The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-07-05
THE OBJECT LESSON.
A FRESH VIEW OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION.

How It Differed From All Others That
Preceded 1.-THE Blossom Of the Tree of
Liberty-A Marvellous Inspiration-The
Gonfalon Of Progress.
The United States has celebrated its
birthday for 118 years with boundless
profusion Of firecrackers both Chinese
and rhetorical Grownup folks. little
weary perhaps Of the resounding racket,
while watching the urch:sl at work with
punk and powder, will ask themselves,
'What makes the Revolution Of 1776
tower like an Alpine peak among histor-
ic revolutions?" One cannot answer this
by saying that the immediate result was
the biggest fact which the historic yard
stick measures. That was their good
luck, growing out Of the vast unknown
resources of the continent, to which the
colonies were as blind as were George
III and his parliament. One cannot SET
tie it by saying that the Declaration of
Independence was the greatest charter
Of human rights ever penned. That Dec
laration contained nothing essential but
what had been fairly written before in
declaration and proclamation and pro-
test, each paper of which had been seal
ed blood red with thousands of lives.
It was just the old story inscribed afresh
with pen Of fire by a mind of consum-
mate sagacity.
The celebrated Russian musician, Ru-
binstein, once said to the writer: ''You
Americans will never have a distinct
national style of music. Only nations
with childhood can ever have this.
Your people never had a childhood
you were born full grown. This last
sentence packs an essay in 10 words
and cuts close to the bone The time
had come in the evolution of things for
the Anglo-Saxon hive to swarm. There
was not enough elbow room in the old
political hive at the beginning Of that
last quarter Of the last century, and the
bees determined to set up, fresh house
keeping. The new swarm felt them
selves just as wise, as capable and as
self sustaining as the others Of the fam
lily. They had inherited all the tradi-
tions, the customs, the accumulated ex-
perience, the instinct for self govern
ment, Inherent in race which has beat
en- the world in the keenness Of its po-
litical genius
It was but the difference of 8, 10, 20
years or whatnot. IF it had not been
navigation laws" 'swrits of assist
ance," stamp act, - ''tax on tea" at
which the colonists grumbled savagely,
like true Englishmen, itwould have been
something else little later. These
things were wrongs, to be sure, but they
would have been ultimately righted in
the natural course of things and were
not whit worse than many Affections
which beset the man of Yorkshire or
Kent. The American colonist, on the
whole, was as free in the enjoyment of
social and political privilege as any
kings subject that then walked the
green earth-perhaps even had larger
liberty.
His large measure of freedom indeed
made the homespun yeoman on this side
Of the Atlantic, whose fathers had shot
the arrow flights which won Cressy and
Agincourt, and whohad charged in Crom-
wells ironsides at Naseby and Worces-
ter, feel the smart the more keenly. So
came the swell Of the race instinct,
first embodying itself in the sword
like epigram, mo taxation without
representation, then after seven years
successful war getting itself crystallized
in magnificent system Of home rule,
biform in its relation to state and fed
eral affairs, and bringing the direction
of matters most intimately connected
with the citizens hearth and home as
close as possible to him, in fact In the
triumph Of great principle England as
well as the whole world won when
CORVALLIS delivered his sword to Wash
ington. Englishmen over the sea have
been swarming off from the parent hive
ever since. Canada and the Australian
dominions are essentially as free as the
United States in self government and
only need their own wish to be as free
in name.
Comparing the American Revolution
with the three active great revolutions
of modern times, we see how wide the
swing Of its pendulum as compared with
theirs. The heroic rising Of the Neither
lands under William of Orange had its
root in religious oppression, and though
it ended in severance from Spain no
such project stamped its outset The
English revolution of 1910, which rolled
kings bead in the sawdust, trampled
out the theory of the divine right Of
royalty and enforced the fact that thence
forth in that land monarchs should only
rule with the assent and cooperation of
parliament. It was one great step in the
growth Of the English constitution.
The French cataclysm Of bloodshed and
horror, typifed by the guillotine, whose
CHASTITY head shearing sometimes red
dened four hours day, was the natu-
raj reaction of long centuries of caste
robbery and misrule. The flame caught
from the American torch, but the fuel
had been seasoning for ages, and the
confederation 1it the world nndnr its