foreign wars, besides her wars in India, China and Persia. France has had ten, Prussia six, Russia ten, Austria five, and Italy six foreign wars in the same period of time. With the exception of England every one of these nations has been beaten in some of its wars. Thus it appears that republican institutions have not only given us success in war, but have secured for us a longer period of unbroken peace than any European power has enjoyed.

It was predicted that we would be torn by internal dissensions, and that our government would end in anarchy. During the entire period of our national existence we have had but one serious internal disturbance— the civil war-which has been happily overcome, and the wounds of which are being healed by the virtues of our free institutions. During this same period England has had two insurrections, Prussia one, Austria two of great severity, Russia one, France seven revolutions, each of which has been accompanied by a change in the form of government, and Italy and Spain an indefinite number. Our government has been strong enough to put down the most formidable civil war of history, and yet at the same time to preserve the institutions of the republic unimpaired. The result has shown that we are less inclined to civil wars and revolutions than monarchical Europe.

Our government has never been overthrown, while those of many European states have been overturned by revolutions since the establishment of our own. France has never been able to maintain a system of government for a quarter of a century since the great Revolution. In Austria, Bavaria and Greece, the sovereign has been forced to abdicate, and in France he has several times been driven from the throne and country. Even Prussia has been forced to submit to the demands of the revolutionary spirit, as when, in 1848, she changed her form of government from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.

Our confederation of States has never been broken up. Germany has witnessed the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire, the downfall of the system established by Napoleon, and the destruction of the German confederation. The Austrian state has been several times overthrown. Italy has been changed from a kingdom to a collection of detached states, and then to a kingdom again. France has lost her possessions of Holland and Belgium and the Rhine provinces. During this period our government has prospered and grown great, and at the same time the various States, as many in number as all the countries of Europe, have retained their independence and the sole management of their internal affairs.

We have gained ground steadily. Our territory has increased rapidly by conquest, purchase, or cession, and we have never at any time parted

with a foot of land belonging to the republic. During this period scarcely a state of Europe has failed at some time or other to lose a material part of itself. Thus republican institutions have enabled us not only to retain our original possessions, but to aggrandize ourselves beyond the wildest dreams of any European monarchy.

Our growth in material wealth and in the higher departments of civilization has been shown. It was argued at the commencement of our existence that our republican ideas would lead us to run into licentiousness and infidelity. To-day we have more churches than any nation in Europe, and our people are a more practically religious people than any European nation. Foreign writers often admit that this is the only country whose civilization is based on personal religion. Yet we have no state religion or religious laws, but leave matters of conscience to be settled between the man and his Creator. Our benevolent institutions are equal to those of any European country in number, efficiency and the liberality with which they are supported. Crime is not more frequent here than in other lands; and it is a notorious fact that our criminal and pauper classes are almost entirely composed of foreigners.

Thus we have proved to the world that republican institutions can make a country as great, as strong at home and respected abroad, as prosperous and as stable, as enlightened and as virtuous as the most powerful monarchy, and by far freer and happier.

Such a destiny could not be worked out by any but a free people. The supremacy of the law in this country leaves the citizen free and untrammelled. We have dispensed with large standing armies, which eat up the life of states, and the safety of the republic and our institutions is intrusted to the whole body of citizens, each of whom is vitally interested in maintaining it. We have no class interests to array our people in hostile divisions. Church and state are separate; neither intrudes upon the domain of the other; and the result is to the advantage of each. All men are equal before the law, and personal merit is the only badge of distinction among us. Men are trained to regard themselves as free citi

zens of a free land, a title more precious than all princely rank.

Such a state of society can exist only among an educated people. An ignorant man can never be a good citizen. This was the deep conviction of the Pilgrim fathers, and it led them to undertake the great experiment of educating the people at the expense of the state, in order that they might properly discharge their obligations of citizenship. Their descendants have continued their work, and have extended the work begun by them throughout the entire country, and have wisely made the free school the basis of our whole political system. There, free from sectarian

influence or teachings, the young citizen receives the training which fits him to appreciate and enjoy in after years the blessings secured to him, and to labor for their perpetuity. If any man seek the reason of the remarkable prosperity of our country, he will find it in the general intelligence of our people. As a whole our people are more intelligent than those of European states. The education of our women is higher than that of any other nation. For this we are indebted to the free school.

If, then, the story of our first hundred years teaches us any lesson, or conveys any warning, it is that we should guard with jealous care our system of free public education, and resist any and all efforts to impair its usefulness, or to give to it a sectarian character. It is the most precious heritage that has come down to us from our fathers-the corner-stone of republican liberty. It is worth fighting for, worth dying for, if need be.

APPENDIX.

THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.

S the close of the first century of the independence of the United States drew near, it was generally regarded as the duty of the nation to celebrate it in a manner worthy of the great fame and wealth of the republic. Various plans for accomplishing this object were suggested, but none met with a national approval. In 1866, a number of gentlemen conceived the idea of celebrating the great event by an exhibition of the progress, wealth, and general condition of the republic, in which all the nations of the world should be invited to participate. The honor of originating and urging this plan upon the public belongs to the Hon. John Bigelow, formerly minister from the United States to France; General Charles B. Norton, who had served as a commissioner of the United States at the Paris exposition of 1867; Professor John L. Campbell, of Wabash College, Indiana; and Colonel M. Richards Mucklé, of Philadelphia. The plan proposed by these gentlemen was not generally received with favor at first. It was argued in opposition to it that the great exhibitions of Europe were the work of the governments of the countries in which they were held; that under our peculiar system the government could not take the same part in our exhibition; and that it would thus be thrown into the hands of private parties and would result in failure. The city of Philadelphia was designated as the place at which the exhibition should be held. This feature of the plan aroused considerable opposition growing out of local jealousies. It was argued by the friends of the scheme that Philadelphia was fairly entitled to the honor, inasmuch as it had been the scene of the signing of the declaration of independence; and that the city was also admirably located for such an exhibition, being easily accessible from all parts of the Union and from Europe.

The friends of the scheme labored hard to overcome the objections urged against it, and had the satisfaction of seeing their plans become more popular every day. The matter was ably discussed in the press the country, and at length was taken in hand by the Franklin Institute

of