LETTER OF JESSE APPLEGATE
398 races, colors
each
and languages
live together in
own manner,
seeking happiness in his
each worshipping
God
all
peace and unity,
and equal
free
as seemeth best to himself.
seems to the purpose of the Deity that the human race should increase in knowledge, virtue and happiness, and men, as the physical forces of nature, are but the instruments in His It
When
hands to effect His purposes. a physical advance, the agent
So
is
the world
found to carry
is it
ready for
into effect.
moral reform, the nation, race or individual is always found prepared to meet the crisis; and though the physical forces have existed through all time precisely as they exist today, they remain hidden in the womb of nature until a knowledge of them is a necessity. So of moral progress the occain
sion calls forth the
man.
In this view of the case there
is little
honor due the human
more than the physical agent he executes the purpose assigned him and passes off the stage of action, just as the old machine is
superseded by a superior or later invention. were in our day So it is with the race of pioneers.
We
precisely adapted mentally and physically to perform the part assigned us in the march of civilization, and no matter what
our individual motives as individuals, as a class we have well executed the purposes of our creation. But like the scythe, the sickle and the shovel plow, the best of tools among the roots and stumps of a new land, we will be thrown aside and
now our work is done. Descended from the old Puritans of England, the love of liberty is as natural to us as the color of our skins. A life of many generations on the border between the civilized and the savage has not only trained us to such a life of hardship and forgotten
The pioneer does adventure, but fits us for its enjoyment. not settle down to stay, he only halts he can no more bear to be crowded into cities than his half-brother, the savage; while the range
may
is
remain
When
good, firewood convenient and until the near
game
plenty he
approach of the pursuing multitude. these arrive, with the din of machinery and the snort of
