fragrance only between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico; for since Columbus crossed the Atlantic the seeds of liberty have been scattered from Cape Horn to the Arctic seas, throughout both mighty New World continents. It is true that American civil liberty developed first among the British colonies, but, my friends, don't think that only Anglo-Saxon hearts throb at the hope, or realization, of liberty. Look to the south of you. What of the dozen free nations that arose in the majesty of a supreme vindication of their long-denied rights and in the beginning of the nineteenth century swept the cruelty and oppression of Spanish sovereignty into the sea, and established their freedom upon the ruins of Spanish pride and tyranny? Ah, friends, you know to what heights of power and injustice the weeds had towered, and into what depths of degradation and abject slavery their roots had penetrated! That rank growth of weeds but shows the richness of the soil, and their uprooting proves the vigorous strength of Central and South American liberty. Now turn your attention to the north and see there a country more vast than your own, across the wide expanses of which the free breezes sweep as a type of the greater freedom of its people. "Loyalty to freedom"-yes-that is loyalty to Canada. Canada dates its history as a political unit from the going into effect of the Act of Confederation on July 1, 1867. At that time Canada had a population of three million, about the same as the United States had in 1776, and during the past forty years her population has increased at almost the same rate as that of the United States in her early days, till now Canada has more people than had England in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Sir J. G. Bourinot, an eminent French-Canadian, speaking of the next step in Canada's political career, says: "It is not annexation to the United States that is impossible; it is not independence— that is not even discussed under existing conditions." He speaks the sentiment of the majority of Canadians. "Annexation to United States impossible?" I agree with him that "under existing conditions" it is. But union between your country and mine need not always be impossible. "Independence not even discussed?" No! for we now in reality enjoy all the liberties that independence could give us. Canada is grown up son in the household of the British Empire, and remains loyal with British patriotism, not because of legal compulsion, because such can not exist between grown up son and parent. It is a free alliance based on common advantage. My friends, here we strike a principle upon which we can found the unity of nations-the principle of common advantage and common liberties. This is what brought Texas, the Lone Star Republic of the South, into the Union. This is what made the people of California throw off Mexican dominion and accept the protection of the United States. This is why Hawaii many years later asked for annexation. Each can still say to the other, "We need you, and you need us." It is true that "like cleaveth unto like." Thus here we find another principle that tends towards, and prepares for, American unity. It is the similarity of political institutions. Go to Mexico, to the United States of Brazil, to the United States of Colombia, and to the United States of Venezuela, and see them with their democratic federal and state governments; and the other American nations with their republican constitutions, also patterned after the most perfect national constitution that the world has yet seen -that of the United States of America. Go to Canada, and there you find similar popular institutions. But our country is not called a republic, but a dominion; instead of a president, we have a premier; in place of Senate and House of Representatives, a Senate and a House of Commons. We have our provincial legislatures. But what matter the names, when they conserve the same liberties and preserve the same rights? "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Then, you wonder, why does American unity still delay its coming? My friends, it has been hindered by the unwise policy of your own overzealous politicians, some of whom then believed that in the War of 1812 Upper and Lower Canada might by the force of arms be annexed to the United States. The campaign failed of accomplishing that object, but established more firmly the wall of prejudice between us. And Mexico to this day still distrusts the United States when she remembers the fourteenth day of September, 1847, when the tread of an American army resounded upon the streets of the City of Mexico and the Stars and Stripes reluctantly waved above the Halls of the Montezumas. Let me quote you the words of one who as an officer took part in that war and who afterwards became President of the United States. General Grant has said: "The Mexican War was one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation." Your statesmen now begin to realize that no war, no conflict, no coercion can bring about a permanent union of freedom loving nations. Such misuse of force is contrary to the principle of liberty that must permeate the great American Empire-if such shall ever exist. Force and war but crush, and waste, consume, and destroy that which you fight to gain. Liberty is not to be forced upon any people; but force should be used against only such as would withhold from any portion of humanity their just liberties. The question of Canadian reciprocity that has been so freely discussed during the past few months has brought out many of the economic conditions that hinder the closer union of the two countries. Canadians say, "You want access to our limitless forests and vast wheat fields. What have you to give in return? Alas! we fear reciprocity will lead to annexation." And why should Canada fear annexation? It is because she sees across her borders moral dangers and legal perils. Canadians are lovers of home, and draw back in abhorrence when they see such wholesale decay of home life as is evidenced by the fact that one million two hundred and seventy-four thousand divorces have been granted in the United States in forty years. Don't doubt these figures! They're from your own census report! One million two hundred and seventy-four thousand divorces! Compare this with only four hundred and thirty-one granted during the same period in Canada. If Canadians had been granted divorces at the same rate per capita, there would have been-shall I say it? It will be to your shame-two hundred and ninety-five times as many granted as were granted. Again, we fear to cast in our lot with you because of your lesser respect for the law and legal institutions. Many of you who are now present know how the adherents of a certain religious society were mobbed, maltreated, and massacred in a State no more than three miles to the south of this place: and Missouri's legal institutions were helpless. You know also better than I do to what extent lynch law has flourished. Lynch law, did I say? No! even the heart of Judge Lynch would have sickened at the cruelties perpetrated by some of your American mobs. Call it mob law, or rather the action of a mob without law, or even the semblance of law. I will say nothing of the extent of your non-observance of the Sabbath day, nor of the graft and scandal of your politics. It is sufficient for me to say that while the present conditions continue to exist Canada will by political union have nothing to gain, either politically, economically, or morally. In the words of a brilliant British statesman, I say, "There can be no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based upon morality." But there are two predominating features of the American character that compel me to believe that the moral tone of your whole nation may yet be much improved. These features are a deep rooted love of liberty and a capability of achieving anthing but the impossible. With these there is required nothing more but a determination to lift the nation to a higher plane of morality. The result, my friends, will be that these deplorable conditions shall not last for ever. By pen, and voice, and life you will purify American sentiment, and that purer sentiment shall inspire your national policy and administration, and they shall shape the destiny of the New World; and, ere we reach the goal of our destiny, it will yet be realized by all that that goal is a common one. Then will come the time that such imaginary barriers as the forty-ninth parallel shall melt away. It was meet that for ages the Himalayas should be a wall between the white and yellow peoples, and the Sahara should separate the white and black races; but even the lofty Himalayas and the broad and burning sands of Sahara, as barriers are dissolving before the onward march of modern civilization. And shall not the time come when the world's greatest chain of lakes shall no longer be a fence to part us, but each lake a link in the strong chain that shall bind us together? If there is any geographical feature that might strengthen belief in separate destinies for the Americas, it is the narrow neck of land which we call the Isthmus of Panama. But the American eagle has gripped that point in her strong talons, and is forging there a link to bring the Atlantic and Pacific coasts closer to each other. Time is justifying the wisdom of Washington, who, addressing the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, said, "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hands of God." They might have christened the newborn republic around whose cradle they were then gathered the United States of the Atlantic coast, or they might have named it the United States of North America, but no! with prophetic inspiration they laid a deeper and a broader foundation and called it the United States of America. The Message of Our Poets. VEILED. By Martha Bailey Proctor. Like the dim outlines of the giant fir, Seen through the mists that hover o'er yon inland sea, So doth the hope of Paradise appear, Veiled, but deep-rooted as the towering tree. Oh, verdant fir tree! Though the mists may grow And when the veil that covers thee shall rise, In stately beauty, I shall see thee still. Tempestuous winds have beat against thy boughs, But raging storms have only made thee strong, And thus the tree of faith hath grown with years, But when the mists that hover o'er Life's Sea, And clouds of doubt that sometimes intervene, By nail-imprinted hands shall lifted be, COME OUT OF THE VALLEYS. By Ivy C. Fisher. Come out of the valleys, ye toilers! What though there is ease in the valleys, Up here are spoils for the victor Never found in the low vales of ease. Away with small creeds, hard and narrow, From out each smooth path of the thoughtless, Where the sight of the soul is unclouded To the broad open view from the Mountain THE SHINING WAY. By Earnest Webbe. I beheld a beautiful vision And my heart rings glad to-day, As I knelt this morn in the cool of the dawn An answer came to my pleading— About and above it gathered and flowed 'Til the bright of the dawn seemed night. And it showed 'mid the maze of the worldly That straightly led from the Valley Dead But few there seemed who trode it, There youth pressed on with courage, Taking the measure of glittering treasure Again I saw the sturdy, Their zeal now tempered with years, Who struggled on as the pathway shone More brightly for their tears. |