Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-07-20
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

delivered the following beautiful |
tribute to the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, at Irving Hall, on the
4th instant. He said:
In all this tumult, this tempest |
Of enthusiasm, there is neither af- |
fectation, nor exaggeration, nor
excess. For the event we celebrate
is q great great a hundred |
years ago, great to-day, and to be
great and memorable in the time
to come, when you and | shall have
all passed away, and the memory
Of us shall have perished from the
earth. In other countries | have
seen national festivals splendidly
kept. They know well the virtue
of preserving a nations traditions
and allying its present, as far as
may be, with whatever Of pride and
honor belong to its past. And yet,
the events commemorated were of
merely local interest, and awakened
but limited and partial sympathies,
some hard-fought battles won, some
enemy's city taken and sacked,
some smiling land made desolate,
some hostile race subdued. But
such achievements triumphantly
celebrated by the conqueror, were
to the conquered only memories of
defeat, and agony, and humiliation.
What was a holiday to one people
was a day of woe and mourning to
another. In the day we celebrate,
there is, thank God, no sorrow
over its clear sky comes no cloud.
Its memories are undimmed by q
single tear. There is no man of
any race, or creed, or nation, or
color under the sun, who, looking
back on the deed done here in
America a hundred years ago, can
truly say that it wrought wrong or
i'll to him or his-no man who can
deny that it was well done, and a
deed wise and beneficial to all man
kind. You have all read the Dec
laration of Independence; you have
it by heart; you have heard it read
to-day. A hundred years ago it
} was a new revelation, startling
with new terror kings on their
thrones, and bidding serfs in their
poor huts arise and take heart and
, look up with new hope of deliver
: ance. 1t asserted that all men,
1 kings and peasants, master and
servants, rich and poor, were born
) equal, with equal rights, inheritors
= of equal rights to protection from
the law; that governments derived
. their Just powers, not from con-
S quest or force, but from the consent
Of the governed, and existed only
! for their protection and to make
\ them happy. These were the truths
9 eternal, but long unspoken; truths
that few dared to utter, which
: Providence ordained should be re
T vealed here in America, to be thu
: political creed Of the peoples al
over the earth. Like a trumpet
blast blown in the night, it pealeC
through the dark abodes Of miser,
" and aroused men to thought an(
D hope and action. France caugh
i the sound and awoke and tore OF
the tattered happings from feu
dalism. Greece shook off he
7" long lethargy, caught up agaii
: sword and shield, beat back, as o
, old, Asia and barbarism. To Po
land, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, tn
summons was carried on the west
ern winds. Even England hersel
found in the protest Of her rebe
colonies the forgotten lessons o
her own liberties.
!, And that trumpet-blast still j
peahng and will peal, still sum
mons whatever Of manhood remain
7 in mankind to assert itself, Ther
- were fearful odds against the COLI
|! MES when they threw down tn
cage of battle. On the one sid
was England-strong in the cor
sciousness of wealth and powe
= strong in the prestige Of sovereign
ty, fully armed and equipped fC
y war, insolent, naughty, scomin
n- even to entertain the idea of poss
Il. ol,ool, ar dafeat IN the 9th,