The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-07-04
The Fourth of July,

Ninety-seven years ago to-day, a people
through their representatives, became a ma
ton, and declared new political creed or
rather reaffirmed and espoused natural
truth, as old as humanity. At that time it
was, however, virtually new, for privileged
classes had so long enforced by violence the
monstrous idea of their divine right to OPP
press, plumber, enslave and murder the mass
es that, by common assent they became the
mere instruments of kings and priests.
The man had no rights. He was the chat
tel ofthe State and Church, which were simply
used for the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the few, who
impiously declared that they had been set
apart to the work of oppression, and violence,
by God and were alone responsible to Him.
By the "inexorable logic of events" the
founders of the nation, were brought to make
the declaration "that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Crea-
tor with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" and to pledge their
lives and fortunes and sacred honor, to main
tain these selfevident truths against their
foes.
From thousand rostrums to-day, the orator,
in fervid eloquence, will pay homage to the
courage and devotion of the men who Sravely
defied British power and arrogance, for
principle that underlies all just government
and the welfare of humanity. Nor is it nee
essary at this time, for us to dwell upon the
development of that principle in our own ma
ton, and its influence upon the world. 1t is
enough to say that we are to-day, great and
prosperous nation because of the unyielding
courage and devotion of those men who stalk
ed their lives upon the issue in which they
engaged to establish the natural rights of the
human race.
We do well, then, to properly celebrate the
day, to sensibly express our joy at its re-
occurrence, to recall the struggles by which
cur national greatness has been achieved, to
recount and fifty appreciate our blessings as a
people and to spend The day in such man
ner as shall make us more mindful of our
duties 10 our country and to our fellow citi-
zens. 1t were better that the day should be
blotted from remembrance than that it
should be spent in drunkenness and revelry;
better that it should be forgotten than that
we show our appreciation of our dearly pur-
chased inheritance by unbridled license and
demoralizing amusements.
There are thousands of timid people to
whom all the beauty of June is lost in antici-
patton of the horrors of the Fourth of July.
Thousands who live in cities escape to the
country on that day as they would from bed
lam. 1t is quite possible if the signers of the
Declaration had foreseen that young America
would make the twelve hours preceding the
day they immortalized, hideous with noise,
and that the ingenuity of the Heather Chi
nee would be called upon to produce that in
describable nuisance. the fire cracker, and
been mindful of the torrents that the maj or
ity suffer in consequence, they would have
.faltered in their purpose and signed their
names with the tremulousness of Stephen
Hopkins, or at least inserted a clause detin-
ing the rights of ordinary people to life, and
the pursuits of happiness SO as to exclude all
demonstrations of joy on account Ct their
natal day between the hours of sunrise and
midnight the Fourth. But we must put up
with these boyish ebullitions of patriotism,
trusting that the young patriots in ripper
years will become model citizens and SO
learn the folly of such demonstrations as to
teach their posterity to celebrate a nations
birth more nationally.