Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/246

Rh by the free circulation and communication which is afforded by the numerous navigable rivers of North America, upon which thousands of steam-boats go and come; and in still later years by the railroads and telegraphic lines which extend over all parts of America, from State to State, and from city to city. The great diffusion of newspapers within the country, of every book which wins the love of the popular heart, of that religious popular literature which, in millions of small works, “tracts,” or tales, is poured forth over the nation like morning dew or a shower of manna; these all belong essentially to this life-giving circulation, and wherever the Anglo-American advances, the same cultivation, the same vitality arises. He accomplishes with astonishing certainty his mission as cultivator of the New World, and the framer of free, self-governing communities; and not even the institution of slavery is able to withstand the power of cultivation which advances with him over the earth.

Wherever the sons and daughters of the pilgrims find their way, there are established homes, schools, and churches, shops, and legislative assemblies; the free press, hotels for strangers, and asylums for the unfortunate or the orphan; there is the prison converted into the reformatory institution, into a new school for the ignorant and depraved children of the earth. Wherever they come, they acknowledge aloud the name and doctrines of the Master who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” The right of the Anglo-American people to become a great people consists in its Christianity. It is the spirit of the World's Redeemer which makes it the World's Conqueror.

When we leave the North-eastern States, where first the standards of religion and freedom were planted, and proceed westward to the limits of the wilderness beyond the Mississippi, where the Indian still hunts the deer, erects his wigwam, and kindles his nocturnal fires, then