The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-08-20

her from whom are derived my high
 est conceptions of womanhood
 Until within the past few years the
 possession by the average American of
 the slightest knowledge of his ancestry
 was considered almost an offense
 against our social customs
 A celebrated French scholar and obser- yer who recently visited this country
 Tor the purpose of studying our insti-
 tutions and people, says that when an American has nothing to do for a long
 half day he sits down and wonders who
 his grandfather was, If we seek
 among the beginnings of the republic
 for the causes of this apparent want of hereditary pride, we may find many
 which imply neither forgetfulness nor
 disregard of the memory and worth of
 our fathers. Chief, perhaps, among
 them is the fact that the records of CO.,
 lonial New England throw so little
 light upon the lineage of her people
 that it is scarcely possible for any one
 except by years of patient labor, to
 trace his descent back through the
 earlier generations. Were it not for
 hemeager and imperfect records oft various towns, he who undertakes the
 task would learn oftentimes only by
 half-legendary tradition of the exist ence even of those ancestors whose
 lives shed brightest lustre upon their family name, Perchance he might learn of their birth from the records of the church, and from the humble head | stones in the graveyard which sur rounds 1t he might fix the dates of their death, but beyond these he could not go, History tells us no more of the | lives and sacrifices of many of those of the earlier days whose achievements would have won for them in the old world the proudest titles that royal fa- vor could bestow.
 Another cause may be found, but half concealed, beneath the popular inter-
 pretation of that phrase in our Decla- ration of Independence, that "all men are created free and equal" As an American, proud of the land of my na- tivlty, jealous of her place among the
 nations of the earth and of her future. I trust that the hour may never come when the sublime truth embodied in these words shall not be recognized as the fundamental principle of our gov ernment But to contend, simply be- cause under our laws all men are &C.,
 corded equal legal rights and privi- leges, that all social, moral and intel- lectual distinctions are to be disregard ed, is to pervert the meaning of the declaration and to assail the very foundations of society Under no form l of government are the vicious equal to
 the virtuous, the ignorant to the en- frightened, the anarchist to the patriot
 How soon would the republic of the America take her place among the dead republics of the past, and become
 silent tenant of history's page If she could not in her hours of need call to her aid the descendants of the men who
 laid the foundations of her present power and greatness. If the sacrifices of the fathers in behalf of their country and liberty, stimulate not a loftier pa- | triotism in the hearts of their sons than 1 in the bosoms of strangers we should do them the justice to speak no more aloud their names, nor claim the bene- l fits of their lobors, butt by our silence I make the confession that we are faith- l less to the one, and unworthy the glory l of the other
 l Another cause, perhaps as potent as ! either of those I have named, is that 1 within a very redent period the ener- l gies of the American people have been 1 directed to the practical questions of l government and to the development of l the wonderful resources of our country. 1 Brander Matthews, ifl an address de- 1 livered at the city Of Buffalo last
 month. truly said that American liter | ature is now but little older than the l three score years and ten allotted as 1 the span of mans natural life." IT, 1 wings Sketchbook and Cooper's Spy did
 not appear until several years after the beginning of the present century. Pre-
 vious to this the intellectual develop
 ment of the country had assumed
 mainly the theological form, with the
 exception of oratory which was born at l the epoch of the revolution. In 1775,
 one hundred and fifty-five years after
 the landing of the Pilgrims, there were but thirty-sey newspapers in circu- l lation in the entire country. Unaided,
 except by the data preserved by anal
 ists and by the writings of Ramsey and I of Marshall and the researches of Gra- I hame. Bancroft born in 1900, entered 1 the rich field of American history. But
 within until the last ten or fifteen years our historical writings have been l confined almost exclusively to the lead | ing facts in our national growth; to a l backward glance at the state of Eu- l rope, the causes of emigration, and the l standard political and social advance
 ment in the colonies. This told only | the story, grand as it was, of a people l and left untold or to tradition the indi- l vidual deeds of valor and of patriotism 1 of all except the few who stood in the | full midday light of history. It ap-
 pealed to the pride of an American as a
 citizen, but 1t did not arouse his per- 1 sonal pride as a descendant of the men
 who won from oppression and wrong | op ;,,1s Do