Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-10-27

OfN'W
HENRY wATTERsoN
God on the highway, God in the winds and
waves, and God in all our hearts!
Chauncey Depew's Address.
This day belongs not TO America but to the
world. The results of the event IL commemo-
rates are the heritage OF the people Of every
race and cline. We celebrate the emancipa-
tton Of man. The preparation was the work of
almost countless centuries, the realization was
the revelation of one. The cross on Calvary
was hope; the cross raised on San Salvador was
opportunity. But for the first. Columbus
would never have sailed; but for the second,
there would have been no place for the plant
ing, the nurture and the expansion of civil and
religious liberty. Ancient history is dreary
record of unstable civilizations. Each reached
its zenith of material splendor and perished.
The Assyrian, Persian Egyptian. Greoian and
Roman Empires were proofs OF the possib4li-
ties and limitations of man for conquest and
intellectual development. Their destruction in :
volved a sum of misery and relapse which made
their creation rather curse than blessing.
God always has In training some command
ing genius for the control Of great crises in
the affairs OF nations and peoples. The num-
Der OF these leaders are less than the centu-
rtes, but their lives are the history of human
progress. Though Cesar and Charlemagne,
and Hildebrand. and Luther, and William the
Conqueror, and Oliver Cromwell, and all the
epoch makers prepared Europe for the event,
and contributed to the result, the lights which
illumine our frmanent to-day are Columbus
the discoyerer, Washington the founder, and
Lincoln the savior.
Neither realism nor romance furnishes a
more striking and picturesque figure than
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 oounterfeits of the same person.
Each represents a character as distinct as its
canvas. Strength and weakness, intellectual
ity and stupidity high moral purpose and
brutal feroctty, purity and licentiousness, the
dreamer and the miser. the pirate and the
select our hero We dismiss the painter. and
piercing with the clarified vision OF the dawn
of the twentieth century, the veil of four hum
dred years we construct our Columbus.
The perils of the sea in his youth upon the
rich arRosies of Genoa, or in the service OF the
licensed rovers who made them their prey
had developed skillful navigator and intrepid
mariner. They had given him glimpse of the
possibilities OF the unknown, beyond the high
ways of travel, which reused an unquenchable
thirst for adventure and research. The study
of the narratives of previous explorers, and
diligent questionings of the daring spirits who
had ventured far toward the tabled West
gradually evolved a theory, which became in
hts mind so fixed fact that he could inspire
Others with his own passionate beliefs. The
words, that IL lte, written by him on the
margin of nearly every page of volume of
the travels of Marco Polo. which is still to be
found in Genoese library, illustrate the
skepticism of his beginning, and the first
vision Of the New World the fulfillment of his
faith.
TO secure the means to test the truth OF his
speculations, this poor and unknown dresmer
must win the support of kings and overcome
the hostility Of the church. He never doubted
his ability to do both, though he knew of no
man living who was so great in power, or line
age or learning that he could accomplish
either. Unaided and alone he succeeded in
aroNstng the jealousies of sovereigns, and di-
viding the councils OF the ecclesfastics. Il 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 the Vice Royalty and one tenth
the revenues of the New Wor d" were his
naughty terms TO King John OF Portugal. Az
ter ten years of disappointment and poverty,
subsistlng most of the time upon the charity OF
the enlightened monk of the Convent OF RI
bida, who was his uufaltertng friend, he stood
before the throne OF Ferdinand and Isabella.
and rising to imperial dignity in his rags en-
bodied the same royal conditions in his petit
tion. The capture of Granada, the expulsion
of Islam from Europe and the triumph OF the
Cross, aroused the admiration and devotion OF
Christendom. But this proud beggar, holding
In his grasp the potential promise and domin-
ion of Eldorada and Cathay, divided with the
Moslem surrender the attention of sovereigns
and bishops. France and England indicated
desire TO hear his theories, and see his maps
while he was still suppliant at the gates of
the camp Of CASTLE and Aragon, the sport of it's
courtiers, and the scoh OF its confessors. His
unshakeable faith, that Christopher Columbus
was commissioned from Heaven, both by his
name and by divine command to carry Christ
across the seq to new continents and pagan
people, lifted him so far above the discourage
ments OF an empty purse and a contemptuous
court that he was proof against the rebuffs of
fortune or of friends. To conquer the preju-
dices of the clergy, TO win the approval and
financial support of the state, to venture upon
that unknown ocean which, according to the
and savage beasts OF frightful shape, and from
which there was no possibility OF return re-
quired the zeal Of Peter the Hermit the chival-
rtc courage OF the Cid, and the Imagination OF
Dante. Columbus belonged to that high order
of cranks who confidently walk where angels
fear to tread, and often become the benefac-
tors OF their country or their kind.
IL was happy omen of the position which
women was to bold In America, that the only
person who oomprehended the majestic scope
OF his plans, and the invtncible qualities OF
his genius, was the able and gracious Queen of
CASTLE. Isabella, alone OF all the dlgnitaries
Of that age shares with Columbus the honors
OF his great achievement. She arrayed her
kingdom and her private fortune behind the
enthusiasm of this mystic mariner, and pos
tertty pays homage 10 her wisdom and faith
The rulers OF the old world began with par
the new. The northern continent |
was divided between England France and I
spain. and the southern between Spain and
Portugal. France waAtrR the capacity for |
which still characterizes her, |
gave mp her western possessions and left the |
masteIs n@Ts North 81 Ss
velopment OF the experiment in the English |
domain makes this day memorable. IL |
'aith and virtue of the inhabitants of |
mis- territory that government OF the people, |
Tor the people and by the people was inau- |
The Puritan settled in New England and the |
Cavalier In the South. They represent the op- |
poeites Of spiritual and temporal life and |
opinions. The processes of liberty liberalized |
he one and elevated the other. Washington |
md Adams were the new types. Their union /
N a common cause gave the world a republic /
both stable and free. It possessed conserva- |
'iem without bigotry, and liberty without /
license. IL founded institutions strong enough /
% resist revolution and elastic enough for /
Indefinite extension to meet the requirements
n government OF ever enlarginR areas Of
population, and the needs Of progress and |
uowth.
The May1ower, with the Pilgrims, and a
Dutch ship laden with African slaves were on
he ocean at the same time. the one sailing for
and the other for Virginia
This company OF saints, and first cargo of
Ilaves, represented the forces whicL we're to
jeril and rescue free government. The SLAYER
vas the product Of commercial spirit of Great
Britain aud the greed OF the times TO stimu-