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that Henry Maine declared, "There can bono delusion greater
than democracy is," the democracy of America stands and
elevates and enrichens the lives of mors than sixty million
irecmen. The constitution of the United States which so fat
marks the flood tide of human freedom, Mr. Gladstone has
pronounced to be the most wonderful work ever struck off in a
given time by the brain of man. That instrument was not
struck ofl in a given time. It is the recorded instrument of a
race that has struggled for centuries to determine what shall
be the powers for governing and a race of the government.
Hack of that instrument struck off in a given time ly stem
men is the trial by jury; back of the constitution is the peti
tion; back of the constitution is habeas corpus act, and back
of all these is the persistent and progressive spirit ol the En
glish people. It has remained for the people of America to
inspire with their spirit the idea of democracy and to give it
permanency and dignity by inducting its principles in law and
shaping its sentiments into governments. It has remained for
the people of America to declare that man endowed with the
God-given powers of thought and feeling shall be more than
a block of stone shall be a being erect and free, charged
with the obligations of patriotism and the duties of citizen
ship. The work of America stops not with one country. So
long as the kingly crown rests on the head of royalty so long
ns men live under the delusion that the rights of admhistra
tion are the favors of kings, so long will her mission remain
unfulfilled. And if it be true of France that she is the savior
of nations, how much more truly can it be said of our own
country, "She is the teacher of nations." Not by war not
bv blood, but by the force of a high example by her un
equaled prosperity by the ever increasing patriotism of her
people and the ever widening influence shall America teach
ihc nations of the world the worth and truth of the true dem
ocracy. My friends, to-night do the nations of the earth hear the
voice of this triumphant democracy? Ask Dom Pedro and
the old emperor points to a republic yet giving utterance to
a trembling dynasty. The heathen king of Egypt and Persia's
despotic shah alike arc yielding to the invincible word of the
masses. Belgium and Holland arc raising their heads, and
even the down tioddcn populace of Russia has heard the cry.
The English queen ruling only in affairs of pomp and cere
mony, hears the deep tones of old Independence bell, vibrat
ing in every land. From all humanity has gone up the same
anthem and it will be sung till every soul beneath the stars is
free. In the golden dawn of a coming day democracy will be
king. God save that king!
the Puritan and cavalier.
S. W. NAYI or, Washburn College, Topcka, Kan.
The Puritan and the Cavalier colliding formed modern
England; uniting established our republic. The Cavalier
sprang from chivalry, the flower of feudalism, a chivalry fos
tered by caste and maintained by princes. He defended the
king against usurpation of power by party or sect; he upheld
the royal prerogative. The Puritan was born of freedom of
thought and action. His awakened conscience revolted
against the power of caste in chuich and state; he combined
religious independence with civil liberty. Law incarnate in
loyalty was the embodiment of cavalicrism; law and liberty
the basis of puritanism.
While the Cavilier was rcinstaiug the monarchy overthrown
by Cromwell, the Puritan was founding our republic. Subse
quently, however, the Cavalier imprinted his vigor and states
manship upon our constitution and declaration of rights. His
lofty principles of liberty vere accompanied by irrepressible
buoyancc and knightly gallantry. "He knew how to live
gracefully, fight stoutly and die honorably." With austere
lace and uncharitable mien, the Purt'.an of New England
stands upon the canvas of history a sombre, ungraceful figure,
void of the delicate colorings of gentleness and forms of polite
ness. His character was an example of simple, rugged, but
genuine manhood. His doctrine read, "Faith in God, faith
in man, faith in works" a creed ample for this jifc and that
which is to come. '''hrcatencd by a common enemy, the chiv
alrous Cavalier of Virginia stood side by side with the stal
wart Puritan of New England; Washington, Jcfleison, Lee
and Patrick Henry; Hancock, Green, Putnam and Adams.
Such were the charactcrsn-fincdby the Roman, the French
and the Norman; tempered by the Angle, the Saxon and the
Briton that established our republic.
Pointing to the revolutionary soldier, the world exclaimed,
"An Amencanl" Uut no, the American was not yet. The
Puritan and the Cavalier by the issue of the revolution were not
amalgamated. Adhering to hereditary traits and inclinations
they effected distinctive developments. The Cavalier founded
his civilization upon caste. With him property was for the
few, education for the few, labor for the negro. Slavery
dulled the conscience, impoverished the masses, and made a
feud.'.! despot of every planter. The' Puritan, attracted to a
climate congenial to his sterling energies, founded his civili
zation upon the cottage home. Follow him through the stur
dy commonwealths permeated by his spirit of progress; sec
the foundries, factories, churches, colleges and common
schools the monuments of material development and intel
lectual freedom. The South, Virginia branded with the mark
of retrogression; the North, Massachusetts stamped with the
elements of progress. Caste, sovereignty and bonded labor
Croduccd Ilaync and Calhoun; the excessive animus of slavery
rought forth QuantrclPs band, the Yonkcr brothers, and
John Wilkes Booth. Free labor and free thought developed
Garrison, Phillips and will you deny it? John Brown, who,
his great soul bursting with sympathy for the bondmen, dared
a nation, and fell traitor or patriot a martyr to his convic
tions. Politically the Puritan and the Cavalier were intensely
partisan, opposed the one to the other. It was well; opposi
tion and antagonism underlie progress; we recognize greatness
by comparison. Superiority is worthy of pride in the degree
that rivals arc mutually worthy of respect. It matters very
little which party dominates, but which achieves the greatest
good. The inherent tendencies of the North and South pro
duced from the beginning different interpretations of the con
stitution. Individuality developed; interest widened; thought
diverged; opinion ripened into argument, which culminated
into that matchless debate of 1830. With all the elegance of
rhetoric and an ardor worthy of a more righteous cause, Rob
ert Ilaync then set forth the precepts of southern chivalry,
state rights and caste sovereignty the mutterings of the
great rebellion. The reply comes like a thunderbolt. Daniel
Webster, with loftier genius, more convincing logic and a
holier cause, addresses a senate while a nation listens. The
occason grows upon him. His great arm rises and falls with
the deep cadence of his voice. His ponderous sentences well
up from the full fountain of federal unity. He strips from in
iquity the splendid garb of chivalry and shatters the fallacies
of state rights. Then clank the shackles of four million slaves;
then Freedom's shout rings round the world; then the solemn
vow of the great North goes thundering up to heaven. "This
union shall be preserved."
Partisanship had now become sectionalism; under the for
mer a republic is capable of the highest devclopemcnt; under
the latter there remains but a step of disunion. In the light
ol history the question is not "Why should there have been
war?" but "How was war so long averted?" The North and
the South, fortified alike by logic and eloquence, would make
no concessions, accept no compromise. War was 0 1 only ar
biter. It confirmed the principles of the Puritan, revolution
ized the civilization of the Cavalier, and vindicated once for
all our free institutions. And, more, it broke down partition
walls; it facilitated communication between the North and the
South; it unified commercial interests. It smoothed the way
for northern industry and individuality to permeate the South
and for the genial temperament and warm hearted hospitality
of the South to enter northern society. It softened preju
dices; it quickened the pulse of civilization; it enlightened.
It was good. The civil war was the consecration of our re
public. For it cut the nerves of sectionalism and bound the
North and South together with cords of peace. It made pos
sible the ultimate fusion of the Puritan and Cavalier ten
dencies. These the full rounded American character must
embody. For a national character must be the resultant of
those energies within the nation which are dominant and rep
resentative. The American character has not et come to the
citizen masses, but the type has appeared. It is found in him
-Cavalier by birth, a Puritan by education at whose sudden
taking off strong men wept like children and the national
pulse stood. Yes, "From the union of the Puritan and Cava
lier, slow perfecting through a century, from the .straightening
of their purposes and crossing of their blood came one who
stands as the first typical American, who first comprehended
within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty
and grace of this icpublic Abraham Lincoln. He was great
er than Puritan, greater than Cavalier. For in his ardent
nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his
H'niwMim'iw
