Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-07-04


OTIS were not warriors. Neither had
ever unsheathed sword. They were
not wizards Of the pen, like Washing
ton Irving or like James Fenimore
Cooper, who did for the Indian wig
wan what the romantic Sir Walter
Scott did for the Scottish moors. They
were not silver tongued orators, like
Harrison Gray Otis or Pinckney or WILL
liam Writ They were simple ncchan-
les and inventors. They were humble
men, but they were social revolution
lists The name Of the one hero was
Robert Fulton, that of the other Ell
Whitney. They each presented price
less gift. One gave to America the
steamboat. the other the cotton gin.
With those two gifts these two gen.
fuses revolutionized the map of the
new world.
Before these two men came upon
the scene the history Of the American
people was mainly the history Of many
different localities. Each locality, to a
great extent. existed Independently Of
every other locality. The men for the
women darned their childrens stock
ings, wove their own garments and
made their own rag carpets. No man
could make money off the communities
in other parts Of the land. because the
cost of transportation would eat up all
the profits. "The reader Of today
hardly remembers" writes DR.. Hale,
4 hoe 0x-lp 10 nj r.
ket cost of a bushel OF corn was spent
when it had to be carried forty miles.
AS late as 1880 heard the jest which
ridiculed an emgrant from Massa-
chusetts by saying that he left his
home year before to go west with a
Jug OF molasses to use in trade and
that he returned Mt the end OF the year
Of adventure. having made enough in
bargaining to pay him for the Jug"
| When the man Of one state had to
carry his goods to another state by
wagon and horse, the cost of transpor-
tation obiteratcd all the profit, and
thus communities in the beginning Of
the last century lived almost entirely
Independent of each other.
FultonS InVention.
But one day Robert Fulton lifted his
mo gle wand. Then the "chu- chu-chu"
OF the steamboat was heard. Then the
Mississippi and the Ohio and the Hud
son and all the great rivers Of our
country became blackened with smoke.
Then the emigrants Of Il lie east went
west. Then the merchandise and the
foodstlffs were carried from one part
Of the land to the other Then ELI
Whitney lifted his magic wand, and
the southern planters carried their
great bales of cotton down TO the
wharfs. There they were loaded upon
Robert Fulton's steamboats, and car
ried to the New England factories.
| Thus, as if by magic, the industries Of
one part Of our country clasped hands
with those of other parts of our coun-
try, and our great forests were cut
down, and villages and towns and
cities sprang up. Thus the two
mightiest nation builders of the be-
ginning of the last century We're not
two statesmen. but two inventors, who
made it possible for the industries Of
our country to be developed and our
lands to be covered with the busy hives
of human life.
Thus l want you in this great nation
al holiday to realize that the greatest
men of our nation are not the soldiers,
though who dare speak one word
against the men of the sword and Of
the gun, who won us our national lib
critics and protected us when we were
in danger? They are not the states
men, although the pens Of Livingston
and Of Adams and of Jay have drawn
for us the map Of this western repub-
lie. But they are the heroes of civil
life. They are the farmers and the
manufacturers. They are the builders
of our great railway systems and the
educators in our schools Of technology,
and the developers of the brain and tho
moral stamina. They are the men,
like Fulton and Whitney, who teach us
how to live and how to make the most
of our life. And yet, strange to say,
while Robert Fulton and Eli Whitney
in America were revolutionizing the
map Of the new world James Monroe,
the American secretary Of state. sneer-
ingly said to the French minister:
"Peope in Europe suppose US TO be
merchants, occupied exclusively with
pepper and ginger. They are much de-
ceived, and I hope We shall prove It.
The immense majority Of our citizens
do not belong to this class, and we are
controlled as much as you Europeans
by principles of honor and dignity. I
never knew what trade was, and the
president Is as much stranger to 1t
as l." Do you wonder that Edward
Everett Hale repudiated the slur upon
the indirect results of the life work Of
Fulton and Whitney? And. my friends,
shall we who know how much honest
labor has had to do with making this
nation what ii is-arc we today to de-
splse the calloused hand Of the la bOrer
and the honest toilcr In the nations
industries?
What Defeated Adams.
Another impressive truth emphasized
by our author which many of us pro-
fess to know. but which most of US
need reminding Of, is how little things
inevitably decide the policies Of the
men who control the destiuies OF the
nation. As the falling of stone may
change the course of running brook,
Insignificant things may change the
course of our lives, and they do con-