The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-07-07
GRAFTON.
DELIVERED IN THIS CITY, JULY 4TH 1894, By
A. VANWYoK.

Mr. President, and Fsll6D Citizens. For
more. than eighty years it has been the Gus il
ON Of our nation to mark the return of this t
lay, with peculiar obaervances, and festive fl
eioicings. It's earliest dawn has witnessed v
he busy preparations for its welcome hours, a
and latest evening has closed amid the scenes j
and sounds ofjoy,whiIe happy people cele- a
brated the birthday of their Freedom. On il
land or sea, by lake or river, at home or I
abroad, wherever the American has this day s
found himself, his heart has responded to its
proud suggestions and exult in the II T.
ileges of his home and country. II
Yet it is not altogether thus that we as
semble here to-day. A weight presses on our
spirits-a sorrow mingles with our joy. 77h
For three sad years portion of our country
men have worshipped apart at another altar.
Through all the wide territory of the sunny
south, on this anniversary, the voice of orator
has failed to sound the praises of our once
honored Union-the old Flag of our love has
been torn from its post of honor, and, thou
sands of our kindred and language in hostile |
array, under strange ba nners, and Devices
have done insult and injury to our ancients
institutions and usag es.
With sadness, then, we are reminded OF our
divided nation. With joy we recall that we
have still country; that its power for
good is yet assured US; and, that steadily
it resumes its rightful authority over the
States that Treason had sought to with
draw from its benefcent rule.
It was our wont on this occasion to dwell
upon the glory Of our nation-the excellence
| of our institutions our marvellous growth
and prosperity. But amid the the convul-
sions of our country it were almost uniting
to pause in contemplation of a glory that is
dimlned while rebellion lives; of institutions
that are being proved in the severest test
that ever governments were subjected to
of growth, and prosperity that can only be
renewed with the final triumph of on cause.
Every mind seeks rather to comprehend the
issues of the present and to penetrate the
future .
''Yet the past is all our own. No future
disaster can deprive us of the glory of that.
The history of our success for eighty years
at least, is on record, The story of the man
, hood, and the gallant struggle of our fathers
of the bene6cent influences of the princi-
pies they established-of the fulIness four
freedom, our advance under its impulse-of
the hope thatwe were to all people, the
rank we had attained among the nations,
''has gone out through all the earth and
will live as long as men shall love Truth
and Liberty.
At this critical period it is one of the
most important inquiries that we can make,
and one which in its decision, is calculated
to throw much light on our future. What
was the cause Of this great prosperity and
how shall it be restored? .-.. ,-, ....
/ Whatever Importance we may attach to
the peculiar situation of our country, the
character of our people and the nature OF our
fredome no single cause furnishes SO salts
factory reply to such an inquiry as that it
was the Union of the States, The union COM
bined under one government a vast variety
of resources and interests, III the hands of a
people rendered singularIy active by their
almost unrestricted individual liberty.
D. h. 1efr nth If OF
il secured our exemption from foreign i'm
pertinence and intervention. 1t assured us
tranquility at home. It relieved US of COM
merciaI inpediments through all our vast
! territory, and united under one central gov
Pernment greater variety Of soil, climate
and productions in one country than hadev
before been committed to the control of one
people. Not Rome itself in the period of its
most extended dominion commanded such
varied resources, with such unobstructed
freedom of interchange, and development.
Under it's influence in little more than half
century we had grown from a small mar
! gin by the sea board to this broad empire.
Every year witnessed vast tracts of the will
derness reclaimed to the use of man. Every
decade added new states richer, larger than
the old. The simple cities of our fathers
were enriched with sumptuous edi6ces and
| splendid monuments of Art and industrial
progress. New cities were built on ground
where but recently the Indian had his wig
wan, which in their youth, ,rivalled great cap
itals of an earlier age. Lines of Rail Road
and canals interlocked, and linked our land,
extending, projecting our civilization until
its outposts touched the shores of the Pacific.
The oppressed, and destitute of all lands
sought home with us. The ocean solitudes
were enivened with our commerce, trans
hitting to other lands our products, carrying
every where the assurance of our ric hes, and
power-the banner at the mast head symbol
izing principles that inspired hope in all peo-
pie, alarm in the oppressor. Such was our
history
Why has this been interrupted? Why
should any of our co untrymen, enjoying
these blessings in their fitness, have been
willing to desert, to attack, to imperI thus
their proud nationality and Institutions 1t
is question that perplexes and divides us.
Much as has been said of antipathies of
race-of antagonistic interestsof- tariffs and
Free Trade-of Abolitionists and their OPP
ponents; the public mind seems to have set
tied, and we believe rightly settled, on the
conclusion, that no single cause can be
found adequate to results of such magni-
tude, but slavery.
1t is slavery which has rendered the rule