Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1885-07-11

patton, Grant onthe field of Appomattox,
these are the three successful and har-
monious strides in that grand and
glorious progress That has lifted us into
a higher national intelligence and moral
ity and opened to us a brighter future
and a nobler destiny.
Our national existence is a to
every hereditary monarch of the world.
We are more than fifty millions in num-
bers, we are more than a century in
years. We take no pride in thrones Or
scepters, robes Or crowns. They are
playthings for children, and to this peo-
pie relics and "reminiscences of an age
forever past.
We have no kings, no queens, no
princes or prinAsses, no landed aristo-
Gratis or titled nobility. We believe in
but Il species of aristocracy, that of
intellect; in but one title ofnobility, that
of Christian morality.
Our success has contradicted every
prophecy, as it has negatived all past ex-
perience;. in our prosperity and progress
we have disappointed and at the same
time challenged the admiration of the
world.
Gibbon in his "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire" says: "If a man were
worlds history during which the condi-
ton of the human race was most pros
porous and happy he would without
hesitation name that which elapsed from
the death of Domitian to the rise of
Commodus." Compared with today it
was a time of war, pestilence and famine;
of poverty, ignorance and oppression.
This is the brightest period in the
worlds history. He who compares this
age in which we live to the golden age,
which has no existence a in his own
imagination, shows not only an igno-
rance of the past, but a narrow concep-
ton of the present.
The republics of North and South
America, the French revolution and
later establishment of the French repub-
lie, the abolition of life membership in
her upper house of legislation, the pay
ment of the members of the reichstag in
Germany, the adoption of the constitu-
ton of 1911 in Norway and Sweden, the
increase of the suffrage of Great Britain
in 1882, and the present enactment with
a still greater enfranchisement OF the
people, the agitation for the abolition of
the house Of lords, and for the local self
government of Ireland are all popular.
democratic movements influenced di-
rectly or indirectly by the great Ameri-
can republic. And it was the apprecia-
ton Of this great truth that inspired Bar
tholdi in his conception and prompted
the French republic in it's presentation
to us of the most magnificent piece of
heroic statuary of ancient or modern
times, elderly Enlightening the
World.'
am reminded that this vast Territory
of Dakota, comprising more than 100000
square miles, was once the property OF
the French nation. Purchased by IL
government in 1903, it was one of the
conditions of the Louisiana cession that
the people should enjoy the rights, priv
ilCSCS anu lI1IllltllllliCS VI IL Cll1ECl1o VI
the Union and be admitted on an equal
footing with the other states. This is but
All expression of tho spirit of the consti-
tuition and a repetition of the ordinance
of 1877 relative to the territory northwest
of the Ohio river, and by later enact
ments of congress extended to the terri
tory west Of the Mississippi.
1t is the experience ofthe past that the
governments of the smaller states are
carried III with greater economy, and in
hut that the executive, legislative and
judicial branches of their governments
are capable of much greater precision,
usefulness and perfection.
The population Of our territory is now
60O, 900, so per cent of whom, I am conf
dent, are anxious for division on the 10Th
parallel of north latitude. I believe it is
the universal desire Of every lover of
Dakota, every man who feels a pride in
her present prosperity and has faith in
her prospects Of future greatness, divis-
ion first, and admission when in the
| COuISC Vi uullldl CNClllS IL DCcOlllCS DOS-
sible.
All the shortcomings, imperfections
and delays that AVE SO characterized the
national as we'll as local government of
our territory will necessarily be repeated
and continued for a long period Of time,
in any state formed of so vast and IN
wieldy and diversified a territory. We
desire to adorn the nations flag as a dou-
bic star, and appear as twin sisters in the
sisterhood of states.
1 would be forgettul ofthe love we bear
him were I to allow this occasion to pass
without a passing word in sympathy and
gratitude for our great general, who
doubtless is soon to pass away.
"A few Years since the great French
people, in deep mourning and full Of
sadness, bore the remains of the beloved
Gambetta to his final resting place. He
was cut off i'll the prime of life, in the
midst of his usefulness, before the great
work that was expected of him had been
finished. In him France had centered
her fondcst hopes, and his death seemed
to all an evil stroke Of misfortune and a
national calamity. \ few days since that
same great people followed the remains
of the foremost literary man and great
est democratic-republican philanthro-
pist of all the world, from the Arc de
Triomphe through the Elysian fields,
across the Place de la Concorde, over the
Bridge of Peace. to the magnificent tenn