Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-10

from the morning ofGreece come. Lconidas
with your bravest of the brave-in the rhpt
pluck, Gracious, from aristocratic RomeDits
crown; speak,, Cicero, your magic word: lift
Cato, III admonishing hands>nnd you. patri..
OTIS Of modern Europe, be all gratefully fe-
membered-but whore in all the carrier apes.
in the later day, in lands remote or near. shall
VIC find loftier self-sacritioe, more unstained
devotion to worthier ends, issuing in happier
results to the highest interests of man. than IN
the English Puritan?
He apprehended his principle, indeed.
often blindly. often narrowly, never in it's ut.
most amplitude and splendOr. Tho historic
Puritan was a man Of the Seventeenth cent.
ury, not of the nineteenth. He saw through
a glass dali1ly, but he saw. The acorn is not
er. But as the harvest is folded in the seed.
so the largest freedom, political and religious
liberty, not toieration,. not permission, not
ual liberty, subject only to the equal right OF
others, is the ripened fruit of the Puritan
principle.
Tho history of colonial New England andbf
New England in the Union is the story of tbaa
influence OF the Puritan in America. That is
a meme TOO a!luring to neglect, too vast to be
not urge a claim too broad. Even in the pride
OF this hour and with the consent of yolr
n np5 proaia f1nv tSat t Ind SKS epnSlisy,' I liz, %u7 /
.con,quering goddess, sprang from the heal
fully armed, and that head was Nev
England: Yet the imperial commonwealth
or which we arc citizens, and cvery
sister State, will agree that in the two great
periods OF our history, tho Colonial epoch and
tnat OF the National Union, the influence os
fiuences in the formation and achieving proc
esses toward the great and common result.
The fondly-cherished tradition Of Hadley may
DC oub and disproved, but, like the legends
OF the old Mythology, it will live on, glowing
and palpitating with essential truth. it may
De De that It,, we must surrender the story, of the
Indians at midday and about to Yield; per.
haps no actual, venerable form appears with
how1ng hair, like that white plume of con-
9usrlng navaIre3and with martial lnien and
cheerlng them on to victory, then vanishing
IN air. The heroic legend may be a fable, but
none the less it is the Puritan who marches
~ tne van OF our characteristic history; it is
the subtle and penetrating influence of New
England which has been felt i'll every part Of
our National slife, as the cool. wind blowing
Ter INSPIRATION, q health more vigorous, a
fresher impulse, upon her own green valleys
and happy fields.
See how she has diffused her population.
Like the old statues of the Danube and the
Nile, figures reclining upon q reedy shore and
from exhaust!ess urns pouring water which
dlctlon, SO has New England sent forth her
children. Following the sun westward, over
the Hudson and the Mohawk and the Susuue-
hanna, over the Alleghanies into the valley
or the Mississippi, over the Sierra Nevada to
the Pacific Ocean, the endless procession from
New England has moved for Il century, bear
ing everywhere Puritan principles, Puritan
years ago New England passed beyond the
calm Dutch Arcadia upon the Mohawk, and
striking into the primeval forest of the
OF central New York. A little Later. Upon the
Genesee, settlers from Maryland and Fennsyl-
wanna met, but the pioneers from New En-.
and most permanent impression. A hundred
years ago there was no white settlement in
Ohio. But in 1883 the seed of Ohio was carried
great Eastern commonwealth sprang the first
great commonwealth of the West. Early in the
century q score Of settlements beyond the Al
where first in America the Puritans of Massa-
chusetts SGT foot; and in the dawn Of
the revolution the hunters in the remote val
1ey OF II INC Eikhorn, hearing tho news Of the
and thus, in the response of their heroic sym
pathy, the Puritan of New England named the
early early capital a Of Kentucky: But happier still
lay IN prlmeVal wilderness awaiting the Great
i've touch that should lift it into amazing and
rejoicing life, it was the Puritan instinct that
ordinance OF 1851 consecrated the Northwest
to freedom: So deeply upon American life
and an institutions has the genius of New En-;
war the peculiar name of the New Highlander,
the Yankee, became the distinguishing title Of
tue soldier OF the Union; the National cause
was the YANKEES catse; and a son Of tho West,
porn in Kentucky and a citizen OF Illinois,
who had never seen New England, twicein his
Life became the representative Yankee, and
with his hand, strong with the will Of the PEG.
PIE, the Puritan principle OF liberty and equal
rights broke the chains of a race. New En-
GLAND charaeteriStics have become National
The blood OF New England flows
with energizing, modifying. progressive pow
er in the veins OF every State, and the UNI
daun:ed spirit of the Puritan, sic semper tyr
m 1n1InAfaG H. AZ,
sea.
+
In the great drama of our history this was
the distinctive part OF New England in the
separate colonies and in tho later Union.
Under another Sky, in q different time, and
amid changed conditions, it was The service
shook the crowned majesty OF the Tudor and
the Stuart, and nae straight in the desert u
highway for Republican liberty-the spirit of
land, OF the Pilgrim Of tho May1lower and his
brethren OF the Arbella; OF the English
puritan, expanded, developed, matured into
erenced and cherished and perpetuated, ii it
may be, i'll adequate and noble human form,
ana so made permanently visible to men. We
know, lndeed, that the builders OF memorial
statues measure themselves; that they raise
in enduring marble and i'll bronze imperlsh.
a6ie. relentless censors Of the lives OF those
who bulld them, and that no man Shall stand
u~nrebuked In the sculptured presence OF de-
parted greatness. Butthe power that rebukes
and this statue shall be not only tho
OF our reverence for the fathers, but
the pledge OF the children's fidelity to tho sub
Unity OF their fathers principle and the
grandeur Of their fathers aim.
Here in this seclusion, amid the sunshine
and the singing OF birds, we raise the statue
OF the Puritan, that IN this c%hangeless form
the long procession OF the generations which
shall follow us may see what manner of man
he was to the outward eye whom history and
have SO often 1iouted and traduced;
he who walked undismay ed the solitary
heights OF duty and OF everlasting service to
mankind. Here let him stand, the soldier of u
free church calmly defyilg the hierarchy, the
builder or u free state serenely confronting
the continent which he shall settle and sub
due, The unspeaking lips shall chide our UNI
Worthiness, the lofty mien eXalt ourlittleness,
the unblanching eye invigorate our weakness;
and the whole poised and firmly planted form
reveal the un%conquerable moral onergy-the
master force of American civilization. So
stood the sentinel on Sabbath morning guard.
ing the plain house of prayer while wife and
child and neighbor worshipcd within. So
unused the pilgrim in the rapt sunset hour on
the New England shore, his soul caught up
into the dazzling vision OF the future, behold.
ing the glory OF the nation that should be.
And SO may that nation stand forever and
forever, the mighty guardian of human lib
erty, OF God like justice, Of Christ-like
brotherhood.
Receipts of the Exposition.
NEW ORLEANS, La, June 1G.-The
TraaSurnr of tbo oxnocj+;on hos ,,,d, r..