Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1853-07-23
A DDREss OF HON. EDWARD EVERETT

a.a{s. siscotd and snnio n shall hide their heads
= Z Hon. Edward Everett naadethe following noble
and 1be6tting remarks
Mr. Chairman and Gen 1see0s thank you To-
the toast which has jus been given, and for thc
marked kindness with which it has been received
BY the,company. deem tia privilege to be pres
cut on this occasion. We all, think, SIR, who
had the good fortune to be present at the Old South
Church. felt that twas good to be there. Cheers
We felt that it was good to pause awhile from the
hurry ofpassing events, and revive our recoectios
s. of the times which tried mems souls. do not
know that have ever attended a celebration con
8 Quoted in a more interesting manner. The solemn
prayers that the God of our fathers would extend
his protection to us the public reading of the
great Declaration which has given immortality tC
the day the sweet voices in the gallery, giving
assurances that the sons and daughters were train
ing up to catch the spirit and initiate the example
of fathers and mothers this all gave uncommon IN
terest = the exercises. Much cheering:l 1t was
also, own sir particularly pleasing to me to listen
to our young friei.d my right, the orator OF the
day, who gave such treat in his ingenious, man
w and fervid discourse, in which he rose very tar
above the common places Of the occasion, aud a
corned his great theme with much original and se''-
sonahle illustration. 1t was especially gratifying
to me, sir to witness the brilliant promise he at
forded US of adding new lustre to name on which
two generations in this community have accumuta-
ted their honors. Great cheering.
believe no one who has attended ihls day 5
exercises, or is now present, will be disposed TO
concur in the opinion, which we sometimes near
expressed, that the interest OF the fourth OF July
! on the wane, that it is a WORKOUT, old tashloneu
affair which has ceased tn have significance for
us For my own part, l value it in no small de-
gree because it is, win not say an "od fashioned
but will say an ancient and venerable institution;
cheers1 because its annual celebration for seventy
years has already nourshed the patriotic feeling OF
more than two generations, and amidst the peril
Gus commissions 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 onSwhch party strife is at rest (Great
applause.
/ trust sir that the Fourth of July will ever
continue to be celebrated as it has been to-day,
understandingly as well enthusiastically; because
furnishes at once the most instructive and gor-
Gus illustration of the union of the two great Prln
ciples DISABILITY and progress, on which our In
dependence was originally founded on which our
prosperity at this present day rests rs upon its
corner stone and by whose cordial alliance and
joint working alone the great design in reference
to our beloved country can be fulfilled. Much
cheering.l
am the move DESTROYS, Sir, of making this re-
mark on the present occasion with some emPha-
sis, because there is, on the part Of many-perhal
ofmost-persons among US, disposition to sePar-
ate these two great principles-to take up one to
the neglect of the other-and consequently in eff
feet to do violence to both. As in all party divi-
sions, so in this throw ourselves passionately
into the cause we have embraced, push its peculiar
views beyond proper limits, overlooking all reason
able qualifications, and forgetting that practical wis
dom and plain common generally found
about half way between the two extremes. Cheers.
Accordingly there are and always have been a !
mong US, as in all countries where thought ana
speech are free, men who give themselves up, heart
and soul, to reverence of the past; they can do !
justice to no wisdom but the wisdom OF ages :; and |
if an institution is not timehonored it is very apt
by them not to be honored at all. They forget |
that the tall oak once acorn, and that the |
Oldest things had beginning. CHEERS. This |
class of men received few years ago in England |
the designation of conservatives, from their dis
position to maintain things just as they are. Re
Gently, in this country, they have been called by |
the rather unpromising name of ''old fogies,"
the origin and precise import of which un
known to me. Cheers and laughter
Now, sir, these benighted individuals straight !
laced and-stinecked as they are) err only in push
ing sound principle to extremes in obeying one |
law of our social nature to the neglect of another
equally certain and important. Reverence for
the past, adherence to what is established, may be
carried great deal too far but it is merely an
innate feeling of the human heart, but a direct log
ca consequence of the physical and spiritual con-
stltutlon which our Creator has given U.s. (Cheers.1
The sacred tie of family, which, reaching back
ward and forward, binds the generations ofmen to-
gether, and draws out the paintive music of our
being from the solemn alienation of cradle and
grave,-the black and white keys of Iife's harpsi-
chord-[sensation 1.-THE magical power of Ian
guage, which puts spirit in communion with spirit
in distant periods aud chimes the grand sympa-
thes of country, which lead the Greek of the pres
ent day to talk of 6 the victory which aCe gained o.
yer the batbariaus al. Marathon -Icheers the
mystic tissue of race woven far back in the dark
chambers of the past, and which after the vicissl-
tudes and mgrations of centuries wraps up great
nations in its broad mantle ;-(cheers those sig
nihcant expressions which carry volumes of mean
ing in a word ,-Forefather, Parent, Child Poster
lty, Native Land these all teach us not blindly
to worship but dulyto honor the past to study the
lessons OF experience, to the high counsels,
which have been developed in constitutions in laws,
IN maxims in traditions, in great undoubted princi-
pies OF right and wrong, which have been sane
toned by the general consent of those who have
gone before us thus tracing in human institutions
some faint reflection of that Divine wisdom which
ashoned the leaf that unfolded itself six weeks A.
go in the forest, the pattern of the leaf which
was bathed in the dews of Paradise in the morn
ing Of creation. Enthusiastic cheers.)
These feelings, say sir, are just and natural.
HE principle which prompts them lies deep with
IN our nature; it gives birth to the dearest chart
ties of life, and it forties some of the sternest yir
tues. fCheerS.) But these nripo;,Iao md e,oI;.o.