Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1858-08-07
ASHTABULA, 0. SATURDAY MORNING, AUGUST = 1858

turning from these, we may 20 up togethe
to tie serene and secret mountain tor. an
there pause, aud there unite in the reveren
exclamation, and In the exultant prayer
.lIow beautiful at last are thy tabernacles
What people at last is like unto the l.
Peace be within thy palaces, and 10y with
in thy gates The high places are thine
and there shclt thou stand proudly. and in
nocently, and securely"
Happy If such a duy shall not be desc
Grated by our service Happy if for n
that descending sun shall look out on ,
more loving, more elevated more unite,
America These no less, no narrower b,
the aims Of our celebration. These alwav,
were the true aims Of this celebration. IL
It's origin, a recital or defence of tb,
grounds aud principles of the Revolution
now demanding and permitting no defence
AL taken for granted and all had by
beart then sometimes wasted Ia a parade
Of vain-glory, cheap and vulgar some.
times profaned by the attack and repulse OF
partisan and local rhetoricians lis great
work, its distinctive character. and It's
chief lessons remain and yindicate them
selves, and win do SO while the eve of the
hgatlng or the dying shall yet read on the
stainless ample folds. the superscrption
blazing still in light Liberty aud Uuion,
now aud forever, one and insepcrable."
l have wished, therefore, as it was my
duty, In doing myself the honor to oin YOU
In this act, to give some direction to your
thought and feelings, and suited at once to
the nations holiday, and seasonable and
useful in itself. How difficult this may be
! know. To try, however, to do anything,
is easy, and it is American also. Your
candor will make it donbly easy, and to
your candor l commit myself.
The birthday of nation, old or young,
and certainly if young, is time to think Of
the means of keeping alive the nation. I
do not mean to say however because do
not believe that there is but the woy to
this, the direct and the didactic For at
last It is the spirit of the day we wonld
cherish. 1t is onr great annual national
love-feast which we keep and if we rise
from it with hearts larger, beating fuller.
with feeling purer and warmer for America.
what signifies it how frugally or how richly
or how it was spread, or whether it was a
strain on the organ, the trumpet tones of
the declaration, the prayer Of the good
man, the sympathy of the hour, or what it
was which wrought to that eud?
/ do not, therefore, say that such an an
niyersary is not time for thanksgiving to
God, for gratitude to men, the living and
the dead, for tears and thoughts too deep
for tears, for culogy, for exutation, for all
the memories and for all the contrasts which
soften and lift up the general mind. do
not say, for example, that TO dwell on that
one image Of Progress which is our history;
that image so grand, so dazzling, so con
slant that stream now flowing so far and
swelling into so immense food, but which
burst out small, choked, uncertain spring
from the ground at first that transition
from the Rock at Plymouth, from the uu-
fortified PENINSULA at jamestown, to this
America, which lays hand on both the
oceans, from chat heroic yet feeble felix
whose allowance to man by the day was
i've kernels of corn, for three months no
,orn, or piece of fish, or a moulded re-
nainder of a biscuit, or limb of wild
oird--to whom drouth in Spring was q
ear and judgment, and call for humili-
alton before God, or a war-cry broke the
innocent sleep, or startled the brave watch
ng,-from that handful, and that want, TO |
.hese millions, whose area is continent,
whose harvest might load the board of fam
shing nations, for whom world in arms
las no terror these two contrasted condi-
ions, the Providences the dominant race,
ober, earnest, constructive, changed, bat |
Tot degenerate here, the influx of other
aces, assmilating, eloquent and brave, the
usion of all into new one the sweet
of liberty, the removal by the
Whole width of oceans from the establish
nents Of Europe, shaken, tyrannical or
the healtnful virgin-world, the
universal progress of reason and art, uni
'ersal as civilization, the aspect of reyolu-
ions on the human mind, the expansion of
discovery and trade, the developing senti-
aent of independence, the needfnl baptism
4 wars, the brave men, the wise men, the
the Union, the national life
nd the feeling of union which have grown
Tith our growth and strengthened with our
lrength-I do not say that meditatious
uch as these might not teach or deepen
bC lcosOu Vi JuC udf All tutSc things,
o holy aud beautiful, all things American,
nay afford certainly the means to keep
America alive. That vast panorama un-
oiled by our general history or unrolling
hat eulOgy, so just, so fervent, SO splendid
o approved that electric, seaSonable
nemory Of WASHINGTON that purchase
nd that dedication Of the dwelling and
he tomb, the work of woman that rec
rd Of his generals that visit the battle
elds that reVeFent wiping away of dust
reat urns that dream Of her past, pres
ut and future every ship bulded on lake
T ocean every treaty concluded every
ere OF territory annexed every cannon
asst every machine invented every mile
4 new railroadand telegraph undertaken
very dollar added to the aggregate Of ma
ion or individual wealth ;--these all as
nhjects of thought, as motives to pride
md care, as teachers Of wisdom, as agen-
les for probable good, may work, may insure
bat earthly immortality of love and glory
Or which this celebration was ordained.
My way, however, shall be less ambitious
nd less indirect. Think, then, for mo-
lent on American nationality itself the
utward national life and tha inward na |