The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-02-08
OUR FUTURE.
READ BEFORE THE FARMERS INSTITUTE
AT MILLvILLE COLUMBIA co. PA.
JANY. I / 1889 BY r. II. PAINTER
ESQ. OF TURBoTvILLE EPA.

TNO ldCJ III uOu6fu uisVoty 81 iuuy
challenges our admiration as the growth
of the American Republic. The child
of revolution, Graded in adversely, yet
proof against the hate of Monarchies,
it has outstripped all its competitors;
defied all its enemies; realized all the
expectations of its friends, and t. day,
in every thing that makes Nation
grand and noble, stands without an
equal on earth.
What IL acds, is aoso, and may get
be, are the themes of this paper. Nor
is it strange that l should discuss these
topics before Farmers Institute. For
of the men who have contributed its
stability National grandeur, and integ-
rity, they challenge comparison with
all others. When it's foundation was
laid in the blood stained soil of Lexing-
ton, Monmouth, and Valley Forge, not
one, but thousand Putnams rushed
from the green hills of New Hampshire
to the Swamps of South Carolina In
defense of liberty. And when Inde-
pendence was achieved and this child
republic doffed the swadling clothes of
infancy and demanded a wider field for
its energies, it was the tenant of the
soil who responded. He leveled the
forest, pushed the Car of Civilization
Westward over the Alleghanies, across
the Ohio, beyond the Mississippi into
the heart of the great North West and
in the eighty third year of its young
life, with his feet planted, midway, in
the fertile basin of the Mississippi, one
hand rested on the rocky shores of the
Atlantic, the other touched the golden
sands of the Pacific. He had demina-
ted the Continent Here his work
was not coupled, nor the power of his
hand staid. When treason demanded
the surrender of the fruits of our civil
zation-sll that was good, free, and
Godlike In this government--and the
lurid fires of civil war burst upon us,
true to his fame in the past and firm
in his convictions of duty to the future,
from everylhill top,valley, and plain of
every Commonwealth of determined
North-from the tall pines of Maine to
the golden gates of the Pacific, he
swept in regiments, brigades, and
divisions, at the bugle's blast, into the
fifteen hundred thousand heroes who
went forth in defense of liberty and
Union;--as brave and gallant an army
as ever shook the earth with martial
tread-singing,
"We are coming Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand strong.
The farmer has always been the most
important factor in the growth, mental,
moral, and material, Of this government
from the hour of its conception to the
present moment of its most wonderful
achievement. 1t is not, however, any
class of citizens, but the nation itself
would eulogize.
We are nearing the closing years Of
the nineteenth century. The Sun that
rose upon it in doubt and gloom q
hundred and one years ago, Is now 60
ing down upon it-not as then on a
feeble, struggling band of patriots, but
an enlightened and powerful Republic
, with out a rival in agriculture, mining,
manufacturing, Science, learning, and
all the graces of well organized
, government on the Western Continent
and soon to be the superior, if indeed,
she is not already, of any on the East
ern. But its beginning was feeble.
Thirteen states clung, most of them,
to the shining shores of the Atlantic.
They had the name of states, but only
enfeebled Colonies. Though protected
from Arctic blasts by the unpenetrated
forests of Maine, they yet felt not the
= warm, life giving currents of the Gull
Stream turning winter into spring as il
brushes its warm breath on the shore:
of Florida. The hand of Spain held
the key that opened the gate to the
delusive fountain of perpetual youth
The Alleghanies and the Ohio marked
their western boundary. Beyond these
was the "wilds of the west" Three
million of people still felt the horrors
of war and the burden of oppressive
taxation. Love of liberty was in every
heart, but grim poverty sat eDthroned
at every hearth stone. Science fol
them, had not opened her treasure
house. 1t was ,,iusoi eagainst the force:
of nature. Toll with the wooden shire
and the sledge hammer won the vic
tories of the steam-plow and the
diamond-drill. Her rivers flowed a:
majestic then as they do now, but theil
utility awaited, till 1907, The brain Of
Stevens; aud her cotton fields till
near the same period, the inventive
genious of a Whitney. Lightnings
flashed on every hill top, thunders
reverbera,ed in every valley; but there
was no shrek of the steam whistle
no click of the electric telegraph
These slumbering giants awoke in 1886
aud 1874. Mountains of wealth, as g
distinguished writer has said, "Shut uI
in Gods granite safes set with time
locks" refused to reveal her secrets til
the approach of the locomotive.
Only The pack mule, on an Indian
trail, dared cross the Alleghaniss
Westmorland County in our own grand
old Commonwealth was the limits Of
her western civilization. No mills
factories, or furnaces. No Commerce
no navy-nothing to export, nothing
to defend. But the National heart
beats grew stronger. New blood thrill
ed her young life. Invention loaned
her its energies. Forges, spindles, and
wheels echoed the hum of industry on
every hilltop, in every valley. Will
two narrow boundaries she grssped the
hands of Florida and Louisiana on the
south securing the key to the Mississ
ippi and then turned her face westward
Texas lay in the line of her conques
and she welcomed her to the Sister
hood of States. The axe of the pio
neer still filled the forest On the
clearing, besides the log cabin, rose
the little school and tn,
spireless church. And in their worl
I followed an irrepressible civilization
railroads, canals, mills, furnaces, fac
tories. Villages, towns, cities, and broat
acres of golden grain. II aoas til
n tread of empire. 1861 came and tn,
Q world stood amazed at the fruits o
seventy four years of Constitutions