The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-07-15
HON. ANTHONY VAN WYCR' S AD-
4 DRESS

The followingis Hon. Anthony Van Wyck' 8
address delivered in this city on the 4th of
July:
Mr.. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW CITIZENS:
The great calamity which has befallen our
nation presses with weight upon our hearts
that units US to-day for the usual enjoy
ments Of this anniversary. We meet in " the
shadow of great affection" While that
precious life is in danger, and trembles in
the balance between living and dying, we
cannot rejoice. We remember, though, hii
own brave and trustful words, as they came
flashing over the wires at the time of the
assassination of our great martyred President
"God reignsp' . The government lives p
Yes; the government and the nation live, and
of that government and nation | would speak
q few words to you this morning.
1t is now little more than century since
the founders of this republic met in the old
hall at Philadelphia, and framing the i'm
mortal Declaration, read this morning in
your hearing, laid the foundation of our
national existence. They were the represen.
tatives of three million of people, constitut-
/ ing the population of thirteen colonies, which
occupied a narrow margin by the seaboard.
To-day nearly fifty million Of men, women
and children, inhabiting thirty eight states
and many territories, spread over the vast
area of our national domain bet ween the
oceans, unite with us in concentrating an
event fraught with such inestimable blessings
to the people of this continent and to all
mankind. The morning sun, which has this
day greeted the headlands of Maine, and
now rolls on his majestic course, looking
down upon the varied occupations and en-.
joyments of grateful and happy people
will not have finished his way across the long
series of states and territories belonging to
the American people, and with his declining
ray given his farewell sweet to the western
cliffs of Alaska, before his morning beams
shall gid again the New England shore. An
other " empire on which the sun never SETS
is already our possession, and constitutes a
part of the fruit which the liberty and union
established by the wisdom of our fathers
have already brought us. We do we'll to
hold their services in grateful memory, and
mark our appreciation by fitting observance.
The change, which has taken place in our
condition during the century is, perhaps,
the happiest eulogy upon the institutions
which they have given US. When, in 1915,
they proclaimed by this declaration the in
dependence of the thirteen colonies which
they represented, the eastern slope of the
Alleghanies constituted the western limits of
our colonial civilization. With the exception
of few feeble and widely-separated French
villages, the broad levels now occupied by
our prairie states were unbroken solitudes,
save as there ran through their vast areas
the track of the buffalo, the elk, the deer or
the war-path Of the savage; the immense
valleys of the Mississippi and the Missouri,
with their grand capacities for g the coming
million" had not even been fully explored,
and the gold-sown plateaux and mountains
of I" the far west" unvisited as yet by the
eye of science or ofintelligent adventure, held
in reserve, unknown and unsupported, the
wealth larger than that of "Ormus or of
Ind" which seems destined to enrich the
world. Now how changed the scene Great
cities rising on every hand, with splendid
churches, schools, public buildings, and in
Vulnerable elegant homes; numerous states.
filed with thriving villages and countless
beautiful farms-the abodes of thriving. in
telligent, industrious population, the pride
of our country and delight of all lovers of
human progress; towns busy with the stir
and hum Of varied manufacture, in the land
in which . great English statesman then
said I" he would not allow hob nail to be
made, if he could have his way p rivers and
lakes laden with the commerce of the grain
producing states, the granaries of the Euro
pean nations; railroads interlacing the CONT
nent, exchanging the varied products of our
own distant states and diversified climates
or transporting the interchanging traffic of
Europe and Asia-these are the marvellous
results of the freedom. energy, securi-
ty and accumla i've power which the wisely
balanced government established by the
fathers of our Republic have produced. It
is instructive to remember, however, that
the success of the American Republic has
been due to several causes besides our insti-
tutions. The events of the last twenty years
have shown us that institutions alone cannot
save us from the disasters which have ALWAYS
resulted from the unrestrained indulgence of
sel6shness and passion. One of the most
important of these causes, as 1t appears to
me, has been our geographical situation and
material resources. Separated by the ocean
from the intrigues and oficious diplomacy
OF the European governments, possessed of
amplest abundance of all that is necessary to
human existence, with home for all who
have the hand and heart to obtain it.
we are happily exempt from the danger
of hostile institutions or of combinations
of men misled by hopeless want or
hereditary inequalities of fortune and so.
cial position. Our institutions have develop
ed naturally under the most favorable cir
cumstances and without the warp or bias of
hostile influence. The real test Of these in-
situations will come when our public lands
shall all have been appropriated. and the
streets of our cities shall be thronged with
idle and hungry men. 1t should be our aim
and effort, fellow-countrymen, to so guard
the workings of our system that these de-
plorsble results shall be long postponed, and