The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-07-13

people from small beginnings IN the wilder
ness. with their home-bred liberties and yir.
tues, and conducted them along an arduous
pathway for many generations, TO become
the colossus Of nations.
"The mills Of God grind slowly"
saith the poet and when we witness the
certainty with which our present high desti.
ny has been reached, from the many elements
and jarring interests Of which the Colouists
were composed, we acknowledge that a pow.
or higher than that Of man shaped and di.
rected our progress.
] cannot hesitate to conclude that at no
time subsequent 70 the substantial planting
Of the early American scttlem ents. could an
immediate monarchiaI government have ex-
listed within our borders, nor could a present
imperial ruler have Feignui for q ssngie day
unsupported By foreign power. This land
was devoted by nature to free government.
and all the checks and bindrances placed in
theway Of its course were only so many coca.
SONS for the country to show its power over
them.
While the Republican form is one known
IN the history Of past governments, the tyne
or Our own is generic in itself; it is identi.
cal, and has the power Of reproduction. If
stroke OF annihilation should to-day re.
move every public Office in the land. and the
laws and archives be destroyed, there would
be no revolutlon-no change; but. again
like officers would be elected and like laws
would he enacted By the people. Iftbe non.
ulation OF en- entire State should be swept
away in an hour, another people, gathered,
It might be, from all States and from all ma.
tons, would re-inhabit it, occupy its homes.
cultivate its natural products, FIJI its halls OF
legislation, Its executive and judicial seats.
and enforce the laws found upon the statute
books.
Look back twenty FIVE years, when some
Of you came the weary journey Of three
thousand miles, through trackless wilder
ness, driving your ox-wagons over a cont.
nent OF space and through savage tribes. to
lind your homes in Oregon. The country
here was virtually foreign-claimed by the
British Crown rs well as by the United
States. neither having the right of exclusive
Jurisdiction. or, in fact, any jurisdiction
fon found no government here, and Won es.
tablished one; and you maintained it against
foes within and foes without. until the iuris.
dlction Of the United States wgs extended
over this Territory. The government you
established was as much American in all its
essential features as the one under which
you are now living.
| In 1860 ten States Of this Union stood In
open, defiant revolt. They undertook reyo.
/ luton against the existing General Govern.
ment, for reasons which satisfied the people
Of those States. lie established. de- f6cto.
new constitutions of States, and Confeder.
alton Of States, and for four years sustained
them By arms, producing the most gigantic
civil commotion the world has Witnessed
| Yet those constitutions embraced substanti-
ally the same principles, secured the Same
IL A.
common with the governments of the orig
iyai thirteen States; and the Articles of
| Q1ufederation were, in q majority ofclausea,
tlfSenticaI with EsoTlstt.
tfon. and expressed IN the same words.
What n spectacle is this. of States desiring
separation, but unable and unwilling TO
frame any other form Of Governments than
that under which they had lived!
cite these instances for tho purpose of
exhibiting the fact in clear relief that our
present system Of government Is permanent
in its form and abiding in its principles with
the American people. and in its chief ele-
ments IL is stable and nnchangeable.
, Let me not he understood to say that our
Government is absolutely stationary and
changeless in one view it is always chang
ing. Like the atmosphere around US, it has
it's days and nights. its clouds and its sun
shine, its quiet seasons and its seasons oi
storms and floods; but all, let Us hope, in
the economy of nature. working together to
reach benefeent destiny.
r In our progress there viii be great issue.
6 to settle in tho conduct of affairs; there viii
be temporary departures from the true course
{ marked out by the fathers; there will be the
r Titan grapplc of statesmen and the tug oI
+. lesser politicians there may be wars and
4 Il L..k
e tenn of free government will stand like q
rock amid the waves and surges of the polit
ical sea, for years and for ages-''and who
soeyer shall fall upon this rock shall be bro
: ken, and upon whomsoeyer this rock shall
e fall shall be ground into powder"
c Regarding our institutions as permanen
e in character, let us look around and beholC
a the land wo live in.
c 1t was but little past twelve o'clock at mid
), night to us when the morning gun on tn
# shores of Maine first saluted the slantinC
n sunlight of this National Day, and for fou
;, hours a ceaseiess booming of cannons haileS
r the coming rays of the rising sun on on
e continuous continent of American States
l. girding a sixth part of the glohe-all way
IS ing one ensign--alI floating one flag. AM
after night shall have fallen upon Oregol
g and her beautiful valleys, and sleep shal
se have hushed her thousand homes. the sun
re set gun on BhcrRg's Straits will tell tt
ie close of this anniversary on American pos
r sessions.
rel Extending from the tropics almost contiu
D. uously to the Polar Seas, our land produce
$, every product of every cline. Never ha
Il such dominion fallen to the lot of any otf
- or nation.
OF That our country embraces thirty five mi
Q; lions of people, developed in oil the arts .
lg peace and war, constitutes no measure of i
I'd real greatness. Though eyen-shouldere
VS. with the best of nations now, we seem
n have just begun our growth. It is a gre.
m power of itself-the fact that we have rool
's- to grow, Webster expressed this fact, whe
I'M to the Austrian Minister who was boastiu
'ei that his country kept standing army
y. eight hundred thousand men, he said: Isl
- your country, as compared with mine, is b
he patch upon the face of the earth.n
There are those within the hearing of n
voice who will witness this nation possessir
ITS seventy millions of people, with armies c
OF pable of carrying its banners round t
Ter world.
ltyl We shall not only progress in populati,
ng and power, but we shall enlarge in territor
m Mexico, the land of tho olive and the orang
sht will be ours and when a ship.canal shi
ate marry the two oceans Mt the Isthmus, it v
lie. he constructed by American enterprise, up
IN the soil of the Union.
nd Prince Rnnertis Land must come to /
Ca States. and all the dominions of the Britt
crown in North America, Our Northe
md neighbors may confederatd, resolve and {
og- act, but they are like helpless ship in
fnkrs