The daily republic., 1853-08-24
THE REPUBLIC.
HON. EDWARD EVERETT
On stability and Progress. f
Speech of JuIy 4, 1883, at Fane,it Hall.

Fs Speech Of July A, 1853, at Faneuit Hall.
4 Mn. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: thank you
for the toast which has just been given, and for
the marked kindness with which it has been re-
ceived by the company. deem it privilege to
be present on this occasion. We ALL think, sir,
who had the good fortune to be present at the
Old South Church, felt that it was good to be
there. We felt that it was good to pause awhile
from the hurry of passing events, and revive our
EecOllections of the times which tried men 3 souls
do not know that have ever attended cele-
bration Of the Fourth Of July conducted in more
manner The solemn prayers that the
God of our fathers would extend his protection to
us; the public reading of the Declaration which
has given immortality to the day; the sweet voices
in the gallery, giving assurance that the and
daughters were training up to catch the spirit and
initiate the example of the fathers and mothers;
this all gave uncommon interest to the exercises.
1t was, also, own, sir, particularly pleasing to
me to listen to our young friend on my right, the
orator of the day, who gave us such treat in his
ingenious, manly, and fervid discourse, in which
he rose very far above the commonplaces Of the
occasion, and adorned his great theme with much
original and seasonable illustration. 1t was espe-
cially gratifying to me, sir to witness the brilliant
promise he afforded us Of adding new lustre to a
name on which two generations in this commune
ty have accumulated their honors. bfg ftl
believe no one, sir, who has attended this
days exercises, is now present, will be disposed
to concur in the opinion, which we sometimes
hear expressed, that the interest of the Fourth of
July is on the wane that it is worn-out, old-fash-
oned affair, which has ceased to have significance
for US. For my own part, value it in no small
degree, because it u.s. will not say can old-fash-
ioned, /" but will say an ancient and venerable
institution; because its annual celebration for
enty years has already nourished the patriotic
feelings of more than two generations; and amidst
the perlous convulsions Of States abroad, and the
rapid march of events at home, has left us one
great theme on which political opinion is united;
one happy day on which party strife is at rest.
/ trust, sir, that the Fourth of July will ever
continue to be celebrated rs it has been to-day,
understandingly MS well as enthusiastically; be-
cause it furnishes at once the most instructive and
glorious illustration of the union of the two great
principles of STABILITY and PROGRESS, on which
our independence was originally founded; on
which our prosperity, at the present day, rests
upon it's cornerstone; and by whose cordial alli-
ance, and joint working alone, the great designs
of Providence in reference to our beloved country
can be fulfilled.
n I am the more desirous, sir, Of making this re-
mark on the present occasion with some empha-
sis, because there is, on the part of many-per-
haps of most-persons among us, a disposition to
separate these two great princples-to take up
one to the neglect of the other-and consequent
ly, in effect, to do violence to both. AS in all
party divisions, SO in this; we throw ourselves
passonately into the cause we have embraced,
push its peculiar views beyond proper limits,
overlook all reasonable qualifications, and forget
that practical wisdom and plain common sense
are generally found about halfway between the
two extremes. Accordingly there are and always
hooy, AS countries
thought and speech are free, men who give them
selves up heart and soul, to the reverence of the
past; they can do Justice to no wisdom but the
wisdom of ages; and if an institution is not time
honored, it is very apt, by them, not to be honor
ed at ALL They forget that the tall oak was once
an acorn, and that the Oldest things had begin
ming. This class of men received few years ago,
in England, the designation of conservatives" :"
from their disposition to maintain things just as
they are. Recently, in this country, they have
been called by the rather unpromsing name of
sold fogies," the origin and precise import of
which are unknown to me. 9ei ht
Il Now, sir, these benighted individuals (straight-
pushing sound principle to extremes; in obeying
enc law of our social nature to the neglect of an
other, equally certain and important. The reve
renee of the past-adherence to what is esta blisl
be carried great deal too far, but it is
not merely an innate feeling Of the human heart,
and spiritual constitution which our Creator has
given us. The sacred tie of family, which, reach
ing backward and forward, binds the generations
of men together, and draws out the plaintive mu-
sic of our being from the solemn alienation of
cradle and grave--the black and white keys of
life 8 harpischord; the magical power of language
which puts spirit in communion with spirit in dis
tant periods and cimes; the grand sympathies of
country, which lead the Greeks of the present
day to talk Of 'the victory which zoe gained over
the barbarians at Marathon;" the mystic tissue Of
race, woven far back in the dark chambers of the
past and which after the vicissitudes and migra-
tions Of centuries wraps up great nations in its
broad mantle-those significant expressions which
carry volumes of meaning IN a word-Forefather,
Parent, Child, Posterity, Native Land; these all
teach us not blndly to worship, but duly to honor
the past; to study the lessons of experience; to
scan the high counsels of man in his great asso-
Citations, as those counsels have been developed in
in laws, in maxms, in traditions, in
great undoubted principles of right and wrong,
which have been sanctioned by the general con-
sent of those who have gone before us; thus trac-
ing in human institutions some faint reflection of
that Divine Wisdom, which fashioned tho leaf
that unfolded itself six weeks ago in the forest, on
the pattern of the leaf which was bathed in the
dews of Paradise in the morning of creation.
These feelings, / say, sir, are just and natural.
The principle which prompts them lies deep in
our nature; 1t gives Drth 10 ING ucaIes' chaii'eS
of lifc, and it fortes some of the sternest virtues
But these principles and feelings are not the whole
of our nature They are portion only of those
sentiments which belong to us as men, as patriots,
and Christians We do not err when we cherish
them, but when we cherish and act on them OK
clusvely; forgetting that there is another class OF
feelings and principles different, though not an
form another side to our won
derfully complicated existence
This is the side to which an opposite class in
the community devotes itself exclusively. They
are ''the mon of progress, or, as they sometimes
call themselves, in imitation of similar dcsignn-
tons in most countries OF Europe, young Ame-
rica" Either from natural ardor of tempera-
ment, or the fervid spirit of youth, or impatience
caused by constant meditation on the abuses which
accumulate in most human concerns in the lapse
of time, they get to think that every thing which
has existed for considerable time is an abuse
that, consequently, to change is, as matter o.
4 10 70 pf nor mr.