“ Great types, like valuable plants, are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union of these colonists, from the straightening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a century, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this Republic—Abraham Lincoln. He was the sum of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both were lost. ”

“ We find encouragement in every page of our country's history. Nowhere do we meet with examples more numerous and more brilliant of men who have risen above poverty and obscurity and every disadvantage to usefulness and honorable name. One whole vast continent was added to the geography of the world by the persevering efforts of a humble Genoese mariner, the great Columbus; who, by the steady pursuit of the enlightened conception he had formed of the figure of the earth, before any navigator had acted upon the belief that it was round, discovered the American continent. ”

“ To Burke's eternal credit and renown be it said, that, had his advice and counsels been listened to, the causes which produced the American Revolution would have been removed.
I can not prevail on myself to hurry over this great consideration—the value of America to England. It is good for us to be here. We stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. Clouds, indeed, and darkness, rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life of man. ”

“ The grand and beautiful city of Barcelona, the busiest center of industry, commerce, and shipping, and mart of the arts and sciences, is not likely to leave in oblivion he who enriched the Old World with a new one, opening new arteries of trade which immensely augmented its renowned commercial existence; and less is it likely to forget that the citizens of Barcelona who were contemporaneous with Columbus were among the first to greet the unknown mariner when he returned from America, for the first time, with the enthusiasm which his colossal discovery evoked. ”

“ If the moon looks larger here than in Europe, probably the sun looks larger also. If the heavens of America appear infinitely higher and the stars brighter, I trust that these facts are symbolical of the height to which the philosophy and poetry and religion of her inhabitants may one day soar. At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the intimations that star it, as much brighter. For I believe that climate does thus react on man, as there is something in the mountain air that feeds the spirit and inspires. ”

“ England is a monarchy, to be sure, but only out of compliment to an impotent and aged Queen. The Czar of Russia clings to his throne. It is a hen-coop in the mäelstrom! The crumbling monarchies of the earth are held together only by the force of arms. Standing armies are encamped without each city. The sword and bayonet threaten and retard, but the seeds of liberty have been caught up by the winds of heaven and scattered broadcast throughout the earth. Tyranny's doom is sounded! The people's millennium is at hand! And this—this, under God, is the mission of America. ”

“ Columbus never forgot his old home at Genoa, and the most precious treasures of the proud city are the documents which her illustrious son confided to her charge, and the letters in which he expressed his affection for his native town. Columbus was a man to reverence, but he was still more a man to love.
The great discoverer's genius was a gift which is only produced once in an age, and it is that which has given rise to the enthusiastic celebration of the fourth centenary of his achievement. To geographers and sailors the careful study of his life will always be useful and instructive. ”

“ The world itself is preparing to take an American holiday. The wise men, not only of the Orient, but everywhere, are girding up their loins, and will follow the star of empire until it rests above this city of Chicago—this civic Hercules; this miracle of accomplishment; the throbbing heart of all the teeming life and activity of our American commonwealth. The people of the world are soon to receive an object lesson in the stupendous kindergarten we are instituting for their benefit. Even Chile will be here, and will learn, I trust, something of Christian forbearance and good-fellowship. ”

“ They are the brightest jewels in her crown. Columbus is a permanent orb in the progress of civilization. From the highest rung of the ladder of fame, he has stepped to the skies. America "still hangs blossoming in the garden of time, while her penetrating perfume floats all round the world, and intoxicates all other nations with the hope of liberty." If possible, these tributes would add somewhat to the luster of fame which already encircles the Nation and the Man. Many voices here speak for themselves.
Six hundred authors and more have written of Columbus or his great discovery. ”

“ I have for some years had it upon my mind that if Providence preserved my life to the close of the third century from the discovery of America by Columbus, that I would celebrate that great event by a public discourse upon the occasion.
And although I sincerely wish that some superior genius would take up the subject and treat it with the attention that it deserves, yet, conscious as I am of my own inability, I am persuaded that America has not a warmer friend in the world than myself. ”

“ Who shall say for what purpose mysterious Providence may not have designed her? Who shall say that when in its follies, or its crimes, the Old World may have buried all the pride of its power, and all the pomp of its civilization, human nature may not find its destined renovation in the New! When its temples and its trophies shall have moldered into dust; when the glories of its name shall be but the legend of tradition, and the light of its achievements live only in song, philosophy will revive again in the sky of her Franklin, and glory rekindle at the urn of her Washington. ”

“ And are we prepared to barter these hopes, this sublime moral empire, for conquests by force? Are we prepared to sink to the level of unprincipled nations; to content ourselves with a vulgar, guilty greatness; to adopt in our youth maxims and ends which must brand our future with sordidness, oppression, and shame? Why can not we rise to noble conceptions of our destiny? Why do we not feel that our work as a nation is to carry freedom, religion, science, and a nobler form of human nature over this continent? ”

“ COLUMBUS.
Steer on, bold sailor! Wit may mock thy soul that sees the land,
And hopeless at the helm may droop the weak and weary hand,
Yet ever, ever to the West, for there the coast must lie,
And dim it dawns, and glimmering dawns before thy reason's eye;
[Pg 292] Yea, trust the guiding God—and go along the floating grave,
Though hid till now—yet now, behold the New World o'er the wave.
With Genius Nature ever stands in solemn union still,
And ever what the one foretells the other shall fulfill. ”

“ To the west lay what men supposed to be an illimitable ocean, full of mystery, peril, and death. A vague conception that islands hitherto unknown might be met afar off on that strange wilderness of waters was entertained by some minds, but no one thought of venturing in search of them. Columbus alone, regarded merely as a brave and intelligent seaman and pilot, conceived the idea that the earth was spherical, and that the East Indies, the great El Dorado of the century, might be reached by circumnavigating the globe. ”

“ It is the glory of our age that it is washing white much of old thought. What is the emancipation of woman but the filtration of old thought? Did not Columbus study and read and think, and then go out and load his ship with slaves? Did not the entire man—man the thinker, the philosopher, the theologian—cover himself with intellectual glory and then load his ship with enslaved womanhood? Was not the scholar Columbus part pirate? What was in that atmosphere of the fifteenth century which could have given peculiar thoughts to Columbus alone? ”

“ But while we have been advancing with this portentous rapidity, America is passing us by as if in a canter. Yet even now the work of searching the soil and the bowels of the territory, and opening out her enterprise throughout its vast expanse, is in its infancy. The England and the America of the present are probably the two strongest nations of the world. But there can hardly be a doubt, as between the America and the England of the future, that the daughter, at some no very distant time, will, whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably yet stronger than the mother. ”

“ But the importance of the discovery will appear greater and greater every year, and one century to come will improve America far more than the three centuries past.
The prospect opens; it extends itself upon us. "The wilderness and solitary place shall rejoice, the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." I look forward to that glorious era when that vast continent shall be fully populated with civilized and religious people; when heavenly wisdom and virtue, and all that can civilize, adorn, and bless the children of men, shall cover that part of the globe as the waters cover the seas. ”

“ When I look back upon my own voyages and recall the many anxious moments I have passed when looking for a port at night, and when I compare my own situation, supplied with accurate charts, perfect instruments, good sailing directions, everything, in short, that science can supply, and then think of Columbus in his little bark, his only instruments an imperfect compass and a rude astrolabe, sailing forth upon an unknown sea, I must award to him the credit of being the boldest seaman that ever "sailed the salt ocean." ”

“ Knowing that nothing is worth fighting for at all unless God reigns, let us, at least, believe as much in the goodness of God as we do in the dexterity of the devil. And, viewing this prodigious spectacle of our country—this hope of humanity, this young America, our America—taking the sun full in its front, and making for the future as boldly and blithely as the young David for Goliath, let us believe with all our hearts, and from that faith shall spring the fact that David, and not Goliath, is to win the day ”

“ Her empire of coal, her kingdom of cotton and of corn, her regions of gold and of iron, mark out America as the center of civilization, as the emporium of the world's commerce, as the granary and storehouse out of which the kingdoms of the East will be clothed and fed; and, we greatly fear, as the asylum in which our children will take refuge when the hordes of Asia and the semi-barbarians of Eastern Europe shall again darken and desolate the West. ”

“ All the characteristics of a truly great man are united in Columbus. Genius, labor, patience, obscurity of origin, overcome by energy of will; mild but persisting firmness, resignation toward heaven, struggle against the world; long conception of the idea in solitude, heroic execution of it in action; intrepidity and coolness in storms, fearlessness of death in civil strife; confidence in the destiny—not of an individual, but of the human race ”

“ Citizens of the United States, it has been said of us, with truth, that we are at the head of the popular party of the world. Shall we be ashamed of so glorious a rank? or shall we basely desert our place and throw away our distinction? Forbid it! self-respect, patriotism, philanthropy. Christians, we believe that God has made us a name and a praise among the nations. We believe that our religion yields its best fruit in a free land. Shall we be regardless of our duty as creatures of the Divine Power and recipients of His goodness? ”

“ The Atlantic is still the great historic sea. Even in its sunken wrecks might be read the record of modern nations. Who shall say that the Pacific will not yet become the great historic sea of the future—the vast amphitheater around which shall sit in majesty and power the two Americas, Asia, Africa, and the chief colonies of Europe. God forbid that the waters of our national life should ever settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It would be the stagnation of death, the ocean grave of individual liberty.
GREATEST CONTINUOUS EMPIRE. ”

“ On! there is an America on the other side to balance. Cheerless nights, sad days, nights dark with woe, days hideous with the form of death, weeks sobbing with pity; but in that heart is He whose name is written in the log-book. "Land ahead!" And Columbus has discovered a continent. Humanity has another world. Light from the four corners of heaven. Glory touching firmament and planet. It is morning! Triumphant, beautiful dawn! [Pg 151]
TENDENCY. ”