The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-07-04

nSaoc VI u ueW c4HteuCcsi l Lucy sueCleu
they shouted. For the rest oil the tda.
Philadelphia was given up to enthusiastic
rejoicings. The people wandered cheering
through the streets; at night bonfire
and Examinations Lit up the scene
The reading OF the Declaration awok,
everywhere the same enthusiastic ardor
At Princeton, the college glowcl ut nigh
with fine illumination. Washington, a
New York, July 9th, while the guns OF th,
English armada was heard at the Narrows
ordered the Declaration TO be read beior,
the army. It was received with shouts o
Joy. That night the patriots tore dowr
the gilded statue Of King George in The
Bowling Green. and soon after cast It into
bullets The Eastern towns surpassed the
zeal Of Philadelphia and New York. Bos
ton, just snatched from the grasp OF thu
tyrant, broke into fierce enthusiasm. The
Declaration was read July 18th, In Faneui
Hall; the city was filled with rejoicin,
multitude; speeches, cheers, congratu
lations, bonhres, music. lights, filled oil
the day and night; new hope descended
upon man, the prospect oil better lie.
Has It been fulfilled? To answer the
question one must compare the men OF the
close Of the eighteenth century with the
close OF the nineteenth. It Is an instruc.
tive parallel. From the platform at Phila.
delphia has proceeded chain oil impulses
electric, amazing. The philadelphia ex.
pertinent has created the science Of gov.
eminent; it has taught men how to govern
themselves. In the last quarter OF the
eighteenth century the despotic theories oil
Europe had made men everywhere slaves.
Even In England they were little bet
Ter, except limited aristocracy.
All the abuses OF the past, liz
inhumanity. inSincerity, crime, marked the
days Of johnson and Burke. Men were
hanged in companies Of thirty and thirty.
five at Tyburn for trihing ofienses. Rob.
beers haunted the most public highways.
The debtors prisons were crowded, the
slave ships sailed in fleets from Liverpool
and Bristol. The workingmen, ignorant rs
brutes. lived in real serfdom. Want, in.
tense and terrible, preyed on them. Frank.
lin contrasts the happy condition OF his
own country with the miseries Of England.
Jefferson saw with horror the degradation
Of the French.
France was scene Of perpetual starva.
ton. An aristocracy, court, rioted amidst
the mIseries OF the people. An extreme des.
potism had apparently DESTROYED all hope
OF progress. The peasants-millions OF
them-lived and persisted like brutes. In
Germany, human life and happiness were
apparently less valued than in France.
The petty. dukes and princes sold their
people to the English king for gold. They
caught them like wild beasts in churches,
at market, in the field, heried them togeth.
er, and drove them to the transports that
were to carry them to the battle-felds OF
America. Religious federation was un-
known. excep: in Switzerland and Holland.
England had its test acts and its bar.
barious laws; Italy, Spain, France, perse.
Gated Protestants and Jews; Austria was
the champion OF bigotry; Russia, the
barbarious haunt OF myriads OF slaves.
But suddenly all this was to change.
Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, cried from
their platform at Philadelphia to the PEG.
pie, You are free" Within hundred
years representative assemblies govern in
nearly every European and American state.
The people everywhere rule. Italy teaches
federation and unity; Austria walks slowly
onward in the paths Of progress; even Rus.
STA quiyers with the inevitable change. A
change OF manners has followed-serfdom
is abolished, the debtors prison thrown
open, the gallows robbed OF nearly all its
victims, the slave-trade banished, the slave
set free. Humanity and tenderness make
their slow advance; education widens and
elevates 's-z5d77 - .
|. The Declaration WIS not commented
upon in the newspapers OF the day. They
were content with printing It Said the
Philadelphia Post, July 0. YESTERDAY, at
twelve o'clock, INDEpENDEScy was declar.
ed at the State House in this city, in the
presence Of many thousand spectators, who
testified their appreciation OF It by repeat.
ed acclamations Of Joy" In the same pa
per negro child is advertised for sale, and
several slaves. On another page is an &c.
count OF the English fleet that is gathering
in New York Harbor, and letter from the
West Indies that tells the proyincials
there is no hope Of pardon for them but in
submission. In the next paper the fleet
from Halifax is described as forming a
line in New York Bay from Kill Won
kull TO Simonson's Ferry, on the east
side OF Staten Island. The .i,ia had
already fired her guns into the houses on
Long Island, in reply to a small battery on
the shore. 1t Is sometimes said that the
Declaration was Of little Importance, that it
was forgotten in the strife Of arms. But
this is an error. The Declaration was the
decision, the public avowal, the con~nstls
that joined America and freedom. The tie
could never be broken. Even Reed admits
that it was the "strong objection" in the
way Of accepting any proposals OF recon-
Citation. Howe came too late with his
oilers Of grace and pardon. The decision
was made; America was free. Threading
OF the Declaration OF Independence on the
sth otJuly, l776, was the decisive act that
published to mankind the opening OF a
new era: before it the. fleets and armies OF
England were powcrless, and Europe and
America rose into new life together.