Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-08-12

pie.
The Hon. FRANKLIN PIERCE presided,
and upon taking the Chair made the fol- |
lowing remarks -
Ny Friends and EsUosc- Count,ya.e,,
While L have come to preside at this
meeting, at your bidding, permit me say
that no command less imperitive than
your wish on such an occasion would
have brought me here and l trust that in
view of the great aggregation of person
al relations whichthirty years of manhood
hte have formed between us, you will re-
cOgnize i'll this fact warm reciprocation,
on my part. of the respect and affection
which, in all time, have never failed to
find on yours. We meet on the anniver-
sary of day hallowed by solemn memo
ries, and sanctified as that of the birth of
the American Union. The Declaration
of independence laid the foundation of
our political greatness, in the two funda-
mental ideas of the absolute independence
OF the American people, and of the SOW
ereignty of their respective States.
Under that standard our wise and heroic
fathers fought the battles of the Revolu-
| ton; under that they conquered In
| this spirit, they established the Union,
having the conservative thought ever pres
ent in their minds, Of the original sover-
| eighty and independence of the several
States, all with their diverse institutions,
interests, opinions and habits, to be MAIN
! tanned intact and secure, by the reciprocal
stipulations and mutual compromises of
the Constitution. They were master
builders, who reared up the grand struc-
| ture of the Union, that august temple be-
meath whose dome three generations have
enjoyed such blessings of civil liberty as
were never before vouchsafed by Provi-
dcnce to man that temple before whose
affairs you and l have not only bowed
with devout and grateful hearts, but
where, with patriotic VOWS and sacrifices,
we haves frequently consecratcd our
selves to the protection and maintenance
Of those lofty columns of the Constitution
by which it was upheld. Applause.
No visionary enthusiasts were they,
dreaming vainly Of the impossible uni
formity of sOme wild, Utopia of their own
imaginations. No desperate reformers were
! Y,
consummated, could only result in general
confusion anarchy and chaos Oh, no
high-hearted, but sagacious and practical
statesmen they were, who saw society al
a living fact, not as troubled vision
who knew that national power consists IL
the reconcilement of diversities of insti
tutions and interests, not their conflict anC
obliteration and who saw the variety
and adoption of parts are the necessary ele
ments of all there is sublime or beautiful
in the works of art or nature. MaJesti'
were the solid foundations, the MASSIVE
masonry, the columed loftiness of tina
magnificent structure of the Union
Glorious was the career of prosperity am
peace and power upon which from 1t
very birthday the American Union en-
tered, as with the assured march of tn
conscious offspring of those giants OF tn
Revolution. Such was the Union, a
conceived and administered by Washing
ton and Adams, by jefferson and Madi
son and Jackson. Such | say was til
Union, ere the evil times befel us; erC
in the third generation, the all-compreher
IS sive patriotism of the Fathers had die
" out, and given place to the passlona
emotions of narrow and aggressive se'
tionalism. The Eastern States covere
[, the sea with their ships, the land wit
l. their farms and their manufactures
T. did the middle Atlantic States, with a.
Id dition of their general wealth OF coal al
-. iron; while the Southren States, WI
- their bright soft climate and congenl
g soil, raised up the great staples OF cotto
S, tobacco, rice, corn, which are the lie
a. commerce and manufactures; and t
Of great regions of the West to be granar
of Europe and America, and still turtf
no on was revealed the land of gold and s
yer, on the remote shores of the Pacif
n These were the material elements OF c
zee national power, each State with Its diff
no ence of interests cooperating with
o others to constitute one harmonic
whole. And so the various Europe
nd races, co-existing here, though ditfer
,g- in blood, religion, temper, the Protests
ner and the Catholics, the Puritan and
nc Cavalier, yet by their very ditferen
:, of character, afforded the mental
'he moral element of the power of the UNI
AXE Glorious, sublime above all that hist
our records of narional greatness, was
pe- spectacle which the Union exhibited
6vo the world, so long as the true spirit
the Constitution lived in the hearts OF
noA people, and the Government was u
mp ernment of men reciprocally respect
nay one another's rights, and of States, g