106 SAttADAIIOC COUNTY SOCIETY. 



human vision. But their gaze is upward, and with eyes steadily 

 fixed on those dizzy heights, and " excelsior^' for their cheering cry, 

 those advancing hosts will yet stand up in the full stature of men, 

 redeemed, disenthralled, and all their rights acknowledged. Let 

 us give them our warmest sympathies, and continue the aid of our 

 noble example, as a beacon light in their upward course — God 

 grant they may not grow faint in heart, nor weary on their toilsome 

 march ! 



Under what widely different circumstances, and a widel}' differ- 

 ing policy did the Anglo-Saxon race commence and continue its 

 career on this continent. Europe had broken through the obscui-ity 

 of the dark ages and was fast becoming illuminated by trade, com- 

 merce, literature and learning ; rapid discoveries in every bi-anch 

 of knowledge and a far more progressive spirit than had character- 

 ized any preceding age. It was an age of inquiry and of active 

 intellectual and physical development. Men began to feel, more 

 earnestly than ever before, the grandeur of humanity, the sacred 

 nature of human rights, and the fires of liberty were kindled on a 

 thousand altars to light up the pathways to freedom. Largely 

 imbued with this spirit of progress and liberty, and a strong wish 

 to realize their fruits untrammelled by obstructing governments 

 and institutions, our Pilgrim Fathers came to this newly discovered 

 continent, into the wilderness, to enjoy civil and religious liberty, 

 and to plant a nation in freedom. Coming, themselves, from the 

 common walks of life, from among the people, they left behind them 

 despotic ideas, oppressive institutions and wornout systems, and 

 brought with them the idea that the security of liberty and the 

 elevation of man ought to be the great objects of human govern- 

 ments. They came to a country rich in soil and natural produc- 

 tions, uncultivated and unpeopled, except by scattered tribes of 

 roving Indians, who lived by the chase. No monopolizing land- 

 lord stood ready to take away one-half the product of the soil for 

 rents, but land was nearly free to all ; and so cheap has it always 

 been in the United States, that the ownership of a farm has ever 

 been within the reach of every industrious man who desired one. 

 The standard government price for its lands has long been $1.25 

 per acre, and good farming lands can be bought to-day in some of 

 the Western States, and in all the Territories, at this rate, and in 

 our own State for about one-half this sum. Land and permanent 

 homes being: thus within the reach of all, each tiller of our " free 

 soil" is the cultivator of his own acres, which, with our free insti- 



