The United States in the Light of Prophecy Part 3

The word which John uses to describe the manner in which this beast comes up is very expressive. It is [Greek: anabainon] (_anabainon_), one of the prominent definitions of which is, "to grow or spring up as a plant." And it is a remarkable fact that this very figure has been chosen by political writers, as the one which best ill.u.s.trates the rise of our government. Mr. G.A. Townsend, in his work ent.i.tled, "The New World Compared with the Old," p. 462, says:--

"Since America was discovered, she has been a subject of revolutionary thought in Europe. The mystery of _her coming forth from vacancy_, the marvel of her wealth in gold and silver, the spectacle of her captives led through European capitals, filled the minds of men with unrest: and unrest is the first stage of revolution."

On p. 635, he further says:--

"In this web of islands, the West Indies, began the life of both [North and South] Americas. There Columbus saw land, there Spain began her baneful and brilliant Western Empire; thence Cortez departed for Mexico, De Soto for the Mississippi, Balboa for the Pacific, and Pizarro for Peru. The history of the United States was separated by a beneficient Providence far from this wild and cruel history of the rest of the continent, and _like a silent seed, we grew into empire_; while empire itself, beginning in the South, was swept by so interminable a hurricane that what of its history we can ascertain is read by the very lightnings that devastated it.

The growth of English America may be likened to a series of lyrics sung by separate singers, which, coalescing, at last make a vigorous chorus, and this, attracting many from afar, swells and is prolonged, until presently it a.s.sumes the dignity and proportions of epic song."

A writer in the _Dublin Nation_ about the year 1850 spoke of the United States as a wonderful empire which was "_emerging_," and "_amid the silence of the earth_ daily adding to its power and pride."

In Martyn's "History of the Great Reformation," Vol. iv, p. 238, is an extract from an oration of Edward Everett, on the English exiles who founded this government, in which he says:--

"Did they look for a retired spot, inoffensive from its obscurity, safe in its remoteness from the haunts of despots, where the little church of Leyden might enjoy freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions over which in _peaceful conquest--victoria sine clade_--they have borne the banners of the cross."

We now ask the reader to look at these expressions side by side: "Coming up out of the earth," "coming forth from vacancy," "emerging amid the silence of the earth," "like a silent seed we grew into empire," "mighty regions" secured by "peaceful conquest." The first is from the prophet, stating what would be when the two-horned beast should arise; the others are from political writers, telling what has been in the history of our own government. Can any one fail to see that the last four are exactly synonymous with the first, and that they record a complete accomplishment of the prediction? And what is not a little remarkable, those who have thus recorded the fulfillment have, without any reference to prophecy, used the very figure which the prophet employed. These men, therefore, being judges--men of large and cultivated minds, and whose powers of discernment all will acknowledge to be sufficiently clear--it is certain that the particular manner in which the United States have arisen, answers most strikingly to the development of the symbol under consideration.

We now extend the inquiry a step further: Have the United States "come up" in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? Has their progress been sufficiently great and sufficiently rapid to corresponds to that visible and perceptible growth which John saw in the two-horned beast?

Every person whose reading is ordinarily extensive, has something of an idea of what the United States are to-day; he likewise has an idea, so far as words can convey it to his mind, of what they were at the commencement of their history. The only object, then, in presenting statistics and testimony on this point, is to show that our rapid growth has struck mankind with the wonder of a constant miracle.

Said Emile de Girardin, in _La Liberte_ (1868):--

"The population of America, not thinned by any conscription, multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and the day may before [long be] seen, when they will number sixty or eighty millions of souls.

This _parvenu_ [one recently risen to notice] is aware of his importance and destiny. Hear him proudly exclaim, 'America for Americans!' See him promising his alliance to Russia; and we see that power which well knows what force is, grasp the hand of this giant of yesterday.

"In view of his _unparalleled progress and combination_, what are the little toys with which we vex ourselves in Europe? What is this needle gun we are anxious to get from Prussia, that we may beat her next year with it? Had we not better take from America the principle of liberty she embodies, out of which have come her citizen pride, her gigantic industry, and her formidable loyalty to the destinies of her republican land?"

The _Dublin_ (Ireland) _Nation_, already quoted, says:--

"In the east, there is arising a colossal centaur called the Russian Empire. With a civilized head and front, it has the sinews of a huge barbaric body. There one man's brain moves 70,000,000.

There all the traditions of the people are of aggression and conquest in the west. There but two ranks are distinguishable--serfs and soldiers. There the map of the future includes Constantinople and Vienna as outposts of St. Petersburg.

"In the west, an opposing and still more wonderful American Empire is emerging. We islanders have no conception of the extraordinary events which amid the silence of the earth are daily adding to the power and pride of this gigantic nation. Within three years, territories more extensive than these three kingdoms [Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland] France and Italy put together, have been quietly, and in almost 'matter of course' fas.h.i.+on, annexed to the Union.

"Within seventy years, seventeen new sovereignties, the smallest of them larger than Great Britain, have peaceably united themselves to the Federation. No standing army was raised, no national debt sunk, no great exertion was made, but there they are. And the last mail brings news of three more great States about to be joined to the thirty: Minnesota in the north-west, Deseret in the south-west, and California on the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific. These three States will cover an area equal to one-half the European continent."

Mitchel, in his School Geography (4th revised edition), p. 101, speaking of the United States, says:--

"When it is considered that one hundred years ago the inhabitants numbered but 1,000,000, it presents the most striking instance of national growth to be found in the history of mankind."

Let us reduce these general statements to the more tangible form of facts and figures. A short time before the great Reformation in the days of Martin Luther, not four hundred years ago, this Western Continent was discovered. The Reformation brought out a large cla.s.s of persons who were determined to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d according to the dictates of their own consciences. Being fettered and oppressed by the religious intolerance of the Old World, they sought, in the wilds of America, that measure of civil and religious freedom which they so much desired. A little more than two hundred years ago, Dec. 22, 1620, the Mayflower landed one hundred of these voluntary exiles on the coast of New England. Here, says Martyn, "New England was born," and this was "its first baby cry, a prayer and a thanksgiving to the Lord."

Another permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. In process of time other settlements were made, and colonies organized, which were all subject to the English government till the declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.

The population of these colonies, according to the _U.S. Magazine_ of August, 1855, amounted in 1701, to 262,000; in 1749, to 1,046,000; in 1775, to 2,803,000. Then commenced the struggle of the American colonies against the oppression of the mother country. In 1776, they declared themselves as, in justice and right, an independent nation. In 1777, delegates from the thirteen original States, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachussets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, in Congress a.s.sembled, adopted articles of confederation. In 1783, the war of the Revolution closed by a treaty of peace with Great Britain, whereby our independence was acknowledged, and territory ceded to the extent of 815,615 square miles. In 1787, the Const.i.tution was framed and ratified by the foregoing thirteen States, and on the 1st of March, 1789, went into operation. Then the American s.h.i.+p of State was fairly launched, with less than one million square miles of territory, and about three millions of souls.

Thus we are brought to the time when, in our interpretation of Revelation 13, this government is introduced into the prophecy as "coming up." Our territorial growth since then has been as follows: Louisiana, acquired from France in 1803, comprising 930,928 square miles of territory. Florida, from Spain in 1821, with 59,268 square miles.

Texas, admitted to the Union in 1845, with 237,504 square miles. Oregon, as settled by treaty in 1846, with 380,425 square miles. California, as conquered from Mexico in 1847, with 649,762 square miles. Arizona (New Mexico), as acquired from Mexico by treaty in 1854, with 27,500 square miles. Alaska, as acquired by purchase from Russia in 1867, with 577,390 square miles. This gives a grand total of three million, five hundred and seventy-eight thousand, three hundred and ninety-two (3,578,392) square miles of territory, which is about four-ninths of all North America, and more than one-fifteenth of the whole land surface of the globe.

And while this expansion has been thus rapidly going forward here, how has it been with the other leading nations of the globe? Macmillian & Co., the London publishers, in announcing their "Statesman's Year Book"

for 1867, make an interesting statement of the changes that took place in Europe during the half century between the years 1817 and 1867. They say:--

"The half century has extinguished three kingdoms, one grand duchy, eight duchies, four princ.i.p.alities, one electorate, and four republics. Three new kingdoms have arisen, and one kingdom has been transformed into an empire. There are now forty-one States in Europe against fifty-nine which existed in 1817. Not less remarkable is the territorial extension of the superior States of the world. Russia has annexed 567,364 square miles; the United States, 1,968,009; France, 4,620; Prussia, 29,781; Sardinia, expanding into Italy, has increased by 83,041; the Indian Empire has been augmented by 431,616. The princ.i.p.al States that have lost territory are Turkey, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands."

We ask the especial attention of the reader to these particulars. During the last half century, twenty-one goverments have disappeared altogether; and only three new ones have arisen. Five have lost instead of gained in territory. Only five, besides our own, have added to their domain. And the one which has done the most in this direction has added only a little over half a million of square miles, while we have added nearly two millions. Thus the United States government has added over fourteen hundred thousand square miles of territory more than any other single nation, and over eight hundred thousand more than have been added by all the other nations of the earth put together: In view of these facts, can any one doubt, looking the whole world over, which government it is that has been, during this time, emphatically, "coming up"?

In point of population, our increase since 1798, according to the census of the several decades, has been as follows: In 1800, the total number of inhabitants in the United States was 5,305,925; in 1810, 7,239,814; in 1820, 9,638,191; in 1830, 12,866,020; in 1840, 17,069,453; in 1850, 23,191,876; in 1860, 31,445,089; in 1870, 38,555,983. These figures are almost too large for the mind to readily grasp. Perhaps a better idea can be formed of the rapid increase of population by looking at a few representative cities. Boston, in 1792, had 18,000 inhabitants; now, 250,000. New York, in 1792, 30,000; now, nearly 1,000,000. Chicago, about thirty years ago, was a little trading post, with a few huts; but yet it contained at the time of the great conflagration in October, 1871, nearly 350,000 souls. San Francisco, twenty years ago, was a barren waste, but contains to-day 170,000 inhabitants.

Our industrial growth has been equally remarkable. In 1792, the United States had no cotton mill. In 1850, there were 1074, employing 100,000 hands. Only forty-one years ago the first section of the first railroad in this country, the Baltimore and Ohio, was opened to a distance of twenty-three miles. We have now 52,000 miles in operation. It was only thirty-four years ago that the magnetic telegraph was invented. Now the estimated length of telegraph wire in operation is over 100,000 miles.

In 1833, the first reaper and mower was constructed, and in 1846, the first sewing machine was completed. Think of the hundreds of thousands of both of these cla.s.ses of machines now in use. And there are now more lines of telegraph and railroad projected and in process of construction than ever before, and greater facilities and larger plans for manufactories of all kinds than at any previous point of time. And should these industries increase in the same geometrical ratio, and time continue ten years, the figures we now chronicle would then read about as the records of a century ago now read to us.

And Nature herself, by the physical features she has stamped upon our country, has seemed to lay it out as a field for national development on the most magnificent scale. Here we have the largest lakes, the longest rivers, the mightiest cataracts, the deepest caves, the broadest and most fertile prairies, and the richest mines of gold and iron and coal and copper, to be found upon the globe. "When America was discovered, there were but sixty millions of gold in Europe. California and the territories round her have produced one thousand millions of dollars in gold in twenty years. Sixty-one million dollars was the largest annual gold yield ever made in Australia. California has several times produced ninety millions of gold in a year." (Townsend, p. 384.) "The area of workable coal beds in all the world outside the United States is estimated at 26,000 square miles. That of the United States, not including Alaska, is estimated at over 200,000 square miles, or _eight times as large as the available coal area of all the rest of the globe!_" (American Year Book for 1869, p. 655.) "The iron product and manufacture of the United States has increased enormously within the last few years, and the vast beds of iron convenient to coal in various parts of the Union, are destined to make America the chief source of supply for the world." "Three mountains of solid iron [in Missouri], known as Iron Mountain, Pilot k.n.o.b, and Shepherd's Mountain, are among the most remarkable natural curiosities on our continent." (_Id._ p.

654.)

And the people have taken hold to lay out their work on the grand scale that nature has indicated. Excepting only the Houses of Parliament in London, our national capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton is the most s.p.a.cious and imposing national edifice in the world. By the unparalleled feat of a subterranean tunnel two miles out under the bottom of the lake, Chicago obtains her water. The work of constructing a railroad tunnel across the Detroit river is already commenced, and the traveler will soon pa.s.s, in his steam palace, under the bed of that river, while the immense commerce of the lakes is floating upon its bosom over his head. Chicago is the most extensive grain and lumber market in the world; and Philadelphia and New York contain the largest and best furnished printing establishments now in existence. The submarine cable, running like a thread of light through the depths of the broad Atlantic from the United States to England, a conception of American genius, is the greatest achievement in the telegraphic line. The Pacific Railroad, that iron highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, stands at the head of all monuments of engineering skill in modern times. Following the first Atlantic cable, soon came a second almost as a matter of course; and following the Central Pacific R.R., a northern line is now in process of rapid construction. And what results are expected to flow from these mighty enterprises? The _Scientific American_ of Oct. 6, 1866, says:--

"To exaggerate the importance of this transcontinental highway is almost impossible. To a certain extent it will change the relative positions of this country, Europe and Asia.... With the completion of the Pacific Railroad, instead of receiving our goods from India, China, j.a.pan, and the 'isles of the sea,' by way of London and Liverpool, we shall bring them direct by way of the Sandwich Islands and the railroad, and become the carriers to a great extent for Europe. But this is but a portion of the advantage of this work. Our western mountains are almost literally mountains of gold and silver. In them the Arabian fable of Aladdin is realized....

Let the road be completed, and the comforts as well as the necessaries furnished by Asia, the manufactures of Europe, and the productions of the States can be brought by the iron horse almost to the miner's door; and in the production and possession of the precious metals, the blood of commerce, we shall be the richest nation on the globe. But the substantial wealth created by the improvement of the soil and the development of the resources of the country, is a still more important element in the result of this vast work."

Thus, with the idea of becoming the carriers of the world, the highway of the nations, and the richest power on the globe, the American heart swells with pride, and mounts up with aspirations, to which there is no limit.

And the extent to which we have come up is further shown by the influence which we are exerting on other nations. Speaking of America Mr. Townsend in the work above cited, p. 462, says:--

"Out of her discovery grew the European reformation in religion; out of our Revolutionary War grew the revolutionary period of Europe. And out of our rapid development among great States and happy peoples, has come an immigration more wonderful than that which invaded Europe from Asia in the latter centuries of the Roman Empire. When we raised our flag on the Atlantic, Europe sent her contributions; it appeared on the Pacific, and all orientalism felt the signal. They are coming in two endless fleets, eastward and westward, and the highway is swung between the ocean for them to tread upon. We have lightened Ireland of half her weight, and Germany is coming by the village load every day. England, herself, is sending the best of her working men now (1869), and in such numbers as to dismay her Jack Bunsbys. What is to be the limit of this mighty immigration?"

Speaking of our influence and standing in the Pacific, the same writer, p. 608, says:--

"In the Pacific Ocean these four powers [England, France, Holland, and Russia] are squarely met by the United States, which, without possessions or the wish for them, has paramount influence in j.a.pan, the favor of China, the friendly countenance of Russia, and good feeling with all the great English colonies planted there. The United States is the only power on the Pacific which has not been guilty of intrigue, of double-dealing, of envy and of bitterness, and it has taken the _front rank_ in influence without awakening the dislike of any of its compet.i.tors, possibly excepting those English who are never magnanimous."

And Hon. Wm. H. Seward, on his return from a late trip around the world, said, "Americans are now the fas.h.i.+on all over the world."

With one more extract we close the testimony on this point. In the N.Y.

_Independent_ of July 7, 1870, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, then Vice-President of the United States, glancing briefly at the past history of this country, said:--

"Wonderful, indeed, has been that history. Springing into life from under the heel of tyranny, its progress has been onward, with the firm step of a conqueror. From the rugged clime of New England, from the banks of the Chesapeake, from the Savannahs of Carolina and Georgia, the descendants of the Puritans, the Cavalier, and the Huguenot, swept over the towering Alleghanies, but a century ago the barrier between civilization on the one side and almost unbroken barbarism on the other; and banners of the Republic waved from flagstaff and highland, through the broad valleys of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri. Nor stopped its progress there.

Thence onward poured the tide of American civilization and, progress, over the vast regions of the Western plains; and from the snowy crests of the Sierras you look down on American States fronting the calm Pacific, an empire of themselves in resources and wealth, but loyal in our darkest hours to the nation whose authority they acknowledge and in whose glory they proudly share.

"From a territorial area of less than nine hundred thousand square miles, it has expanded into over three millions and a half--fifteen times larger than that of Great Britain and France combined--with a sh.o.r.e-line, including Alaska, equal to the entire circ.u.mference of the earth, and with a domain within these lines far wider than that of the Romans in their proudest days of conquest and renown. With a river, lake, and coastwise commerce estimated at over two thousand millions of dollars per year; with railway traffic of four to six thousand millions per year, and the annual domestic exchanges of the country, running up to nearly ten thousand millions per year; with over two thousand millions of dollars invested in manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industry; with over five hundred millions of acres of land in actual occupancy, valued, with their appurtenances, at over seven thousand millions of dollars, and producing annually crops valued at over three thousand millions of dollars; with a realm which, if the density of Belgium's population were possible, would be vast enough to include all the present inhabitants of the world; and with equal rights guaranteed to even the poorest and humblest of our forty millions of people, we can, with a manly pride akin to that which distinguished the palmiest days of Rome, claim as the n.o.blest t.i.tle of the world, 'I am an American citizen.'"

And how long a time has it taken for this wonderful transformation? In the language of Edward Everett, "They are but lately dead who saw the first-born of the pilgrims;" and Mr. Townsend (p. 21) says: "The memory of one man can swing from that time of primitive government to this--when thirty-eight millions of people living on two oceans and in two zones, are represented in Was.h.i.+ngton, and their consuls and amba.s.sadors are in every port and metropolis of the globe."

Is this enough? The only objection we can antic.i.p.ate is that this nation has progressed too fast and too far--that the government has already outgrown the symbol. But what shall be thought of those who deny that it has any place in prophecy at all? No; this prodigy has its place on the prophetic page; and the path which has thus far led us to the conclusion that the two-horned beast is the prophetic symbol of the United States, is hedged in on either side by walls of adamant that reach to heaven. To make any other application is an utter impossibility. The thought would be folly, and the attempt, abortion.

Chapter Six.

Character Of The Government Represented By The Two-horned Beast.