The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1876-07-13


Whilst they were among us, and we could sc
their eyes kindle from The stories OF the Revolt
tion, we could catch something of the spirit tbs
animated their noble natures, and thus be inspire
in some degree with the arior of ''the times thf
tried mems souls" and planted upon this contine1
the grsndest form of government God ever vouct
safed to man.
The historian and the orator may portray th
scenes of their eVentful struggle with all the pt
thos and feeling of which language is capable, bu
no book can relate those scenes could the Twin
witnesses. No historian, no orator, can fire tn
heart with that ferven, passionate love of ibert,
could the Revolutionary sire, by his story of tn
expressions of tyrannical King.
How then, shall we preserve that devotion to ou
country, and hand it on down to posterity, so tina
they may In time to come, admire, protect an
maintain il?
When the time shall come that the "windows @
my soul" are to be closed in death, want to fee
assured that the principles of glorious ard FIRE
Constitution are SO firmly implanted in the sffeC
tons of those leave behind, that no earthly pow
er can disturb them, and that for all time the
may remain the light and guiding star of freedom
| on earth.
ave all within our graves shall sleep,
A hundred years to come,
No living soul for US shall weep,
A hundred years TO come!
But other men our lands shall till,
And others then our streets will fill;
hundred years to come"
But shall the spirit of our liberties be buried ii
the graves Of our fathers? Shall future genera
tions forget the price of their freedom? No, Goo
Forbid
Then let the anniversary be forever commemo
rated let the Fourth of July forever be nationa
holiday. and let posterity be taught to revive il
as the birthday of their freedom.
II in the future, as in the past, we continue to
keep true to our institutions If the intelligence OF
our people continue to be the safeguard of our
Constitution; neither the changes of time, nor the
ambition of men are to be feared
But when the Fourth of July shall have become no
more to the American people, than any other day;
when the names of Washington, Warren, Marion,
Franklin and Henry, shall be no more reversd and
held sacred in the great heart of Americn; when
the flag of Union, the nations banner, the en-
blem of unity, liberty, and power, whose fabric
was woven amid the struggles of the Revolution;
that has never been injured but to victory, and
knows no defeat; whose equally lustrous stars
have been added by the blood and treasure of our
people; respected by every nation, protecting the
citizen in every cline, guarding commerce every
where; whose presence speaks of q nation in
whose union there is strength when these shall be
neglected or forgotten, then indeed will we know
that the whitening and blighting finger of decay is
leveled at the waning columns of our glorious
institutions.
Temporary agitations, ebutions of popular ex-
citement and party STRIFE and even violence in our
government, will occur We cannot expect per-
petual calm.
1t is the great conflict between truth and error.
which are at war the world over, and which under
our free Constitution have every opportunity of
combat; thus offering and inviting the means by
which wise and benefcent reform, are secured. In
this clash of ideas the shock is often great. Our
past one hundred years has seen many of them.
Good men sometimes despair; the nation seems
reeling and ready to fall the great white columns
OF liberty, justice, and equal rights seem rocking
to and fro, ready to cruuble into dust. But harki
The tread of arms and the clash of steel is heard
in the land; the smoke of battle the groans of dy
ing, the cries of mourning, and the shouts of VIC
tory, fill full the air the old world stands aghast
and with amazement beholds the terrific struggle
Of our Republic. The storm is past, and like the
purified atmosphere, healthier and irmer than be-
fore, we stand unshaken and immovable, upon the
principles of our fathers the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and all men bow In humble submission
before the Magma Charta of our United Country.
How nobly grand, how truly sublime in the con-
temptation of the citizen, is this happy result Re-
sha ad
shall endure while written Constitutions last. No
North, no South, can now be truly said, and dis
criminations cannot justly exist Grasping in our
great arms the shores of the two mighty oceans
Of the world our broad expanse, reaching from the
mountains of the far north to the plains of Mexico
with Constitution forbidding and prohibiting in
voluntary servitude except for crime, we have in
deed reached the acme of human freedom, and
stand in proud immensely, q world within our
selves.
MIR. President:-This is day when the fretful
themes of politics allowed to rest. We rise far
above mere party questions and party pride Home
divisions and issues upon questions of policy are
hushed, and side by side, and hand in hand, men
and women of all creeds and parties, join in doing
honor to the memory of those, who, one hundred
fundamental doctrines of our giant Republic
They had their fears and doubts of the stability Of
their great work, and they uttered in unmistakabe
language their warning.
Washington, in his farewell address, said:
'Tn contemplating the causes which may diaturb
Dur Union, it occurs as a matter of serious ccn-
;ern, that any ground should have been furnished
for characterizing parties by geographical dscrim
nations"
And again: "The spirit of encroachment tends
to consolidate the powers of all the departments in
one; and thus create, whatever the form of Gov
ernment, o real despotism."
The first of the dangers here referred to was Dis
solution, the second, Capitalization. These were
he two dangers equally fraught with evil, which
ike illstarred demons, hovered from the beginning
over our Republic; antagonstic In their nature,
ret each seeking with equal alacrity every oppor-
unity to derange, agitate and destroy; and SO
wonderful in their nature seem these enemies of
liberty, SO cunninglv devised their plans that the
allure of one might be seized upon by the other to
advance its interests. Good men of all parties
ireaded their existence. Frowns and threats from
either, have wrenched from liberty many conces-
lions their efforts have often shaken the temple
IL our freedom TO It's very IounuatlOn, ana seemed
esdy to engulf in an unfathomable abyss the fair
abrc Of our Union.
The one, the bolder of the two, is, think we
nay safely say, driven from the land forever.
The struggle, though severe and long and bloody,
many hard fought field attests, yet at last from
he clash of arms and the smoke of battle, trium-
,hant rise the hosts of freedom, and Dissolution is
10 more.
But the other, more dangerous than.ever before,
till lives and seems more active; its treacherous
latteries and Its lust for power its stealthy tread
md fearful ambition, demand from you, ye sons of
reedom eternal vigilance. 1t comes not with the
,od front of Dissolution, arrayed in the panopy of
var but slowly, silently, certainly, grasplng within
he ambitious clutch, little by little, from the noble
dihce of Constitutional government, until at last,
ike the great Boa. Constructor It viii crush in its
venomous coil the brightest hopes of the civilized
world.
Capitalization is living, acting enemy, present
ng itself in many forms and questionable shapes
L is willy and seductive, and can but repeat the
warning of Washington-that its tendency is to
:reste, "whstever the form of government, a real