New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-04-30
THE NATIONS MANHOOD.

Yesterday parade and impressive ceremonies
were full of suggestion to those who look below
the surface, and to whom men are more inter
estinC than things, and souls than bodies The
Nation, whose century of success in self-gov-
eminent assembled multitudcs celebrate,
kindles the admiration not by its territorial eX-
panse, its growth in population or in matena:
wealth, but by the worthy manhood which
hundred years of freedom have developed. AS
the towering Bartholdi statue reminded the
Chief Executive of this Nation on his way to
this city, that Liberty had indeed enlightened
the world, so the ships and the buildings the
sights on water and on land, were eloquent of
the progress which the race has made through
freedom toward higher manhood.
Far down in the Bay the visitors were greeted
by the Kearsarge, and what memories of hero
ism and of triumph sAe must have aroused Not
merely the vanishing of the Alabama beneath
the waves, but the suppression of human slavery
in nation dedicated to freedom. Other ma
tons have made their greatest struggles and
most costly sacrifices to hold or acquire terri
tory, or to triumph over foreign foes, but the
Republics greatest war, during its century OF
progress thus far, has been for the freedom OF
labor, the emancipation OF mankind, the SUI
premacy of law. Through Pill the day. historic
names, worn uniforms and catered flags again
and again reminded the Citizen Soldier who
now fills the chair of Washington Of strife
in which he also had an honorable part. Of the
sacrifices freely made by millions of citizens
and the sufferings freely endured, of the grand
herosm developed and proved, and of the
triumph of a noble cause. But best of all, the
blended standards of Northern and Southern
States now bear witness that victorS and van
quished in that great contest have become able
to rejoice together that freedom and National
unity prevailed
That was quarter of century ago, but do
herosm and noble manhood live only in the
veterans who are going down the slope of life?
The blue jackets who man the warships in the
Bay-are they unworthy Of the glorious past?
Listen only to the words Of "The London
Telegraph" which came but yesterday across
the seas, in comment upon the latest proof
of American manhood in the hurricane at Apia
We do not know In all naval records any sound which
makes a finer music upon the ear than that cheer
OF the Trenton's men. II was distressed manhood
greeting triumphant manhood, the doomed sal,iting
the saved 1t pluckier aud more human than any
cry raised upon the deck Of victorious lne-of
y,
he forgotten by Englishmen speaking of Americans.
The freedom which YIELDS into one great
Nation the immigrants from every land, and
kindles in all the ambition 10 be worthy of {;
glorious past and heroic ancestry, has not lost
its power to elevate and ennOble. Nor is the
progressive manhood Of the Nation displayed
only in danger. From every part of the Bay
may be seen the flags which tell of a service I'M
known a century ago, to which all the advances
of science contribute. and by which the Nation
strives TO save from danger and from loss by
warning of coming storms. In the harbor ana
on land may be seen me buildings of public
charities. by which a philanthropy, scarcely
known in it's broader manifestations century
ago strives to alleviate human suffering TO
protect the millions against contagion. to care
for the homeless and helpless. Even the splen-
did building in which the President was re-
ceived, perhaps the most costly structure in the
city, belongs not to mllionaires, but to the
widows and orphans Of many thousand citizens,
who have invested there and elsewhere $780,
| 600, 900 of savings for the protection Of loved
ones against want. These institutions, too,
in which more than 100000 Americans
are insured for the benefit of others, tell of
another progress during the last century, and
a progress more rapid here than in any other
| land. And even the prosaic granite, guarded
| by soldiers, protecting nations treasury. at
the corner of Wall and Nassau, was eloquent
to those who remembered that its great store
of gold and silver is the proof that Nation
Of free men has been found the only Nation
on earth cheerfully to tax itself for quarter
of century to redeem public pledges and to
reduce public debt