Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-09-27
AMERICAN Y.
Before the Revolution the True Sentiment
Was Little Known.

AMERICAN NATIONALLY Y.
Before the Revolution the True Sentiment
Was Little Known.
Prior to the wal of the Revolution the
sentiment of American nationality can
scarcely be said to have existed. The his
tory of the colonies down to the time OF
resistance to imperial taxation shows
q trace Of such q sentiment. Penn
were content to be P%ennsylva-
mans; New Workers to be New Workers;
Virginians to be Xirginians; Caroliniars
to be Carolinians. Even without any real
and strong drawing toward a common
form Of government, we might fairlyshave
looked In the history of this time for at
least some prophecy Of Americanism. It
might have been the dream of poets, the
theme of orators or at least the toast Of
students, like German unity from 1848 to
1866. But we do not find SO much as this.
Neither for practical nor for sentimental
reasons did the union of the American col
onies appear q thing practically to be de-
sired.
1t is not necessary to take time to refer
to the differences Of history and political
organization, the differences of race, Of
speech and of religious belief, the differ
ences of social ideas and customs and
modes of living which tended to keep tho
colonies apart. The imminence Of HOSTILE
ties with the mother country sufficed to
draw the colonies together for the purposes
of a common resistance, and acts were
done and DEGREES and declarations were
made and pledges and promises were CIV
en- in 1774 and 1775 which looked toward
a permanent union of the insurgent colo
MES and which doubtless had a certain
effect in impressing the public mind favor
ably to that result. The momentous Declla-
ration of Independence in the midyear Of
1776 must have had a still greater influ-
once in cow 1cing the public mind that,
in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "all
must hang together, or they would hang
separately, - End the fortunes Of war, some
times joyful, but more commonly painful,
during the Eve following years undoubt-
eddy produced not a little of true Alneri-
can sentiment.
Common experience of that sort, whetb-
er of victory OF defeat, must, it would
seem, have a great power to generate in
stincts and. feelings Of common interests
and q common destiny. Indeed, had there
been no intermediate stage before the for.
nation of the constitution, during which
the feebleness of tho ties formed in war fol
the purposes of common resistance to the
mother country We're painfully demon
strated, we should naturally have assumed
that the se"sc of American nationality
! was developed during the Revolution tt
some very h.yh point.-Forum.
The 'Great West"
The "great west" it was called, THU
country, anu properly. 1t was bounded or
the north by the great lakes; it was in
tersected by the three great rivers-th'
Ohio, the Mississippi and the Missouri
and tho natural distinctions and differ
| ences between the west and the east were
from the first marked, and the II grea
feature that commenced to make of tn
western man O new creature md differen
from the eastern man was not the hi!
lakes and the big rivers-it was the BIZ
prairie. Ohio had some prairie, and Indi
ana had more, and Illinois had the bigges
prairies of all, and it was the prairies ant
the work Of bringing them into subsection
that made the western man-made hin
out Of tho eastern man, made him out Q
the southern man and every other kind Q
man who came out into the immensely Q
the western earth and sky.
The development of the west, beginnin!
at the east line Of Ohio, has been accom-
plished within considerably less than
century. Here and there are old men Q
women liviry who saw if they do not II
member the Start. Enough time has NO
yet elapsed for the west to become any
thing else than the west. The building c
the west, the Oldest west, is SO recent tina
the chips are lying all about.
The watchword Of the west Is and a
ways has been "big." The west was frs
distinguished from the east-from tn
cold Thirte' MY it's superior bigness
Wilderness and openness. The western farm
er, who perhaps was the first in the worl
to run a straight furrow a mile long
turned out a different style Of a%griculturis
from the gardener or the patient cultivt
tor Of a few stony and slanting acres j
the east. All classes of western society toe
their cue from the big farmer; their il
spiration from the big country. The YVES
was not in the beginning, and is not nov
moro different from the east than are til
people of the respective sections. -Detro
Free Press.