Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-07-04
The Fourth Of July, 1882 What Does
IL SYlnhnIiZng


One hundred and six years ago the
connection of the United Colonies OF
North America with their mother coun
try. Great Britain, was severed by the
following resolution Of the Congress Of
the Colonies:
"ResoyUed, That these United Colonie:
are. and of right ought to be, free and
independent States; that they are alb
solved from all allegiance to the British
crown. and that all political connection
between them and the State of Grea'
Britain is and ought to be totally dis
solved"
This resolution was forced from the
colonies by the tyrannous expressions Of
George III. and his Parliament, in spite
of their loyalty to and affection for the
country Of their origin, and from which
they had their protection until it degene
rated into a despotism, their language
their religions, their laws and their primer
pies of constitutional liberty, in defense
of ali of which the resolution was
agreed to. The colonies acted with
solemn. due deliberation. The ties
of family and of ancestral memo
ries were strong with the colonists.
But they were Englishmen, descendants
of the Barons of Runnymede and in
heritors of the pledges of Henry Ill.
and Edward l., and must, therefore, die
in defense of their rights rather than live
bondsmen to an arbitrary King. Two
days after this resolution, on the 4th OF
July, 1776, the final severance, known to
the world as the Declaration of American
independence. our charter of liberty, was
adopted, and the colonies assumed their
position as free and Independent States.
We are familiar with the war that fol-
lowed. with the inadequacy of the con-
federation as security for general vel
fare and common defense, and with the
substitution for it of our present form of
government, put in action on the 4th of
March, 1889. We know, too, the gradual
development of our country, encouraged
by our naturalization laws. and by the
legitimate application of the powers
granted to the common central govern
ment. We know also the dangers that
occasionally threatened our peace and
union, from foreign wars, slavery, and
the yexed question of secession, until
the appeal to arms in 1861 and its results
definitely settled the two questions that
seriously involved the existence of the
United States. All these we have befol e
us, and now that the angry passions of
civil war have cooled, and men can take
rational views of the retrospect and of
the present, what do we see?
A country vast in its extent. limitless
in its resources, prosperous, rich, power
full and free, offering to its people the
happiest home in the world, and to the
honest oppressed of other nations an
asylum from tyranny. What American
can contemplate this great political
fabric, reared by Washington, Hamilton,
Madison, Franklin, and their contem-
poraries, that for ninety-three years has
stood triumphantly the tests Of disin
tegration and of selfish ambitions, of in
trigue and of civil war, without swell
ling heart of gratitude TO the Giver Of
all good things that He has cast our LOT
in such pleasant land.
When we measure our blessings, with
all of our political differences consid
cred, it seems as if the Almighty had
created our government to be, for us and
the world at large, the crucible in which
religious, moral, political and human
questions of rights are to be tested and
purified. Man stands with US upon his
own merits, and can rise from the hum
blest condition in life to the highest sta
ton, no artificial privileged classes block.
ing his way. His peers are of his own ere
alton, and whether they are of high OF
low degree, depends upon himself. Nc
union of church and state, or a char
tered hierarchy, rules his religious belief,
and teirorizes his mind with supersti-
tious inventions and assumptions. And
no sun at MONDAY is more resplendent
than the judicature that illuminates.
protects and defends his rights. The
citizen of the United States is essentially
freeman, in the enjoyment of the
attributes, civil and political, with which
he is invested by our Constitution. l;
there any other country on the face of
the globe as free as ours, and where the
law bears hard only upon the guilty
Religion, speech, the press, are all free,
and being so are the escape valves that
let of gases that, CONDENSED by pressure,
might blow society into fragments OF
damage seriously its composition. Every
man is protected in and enjoys the fruits
of his own labor, and the disturbing
Jars between wealth and poverty are be-
ing reduced to satisfactory solutions. Ev-
erything needed for another Eden is here,
and only man himself, with his selfish.
ness and corrupt aims, mars the har
mony of this creation Of our constitu'
tional fathers under the guidance of an
All.Wise Providence.
Such are cur civil and political gifts.
And in our social relations the dignity
of man is recognized and asserted by the
education, cultivation and refinement
which admit him or exclude him from
their various circles, which are founded
upon the right of every freeman to
choose his own society without interior
ence by the Stats. In fact, our social
distinctions, uninfuenced by civil or pc
litioal rights, are the indisputablc evil
dences of perfect freedom, and the pride
of an American citizen is, "neVer to in
trude where his presence is not desired.
Have we not drawn the picture of oul
Republic without exaggeration And
what people can rejoice in the glory and
greatness of their countries as can we
Americans in ours If the picture then
be true. is not the Fourth of July, 1882,
the symbol of national union, greatness,
prosperity, happiness, strength and free
dom, unequaled, such as the world has
never before seen, and which daily