Year: 1876

pclislSlce.


THE London Times of July 1. refer
: ring to the celebration of our inde
pendence, says:


''NO Nation ever offered the priv
lege of citizenship more literally. an,
no Nation was ever rewarded wit
such rich returns for its hospitality
The especial glory of the growth o
the United States has been this, tina
the Republic has grown because refu
gees from all the rest of the worlt
have tlocked to its protection. Some
times they have fled from the crue
conditions of Over-crOwdeu life a
home, the blame of which could b,
laid at the door of no man or class O.
men, since they We're the necessary
consequences of false ideas UNIVERSAL,
acted upon us if they were true; some
times they fled from the tyrannies 0.
conscriptiOn and of feudal law. whicl
kept them bound from the cradle t
the grave; sometimes they sought il
the West liberty to obey the dictate:
of their own conScienceS, denied by
prelates and governments of the Euro
pean continent. 1t is justly matter
of congratulation that Il great people
should have thus grown up. The
troops of immigrants coming in year
after year, have traverscd the conti-
nent, ploWcd the prairie, bridged the
mightieSt rivers, thrown railways over
and through mountains, and brought
from the hidden depths of the earth
those treasures of iron and coal which,
more than anything else, increase the
power of man to appropriate the gifts
of nature to its use. OF silver and
gold we need not speak; the abundance
of their production is comparatively
an insignificant accident. The 100
years that have passed have seen a
great industrial community developed
with uneXampled rapidity.
The United States have become a
great Nation in numbers and in the
production of wealth. and they have
shown themselves great also in the
capacity to free themselves at the cost
Of much temporary suffering, from
the great evil of slavery, which was
so long interviewer in their existence.
The spectacle they present to the
world of a 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 freedom is not unimpos-
ing. Although man does not live on
bread alone, bread is one Of the ncccS-
Sarics of life, and-speaking broadly
and apart from special criScS-in the
United States bread may always he
obtained. If we are impatient that
the United States have as yet done SO
little for the world beyond increasing
the atlluence of the means of animal
existence, we may, perhaps, see cause
to restrain our discomfort in thinking
cuIIeCueu the armies or immigrants
that have recruited the numbers Of
their citizens. They have for the most
part come from those classes of Eu-
rope whose whole lives are given up
to the daily struggle to obtain the
means of keeping alive. BY much
of nrt nv cnIrinrS th1t almost
be said to have been stolen from neces-
sity, by resistance to temptation that
has often been heroic, the few ncceS-
sary pounds have been got together to
enable the emigrant to sail from Liver
pool or Bremen, from Cork or Ham
burg. to an Atlantic port, and he has
landed penniless 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 indeed in a world which is new. The
strength of character which brought
him out remains with him: he saves,
he becomes householder, a house
owner, a landed proprietor; but the
memory of his own early struggles and
of the struggles of his father before
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 II
takes generation or two to raise the
emigrant above the new satisfaction OF
material cOntentment, and the rarel
development of the United States as
member of the elect nations that con
tribute something more than materia
wealth to the treasures of the world i
vet before it. Into that future W.
cannot pry, though we have faith tina
it will come. Perchance hundre'
years hence it will yet be only at tn