The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-11-28

uation Of New.
York by the
British
Army.
BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
The great series of revolutionary
centennial celebrations ends fifty
upon this day and upon this spot
The momentous events that marked
the opening, the elimination and thu
close of the conflict have been duly
commemorated, aud for eight years
the full stretched memory of the
country q harp of q thousand strings
swept by patriotic emotion, has re-
sounded with the heroic music of the
revolutionary story. To-day the rev
dictionary story ends. At this hour q
hundred years ago, the last British
sentry was withdrawn. The impe'
rial standard of Great Britain fell al
the fort over which it had loated fol
a hundred and twenty years. and in
its place the stars and stripes Of
American independence flashed in
the sun. Fleet aud army, royal flag
and scarlet uniform, cor0net and rib
bon, every sign and symbol of for.
| eign authority, which from Concord
to Saratoga, and from Saratoga to
Yorktown, had sought to subdue the
| Colonies, vanished from these shores.
| Colonial and provincial America had
ended; national America had begn9;
and after the lapse of q hundred
| years the cradle song of the hope and
| promise of onr national nativity Ia
/ still the psean OF our mature power
and assured prosperity; glory to God
in the highest, peace on earth, good
will to man! :
Yet a more sorrowful departure
history does not record. In that hui
initiating moment, the fruit of the
victories of the elder Pitt, which had
girdled the globe with British glory
and had supplied the pretext fer
taxing America. crumbled to ashes.
The catastrophe was not that an En-
g'ish army was vanquished, 1t was
that England was wounded. 1t was
not a field loss; it was an empire rent
asunder. 1t was not a blunde1 of
military strategy, 1t was q moral mis-
calculation. AS her wisest states
man had predicted, England had
fallen upon her own sword; and she
had drawn it against herself. In
striking at her kindred in America,
she struck at the political traditions.
the immemorial rights, the Jealous
liberty, which are the hereditary
pride Of the English name; and the
rustic continentals who had defend
ed these rights from Bunker Hill to
Newburgh, and who returned hither
on this day a hundred years ago,
marched through the streets as they
had marched to the battlefelds of the
revolution, keeping step to the steady
drum-beat of Cromwell's Ironsides
at Worcester and Dunbar, and win.
ming at last as a great victory for the
English-speaking race. But none
the less the political separation of
the two countries was complete.
England had declined the greatest
opportunity that was ever offered to a
great nation, and America, panoplied
In the mighty memories of her BIRTH
right, with the sturdy self-reliance
of lndom.table conviction and of
conscious power, turned to carry for
ward as q new nation, under other
conditions and through other insti-
tutions. the cardinal principles of
constitutional liberty.
This day, therefore, commentaries
the end of the old order, and this
spot the beginning of the new. With
the evacuation of New York mon
archy ended; with the Inauguration
of Washington the national republic
began. The result, indeed, had been
foretold by the course of events
through all the colonial period. which
In the total overthrow of
British power. The early New En-
confederations-the colonial
against Indian hostility
William PENIS suggestion of a pro-
vincial congress-the military asso-
citation for q common interest and
with a common impulse, in the old |
French and English wars-Frank- |
Inns scheme of union at Albany
The first doubt and distrust of British |
authority-the morning gun of the
in Jonathan Mayhew's
preaching-the thunder-burst of
James OTIS plea against the writs of
the keen and fatal logic !
If John NORM Scott in New York, |
it's plain forecast of separation
the ferv warning of Patrick Henry
20 the King-the massacre in State
street.-the Boston port bill-the re-
'ponse of New York and Virginia.
he Stamp Act Congressman at last,
the shots on Lexington
3rt en- and the volley at Concord
Bridge. the varying fortune and final
of the contest-all these,
'ur renowned and glorious traditions,
immortal as the tale of Thermopyl@
md Platte, of Sempach and Runny-
nede, revealed the common Ameri-
an heart and conscience, the essen
and instructive unity of the COL
mics; and surely and resistlessly as
he revolution of the globe through
he darkness of the night turns the
to the morning, the pro.
develop ent of the colonies
'rought the great contamination of
american National union, which
Onsecrates this spot.
But it was accomplished only after
ong and anxious, and arduous con-
roversy, with doubt and apprehe .
ion, and bitter hostility. The gen.
raj Joy that followed the evacuation
f New York, the satisfaction with
acknowledged Independence, the
anticipation, the boundless
ope, were succeeded by the reaction
nat always follows prolonged exalta-
on of public feeling and devoted
nd self-sacri6cing public exertion.
he young giant indeed had con-
uered, but his victory seemed to
ave cost him his life. Foreign au-
had disappeared, but the
ountry lay prostrate.
In the midst of our civil war, by
. exquisite stroke of Diplomacy,
ne Secretary of State invited the
[ihisters Of foreign courts to a
excursion through New
'ork, that they might witness the
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