Weekly Trinity journal., 1867-07-13
WEA AVERVIIIE CALIFORNIA, JULY l3, 1867.

ANNIVERSARY GRAFTON,
DELIVERED CITY, COUNTY, JULY 4rH, 1867
BY THEODORE z. JONES, Esq.
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENrLrMEx 1t is
meet and fitting that on this, the anniversary OF
Our Country Independence, we should lay aside
the varied occupations in which we are engaged
and meeting together in joyous throngs, do
honor alike to the day we cherish and the mem
ories of those whose names will be forever iden-
tilted with our country liberty and greatness. II
is meet and fitting that we should, here on the
distant shores of the Pacific, raise our voices in
unison with the millions of our countrymen on
the shores of another ocean, and form one Of the
many assemblages which will, to-day, meet to
worship at the altar of Freedom, and renew the
vows of fealty and devotion to its cause. How
we can each and all recall the spirit of glad re-
joicing which among other scenes and in other
homes were wont to hail the advent OF this
day, when old and young alike, moved by the
same emotion of patriotic joy, would join to-
gether to fttingly commemorate the hour from
which our existence as nation was dated How
we have listened, with rapt attention, to the re-
cital of those deeds which gave to Freedom
country she could call her own, where the watch
fires at the altar of Liberty would burn with
brighter, purer fame than had yet been kindled
at any period in the worlds history. How we
would follow, step by step, the rise and progress
Of our country until, standing in the front rank
of nations, the leading power Of the Western
World, she could look upon the many sister Re-
pablics which, pro6ting by the glorious example
she had set, had consecrated the soil of the New
Continent to the principles of liberty and self
government. And how, with each return of the
natal day of Our Country's Independence, we
would commune with each other upon the past
the present and the future. gathering hope from
the lessons of the one to look forward with con-
fdence to the other-listening and rehearsng
the tale of our countrys glory and honor-a tale
we ever love to hear-a tale we never weary to
repeat.
But if, in the past, we could recall so much to
awaken in our hearts spirit of gladness, how
much more cause of rejoicing have we to-day,
when ou- country has passed safely through the
most fearful ordeal to which naticn can be
brought, and emerges from the conflict torn and
bleeding it is true, but with the crown of vic
tory upon her brow? We do not meet to-day to
celebrate the Anniversary of our independence
alone-throngh our hearts we feel the conscious
ness that the safety of our nationally has been
assured, that the loved of its institutions has a
deep foundation in the hearts of our people, that
to their patriotic care it can be safely ntrusted
in the future that when dangers threaten its
existence, whether from the arms of foreign
foe the yet more dangerous element of inter-
nal dissenson, they will rise in their strength to
uphold the nations right. We rejoice in the
thought that not only is this the natal day of
our country, but that while we meet to-day no
dark cloud of civil war casts its shadow Ger
the joyousness of our greetings that the en-
blem of our nationality floats in triumphant
grandeur Ger every valley and from every hill
top of the wide domain which constitutes the
Republic. And drawing from the past lesson
for our future guidance, we can in that future
avoid the dangerous elements which so nearly
proved fatal to our national existence.
There is no part of our history which we can
review with purer feeling of pride than that
which relates to the early settlement of our
country and traces up the motives by which our
for efathers were actuated. However we of the
present day may have changed our theologic
creed from that which was early instiled in the
mind however we may have fallen away from
the observance of the outward forms of religious
worship in the wild and ever-varying changes
for which a mining region is proverbial, we cam
not choose but admire the spirit OF stern devo-
tion which could impel men to brave the dangers
o: unknown ocean that they might build
their affairs and worship the Creator untrammel-
ed by the forms and ceremonies which the creed
of an established church, strong in its own
power and in that of the nation by which it had
been created and adopted, sought to force upon
them The records Of Christianity exhibit n
proud and glorious list of martyrs, strong men
and feeble women, who chose to perish at the
stake the rack, or by any of the manifold tor
lures which human ingenuity could devise, rather
than deny their belief in the creed of Jesus, or
to worship in that creed with forms and ceremo-
nies which at heart they believed to be idolatrous
and wrong. Aye, and even in the spirit of fa-
naticism which originated the Crusades-when
the Crescent and the Cross contendei for the
sovereignty of the Holy Land, and millions per-
ished in the sacred name OF religion, we find in
stances of devotion to religious principle which
in the end, resulted in vast benefit to the cause
of civilization and human progress, and which
call for our high commendation. But if we
search the records of the worlds history we
would search in vain for any event which was
destined to have such an after and future inhu-
ence on its welfare and happiness as was the set
tlement of our country by men urged to the act
by such influences were felt alike by the HUI
guenots and Catholics of the South, the Quakers
and Pilgrims Of the North Had they been i'm
pelled by the usual incentives with which men
are led to break the cherished ties of home,
friendship birth place and associations, the his
tory of that land which their labor reclaimed
from its rugged wildness, would have been
changed in many essential respects. Perhaps
we might have been at this moment in that same
state Of dependency upon the crown of Great
Britain with Canada and the other Provinces at
tue NORTH, more poWStAuA oSSo~SS f,O'SSS'sN "
greater natural advantages, yet still content to
maintain relations with the mother country,
with no desire to embark in the as yet untried
experiment of free government. But IT was no
desire to accumulate great and easily gotten
wealth, no hope of laying the foundation OF an
empire which should in the future become pow
erful and great, NO thought of extending the do
minion of their sovereign BY conquest and vic
tory that impeIled the founders Of our country,
when turning the prows of their frail vessels to
the westward, they crossed the stormy waters of
the Atlantic and cast their lot in the frowning
wilderness which lined its western shore. They
sought nothing, asked nothing, save freedom Of
religious opinion and the right to worship God
in their own way. -
The seeds of religious liberty sown BY the Pill.
grim Fathers and their coadjutors ripened and
brought good fruit. To 1t we can easily trace
that determined spirit which, handed down from
father to son through generation after genera
ton, ultimately took the form of resistance to
oppression of any kind, which eliminated in the
rebellion of the Colonies, their successful revo-
luton and acknowledgement as fee and inde-
pendent States. From freedem of conscience TO
freedom in the fullest sense of the word is but
4 step, step, too, easily taken by the descsnd-
ants Of those who ehose3 to expatriats them