Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1892 — THE GLORY OF AMERICA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE GLORY OF AMERICA

SILVER-TONGUED ORATORS EXTOL OUR LAND. Praises of Columbus Sung on the Four Hundredth Anniversary of His Achievement— Grand Import of His Work to the Christian World. The Vice-President’s Speech. Vice-President Morton accepted the Columbian Exposition buildings and dedicated the great undertaking in fitting, words. Ho said: Mr. President: Deep indeed, must be the sorrow which prohibits the President of the United States from being the central figure In these ceremonials. Realizing from these sumptuous.surroundings, the extent of design, the adequacy of execution and the vastness of results, we may well Imagine how ardently he has aspired to be officially and personally connected with this great work, so linked to the past and to the present of America. With what eloquent words he would have spoken of the heroic achievements and radiant future of his beloved country. While profoundly anguished In his most tender earthly affection, he would not have ns delay or falter In these dedicatory services and we can only offer to support his courage by a profound and universal sympathy. The attention of our whole country and of all peoples elsewhere concerned in industrial progress is to-day fixed upon the city of Chicago. This is due not only to the Columbian Exposition which marks an epoch, ouLtp themarvelous growth and energy of thd second commercial city of the Union. lam not here to recount the wonderful story of this city’s rIBC and advancement. These are known of all men. lam here In behalf of the Government of the United States. In behalf of all the people, to bid all hail to Chicago, all hail to the Columbian Exposition. What a speotaole have we here! Look upon these magnificent erections and consider their beauty and rapidity of realization. They seem to be evoked at a wizard’s touch of Alarklln’s lamp. They are worthy shrines to record the achievements of the two Americas. Columbus Is not now In chains, nor are Columbian Ideas in fetters. * We may not the character and value of our national exhibit. Rather may we anticipate that a conservative award will be made by the world’s criticism to young nation eagerly listening to the beckoning future. We can easily predict those who will come from every region of our country to make the exhibit. They will be the descendants of the sturdy and venerable immigrants: of many of the men of his time who made their mark In history. We are near the beginning of another century. and if no serlons change occurs In our present growth in the year 1935, in the lifetime of many now In manhood, the English-speak-ing republicans of America will number more than 180.000,000. The transcendent feature in the character of Columbus was his faith. That sustained him In days of trial and darkness, and finally gave him the great discovery. Like him, let us have faith In our future. Mr. President, In the name of the Government of the United States, I hereby dedicate these buildings and their appurtenances, Intended by the Congress of the United States for the tse of the World’s Columbian Exposi-

tion to the world's progress In art, in science, 1 1 agriculture and In manufactures. 1 dedi<«»te them to humanity. God save the United States of America. Henry Watterson's Oration. Among the wonders of creative and constructive genius in oourse of preparation for this festival of the nations, whose formal and official Inauguration has brought us together, will presently be witnessed upon tne margin of the Interocean which giveß to this noble and beautiful city the character and rank of a maritime metropolis, a spectatorlum wherein the Columbian epic will be told with realistic effects surpassing the most splendid and impressive achievements of the modem stage. It traces the strange adventures of the Genoese seer from the royal camp of Santa Fe to the very moment that beholds us here, citizens, freemen, equal shareholders in the miracle of American civilization and development. Is there one among us who does not thank his Maker that he has lived to join in this universal celebration, the jubilee of mankind? We look before and after and we see through the half-drawn folds of time as through the solemn archways of some grand cathedral the long procession pass, as silent and as real as a dream; the caravels, tossing upon Atlantio billows, have their sails refilled from the east and bear away to the west; the landls reached, and fulfilled fe the vision whose actualities are to be gathered by other handa than his who planned the voyage and steered the bark of discovery. We look again and we see In the far northeast the old-world struggle between the French and English transfeired to the new, ending in the tragedy upon the heights above Quebec; we see the sturdy puritans In bell-crowned bats and sable garments assail in unequal battle the savage and the elements, overcoming both to rise against a mightier foe; we see the gay but dauntless cavaliers ’to the southward join hands with the roundheads in holy rebellion. And, lo! down from the green-walled hills of New England, out of the swamps of the Carolinas, come faintly to the ear. like far-away forest leaves stirred to music by autumn winds, the drum-taps of the revolution; the tramp of the minute men, Israel l'utnam riding before; the hoof-beats of Sumter's horse galloping to the front; the thunder of Stark’s guns Inspirit-' battle; the gleam of Marion's watch-fires in ghostly bivouac; and there, there in serried, saint-llke ranks on Fame's eternal complnggronnd, stand "The old continentals, In their ragged regimentals, Yielding not,” as, amid the singing of angels in heaven, the scene is shut out from our mortal vision by proud and happy tears. We see the rise of the young republic; and the gentlemen in the knee-breeches and powdered wigs who signed the declaration and the gentlemen In knee-breeches and powdered wigs who made the Constitution. We see the -little nation menaced from without. We see the rlfiapaen In hunting-shirt and bnckskin swarm frbm the cabin In the wilderness btuthe rescue of country and horns; and our hearts swell to a Becdqd and final decree of Independence won by tlii prowess and valor of American arms upon the land and sea. And then, and then—since there is no life of ’ nations or of men w ithout Its shadow and Its sdrrow—there comes a day when the spirits of the fathers no longer walk upon the battlements of freedom; and all Is dark; and all seems lost, save liberty and honor, and, praise God, our blessed Union. With these surviving who shall marvel at what we see to-day; this land filled with the treasures of the earth; this elty snatched from the ashes to rise in splendor and renown passing the mind to preconceive? Truly, out of trial comes the strength of man; out of disaster comes the glory of the state! We are met this day to honor the memory of Christopher Columbus, to celebrate the 400th annnal return of the year of his transcendent achievement, and, with fitting rites, to dedicate to America and the universe a concrete exposition of the world’s progress between 1492 and 1892. No twenty centuries can be compared with those four centuries either in Importance or In Interest, as no previous ceremonial can be compared with this in its wide significance and reach; because, since the advent of the Son of God, no event has had so great an influence upon human affairs as tne discovery of the western hemisphere. Onr republic represents the letter and spirit of the sublime declaration. The fetters that hound her to the earth are burst asunder. The rags that degraded her beauty are cast aside. Like the enchanted princess in the legend, clad in spotless raiment and wearing a crown of living light, she steps in the (perfection of her maturity upon the scone of this the latest and proudest of her victories, to bid a welcome to the world. From wheresoever he cometh we welcome him with all onr hearts. All nations and creeds be welcome here. The American, loving no country except his own but loving all mankind as his brother, bids you enter and fear not; bids yon partake with us of these fruits of 400 years of American civilization and development and behold these trophies of 100 years of American Independence and freedom! At this moment in every part of the American Union the children are taking up the wondr out. tale of the discovery. See—- " Our yonng barbarians all at play.” for Vstter than these we have nothing to exhibit* They, indeed, are crur crown jewels—the finest though the inevitable offsprings of onr civilization and development; the representatives of a manhobd vitalized and Invigorated by toll and care, of womanhood elevated and Inspired by liberty and education. God bless the ohlldren and tbeir mothers! Gt?w bless onr country's flag! And God be with us mw and ever. God in the roof-tape’s shade and

' God on the highway, God in the winds tad waves, and tied in all Oar hearts! Chaoncey Depew’s Address. This day belong® not to America, bat to the world. The results of the event it commemorates are the heritage of the people of every race and clime. We celebrate the en»snegation of man. Tbe preparation was the work of almost countless centuries, the realization was the revelation of one. The cross o$ Calvary was hope; the cross raised on Ban Salvador was opportunity. But for the first, Columbus would never have sailed; but for the second there would have been no place for the plants ing, the nurture and the expansion of civil and religious liberty. Ancient history is a dreary record of unstable civilizations. Each reached its zenith of material splendor and perished. The Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian and Roman Empires were proofs of the possibilities and limitations of man for conquest and intellectual development. Their destruction involved a gum of misery and relapse which made their creation rather a curse than a blessing. Force was the factor in the government of the world when Christ was bom, and force was the sole source and existence of authority both by Church and State when Columbus sailed from Palos. The Wise Men traveled from the East toward the West under the guidance of the Star of Bethlehem. The spirit of the equality of all men before God and the law moved westward from Calvary, with Its revolutionary Influence upon old institutions, to the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus carried It westward across the seas. The emigrants irom England, Irolmd, Scotland, and Wales, from Germany and Holland, from Sweden and Denmark, from France and Italy, have, under its guidance and inspiration, moved west and again weßt, building States and founding cities until the Pacific limited their march. The exhibition of arts and sciences, of industries and inventions, of education and civilization, which the repub;lo of the United States will here present, and to which, through its Chief Magistrate, it invites all nations, condenses and displays the flower and fruitage of this transcendent miracle. Fifty years before Columbus sailed from Palos, Guttenburg and Faust had forged the hammer which was to break the bonds of superstition and open the prison doors of the mind. They had invented the printing press and movable types. The prior adoption of a cheap process for the manufacture of paper at once utilized the press. Its first service, like all Its succeeding efforts, wss for the people. The universities and schoolmen, the privileged and the learned few of that age,

were longing for the revelation and preservation of the classic treasurers of antiquity, hidden and vet insecure in monastic cells and libraries. But the first-born of the marvellous creation of these primitive printers of Mayence was the printed Bible. The priceless contributions of Greece and % Home to the intellectual training and development of the modem world came afterwards, through the same wonerms machine. The force, however, which made possible America, and its reflex influence upon Europe, was the open Bible by the family nreside. And yet neither the enlightenment of the new learning, nor the dynamic power of the spiritual awakening, could break through the crust of caste which had been forming for centuries. Church and State had so firmly and dexterously interwoven the bars of privilege and authority, that liberty w’as impossible from within. Its piercing light and fervent heat must penetrate from without. God always has in training some commanding genius for the control of great crises in the affairs of nations and peoples. The number of these leaders arc less than the centuries, but their lives are the history of human progress. Though Caesar and Charlemagne, and Hildebrand, and Luther, and William the Conqueror, and Oliver Cromwell, and all the epoch makers prepared Europe for the event, and contributed to the result, the lights which illumine our flrmanent to-day are Columbus the discoverer, Washington the founder, and Lincoln the savior. Neither realism nor romance furnishes a more striking and picturesque figure than that of Christopher Columbus. The mystery about his origin heightens the charm of his story. That he came from among the toilers of his time Is in harmony with the struggles of our period. Forty-four authentic portraits of him have descended to us, and no two of them are the counterfeits of the same person. Each represents a character as distinct as its oanvjs. gtressth and weakness, intellectuality and stupidity, high moral purpose and brutal ferocity, purify and licentiousness, the dreamer and the miser, the pirate and the puritan, are the types from which we may select our hero. We dismiss the painter, and pierclng'wlth the clarified vision of the dawn of the twentieth century, the veil of four hundred years, we construct our Columbus. The perils of the sea in his youth upon the rich argosies of Genoa, or in the service of the licensed rovers who made them their prey, had developed a skillful navigator and Intrepid mariner. They had given him a glimpse of the possibilities of the unknown, beyond the highways of travel, which roused an unquenchable thirst for adventure and research. The study of the narratives of previous explorers, and diligent questionings of the daring spirits who had ventured far toward the fabled West, gradually evolved a theory, which became in is mind so fixed a fact that he could inspire others with his own passionate beliefs. The words, “that is a lie," written by him on the margin of nearly every page of a volume of the travels of Marco Polo, which is still to be found in a Genoese library, illustrate the skepticism of his beginning, and the first vision of the New World the fulfillment of his faith. To secure the means to test the truth of his speculations, this poor and unknown dresmer, must win the support of kings and overcome the hostility of the church. He never doubted his ability to do both, though he knew of no man living who was so great in power, or lineage, or learning that he could accomplish either. Unaided and alone he succeeded in arousing the Jealousies of sovereigns, and dividing the councils of the ecclesiastics. “I will command your fleet and discover for you new realms, but only on condition that you confer on me hereditary nobility, the Admiralty of the Ooean, and the Vice Royalty and one-tenth the revenues of the New World," were his haughty terms to King John of Portugal. After ten years of disappointment and poverty, subsisting most of the time upon the charity of the enlightened monk of the Convent of RlbWa, who was his unfaltering friend, ho stood before the throne of Ferdinand and Isabella, and rising to imperial dignity in his rags, embodied the same royal conditions in his petition. The capture of Granada, the expulsion of Islam from Europe, and the triumph of the Cross, aroused the admiration and devotion of Christendom. But this proud beggar, holding in his grasp the potential promise and dominion of Eldorada and Cathay, divided with the Moslem surrender, the attention of sovereigns and bishops. France and England indicated a desire to hear his theories, and see his maps,

while he was still a suppliant at the gates of the camp of Castile and Aragon, the sfßlrt-of its Xrtiers, and the scoff of its confessors. Big hakeable faith, that Christopher Columbus was commissioned from Heaven, both by his name and by divine command to carry “Christ across the sea" to new continents and pagan people, lifted him so far above the discouragements of an empty purse and a contemptuous court that he was proof against the rebuffs of fortune or of friends. To conquer the prejudices of tho clergy, to win the approval and financial support of the state, to venture upon that unknown ocean which, according to the belief of the age, was peopled with demons and savage beasts of frightful shape, and from which there was no possibility of retnrn, required the zeal of Peter the Hermit, the chivalric courage of the Cld, and the imagination of Dante. Columbus belonged to that high order of cranks who confidently walk where "angels fear to tread,” and often become the benefactors of their country or their kind. It was a happy omen of the position which women was to hold in America, that the only person who comprehended the majestic scope of his plans, and the invincible qualities of his genius, was the able and gracious Queen of Castile. Isabella, alone of all the dignitaries of that age, shares with Columbus the honors of his great achievement. She arrayed her kingdom and her private fortune behind the enthusiasm of this mystic mariner, and posterity pays homage to her wisdom and faith. The mighty soul of the great Admiral was undaunted by the Ingratitude of princes and the 1 o tility of the people, by imprisonment and n:g.ect. Hedied ashe was securing the means a id preparing a campaign for the rescue of the iioly Sepulchre at j erusalem from the infidel. He did not know what time has revealed, that while the mission of the crusade', of Godfrey of Bouillon and Richaid of the Lion Heart was a bloody and fruitless romance, the discovery of America was the salvation of the world, The one was theßymhcl the other the spirit; the one death, the other life. The tomb of the Savior was a narrow and empty vault, precious only for Its memories of the supreme tragedy of the centuries, but the new continent was to be the home and temple of the living God. The rulers of the old world began with partitioning the new. The northern continent was divided between England, France and Spain, and the southern between Spain and Portugal. France, wanting the capacity for colonization, which still characterizes her, gave up her western possessions and left the English, who have the genius of universal empire, masters of North America. The development of the experiment in the English domain makes this day memorable. It *is due to the wisdom and courage, the faith and virtue ot the Inhabitants of

this territory that government of the people, for the people and by the people waa inaugurated, and has become a triumphant success. Tbe Pnritan settled in New England and the Cavalier in the South. They represent the opposites of spiritual and temporal life and opinions. The processes of liberty liberalized the one and elevated the other. Washington and Adams were the new types. Their union in a common cause gave the world a republio both stable and free. It possessed conservatism without bigotry, and liberty without license. It founded institutions strongenough to resist revolution, and elastic enough for indefinite extension to meet the requirements in government of ever enlarging areas of population, and the needs of progress and growth. The Mayflower, with the Pilgrims, qnd a Dutch ship laden with African slaves were on the ocean at the same time, the one sailing for Massachusetts and the other for Virginia. This company,of saints, and first cargo of slaves, represented the forces which were to •peril and rescue free government. The slaver was the product of commercial spirit of Great Britain and the greed of the times to stimulate production in the colonies. The men who wrote in the cabin of the Mayflower the first charter of freedom, a government of just and equal laws, were a little band of protestants against every form of injustice and tyranny. The leaven of their principles made possitue the Declaration of Independence, liberated the slaves, and founded the free commonwealths which form the Republic of the United States. Tbe scope and limitations of this idea of freedom have neither been misinterpreted nor misunderstood. The laws of nature in their application to the lise and recognition of men according to their mental, moral, spiritual and physical endowments are left undisturbed. The sum of human happiness has been infinitely increased by the millions from the old world who have Improved theii conditions in the new, and the returning tide of lesson and experience has incalculably enriched the Fatherlands. The divine right of kings has taken its place with the instruments of mediaeval torture among the curiosities of the antiquary. Only the shadow of kingly authority stands between the Government of themselves, by themselves, and the people of Norway and Sweden. The union in one empire of states of Germany is the symbol of Teutonio power and the hope of German libeialism. The petty despotisms of Italy have been merged into a nationality which has centralized its authority in its ancient capitol on the hills of Rome. France was rudely roused from the sullen submission of centuries to intolerable tyranny by her soldiers returning from servioe in the American revolution. The wild orgies of the reign of terror were the revenges and excesses of a people who had discovered their power, but were not prepared for its beneficent use. She fled from herself into the arms of Napoleon. He, too, was a product of the American experiment. He played with kings as with toys, and educated France for liberty. In the processes of her evolution irom darkness to light, sho tried Bourbon, and Orleanlst, and the third Napoleon, and cast them aside. Now in the fullness of time, and through the training in the school of hardest experience, the French people have reared and enjoy a permanent republic. England of the Mayflower and of James 11., England of George 111. and of Lord North, has enlarged suffrage and is tv-day animated and governed by the democratic spirit. Bhe has her throne, admirably occupied by one of the wisest of sovereigns and best of women, but it would not survive one dissolute and unworthy successor, She has her hereditary peers, but the House of Lords will be brushed aside the moment it resists the will Of the people. The time has arrived for both a oloser union and greater distance between the Old World

and the New. The former indiscriminate welcome to our prairies, and the present invitation to these palaces of art and industry, mark the passing period. Un watched and unhealthy immigration can no longer be permitted to our shores. We must have a national quarantine against disease, pauperism and crime. We do not want candidates for our hospitals, our poor houses, or our jails. We cannot admit those who come to undermine our institutions and subvert our laws. But we will gladly throw wide our gates for, and receive with open arms, those who by intelligence and virtue, by thrift and loyalty, are worthy of receiving the equal advantages of the priceless gift of American citizenship. The spirit and object of this exhibition are peace and kinship. Three millions of Germans, who are among the best citizens of the republic, send greeting, to the Fatherland their pride in its glorious history, its ripe literature, its traditions and associations. Irish, equal in number to those who still remain upon the Emerald Isle, who have illustrated their devotion to their adopted country on many a battle-field fighting for the Union and its perpetuity, have rather intensified than diminished their love for the land of the shamrock, and their sympathy with the aspirations of their brethren at home. The Italian, the Spaniard, and the Frenchman, the Norwegian, the Swede, and the Dane, the English, the Scotch, and the Welsh, are none the less loyal and devoted Americans beoause, in this congress of their kin, the tendrils of affection draw them closer to the hills and valleys, the legends and the loves associated with their youth. Edmund Burke, speaking in the British Parliament with prophetic voice, said: “A great revolution has happened —a revolution mode, not by chopping ana changing of power in any of the existing Stages, but by the appearance of a new State, of a new species, in a new part of the globe. It has made as great a change in all the relations and balances and gravitations of power as the appearance of a new planet would in the system of the solar world.” Thus was the humiliation of our successful revolt tempered to the motherland by pride in the state created by her children. If we claim heritage in Bacon, Shakspeare, and Milton, v»e also acknowledge that it was for liberties guaranteed Englishmen by sacred charters our fathers triumphantly fought. While wisely rejecting throne and caste and privilege and an Established Church in their new-bom state, they adopted the substance of English liberty and the body of English law. Closer relations than with other lands, and a common language rendering easy interchanges of criticisms and epithet, sometimes irritate and offend, but the heart of republican America beats with responsive pulsations to the hopes and aspirations of the people of Great Britain, The grandeur and beauty of this spectacle are the eloquent witnesses of peace and progress. The Parthenon and the cathedral exhausted the genius of the ancient and the skill of the medieval architects in housing the statue or spirit of Deity. In their ruins or their antiquity they are mute protests against the merciless enmity of nations, which forced art to flee to the altar for protection. Tho United States welcomed the sister republics of the.southem and northern continents, and the nations and people of Europe and Asia, of Africa ana'Australia, with the products of their lands, of thelrakill and of their industry to this city of yesterday, yet clothed with royal splendor as the Queen of the Great Lakes. The artist s and architects of the country have been bidden to design and erect the buildings which shall fitly illustrate the height of our civilization and the breadth of our hospitality. The peace of the world permits and protects their efforts in utilizing their powers for mm’s temporal welfare. The result is this Park of Palaces. The originality and boldness of their conceptions, and the magnitude and harmony of their creations are the contributions of Amerioa to the oldest of tbe arts and the cordial bidding of America to-tbe peoples of the earth to come and-bring the fruitage of their age to the boundless opportunities of this unparalleled exhibition. If interest in the affairs of this world are vouchsafed to those who have gone before, the spirit of Columbus hovers over us to-day. Only by celestial intelligence can it grasp the full significance of this spectacle and ceremonial. From the first century to the fifteenth counts for little in the history of progress, but in the period between the fifteenth and twentieth is crowded the romance and reality of human development. Life has been prolonged, and its enjoyment intensified. The powers of the air and water, the resistless forces of the elements, which in the time of the discoverer were the visible terrors of the wrath of God, have been subdued to the service of man. Art and luxuries which could be possessed and enjoyed only by the rich and noble, the woiks of genius which were read and understood by the learned few. domestic comforts and surroundings beyond the reach of lord or bishop, now adorn and illumine' the homes of our citizens. Serfs are sovereigns and the people are kings. The trophies and splendors of their re’gn are commonwealths, rich in every attribute of great States, and united in a republic whose power and prosperity, and liberty and enlightment are the wonder and admiration of the world. All hail, Columbus, discoverer, dreamer, hero, and apostle. We here, of every race and country, recognize the horizon which bounded his vision and the infinite scope of his genius. The voice of gratitude and praise for all the blessings which have been showered upon mankind by his adventure is limited to no language, but it is uttered in every tongue. Neither marble nor brass can fitly form his statue. Continents are his monuments, and unnumbered millions, past, present, and to come, who enjoy in their liberties and their happiness the fruits of this faith, will reverently guard .and preserve, from oentury to century, htf name and fame.

VICK PRESIDENT MORTON.

HENRY WATTERSON.

CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.