once in each week, year
after year, speaks TO hundreds of readers
He sends out the poem which makes glad the
tender hearts Of lovers; the little tale ovel
which little children rejoice with eyes great
enine with their innocent wonder; the re-
cipes which the careful housewife lays care
fully away; the story which stirs the boy r.
the achievement of his best destiny; the po
litical intelligence over which the elector re-
fleets and makes up his mind; some .extrac
from a great sermon which mavlift tho