The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-07-08
ADDRESS
Delivered at the Centennial Celebration Im Hoo
noIuIu, July .. 1876, by Surgeon G.. w. Woods,
4. =. y.

OAuA !" " AEsps ~ -" wv"
u. :. y.
Citizens of the United States. and assembled friends,
we have met together this day, in the capital city
of a foreign kingdom. for the purpose of celebrating
the Hundredth birthday of the United States of Ameri-
ca. Other nations, in the tardier march of other
ages, have advanced but slowly toa position of power,
population and wealth, their slower growth being
only attained through successive centuries; but our
favored land, discarding its mother but a brief humid
red years ago, and unfurling the banner of universal
freedom, has drawn to itself the strength of all coun-
tries, and, under the blessing of God, has grown to
the stature of a giant. To-day the Nation attains its
majority The glass of the centuries is turned, and,
as the " Sands of Time" begin to mark the passage of
another cycle, let us walk through the temple our
people have erected, examine its various riches, and
in learning how our forefathers have builded, receive
a lesson that will prepare us for the better perform
ance of that duty to our country,-which should be
an example to all men-the high and noble purpose
of an American citizen.
On the 9th of September, 1920, a body of stern and
resolved E~nglishmen, imbued with the spirit of reli-
gion. and the genius of enterprise, set sail from the
port of Plymouth. England, to establish, in the wilds
of America, a tabernacle for the free worship of the
living God. For three long years, a vast majority of
these had been unwelcome visitors in the cities of
Holland for three long years they had PARTED with
their King, and now, having failed in their petitions
to royalty, but still with loyal hearts, they submitted
themselves to the mercies of the trackless ocean, to
seek in the New World, that freedom of conscience
which was denied to them in the Old. A long and
stormy voyage brings the little Mayfower TO the coast
of New England in the inhospitable November, that
precedes her rigorous winter, and a few weeks later,
these pilgrims from tyranny landed on Plymouth
Rock.
Before landing, these people who had left home
without the permission of their King, and unprovi-
ded with any useful charter, perfected an oTganiza-
ton Of government in which, while acknowledging
the Sovereignty of their lawful King in becoming
terms, they also maintained the principle of equal
lauS for tho comnnn U0od - in which We see thp parm
of that Flower of Liberty which blOssomed after the
lapse of an hundred and fifty years.
AYE! Call it holy ground.
The soil where first they stood
They've left unstaned what there they found,
Freedom to worship God"
The ~sufferings of these settlers in the midst of this,
and many other winters their earnestness and indus
try in developing the material prosperities Of the
COLONY: their honesty and religious zeal, Swallowed
too often by a bigotry born of conscientious convic-
tons their various wars with the French and Indi-
ans these need only be epitomised, for it is a story
with which we are all familiar. The colony ~fourished
and rose to a high position of colonial influence; its
advancement and prosperity being but the natural
outgrowths of the work of those stern Puritans who
had been through the severe discipline of misfortune
and oppression.
No such grave principle was involved in the settle
ment of the other colonies in which the desire for
wealth was, in most cases, the moving impulse to a
voluntary exile. They had their trials and troubles,
their Indian wars, their periods of abundance, and al
most starvation, their quarrels at home and their con-
troversies with the King, their great leaders and their
petty statesman, but through it all, there was an ad-
vance in wealth and cultivation, and the SOYereigns
of England were proud of the Colonial Empire which
their sons were hewing out of the American forests.
Cities grew highly cultivated lands spread them
selves on every side, commerce hourished colleges
were established both North and South, and the art
of the printer not only gave to the people the news of
the day, but perpetuated the work of brilliant writers
and handed down to US the burning words of pure
patriotism and unselfsh craftsmanship while above
all shines the name of Franklin, the printer, essayist,
and man of science, 50 he who snatched the lightning
from the sky, and the seepter from tyrants,'' who was
commanding the admiration of two worlds. Such is
the picture of prosperity ana happiness that precedes
the dawn of the Revolution. Then comes the period
of England's oppression of her colonists protests
without answer the humiliation of her emissaries
the refusal of all representation in her Legislative
body. the enactment Of arbitrary and oppressive laws
until, at last with patience worn out, the colonial
child reluctantly gave up its mother country, and
commenced an independent existence. As we look
back to the early period of colonization, when Europe
began to supply the Western World with new blood, /
and new force. we see standing out in bold relief the
two colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts,, as repre-
senting that hatred Of tyranny, that love Of liberty, .
and that o~apability of selfgoyernment, which made
gle for independence which is known in history asthe
American Revolution Scattered along the Atlantic
shore were other representations of the Old Worlds
acknowledgements leading by virtue of her
wealth and population who, infected by the spirit go
strong and earnest, of these two great colonies, were
aroused to a concentrated assertion OF their rights,
and their just demands being refused, submitted the
question with uufaigned reluctance to the arhitrament
of war. And what was this question? It was simply
whether a great and growing series OF colonies, az
loyal an English people as ever invoked Gods bless
ing on their King, who had left their homes for the
purpose of developing the wealth of His Majesty's co.
lonial possessions, and to worship God according to
the dictates Of conscience, should lie taxed without
representation, should submit themselves to the !ollies
Of a scandslous ministry under the control Of an i'm
secile King. It was but the old story of
&" Truth forever on the scafold,
Wrong forever on the throne"
ct us step back into the past for a moment and
bA-aip with n anNast0rs- sfnried nv nnFriot =
10 both North and South, to n sense of their great
"f,s. 1t is the month of May, 1855. We look in
upCthe Assembly of the Old Dominion, and find the
you'll Patrick Henry closing his great speech with
tnoslemorable Words Cesar had his Brutus
Gnat the First his Cromwell, and George the
!nrt-'' Treason - cries the Speaker Of The
HSseHY and Treason " is echoed from many .
CAaH't pausing for q moment, and looking sternly
IIoGn' completes his sentence with land George
me "a may profit by their example. IF this be
teaso mako the most Of it, His resolutions
Sgainthe imposition of taxes by other than the
ueneFAssembly were adopted, and in this way Vir-
gInlH BE the signal of Colonial resistance, TO which
: roe %Lo E-F .