Newark post., 1913-06-04

roads interrupted the unbroken
stretches Of wilderness; and each
home was Of necessity the producer
of everything Of utility their wants
demanded. A harder working lot
of people than pioneers who set
tied and first peopled these shores
of ours. - y #
First and formost, however,
they were liberty-loving God-fear-
ing people. And when this is said,
all their other virtues are implied
ly enumerated. The passion Of our
fathers had for freedom, their deep
piety and devotion to God, were the
most important traits Of character
that prompted them to seek their
abodes in the western world. Blood
and high birth were not theirs;
they could not boast Of ancient lin
cage nor could they point with
pride to venerable walls whereon
hung armorial bearings and her.
aldric escutcheons which speak of
a noble house that dips it's antiq-
uity back into the dim twilight Of
the past. They were just part of
God s plain people. Yet as plain as
they were, as rough doubtless as ap-
peared their exterior, as unadorn-
ed as they were by the frills and
trappings Of polite society, they
yet were among the true nobility of
the earth, for they had implanted
within their hearts, where real no.
bility resides, sentiments Of lofty
type and ideals fit for the homage
of kings.
"Civil liberty they loved. Of
course in their old homes they were
not slaves. But there was not that
degree of freedom allotted the plain
people that their souls yearned for.
The artificial division of society,
wherein according to the accident
of his birth a man might be
naughty lord or an humble yeoman
was repulsive to their innate sense
of the dignity and revolving to
their conceptions fhuman rights.
They had seen proud kings with
subservient ministers and parlia-
ments oppress the people, and a
feudal landed aristocracy lol in
easy comfort upon the products Of
their industry. No voice was al
lowed them in the government Of
their country, and even in their
grievances they were overawed in
to submissive silence | cannot at
tempt to catalogue the list Of the
civil wrongs they conceived them
selves to be laboring under. Certain
it is they were painting as does the
hart for the meadow brook, for Il
taste Of the waters of freedom.
"Their civil grievances were
heavy enough to bear. But when
the iron rod of authority laid it's
control on their cOnsciences and as
sumed to dictate to them the man
ner in which they should worship
and honor God, the burden became
too much, and at last they resolved
to break with the past, to throw
fear to the winds, to set out for
themselves in search Of land
where they might live in the full
enjoyment Of civil and religious
freedom; and dwell in the Ell Dora
do of their hopes and aspirations.
So thither they came and found
ed this nation. When we stop to
consider, we are thus reminded that
our country has a glorious birth
In lofty sentiments, i'll high ideals,
in beautiful and inspiring truths
was it founded. No country ever
had more noble beginnings. Other
nations of the earth We're settled
and peopled because of mere for
tuitous circumstane, because the
land attracted or because over-pop- !
ulation caused over-fows of people
and made necessary migration into
other parts of the world. But our
country was settled for reasons no.
BILE and grand. This land was
sought out because its newcomers
were looking for a place where the
light of liberty might shine in un-
obscured brightness and above all
where man might unmolested wor-
ship God according to the dictates
L.