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 Then^Now. 
 
 ORATION 
 
 CHARLES A. SUMME 
 
 OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 DELIVERED AT QUINCY, CALIFORNIA, JULY 4th, 1876. 
 
 
 Published by Request of the Hearers 
 
.Q73 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 Oration Delivered at Quincj , July 4th, 1876, by 
 Hon. Clias A. Sumner, i&^s- 
 
 The President of the Day introduced the Orator of the Day, Charles A. 
 
 Sumner, of San Francisco. Mr. Sumner said : 
 
 Mr. President, and Ladies and Gen- Turkish tyranny that has crushed their coun- 
 
 tlemen— Fellow Citizens :— The one hun- try for a thousand years, have instructed their 
 
 dretb anniversary of the adoption of the clans to gather before their tents this day 
 
 Declaration of Independence by the Congress and listen, and applaud, and adore the God of 
 
 of the United .Colonies, or States, of North battles, after the manner of their fathers 
 
 America : All Hail ! while the bands of their battalions commend 
 
 Forty millions of people on this continent their supplications for victory by an accom- 
 greet the morning sun of this day with the pstniment on the shrill clarions of the Orient- 
 grandest emphasis of patriotic exultation, striking the newly learned notes of Hail Co- 
 in a thousand cities of the land, the opening lnmbia, Yankee Doodle, and the National 
 moment for rejoicings has been announced Anthem of the American Union, 
 by the loudest concert of artillery and the " Proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
 peal of ponderous bells. In ten thousand unto all the inhabitants thereof. " 
 towns and vilages and hamlets, the propor- They who see from the design the inevitable 
 tion of possible welcome has been uttered ; existence of a Creator, will confess without 
 and over all the land the stirring roll of the superstition the Providential direction that 
 drum, and the jubilant blare of the bugle, long before the date of its authentic utterance 
 and the long processions of bayonet-bear- placed these words upon the iron shoulders of 
 mg and regalia-clad men and flower-gar- the bell that announced from the steeple of 
 landed children, and the raising and decorat- Independence Hall in Philadelphia, on the 6th 
 ing of memorial and triumphal arches, and of July, one hundred years ago, that the Dec- 
 the uncovering of marble statues of revolu- laration of Independence had been adopted 
 tionary heroes, and the earnest speech of by the authorized representatives of the thir- 
 proud reminiscence and hopeful prophecy, teen colonies. The tones that were heard 
 are among the high testimonials that are be- that day by those who were within the literal 
 ing heard and witnessed this day. circuit of its vibrations have been renewed 
 
 JS or is this even a hint of all of recorded de- in every decade, as a stimulant and a sonorous 
 
 monstration and contemporaneous magnetic telling of brave and noble advances by other 
 
 incident which deserves our recognition at peoples towards the securing or maintaining 
 
 this moment of time. In a thousaud foreign of the principles of constitutional freedom, 
 
 sea-ports that flag is flung from the mast- It is a day for rejoicing in the calendar of 
 
 head of every ship in the harbor ; nor does the civilized world ! Let it be so. Let the 
 
 there gaze upon it one intelligent man, pulsations of intensest joy find perfect health 
 
 woman, or child, without some conception of in unrestrained exuberance. Let the full 
 
 its significance, without some comprehension license be given and availed for the heartiest 
 
 ol its history, without some audible prayer expressions of congratulations, and love, and 
 
 tor the perpetuity of those institutions whose happiness, and pride. And let no man with 
 
 one hundred years of life it betokens, and mean and cynical devotion to the ordinary 
 
 whose flourishing vigor at this day it defiantly quiet of human existence and the gentleness 
 
 proclaims. f p ar i or propriety seek to check or abate the 
 
 And as we gather here, a constituent assem- noise of the loud timbrel, or the great shout- 
 
 bly in this beautiful valley of the Sierras, to ings of a free-born and liberty-loving people 
 
 render our humble tribute of commemora- on the earth. 
 
 tion, we seem to feel as a necessary, inevi- Despite all the depressions which may be 
 
 table, and excellent advantage of our geo- complainingly said to belong to the temporary 
 
 graphical position, that the atmosphere comes conditions of trade, we are sure that no 
 
 to us at this noonday surcharged with the stint in willing preparations, anywhere in 
 
 echoes of celebrating voices, awakened in un- the land, will hinder or lessen the demonstra- 
 
 numbered homes, rolling in one grand tide tions for this day. Despite all the profound 
 
 Irom the Atlantic shores. An electric impulse misgivings that many may conscientiously en- 
 
 and inspiration that comes from the salutations tertain, despite all the humiliation and shame 
 
 and cheering of the vast multitude of our which all must confess on account of recent 
 
 tellow-citizens who dwell beyond aud below revelations of ofiicial malfeasance and profli- 
 
 us being borne in, as it were, by the winds of gacy in high places in the Government, the 
 
 Heaven upon our swelling hearts. introductory time of these hours is fitly dedi- 
 
 JNaymore: We seem to catch the strains of cated and devoted to the unqualified aud 
 
 martial music, familiar and yet wonderfully grateful recognition of 'the fact that the Al- 
 
 weird and wild in its far, faint accents. And mighty has cast our lines in pleasant places— 
 
 as we listen for the haunting whisperings of in a Republic which, under the benign indu- 
 
 tbat music, we remember that the chieftains ence of heaven, our fathers, with wise pur 
 
 ol the half-barbaric tribes of Herzegovina, poses and robust faith, planted aud vindicated 
 
 who have recently risen in arms against the through a long and bloody war ; sealing their 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 compact of freedom with the signature of 
 enduring success, for us and for our children 
 and oar children's children, and before the 
 kingdoms of the globe. 
 
 We are very glad, O, men and women and 
 little children, we are very glad that we have 
 lived to see this day. Our earliest ancestors, 
 in the revolutionary years, dreamed of this 
 day with full and longing hearts. Our latest 
 fathers wished to be spared to behold this 
 day, and died in hope for us. 
 
 And ye sods of other nations and distant 
 climes, who have come to dwell among us, 
 and to partake in full measure and harmony 
 of our priceless heritage of republican govern- 
 ment ! Were it possible, your emotion of 
 thankfulness should be greater than ours, as 
 you mingle in the active commemoration of 
 the events suggested for this day. Par, far 
 across the waters, for many a weary year, 
 your ancestors replied, by an abiding trust in 
 their souls, to the sneers of kings and court- 
 iers, as these declared that our system was 
 impracticable and our national life near to its 
 lit and ignominious doom. And so have their 
 steadfast confidence and patient expectations 
 been blessed unto their children, who are 
 privileged to commune with us and of us to- 
 day. 
 
 And what a tremendous debt of obligation 
 is ours to those who wrought out for us all 
 this glorious framework of Government. 
 Blessed fathers ! Your memories are very 
 green in our hearts this day ! The long roll 
 cannot be called within our brief limits of 
 speech ; but for some of them — not as forget- 
 ting or disparaging many others, equally as 
 worthy of our oral register on this occasion — 
 for some of them we must pronounce the 
 names with reverent recollectiou. 
 
 General George Washington ! Command- 
 er-in-Chief of the American forces ! That 
 name ! There is a fullness, a calmness, a 
 syllabic grandeur in that name that befits the 
 man. 
 
 One hundred and one years ago yesterday 
 morning, when forty-three years of age, he 
 took command of the united forces of the 
 Colonies, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, under 
 an elm tree, which stands to this day and is 
 known by his name. 
 
 " Washington ! " Into whose presence, it 
 has been testified, no man could come without 
 a sense of profound respect, almost amounting 
 to emotions of awe. In all history — look it 
 over and over and over, ye young men of 
 America — and we shall strive hereafter to en- 
 force the worthiness of such an examination 
 —in all history, the grandest military hero of 
 any age ! No tire of fanaticism, no zeal born 
 of prejudice and not according to sound 
 knowledge of his cause, burned in his bosom. 
 Assuming command of our armies when the 
 idea of independence was abhorrent to him, 
 he was taught by his observation and experi- 
 ence concerning the home government, that 
 nothing but independence would secure free- 
 dom to the people of this land. Convinced of 
 the truth of the situation, his duty was plain ; 
 apprised of his duty, his purposes were heroic 
 and inflexible. 
 
 Well and prophetically wrote Representa- 
 tive William Hooper, in 1778, . addressing 
 Robert Morris : " Will posterity believe the 
 tale ? When it shall be consistent with 
 policy to give the history of that man from 
 his first introduction into our service, how 
 often America has been rescued from ruin 
 by the mere strength of his genius and con- 
 duct and courage, encountering every obstacle 
 
 that want of money, men, arms, and ammu- 
 nition could throw in his way — an impartial 
 world will say to you that he is the greatest 
 pan on earth. Misfortunes are the elements 
 in which he shines, they are the groundwork 
 on which his picture appears to the greatest 
 advantage. He rises superior to them all ; 
 they serve as foils to his fortitude and a 
 stimulus to bring into view those great qual- 
 ities which his modesty keeps concealed." 
 
 O ! patriot of patriots ! We bend over 
 thy lowly tomb this day with tears of thanks- 
 giving, and our choicest words of honor. O, 
 
 "Patient of toil, 
 Serene amid alarms ! " 
 
 We lift our eyes whence cometh that help 
 he sought and found, when he passed beyond 
 the camp and besought the God of battles. 
 And we praise Him who bestowed this won- 
 derful captain for us and for our political re- 
 demption. 
 
 So gentle as to draw from one of his 
 severest — though a friendly — critic, the title 
 of " The amiable Washington " ; and yet 
 firm and resolute when the exigencies de- 
 manded these qualities of a commander. 
 And not without that quality for which he 
 has little if any credit — the quality or sense 
 of humor. This element in his composition 
 was certainly illustrated, in conjunction with 
 the positiveness of his will, when an appeal 
 was made to him on behalf of several thous- 
 and royalists, who desired to remain in the 
 city of Boston after the evacuation by the 
 British troops. Patriotic neighbors and 
 petitioners joined with the parties most inter- 
 ested in representing to Washington that 
 these people " are very good people, and like 
 yourself are firmly attached to the English 
 Church. They promise that hereafter they 
 will do nothing in the way of giving aid or 
 comfort to the enemy." To this the reply 
 was made by Washington : " I have no doubt 
 they are very good people, and I hope that 
 when they die they will all go to heaven ; 
 but so far as I am concerned, they must go 
 to Nova Scotia." 
 
 Samuel Adams! Who was for " indepen- 
 dence " from the beginning of operations ; 
 and whose pen and voice, and unceasing 
 activity in organizing forces against the 
 Crown, were immense levers of influence 
 towards the great consummation. His were 
 the words of radical necessity, and duty, — 
 "We must fight; we must have indepen- 
 dence," — which met the swift echo and 
 electric cheer of that peerless orator of the 
 revolution, — 
 
 Patrick Henry, of Virginia. 
 
 Joseph Warren, who fell on Bunker Hill 
 with the triumphant exclamation on his lips : 
 " It is sweet to die for one's country." 0, 
 blessed fathers ! Joseph Warren : Who on 
 that day volunteered for service in company 
 with a friend and comrade of different mould, 
 but equal devotion : — 
 
 Israel Putnam, of Connecticut- " Old 
 Put," as the boys loved to call him; whose 
 counsel was more than half the secret of that 
 day's virtual victory : " Save your ammuni- 
 tion, boys, save your ammunition ; and don't 
 fire at the grannies until you can see the 
 whites of their eyes." 
 
 John Adams ! The youthful cousin of Sam. 
 Adams, and the worthy kinsman of so inde- 
 fatigable a leader — a scholar, orator, and au- 
 thor, whose contributions to our arms and our 
 diplomacy have not been more than half ap- 
 preciated unto this day. 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 Nathaniel Green ! Whose campaigns were 
 such illustrations of military genius as pro- 
 voked unwilling tributes of admiration from 
 the veterans of Continental Europe. 
 
 Tom Paine. Of whose political writings, 
 known under the titles of " Common Sense," 
 and" The Crisis," tens of thousands of copies 
 were scattered throughout the land at a most 
 critical period, and drew from Washington 
 immediate and thereafter frequent testimon- 
 ials of appreciation and gratitude ; and from 
 whom no alleged subsequent misconduct 
 should take a large meed of popular acknowl- 
 edgment at this centennial celebration. 
 
 General Joseph Reed. Who occupied an 
 important position of trust in the management 
 of affairs, and who, when approached by a 
 British emissary with the proffer of gold 
 and rank for his renunciation of the cause of 
 the colonies, declared that he was a very 
 poor man, but such as he was, the King of 
 England had not money enough to buy him. 
 O, that he had been endowed with centennial 
 vigor ; that he might have lived unto this 
 day, and occupied one corresponding position 
 of authority — that he might have held the 
 office of Secretary of War during the present 
 Administration. 
 
 General Richard Montgomery. Foremost 
 officer in the attack upon Quebec, on the 13th 
 of December, 1775 ; who was killed in the 
 very gra \) of victory, and by the only volley 
 fired by the retreating British soldiery. The 
 house where his body was laid cutis still pre- 
 served in one of the principal streets of Que- 
 bec. And though more modern and elegant 
 buildings surround it, the homage which visit- 
 ing Americans pay to such patriotic valor is 
 illustrated in its preservation, and in the 
 crowds that often in the summer season 
 throng that little cottage. 
 
 John Stark. Who raised a body of troops 
 in the Green Mountains ; and while despond- 
 ency was spread over the land on account 
 of disasters elsewhere, be went out and stood 
 upon the vaunted pathway of a large body of 
 mercenary Hessians that were passing to Bur- 
 goyne's reinforcement, with this appeal and 
 prophecy to his men : " The enemy must fall 
 into our hands before night, or Molly Stark's a 
 widow." And confronting and defeating this 
 and the following troops who were hasten- 
 ing to Burgoyne's assistance, he heard the 
 welcome of his spouse and the plaudits of his 
 country. 
 
 Ethan Allen . Who early in the contest 
 made the successful demand for the surren- 
 der of Fort Ticonderoga, " In the name of 
 Almighty God and the Continental Con- 
 gress." And who, afterwards, when a 
 prisoner in England, and the nominal guest 
 of a British Lord, was asked if the portrait 
 of Washington was not fitly placed in the 
 ante-room leading to the vault of a large 
 public street drain in the city of London — 
 (in which ante-room large numbers of the 
 lowest orders gathered, with the request for 
 permission to search for lost articles of value 
 in the filth of the sewer) — replied in the 
 affirmative, with this additional remark : 
 " If that portrait does not make the Brit- 
 ishers get down on their knees and hunt for 
 something they won't find, I don't know 
 where you can get a picture that will produce 
 that result." 
 
 Paul Jones. Who in his refitted Indiaman, 
 the Bon Homme Richard, on the 23d of Sep- 
 tember, 1779, engaged in that memorable en- 
 counter with the Serapis, capturing both it 
 and its companion, the Countess of Scarr- 
 
 borough, and the convoyed fleet of merchant- 
 men, after a three hours' contest of unparal- 
 leled audacity and persistency. "I thought 
 he was blown to pieces a dozen times," said 
 the Commander of the Serapis, "and each 
 time was astouuded to discover his wreck still 
 fastened to us. And when I did actually 
 scuttle him, I found him on my own deck in 
 full command ! " 
 
 John Barry. The first naval officer who 
 held the rank of Commodore in the service of 
 the United States. Born in Ireland, he came 
 to this country when fifteen years of age, and 
 obtained such credit as a seaman that he was 
 appointed by Congress, in 1776, to the com- 
 mand of the brig Lexington, and shortly 
 afterwards to the command of the frigate 
 Effingham. On this latter named vessel he 
 first displayed the American flag as at present 
 constructed — the first Commodore to give that 
 banner to the breeze on the ocean, and in 
 successful conflict with the enemy. General 
 Howe offered him sixty thousand' dollars and 
 the command of a British frigate on condition 
 of his deserting the American cause. He re- 
 ceived and dismissed the proposition with a 
 laugh of derision. 
 
 Francis Marion. Famous as a skirmisher 
 in the Carolinas, and distinguished by his 
 action at Fort Moultrie and the siege at 
 Charleston. His own chivalrous bravery, 
 and the enthusiasm with which he inspired 
 his troops has been well depicted in the song 
 of our ancient bard — attributed to Marion's 
 men : 
 
 " Our band is few, but true and tried ; 
 Our leader swift and bold ; 
 The British soldier trembles 
 When Marion's name is told. 
 
 Our fortress is the good green wood, 
 
 Our tent the cypress tree ; 
 We know the forest round us, 
 
 As ths seamen know the sea. 
 
 We know its walls of thorny vines, 
 
 Its glades of reedy grass, 
 Its soft and silent islands, 
 
 Within the dark morass." 
 
 Nathan Hale. That youthful hero and 
 martyr of the Revolution, whose last words, 
 as he ascended the gallows to which he had 
 been condemned by the British commander 
 at New York, should be forever engraved on 
 our grateful memories : " I only regret that I 
 have but one life to lose for my country." 
 
 John Hancock. Who said he would en- 
 deavor to write his name in so plain and large 
 a text that even so ignorant a man as the 
 King of Great Britain could spell it out. 
 
 Charles Carroll. Who, when "it was sug- 
 gested that his name on the list of signers to 
 the Declaration of Independence might be 
 taken for that of another person adjacent to 
 his estate, seized the pen again and affixed, 
 the words " of Carrollton ; " saying, "If the 
 British tyrant wants to know where I am, or 
 where my property is, he can find both me 
 and mine." 
 
 Jacob Duche. Rector of Christ's Church, 
 Philadelphia. Who issued a number of influ- 
 ential tracts in behalf of the cause of the 
 Colonies ; but who, on account of his alliances 
 in the Anglican Church, was for some time 
 distrusted by the dissenters about him. After 
 some wrangling in regard to the choice of an 
 officiating minister for the occasion ; owing to 
 the persistency of John Adams, a Congre- 
 gationalism Jacob Duche was requested to 
 open the first Centennial Congress with 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 prayer. After a silent supplication— (as lie tells 
 us in his diary) — that God would forgive him 
 for all his prayers unwittingly offered in be- 
 half of a tyrant — he broke forth into such an 
 eloquent extemporaneous appeal for the cause 
 of liberty, and for the union of the Colonists 
 in resolution for independence — if honorable 
 peace could not otherwise be had — that many 
 of the delegates fell from their knees to the 
 floor, prostrate, and arose at the conclusion of 
 the prayer with strong cries of " amen," and 
 with tears coursing down their cheeks. 
 
 Old Ben Franklin ! Bless his memory for- 
 ever and forever ! Old Beu ; who desired 
 that Canada and Ireland should join in the 
 original prolest against Great Britain. Old 
 Ben, who would not wear livery in any 
 court in Christendom. Old Ben "Franklin, 
 whose figure is one of the most familiar and 
 beloved objects of portraiture in every 
 household in the land. In combination : 
 philosopher, statesman, and diplomatist of un- 
 rivaled, undying, and increasing fame — that 
 human treasure-house of practical wisdom, 
 political thought, and ever-ready, suggest- 
 ive wit. He stirred np anew, and to a jubi- 
 lant pitch, the hope of souls most sorely 
 tried in the dark days of the Revolution, by 
 the shrewd publication of a challenging re- 
 sponse to the boast of the British ministry. 
 He said: "Great Britain, at an expense of 
 three million pounds sterling, has killed one 
 hundred and fifty Yankees in the campaign ; 
 which is twenty thousand pounds a head ; 
 and at Bunker Hill she gained a mile of 
 ground, half of which she lost by our taking 
 position on Plowed Hill. During this time 
 sixty thousand children have been born in 
 America ; and the boys and girls are marry- 
 ing as fast as possible, and raising large fam- 
 ilies for future reiuforcements." 
 
 LaFayette! Brilliant representative of the 
 chivalry of the sunny land of France ! Whose 
 biography is more enchanting than a romance, 
 and deserves to be among the illustrated patri- 
 otic memories of every American youth. La- 
 Fayette : who left the comforts and luxuries of 
 a palace when only nineteen years of age, to 
 serve with and become the bosom friend and 
 companion of General Washington. What a 
 picture of pure devotion to the cause of Lib- 
 erty— LaFayette and Steuben and De Kalb 
 and Du Portrail abiding in the cheerless 
 dugouts of Valley Forge through the long 
 winter of 1777-'8; enduring all manner of 
 physical privations without a murmur, and 
 lending all the support of their counsel, skill, 
 and courage to the great commander of our 
 armies. 
 
 Jonathan Trumbull — The war governor of 
 Connecticut ; whom Washington denominated 
 " a main pillar of support." From whom 
 our favorite nick-name has been derived — as 
 Washington was wont to turn to him, in the 
 midst of' his counsel on important occasions, 
 with the remark: "Let us hear what 
 Brother Jonathan has to say." 
 
 Alexander Hamilton. Scarcely twenty years 
 of age when be distinguished himself as an 
 essayist in behalf of the principles for which 
 the battles of the Revolution were fought ; 
 whose writings were all-powerful in his day 
 in promoting the cause of independence and 
 constitutional government, and are no less 
 worthy of reading and study now than when 
 they first appeared in the ephemeral publica- 
 tions of the last quarter of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 And that other name, which we must not 
 omit to utter, though it has been on your 
 
 tongues so often this day ; which may be 
 properly reserved to close the list that I have 
 space to select : the author of the Declaration 
 which has been read to you on its one 
 huudredth anniversary — Thomas Jefferson of 
 Monticello. And yet what superfluous men- 
 tion, when his words— our words, which he 
 put into our mouths and hearts, and into the 
 immortal literature of freedom — are ringing 
 in our ears. 
 
 Only this should now be said : — There has 
 been much labored effort to show the begin- 
 ning of our Revolution in the dim if not dis- 
 tant past. Real scholars by the score and 
 shallow pretenders to research and historical 
 acumen by the hundreds, have professed to 
 discover perfect parallels for our Republic in 
 classic times or in ancient civilization — now 
 in the islands of the sea, and now in the 
 mountain fastnesses of the continent. Or 
 they have affected to trace, step by step, a 
 rising and concentrating sentimeut and cul- 
 tivated judgmeut touching the things that 
 belong to perfect liberty. Or tbey have 
 given credit for the " Idea" to men of malig- 
 nant and tyrannical dispositions, — a portion 
 of whose writings condemned their deeds. In 
 the light of true investigation and clear re- 
 view this must be set aside. Most certainly 
 the tracing is not legitimate back to the days 
 of those institutions to which the flippant 
 and the phlegmatic " philosophers," so- 
 called, delight to point. No less a writer 
 than DeQuincy has said : "' The Greeks and 
 Romans,altbough so frantically republican and 
 in some of their institutions so democratic, yet, 
 on the other hand, never developed the idea of 
 representative government. The elective 
 principle was widely known amongst them. 
 Public authority andjurisdiction were created 
 and modified by the elective principle ; but 
 never was this principle applied to the crea- 
 tion or direction of public opiuiou. Strange 
 indeed that so mighty a secret as that of del- 
 egating public opinion to the custody of 
 elected representatives, a secret which has 
 changed the face of the world, should have 
 been missed by the nations applying so vast 
 an energy to the whole theory of public ad- 
 ministration. But the truth, however para- 
 doxical, is that, in Greece and Rome, no body 
 of public opinion existed that could have 
 furnished a standing ground for adverse 
 paities. In all the discussions of Rome and 
 Greece, the contest could no more be de- 
 scribed as a contest of opinion, than could 
 the feuds of our buccaneers in the seventeenth 
 century, when parting company, or fighting 
 for opposite principles of dividing the general 
 booty." And Bancroft sums up the just con- 
 clusion, which reaches unto the day of the 
 preparation : "From the fullness of his own 
 mind, without consulting one single book, 
 Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of 
 Independence." 
 
 Nor should we forget here to utter a word 
 of memorial salutation connected with other 
 names upon the roll of history, as they are 
 titled unto us. Edmund Burke, John Fox, 
 "Lord Chatham," and the Duke of Rich- 
 mond. And Colonel Barre ; who named our 
 troops that gathered about the city of Boston, 
 " Sons of Liberty ;" a name which they were 
 proud to receive, adopt, and perpetuate. 
 
 What a picture that must have been in the 
 British Parliament of 77, when Chatham was 
 borne in on a litter, and supported by his at- 
 tendants, was able in a voice that commanded 
 the hearing of all present, to deliver this grand 
 protest: "You may swell every expense, 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 accumulate every assistance you can buy or 
 borrow ; traffic and barter with every pitiful 
 little German prince that sells and sends his 
 subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince ; 
 your efforts are forever vain and impotent ; 
 doubly so from this mercenary aid on which 
 you rely, for it irritates to an incredible re- 
 sentment. If I were an American as I am 
 an Englishman, while a foreign troop was 
 landed in my country, I never would lay 
 down my arms; so help me God, never, 
 never, never." 
 
 We celebrate, this day, the grandest political 
 revolution that the history of this globe re- 
 cords. We turn our eyes to the past and see 
 thirteen Colonies or States, embracing not 
 over 830,000 square miles, with a population 
 not exceeding 3,200,000 people, we lift our 
 eyes to-day to behold a Republic extending 
 from ocean to ocean, with a measuring belt 
 of 3,000 miles, with an area of 3,559,000 
 square miles, and with thirty eight States 
 represented upon our flag, and a total popu- 
 lation of more than 43,000,000 of people. 
 
 Consider the relative strength of the con- 
 testing parties, and there is food for inexpres- 
 sible and overwhelming astonishment at the 
 courage and persistence of the struggle. I 
 believe that very few of our people keep in 
 memory the tremendous efforts made to sub- 
 due the Colonists. Great Britain sent to 
 America over 140,000 men, equipped in the 
 best manner then known to civilized warfare. 
 And during the struggle there was no artifice 
 left untried for the purpose of subjugation. 
 There was no stimulant to Indian cruelty or 
 avarice, no bribe of title or gold for venal 
 officers or men of influence — money offered in 
 places " where it would do the most good " — 
 that was omitted from the working and 
 thoroughly executed plan of the British 
 Government. Of the 200,000 men that are 
 credited with having been raised in this 
 country in behalf of the cause of the Colonies, 
 not more than 55,000 were ever on the field 
 at any one time, and not more than 30,000 
 Were at any one time reported in good fight- 
 ing condition. " Hard, hard indeed was the 
 contest for freedom, and the struggle for in- 
 dependence.' ' Every man and every woman 
 and every child of the age of puberty, whose 
 sympathies were enlisted in the struggle, felt 
 the personal strain of interest and of peril 
 during the last years of the contest. 
 
 What a vista of warfare ; conducted on 
 the one side with so much lordly ease and 
 pomp, maintained on the other with so much 
 sacrifice and devotion. " The past at least is 
 secure." What a vista of warfare ! Lexing- 
 ton and Concord, Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill, 
 Quebec, Sullivan's Island, Long Island, 
 Lake Champlain, White Plains, Port Wash- 
 ington, Trenton, Princetown, Bennington, 
 Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, Ports 
 Mercer and Mifflin, Monmouth, Quaker Hill, 
 Stony Point, Savannah, Charlestown Siege, 
 Camden, King's Mountain, Cowpens, Gilford 
 Courthouse, Hopkins' Hill, Utaw Springs; 
 what a catalogue, what a panorama of deadly 
 struggles, with alternate victories and defeat, 
 until Washington united with the French 
 forces before Lord Cornwallis ; until the green 
 cockade of Hamilton and the white plume of 
 Chevalier de Lameth were tossed in triumph 
 over the fortifications of Yorktown. 
 
 Measure the cost and the resolution ; meas- 
 ure the foemen and the circumstances ; meas- 
 ure the suffering and the hope : what an epoch 
 in history. O blessed fathers ! Theories of 
 republicanism written in their blood, and 
 
 institutions of freedom built up with their 
 bones ! Not for their own aggrandizement, 
 not in the mere spirit of revenge for trifling 
 or grievous wrongs ; not for auything else or 
 less than a holy desire for liberty, founded on 
 a wonderful faith in the capacity of man- 
 kind for self-government. 
 
 My friends : we boast of a widespread 
 education in our land, by our schools of 
 popular resort. We point with pardonable 
 pride to the houses erected and devoted to 
 the instruction of the people in all the funda- 
 mental and many of the higher branches of 
 learning. And how many sons and daugh- 
 ters of this generation have been taught or 
 prompted by this boasting — if not by direct 
 suggestions from the conversation of parents 
 and teachers — to look with pitying consider- 
 ation upon the alleged or presumed compara- 
 tively illiterate condition of the men of this 
 country in the Revolutionary times. Not 
 only the dandy descendants of Revolutionary 
 sires, who lounge in cities which have been 
 built where our fathers found a wilderness, 
 sprinkling rose-water in the streets, and in 
 the theaters and concert halls ; — not only do 
 these indulge in this kind of depreciation, 
 but men and women in communities and in 
 walks of life where we should naturally 
 expect a more intelligent recognition of 
 historical fact, and some readiness in just 
 vindication, are also guilty of the same mis- 
 apprehension and slanderous speech. 
 
 Stop to think of it for a moment ! What 
 a profound sense of right, combined with the 
 enthusiastic love of liberty ; what ability for 
 original reasoning concerning systems of na- 
 tional rule, as well as physical and moral 
 courage to carry out their designs, there must 
 have been among nearly all the people of the 
 land, — characteristic of the inhabitants there- 
 of! What was the fact ? Proportionate to the 
 number of inhabitants, there was in those days 
 a far greater average of thoroughly educated 
 men in the sea-coast towns and border villages 
 of the Atlantic Coast, than will be found in 
 places so situated to-day. In some degree il- 
 lustrative of this fact, is the standard for sen- 
 ior scholarship which is on record in the prin- 
 cipal institutions of learning. In the culture 
 of the classics, two or three years' added 
 study would hardly bring a university gradu- 
 ate of to-day up to the examination for ac- 
 complishments which the Boston and New 
 Haven Colleges then bestowed. 
 
 One hundred and fifty miles west from 
 the city of Boston, in the little village of 
 Sheffield, in the county of Berkshire, resolu- 
 tions and an address, suggestive of the Declar- 
 ation, were prepared one hundred years ago ; 
 which, for elegance of diction, as well as fer- 
 vor of patriotism, will compete with the pe- 
 riods of those documents and speeches, be- 
 longing to those times, with which we are 
 most familiar, and which, as specimens of 
 rhetoric, we most delight to study and de- 
 claim. A majority of the revolutionary fa- 
 thers were accustomed to listen every Sun- 
 day to preachers whose depth of thought and 
 grace of culture are not exceeded in their place 
 at this day ; and the congregations loved the 
 meaty discourses that ran up to the 16th sub- 
 division and closed with a full half hour of 
 personal application. O, never was a greater 
 mistake in the general belief or repute touch- 
 ing the disciplined judgment and the actual 
 literary accomplishments of the people. 
 Though our Revolutionary fathers, by Prov- 
 idential guidance, builded wiser than tbey 
 knew ; yet did they understand what they 
 
6 
 
 THEN AND NOW. 
 
 were proposing and what they were doing 
 fully up to that plane of secular wisdom 
 which we claim for the best classes of our 
 own time. 
 
 But above all and through all was the 
 splendid spirit of pure patriotism, exemplified 
 in unnumbered instances throughout the land. 
 Look upon the picture in one of the thousand 
 households from which the soldiery of the 
 Colonies went forth ! Into the backwoods — 
 the far west it was then called — the youthful 
 pair had gone from Boston, Salem, or 
 New Bedford, Newburyport, or New York, 
 or Baltimore, or Charleston or Savannah. 
 Long before the Revolution, the towns and 
 cities that were scattered up and down the 
 thousand miles of coast, sent back to the then 
 ' ' far West " their enterprising children. And 
 these built up the old homesteads on the ex- 
 treme borders of New England, Central New 
 York, New Jersey, Central Pennsylvania, 
 Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Go 
 and look in upon one of those homesteads. 
 It is one of thousands; aye, of many thou- 
 sands. You know the commodious character 
 of the rude homestead structures of those 
 days. The great common room is the one in 
 which we will find our people. There is the 
 aged sire. Twenty-five years ago — with his 
 loving spouse, who now sits opposite to him 
 before the wide hearth — twenty- live years 
 ago he came to this "settlement," as it is now 
 called, and constructed the log cabin which 
 for a score of years stood upou the same spot 
 that is now covered by the more pretentious 
 mansion. Between him and his wife sit a 
 group of ten children ; the least number that 
 we can suppose for the specimen of a family 
 
 fathering in such a place and at such a time, 
 'en children are there. John, the eldest son, 
 twenty -three years of age. Then Susan, then 
 Abigail, then Dorothy, then Elizabeth, then 
 Henry, then Ralph, then Ezekiel, then Mat- 
 thew, then Samuel— Samuel the baby of 
 twelve years of age. There they are— ar- 
 ranged, as we will suppose, in their seats before 
 the fire-place according to their respective 
 ages. But there is one more in the circle 
 whom we must name. He does not belong 
 to this household. Not yet ; not yet. His 
 name is " Reuben." He is sitting close be- 
 side Dorothy. It is a cheerful group. Our 
 fathers enjoyed their family life in those 
 times, as they gathered about the evening tire. 
 And there was still a necessity for the 
 warmth of the hearthstone before retiring, in 
 the short night season in this late April time. 
 The company is chatting gaily about the fest- 
 ivities of the winter, and the promise for pas- 
 times through the coming May and leafy 
 June, when a neighbor throws open the 
 kitchen door, and — evidently out of breath 
 with running — commences a recital of the 
 story of the battles of Lexington and Con- 
 cord ! He is permitted to tell the report as 
 he heard it, and can give it at the first ver- 
 sion : and then, after many expressions of 
 wonderment, the father commences to ques- 
 tion the messenger — seeking every ascertain- 
 able particular. 
 
 But ever since the first sentences have been 
 uttered by the neighbor, the mother of that 
 family has been sitting with her elbows on 
 her knees and her wrinkled face and gray 
 hair covered with her hands. Now when 
 the telling is over, and the cross-examination 
 has begun, she looks up ! She fixes a stead- 
 fast gaze on something. What is that ? It is 
 something that hangs above the mantel shelf. 
 It is the old Queens-arm flint-lock musket, 
 
 that lies athwart the deer-horn hooks on the 
 chimney front. She looks at it steadily for 
 several minutes while the questioning is going 
 on. There is one in that company who is 
 intently watching that mother now, and 
 evidently awaiting her recognition. And 
 when she turns her head so that the two can 
 behold each other, face to face, there are 
 no tears iu her eyes — no words come from her 
 lips. But that other — John — the eldest boy, 
 the son of her early married life, John knows 
 what his mother "has been thinking about 
 — comprehends it all ! And he speaks after 
 a little, in a low, calm voice : " Yes, mother, 
 I will take the old musket and go." And he 
 walks over to her, and falls upon his knees 
 beside her and receives her blessiug : " 0, 
 John ! John ! You are a brave boy. Your 
 country calls you, and you must go. Heaven 
 bless and keep you John ! And O, if it be 
 His will who has been so kind to me thus far 
 through all my eartlily pilgrimage, may you 
 be permitted to come back, and may I see 
 your face once more before I go hence!" 
 
 Oh Mother ! type of ten thousand mothers 
 in that dreadful struggle ! Have we lauded 
 the Fathers of the Revolution, and forgotten 
 thee ? Forgive our imperfect memories, and 
 take the tribute now. Blessed mothers of 
 the days of the American Revolution ! 
 
 But there is another competent soldier iu 
 that little circle. John goes back to his 
 former station and takes his chair and crosses 
 to his mother's corner once more, and sits 
 down beside her, with her feeble hand rest- 
 ing iu his. He must needs sit beside her now , 
 for the hours of companionship before de- 
 parture are few. And his favorite sister, 
 Elizabeth — boys will have their favorite sis- 
 ters when they can choose — comes and leans 
 over the two. 
 Just at that moment Dorothy, — who has been 
 sitting close beside her lover, to whom she 
 was to have been married on the succeeding 
 Sabbath day,— turns sharply about iu her seat 
 and exclaims, in an unwonted tone of voice 
 for her: "Reuben!" That is all she says. 
 " Reuben ! " It is enough. Reuben pushes 
 back his chair and rises at once. A splendid 
 specimen of an American youth. Over six 
 feet tall, and broad and athletic in proportion. 
 He almost springs from his seat ; yet it is a 
 gentle motion, as in deference to her, though 
 so quick aud strong. And his gesture is not 
 wanting in some sort of grace, though it is 
 vehement. He brings his huge right fist 
 squarely down into the palm of his left hand, 
 aud exclaims : " Yes, Dorothy, I am a going 
 — to-morrow." The last word comes out with 
 a little hesitation, but with unabated em- 
 phasis. His ready answer makes a deep im- 
 pression on his betrothed; for she turns pale 
 and seems on the verge of dizziness. But, in 
 perfect health, and untutored iu affectations, 
 she does not faint. She rises now aud excuses 
 herself and Reuben, and goes with him to 
 the distant window. It is a solemn scene. 
 Yet it is a common scene of patriotism. 
 
 Reuben must go ; he knows it. He must 
 go. He would go of his own impulse. And 
 yet he knows — if he thinks about such a 
 matter at all — that if he did not go, he could 
 never call that maiden, "wife." Nay, though 
 he could have endowed her with a mansion, 
 equal in value to one of the lath and plaster 
 palaces of the monopoly lords whose dwellings 
 crown the hilltops of San Fraucisco. 
 
 It is a solemn scene! Presently the neigh- 
 bor retires, and the father calls the flock to- 
 gether, and opens the great Bible, and read8 
 
THEN AND NOAY. 
 
 a fitting chapter. And then there is singing; 
 the sweet singing of old familiar tunes. And 
 then there is a parental prayer. 
 
 The boys must go on the morrow. And 
 early on the morrow they bid farewell to 
 mother and father, and sister and betrothed; 
 and equipped as best they may be, they depart 
 for the nearest rendezvous. 
 
 " Farewell " from mother and father and 
 sisters — John — Farewell ! For though that 
 aged matron shall see her boy once again, as 
 she prayed she might be permitted to do, per- 
 haps it would have been better for her if it 
 bad been otherwise decreed. For when he 
 comes back after six years' service, through 
 all the campaigns, it will be the same, yet not 
 the same boy that left her side. For he will 
 be maimed and shattered; one leg gone, one 
 eye blown out, and the festering furrow of a 
 poison copper bullet across his breast. He 
 shall not long out-live that mother on the old 
 homestead farm. 
 
 And the boy Reuben. O, Dorothy, " Fare- 
 well ! Farewell ! " No more shall you see 
 your beloved, 0! Dorothy Brown. For he 
 joined Gen. Stark's force near Bennington, 
 and was shot through and through a dozen 
 times on the first onset of that fierce encoun- 
 ter. And with a " life- long hunger " in her 
 bosom — at times almost, almost, not quite — 
 and less, and less so disposed as the years 
 creep upon her — almost at times inclined to 
 repine and reproach herself because she gave 
 the word which Reuben was so quick to in- 
 terpret, and take as a benediction on his own 
 patriotic thought and resolution. Unwedded 
 for his sake, she passes through life a heroine 
 indeed for her country ; a cheer and charm 
 in the households of the brothers and sisters 
 of John and Reuben, who welcome her annual 
 visitations. 
 
 How coldly is it sometimes said, that the 
 war of independence was inevitable. Not 
 so. As the conception of a truly republican 
 form of government belongs absolutely to the 
 statesmen of our country, so does the impulse 
 of patriotism, in its most unselfish force and 
 expression, belong to the soldiers who fought 
 and conquered for the principles that were 
 enunciated in the Declaration. Perhaps by 
 a little temporizing, a little more of submis- 
 sive delay, the uprising could have been 
 avoided ? With greater reason, we may say, 
 that a little more delay and submissiveness 
 would have resulted in such provision 
 against attempts on the part of the Colonies 
 to vindicate their rights that any uprising 
 would have been of no avail. 
 
 Mark the concert of action. Those far 
 removed — as distance was then estimated — 
 from the immediate scene of conflict, might 
 have called up an infinite variety of excuses 
 for non-participation in the struggle. There 
 was no Government authority adequate for 
 the successful announcement and enforce- 
 ment of a draft ; it was not possible to con- 
 centrate public opinion in the sparsely settled 
 communities of the interior so as to compel or 
 constrain the tardy and unwilling to answer 
 the summons that was given. All is : there 
 was an independent understanding of the situ- 
 ation, there was an individual readiness to do 
 battle and endure great hardships for the new 
 born cause of republican freedom. Without 
 social ostracism, without that which we would 
 now call public sentiment, the almost universal 
 response was made. In the outer limits of 
 population the first shout for absolute indepen- 
 dence was heard. There were voices crying 
 in the wilderness, preparing the way for the 
 
 acceptance and adoption by the people of the 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 We hear it repeated again that the tide of 
 public sentiment, coming from many concur- 
 rent sources, the natural growth of opinion, 
 was such that the ultimate severance of this 
 territory from under the British dominion 
 was inevitable ; and. that the relations of 
 king and subject might have been dissolved 
 at a far less cost of blood and treasure, if a 
 better day had been waited for in hope. On 
 the contrary, with due reflection, how the 
 probabilities rise for the opposite belief and 
 conviction! On the contrary, the hour was 
 most auspicious. On the contrary, but for 
 the Revolutionary war as it stands on record, 
 the probabilities are that this continent would 
 long have remained the heritage of European 
 kings and emperors ; embracing no larger 
 separate areas than were mapped out one 
 hundred years ago ; and probably subdivided 
 thereafter into many sections of independent 
 and hostile authority. From the necessities 
 of the case, from the geography of the hemis- 
 phere, the people of this continent, under 
 such circumstances, would have been con- 
 stantly and most relentlessly embroiled in 
 the bitterest warfare. Auspicious hour ! We 
 celebrate the striking of the clock of ages ; 
 high noon in the political cycle of the planet; 
 when the old bell in the steeple of Independ- 
 ence Hall whirled on its yoke and sent forth 
 the tidings that its founder moulded on it : 
 "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
 unto all the inhabitants thereof." 
 
 But, my friends, we are not here for the 
 mere recitation of events, however appropri- 
 ate or necessary such recitation may be. You 
 have not asked me to come upon this platform 
 only that you may hear the names of our revo- 
 lutionary heroes again pronounced ; although 
 you may rejoice at the mention of their titles 
 and the description of some of their patriotic 
 deeds ; and so may be agreeably stirred anew 
 to join in the special homage for this occa- 
 sion on account of the recollection of their 
 labor, their sacrifices and sufferings, and 
 their success. And as it is not our exclusive 
 business to dwell upon personal and political 
 reminiscences, though they fill us with de- 
 light, so it is not our highest present privi- 
 lege to indulge in the bright anticipations 
 which we may reasonably cultivate and com- 
 mend. If it be possible — nay, it must be so 
 — there is a grander, a truer, a far more sat- 
 isfactory and even majestic tribute to be 
 paid to the memories of our Fathers, than 
 could be comprised in any form of direct eu- 
 logiums. Ours is not the circumscribed work 
 of narration. Ours is not the single service 
 of praise. 
 
 Could we suppose our Fathers yet living in 
 conscious proximity to us, perpetual witnesses 
 of our conduct as citizens, we should most 
 assuredly understand that, while the words of 
 honor uttered for them, and the representa- 
 tions of their heroism, were pleasing in their 
 ears, yet their loftier and their only adequate 
 recompense must spring from our watchful- 
 ness and industry, and our own complete self- 
 dedication as the friends of freedom. A con- 
 cise and dispassionate consideration of our 
 duties, and an inquiry into our ability and 
 disposition to perform those obligations which 
 have come with our rights and advantages, 
 is the theme for sacred individual contempla- 
 tion this day. 
 
 As I cannot pause to qualify my limited 
 number of sentences so as to guard against 
 suspicion of an unwarranted spirit of dicta- 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 tion ; as I cannot finish everyparagraph with 
 a protest against any possible challenge in 
 any mind on account of the absolute nature 
 of my statement or suggestion, I -wish to say, 
 once for all : I claim no peculiar aptitude 
 for the office to which yonr kind considera- 
 tion has called me here this day, and I have 
 no wish to impose upon any one a view of the 
 condition and prospects of affairs that is repug- 
 nant to well considered and established con- 
 victions. I shall speak plainly and firmly as 
 I think — and so always must I speak, if I 
 speak at all — and yet you will believe me 
 when I say that I have entire respect for 
 your opinions and beliefs touching any sub- 
 ject upon which I may dwell, or to which I 
 may make passing allusion. One thing I 
 know, if I know my own heart — and indeed 
 it is the invocation of my discourse — I can 
 with you this day earnestly seek to lay aside 
 all partisanship, all personal antipathy or 
 likings, wherever they may exist: that we 
 may commune with heartiness and judge with 
 candor. 
 
 Our characteristics as a nation have un- 
 doubtedly undergone a great change and ac- 
 quired a peculiar force by reason of the inter- 
 mingling with other than the original stock. 
 The immigration of many millions of foreign- 
 ers to this country during the past hundred 
 years, has made up a population, especially 
 in the new States and Territories, with whom 
 appeals have a different and often discordant 
 sound, and representations of fact have a 
 different and contrasting emphasis. Had the 
 population of this country been confined 
 almost entirely to the progeny of those who 
 dwelt in the thirteen colonies at the date of 
 independence, the census roll would scarcely 
 have been one-third as large as now, and the 
 development of industries must have been 
 proportionately small. We have to congratu- 
 late ourselves upon great accessions from the 
 civilized nations of the earth. The demon- 
 stration of " a land of the free and a home of 
 the brave," has been in itself a mighty testi- 
 mony to the wisdom of our earliest statesman- 
 ship and diplomacy. The homogeneousness 
 that is desirable must come with the years ; 
 and not only the already admitted advantage, 
 but the enhanced physical strength and 
 beauty in years to come, will a thousand fold 
 repay the costs of evils which are commonly 
 cast to the account of an immigration of peo- 
 ple easily imposed upon by the managers of 
 politics and the heartless aggrandisers of trade. 
 
 We are enjoying the full fruits of our 
 Fathers' labors. We can cite a hundred bene- 
 fits against one great wrong in our National 
 or State life. But are we going forward in 
 the pathway which their principles and policy 
 marked out ? Or where is the recognized, 
 the demonstrable deviation that requires a 
 resolute and untiring effort of correction? 
 Are there crying wrongs of which we should 
 complain, with the temper and resolution of 
 reform 1 Let us see. I remember the time 
 is short, and I set aside a flood of suggestions 
 — coming directly to the main and overshad- 
 owing issues. 
 
 " The day of material development ! " Yes ! 
 " Wonderful," is written on the doorposts of 
 the factories and foundries and machine 
 shops and laboratories of the land. Wonder- 
 ful ! The lightning train that recently bore 
 its passengers across the continent — 3,000 
 miles in 80 hours — is but one of many de- 
 monstrations. What is to be said of all this 
 wonderful advance by inventions, and by 
 their applications with money, nerve, and 
 
 muscle ? I say : Right here our needs and 
 our dangers and our duties rise to their 
 highest mountains of observation and demand. 
 
 God Almighty put it into the minds of many 
 men of many lands, to discover two principles 
 of motive power — Steam and Electricity. 
 The very methods by which they were dis- 
 covered and first applied, and the fact that 
 several inventors of apparently almost equal 
 merit in widely separated countries were 
 simultaneously recorded and renowned, is a 
 Coincidence of Providence, establishing the 
 intention of universal use and perfect popular 
 enjoyment. The great endowment of the 
 Century was given for the children of the 
 Century, and for all the children of every 
 land thereafter. So reads the Biography of 
 the Arts. Now what is the fact ? Oat of 
 these very inventions spring and grow the 
 present wants and the awful present perils of 
 the Republic ! I shall not weary you with an 
 old, old story. I shall state the fact. 
 
 We have a work of Vigilance, for we have a 
 war for emancipation. None are so blind as 
 not in some degree to recognize the fact of 
 oppression within our borders ; few are so 
 situated as not to feel the weight of tyranny 
 thus imposed. The fact is that we are cursed 
 with monopolies which originally derived 
 their power from the unwittiug consent and 
 aid of the burdened and oppressed — by con- 
 tributions obtained under false pretenses, or 
 extorted in devious ways of legislation. Our 
 need is redemption from the thraldom of 
 monopolists ; and this need we can more 
 particularly specify in two instances, with 
 distinct and indisputable arraignments. 
 
 Such an endowment as was never given to 
 any enterprise of a similar nature, has been 
 granted by our General and State Govern- 
 ments to the greatest railroad monopoly of 
 the land. Proportionately great has been 
 the gift of the people to that other, and in 
 some respects more outrageous extortioner, 
 the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
 We cannot disguise the fact that our National 
 Legislature and our State Assembly are de- 
 ceived and debauched by the agents of these 
 great monopolists, in combination with the 
 different local monopolies which are to be 
 found in any particular commonwealth at any 
 particular time, or knocking at the door of 
 any particular session of Congress. 
 
 I have been an eye-witness to so much of 
 these corrupting and bamboozling processes 
 from these sources, that I am sure no one can 
 be more competent to relate the fact. And it 
 is a momentous fact which requires a promi- 
 nent and serious consideration at this day. 
 
 What is the want, founded upon the needs 
 which this condition of affairs indicates ? 
 Faithful representation. The popular judg- 
 ment — the prevailing popular judgment — 
 is correct. The need is for faithful repre- 
 sentation. Born of the law, enabled to 
 construct their great works with the money 
 of the people, these monopolists are, by the 
 terms of the statute, bound to answer faith- 
 ful representatives. Yet, year after year 
 goes by, pledge after pledge is made, and the 
 tyrants within our borders, the Emperors 
 of the empire within an empire, laugh at 
 our discomfiture, and mock when, after many 
 failures, we again seek legislative emancipa- 
 tion. 
 
 It is not a quarrel of dollars and cents be- 
 tween the mass of the people and a few in- 
 corporations. It is a question of national 
 integrity — it is a question concerning liberty 
 for the private enterprise. The finances 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 of the country, the prosperity of commu- 
 nities, are impaired and jeopardized alto- 
 gether. Every species of business is either 
 brought directly under tribute to these 
 monopolies, or threatened with ultimate levy. 
 
 Our duty as good citizens and as patriots 
 has always seemed to me to be clear and 
 simple.' For honest representation you must 
 have unmistakable obligations spread before 
 the people at the beginning of every political 
 canvass. Not only for the proper and avowed 
 purpose of holding representatives to their 
 general agreement, but for their moral and 
 explicit support in discharging the functions 
 of their office. 
 
 We speak not now as partisans, but we 
 consult as patriots. Some representatives 
 are deceived ; a few are bought. Some repre- 
 sentatives are seduced by the blandishments 
 of skillful lobbyists ; a few put themselves up 
 at auction for the services which they can 
 render. The most who fail of honorable 
 record are deceived or intimidated. What is 
 required is nothing less than a clear declara- 
 tion of rights, and the popular prescribing of 
 a corresponding statute for enactment. 
 
 Let the platform read : " Every man nomi- 
 nated by this Convention ie pledged to intro- 
 duce, vote for, and support, without hesitation, 
 equivocation or mental reservation the follow- 
 ing bill, to-wit : Be it enacted, etc. Section 
 1. No railroad company in this State, built 
 wholly or in part by subsidies from this 
 State, or from counties or cities in the State, 
 shall charge over 4 cents per mile for each 
 passenger carried thereon. Section 2. Any 
 ticket vendor, or conductor, or other officer of 
 any railroad company described in Sec. 1, 
 who shall be guilty of charging or collecting 
 any money in excess of 4 cents per mile for 
 each and every passenger traveling on such 
 road, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
 shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 
 $500, or imprisonment in the County Jail 
 not exceeding six months for each and every 
 such offense of which he may be found 
 guilty." And similar provisions with refer- 
 ence to railroad freights would meet with the 
 same burden. A like pledge exacted from 
 candidates for Congress would secure for the 
 people a just tariff upon the roads which have 
 their charter rights and their subsidies from 
 the National Government. 
 
 I do not. undertake to say that this is the 
 exact form that should be adopted in all cases, 
 but it furnishes a pattern that is deserving of 
 close imitation. 
 
 And so should the pledges read in all large 
 communities for legislation against every spe- 
 cies of local monopoly which deals with the 
 necessities of life, or with the prerogatives 
 and privileges of common carriers. 
 
 Mark you, it is not proposed that the Na- 
 tion or State or municipality should assume a 
 paternal government. Quite to the contrary. 
 I know this is the plea of the great monopo- 
 lists : That the logical deduction or conclu- 
 sion from the popular call for emancipating 
 legislation of this character will result in inter- 
 ference in private enterprise and legitimate 
 business competition. The plea is more than 
 untrue, coming from such a source. The fact 
 is that these monopolists — as must be reiter- 
 ated — interfere directly and absolutely with 
 private enterprise in such a nanner as to de- 
 stroy the legitimate competition of trade. 
 
 Our government has been requested to en- 
 dow a great undertaking on a deliberately 
 written obligation to compensate for such as- 
 sistance by reasonable rates for the carrying 
 
 of persons and property and communications. 
 Not only has this obligation been set aside, 
 but the private business of whole communi- 
 ties is practically usurped by the magnates of 
 these corporations. And year by year usurp- 
 ation and absorption increase. I state the 
 fact. Every consideration of law and equity, 
 every sense of justice and right, every im- 
 pulse of patriotism, srjrings directly in the 
 form of reason and emotion on behalf of this 
 long- sought emancipation. Surely the day 
 ought to be expected when the first and last 
 thought of enterprising business men in the 
 great centers of trade should not be one of 
 obsequious consideration for the favor of in- 
 corporators who have been munificently en- 
 dowed by Nation, State, and city. Surely the 
 people of this and adjacent communities 
 ought not to despair from the idea of a reason- 
 able combination of capital and enterprise 
 required for the construction of a railroad 
 over the natural central mountain route — 
 across the valleys of Plumas aud Sierra. Yet 
 we must know that efforts heretofore inaugu- 
 rated and directed towards that work of 
 construction have been defeated by the influ- 
 ence which the railroad monopoly in Califor- 
 nia has brought to bear. 
 
 The other great monopoly of the land, 
 threatening directly and indirectly the liber- 
 ties of the people, is known by the name of 
 the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
 Commencing with a capital of a few thous- 
 and dollars, it has crept up to the ownership 
 of nearly all the " wires" in the Union ; and 
 by purchase and construction now owns 
 $15,000,000 worth of property of this descrip- 
 tion ; while its stock has been watered $100,- 
 000,000 for the benefit of its managers and 
 manipulators. To-day it practically has the 
 monopoly in the transmission of the telegraphic 
 correspondence throughout the land. To-day 
 it is the great corrupter of the Congress of 
 the United States. Before its lobbyists made 
 their appearance at Washington, such a thing 
 as bribery was comparatively unknown in 
 the halls of the National Legislature. It was 
 an exceptional aud notorious case of perfidy, 
 when the legislator at Washington forfeited 
 his direct or implied promise to his constitu- 
 ents. But the railroad and telegraph monop- 
 olies have changed all that. The railroad has 
 scores of paid lobbyists at the National Cap- 
 itol ; strikers of every sort, lawyers of every 
 grade, land agents and general jobbers of 
 every title. The telegraph has not so many 
 persons ostensibly and exclusively engaged in 
 the business of corrupting the National Legis- 
 lature. But its forces are better disciplined, 
 and its list of employees on half pay for 
 emergencies fully equals the catalogue of its 
 associate in this business. The telegraph mo- 
 nopoly not only buys Congressmen with gold, 
 but it has the reputation of many Represent- 
 atives (if not all) in its grasp, and bullies or 
 seduces those who are not to be bought into 
 silence or opposition with respect to all feas- 
 able measures for a postal telegraph. 
 
 Is the exemplification of the matter prac- 
 tical in a few brief sentences ? Judged by 
 the terms of the Eastern roads, constructed 
 almost entirely by private enterprise and pri- 
 vate capital, you should be able to travel from 
 San Francisco to New York, with first class 
 accommodations, for $60. You are required 
 to pay $130. Gauged by the actual cost of 
 construction — without considering the fact 
 that the original line from Omaha to San 
 Francisco was paid for by the Government, 
 State and City subsidies— you ought not to be 
 
10 
 
 THEN AND NOW. 
 
 taxed more than fifty cents at the outside, for 
 a twenty-word message from Quincy to the 
 Atlantic Coast. With the postal telegraph in 
 operation, you would not be required to pay 
 more than twenty-five cents for a twenty- 
 word message hence to the Eastern States ; 
 while for messages accumulating for dispatch 
 in the night season, one-half cent a word 
 would be the extreme tax upon your corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 Now, the Pacific railroads were endowed, 
 practically, with $150,000,000. The original 
 telegraph line from San Francisco to Omaha 
 was more than paid for by subsidies. Cyrus 
 W. Field auuounced that its original cost was 
 more than covered by the net receipts during 
 the first year after its completion. 
 
 The railroad and telegraph monopolies, 
 through their agents at Washington, have 
 boasted of their ability to pay $10,000,000 to 
 promote and maintain their "interests" at 
 the Capitol — for the services, during one ses- 
 sion, of lobbyists and newspaper writers, and 
 for the extra salary of Senators and Congress- 
 men. How much of this sum, or how much 
 greater sum, theydoexpend, may remain some- 
 thing of a mystery to the world in general. 
 We do know that Congressmen and Senators 
 go to Washington poor and retire after a 
 brief term of service with an abundance of 
 money or a vast property in land. 
 
 A free press is one of the safeguards of 
 republican institutions. Have we a free 
 press in the United States ? We can hardly 
 boast of anything of the kind, except in the 
 towns and villages of the land. Such a pub- 
 lication as deserves to be called a free daily 
 journal is an exception to the rule in the 
 large cities of this Union. Startling as the 
 assertion may be to some, it is the simple 
 truth. By the combination of the Western 
 Union Telegraph Co. and the Associated 
 Press, and the railroad monopolies, almost 
 every daily paper in all our large cities is 
 brought under the dominion of the monopolies 
 and extortionists. Some journals are more 
 and some less stringently held to their service. 
 Some owe more allegiance to one monopoly 
 than another. All are permitted to make a 
 periodical diversion on the side of the people, 
 that they may the more readily and efficiently 
 defend and promote the interests of their 
 masters in times of pressing danger! And 
 all these newspapers are always professing 
 great concern iu behalf of the people's rights. 
 This is a plain, unvarnished recital of con- 
 temporaneous history. The metropolitan 
 press, as a rule, is a disgrace to our country, 
 and a standing menance to our freedom. 
 "The exceptions to the rule" are so notable 
 as to require no enumeration before any in- 
 telligent promiscuous audience. You can 
 name on your fingers the honest daily city 
 journals of national reputation. Not only is 
 the metropolitan press under the dominion of 
 the monopolies referred to, but characteristi- 
 cally ready for any job of public plunder that 
 may be planned and perpetrated against the 
 people. 
 
 During the revolutionary war there was no 
 daily journal printed in the Colonies. There 
 were scores of weekly newspapers, most of 
 which were patriotic ; and the best among 
 them was published by a woman in the city 
 of Boston. It is safe to say that if, propor- 
 tionate to the number of inhabitants, there 
 had been a daily press in this country 100 
 years ago, with the same ratio of such venal 
 sheets as afflict us to-day, Washington and 
 his associates would have been 60 misrepre- 
 
 sented and maligned, and the large commu- 
 nities would have been so deceived, that suc- 
 cess for our arms would have been impossi- 
 ble. 
 
 Our metropolitan newspapers do not lack 
 for ability. Their local columns often display 
 admirable judgment and industry. There are 
 employed in writing for them many excellent 
 gentlemen and thorough scholars. But as a 
 rule their management is entirely on a mer- 
 cenary basis. They are up for sale. And 
 when the owners cannot sell their columns 
 in favor of a monopoly or a job, they make 
 a dress parade of their virtue by attacking 
 that particular monopoly or job; saying again 
 for the thousandth time, " O, people, see how 
 we love you and defend your interests!" 
 There is no phrase or sentence of encomium 
 which can attach to the business of journal- 
 ism which they are not handy in placing to 
 their own unblemished credit ! 
 
 These papers would make you believe that 
 you owe to them that sentiment of hostility 
 to some monopolies which has sometimes 
 arisen to burning force in this State. They 
 did not excite that sentimeut ; they did not 
 promote that sentiment. It originated and 
 spread and became apparent and took an or- 
 ganized force in spite of them. Then it was 
 their function, as the paid creatures of the 
 monopolies, to proclaim themselves the au- 
 thors of that sentiment, the originators of the 
 movement that belonged to it. They pro- 
 posed to champion the rights of the people 
 and lead the movement to legislative success. 
 But when the hour came for focalizing work 
 in the legislation, when proceedings were 
 narrowed down bo as to mean business in 
 emancipation, then was doubt and confusion 
 cast upon this or that particular measure; 
 then the work of general demoralization was 
 the service of the Metropolitan Press. Or if 
 the people's organizations, having had expe- 
 rience in this kind of treachery, refused 
 longer obeisance to these organs of incorpo- 
 rators and corrupters — put no more trust iu 
 such leadership — then the Metropolitan Press, 
 with great flourish, withdrew altogether from 
 the battle ; declared that it was a hopeless 
 war; or remained silent as to the issues, and 
 indulged in frequent and extended praise of 
 the greatest enemies of the public, whom but 
 yesterday it pretended to dislike. I speak of 
 what I have seen again and again illustrated 
 in California aud Nevada, and in the cities 
 and Legislatures of those States. Repeatedly 
 have I seen such newspaper demoralization 
 and treachery illustrated at the National 
 Capitol and in the city of Sacramento. 
 
 Our unknown relatives and progenitors of 
 the middle ages were Priest-ridden. The 
 people of the United States of America are 
 Press ridden. The necessity for the hour is 
 for the people to do their own thinking and 
 manage their own political organizations, 
 Emancipation from monopolies means, first, 
 emancipation from the dictation of the Met- 
 ropolitan Daily Press. Which leads me in 
 conclusion of this portion of my address to 
 declare, that the present hope of the country 
 is in the people of the country places and in 
 the press of the towns and villages of the 
 nation. 
 
 I am far from being one of those who 
 believe that the admitted dangers to the Re- 
 public are such as make the balance of 
 reasonable expectation against the promise of 
 perpetuity for our institutions; though many 
 men, eminent for cool judgment and under- 
 standing, have not hesitated to express such an 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 11 
 
 opinion. I do not think that these monopolies 
 can go much further in the work of extortion 
 and corruption. Because I believe in the 
 people of the country ; I believe in an arous- 
 ed and thoroughly concentrated public senti- 
 ment. On this we must depend. 
 
 Our principal cities contain a large pro- 
 portion of worthy men, but these cities are 
 practically under the control of rings. Some- 
 times most under the management of the 
 worst classes in the community, when ac- 
 cording to the outside repute, given through 
 the press, they have been freed from such 
 wretched domination. The temper and dis- 
 position of the present generation of people 
 in the country places, enlightened and excited 
 for proper action, and the educated patriotism 
 of the children who are to come after us, are 
 the main reliances for substantial and en- 
 during reform in this country. Our metro- 
 politan press is the chief lever in so shaping 
 matters political in our cities that we can 
 hope for little or nothing of reform legislation 
 by the city representatives. Reform we 
 must undoubtedly achieve, if the Republic is 
 to stand. 
 
 As much as any one, I regret and deplore the 
 fact that rich thieves can buy seats in Congress 
 and the Legislatures, from many districts in 
 the land. But the danger thus threatened and 
 embodied is apparently met by a rising 
 popular disgust at the exhibition which these 
 creatures make when they enter the halls of 
 legislation, and commence to recite the speech- 
 es written for them by their accomplished 
 private secretaries. I protest against the ar- 
 rogance and impositions and positive tyranny 
 of the monopolists, — with the admission that 
 the day of our downfall is not far distant if 
 their rule is not checked and overthrown ; 
 but I think I see their doom in the white 
 heat of a just public sentiment — a public senti- 
 ment organized as our Fathers combined for it 
 in the days of the Revolution. The property, 
 the " vested rights '' of these monopolies, will 
 not be theirs many years longer, at all events, 
 if they manage or are permitted to control 
 without qualification as they have done for 
 many jears past. For another revolution is 
 at hand ! But I look for a practical and peace- 
 ful solution of our difficulties ; and I give my 
 illustration of plans and methods and results. 
 
 We are exorbitantly taxed by the railroad 
 monopolists. Our private business enterprises 
 are impaired, or destroyed, or rendered miser- 
 ably subordinate to the monopolies. Now, 
 it is no answer to all this to say, that the 
 main enterprise has been a benefit to the 
 State and Nation. If there is any good in 
 such enterprises, the people are entitled to a 
 reasonable measure of benefit. The inven- 
 tions were given for all the people. More 
 than this; with respect to the monopolies 
 most complained of we restate the fact, that 
 their works were built with the people's 
 money. A large revenue, an immense per- 
 centage on the capital that is legitimately 
 represented — tho' that capital come from the 
 State and Nation — would not be begrudged 
 to those who control the great railroads and 
 telegraph lines of the country. But the 
 extortions are tremendous and unendurable ; 
 and tbey are kept up by corruptly defeating 
 all honest legislation touching their revenues 
 and their tariff. Now, honest legislation 
 must be had. It must be had by the people 
 speaking directly through explicitly pledged 
 representatives, in the manner which has 
 already been indicated. We must have a 
 faithful representation of the popular will. 
 
 But suppose a proper public sentiment, 
 directed in a literal business channel, was 
 cultivated among the people ? Take the out- 
 side of the expense of a trunk railroad from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific on a central route. 
 Honestly constructed, it should not cost more 
 than one hundred millions of dollars. But 
 give the vast margin of fifty millions— one 
 hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Ought 
 there not to be ten thousand men, of all the 
 merchants at home and abroad, who are 
 deeply interested in trade across the conti- 
 nent, who could well afford to actually give 
 ten thousand dollars each towards the con- 
 struction of such a road, — on promise of a 
 reasouable tariff of freights and fares ? 
 This would aggregate one hundred millions 
 of dollars. Are there not five thousand 
 merchants and private citizens who would 
 invest five thousand dollars each in the stock 
 of such an enterprise, after such a contribu- 
 tion, with the allied impulse of hostility to 
 the monopoly and a sentiment of patriotism ? 
 Suppose that this number of persons are 
 thoroughly informed in the premises, and 
 fully aware of the necessity for breaking up 
 the corruption which springs from the 
 monopoly that is thus to be defeated and 
 overthrown. Is it an incredible thing ? Are 
 we asking or proposing a co-operation and 
 combination that is simply ridiculous ? Is it 
 so iu this Centennial Tear ? This latter in- 
 vestment would add twenty-five millions to 
 the enterprise. Then, are there not twenty 
 thousand persons who would invest two 
 thousand dollars each ? Aggregating forty 
 millions of dollars. In all one hundred and 
 sixty-five millions — enough to construct a 
 railroad and a ten- wire telegraph line across 
 the continent ! The very figures, when 
 spread before the eye, indicate, and it seems 
 to me demonstrate, the entire reasonableness 
 of the expectation — provided there is any 
 truth iu our assuming a deep seated and wide- 
 spread spirit of patriotism in the Republic. 
 
 Public spirit is patriotism, when applied to 
 the business enterprises of a great country. 
 I wish I had the opportunity to emphasize 
 this statement with mauy illustrations that 
 press in upon me. Public spirit is patriotism, 
 when citizens are well informed as to their 
 duties, and conscientiously bound to their 
 fulfillment. And the public spirit should, in 
 these early days of the new century, build 
 your rival railways by southern passes, and 
 over your own natural and incomparable cen- 
 tral route. 
 
 But you may accept a proposition more 
 closely drawn to the capacity of the masees 
 of the people. From one hundred thousand 
 citizens expect for such an enterprise an in- 
 vestment — not a gift — of one thousand dol- 
 lars each. There is one hundred millions. 
 From one hundred thousand more expect a 
 contribution of five hundred dollars each. 
 This would suffice for the construction of a ri- 
 val central transcontinental railroad. And 
 then there are two hundred thousand persous 
 directly interested in the success of the pro- 
 ject ; the persons best qualified to contribute 
 to the success of the enterprise — to confer 
 and build up an enduring patronage on the 
 new road and under the new and reasonable 
 regulations. 
 
 Or, once more, we will suppose — you may 
 say imagine — that half a million of people 
 contribute for such a purpose one hundred 
 dollars. This is fifty millions. After such a 
 subscription was made, ten thousand men of 
 all classes of capitalists would gladly hasten 
 
12 
 
 THEN AND NOW. 
 
 to the investment of ten thousand dollars 
 each ; and then we should have the rival 
 road and an everlasting competition. 
 
 Is this a Utopian scheme ? Will any one 
 say this is a "South sea bubble " 1 The value 
 of this investment, the substantial excellence 
 of the work, cannot be successfully chal- 
 lenged. But you cannot laugh at any such 
 proposition so heartily as the British minis- 
 try, * one hundred years ago, shouted in 
 derision at the protest of the Colonies against 
 taxation, and the threats of the Colonists 
 for war and independence. 
 
 Fellow citizens, what are we doing ? 
 Boasting of our freedom ? Boasting of our 
 lineage 1 Boasting of the courage of the 
 past! Boasting of the power to maintain 
 ourselves against the combined governments 
 of Europe in a foreign war ! And yet so 
 miserably poor within ourselves ; so utterly 
 devoid of the fraternal spirit of co-operation 
 as against the tyrants that are at our own 
 threshold, that we must join the monopoly's 
 press and the " silver-tongued " orators who 
 are pensioned by the rich thieves and fools in 
 Congress— who are hired for the work of 
 mocking— and sneer and scoff at every such 
 plan as this for emancipation ! 
 
 0, for the spirit of co-operation and patriot- 
 ism that exists in the new-born Republic of 
 France ! For the like of it, as there recently 
 exhibited in the payment of the national 
 debt, would bring to pass all these desirable 
 consummations. 
 
 Nor is this a mere matter of faith, or a kind 
 imputing of moral disposition in secular enter- 
 prise. Seventy-five millions of money are 
 daily thrown over from one hand to another 
 in the stock transactions of the country ; and 
 sometimes in San Francisco this amount is 
 passed from hand to hand, in its represented 
 forms, within the two sessions of the Boards 
 that congregate within the halls of hazard. 
 The audacity for such a popular scheme, the 
 courage for such an investment, is not lacking. 
 And there is often a disclosed ambition among 
 men who control immense amounts of capital 
 at the centers of trade, to leave some record 
 worthy of the name of humanity. Even 
 among the worst, even those who force young 
 men into corners of tribulation,— and take 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars from the 
 fruits of the forgeries to which their victims 
 have by them been compelled, — investments 
 have been made in theological seminaries with 
 some hope of a popular human, if not a 
 Divine forgiveness. And this is confessedly 
 going down to the lowest plane of expecta- 
 tion. But let it be made known in various 
 ways that the people would recognize the 
 enterprise indicated as worthy of execution 
 by men claiming the highest and purest of 
 patriotic motives— let attention be so directed 
 and emphasized — and the money wonld 
 come ! 
 
 And this is not speaking of utter impossi- 
 bilities; for in a thousand and one small com- 
 munities, at a proportionate cost and sacrifice, 
 similar results have been attained in this 
 Republic, and in all the other civilized nations 
 of the earth. 
 
 We must cultivate this public sentiment, un- 
 to a practically emancipating application and 
 conclusion. We must not deny the possibility 
 of its existence, and its practicable workings. 
 We must stimulate its exercise by mapping 
 out ways for its development and its display. 
 We must not be shamed from giving utter- 
 ance to such expectations, by the derisive 
 laugh of the monopolists, who do accompany 
 
 their editors and orators when they say : 
 " You would be very free with other people's 
 money ! " 
 
 Think of it! Think of it! What three 
 millions of people could do one hundred years 
 ago ! Tossing their all into the cause of free- 
 dom. Pledging their fortunes and their lives, 
 unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly, for the free- 
 dom of the Colonies and the good of the hu- 
 man race. And here we are speaking for 
 forty-three millions of people on this conti- 
 nent; and it is almost hazardous to his repu- 
 tation for common sense for a man in a 
 mountain town in California to suggest the 
 bare possibility that we have a milliou of 
 adults in this generation of the great Re- 
 public, who would be willing to contribute 
 one hundred dollars each to deliver this land 
 from the chains of a grinding and debauch- 
 ing tyranny ! Think of it ! Think of it — 
 before you cast these suggestions into the 
 lire of your contempt. 
 
 Co-operation in business is not merely a 
 commercial but a patriotic need of the times. 
 That fraternizing interest which is denom- 
 inated by this comprehensive term must be a 
 cardinal feature in the progressive life of the 
 people of this Republic during the century 
 that is to come. Not that communities shall 
 or should be brought to the dead level of priv- 
 ilege or enjoyment; not that competition 
 shall not be allowed full and encouraged 
 opportunity and scope ; but that with respect 
 to the fundamental wants and requirements of 
 the people, the balance of privilege for all 
 shall be recovered and kept with a steady 
 and unfaltering hand. 
 
 These monopolies do more than directly op- 
 press and interfere wrongfully with business 
 enterprises of the citizens. They check the 
 advances of mankind in the application and 
 enjoyment of inventions. It is so in some 
 degree with respect to railroading ; it is pre- 
 eminently so with respect to telegraphs. To- 
 day there stand on record inventions which 
 multiply the working capacity of the tele- 
 graph more than a hundred fold. But they 
 do not come into practical and popular use 
 because the telegraph monopoly in this coun- 
 try will not have the prices for transmission 
 cheapened, nor their pretended reasons for 
 maintaining their exorbitant tariffs still 
 further impaired and exposed. More than 
 this: thousands and thousands of persons are 
 kept out of employment by the managers of 
 this legacy of discovery and invention. 
 Where a railroad and telegraph monopoly of 
 the country at this day employ one person, 
 proper competition and a proper application 
 of inventions and discoveries by way of im- 
 provement — with the proportionate reduction 
 of terms — would result in creating a demand 
 for twenty persons. With a postal telegraph 
 all the wonderful improvements which have 
 been made in the methods of transmitting mes- 
 sages by electricity during the past ten years 
 would be applied, andwithin the decade all the 
 written communications of the people would 
 be transmitted over the telegraph wires. None 
 qualified to speak with reference to this subject 
 could maintain a negative to this assertion be- 
 fore au intelligent audience. But the people 
 are kept in ignorance of these facts ; these in- 
 ventions are smothered ; Congress is bam- 
 boozled and bribed in order that the telegraph 
 monopoly may continue to flourish and extort. 
 How long is this to be in a free country, or in 
 a country worthy to be called free ? In this 
 nineteenth century of Christian civilization, 
 and this second century of the life of the 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 13 
 
 American Republic t — How long ? How 
 long are we to be under the dominion of 
 these monopolists ? The people and the 
 press of the country places of the land are 
 alone to be relied upon for a cheering answer. 
 The margin for individual enterprise and 
 splendid business competition should grow 
 wider with each important invention calcu- 
 lated to lessen the requirements for manual 
 drudgery, and to diversify the industries of 
 life. The grasping of selfish monopolies must 
 be met by the fraternizing of the people in 
 their several departments of labor ; or the 
 second auspicious hour for emancipation will 
 have passed forever from our reckoning ! It 
 is a part of true patriotism to meditate upon 
 these things. 
 
 The " pursuit of happiness " is declared 
 to be an inalienable right. To "insure do- 
 mestic tranquillity " is proclaimed a purpose 
 of the Union. Yet we know that there is an 
 apprehension among many good people (es- 
 pecially among those who claim entire ortho- 
 doxy for their creed and purpose) to the 
 eifect that one of our greatest dangers as a 
 people consists in our present or future exces- 
 sive characteristic happiness and content. In 
 this there must be a confusion of ideas ; a 
 substituting of the thought of luxury and 
 enervating ease, for a just conception of a 
 condition of plenty and peace. These good 
 people delight to review their early history, 
 and their children are glad to hear the story — 
 how they struggled, and toiled, and overcome, 
 amid many and great privations. They hold 
 those parental plans injudicious which favor 
 for their children the amelioration or avoid- 
 ance of hardships such as attended their own 
 boyhood struggle for a livelihood and com- 
 petence. And going beyond this, in the gen- 
 eral thought concerning'the land and the peo- 
 ple : — when they see so much wrong-doing in 
 our Republic, they prophesy an immediate 
 and literal war of redemption, or an ordeal 
 of terrible distress. Between these good peo- 
 ple's opinions, and the rose-colored view of 
 the optimist, the just picture and judgment 
 may be found in a balance. Discipline is a 
 thing for the generations that are soon to 
 come upon the active stage of life in this 
 Republic, but a tax of penury and want is 
 unnecessary. And for the battling that is 
 disciplinary in its character and redeeming 
 in its results, the fields are ready and to the 
 hand for every patriot. 
 
 Talk not to me of heroism or martyrdom 
 as confined alone to the bloody field of car- 
 nage. The courage, patience, and persist- 
 ence that compose the fine quality of heroism 
 are needed now in our country in the blessed 
 days of peace. Our sons and daughters are and 
 will be required, in the name and cause of pat- 
 riotism, to challenge foes and confront unnum- 
 bered enemies to the cause of political right 
 and liberty. Not in literal manual combat, nor 
 yet in any misty debates about the problems 
 of life which the phlegmatic philosophers put 
 forth with so much unction and exclusiveness. 
 
 The statement and the illustration of the 
 demand for all the strength and vigor of 
 patriotism can surely be placed in brief and 
 unmistakable paragraphs. 
 
 Your boy will find, as he enters upon the 
 arena of life, that if he would be honest and 
 earnest in devotion to the principles of liberty 
 in this country, he must be both brave and 
 resolute. The blandishments of the devil's 
 own princes are on every hand. And it may 
 be that martyrdom is for him ; for if it shall 
 be true that he stands confirmed as an honest 
 
 representative, he nmst not expect promo- 
 tion, except he live in vigor to see the day 
 when the rising strength of an intelligent 
 and honorable people shall overbear all the 
 cunning of the rings of monopoly. Back to 
 private life, or not one step beyond the first 
 promotion — such will be their orders, if he 
 will not do their law. And often it is to-day 
 the fact — and will be so to-morrow — that he 
 who contributes most to create and promote a 
 just public sentiment will reap no political 
 reward. He may be, he is likely to be, the 
 most unpopular man in the very communities 
 where he has instigated and inoculated a 
 spirit of righteous resistance, rebellion, and 
 reform. And in the first dawning days of 
 victory for the cause he has espoused, he 
 must expect to see time-servers and hypocrites 
 reap the harvest of his labor and fortitude. 
 
 The monopolies say to the young man who 
 makes his first appearance in the public 
 forum : " Be circumspect, young man, and do 
 not attack our ' vested rights.'" That much, 
 at least, will be whispered into his ear, at 
 the very outset of his mission as a public- 
 spirited citizen and patriot. 
 
 But if he should be recognized at once as 
 possessing unusual ability, the agents of the 
 monopolists will go further and say, " Come 
 into our private rooms, young man, and we 
 will point out to you the certain and only 
 road of preferment. We will convince you 
 forthwith that your prudent and proper 
 and profitable course lies in the direc- 
 tion that we aloue are competent to indi- 
 cate. To begin with— as a trifling token 
 of our regard for you and of our disposition to 
 be your friend in all things — you shall have 
 plenty of money for your comfort, your 
 pleasures, and your dissipations. We are rich 
 and powerful ; we say to this man Go, and 
 he goeth, and to another Come, and he Com- 
 eth ; we build up legislatures, we nominate 
 Governors, and Congressmen, and United 
 States Senators ; and no young man can be 
 sure of a lasting and honorable reputation 
 who has not our endorsement. And if any 
 man, under a misapprehension of the strength 
 of popular will, rebels against our dictates 
 when, with our consent, he shall have been 
 elected, we kick him out of office, and add a 
 thousand humiliations to the ordinary shame 
 of a remarkable and unexpected defeat. We 
 can show you, if you will come into our pri- 
 vate rooms, full enough to convince you of 
 our ability in respect to these matters. Come 
 in, and communicate with us." 
 
 I give almost a literal copy of the language 
 of appeal and admonition and promise in 
 such cases made and provided. 
 
 But the young man may say, if he shall 
 have been elected to any representative 
 position : " I am pledged to my constituents," 
 or "I am bound by my implied and understood 
 fealty to my party, to oppose strenuously 
 such measures as I understand you wish pro- 
 moted or sustained." 
 
 Then the reply will come— as its equiva- 
 lent is on the record in affidavits before the 
 Committees of Congress at this day : " Young 
 man, you don't know what what you are do- 
 ing, or what you are talking about. You 
 will probably never be heard of again in 
 public life as a public officer if you don't 
 agree to our terms and walk in paths of 
 pleasantness which we open out. That is: 
 never creditably known. Many young men 
 in the ardor of their youthful dispositions, 
 and in the natural pride of life, have pre- 
 sumed to oppose us, as you think you may 
 
14 
 
 THEN AND NOW. 
 
 do to-morrow ; but they have been driven 
 out of public life, or we have, at the very 
 least, kept them on the grade where they 
 stood when they commenced hostilities. 
 Not one step have they taken in advance ; 
 except they have repented and come in with 
 ns and accepted our vows and obtained our 
 good opinion, they have never advanced 
 one step further in public position or popular 
 reputation. Come in and look at our ledger 
 and our catalogue." 
 
 Perhaps the young man goes into their 
 parlors, in their splendid hotel, or in their 
 dwelling-houses over-looking the metropolis 
 from whose verandah the King of monopo- 
 lies can look down upon his city full of 
 victims. And they call the roll ; and they 
 recite circumstances ; and they tell in detail 
 the shameful history of thousands of the 
 "leading citizens " in the State of California, 
 and in the States adjacent thereto — Senators, 
 Representatives, Governors, etc. 
 
 And then they repeat their solicitations : 
 " Accept our liberal proposition and you are 
 rich to-day, and you still remain free for all 
 opinions and pursuits not antagonistic to 
 our ' vested rights.' Do it, young man, do 
 it, or we will open our metropolitan daily 
 and weekly papers upon you ! We have 
 scholars at San Francisco engaged in writ- 
 ing on the Evening Wiseacre and the Morn- 
 ing Owl who will pick out all the flaws in 
 vour extemporaneous rhetoric and the inad- 
 vertant errors in your statements, and artisti- 
 cally exhibit you as an ignoramus and a 
 frand — if you don't come in with us. Now 
 recollect, you are just beginning life, and 
 the future is before you. We can attribute a 
 thousand things to you which you never 
 thought of, much lees uttered, and so assert 
 and reassert that the majority of the people 
 who read our publications — for lack of any 
 other cheap publication in which to find the 
 news — will believe that you are the author 
 of the most ridiculous falsehoods as well as 
 the most ungrammatical periods. And in 
 addition, our blackguard dailies or our 
 Barbary Coast weeklies will not only adopt 
 this method of sending you to Coventry, 
 but will question whether your initials do not 
 belong to a regular attendant in the lowest 
 haunts of vice ; will lampoon you and your 
 family, until your relations, one and all, like 
 Job's wife, shall invite you to curse God 
 and die ! 
 
 "Young man, you had better come over and 
 come with us. We will do you good. Here 
 is a puree of gold to begin with. And we 
 will give you a homestead to-morrow. Why 
 need you work and drudge all your life long 
 to attain reputation and honor? We can 
 make you honorably renowned in a day. 
 Why should you voluntarily plunge into battle 
 for the 'dear people,' against our interests and 
 our vested rights ? Vv*e will make you per- 
 fectly comfortable to-day, and secure you 
 witha bond for to-morrow and for all the com- 
 ing days of your life. Come with us. Don't 
 make an accursed fool of yourself. Come 
 with us. You shall have your name heralded 
 in our daily Metropolitan and our weekly 
 San Francisco Presses, as "arising young 
 statesman " of the State. Your bills shall be 
 paid at the Palace Hotel whenever you come 
 to the city. You shall have all the money you 
 need for your comfort and luxury. You shall 
 have all the means you require for your can- 
 vasses in your locality. Your portrait shall 
 be shed abroad before the world in our mam- 
 moth Centennial sheet, and in our weekly 
 
 gallery of successful saints in San Francisco. 
 A great future is opening out before you, 
 young man. Come in and be of U6. Don't be 
 fidgetty about the rights or the reasonable de- 
 sires of the people. Who are the people ? 
 The people are numbskulls. Our metropolitan 
 press " plays " the people for all they are 
 worth at every election. Suppose a few 
 hard-fisted yeomen denounce you for an ap- 
 parent disregard of platforms and a violation 
 of private promises. If for your interests 
 and our own you run for oiBce again in that 
 locality or that district, we will smooth mat- 
 ters over at the election time. And, young 
 man, we have a hundred ways of "going 
 after" any tough customer in any particular 
 community who is obstreporous against us, 
 and particularly iusists upon legislative as- 
 saults on our " vested rights." Come in 
 with us." 
 
 And so the pleading goes on — in this strain 
 it proceeds day in and night out, until the 
 final determination is made. Is there not an 
 opportunity for patriotic heroism here? 
 Under such circumstances, do you need a 
 foreign war to develop the spirit of a soldier 
 in the breasts of the boys of the rising genera- 
 tion ? Do we not rather require a quiet 
 moral home-discipline in truth and integrity, 
 to develop the soundest faith in our institu- 
 tions and the most abiding love for the liber- 
 ties with which our fathers endowed us ? Do 
 we not need all the accomplishments that 
 earnest study can get for our children who 
 are to meet the domestic tyrants of this land — 
 if ever they are to be successfully encoun- 
 tered — and defeat their devices and over- 
 throw their policy ? 
 
 This Republic cannot be re-cemented by 
 the collision of armed soldiery, combatting 
 foreign enemies, and so wedding the people 
 anew in the comradeship of the camp. The 
 demoralization and the ruin of character that 
 inevitably follows any great war is suffici- 
 ently exhibited in the government as it stands. 
 The greatest champions of the race have been 
 born and nurtured in times of profoundest 
 peace. As the doors of the temple of the 
 heathen God of War were closed when the 
 Divine Hero came to fulfill His mission to man 
 in the land of Palestine, so has the blessing 
 of a quiet boyhood life been characteristically 
 the enjoyment of nearly all the human de- 
 fenders of the rights of the people. The 
 cultivation of honor and courage in the col- 
 leges of peace, is the discipline for the young 
 who are to be invited into the banquet-nail of 
 the kings of monopolies and their courtiers — 
 where the king and his dukes, earls, mar- 
 quises, baronets, and unnumbered flunkies, 
 gather for the orgies of the night ; — and who 
 are to retire unseduced by the dissipations, 
 and defiant of the threats and warnings given 
 in the parlors above. 
 
 We boast a land of content ; and there is 
 peace. We boast of wealth of productions ; 
 and they are beyond valuation. The corn and 
 the wine and the oil, and the iron and copper, 
 and the precious minerals — are they not all in 
 the invoice of the country ? Against your 
 own mountains that gird us round about, the 
 hydraulic ram with its three hundred feet 
 perpendicular pressure throws a river of 
 water, sending down immense streams, heavy 
 with golden sands, for generous deposit in the 
 long block-ribbed flumes — yet relatively 
 wearing no more of substance from the im- 
 mense deposits of equally valuable earth than 
 the play of a pocket syringe could fret from 
 one of the lower layers of the great pyramid 
 
THEN AND NOW. 
 
 15 
 
 of Egypt. And of the productions of the 
 necessaries and the ordinary comforts of life: 
 so vast is the burden in granary and factory 
 and warehouse, that true political economy 
 must to-day discover in the fact of superabund- 
 ance a preponderating cause of financial dis- 
 tress. 
 
 O, land of peace and plenty ! The need is 
 for the American youth to take advantage of 
 the time and educational privilege, that he 
 may be a warrior in the civil battles of the 
 new century. 
 
 The stimulant for discipline and comfort and 
 training is unequaled. For if our institutions 
 are to be preserved, rewards will come to 
 those who have the moral right. We must 
 soon agree as a people to take the best men 
 for the most responsible offices, without res- 
 pect to peculiar opinions in reference to sub- 
 ordinate political issues. We must soon learn 
 to make clear popular discriminations be- 
 tween the real soldiers for liberty and the 
 political frauds who, for themselves alone, or 
 for their secret monopoly masters, mount the 
 rising tide of public opinion and determ- 
 ination. 
 
 The stimulant and instruction in culture as 
 patriots has been with us too much neglected 
 in the years gone by. It is the study of the 
 lives of our Fathers of the Revolution — 
 their statesmanship and their practical policy 
 — that most needs the commendation of the 
 hour. What more fascinating study ! In how 
 many instances exceeding the charm of the 
 most bewitching novel that was ever written 
 from historic annals. Precept with example, 
 and the invitations and incentive of lineage, 
 are combined and concentrated here. 
 
 To-day we stand looking back upon the 
 past, an.d taking our vows anew, as with 
 nerves of steel : that this Republic, this 
 Government, " for the people by the people," 
 shall not fail from off' the earth. Yet hardly 
 have we arrived at the true conception — as I 
 trust and believe — of the intensity of that 
 devotion which intelligent and educated 
 citizens will hold towards this country when 
 they shall have risen from the perusal of the 
 pages of the worthy biographies of the 
 Founders of the Republic. Nor is there in 
 the classic writings of England a pattern 
 for diction, exceeding in its length and 
 breadth of excellence the periods of Jefferson, 
 the paragraphs of Adams, and the essays of 
 Hamilton. 
 
 True patriotism is always a lively and 
 aggressive sentiment. The Republic is full 
 of saintly men who are negatively good 
 citizens, but almost absolutely worthless for 
 the warfare that is at hand. We need no 
 foreign war ; but we do need a war-like 
 spirit in its fullest measure and aggressive 
 force, and its most exhilarating glow. It 
 shall come as an Inspiration from the pages 
 of these biographies ! 
 
 Nor can we be sufficiently thankful that the 
 year brings forth, for many reasons of profit to 
 writer and publisher, a long catalogue of new 
 editions, and a rapidly lengthening list of 
 fresh and perfect reviews of our Fathers' 
 patriotic deed and thought. And shamed be the 
 boy of fitting age and decent opportunity, who 
 shall not at the close of the year we open 
 to-day — if not before — be able to recite a 
 comprehensive record of the Revolution, and 
 the names and the principal facts in the biogra- 
 phies of all its influential heroes ; and the 
 general principles which each of them in- 
 culcated when the ultimate form of govern- 
 ment came to be considered and determined. 
 
 No work for the purely patriotic in our 
 day ? No occasion for superlative commenda- 
 tion of such a sentiment ? No practical appli- 
 cation of it in the business affairs of govern- 
 ment, in these piping hours of peace ? Look 
 abroad and look at home. The old mon- 
 archs of Europe hate us even more than they 
 did our Fathers in the days so long gone by. 
 The rich men who run the governments of 
 Europe by loans, and by hiding the sinews of 
 war, are in close social league with the rich 
 men of this country who compose the incor- 
 porators and managers of the gigantic mon- 
 opolies of our Republic. All these, and all 
 alike, prefer a " strong government," as they 
 call it ; by which, among themselves — as they 
 sit in private consultation — they agree that 
 they can soonest bring to bear those influ- 
 ences and accomplish those results which 
 make their miserly money-calling sure and 
 great. 
 
 Or you assert or suggest that no patriotism 
 is possible save in the walks of public life — 
 no manifestation or exemplification appro- 
 priate save in legislative action, and upon 
 the forum ? We want from the coming gen- 
 eration an American Charles Dickens, Wil- 
 liam Makepeace Thackeray, and Douglas Jer- 
 old, and George Cruikshank (who would 
 not sell his pencil to any party), who shall 
 spear these mushroom and shoddy aristocrats; 
 who shall pursue them as they ascend to their 
 throne-chambers in their hotels and clap- 
 board castles of luxury, seduction, and vice, 
 with a mercilessly crucifying art. We want 
 men of such genius, whose patriotic judg- 
 ment is clear, and who are not to be bought 
 with the monopolist's gold. Nor shall such 
 writers wait long for recognition ; for so 
 anxious in this direction has been the instinc- 
 tive hope of the American public, that many 
 clowns and thinly endowed humorists who 
 have really essayed something to this service, 
 have been welcomed with a tumult of ap- 
 plause as they shied their caps into the arena 
 of letters. 
 
 We need the drama that will "hold the 
 mirror up to nature." At this day in this 
 country we have nothing that fully an- 
 swers such description — if, indeed, we 
 have anything that makes a worthy ap- 
 proach to such composition as Shakspeare so 
 intended to commend. The foibles and silly 
 affectations of fashionable life — where female 
 offeuders against what is called good taste 
 are the objects of caricature and censure 
 — and in this the play is a species of cow- 
 ardice — are held up to moral reprobation 
 by some of our "society comedies." But 
 the vices and crimes of the unscrupulous 
 sons of avarice, which do most grievous- 
 ly afflict the country, are not touched 
 by our American stage authors ; or ouly re- 
 ferred to in the most delicate Harrold-Skim- 
 pole manner. The American comedies that 
 are to be recognized as worthy, healthy, and 
 reformatory sarcasms on the times — our times 
 — are yet to be written. They cannot, at the 
 first years of introduction, be played in the 
 theaters of the large cities — only in the coun- 
 try towns and villages. And from this must 
 come another advantage of instruction and 
 recreation. 
 
 We now pay exorbitant prices for eligible 
 seats in our metropolitan theaters ; where we 
 may listen to one or two good actors and 
 actresses, supported by ladies and gentlemen 
 whose reading is forced and unnatural at all 
 times, and often execrable in the extreme — 
 the worst possible elocutionary patterns for 
 
16 
 
 THEN AND NOW. 
 
 our children, so far as management of voice 
 and appropriateness of gesture is concerned. 
 I have heard some of the old English come- 
 dies performed far better in the Academy 
 Hall, in a village of the State, than I have 
 ever known the same or similar plays to be 
 presented in any one of the many be-puffed 
 city " Temples of the Drama " which I have 
 visited. There is a great lacking in popular 
 opportunity for this kind of most instructive 
 recreation. A most foolish lacking — for there 
 is an immense amount of uncultivated or 
 unutilized dramatic talent in the land ; 
 unexercised, if not actually repressed, on 
 account of the practical monopoly in this 
 kind of amusements in the city, and the 
 ignorance and prejudice touching the native 
 ability of our boys and girls for pleasing and 
 effective stage delineations. Every town in 
 the country should have a suitable edifice for 
 the drama, that would mirror the times. The 
 acting material is abundant ; and the bene- 
 ficial results of the systematic cultivation and 
 regular or frequent exhibition of the home 
 talent for the home theater can be expected 
 by every intelligent person who will reflect 
 upon the subject and the scheme. For elo- 
 cutionary clearness and precision of utterance, 
 and for truth of emphasis and tenderness of 
 genuine pathos, I have never heard any 
 professional reader surpass in excellence the 
 little lady who read your patriotic poems 
 from your platform to-day. 
 
 But the elements for romance in our history 
 will soon appear to be enhanced a thousand 
 fold, and so will more smoothly and naturally 
 and enchantingly come forth the satires of 
 the age. Passing the Centennial year, we 
 are fully within the barriers of time for the 
 complete exercise of the gifts and the spirit 
 of imagination towards the things of the 
 past. The appearance of contemporary events 
 gives place to the faintly shadowed outlines 
 of the distant mountain-tops and the softly 
 changing hues of the landscape that lies be- 
 tween. Children of fancy, pictures of love 
 and devotion, may now be drawn upon a back- 
 ground unsurpassed for the accessories of foli- 
 age and perspective of cloud. While we may 
 not boast of ancient ruins and cities, and de- 
 caying castles, with which to invite the modern 
 traveling philosophers of Great Britain and 
 the Continent, as centers for their observation, 
 and as studies and incentives for the romantic, 
 yet shall our own accomplished children find 
 the national history which is undisputed, and 
 the heroism which it embodies and suggests 
 and prophecies, more than compensation. 
 
 And all shall combine — O, let us believe it 
 will be so, as so we pray it may be — aud all 
 shall combine to nurture the patriotism of the 
 near future, which can tolerate no truth- 
 bearing challenge that reads before the 
 world : " You have the form of a Free 
 Republican Government ; but a few incor- 
 porated thieves have absolute dominion 
 throughout your land." 
 
 O, day of memory and hope ! Our con- 
 fidence and our enthusiasm rise with every 
 retrospect, and amid all shortcomings and 
 defects spring forth brighter and stronger 
 from every hour of solemn meditation. 
 
 The once restless ambition for territorial 
 expansion is no more. We have 6et our lines 
 on the South ; aud if the green and yellow 
 plats of Canada and British Columbia are 
 to be added to our survey, it will not be 
 because we seek an annexation. Our fields 
 are measured to-day, by universal consent. 
 Within the boundaries as they now stand, 
 the labor and the development of the nation 
 for a hundred years to come are to be ex- 
 perienced and enjoyed. 
 
 Of that which is due and desired, we have 
 but faintly sketched some of the larger mat- 
 ters. 
 
 For every one of us there comes a summons 
 unto a perfect citizenship. We shall not 
 attain unto it ; we must strive to approximate 
 it. Bound no more — no more, if ever in our 
 past lives — by the iron chains of party, we 
 take the issues that come for our decision 
 into the closets of honest hearts, and lay our 
 verdicts upon the altar of our country ; — un- 
 biased by personal favoritism, unqualified by 
 sinister considerations or enfeebling fear. So 
 may it be. Then shall true civilization ad- 
 vance ; then shall the arts of peace flourish 
 best of all in the land of Washington ; 
 and then shall the Creator here make mani- 
 fest the uttermost beneficent possibilities of 
 the human race. 
 
 " O, Country, marvel of the earth! 
 
 O, realm to sudden greatness grown! 
 
 The age that gloried in thy birth- 
 Shall it behold thee overthrown ? 
 
 Shall state corruptions ruin sow ? 
 
 Shall selfish schemers bring thee low '! 
 
 No, land of Hope and Blessing, no! 
 
 " And they who founded in this land 
 
 The power that rules from sea to sea ; 
 
 Bled they in vain, or vainly planned, 
 To leave this country great and free? 
 
 Their sleeping ashes from below 
 
 Send up the thrilling murmur, no! 
 
 " Our humming marts, our iron ways, 
 
 Our wind-tossed woods on mountain crest 
 
 The hoarse Atlantic with its bays, 
 
 The calm, broad ocean of the West, 
 
 And Mississippi's torrent flow, 
 
 And loud Niagara answer, no! 
 
 " Nor yet the hour is nigh when they 
 Who deep in Eld's dim twilight sit — 
 
 Earth's ancient kings — shall rise and say — 
 ' Proud country, welcome to the pit! 
 
 So soon art thou, like us, brought low! ' 
 
 No, sullen group of shadows, no! 
 
 " For now behold the arm that gave 
 The victory in our Fathers' day, 
 
 Strong as of old to guard and save — 
 
 That mighty arm that none can stay ; 
 
 In clouds above and fields below, 
 
 Writes in men's sight the answer, no! " 
 
LEOTTJEES, Etc., 
 
 BY 
 
 Charles A. Sumner. 
 
 FOR SALE BY ROMAN Si CO., SAN FRANCISCO. 
 Price. ------ 25 Cents. 
 
 The Overland Tnd A Narrative Lecture < with maps). 
 
 RniinH tho Horn A Christmas Story. Of the above, the Standard of the Cross 
 
 nUUIIU lllC rlUI II* (Cleveland, Ohio,) says: " These pamphlets are tide-marks 
 
 in the development of California. The one gives the story of the tedious voyage around the 
 Horn ; the other is a graphic sketch of the overland trip by rail. Mr. Sumner has a bright, 
 picturesque style, and puts a great deal of real life into his deccriptions. Any one who 
 wishes to refresh his own memories of this travel, or to see what this trip is when taken by 
 one who has his average share of animal spirits, will find these sketches both interesting 
 and enjoyable. Mr Sumner has done well to print his recollections, and we shall be glad to 
 see other writings from the same lively and vigorous pen." 
 
 fliin PanoHian Woinhhnre Being items from the recollection of a trip to 
 
 UUI OdlldUldll llCiyilUUI b. Canada. "It abounds in delightful description 
 
 of the old towns of the New Dominion, inpleasaut and sometimes in philosophic observa- 
 tions and quaint allusions, in sketches of character, in piquant contrasts, and is written in 
 a style so vigorous and elegant that we are inclined to regret that the author has not given 
 more attention to literat\ire. The first two or three pages remind us of Charles Lamb ; 
 dwelling, as they do, upon certain old books which are dear to every reader, and in a style 
 of English suggesting the simplicity, yet vigor, of the age when fine writing was not ae 
 fashionable as it is nowadays." — Browne's Phonographic Monthly, N. )'. City. 
 
 A Trill tfl PlflphP Nevada ;— being a sketch of recent frontier travel. 
 
 Brief Notes of Fraternal visits.— IOOFAddre88 
 
 flrlfl Fp|ln\A/chin Rhymes descriptive of the origin, objects, methods, and dedi- 
 
 UUU rCllUVVOlll|J. " cation ceremonies of the Order. Published at the request of 
 the Grand Lodge of California. 
 
 Tniirhpc anH Hintc A Rhymed Discourse on the Times. " Delightful humor 
 
 I UUOIICO OMU nilllO. and keen sarcasm in elegant verse. * * * The pre- 
 
 fatory verses, descriptive of the site of the University at Berkeley, and the view there- 
 from, as it is at this time, are at once exact in fidelity to natural scenes, and charming and 
 elevating in suggestive power. — Oakland News 
 
 flonroriatinn A Play in fouracts. Place, San Francisco, Cal. : Time, 1863 and 
 
 UC\J\ CLIcUIUII. 18r ,4. " We see, by the copjTight notice, that the author is Charles 
 
 A. Sumner, now State Senator from Storey county. * * * It is an admirably written 
 comedy, showing up the mushrooms of San Francisco with an artist's hand. The ' Love 
 Passages' in it are excellent. It would prove a hit, we think, on the New York city stage. 
 As a memorandum of ' things ' as they are in social life in San Francisco, to-day, a historian 
 of society may take notes." — Humboldt Register. 
 
 SUMNER'S LECTURES ON 
 
 SHORT-HAND **» REPORTING 
 
 For Sale at Roman & Oo.'s, San Francisco, and by Andrew J. Graham, 
 563 Broadway, New Ycrk City. Price, 25 cents. 
 
 " Short Hand and Reporting " is a valuable historical record, containing much in- 
 formation entirely new to me. YVM. INGRAHAM KIP, Bishop of California. 
 
 I venture to express the hope that you may awaken a proper interest in the subject on 
 the part of those who control our educational institutions. If you do, you will deserve to 
 rank as a public benefactor. Your historical matter is admirably presented, and your prac- 
 tical suggestions are of the highest value. A. A. SARGENT, U. S. S. 
 
 Mr. Sumner's unusual ability as a lecturer, his great power of seizing upon note- 
 worthy facts and drawing novel conclusions— his power of illuminating a subject— are well 
 known to readers of his two lectures on the subjects well worn for phonographers— '• Short- 
 hand and Reporting," and " Popular Use and Benefits of Phonography."— Editorial Notice 
 in " The Students' Journal," N. Y. City. 
 
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