The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-07-15

; Thinking to snbdue them would be an cas-
matter he sent emissaries to this country VIII
by fattery and threats undertook to cajole an
drive them into peaeeable subjection. No
succeeding in this he harassed the people b
adjourning their legislative bodies, obstructe
immigration, imperiied justice by failing +
sign laws, providing for the payment of tn
judiciary, and committed various other wrong
which you have heard read in your hearing
to day.
July 4th, 1915. the Declaration of Independ
ence was given to the world, freighted viii
wisdom, tempered by prudence, and sanctiiet
by prayer. Never before was such.a doeumen
| prepared by human hands. "We hold thes,
truthsl to be self vident, that all men are Gre
ated free ard equal, that they are endowed BY
their Creator with certain inalienable rights
that among which are life. liberty and the Fur
suit of happiness" These sentiments are
known the world over, and the oppressed and
| down-trodden of all climes look to our flag and
to this country for a home, for protection, and
for liberty.
On the memorable End of July, 1875, while
the act of separation from England was under
discussion in the Continental Congress, and
while such men rs the eloquent Irish patriot
Patrick Henry, and the scholarly statesman,
! Samuel Adams, were lending their brilliant fac
ulties to the work of passing it, Thomas Jeffer-
son sat almost mute, but to his facile pen was
| committed the task of preparing the Declara-
| ton of Independence. To almost the Youngest
member of the assembly fell the duty of en-
| bodying in brief essay the defense of the act
of separation. Virginia told to the world by
| tb. hand of her youngest statesman the wrongs
| of the people, and impressed upon mankind for
| all ages the doctrine of universal freedom.
The congress that met in July, 1776, was in
| structed, by its constituents to throw off forever
all allegiance to the British crown. The Dec
laration of Independence was the result.
John Adams wrote his intelligent wife !:
| July 2, 1875, will be the most memorable
epoch of America. am apt to believe that it
will be celebrated by succeeding generations2as
| the great American festival. 1t ought to be
commemorated as the day of deliverance by
| solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.
am well aware" continues Adams, 'tof the toll
and blood and treasure that it will cost us to
maintain this declaration and defend these
| States. Yet through all the gloom see
the.rays of ravishing light and glory. Ycster
| day the greatest question was decided which
was ever delberated in America, and greater
| perhaps will never more be decided among men.
| A resolution has passed, without dissenting
/ colony, that these United Colonies are, and of
a right ought to be, free and independent
| States"
The act of separation passed on the I'd the
| 4th heard the peal of the venerable bell that
| rang out liberty to all mankind, and the words
| of wise forecast that proclaimed to the nations
the sovereignty OF the people.
Although there might have seemed no choice
| but submission, to such men Samuel Adams,
Jefferson, Livingston and Jay, yet at last the
| terrible doubt disappeared, hope inspired every
| breast, in the face of hostile enemy, stub
! born and unyieding king, and untried fu-
! .ure, the patriot assembly discussed and passed
| the great Magma Charta of human liberty.
Republics in the middle ages had fourished
! on the banks of the Arno, along the lagoons of
Venice. in the Valley of tho Pc. among .the
| hardy Flanders and the merchants of Brnyes
! and Ghent. But kings assaled them, mobiles
| massacred their people, ana the vile and selfish
| triumphed All these republics, coarse, se-
we're, yet progressive, fell into the hands of ty
| rants after the Reformation republics were
| formed by the Huguenots in France, the Puri-
| tans made England for time common n wealth, i,
| and Holland boasted in its highest glory that
it bad carried out the liberal conceptions of the
Greeks, from whom the theory and ideas of re-
/ publics are derived.
| Yet at the dawning of our existence as a ma
ton in 1776 every republic had perisbed except
| Switzerland and it is not surprising. as Sam
| uel and John Adams, Jay, Franklin and Lee
surveyed the dim stream Of history, they feared
| for the result of the experiment. when they
| found its shores strewn chiefly with the wrecks
| of freedom, and only monarchies and despot-
4 isms aourishiag where once had stood the early
| fabrics of human equality. But fear did not
| overcome them in the contemplation of such
! scenes, and they resolved to dedicate the new
| world to the purest republicanism.
1t is difficult for us to conceive of the mighty
i strides we have made in progress since the re-
/ public was founded. Our minds have become
4 familiar with freedom, liberty, and everything
| that constitutes cur national prominence. But
i when we remember that the foundation of this
republic, namely-tolerance, equality, educa-
tion-was proposed in the midst of the barbar-
ous eighteenth century as the basis of legisla-
l .. &Lnx III Gra1 Oh botu = 10 INN
/ BILE for us now to conceive how far man has
| advanced in the last century how absolutely
| miserable was his condition in l776. At that
time nearly all were lower than the worst class
es of our people, in France, the masses being
| taxed to support the pampered appetites and
licentious vices of the few homeless, helpless,
covered with the effects of superstition and ig-
| norance, wretched beyond compare. The COM
| mon people were persecuted by the nobility
senseless bigotry insisted on catholic unity.
4 The press was restricted, and education was q
| thing unknown to nine .tenths of the people.
Among the higher classes crime was unpun-
ished, and the lower classes were cruel and
brutal. Tyranny and popular degradation left
its footprints all over Germany. The peasants
of Bohemia rose in f776 against their oppress-
ors and mcnaced the mobiles, but were overcome
by a cruel and inhuman government. The peo-
pie were worse treated than brutes. Beaten,
plundered. decried. happy if permitted TO liye.
the people of France, Italy, Germany and
4 Spain were considered only fit to be servants oi
priests and kings. No donbt but that the den-
liens of Rome were more at their ease in the
most perilous days of the Queen City than in
the age of Gibbon and Voltaire.
In 1916 in England Protestant dissenters
wore not allowed to hold office. Four fifths OF
the English people were uneducated and crime
ragged with unchecked andaety oil over Brit
tania. Highwaymen haunted all the roads and
carried on their nefarious practices matter
of business. In all Roman Catholic countries
the Jews were persecuted with singular indig.
mites. Tolerance was scarcely understood in
Switzerland and Holland. We of this day can
not realize how fearful was the condition of the
human family amidst the atrocities of crowned
beads and mobiles one hundred years ago.
/ The chief trait of the eighteenth century
was It's terrible inhumanity. The peasants of
France were murdered without the blush OF
shame. English lords and bishops sustained
their cruel laws. The slave trade was carried
on extensively, and was without doubt the
Ophir of European commerce. European ava
rice had planted slavery upon the fresh fields oil
the new world. and that terrible peat of civili-
| zation had left here the canker that had cor
4 roded the foundations of Greece and Rome, and
| would, if possible, prevent an advance beyond
the inhumanity of the past.
\ YET in the gracious days of l7f6 the Amer
i lean Republic was founded, in which tolera-
4 tion, humanity, education and virtue were to
be the pillars of the rising state. Then it was
America ventured to speak words of comfort
and solace to the weary and oppressed of all
| chimes, promising them relief from their woes,
| telling them their duties and rights as citizens
i and guaranteeing to them protection, and dared
| to call them sovereign people. Long that day
had been hoped for-the far off day that once
4 scanned AZ near in the early republics. The