The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1876-07-04
Tuesday, July 4, 1879
THE CENTENNIAL RETRO
SPECT.

trace in review the triumphal pro-
gress Of hundred years The ship
Of state has swept with dizzy speed
forward over this hundred years OF
Ifs course in the career Of empire,
though not always in tranquility and
sunshine. The shoals Of treason
have yawned around her, and the
lec-shore Of corruption threatened
her with destruction. She has been
battered by the thunderstrokes Of fac
ton. pounding on the weather-bow,
and rent by the storms of civil war
At times IL has seemed inevitable
that "the CULTS must wash her down"
but thanks be To God, she has thus
far wea.hered them all in safety, and
to-day floats with sails filling fair
with the breezes Of prosperity over
the quiet waters of peace and frater-
nifty. There is n warrant for the
extraordinary voations of rejoicing
that emblazon the day from Maine
10 Puget Sound, and from Florida
10 San Diego.
II is well to rest upon our oars,
or, Ito speak more accurately to
bank the engine fires, for while on
such an occasion, that We may profit
by retrospective glance at the great
lesson of the century. Though pa
triotic hearts will naturally swell
with pride, OH survey of the past
and present of our country, yet ma
tional glorifcation will not he the
only thought suggested.
The nation though powerful and
great is yet crude and immature.
For it does not yet appear, what
we shall be-" Mixed up with all
our really great elements of eharac-
ter, is vast deal Of exaggeration,
bombast, superticiality and shoddy,
naturally incident, perhaps, to SO
rapid growth, and to the thin
spreading necessary to the occupancy
of so wido a territory by a people so
few in number. We See as yet the
vain leaves and gay flowers of the
spring time, 1.-The blushing honors"
that the tree Of liberty. "bears so
thick about her" But there is an
outcome of rich and glorious fruitage
behind all these, that is coming to
the view, apaee.
II is this grand consciousness Of
illimitable latent reserves Of power
that have has always been the secret
spring of Americas astonishing au-
dacity. Her revolutionary struggle
for independence was bSt the vigor-
GUS assertion aud victorious of the
life and faith that was in her.
Our ancestors realized that Great
Britain then might over.
power their military strength in
the field. but they knew that she
could not cope with time ard desti-
ny. Patrick Henry expressed the
sentiment of the whole country in
the memorable words: Three mil
lions of people armed in the holy
sss.ss 1T liberty, and in such coun-
try a. that which we "ossess, are in
v;a,;Ase by any force which our enc.
my can send against us.
The plucky Ethan Allen, echoed
the nations faith again, when in
l77s he called on a British garrison
TO surrender. When asked by what
authority, he replied: 'ln the name
of the Great Jehovah and the Cont
mental Congress. And the gates Of
Ticonderoga opened to the sum-
mons. AS the walls of Jericho fell
down when the ,rumpe,s Of the cho-
sen people of God sounded around
them.
Our nation was not the spoiled
child Of indulgence. but was Graded
Gin persecution and oontumelv. and
had war and suffering for nurse and
od-mother. Still, in a special
Aensc has she been the chosen child
VI sNrtune. America is vet in
the Hush of her youth, and when
Tue stars and stripes, like the
ned cross of s.. George, "a thousand
years have braved tn, hattie and the
breeze the portals of her TEMPLES
Will be hung with trophies before
winch the renown Of the worlds
proudest empires of the PAS, viii
row dim.