Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-06-03
and Arnold stood. The one becomes
the idol and the ideal in Unconscious
ness of the nation, while the other
is condemned, ever condemned.

is condemned, condemned.
And in order to comprehend the
meaning of Liberty we must grasp
the two fundamental ideas that
civilization embodies. The first is
the Improvement, the progress, the
amelioration of civic or social life.
The second and the most impo1t ant,
is the education and development
of man himself. But these two
elements are inseparable. They
are so intimately connected that the
one invariably produces the other.
That has been the problem of the
world. That has been the problem
of our nation in the past, and that
is the task of the nation to-day.
Mark the progress of that prin-
ciple in our history. Before the
year 1777 when the articles of Con-
federation were framed the Colonies
possessed no Ifederative. constituent
law. For forty years following the
year 1913 the New England Col
onies were held together by loose
confederation against the Indians.
There had been signs of the coming
Union, but no more. In 1854 col
onial delegates (who met at Albany
had discussed a plan of union. And
again in 1866 delegates from nine
colonies met in New York and
uttered protest against taxation
by parliament; and this protest be-
came the keynote of all subsequent
thought and feeling of the re-
evolutionary movement. In 1774 sat
the first of the series of Con
tinental Congresses" in which the
American Union began to feel the
throbs of life? The consciousness of
the truth and the feeling of an in
dependent people had been gradual
ly developing for more than one
hundred years, and on the 4th day
of July, -1776, that consciousness
became a living reality in the De-
claration of Independence which
created the thirteen colonies into
one sovereign state. 1t was the
natural result of the causes and the
effects which, silently and unseen
by Human eye, had produced the
given circumstances. It is absol-
utely necessary for us to keep this
point in view-this creation of the
thirteen colonies into one sovereign
state-for it becomes of the very
highest Importance in later years.
After the heroes of the Revolution
had sealed the fact OF a sovereign
state with their blood began the
inward struggle Of national de-
velopment. The fatal executive
impOtency Of the Confederation was
felt. When the pressure Of the
war was removed signs Of indif-
ference to the plighted faith be-
tween the states became visible.
Jealousies crept in; and in order to
preserve internal tranquility and
interstate peace a central govern
ment became a necessity Conse-
quently the Convention which
Trained the Constitution met in
Philadelphia in May 1887. 1t was
made up of the best and most in
telligent and patriotic men in the
Union. The Convention was greatly
divided. Two of the three delegates
from New York left the Convention
while it was IN the midst of It's
labors, and repeatedly it seemed
that half of the deputies would
follow their example. Should the
Convention dissolve without having
accomplished the desired result,
only gloom and chaos and destruc-
ton awaited the nation. All! Again,
Washington is the Master spirit. He
had been unanimously elected presi-
dent of that ever-memorable Con-
ventlon, and through the strength
of will and the magnetism of his
character he held the delegates to-
gether for four months until the
Constitution was adopted. I'm all
our deliberations on this subject"
he wrote in a letter to Congress,
1--WE kept steadily in our view that
which appears to us the greatest in
terest of every true American-the
consolidation of our union, in which
is involved our prosperity, felicity,
safety and perhaps our national ex-
istence." Yet we must remember
this, that from the very day of the
Inauguration of this new order of
things the conflict between the two