The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-26
Presidents
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some time before the ground on which
they had landed supported them, in
spite of its potential fertility, and
they looked across the sea for sup
plies. At one moment so hopeless did
they become that the whole colony
embarked, and was only saved from
abandoning the country by the op-
perfume arrival of help from abroad.
At last they took root in the land,
and were already prospecting when
the pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In
a few years great inflow of settlers
began. Four Of the present states of
England were founded. Virginia
waxed apace. The Carolinas grew up
to the south Of it, and Maryland to the
north Of 1t. The Dutch colonies be-
tween, which had already absorbed
the Swedish. were in their turn alb
sorbed by the English. Pennsylvania
was founded and, later still Georgia.
There were many wars with the In
dams and with the dauntless captains
whose banners bore the lilies of
France. At last the British flag flew
without rival in all eastern North
America. Then came the successful
struggle for national independence
For half century after we became
a separate nation there was compare
lively little immigration to this coun-
try. Then the tide once again set
hither, and has flowed in ever increas-
ing size until each Of the last three
70, 1Hav ,f II
to these shores than had landed on
them during the entire colonial period.
Generation by generation these peo-
pie have been absorbed into the ma
tional life. Generally their sons, al
most always their grandscns, are in
distinguishable from one another and
from their fellow-Americans descend
ed from the colonial stock. For all
alike the problems of our existence
are fundamentally the same. and for
all alike these problems change from
generation to generation.
In the colonial period, and for at
least a century after its close. the
conquest of the continent, the expan-
sion of our people westward, to the
Alleghenies, then to the Mississippi.
then to the Pacific, was always one
of the most important tasks, and some
times the most important. in our ma
tional life. Behind the first settlers
the conditions grew easier, and in the
older settled regions OF all the colonies
life speedily assumed much of comfort
and something Of luxury; and though
generally it was on a much more DEM
ocratic basis than life in the cid
world. it was by no means democrat
ic when judged by our modern stand
ards; and here and there, as in the
tide-water regions Of Virginia, gen.
uine aristocracy grew and flourished.
But the men who first broke ground
in the virgin wilderness, whether on
the Atlantic coast. or in the interior,
fought hard for mere life. In the ear
ly stages the frontiersman had to do
battle with the savage, and when the
savage was vanquished there remain
ed the harder strain of war with the
hostile forces of soil and climate,
with flood, fever. and famine. There
was sickness, and bitter weather;
complete lack of all but the very
toughest and most absolute neces-
saries. Under such circumstances
the men and women who made ready
the continent for civilization were able
themselves to spend but little time
in doing aught but the rough work
which was to make smooth the ways
of their successors. In consequence
observers whose insight was spoiled
by lack of sympathy always found both
the settlers and their lives unattrac-
tive and repellent. In Martin Chuz-
zlewit the description Of America,
eliminating in the description of the
frontier town of Eden, was true and
Mfelike from the standpoint of one
content to look merely at the outer
she'll; and yet it was community like
Eden that gave birth to Abraham Lin
coin; it was men such as were therein
described from whose loins Andrew
Jackson sprang.
Hitherto each generation among us
has had its allotted task, now heavier,
now lighter. In the revolutionary war
the business was to achieve independ-
ence. Immediately afterwards there
was an even more mOmentOuS task;
that to achieve the national unity and
the capacity for orderly development,
without which our liberty. our indie
pendence. would have been a curse
and not a blessing. In each of these
two contests, while there were many
great leaders from many different
states, it is but fair to say that the fore
most place was taken bv the soldiers
and the statesmen of Virginia; and to
Virginia was reserved the honor of
producing the hero of both movements,
the hero of the war, and of the peace
that made good the results of the war
George Washington; while the two
great political tendencies of the time
can be symbolized by the names of
two other Observation-Disclosures and
Marshall-from one Of whom We in
herit the abiding trust in the people
which is the foundation stone of DEM
ocracy, and from the other the power
to develop on behalf of the people
a coherent and powerful government,
a genuine and representative nation
ality.
Two generations passed before the
second great crisis of our history had
to be faced. Then came the civil war,
terrible and bitter in itself and in its
aftermath. but a struggle from which
the nation finally emerged united in
fact as we'll as in name. united for
ever. Oh, my hearers. my fellow coun-
trymen, great indeed has been our
good fortune; for as time clears away
the mlsts that once shrouded brother
from brcther and made each look
"as through glass darkly" at the
other. we can all feel the same pride
in the valor, the devotion and the
fealty toward the right as it was given
to each to see the right, shown alike
by the men how wore the gray. Rich
hx the mo nuho uora tho uray Rich