Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/13

 A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE.

Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress.

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As the thoughtful traveller passes the wayside school-house in some remote rural district of New England and catches a glimpse of the tow-headed boys and girls, he sees not only future American sovereigns, but the blue-blooded descendants of the Puritan and Scotch Covenanter;—boys, whose ancestors overturned princes, fought and died for principle, and founded a nation,—boys upon whom will devolve the future prosperity of the United States. From the hill-side farms have gone forth the financiers, writers, orators, and statesmen who have so far guided and directed the destinies of this country; while the wisdom exercised in conducting the affairs of each township, or miniature commonwealth, is a school in statescraft of the highest order.

New England weather, with its extremes of heat and cold and sudden changes, illustrates the theory of the survival of the fittest. The hardy constitution inherited from stalwart sires and noble mothers, a boyhood and youth passed amid the health-giving and invigorating occupations of farm life among the hills of New Hampshire, a character, partly inherited, partly formed by precept upon precept and the most loving and tender guidance, mens sana in corpore sano, fit a young man to enter the arena, assured of success, to struggle for the prizes given only to the victors. From the ranks of such young men are recruited the great actors in the political and social drama.

Hon. Charles H. Burns, of Wilton, scarcely needs an introduction to the people of New Hampshire. From his start in life as a farm lad he has won a distinguished rank among the lawyers of the State, as a legal student, as an advocate of rare eloquence, and as an orator broad in his views, and swaying great audiences by his well chosen words. Mr. Burns is a representative of the two peoples, or races, who have made a marked impression not only on New Hampshire and New England, but on American history; the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Scotch Irish clans who migrated later were his forefathers.

For many generations his ancestors have been sturdy, liberty-loving. God-fearing, upright, and honorable citizens, yeomen ready to do service for their country and for their faith. The Burns family is of Scotch origin, whose annals are lost in the oblivion of border warfare and antiquity. The pioneer ancestor, John Burns, was born in 1700,