The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-07-04
The Day We Celebrate.

Ninety years ago fo.day the members of the
continental Congress asseulbicd at their &C.
customed place Of meeting, and took up ID
piece of unfinished business, such as no par
liamentary body ever had in hand before.
few enlightened thinkers in England and
France had given utterance to the political
doctrines Of the Philadelphia Congress, and
Sidney had died for them not quite hundred
years before. No body of men had taken
Shem up as fruitful principles, from which TO
deduce not merely pleasing theory, but
practical system of government, until on the
shores Of new world these colonists were
taught by the necessities of their isolated sit
uation to depend daily and hourly upon their
own judgment for the management of their
own affairs, and came gradually to recognize
the individual man as positive existence en-
titled to much higher reverence than the po-
litical abstraction known as a state.
After little debate in Committee of the
Whole, the Committee rose, and Mr.. Harri-
son of Virginia reported that they had agreed
to a declaration, which by request he then
presented to the Congress- Once again the
instrument was read:
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE sELF-EvI-
DENT, THAT ALE MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL;
TOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS !;
THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY,
AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. THAT
TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTS
ARE INSTITUTED AMONG MEN, DERIVING
THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF
THE GOVERNED.
With elaborate care the declaration pro-
ceeded to rehearse the manifold injustice of
the king of Great Britain towards his Colo
mics. Our forefathers were law-abiding race
OF men. The Massachusetts, Assembly, after
Lexington fight, sent for witnesses and pro-
cured sworn testimony that the British fired
first, as carefully as if the matter in hand
were lawsuit for the title to cornfeld So
now the Congress prefaced the declaration to
the maintenance of which they pledged their
lives, their fortunes and their honor, with a
full recital of grievances suffered. How they
signed it afterward, John Hancock leading of
with that bold hand of his, Francis Hopkin-
son trembling, but not with fear, how the
document with all its interlineations and orig
inal signatures still looks. few Americans need
to be told.
We 40 wen to celebrate the day which wit
messed that great historic act The birthday
of republic founded upon such principles as
these, well deserves to be held in eternal mem
ory. No manifestation of civic joy can be ex-
cessive, when that day returns, which made
possible-not American independence; that
would have come by peace or war, long ago
but the noble government which alone made
American independence the most significant
fact in the recent history of the world. 1t
was the Declaration of Independence which
shaped the Constitution. It is from the prin-
ciples of the Declaration that such Constitu-
tional changes as changed times require, must
consistently flow.
The Constitution of 1851 was not a full ex
preston of the American theory of govern
ment. 1t was compromise from the begin
ming, designed to conciliate the prejudices and
overcome the hesitations, of the various in
dependent Colonies. 1t allowed, though it
did not recognize, the political inequality of
men. Itpermitted, though it did not author
ize, the denial to many Americans of the un-
alienable rights derived, according to the De
claration, from the Creator of the world.
This detection from the great doctrines upon
lhich our independence was founded, has
et us dear. 1t created an aristocracy at the
kuth, which spurned at our plain ways in the
publican North, which scorned and insulted
X and compelled us to take up arms to main
u the institutions of our ancestors We
sle wiped the foul blot of slavery from the
lstitution. We desire now to return to
be high principles which we ought never
fhave abandoned. The consent of the gov
hed-that we also claim as the true founda-
e IN of all civil government. So long as there
la class of pariahs in our midst, the discus
Jon will go on. Unfinished questions" as
Iur Swiss friends tell us, shave no pity for the
>fepose of mankind"
There hangs in this city a copy of well
known engraving, entitled "Reading the
Emancipation Proclamation" Over that en-
craving are suspended two crossed muskets-
ave shall have to defend that proclamation
with the bayonet yet" said the owner of the
engraving, the other day, pointing significant
ly to the weapons. The laws must be obeyed.
The verdict of the nation, deliberately adopt
ed, will never be reversed. We do not look
for future civil wars in this country; but it
may be as well for those journals which still
continue their silly and untimely vaporings
and threats of revolutionary violence, to know
how the people feel about it. Within week
the World deliberately suggested the pro-
gramme of re-nominating Andrew johnson
for the Presidency, in National Copperhead
Conventions, and if the South, through her
own fault, should have no right to take part in
the election, of insisting nevertheless that her
votes shall be counted, and of installing him
at Washington by force of arms. These wick
ed instigations-and this is not the first by
many, from this and other quarters-show
us too plainly against what desperate men we
have to contend. The riots against the draft
have as yet been the only result Of their sedu-
lous efforts. The madness of their counsels
is the measure of the weakness of their influ-
ence With influence comes sense of res
possibility and discretion with waning DOW
er, it may be natural to expect an access of
childish passion and petulance.
Such are some of the clouds which blur the
brightness of our national holiday. They are
hut the lingering followers of the storm which
burst upon us nearly six years ago. 1t was
during that fearful confusion and din, that
the wise building of our ancestors was prov
ed. Whatever stood upon the rock of the
Declaration, to the memory of which we an
nually dedicate this day, stood firm; whatever
was not built upon that foundation went