Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1875-05-26


A LARGE TURN OUT OF PEOPLE--oPEs
AIR MASS MEEriNG--oRArIoN or HON
EDGAR A. CowAN. N
GREEysBuRo, May l5.-There was 1
large gathering of people at this towr
to-day to celebrate tho hundicdth an
niversary of the Hannastown resolves
The town was decorated with flags and
banners and the streets arched with
evergreens. The hotels were overrur
with guests, as well as the citizens
There was fine military display, and
large delegation Of people from Pitts
burgh. Letters We're read from the
Governors of the different states who
had been invited TO be present. The
celebration was commenced by firing
thirteen guns in the morning. AT ten
o'clock the military paraded. At one
o'clock there was mass meeting in
the open air Judge Veecb, of Pitts
burg, called the assemblage to order
Hon. Simon Cameron presided, The
ceremonies were concluded with speech
making. Hon. Edgar Cowan was the
orator of the day, and speeches were
made by 7, j. Bigham, Judge Kirk
patrick and Others.
THE ADDRESS OF hon. EDGAR oowAN.
II is most ancient custom among
men, to celebrate at recurring periods
the return Of the day upon which re-
markable events have happened, origi.
nally designed, no doubt, to keep the
memory OF them alive in after genera
tons, and to call up as far as possible
ideas and sentiments similar to those
which moved the men who brought
them about History is full Of these
celebrations and there are many ways
in which they may be made useful but
which neglected leaves them source
of mischief and disorder, | shall note
some of their useful effects. In the
first place, in doing honor TO the men
of one hundred years ago who so en-
phatically asserted their rights, even
as against their legitimate rulers, it
becomes us to know the facts of the
situation, and wherein they were wrong
ed and what odds they might expect to
be against them in struggle for re-
dress.
They were subjects of the king OF
Great Britain, and they owed allegiance
to him as the constitutional monarch
OF that most remarkable as well as
most powerful empire in the world
OF this relation to the mother country
they were proud, and they were loyal
to il but they did not allow either
pride or their loyalty to degrade them.
They were few in number, scattered
about upon the edge of a vast unex-
plored continent, and confronted in
their westward march by hostile tribes
of warlike savages in fact except
along the eastern slope of the Alleghe-
nies, they wcrc in the wilderness of
the greatest forest ever known upon
the globe, and here in western Penn
sy!vania had scarcely commenced the
work which makes civilization. They
were poor, rough and illiterate, and had
none of our science, literature, nor
fincry; but they had something which
stood them in better necd--they had
virtue, honesty and Independence -
They would not lie, cheat, nor steal,
nor allow any guilty of those offenscs
to live among them upon terms of
sociability and friendship. About the
time of which speak there lived q
man but q few miles from Hannastown
who had cheated and defrauded his
neighbor, but he had managed it so
cunningly that his victim had no legal
remedy. This, however, did not pre-
vent the backwoodsmen from having q
very decided opinion against the knavc,
and they determined to show it on the
first opportunity. They had not long
to wait. The neighborhood met at n
raising" and the obnoxious man ap-
peared on the ground, but no one
greeted him, no one answered him, and
no one would carry at the other end
of the hand spike with him. This was
more than he could bear, and he left
to realize, IL not perhaps TO practice,
the maxim that "Honesty is the best
policy" These old Westmorelanders
were rough and blunt--had their frol.
les and quarrels, and our fine moral
lists of to-day would have been shocked
to see how they settled their difficult
ties in rough and tumble fights, and
how they drank friends when il Was
all over, and yet they neither pistoled
nor stabbed-nay, it would have been
worth mans life to have threatened
such thing, and think what have
learned myself from the men of those
days warrants me in saying that in
their largest gatherings not single
man would be found carrying either
dirk or pistol, and the rudest of them
would have despised a "handy billy"
or "knucklcr' as the emblem of pure
poltroonery.
/ have said they were iliterate, and
II is true; bat still there were some
things they knew, and not only knew
but were persuaded Of which is better.
They knew they were freemen; and
further, they knew exactly how TO
maintain their position as such. "Etcr-
nal vigilance is the price OF liberty"
They were loyal TO thor king, but
their king must be true to them and
protect and not opprcss them that was
the bargain between them and their
sovereign. said he was their consti.
tutional sovereign-and | said so, be-
cause Of this bargain, which, as between
the sovereign and subject, or between
the state and the citizen, is called a
constitution. Now, hundreds Of years
before, the English people had made a
bargain with their king at Runnymede,
and had it written down so that Meth.
er he nor they could forget il; and
then, aiterward, every now and then,
they would write II down again and
make additions to II, until at last, about
two hundred years ago, these bargains
got so completely knocked into the
heads of king and people that neither
of them can forget II. The first Of
them was called magma charta per emf.
nencc, and, all together, they made up
the british constitution" Now, our
old Hannastown men knew this con.
stitution, and stood upon II to the let
ter. They would be loyal, but the
king must be true. And they well re-
membcrcd, too, Of having often heard
their grandfathers tel! Of how more
than one hundred years bcforca a British
king-one Charles-undertook to play
false and deny the bargain, and they
caught him and cut of his head for II
This in measure settled the matter
especially when his son James tried
the same game and was chased away
That made an end of II. No British
king since has dared 10 violate thi,