Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/384

378 378 W. D. FENTON. them. But there remains to us a great duty of defense and preserva- tion ; and there is open to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day of peace let us ad- vance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction and an habitual feeling that these States are one country. Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our duties over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. Let our object be OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And by the blessing of God may that country itself become a great and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever!" WILLIAM D. FENTON.