The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1881-07-28
An Eloquent Grafton.
JUDGE JOHN p. REA's ADDRESS AT
~ PRINCETON, JULY 4TH, 1881.

John p Reas address, delivered in this
place on the 4th, is due to lack of space
in Cus columns. That the address was an
able one will be shown by perusal Of it;
the touching Introductory, relating to the
Presidents then supposed dying cond1-
ton, has been omitted. The style. was ell
oquent and showed that the speaker
words were prompted by patriotic heart
as he spoke as follows: fa
= A strange interest concenters in the birth
of nation In all lands and in all times
wondrous facination has attracted the
gaze Of the people back to those events;
in darker ages than ours, when the be-
ginnings of National life have been buried
under the shadow Of unchronicled centu-
/ ries, imagination has FASTENED to the aid
of history, and in the ale,nbicof its magic
= realm has forged achievements and fash
toned heroes to meet popular demand and
crafty national pride. Greece, accord
ing to the classic story, was the home of
gods long before it became the home of
godlikc men who filled the world with
her fame. Rome, grown from an insig-
nifcant village on the Ti5cr, to be the
centre ofsthe worlds wealth, and thought
and power, standing on her seven hills in
all the statellness of her Undesirable
grandeur, threw the glamour of the SUI,
pernatural over her humble origin and
transformed the wandering shepherd lads
who first reared their rude tents on the
palatlne hill, into beings of another and
a better world. Even England has Ill
vested her half mythical Alfred with a
sanctity scarcely due to mortal, AMI ac-
credited him with wisdom never pos
sessed by any monarch Vino enjoyed the
luxury Of a contemporary historan. SO
gratifying have been these fabulous sto-
ries to the people that they have accepted
it as truth that the gods enjoyed the as
ISOLATION OF naked and unhoused savages
hut cut'the acquaintance of Skeir decend-
ants the moment they emerge from the
night Of barbarism into the gray dawn of
civilized life. There is philosophy how
ever, even in this strange phenomena
AS our eyes are fixed upon the past the
real sinks away and far beyond rise the
dimly outlined shores Of an unrecorded
life, and in their shadow, as we gaze, fit
the fantastic forms Of prehistoric, and by
consequence mythical, and by relation
supernatural beings. The worlds gala
days have eyer been the. anniversaries of
great deeds done, or supposed to have
been done, in the childhood of the nation
deeds demonstrating the heroism Of an-
cestry and rejecting the honor of the
buried past; whether the events celebrat-
cd were real or mythical their celebra-
ton has famed the fires of indiyidual
patriotism and welded great masses Of
humanity into a single national life. #
But after all there is q satisfaction in
knowing that no confusion enshrouds
the natal hour Of our republic; no misty
avenue of unchronicled centuries lies be-
tween its birth and us; no fabulous
heroes are grouped around in the picture
to prove that the new born is the off
spring Of the gods Faithful pens have
described with unerring accuracy the
story of American independence; loyal
fathers who shared it's perils have told it
to listening sons who still live and who
have written in blood on the mountains
of freedom their fitness to hear the story
and to inherit its glory.
Assembled in this beautiful grove,
under this clear, blue sky, surrounded by
all these evidences of prosperity and IN
mistakable testimonials of attainment and
progress, we meet to celebrate an event
that was accomplished by men--our own
fathers. The signers of the Declaration
of independence, which proclaimed the
beginning of our national life, were not
supernatural beings, not gods playing
hide and seek among the stars, but men,
honest, brave, heroic; neither were they
Adventures playing at the game OF am
bition for the prize of empire, but calm,
courageous, God fearing men, who count
ed the cost OF every step they took, and
took every step that was right, regard
less of cost They did nothing for them
u selves hut all things for their cause. In
4 deliberations, stimulated only by 2 loyal
love of kind and country, they exhibited
in the quiet of their council chamber on
the 4th of July, 1776, a heroism loftie1
than that which reigns supreme above
the fierce storm of the battles carnival OF
blood. AS we look back over the COLDER
decades that lie between, upon their act
of that day, it stands out grandly as the
leading epoch in human history; th'
point at which mankind broke the moor
ings that bound it to the bleak shores O
its old, effete and barren civilization ant
struck boldly out into the new and une1
plored regions of a higher and noblerdes
tiny. That deed broke the tyranny o
custom, smote the conservatism OF wrong
overturned the subterfuge of caste.
raised the race erect in the moral grand
eur Of a past self assertion 1t appliet