178 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
MIGRATIONS AND THEIR LESSONS.
SERMON PREACHED IN THE OPERA HOUSE,
SUNDAY, BY WASHINGTON
GLADDEN, OF COLUMBUS.
By faith, Abraham, when he was called,
obeyed to go out unto a place
which he was to receive for an
inheritance; and he went out, not knowing
whither he went.-Heb. ix, 8.
This is the first notice in ancient
records of that great
movement westward which occupies so many
chapters of the
history of the human race. From that unknown
country named
Ur of the Chaldees, Terah, the father of
Abraham, had already
journeyed westward, bringing his
household to Haran; here
they tarried for a little, and here it
was that Abraham heard the
divine call and went forth to the land
of Canaan. A mighty
river, the Euphrates, rolled between him
and his destination;
two days' journey brought him to its
banks. Nothing daunted,
he made his way across, perhaps at that
point where the great
river is still forded; and when he had
gained the other shore he
had won his cognomen of
"Hebrew"-the man who had
crossed. Weary days of desert journeying
were yet before him,
but the divine voice was still calling
him, and he pushed steadily
forward, halting for a little in the
bright valley of Damascus,
but resting not till his tent was
pitched at Bethel, and he looked
abroad from the hill tops upon the
fertile plains and smiling val-
leys of the land that was to be his
inheritance, and where that
great nation which should spring from
his loins was to have its
seat.
Abraham's migration was undertaken for a
different reason
and with a higher purpose than that of
many of his contempor-
aries and successors; nevertheless he
was moved with the cur-
rent. Where that Semitic race to which
he belonged had its
origin may not be clearly known. We find
it first in the lower
valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
whence, moving north-
westward and southwestward, it populated
Babylonia, Syria,
Phoenicia and the rest of Canaan. Even
the ancient Egyptians
were not an autochthonic race. Their
features, their languages
link them with Asia rather than with
Africa. They, too, were a
Migrations and Their Lessons. 179
people who had come in the early dawn of
prehistoric times
from the East.
Those successive migrations of our own
Aryan tribes from
their nest in Asia westward over Europe
I need only stop to
mention. From the remotest antiquity we
see these people
moving in vast masses toward the setting
sun, one column fol-
lowing another at intervals of time
which no monuments or
memorials seem to mark; the Hellenic and
the Latin groups
flooding the Mediterranean peninsulas,
and pausing before the
mighty barrier of the Alps; the Kelts,
the Teutons, the Slavs,
moving northwestward in their order,
expelling the Aborigines,
and, in time, subjugating one another.
It would seem that the
configuration of the northern temperate
zone of the Eastern
Continent was favorable to such
movements; for the vast cen-
tral plains of Eastern Asia are
prolonged westward through
Russia, Northern Germany and Holland;
and a man can walk,
says one authority, from the Pacific to
the Atlantic Ocean, across
Asia and Europe, without encountering
any elevation of more
than a few hundred feet, or any stream
which it is difficult to
ford. But when these Aryan peoples had
poured their floods
for uncounted centuries over Europe,
which was their Promised
Land; when they had overspread its
plains and possessed them-
selves of its substance, they found
themselves standing on the
shores of a trackless ocean, whose
billows, breaking at their feet
in endless mockery, flung back to the
rushing tide of humanity
their challenge: " Thus far shalt thou
come and no farther, and
here shall thy proud waves be
stayed."
For many centuries this watery barrier
restrained them.
From the Cantabrian mountain tops, from
the low-lying shores
of Brittany, from the rocky coast of
Cornwall, or the green hills
of Ireland, they looked away to the
westward wondering and
longing. What lands might lie beneath
that misty horizon?
Was it true, indeed, that
"Sweet fields beyond this swelling
flood
[Stood] drest in living green?"
Who should dare to sail forth unto that
No Man's Land and
ravish its secret from the unchartered
ocean? It was well that
180 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
they waited. Art had time to germinate
and fructify, civilization
had room to expand and ripen; in all
these European lands,
races were in training for the task of
subduing another continent.
In the fullness of time, the word that
Abraham heard was
spoken again, and the brave Genoese
sailor turned the prows of
his little ships toward the setting sun,
and sailed away, not
knowing whither he went, but greatly
hoping to find beyond the
sea a land which he should receive for
an inheritance. How
steadily, during the four centuries that
have elapsed since Colum-
bus landed on our western coast, the
tide of migration has
flowed hitherward, I need not spend any
time in showing. There
may be, at this time, one hundred of
millions of people upon
this Western Continent, in North and
South America; of these,
probably not more than ten millions are
natives of the soil; ninety
millions are the dsscendants of men who
came across the sea.
Of these ninety millions, eight or nine
millions are the offspring
of those who came, much against their
will, in the holds of
slave ships, victims of the cruelty and
cupidity of the stronger
race; and there are a few hundred
thousand Semites, the
descendants of Abraham whose Promised
Land, far away in the
heart of the other continent, was the
first stage of this secular
progress; but the great mass of these
inhabitants of the New
World belong to that Aryan race, whose
teeming millions have
been hurrying westward ever since the
dawn of time. From
the mountain slopes and broad plateaus
of Central Asia-from
the cradle of the human race-these
eager, adventurous throngs
have come. Past the snowy heights of the
Himalayas, over the
ridge of the Ural Mountains, across the
steppes of Tartary, and
along the shores of the Caspian and the
Black Seas, they have
thronged into Germany and France and
Spain and England and
Scandinavia; here, dividing into tribes,
each with a tongue of
its own (though all these tongues are
kindred), here tilling fields,
sinking mines, building cities, and
hence, on the wings of the
wind and the vapor, flying over the sea
to this Western Conti-
nent, to rear on this fresh soil, as we
hope and trust, a nobler
fabric of social order than any they
have left behind.
And here, too, the power that brought
them still compels
them. The Pilgrims were scarcely landed
on the New England
Migrations and Their Lessons. 181
coast when they began to push their way
out westward into the
interior. Within twenty years after the
Mayflower anchored in
Plymouth harbor, there were several
prosperous settlements on
the Connecticut river, a hundred miles
inland, though the
savages resisted the advance at every
step, and every town was
stockaded for defense against the
midnight foe. And ever since
that day the tide of emigration has been
flowing steadily west-
ward-westward-over the Appalachian
range, down the valley
of the Ohio, along the borders of the
Great Lakes, across the
teeming prairies, over the Rockies and
the Sierras to the western
shore. That mighty movement of the
people westward, west-
ward, which began long before Abraham
took up his journey
from Haran toward Canaan, has been going
on ever since; all
the greatest nations of the earth have
taken part in it; in the
path of this movement have arisen all
the splendid monuments
of civilization; our own highways are
trembling yet with the
tread of its triumphant host.
Is not this phenomenon worth looking at,
soberly, for a little
while this afternoon ? May we not safely
infer that a process of
this nature, stretching through untold
centuries, covering two
continents, spanning one stormy ocean,
enlisting more or less
directly all the great nations of modern
history, is a process with
which Providence has something to do?
One need not be a very
strong Calvinist to believe that such vast
on - goings as these are
provided for in the plans of an
omniscient Ruler.
What are the causes of this great
movement of the peoples?
They are many and various. The forces
which impel families
and tribes to go forth from their
country and their kindred unto
lands more or less dimly shown them in
prophetic vision are of
many kinds, and operate in diverse ways.
Not seldom the great
law of population operates to produce
these movements of the
people.
Population, according to the Malthusian statement,
always tends to increase more rapidly
than subsistence; hunger
drives forth hordes of men to seek a
livelihood in fresh fields and
pastures new. This law operates even
where the population is
sparse and the resources of nature not
at all developed. The
southward movements of the Gothic tribes
upon the cultivated
lands of Southern Europe may have been
due in part to this
182 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
cause. The lands they left behind were
by no means exhausted
by cultivation, but they depended mainly
on pasturage, and
therefore needed far more land than
modern agricultural people.
Many of the movements of the Aborigines
upon our own soil
may have been produced by this cause.
When the game had
disappeared from its territory the tribe
must move on to unoccu-
pied lands. Indeed, the less civilized
the people, the greater the
need of frequent migration. Two or three
acres will support a
skillful farmer or gardener; the
primeval hunter and fisherman
cannot live on less than two or three
thousand acres. And we
may well suppose that the population on
the central steppes of
Asia, growing faster than their
subsistence grew, were thrust out
of their nests, in larger and smaller
numbers, and started on their
westward journeyings. The pressure of
population upon sub-
sistence being relieved by each exodus,
the tribes left behind
multiplied faster than ever, and soon a
new swarm was ready to
go forth from the hive.
In our own time, great movements of
population have been
due to the failure of the means of
subsistence. The Irish famine
of 1846-7 started a tidal wave of
emigration to this country, and
the current thus set in motion has been
kept flowing by other
causes. And while the great emigrations
of modern years toward
this hemisphere have not generally been
due to famine or starva-
tion in the old countries, they have
resulted in considerable part
from the over-crowdings of those
countries, and from the expec-
tation, on the part of the emigrants, of
finding larger wages,
ampler opportunities and better
prospects for themselves and
their children in this land than in the
homeland.
Other causes have constantly been
operating. Wars of con-
quest and ambition, and the burdens
caused by war, drive many
of the sons of peace forth from their
homes to seek residence in
more pacific countries. The militarism
of Germany explains
the presence on our soil of hundreds of
thousands of the German
people. Political oppression, the
domination of privileged classes,
the tyranny of priests and hierarchs
hasten the departure from
lands that they love of those to whom
liberty is dear. The Pil-
grims of Plymouth, the Roman Catholics
of Baltimore were fugi-
tives from ecclesiastical
persecutions. Sometimes these emi-
Migrations and Their Lessons. 183
grants have been social or political
idealists with plans for the
reorganization of society to which their
native land was not hos-
pitable; and they have sought upon
virgin soil a free area for the
development of their ideas. Cabet and
his Icarians, Owen and
his New Harmonists, were the leaders of
colonies in the interest
of new social schemes.
To all these forces of propulsion by
which men have been
driven from their ancestral seats must
be added those forces of
attraction by which they have been drawn
toward the new coun-
tries. Discoveries of mines of the
precious metals, of soils of
phenomenal fertility, of climates serene
and delectable, have been
reported to them, and they have been
tempted by the prospects
of unwonted gains and enjoyments to
separate themselves from
kindred and companions to set up their
habitations in distant
lands.
Nor will the external motives-whether of
propulsion or of
attraction-account for all these
movements. There are powers
within their own breasts that start men
upon these journeys.
A native restlessness, a love of
novelty, a passion for adventure,
account for many of them. There are men
who never could
be quiet long in Paradise; it would take
a battalion of angels
with flaming swords to keep them within
its bright enclosures.
There are men to whom the order and
restraint of civilized
society are irksome; they would rather
rove through forests
than travel in highways; they prefer the
freedom of the woods
which is the barrenest and poorest sort
of freedom, to the free-
dom of the city, which, when its laws
are most firmly enforced,
is the completest and most perfect
liberty. Such unbridled
spirits are always found in the frontier
lines of emigration.
Thus we see how many and varied are the
ascertained
forces by which these great tides of
population are controlled,
but I think we must add to these another
and far more subtle
force-that divine impulse by which all
the greater movements
of history must be explained. For while
it is true that hunger
and fear, and the love of life, and the
love of liberty, and the
love of change, and the impatience of
restraint and the greed
of gold, and the ambition to found new
empires, and a thousand
other motives have acted upon the minds
of men urging them
184 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
into these currents of emigration, yet
all over these conflicting
motives, harmonizing them all and
bringing order out of them,
is the plan of the all-wise Ruler of the
world, who makes the
wrath and the folly and the greed of man
to praise him, and
restrains the remainder thereof.
The greatest fact in all these world
movements is that they
are fulfilling a design that is more
comprehensive and farther-
reaching than wisdom of man could conceive.
Those Aryan
peoples, when they started on their
journeys from Eastern
Asia, had no more conception of the
splendid European and
American civilizations which they were
going forth to build,
than the iron ore in the mountain has of
the mighty genie
of fire and steam, fashioned from its
substance, which will soon
be ploughing the Atlantic main; any more
than the spring at the
farthest sources of the Amazon has of
the majestic river into
which its tiny fount will grow. This
movement westward, ever
westward, was all unconscious. They had
some small and dim
purpose of their own, but the great
purpose of God they knew
nothing about. There was an instinct,
partly human, that
impelled them; but of the divine
leadings they were wholly
oblivious. They went forth, not knowing
very well whither
they went, not knowing at all why they
went. It would have
been very difficult for any careful
student of human welfare,
contemplating the whole problem with
such light as he could
get, to justify their going. In these
later years the case is
greatly altered; a large share of the
immigrants who cross from
the old world to the new speedily better
their condition; but in
the earlier years this was not the rule.
Most of those who then
went forth in search of new homes received,
during their life-
time, no adequate reward for their risks
and their labors. If you
had measured what they lost and what
they suffered against
what they gained and what they enjoyed,
the balance, so far as
worldly comfort is concerned, would have
been on the wrong
side. They sought, no doubt, to escape
from penury and dis-
comfort, and restraint; but they
encountered hardships, labors,
miseries, worse than those from which
they fled. Half of the
Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock in
December were in
their graves before the violets ever
bloomed again upon that
Migrations and Their Lessons. 185
sterile coast. The case with the
majority of our early emigrants
and pioneers was not much better. Of one
hundred and five
colonists in Virginia in June, 1607,
sixty-seven had died before
the next year was ten days old. The
winter of 1609 began with
four hundred and ninety persons in that
colony and ended with
sixty. Surely this was not a profitable
speculation, from the
point of view of individual interest. If
it is the highest wisdom
of a man to look out for his own
individual interest, these men
were not wise. If they acted upon a
calculation of personal
gains and losses, it was a bad
calculation. Europe and America
would have been peopled and developed by
the Aryan races far
less slowly than they were, if these
movements of population
had been guided by prudential and
economical considerations.
No! these movements of population were
very largely in-
stinctive rather than rational;
spontaneous rather than delib-
erate; prophetic more than economic.
Sometimes, no doubt,
the chances were calculated and
miscalculated owing to defective
knowledge of the facts. The reports
which reached the old
countries were not always accurate.
Travelers were sometimes
enthusiastic; land speculators were
sometimes unscrupulous;
men were beguiled into enterprises which
they would never have
undertaken if they had known what perils
and what toils were
before them. But most often they were
only too eager to believe
the glowing tales that were told them;
they were more than half
to blame for the deceit which was
practiced on them; they took
but little pains to find out the facts
before they set out. The
movement was not rational. It was
instinctive. It was the
fruit of that world-compelling plan by
which nations and tribes
and peoples are driven forward in the
ways of destiny.
Do we mean, then, to say that Providence
decreed all the
sufferings and losses and discomforts of
these westward-moving
hosts? That Providence impelled them to
enter paths that led
to hardship and famine and disaster? No,
I do not dogmatize
about the designs of Providence; how
much suffering He has
decreed I will not undertake to say; but
it is evident that He
has appointed for men a destiny from
which suffering is never
absent, and that the paths which conduct
to His most glorious
gifts are paths which lead through toil
and trial. The Captain
186 Ohio
Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
of our salvation was made perfect
through suffering, and where
the Captain leads His followers must go.
And I think that we
can discover, as we study these
world-movements, some of those
deep things of God concerning whose
meaning it is not wise to
be too confident, but whose
manifestations, so far as they come
within the range of our own
understanding, are full of stimu-
lating suggestion.
It is evident, to begin with, that these
migrations of the
nations furnish a field for the culture
of all the more robust vir-
tues. I do not mean to assert that
pioneers and emigrants, as a
class, are in these days, or ever were,
in all respects exemplary.
They are often persons of coarse fiber
and reckless temper; they
are for a time, in the earlier period,
beyond the restraint of laws
and social conventions; sometimes they
become lawless and
vicious in the extreme. Nevertheless it
is certain that many of
those groups who came to America in the
last two centuries
brought their moral standards and their
social conscience with
them, and established upon these shores
a purer type of society
than they had left behind. But all
these, whether they be stiff
Puritans or free-living Cavaliers, have
need of cultivating and
manifesting the great virtues of
courage, of endurance, of self-
sacrifice; to face danger calmly, to
bear hardships quietly, to
meet death serenely--these are
indispensable qualities in the
pioneer. No such opportunities of
heroism come to us. There
are chances enough even for us to be
heroic, but they are not
like these. These hand-to-hand
encounters with savages and
wild beasts; these fights with frost and
flood and pale-faced
famine; these measurings and weighings
of the hoarded ears of
maize to make them last till harvest;
these lonely marches and
bivouacs in the primeval forest; these
persistent struggles with
the fierce wilderness to subjugate its
soil - all these are the very
alphabet of heroism for future
generations.
Close akin to the pioneer's courage is
his faith in the future.
It takes a high order of faith to
discern the beauty and bounty of
the ages to come and to be willing to
live for them and die with-
out seeing them. I do not mean to assert that all these pio-
neers have possessed this heroic faith,
but that it has lived in the
breasts of many of them their own words
bear witness. In the
Migrations and Their Lessons. 187
ancient records of the Plymouth Pilgrims
we read that one rea-
son, and not the least reason, of their
removal to America was
"a great hope and inward zeal they
had of laying some good
foundation, or at least to make some way
thereunto, for the
propagating and advancement of the
Gospel of the Kingdom of
Christ in those remote parts of the
world, yea, although they
should be but as stepping stones unto
others for the performance
of so great a work." Very few,
indeed, of the great army of
pioneers have had any reasonable
expectation of enjoying in
their own lifetime the fruits of their
own labors. Abraham went
out from Haran to Canaan in hope that
the land would some day
belong to his descendants; yet, as
Stephen in his speech before the
Sanhedrim so strongly said, "God
gave him none inheritance in it;
no, not so much as to set his foot on,
and He promised to give it
to him in possession, and to his seed
after him, when as yet he
had no child; but God spake on this
wise, that his seed should
sojourn in a strange land, and that they
should bring them unto
bondage and entreat them evil four
hundred years; but the na-
tion to which they shall be in bondage
will I judge, saith God;
after that shall they come forth and
serve me in this place."
After the call to Abraham, in Haran, and
the migration of Abra-
ham to Canaan, there were to be hundreds
of weary years-
years of nomadic life in Palestine,
years of famine, of bondage,
of wandering in the wilderness-before
his descendants should
gain full possession of the promised
land; but there was the
promise, and Abraham believed the
promise and imparted his
own great faith to his children and his
children's children, and
this faith never failed them; it upheld
them under all the hard-
ships of the Egyptian slavery, and it
brought them back, cen-
turies later, to the land which had been
promised to their father,
Abraham. This is, no doubt, the most
striking instance in his-
tory of the faith of a pioneer and of
its influence upon the life
of generations following; but something
not unlike it is wit-
nessed in the conduct of many of those
who have laid the foun-
dations of great States in toil and
tears, hoping that those who
should come after them would reap the
fruit of their sowing,
and through their sacrifices enter into
security and peace.
And this brings us to one more great
motive which the
188
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
migration of nations emphasizes and
reveals-the motive which
springs from the solidarity of races;
which leads a man to feel
that he is a partner, not only with his
coevals, but with his fore-
bears and his posterity; that much of
the best part of his gains
and his joys comes from the labors of
those who have gone be-
fore him, and much of his most fruitful
work must be done for
the benefit of those who shall come
after him.
It is when man rises to this height of
vision, and sees the
generations all linked together for weal
or woe, helpers of one
another's welfare, sharers of one
another's misfortune, that he
becomes worthy of that word which
defines him as a being of
large discourse, looking before and
after. All the greater
motives of our work spring from the
realization of these sublime
facts; from our sense of gratitude to
those who have gone before
us, and our sense of obligation to those
who are coming after us.
These are the truths which are brought
home with power to our
minds as we look back upon the lives of
our forerunners, and
which, beyond a doubt, were present in
the minds of many of
them as they laid the foundations
whereon to-day we build.
Such, then, are some of the gains that
spring from these
great migrations; they furnish a field
for the development of the
robust virtues, they provide a
discipline for faith, they strengthen
the bond that binds together the
generation.
The connection of these thoughts with
this occasion is not,
I trust, obscure. I have not thought it
any part of my duty at
this time to undertake the recital of
the annals of the colony
that landed on this spot one hundred
years ago. That task has
been entrusted to other and more capable
hands. It seemed
more fitting that I should rather
attempt to connect the found-
ing of this colony with the great
historic movement of which it
was a part, that we might discern
something of the sweep and
significance of that movement. With how
many of these great
purposes of Providence which we have
been studying these
colonists consciously connected
themselves I do not know;
certain it is that they had a great
opportunity of illustrating
upon this soil the robust virtues; and I
doubt not their faith and
courage are living here in the lines of
their descendants. It was
a stormy time in history when they took
their departure from
Migrations and Their Lessons. 189
their native land. On July 14, 1789, the
Bastile had fallen, the
first resounding success of the French
revolution, the signal of
the destruction of feudal France, and of
the coming of a new
regime.
This was more than a political upheaval;
it was a social and
economic crisis. France had been cursed
and impoverished for
centuries by the most burdensome
tyranny; the people were
loaded with debt; agriculture was
crushed, trade was crippled,
all industries were paralyzed. The
people were striking about
them madly and blindly, caring little
who was smitten or what
went down before their wrath, resolute
only to make an end of
the existing order. The Bastile was the
object of their fury,
but dramatic as its downfall was, it
brought no relief from the
present misery. Still the dead hand lay
on all the industries of
the nation; still work was scarce and
bread was dear though
harvests were abundant, and famine in
the midst of plenty
stared the multitude in the face.
"Fair prophesies are spoken,"
writes Carlyle, "but they
are not fulfilled. There have been Notables, Assemblages,
turnings-out and comings-in. Intriguing
and maneuvering, Par-
limentary eloquence and arguing, Greek
meeting Greek, in high
places, has long gone on, yet still
bread comes not. The har-
vest is reaped and garnered, yet still
we have no bread. Urged
by despair and by hope, what can
Drudgery do but rise as pre-
dicted, and produce the General
Overturn. Fancy, then, some
Five full-grown millions of such gaunt
figures with their hag-
gard faces, in woollen jupes, with
copper-studded, leather girths,
and high sabots, starting out to ask,
after long unreviewed cen-
turies, virtually this question: How
have ye treated us? How
have ye taught us, fed us, and led us,
while we toiled for you?
The answer can be read in flames over
the nightly summer sky.
This is the feeding and leading we have had of you;
EMPTINESS
of pocket, of stomach, of head and of
heart. Behold there is
nothing in us; nothing but what Nature gives her wild children
of the desert; Ferocity and Appetite;
Strength grounded on
Hunger. Did ye mark among your rights of
men that man was
not to die of starvation while there was
bread reaped by him?
It is among the Mights of man."
190 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
All over the land, castles are flaming,
bands of smugglers
wander unrestrained; "the barriers
of towns are burnt, toll
gatherers, tax gatherers, official
persons put to flight." And
from all over France hordes of these
half-civilized, half-starved,
half-infuriated people are pouring into
Paris. Such is the situa-
tion during the Summer and early Autumn
of 1789. The
foundations of the great deep of
Feudalism are broken up; the
Deluge is at hand. As for the king there
is no help for him; he
is too weak a man to deal with such an
insurrection. He dallies
with the revolution, tries to ride upon
the crest of its advancing
wave, but it skills not; his queen and
his court are sullen and
revengeful; there is a banquet at
Versailles one night, while
thousands in the great city are
starving; and the king's officers
trample under their feet the national
cockade, while the queen
looks on applauding, and the people see
that the court despises
them and plots to treat their newly
gained liberties as it has
treated their emblem. And now the
strangest, the most hysteri-
cal of all historic episodes takes
place: ten thousand women lead
a howling mob to Versailles, a dozen
miles away, followed by
the national guard, with Lafayette at
its head, and they capture
the king and queen and bring them to
Paris, making them pris-
oners in fact, in their own royal palace
of the Tuilleries, and
stamping out the counter revolution with
two hundred thousand
hob-nailed shoes. It was an anxious day
for Paris; who could
tell what might be coming next?
Obviously the reign of the
mob was well begun; those who had
everything to lose might as
well convert it into portable securities
and silently steal away.
It was on the 6th of October that the
king was escorted to Paris
by the shrieking Amazons; before this
month had ended tens of
thousands of Frenchmen had bidden
good-bye to France. This
was the time of what is known as the
second migration-" most
extensive," says Carlyle,
"among commons, deputies, noblesse,
clergy, so that to Switzerland alone
there go sixty thousand.
One emigration follows another, grounded
on reasonable fear,
unreasonable hope, largely, also, on
childish pet. The high-
flyers have gone first, now the lower
flyers, and even the lower
will go, down to the crawlers."
What has all this to do with our
colonists of Gallipolis? I
Migrations and Their Lessons. 191
hardly know how much it has to do with
them; but putting this
and that together, it might signify
something. For it was right
in the midst of all this panic and
terror that there appeared
upon the scene the agents of the Scioto
Company, the Yankee,
Joel Barlow, and the Englishman, William
Playfair-with their
maps and their prospectuses, and their
glowing promises, telling
of a country where the climate was
semi-tropical, where the
rivers abound with enormous fish, and
the forests with venison;
where the trees exuded sweetmeats, and
candles grew on trees;
where there were no taxes to pay and no
conscriptions to dread.
Is it any wonder that such a manifesto
strongly appealed to the
excited and apprehensive Parisians? Less
than a month after
Louis was brought to Paris, and while
the alarmed citizens were
flying from France by thousands, Barlow
formed his company
of the Scioto, and the emigrants came
flocking to his headquar-
ters; five thousand of them were ready
to set forth in the early
spring in quest of their Utopia.
It is a pitiful and painful story; I
will not dwell upon it.
We can see how several of the motives
which we have traced in
our study may have operated to set in
motion this migration;
how pinching want, and political
oppression, and the horrors of
civil war and social strife made these
Frenchmen willing to leave
their native land: and we can see, also,
how grievously they were
deceived by the representations made to
them, and how great was
their need of courage and faith and
patience, and all the heroic
qualities of the pioneer, when they
landed on the bluff and took
possession of the log huts that awaited
their occupation.
I will not undertake to tell how bravely
they met the perils
that surrounded them, nor with how much
steadfastness and
fortitude they wrought out their
difficult problem. I know that
our hearts go out to them to-day in
compassion for their suffer-
ings, and in gratitude for their toils
and self-denials; for it is to
them, and to all the noble army of
pioneers in whose rank they
marched, and in whose battle with the
wilderness they fought
and fell, that we owe the fertile
fields, the beautiful homes, the
teeming cities, the wealth and the
culture and the power of our
great commonwealth, of our Native Land.
And now, fellow citizens, there remains
but one question
192 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
more: What admonition, what incitement
comes to us from
this glance across the centuries? We
have seen this mighty
march of the peaceful armies of industry
around the world,
from east to west; we have counted, as
they could not, the cost
of their enterprises; we have learned
how much we owe to
them. Can they teach us any thing that
we need to know? Do
they summon us to any work which we are
prone to neglect?
We honor and applaud their heroism; have
we any call to
imitate it? For the physical courage
which they displayed there
is not much demand in these piping times
of peace; but of the
courage which fears not to confront the
enemies of the State,
and the destroyers of our youth, this
generation still has need.
It is not with wolves and painted
savages that we are called to
fight; but with foes far more dangerous:
with robbers of rev-
enues; with pilferers of public funds;
with men who make a
trade of politics and are ready always
to subordinate the public
welfare to their own ambition; with
banditti whose dens are in
the lobbies, and sometimes in the
offices of court houses and
city halls, and capitols; yea, with all
the purveyors of vice and
crime, with hyenas in human form who get
their living by help-
ing their fellow-men on the road to
ruin, and whose property in-
creases just in proportion as their
neighbors are impoverished
and degraded. To confront such foes
takes a different kind of
courage from that which the pioneers
exhibited; a courage less
dramatic, less spectacular, less
impressive to crude minds; but no
less genuine, or less noble. And there
is always room for self-
sacrifice in our encounters with these
foes. It generally costs
something, in this world, to secure good
government; it costs
something to establish it; it costs
something to maintain it.
Hardships, losses, privations untold
were endured by those who
laid the foundations of the State, and
the State will not be kept
from overthrow unless we are ready to
suffer some hardships
and losses in its defense. To challenge
and resist the enemies
of the State-to keep its councils pure
and its honor stainless-
will require of you and me some
sacrifices. We must be will-
ing to face opposition, contempt,
contumely; to be called all
manner of hard names; to be stigmatized
as cranks, feather-
heads, doctrinaries, dudes; nay, we must
even be willing to lose
Migrations and Their Lessons. 193
customers, to see our income reduced,
and our prospect of pro-
motion cut off; to suffer the loss of
many things rather than be
false to our convictions of duty. Unless
this spirit abides in us,
we are unworthy of the liberties which
were purchased for us at
so great a cost, and we shall not long
retain them.
The faith of the pioneers must also
animate our souls.
Unless we believe as they did, that
there are better days to
come, our heartless labor will be
utterly in vain. If they did
not despair of the future nation, when
they held the forlorn
hope here in the wilderness; when half
and more than half
their number perished in a single
winter; when trackless forests
encircled them, and stubborn soils
defied them, and bloody foes
lurked everywhere in ambush for them,
surely we should not
despair of the Republic now, when so
many fields have been
won, and the forces of intelligence and
virtue are so many and
so mighty.
"Amid the storms they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea,
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods
rang
With the anthems of the free."
Unless we, their children, in the midst
of the foes that be-
league us, can lift up our voices in the
same triumphant strain,
we are recreant to the charge they have
given us to keep.
Above all, there is need that we should
grasp with new con-
viction the great truth of the
solidarity of the generations; that
while we confess our obligations to
those who lived before us,
we should feel, as we never yet have
felt, our duty to those who
will live after us. This is the one
clear and strong impression
which such an occasion as this should
stamp upon our thought.
To see to it that the treasures of just
law and large liberty which
we have inherited shall receive no
detriment at our hands, but
shall be handed on unimpaired,
unpolluted, undiminished to our
children, this is our supreme
obligation. With a great sum have
we obtained this freedom; but the price
was not paid by us; we
are the beneficiaries of past
generations. We have no right to
waste our patrimony. What cost our
fathers such an outlay of
pain and privation we ought to cherish
with reverent devotion.
Vol. 111-13
194 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
It is worth all it cost, all and infinitely more, and it must be
transmitted without loss to our
successors.
Every thoughtful man admits that the
people of one gener-
ation have no right to exhaust the soil
from which their suste-
nance is derived, passing it on to their
posterity poorer than it
was when they received it. Such wasteful
or careless use of
natural resources is criminal. The land,
the forests, the mines,
the fish of the streams, all the bounty
of nature, are here not
for us alone, but for our children and
our children's children for
ages to come. In all our use of these
things we must keep them
in mind. Their numbers will increase;
the productive energies
of the earth must not be reduced, but
reinforced and reinvigor-
ated for their benefit. It is a stupid
crime, it is treason against
humanity to impoverish by our greed the
soil on which millions
must dwell after we are gone.
If such is our responsibility for the
careful and productive
use of natural resources, what shall we
say respecting those
higher and more precious portions of our
inheritance-the mun-
iments of law, the safeguards of
liberty, the wholesome cus-
toms, the sound sentiments, the
reverence for God, the respect
for man, the true equality, the genuine
fraternity-without
which government is anarchy and society
is pandemonium?
Must not these be preserved in their
integrity, and transmitted
to those who come after us? These are
the talents which the
Lord of the earth entrusts to the people
of each generation, and
which they are to deliver up to their
successors multiplied and
improved by God's own law of increase.
The world that we re-
sign to those who come after us must be a better world than
that
which we received from our fathers-a
more productive world,
a healthier, happier, safer, purer, freer, nobler world; if we fail
in this, our material gains will only
hasten our national decay;
the mighty forces of nature that we have
harnessed will but
drag us to destruction; the swift-flying
steeds of fire and light-
ning coursing over our land and churning
our seas to foam will
speed us to our doom.
Fellow countrymen, fellow Christians,
those great currents
of migration from east to west, whose
course across the conti-
nent we have followed, are stayed upon
our western shore and
Migrations and Their Lessons. 195
can no farther go. For numberless
centuries they have been
flowing westward; and the slow tides of
time have brought
them to the final barrier. At the Golden
Gate, on the snowy
summits of the Cascade Mountains, the
pilgrims stand and gaze
afar to that Asian continent from which
in the dim twilight of
history their father set forth-to
countries crowded with a de-
cadent civilization. The circuit of the
earth is completed;
migration has come to its term; here,
upon these plains, the
problems of history are to be solved;
here, if anywhere, is to
rise that city of God, the New
Jerusalem, whose glories are to
fill the earth. 0, let us not forget
what foundations we are lay-
ing, what empires are to stand upon
them; and in the fear of
God and the love of man let us build
here a city in whose light
the nations of the earth shall walk;
whereinto kings may bring
their glory and honor; into which there
shall enter nothing
that worketh abomination or maketh a
lie.