Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1884-02-22
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.
Ownership Of the Soil by the Man Who
Tills II.
[Col. B. T. Van Horn.l

lSol. D. L. van hOrn.J
The student who rams back over the
records of history and marks the mile.
stones OF human progress will discover that
there has been law underlying il all. He
will see that America WAS but the result Of
forces long silently at work, and while
kings. mobiles and classes were vexing the
social movements of mankind there was
deep and controlling under.current gradu.
ally lifting up humanity as it drifled
through the centurics, until at last the
higher plans of its future action and pre-
gress was reached in the establishment Of
the new order Of government in America
And lie will see that for hundred years
this new force has been at work, one new
Stale after another has been formed, each
with something dropped Of the old, until
at last we haze Kansas freed from these old
disabilities in laSer degree than any of her
sisters--a new, virgil soil, prepared for
the highest experiments yet tried in human
society. This il hy the grace Of God and
the unfsidment OF human progress the
mission you have before you. And as il
has taken centuries to make Kansas pos
sible, il teaches you the lesson that you
must devise your own forms and your own
laws. 1t will not do to borrow ideas from
those who do not understand the civiliza.
tion that has made you what you are. In
other words, the ideas of reform that are
now 40 common in sgitations in the old
world must not he adopted, for they are
born Of conditions which yJu know nothing
of. Communism, socialism, agraranisni,
are all the simple opposites of monarchy.
classes, and special privilege. You have
neither, except as you part with the oripi.
nal powers you hold by the right of the
preamble referred to. And remedies for
all these diseases are not applicable where
there ia only political health.
All these refer 10 are exotics, but the
essential one Is the ngrariSn ilea. The
question Of land ownership does not belong
10 our rystem Of economy or our social
organization. In time II may be necessary
TO restrict the area of land that any enc
man may own, but even TINT is far In the
future, and beyond the dniies of tins gen
Grafton. But omt civilization rests on
ownership OF the soil by the man who till,
II. The American system Of landholdinp
ia the exception 10 all history. and the
farmhouse. with all It's independe ence
comfort, and devotion 10 soil and country
Ia unknown elsewhere In all the world /,
ia the basis, the corner. stone, The very arL
OF our stability, prosperity, and freedom
as a people, and will be for all time. Ant
eome what may In the changes of the
} future, II must be guarded as the fnnda
/ mental fact in our civilization. Wher
that is gone our liberties are the possession
Of power and craft, and vt sea forever
alterward. This condition is not he resnl
OF chance or of any Of the consequences o
mere governmental ideas, hut from th,
! organic development OF society under law
r and above and beyond the purposses ol
, aims OF mere administration. II il III,
srganic relation OF man and the soil-th,
, basis Of all social order and political sta.
bility. The revere ideas belong TO ~nothei
civilization entirely, aud while demanded
> perhaps by conditions to be dcstIOye,l, ca,
, only he effective in destruciion, and D,ur
lc superseded when society there comes /,
lie reconstructed, How il this to he regu.
lated hereafter when populations crow,
this continent m they do in the Old Worl,
mist bc left 10 the people and the states
mau.hip oi that dn. lit does not belong /,
'i.-for we cannot understand the needs o
} an Hgv yet to come. Sufficient unto th
, day Is the evil thereof, 10 only another wa,
ot saying that sufficient unto the wisdom
OF man la the time and clrcaInsl ances 10
, Its exercise.