The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-07-12

Shall plant, thy fields apart,
With the oak of Toll, the rose of Art
Be watchful, and keep US so:
Be strong, and fear no foe
Be just and the world shall knowi
With the same love love us, we give;
And the day shall never come,
That finds us weak or dumb
To Join and smite and cry
In the great task, for thee to die,
And the greater task, for thee TO live
July 4, 1876.
Hon. William NJ, Evarts, the orator OF the
day, was then introduced, who delivered the
following address:
ADDRESS OF HON. W. NJ. EvARTs.
The event which to-day We commemorate supplies
its own reflections and enthusiasts, and brings its
plaudits. They do not at all hang the voice
of the speaker do they greatly depend upon the
contacts and associations Of the place. The Declare
ton of American Independence was when 1t Oe-
CURED, capital transaction in human affairs; az
such IL has kept its place in history; such it will
maintain itself while human interest in human in-
stitutens shall endure. The and the actors for
/ their profound impression upon the world, at the
effects, nothing to epical e8aggeratons. To the eye
there was nothing wonderful vast, splendid.
pathetic ia the movement or the display lmagin&-
ton art give sensible grace OF decoration to
the persons, the place or the performance which
made up the business of that day. The worth and
force that belong the agents and the action rest
wholly on the wisdom, the courage and the faith that
formed and executed the great de ign, and the 20
tency and permanenoe Of ITS operation upon the af-
fairs of the world which. foreseen and legitimate
consequences followed The dignity of the act is the
deliberate circumspect open aud serene performance
by these men in the clear light of day, and by con
current purpose of civic duty, which embraced the
greatest hazards themselves and TO all the people
| from whom they held this deputed discretion, but
which, to their sober judgments, promised benefits TO
that people and their posterlty from generation to
| generation, exceeding these hazards and cOmmen-
surate with its own fitness. The question of their
conduct is to be measured by their acua weight and
pressure Of the manifold considerations viii sur
rounded the subject before them and by the abund-
ant evidence that they comprehended their
and variety. By a voluntary and responsible choice
they wlled to do what was dene, and what without
their will would not have been DONE Thus estimated,
the ilustTiOus all who participated ia ii
with its own renown, aud makes them forever con-
spicuous among men, il is forever famous among
events. And thus the signers of the declaration of
independence ''wrote their names where all nations
should behold them, and all time should not eface
them" It Sin the course of human events, in-
trusted to them to determine whether the fulness OF
time had come when a nation should be born in day
| They declared the independence Of nation in
the sense in which men declare emancipation or de-
clare war; the declaration created what was declared
| Famous, always, among men are the founders OF
states, and fortunate above all others in such fame
| are these, our fathers, whose combined wisdom aud
courage began the great structure Of our national
existence, and laid sure the foundations of liberty
and justice which it rests. Fortunate, first, in
the clearness of their title and in the worlds accept
ance of their rightfu claim Fortunate, next, In the
enduring magnitude Of the state they founded and
the benehcence of its protection of the vast interests
of human life and happiness which have here had
their home. Fortunate, again, In the admlring lml
tation of their work. which the institutions of the
most powerful and most advanced nations more and
more exhibit and, last of all, fortunate in the full
demons rations Of later time that their work
adequate to withstand the most disastrous storms Of
human fortunes. and survive unwrecked. mistaken
and unframed.
| This da, has now been celebrated by great people
at each of its anniversary, for hundred
years, with every form Of ostentatiOus JOY, with
every demonstration of respect and gratitude for the
L rrfrr nd wifi
hrmest faith that growing time should neither oh
scure its luser reduce the ardOr or discredt the
| sincerity of its observance reverent spirit has
explored the lives of the men who took part in tn
great transaction, has unfOded their characters
exhibited to admring posterty the purity of the
motives the sagacty the bravery, the fortitude, tn
perseverance which marked their conduct,
which secured the prosperity and permanence o.
their work.
Philosophy has OWNED tine secrets of all thu
power, and eloquence emblszoned the magninoen
Of all its results The heroic which fought out
| the acquiescence of the Old World in the inde-
pendence of the New the manifold and mastery
| FERNS of noble character and of patient and Sc
enc wisdom with the great influences Of the times
begat; the large and splendid scale on which these
| elevated purposes wrought out, and the ma
jestic proportions TO which they have been filled up;
the unended line of eventful progress, casting ever
backward flood of light upon the sources Of the
| original energy, and forward promise and a
prophecy of unexhansted power-all these have been
made familiar TO our people by the genius and the
devotion of histOri ms and orators. The greatest
|
hundred have traced the initial steps in these
events, looked into the nature of the Institutions
thus founded, weighed by the 0ld-Word wisdom,
and measured by recorded experience, the probable
fortunes of this new adventure on an unknown sea.
This circumspect and searching survey Of our wide
field of political aud social experiment doubt, has
brought them diversity OF judgment to the past,
| and of expectation to the future. But, of the
| magnitude aud the novelty and the power of the
forces set at work by the event commemorate, no
competent authorities have ever greatly differed.
The contemporary judgment of Burke is scarcely an
overstatement of the European opinion Of the inn
mense import of American Independence. He de-
| clared: "a great revolution has happened-a revo-
luton made, not by chOpping and changing Of power
in any of the existing States but by the appearance
Of state, Of new species, in new part of the
globe Ii has made as great change, in all the re-
latiOns and balances and grayitatons OF power, as
the appearance of new planet would in the system
| Of the solar world.
1t is easy to understand that tie rupture between
| the colonies aud the mother country might have
worked result of political independence that would
have involved no such mighty consequences as are
here strongly announced by the most philOsOphic
statesman of his age Inc resistance of III Colonies,
| which came to head in the revolt, was led in the
name aud for the maintenance of the liberties OF
Englishmen against parliamentary usurpati0n and a
| subversiou of the British constitution. triumph
of those liberties might have ended in emancipa-
ton from the rule of the English Parliament and a
continued submission to the scheme and system OF
the British monarchy, with an American Parliament
adj listed thereto, upon the principles of the
English constitution. Whether this new political
establishment should have maintained loyalty to the
British sovereign should have been organized un-
| der a crown and throne of its own the transactions
would theu have had no other importance than such
| as belongs TO a dismemberment OF existing empire,
but with preservation of existing institutions. There
weuld have been, be sue, ''new state" but cot
| ''of species" and that il was sin new part
of the globe would have gone far to make the dis
memberment but temporary and circumstantialdis-
turbance in the old order of things. Indeed, the
sodity and perpetuty of that order might have been
greatly confirmed by this propagation Of the model
Of the European monarchies the bOundless regions
of this continent. Ii is precisely here that the
Declaration of Independence has it's immense inn
portance As civil act, and by the peoples decree
land not by the achievement of the army through
military motives-at the rse stage of the conflict il
assigned new nationality, with its own institu-
tioas the civy preordained end TO be fought foI
aud secured. IL did leave it to be after fruit
of triumphant war; shaped and measured by military
| power, and conferred by the army on the people