Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-07-30
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BURLINGTON:
FRIDAY MORNING. JULY 80, 1858
THE "poCKET CELEBRATIONS"


ry way excellent review of his recent ORATOR
at Boston. We extract from it freely be-
low, and should be glad if our limits allow.
cd us, to copy it in full. The article openl
with an amusing sketch of the change which
has gradually come over the manner of cele
brating the GLORIOUS FOURTH The first
stage was the "era of good feeling when
there was n common nduniversal enjoyment
of the occasion. "Gradually," says the
reviewer, "matters took new course the
Union was suddenly supposed to lie at the
point of dissolution, and what we may call
the Doctor Brandreth style oforatory began. -
The lugubrous features Of this style of ccle-
bration are graphically depicted, while it is
denied that there has ever been the least
foundation for its adoption. This year the
Young Mems Democratic Association ''rc-
solved to have II public celebration all to
themselvcs-a pockct-edition ofthe cumbrous
civic work aud AS the city provided fire.
works in the evening, in order to be before
Mr.. Choatc in the forenoon.
Mr.. Choate's Grafton shows that he has
drawn that full breath which is, perhaps,
possible only under Grecian sky and it is,
in its better parts, scholarly in the best
sense of the word
Let us say, then, honestly, what we hon
estly think-thc feeling, the mastery and
choice of language, the intellectual comprc-
hensiveness of glance, which can 50 order the
many-columncd aisle of II period, that the
eye, losing none of the crowded particulars.
yet sees through all, at the vista S end, the
cleaning figure of the thought, to enshrine
which the costly fabric was reared all these
qualities of the orator demand and receive
our sincere applause. In an age when indo-
lence or the study of French models has re-
duced our sentences to the common curtness
of telegraphic dcspatches-to the dimension
of the epigram without its point, Mr. Choate
is one of the few whose paragraphs echo with
the long resounding pace of Dryden S ccursers,
and who can drive predicate and six with
out danger of an over-set.
A patriotism by the chart is monster
that the world ne'er saw. Men may fall in
love with lady's picture, but not with the
map of their country. Few persons have the
vivify the dead lines and combine the COM
plex features. 1t seems to us that our own
problem of creating national sentiment out
of such diverse materials of race, such some-
times discordant or even hostile traditions,
and then Of giving it an intenscness of vita
llty that can overcome our vast spaces and
our differences OF climate and interest, Is Il
new problem not easily to be worked out by
the old methods. Mr.. Choate's plan seems
to consist in the old formula of the Fathers.
He would have us think of their sacrifices
and their hcroisms. their common danger
and their common deliverance. Excellent,
as far as it goes; but what are we to do
with the large foreign fraction of our popu-
lation imported within the last forty years,
a great proportion of whom never SO much
as heard even of the war of 1872? Shall we
talk of Bennington and Yorktown to the
Germans whose grandiathers, if they were
concerned at all in those memorable transac-
tions, were concerned on the wrong side !
Shall we talk Of the constancy OF Puritan
Pilgrims to the Romanist lrishman, who
knows more Of Brian Boru, than of theNlbuy
flower
1t will be many generations before we G.
come SO fused rs to have II common past, and
the Cancellation and forbearance which
I
country will be more than equally necessary
to unrelated races. But while we are waiting
for past in which we can all agree, Mr..
Choate sees danger in the disrespect which
he accuses certain an0ny0u of entertaining
for the past in general But for what past
Does Mr. Choate mean our American past
Does he refer us to that for lessons of forbear-
ance, submission, and waiting for Gods good
l. ,lat nt
tory and respect for their own traditions the
lcnitive he prescribes for people whose only
history is a revolution, whose only tradition
is rebellion? To what past and to what ira
dtion did the Pilgrim Fathers appeal, except
to that past, older than all history, that
tradition, sacred from all decay, which, de,
rived from an antiquity behind and beyond
all the hoary generations, points the human
soul to the God from whom it derived life
and with it the privilege of freedom and tho
duty of obedience? To what historical pas
did jefferson go for the preamble OF the De
claration, unless to the reverles Of halt-dozer
innoyating enthusiasts, men of the closet, -
men of the class which Mr.. Choate disparage
| by Implication, though it has done more t.
shape the course of the world than any mum
ber of statesmen, whose highest office is, com
monty, to deal pruGently with the circum
stances of the moment?
Mr.. Choate does a great injustice to the Re
publican party, when he lays this irreverenc
for the past to their charge. As he seem
to think that he alone has read books ant
studied the lessons of antiquity, he will b
pleased TO learn that there are persons also Il
that party who have not neglected all thei
opportunities in that kind The object {
the Republicans is to bring back the polio
and practice of the Republic to some nearC
agreement to the traditions of the fathers
They also have National ldea,-for som
of them are capable of Distinguishing g
phrase from an idea, +" or Mr.. Cnoate woul
find it easier to convert them. They propo'
to create National Sentiment, in the onl
way that is possible under conditions lii
ours, by clearing the way for the develop
ment Of nation which shall be, not only
the Fourth of July orations, but on every da
in the year, and in the mouths of all people
: great and wise, justand brave, and who
3 idea, alway august and venerable, by tur
lovely and terrible, shall bind us all in
! common nationality by our loyalty to VIII
/ is true, our reverence tor what is good, o
P love for what is beautiful, and our sense
S security in what is mighty, That is t
y America which the Fathers conceived, and
t is that to which the children look forward
), an America which shall displace Ireland a
), Germany, Massachusetts, and Carolina,
n the hearts of those who cali them m0th
o with an image of maternity at once more u
Q der and more majestic.
It There isa past for which Republicans ha
e indeed no respect but it is one of rec'
/, date there is n history from which they
d fuse to take lessons except for warning a
# not example but it is "A history which
'i not yet written. When the future hstori
W shall study that past and gather materi
'e for writing that history, he will find ca
t to wonder at the strength of that natio
ct vitality which could withstand, and suryi
is not the efforts of Mr.. Choate's dreadful
Il formers, but of an administration calling
Sc self Democratic, which, with the creed OF
- Ostend Manifesto for ITS foreign, and