“I have set thee on high above all
the nations of the
earth.” Deut.
xxviii., 1.
By the voice of magisterial authority
this secular day has been hushed into the sacred quiet
of a national Sabbath. From savannahs and prairies,
from valleys and mountains, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, more than fifty millions of freemen have been
invited to gather around the altars of the God of
our fathers, and pour forth the libation of their
gratitude to Him who is the giver of every good and
perfect gift. If in all the past, nations have
made public recognition of the divinities which have
presided over their destiny, according to their faith
and practice, it is but reasonable and highly appropriate
that we, as a Christian people, enlightened as no other
people, favored as no other nation, should once in
the twelve months consecrate a day to the recognition
of Him whose throne is on the circle of the heavens,
who is the benefactor of the husbandman, the genius
of the artisan, the inspiration of the merchant, and
from whom comes all those personal, domestic, social,
and national benedictions which render us a happy
people and this day memorable in the annals of time.
If the year that ends to-day has been
marked with severity it has also been distinguished
by goodness. If chastisements have come to us
as individuals, families, communities, and as a nation;
if the earthquake, and the tornado, and the conflagration,
have combined to teach us our dependence on the Supreme
Being all these should be esteemed as ministers
of the Highest to teach us that we are pensioners
upon the infinite bounty of the Almighty; that in our
prosperity we should remember His mercies; in our adversity
we should deplore our transgressions.
It is evident to the most casual observer
that the past year has been significant in the manifestations
of divine guidance and goodness. To-day peace
reigns throughout our vast domain. No foreign
foe invades our shores. How superior our condition
by way of contrast with our neighbors on this side
of the globe. In contrast with Central and South
America, the home of turbulence and misrule, where
ignorance, combined with a perverted Christianity,
has darkened and enslaved; where the wheels of industry
have been impeded and the march to a higher civilization
obstructed how bold the contrast between
these two sections of our continent a contrast
that must be suggestive to every thoughtful mind and
awaken the question whether this is due to what some
call the fortuities of national life or whether it
is the result of a genius of government that is sublime
and a religion that is divine. And if we turn
our eyes over the great deep to the most favored nations
beyond the Atlantic, the contrast inspires grateful
emotions, and we are equally led to contemplate the
causes which have brought about a condition so favorable
to us. The most venerable nations in Europe,
countries that have lived through more than a millennium,
are to-day shaken by internal disturbance. Those
institutions which have come down from the hoary past,
which have been considered pre-eminent in the affections
and faith of mankind, now topple to their fall.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,”
whether man or woman; and no government in Europe is
in a state of peaceful security. Alarm dwells
in the palace. Fear, like a bloody phantom, haunts
the throne, and the vast nations of Europe, with all
their agriculture and commerce and manufacture, and
all their majesty of law and ordinances of religion,
are maintained in a questionable peace by not less
than three millions of men armed to the teeth; while
in this country, so vast in its domain, so complicated
in its population, from North to South, from East
to West, preserved in peace, not by standing armies
or floating navies, but by a moral sense, a quickened
conscience, the guardian of our homes, our altars,
and our nation.
Certainly the farmer stands nearest
to God. Agriculture underlies all national wealth.
The farmer ministers to the wants of king and prince,
of president and senator; the farmer must be esteemed
as the direct medium of blessing through whom God
manifests his goodness to the nation. We have
been accustomed to such phenomenal crops that it almost
goes without saying that the past year has been phenomenal
in its agricultural productions. Indeed there
has been a wealth in the soil, a wealth in the mines,
a wealth in the seas, which awakens astonishment and
admiration in the minds of those beyond the deep for
it is a statistical fact that our agricultural products
for the year just closing is not less than three and
a half thousand millions of dollars in valuation.
How difficult to appreciate the fact! One thousand
seven hundred million bushels of corn, valued at five
hundred and eighty millions of dollars; four hundred
and fifty million bushels of wheat, valued at three
hundred and fifty-five millions of dollars; six and
a half million bales of cotton, estimated in valuation
at two hundred and fifty millions of dollars.
And including all the other agricultural products,
the statistician of the Government estimates the value
at three and a half thousand millions of dollars.
And this is but a repetition of other years.
No! It exceeds other years! It is a great
fact that one and a half millions of square miles of
cultivated land in this country now subject to the
plow could feed a thousand millions of persons, and
then we could have five thousand millions of bushels
of grain for exportation.
In ten years, from 1870 to 1880, we
produced over seven hundred millions of dollars of
precious metals, and the last year the valuation is
estimated at seventy-five millions in gold and silver;
and rising above these colossal and phenomenal figures,
our great manufacturing people during the past year
have produced not less than five thousand millions
of dollars in valuation. The mind staggers in
the presence of these tremendous facts.
Then our national wealth is as phenomenal
as are the annual products of soil, and mine, and
skill, and commerce. In 1880 our national wealth
was estimated at forty-four thousand millions of dollars,
which would buy all Russia, Turkey, Italy, South Africa,
and South America possessions inhabited
by not less than one hundred and seventy-seven millions
of people. This enormous national wealth exceeds
the wealth of Great Britain by two hundred and seventy-six
millions of dollars. England’s wealth is
the growth of centuries, while our wealth, at the
most, can be said to be the growth of one century.
Nay, the fact is that most of ours has been created
in the last twenty years. In 1860 our national
wealth was estimated at sixteen thousand millions
of dollars. But from 1860 to 1880 our wealth
increased twenty-eight thousand millions of dollars ten
thousand millions more than the entire wealth of the
Empire of Russia. From 1870 to 1880, ten years,
the increase was twenty thousand millions. This
is without a parallel. Surely these great facts
call upon the President of the United States to convoke
the freemen of this country around their religious
altars to offer their gratitude and praise to Him
from whom cometh all these blessings; for in His hand
are the resources of national wealth. With him
are the ministers of good and the ministers of evil.
He can marshal the insect. He can excite the
malaria. He can call forth the tornado. He
can put down his foot and wreck the earth with earthquake
throes. The ministers of evil are with Him, and
stand with closed eyes and folded wings around His
throne, but not with deaf ears, waiting to hear His
summons, “Go forth.” So also around
His throne stand the angels of plenty, in whose footfalls
rise the golden harvest; who quicken human genius on
the land, on the ocean, the artificer, the artisan,
the scholar, the philanthropist, and the patriot.
It is by these resources of good and evil, forever
the ministers of the great God, we learn our dependence
on Him; it is with the utmost propriety that this
Christian nation recognize Him as God over all and
blessed forevermore.
It is eminently proper on a national
day like this, standing in the presence of these phenomenal
mercies, these crowning plenties, that we differentiate
ourselves from the nations of our own continent and
from the most favored nations beyond the sea.
It is proper for us to inquire the
divine purpose in placing us among the nations of
the earth, and what is our great mission. There
are certain facts which prophesy for facts
are as eloquent in prophetic announcement as are the
lips of prophet or seer. We should remember that
our location is everything to us as a national power,
of intelligence and wealth, and that this location
is in the wake of national prosperity and greatness.
It may have escaped your notice that around this globe
is a narrow zone, between the thirtieth and sixtieth
parallels of north latitude, and within that narrow
zone is our home. Within that belt of power have
existed all the great nations of the past, and in
it exist all the great nations of the present.
What is there in this charmed circle, in this favored
zone, that brings national power? We may contract
this zone by ten degrees and the same thing is true.
It is true that north of this zone there have been
nations of wealth, of luxury, and of influence.
South of this zone are Egypt and Arabia and India,
and other nations that have lived in splendor.
But the peoples that have given direction to the thought
of mankind, that have created the philosophy for the
race, that have given jurisprudence and history and
oratory, and poetry and art and science, and government,
to mankind, have been crowded, as it were, within
this zone of supremacy, within this magical belt of
national prosperity. Examine your globe, and
there is Greece, that gave letters to the world; Rome,
that gave jurisprudence to mankind; Palestine, that
gave religion to our race. And to-day there is
Germany, that gave a Luther to the church and a Gutenberg
to science, and there is England swaying her mighty
sceptre over land and sea. Our location is in
this wake of power within this magical zone.
Surely there must be a destiny foretold by this great
fact, and it is but wise for us as intelligent freemen
on this national day to consider the significance
of the prophecy. Our national home is not amid
the polar snows of Northern Russia nor the burning
sands of Central Africa, but sweeping over the lovely
regions of the temperate zone, it lies too far south
to be bound in perpetual chains of frost, and too far
north to sink under the enervating influences of a
tropical sun. Although on the side of the equator
destined to be the great receptacle of human life,
yet it is too far from the belligerent powers of the
old world to fall a victim to their corruption or
to the weight of their combined forces. With
a shore line equalling the circuit of the globe, and
with a river navigation duplicating that vast measurement,
our national domain is only one-sixth less than that
of the sixty states republics, kingdoms,
and empires of Europe. Indeed, it is
equal to old Rome’s vast domain, which extended
from the river Euphrates to the Western ocean and
from the walls of Antoninus to the Mountains of the
Moon.
Our location is for a purpose.
For if you and I believe in the mission of individuals
who accomplish the purposes of Providence, we must
believe in the mission of nations for the elevation
of mankind to a better future.
And, my countrymen, it is equally
significant that we stand above all nations in our
origin. We started where other nations left off.
Unrivalled for luxury and oriental splendor, the Assyrians
sprung from a band of hunters. Grand in her pyramids,
and obelisks, and sphinxes, Egypt rose from that race
despised by mankind. Great in her jurisprudence,
giving law to the world, the Romans came from a band
of freebooters on the seven hills that have been made
immortal by martial genius; and that very nation,
whose poets we copy, whose orators we seek to imitate,
whose artistic genius is the pride of the race, came
from barbarians, cannibals; and that proud nation beyond
the sea, that sways her sceptre over land and ocean,
sprang from painted barbarians for such
were the aborigines of proud Albion’s Isle when
Cæsar invaded those shores.
Our forefathers stood upon the very
summit of humanity. Recall our constitutional
convention. Perhaps no such convention had ever
assembled in the halls of a nation. That convention,
composed of fifty-five men, and such men! They
were giants in intellect, in moral character; all
occupying a high social position; twenty-nine were
university men, and those that were not collegiates
were men of imperial intellects and of commanding
common sense. In such a gathering were Franklin,
the venerable philosopher; Washington, who is ever
to be revered as patriot and philanthropist; and Madison,
and Hamilton, two of the most profound thinkers of
that or of any other age. It is one of those
marvels that we should recall of which we have a right
to be proud; but in our pride we should not fail to
ascertain why the Almighty should start us as a nation
at the very acme of humanity redeemed,
educated, and made grand by the influences of a divine
Christianity. Those men were not mere colonists,
nor were they limited in their patriotism. “No
pent-up Utica” could confine their patriotism,
for those men grasped the fundamental principle of
human rights. Nay, they declared the ultimate
truth of humanity, leaving nothing to added since,
though a century has passed. Great modifications
have come to the governments of Europe. Some changes
have taken place in our national life. Yet I appeal
to your intelligent memory, to your calm judgments,
if anything has been added to our declaration of rights,
those declarations founded upon the constitution of
nature. These men voiced the brotherhood of the
race. All other declarations prior to this were
but for dynasties, or were ethnic at most. But
those men swept the horizon of humanity. These
men called forth, as it were, the oncoming centuries
of time, and in their presence declared that all men
are created free and equal.
They not only declared the ultimate
truth of human rights, but they exhausted the right
of revolution. They created a constitution founded
upon the will of the people, based upon our great declaration
of rights, embracing man’s inalienable right
to life, liberty, and happiness. The instrument
which their genius created was left amendable by the
oncoming wants of time, modified in subordinate relations
which might be suggested by emergencies and the unfolding
of our race. Here then are the great fingers
of prophecy pointing to our future.
And we have been equally favored in
our population, whether we take the Puritans who landed
in New England, the Dutch who landed in New York,
or the English who crowded Maryland and Virginia.
They were first-class families. Especially do
we trace back with pride that glorious genius for
liberty, for intelligence, for devotion manifested
by those heroic men and women who, amid the desolations
of a terrific winter landed on a barren rock to transform
a vast wilderness, through which the wild man roamed,
into a garden wherein should grow the flowers and
the fruits of freedom.
We sometimes deprecate the cosmopolitan
character of our population. It is a fact, however,
that the best blood of the old world came to us until
within ten years not the decrepit, not the
maimed, not the aged; for over fifty per cent. of
those who came were between fifteen and thirty, and
have grown up to be honorable citizens in the composition
of our constitutional society. They came not as
paupers. Many of them came, each bringing seventy
dollars, some $180 dollars, and in the aggregate they
brought millions of dollars.
There has been, however, a change,
a manifest change, in the character of those from
foreign shores within the last decade. The time
was when we welcomed everybody that might immigrate
to this country; when we threw our gates wide open;
when in our Fourth of July orations, we proclaimed
this to be the asylum of the oppressed, the home of
the down-trodden. But in the process of time
this great opportunity afforded the nations of the
old world came to be abused, and to-day is the largest
source of our national danger. We are now bound
to call a halt all along the line of immigration;
to say to those peoples of the old world that this
is not a new Africa, nor a new Ireland, nor a new
Germany, nor a new Italy, nor a new England, nor a
new Russia; that this is not a brothel for the Mormon,
a fetich for the negro, a country for the ticket-of-leave-men;
not a place for the criminals and paupers of Europe;
but this country is for man man in his
intelligence, man in his morality, man in his love
of liberty, man, whosoever he is, whencesoever he
cometh. [Cries of amen, followed by applause.]
The time has come for us to call a
halt all along the line, and if we do not close the
gates we should place them ajar. We should do
two things: First, declare that this country
is for Americans. [Applause.] It is not for Germans,
nor for Irishmen, nor for Englishmen, nor for Spaniards,
nor for the Chinese, nor for the Japanese, but it is
for Americans. [Cries of amen and applause.] I am
not to-day reviving the Know-Nothing cry, for I am
glad to say that I am not a know-nothing in any sense.
[Laughter.] Nor am I reviving what may be called the
old Native American cry, for we have outlived that.
But I am simply declaring that America is for Typical
Americans. In other words, that we are determined
by all that is honorable in law, by all that is energetic
in religion, by all that is dear to our altars and
our firesides, that this country shall not become
un-American.
Let us to-day proclaim to the world
that he is an American, whether native-born or foreign-born,
who accepts seven great ideas which shall differentiate
him from all other peoples on the face of the globe.
I am bound to say, and you will agree with me, that
in proportion there are as many intelligent foreigners
(that is, foreign-born) in this congregation, in our
city and in our country, who are in full accord with
this utterance as there are of those to the manor born.
In other words could I call the roll, I would find
as many intelligent foreigners who came here, not
for selfishness, but for liberty and for America’s
sake, who would be in accord with me in declaring that
America is for the Typical American. [Applause.]
I speak without prejudice; I know
that there are those here of foreign birth who are
ornaments in every department of society. They
minister to the sick as learned physicians. They
plead in all our courts of justice. They are
the eloquent exponents of divine truth. They are
in our halls of legislation. They beautify private
life in all the immunities and refinements thereof.
They have added to the wealth of the nation.
But while I make this concession, and I do it cheerfully
and proudly, yet I must affirm that there are three
classes of Americans: the native-born, the foreign-born
and the typical American. The native American
has the advantage of birth, out of which flows one
supreme advantage he may be the President
of the United States. This is a wise provision,
as nativity is a primary source of patriotism, and
time is necessary to appreciation. But the native
may be a worthless citizen. He should be the
typical American, but he has too often failed to be.
The Tweeds, the Wards, their like, are no honor
whatever to the native stock. Some of the worst
scoundrels who have scandalized our nation have been
born to the soil.
Then there is the foreign-born American,
who is such by naturalization. He may be worthy
of our free institutions, as many are; he may be unworthy,
as many have proved themselves to be. But, rising
above these, is the typical American, without regard
to place of birth. He is the possessor of the
seven great attributes, which, in my humble judgment,
constitute the true American:
I. That our civil and political rights
are not grants from superiors to inferiors, but flow
out of the order and constitution of nature.
II. That the force to maintain
these rights is not physical, but moral.
III. That the safeguard of such
rights is individual culture and responsibility.
IV. That secular education is
provided by the State, and is forever free from sectarian
control.
V. That there is no alliance of State
and Church; the Government non-religious, but not
irreligious.
VI. That the Sabbath is a day
of rest from ordinary care and toil.
VII. That Christianity, in its
ethics and charities, is the religion of this land.
It was a bold venture for the fathers
of this Republic to declare personal liberty foremost,
without regard to birth or education or civilization.
This has elevated our nation above all nations.
It was sublime courage for those grand men to declare
that our civil and political rights are not grants
from superiors to inferiors, but that they flow out
of the order and the constitution of nature. It
is this, my countrymen, that differentiates us, that
distinguishes us from Englishmen, and Frenchmen, and
Russians. What are the two great declarations
of which England is proud? Take the Magna Charta
Libertatum. The historians say that this is
the bulwark of English freedom. Yes, Englishmen,
you do right to so esteem it. But then you should
remember that the Magna Charta Libertatum was
a concession from King John a concession
from a superior to inferiors, and the men who wrung
that concession from that English king did not esteem
themselves his equals, but permitted themselves to
be treated as inferiors. Then take what is known
in English parliamentary history as A Petition of
Rights. It secured a concession from King Charles
I a superior to inferiors. But our
fathers said we are the superiors. [Applause.] We
recognize no superior but God; we declare a government
of the people, by the people, and for the people. [Applause.]
We ask not for a Magna Charta Libertatum.
We offer no petition of rights. Jefferson made
our declaration of rights and the fathers signed it,
saying, We are born free and equal, created in the
image of God; our political rights are inalienable,
inseparable from our birth. [Applause.] That declaration
turned the corner of political history. It astounded
all Europe. It sent a chill through royal blood.
It caused a paleness to come over kings and queens;
yet it was a declaration which oncoming generations
approved, and oncoming centuries will applaud, because
born of truth, justice and liberty.
The naturalized American must renounce
all allegiance to foreign prince or potentate or government;
in so doing he must reject the assumed superiority
of any human grantor and assert the superiority of
the individual citizen in whom inhere these rights.
[Applause.]
The fathers ventured the assertion
that a government of the people and by the people
and for the people should be supported, not by physical
force, but by a moral power, an astounding fact in
the national history. The power that conquered
in the war for independence was a moral force.
It was the spirit of ’76. It was
the spirit of ’76 that inspired Warren to say:
“Put me where the battle is hottest.”
It was the spirit of ’76 that moved Putnam to
shout out on the eve of battle: “Powder!
powder! Ye gods, give us powder!” It was
the spirit of ’76 that caused the New Jersey
dominie, when the army was destitute of wadding, to
rush to the church and, getting a copy of Watts’s
psalms, shout out: “There, boys, put Watts
into them.” It was the spirit of ’76
that led Washington to consecrate himself, his time,
his wealth, and the grandest men in the country to
consecrate themselves for the accomplishment of the
grandest of facts. The Continental Army was an
army of plowmen and artisans, poorly armed and poorly
clothed. Baron Steuben, when he came to this
country with Lafayette to organize our army, declared
that the only regularity that he saw was, that the
short men were put in front and the tall men put behind,
and old Putnam gave him this explanation, that Americans
didn’t care about their heads; they only cared
about their legs; shelter their legs and they would
fight forever. Baron Steuben attempted to organize
those troops, but lost his temper and swore at them
in three languages at the same time. [Laughter.] But
the spirit of ’76 led to history.
We maintain our free institutions
by moral force. Our twenty thousand soldiers
scattered here and there wherever they can find an
Indian to shoot is hardly a respectable police force.
[Laughter.] The founders of this Republic knew that
freemen are soldiers in the disguise of citizens.
Let the tocsin of war be founded; let a foreign foe
invade our shores; let an insurrectionary body arise
in our midst, and a million of freemen, armed to the
teeth, will “Rally round the flag, boys, rally
once again.” [Vociferous applause.] It is difficult
for immigrants coming to this country to appreciate
this fact. They pass through the land and see
no gens d’armes, no standing armies, and rarely
a policeman. [Laughter.]
The true American stands forever on
duty, a soldier of the Republic in the disguise of
a citizen, the custodian of the Republic’s life.
Out of such a citizenship comes the moral sentiment
which in its aggregation is public opinion, which
is mightier than standing armies or floating navies.
[Applause.]
A third attribute is the individuality
of the citizen, out of which comes the collective
man, our national life. We have exalted the individual;
the American citizen is a republic of one. Whether
we have fifty millions, or ten millions, or a million,
whatever may be the ratio of our population, the Government
recognizes the individuality of the citizen as paramount.
As God is the center of the universe, and Christ the
center of the church, so the citizen is the center
of this Government. All its laws, all its administrations,
all its soldiers in the army, all its guns in the
navy, are for the protection of the American citizen.
Wherever he wanders, whether in Africa, or Europe,
or Asia, or Germany, or Ireland, or Cuba, or Mexico,
the American citizen must and shall be protected.
[Applause.] It is difficult for men coming from Europe,
where men are contemplated in masses, to realize the
potency of individuality; but it underlies our free
institutions.
Fourthly, he is an American, whether
native-born or foreign-born, who accepts the bold
venture of the fathers to segregate public education
from the teachings of the church. It was a bold
move in political science. There is no authority
under the Constitution of the United States, there
should be no authority in the constitution of any
State, there should be no authority in the municipality
of any part of the country, to impose religious instruction
upon the childhood of America. You and I may
tremble in the presence of this tremendous fact, this
daring project in the science of statecraft, but then
you must remember that, according to the organic law
of our country, we know no class but citizens, we
know no obligation but protection, no duty but the
welfare of the people. In all the nations abroad
there is the combination of secular and religious
instruction. Arithmetic, geometry, geography,
physiology, must be taught under the sanctions of
religion. But in this country public education
is separated from sectarian religious teaching.
We may pause in the presence of such a fact.
We know that intelligence is almost a boundless power.
Intelligence has produced as much evil as it has good;
the greatest monsters who have damned humanity have
been men of the highest possible culture, and the
men who are sowing the seed in this country of discord
are men of sublime intellects and polished education.
And therefore the founders of the Republic recognized
the duty of the individual citizen to add home instruction,
instruction in the church, instruction in the Sunday-school,
to sanctify this intelligence. Whenever they
expounded constitutional law, or spoke in behalf of
the perpetuity of our institutions, they never failed
to give pre-eminence to private virtue and public
morality; nor did they hesitate to say that this virtue
in private life and this morality in the public society
must flow out of that religion which we esteem divine.
Those great men ventured on another
and a desperate mission, the segregation of State
from Church. In the nations of the old world
these are allied. The Czar is the head of the
church. Victoria is the head of the church.
The King of Germany is the head of the church.
The Hapsburg, of Austria, is the head of the church.
The Sultan is the head of the church. But here
we have no earthly head of the church. To the
individual Christian Christ is the head of the church.
This is fundamental in our Government. Here we
have “a free church in a free country.”
Christianity had been supported by thrones in the old
world. Religion had been enforced by armies and
navies. The great cathedrals, and what are called
the church livings, had been maintained by a tax imposed
upon people who did not believe the creed taught,
and did not observe the forms of worship practiced.
In our organic law it is stated that Congress shall
not legislate on the subject of religion. Religion
shall be free. Here the Mohammedan may rear his
mosque and read his Koran. Here the Brahmin may
rear his pagoda and read his Shasta. All religionists
may come and worship here, but their worship shall
not infringe upon the worship of others nor work injury
to the body-politic. The Typical American should
set his face against all seeming alliance of Church
and State. We say to the Holy Father, live in
peace. Stay in Rome. Live on the banks of
the Tiber. If you come here, you must be an American
citizen, rejecting your doctrine of temporal power.
You may come and be naturalized and be a voter, but
we can have no temporal popes here. [Applause
and laughter.] So we say to our countrymen that come
from dear old Ireland, the best country in the world
to emigrate from, [laughter], to the Italian, to the
Spaniard, to the German, you may belong to the church
of the spiritual pontiff but you must renounce all
allegiance to temporal pontiffs. I hold that
under our laws of naturalization, that it is the duty
of every cardinal, every archbishop, every bishop,
and every priest, every monk, Franciscan or Jesuit,
to solemnly renounce before God and the holy angels,
all political allegiance to the Pope as a temporal
prince, who to-day is seeking to re-establish diplomatic
relations with England and other European nations in
recognition of his temporal sovereignty.
And he is a true American citizen,
whether foreign-born or native-born, who maintains,
as an American institution, the Holy Sabbath-day.
He can call it Sunday, after the old pagan god, but
he must rest on the seventh day, rest from toil, rest
in the interest of the dignity of labor, rest as discount
upon capital, rest for intelligence, rest for compensation,
rest for domestic happiness, rest for pious culture.
The seventh day of every week should be consecrated
to cessation from labor and devoted to physical and
mental repose. It should not be a day of recreation
to be spent in riotous living and in brawls, but a
day peaceful, in harmony with the institutions of
religion and the dominant sentiment of the country.
Our fathers consecrated the Sabbath, and had you the
patience to hear and I, the time to read from Franklin,
from Jefferson, from Washington, touching the Sabbath,
in recognition of it as indispensable to the welfare
of our body politic, you would be confirmed in this
great truth. The danger to-day is that we are
becoming un-American in cutting loose from the Sabbath-day
as a day of rest and of worship. I cannot invoke
the civil law to do more than to say that it shall
be a day of rest. I cannot invoke the civil law
to say that that man shall worship here or worship
there, or worship at all, but I can invoke the civil
law to say that it shall be a non-secular day; not
a day for the transaction of business, but a day on
which the laboring man shall walk out under God’s
free skies and say: This is my day, the day of
a freeman. [Applause.] The tendency is to transplant
a European Sabbath here; the German with his lager,
and the Frenchman with his wine, and the Irishman
with his shillalah. [Laughter.] No, no, gentlemen,
stay on the other side of the great deep. We
don’t want these things or this day on this
side of the broad Atlantic.
There is another attribute that belongs
to the true American citizen the recognition
of Christianity as the religion of our country.
Webster, our greatest expounder of constitutional law,
did not hesitate to declare that Christianity not
Methodist Christianity, not Roman Catholic Christianity,
not Presbyterian Christianity but Christianity
as taught by the four Evangelists, is the recognized
religion of this land. Recognized how far?
So far that its ethics shall be embodied in our constitutional
and statutory law; so far that its teachings of the
brotherhood of mankind shall be accepted; so far that
its lessons of fraternity, equality, justice; and mercy
shall be incorporated in the law of society.
Those beautiful moralities that fell from the lips
of the divine Son of God have been incorporated in
the laws of the land, and that with few exceptions.
Our chaplains for the army and navy and for Congress
are in recognition of this. On that sacred book
the oath of Presidential responsibility is taken.
And this Thanksgiving Day, appointed by the President,
is a monument of proof. These point to Christianity
as the dominant religion of the land, not to the exclusion
of the Jew, not to the exclusion of the Greek, not
to the exclusion of the Mohammedan, not to the exclusion
of the Brahmin, but permeating society with its principles.
Then, citizens, the danger which comes
from this foreign population is to be met in this
way, first, to hold that this country is for Americans
who are clothed with these seven attributes.
I do not exaggerate the danger when
I remind you that there are great movements among
the peoples of the earth, as never before. Remember
that the population of Europe has increased twenty-seven
millions from 1870 to 1880, and at this rate of increase
Europe can send to us two millions of immigrants a
year for the next hundred years. Our foreign-born
population is said to be seven millions, and their
children of the first generation would make fifteen
millions. In 1882 immigration reached the enormous
figure of eight hundred thousand, and at the present
rate of immigration it is said there will be in the
year 1900, fourteen years from now, nineteen millions
of persons of foreign birth, and with their children
of the first generation there will be forty-three
millions in this land of foreign born. Now the
question, and a serious one, is, Who are those that
come? I have said some are noble, some are true,
some are easily transformed into the Typical American.
But then we are to remember that most of the foreigners
who come here are twelve times as much disposed to
crime as are the native stock.
Our population of foreign extraction
is sadly conspicuous in our criminal records.
This element constituted, in 1870, 20 per cent. of
the population of New England, and furnished 75 per
cent. of the crime. The Howard Society of London
reports that 74 per cent. of the Irish discharged
convicts have come to the United States. I hold
in my hand the annual rum bill of this country for
the last year. It is nine hundred millions of
dollars! I ask myself, Who drinks this rum?
Native Americans? Some! [Laughter.] Some drink
a good deal. [Renewed laughter.] But let us see the
danger that comes to us from inebriety among our foreign
population.
The wholesale dealers in liquor are
estimated at sixty-five per cent. foreign born, and
the brewers seventy-five per cent. Let us take
Philadelphia, that old Quaker city, the City of Brotherly
Love, that city that seems to be par excellence the
city of the world, and here are the figures:
There were 8,034 persons in the rum traffic, and who
were they? Chinamen, 2; Jews, 2; Italians, 18;
Spaniards, 140; Welsh, 160; French, 285; Scotch, 497;
English, 568; Germans, 2,179; Irish, 3,041; Africans,
265; American, 205. I suppose we will have to
mix the Africans with the Americans, and the total
would be 470 Americans, and then there were persons
of unknown nationality in the rum traffic, 672; the
sum total being 8,034. Of this number 3,696 were
females, but out of the 3,696 all were foreigners
but one. There was one American woman in the
rum business, and I blush for my country. Yet
there were 1,104 German women, and 2,548 Irish, and
of the whole number of the 8,034 engaged in the liquor
traffic of that city, 6,418 had been arrested for
some crime. [Applause.] We are bound to look at these
facts. Are we a nation of foreign drunkards?
Then there is another danger the
tendency of emigrant colonization. I suppose
it is known to you that New Mexico is in the hands
of foreigners in the hands of the Catholic
Church. It is also a fact of Congressional report
that 20,557,000 acres of land are in the possession
of twenty-nine alien corporations and individuals,
an area greater than the whole of Ireland. I
would have no part of this country subject to any
church. I would have no foreign language taught
in the public schools to the exclusion of or in preference
to the English language. I would have no laws
published in a foreign language, whether for the French
of Louisiana or the Germans of Cincinnati. [Loud applause.]
I would utter my solemn protest, and that in the hearing
of all politicians, especially those men who want to
be Presidents and can not be Presidents, and those
who hope to be ere long I would utter my
solemn protest to-day against what is known as the
“Irish vote” and the “German vote.”
[Applause.] We do not want any “foreign vote.”
Down with the politician that would seek an “Irish
vote” or “German vote.” [Great applause.]
All we want here is an American vote. I would
not vote for any man for President who would stoop
so low as to bid for the German vote or the Irish vote.
[Continued applause.] The other safeguard is an extension
of the term of residence required for naturalization.
Some say make the term twenty-one years. What
is the term now? Five years. I read from
“Revised Statutes,” section 2165 and 2174,
that a person applying for citizenship must be a resident
of the United States at least five years, and one
year within the State or Territory wherein the application
is made, and that during that term (I wish I had all
the judges here to-day) and that during that term
he is to give satisfactory assurance to the court
that he has behaved as a man of good moral character,
attached to the principles of the Constitution of
the United States, and well disposed to the good order
and happiness of the same. “A man of good
moral character!” what a sublime utterance,
and how infinite. I would be glad to know what
judge takes the pains, when a hundred of these foreigners
apply just on the eve of the election, that they may
qualify themselves to vote, what judge inquires whether
they are men of good moral character? Yet such
is the provision of the law of the land. We have
assumed the authority to limit suffrage. We say
that women shall not vote, which is a great mistake.
[Sensation.] You are not up to that. [Laughter.] My
wife is as competent to vote as I. On all moral questions,
especially the temperance question, I would trust
the women ten times before I would the men. It
is an abuse of the very genius of our Government to
proscribe the Chinese. We say the negro may vote
because his skin is black. We say the Dutchman,
the Irishman, the Italian may vote, because his skin
ought to be white, but the Chinese can not vote because
his skin is yellow. The word “white”
is used in the statute of limitation. We say
to the young American who graduates with the highest
honors at eighteen, you must wait three years longer
before you can stand with the Irishman with his brogans
and the Teuton with his lager and vote for the rulers
of your native land. I would have the term of
naturalization extended, some say till the foreigner
has been here twenty-one years. Extend the term
to ten years, fifteen years. Say to all persons
who come to this country from foreign lands, that
after 1890 they shall remain here fifteen years to
become indoctrinated in our free institutions, learn
the seven attributes of the American citizen, and
then be prepared to love America for America’s
sake. [Applause.]
Thus protected we can look forward
to a glorious future, and the eye of prophecy can
sweep the horizon of a deathless hope. Look forward
to the time when our place among the nations shall
be the umpire of the world. When England and
Germany and France shall refer their international
questions to us for adjudication which otherwise would
be adjusted on the field of carnage; when we shall
dictate to the world by moral suasion, what shall
be the rights of citizens and what shall be the duty
of the Government over them.
The proud position of my country looms
up before me. England may plant commercial colonies
around the globe, and so may Germany and so may France,
but let it be the mission of this country to plant
colonies of moral ideas wherever the sun shines, and
transform the political sentiments of the world until
all men shall be recognized as created free and equal
by the Father Almighty. Let this be our proud
position. Then it shall never be said that the
ocean was dug for America’s grave, that the
winds were woven for her winding sheet, that the mountains
were reared for her tombstone. But rather we shall
live on, and gifted with immortal youth, America shall
ascend the mountain tops of the oncoming centuries
with the old flag in her hand, symbol of universal
liberty, the light of whose stars shall blend their
radiance with the dawn of the millennium.