Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/416

 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superseded by a superior or later invention.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