The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-04-26

IeoiVHiOS USe"SSh, WHiCH ndu already
absorbed the Swedish, were in their
turn absorbed by the English. Penn
sylvania was founded ana, later still,
Georgia. There were many wars
with the Indians and with the daunt-
less captains whose banners bore the
lilies of France. At last the British
flag flew without a rival in all east
erp North America. Then came the
successful struggle for national indie
pendence.
For half a 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-in-
creasing size until in each of the
last three years a greater number of
people came to these shores than
had landed on them during the entire
colonial period. Generation by gen
eration -hese people have been alb
sorbed into the national life. Gener-
grandsons, are indistinguishable from
one another, and from their fellow
Americans descended from the colon
ial took. For all alike, the problems
lof 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 century after it's close, .he
conquest of the continent, the ex-
pansion of our people westward to
the Alleghenies, then to the Mississ-
ippi, then to the Pacific. was always
one of the most important tasks, and
sometimes the most important, in
our national 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 democratic basis
than life in the Old World, 1t was
by no means democratic when judged
by our modern standards; and here
and there. as in the tidc-water
regions of Virginia, genuine aris-
tocracy grew and llourished. But the
men who first broke ground in the
virgin wilderness, whether Un the At
llantic coast, or In the interior,
fought hard for mere life. In the
early stages, the frontiersman had to
do battle with the savage, and when
the savage was vanquished, there re-
mained the harder strain of war with
the hostile forces of soil and climate,
with food, fever and famine. There
was sickness, and bitter weather;
there were no roads; there was q
complete lack of all but the very
toughest and most absolute necessar-
les. Under such circumstances, the
men and women who made ready the
continent for civilization were able
themselves to spent but little time
in doin aught but the rough work
which was to make smooth the ways
Iof their successors. In consequence,
observers, whose insight was spoiled
by lack of sympathy always found
both the settlers and their lives un-
attractive and repellant. In Martin
Chuzzlewit the description OF Amer
lea, eliminating in the description of
the frontier town of Eden, was true
and lifelike from the standpoint of
one content to look merely at the
outer she'll; and yet it was COM
munity like Eden that gave birth to
Abraham Lincoln; 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 heay-
ier now lighter; In the Revolutionary
War, the business was to achieve in
dependence. Immediately afterward
there was an even more momentous
task; that TO achieve the national
unity and the capacity for orderly de-
velopment, without which our liberty,
our independence, 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, 1t is but fair to say
that the foremost place was taken
by the soldiers and the statesmen Of
Virginia; and TO Virginia was re-