The record-union., 1898-09-04

10 understand our present ana OlNlne
our future, he finds that few people
have been more actuated by ideas and
sentiments, few more united by pow
| erful traditions than We. He finds that
| the grand idea which dominates
| transatlantic civilization, and the one
| upon which we ought always to count
| is renovation.
| The vagueness of this term is re-
moved by an exposition of the various
| religious controversies which have been
the nucleus of the national idea since
| the landing of the Pilgrims. In the
'dolorous odyssey" of a handful of men
| driven far from their country by a
| rugged desire for individual regenera-
| ton, we find the seed from which has
grown the belief in the predeStination
| of the United States. Consciously or
unconsciously, every American believes
| in it, and by it nearly all his deeds are
| inspired.
The Puritanic spirit has vanished
with the Puritanic costume; but upon
the old ideal has been built up col
| lective sentiment" on which rests the
whole American philosophy Having
| found not the individual liberty they
sought, they essayed a collective reno
|
that of the Old World only so far as its
sons spill blood and sigh for gold.
| To material growth in general, to the
Louisiana purchase in particular, and
to the Kentuckian in propria persona
is attributed the new regeneration. The
author says:
| This vast extent of horizon intoXi-
Gated especially the Kentuckian, who
| +n "a nj
the second phase of the national idea
| (etat d'ame) as the Puritan was OF the
first. [ can but trace for you a hasty
/ portrait of the Kentuckian; l can but
say that he has in him a little of the
Virginian civilization grated upon the
temperament of the trapper and the
adventurer
Neglect no opportunity of studying
this strange type of Kentuckian. 1t is
he who reversed the destinies of the
New World. He is found to-day in the
Chicago man, but weakened and de-
| formed.
THE Kentuckian loved whisky, duels,
and cards; he was mad on the subject
of eloouence; the sense of greatness
was developed in him to surprising
degree: he magnified everything. HIS
|
his god. the eagle his emblem He
was hel1icose. He pushed the war of
1912. he wished to conquer Canada; ne
fnauv obtained the annexation of Tex
az the invasion of California, and the
war against Mexico. The ease of the
taking of Mexico delighted him and
tho treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo full
filed his desires.
!
from one ocean to the other Its area
hod boen Increased five times in forty
! five years; 1t ranked aHlohS 'ii0
nations of the world.
"The Kentuckian, obscure worker III
this immense work, had as spokesman
Henry CLAY, with whom Webster ana
Calhoun held their own, all carried
away with the same dream OF national
greatness. ,4o
..Such are reviewed with aaste
which eives me some uneasiness ana
needs some apologies, the princlpal eie-
r,,o,+s of this ideal of universal reno
walton which has marked so deeply the
American soul with belief, lasting
and widespread. that the United States
are designed by Providence to exercise
| a superior function, and leave III ms
! tory an indelible line.
Continued fortune, rapidity of growth,
successful settlement of civil war, an
archism. political corruption and all
economical crises threatening the Gov
ernment have fostered this idea. Men
! have been raised up in moments OIL
! great peril capable of accomplishing a
given work Thus Washington ana
Lincoln were truly providential men,
| - NnrN
of Jeanne dare Such a marvellous
succession of events has not failed to
leave an impression even upon the most
ignorant of Americans that their coun-
try is different from others.
Then the rapid "Americanizing" of
the European emigrant, which is moth
| ing short of prodigious. Whether this
| is as perfect at bottom as it appears,
time must prove; but the fact remains
| that in a generation Europe seems to
| have lost all influence over her sons
! who left her to settle in the New
/ World The author makes bold to say
| that this is due to success. There is in
the air, in the very life itself, some
thing which captures youth and inocu-
lates him with all the passions and ira
1 ditions of the native. The fact is re-
| garded as very curious. and, to de-
gree unique.
But traditions and sentiments alone
| have not been sufficient to determine
the collective current of feeling. 1t was
| necessary that the individual should
have the equalities and defects requisite
for carrying out what the author calls
| the national dream
| America has therefore formed the
| American in the proportions required
for the work to be accomplished. She
| has given to him an unbelievable en-
durance and power of activity before
| unheard Of
| played in the history of the United
| States, the author looks upon it as
neither brilliant nor clever He likens
| it to the surly parent who gives 70 his
son nothing but cross looks, leaving him
| to meet all sorts of exigencies in life
as an offset for having brought him into
| it.
| The French, he thinks, have left the
transatlantic thought to form itself out
side and beyond them:
! 1T is a fault no longer reparable,
and one that will weigh heavily on the
future. 1t is possible to establish some
commercial relations between two coun-
! tries which have even been strangers
/ to each other; some intelligent effor.,
little perseverance, is sufficient for that;
but when it comes to connecting intel
| lectually two worlds of which the
i thought is no longer in unison, there is
every chance for failure Let
| fol