THE TRIBUNE.

Political Hsis,ory..yo. v,r-

Prepared for The Tribune by Epwrs WILLIAMS.
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RAJ


COLONY


The landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1920,
which noticed at the close of our last number.
is one of those prominent events in our National
History which form enduring theme fer the his.
toran, the orator, the statesman and the poet, as
we'll as an appropriate subject for the painter
The settlement Of Ncw-England, (by the Ply
mouth Coony,) says Mr. Webster "was so pc
culiar in its causes and character, and has been
followed, and must still be followed, by auch con-
sequences, as to give it high clair, to lasting
commemoratou. On these causes and conseauen-
ccs, more than on its Immediately attendant cir.
cumstances, It's importance an historical event
depends Great actions and striking occurrences,
having excited a temporary admiration, often pass
away and are forgotten, because they leave no last


ing results affecting the prosperity and happiness
Of communities. Such is frequently the fortune of
the most brilliant military achievements"


But if this be frequently, Or generally, the for
tune of military achievements, it is not always So
There are enterprises, military as we'll as civil
which sometimes check the current of events give
new turn to human affairs, and transmit their
NN'~o5'
p0rtancc in their results, and call them great. be-
cause great things follow. There have been bat
ties which have fixed the fate Of nations. They
come down to US If history with solid and per-
lnanent interest-by their effect in advancing or
retardng human knowledge, in overthrowing or
establishing despetism, in extending or destroying
human happiness When the traveller pauses on
the plain of Marathon, what are the emotions which
most strongly agitate his breast7 What is that
glorious recollection which thrills through his frame
and suffuses his cycs7 Not, imagine, tina, Gre.
clan skill and Grecian valor were here most sig
nal!y displayed, but that Greece herself was here
saved 1t is because to this spot and to the event
which has rendered it immortal, he refers all the
succeeding glores of the republic. 1t is because,
if the day had gone otherwise, Greece had per-
ished.''


II we conquer, said the Athenian commander,
on the morning of that decisive day-if we con-
quer, we shall make Athens the greatest CITY of
Greece. A prophecy, how we'll fulfilled! IfGod |
prosper US, might have been the more appropriate
language of our Fathers when they laRded upon |
this kock-if God prosper US, we shall here be-
gin work which shall last for ages we shall plant
here society, III rne prInUiPics or rue Iu1lest
liberty and the purest religion; we shall subdue |
this Wilderness which is before US we shall fill
this region of the great continent which stretches
almost from pole to pole, with civilization ans |
Christianity; the temples of the true God shall
rise where now ascends the smoke of idoatrous
sacrifice; fields and gardens, the flowers Of sum-
mer and the waving and golden harvest of autumn
shall extend over thousand hills and stretch
along thousand valleys, never yet since the crea-
tion, reclaimed to the use of civilized man. We
shall wh,en this coast with the canvass of pros
porous commerce; we shall stud TIE long and
winding shore with an hundred cities. That which
we SOW in weakness shall be raised in strength.
From our sincere, but houseless worship, there
shall spring splendid temples to record God good
ness; from the simplicity of our social union there
shall arise wise and polite constitutions of govern
ment, full Of the liberty which we ourselves bring
and breathe from our zeal for learning institutions
shall spring which shall scatter the light of knowl
edge throughout the land, and in time, paying back
where they have borrowed, shall contribute their
part to the great aggregate of human knowledge
and descendants through all generations, shall
look back to this rpot, and to this hour, with un-
sbated affection and regard"


If the above glowing language Of the orator was
prophecy fulfilled, twenty-five years since, what
shall be said OF New Eng land at the present tme,
when we consider the advances that have been
made in population, wealth, improvement, and
mental cultivation.


New England now comprises territory of
about sixty thousand square miles, divided into
six States, sxty.one Counties, and over thirteen
hundred towns, which are again sabdivided into
villages and hanless. The population which, in
1920, was less than one million seven hundred
thousand, had increased, in 1910, to two millions
two hundred and ihirty-four thousand. Great ad-
yaaces have also been made, Notwithstanding
mauy adverse circumstances, in Agriculture, Man
ufactures Commerce and the Arts, and the aggre-
gate wealth of the people of New England, prin-
cipally invested in those branches of industry,
cannot be estimated at less than one thousand
millions of dollars. For Religious, Moral, Lite
rary and Educational institutions the New Eng
landers have always been distinguished, Within
the bounds of these States there are now more
than three thousand temples dedicated to the
worship of the Most High: nineteen colleges, s's
hundred and thirty academies, and thirteen
thousand three hundred ard taceaty-nine COM
mon and primary schools, devoted to the educa-
ton Of youth. Literary, scientific, moral and be-
neyolsut Societies abound in every State, if not in
every town and village. Surely, the world has


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