Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-06-01

The population Of our country, which in
1850, vas 80 millions, increased to So mil
lions in 1870, and in 1880 it
had gone up to so millions, and
to-day it il Sc millions. The United States
mas now . more numerous population than
any European nation, excepting Russia
and IL growing with vastly greater rapidly.
From free England and despotic Russia;
from the sunshine of Italy to the eternal win
tiers of Iceland, men Of all ranks and nations
crowd to her hospitable shores. During the
ten years ending in 1870 she received four
and half million strangers, and during the
last decade this number had more than
doubled, who came to make for themselves
homes upon her soil. large proportion of
these have sought the rich valley of the Mis-
sissippi, an the broad and boundless prairies
OF the West, and the young States have
double and trebled their population within
the ten years. The cities BY which the agri-
cultural products of the West pass eastw ard
to the markets of the world have increased
with unparalleled rapidly. St. Louis rose
from $50 600 to $40, 900; her great rival, Chi.
caeo, from l09, 900 TO sos, 900. That this
progress must long continue is to be antici-
pated from the fact that as yet scarcely more
than one-ffth of the soil of the United
States is under cultivation. 1t lie within the
range of possibility that the children
of those now living may see our
people number 200, 0O0, 900, with the capacity
of the country, for their support, not then
exhausted. Time forbids my speaking of
the remarkable increase of our wealth and
Development Of resources,-our manufac-
lures aad inventions. with which we are able
to compete with the cheaper labor of other
countries. As the country grows the national
resources will increase,-the national bur-
dens grow lighter. Who then can portray
the possibilities open to our national prosper.
ity, or measure its influence on the destinies
Of other nations? In the face of this national
progress and greatness how poor and unsub-
stantial seem personal ambitions and partizan
triumphs. Men die and are forgotten-par-
ties rise to power and hasten to decay. The
best and most useful of us will soon be for
gotten. Those who to-day are filling large
place in the worlds regard will pass away
from the remembrance of man in q few
months, or at farthest, a few years after
the grave has closed upon their remains. We
are shedding tears above new made grave,
and wildly crying out in our grief that our
loss is irrepsrable, yet, in short time the
tendrills of love have intertwined around
other supports. and we seem no longer to
miss the one that has gone. So passes the
world. But there are those to whom a loss
is beyond repair There are men from whose
memories no woman's smile-nor childhoods
tiny hand-can chase recollection of the
sweet face that has given up all its beauty at
deaths icy touch. There are sconsen whose
unfaltering faith extends beyond the grave,
and drives away, as profape, those who en-
tice them from worship of their loss. Such
loyalty, however, is hidden away from the
puplic gaze. The world sweeps on beside
and around them. and cares not to look in
upon this undertaking grief. 1t carves line
and rears a stone over the dead, and hasteus
away to offer homage to the living.
''How instantly the air will close on this
arrowy path" once Rufus Choate exclaimed,
abiding to his own professional career. brill
liant as it was. "Some memorial l would
leave yet. rescued from the grave of mere
professional man, some wise, or beautiful or
interesting page, some noble or heroic deed"
The sumptuous cities which have lighted the
world since the beginning of time are now
beheld only in the pictures of the historian
or the poet.
"The laurel shoots when those have passed away,
Once rivals for its crown, the brave, the free;
The rose Is fourishing Ger beauty's clay;
The myrtle blows when love has ceased to be;
Green waves the bay where song and bard have fed,
And all that round us blooms Is blooming DER the
dead"
1t remains for us to practice those
virtues, and promote those institutions
which will best preserve the nation to future
ages these are the education of all classes.
the presence and practice of some form of
religious faith, the recognition and protection
of the equality of every citizen before the
Law, the securing full and fair expression
Of the will of the people,-every act that
tends to remove prejudice and restore harmo-
ny,-every influence leading to a deeper love
for the flag. Could our dead Comrades speak
they would implore US to subordinate the
strife of party,-the demands of personal am
bition, to the higher and holier cause of ma
tional unity for which they sacrificed life
ITSELF They would teach US that purity in
the administration of public affairs is neces
sary to the preservation of public interests.
and that the general corruption and venalitv
in republic are the sure precursors to it's
destruction. They have left us their deathless
example for our admitting emulation. They
have left us the flag which we who remain
have followed by land and sea. thousands CT
weary miles, hallowed by the memory of
their heroic deeds,-the symbol of an undi-
vided nation. May we never prove recreant
to the trust Let us turn our faces to the
future with the firm resolve that no action
of ours shall tarnish the glorious record of
the past. The shirt of the nation is at the
highest. Unity, liberty. power, prosperity,
these are our possessions to-day. The ma
TONS triumph over the Unborn, inbred perils
of the constitution has chased away all fears
justified all hopes, and with universal joy even
in this hour of sadness, let us greet this fact.
We have not proved unworthy of great an
cestry we have had the virtue and valor to up
hold what they so wisely, so firmly established.
With these proud POSSESSIONS of the past,
with powers matured, with principles settled,
with haoits formed, the nation passes. as it
were, from preparatory growth to responsible
development of character. and the steady per-
Torrance of duty. What labors await il,
what trials shall attend it, what triumphs for
human nature, what glory for itself. are pre-
pared for this people in the far-of future, we
may not here assume to foretell.
In the great procession of nations, in the
great march of humanity, we hold our
place. Peace is our duty, peace 10 our
policy. In its arts, its labors and its
victories, we find scope for all our energies,
rewards for all our ambitions, renown enough
for all our love and fame. Time makes no
pauses in his march. 1t is with the future
tina, our destiny lies. And with all our learn
ing, literature, science, art, with which we are
surrounded in the present, with all our rever-
ence for the past. let Us remember that our
activities and responsibilities lie in the fu-
ture. Let us, then, teach our children how
sacred and holy 10 the inheritance which they
are to maintain. Then shall the republic