Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1853-07-23


ures and justi6es the next generation in sweepn,
posed 20 sweep away the work of ther predecessors
(Great cheering
Now here again, Sir, the error is one of exag
gerat;on only Young America is a very homes
g fellow be means well, but ike other young folk
4 he IS some times little too much in hurry
4 daughter and cheers) Heneeds the gcurb occa
sionally, as we old ones, perhaps, still more fire.
4 quently need the spur. (Laughter) There is
principle Of progress in the human mind-in al
& the works of mems hands-in all associations ano
communities from the village club to the empire
that embraces quarter ofthe human race--in al
political institutons-ina art, literature and science
aud most especially in all new countries, where II
must, from the nature of the case, be the leading
and governing principle. (Great cheers) Who
can compare the modern world, its condition, Its
arts, its institutions, with the ancient world and
doubt this the daily newspapers smoking every
morning from a hundred presses with strip OF
hyeroglyphics on the side of obeisk, perpleXing
the world with its dubious import,-and even
that found out within the last thirty years-the O.
ccan steamer with the row galley, creeping timid-
| ly around the shore-the railway in the United
States aloue, without mentioning those of Europe,
with those famous Roman paved roads, the Appian
and Flamian way to which the orator allude i'd
which our railways, exceed tenfod in extent, to say
nothing of their superiority in every other respect
as means of communication; the printing press
DIR iven by steam with the scribe's toilsome pen
the electric telegraph, with the mail coach, the
post horse, the equestrian courier; and above all,
a representative republican confederacy, extending
over a continent with Il feudal despotsm building
palace in the pecks of the people, or a stormy
Grecian democracy, subssting its citizens by pub
lie largeSs deemng all labor servile, ostl acsing
its good men, Insulting and expressing its allies,
and rending its own vitals within the circuit of
the city walls to which WAS confned-who l say,
CAN make this comparison, and doubt that the prn-
cipe Of Progress is deeply seated in our nature
as the principle of conservatism, and that true
practical wisdom and high national policy reside
in due mixture ard joint action of the two. EN-
thusastic applausc.)
Now, Sir this was the wisdom of the men of
re. This is the lesson of the Fourth of July;
this the oracle which speaks to from the shrines
of this consecrated hall. [Great ciecring.l Ii
we study the writings of the men of that day, we
find that they treated the cause of civil liberty
not only as of justice and right, Of sentiment
and feeling but also as one of history and tradition
of charters and laws. Cheers. They not only
looked to the future, but they explored the past.
They built wisely and skiltuiy in such sort, that
after times might extend the stately front of the
temple of freedom, and enlarge its spacious courts
and pile its stories, arch above arch, gallery
above gallery, to the heavens! Great cheers.
But they dug the foundations deep down to the
eternal rock-the town, the school, the militia,
the churches-these the four corner stones
on which they reared the ediiee. Enthusiastic
cheers.
If we look only at one part of their work-if
we see them porting over musty parchments by the !
midnight lamp-citing the year books against writs
of acknowledging themselves hoarse about
this phrase in the character of Charles l. and that
section in a statute of Edward III, should be
disposed to class them with the most bgoted con-
versatives that ever threw drag chain around the
limbs of a young and ardent people. TCheers.
But, gracious Heavens! look at them again, when
the trumpet sounds the hour of resistance; survey
the other aspect of their work. Great che, ring.
See these undaunted patriots in their obscure eau
Gus gatherings in their town meetings, in their pro-
vincial assemblies, i'll their Continental Congress-
breathing defiance to the British Parliament and
the British throne; marching with their ma
tia to the conflict with the trained veterans of the
Seven Years War; witness them, group of col
onies extemporized into confederacy, entering
with a calm selEpossession into alliance with the
oldest monarchy Of Europe, and occupying as they
did a narrow belt of territory along the coast,
thinly peopled, partially clcarel-hemmed in by
the native savage, by the Alleghanes, by the Ohio,
and the lakes-behold them dilating with the
grandeur of the position, radiant in the prospec-
tive gores of their career much cheering +
casting ABROAD the gems OF luLure independent
States destined, and at no distant day. not merely
to cover the face of the thirteen British colonies
but to spread over the territories of France and
Spain on this continent-over Florida and Louisa-
na-over New Mexico and California-beyond the
Mississippi-beyond the Rocky Mountains-to
unite the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, the
Arctic and the Torrid zones, in one great network
Of confederate republican government Contem-
plate this, and you will acknowledge the men of
Seventy to have been the boldest men of prog
ress the world has ever seen Enthusiastic
cheers.
These are the men whom the Fourth of July in
rites us to respect and initiate the James Otises
and the Warrens, the Franklins and the Adanses
The Patrick Henrys and the Jetfersons and him
whom 1 may not name in the plural number,
brightest of the bright, and purest of the pure
Washington himself. liapturous cheers: But
ct US be to initiate them, Tor to strive to do
o) in all their principles, in both parts of their
noble and comprehensive policy. Applause. Let
US reverence them they reverenced their prede-
seeking to build up the future on the
'uins Of all that had gone before, nor yet to bind
Town the living, breathing, burning present, to the
relics of the dead past cheers but
leducing the rule of bold and safe progress from
he records of wise and glorious experience.
Great applause
1 am trespasslug unconsciously, sir, upon the
lime of the company, [' go on, go on" but l
will, with your leave, add one further reflection.
We live at an eventful in my judgment,
Al