New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-20

Revere, when ne rode through tho Middlcsex
villages, IN cvauS,l OF war, or even by Han
cock and Adams when they east UP Mt even
ing the s,im of the days momentOus loss and
gain. The lights that famed out from the
tower Of the North Church, a century ago,
meant nothing TO The BOstonans of that day
But every soul in Boston looked for them last
Sunday night, and their light shines clearly
today over all the continent, and is flashed
bv submarine wires over all the world. These
festivals will follow each other in rapid sue
cession, until the browning feast OF the mid
summer of next year. At each red-lettor day
the press will she'd anew its lavish floods OF
light upon the imperishable facts of history.
Pulpit aud platform will speak through its
agency to millions of readers at their homes,
until every one who has the Eabit of the
morning paper and the ordinary curiosity OF
intelligent people, will know more Of the his
tory of that first epic year of American indie
pendence than it was possible for Jefferson to
know when he took his pen to draft the
Declaration, or for Washington to know when
under the Elm tree at Cambridge he drew his
liberating sword and took formal command OF
the Continental army
CONGRATULATIONS This inundation of light cast
upon those times, which is making the actor
in them as familiar TO our minds as the he
Ioes of any scandalOus trial OF the hour, re-
veals very much tn be proud of and very little
cause for shame. After all, we may safely say
that no historical persOnages who ever lived
claim so little indulgence at the hands OF pos
tcIity as the men of The American Revolution.
OF course they were mna o? like passions and
inGrmities with ourselves, but this was the
limit Of their faults They lived at time and
under circumstances of peculiar and unprece-
dented advantage. Their ancestors had come
into the New World with all the benefits and
almost none of the drawbacks of the Old. For
at least five hundred years the English race
lad been fighting out the problems of rons'i-
tttional government. through hundreds of battle
fields. pariamcrts, and courts The qnintes-
sence of the political education existing i'll
Eruope in the Seventeenth Century was brought
to America 10y the Pilgrim Fathers. They
not only brought the instinct of free
dom, but the instinct of order as well.
They were the heirs OF the Renaissance
as well IA of the Reformation. Bringing into
America the choicest seed of the world they
planted it in virgin soil. where it flour'shed ana
grew under almost faullcssly favorable condi-
tons. The monarchy WAS too far away to
harm them, to check the growth and develop
mcnt of their democracy. They had no ans
t0cracy to dazzle or corrupt them. They forniet
their institutions ~ naturally rs flowers fo:rl
their petals. ~ a nero matter OF course.
Houses of Burgrsscs here, Provincial Congresses
there sprang up, not according to statute or
precedent, but IA the natural expression of IA
democratic idea, working under natural condi-
tons 1t was the first instance in the
worlds history of community com
posed of intelligent men born free. They
did not fight their way from barhai1sm
to order, or from slavery to freedom.
This work had been performed for them
through long ages of strife and civil brOL.
They were always free, from the moment they
landed. They were always orderly and Cod
fearing. They were loyal to the Crown until
the King began to exercise an authority which
violated their convictions of right. They re-
sisted, in their decent and orderly way, until
the royal officers tried force against them, and
then they resisted unto death.
We find, it is true, in the speeches and dec
lara,ions of those times some OF the excited
rhetoric which is inscparable from all rrvou-
tons. But the general conduct OF the patriots,
their candor, moderation, and prudence, show
that this insurrectiOn, more than any other ot
which we have record, was based upon cool
and intelligent Judgment. 1t is marked by few
yiolences of speech and by no violence of ne
ton 1t is unique in history, for two reasons;
for its strict adherence to sound legal and po-
liiical principles from beginning to end aud
for the high tone of morality and religion
which distinguished it. The pulpit was In
close alliance with the patriot cOnspirators
until war began, and after the first volry ut
Lexington many a Puritan parson and South
ern divine laid down his Bible to take up The
sword of the Lord and OF Gideon. The re-
bellion seemed to Englishmen little shOlt Of
madness and even in our day ausiOn
has been made W the inspired rash
neg, of the colon,is IN confronting power
like the British Empire. But the chances
were all in favor of the Americans from the
OUTSET, and the only madness was on the palt
Of the English tyrant and bis cOunsel"Is.
Even this was not much madness rs wlllful
ignorance which has never changed in sub
stance from tha, day to this, though It's mani
fcstation hrs altered with The changing times.
The England of Earl Russell knew little OF
the America of Lincoln, az the England of
Lord North knew Of The America Of Washing
ton. Ii WAS Us reasonably sure in 1861 that
the American people would not surrender 10
an insllriecion based on a denn of the rights
of man. rs it was in ] 10 that they would not
give up ;bcir convictions at the caprice OF
distant king and court
II pride be- our great national fault, as many
insist, il will certainly not be cured by the III
innate acquaintance we are gaining in these