The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1904-11-02

tury after century, this slowly swelling
tide of population has spread, now to
farmstead, now to school district, now
to township, now to county, now to
State Into each of these new communi-
ties vigorous, hearty, wholesome and
God-fearing people have carried the ideas
and institutions which have made us
what we are, and for which in their high
est conception and development we stand
today.
There is no parallel in history for
development like ours. In former times
population spread slowly and gradually
over the forests and plains of Europe,
but it was not composed of people all
moved by the same ideas and inspired by
common purpose. Different forms of
government, intolerant sects, killing each
other for what they claimed to be the
glory of God, now with ambitious leaders
again with dangerous adventurers
who represented motives so antagonistic
that their progress was marked by yio-
lence and bloodshed
Here we have in each successive
township, county or state an entirely diff
ferent view. Absorbed in their indus
tries. dependent upon none, tolerant in
spirit and in truth, our settlers Went
forth, battling only with savages AMI
with those forces of nature which were
almcst as pitiless. Into each of these
new communities. they carried order and
law.
Z ''In each one the first public building
was church, the second a school house
and the third a court house, where all
the forms of law, sancti6ed by precedent
and fitted for the use Of free seif-goy-
ernpg people found adoption. They have
spoken the same language, they have had
the same thought of union, the same toll
crance fer every religious belief and the
same confidence in and cooperation with
each other.
Drawn originally from many sources,
the stream was broadened as it flowed
steadily and almost remorselessly across
the country. Over forests and prairie,
across mountain and river, in extremes of
neat and cold, these people have gone on
conquering and to conquer. With them
has been the ideal of the liberty of the
Individual and stability in so much of
government as they had found to be nee
essary.
s'Still later the stream again broaden
ed, and new European reservoirs of popu-
lation were drawn upon. But the meth
DDS. the ideals, the outlook, the devotion
to freedom, the universal tolerance
these never changed. The newcomer was
welcomed, and every distinction as to en-
ployment, place of birth, creed and class
was lost, so that all accretions or addi-
tions coming from where they might,
have only enlarged and emphasized the
ideals and purposes of the founders.
This expansion, unique in human his
tory, has gone under the auspices of
Republic, and with a devotion to self
government the like of which the world
has never seen. No arbitrary power has
transferred the population of one country
to another. No religious persecution has
forced a single reluctant sect from its old
home; no armies have accompanied this
great moving mass of population, and no
drill master, except industry and the nat
ural instinct of men to unite in self-de-
fence, has called our people from their
peaceful pursuits.
'"From wherever drawn or whatever
place he settled the man became at once
citizen and a free partaker in the BEN
efits that had already accrued to genera
tions formed by intelligent self-govern-
ment. He became entitled, under the To-
cal, state or national law, to the same
protection accorded the representative
y
of the oldest family. Into whatever part
of the world he has gone the
protecting power of the United States
mas been thrown over him, even though
he should have come among us the hum
blest and poorest of peasants.
sInternationa law has been changed
in his favor. and unwilling governments
have been forced to honor his passports
and to protect him when, even under con-
ditions formerly unknown to law or prac-
tice--he saw fit to return to his native
country.
1T is tllis expansion, natural, newt
able, almost as silent as the tides Of the
ocean, which has made this country what
it is, and in the society that has come out