Morris tribune., 1905-06-03

graduation in which she was plunged
+, It softened men, it condemned men
who looked upon her as beneath the
notice of warriors, by preaching to
them the story that a greater conquest
than had ever been achieved by arm
les, a greater victory than
! had ever been won by
human arms, was won by woman, won
| by her from whom sprung the saliva
ton of the human race.
| Gradually, inexorably, steadily, wo-
| man was lifted higher in popular esti-
nation. The object of chivalry was
mainly in the defense of the purity and
honor of wcmanhood. The man who
aspired to knighthood spent the night
before investiture in long vigil in a
church beside his armor, clothed in
white, IMPLYING the purity of the life
he was to lead which was to make
him worthy of the woman in the de-
Tense of whose honor he was pre-
pared to die. And coming up from
this was founded the family, the home,
and the modern state is but an ag-
gregation of families. So chivalry,
as the stone sunk deep out of sight be-
meath us supports this structure, was
the original foundation stone upon
which the government of the modern
state was founded and by which the
advent of freedom was prepared for
throughout the world.
Chivalry passed away. Feudalism
crumbled to pieces. The year 1892
witnessed the end of the old dispense
ton. The power of barons was de-
stroyed, the power of the mobiles was
checked. Absolutism was everywhere
raised upon the ruins of the represen-
| tative institutions which had been
founded in the road of the original
conquerors of Europe.
The old world has witnessed the
growth of personal domination, found
ed largely on the instinct of the people
| to secure defense for the results of it's
own industry. The belief that feudal-
| ism with it's wars and Commissions, was
| fatal to the growth of wealth and OF
material prosperity and induced the
| toilers of the world to take refuge in
absolutism and the rise of kingly pow
er, was largely the growth of com
mercial development. The old world
| was unfit for an experiment of self
government.
The providence of God is no more
visible in the preparation of mankind
| for the great experiment. under which
we are living than in the yelling OF
| this continent through all the forma-
| tive period of modern civilization and
| the revelation of it to the world when
the germ of liberty was ready to he
| transplanted across the sea and a new
virgin soil furnished opportunity for
| the growth of it's branches, the devel-
opment of its life, and let us hope, the
| universal extent of it's influence.
In 1892 Columbus launched his bark
| upon the sea. Its prov was turned
westward. The most momentOus event
in modern history had occurred. And
yet Columbus was but the fruit of
conditions which had been in course of
preparation for ages. Columbus was
literally pushed across the sea by a
course of human destiny. The old
world with it's survival of preiudices
and of barbarism, with absOlutism
growing up as means of refuge from
reckless wars, was unfit for the plant
ing of this germ, and so providence
guided this bark, freighted with hui
man history, to these shores. Here
the tree of liberty was planted under
circumstances which insured it's life.
Nowhere is the providence of God
more visible than in the character of
the men whom He directed to these
shores and the conditions under which
they were settled. Here was virgin
soil to be conquered. Here were
primeval forests to be felled. The
strong arm was of more use in cutting
down tree Than the lineage of a
thousand years. The bullet of the
Indian was just as powerful against
the breast Of prince as against the
breast of a peasant. The value of the
settler was not the blood which flowed
in his veins, but the power of his mus
cles and the strength of his will.
In the common pursuit of bread the
dignity of labor was raised to a pitch
unknown in the history of the world.
The men who came to this country
were not seekers after fortune. They
did not come here to enrich them
selves with gold. They did not come
here to plumber the soil and then re-
turn to spend the fruits of adventure
in profigacy and vice. They were the
men in whom these principles of iber
Uy never died, in whose breasts they
we're cherished when they had disap-
peared from the institutions of other
men. They turned their backs upon
the conditions which created absolut
ism, they sought this continent that
they might create liberty, and they
did.
Providence smiled upon them. The
fertile and generous soil responded
amply to the exercise of human effort,
and when in the course of years their
material wealth had grown to such a
degree as to tempt the cupidity of
their former rulers, the old devide of
confscation by taxation was attempt
ed, and then the seeds of liberty which
had been steadily growing, the influ
ences which had been working for 200
years, took shape and the attempts of
tyranny were resisted and the resist
ance led to successful revolution
And when the last foreign soldier
had been driven from our soil, when
the polluting step of invasion had been
washed out by the blood of patriotism,
this country had taken the initial steps
toward the achievement of its destiny.