Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-07-14
A DID R E s S.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

LADIES AND UENTLEMEN:
 The anniversary of our couutry's h.
 dependence has again returned, and we the
 participants of human liberty, have met to
 greet it with hearty welcome on its annual
 return.
 It has been custom among all nations, in
 every age, to celebrate some important event
 in their country's history, but it has fallen to
 the lot of but few of the human family to
 commemorate an event of such magnitude SO
 grand in its incepton-so mighty in its con-
 pleton as the sons and daughters of this great republic.
 One people may meet to perpetuate in re- membrance an event which they may conceive to have been an omen of for,une-a signal blessing emanatng from Divine Providence while they, as people, are wrapped in moral gloom-without any just conception of the true God-ignorant of that religion that ele- yates man in the scale of human excellence and enables him to burst the letters that bind him to earth, soar to heaven and commune with his God: another with frantic zeal may meet :o celebrate victory obtained on the field of battle, and yet be wholly unable to appreciate their degraded condition, without being able to realize the fact that the victory obtained was that of but one tvrant over ano. ther, and that they are the miserable slaves of the conqueror.
 Not so with those whose pride and boast it is, that they are citizens of the most fertile beautiful, and favored land under heavens canopy, in the western hemisphere, within the limits of the United States. Their condition is shfinitely more exalted; not because of the fertility of the soil-the picturesque scenerv- fhe majestic mountains and mighty rivers; not all of these combined can afford the citizens of this proud republic which crowns the pvra md of nations. half the pleasure they enjoy in the pleasing reflection that they are not the miserable slaves of me despotic tvrant- that they are not the subjects of an indignant. unprlncpled and purse-proud aristocracv. but that they are free and independent-that they owe homage to none but their God.
 In order that we may be better enabled to appreciate and enjoy those privileges and bles snss, let us for moment glance hastily at the moral and political condition of some of the principal nations of the earth. Behold the in habantS of that far-off land w. he'd bv the Oanges, whose waters are dyed with the blood oi Its innocent victims; behold the dark cloud Of Hlndoo superstition, and India heathensm that overShadows that densely populated coun- try North of this, if you can gain admittance through the massive walls, you may be intro. duced to people boastng greater antiquity than any other nation upon earth but who notwithstanding their boasted antiquity. have unhl very recently successfully closed their doors against the lights of civilization and science. As you approach the Arctic circle Tn the barren regions of ice bound Siberia. hear the dolefu lamentations that tinvoluntariIv bu-st from the lonely wanderers upon the banks of Lena and the Aldan-exied from inc land of ther nativity by the iron heel of despotic Rus sa From the Steppe of Issim passing south west through barbarous Sartavy and despotic FerSla we arrive at the land of superstition- cross Arabia Deserta visit the tomb of Ma. hommed and view the countless millions who make thelr annual pilgrimage to the grave of that religious mposter. Thence, soaring upon the plnio ns of imagination, perform semi circle around the head of the Mediterranean sea, view the chaotic fragments of the once Ao'y city of David, the ruins of Balbec, Pal myra, and the renowned Troy, with all their Aailowed memories, and as yon pause upon the banks of the Black sea behold the ruins of the Malakoff, and the plains so recently cover ed with the steel-clad warriors of the western and northern powers of Europe and Asia con- tending with eye to eve and breast 10 breast, In deadly combat, not for liberty, not for rei- glon' hut for the supremacy of the seas and the balance of power. Leaving these monu- ments of inhumanity, crime, and misdirected ambition, cross over to, and pass hastily through the sable regions of partially explored Africa, witness the Algerine cruelty and Moorish ifeachery, and from beyond the mountains of the Moon and the banks of the Niger hear the doleful lamentations of women mourning for their children, who are broken as a pot ters vessel and ruled with a rod of iron"
 From those scenes at which the heart sckens and from which the mind involuntarily ieyolts, let us turn again to the land of our na- tyity-the land flowing with milk and ho- ney"-the land that has been, still is and God grant that it may ever continue to be all asy- lun for the down-trodden and oppressed of every clime-the land and government of the United States--the government that stands Foudly pre-eminent amid the nations of the earth-the government whose foundation rests upon eternal truth where we can behold the happy effects of that civil and religious liberty purchased by the blood of our fathers; whose beauties are seen throughout the world wher- ever the foot of civilization has marked the earth, and regcnerating influences felt wher- ever there is a mind to appreciate or heart to feel.
 Here we might finger beneath the thick fo- hage of liberty's tree, and while enjoying the cool shade, tell of the civil political, and re-
 Agous advantages and blessings of our own
 happy country, which stands as the great mo-
 h and political beacon of the world, whose
 0Hght ensign is hailed with loud shouts from
 the "constellations of the north to the frozen
 serpent of the south," and from where the ris.
 Ag sun flashes upon the weather-beaten spires u Pekin, to where he sheds his calm decin- ns rays upon the gilded domes of San Fran Vsco. We might point you to the happy and generating influence of our free institutions 'pon other nations-the late struggle for lber- gn Canada-the revolutions in France, Ger
 Iany Italy, Hungary, and Ireland--to the late
 'pIeaIs from the Sandwich Islands-to the
 paucal throes that have convulsed Cuba,
 Aeyicn Snnth and Contrnl r,ar;ca and ouar