St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-12-10
CANON FARRAR ON AMERICAN
DESTINY.


Canon Farrar's farewell at Music hall,
Boston:
How clearly is Gods unseen provi-
dence, which men nickname chance,
seen in your advancing history. 1t
was not chance which made the deyel-
opment of mankind hang on the for
tunes of handful of stragglers in the
forests of Canada. 1t was not chance
which gave the new world to the in
dustry of the Puritans. At one time
as your admirable historian, Mr.. Park
man, has for the first time so finely
shOwn-it seemed certain that America
was to become the appendage of
France. That would have meant the
predOminence of the principles of Rich
lieu and LOyola. Populations crushed
by mobiles and cOwed by priests would
have remained hindrance aud
stumbling block in the way of that
majestic experiment of which America
is the field. At another time it seemed
as though America was to fall into the
hands of Spain. That would have
meant the despotic rule of Alvas and
of Philips; it would have meant the
black and bloody tyranny of the bigOt-
ed inguisitiOn. But America was Gods
chosen heritage-not for tyranny, not
for aristocracy, not for privilege, not
for the bloodhound, not for the inqui
sitiOn, but for free conscience. She
was reserved to be the home, not of
Spanish bigOtry or French ambition,
but for England and for the RefOrma
ton, and for the development (if you
fall not short of the obligations which
rest upon yOu) of great and noble
type of strong, righteous and indepen-
dent manhood. RI
But no great nation yet has ever
been permanent. Babylon, Assyra,
Greece, Carthage, Rome have passed
away. | have touched on your fathers,
but yet another most mighty impulse
for good came to you from the early
visitors to your shores. Was it no
boon to you that Charles Wesley, the
sweet poet of the Methodist movement,
came to America as the secretary OF
len. Oglethorpe, and that he was &C
cOmpanied by his brother, John Yves
ley? In NewburypOrt Westinghouse
you can still see the grave of George
Whitefield. Then there came to you
the great Frenchman Lafayette, and
that whitest of human souls, Bishop
Berkeley. And besides these, how
many more who, even when not ia
nous, have made sweeter the air of
this sinful world ? In the state, time
would fail to tell of jefferson, who
breathed into your nation the breath
of life of Otis, with his tongue of
flame and prophets inspiration; of
Patrick Henry, that "forest-bOrn De-
mosthenes :" of the Adamses and the
Hancocks, the Cushings and the Phil
lipses. Yes; England, too, thanks
Boston for having preserved Fanuell
hall and the Old South church. May
they stand inviOlable forever, the era
dies of liberty.
Two there are whom 1t would be
specially objectionable not to mention.
One of these was the great hero of
your early state, the patriot, saint and
sage, who, on June Is, Tvs, sent up
his kite and received the electric shock,
and heaving a deep sigh, felt as he
says, ga deep consciousness of immOr-
tai fame, and should have been content
if that moment had been my last"
The other stands above the need of
mention, ''first in war, first in peace,
first in the hearts of his cOuntrymen,"
to whom our Lord Erskine said, 'YOu
are the only man for whom | ever felt
an awful reverence" of whom Lord
Brougham said "In proportion as the
individual and society make progress
toward patriotism and virtue in that
proportion will they advance nearer to
the pedestal of Washington"
Let me pass OH to the war of indie
pendence. | am sure every one here
will agree with me when / say that
within the last few years Americans
have begun to understand far better
the feeling of England respecting it.
In reading some of the Fourth of July
orations of former days one might fan
cy that You believed us in England to
entertain sore and sullen feelings, and
that no Englishman could think with
ont blush of shame or IL spasm of an
ger of the surrender of Burgoyne at
Saratoga or of CORVALLIS at Yorktown.
| do hope that | need not in this year
1885 stop to remove so unfOunded an
impression. l have myself had the
honor to preach Fourth of July ser
mon in Westminster abbey. And |
have invited your illustriOus fellow
tOwnsman, DR.. Phillips Brooks, to do
the same. We do not forget that our
flag was saluted at the desire of your
president at the anniversary of York
town. | am very sure you do not for
get the many messages of sympathy
and cordial kindness which you have
received again and again from the
queen of England at every crisis of
your recent national history. No Amer
lean can surely overlook the fact that
the opponents of the American colonies
were not the English people but the
king and the rulers who misrepresent-
ed the people. Your very school boys
know, or ought to know believe
they do knOw-hOw splendidly Lord
Camden maintained in the house of
lords that it was illegal to tax where
there was no representation.
pass on, and perhaps some of you
may shudder little as l do so, to the
great crisis of your modern history,
your war of secession. In that war,
too, was manifest the hand of divine,
providence. What an awful time it
was! You then learned to realize, as
we had learned to realize two centuries
and half ago, the horrors of a house
divided against itself. You can never
forget the days when, as your eyes
glanced over the daily papers, the
words '1mOrtally wounded" struck an
unutterable chill into SO many hearts.
In those days God ordained for you
famine and fire and sword and lamen-
tation. The blood of the gallant and
the good flowed like a river. The
hearts of women were slowly broken.
The shots which pierced the breasts of
the young men drenched in blood locks
of women's hair, and i'm the delirium of
fever bright eyed boys talked of their
beloved and babbled of the green fields
of home. You had bitter feelings, and