The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-07-04
The National Anniversary.
From the New York World.

What shall we do with it? Is John Ad-
ans glowing prophecy to prove false, after
so many years, and instead Of bonfires,
bellringing, professions and universal hi
larity, are freemen to hang their heads
and hide themselves? God forbid.
We are indeed upon tempestuous times.
Our horizon is black and impenetrable.-
Some are discouraged and say that freedom
is lost. They are "bowed down like a
bulrush" They think that the God of
our fathers-who stood by the conquered
vietors at Bunker Hill, by the bare-footed
sentinel at Valley Forge, by Marion's acorn
fed troopers-is now shorn of His resour-
ees. There are others who are angry, and
intend to pass by the glorious time-mark
with sullen irreeognition. There are those,
too, who have blasphemed the day, when
they dese9ated its emblem, and trampled
the blessed stars under their feet.
For all this, let no patriot think for
moment that the Fourth of July will ever
grow old or be forgotten. Especially it
will be kept this year as it has not been
kept since the time that its adventurous
Declaration was crowned with peace, and
the founders of the republic saw it stretch
ing its unmanacled hands on high. Never
had we so much reason as now to trust the
principles on which that great issue was
joined, or to believe in the permanency of
the institutions which its result has estab-
lished Legitimists and monarchists exult
because they think the experiment, whose
success has undermined absolutism every
where, is about to fail. Never was exul-
tation more premature-never were free
institutions so far from failure. What
was the conflict of our fathers to that IN
which we are engaged? 1t was the alpha
bet of the book whose pages we are now
turning, and not We alone but every AVA
kened nation-pressing to ger sight of the
Gfe-giving inscriptions. In the land of
Washington and Franklin the spirit Of
liberty has waxcd so great that her sons
have not hesitated to turn all the accumu-
lated resources Of their years of peace
against their domestic foes, alike disregard
ing relationship and material interests at
her behest. Nothing can be more sacred
than the contest. 1t is inspired neither
by ambition, revenge nor greed. On the
contrary, at incalculable expense and loss,
and after unexampled forbearance, have
we gone forth only to maintain the insti-
tutions of our fathers, and to justify the
hopes and expectations of the world.
These hopes and expectations are not
to be disappointed. Our glorious flag
emblem of universal liberty-is unfurled
for all the tribes of men, aud for the re-
motest stretch of time. Its enemies are
the enemies of human rights, and they
will be swept before itas dust in the whirl-
wind. We have found that the blood of
freedom, after all, does not yet run pure
in our borders. The spirit of sycophancy,
of ignoble servility, which gave our faith
ers so much trouble in the revolutionary
times, was not then eradicated. There
are those remaining, even in the old thir-
teen, who avow that they were never re-
publicans at heart, though they have
shared the blessings of republican institu-
tions. They cry out for "a king" But
this cry is not the knell OF constitutional
liberty. Our fathers heard it, overawed
it, conquered in spite of it. Their sous
will DO more, for it is not Incredible that
the event of the present conflict will be TO
silence it forever. 1t only needs to that
result that those who love the lqnd, and
hold its many blessings DEAR" keep to-
gether, and keep their faith in God and
in the great standards OF the Declaration
and the Constitution. These-not with
out human imporfeetion indeed, and not
without a possibility of amendment from
the experiences OF eighty years-embody
the essential principles Of free, constitu-
tional government.
BY these, therefore, we will abide, and
holding these aloft We viii stem the sedi-