Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1885-12-03

ering RUNS of southern confederacy
and the white memorial of peace. w
have no sad winds signing over the ashe
Of SAINTS like Joan of Arc, but we hay'
song of liberty, prosperity and christ
ianity borne across the country from the
music of the Atlantic waves to where the
happy song IS lost amid the murmurs OF
the Pacific seas.
l do not sigh for the political history
of Greece and Rome or for the bloody
past of France and England. am glad
that our ancestors were prosecuted chris
tlans who, while the winter storms ragged
furlously on that ice bound shore, knelt
upon the landing, plighted their faith in
God, and resigned the charter of Runny-
mede. l am satisfied that their first
breath was prayer, their first utterances
liberty, and their first enactment law.
Providence has so worked the checks
and balances of American civilization as
to give us wonderful combination of
humanity. Rome grew from band of
robbers; France from tribe of savages;
England from horde of pirates. Amer
lea was settled by the oppressed spaniard,
the French Huguenot, the Scotch Sar-
matte, the Irish rebel, the English regi-
eide, the Dutch republican, the British
patriot, the prosecuted pilgrim, and the
peaceful Friend. The good, the great,
the wise, the weak, the strong, the brave
of every land and tongue sought this Wild
world and dropped anchor on our shores.
What combination of mind and muscle.
What a mistake it is to assert that hered-
itary government is essential to civiliza-
ton instead of the tact that kings of men
must be kings of mind! Behold the ele-
ments In the American makeup! Amer
ica is nation made up of fifty nations,
yet she is an lnseparable republic. The
air is full of christian freedom. There is
a continual current of classic liberty.
Order without arms; education without
coercion; subordination without oppres
sion; nobility without aristocracy. We
exclalm IN wonder at the starry worlds
that are hung pendant with mighty,
mystic hand, but to my mind this con-
stellated republic IS work of God greater
and grander.
The two greatest days in the annals of
the human race are, first, mans redemp-
tion from sin by the incarnation, and Sec
ond, the birthday of representative repub-
licanism; and as all previous time, to the
incarnation, was a preparation for the
coming of Christ, SO all previous time to
ration for its coming. The longfngs OF
man for republican institutions, whether
from poetry, romance, philosophy, or
from history were but rays of light
betokenlng the illumination Of the pres
ent day. The dreams Of the past centu-
ries and the hopes of the generations gone
were only exerted to prepare the way tor
its coming. One generation came, strug
gled toward the light, died in the dark
ness, and the tramp OF succeeding genera
tions was heard above them, burying in
one grave at the last their hopes and
themselves.
We are the result Of the ages. If we
see farther than they did 1t is because we
stand on their shoulders. If we 60 be-
yond, in political and religious wisdom, it
is because we begin where they left off.
The nations, the people, the civilizations
of the past have lived, fourished and
fallen IN order that humanity might some
time be free. The bloodshed, the carnage
of history made republicanism possible.
Revolutions have all contributed to our
success. There IS IN man peculiar in.
nate existence arising out of his natural
right to freedom Of thought, action, con-
science, property and self. These innate
rights of man had been manacled for cen
turtles. Two thousand years of despotism
had filled mans inner life with latent ter
ror 50 that his heart became smoldering
furnace, and when the pressure became
unbesrable this pent-up, unquenchable
fire burst forth with mighty revolutions,
welding all the weapons Of civilization,
creating an awful picture in history, but
thus forcing the transition from tyrannl-
cal monarchy to representative republl-
canism. This innate desire in the people
to be free is immeasurable, iudomltable,
irresistible. 1t passes over the earth beats
down this man, raises up that one,
breaks old laws, derldes ancient customs,
laughs at prerogatives, gives birth to war
and brings death to monarchy. This will
of the people to be free drove away the
old era and brought in the new, which is
republlcanism.
Putting this IN another way. If we
look beyond the hills Of Rome, the Isles
of Greece, to where the darkness of an
tiqulty settles down we shall see that the
issue of association was despotism. Time
rolled on. The changing gray of twilight
Redeemed in the East. The waning
moon of despot,sm was descending.
The eternal sun of justice was rising.
Through this opening sungate came Solon
bearing the banner of liberty and law.
Centuries move on. The glory of Athens
is ecllpsed by Rome, the Mistress of the
werld, who in turn commits national sui
eide while intoxicated by drinking the
blood of nations. The nations of the
north swarm over Europe. "Reason fed
to beasts. Affection kept SILENT" All
Europe was IN convulsions. The dark
ages came and went with the centuries,
but liberty, to which was introduced