Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1862-07-10
SPEECH OF
COL. VIM. LAWREW CE,
DELIVERED AT
Camp Laurence, Cumberland, Md., 0"
tie An Of July, 1862.

Officers and Soldiers Of the Eighty FourM
Reqtn,e,.t--Laaies and feLioc- Citizens Of
orr Common Country 1t has been the GUS
tom of the Americas people to celebrate
this anniversary OF our National Indepen-
dence with boniires, festivals and rcjocings
These have been peculiarly Appropriated
Among the unavoidable necessities OF man
kind is qore,nntent--an institution ordained
of God. Unfortunately the history Of gov
eminent has been a record of oppression. by
which the masses Of the people have been
made unwilling sui jects of lnlsrue, and in
which their social, civil, political and relig-
| ious rights have been dis-egarded. 1t was
to avoid evils like these that the Pilgrim
Fathers sought the Plymouth Rock-that
| Lord Baltimore planted the colony of Mary
| land-aud that William Penn, as a disciple
of Peace, founded the city Of Brotherly Love,
and tho now Keystone State of the Union.
| For ages, the divine right of hereditary kings
! to rule, had been maintained, and almost the
only recognized power beside, was u landed
aristocracy, or a military dcspotism And
as such governments were employed TO sra-
tify personal ambition, and to agsfandiZo
the few at the expense Of the many, foreign
and domestic wars, those scourges of man
kind, have left their trace OF blood in every
age and country. But that Providence wno
overrules tho wickedneSs Of men TO accom-
plish His own good purposes, gathered to-
gether on this Western Continent a people
to whom He entrusted the most impor. ant
mission ever committed to human agency.
That mission was to erect here, in this land
of Washington, new Governmental new
political dispcnsation, as far superior to those
which preceded it, rs was tho light OF the
true Christian Faith preferable to the Pagan
darkness of past ages. That new political
dispensation was ushered in with the Dccla-
ration Of Independence, on the 4th day Of
July, 1916. Its complete development has
been matured in our own National and State
constitutions, all gradually advancing in
vigor, harmony and progressive improve
ment, until the structure of Government
erected by our fathers, stood without an
equal, rival or paralel--''wrapped in the
solitude of it's own originality adni'
5 ration, the wonder, and yet the envy Of tn.
world. 1t established these distin ctive ant
, prominent characteristics among its funda
; me ntal principes-
That all Just governments derive thei
powers from the consent Of the governed
4 that no law shall BIZ made affecting thu
t rights Of conscience or the fres exercise o
.
of nobility, no landed or other aristocracy
that as it is the right of the people to gov
ern, the means of education should be SO ex
tended as to secure an enlightened exercise
of the right of suffrage; that the right o
speech, the liberty of the press, and the RICH
: of petition shall be inviolate; that persona
:, freedom shall be guaranteed, and the writ o
habsas corpus shall be within the reach o
@ every citizen, except when our national OK
: istence shall require its constitutional sus
pension; that the humblest citizen shall b
eligible to the highest and to all Offices tina
Government like the dews of Heaven, SHOULD
send its blessings alike upon all that amonl
citizens there shall be an equality of right
and privileges that all these essential ant
fundamental principles OF free government
: shall be secured by written constitutions
D Under a government founded on thes
principles, the American Union had spannc'
q the continent from ocean to ocean-ha'
grown in wealth, population, power and in
fuence at home and abroad, as no other ma
ton had ever done before. From the Lake
, of she North to the Gulf on tho South, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, with an area suf
ficieut for a hundred States, with popula
ton Of thirty-two millions and with ca
pacty for indefinite growth North aud Sout'
in territory and people over all; so wisely