352 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
the beginning. Weighty and manifold have been our obligations 
to the great nations of the earth, to their scholars, their philoso¬ 
phers, their men of genius and of science, to their skill, their taste, 
their invention, to their wealth, their arts, their industry. But in 
the institutions and methods of government — in civil prudence, 
courage or policy — in statesmanship, in the art of “ making of a 
small town a great city” — in the adjustment of authority to lib¬ 
erty— in the concurrence of reason and strength in peace, of force 
and obedience in war — we have found nothing to recall us from 
the course of our fathers, nothing to add to our safety or to aid our 
progress in it. So far from this, all modifications of European pol¬ 
itics accept the popular principles of our system, and tend to our 
. model. The movements toward equality of representation, enlarge¬ 
ment of the suffrage, and public education in England— the resto¬ 
ration of unity in Italy — the confederation of Germany under the 
lead of Prussia — the actual republic in France—the unsteady 
throne of Spain — the new liberties of Hungary — the constant gain 
to the people’s share in government throughout Europe—all tend 
one way — the way pointed out in the Declaration of-our Inde¬ 
pendence. 
The care and zeal with which our people cherish and invigorate 
the primary supports and defenses of their own sovereignty, have 
all the unswerving force and confidence of instincts. The commu¬ 
nity and publicity of education, at the charge and as an institution 
of the state, is firmly imbedded in the wants and desires of the 
people. Common schools are rapidly extending through the only 
part of the country which had been shut against them, and follow 
close upon the footsteps of its new liberty, to enlighten the enfran¬ 
chised race. Freedom of conscience easily stamps out the first 
sparkles of persecution, and snaps as green withes the first bonds 
of spiricual domination. The sacred oracles of their religion, the 
people wisely hold in their own keeping as the keys of religious 
liberty, and refuse to be beguiled by the voice of the wisest charmer 
into loosing their grasp. 
Freedom from military power, and the maintenance of that arm 
of the government in the people; a trust in their own adequacy 
as soldiers, when their duty as citizens should need to take on that 
form of service to the state; these have gained new force by the 
experience of foreign and civil war, and a standing army is a re- 
