New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1895-07-10

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and women, feeding in plenty like swine
, and looking never beyond the masters
hand, would have been worthy only to
; disappear from the face Of the earth be.
fore the conqueror's sword.
The great purposes of; Provide ence
were vlndicated' when, with an, almost
despairlng courage. with, the splenehd
madness of men who have seen the hght
of a. divine idea, our forefathers- solemn
} ly dedicated themselves and, all theiu for
tunes and their future to, the establish
ment On this continent of a free and in
dependent nation. Then and there,
whatever might be the fortunes of their
unequal battle,. they bought for us. our
precious Eirthright.
That, below all forms and ceremoni-
ais, and behind all the tumult of rejoic-
ing Words, is the meaning of the anni-
versary that we commemorate TODAY.
Lcall your attention to the noble and
portentous, fact that it was, the national
idea which was, ever first and sacred i'm
the minds of the men Of the earlv day of
the Republic. Read their oratory and
see how the fiery inspiration Of the tri-
bune came from the thought of these
men that they had a country worth liv-
ing and dying for. Look at the heroic
remuneration and the bravery in the field
of the men who led the patriot army and
you will see that they asked no other re :
ward than the privilege tn fl ght and die
for their country. my country, ttis OF
thee.' was the burden of their song. Not
any Individual ambition, not the success
of any party, not the triumph ofany par
ticular measure, not even the grand de-
velopment Of the future which no pro-
phet's tongue could reveal to them, but
simple devotion to their country was
enough to %%fill the full measure of their
devotion.'
They had a country. They belonged
to nation. The United States of Amer
ica had become u living fact. AS fact
it was potent enough to direct and mold
the lives of the men Of that earlier gen.
Grafton. Ano no better work, no purer
work, no work that reveals more clearly
as mighty an intellectual activity as the
world ever saw will we find set down in
the pages of history. TO be an Amcri-
can was honor enough and boast enough
for them. When plain Ben Franklin
carried his homespun among the gaudy
silks and laces of the gayest court in
Chrstendom, he walked there the proud
est man among them all. For these gar
ments and that manner of thought were
the badge and insignia of his honor. He
represented the Americon nation; and
that was enough to satisfy and swell
with pride the heart of one of the great
est men whom any nation has produced
since history began.
We now come to another period in Our
history when the national idea grew and
prevailed as strongly as before, though
fostered by entirely different circum-
stances. The struggle for independence
was over. A separate national existence
was begun. And now there might have
been danger lest unmolested possession
of what had been SO dearly bought would
induce people to lose the best of it by
sinking into the fat and supine careless
ness and Indifference of material increase
But the inspiration came at this time,
through half century, for the territor-
ial expansion of the United States. Never
for one moment were the peoples
thoughts suffered to wander from the
real meaning of their work, from the
greatness of their destiny, because they
were busy all the time in acquiring and
setting in order the vast domain which
it had been evident from the beginning
must be theirs in order that they should
indeed become a nation. A scattered
line of commonwealth along the sea-
) board might have coalesced into one
great state had there been nothing more
tempting open to their vision. But
; worthy dreams of continental empire
tempted them to larger ambition. And
in realizing that, by one extension after
another of the country that was subject
to their institutions, they kept ever be-
fore them the national idea. Glance for
a moment at the successive additions bv
which the United States, as it now exists,
came into being. The territory of the
original colonies stretched only 20 the
Mississippi River and all upon their wes-
tern boundaries was vague and indefinite.
They did not possess the mouth of the