The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1851-07-12
AN ANNRs5SS
DELIVERED AT THE COURTHOUSE. FRANKLIN
On the Anniversary Of
Our National independence,
RIVED RICHARDSON. ESQ.
Ed. RICHARDSON, ESQ.


millions of American freemen are nov
rejoicing in the thought, There il
something at once fascinating and sub
lime in the contemplation of an ex
tended nation like this-moving from
every quarter of its great confederacy
and bearing in their bosoms rich In
cense of gratitude for the altar O.
Liberty. Forming part of that mighty
host of worshippers, we are here tc
commemorate the 4th day of July, 1776
AS bearer of our portion of that obla.
ton, you would not pardon me, on an
occasion like this, were aught to be
mingled with its associations but what
would find kindred home in the bosom
of every true American. To do 50
would be like desecration Of holy
hour-a mingling of base alloy with
pure gold.
Here met to celebrate the greatest
anniversary on which that sun above
US ever shone, our every thought, our
every emotion should be purely ma
tional.. We should be like two Ameri-
can travellers, strangers though they
be, meeting in far distant cline: all
is forgotten-naught is remembered,
save the proud recollection that they
are citizens of the same broad land,
protected by the folds of the same broad
banner, and have an equal privilege to
be called the sons of Washington. What
care they whether the spot they call
home is high up in the coldestrs of
our frozen North, where all is in icy fet-
tiers bound; OF here, amid the fair spread
fields of the South, or in some lovely
nook or prairie glen, where atsummer's
noon-day, all nature painting seeks the
cooling shade.
And we'll may we, on this anniversary
of 1851, let our bosoms glow with honest
pride, and our hearts burn with graft
tude TO God for all his blessings; for
never before, since a government was
organized on this earth, has one excited
so deep. so universal an interest In the
worlds heart as ours. Wherever civil
ized man exists. if Freedom siehs for a
home, it is here; and where the strong
arm Of oppression has proved too power
ful for struggling hberty-where all IS
lost, and nanght remains but dark dis
pair-then it is our own happy land
looks lovely from afar, and the hope to
gain it dies but with the last parting
sigh.
Even while I now speak 10 you, the
heart of that noble son of Hungary is
sickened with hope deferred;" who, in
his own touching language, "now lives
but to breathe the free air of the land
of Washington To consummate his
hopes in this, one of our gallant barks
now waits but the signal to bear him
thence; and methinks when that proud
form first presses the deck of an Ameri-
can ship the very sails viii flap their
joy, and proudly spread themselves. as
they bear this refugee from oppression,
the noble, the gallant Kossuth! How
much more enduring such tributes to
our country's true greatness, than those
peals of victory which went up at
Monterey and Churubusco, or those
brilliant achievements of arms at Cerro
Gordo and at Molino del Rey.
Giant indeed must that mind be
which can elaborate all the mighty
issues which have sprung from our ex-
ample, France! Republican France,
with her teeming millions, is but a
single block in that stupendous monu- |
ment, whose crowning glory is our own
eagle of liberty, and whose lengthening
shadows must rest on the confines of |
earth. Wherever our history is known;
wherever the story is read of a great
nation in the west, whose people submit |
to no laws but those of their own crea-
tion-where the poorest, the humblest
among them has an equal chance for
the highest dignity on earth-man sciH
think, nations may act, and tyrants must |
tremble.
And why do we occupy this position
in the eye OF the worlde Why does
our proud bird sit there2 But few
short years ago, and we were an infant
struggling in giants arms, who would
stifle our feeble cries; butthose cries
were to Heaven its wall reached the
eternal throne of justice, and behold
the giant was stricken back dismayed!
And the infant, where is it nowa
:. 1t would be vain for Us to trace the
causes, step by step, which led up to
our bright pathway of fame; this is now
a matter of history, familiar to as ALL
The germ was brought over in the May
flower; the fruit was the sublime dec
laraiion justreadin your hearing. And Il
while the imrnnvtal mind exists in man ii