The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1883-07-14
An Rlonnsnt sneach.


Fe, Judge Prince delivered the fol-
lowing eloquent Grafton
Again on this beautiful July day
the nation comes up to the cele-
bration Of its annual commemorative
holiday. 1t is right and proper SO
to do. The observance of national
holidays is as universal as mans
existence. Go as far back in histo-
ry as you will, travel to the rmot-
est tribe on some ocean island, and
you will find that wherever there
has been a nation there were COM
emorative anniversaries. The Rom
ans found them in Gaul and Britain;
Cortez met them In Mexico, and
the Pueblo Indians, unchanLe | gen
erations, still celebrate the holi-
days observed by their fathers. In
ancient times they we're generally
religious, as the Jewish passover,
instituted for a perpetual memo
rial. In modern days the birthday
ofthe mouarch has generally been
observed, SO hat the very day of
outward rejoicing may be that
which is ushered in untold misery
but with ms we use the birthday of
noman good or great, but the birth
day of our nation.
And this year it is a special ami
versary, for we meet in centennial
of the final achievement of Ameri-
can liberty; the treaty acknowledge
ing our independence having been
signed September 8, 1888. Thus
to-day we look back over a hundred
years of national life. And what a
century it has bee! How much
has been achieved under the vivi-
fylng influences of freedoml
From thirteen feeble colonies
we have become a nnion OF thirty
eight mighty states. Then we
were but a small inhabited strip of
Atlantic coast; now a great nation
extending from ocean to ocean.
Then we had less than 1000, 900,
inhbitants; now more than so, 000,-
900. Then we we're the weakest as
well as the newest people; now the
most powerful upno the earth. In
no way is the vast progress accom-
plished better illustrated than from
the very fact of this celebration to-
dayin this place; in a territory then
1000 miles from the nearest Amer
lean settlement. and separated by a
vast UNEMPLOYED wilderness; in a
then unvisited by a single Ameri-
can, the seat of civilization and the
capital of a province of Spain.
So some thoughtless man say,
"With what propriety can you Gel
brate this anniversary here, in a
place not within the colonies that
proclaimed their independence and
where even the language is differ
ent from that which they spoke9,'
Thou fool! to what would YOU re-
strict the Fourth of Julyl Under
such a rule, Ohio, Indiana and the
great state Of Illinois, whose repre-
sentstives in both branches of con-
gress we welcome here to-day,
could participate; for not a white
man then lived within their bound
aries The vast country west of
the Mississippi could have no part
in it, for twenty-five years were yet
to elapse before its purchase from
France. The millions of decend-
ants of those who have come to
our shores since the revolution
could not join the celebration, be-
cause their parents did not then
live on this side OF the Atlantic.
But no such narrowness can be
tolerated. The Fourth of July be.
longs to every American citizen
wherever he is, aod to place over
which floats the stars and stripes.
Especially does it belong to this
generation, because on us devolved
the task of preserving the nation
which was founded by the fathers,
hof proving that a free government
is the strongest, even when called
/. on to resist armed rebellion, and
of making literally true, in fact
throughout the country, the great
principles of universal liberty
which are embodied in the declar
alton. And we shall never forge
that no territory EVER pronounced
more emphatically against slavery
than did New Mexico, and that nc
part of the country sent a greater
proportion of her sons into the felC
to sustain Union, than our beloved
territory.
have spoken of the day we cele
brate as the birthday of the Amer
lean nation. But it is far more. 1
belongs not to us alone, but to the
whole worldl The Fourth of july