Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-29

man who was first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen recalls the baptism of the nation and it's first toddling steps on the wonderful career it has since led.
 The American people have right to rejoice to-day. They have right to make glad, to congratulate themselves and to glory in the fact that they have passed the centennial milestone of an honored and promising national journey. Look through the history of the world and where can a parallel be found to the marvellous progress and prosperity of this people? Where, among all the na- tions of the e srsh. can people be found whose progress has been so rapid, whose increase has been so healthy and whose prosperity has been so substantial? :? Where can young nation be found whose cradled hopes have passed into so lusty realization, whose early promise has been so marvelously fulfilled, whose future outlook is so astoundingly glori- ous? People of every cline and every tongue have come to our shores, finding here a welcome and a home, grateful refuge from the tyrannies and oppres- sions of older lands. The process of amalgamation that has gone on among these people, that has already welded them into one strong and vigorous cosmopolitan body, unique as it is in the annals of history, is yet but type Of what we may see in the future years of the re- public. AS those who are coming to us from foreign lands take on the full Am erican character, as they learn the na ture and trend of our institutions, and become absorbed in the great body poli- tic, the process of amalgamation will be complete, and America will stand out, as it was promised she would a hundred years ago, the greatest nation, the most wonderful government of modern times.
 The history of the United States h as been glorious one, but its brightes pages are yet to be unfolded. Not hing that has yet shed its glory upon the land is equal to the transcendent lustre that is already breaking upon the dawn of its second century. One hundred years ago, when George Washington took upon himself the solemn obligations of the presidency, the people were crude, uncultured, unversed in the ways of science ,andthewildest imagination would scarce have dared to prophecy that in the reign of its twenty-third president the United States would stand first and foremost among the enlightened and sci entific nations of the world. And yet such IS the proud position in which it | finds itself as it passes into it's second | century as a republic ruled by the peo- pie for the people. One hundred years ago there were but few public institu. tions of learning, and the best of these would scarcely compare with well. equipped grammar school of onr day To-day the land is dotted with schools and colleges, universities that compare with any in the old land are fitting oul grouth for conquest in the intellectual and scientific world, and none of oul people are so poor that they cannot i'm bibe freely from the fountains of know ledge that is power. Where on the face of the globe is there proletariat so in telligent and we'll equipped as ours where people that have so many and so complete control of the most approved appliances of civilization? As we look al the condition of our people, as we con trast it with that of older peoples and reflect that our nation is even yet in its infancy, who can picture with extrava gance the glorious vista of possibilities that stretches out as we cross the thresh old of our second century?
 Truly we live i'll a great land, but Ii has not reached it's limit of greatness The nation that has given to the world : Benjamin Franklin, a Robert Fulton, ; Samuel Finley Morse, Thomas Alvs Edison and the countless other geniuses whose inspirations have dazzled science has not yet exhausted its priceless treas ures. Other geniuses are yet to come whose wonderful conceptions will star tie humanity and make of the American nation the Eden that lived in the minc of him who sang of the land
 Great, glorious and free,
 First flower of the earth, first gem of the sea.
 DR. c. w. s. FRosy, t87 Bank stree -