New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-09

| the pen that signed the declaration, ant
around the hilts that leaped to light with
deadly tongues of battle. The independ
ence they rent open the hostile vans for anC
tore from the very heart of Britain wat
sorely won. They thus earned for freedom
path; they strewed it with bsttle-pallori
and crimsons, those awful lilies and roses
which q resolute people plucks without
stint from its own life. and hitherward did
she come to dwell with ne as long a. We
should deserve her ss they deserved her;
But fifteen years ago her sanguine etep fal
tered and her sad face was yelled with
battle CRIME, for . great sorrow had come
A section thought that to arm minority
would constitute Q majority; it determined
to abandon conventions and platforms and
| to brigade constituencies in the field and
oondense dogrhas to bullets.
The repubIic that knew not its own valor,
that had long dallied like an idle Antony
with prosperity. that had had brave dreamp
which stirred its heart for the nonce, yet
nerved not it's hand, that tor thirty years
had by it, tmid concessions whetted tho
| South to holder demands, that at far too
late an hour extended hand to entreat
| and not to smite the anarchs, felt touch
| of eummons upon its shoulder at last and
lesped to its feet, it's lips white with Wash.
ingtcn's moan ct the battle Of Long Island.
Good God what brave fellows must this
day lose" Freedom demanded her epen
to God! 1t was no trivial struggle. 1t was
clash. of beliefs, each enyenomed to the
prowess Of grand wrath; It was q conflict
| in which mind dubbed mind with body till
tho body was shattered. 1t was the old
labor Of 1875 over again. the old sacra-
mental dedication Of our precious lilies and
roses to freedom's feet. /!
Standing at the other end Of the century
that opened 50 sorr0wfully,- We have assem-
cross its verge to-day. and stride onward
down Q second hundred years.
The trenches are knitted over, the shat
tered palisades of State frOntiers crumble
with rot, the ai. shudders no longer with
the moan Of artillery and the vail Of men;
the dead chieftaine are mounting in resur-
recti0n from the soil in which we buried
them and halt in marble-calm upon their
stately pedestals. Along meadow and steep
tens of thousands of noble soldiery with
one hand clenched upon q recorquered soil,
thrust through the sod to the sunlight with
the other, their white shields lashed to in
visible arms in greeting; and the republic
points to its open charter and declares it is
no longer Q prevaricatiOn, but assures lib.
erty to each and every part of herself
every man upon her soil stands civilly un-
masked of color. This is our welcome to
freedom to-day, and whether it be rendered
in the pomp and joyful clamor of North
ern metropolis or in 90 modest commence
ration a. Is yours, it 10 equally eloquent to
her, for the h0aree lips OF cannon and the
martial tramp of thousands Of men there,
voice and beat only the same proud graft
tude that, trust, animates all those before
me.
The colonial demand for independence
and our late demand for 'more perfect
Union" were each resolutely made, and
were each punctuzed with q peremptory
cannon ball.
It. is appropriate that we should find our
text to day in the original purpose of the
revolutionary fathers. In 1872 John Peter
Zenger, Of New York, pronounced in his
Weekly Journal certain structures upon his
royal Governor. This was not the first
of the levies upon the c0lonists had fur.
lively slipped, and several of the General
Assemblies had measurably enforced, thirty
years earlier, their purpose to determine |
the amount and disposition of the revenues.
Cosby, of New York, by his venal sdminis- |
trstion and violent temper, challenged
anew this stubborn Jealousy. and Zenger's
print became its mouth. There we're sting
and bruise in his candOr, and yOur irwin |
chile men are the few who dare incarnate
the brave, true thought that has lurked in
the public heart. The colony thought |
through Finger. CsEby sued him fur |
libel; the colony felt o grimmer pa |
Hence. He was acquitted; the colony |
drew q deeper breath-the breath Of
men who bv the indicated freedom
Of the press, felt there was much plain
speech yet unuttered, but sure to come.
The eight years later of war were the same
trial over, save that the armies of Britain
and America stepped into Cosby and
Zsngers places; but when Cosby stamped
that little print beneath his heel, he uncon.
,ciOusly planted in colonial soil germ to
whose massive growth his countrymen now
,ross the Atlanuic hither to pay Difference.
Her British majesty's minister, Sir Edward
insisted six weeks ago upon still
'cquitting Zenger by inviting the President
II the nation to banquet with him in the
where austers men signed the
with Zsngers pen. Zeuger I'M
multiplied himself to srmies
With gun.barrels rammed with his opinion,
ill the whole swarm of royal governors
rfjoiced at an Atlantic between
hem and the colonial wrath The opinion
became a swift contagion, and began to
itself sturdily in colonial assem-
,liee, which each Governor had regarded
ID little more than scribes to engross his
vhims in ordinances. The Assembly sub
the demands of the Governor
o the trust Ieposed in the stew
'rdship BY the inhabitants Of the
olOny. He might storm. dissolve
he Assembly, convoke it again, and con-
emit himself with such grants as it chose
o make. but he was simply disciplin-
ng. against himself public impotence
Inder dictation, and embedding his hold
pom colonial esteem. Nay, as ii even these
esults were not enough, he began to charge
he provincials with q purpose to sever
heir relations with Great Britain-a charge
'hich they stoutly and Except Msssachu-
eets, perhsps) honestly denied, but which
e, and Parliament and the King, blindly
erved to emphasize more and more as q
ruitful suggestion, until, in 1776, the pro-
metals were constrained to adopt it 40 an
Ultimate resource. What royal governor
ould not extort from q colonial pocket, q
arliament should not, and Minister Wal
oie declared the attempt required more
ourage than he could command. He knew
ne provincial instinct was faithful to the
nother country, and too doggedly British
su9mlt temely to oppression; that jea-
yer the mepaced revenues and Would
ouble unseen TO tight clench, with the
ever demands of the English ministry.
When men deliberately refuse to raise reve-
ne for the hands of rulers or for the reDair j
forts, lest they strengthen Q possible j
nemy, they have advanced many leagues {
, thought, and are sinewed with resolves
azsrdous to . persistent sggressor. It ia g
eedless to review in detail the old struggle {
q our soil upon the territorial claims of
rance and Great Britain France claimed
y right of discovery the vast stretch G
altered by the rivers between Canada and q
ae Gulf. The English grants ran west >
ard to the Pacific, and along the Ohio /
obituaries the settlements OF the two coun. q
ice gradually pushed out in approach like .