New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-07-09

celestial aVs 81 the Faibtrs began at the beginning
l with God sDd buman nature, and derived their gov
efnment from truths which they dsdained 20 prove
asseriii them to b. ssfevident. Thus the Revolato
was not the struggle - sass only, but of people
Ii wss not merely The rebellion of subjects who's,
pockets were threatened, it was the protes, Of mer
whose instincts had been outraged. AS Mr.. Webster
was iond Of saying II was fought on preamble
A two-penny tax on tea or paper was not the
cause was only The occasion of the Revolution. The
spirit which fought the desperate and disastrous battle
on Long Island yonder was not spirit which could
be queied by the prome Of sugar gratis The chance
Of success was sghtthe penalty Of failure
But they believed in God: they kissed wife and
child, lsft them in His hand and kept their powder
dry. Then to Valley Forge the valley of the shadow
of deasl-wiih feet bleeding upon the sharp ground
with hunger thirst End cold doggng their stepswith
CHASTITY death wBrg for them IN the snow, they bore
that faith in ideas which brought their fathers
ptiless sea TO ptiess shore. Ideas their food
ideas were their coats and camp-fres They knew
that their rank were THO and raw, and the enemy
trained and many But they knew, also that the
only difficulty with the proverb that God fights upon
the SIDE OF tie strongest bas0ns isthat il is not true
If You load muskets with bullets only the result is
simply question Of numbt re. But one gun loaded
with idea is fatal than the muskes OF whole
regiment bullet kills tyrant, but an idea kills
tyranny. What chance have thousand men lighting
for q sixpenee day against u hundred lighting
for life and liberty, for home and native land In
sueh hands, the weapons themselves feel and think
And so the family fTelocks and rusty swords, the
boIsepsol and old scythes Of our fathers thought ter
ribly al Lexington and Monmouth, at Saratoga and
Euiaw SPRING.. The old Continental muskes thought
out the whole Revolution. The English and Hessian
AIMS were better and brighter than ours; but they
we're charged only with saltpeter. Our guns were
loaded and rammed home with ideas.
Felo w-ctzens why is il that, of late years. there
lie disposition 70 smile 81 the great faith of our
fathers TO it, To explain it away, or even to
sueer at il az an abstraction, gltterng generality
Men sre impatient Of each other in two ways. The
mstecles said that the trophies OF Mitates would not
let him sleep. He longed 70 earn brighter be would
be lraver and wiser than Miltiades. On the other
band the Athenans, according TO the old tradition,
banished Aristides because he was called the Just
They tired of justice. II criticized them too HARP
ly Have modern rht tOrcians found s0methln surer
u an moral principle Have they discovered force
in politics subtler ard powerful than the divine
law, or loftier object Of human government than
universal justice To please the pot-house, you may
loud that It makee no difference whether the
rights Of men are voted up or voted down; but you
know what the pot-house does lot know, that moral
laws are more absolute than mater al-thal moral
truths more stubborn than physical facts You
pluck The light ing harmless from the cloud, but
there il DO conductor for the divine rage ola people de-
handing Its natural rights. That burts IN thunder
crash, consuming the oppressor. What are your
spears, XeIxes, what are your sings Proud Persian,
with your two million soldiers sheetDg the plains OF
Greece with spendor and roaring like the ubilan sea
along the Pass Of ThermopylT-thcre stands LeOnidas
with his three hundred, rock like, and they beat you
back with an idea. Bourbon Of Naples you may
extipguish Etna, but the fire that burns in the
Slcilian heart is immortal, inextinguiehable.
Yes, it is al idea-inyisble, abstract but it
has nodded all human history TO this hour.
Light, and heat, and gravity are abstract invisible,
and they hold this globe of ours poised among the stars
forever. Laws of every kin are only ideas. Hence
The most practical men those who most eonhde IN
them. Every great inventor s strict dealis until his
invention il CONF ee a. every fanatic Is thought TO be
a fool until be turns out TO be wiser than other men,
James Watt, who made the stean-eDglne available,
and from whose works in England, founded nearly a
century ago and still bearing his lame, came the en-
gnes Of tire huge chip that lately q ded througn our
water. 80 docile 20 the brain within that she seemed
moral leviathan James Watt az he sat- delicate boy,
musI ulon the vapor curling from the Kettle, was
scoded for ideness aud Dreaming aud the face OF his
statue by Cbantrey in Westminster Abbey rs cnarae,
teIzed az the personifcatiOn Of abstract thought
So the eenius which s merely perception OF abstract
laws IL reckoDed 10 be "a useless vapor. But when the
vapor is coIdensed and drives ships over the sea- we
discover that il not vain exhslttoni and when
that genius e1 ables us 10 make thousand dollars
ninute instead Of one dollar, hasten 10 salute the
heavenly gift. When Franklin went out under the
thundertloud, with the kite and the key, he did no
more confidently IN the natural world what tue
fathers did in the moral when they went out against
England holding the Declaration Of Independence Ii
their bsnos and hearts. Men who conhde in abstract
truths the beet guides IN pra tea actions are IKE
travellers hy night who know that the poe-star ~ al
nays in the north, aud govern their course ny tnat
They who at great principles, and believe only In
what they taste and touch are travellers VINO start
with allow dips in their hands which presently waste
away burn their fingers, and leave them TO trip and
fall in the dark.
Fellow citizens if we do not see that our fathers
were rot merely resisting tax, OF any incidental OPP
preston or policy, but were asserting and defending
great principles we cannot find anything in our teyo-
luton but a successful Tebelllon-a mere schoo-ooys
larrg out Of the master. Look now at the PROOF taal
the Fathers fully understood and distinctly stated the
grounds Of their action.
IL 1852 james OTIS, the fiery tongue OF the early
Revolution in his speech against the writs OF assist
ance said: "The night Of every man to his life, his
Liberty, no created being can righu1lly contest;
They are rigbs derived from the Author OF Naure
inherent inalienabe, aud iDdefeaslble, by any law,
pacs contracts covenants, or stipnatons which man
can device" In the same year, IN his vndcaton OF
the Massachusetts Assembly, which John Adams de-
clared contained the substance of the writings OF the
best pubcists including Thomas Palnes Rights OF
Man US well as the declarations Of Congress, james
Otis POUNDS the discussion of the immediate question
mon " hat he calls data 81. God made all men na'u
rally eousl g The ideas Of earthly superiority, pre-
eminence and grandeur are educational at least nc
oured and not innate 3. Kings were and plantation
governors should be- made for the good OF the people,
and no, the people for them And again he writes;
There can be no prescription old enough TO supetsede
tie law Of Nature, and the grant OF God AlnignIy
who has given all men right to be free'' IN 100
in the last pamphlet be wrote, Ous says: " NO good
reason however, can he given IN any country why
every man of a sound mind rhould not have his vote
In me election of Il representative. Ii man has but
little property protect and defend yet his LIE and
liberty are things Of some 10 portance. Eeholng
these truths on tie day which the rs Union OF the
Colonies was made il October, 1865 the Massachusetts
Iepslaure which first proposed it, replied TO the Ia,
olisL Governor Bernard There are certain original
inherent rights belonging to the people which the Par
Ian ent tsef cannot diyest them OF. The newspa'
nes of The day were full of articles from the thought
nj men of the Colonies to which the Governor did
not dsdain 10 reply "Libery is the inherent right Of
all MANKIND" they said the law of Nature il the
law of God irreversible itself, and suPersedlpg al
human law ltperfectly reeoneiies me trae e,es