America for Americans! | Page 3

of the Empire of Russia. From 1870 to 1880, ten
years, the increase was twenty thousand millions. This is without a
parallel. Surely these great facts call upon the President of the United
States to convoke the freemen of this country around their religious
altars to offer their gratitude and praise to Him from whom cometh all
these blessings; for in His hand are the resources of national wealth.
With him are the ministers of good and the ministers of evil. He can
marshal the insect. He can excite the malaria. He can call forth the
tornado. He can put down his foot and wreck the earth with earthquake
throes. The ministers of evil are with Him, and stand with closed eyes
and folded wings around His throne, but not with deaf ears, waiting to
hear His summons, "Go forth." So also around His throne stand the

angels of plenty, in whose footfalls rise the golden harvest; who
quicken human genius on the land, on the ocean, the artificer, the
artisan, the scholar, the philanthropist, and the patriot. It is by these
resources of good and evil, forever the ministers of the great God, we
learn our dependence on Him; it is with the utmost propriety that this
Christian nation recognize Him as God over all and blessed
forevermore.
It is eminently proper on a national day like this, standing in the
presence of these phenomenal mercies, these crowning plenties, that we
differentiate ourselves from the nations of our own continent and from
the most favored nations beyond the sea.
It is proper for us to inquire the divine purpose in placing us among the
nations of the earth, and what is our great mission. There are certain
facts which prophesy--for facts are as eloquent in prophetic
announcement as are the lips of prophet or seer. We should remember
that our location is everything to us as a national power, of intelligence
and wealth, and that this location is in the wake of national prosperity
and greatness. It may have escaped your notice that around this globe is
a narrow zone, between the thirtieth and sixtieth parallels of north
latitude, and within that narrow zone is our home. Within that belt of
power have existed all the great nations of the past, and in it exist all
the great nations of the present. What is there in this charmed circle, in
this favored zone, that brings national power? We may contract this
zone by ten degrees and the same thing is true. It is true that north of
this zone there have been nations of wealth, of luxury, and of influence.
South of this zone are Egypt and Arabia and India, and other nations
that have lived in splendor. But the peoples that have given direction to
the thought of mankind, that have created the philosophy for the race,
that have given jurisprudence and history and oratory, and poetry and
art and science, and government, to mankind, have been crowded, as it
were, within this zone of supremacy, within this magical belt of
national prosperity. Examine your globe, and there is Greece, that gave
letters to the world; Rome, that gave jurisprudence to mankind;
Palestine, that gave religion to our race. And to-day there is Germany,
that gave a Luther to the church and a Gutenberg to science, and there

is England swaying her mighty sceptre over land and sea. Our location
is in this wake of power--within this magical zone. Surely there must
be a destiny foretold by this great fact, and it is but wise for us as
intelligent freemen on this national day to consider the significance of
the prophecy. Our national home is not amid the polar snows of
Northern Russia nor the burning sands of Central Africa, but sweeping
over the lovely regions of the temperate zone, it lies too far south to be
bound in perpetual chains of frost, and too far north to sink under the
enervating influences of a tropical sun. Although on the side of the
equator destined to be the great receptacle of human life, yet it is too far
from the belligerent powers of the old world to fall a victim to their
corruption or to the weight of their combined forces. With a shore line
equalling the circuit of the globe, and with a river navigation
duplicating that vast measurement, our national domain is only
one-sixth less than that of the sixty states--republics, kingdoms, and
empires--of Europe. Indeed, it is equal to old Rome's vast domain,
which extended from the river Euphrates to the Western ocean and
from the walls of Antoninus to the Mountains of the Moon.
Our location is for a purpose. For if you and I believe in the mission of
individuals who accomplish the purposes of