Year: 1876

ffOtectlVe legislation deceived the
democracy of America, as they have
deceived European governments but
the productiveness of virgin soil has
been generous enough to hide this loss:
The nation has:not been so, prosperous
as it might have been but the ag.
create wealth it now annually pro-
duces, approaches that of. the oldest
communities, and yet the mass of
population remains so small, compared
with the capabilities of wealth-makinp.
which undeveloped lands afford, that;
the wages of the laborer are higher
than they are in any other part of
the world. The English settlers, and
those who have come to share their
freedom, have brought the United
States s0far in the course of 100 years,
and it.:would be vain to prescribe the
limits Of the growth Ito (which the
nation may attain in another century
of existence.


The United States have become q
great nation in numbers and in the
production of wealth, and they have
shown themselves great also in the ca
pacity to free themselves, at the cost
OF much temporary suffering, from the
great evil OF slavery. which was 50
long interviewer in their existence.
The spectacle they present to the
world of vast multitude of people
peacefully producing food and cloth.
ing and ready to receive within their
ranks immigrants from all lands who
desire to join their freedom is not un-
imposing. Although man does not
live on bread alone, bread is one of
the necessaries Of life, and-speaking
broadly and apart from special crises
in the United States bread may al
ways be obtained. If we are impa-
tient that the United States have as
yet done SO little for the world beyond
increasing the affluence of the means
of animal existence, we may, perhaps,
see cause to restrain our discomfort in
thinking of the materials out of which
were collected the armies Of immi-
grants that have recruited the num-
bers Of their citizens. They have for
the most part come from those classes
of Europe whose whole lives are given
up to the daily struggle to obtain the
means of keeping alive. By much ef-
fort, by savings that almost may be
said to have been stolen from necessi-
ty, by resistance to temptation that
has often been heroic, the few neces-
sary pounds have been got together to
enable the immigrant to sail from Liv-
erp0ol to Bremen, from Cork or Ham,
burg, to an Atlantic port, and he has
landed pennies to try his fortune in
another hemisphere. If the times are
fairly prosperous, he gets employment
and wages which prove to him that
he is in world which is new. The
strength of character which brought
him out remains with him he saves,
he becomes a householder, house,
owner, landed proprietor; but the
memory of his own early struggles,
and of the struggles of his father be-
fore him, does not pass away, and, if
he were asked to speak of the land of
his adoption and could put his thoughts
into words, he would always describe
it as "a land of fullness of bread 1t
takes generation or two to raise the
immigrant above the new satisfaction
of material c0ntentment, and the rarer
development of the United States as a
member of the elect nations that con-
tribute something more than material
wealth to the treasures of the world
is yet before it. Into that future We
cannot pry, though we have faith that
it will co'"e. Perchance 100 years
hence it will yet be only at the dawn. -