Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-07-06
THE CELEBRATION.
An Immense ThrOng on Capitol Hill.
Music, Speeches and the Reading Of
the Declaration.
Independence Day Celebrated with
Unusual Enthusiasm.

| IapllOl last nlgnL was aJtenQeQ Oy an I'M
mense cOncourse Of people, composed to nc
small extent of ladies. 1t seemed as il
everybody in town was there, and much
interest was manifested in the exercises.
The Post Band was in attendance and
discOursed the most satisfactory music.
! The Porter Rifles, headed by the band,
marched across the river at o o'clock in
the evening and after parading through the
principal streets went 10 the Capitol.
About O'Clock Mr.. j.. B. Brown intro
duced Mr.. Tim w. Haley, who read the
Declaration of independence.
After him came AttOrney-General An
drew j. Caldwell, the orator of the occa-
sion. On being introduced to the assem-
blage, MIR. Caldwell said:
There was time In the history of this
people when an apology was not expected
for making Fourth Of July speech. There
was also a time when such a speech would
have compromised both speaker and hearer.
| There is now astime when, il apology, eX-
cept for the halting tongue and feeble ut
| terance is demanded, it will not be made.
This great national festival can no longer
be prostituted to the base uses Ofthe political
partisan.
This is the renaissance of patriotism,
when each may claim without reprOach his
| rights as a citizen and from the day we cell
citrate look back with pride and profit
upon the past.
For nearly 1900 years the world was
| shrouded in darkness. The Indian in his
war-paint roamed a savage over the conti-
nent, having forgotten the traditions
even Of his emigration from the East.
A hunter, he turned not the glebe, he
built not the city, nor sunk the mining
shaft. Jehovah was reserving the soil, in
its alluVial richness and mineral wealth, |
for the use, cultivation and development Of |
him who was 10 come. Across the ice Of |
the Northwest Strait, or blown by some |
chance tempest, the Aztec came, and, |
forcing his way through the savage WilGer- |
ness and more, perhaps, savage men, be, /
a Mound-builder, sat down in the palm |
groves Of cacLus-bearing Mexico, Gucatan
and Peru, built his city and beat out the
gold, Illuminating the desert with the
transient magnificence of barbaric power.
But he was not named in the book
of fate as the predestined lord Of
the wilderness heritage. Another race
should come, the latchet Of whose shoes
they were not worthy TO unlOOse who would
develop the reserved treasury Of providence
and make this wilderness blossom as the
rose. The swinging pendulum Of ages
beat backward and forward through cycles
Of years and generations of men, and the
deliverer came not. Far back in the twilight
of pOesy and fable, We hear the faint and un-
certain WhispeIings Of Hesperian gardens be-
yond the setting sun. The poet whose in
feRtions are sparks s,caught by the clay
from the great centTn, fIe Of the uni
verse, in some wrapt moment awOke with
the chance and casual touch Of rhapsody,
strains from his prophetic harp of the unut-
terable yearning in the heart Of the son Of
Japhet for his promised Inheritance. That |
home was beyond the waye-tOssed |
abode Of the TritOns and NaiadS. But the
PhTnician Prov ven.ured not beyond the
Pillars of Hercules, the Greek keel was
content with the dreamy dash Of the Hell
lespOnt and the EuXine. Even the hero, | I
driven by fate to bring Illium and her gods
10 the Tiber, although his soul was equal ,
10 the task of seeking Anchises in Tarta- I
-ean deeps, dared not sail toward the set I
ing sun, the omen being found, Palinurus q
being lost. Bound by fate, the destiny of a
nan seemed chained 10 the Old World, and q
he same hand which made labyrinthine +
he path in which jorneying Israel c
for forty y,ars, laid +
Is confusing touch upon the helm Z
# every rover Of the deep, whether b
merchant Prince of Tyre aud SidOn or pi- a
ate King sailing from the Categat, that 3
all or oar should not bear him to the New
Atlantis till the hour Of destiny had struck n
nj age after ace tided away. And so the II
Assyrians slept in regal death. Egyptian d
over and intellect were embalmed in the v
itumen of the great embalmer, Time, The II
ireek had seen with dying eye the Phidian A
Marble CtrOdden under barbaric feet, and C,
lory's last. sun illume the friGse- -Of the "
'aTthenOn. The iron hand of Rpme had n
rushed the world, and the barhzrian and q,
'hristian had faced TIE gladiatorial Il
-eel and glaring, tiger in the Fla Q,
ian amphitheater4 The volcano of "
he North had I OVeraowed thrice tC
nd poured the lava tides of savage
7aTriOrs around the seven hills. The sun Ii
Greek intellect and the moon Of Roman | O
bought had been eclipsed in the terror of ST
arbaFic night, and still the hour had not A
truck. Goth and Nandal and Hun, sub il
ued by Italian civilization, even whilst Ii
heir swords were red with the blood Of the bl
mpire, had passed away, and from the $
Medieval smoke and clouds the scepteT Of s.
'lOyis and Pepln had appeared and kings {"
nd queens innumerable had been gathered ! RI
q to the tomb. The Holy Roman Church ST
ad restored empire again to the Eternal al
'ity. The invention of the mariners COM I
ass cut the cable Of the ships and in the IL
ourts of CASTLE and AragOn the god-like e;
ienOese uncovered his majestic head 10 Ia
Dyalty and lifted his hand and pointed TO Ii
he west. 81
The scoff of scholars and the sneer Of Of
purifiers and the anathemas of priests d.
Il Z al
be dial of destiny TO accomplish the pre- c;
estined moment. fr
The dream of rhapsOdist, the song of the 81
oct, the despair Of the navigator was a, e:
lst attained. u
The hour struck, and the mighty orb f
wung on its axis and revealed to the as @,
1nished gaze Of men a virgin hemisphere, c,
u unforfeited Eden, new world. h
Over the waters surged a song sweet as a pl
iren's voice that reverberated through Is
be worn valleys Of the Old h,
World, bidding man rejoice. From 4
.abradOr to the Antilles, and from the W
each Of the Caribbean "where the red IA
amingO fishes in the gray of the morning" 5,
cross the limped food of SAHasSOiNa Of
lOusaud miles beyond TO La Pata's mouth hi
f silver, the virgin world waved her Il
almy arms and waited kisses laden with al
he breath of orange and magnolia across a,
ne stormy deep. Come We weary and 4
eaVy laden sons of man. Ye whose G.
lthers have been driven beneath the spear; IN
hose chiidrens' children seem doomed to b.
lil, and sweat aud bleed under the lash Of tl
lsk-makers, and the scepter of the tyTant, ne
pom whose necks the feudal yoke, ST
as pressed with CALLING weight, O,
et whom savage warrior nObly be
mote, and priestly bigots burned-who gi
Oh for liberty Of body and of soul. Ye ca
,hO wish for gold, ye who thirst for glory, W
e who bear the cross, come +
In the traCkless wilderness ye can tud M
sfuge from persecution, 4 balm for your II
Ounds, fountain TO renew the youth of h,
ian. Here is pagan blood for cruSading b,
words to spill, idOlatrOus shrines for icon W
elastic hands to dig down; and, here is a T
esert Bethel where unmOlested each may .sr
uild an altar TO his God. fu
Along the cen UTy worn streets and high Il
avs of the old wOrld-in the sterile field ci
in the serfs cot and BarOn's hOld-in the b,
ungeOn's depth and in the oracle of the
lOd of Ambition the tOil-wOrn and Op- IL
ressed stopped and listened FiIst the %
paniard, then in the golden age ofhis coun-
Us history, came glowing for conquest. g
he fair fabric of Mexican and Peruvian d