The Portland daily press., 1870-07-04
TIL # PRESS.
Monday Morning, July 4. 1870.
NiuefJ- EOur Wears of Independence.

Ninety -EOnr Wears of independence
Ninety-four years from the Declaration o.
Independence have changed the face of con-
tinent. Then we were but three million how
ering upon the Atlantic coast, while the
wealth of the great interior was undevefopeo
and almost unknown. Now our popuiatloh
is forty millions, our national domain slretches
from ocean to ocean, and civilization pushing
out into the wilderness, has planted itse1 up
on the shores of the Pacific, has spanned the
continent with one railroad, and is projecting
others. During our colonial existence Eu-
rope had to send us provisions to keep our
people from starving. Now our country is
one of the granaries of the world, and our
only anxiety is to find profitable market for
our large and ever increasing surplus. In the
production of iron we surpass all nations ex-
cept England, and in the manufacture of cot
ton and wool we are making steady progress.
Every year has witnessed new triunphs of
mind over matter in the invention of ma
chimes to facilitate labor, and in the extern
sion of the means of communication through
the agency of the railway and the telegraph,
dlu Nhllt lIc WASH CUllDlilatlUIS vi capital
and the growing influence of corporations
thus brought about have caused apprehen-
sions in the minds of many, it is an insult to
civilization to suppose that it cannot control
the forces it has called into being. So much
for material progress.
Looking at our national life in its moral
and political aspects there is scarcely less
cause for qualification. Freedom has not
proved unfavorable to intellectual OF moral
development. While our browning glory is
the general diffusion of intelligence, the high
er culture is not neglected, and our literary
and scientific efforts attract attention and
command respect abroad. In the effort for
the emancipation of the slave, for reforming
the criminal classes, and in the thousand hui
manitarian enterprises Of the age, we have
witnessed some of the noblest exhibitions of
selfdenying philanthrophy. Religion, so far
from perishing for want of government sup
port, has shown vitality which it never be-
fore attained, and even the Earring of hostile
sects is lost amid the symphonies of universal
worship These are enduring triumphs.
The wisdom of the fathers has been vindi-
Gated IN the successful extension of our Fed
eral system over an ever increasing area and
population, and though an antagonist1c insti-
tuition, harbored on our soil, threatened ma
tional disintegration, the cohesiveness of our
political organization was shown by the vigor
with which it resisted dissolution. The Re
beion, so far from destroying our organ
ic union, only strengthened national unity,
extended human rights, and gave the
nation chance to add military to civic
renown, and to raise fleets and ar
mics, and to fight battles that will have a
name in history. Local independence must
hereafter act in subordination to national
sovereignty. As nation, new dangers, new
opportunities and new duties are opening be-
fore us every year. 1t is not enough
that we do not degenerate. Positive improve
ment in all the attributes of national charac-
ter, is all that gives permanence TO national
greatness. The virtues that can sustain an
infant state are not adequate to the sterner
eXigences of mature Development. 1t is for
the citizen Of to-day, instead of tickling his
national vanity with fine pictures of the fu-
ture, to reflect soberly upon the growing re-
sp0nsibilities which rest upon him for the ma
tional blessings he enjoys, and with thanks
giving for the past, to resolve that the hertz
age he has received shall be transmitted with
increase to future generations.