The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-07-09
Communicates }

(communicsted.)
The Fourth Of July at Fort Fred Steele.
FORT FRED STEELE, July 9th, 1876.
EDITOR CHEYENNE LEADER:
DEAR SIR:-As the LEADER is the
principal newspaper in this Territory
and q great favorite at this Post, 1t is
with great pleasure l send you, for
publication, the following account of
the exercises held here on the Fourth
under the auspices of the Grand
Army of the Republic.
Mr.. Frank M. Smyth presided, and
after prayer by the chaplain the chair
man introduced Mr.. Frank E. Brown
who read the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, from the original text, In a
very effective and impressive man
mel, after which was sung the Nation
al anthem "Ameri ca"
Next inlorder, was the Grafton of the
day,b b. Mr.. M. o. Sullivan, who made
the following eloquent address
Ladies and Gentzemen:-In the year
1920, with the arrival of the May
Flower and the landing of the Pill
grim Fathers at Plymouth rock, was
laid the foundation of the glorious
American Republic.
That,noble little band of stout hearts
and heroic souls, who were driven
from their English homes by the
tyranny, oppression and sectarian
bigotry, of their own countrymen,
sought an asylum in the Western
Hemisphere, where they could wor-
ship their Creator according to the
dictates of their own conscience.
/ will not follow them through
their trials and tribulations with the
aborigines of their new homes. Let
is4sufice to say that tomahawks and
scalping knives for them had no ter
rors.
1 do not propose TO enter into de-
tails, or make any extended remarks
this evening, as the time / am to &C.
cupy in addressing you will not per-
nit, my object being to sketch brief
ly u history from the time we
commenced to crawl, to the present,
where we can succ essfully cope with
the British Lion the Russian Bear
and all the combined forces of the
lettering m~onarchical institutions of
the old world.
MY friends, one hundred years ago
to-day, a gallant band of patriots as
sembled at Independence Hall, Phila-
delphia, then the capital of the Amer
lean Colonies, and proclaimed to the
world their independence;the old bell
of liberty pealed forth the joyous It'd
ings to the four quarters of the globe,
and to-day we stand a proud example
of what a few brave hearts can do,
nerved in the cause of right and
Justice.
In this Centennial year of our
existence we stand,a nation limitless
in wealth, boundless in resources, and
our flag, respected and feared where
ever it floats.
Our feats of armies, on land and
sea have been seldom equalled, and
never excelled, from the time the
great; immortal Washington van
pushed that proud Britain, Cornwauis
at Yorktown, to a period less remote
where the "noblest Roman of them
alp the famous and illustrious jack
son at New Orleans; with 1000 irregu-
lar militia whipped, destroyed, and
scattered like chaff before, the wind
10000 English veterans. Veterans who
waded through the mighty legions of
France and other nations,at Veinerce
Badjos. Albuera, Toulouse and Water
loo, like an irresistible herd of buffalo
would wade through an army of
grasshoppers down in Nebraska.
at present you my fellow soldiers,
are well represented in the Big Horn
/! country by the invincible Crook and
his gallant little band of 1900 men
who recently met and defeated the
entire Sioux nation. A gallant instance
OF the bravery of the American SOL
diefs has been shown in that engage
mcnt, by one familiar to all. l allude
to Captain A. B. Cain Of the 4th In
fantry;who in leading his noble COM
pany to the charge on the Rosebud,
displayed that heroism and pluck
for which he is distinguished, and
which is a characteristic of the Amer
lean soldier.