Making America Great

TimeWatch Editorial
May 11, 2016

The incredible shift that has taken place in the United States in the relatively few 240 years of its existence is truly amazing. Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay, in their edited volume published in 1888 entitled A Library Of American Literature. From The Earliest Settlement To The Present Time, Volume 5 includes a section written by William Hickling Prescott. Mr. Prescott, in describing the objectives and attitudes of the Puritans who set up the original colonies says this:

“The principle of action with (the settlers) was not avarice, nor the more specious pretext of proselytism; but independence,—independence religious and political. To secure this, they were content to earn a bare subsistence by a life of frugality and toil. They asked nothing from the soil but the reasonable returns of their own labor. No golden visions threw a deceitful halo around their path and beckoned them onwards through seas of blood to the subversion of an unoffending dynasty. They were content with the slow but steady progress of their social polity. They patiently endured the privations of the wilderness, watering the tree of liberty with their tears and with the sweat of their brow, till it took deep root in the land and sent up its branches high towards the heavens; while the communities of the neighboring continent, shooting up into the sudden splendors of a tropical vegetation, exhibited, even in their prime, the sure symptoms of decay. Edmund Clarence Stedman And Ellen Mackay Hutchinson: A Library Of American Literature. From The Earliest Settlement To The Present Time, Volume 5; Page 422.

The desire for freedom, religious and political, was enough. For this they were willing to build their lives over again, from the beginning. It is truly amazing what they were willing to give up, just so they might experience the joy of religious and political freedom. But what is even more amazing is the difference in attitude today being demonstrated in the lives of those who now reside in this land. Freedom, religious or political seems to have lost its attraction. Today both are being exchanged for the temporary possessions that last for an even shorter period of time than is advertised. George Bancroft in his book entitled: History of the Colonization of the United States, Volume 1, page 467 says:

“The first years of the residence of Puritans in America, were years of great hardship and Affliction; The people were full of affections; and the objects of love were around them. They struck root in the soil immediately. They enjoyed religion. They were, from the first, industrious, and enterprising, and frugal; and affluence followed of course. When Persecution ceased in England, there were already in New England “thousands who would not change their place for any other in the world;” The purity of morals completes the picture of colonial felicity. One might dwell there “from year to year, and not see a drunkard, or hear an oath, or meet a beggar." George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Volume 1, page 467. Character Of Puritanism.

The purity of morals has also disappeared. If the first years of Puritan America are described as the above writers have, then the events of the present must surely represent the final years of the nation. A unified depreciation of every known level can only be a warning of the end. The loss of integrity, the inability to measure true value, the grinding lust for instant gratification all mix together to create an indescribable society that bears no resemblance to the first years.

Indeed, if they could see us now, they would truly avoid even the most limited acquaintance with us. If we were their neighbors, they would warn their children concerning us. Perhaps our mirrors do not do the job. We need to take a look backward, see the simple desires of those who have gone before, their dedication to a work ethic that was based upon fulfilling responsibility rather than acquiring gain; A moral code that valued life and truth and integrity. A way of communicating that respected those around us; then perhaps, then perhaps our families would remain united through the trials that we encounter; then perhaps our children would pattern their lives after the positive examples that we set for them. Then perhaps, America would truly be great again.

Cameron A. Bowen