The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-07
 DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
BY THE REV FRANK DEWITT TALMAGE, D. D.
os ANGELES, Cal, June so.-In this

sermon, appropriate to the nation 1 birthday. the preacher recalls the events that have contributed to our coun- ,4ys greatness and traces the DlVlhe hand guiding It's destinies. The text 's Psalm lxxvii, Il, Surely l will remember thy wonders of old"
 During the coming week we celeorate our birth as a nation. Our topic thls morning, therefore, should be patrlotic' The text have chosen invites us to rem iniscence, and the reminiscence need not be limited to our own lives. Like our famous writer, Edward Everett Hale, our thoughts may well include "Ihe Memo ries of Hundred Years That book deals, for the most part, with the youth full history of this nation. When tInnk of the Revolutionary war and the slgn- Ing of the Declaration of independence and the forming of the constitution of the United States and the political supremacy of Washington's government, l always think of our government as new born baoy in its swaddling clothes. But when l think of the government Of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe and the great causes wnIch led up to our civil war, l think of the boyhood and young manhood or our country It is about this development of our government that I would like to speak today Such a theme should offer
 
 ..s I read that interesting book the fact which forced itself upon me was that ir the beginning of the last cen tury the complete unlfcation of the United States had not been established. Dr. Hale well said: "On the 1st of Jan uary. 1901, the United States was belt on the Atlantic seaboard of thirteen poor and weak communities, occupying terri tory which hardly ran back more than 15O miles from the ocean. They had united themselves, but they did not known that they were a nation. Even thu statesmen of that day would have V -itten, The United States are ready or are prepared while an officer of ours today would say The United States is ready or is prepared <" In other words, though the constitutional convention which formed the original thirteen colo nies into federation had assembled In 17s7, yet up to tho latter part of John Adams administration the different states still thought the central government was O. minor importance and that the state Legislatures had more power than the national congress.
 I knew this fact was true of the be- ginning of George Waehington's admin istration, but I did not think 1t was so clear down through John Adams term When the first president was inaugurated in New York city, 1t was almost impos- sible for him to get strong men to take positions under the United States govern ment. In the United States government today the most important position next to the presidency IS that of chief justice of the supreme court of the United States. l ct John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States supreme court, re- signed his seat in order to be a candl- date fol governor of New York, in which contest he failed. Washington had the hardest work to obtain proper men for his cabinet. John Marshall, who after ward became tho great chief justice of the United States supreme court, refused the position of attorney general, pre- ferring to remain a member of the Vir- g1nia state senate.
 As an illustration of the low estimate placed on positions in the United States government in the beginning of the last century we find De Witt Clinton, n United States senator from New York in 1S01 reslgning his position in the United tSates Senate in order to become the mayor of New York city. Can you dream of anything that would be more incompr ehensible to the statesmen of the present day? The idea our early states men had O. the union of the states seems to have been that of Q bond but little closer than alliance such as might bind two friendly European countries. But as they came to realize that the union was one for mutual strength and protection the importance of tho central federation assumed greater proportions. And so my brothers, as we thank God today that tho United States government has grown into @ cohesive unity we should not be bitter or harsh in our criticism of those statesmen who In 1861 still believed that the single commonwealth was su- D, eme. John c. Calhouns advocacy of state sovereignty was the natural se- quence of the thought which was almost universally prevalent when Thomas Jeff ferson became president, that the United States was a confederacy of seventeen commopwealths rather than single gov ernment of which the different states were only integral parts.
 State Sovereignty Idea.
 So universal was the idea of state sov- ereignty in Washngtons time that when the first president made his famous tour of the New England states the governor of Massachusetts at first refused to call upon George Washington when he came to Boston. He practically said, T hold as independent a position as the president and he must come to me before I go to him." Mark you, this action of the gov ernor was not in South Carolina or In eGorgia or in the black belt" of Mis- sissippi, but In old Massachusetts, the home of Garrison and Wendell Phillips The people have now learned that the United States is a nation.
 Another fact which forcibly struck me in Dr. Hale's autobiography was the im- mense amount of unoccupied land which the United States government possessed which had not then been explored and which the leading statesmen did not ex- pect to utilize for century at least to come. They took possession of this land not because they wanted 1t, but because they were afraid somebody else might want it, and then there would be two ma tions upon the American shores instead of one. Not even the prime movers in the Louisiana purchase had any true con ception of the great national bargain.
 50 little did Livingston know what he was doing." writes Dr. Hale. that in the letter 1T. which he announced to President Jefferson Napoleons amazing offer and his own conclusion of the great purchas SC he says, I have told them that we should not send an emlgrant across the Missls- sippi in 100 years.'" So little did the gov ernment know of the region 1t had pl1r- chased that President Jefferson, a short time after Louisiana had been ceded to our government had to send out the Clark and Lewis expedition to find out what kind of region 1t was and whether the people could live there at all. And one of the chief reasons, wrote pr. Hale W " the New England states opposed the Louisiana purchase was because their own population was so meager and they were afraid that this new region of the far west might draw some of their peo- pie away and leave the farms of the New England valleys untilled. In other words what I wish to show is that the great west which came into our possession during fhe parliar mart nf fha h aat