CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.



   As we unroll the map of our country and gain some con-
 ception of our heritage; as we ponder over the lengthened
 columns of our last census, and the figures become instinct
 with life and turn into freemen, cities, States, and all that
 give power and comfort thereto; our pride is sanctified by
 gratitude to the Fathers, who secured this heritage and made
 possible this result.
   As we view the consummation of a century, and looking
around us on this fruitful and free land, with its millions of
people, its aggregate wealth, its happy homes, its peaceful
and free States, its powerful and successful general gov-
ernment, yet in its youth honored abroad, the hope of
the generations and the bulwark of freedom, we gain
some twonception .both. of .the hopes of those fathers and
their wisdom.' 'This iSs-not aeideht. There are no acci-
dents in the' economy ')f God; there is no luck in the divine
providence which inspires the itevitable progression of
cause and effect. Al'-the Present is held in the bosom of
the Past: the Future is-the-fruit of that Present and Past.
We cannot foresee all that may be produced by our act;
we cannot estimate the entire force of the influences we put
in motion; the modifying power of other agencies cannot
be ascertained; yet the outcome is, in its'nature, the harvest
due to the seed sown. He who sows good seed in good
ground, with honest and intelligent toil, may confidently
expect to reap a fruitful harvest; nay more: even '"they
that sow in tears shall reap in joy; he that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves."
  To-day the Alleghany Mountains mark no line of division:
from the Lakes to the Gulf there are only prosperous and
united communities; the Mississippi flows in majestic power,
twining together in indissoluble bonds the imperial States
nestled in its surpassing Valley; the mountain ranges of the
West have opened their bosoms to our advancing power,
and the Pacific ocean guards with glad and placid vigilance



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