Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-29
A CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE.

Smy1n-Duf OOuAbfY aS bAc OA
 washington's Inauguratton-Presi-
 dent Washfnstonss Visit to New
 Haven-0ur Country's Unparalleled
 Progress and Prosperity-Libersy
 and Rfghte0usness-&ur Moral and
 Christian Status To-Day-Some Timely
 Criticisms.
 ssopen ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter n."-Isaiah 26, 3.
 One hundred years age the gates of con- stitutional liberty were opened, through which righteous nation entered into an era of unparalleled prosperity. "Yestsrday at two o'clock"-so it is stated in a letter from New York which was printed in the Connections Journal in New Haven on May 9th, 1789-"was solemnly inaugurated into office our illustrious President" No cons spicuous headline, no note of editorial com ment, accompanies the account of Washing toms inauguration, which fills some two col umns of one of the narrow pages of the weekly Journal which the citizens of New Haven then read. In President Stiles diary occurs this simple note of the same august event: "May 9. Examined Junior class. Thursday, 30sh ult., G. Washington inaugu- rated and proclaimed at New York President by Congress" On the 18th of April of that illustrious year the Congregational ministers of this vicinity quietly busied themselves in ordaining Dr. Dana pastor of this church, and in the discourse which wss delivered in
 this place on that day no word appears to
 indicate that the inauguration even of 8 new
 national government could divert the minds
 of the brethren from their immediate duty
 of providing for the people the continued
 teaching of the doctrines of religion. Yet
 those Congregational ministers were active
 and fervent patriots. When Washington, in
 the autumn after his inauguration, reached
 New Haven on his "Tour and Visit Through
 the New England States," besides the ad-
 dress which wes offered to him by commit-
 tee of the General Assembly then sitting in
 this place, the president ot Yale college
 writes in his diary that Washington replied
 to an "address of six Congregational minis
 ters which presented this evening""
 Dr. Dana, at the close of the 1egt century,
 reviewed from this pulpit the prosidential
 history of the country and called upon his
 hearers "to reflect upon the great things
 which God hath done for United America" :"
 And the general and intense interest which
 was felt in this community over the new constitution is attested by this terse note from the journal of President Stiles: "Ds- cember 22, 17S7. Tbe new constitution makes much noize." The State convention which ratified the constitution at Hartford he describes as ''the Gfandest assemblags of ! sensible and worthy characters that ever met ! together in this State." And the same mi 1 nutely accurate pen thus records the recep- tion in this city of the news that the State t constitution: "January 9. A coulter set of \ from Hartford at VI, rode fourteen miles in ! one hour and six minutes, and reached the oity of New Haven at XI at night.
 ''Januery 10. At 1925 this morning the four bells in the city began and continued to ! ring above an hour, and ceased at 1:4O, dur | ing which time thirteen cannon were dis l charged. President Baldwin visited mo and | we conferred on the Federal constitution In turning aside, as am doing, upon this Lords day from the ordinary themes of pull pit discussion, am not departing from the
 historic precedents of this pulpit. For what \ questions of public virtue or grave civil con- cern, from the obligation of protecting the regicides in John Davenport's day, through | the struggle of people for independence, ' during the whole period of the slavery agi- | tation and war for the Union down to the ! latest moral issues which stir the people, ! have not found voice and room for free dis cussion in this church and from this pulpita We can read still from the pages of President Stiles diary and from the columns of the Connecticut Journal the order of exercises, and the reports of the patriotic praye1J and orations which were followed and heard by the citizers who met on this spot in the "Brick Westinghouse" on the first anniver- saries of our nationsl independence: and the account adds, "a contribution WEI taken for the indigent and needy that they might join in the general joy." And when Warrington was dead-in that year when, q Dr. Dana
 said from this pulpit, "our mourning for and sacred place, in obedience to procla- nation of John Adams, on the morning of February 22d, 1900, the people of New Ha ? ven-so our annals read-"assembled in un- usual concourse; the citizens of both sexes wore on the left arm black crspe or ribbons dressed in black, secular business WEI sus- pended" ," and President Dwight delivered 8 s'discourse on the Character of George Wash ington, Esq.," which wes afterwards pub-
 lished s'for the benefit of The citizens of New Haven and to perpetuate the remembrance
 of the melancholy occs7ion."
 It is not my purpose on this occasion to repeat the story of the growth of the Fede-
 ral constitution, or to detain you with a re-
 cital of those historic events which are wise-
 ly included now in the course of the com-
 mon school education which the State gives in the preparation of youth for the responsi-
 bilities of American citizenship. The part taken in the momentous discussions of those days by our own townsmAn, Roger Sherman,
 and the influence of the federated system of
 Connecticut towns upon the formation of the
 national constitution, belong to familiar his
 tory, and this chapter of our local history
 heed not now be reviewed, though it should not be forgotten by us. pause at this pint only to quote an extract from the letter of Q correspondent which find in the Conneoti-
 cut Journal of January 30th, 178S, which reads as follows: "The adoption of the new
 Federal constitution by so seat . majority of the Connecticut convention mrst afford comfort and satisfaction both to the firm and to the doubting friends of the new govern. ment; for if there are in the American Uu- ion any genuine commonwealth men, any
 body of men more really and truly republi- can, it is the free and equal citizens of that frugal, industrious and enlightened statel" In this countl 7, more than In any other, the
 history of the government hf1 been the his
 tory of the people. And to the Chi .stian
 mind the condition of the people is always
 the chief object of concell. The redemp- tion which Christians would hasten Is the restoration of the life of the people in some
 city of God. Our constitutional history is of Christian significance and concern in pro
 portion as 1t has secured the advancement
 and true welfare of the pc ople. One hun drsd years ago the material condition of the great body of the people was in striking con trast to their present welfare. The homes of the laboring classes were dinky and F DOT; the staples of life were costly; the clothing even of skilled artisans wes coarse and scanty; wages were comparatively low; stoyc3
 were then unknown and matches unheard of;
 rlits and vegetables, with which our mar
 kets abound, were some of them not known,
 and others to be seen only occasionally upon
 the tables of the richest The streets even
 of the better towrI were Wfetchsdly pebbled
 and kept; pair of saddls-bags auficed to
 carry the mail thrice 6 week in summer, and
 twice in the winter, between the distant
 cities of Boston and New York. Where our rivera hum with industries, the beavers built in quietness their dams. The country doc tor carried his apothecaries' shop for the most part in his saddle-bag; quinine was un- known, and the lips of the sufferer parched with fever were denied water, although it is said "they might occasionally be moistened with elan~j uice." In 17S9 American litera- ture was then in its infancy, although the schoolmaster with Noah Webster's first spell ling book was abroad in the land, and the advertisements of the book store, where Isaac Beers kept also an inn, and dispensed groceries and the best of gin and brandy to- gsther with literature, show that many of the current foreign publications were then imported to take their places on the shelves beside the sermons and bodies of divinity which fell from our laboring American prees. es. The advertisements of the shopkeepers of . hundred years ago indicate also that some articles of fashion and folly were be- ginning to be recognized Rs proper adorn- ments of life, and, by those who had "mon- ey in hand to pay" purchases might be made from fresh invoices of "gentlsmen's and la dies dancing-gloves for the City Assembly" !" "chfp.hsts of the newest tasko p ssnew-fi0-