New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-09

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"There is no longer any room for hope!-.
We must fight" Withdrew the troops
is big with danger" but the perverse
lords said no, and the Commons re.
| fused eveA to receive at its bar
! the bearers of colonial memorial The
royal navy moved up and down the Amer
loan coast like Q swarm of huge spiders
weaving restrictions upon the commerce OF
all the colonies represented in the Phila-
delphia Congress, except New York and
North Carolina; new British forts equatted
upon the hills to stare through suriy port
holes upon Boston, whose throat squadron
clutched.
Massachusetts, the bruised but stubborn
picket of the colonies, foresaw fresh blows.
and crouched to seize the military arm OF
Great Britain before it fell, and, IT need
should be, to maintain it. Her men were
minute men" now, her councils, "com'
mittees of safety" and they should never
go ont of fashion. When We dwell in idle
often turks under q clear hOrizon-Ghe very
calm may portend its leap and fury.
On as fair q night as ever smiled upon
America, when, as if in the very languor
of peace, she lay murmurous with dream
beneath mellow April MOOD, q line of 800
British bayonets crawled like a deadly,
clustering serpent, out of Boston and on
over the landscape toward Numbering Lex
ington and Concord. The cOlonists were in
the deep repose that honest labor earns,
the wife nestled in the husbands, the child
in the mothers arms; the very calm seemed
q gracious ans wer to the prayers in which
the provincial households bad been con-
secrated till dawn. But bark Something
thrObs out on the night in advance of the
stealthy foe as though the heart Of old Mas
sachusetts suddenly stirred with q livelier
pulse-it grows nearer and stronger and
quickens to madden palpitation: louder
louder in his shriu yell of alarm, louder in
the below of signal guns and the
scream of belfries across the night
The sleeping colonists leap from
their beds, tear open their doors
to thrust an ear into the startled gloom,
button the awful throb of that pounding
hoof within their waistcoats, make the
drums repeat it as the rhythm of their
march and as the reveille of all the colonies
till battle roars alone should shout it; till
American liberty should stand victress in
her scars.
General Gage wanted the colonial am
muniti0n at COncord-and he got it as his
majesty got the colonial taxes by colonial
measure and consent. They furnished the
residue Of the ammunition Ut Bunker Hill.
On this centennial night of your republic,
your households to Gods providence till
the morrow, adjure you to remember the
plash Of Revere's furtive oar as he stole
across Charles river to await the signal of
the British march; remember the two Ian
terms that suddenly cleaned out from the
old church tower, pair OF sad, eanguine
eyes that searched the dark future for
tranquil morn; remember the epurred rider,
awaiting their sudden beams, to vault to
the saddle and dash into the night, and
finally remember, that above q loftier
tOwer-over thd proud structure of your
hangs out the same old moon
that looked upon Revere, with q message to
you all az the Reveres of America's second
century, and may you be as vigilant and as
resolute as WAS he.
Well, Massachusetts, had advanced and
now felt solid ground under her feet. The
true pioneer Of the colonies, she knew her
ated in her sense of right by her sense
of union. She rallied as one man and at |
Breeds Hill, lit the torch by which twelve |
month later our fathers subscribed at |
Philadelphia the immortal declaration. |
Great Britain had at last crossed the Rubi- |
con of kindred bloods! Jefferson re.ates |
that before April 10, IT'S, he had heard no
whisper of disposition to separate from |
the mother country, and Washington that |
when he took command in July, l775, he |
abhorred the idea of independence. Never. |
tbeless, last attempt at reconciliation was |
made on the eighth of July. 1775, in ad- |
dresses of Congress to the King and to |
the British people, although the hope OF |
relief had fed. The Kings answer to the |
address was to reject it with contempt; |
was q, 900 more troops to com
~ sc Ill a.
trade, and an authorization to capture all I
vessels found in it. Was one more provo
cation needfua 1t came from the navy in
the canno1ades of Falmouth, Massachu-
sets (now Portland, Maine). and of Nor
folk, Virginia, and in the attack on Charles
ton; from the army as we'll, in numerous if |
not holder encroachments. Was yet an
other needfula 1t came, and fren q man |
whose name we Americans, to our shame
be it eaid, have suffered the priests to ban
ish from our ips-Thomas Paiae-when
one of their own number, Rector Duche,
chaplain of the first congress, pusillani
mOusly abandoned the cause Of independ-
9nce in the second year of the revolution.
Paine was both Sam Adams to erect the
'oul and a Patrick Henry to lash the pas
,i0ns Of men. He was legion Of Zsngers.
He dwarfed the king and exalted
mad. He g6aded the muscular young
1nion to lift royalty from American soil
md strangle it in its arms as did Hercules
he wrestler Antae8ns. He leavened all the
colonies to one grand Mecklenburg by his
pamphlet of Common Sense" Let us
orget Tom Jefferson, who wrote the de-
aration, when we forget Tom Paine, who
argely inspired and accelerated it. But
i'll now the coloniets had sought and fought
o be consiitntionally protected Britons,
lot independent Americans, except in Meek
enburg, North Carolina, whose citizens
oreswOre their allegiance in resolutions,
he text OF which was to some extent en-
'odied in the great declaration the ensuing
ear. In July tardy Georgia had Joined
he Congress-, and all were then cOnfed-
rated, under the title of 1.-THE Thirteen
United Colonies Reused as they WERE
warmed as did their soldiers, it was,
you'd have you bear in mind, to resist and
isarm aggression, not to conquer indie
Had Great Britain even then
omplied with our iaher's demands we might
ave been British colonies now.
Says the old historian, Timothy
'itkin Civil and Political History of
he United States), these 1.-THE Last
apers breathed the same ardent love
t liberty, contained the same dignified SEN
ments, evinced the same determined pur-
0se OF soul, and the same consciousness of
he Justice of their cause as those of the |
primer session. Nor were they couched in
'nguage less bold and energetic on the sub
'ct OF their rights or less affectionate TO-
ard those to whom they were addressed"
But the new provocations have in part
'cited, made the thought of Independence |
le sovereign thought throughout the COLO
les; it was brought directly before Con-
ress by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia,
q the seventh of June, 1776 A committee
as appointed to prepare the declaration.
nd, after divers amendments, it received
10 vote of every colony 100 years ago to-
az, and was published to the world. Gone.