Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-15

4
\ of Courts and the selection OF Judges. Eiabor
ate Acts must be framed for the establishment
| of public school systems, and provisions made
/ for the education of the young, of every sor.
So the private school and the public school, the
seminary and the academy, the college aud the
university-all demanded early and earnest
| consideration. And. even in lands like these
| all would not be well, nor thrifty, nor temper
| ate, nor fortunate. nor sane, nor persistent in
| the right, nor strong in the strength of the
| tireless; and there must be prisons, reforma
tories, asylums. retreats, hospitals, almshouses
and all other institutions humane and benevo
| lent. Sanitary conditions must be passed in re.
view; temperature, climate, soil, season, exhala-
| ton, change, and all known forces meteoro
| logical, as well as the construction of drains
the making of highways and the planting OF
| trees.
Thus. to particularize no more. all the neces.
sary provisions for the social life, for the re-
ligious life, for the moral order, Tor education
/ Tor enterprise, and for benevolence, had TO be
| made-to be made at once, and to be made OF
| such character as to meet the requirements OF
people, the large mslor1ty OF whom had been
| reared in good society. in the more advanced
stages of modern civilization The task was
simply amazing; its intricacies perplexing; It's
demands appalling: and the hands that must
take hold Oft, however resolute did not seem
many, nor mighty, in themselves.
But the men and women of forty years ago
had almost no option. They could not be dis
obedient They must undertake, do and dare;
| and they did their best.
3. They were not without ideals They
dreamed dreams, originated schemes fondled
fancies, built aircastles, imagined possibilities
and shaped ideals that entrance them, even now
after all the testing, and shattering, and dssp-
| pointing of a generation of years, and the
strange combining of intractable forces TO dispel
or defeat them.
They thought, first of all, that there might be
developed here better type of Christianity than
was then extant among men. Since the environ
ment here was SO new, and there was less to
hamper and cramp, and nothing was stereo-
typed, and prejudices had fallen away, and con-
| servatism was discounted, and provincialism
was powerless-it seemed practicable to have
fewer denominations OF Christians: to have
more general creeds, like the Apostles, or that
OF the Evangelical Alliance to have the limita-
tons of these denominations but a foot high
and easily stepped over; TO have no contro-
Yersles except with opponents, and no strifes
for supremacy whatever, as among denomina.
atoms or churches; and only one common.
united, and hearty endeavor to make a spiritual
RELIGION, afame with lights from the skies, the
dominant force in human conduct
Therefore, they anticipated that there would
arise an improved type of our civilization Such
civilization would be one in which the greed
of gain should not be the ruling impulse: and
ideas of rank, caste, class and station should be
scrupulously absent; in which the distribution
of wealth would be nearly equal, and want
shoulo be unknown; IN which all labor should
have its quick, abundant and satisfying reward:
in which there should be tolerated no traffic i'm
human being, and no traffic in ANYTHING de-
structive. of human well-bei. G; in which the
H.
study heightened, and the allurements of vice
and excess reduced to a minimum; in which ali
schools should be schools of manners. morals
ethics ana estheties, as well as schools for in.
telIectual advancement; in which Saturday
should become a universal recreation dav. and
Sunday perfect rest day for all: in which illit-
eracy would be impossible in any, and the
higher education open TO !, and the fine arts
aud liberal arts denied to none: and in which
the general good should so overshadow the in
olvidual good, that greed, of any sort, would
appear distortion, and crime monstrosity
As another result they imagined there might
spring forth, when all things else, in external
nature, were grown into such large proportions
a lottier stature, nobler physique and sturdier
manhood, that would throw off hereditary
faint, resist all dwarfng processes refuse to be
blown about by every wind OF vanity Weld TO
no disorders, erect itself into something eigsn-
tic, and thus lord it through all nature as never
mighty.
Yet the thought was that such outwardness
OF the man would be but the symbol and proph-
ecy OF an inward largeness without precedent
IN the annals of time. Anu so they looked for
the coming of master minds, like Plato's and
AristOtle's, Moses and Samuefs in grolIn, and
hundreds up and down this vast ocean shore,
with generositieS, sympathies humanities ana
ranges OF feeling 10 core pond with mort and
bearing, through majesty of will ana strength
OF purpose that should ally them to the
choicer spirits of all the ages and give them
command OF the secrets of the world. In short
they fancied that they might be building here
the more real States of empire in our republic
whose peop e, institutions and enterprises
should be as much grander than those OF any
other State, as their gold was finer, their min.
erals richer, their resources larger their ocean
broader, their forests more magnificent and
thelr mountains more towering than those of
the other States of renown.
4. What was undertaken? The men of forty
years ago and their immediate helpers under
took to p ant Christian church in every com
munity of any considerable size on our coasr
cities EnnTfienlprlV hot
ton. Those who followed the Congregational
way purposely RETAINED from coming into
any competition with the denominations most
ike their own, except in communities in which
IL was obvious that there might be room for all
They undertook to secure lots for churches and
schools, before the advent of people in every
ance OF the LORDS day by voluntary compact
as wei as by state law and municipal regula-
ton. They opened Sunday-schools and estab-
llshed temperance organizations in the smaller
and clean politics. They labored for
the establishment and endowment of common
school systems and the thorough teaching of all
the young They secured sites for acaGemias
semlnar1es and colleges ana procured charters
for them Us fast as means could be gathered for
their equipment. They favored the founding
OF retreats Tor the hopeless, OF asylums for the
education OF the unfortunate and of hospitals
almshouses and homes for those whom poverty
and disease and age had overtaken and
wrecked, often without fault of their own
is-
tinct from the State, but in continual UNION and
interaction with it, for the moral welfare and
the public good. They sought to have lerisla
tive and deliberatiye bodies opened with relig-
lous exercises, and not run as ii they were wool
fac,oIics. They prompted to all sorts OF private
enterprises that looked toward social and indus
trial development. They sought the aid of
government for roadways and WATERWAYS and
other internal improvements that promised IN
educate, broaden and enrich our living and add
vitality to our commonwealth. They sympa-
thized with every movement toward Statehood
on these shores, and were glad 10 be WELDON sd
into the Federal Union, and were especially
moved 10 gratitude when the star of California
became fixed one in the sky and star of the
North forever. And when in succeeding wears
and the course of migrations, the peculiar SEN
tmeuts of the South dominated our politics
and would have altered our constitutions ali
these OF whom we speak were firm as adamant
IN the right and sacrificed much. politically
for dear iieedom's sake, until divided counsels
in the opposition brought them relief and the
civil war brought them their reward in the vivid
unanlmity OF our citizens for the natinnal
cause ana in the magnificent outpouring of our
wealth for the preserving of the Union
Ihey began early the importation in vast
quantities OF religious newspapers magazines
and other periodicals TOR Sunday school mis-
slonary and general uses; and have perseyered
in the practice quite as long as il is becoming
IN saints so to persevere. They early estab.
lished religious paper OF the orderly tyne tn
hold themselves in touch with one another. aud
to Keep themselves in fitting remembrance
among the churches of the Eastern side This
publ, alton tlourished until diversion of inter
ests by consent, took half OF its CONSTITUENCIES
away. and since tn II it has lived as yigorously
as before, but at the cost of much unreouited
toll, and Il something OF that growth, eularse-
ment, enrichment and power 10 which it might
have otherwise attained; and yet will atm
through a united endeavor.
In short, they attempted everything tbey per-
ceived that the times demanded; everything
for which they could invent any means md
any energies, develop any capacities, stretch
any nerves and command auy resources In
may, indeed. be said that they attempted too
much, aud would have wrought quite as eff
GENTLY had they attempted less that NAV be
so. IL is fair question TO raise: and a baek
ward lpOK over the years may give the remark
FEASIBILITY. The actors themselves may have nj
times instituted that same inquiry. But IL must
not be conceded too readily: Tor in the moral
ana spiritual realms through which we strur.
gle and iuto whose magnificences we are per.
United TO ouLd our lives. no apparent failures
are absolute and no labor is lost; and IL viii
ever remain matter for debate whether IL were
better TO have attempted and not succeeded
well than not to have attempted at all. since
effectively. the reason might carry TO the one
side and, subiectively, 10 the other
5. The difficulties encountered. Some Of the
difficulties OF the early situation were: That
individuals seemed often bewildered, going
hiiher and thither without any aim plan or
purpose; that families were living in band.
box and trunks, with few conven;ences, miser-
ably housed, II housed at all aud no quite GER
tain that they would not move at the end OF the
month; that communities were herded rather
tran gathered, drawn from ali quarters of the
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