The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-08-05
ADDRESS TO THE OLD THIRTEEN STATES.
MOnum ent to the Signers of the Dac1aro.
tIOn of Independence.


Monument the Signers of the D.c,,ro
tIon of Independence.
The following is the able and eloquent ad-
dress of the convention of delegates from nine
of the ''Old Thirteen States, which assembled
in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on the 9TH
of July 4:
To the people and Legislatures Of the States of Mas
sachusetts, NetU Hampshire, Rhode Island, Con-
mecticm, Ne'o York, Neeo Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delascare, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina
South Carolina and Georgia.
The undersigned delegates from the States
they represent, in pursuance of the invitation
of the municipal authority of the city of Phila-
delphia, have assembled in that venerated Hall,
where than three quarters of century
since, the Declaration of the Independence of
the thirteen Colonies was framed, and from
which it was promulgated, to consider the pro-
priety and expediency of erecting on the grounds
surrounding it, some durable and appropriate
memorial of that wonderful event, and of the
men who were the agents in producing it. The
results of our deliberations and the mode in
which it is proposed to accomplish the object,
will appear in the proceedings of the Conven-
ton, to which we respectfully refer for those
details which are necessary to full comprehen-
sion of the subject.
Our purpose in addressing you is to soli-
cit your hearty cooperation in the execution of
this design.
That event ushered a new member into the
family of nations and electrified all Europe. 1t
onened n new reveIatioo of l;barfy ond obaprad
the relation of people and government, by teach
ing the one how to resist and conquer oppression,
and the other the absolute necessity to its own
continuance, of recognizing and respecting the
rights of humanity. From that time forth, a
new vital and quickening spirit has pervaded
the world. Thrones have been shaken, empires
have been overturned, society has been convul-
sed, blood and carnage have desolated the earth
but still the intelligence and soul of the peo-
pie of all Christendom have been revivifed, ele-
waited and expanded to a comprehension of their
rights, which will never be obliterated nor for
gotten but will advance, enlarge and increase,
until that moral and social preparation for the
appreciation and enjoyment of liberty shall be
effected, which in the Divine economy is so in
dispensable to the permanence of free institu-
tions, While such have been the results abroad
of that mighty movement which the fullness of
time developed after a century of preparation,
how can human language describe the vast con-
sequences which have flowed from it in this IA
vored land To what point shall we look with
out finding overwhelming evidences of its all
powerful influences =? Thirty-one Free happy
and independent sovereign States created out Of
thirteen struggling and depressed Colonies, gov
erned by laws to which they never assented, by
tyranncal Ministers who engaged them as only
valuable account of the opportunity they affor-
ded of extending power and patronage-their
trade and commerce shackled by oppressive re-
strictions and their prosperity checked by petty
jealousy-a population of nearly twenty-five
millions of inhabitants rejoicing in moral, social
religious and commercial prosperity, springing
from only three millions, scarcely able to maintain
existence-a territory watered by the Atlantic
and the Pacific, and every sea whitened by our
canvass-respected, honored and feared by the
nations of the earth-overfowing with wealth.
and exuberant in all the elements of prosperity
and appiness-where, where on the face Of the
globe is there a country with which we would
exchange conditions To whom and to what
are we indebted for these priceless blessings >
To an overruling Providence and to the men
who framed, who declared, and who achieved
our independence. Our hearts ache with the
desire to do something to certify our gratitude,
our veneratiOn, and to prove that we are not un-
worthy of such a heritage.
Have no lesson to teach our children and
their children's children Shall they not be
reminded of the goodness of God
and the self-sacrifcing bravery and devotion of
their ancestors Shall they not have one ma
tional shrine of patriotism, to which all-with-
out distinction of creed or opinion-can repair,
and unitedly, with one heart and one soul, pour
out their thanks giving and their love q? We are
so constituted by our Creator, that visible signs
and representations are necessary to awaken our
sensibilities, to stimulate our affections As
the third generation of that posterty for whom
the men of the Revolution chiefly labored, and
and died, it is peculiarly fitting that
we should erect such representations of their
great and controlling act, as shall speak to our
own hearts, to our children's hearts, and shall
certify to God and the world that we appreciate
and reverence, and would cultivate and dissem-
mate the mighty truths and principles which
brought our nation into existence. which consti-
tute its very life, and of which it seems design
ed by providence to be the special defender and
protector.