The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-07-04
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL LIFE.

From to-day VIC date new century Of
our national independence. Not that,
as a nation, we have completed a hundred
years, but that the struggle, which COM
menced at jamestown and at Plymouth
more than century and half before, cul-
-i--.. ~" '-'sL;~ Tnlv 1r-G ,rhep
cur fathers, inspired with wisdom from on
high, resolved that the then colonies were,
and of right ought to be. free and indie
pendent states, and to the maintenance of
that independence, pledged their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honors.
The adoption Of the declaration of indie
pendence was but an epoch in our strug-
giles for freedom, for independence, for ma
tionality. Our whole history has been that
of one series of never-ending struggles for
the attainment of these ends. The first
struggle fer American life was with the
untamed wilderness of nature, and tina,
struggle which commenced at Plymouth
has not yet ceased; but American enter
prise, American pluck, American intelli-
gence is still battling with nature, making
the wilderness to bloom and blossom like
the rose, subdung the mountain Businesses
the. forest and the praries, and compelling
them TO pay tribute to man, and only COM
pleting the work in one place to again re-
new the struggle, and win fresh victories
elsewhere.
Inseparable from this struggle, has been
the second great struggle for American
life, that with the aboriginal savages This
struggle, too, commenced in Massachusetts
and Virginia, and has been transferred
from colony to colony, from state to state,
from territory TO territory, eyer marching
westward, every triumph but the signal
for the renewal of the strife still further
westward, and we still hear, to-day, ON our
western frontier, the crack of the Indians
rifle, the whoop of his charge as he rallies
once and again on his sulen retreat. These
two struggles must soon cease. On the
morning Of this centennial anniversary we
can see that the strife is well nigh spent,
that soon there will be no wilderness re-
naming to be subdued, no Indian to be
conquered. The other struggles will be
perennial, let us hopesthat the result may
he as suspicious and the first two promise
10 be.
The third great struggle for American
life was that which we commemorate to-
day, 1.-THE effort Of the boy-giant to stand
" on his feet and go alone" the struggle
for independence. This struggle, like the
others, still continues, but unlike them
will be never ceasing. Then came the
struggle for nationality, for liberty of the
citizen, for free press, for religious tole
ration, for the equality of all men before
the law, to preserve the Union, for pure
government-and these struggles still con
tinue. Without the wisdom and courage
of our fathers in doing that which makes
this day memorable, the struggle with ma
ture and with the savaPes would have been
fruitess, that for nationality and free gov
eminent and their attendant blessings
would never have been entered upon.
American independence, American nation
atty, American freedom and the equality
OF all men before the law had their birth
one hundred years ago, their full fruition
depend upon us and our posterity. The
struggle must continue. 1t can never cease
Only by continual warfare can we pre-
serve that for which our fathers fought
Only by an untiring vigilance can we
maintain the heritage of free institutions
thus given US and transmit them unimpair
ed to posterity.
The "times that tried mems souls are
not merely historic, they are an ever pres
ent reality. We may not be compelled to
appeal to the God of battles as did our
fathers one hundred years ago, in order to
preserve the germs of independence as
they did sixty years ago to maintain our
rights as an Independent nation; as we did