The Van Buren press., 1878-07-16

1ot Nioh3tiA lQt US
On anniversaries, the mind will, natn
rally, run back 10 the original of the day
we celebrate, taking a view of all that
has intervenea At such times We are
apt to think that II we had lived halt a
century ago, been Of mature years, and
possessed the wisdom we now {think)
we do, what changes we would have
made-how we would have steered clear
of the breakers upon which our ship oil
State has been beaten, and well-nigh
broken. 1t would profit us and future
generations more To remember that tho
present generation has nothing to spare
10 the past, and, it may be, that even
now, we are sowing some seed from
which our children will reap the whirl-
wind
We rejoice, to-day, in this beautiful
place, with our wives, children, and loved
ones around us, in conscious safety, while
102 years ago that little band Of Gods
noblemen were assembled as the Cont
mental Congress, with closed doors, each
one feeling, in his own Imagination, the
hangman's knot brushing by his head,
while he reached to take the pen in hand
TO sign that paper, which act would con-
sign them to the traitors doom, or send
their names down to posterity all cover
od with n glory such as man had never
achieved before. Illustrating how keen
ly these men realized what fearful risk
they were running, ii is said that several
of the signers remarked, Now, we
must all hang together" to which Ben.
Franklin replied, " If we do not, it is
quite probable that we shall all hang
It was, to them, a day Of
solemn import-a day pregnant with
events like unto which the world had
never seen. | have, sometimes, thought
those men felt their own insignificance
while they were being propelled by a
Power higher and greater than they,
yea even that Of the Supreme Ruler OF
the Universe. The language of the res
olations adopted, and declarations made,
grand and lofty though they may sound
to us, to-day, cannot have, with us, a 1.-THE
of the weight they must have mad in that
day, when, to have thought them was in
cipient treason, and, to have spoken them,
was deemed tho highest of treason.
Search whore you may, either in an
eient or modern writings, for a complete,
yet concise, statement of the true OBJ
ject and purpose of truly good govern
ment and you will be surprised to find
how stale and flat all else that has been
written on that subject, is, when eompar
ed with the statements made by the Con.
tinental Congress, in these words & We
hold these truths to be self-eyident, that
all men are created equal that they are
endowed, by their Creator, with certain
inalienablo rights that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness that, to secure these rights, gov
ernments are instituted among men, de.
riving their just powers from the con.
sent of the governed.
When this has been said, all that is
necessary has been said. Those men
spoke with tongues as penetrating as the
Finger that wrote the moral law on the
tables of stone. They spaSe as men, who,
for time, had been snatched away from
among their fellowmen, and had been
WIN tne very God OF Liberty,
and had been moved upon, as the apos-
ties, on the day of Pentccost, to speak in
strange tongues, as they had never spo-
ken before. The words they uttered,
came as fire, burning their way, indcli,
bly,, on the Judgment and consciences of
men. So long as those words are re-
mombored and cherished Of men, so long
will it be before good government shall
perish.
Those men built wiser than they knew.
They laid the foundations broad and
deep ; but they had no conception of the
length, breadth, heighth and grandeur of
the Temple, which the God of Liberty
intended to, and has, built upon that
foun iation.
If one had arisen, in that assemblage,
on the 4th of July, 1776, and portrayed
the manhood of the Nation, then lying
in its swaddiing clothes, as we now see,
and kaoD it, ho would have been hooted
at, by these sturdy men, as an enthusiast,
whose fairy tales might be of use to
cheer the simple-minded, who needed
more than sense of duty
performed to lead them on through the
fiery furnace of Affections and dangers.
We see 50 little, as we look back over
these days to have encouraged those men,
in their bold undertaking, that we might
we'll have called it almost foolhardv.
They had neither arms nor munitions of
war, nor credit to buy them. There were
no manufactures at home to supply them.
They went into the terrible struggle with
Great Britain, at Il disadvantage as great
as that of David when he went out to
meet Goliah, with no other weapon than
n sling and a stone. England was world.
renowned for her military power. and it
was her boast that she ruled the sea-
The United Colonies had to meet mus
kets and artillery with the squirrel rife,
and well-trained armies with raw re-
cruits. They entered the contest with
neither army nor navy. They had no
form OF government, or, at the best, the
form of government was untricd. The
bond that held them together was Love
of True Freedom, and Faith in the God
Of Battles. Well may We say, as the sit
uation as it was, is reviewed, at this day,
" What has God wrought 7"
In l776, it was estimated that the total
population of the thirteen colonies was
about 2,T50,000. Tho population of the
United States is now nearly $4,000, 200.
The ssterhood of colonies then number.
ed l3; the States now number SO. The
area of the original Is States was only
$4,000 square miles. That of the Union.