344 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
knowledge as a sentiment most fit to influence us in our commem¬ 
orative gratulations to-day. 
RESULTS OF THE CENTURY. 
To this opinion of mankind, then, how shall we answer the ques¬ 
tioning of this day? How have the vigor and success of the coun¬ 
try’s warfare comported with the sounding phrase of the great man¬ 
ifesto? Has the new nation been able to hold its territory on the 
eastern rim of the continent, or has covetous Europe driven in 
its boundaries, or internal dissensions dismembered its integrity? 
Have its numbers kept pace with natural increase, or have the 
mother countries received back to the shelter of firmer institutions 
the repentant tide of emigration? or have the woes of unstable so¬ 
ciety distressed and reduced the shrunken population? Has the 
free suffrage, as a quicksand, loosened the foundations of power and 
undermined the pillars of the state? Has the free press, with illim¬ 
itable sweep, blown down the props and buttresses of order and au¬ 
thority in government, driven before its wind the barriers which 
fence in society, and unroofed the homes which once were castles 
against the intrusion of a king? Has freedom in religion ended in 
freedom from religion? and independence by law run into inde¬ 
pendence of law? Have free schools, by too much learning, made- 
the people mad? Have manners declined, letters languished, art 
faded, wealth decayed,public spirit withered? Have other nations 
shunned the evil example, and held aloof from its infection? Or 
have reflection and hard fortune dispelled the illusions under which 
this people “ burned incense to vanity, and stumbled in their ways 
from the ancient paths?” Have they, fleeing from the double des¬ 
truction which attends folly and arrogance, restored the throne, re¬ 
built the altar, relaid the foundations of society, and again taken 
shelter in the old protections against the perils, shocks, and changes, 
in human affairs, which 
“Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 
The unity and married calm of states 
Qaite from their fixture?” 
Who can recount in an hour what has been done in a century, on 
so wide a field, and in all its multitudinous aspects? Yet I may not 
avoid insisting upon some decisive lineaments of the material, so- 
