Page 39 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

FOURTII ANNUAL REPORT. 37
war, of nearly nine thousand millions of dollars, and a remaining
debt of three thousand six hundred millions. Of course, with
this view of things they will continue to rush to your magnifi-
cent country, to avoid an odious and unjust incumbrance which
they cannot remove. The laboring classes now hear by every
returning steamer from America, of the wonders of the Great
West, and that this is truly the land of peace, of plenty, and
of Gold. No power can stop them from coming, and it affords
me great pleasure merely to anticipate the scenes that you are
bound to witness in Wisconsin and all the new States of the
North-West, if you wield the political power that you will soon
possess, so as to keep us all in one harmonious union.
"It will be a part of the appropriate business of your Soci-
ety, to impress upon the new generation rising up among you,
a proper sense of the evils of all contentions, and of section-
alisn~ in particular, to which there seems now a strong tendency.
6ome of the English emigrants will probably be able to telyfrom
personal recollection the evil effects of the contentious follies of
our English relations. They may recollect the silly war against
Bonaparte, which began in 1804 and lasted 12 years, the last
three with this country, and cost 1159 millions. Tlle honest
Germans too may bring something in the way of experience, and
help you to lay, in the Great West, the foundation of an empire
and a government that wi!l be imperishable.
"The influence and value of your association may bc vary
great, in forming and moulding public opinion, and 110 doubt
will be. By spreading it so widely in its members, you will
naturally feel the pulsations of puhlic thought and opinion in
all parts of our great country, with considerable accuracy.-
This is certainly a great idea, for wllicti you will have due
eredit; and it woultl not be more strange than tho rapidly ex-
pansive power of our new North-Western States, if the. Ilistor-
ical Society of Wisconsin should in time not very rriilote, be
Ithe model of tl~e world, and its brightest intellectual luminary."
Dr. W. DE RASS, author of the Aistory and Indian Wars of
Weatern Virginia,, writes: " On more than one occasion,