The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-07-10

eXpanSe of its territory, in the Wis
dom of its statesmen, in advance
ment in learning, and all that distin-
guishes civilization from barbarism,
and yet be wanting in the essential
qualities that insure the perpetuity
of its institutions.
That virtue or quality which is es-
sential to the true greatness of a
people is character Character is the
greatest of all human virtues. 1t
is that divine attribute of the human
soul that in it's highest conception,
in its noblest form OF exemplification,
has enabled men and women in all
times, and under widely varying sit
uations to surrender life rather than
be unfaithful to duty. 1t is the
same heroic quality that sustained
the martyr as he was being flung to
the flames, that actuated the Roman
J seminal, whose incinerated body was
found at the gates of Pompeii 1000
years after the city had been over
whelmed in cataclysm of fire stand
ing at his post of duty as soldier.
Men, like nations, who have not had
this virtue, have often failed and
gone into oblivion, although they may
have possessed an intellectual en-
dowment amounting to genius.
On the other hand, men OF more
common place intelligence have be-
come immortal by reason of possess
ing character, devotion to principles
and the needs of humanity.
Measured by what he accomplished,
few men have doomed so large upon
! the worlds horizon as our own
Washington. And yet when he
wrought the work which was for
all time to make him a world figure
of colossal size, he was an untrain-
ed frontier soldier, leading undis-
ciplined, half clad, half starved Con-
tinental soldiers, who could only have
been held up to the high standard of
duty and the doing of the heroic
deeds for which they suffered and
died through the leadership of a man
who possessed all of these great
qualities.
The work accomplished by the
colonies in securing our independence
has challenged the admiration of the
world. Here on this continent was
struggling fringe of settlers along
the Atlantic sea coast, extending from
Canada on the north to Everglades
of Florida on the south. These peo
pie We're exceedingly lim..eG in ina.
terial wealth, were without means
Of transportation, or even communi-
cation between themselves except by
the slow method of overland stage
or the mounted courier, and so few
in number that if every soul of them
could have been gathered in one spot
upon this continent it would not have
equaled in numbers one OF our pres
ent great cities. But they were able
to successfully wage war for what
they believed were their rights
against the foremost military power
of the world. 1t was that divine
quality of moral courage that sus-
tanned them in an undertaking of
such magnitude. fraught with such
serious consequences in the event of
failure.
1t is not too much to say that in
any other period OF the worlds his
tory among an equal number of peo-
pie can there be found such a dis
tinguished group of constructive
statesmen as the Revolutionary per-
iod produced. Washington had as
contemporaries and advisers in this
stupendous undertaking jefferson,
Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benja-
min Franklin, and all that band of
lmmortals of the Revolutionary per-
iod. Many of them possessed such
rare originality and genius as con-
structive statesmen that they would
be men of rrpassing greatness in
governmental affairs in any country
at any time. 1t is no disparagement
of the men of later generation to
say that there has never been at
another period an equal number of
men in public affairs that have dis
played constructive ability in govern
mental affairs equal to that group
OF men produced by the Revolution |
airy period. And these colonists |
were required, in addition TO their
other great tasks to subdue a bleak |
and hostile continent, and we may
also say as did the old Greek poet,
"All blessings are bought from the
gods by labor"
Thomas jefferson will live through
the centuries as the author of that
charter of human liberty, the Decla-
ration of Independence. Alexander
Hamilton, to whose constructive mind