The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-04-20
An English Editor on American
Celebration

An English Editor on American
Celebration.
During the last iiye years, almost
as much pride and exultation has
been experienced by inhabitants of
Gre Britain in contemplating the
magnificent onward march Of the
United States, since their '.Deelara-
ton of Independence" in lII6, rs by
the exiting population of the model
Republc. 1t was in no grudging
spirit tl,at Lord Derby, then Foreign
Secretary, sent n competent Brit
ish official to Philadelphia to look
after the interests of his commercial
compatriots, who, in far higher
degree end with far heartier zeal
than the denizens of any other Eu-
ropen kingdom or republic, sent
English commodities of all kinds to
add lustre to the successful ensem-
BILE of the Centennial Exhibition.
The tact, courtesy, and geniality
with which the British Commission
er, Sir Herbert Sandford, executed,
at Philadelphia, the delicate func-
tons instructed to him by the For
eign Office, won for him golden
opinions from all classes of his
countrymen. Having, however, in
this country looked on, not only
without jealousy, but even with
sympathy, at five years of American
ebullitions of cxaltations over a Sc
ries of occurrences which at the
time were regarded as the heaviest
blows ever administered to the Mon
archy of England, we may be per-
mitted-perhaps not less in the in
terest of the United States than from
any wounded self-love-to rejoice
that the last of these jubilees is at
hand, and that when the surrender
at Yorktown has been duly ''eelebra-
ted" the normal relations existing
between the mother country and
her eldest daughter will be permit
ed to resume their ordinary current.
Undoubtedly lit is not only natu
raj, but even right and seemly, that
our transatlantic kinsfolk should
wish to observe the centenary Of
Yorktown, and that Englishmen
should take more profound inter-
est in the revived memory of the
last than of the first armed encoun-
ter of a war which, in the opinion Of
all right-thinking men and women
now alive upon both sides of the
Atlantic, ought never to have taken
place at all To American citizens,
moreover. Yorktown sympolizes the
opening of a young, unfettered. and
disenthralled nations career to run
its amazing course. To Englishmen,
on the other hand, Yorktown suggests
no bitter or humiliating memories,
seeing that the subsequent verdict
of mankind is undoubtedly, that the
establishment of American indie
pendencc was a boon, not only to
the family of man at large, but most
of all, to Great Britain herself. Reck-
oning from the first skirmish at
Concord, the Revolutionary War
lasted nearly nine years. There
were occasions, during that stormy
epoch, when it might perhaps have
been brought by England to what
she would have deemed a successful
termination but it is far more GER
tain that in such an event the srtug-
gle would have been renewed, for
as the the biographer of Lord Corn
wallis sagaciously remarks-"no
one can imagine that the mighty ma
ton which now possesses so large a
portion of North America would
have permanently consented to be
subject to Great Britain"
There is, however, in the memo
ries of Yorktown even now much to
draw living Englishmen and Ameri-
cans nearer together. and unques-
tionably the bearing of General
Washington at the supreme mo-
ment toward his vanquished and
humiliating enemy was of that
character which it is meet and right
that historians::s should mot willingly
let die" 1t is not generally known
that, at the moment when Lord
Corngallis surrendered to General
Washington, the hnmbled English
man simultaneously uncovered his
head. With characteristic thought
fulness General Washintor. prayed
him to put on his hat, as-the
weather being chilly. and wet
there was danger of his catching
cold.
1T does not much matter what
becomes of me-" exclaimed the de-
jecten Englishman; to which, in
firm voice General Washington at
once replied;
"On the contrary, my lord, ] am
ticipate for you long career of dis
tinction and honor in the service of
your King and country"
How truly these generous and
and prophetic words were borne out
may be seen by those who care to
read,,the epitaph upon the monument
erected by a grateful country to
Charles, first Marquis CORVALLIS, in