Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1898-07-12
,orizop was gathering the cloud of reformation

the old world. and which produced a storm of
uncomfortable fury and passion, the like of
which is unknown to the worlds history The
cause of the reformers was taken up by the
kings and tyrants. who espoused or opposed it,
for no other purpose than to strengthen their
own dispiccable thrones and to fasten more
tightly their impous hold on the liberties of
mankind. The spell of reforms was carried to
extremes. The reformer often becoming the
prosecuted and, in turn, the prosecuted. often
becoming the prosecutor. The holders of the
i'll gotten thrones of the old world were glad to
take advantage of any unfortunate situation
into which the people of the various nations
were plunged, and to the detriment of a cause
which might be just in part at least. tried to
bolster up their blood stainedl scepters, by OPP
posing and expressing the weaker side of the
cause.
In this as in all other measures where kings
attempted to improve conditions, the masses
were the sufferers. Laws were made upon the
assumption that kings were of God, and govern
ment descended like chattels.' 1t was almost a
crime to think. 1t was crime to love tod on
y as prescribed by others.
In their despair the prosecuted and down
trodden cried to God for relief. Their prayers
were heard. From over the western seas came
a voice, waited by the mighty breeze and amidst
the eternal chime of undisturbed nature. which
was the voice of God calling his children TO his
home. That voice bade them come to t,,e new
World; come where the soil is rich and fertile:
come where the mines are ineXhaustible: the
rivers the mightiest and the valleys the pref
test. Come where no king. monarch or nOten
tate shall deprive Won of the rights God rave
YOU Come and build YOU r affairs and Worship
God as your own mind and conscience dictates
And they did come Some landed on Plymouth
rock; some on the banks of the James. some mn
the banks of the Hudson; some near the banks
of the Chesapeake, and some where the ST.
Lawrence sings its eternal song of peacc. An
along Atlantic's stony shore was soon settled by
the people who had left their native homes and
firesides forever, that thew might he free from
the cruelti es which had been heaped upon them
so long by their own government
AT first the various colonies of different
European habits and customs, lived separate
and by themselves maintaining their old WAYS
and peculiar conditions of living This they
soon found would not do. for their material in
| terest soon become more alike and as fine Conn.
try grew irl)opulation an d in industries. thera
was stronger necessity for a unity of all the
settlements.
| The best habits of each particular COLONY was
! gradually adopted by all, and the worthless and
mons ensical costumes discarded by all. so that
before the time of the revolution n dis t;nct-sel
| of habits and customs had preyalepee fhr ouph
| ont all the colonies and Sf;ieSe were radically
| different from thosesof Enrope AS fine habits
and customs Of life changed, SO it was with the
tend Of their thoughts and growth of their
tminds, A new quality of Intelligence. a now
styIe of conside r,n,r fine rjrbts of man as r., him
| self. to his God. and to his Country. grew nm
among the people. and when tile final conflict
to firmly maintain these Innovations came
there was a stubborn unity which astonished
| the world, The Puri tans furnished the cold and
stubborn persistency viii lie the Cavalier firm.
| ished the dash and enthusiasm. 1T was soon
apparent to the colonies that in ",,nitv t,ere &c
strength, and unity was necessary in order tn
prevent at the hands of their old rulers n re-
action of the same policies that had been mr.
| sued by the same rulers in fine old world The
allegiance of all the colonies to one another
was necessary to maintain that hoon of ,ihertv
| for which they and their fathers had faced the
stormy deem
Its true that bipotrv and tnto,era nce wac
brought over nv some of the early settlers and
hurled with deadly force aeainst others as If
had been in the eountry they left. apainst them.
| selves, But after the FIRST and second genera
tiops this vile sernent was hurled and thank
God, buried forever, as far as the people of
| these states are concerned. Tbe.loye for liner
| ty grew and 6Ourisbed as the varions sett,e.
| meuts become closer and more united J.iber.
| ty soon became a mart of thair very nature and
before the final separation from the mother
country, it was a component part of the Amer
lean character.
Another great reason for the colonies to come
closer together was. that England at this time
just before the revolution. was at the heipth of
her power She had gained such a foothold in
| the new world, that she was holding undispnted
| sway from south of the James river to the Hud-
| son bay. England, ever naughty and arrogant
| could NOT withhold her INSTRUMENTS of nerse-
cution and oppression from these people. She
would tax these people without representation.
she would take them across the seas to be tried
for petty otfenses: She insisted in withholding
her assent to laws necessary for the hubble pood
she would keep "standing armies In their midst
in times of peaee;'. she would have the ..mili
tary independent of, and superior to the civil
power.n These and many Others were the
atrocious acts she perpetrated against her west
ern subjects A people with liberty as a mart of
their very nature. could not he long held in
subsection by any power. no matter how s1ronp
and powerful.
The people had a love for the mother country
and did everything that prudence could direct
to avert the storm that was soon to break forth
for the first time in the new world In al, tba
fury of a righteous cause Their netitions b.d
been disregarded; their supplications treated