The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-07-28
The Fourth. Once More,

to raisiead the public mind have emana-
/ ted from the press in our city-nor Is. it
wihaR personal reference either to the
correspondent or the Editors of the Free
State that we allude to letter it has re-
GENTLY published.
But, inasmuch as that paper, through
the pen of citizen of Lawrence, COM
plains that unioas celebration of the
Fourth has occurred in town, for the fes-
tiTltles OF which anti-slavery and pro-
slavery people both contributed. and
claims that in such circumstances it was
dishonorable to make the exercises of the
day anti-slavery, the world has right to
infer therefrom tha: both these parties ex-
ist in Lawrence; an item we find nowhere
in our annals.
We know there is one earrlid pro sla-
very man among US, having heard him
talk his sentiments, and We have pretty
good evidence that there is enc more who
is al right on the goose" but we have
ysto hear of the third professsd pro
Stetrery resident of the city. And If
either of these gave the ''first red cent
toward the contributions of the day, the
fact i'll its peregrinations has forgotten to
give Us call.
Besiies these two, it is more than hint
ed that three or four others dwell among
us, who in another sense than did the
great Apostle become all things to all
men, These, If the suspicious OF their
fellow citizens are correct, might and then
again might mol thank the Free State for
setting them down as the pro-slavery par
ty, and proclaiming union on their ac-
count.
We hav'n been behind the scenes
don't know whether there were hypo-
critics among theactors-supposeo of course
there were. Does anybody insinuate
that Lawrence is SO far behind the rest of
the world as hot to harbor doughface
within her limits {? Was there ever
position pre- e.ninently honorable that
had not some aspirants TO Its name, whose
procivities were downward And what
marvel if Lawrence in her earth wide
gleanings has garnercd some fourof these.
But ii none contributed to the funds OF
the day but protessed Free State men
and if the Orator of the day was chosen
by those who knew not merely his senti-
ments, but his fearlessness in expressing
them, and who knew, moreover, that As
an homes. and igh-minded man, he could
not stand at the post assigned him but to
give undisguised utterance to the princi
pies he openly avows, everywhere-we are
not keen-eyed enough to detect any breach
of faith, in any parry. Nor are we willing
that any among the thousands, looking
with an intense interest for every new
development in the history of Kansas,
should be so grossly imposed upon by in-
ferences drawn from false premises.
# the celebration was union. affair,
it was so completely union that it har-
moaizeI all elements of discord on the
ground and the only jars that follow,
claiming the paternity of a name. are
proclaimed by those who style themselves
anti-slavery men par excellence But
their sympathies are wasted on an ag-
grieved party, which, if party it had been,
became so merged in the harmonious
whole that not sigh from It's lips dis
turbed the tranquility of the occasion.
These kind SOULS, so lavish of their
tenderness, believe in every word of tie
Grafton. only it was illtimed { Did you
ever hear, good friends-in a parenthesis
of the Irishman who more than ''half
seas over soliloquized after this fash
ion:-'I'll go homs and III have row
with my wife; and what shall itbe ? Och,
an I'll ask her if she has fed tie mere /;
an if she has that shall be it, an if she |
hasn't that shall be it?"
If memory serves us, the Grafton fol-
lowed hard after the reading of the De-
claration OF Independence; drawing its
creed entirely from that document, as the
broad ground nominally accepted as
na;ion's '.rule of faith and practice"
Its eloquent appeals were made to peo
pie whose boast it is that they stand upon
such platform-its incontrovertible ar
gumeats, basel Oh their sworn allegiance.
TO its elementary, self-evident truths,
were home thrusts to traitors only and
if any felt the wound, they were asham-
cd to make wry faces. After all, if there
is shadow OF validity in any objection
We have heard offered to the exercises of
the day. that time-honored parchment,
sacred as the memory of our fathers
graves, precious as the liberty they be-
queathed to us-the Declaration of Iu-
dependence was more Inappropriate than
aught else to the tastes of the disaffected.
There is, doubtless, in every fourth of
July gathering, some mute counterpart
of the old man who actually left in great
wrath, the audience congregated in his
own village. because he would not have
his ears profaned by such treason-like fa-
naticism. Poor mani he verify thought
himself champion of the constitution
and the rUnion. . fleeing persecutedfrom
the nuIlifying. designating sentiments
of some hot-headed Abolition lecturer;
when in good sooth. he was escaping. in