Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-05

listening to the discussion of the gravest Of
human problems, by statesmen endowed with
wisdom almost passing human limits. We
feel the superior dignity that reigus in its de-
alterations, and are imbued with the so!em-
nifty of its momentous resolves. We hear
from its tribune, for the first time, an assar.
ton of the immutable principles Of the Dee.
la a. lion lust read, and we listen awe.ssruck, 20
the voices of its immortal authors, as they
pledge their lives. their fortunes and their
sacred honor for the supremacy OF those prin.
ciples We are in the camps of marshal!ed
armies. in company with warriors no obsta,
cles could dismay or dangers dsunt, vino
barred their breasts and tasted death.
that the liberties ct America might
not perish. We follow them through the
shifting scenes and varying fortunes Of
seven years conflict with the mightiest of the
worlds empires. We see them pursued with
the sword, with the frebrand, with pesti.
lence. massacre and slow starvation, ye.
steadfastly adhering to their high resolves,
and never despairing of ultimate success.
We learn from their great example the iu-
vincible power of righteous cause. fortified
by sublime faith in the justice Of Him who
doeth all things we'll. We marvel at their
indomitable fortitude, their endurance, their
courage, their unsurpassed proves. We
melt over their privatious, their hardshirs,
their sufferings in defeat, and we share in
their low as they reacl, at last the goal OF
their hopes, and plant their consecrated
standards upon the last stronghold OF their
foe. The conflict over, and their independ-
ence Won, behold these tried and dedicated
men, these armed defenders Of the right,
upon another theater of action, displaying
the highest exertions OF civic genius, and
winning moral victories, which even dim the
splendor of their exploits upon the field Of
honor We see in them the brightest ex-
ample the world has yet furnished, of deep
religious conviction and an enthusiastic
sensibility to liberty, penetrated by the
clear intellect which strives after measure
and order. How grandly they appear to us
in the years of peace. conscious that they are
charged with the destinies of continent, and
fairly molding and coming its rising eras
and ages. With what unerring precedence and
matches skill, they executed their great
work, essaying and solving novel and mo-
mentous political and social problems, bring
ing the atoms of society into a new order,
binding them in new and indissoluble cohe-
sions, until they have finally garnered the
fruits of their heroism and their faith, in
Government based on justice, on intelligence,
ON public and private morality. on liberty
regulated and restrained by law. We see the
new Government launched upon its orbit of
probity, Justice and freedom, and we watch
it as it runs its steady course amid the daz-
zling glories of old wars, and the tranquil
splendors of long intervals Of peace. And
now, on this anniversary, we meet to felici-
tate ourselves upon the benefits we have
reaped and the blessings we enjoy under the
benefcent sway of that Government. We
are here by the observance of ceremonies
they ordained, TO acknowledge our measure
less obligations to the authors of these bentits
and blessings. We are here, reverently to
bow before the mighty past, calmly to inter-
rogate the oracles of the future, and to cult
vate solemn sense Of cur responsibilities TO
those who shall come after US.
at is Just observation upon the American
people that they have never Jet been recreant
to any of the great trusts reposed in them.
The fires our fathers kindled burn brightly to.
night upon a thousand affairs, and the Govern
ment and the institutions they bequesthed to
US, manifest as yet no symptom OF decay.
Each generation OF their sons has passed its
heritage to its successor, not only unimpaired,
but vastly improved That those institu.
tions have been materially strengthened,
that the bonds of government have been cor
roborated, that the liberties, privileges and
inmunities of the American citizen have
been almost indefinitely multiplied, by the
heroic exertions of our own times, admits of
no question. If from the past we may derive
inspiration and courage, We may surely find
in the present ample and hopeful presages of
the future A Government which has success
fully repealed foreign assaults, which has
passed in safety the supreme ordeal
of the armed discussions OF its own sons,
whose honor has never been tarniEhed,
whoee influence is world wide, which is firmly
set in the confidence and affections of a brave
and patriotic people. is surely based on prin-
u,hich condition of tha fidelity Df
its children to those principles, beget well.
founded belief in its perpetuity. That the
boundaries of the Republic would expand
until they should comprise the entire con-
tinent down to the equatorial line, was the
hope and firm belief of some Of the most pro-
found and far-seeing of the statesmen of the
Revolution. That this is our destiny seems
now manifest, from our commanding geograph-
ical position, from our Anglo-Saxon lust for
territorial acquisition, from the colonizing
spirit and habits of our people, and from the
expansive power itself, OF our Government
and institutions. by which our frontiers
have been already extended upon q scale Of
splendid grandeur, until they embrace COM
pact, coherent domain, washed by two oceans.
So long as the American people shall yield to
the double impulse by which they have been
hitherto controlled-the one, to advance,
b1ilding cities. and founding States,
new divisions by means of a multitude
of settlements-the other, which enjoins a
belief, in and a sense of the responsibility of
nations and individual alike, to a Supreme
Being, fidelity to the manners and examples of
the past, and consciousness that they are
one nation, so long will the standards of the
republic continue to advance until its possess
ions are rounded by the boundaries of
continent, and its institutions, as nearly per-
Ill
flourish in immortal bloom.
1--WE are confident of the future. We refuse
to believe that this career of ours as a nation,
which began more than an hundred years
ago in the protests Of heroes against tyranny,
and then in a confederation Of noble COM
munities for the preservation of their liber-
ties, and then in the Declaration of hide.
pendence, and then in incompatible sacrifices
to make that declaration good, and then in
constitution of government the best the
world had seen, which ran its brilliant race
through more than three generations, and
then put down mighty rebellion against its
authority, and then was newly enfranchised
by the great amendments which extinguished
slavery and secured equal civil and political
rights to all men-we refuse to believe that
this grand procession Of ours as nation,
which is indeed like the procession Of the
gods, which in every football marks con-
stellation, and shakes from its sandals the
star-dust of the heavens, that this grand
procession is to end by turning round and
going backwards.
" II we turn to contemplation Of the value
of our Government of the influence it has
already exerted upon the destinies of man.
kind, OF its results, apparent in the ample and
splendid monuments of its benefcence which
surround u.s. who can calculate it all It's
glories are visible in the majesty of nation
lifted up to the first place in dignity and
power in the mighty spirit which animates
and combines noble and invincible people
in an indestructible union of States; in
polity whose creative, ordering and fashion.
ing power has changed the solitudes of con.
tinent to seats Of civilization and arbors of
liberty !; in ordinances which transcend the
gran lest triumphs of the English Constitu-
ton, and which for the first time declared
and secured equal law, aud equal justice to all
men in its wonderful and wholesome reaction
upon the old world; in the marvellous and
salutary political and social transformations
it has wrought in numberless and splendid
institutions for the diffusion Of learning, for
the encouragement of science and the culti-
walton of art; 10 countless discoveries and
inventions that have ameliorated the condi-
tions and alleviated the labors of life; in the
unparalleled scene of human happiness and
thrift with which we consummate these clos
ing years of this first century of its trial. La
what age, under what Skies has any nation un-
folded to the airs of heaven an emblem repre-
ssnting power 30 transcendent and benefcent,
justice so exalted and equal, liberty so large
and well-ordered, phenomena of human life
so diversified and inspiring, popular progress
toward all noble standards so great and per
manent, as are symbolized to us tonight by
that banner There is not point of OBJ.
servation from which we can contemplate our
country tonight that does not reveal the
splendors of q great empire that does not