The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-07-16
How Tammany Kept the Fourth.

| ACW lduiudiy hopJ tiiO run III.
Independence Day was celebrated
in this city with less than the usual
noise, but with more than the usual
heartincss 1t was a festival of the
whole people, whereas there has
seemed danger in the past years OF
its becoming merely a festival of the
peoples children. WelI-dressed
Inultitudes filed the streets, intent
upon quiet enjoyment. watched the
military display, crowded the public
squares where fireworks were eXhib-
tied in the evening, or sought relief
from noise and heat in suburban
excursions. There was comparative
ly little drunkenness, and great
deal of quiet enthusiasm. Not for
years has the anniversary of our
national birth been more agreeably
celebrated, or have the pOpulaee
testified more Enthusiastically their
appreciation of the political bless
ings which we have inherited from
the patriots of l776. We have
suffered so much in the defense of
that inheritance that its value is
more keenly felt now than ever it
WAS before. The anniversary OF
.JetfersOn's glorious declaration comes
10 us freighted with the memories
of Vicksburg and Gettysburg; the
same festival commentaries the
beginning of our national liberty
under Washington and its cOniirma-
ton under Grant, and Sherman, and
Meade.
While most good citizens were
celebrating these events on Monday,
and the survivors of the greatest oil
our Eastern armies were meeting TO
talk their battles over, and renew the
friendships of the field and camp,
the leaders of The Democratic party
gathered their clans Mt Tammany
Hall, and spent the day in denuncia-
tion of the soldiers, and wild lar
angues against the National Govern
ment. Their orators had not one
word of grateful reference to the
past, not one word OF congratulaticn
on our present success. The tri-
umph of the Union armies over the
Rebellion was, in their view, nothing
but ga partisan victory The
defeat of Secession was nothing but
the subjugation of Sovereign States
under the heel of despotic Con-
gress. The Federal Government,
they declared, is as bad as King
George, ga tyrant unfit to be the
ruler OF a free people, 1t has
robbed us of our dearest rights; it
is "deliberately engaged in an at
tempt, step by step, to deprive the
people of their power OF local self
government" and sour liberties are
being torn away while we are drug
ged with General Grant and military
glory.' Senator Stockton assured
the multitude that the policy of
Congress was nothing less than
revolution, and ought to be resisted
by force if no other way sufiiced (;
and Mayor Hall put a climax to the
indecent exhibition by declaiming
against the soldiers of the Army OF
the Potomac, whom he accused of
"keeping alive the embers OF civil
war;" and upbraiding the State
militia because they paid the honor
of a marching salute to the heroes
of Gettysburg and the Wilderness |!
We blush for our State that such a
celebration Of the Fourth of July
should have been held in New York I;
but we are proud also that even such
evidences of disloyalty can be toll
Grated without danger to the Com
monwealth. The Democracy plnng-
ed us into one civil war; we shall
not let them involve US in another
N, Y. Tribune.