Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-12-14

ident Of the United States delivered b;s
inaugural address 10 the two Houses fCon.
grcss, he said TO them, and through tbom
to the country and to mankind that "tbe
preservation of the sacred fire of liberty
ana the destiny of the Republican model
government are justly considered as deem
~ perhaps MS finally staked on the cxperi-
mcnt entrusted to the American pcoplc,"
ana the House OF Representatives answer
We adore the invisible hand which has
led the American people through SO many
difficulties, to cherish conscious responsi.
bIlity Tor the destiny ofrepublican liberty"
More than scventy-six years have gided
away since these words were spoken; the
United States have passed through seyerer
trials than were foreseen; and now at this
new epoch in our historyas one nation, with
our Union purified by sorrows, and strength.
ened by conflict, and established by the yir.
tue OF people, the greatness of the occasion
invites us once more to repeat, with socm-
nlty, the pledges of our father to hold our.
serves answerable before our fellow men for
the success OF the Republican form of gov
cheney in peace and in war; it has yindica.
ted Its authority through dangers, and af.
flctions,, and sudden and terrible emergen.
cles, which would have crushed any system
that had been less firmly fixed in the heart
OF, the people. At the Inauguration of
Washington the foreign relations of our
country were few, and its trade was repress-
cd by hostile regulations: now all the civil
ized nations of the globe welcome our com
merce, and their Governments profess to-
wards us amity. Then our country felt its
way hestatingly along an untried path,
with states so little bound together by rapid
means of communication as to be hardly
known to one another, and with historic
traditions extending over very few years;
now intercourse between the States is swift
and intimate; the experience of centuries
has been crowded into few generations,
and has, created an intense, indistructibIe
nationality. Then our jurisdiction did not
reach beyond the inconvcnient boundaries
of the territory which had achieved indie
pendence; now, through cessions of lands.
first colonized by Spain and France the
country has acquired more complex char
acter, and has for its natural limits the
chain of Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and
on the east and the west the two great
oceans Other nations were wasted bv civ.
Il wars Tor ages before they could establish
Tor themselves the necessary degree of mi.
ty; the Intent conviction that our form Of
government is the best ever known to tho
world, has enabled us to emerge from civil
war within four years, with a comnlete
vlndicatlon OF the constitutional authority
OF the General Government, and with our
local liberties and State institutions unim
pared. The throngs of emigrants that
crowd to our shores are witnesses of tho
confidence of people in our pcrmanence
Here Is the great land of free labor where
industry is blessed with uncxampled re-
wards, and the bread Of the workingman is
sWcetened by the conscience that the cause
or the country lis his own cause, his own
safety, his own dignity" Here every one
enjoys the free use Of his faculties and the
choice or activity as natural gift Here,
under the combined influence of fruitful
soll' genial chmes, and happy institutions,
population has increased fifteen fold within
Il century. Here, through the easy devel.
opmcnt of boundless resources, wealth has
increased with two.told greater rapidity
than numbers, so that we have become Sc
cure against the financial vicssitudcs ofoth-
er countries, and alike in business and in
opinion, are self centred and truly indie
pendent. lcre more and more care is Civ
en- to provide education for every one born
on our soil. Here religion, released from
political connection with the civil govern
mcnt, refuses to subserve the craft ofstates-
men, and becomes, in its independence, the
spiritual life of the people Here tolera-
ton is extended to every opinion in the
quiet certainty that truth needs only fair
field to secure Il victory. Here the human
mind goes forth unshacked in the pursuit
of science, to collect stores of knowledge
and acquire and cver-increasing over the
forces OF nature. Here the national do
main is offered and held in millions of sepa.
rate trccholds, so that our fellow citizens.
beyond the occupants of any other part of
The earth, constitute in reality people.
Here exists the democratic form of govern
ment; and that form of government, by the
confession Of European statesmen, gives a
power of which no other form is capable,
because 1t Incorporates every man with tho
state, and arouscs everything that belongs
to the soul "
Where, in past history, docs parallel
exist to the public happiness which is with
IN the reach OF the people Of the United
States! Where in any part of the globe,
can institutions be found so suited to their
habits or so entitled to their love as their
own free Constitution? Every one of them
then, in whatever part Of the land he has a
home, must wish its perpetuity. Who of
them will not now acknowledge, in the words
OF Washington, that every step by which
the people of the United States have adj.
vanced to the character of an independent
nation, seems to have been distinguished by
some token of Providcntial agency" Who
will not JOIN with me in the prayer, that the
invisible hand which has led us through tho
clouds that gloomed around our path will
SO guide us onward to n perfect restoration
OF iraternal affection, that we of this day
may be able to transmit our great Inherit
ance, Of State Governments in all their
rights, of the General Government in its
whole Constitutional vigor, to our posterity,
and they to theirs through countless gcner-
ations? ANDREW JOHNSON
WASHINGTON, December 1, 1868.