Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-04-27

as in their several ways they struggle con
sisnuy toward higher sfyillzaLtions a
hand, united only in a generous rivalry to
see which can best do its allotted work in
the world. 1 believe that there Is n rising
tide In human thought which tends for
righteous International peace; a tide which
II behooves US to guide through rational
channels TO sane conclusions. and all OF
US here present can well AFFORD to take to
heart ST. PauIs counsel: IF II be possible,
az much as heth in you. live peaceably
Yet let us remember that while this
early English colonial stock has left
deeper than all others upon our national
life the mark Of its strong twin individu-
alities, the mark Of the cavalier and OF
only from its environment but also from
the presence with Il OF other stocks. al
most from the beginning began to be
differentiated strongly from any European
Work Of Pioneers.
The pioneers OF our people who first
landed on these shores on that eventtul day
| three centuries ago, had before them a
task which during the early years was Of
heartbreaking danger and difficulty. The
conquest Of q new continent is iron work.
| The early iron days Of such a conquest
search out alike the weak in body and the
weak in soul. In the warfare against the
rugged sternness of prinieval nature, only
those can conquer who are temselves un-
conquerable. II is not until the first bitter
years have passed that the life becomes
easy enough to invite a mass Of newcomers
and so great are the risk, hardship, and toll
Of the early years that there always exists
a threat OF lapslng back from civilization.
The history Of the pioneers Of Jamestown.
Of the founders Of Virginia, illustrates the
! truth Of all this. Famine and pestilence
| and war menaced the little band OF daring
men who had planted themselves alone on
| the edge OF a frowning continent. More,
| over, as men ever find. whether in the
| tiniest frontier community or in the vastest
and most highly organized and complex
| civilized society, their worst foes were in
! their own bosoms. Dissension, distrust, the
! inability OF some to work and the unwill-
/ ingness OF others, Jealousy, arrogance and
shortcomings with which we have TO
| Rrapple now, were faced by those pioneers,
| and at moments threatened their whole en-
! time before the ground on which they had
| landed supported them, in spite Of It's po-
tential fertility and they looked across the
less did they become that the whole colony
| embarked, and was only saved from aban-
doning the country by the opportune ar
| rival Of help from abroad.
| At last they took root in the land, and
were already prospering when the Pill
grims landed at Plymouth. In a few years
a great inflow of settlers began. -Four
1 of the present states of New England
were founded. Virginia waxed apace The
Carollnas grew up to the south of 1t, and
Maryland to the north Of it, The Dutch
colonies between, which had already alb
sorbed the, Swedish, were in their turn
absorbed by the English. Pennsylvania
was founded and, later still, Georgia.
! There were many wars with the Indians
and with dauntless captains whose ban
the British nag few without a rival in all
eastern North America. Then came the
successful struggle for national independ-
ence.
Growth of west
In the colonial period and for at least
q century after its close, the conquest OF
the continent the expansion Of our people
! westward, to the Alleghenies, then to the
| Mississippi, then to the Pacific, was al
ways one OF the most important tasks and
sometimes the mast 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
II was on much more democratic basis
than life in the old world, II was by nc
modern standards; and here and there, as
In the tidewater regions Of Virginia, a
genuine aristocracy grew and hourished
But the men who first broke ground in
lantic 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 van.
pushed there remained the harder strair
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 a complete
lack OF all but the very toughest and mos
stances the men and women who made
ready the continent for civilization were
apie themselves TO spend but little time II
doing aught but the rough work which
was to make smooth the ways Of their sue
cessors In consequence observers who's.
insight was spoiled by lack of sympathy
always found both the settlers and theii
lives unattractive and repellant In Mar
tin Chuzzlewit" the description OF America
eliminating in the description OF the from
tier town of Eden, was true and lifelikt
from the standpoint Of one content 10 lool
merely at the outer shell; and yet It was
community like Eden that gave birth t
Abraham Lincoln; it was men such az
were therein described from whose lolni
Andrew jackson sprang.
Problems of People.
Hitherto each generation among us has
had It's allotted task, now heavier, nov
lighter. In the revolutionary war the
business was TO achieve Independence I'm
more momentous taslS-that to achieve The
national unity and the capacity for or
derby development, without which our lib
erty our Independence, would have been
curse and not blessing. In each OF these
two contests while there were many grea
leaders from many different states, Il 1,
but fair to say that the foremost place wa!
taken by 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 tn,
can Be symbolized by the names Of two
other great Observation-Disclosures and Mar
shaih-from one Of whom we inherit the
abiding trust In the people which Is the
foundation stone OF democracy, and from
the other the power to develop on behalf
of the people a coherent and powerful gov
eminent, a genuine and representative ma
tionality.
Two generations passed before the second
great crisis OF our history had to be faced
Then came the civil war. terrible anC
bitter in itself and I'm its aftermath blu
struggle from which the nation finally
emerged united in fact as we'll as in name
united forever. Oh, my hearers, my fellow
countrymen, great indeed has been oul
good fortune; for as time clears away tn,
mists that once shrouded brother from
brother and made zach look "as through
q glass darkly" at the other. we can al
fell the same pride In the valor, the devo
ton and the fealty toward the right as 4
was given to each to see the right, shown
alike by the men who wore the blue anC
by the men who wore the gray Ricl
and prosperous though we are as a people
the proudest heritage that each OF US has
no matter where he may dwell, north oil
south, east or west, Is the immateTia
heritage OF feeling, the right to claim a.
his own all the valor and all the steadfas
devotion 70 duty shown by the men o
both the great armies Of the soldiers who's,
leader was Lee. The men and the womeI
OF the civil war did their duty bravely an,
we'll in the days that we're dark and terri
BILE and splendid. We, their descendants
who pay proud homage to their memories
and glory In the feats Of might OF on
side no less than Of the other need 4
keep steadily in mind that the homag
which counts is the homage of heart ant
OF hand. and not OF the Inns. the hOmag