The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-07-08
BY JAMES n. CARLISLE, ESQ,

BY JAMES a. cAkLfhLky ESQ.,
Delivered in ne oopto in he Cy II Washington, July
A, 1888
FELLoW-cIrzESs Ours is indeed glorious heritage I
This is the earliest thought coming with the dawn,
awaken and to fill your hearts and mine al each return Of
this suspicious day And with it the grateful and
the reyeren impulse bless and praise Almighty God for
all the precious memories and Respondent hopes that like
thronging company of angels hasen and in revolving
years shall hastea unbar the gates OF light and
usher in this brightest morning in the calendar of time
Yes il is day freighed with the load of centuries il
Is day big with the destnies Of man il Is a day TO
which all people in all time 10 come shall ever turn 10
animate their hopes to their constancy inygoate
their courage and confirm their faith, often that
struggle shall which here begun shall sooner or later
but still surely and finally extend the blessings of liberty
m some form other, TO every nation and people, and
kindred and tongue 10 the limits of the
earth.
This be the work of centuries But the influences
Of this day shall pervade them ALL and stretch away
10 the last syllable of recorded time for what was in the
beginning but the feeble Pickering ray of distant star
has blazed into sun, pouring its food Of light
the land and the warming and cheering the heart
Of civilized wheresoever there beats heart large
enough to embrace the love of liberty and deep enough
for that devotion which liberty exacts. What was,
within the memory OF many here still doubtful specula
ton, at best abstract truth which beyond
borders but whispered from mouth TO ear, is
whose voice heard everywhere under the whole canopy
of heaven and wherever heard procaims the history of
which this day is the perpetual and expressive token
Now, indeed all the nations of the earth witness the
great fact and acknowledge the sublime reality of people
strong in war; stable in peace enlightened through all its
masses exhaustess in all the treasures of and of
art gigantic and growing in its proportions,
sciou OF its power secreated selfexstent elresaned
The world knows of surety that the bountfu Crea
tor has not reserved the trust of government for
g Kings and awful fathers of mankind"
but has freely bestowed upon the of those
powers and capacities which, rightly educated and vrt
ously directed make them their best rulers
This truth, first deeply planted this memorable day
shall strike its roots deeper and deeper and stretch its
branches higher and wider time rolls on until the whole
family Of nations shall repose under its thrceblessed shell
ter No power on earth can uproo it, depth of degen
eracy Danish it from the memory of Heaven
bestowed like the light Of heaven, though clouds and
darkness may from time to time obscure it, it shall
break FORTH again and again. till time shall be
Truly, them this day belongs not alone to but to all
the earth truly it relates not alone to the past and present
but to the distant and still ever-distant future
And yet ours alone its first fruits. To alone has
descended the inheritance of the precious trusts which it
brought forth To alone it still pertains guard and
cherish what Of right belongs to all mankind How sacred
is the priesthood which has been laid upon ns How SOL
smn is our Office among the nations How awful our
relations to the past the present and the uure The voices
OF fathers not than the cry of remote poserity
are sounding in my Together they adure
by all that forcefu my conscience by all that dear
to me in life, by all that binds to my country my
by the proud memories which belong this day and
this place by the of those who have gone before
my home and hearthsone, by my children and my chill
drens childrenthey adnre TO be faithful my trust
They are me 70 remember in every act and word which,
the humbles and srctest sphere may tend to influence
my oounrys future to remember always and everywhere
what inheritance mine and how it is entaed to the la
test poserity of man. They adure 90 back to the
deep and pure fountains out of which this swelling tide
has sprung which bears through Overwhelming
channels Of power and prosperity They to hold
TO the faith of the fathers They admonish me to shun as
fatal pestilence whatever sectional whatever is mar
row. whatever is less broad and fair than the Union and
the constitution whatever irusts itself betwixt man and
his Maker and arrogates the power by any indrecton to
abrdge qualify his civil rights and privileges because
his religious creed. Alas that such a warning should
even for the passing hour be unheeded by any who have
part or lot in this days memories
Fellowcitizens it is good for be here 1t is good
for such occasions this to revive the sense of those
obligations which have fallen upon nation and on
each one of US as man. who whether by the course
years passed here in his native land through the term
prescribed tor his adoption has become of the active
body of the American people, bound all their duties
joint possessor with them of all their privileges.
1t is good for to be here 1t is good for her
from whom must spring the future of the republic
her whom il most depends whether their earliest and
thus their latest impressions shall be such are becoming
in of freemen. Oh if could win from Heaven one
gift most Of all fruitful of blessings to my country it
would be the power to inspire the heart every mother
with the noble consciousness that she is indeed prestes
at the altar of her country freedom see the young boy
standing at her knee his face beaming with all his mothers
purity and his fathers soul listening with his whole heart
TO the story, simply told but grand in its simplicity of
which this day is the epitome his young eyes fill
and fire. mark the swelling of his youthful breast and
read upon his fair and candid brow that in him are now
sown the seed of the revolution.
Gentle pure noble, sublime mission of the mother
How deeply impressed my heart those simple
early lessons which from that sacred first taught
me the meaning of this hallowed day
But let turn from these thoughts feelings so
inseparabc to the OCCASION and devote to
survey of rich inheritance Let compare begin
ming with its increase; and let not forget that
increase to its true 1t thus that may
vert the hour not simply to congratulaon and thankful
ness, but to guidance and instruction.
We behold, then at the first glance, marvellous
summation. Looking back through series of years still
within the period of the life Of man, result
which, under other circumstances and less favorable in
fnences, many centuries might not be equal Behold
yondereven in the days OF the childhood Of who
yet lingering among ushe thirteen colonies sparsely
populated in active apparently poor indeed
separated from each other physically by wdernesses
morally by distinct and independent governments; with
no blessed Union, common bond except the distant