Year: 1876




NORTHERN POLITICS.





The stone Gu. cut of the mountain


BOSTON, June %. 1876.


As sit at my open window, IN country
town, near Boston, scene, pregnant will
New England characteristics, opens before
me. 1t is the early morning hour. The
meadow just in front of the house is one
mass of light aud shade. Light, formed by
the glancing rays of the morning sun;
shade, formed by pine and cedar, and ma
pie and elm, and by fruit trees and bunchea
Of thiche. here and there; each iecking
the rich green sward with differently
formed shadows, and making beautiful
carpet for the eve to rest upon. A small
brook winds it way through this meadow,
the resort of prov ling ducklings and bare
legged children. Along the sides OF the
hills which fringe this meadow, are care
fully pruned trees, clustered by the hand OF
man into groves. Beyond these are the
larger an higher hills, and in every direc-
ton is to be seen comfortable and neat
dwellings,; the o it-posts or pickets, As it
were. of the village life which makes
New England one vast "town.' In
every direction are go many church
steepIes, that the sight is we'll calcu-
lated to make one inquire whether this
civilization is really of God, or whether
it is hugh system of studiously organ
ized hypocrisy. The sound of a locomotive
Niyes note that railroad traverses this
scene of busy human activity and develop
ment. The streets and roads, and the paths
over the common swarm with children,
with boys and girls, and with young men
and young women, each having some badge
Of scholarship from the first reader up to
Greek grammar, and all as they troop
along to q common centre. giving notice
that schools-primary, high, and possibly
normal-are common things IN the COM
munity, open and free. without money and
without price, for all the children of all the
people irrespective of race, creed or con-
dition in lie. The picture of this beautiful
and invigorating scene Gnvigorating to
mind and moral sense as we'll as to the
BODY would be imperfect if it omitted to
record the important fact represented in the
bronzed arms and bowed back Of the man of
labor who mingles in the scene (of which
he in his boyhood formed q part. support
ing it all, Atlas like, by his educated indus
try and frugal life. And this little bit of
earth thus lying before me, photographed
by hasty pen and ink sketch for the read
ers of the REPUBLICAN, is but the type of
al, New England. The coil in which all
this life is sustained is very barren. and so
thin that six-:nch plowing brings the
farmer to granite. For eight months of
the year the earth in New England is under
the dominion of frost. Where, then, do
these people find the meaDs through which
to accumulate such enormous wealth and
keep alive such industrial activity l re-
ply, from "the ends of the earth," for the
enterprise of these people is confined to no
nation, or section, or climate. Russia,
Japan, China, England, France, Germany,
South America and the isles of the ocean"
are made to pay tribute of what they have
land the best of what they havel to this
marvellous civilization.


The foundation of New England prosper
ity may be stated in brief to consist in an
individual character. which. by the iimita-
tions of self-induigence on the one hand,
with systematic daily industry on the other.
brings the actual necessities of life absolute
Iy within the control Of each man. This
basis of independence" being secured,
comfort" and accumulation" follow, and
Of themselves, just as surely as cause ever
produces effect. The New Highlander takes
the poets words, "Who would be free them
selves mast strike the blow" and applies
them first to himself. In fact, he strikes at
himself, making self-conquest the first
achievement in the battle of life. Victory
here, it is needless to say, is victory every.
where else. Here also every man works
according to the value of the special gilt he
possesses.


This Puritan character-or Pilgrim
character-rugged, hard and angular as it
lie. possesses also its capacity for things
beautiful and heroic. l have often been
surprised in entering the cottage, for in.
stance, Of rough sailor or ''shoresmap,'
here, to find evidences Of taste both in
furniture. in pictures and the selection of
books, which one only looks for in the resi-
dences Of the cultured opulent. And how
many of these crude men," impelled by
Father Love, are thus wanderers on the
earth, seeking in foreign climes for the
means which give the "loved ones at home"
chance for life?


But will not linger longer over the task
of "individualizing" the sketch of New
England character. which lies at the
foundation of the wealth and power of this
people. attach instead the centennial ad-
dress recently delivered by President Hop
kins at Williams College, in this State. The
extracts which l make from the address
nay appear to be too long to be incSfpo-
rated into a newspaper correspondence, but
the reader will, know, thank me for hay
ing preserved them:


In opening his address he spoke of the
changes which had taken place during the
long interval between the two occasions. A
whole generation of men had passed away.
and of thoee who listened to the former ad-
dress the most are gone.


The earth, he said, as it bears up upon its
surface the human race, is not like
deciduous tree, now clothed with leaves and
now swept bare, but like an evergreen, all
whose leaves do, indeed, fall, but only as
their place is go taken by others that the
tree always seems as fresh and as green as
e. if continual death were not the condition of
continual life. To the leaves that fall at the
foot OF the evergreen it matters not what
may become of the tree. 1t may go on for
centuries, forming and shedding more abun
dant leaves: or it may be uprooted by the
tornado All the same the leaves them