Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-08-14


as it grows old, and brightens as it re-
cedes, is in the principles which it pro-
claims. 1t was the first solemn decla-
ration by nation of the only legitimate
foundation of civil government 1t was
the corner stone of a new fabric, destined
20 cover the surface of the globe. 1t de-
molishcd at a stroke the lawfulness OF
all governments founded upon conquest.
1t swept away all the rubbish of accu
mulated centuries of servitude. 1t an
noGnced in practical form 10 the world
the transcendent truth of the unaliena-
bic Sovereignty ofthe people. Improved
that the social compact was no hgment
Of the imagination; but a real, solid,
and sacred bond of the social union.-
From the day of this Declaration, the
people of North America were no Ion
ger the fragment of distant empire,
imploring justice and mercy from an in
exorable master in another hemisphere.
They were no longer children appealing
IN vain to the sympathies of a heartless
mother; no longer subjects leaning up
on the shattered columns of royal pro-
misses, and invoking the faith of parch-
ment to secure their rights. They were
nation asserting as of right, and MAIN
tanning by war, its own existence. A ma
1lon was born in day
How many ages hence
Shall this, their lofty scene, be acted DER
In states unborn, and accents yet unknown"
It will be acted DER, itizens,
but it can never be repeated. 1t stands,
and must forever stand, alone, a beacon
on the summit of the mountain, to which
all the inhabitants of the earth may turn
,heir eyes for a genial and saving light
till time shall be lost in eternity, and this
globe itself dissolve. nor leave a wreck
behind. 1t stands for ever, light Of adj
,noniton to the rulers of men, light of
saliva; ion and redemption to the oppres-
sed. So long as this planet shall be in
habited by human beings, SO long as man
shall be of social nature, so long as
government shall be necessary to the |
great moral purposes of society, and so
long as it shall be abused to the pur-
poses of oppression, so long shall this
Declaration hold out TO the sovereign
and to the subject the extent and the
boundaries of their respective rights and
duties, founded in the laws Of nature, and
of natures God. Five and forty years
have passed away since this Declaration
was issued by our fathers; and here are
we, citizens, assembled in the full
enjoy ent of its fruits, to bless the au-
thor of our being for the bounties of his
providence, in casting our lot in this
favored land ; to remember with illusions
of gratitude the sages who put forth, and
the heroes who bled for the establish
ment of this Declaration; and, by the
communion ofsoul in the reperusal and
hearing of this instrument, to renew the
genuine Holy Alliance of its principles,
to recognize them as eternal truths, and
10 pledge ourselves, and bind our pos
terity, to faithful and undertaking adj
herence to them.
Fellow-c citizens, our fathers have been
faithful to them before us. When lit.
sle band of their delegates, {" with firm
reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, for the support Of this de-
claration, mutually pledgedt to each other
their lives, their fortunes, and their sa-
cred honor" from every dwelling, street,
and square, Of your populous cities, it
was re-echoed with shouts of Joy and
graduation And if the silent language
Of the heart could have been heard, eve
ry hill upon the surface of this continent
which had been trodden by the foot of
civilized man, every valley in which the
toll of your fathers had opened para
disc upeo the wild, would have rung,
with one accordant voice, louder than
the thunders, sweeter than the harmonies
of the heavens, with the solemn and re-
sponsive words, " We swear"
The pledge has been redeemed
Through six years of devastating but
heroic war, through forty years Of more
heroic peace, the principles of this de-
claration have been supported by the
tolls, by the vigils, by the blood Of your
fathers, and ofyourselves. The conflict
of war had begun with fearful odds of APP
parent human power on the part of the
oppressor. He welded at will the COL
lective force of the mightiest nation in
Europe. He with more than poetic |
truth asserted the dominion of the waves
The power to whose unjust usurpation
your fathers hurled the gauntlet of de-
iiance, baffed and vanquished by them,
has even since, stripped of all the ener-
gies of this continent, been found ade-
quate to give the law to its own quarter
Of the globe, and to mould the destinies
of the European world. 1t was with a
sling and stone, that your fathers went