UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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the attacks of enemies foreign and treacherous foes domestic, after Runnymede, and Marston Moor, and Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, that divine instinct of freedom is still the sovereign principle of the race. And if there shall ever be a realization of the hopes of poet, philosopher and philanthropist, it must come through the strong common sense and determined manliness of the American Saxon.
On this continent he has gathered round him the results of Jewish inspiration, Grecian culture, Roman force, French liberality and German philosophy. Touched and dignified by all there is of light from the past or hope for the future, the rude swordsman of the German forests has become the American Citizen. He left beyond the seas mitred priest, feudal baron and Norman king, and the doors of this great continent swung open before him. Extensive as is his domain nature has enabled him to reach every part of it. Distance is forgotten. Time and space are the stuff that dreams are made of.
When the time came for constitutional organization, Hamilton gave shape and form to the political fabric. When sophistical quibbler and logical fencer would have argued the seal from the bond, the kingly intellect and potent eloquence of Webster gave courage and hope to those who loved the Union. Far and wide the boundaries spread, till lo! one day there come from away down the Atlantic coast the boom of a cannon and for the last time cavalier and feudalist raised their crested heads in armed battle to destroy the works of John Wyclif and King Pym. Then, the great soul of Abraham Lincoln crossed the bridge that spans from time to eternity, and
"Henceforth, the dome of our highest place shall wear no lying form, But within the marble goddess shall liberty's heart be warm. Henceforth, the glory of God shall shine from sea to sea, And the names of the dead for a battle shout shall ring over all the free."
You say no other race ever accomplished so much that material and political forces alike have yielded to this people. Yet the future has even greater work for them to do. The ocean steamer that beats down Puget Sound on a spring morning, drives straight into a bank of fog that seems to break and scatter before it. There is no break. The fog does but bend and stretches on and on. Yet if the ship's prow is turned to the north, the mighty Pacific opens before her and slowly the mist disappears. The fog bank bends and grows dim before the American people. But it breaks not and it is far to the open sea. Our fathers have founded a nation strong in political and material resources. Other peoples have done as much. Nor will the work of the Anglo-Saxon ever stop until he has developed a social and commercial system in which the strong shall be fair and just to the weak.
In spite of Confucius and Buddha, of Moses on Sinai, Socrates in prison and our Savior on Calvary, there have ever been among men two always contending forces: intelligence and selfishness struggling for the mastery, ignorance and weakness attempting to hold that which nature intended should be theirs. Accident,
physical strength or superior ability have given to some men place and power which they have ever been swift to use against their fellows. Darkness hide the remembrance of those mighty intellects who have neglected no trick of trade, no tyranny of government, no silly tale of superstition that might serve to bind and sway those less gifted. Pharaoh, satrap, patrician and feudalist have dragged the ear of Juggernaut over the prostrate forms of other men till philosopher and economists are wont to talk of the commercial and social survival of the fittest as if it were necessary, natural and just. It is the high privilege of the American to prove that all this is supremely unnecessary, cruelly unnatural, and the height of injustice. It is his duty to limit the possibilities of an ambition which thinks only of self, ef ability that forgets what is due to other men. It is his duty to see to it that in every home on American soil there is enough to eat and wear; that to every child there shall be given such an education as shall awaken in him all the imperial manhood of the good citizen. Never until this is done will the social and political problem be settled. Never will this come to pass unless it be in these American states. And if man cannot hope to secure as much as this, the sooner this planet shall cease to spin through space, the better.
The Gauls who slew the Roman senators in their curule chairs imagined the class extinct. Our fathers took from the feudal baron coat of mail, spear and shield. The earth whirled round the sun a few times, and, for human nature is always the same, patrician and feudalist control the rail-roads and therefore the business interests of the continent. They decide the amount of the western farmer's income and eastern laborer's expenses. Wealth in their hands is at times well nigh as tyrannical as was ever kingly power in the hands of those whose crowned heads rolled into the basket at the bidding of an indignant people. A little while ago they talked of the divine right of Kings. Today they will tell you of the rights of property. In a civilized community the rights of property should ever be held sacred, for upon them rests every home and fireside in this great Republic. But when so called rights of property are used to destroy the natural rights of men, every good citizen must stand firm for the rights of men. "If there be any one" said Oliver Cromwell "that makes many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a commonwealth." There is too much of this making many poor to make a few rich in the nation in which we have the honor to live. It suits not a commonwealth.
No appeal to law, no appeal to arms will serve to take from this modern feudalist his baronial powers. No nation can afford to put other than the most necessary restraints on energy and ability. Legislation must give way to education in the reforms that are to come. It is true that govermental ordinance must yet accomplish something; but after all there is little left for the soldier and statesman-there is much for the preacher and teacher. In the past, education has been incidental to legislation. In the future legislation will be inciden-