The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-06-04

90 ~
Of Salisbury.
That vast volume We call History
IS the record of a pilgrims progress.
1t is the thrilling story Of the long
Journey, of the ceaselesS struggle OF
man toward God. In It. as in a glass.
we see man. our brother and repre-
sentative, now struggling in the
Slough of Despond. now "a prisoner
in the castle of Giant Despair, now
touching the mountain peaks of glory.
his face akindle with the ~refracted
light Of the Beautiful City.
Two Great Days
There are two great days in the his
tory of mankind, two SinaiS or the
mountains m Ihat was a
great day nineteen centuries ago when
a heavenly life. born Of a peasant girl
and bringing the Truth that makes
men free, touched earth in a little
hill-town of Judea- That was a great
day. now six score n sixteen years
ago, when in a little room in Phlla-
delphia this nation was conceived In
liberty and dedicated to the PROPOSE
ton that all men are created equal.
Not long e a company OF dlstin-
guiShed men. representative or all that
is great n splendid in new Japan.
entered Independence Hall where the
great Declaration was made. To these
brown men from a far land it was a
pilgrimage to a shrine. With bowed
and uncovered heads and tear-dimmed
eyes. they paid their silent tribute to
the authors Of liberty.
The Authors of Liberty
That great event at Philadelphia
came in the fullness Of time. In Eng
land men of our ace had secured the
historic guarantees of person and
property and their freedom had
slowly b~roadened down from pre-
cedent to precedent" The printing
press Of Gutenberg. giving wings to
the words of the precious spirits Of
the ages of Elizabeth and Cromwell.
had widened the horizon of men i'm
measurably.
In our halls is hung
Armory Of the invincible knights
of old.
We must be free or die who speak
the tongue
That Shakespeare spoke, the
faith and morals hold
Which Milton held"
Such a noble inheritance. such IN
hampered beginnings, such a clear
field for Self-expressiOn no Other ma
ton ever had. Nor was any ever SO
fortunate in the characters of its
founders. They were men Of invirci-
bic energy. Of incorruptibly integrity.
VI .mllltdLI CONNlCllOuS.
states yet unborn will honor those
statesmen in powdered hair who wrote
tho Declaration. framed the Constitu-
ton. and founded the nation. in the
forefront of the history OF the Repub-
lie looms forever the heroic figure OF
Washington. Never, never before has
the world known such an apostle and
prophet Of democracy and freedom as
Thomas Jefferson.
Those Wprp tho 61VS of heroic wOnt.
en- as we'll as of heroic men. The
homely virtues, the dauntless courage
OF the pioneer women made this IA.
ton possible. They tied it's faith t
the holy trinity of father. mother, anC
child.
The Miracle Of History
Such men and such women hav,
made the story Of America the TO
nance Of history. A little hill tow
of Attica became Athens, mother O
art and beauty. A group of mud hut
on a hill by the Tiber BECAME an Eter
nal City. and. 10. the huts were Cae
sars' palaces and the hill the Palatine
"A band of fleeing exile drove thei
stakes In the sand-banks of the Adria
tic and became the fathers of Vena
tian glory.
But the inward sweep Of the Amer
lean idea from Roanoke II James
'town to this hour is the unmatche'
miracle of world history. Il one ba,
'foretold it to the starving c~o!onist
OF jamestown. to the freezing soldier
OF Valley Forge. they would hav
deemed it a fairy tale wilder tha an
in the Arabian Nights. or else a tai
toll by an idiot.
Shall We Keep the Faith!
In this day Of our Ooundless mater
ial success. shall we prove worthy {
our Inheritance from the fathers
Shall we hold true to their gres
deals? Shall we keep the faith??
Divorce
We are unworthy Of that nheri
ance if We fail to keep sacred tt
home out of which are the issues
life. The evil of easy divorce, wit
its de6lement Of the family relatio
threatens the moral fabric Of the n;
ton. Let every good man and won
an stand against it.
immigration
The vigorous pioneers, scatteri,