The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-07-13
ADDRESS OF HON. |. F. GROVER,
DELIVERED AT ALBANY, JULY 4, 1867.

FslloC. citizens Of Linn county--Lodies and
| Gentlemen:
This is the birthday Of our great Repub-
lie. On this day now g0yernmcnt was
given 10 mankind, and new era was marked
in the pcogress of civilization. 1t was on
this day that the aspirations, struggles and
hopes Of ideal liberty broke away from cs.
tablished forms and asserted themselves in
n real, living, self sustaining Government.
The germ Of regulated liberty, planted
far away in centuries gone, taking root,
sometimes upon the barren lands Of mon.
archy, and sometimes amid the tares Of ty.
ranny, had developed but little growth and
produced but little fruit but whcns the seed
was cast upon American SOIL forthwith it
sprang up, bearing an hundred fold.
| The elements Of our Constitution are
traccablc TO dim ages, and the buIwarks Of
our liberties arc planted upon Magma Charta.
| At the period of our Revolution it was not
50 much an assertion Of new principles, or a
demand Of rights before withheld, as it was
the occasion Of asserting principles and de-
manding rights desired to be secured, which
led 10 our present form Of government. Our
fathers began by insisting upon what they
called the rights of Englishmcn, ard ended
by realizing the practical rights Of Ameri.
eans.
Excepting the elitlerness $ngcndered Big the
war, the body Of the people was the same be-
fore the war as after it, and enbued alike
with the spirit Of liberty. The thorough
dissemination Of enlightened views and full
acceptance of liberal principles in govern.
ment, had fitted the eolonisss for our present
form Of Constitution and made them ready
for its establishment. They had, in fact,
established incipient republics. Long before
the Revolution our fathers had elected local
legislatures and made and enforced their own
laws-subiect, ii is true, in most instances
to authority and dlimitation Of Royal charters,
but often with no other authority or limit
than their own wilia.
The Declaration of Independence to which
you have Just listened, il Of itself an cyi.
dence Of what rights the American coionists
claimed to exercise, before interruption and
denial by the arbitrary Ministry Of George
the Fourth. It il declared:
''He has refused his assent to laws the
most Wholesome and necessary for the public
good.
''Iie has dissolved representative houses
repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness
his innovations Of the rights Of the people.
ale has obStruc;ed the administration Of
Justice by refusing his assent to laws estab-
fishing judiciary powers"
When il Is understood that the claws" re-
ferred TO in this Declaration were the laws
framed By the col0nists themselves. and that
they denied the right Of the King and his
ministry To review ov to veto those laws, it
will be readily understood to what degree of
civil liberty our ancestors had attained be-
fore the Revolution.
Another complaint against the British
King was: "Iie has endeavored to prevent
the population of these States-for that pur.
pose obstrncting the laws Of naturalization
1f foreigners. The instructive belief Of the
was 10 be country of greater freedom than
any other, had drawn To cur shores immi
grants from every quarter, and Of every de
nomination Of religious belief. Their were
the English. Irish and Scotch, the French
Dutch and Swede. as chief colonists and il
religion the Episcopalian. Presbyterian
Baptist, Catholic, Quaker. Puritan. the jew
| ish and the Dutch churches, with 0thel
shades and shadows Of religious belief-al
flocking to the new land ready 10 receiv,
, them upon harmonious basis. And tn
colnnists passed laws for the naturalization
5 and protection Of those coming from part
: foreign To the British Isles. These law
{ were ''obstructedi by the crown, and ou
fathers were offended. But when we recol
lect that the British Government had no
1 then, and have not now, any general system
Of naturalization, such as the colonists claim
ed the right TO establish, and such as we hav
> now, you will further observe kow far on
: ancestors had gone towards independence
e long before the year l7T6.
j. might examine critically each point @
:. our Declaration of Independence, and shoN
Ist.z -. 4.a- IS 8lsa
> planned of, there is tho demand OF Colonia
: jurisdiction against the jurisdiction of til
9 Crown-~in effect, independence.
d It is most clearly traceable in the arohive:
a and demonstrable by the facts of history
that for years before the Revolutionary per
cd the pulley and laws Of the Colonies weI
r as wide from the policy and laws of til
Mother Country as the two shores of th
ocean that separted them. They were, j
u fact, two classes of governments long befoI
y the Revolution-the Home government
l. monarchial 1.-The Colonial, democratic,
" government by the people, Between thei
e there was a conflict of policies, institution
Is laws, modes Of thinking, manners and inte
= ests--all irreconcilable, from which the
= were but two events possible--the one rep
diation, tho other subjugation. Our fathe
chose the former.
The immediate circumstances attendir
to the war of Independence were not the eau
at or occasion of the separation. They we
n not even the stepping stones to that temp
= of fame which postcrity has reared to Anne
!, lean honor. Where, then, you ask, will '
: look for the beginning from which this pc
~ pie have come up like myriads with banner
at taking their places, now fresh in half-devt
as oped manhood, in the front rank ofnation
The answer is: Go to the deep recesses
our Colonial history find reliance ther
10 find the settlers worshipping God accordil
ha to the dictates oftheir own consciences fl
: them making and executing their own la
- and regulations find them inviting foreig
re ers to their shores and providing for the
~ equal rights and privileges find them
zee tablishing the right of suffrage; find thu
combining for mutual protection and defen,
find them sustaining themselves and defrf
les ing the expenses of their own government
and yon have discovered the seeds of I
- American Union, planted and growing
:" hundred years before the Revolution.
EST Tho isolation of the American settlemel
Us from the rest of the world, the absence
he immediate influence and example of otl
nations. and above all, the absolute nocess
of sell. reliance, continued through Ia
- years of toll, privation, hardship and d;
~ ger. bred in the Colonists modes of thou,
Oh and action, both upon public and priv
'us concerns. never before developed in peor
rip Their deliberations and proceedings were
rly a great degree original with themselves, Z
framed to suit the requirements of the oc
sion.
tly More than century Of self-action
The control, before their independence was rec
4 \ II. u