Connecticut western news., 1897-04-15

sylvania avenue 10 the norIn gate or wonder capitol to lay the cornerstone of the extension of that capitol The president who that day presided and solemn]y struck that stone three times in dedication long ago quit earthly scenes, and the lips of the great orator of that hour are dust, and the grand master of that occasion long ago put down the square and the level and the plumb with which for the last time he pronounced a cornerstone we'll laid. But what most interests me now is that inside that cornerstone, in a glass jar, dramatically sealed, is a document of national import. though in poor pen manship. It is the penmanship of Dan- iel Webster, which almost ruined the penmanship of this country for many years, because many thought if they had Daniel Webster's poor penmanship it might indicate they had Webster's genius. The document reads as follows:
 "f 1t shall hereafter be the will of God that this structure shall fall from its base, that its foundation be upturn- ed and this deposit be brought to the eyes of men, be it then known that on this day the nation of the United States of America stands firm; that their con- stitution still exists unimpaired and with all its original usefulness and glory, growing every day stronger and stronger in the affection of the great body of the American people and at- tracting more and more the admiration of the world, and all here assembled. whether belonging to public life or to private life, with hearts devoutly thank ful to Almighty God for the preserva- tion of the liberty and the happiness of the country, unite in sincere and fer vent prayers that this deposit and the walls and arches, the domes and tow CTS, the columns and entablatures now to be erected over it may endure forev- CT. God save the United States of Amer ical Daniel Webster, secretary of state of the United States"
 Laying the Cornerstone.
 That was beautiful and appropriate at the laying of the cornerstone of the extension of the capitol 68 years after the cornerstone of the old capitol had been laid. Yet the cornerstone of our republic was first laid in 1776 and at the establishment of our national government was laid again in 1865. But are we not ready for the laying of the cornerstone of a broader and higher national life? We have as a nation re- ceived so much from God. Do we not owe new consecrationp Are we not ready to become better Sabbath keep ing, peace loving, virtue honoring, God worshiping nation? Are we not ready for such cornerstone laying? Why not now let it take place? With long pro cession of prayers, moving from the north and the south, the east and the west, let the scene be made august be- yond comparison.
 The God of nations, who hath dealt with us as with no other people, will preside at the solemnization. By the square and the level and the plumb of the everlasting right let the corner stone be adjusted. Let that cornerstone be the masoning together of the two granite tables on which the law was written when Sinai shook with the earthquake, and inside that cornerstone put the sermon on the mount and scroll containing the names of all the men and women who have fought and prayed and toiled for the good of this nation, from the first martyr of the American Revolution down to the last woman who bound up soldiers wounds in the field hospital. And let some one worthy to do so strike the stone three times with the gosSel ham, mer in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Then let the building rise, one wall laved by the Pacific ocean and the other washed of the Atlantic, until it's cap- stone shall be laid amid the shouting of all nations, by that time as free as our own divinely founded, divinely con- structed and divinely protected repub- lio, the last throne of oppression hay ing fallen flat into the dust and the last shackle of tyranny been hung up in mu- scum as relic of barbaric ages.
 The prayer that the great expounder wrote to be put in the cornerstone at the extension of the capitol ejaculate as our own supplication, "God save the United States of America" only add ing the words with which Robert South was apt to close his sermons; whether delivered before the court at Christ Church chapel or in Westminster abbey, at anniversary of restoration of Oliver Cromwell amid the worst tempest that ever swept over England: "To God be rendered and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might, majesty and domin- ion, both now and forever. Amen"