The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-07-20
FINE ADDRESS THE 4th
Continued from Page y


arrived at the conclusion that much. of
the world remained undiscovered, and
that by sailing westward new route
could be discovered to Asia, and Amer
lea was found. But Columbus died in
ignorance of the Importance of his dis
covery. In 1880 Nicholas Copernigia
published his work "The Revolution
Libri'' proclaiming that the sun is the
center of the universe and that tho
earth and the planets revolve around it..
He dedicated this work to Pope Paul Ill
in order as he said to show that he did
not shun the judgment of enlightened
men. Guidano Bruno, of Nola, Italy,
embraced the Copernigan system and
attacked the Anticipated system that
had come down from the days of Aris-
totle and was loaded by the weight of
that great thinkers name. On Feb. 8
1900, he was accommodated and on
the 18th burned at the stake by order
of the Inquisition for teaching that the
sun was the center of gravity and the
earth a subordinate planet. In 1919
Ferdinand Magellan on voyage to the
new world passed through the straits
which bear his name and sailed west
until he reached the Spice islands,
almost demonstrating that the earth is
round. In 1909 Gallileo Gallile invent
ed telescope which magnifed and re-
vealed to man the movement and magni-
tude of the heavenly bodies, and reveal
ed many new and startling truths. In
1888 he was communicated by the In
QUESTION and under threats of torture
renowned the astronomical theory now
accepted by all. And not until the
close Of the seventeenth century, almost
three hundred years after America s
discovery, did the intelligence of man
penetrate the mystery of our position
on the earth's surface, and our own
relation to the solar system.
! Then is it any wonder that our fore
fathers committed some of the incon-
sistencies that cloud and mar the pages
of intellectual progress. Their minds
were filled with some of the supersti-
tions, with some Of the intolerance, and
some of the injustice of their times.
But the light of Luther's spiritual toler-
ance, and the scientific conceptions and
general advance Of independent idea,
and the force of general worldwide adj
vancing enlightenment lifted us above
the level of persecution to a grander
conception of the individual rights of
man. For the revolt of the Pilgrim
fathers against Engiand's tyranny in
1776 was only a part of worldwide
advance of the enlightened nations of
the world. In 1892 twenty-five million
Frenchmen were locked in a death
struggle against the old monarchial in
situations of Europe, struggle that
shook to their very foundations that old
and mischievous doctrine behind whose
structure stands nobility with it's high
sounding titles. divine right of the
few, but if the struggle Of 1875 had
shattered many old opinions, if it had
emancipated us from monarchial insti-
buttons it had not emancipated us from
that evil as old as the beginning of the
organized conditions of society, slavery.
Time and again it threatened to disrupt
our nation. Like Hamlet's ghost it pre-
sided at every national convention, and
all national affairs. At every attempt
to locate the national capitol it appear.
ed to threaten rebellion and national
disunion. Almost all national legisla-
ton was a compromise between slavery
and anti-slavery, until at last the pro.
phetic words of Lincoln proved true
that the nation could not exist half free
and half slave, and this institution
handed down to us from MEDIEVAL times
cost us almost million of lives anc
countless treasure, but we hewed with
the sword from our institutions forever
the ghost of disunion and we have be
come in name as we'll as in theory free
nation. And never again shall the
sweat which drops from black mans
brow as he tolls in the fields Of cotton
corn and cane, receive as his recon
pence the lash of cruel taskmaster
and never again shall the tears that fal
from black woman's eyes as she sits
in her lowly cottage in the negro quar-
ters, battle the face of an infant whose
position in life was perpetual servitude
whose highest intelligence was to per
form hard days task in the fields, ant
whose family ties were severed at thu
will or pleasure or financial necessitie.
of a master.
1t is unnecessary for me to speak tt
you of those battlefelds that mark tn,
prowess of American manhood. The,
are known to every schoolboy and t,
every native born American. 1 wa
placed on the program to write al
essay, not to deliver speech, for tina
\ would be impossible. have endeavor
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