Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-07-05
Written Expressly for This paner


dred years ago. The brave and wise fathers
of the Revolution knew the responsibility
they assumed when they barred their breasts
to the unequal conflict but confidence in a
j ust cause, with faith in the god of battles
was the stimulus that nerved the patriots
of the Revolution to deeds of arms and reso-
lutte councils, that caused the world to won
der at the daring of Americans, their pow
eTs of endurance, ard the wisdom displayed
always in season, by the trainers of sys-
tenn that to-day stands without a parallel in
the history Of governments.
Que hundred years have passed away, and
We are left with the memories OF the occa-
sion that was SO signal in its effects to pause
in contemplation of the results that stand
before us to-day with all their grandeur in re-
atty of progress in the sublime work marx
ed out by the originators of the magnificent
plan of mans redemption from the
thraldom and CALLING chains of the errors
and superstitioHs of twenty centuries.
Other republics, in days that have passed,
have existed by suffrance to the American
people alone has the boon been granted of
sustaining republican form of government,
with all it's oneness and Integrity of charac-
ter, Independent of the influences or arbi-
of the great powers whose dictation has
been the guide of the different peoples of
the earth III their struggle for the attainment
of their proper position in the family OF
earth's communities. 1t has been different
with the United States. Founded upon prin.
ciples that are eternal, the right of man ia
worship his God according to the dictates OF
his own conscience, while it is conceded to
him the protective immuMity from Cypress
Yxyo ofy Ind: 1o1 +e
invaluable to human nature-so long as he
conforms to law and order. These individ.
ual parts thus protected, gives the Union an
integral strength that, like the well-con-
structed arch, the greater the pressure from
without, the stronger the coalition within
This power is based upon unity, resulting
from patriotic devotion to a whole, and it
is n this potent element that the true Amer
lean sees the perpetuity of his country and
her free institutions. One hundred years of
practical working of free government, and
we End success assured War, commercial
prostration, decade after decade of financial
collapse, the crises of 1887, 1S47, 1857, and
1867, the varied political agitations, distri-
button of the sale of public lands tariff, ma
tional banks, Kansas and Nebraska, and
slavery-and yet passing through this cru.
chile of antagonisms-the United States has
furnished perfect system of government
free from the dross of any of the states o.
the Old World. The genius of Free Ameri
ca coming forth from the fire as purified
monument to future generations of the vir-
tue of that potent truth in the history OF
a free government ''man's capacity for self
government being thus approved by time
and the spirit of republican institutions u
Great Britain boasts of her triune constitu-
tional forces; she speaks of her monarchy
with its strength her aristocracy with theil
wisdom, and her democracy with its homes
ty; one to create, the other to execute, ane
the latter to check, and says: did we per
NIT the ey elusive rulings of an aristocracy
they would become licentious did we allow
the limitations of monarchy to become des
potIc, the endings would become tyranni
cal; or did we relax to the excuses of dem
ocracy, our system would become anarchi
cal, as in your free America" This, from
British standpoint, may be true; but let tn,
diplomacy of Great Britain remember tina
an English democracy is not American re
publicanism. American liberty has super
structure of honesty, wisdom and strength
compatible with the necessities of each indi
vidual who, under the egis of American
thought, forming national whole whose
coping with the system of the British gov
eminent (the most perfect known to Euro.
pes.n ciyilization), will rebound to the glory
and renoWn of American citizenship. Pas
ages, robed In their political habiliments Of
the golden, brazen, and iron eras, have
shown the inutility of force of fancy and OF
tyranny in advancing the general good L
having been left to the temperate present to
exhibit the fallacies of the systems envel-
oped in the crude ideas of periods entombee
In the dissolved past, and by educating
the mind in free thought, and thus express
intelligence and achieve the fruition of tina
hope. The study of mankind for centuries
has to conserve not the majority, but hu
man whole.
1t is the American idea that is the theme
of American instruction. De Tocquevilles
conceptions of an American democracy art
not patent to the American of to-day
Blackstone, Young, and others whose view.
of polity were broad and com prehensiye
were not equal to the occasions of to-day
Their vivid imaginations, their historic
lore, added to their astute and profound
judgment, could not weave a system equa
to the progressive American theses Princi
pies so grand, so simple so instructive, tha
the past was not able to conceive the magni
tude of. the national interests and their eff
fects upon the international field; and il
this failure of conception the America OF
to-day finds herself free from cramping sug
gestions of wornout ideas, which lessons
were not adaptable to the original fire,
thought OF this New World Of liberty ant
virtue ihe Solons of all times had a wis
DOM OF concert ChaC tnelr age was TO be al
eternity of one-ideaism. They drew thei1
inspiration from a retrospective well Of
thought, and drenched their followers with
ethics for generation. Their apprehension
was confined to the actions of decades a
the farthest of generations. They did no
legislate for centuries hidden in the womt
of futurity, as their geographical area was
circumscribed; so was their philosophy
when applied to political economy. A Ly
curgus, an Aristides a Caesar, an Alfred, ,
Napoleon, were wise in their correlations OF
lex scripta Or lex non scripta; but these or
iginals of law were codifed in one sense, Of
created in another, for selfish purposes, thai
had in their genius the fact simply, legal
arrangements to subordinate, hence tran
ouilize, the people of period, and genera
tions unborn to be prepared for.
Empires and monarchies have risen ant
fallen and not stone remains of Babylon
ish grandeur, nor is there a sign to tell thu
explorer or the scientist where was once thu
glories of Nneval. Crumbling dynasties
topping thrones, and the decomposition
that Is rapidly destroying the decaying sys
TENS of the OH World, teach US in historic
truths and memorial beqeathmencs, of the
perishable elements forming the despotisms
of the past The glories OF The Roman EN-