Her one white sail above Niagara marked the way of
a mighty commerce. Her soldiers sowed the molten seeds of tumultuous
cities on the sites of their forts, and her priests and friars consecrated
with their faith and prayers forest trail, portage path, ship's sail, and
leaden plate.
But that is not all--a valley of new cities like the old, of new paths for
greater commerce, of more altars to the same God! The chief significance
and import of the addition of this valley to the maps of the world, all
indeed that makes it significant, is that here was given (though not of
deliberate intent) a rich, wide, untouched field, distant, accessible only
to the hardiest, without a shadowing tradition or a restraining fence, in
which men of all races were to make attempt to live together under rules
of their own devising and enforcing. And as here the government of the
people by the people was to have even more literal interpretation than in
that Atlantic strip which had traditions of property suffrage and church
privilege and class distinctions, I have called it the "Valley of the New
Democracy.
Pages:
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432