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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNIiED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
■I- ]{ 6er]tury of I]atioi]al Life. -I* 
 
 :A THANKSGIVING SERMON 
 
 •) BY (- 
 
 HENRY MELVILLE KING, D. D. 
 
A Century of National Life. 
 
 A THANKSGIVING SERMON 
 
 HENRY MELVILLE KING. D. D. 
 
 DELIVERED AT A 
 
 Union Service of Baptist Churches, 
 
 HELD IN THE 
 
 - TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH, 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y., 
 
 nsrOATEJS/LBES^ 29tl3., ISSS. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 "^Cotwkuv^^^ 
 
 ALBANY, N. T. : 
 
 RIGOS PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1888. 
 

<J- 
 
 'fji 
 
 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 
 
 Psalm 100:3-5. "Know ye th;it the Lord He is God; it is He that hath 
 made us, and not we ourselves; we ate his people and the sheep of his 
 pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into liis courts with 
 praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; 
 his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." 
 
 Whether we look at ourselves this mornnig as members 
 of separate families or churches, or as citizens of this great 
 American Republic, this recognition of our dependence 
 upon God, this ascription of i^raise to Him for his unceas- 
 ing goodness, and tliis summons to grateful worship are 
 equally appropriate. 
 
 The year 1776 is called the birth year of this nation, 
 because in that year the remarkable document which de- 
 clared "that these united colonies are, and of right ought 
 to be, free and independent States," was adopted and pro- 
 claimed to the Avorld. But the "confederation" at first 
 entered into, had about it little of the authority, dignity or 
 unity necessary to command the respect of otiier nations, 
 or even to self-jireservation. Congress was not authorized 
 to compel obedience to any law, to raise money by tax- 
 ation, or to fix the rates of duties on imported goods. 
 Being afraid tliat the central government would be tyranni- 
 cal, the States had conferred upon it little power to govern 
 
at all. The weakness and insecurity of such a Union 
 became more and more apparent to thoughtful minds. 
 Washington said: " We are one nation to-day, and thirteen 
 to-morrow; who will treat with us on these terms i:" 
 
 Ten years after the Declaration of Independence, in Sep- 
 tember, 1786, a convention called to frame a constitution 
 met at Annapolis. Only live States were represented, and 
 no action was taken. The next year a second convention 
 was called for the same purx)ose in Philadelphia, and 
 remained in session from May until Sei^tember. Eleven 
 States (all except New Hampshire and Rhode Island) were 
 represented. Washington, a delegate from Virginia, was 
 the i)resident of the convention. Radical differences in 
 sentiment were disclosed. "The adherents, respectively, 
 of the idea of a strong central government and of State 
 supremacy, were apparently irreconcilably antagonistic."^ 
 The delegates from New York were Robert Yates, John 
 Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Hamilton— the last, one of the 
 most remarkable men of his day, who wielded a controll- 
 ing influence in the convention. Yates and Lansing were 
 earnest for the doctrine of State supremacj'^, and Hamilton 
 as earnestly advocated a strong Federal Government. The 
 first two, finding the sentiment of the convention against 
 them, withdrew. The vieAvs of Hamilton prevailed, and 
 after a session of four months a Constitution was framed — 
 the one under which (with some amendments) the Republic 
 has ever since been governed — which unified the thirteen 
 loosely-jointed States into a comj^act nationality, and may 
 be said to have consummated the birth of the American 
 Republic. It is of this document, then framed, that the 
 most eminent living statesman of England, and of the 
 world, has said : "The American Constitution is, as far as 
 
I can see, the most wonderfulwork ever struck cff at a 
 given time, by the brain and purpose of man." 
 
 And Sir Henry Maine, a distinguished writer on Political 
 Economy — who cannot be charged with a prejudice in favor 
 of Democracy, but rather the reverse— speaking of onr 
 Constitution, makes the following favorable comment: 
 "The powers and disabilities attached to the United States 
 and to the several States by the Federal Constitution, and 
 placed under the protection of the deliberately contrived 
 securities we have described, have determined the whole 
 course of American history. That history began, as all its 
 records abundantly show, in a condition of society pro- 
 duced by war and revolution, which might have condemned 
 tlie great northern Republic to a fate not unlike that of her 
 disorderly sisters in South America. But the provisions of 
 the Constitntion have acted on her like those dams and 
 dykes which strike the eye of the traveller along the 
 Rhine, controlling the course of a mighty river which be- 
 gins amid mountain torrents, and turning it into one of 
 the most equable waterways in the world." 
 
 The work of the convention having been so admirably 
 accomplished, only one thing more was necessary, viz., the 
 ratification of the Constitution by the requisite number of 
 States. The New York convention, called for this i)ur- 
 pose, met at Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1788, the body of dele- 
 gates being nearly equally divided in their sentiments as to 
 the merits of the proposed Constitutiop. While they were 
 in session, the news came that New Hampshire had ratified 
 the Constitution, which made the requisite number of 
 States, and settled the question. At length, on the 28th of 
 July, after a remarkable sfjeech of three hours by Alexan- 
 der Hamilton, New York gave its vote in the affirmative — 
 
tlie vote standing thirty to twenty-seven, a majoritj' of 
 three. This action was in season to enable New York to 
 Ijarticipate in the first Presidential election, one hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 We stand to-daj^, then, at what may be called the cen- 
 tennial of tlje Republic, for not until 1788, when the 
 Constitution became the supreme and unifying law of the 
 States, did the nation trul}' emerge into being, and enter 
 upon its career as a distinct and unique nationality, hav- 
 ing in view not only the development- of the material 
 resources of this vast continent, but the illustration on 
 this western shore of those x:)rinciples of popular govern- 
 ment and human freedom, toward which all nations and 
 all history' and all j^rogress, impelled b}^ the enlightening 
 influences of the Christian religion, had been slowdy but 
 surely tending. 
 
 We may w^ell pause on this centennial Thanksgiving, 
 and take a vieAV as comprehensive as we can of the marvel- 
 lous increase and the present magnitude of the nation 
 which God has given to us for an inheritance, and whose 
 destiny He has, to some extent, put in tiie hands of this 
 generation. The youngest born has alreadj^ become great 
 among the nations of the earth, and bids fair to outstrip 
 them all. The original thirteen States have become thirty- 
 eight, with several Territories knocking for admission into 
 the equal sisterhood. Our poiDuhition, by natural increase 
 and immigration, has nearly doubled each twenty years 
 during the last sixty years, and the three millions of a 
 hundred years ago have rounded up into sixty millions 
 to-day. 
 
 If w^e look at the physical basis of empire, what do we 
 find? A territory measuring more than 3,600,000 square 
 
miles; or, if we subtract Alaska, about 3,()0(),000 square 
 miles.* This area is, according to Ritter, nearly equal to 
 tlie entire continent of Europe witli its dozen kingdoms, 
 great and small. It ivould make eighteen States as large 
 as Spain, thirty-one as large as Italy, and sixty as large as 
 England and Wales. Should you take live of the six first- 
 class powers of Europe, viz.: England, France, German}', 
 Austria and Italy, and add Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, 
 Denmark and Greece, you could lay three such emj)ires 
 west of the Hudson river without their overlapping each 
 other. New York was once called the Empire State; and 
 although, on account of its five millions of population it 
 still seems to be the pivot on which the national election 
 turns, it cannot long remain such, and in point of area it 
 has long since lost its proud distinction, and dropped into 
 the minority. There are twenty-eight States and Territories 
 that exceed New York in size. California contains more 
 than three times as many square miles, and Texas nearly 
 six times as many. Mr. Gladstone has said that the United 
 States furnish " the natural base for the greatest continuous 
 Empire ever established by man." Its territory spans the 
 continent, and has an ocean front on either side of thou- 
 sands of miles which put it into commercial relations with 
 all the nations of the earth. And this territory, though so 
 vast, is bound together by bands of iron, and its remotest 
 edges are made contiguous by steam and electricity. 
 California is not so distant from Maine to-day as was New 
 York a hundred years ago. Within twenty-four hours 
 after a national election has taken place, the result is accu- 
 
 * In addition to the Census Reports of the United States, I would acknowl- 
 edge my indebtedness to Mr. Carnegie's ' ' Triumphant Democracy," and Dr. 
 Josiah Slrong's "Our Country," whose statistics and comparisons I have 
 freely used. 
 
rately known from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific slope. 
 The lake S3'stem on the north gives us virtually another 
 ocean frontage, and the mighty river courles, uni^aralleled 
 in any continent, are the providential arteries along which 
 the throbbing, increasing life of the nation maj- flow with- 
 out interruption. Counting no stream whose length is less 
 than a hundred miles, our country has forty thousand 
 miles of river flow to seventeen thousand in Europe. A 
 river steamer may make a continuous voj'^age from the 
 Gulf of Mexico into the heart of the country 3,900 miles, 
 "as far as from New York to Constantinople." 
 
 There can be no question but that the seat of empire, in 
 this vast country, is to be in the West, which, a few years 
 ago, was an untravelled wilderness, but is novv rapidly 
 oiDening to our astonished vision. Of twenty-two States and 
 Territories west of the Mississippi, only three are as small 
 as the whole of New England. Montana would stretch 
 from Boston to Cleveland westward, and southward as far 
 as Richmond ; Idaho from Toronto to Raleigh ; California 
 from Massachusetts to the southern boundary of South 
 Carolina, and Texas has a maximum measurement as great 
 as the distance from New Orleans to Chicago, or from 
 Chicago to Boston, or from Norway to the Mediterranean 
 sea. Texas exceeds, by 62,000 square miles, the whole 
 German empire, by 70,000 France, and by nearly 100,000 
 Sjoain. 
 
 All along the course of history populations have moved 
 westward ; to use the words of De Tocqville, "as if driven 
 by the mighty hand of God." This has been from nation 
 to nation, and from land to land. Within the limits of 
 this new world, equal to many lands in extent — and already 
 the receptacle and arena of all nations — a new illustration 
 
of tills historic fact is being furnished. Tlie great West, 
 with its ahiiost unlimited opportunities and its marvellous 
 resources and productiveness, is desdned to be occupied by 
 a busy and aggressive people, both native and foreign-born, 
 and in wealth, as well as population, to dominate the nation. 
 The silence of ages is disturbed on every hand by the axe 
 of the pioneer; the |)lo\v is turning the virgin soil into 
 furrows, along which the golden harvest is marching like 
 an army of conquest ; the villages of yesterday are munici- 
 palities to-day, and the solitudes of our great West are 
 throbbing with the life of the increasing millions. 
 
 The single State of Illinois, it is said, could sustain a 
 XK)pulation of 20,000,000. The present population of the 
 whole country could live and be comfortably supported 
 within the limits of Texas, and the x>opi^lation not be as 
 dense as in GermanJ^ Indeed, Texas, such are its extent 
 and its fertility, could have produced all our food crops 
 last year, and the world's supply of cotton (12,000,000 
 bales), and had: a cattle ranch left larger than the State 
 of New York. In 1879, this country fed its population 
 of 50,000,000, and exported nearly 300,000,000 bushels of 
 grain, and yet we are told that the crops could have been 
 doubled on the same soil. China has an area less than half 
 that of the United States, and supports a population of 
 400,000,000. 
 
 Our country, it is estimated, is capable from its agricul- 
 ture of feeding a population of a thousand millions, and 
 from its mining and manufactures of enriching them all. 
 
 Our mineral products are of uriequaled richness and 
 variety. We already produce one-half the gold and silver 
 of the world's supply. In a single decade (from 1870 lo 
 1880) tlie yield amounted to $732,000,000. 
 
Our manufactures easily lead the world in amount. In 
 1880, they exceeded those of Great Britain by $650,()0(),000, 
 and have been increasing with a rapidity Cwice as great as 
 hers. In their charactei- and merit, the progress is still 
 more marked. Tiie imitativt-ness and inventive genius of 
 our countrymen areattracting the attention of other nations. 
 Our government issues, annuall}', four times as man^' pat- 
 ents as the English government — 20,297 in a single year, 
 1884. 
 
 Our sewing machines, our sleeping cais, and our pianos 
 and organs, are finding a ready market in the old world. 
 The past century has been one of nn])aralleled progress 
 among all nations, in the arts, in the sciences, in all things 
 that conduce to man's comfort and growth, that widen the 
 bounds of his knowledge, and make him moie lelined in 
 peace and more terrible in war. 
 
 It is but little more thnn a century since street lamps 
 were introduced in London, since the steam engine was 
 patented by Watt, and since Aikwright began the manu- 
 facture of cotton cloth by spindles and looms moved by 
 water-power. It is less than a century since Galvani dis- 
 covered the science that has given us the wonder-working- 
 telegraph. Within the memoiy of men still vigorous, the 
 first steam vessel crossed the Atlantic, and it is hardly 
 sixty years since Stevenson's " licK'ket " started into being 
 the smoking, screaming locomotives, which are winding 
 their serpentine way across all continents, and streaking all 
 skies with their black, but evanescent clouds. 
 
 In all this progress our nation has had its share, and with 
 it all it has kept pace. Between tlie oceans which wash 
 our shores stretch half the railroad tracks in the world. 
 Our expositions at home and our contributions to those 
 
 10 
 
abroad have excited the amazement and admiration of 
 other nations, and have given ns rank witli all for enter- 
 prise and skill, for the ingenuity and variety of our 
 inventions, for the excellence and abundance of our useful 
 manufactures, and for our respectable attainments even in 
 the fine arts. An observing Frenchman visiting this 
 country twelve years ago wrote to the Reime des Deux 
 Mondes ixs ioWow^: "America can feed Europe with corn, 
 wheat, preserved meats and live stock as it has supplied it 
 with cotton; it has clothed Europe, and it can nourish 
 Europe."" "America will learn more and more how to get 
 along withfut Europe, but Europe will not be able to get 
 along without her. It is tYwly a new England which is 
 rising across the seas, and which already threatens the old 
 England in all her markets. The commercial interests of 
 France are also threatened." " But wliat is still graver, is 
 the fact that the Americans are getting hold of the pro- 
 cesses, the sleight-of-hand of our workmen. Already in 
 the manufacturing of jewelry, watches, bronzes, furniture 
 and artificial flowers they produce an article wdiich bears 
 the real stamp of solidity and good taste." " Switzerland 
 is already in a state of agitation over the success of Ameri- 
 can watches. In carriage making, cabinet work, glass work 
 and pottery the United States is almost the peer of France 
 and the other great nations. In o.ther things the}'- have 
 got ahead of us; and all this in spite of the high price of 
 labor. It may be said that we are their instructors and 
 masters, as Italy was ours at the Renaissance, and they are 
 destined to surpass ns some day as we did the Italians. 
 Venice, Milan and Florence tanght us formerly how to melt 
 glass, to weave silk and velvet, and soon we got ahead of 
 them. Will the same thing happen to us in respect to the 
 United States T' , — ~ — ■ 
 
These words of frank confession were written twelve 
 years ago. America lias not been sleeping since then. We 
 send our steel to Sheffield, our cotton fabric^ to Manchester, 
 our watches in increasing number to Geneva, our agricul- 
 tural implements to Austialia, and our petroleum to India 
 and China. At the late International Electrical Exposition 
 in Paris, five gold medals were issued, all of which came to 
 this country. Mr. Herbert Spencer says : "Beyond ques- 
 tion, in respect to mechanical appliances, the Americans 
 are ahead of all nations." 
 
 From this brief material survey, what do we learn? 
 
 I. That we have in this country the natural basis for the 
 greatest empire in the world. There is no prospect of the 
 consolidation or the expansion of the Empires of the old 
 world. On the other hand, after the failure of the most 
 gigantic attempt at disunion, an attempt which was born 
 of the system of human bondage — a national peiil, which, 
 thank God, has been forever removed — there is no ])r()spect 
 of the dismemberment of this Empire. Tlie civil war, 
 instead of splitting the nation asunder, knocked out and 
 destroyed the wedge. The union of States, one and indi- 
 visable, was cemented as never before by frateinal blood. 
 The nation came forth from the smoke and carnage of the 
 rebellion, with a new and indestructible consciousness of 
 unity. But one people can occupj^ this vast domain which 
 we call our country, a people acknowledging one central 
 government, bound together by a common love of freedom 
 and of free institutions, jiartakers of a common increase 
 and prosi^erity, and sharers of a common glorJ^ 
 
 ]I. Secondly, we learn that our population is increasing 
 with greater rapidity than that of any other nation. No 
 small per cent of this increase is due to immigration. It 
 
was not until 1840 tliat the tide began to set in strongly. 
 The facilities for reaching our shores had been previously 
 too meagre and too expensive. More immigrants are re- 
 €eived now in any single year, than in the whole decade 
 previous to 1840. From that year to 1880, a little more 
 than nine millions had changed their homes from the old 
 world to the new, fiftj^-five per cent of whom were British, 
 and thirty-three per cent of them of German extraction. 
 The stream continues Avith an increasing, rather than a 
 diminished volume. Some years, more than three-quarters 
 of a million of arrivals are registered. Tlie attractions of a 
 free and j^rosperous land are making themselves felt more 
 and more among the oppressed and restricted millions of 
 the old Avorld, while the expellent forces of other nations 
 continue to exist and operate with little abatement of power. 
 All the social and political agitations of Europe mean in- 
 creased emigration to America. Already there are more 
 English speaking people in this land than exist in all the 
 world besides ; and it is said that " Germans only want one 
 thing — money enough to come to America." This sug- 
 gests one of the most serious problems which confront us, 
 whether this vast incoming foreign population, of different 
 languages and customs and religions, can be assimilated, 
 Americanized, moulded into a homogeneous people under 
 the influence of our free institutions. If the influx was less 
 rapid, there might be no fear of the capacity of the nation 
 to digest and absorb into itself this foreign' element. It is 
 the quantity that excites the uncertainty. If our popula- 
 tion increases at the same rate as of late, it will number in 
 eleven short years, at the close of this century, 100,000,000, 
 of whom 20,000,000 will be foreign born. And yet this may 
 be only the beginning; the 20,000,000 only the flrst iiistal- 
 
nient, tlie avani couriers of vast populations yet to come 
 to us. The nation is yet in its infancy. Yet, somehow, 
 such is our faith in its infant powers, or r^her, perhaps, I 
 should say, such is oui" confidence in the providence and 
 purpose of Almighty God, that we go on singing : 
 
 " I hear the liead of pioneers of nations yet to be, 
 The first low wash of waves where soon shall roll a human sea; 
 The rudiments of empire here are plastic yet and warm, 
 The chaos of a mighty world is rounding into form." 
 
 III. Thirdly, we learn from the merely physical survey 
 of our country that this nation has already come to be the 
 most i)rosperous and joroductive nation in the world. In 
 1880 our agricultural products amounted to the fabulous 
 Slim of $2,626,000,000, and our manufactures to the still 
 more fabulous sum of 14,440,000,000. The total wealth of 
 this countiy in I860 was estimated at 18,430,000,000, while 
 that of Great Britain amounted to $:^2,500,000,000. In 
 thirty years this nation had outstrij^ijed the mother country 
 in point of wealth, her wealth being swollen to nearly 
 $"60,000,0()0,()00, while that of the United Kingdom had 
 advanced to less than $44,000,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie, an Americanized Englishman, saj's in 
 language which seems wildly enthusiastic: "The Yankee 
 Republican could buy eveiy acre of Great Britain and hold 
 it as a pretty little Isle of Wight to his great continent; 
 and after doing this, he could turn round andpaj" off the 
 entire national debt of that deej^ly indebted land, and yet 
 not exhaurst his fortune, the pioduct of a single century. 
 What will he not be able to do ere his second century 
 closes ? Already the nations which have played great parts 
 in the' world's history grow small in compaiison. In a 
 hundred years they will be as dwarfs, in two hundred 
 
mere pigmies to this giant; lie the Gulliver of nations, 
 they but Liliputians who may try to bind him with their 
 spider threads in vain." 
 
 This country is already the cotton producer of the 
 world. If it is not already, it is destined soon to be, with 
 its 1, 500,000 square miles of arable land— the granary of 
 the world. And if our mining interests continue to 
 develop, of which there seems no reason for doubt, we 
 shall be the treasurj^ of the world. Moreover, it should 
 be noted that the vast wealth of this nation is not confined 
 to comparatively few hands as in other countries. There 
 are no proprietors of vast landed estates which have de- 
 scended from father to son, and few millionaires among us. 
 The cry of the alarmists that the rich are becoming richer 
 and the poor are becoming poorer is utterly without founda- 
 tion. There is no nation on the face of the earth in which 
 there are so many land-owners and. property-holders in 
 proportion to the population as here. 
 
 As the opi3ortunities of fortune are more favorable and 
 numerous in this country than anywhere else, so the wealth 
 of the nation is more equally distributed. Statisrics prove 
 that nowhere are the people so well clothed, so well housed, 
 and so well fed as in free America. In Enrope the number 
 of bushels of grain annually consumed per head is 17.66; 
 in America, 40.66. In Europe the number of pounds of 
 meat annually consumed per head is 57.50; in America, 
 120.00. The best fed nations of Europe, viz.: France in 
 the matter of grain and England in the matter of meat, 
 fall below our own country. The opportunities of industry 
 here, and the rewards of industry, the wages of labor, 
 exceed those offered in any other land. 
 
 I do not mean to say that there are not suffering and 
 
liardsliip and poverty among our j't'ople, tliongli in too 
 manj^ instances they are tlie resnlt of improvidence and dis- 
 sixmtion ; bnt I do mean to say, that nowtere on earth is 
 comfort so widely diffused, the necessaries of life so readily 
 obtainable by honest effort, and even wealth so easily acces- 
 sible, as under "the stars and stripes." If there were 
 needed any other argument to prove this, and to prove the 
 general prosperity of our citizens, the fact that the annual 
 savings of our people far exceed those of any other people, 
 and amounted in a single year to §1,050,000,000, would be 
 sufficient. " 
 
 I have dwelt thus far only ujion the material develop- 
 ment and prosperity of our countiy during the century 
 that has passed since the adoption of the Constitution. I 
 need not say that such piosperity, great as it seems, is of 
 an inferior quality ; that the true greatness of a nation is 
 not estimated by its bulk or the number of its peoj^le, and 
 the highest develupment is not that which can be reckoned 
 in dollars and cents. If this was all the nation had to 
 show for a century of existence, the record wouJd hardly be 
 worth the writing or the repeating. But it will be seen 
 that there is a higher development and a nobler lu'ogress, 
 which not only have contributed in no small degree to this 
 material growth and enlargement, but which constitute our 
 truest national wealth and glory. 
 
 Let us see what has been done in the line of general edu- 
 cation, and philanthropy, and religion ; what i^rogress has 
 been ^made in the diffusion of intelligence and culture 
 among this growing peoi:)le ; to what noble uses its rapidly 
 accumulating material resources have been consecrated. 
 For, as Mr. Lowell said at the Harvard Anniversary, 
 "Material success is good, but only as the necessary pre-. 
 
iiminniy of better things. The measure of a nation's true 
 success is the anioinit it has contributed to the thought, the 
 moral energy, the intellechial liappiness, the spiritual hope 
 and consolation of mankind." 
 
 It is well understood that the wise founders of this 
 Republic saw clearl}^ that j)opular government must rest 
 upon the intelligence of the people, and so they made im- 
 mediate provision by general taxation for popular educa- 
 tion. The school-house was built into the foundations of 
 the Republic, as a vital part of its existence and essential 
 to its stability. The far-seeing fathers felt as another ha& 
 said, that, "upon no foundation, but that of popular edu- 
 cation, can man erect the structure of an enduring civiliza- 
 tion. This is the basis of all stability, and underlies all 
 progress. Without it the State architect builds in vain. '^ 
 And so they took the matter of education, from the firsts 
 into their own hands. They did not leave it to the option 
 of the people, and much less did they leave it to the con- 
 trol of the church. Poj^ular government demanded popu- 
 lar education. That to them had all the force of an axiom. 
 The hand that wielded the mighty X)Ower of the ballot 
 must be controlled by intelligence. The right of private 
 judgment must be accompanied by the enlightenment of 
 the judgment that possesses the right. Almost before the 
 Pilgrim fathers had completed their log cabins for the shel- 
 ter of themselves, they had built the school-house, and 
 appointed the school-master for the education of their 
 children. We are told that only six years after the settle- 
 ment of Boston, four hundred pounds were approi3riated for 
 the founding of Harvard College, which was, of course, at 
 first, little more than a common school. "This sum was 
 greater than the entire tax levy of the colony for the 
 year." ^y— 
 
A different policy was inaugurated bj^ the aristocratic 
 first settlers of Virginia. Twenty years later (in 1656) Sir 
 William Berkelej^, the Governor, wrote: i' I thank God 
 there are no free schools or printing, and I hope we shall 
 not have tliem these hundred years. For learning has 
 brought heresy and disobedience and sects into the world, 
 and printing has divulged them and libels against the best 
 government, God keep us from both." 
 
 Just so far as these different policies have prevailed, 
 they have produced different types of civilization. The 
 one is aristocratic, and is hostile to the very idea of pop- 
 ular government. The other is democratic and lies at the 
 foundation of all successful popular government. The 
 free schools of America are not only its glor}^, but they are 
 its safety, and the money expended for their support is the 
 wisest investment which a free government can make. 
 The number of schools of various grades in the,country is 
 estimated at 179,884, and the army of teachers at 273,000. 
 The annual expenditure for school purj^oses in all the 
 States amounts to more than $90,000,000. New York 
 alone expends $11,000,000 annually upon the education of 
 its children. Great Britain spends only $33,000,000 for 
 education, and at the same time spends $144,000,000 for the 
 support of its army. The nations of Europe spend seven- 
 fold more for the maintenance of their standing armies 
 than for that of their school systems. The idea of the 
 necessity of popular education has grown with the growth 
 of the nation, and the new States of the West are expend- 
 ing more for education jjer capita than the older States. 
 This imi)ortant matter is left to individual States and 
 ^Communities. The general Government has assumed no 
 control and taken no action beyond the gift of sections of 
 
 18 
 
public lands, which amount to 78,000,000 acres. In the 
 judgment of wise statesmen, it ought, however, in the 
 interests of self-preservation, to take action looking to the 
 more general diffusion of intelligence in States where cul- 
 pable indifference or financial inability prevails. There is 
 still an alarming amount of illiteracy in the country, 
 esi:)ecially among the colored people, and the poor whites 
 of the South, and the foreign-born population. But this 
 is being slowly reduced. It is a remarkable fact that of 
 the native-born population of the North only five per cent 
 are classed as illiterate, and that is owing, undoubtedly^ 
 in a majority of instances, to congenital imbecility. The 
 higher schools of learning, academies, colleges, profes- 
 sional schools and universities which carry education 
 beyond the line which State patronage can legitimately 
 reach, are founded and supported by personal or denomi- 
 national generosity. That such schools exist in every 
 State, and their advantages are offered to all of both sexes 
 at a merely nominal jirice, speaks loudly for the estimate 
 svhich is put in this country upon mental culture and pro- 
 fessional training. Into these schools have gone uncounted 
 millions of private wealth, and from them have flowed, as 
 from perennial fountains, untold strength and blessing to 
 the life of the nation. Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Van- 
 derbilt Universities, Packer Institute, Vassar, Wellesley, 
 Smith and Bryn Mawr Colleges, and the University of <"he 
 State of California, which represent a foundation of from 
 one to thirteen millions of dollars, and which bear for the 
 most part the names of their generous founders, are the 
 magniflcent frnits of this free soil and this later civilization. 
 They are without a parallel in all the centuries that have 
 preceded us. 
 
 19 
 
I might speak of the 175,000 libraries of tlie countr}' into 
 which more than 50,000,000 books iiave been collected, 
 which are exerting an incalculable inflnencei|niK)n the intel- 
 lectual and moral life of this i^eople, and of the nearly 
 12,000 newspapers and magazines which issue from the 
 American press, and which have a circulation of 82,000,000 
 copies, and which in spite of the immoral tendency of a 
 few, constitute one of the mightiest educational forces of 
 the centur3\ The growth of the librar}^ and the news- 
 paper in this country is simply phenomenal. Theie are 
 few homes which have not their little shelf of books, and 
 fewer still which are not reached by the ubiquitous news- 
 paper. Ill seeking to supply the demand of an increas- 
 ingly intelligent people, they have increased the intelligence 
 which has called them into being. 
 
 But I must hasten to allude to the progress of religion 
 among us. Has the faith of the people kept pace with its 
 accumulating wealth and its intellectual life? Has the race 
 for wealth separated our people from God, and have the 
 I'eligion of Christ and the church of Christ been outgrown 
 or forgotten amid all this mental activity incident to the 
 remarkable progress of the century in science and art, and 
 all useful knowledge? It is sometimes asserted that this 
 is so, and that the church of Clirist is to be left behind by 
 the advancing thought and life and civilization which are 
 bearing us onward. It would not be surpiising if amid 
 the pressing demands of the material, the spiritual should 
 have been overlooked ; if, in the conquest and development 
 of a new world, the old taith should have received a tem- 
 porary set-back ; if, in the influx of the religionists and 
 anti-religionists of other nations, Protestant Christianity 
 should have failed to hold its (nvn, I am glad that I can 
 
 20 
 
speak with absolute certainty on this point, that while the 
 activity and growth of Protestant Christianity among us 
 during the century have not been all that could be desired, 
 yet there is abundant occasion for devout thanksgiving to 
 God; for it is a fact, proven by carefully gathered statis- 
 tics, that the number of Protestant church meml)ers in this 
 country has increased nearly three-times as fast as the 
 population ; that while, at the beginning of the century, 
 the average of communicants to the population was as one 
 to fifteen, in 1880 it was as one to five, and that while one 
 hundred years ago there was one ordained minister to everj^ 
 2,400 people, there is now one to every 700, if they could 
 only be settled and equall}^ distributed and fastened down. 
 There are now 92,000 houses of worship of all denomina- 
 tions, which are capable of accommodating about one-half 
 of our population, and are estimated to be worth in the 
 aggregate upwards of 8350,000,000. This vast sum has 
 been raised, not by State endowment or patronage, nor by 
 forced assessment, but by the voluntary contributions of 
 the people, so that there are few villages of anj^ size to-day, 
 in our countr\\ that have not some place of worship ; 
 though, in the rapid settlement of the West, we cannot tell 
 how man}' destitute villages tliere may be next week. In 
 a word, then, the professing Christians connected with 
 Protestant churches in the United States number over 
 12,000,0o0 to-day, showing that Christianity has a wider 
 and a stronger hold upon the heart .of America than ever 
 before, and that the kingdom of God is making progress 
 among us more rapidly than the kingdom of worldliness 
 and of material power. It is safe to say that three-fifths 
 of our entire population are under the direct influence of 
 the Christian church — Protestant or Catholic — of whom 
 
 21 
 
four-fifths are Protestants. It should be added that our 
 own lionored denomination is second to none in the pro- 
 gress whicli it has made, and in the enlargeiuent wliich God 
 has given it. One hundred 5^ears ago, which was the birth 
 year of Dr. Judson, our pioneer missionary, we reckoned 
 70,000 communicants ; to-day, so remarkable has been the 
 favor of Clod, and so abundant have been our successes^ 
 that we number not less than 3,000,000 church members. 
 
 In this estimate of the century, there would be a sad 
 omission if there was not some allusion to the growth of 
 the benevolent s[)irit, which is a vital part of our growing 
 Christianity. As the wealth of the nation has been in- 
 creased, the occasions for its charitable and holj^ uses have 
 been greatly multiplied, and to some exte]it recognized. 
 No one will pretend to sny that all has been done in this 
 direction that ought to have been done, or that the spirit 
 of generous and intelligent consecration has now become 
 as prevalent and dominant, as it ought to be, in the hearts 
 of the people, even in the hearts of Christian i)eople. But; 
 we may well thank God that the appeals, which have been 
 more in number than the days of the. century, have been 
 so heartily responded to. It would be utterly impossible 
 to make any estiuiate of the aggregate benevolence. God 
 alone has ke[)t the recoi'd. We only know that the poor 
 have been relieved with an ever open hand; that charitable 
 institutions of every name have been opened; that free 
 hospitals and asylums for every class of unfoitunates have 
 been everywhere established; that cities destroyed by lire 
 and by earthquake have been generously rebuilt; that 
 plenty and comfort have been nuide to follow close upon 
 the heels of famine and pestilence, in addition to the vast 
 amount of money that has been contributed for the erec- 
 
 2i 
 
tion of churches, and the endowment of academies and 
 €olleges and seminaries of learning, so that oui' whole 
 history is luminous Avith the records, and our whole land is 
 filled with the imperishable monuments of that noble, sjaii- 
 pathetic, unworldly, unseliish spirit that is born of our 
 holy religion. And moreover, side by side with this beau- 
 tiful and ever increasing benevolence at home, lias been 
 rising steadily and spreading constantly that most unselfish 
 and (shall I not say it) most Christian of all charities, 
 which, in tlie ages to come, will distinguish the nineteenth 
 century more than all other forms of i)rogress combined. 
 I mean the interest in the work of the world's conquest fur 
 Christ. For it was not until this centurj^, whose achieve- 
 ments we are commemorating, was well u[)on its course, 
 that that old apostolic spirit, long since dead, and then but 
 recently born again in the mother country, crossed the sea 
 like a heavenly emigrant, touched and fired the heart of 
 Christian America, and sj^read from denomination to de- 
 nomination. This new spirit, which seems like the revival 
 of primitive piety in the churches, whose first articulate 
 utterance was, this world, with all its vast resources and 
 its increasing population, belongs to Christ, and must be 
 won to Christ — now finds expression in an annual oft'ering 
 of $5,500,000, a sum, indeed, averaging hardly fifty cents 
 for each professing disciple of Christ, but which He has 
 graciously accepted and marvellously blessed, and which 
 will be more and more increased as -the Christians of this 
 nation come to recognize the divine purpose in the discovery 
 and development of this country as related to the redemp- 
 tion and progress of the human race. 
 
 Now, for all this wonderful growtli and prosperity, this 
 success which has attended our enterprise and skilled 
 
 23 " 
 
indiistiy. thi.s UM[);ii'alleled i)rogiess in all that constitutes 
 national greatness, I think there is generally in the hearts 
 of this people a sense of gratitude to l^lmighty God. 
 Altliougli the age is much given to materialism, to the 
 gloriiication of self, to the deification of human skill and 
 intellect and prowess, there is a prevailing disposition to 
 recognize a superhuman Power and Providence in our 
 State and national blessings, in all evidences of prosperity 
 and progress, in the terrible discipline and the glorious 
 victories through which we have passed, in the general 
 and, I may say, unanticipated success which has attended 
 the experiment of popular government on this continent, 
 during the first century of its existence. Not unto you, 
 oh, honored and immortal men, who laid the foundations 
 of this great Republic; not unto you, oh, illustrious 
 names, who drafted its matchless Constitution; not unto 
 you, oh, eminent statesmen, who have been its expounders 
 and defenders; not unto you, brave soldiers of a hundred 
 bloody fields, wdio sacrificed so much to preserve this 
 Union and free it from the curse and menace that was 
 resting upon it; not unto you, industrions millions, ye 
 toilers wifh brain and hand, who have developed the 
 resources and monlded the life of this gi-eat people; not 
 unto any of us, or all of us, American citizens, living or 
 dead; but first and above all to Him, onr fathers' God and 
 our God, be praise, who has given wisdom, and courage, 
 and strength, and skill, and care, and favoring providence, 
 and success, and greatness. "Know ye that the Lord, He 
 is God; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; 
 we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." 
 
 But, brethren, with our congratulations and rejoicings, 
 let us not be blindly satisfied with the past and the present. 
 
or ignore the inalienable responsibilities of citizenship. In 
 this centennial year, and on this Thanksgiving Day, we 
 stand face to face with national perils, which will not down 
 at onr bidding. There are some who hear in the various 
 iigitations of the hour the mutterings of a coming temj^est. 
 There are some who fear that the experiment of a hundred 
 years may be approaching its end, who doubt whether the 
 ship of State, of which it may still be said, that 
 
 "Humanitj% with all its fears, 
 With all tlie hopes of future years, 
 Is hanging breatliless on thy fate," 
 
 <;an survive the shock of the might}" waves that seem im- 
 pending, who tremble lest this fair Republic may soon be 
 dismembered and go to pieces in a stormy sea. Personally 
 I have no serious apprehensions. The lessons of the past 
 are not lost, but are full of encouragement as to the strength 
 of these old timbers and their power of endurance, when 
 riveted and bolted together by the unyielding pui'pose of 
 the Almighty. The agitations of the present seem small 
 in comparison with the deadly strife out of which the 
 nation has safely come ; but thej^ are too serious to be 
 ignored, and may be fiaught with much evil, if they do not 
 menace the existence of the Republic. All good citizens, 
 of whatever party, are called upon to be true to the funda- 
 mental princif)les of our government, to be watchful 
 against the encroachments of evil in whatever quarter, and 
 to stand firmly for the rights of maH and the authority of 
 law, both human and divine. 
 
 Local government should not be permitted to fall into 
 the hands of notoriously wicked men, who defy law and 
 moral sentiment, shelter criminals if they are of their 
 party, and openly prostitute their sacred trusts to selfish 
 
 25 
 
and criminal ends. Every open violation of law should 
 lead to speedy arrest ; every arrest shonld be followed by 
 impartial trial; and every trial, if resulting in conviction, 
 should be followed by penalty. Men should be elected as 
 executors of the laws, who will not be the shelterers of 
 law-breakers. We need less " pigeon hole" and more peni- 
 tentiary, otherwise social and political life will become 
 more corrupt, and the criminal will go to his crime with 
 unblushing face, and no fear of the consequences. When 
 party leaders are unscrupulous, and wicked men are put in 
 office, the end of good government is defeated. There 
 are good men enough in every city to secure good local 
 government, and save the laws from being a laughing- 
 stock, and the offices from being a part of the party 
 machine, if they would only awake from their indifference, 
 and break away from party slavery, and unite to bring it; 
 about. 
 
 Methods should be provided to secure, in all the land, in 
 city as well as village, North and South, an honest ballot, 
 free from fraud or bribery or intimidation. On the purity 
 of the ballot-box depends, to some extent, the stability of 
 our free institutions. An electoral bill should be framed, 
 so fair in. its provisions and so certain to secure to every 
 rightful voter the privilege of suffrage uninfluenced, that 
 every respectable legislator Avould be ashamed not to vote 
 for it, and no Governor would dare to veto it. Every man 
 who refuses to'vote for a specified period, should be de- 
 prived by law of a freeman's highest prerogative, and be 
 branded as a nuin without a country ; and every man who 
 sells his vote, and any man who buys it, should be not only 
 imprisoned, but disfranchised forever. The registration 
 lists should be keiot i^ure of the names of dead men, and of 
 
men worse than dead. Every voter should register his 
 name under oath before eacli election, and every I'alse reg- 
 istration should be punished as perjury. The crime of bet- 
 ting on elections for sums large or small, which has rapidly 
 increased in this country, should be fearlessly punished 
 and stopped. An}' intimidation should be put down at the 
 point of the })ayonet, and every citizen protected in his 
 right by the whole power of the government. The condi- 
 tions of suffrage should be uniform and rigidly enforced, 
 viz.: intelligence, freedom from crime, inherited citizenship 
 or citizenship acquired by years of residence as long for 
 the un-American as for the American. The holiest place 
 in the land, next to the sanctuary and the home, should be 
 the polling-place, where the will of a sovereign people seeks 
 to express itself in harmony Avitli the will of God. 
 
 The power of the saloon must be crippled and destroyed, 
 and tlie untold injury which it works must be circum- 
 scribed more and more until it is reduced to the minimum. 
 The saloon has too long had a controlling voice in our 
 politics and dictated our legislation. It brings forth 
 nothing but waste, misery, pauperism, insanity and crime, 
 a wretched brood. It is the foe of the home, of social 
 order and purity, of the church of Christ, of national 
 prosperity, and of civilization. As another has said: 
 "Civilization must destroj^ the liquor traffic, or be de- 
 stroyed by it." It is a sad thing when the result of any 
 election is virtually the coronation of pim. Is it not time 
 that all good citizens should band themselves together 
 against this enemy of our common humanity, and fight it 
 through to the glorious end? 
 
 Supervisory, not to say restrictive, laws with reference 
 to immigration need to be speedily enacted and enforced. 
 
It has been said: "When tlie founders of the American 
 Repnblic stretched ont tlieir liands with a hospitable 
 welcome to all the oppressed of earth, it was in a large 
 measure because Rousseau had taught them to believe in 
 the inherent goodness of man. They took it for granted 
 that the oppressed, no matter who thej' were and whence 
 they came, were deserving characters, who needed only 
 the liberty which the new Republic offered them, to grow 
 to the full stature of civic, moral and intellectual man- 
 liood." We have long since, in sorrow^ learned tlieir 
 mistake. 
 
 \Ve acknowledge that many c)f our best, noblest, most 
 substantial, most patriotic citizens have been adoj^ted, 
 Have sought on these new^ shores a freedom and an oppor- 
 runity which they have intelligently prized. But immi- 
 gration, as it lias increased in quantitj^ has deteriorated in 
 quality, until we are receiving paupers and criminals, the 
 scum and sewage of all lands, in some instances sent to us 
 })y organized assistance and authority. Our privileges and 
 our institutions are too sacred and valuable to be entrusted 
 to such hands. The task of reforming, and assimilating, 
 and converting into manhood such material, is too severe a 
 strain upon oui- nation s life. A consular insi^ection needs 
 to be inaugurated which shall diminisli the amount of im- 
 migration and improve its character; otlierwise theproi^hecy 
 of Herbert Spencer, that through the intermingling of 
 different nationalities, "the Americans may reasonably 
 look forward to a time when thej^ will have x^roduced a 
 civilization grander than any the world has known," will 
 have little prospect of fullilnient. 
 
 Again, our common schools must be sacredly guarded, 
 and the public funds be forever withheld from sectarian 
 
 28 
 
uses. Around this citadel is to be fought the next great 
 battle in this nation. God grant that it may be a bloodless 
 one ! Already our public school system, the palladium of 
 onr liberties, is officially condemned by the highest au- 
 thority in the Church of Rome. Education is to be trans- 
 ferred away from the control of the State to the control of 
 a foreign x>i"it'sthood, and then the public funds, contrary to 
 all precedent and sacred principle and constitutional law, are 
 to be demanded for the support of these priestly and sectarian 
 schools. Said a Catholic Bishop in St. Patrick's Cathedral, 
 in St. Louis, on November 13th : " We have a right to that 
 money of the State. It belongs to us, and we should have 
 it." He added : " We educate probably 600,000 at an ex- 
 pense of at least $9,000,000, which ought to come from the 
 State to us." It is ours to replj^ kindly but firmly : " Not 
 so ; you utterly misunderstand the nature and limitations 
 of Free Government. No taxes can be levied and no public 
 funds used for the support of religion, either yours or any 
 other man's. To do so would be to violate the fundamental 
 law of our Constitution, and to annul the compact under 
 which the nation lives." Few Catholic parents have any 
 desire for the change, preferring for their children the bet- 
 ter education which is freely provided by the State. They 
 can be whipjied into it only by the lash of ecclesiastical 
 authority. We must stand bj^ those who bravelj" protest, 
 and stand by the principle which involves everything that 
 is dear to us in this land of civil and religious liberty. 
 Says a Avriter in the North American Medieio, ''The sun- 
 dering of our free school system, the dividing of the public 
 funds, the recognition of sects in the administration of the 
 Government, would be the death-blow of the Republic, 
 would mark the failure of the American experiment." 
 
 29 
 
I hardly need saj% in conclusion, that we need to illus- 
 trate in ourselves, and cultivate in others, a nobler and 
 broader manhood, which shall l)e equal to, the demands of 
 a larger nation and a new century. The true greatness of 
 a nation consists in the greatness of the manhood which 
 it develops, and the progress of a nation should be marked 
 by the progressive tj-pe of character which it pi(>duces. 
 The American of to-day stands on a higher plane than the 
 American of a century ago, both of advantage and of influ- 
 ence. He ought to be a nobler, a more fully developed 
 man. Virtue that exists in a worthy ancestry, and is not 
 transmitted and developed, is a national possession of doubt- 
 ful value. Self-government politically ought to lead to 
 self-government personally, and a people that are sover- 
 eigns ought to learn more and more to exercise their sov- 
 ereignty over themselves. The development of a century 
 of national life, ought to be seen in the development of the 
 life of the people. A wealthier and a stronger countr}'' 
 should have a richer and a stronger life. An advancing 
 civilization must carr}^ humanitj'^ with it, the only material 
 on wdiich civilization can work. Knowledge grows from 
 more to more : does life, character, manhood grow from 
 more to more i Our fathers contended with great problems 
 and solved them ; they grappled with grave perils and 
 throttled them. There were giants in those days. Are 
 there greater giants in these days % What has the century 
 done for American manhood? How many layers has it 
 put around its heart of oak ? How many feet has it added 
 to its altitude? Does the new century find the wisdom, 
 the strength, the manhood that it needs ? Is it not pos- 
 sible that this age is a more compromising and self- 
 indulgent age than the age in which the fathers lived; 
 
 30 
 
that there is less iron in its blood, less nuiscle in its prin- 
 ciple, less clearness in its moral vision, less erectness and 
 manliness in its attitude and pose; that it may have been 
 enervated and weakened by the Inxury which the century 
 has brought to it? Is it not possib'e tliat our great need 
 to-day is a higher type of American manhood, a sterner 
 self-control, a mightier resistance of the corrupt passions 
 and blinding ambitions of human nature, which have such 
 sweep and sway, a higher regard for law, truth, x^i'inciple, 
 and personal obligation, a nobler si)irit of self-denial for 
 the public good, and a deeper reverence for all things holy 
 and divine ? Heereu, the Greek historian, says that 
 " Greece fell when things sacred ceased to be sacred.'^ 
 Religion, with its self-restraints and its holy incentives, is 
 the basis of morality, and character, and true manood. 
 
 I am aware that instruction in this department belongs 
 not to the State, but to the church. To our churches, 
 then, made fully alive to the responsibility which rests 
 upon them, the nation looks, expecting them to give 
 stability and nobility to the new civilization, to arouse the 
 American of to-day to nobler heroisms, and to transmute 
 the moral lessons of the past and the gratitude of the 
 present into a truer, x^urer and larger life. "God accounts 
 those mercies forgotten," it is said, " Avhich are not written 
 with legible characters in our lives." Not in joyful hymn, 
 nor in eloquent oration, nor in written history, nor in 
 monuments of stone with inscriptions of brass, does a 
 nation's gratitude lind fittest expression, but in the love of 
 truth, in the doing of righteousness and charity, in a 
 better faith in God and service for humanity. In Old 
 Testament history, when God had given to Joshua a signal 
 victory over the city and inhabitants of Ai, an altar was 
 
 31 
 
-erected in commemoration of the great event. Then God 
 commanded to be inscribed upon this altar, not an account 
 of the victory, which we should have judged appropriate, 
 but a copy of the law of Moses, "whereby He plainly 
 showed that the best way of remembering the mercy was 
 not to forget the law." As God's law, which is man's 
 righteous rule of life, and God's name, which is the ex- 
 pression of his holy character and love, are widely rever- 
 enced and increasingly loved among the American jDeople, 
 we may believe that the blessings of the past century will 
 be continued and multiplied unto us and unto our 
 children. 
 
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