Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-07-09
GRAFTON.
Delivered by Col. John G. Clark
at Patch Grove, July 4, 1874.

Pereaancc you think to-dBy that you are
| deemed of but little Importance, and that It's
wise for you to enjoy the feeting moments re-
| gardless of the past, and caring not for the
morrow. Be undeceived, you are the nations
wards and will in due time be its governors
Twarty.fve years will place You where your
| fathers are, will place the reins of government
| in your honds You will soon find that you
have other and higher duties to perform than
| drinking lemonade and shooting off fire crack
/ ers; than curling hair and trying to cultivate
a mustache. You will find that life has its
shadows as well as its sunshines; its realities
as we'll as it's fancies and folles.
| Soon your lives will be stripped of their tin
| sci show aud you will be dealing with the
world, yourselves the rulers of America and
whether you viii or no, leaving the impress OF
| your miads, ofyour virtues and vices on those
who, succeeding you, shall in turn hold in their
hands the destinies of our country; trust not
| like the present and past generations of tie
French, leading or following the fashions, ast-
/ ing your lives on frivolities and foolishness
preparing yourselves and your children for the
| scenes lately enacted in Paris Your destiny.
boys and girls, is in your own hands. 1t mat
| tiers not how poor, how destitute YOU and your
| parents may be, your future is subject to YOUR
| own control, you may become leaders in soci-
| ETY. and the nation, or mere tools in the hands
| of others. Choose you, then, which Won will
| do, lead or follow, be an independent institus
| tion-hy your own kite or be the tail to an
| others kite.
The admission Of ladies to oranges, and to
| the active discharge of duties in churches and
temperance societies, schools and school
| boards, to the pulpit and the bar and tie prac-
| tee of medicine are but stepping stones to
| higher positions for the hole sex and tell us
of new order of things in the not far distant
failure. You, boys and girls, will in your own
day have to pass upon great questions Of hui
man rights. The opportunity will be extend
| ed to you of becoming the heroes and heroncs
and statesmen of the coming time In the
nature of things it cannot be avoided. So. if
you wish, "when your fathers have gone the
way Of all the earth to be strong, to show YOUR.
selves men and women" you must commence
at once to watch as well as pray, to actas well
| as WISH to think as well as play
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it has been
well said that history repeats itself To-day
| is but repetition of yesterdays affairs in all
the great concerns of life. This 4th of July is
but d repetition of the last. The characters
| are about the same-the costumes alone are
different. Although we enjoy new scenes.
new discoveries in the moral, mental, religious
and physical world in the arts and sciences.
still old friends faces and facts recall the hal
lowed associations of the past and bring with
them the greater part Of the joys Of life. We
travel in circles great or small. The sacra
ment, our festivals, spring, summer, autumn
and winter, morning, noon and night-the
| lovely and loved enioyments of home family
and friends, though a continued repetition Of
the past make up the great bulk OF the pleas
| ures Of existence-make life worth living for,
| and family and ntpyt ropth dvipfe Fl
But why, my friends, are we here assembled?
What motive has brought SO many together?
Why this music? Why are these banners
here? These battle torn and smoke begrim-
med banners? These blood stained banners?
| Why do we find here the young, the middle
aged, and the old? Fair women and brave
men, old age with its pilgrim staff, the young
with their light and joyous step; men Of every
| trade, of every tongue, of almost every cline?
| Why has labor been suspended in every ham
let, and are such meetings as this being held
in every village in the land? Why has this
become not only holiday but a holy day in
the minds Of free men and in the minds Of op.
pressed and struggling humanity the world
| over?
| will not dctain you with details.
a few centuries since this continent was
Wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and wilder
pressed. Religious liberation was unknown.
Cast prevailed. Laws were enacted in the in
terest OF monopolies; the wealthy and the til
| tied few. Governments not only taxed their
subjects and slaughtered millions to sustain
| dynastes and propagate the religious dogmas
of crazy fanatics; but even prescribed the only
pathway men should travel to heaven.
The few who comprehended, even 10 a slight
degree, the idea of the fatherhood of God, the
brotherhood and equality of man, that govern
ments should be instituted and administered
for the benefit of the governed, usually atoned
for their presumption at the stake or on the
scafiold.
Our fathers, smarting under these oppres-
sions, taking their wives and little ones, EN-.
barked upon a stormy ana little known sea,
trusting themselves and their all to Hin who
rules the winds and waves. finally landed on
these shores and colonized this continent
The orpressor followed them into the wilds OIL
America, enacted their general laws, appoint.
ed their governors and judges, and in an evil
no, in an suspicious hour, attempted to exer-
else an unwarranted jurisdiction over them. AT
ter many years of patient remonstrance, resist
ance came and that declaration you have Just
heard read long aud tloody war and the es,
Enlistment of our present government
% years ago to-day Sc men sitting il
council in independence + II, in Philadelphia
representing l3 Colonies, adopted that decla
ration. Those great and good men, stalking
their lives upon the result, speaking for them
selves and 100000 of their countrymen, foi
the serf and slave as well as the freeman, re-
solved that they held these truths to be sell
EVIDENT THAT all men are created eaual"-
"That all men are endowed with certain ina
lienable rights, among which are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness" THAT gov
ernments are instituted for the benefit of the
governed, from whose consent they derived al
Just powers Their lives, their fortunes. voul
fortune and mine, the fortunes and the future
of unnumbered, unborn millions were at stake
Had that declaration not been true; had it not
met with hearty response from the old world
I as well as the new they would have failed and
failing, would have persisted, and the very germ
of our government been blotted out of exist
ence.
If in the history of nations there ever was a
council over whose deliberations Jehovah pre-
sided, it was this. If He ever selected So men
for an all wise purpose, it was this. They not
only resolved, but they acted; they not only
preached, but they practiced. They did theiI
appointed work, CALAMITY gloriouslv. wisely
and well, and now sleep with their fathers, hon,
ored and sung, with names unsullied and fame
untarnished. No Judas was there, BY bis
treachery to cast a cloud over their teachings
No Cakes Ames was among them to faint with
corruption, Or even cause breath of suspic
Ion of back pay and Credit Mobilier steals to
mar the purity of their lives
| Then and there new crave hone the mil.
lennium in the political worId-dawned upon
mankind with the appearance of the Goddess
of Liberty, and we, her sons and daughters
are met to hollow the anniversary of that day.
This then, my friends, is the anniversary Of
our nations BIRTH Of that great day when the
idea that governments were made for the ben
eft OF the governed when the idea of the
brotherhood, the equality of man assumed such
shape, such an expression as to become a
power; when the tree was planted, whose
branches in due time will oyershadow all the
nations of the earth.
Individually, we have and do attach great
deal ofimportance to our natal DAYS; in early
life to each one as it brought US nearer to that
goal OF all youthful hopes and asprations-man
and WON anhond. W., do in la4or ~. - 90 II