Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1845-07-10
GRAFTON.
EELLow-C CITIZENS !:


The annals ofhistory, presenting as they
dc, succession Of incidents, as varied as
the shifting phases OF the kaleidoscope. no
where offer to the contemplation of man,
a more sublime event than that we are this
Cay assembled to commemorate.
The records Of the past, rescued from the
destroying wave of time, have brought
down to us the chronicles Of high and
mighty deeds in mans eventful story; but
while they narraie few solitary instances
OF patriotic self-devotion and sacrifice
which are we'll worthy Of an Immortality
of fame-yet, for the most part, they but
tell Of the rise of one government upon
the crumbling ruins Of another, accom-
plished by fraud and force, and slgnalized
by all the detestible arts and cruelties of the
oppressor and tyrant The history OF the
world until late period in the last CEN
fury, was but the history OF mans tyranny
over the bodies and souls Of his fellows
sad and melancholy detail of multiplied
wrongs and injuries, inflicted as well upon
the passive and unresisting, as upon the
refractory and turbulent. II is a dark and
bloody story, upon which the recording
Angel--as he passes-may well drop a
tear; illumined as il is by so few, and such
fitful CLEANS, of the electricity Of mans
purer and lofter nature.
But while for centuries, these scenes of
wrong and oppression were enacted IN the
OLD world, brighter and more glorious
destiny was preparing for portion Of the
human race in the midst ofthe fertile plains,
and majestic forests of the NEW. 1t was
registered in heaven that the mind Of man
should not be forever shackled by error,
and fettered by the chains of tyranny and
misrule. There was an instinct implanted
within his bosom by the divinity, that told
of new order of things-an order spring
ing from truer understanding of his re-
lation 10 his fellows; and consequently more
harmonious with the eternal and immuta-
bic principles ofright. Itinculcaed fix
ed and settled hostility to the arrogant claim
of one man, to hold, as it were by divine
right, his brothers in the ,hraldom of mon
archical servltude;,it proclaimed that every
man was entitled by nature to that posi-
ton in the government, to which his tall
.ents and his energies might elevate him,
although it should constitute him the chief
ruler OF its destinies; it declared that the
old dogma, which asserted mans incapa-
city to govern himself, was not only false
in theory, but foul libel upon his nature,
and entirely at war with the wisdom Of
Providence as manifested in the economy
of the world.
These principles, at first family shad-
4 r 70 or to
the colonies that formed the nucleus OF
our happy Union of States, by the grind
ing expressions of the mother country, to
the eloquent recital of which, from the pen
of the great Apostle of Liberty, you have
Just listened. Communicated from heart
to heart, and gathering fire and energy as
they expanded, they at length ushered
into existence the sublime event we are
now called upon TO celebrate, the BIRTH
DAY OF FREEDOM IN THE WORLD!
1t isa singular and startling reflection,
that although we have nearly reached the
middle of the 18th century Of the christian
era, yet that FREEDOM has not arrived at
thai period which is even allotted to man
whose life is proverbially "of few days
and full of sorrow"-the patriarchal age Of
three score years and tent If we look
back TO the past, sixty nine years will carry
us to the day when the vestal flame was
first kindled upon the affairs of liberty, by
those holy ministers at her shrine, whose
virtues we are this day called upon TO con-
template. Oppression, now hoary with age,
has existed in its various forms from the
foundationofcivll society 10 the presentday,
but well regulated constitutional freedom,
by which every man has guaranteed to him
''life, liberty, aud the pursuit ofhappiness,"
,s Of so recent an origin that there are many
living of the present generation, who can
remember the glorious hour Of its birth
If we go back to the days Of ALFRED,
nearly one thousand years have elapsed
since the ENGLISH monarchy was one of
the leading powers of Europe. If we go
back 10 Me time Of CBARLEMAsNE, long