New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-25

pulses to-day 80 keenlyg We sometimes
find q community or an individual with
their hearts set on some relic or great c sne
and as We look on it seems to ms an exag-
gerated feeling, fond coLceit, an un
founded attachment, too emphatic value
set on some ancient thing or spot that men,
ory endears to them; but We have q right
to-day. and this year we have right be-
yond all question, and with no possibility
of exaggeratiDg it's importance. to ask the
world itself to pause when this nation COM
pletes the fret hundred years Of it's life, be-
cause thsse forty millions Of people have at
last achieved what no race, no nation, no
age hitherto, has succeeded in doing. We
have actually founded a republic on the
unlimited suffrage of the millions
We have actually worked out the prob
lem that man, as God created him, NAV be
trusted with self-government. We have
shown the world that church without q
bishop and q state without kiog is an
actual, real, every day possibility. Glance
where will you find chapter that precedes
US in this achievement! Greece had her
republics, but they were the republics of
ono in ten, and the battle of Marathon
was fought by slaves unclaimed from the
doorpOsts of their masters houses. Italy
h I'd her republics; they we're the republics
of wealth and skill and family and achieve
",
| reached vet the sublime faith in man. Hol-
land had her republics; the republic of
| guilds and lanGhOlGers, trusting to prop
| erty and education, the helm of state, and
! all those have gone down IN the ocean of
| time.
Once, hundred years ago, our fathers
| announced this sublime aud. as it seemed
then, audacious declaration that God iu-
tended all men to be free aud equal, all men
without restriction, without qualification,
! without limit. hundred years have
rolled away almost since that great an.
! nouncemenr, and to-day with territory
| that makes ocean kiss ocean, with forty
millions Of people, with two wars behind
her. with sub lime achievement of having
grappled with the terrible disease that
threatened its central life and put every
fetter under its foot, the great republic
launches into the second century of it's
existence. The history of the world has
no such chapter in its breadth, Its depth it's
significance, or its bearing on future history.
Well may we claim that this centennial
year is the baptism of the human race into
q new hope for humanity. Are We not
entitled, then, going with the eheaves of
such harvest in our hands, to say to the
world, behold the blessing OF God on the
right faith in the human race!" Well, gen.
tlemen, if that is sober prose, without one
little OF exaggeratiop, without one fond con-
ceit borrowed from our kindred with the
actors or our birthplace in these parts, if
that is the sober record, with how much
pride. with what thrill, with what tender
and loyal reverence, may we not hunt up
and cherish and save from change or
Dissertation the spots where this marvellous
attempt began-the roof where its first
councils we're held-where the air still
trembles and burns with Otis and Sam
Adams? Is there any more and and ma
jestic place on the face of the earth than
the cradle of such change! Athens has
her Metropolis, but the Greek can point
to 70 such immediate results. London has
her Palace and Tower and her ST. Stephens
Chapel, but the human race owes her no
such memories. France has spots marked
by the sublimest devotion, but the pill.
grimage and the Mecca of the man who be-
lieves and hopes for the human race is not
in Paris; it is to the seabOard cities of the
great republic. And when the flag was as
sailed, when the merchant walked up from
his gain and the scholar from his studies,
and the regiment marched one by one
through the streets, which were the pave
ments that thrilled under their footsteps
What were the walls that they saluted as
the regimental flags floated bv to Gettys-
burg and Antietam These, The boys
carried down to the battlefslds the mem
DRY of State street and Faneuil Hall and |
CQ6 OlO OOulQ COuFc0.
We had an emphatic prominence in those |
early days. 1t was not our fault; it was an |
accident, perhaps, but it WAS a great acct |
dent in our favor, that the British Parlia. |
ment chose Boston IS the first and promi- |
nent object of it's wrath. 1t was on the |
men of Boston that Lord North visited his |
revenge. 1t was our port that was to be |
stopped and It's commerce annihilated. 1t |
was Sam Adams and John Hancock that |
enjoy the everlasting reward OF being the |
only names excepted from the royal procla- |
nation of forgiveness.
After referring to Bunker Hill, the old |
North Church and the revolutionary monu-
ments, Mr. Phillips said that it was the |
work of men and the mechanics of Boston |
that made the Green Dragon" so famous. |
The conservation that the Puritans gave to |
these walls to Christ and the church in 1923,
is annulled. The ark of God has sought
new and perhaps better shelter, but these
walls received as sincere conservation when
Adams and Otis dedicated them to liberty. |
We don't come here to save the walls that
have echoed to the prayers of Cotton and
Prince and Eckley and the early saints of
the colony. We come here to save the walls
that echoed the sublime thought of Quincy
when he eaid: mo matter where, nor how,
nor for what cause, l mean to die a free
man and not slave!" These arches will
and sturdy religious enthusiasm of Adams,
with the uenqualled eloquence Of Otis, with
Warren and his young genius and enthu-
siaem. l will not say it is a noble cOnsecra-
ton, l will not say that il is q better use; l
only say we come here to save what our
fathers consecrated to the great memories
Of the greatest struggle that the race has
ever seen for the liberties Of man.
You spend 100000 for q schoolhouse.
What school 60 eloquent as these walls to
educate citizens! Napoleon turned his
Cesar had once mentioned. Won't you
turn street or spare quarter of an acre
to remind beys what sort of men their
fathers were Think twice before you
touch these walls. We are only the worlds
trustees; the old South no more belongs to
us than Luther's. or Hampens, or Brutus'
name does to Germany, England or
Rome. Each and all are held in trust
as torchlights and inspiration for any man
for Justice or ready to die
for truth. What does Boston meanl Since
1850 the living fibre running through his
tory and owning that name means Jealousy
Of power, unfettered speech, keen sense of
Justice, readiness to champion any good
cause; that is the Boston Laud suspected
and North hated and the negro loved. If
you destroy the scenes which perpetuate
that Boston, then rebsptize her Cotton
town or Shoeville Don't belittle these
grow stronger. You mobbed John Brown
meetings in 1860 a1d seemed to
have forgotten him in 1861. But the
boys in blue, led by that very mob
v caring epaulete, marched from State street
TO the Gulf because John Browns 'soul was
moving on"-that and the flag, only two
sentiments" lad the ranks. Mr.. Phillips
~. &C A. 1