The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-10-22

tss and limitations of man for con-
ouest and intellectual development.
dbeir destruction involved sum OF
misery and relapse which made their
crention rather a curse than y blessing.
Eorce was the factor in the government
~ the world when Christ was born, and
force was the sole source and exercise
nf authority both by church and state
rhen Columbus sailed from Palos. The
IWise Men travelled from the East to-
wards the West under the guidance Of
tbo star Of Bethlehem. The spirit of
tbe eouality of all men before God and
| the law. moved westward from Calvary
With its revolutionary influence upon
old institutions, to the Atlantic ocean.
Columbus carried it westward across
the seas.
ed the breaking up OF the Roman em-
miro. necessarily produced the feudal
svstem. The people preferring slavery
to annihilation by robber chiefs, be-
came the vassals OF territorial lords.
The reign of physical force is one OF
nerpetual struggle for the mastery.
| Power which rests upon the sword
neitber shares nor limits its authority.
The king destroyed the lords, and the
monarchy succeeded the feudalism.
Neither OF these institutions considered
or consulted the people.
Absolutism in the state and bigoted
intolerance in the church shackled pop
ular unrest and imprisoned thought
and enterprise in the Fifteenth centu-
nv. The divine right OF kings stamped
out the faintest glimmer OF revolt
against tyranny; and the problems OF
science, whether Of the skies or OF the
earth, were solved or submerged by &C.
clesiastioal DEGREES. The dungeon was
ready for tho philosopher who pro-
claimed the truths OF the solar system
or the navigator who would prove the
sphericity OF the earth. An English
Gladstone, or French Gambetta, or q
German Bismarck, or an Italian Carl
baldi or q Spanish CASTELAR,, would
have been thought monsters, and their
deaths at the stake, or on the scatfold,
and under the anathemas OF the church,
would have received the praise and ap-
proyal OF kings and mobiles, OF priests
and peoples. Reason had no seat in
spiritual or temporal realms.
Fifty years before Columbus sailed
from Palos, Guttenburg and Faust had
forged tho hammer which was to break
the bonds OF superstition, and open the
prison doors of the mind. They had in
vented the printing press, and movable
types. The prior adoption of cheap
process for the manufacture of paper,
at once utilized the press. Its first SER
vice, like all its succeeding efforts, was
for the people. The universities and
the schoolmen, the privileged and the
learned few of that age, were longing
for the revelation and preservation of
the classic treasurers Of antiquity, hid
den, and yet insecure in monastic cells,
and libraries. But the first born of the
marvellous creation of these primitive
printers Of Mayence, was the printed
Bible. The priceless contributions
Of Greece and Rome to the intellectual
training and development of the mod
ern world came afterwards, through
the same wondrous machine. The
force, however, which made possible
America, and its reflex influence upon
Europe, was the open Bible by the fam
ily fireside. And vet neither the en-
lightment of the new learning. nor the
dynamic power OF the spiritual awak-
caste which had been forming for cen-
IuTlG6. duI 6btttC 4AhA ~
and Ilexterously interwoven the bars OF
privilege and authority, that liberty
was impossible from within. Its
piercing light and fervent heat must
penetrate from without.
MAN FOR THE HOUR.
God always has in training some COM
manding genius for the control of great
crisis in the affairs of nations and peo-
pie. Neither realism nor romance fur
nishes a moro striking and picturesque
figure than that OF Christopher Column
bus. The mystery about his origin
heightens the charm OF his story. That
he came from among the toilers OF his
time is in harmony with the struggles
OF our period. Forty-four authentic
portraits OF him have descended to us,
and no two OF them are the counterfeits
OF the same person. Each represents
character as distinct as its canvass.
Strength and weakness, intellectually
and stupidity, high moral purpose and
brutal ferocity, purity and licentious-
ness, the dreamer and the miser, the
pirate and tho puritan, are the types
from which we might select our hero.
We dismiss the painter, and piercing
with the clarified vision OF the dawn Of
the twentieth century, the veil of four
hundred years, We construct our Co
lumbus.
The perils OF the sea in his youth
upon the rich argosies Of Genoa, or in
the service of the licensed rovers who
made them their prey, had developed
n skillful navigator and intrepid mar
iner. The study OF the narratives of
previous explorers, and diligent ques-
tionings OF the daring spirits who had
ventured far towards the tabled West,
gradually evolved theory, which be-
came IN his mind so fixed fact, that
he could inspire others with his own
passionate beliefs.
TO secure the means to test the truth
OF his speculations, this poor and un-
known dreamer must win the support
OF kings and overcome the hostility of
the church. BE enever doubted his abil-
ity to do both, though he knew OF no
man liVing who was so great in power,
or lineage, or learning that he could
accomplish either. Unaided and alone
he succeeded in arousing the jealousies
OF sovereigns, and dividing the councils
OF the ecclesiastics. ~ will command
your feet and discover for you new
realms, but only on condition that you
confer on me hereditary nobility, the
admiralty OF the ocean, and tho vice
royalty aud one-tenth the revenues of