The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-06-18

OF our battle fields arise and call upon
US to sign that parchment, or be ac-
cursed?
Sign! If the next moment the gibbet's
rope is around your neck. Sign. If the
next moment this hall rings with the echo
of the falling axe. Sign! BY all your
hopes in life death, as husbands, fathers
las men, sign your names to the parch-
ment, or be accursed foreveri
Sign, not only for yourselves, but for
all ages: for that parchment will be the
textbook of freedom-the bible of the
rights of man forever.
Sign, for the declaration will go forth
to American hearts forever and speak to
those hearts like the voice of God. And
its work will not be done until through
out this wide continent not single inch
of ground owns the sway Of privilege OF
power.
Nay, do not start and whisper with
surprise. 1t is truth. Your own hearts
witness it; God proclaims it. This con-
tinent is the property of free people,
and their property alone. God, say,
proclaims it. Look at this strange his
tory Of a band of exiles and out-casts
suddenly transformed into a people.
Look at this wonderful exodus of the
Old World into the New, where they
came. weak in arms, but mighty in God
like faith. Nay, look at the history of
your Bunker Hill, your Lexington,
where band of plain farmers mocked
and trampled down the panoply OF Brit
ish arms, and then tell me, if you can,
that God has not given America to the
free. 1t is not given to our poor human
intellect to climb the skies, to pierce the
councils of the Almighty One. But
methinks | stand among the awful clouds
which veil the brightness of Jehovah 5
throne. Methinks | see the Recording
Angel-pale as an angel is pale, weeping
as an angel can weep-come trembling
up to the throne, and speaking his dread
message:
Father! Taa Old World is baptized
in blood. Father! 1t is drenched with
the blood of millions, butchered in war,
in persecution, in slow and grinding
oppression. Father, look! With one
glance of thine eternal eye, look over
Europe Asia, Africa, and behold ever
more terrible sight-man trodden
down beneath the oppressor's feet, ma
tions lost in blood, murder and superstl-
ton walking hand in hand over the
graves of their victims, and not single
voice to whisper hope to man.
He stands there (the angel, his hand
trembling with the black record OF hui
man guilt. But bark! The voice of
Jehovah speaks out from the awful
cloud: Let there be light again. Let
there be a New World Tell my people,
the poor, downtrodden millions, to 60
out from the Old World. Tell them to
20 out from wrong, oppression and
blood. Tell them to 60 out from the
Old World, to build up my altar in the
New
As God lives, my friends, | believe
that to be His voice. Yes, were my
soul trembling on the wing of eternity,
we're this hand freezing in death, were
my voice choking with the last strug-
yIe, | would still, with the last wave
of that hand, with the last gasp of that
voice, implore you to remember the
truth. God has given America to be free!
Yes, as | sank down into the gloomy
shadows of the grave, with my last
gasp, | would beg you to sign that parch-
nent in the name of the One who made
the saviour, WHO ICuCNAhCu fCN3 ~ eH'N
name of the millions whose very breath
is now hushed, in intense expectation,
Us they look up to you for the awful
words, YOU ARE FREE!
Many years have gone since chat hour.
The speaker, his brethren, all, have
crumbled into dust, but the records OF
that hour still exist, and they tell us
that it would require an angels pen to
picture the magic of that speaker $
| look, the deep, terrible emphasis of his
voice. the prophet-iike beckoning of his
hand. the magnetic flame shooting from
| his ewes, that fired every heart through
ant the hail. He fell exhausted in his
,eat. but the work was done. a wild
murmur thrills through the hall. Sign
! Ha! There is no doubt now. Look
/ How they rush forward StOut-hearted
John Hancock has scarcely time to sign
his bold name, before the pen Is grasped
nv another, another and another. Look
how their names blaze on theparchment
| Adams and Lee and Jefferson and
Carroll, and now Roger Sherman, the
shoemaker And here comes good old
stephen Hopkins; yes, trembling with
palsy, he totters forward quivering from
head to foot With his shaking hand
he seizes the pen and scratches his pa
triot name Then comes Benjamin
Franklin, the printer. And now the
tall man i'm the red coax advances, the
man who made the fiery speech mo
ment ago. With the same hand thai
waved in such fiery scorn, he writes hl'
name PATRICK HENRY.
And now the parchment Is signed
and now let the word go forth to thu
neonle in the streets, to the homes oi
America, to the camp of Washington
to the PALACE of George, the idiot king
let the word go out to all the earth.
And, old man in the steeple, now bare
your arm and grasp the iron tongue
and let the bell speak out the great truth
Fifty six farmers and mechanics hay'
this dav struck at the shackles OF tn
World San Francisco Truth.