Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1866-07-05
Then and Now.

As appropriate to the ninety first birthday Of our
nation and to the frs. 4th of July since the adop
ton Of the Constitutional Amendment sweeping
away the last vestiSe Of slavery and despotism from
our land, we publish the Declaration of Indspend.
ence and, in close proximity, the Proclamation Of
Freedom. Both documents breathe spirit Of pro
found devotion to human liberty, and it is impossi
bic to deny that the last is the logical consequence
Of the first. Those glorious words-ALL MEN ARE
CREATED EQUAL, AND ARE ENDOWED By THEIR cREA-
TOR WITH CERTAIN UNALrEyADLE RrGHrs--AMoNG
THESE ARE LIFE. LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAP
rINEss,-deserve to be engraven in letters of gold.
and they are engravcn upon the hearts of free
people, and as long remain true to them
so long viii we remain invincible. The same
high regard for that Unborn principle that makes
every m,n desire to be free, the same hatred for
oppression, whatever form it might assume. the
same nobeness Of soul which enabled the signers
OF the Declaration to forget the petty preudiccs OF
birth and caste and led them to view the whole
human family from the standpoint Of immortality.
the same spirit, We say, dictated that other doc
ument whose u,terance smote upon the ears Of four
millions of slaves and made them frccmen.
The two eras of our history which these docu-
ments so fifty mark will always be the fixed stars
Of the hopes Of the oppressed, and they are well
worthy Of the venera:ion which will be accorded to
them in all ages. In other lands the few rights
possessed by the masses such rs have been
wrung-from unwilling tyrants by revolted popu-
lace; the rights OF man have been lost sight OF in
the supposed divine right of kings to rule and what
ever privileges enjoyed by the poor may be ro-
gardcd as concessions given with grudgng hand.
The much boasted of liberties of Englishmen were
often gained by particular localities by means OF
especial avowals ofloyalty to the reisnng tyrant,
and the franchises thus pusillanimousy obtained
became at length customs of such antiquity that
the courts would not permit the inhabitants to be
deprived of them.
I America wisely laid the foundations Of liberty
broad and deep. She had wrongs which seemed
grievous enough in the hour Of their inficton and
would have justified her in declaring herself alb
solved from all aeSiance'to the British crown, bu,
had she based her action on these alone there
would have been little gained by her success CT
lost by her defeat. The sublime protest agsins,
the doctrines Of despotism with which the Fathers
inauguratcd resistance to the mother country wo'd
have been the shibbOeth OF the slave even ftheiT
efforts had proved unsuccessful, and the advocac
ofsuch truths would have immortalized their names
and enshrned their memories in the hearts of the
oppressed everywhere matter what had been
the result of the conflict which followed.
But even in the glorious period when our new
born nation was being welcomed on the stage OF
action by the plaudits Of an admring world. there
we're those who preferred the "leeks and flesh
pots" of despotism and who shrunk from the sac
rifces which they were called upon to make for lib
erty. just at the present day there those
who sigh for the good old times when the shrek.
ofthe slave mother, as she parted with her off
spring. could be heard in hS capitol ofthe nation
so were then those whose narrow minds could mol
conceive the grandeur and sublimity ofthe word.
of the Fathers when they burst the letters with
which tyranny had sriven to enchsin the human
mind.