The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1876-07-21

ooeA oesiA AstztTu OI Gne Ole. 1EfOug
]. every heart-breaking discouragement, il
every affilction, deserted by the weak an,
: n betrayed by the strong, with no visible flu
= = ture save inevitable disaster = before then
y the bullet, behind them the scaffoId-fo
). eight long and eventful years they Tough
4 the good light, for us and for all mankind
: content to die, if need be, but never t,
surrender.
y we are here to-day to commemorate thei
virtues, to prove that Republics arr
not ungrateful, to summon them once mors
from their honored graves, and, by ths
hallowed memories that cling about then
as garment, to pray that they will conse
crate and dedicate us, their children, to the
noble work that is set before US. Joy te
all the living of the earth, and to the hon.
ored dead ALL HAIL!
Since that eventful morn on the 4th day
of July, 1776, a hundred years are gone
years filed with human misery. VET
brimming full with hope. Iconoclastic
years welded by time into a hundred
stranded mace with which progress has
dashed in pieces the images of political SUI
perstition throughout the civilized world.
Mankind struggling toward higher ideal,
OUT dumb with its own unutterable
thought thoughts, had at last FIAT fa all men are by
| nature created equal" This assertion,
charged as it was with glowering menace,
to every form of oppression, fell like a
thunder-bolt upon the startled and stunned
senses of Europe, aud filed with dismay
every supporter of hereditary monarchy
and so-called divine right. Little did they
who made it realize the tremendous conse-
quences that were to issue therefrom. Given
forth to meet a particular emergency, it
was the signal for universal revolt and by
thrust1ng forward the individual man as the
central fact of all creative force, it unchain-
all the numberless possibilities of mans
achievements. Listen to few of the Won
ders it has wrought:
| Its first response came with the opening
scenes of the French Revolution, savage
protest against the degradation of ages
whose panoramic views were lit up with
the lurid flames of wars that filled the world
with terror and caused all Christendom to
stand aghast. From France the infection
spread like contagion to that green isle in
the midst of the stormy Atlantic, where
since the days of Strongbow, the
Niobe of nations had sighed in vain
for freedom, and wept because 1t was
not, resulting in the rebellion of '98 which
by reviving the dropping energies of an al
most despairing people and creating for the
first time a practical unity Of patriotic SEN
timent, was in its far reaching consequences
almost tantamount to a successful revoIu-
ton.
Next came the establishment of the Mex
lean, the Central and South American Re-
publics, founded upon the ruins of the
Spanish Monarchy in the New World, copy
ing almost to line the ground work of the
Federal Union, but pre-destined to faulty
and incomplete development, in that they
failed to recognize the absolute freedom
of conscience, preferring to present to the
world the spectacle of religion enslayed in
States nominally free.
From the cloud-capped top of Ben Nevis
to the pleasant waters of the blue Danube,
all Europe was convulsed with the throes
of an approaching new birth of Freedom.
Burke did not hesitate to declare that the
successful resistance of the colonies to the
aggressions of the mother country, had
saved his own liberties to the Englishman at
home. The popularizing Of the idea of the
God-given and inalienable rights Of man,
led by slow degrees to the extension of the
suffrage throughout the British Isles, until
now their government responds to the popu-
lar will almost as quickly as our own. The |
ever pressing demand for the recognition of
these rights has led to the modification of
the land tenures in Ireland and the removal
of those blighting restrictions upon her
trade, which 80 long enforced poverty and an |
unwilling exile upon her people, until it |
may be safely predicted that comparatively |
a few years more will bring free homes to a |
free and prosperous, if not an independent |
yS~Pl~. .------------=----
Struggling to compass for herself the in
estimable boon of popular government, |
France has passed through the inconceiva- |
able turmoil of hundred years, to find |
peace at last in the arms of a Republic fash |
ioned after our own, and showing full Ca
paeity to practice that liberty restrained by |
law that furnishes the only safe guarantee |
for perpetual duration.
Germany taught by the bitter humilia-
tions of the Napoleonic wars that her safety |
lay not in feudal laws nor the prerogative of
kings, but in the strong arms and willing, |
hearts Of her people, has borrowed from
the Union the working plan of subordinate |
States, with an Imperial government over
all, and by the simple application of these
primary truths promulgated by Jefferson
has at last, after centuries of disorder, |
found that rest and union which neither
Philip IT,, Charles V. nor the great Charlie |
magne with all their mail clad legions could |
give.
By the application of the same truths lta- |
ly is free,-no longer the prey Of petty des-
pots intriguing against each other, and
agreed in nothing saYe in the common in
stinct which led them to grind the faces of |
the poor - but united as one people from |
Sicily to the Alps and blessed with a gov
ernment nominaIly monarchy, but prac-
tically Republic.
Hungary finds repose in the recognition |
of this same right Of local self-government,
a right which is only an outward and visi- |
BILE sign of the internal and natural right of |
men to pursue their own happiness in their
OWL way. l..,.sss.r sE -s,-.4
Outwardly the nations of Europe have |
preserved their forms of government. But |
these forms have in most instances been |
materially modified, or where not modified |
have been made to yield to new interpreta- |
tions of significance. Except Russia and
Turkey, there is not now single European
power which has not Constitution, the |
laws under which are enacted by a parlia- |
ment of the people. In some the suffrage |
is restricted; in others universal. Consld- |
cred with the past, the press is compare
tiyely free. and more and more do princes |
and potentates, smitten with the iron hand |
of revolution, seek to establish their author |
ity, not upon the bayonets of their soldiery, |
but upon the resistless power of public |
sentiment. The freedom of the people is |
still hampered with many useless and ex-
asperating restrictions from which we are
happily exempt; but during the last hun
dred years all progress has been in the line
OF the advancement of human rights.
The first impulse to this neyer-ceasing |
progression was the great Declaration which |
has been read in your hearing to-day. The
sustaining force which has kept this pro-
gress unwaveringly in its course has been
the spectacle afforded by the American
Union, without king or noble, with no
hoary-headed traditions or established
church, created ssof the people, by the
people, for the people, successfully admin
istered for the benefit of the people and
rendering she pattern to be copied of all
mankind.
Nor did the American revolution expend
its force In modifying the forms Of other
governments, or In changing the spirit in
which they we're administered The fields
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