424 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



was to be the foundation stone. The essential thing in its 

 accomplishment was the race of men who were to under- 

 take the mighty task. The foundation was laid and 

 steadily the building went up. It took on form and 

 beauty and realized the dream of sage and prophet. 

 Time has tested its foundations ; uulooked for strains 

 have come to its walls, but foundations and superstructure 

 endure, so wise and successful was the work of the build- 

 ers. All honour, then, to the persecuted refugees who 

 lent their influence and their lives to the building of the 



Eepublic. 



Ill 



America's debt to France is not likely to be fully recog- 

 America's uizcd, SO deep bclow the surface does it reach. Pointing 



Debt to ' ^ 



France out how Providcnce deduces the greatest events from the 



least considered causes, Bancroft instances how ' ' a Geno- 

 ese adventurer, discovering America, changed the com- 

 merce of the world ; an obscure German, inventing the 

 printing press, rendered possible the universal diffusion 

 of increased intelligence ; an Augustine monk, denoun- 

 cing indulgences, introduced a schism in religion, and 

 changed the foundations of European politics ; a young 

 French refugee, skilled alike in theology and civil law, 

 in the duties of magistrate and the dialectics of religious 

 controversy, entering the republic of Geneva, and con- 

 forming its ecclesiastical discipline to the principles of 

 republican simplicity, established a party, of which Eng- 



Links in the lishmcu bccamc members, and New England the asylum." 



Chain There is the chain. Not only the Huguenots, but also 



the Pilgrims and Puritans, with their incalculable influ- 

 ence upon the life of the nation, are under deepest obli- 

 gations to that Frenchman, John Calvin. 



Debt to Calvin It is to Calvin, indeed, far more than to Luther, that 

 America owes the Protestantism that is the foundation 

 of its liberties and life. The Dutch brought in the Luth- 

 eran element, but their influence religiously was much 

 less in the development of the national character than 



