The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-01-31
Tue PANORAMA OF HISTORY
The Chances Wrought in One
~. Hundred Years
parte-The '1tevenges'' OF Time.
The Map Of Europe Today. ~
For The Messenger

weary road, is wont TO look back from
the brow OF the hill, TO watch the mist
rising from the valley out Of which ne
has just climbed; or to sight once more
some great tree, towering like sent-
mel over the landscape; or to bid fare
we'll with fegretful sigh TO the nome
Ike smoke curling from the chimney
of the cabin il. the woods. SO the STU
dent of history, old as the Wander
ing Jew" halts at the century mile
most TO survey in retrospect the world
work, the achievement of its ptoples,
and the rise and fall Of dynastie5
throughout tie track of one hundred
eventual years.
In 1905 Thomas Jefferson was in the
last years Of his presidential admins
tration, and near, the close o. one or
the most illustrious lives in the annals
OF the American republic. Damoc acy
aad become the fixed and gtidinS
PRINCIPLES of the Un:,ed States govern
ment; and the first great commoner
with Nathaniel Macon, Willie ID. Jone =,
Matthew Locke AMI General futher-
ford always at bis tack and holdlns
ND his hands, had fought his way TIL
umphantly through long and bitter
struggle against federalism and It's
great advocate, Alexander Hamilton
We had acquired Louisiana from
France or rather FROM its terrible mas
ter, Bonaparte, vast territory stretch
ing along the Mississippi river in sill
ent forests and trackless wilds. Its
population almost doubled from the
'three millions, one-flfth fighting men
apostrophized by an orator Of the rev
olution in appealing to the people to
take up arms, the little galaxy OF states
was strung along the Atlantic coast,
like mole hill on the side or the
mountain the outwOrks on the fore
ground of it's immense domain, which
avirile Of progressive PEOPLE, strong IN
youth and hope, were to conquer Tor
civilization, industry and progress.
Slowly and tolsomeiy the hardy plo-
reer reclaimed the wilderness into
which he bazed his way, here and
there around the small forts and
block houses on tha margins Of the
great lakes and croWning the banks
OF the majestic rivers of the west, the
tTapper and the adventurous hunter
planted their little settlements, TO be-
come Opulent cities the centers Of trade
and manufactures; the American re-
public was to solidi"y, strengthen and
ez Dand for fifty years until it was pre-
cipitated into one Of the most terrible
civil wars of any age, which rocked II
to it's foundations, and buried the in
stitutions of slavery under the ruins.
In Europe, Bonaparte, TIE emperor
of France, from 1908 K, his DISASTROUS
Russian campaign, was in the apotN co
sis of his glory aud madness as
Guizot expresses it. England alone ex-
cepted, the empires, Kingdoms and re-
TublicS of the old world saw in this
wonderful man the arbiter Of their des-
tnies, insatiate in his ambitioL and
pitiless in it's aggrandizement;of whom
Phillips dramatically says Grand,
gloomy and peculiar, he sat upon the
throne a sceptred he1 nit, wrapped in
end who declares that he was "the
most extraordinary character that in
the annals of this world ever rose,
reigned and fell"
Italy, rent and dismembered ever
sinca the army of Napoleon swept
down from the Alps upon the plains
watered by the Adige lay helpless at
the feet of the conqueror. Hee fair ter
ritory was divided out piecemeal; her
men were drafted into the armies or
France; her wealth was squandered;
her palaces temples and cathedrals
centuries, carried off to grace the Tui1-
leries and Louvre in Paris.
Even in the shadow of the Vatican,
Pope Plus VII was arrested like a
common malcfactor by General Radet,
acting under the express orders Of Bon
ararte "WhCn one has no longer a
hold upon life one has no longer q
hold upon things Of this world said
the Holy Father taking from a table
his crucifx and breyiary; Il am ready"
Weak, i'll AMI suffering, he was car
ried by forced jOurned to Grenoble and
then to SaNona, where he remained
for a long time in irksOme and igno-
miniOus confinement.
Spain, already in its decadence, its
riehtful monarchs, Charles ". and
Ferdinand VII. disrrOWned made a
last patriotic struggle against the tyr
amy traachory and crY1aItv of the
French emperor. Joseph Bonaparte
had been elevated to the Spanish
throne-a high minded, honorable man
but weak in character, infirm of pur-
pose, wanting in executive ability, and
ignorant of the art Of war. 1t was his
wretched lot throughout his inglorious
reign to be one day making a hollow