The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-07-04
INDEPENDENCE DAY.
VlRGlNlAS PORTION IN ACHIEVING THE
INDEPENDENCE OF THE ANERI-
Can COLONIES.
How tho Day VIII be Celebrated I'm
and About Richmond-Pic-N
and Parades-NOtes and
Notions.


and Parades-NOtes and
Notions.
Our people sre slowly resumIng the OBJ
servance OF the Fourth OF July, and per
haps in the not distant future 1t will bt
reverenced as ii was before the war be.
tween the sections. The following extract
from the address OF Hon. Robert G. Win.
throp, delivered before the City Council
and citizens OF Boston July 4, 1876. shows
what lot and part Virginia had In framing
the Declaration and prosecuting the strug.
gle for independence to successful termi.
nation, and Is 80 full Of appreciation and
fraternak feeling that IL cannot fail TO be
pleasant reading TO our people. MIR. WIN.
throp, in the course OF his address, said
Single out with me, as you easily will al
the first glance, by presence and @
stature not easily overlooked or mistaken
the young, ardent, accomplished Jefferson
He is only just thirty-three years OF age
Charming in conversation, ready and full
in counsel. he is "slow ef tongue" like
the great Law-giyer OF the Israelites, for
any public discussion or formal discourse,
But he has brought with him the reputation
OF welding what John Adams well called
"a mastery pen." And grandly has he
justified that reputation. Grandly has he
employed that pen already, in drafting a
paper which Is at this moment lying on the
table and awaiting its final signature and
sanction. Three weeks before, indeed
on the previous 7th OF June-bis own no
bic colleague, Richard Henry Lee, had
moved the resolution, whose adoption. on
the Cd OF July, had virtually settled the
whole question.
Nothing certainly more explicit or en-
phatic could have been wanted for that
Congress itself than that resolution, set
ting forth as it did in language OF striking
simplicity aud brevity and dignity "that
these United Colonies are, and Of right
ought to be, free and independent States
that they are absolved from all allegiance
to the British crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State OF
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally
dissolved" That resolution was, indeed,
rot only comprehensive and conclusive
enough for Congress, which adopted it,
but, | need not say, it is comprehensive
and conclusive enough for us; and heart
lily wish that in the century to come its
reading might be substituted for that OF
the longer Declaration, which has put the
patience of our audiences to so severe a
test for so many years past-though, hap
PLY, not to-day.
But the form in which that resolution
was to be announced and proclaimed to
the people OF the Colonies, and the reasons
by which it was TO be justified before the
world, were at that time OF intense in
terest and OF momentous importance. No
graver responsibility was ever devolved
upon a Young man OF thirty-three, il, in
deed, upon any. man OF any age, than that
of preparing such paper. AS often rs
have examined the original draft OF that
paper, still eXtant in the archives OF the
State Department at Washington, and have
observed how very few changes were made
or even suggested by the illustrious men
associated with its author on the commit
tee for its preparation, it has seemed to me
to be as marvellous a composition OF Its
kind and for its purpose as the annals OF
mankind can show. The earliest honors
of this day certainly may well be paid
here and throughout the country to the
young Virginian Of :. the mastery pen
But the young Jefferson is not alone
from Virginia, OH the day we are cele-
bratng, in the hall which we have entered
as imaginary spectators OF the scene. His
yenerated friend and old legal preceptor,
George Wythe, is indeed temporarily alb
sent from his side, and even Richard Henry
Lee, the original mover OF the measure,
and upon whom it might have been de-
volycd to draw up the Declaration, has
been called home by dangerous illness in
his family and is not there to help him.
But "the gay, good-humored = Francis
Lightfoot Lee, 4 younger brother, is there.
BENJAMIN Harrison, the father OF our late
President Harrison. is there, and has just
reported the Declaration from the Commit
tee OF the Whole, OF which he was chairman.
The "mild and philanthropic Carter BraX'
ton is there in the place Of the lamented Pey-
ton Randolph, the first President OF the
Continental Congress, who had died, to the
sorrow OF the whole country, six or seven
months before. And the noble-hearted
Thomas Nelson is there--the largest sub.
scriber to the generous relief sent from
Virginia to Boston during the sore distress
occasioned by the shutting up OF our port,
and was the mover Of those instructions in
the Convention OF Virginia, passed on the
18TH OF May, under which Richard Henry
Lee offered the original resolution OF indie
pendence on the 7th of June.
| am particular, fellow-ctizens, in giving
TO the Old Dominion the foremost place in
this rapid survey Of the Fourth OF July
1776. and in naming every one OF her dele
gates who participated in that days doings
for il is hardly too much to say that the
destinies OF our country at that period
hung and hinged upon her action and upon
the action Of her great and glorious sons
Without Virginia, as we must all ac
knowledge-without her Patrick Henry
among the people, her Lees and Jefferson
in the forum, and her Washington in the
field-I will not say that the cause OF Ameri
can liberty and American independence
must have been ultimately defeated-no
no there was no ultimate defeat for that
cause i'm the DEGREES of the Most High! but
II must have been delayed, postponed, per-
nIexed. and to many eyes and many hearts
rendered seemingly hopeless. 1t was
union which assured our independence
and there could have been no union with
out the influence and cooperation OF thai
great leading southern colony. To-day
then, as we look back over the wide gull o
a century, we are ready and glad to forget
everything OF alienation. everything OF con
tention and arrangement which has inter
yened. and to hail her once more as ouI
fathers in Faneuil Hall hailed her in 1775
as SOM noble, patriotic sister colony, Vir
ginia."
TT Il was before the war--say 1S59-th,
Eovette Artillery would fire the nationa
salntc at sunrise from the slope south o.
the Capitol portico, and flags would b,
streaming from Capitol, custom-house
public halls, and the ships in the harbor.
About 10 A. NJ. the Public Guard, under
Captain Dimmock, musters upon the plea
SAINT parade-ground at the Armory. Aftel
being inspected, and their gray coats and
white pants found faultless, and their mus
kets ascertaIned to be FURNISHED like
well.kept silver, they headed for the