Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-05

The prosperous wind that bellied out the sail,
And sped our new-launched ship before the
gale,
Propitious watts her still on Freedoms sea,
The hope of millions now, and yet to be.
NOT Natures gifts o'erteem our store alone,
But Art, Briarean-armed, springs from her
throne
And magnifies the countrys general veal
Beyond the power of poet to reveal.
The crowded world looks on with eye amazed,
And tyrants at our giant strides are dazed.
Thrones grim with dust and all o'ercast by
time,
And rusty-red with blood and despot crime,
Like the doomed ship by topping waves
careened,
viii sink before the new ideas. cleaned
From where Columbia like a beacon towers
Above throng of waning kingly powers.
But more than once has Factions treach'rous
Caused suilen skies to lower upon our land
Raised dangers which our sires could not fore
And with internal strife risked Liberty
Yet patriot hands, throughout those trying years
OF ruin, shock, blood battle, sorrow. tears.
With steady grasp the Ship of State did guide
Through shoals and rocks into the prosp rouS
tide.
Here let us turn to brighter themes by far
Than swelled the cadence of Homeric song,
Whose notes rose sonorous with the clash of war:
And statelier seemed amid the carnage throng.
Could we ascend, and, poising in the clouds,
With sweeping glance our countrys hosts
What glorious pageants and what joyous crowds
To-day would greet the rapt, astonied eye!
Oh. Liberty! those hosts their voices raise
In choral anthems to thy idol name
Not hollow peans sing they in the praise;
Nor damp the pile they kindle at thy flame.
Thy blazing affairs like the holy fire
The GueberS guarded on their sacred hight,
Whose signal flames rose brighter from the pyre
When Freedoms spear shook way ring i'll the
fight
If thou, oh Liberty in sterile lands
Hadst votaries brave who gladly bled for
Whose purple streams made red their barren
strands
And left their bones to bleach near Oman's
Tell oh Columbia, tell thy happy youth
What deed of powerful note, of high emprise
To hold thee linked with Freedom, God and
Truth
Thou DIST have as an accepted sacrifice?
Not yet the day, but the day may come
When thou the valor of our arm mayst need,
wall of breasts Wen then rear round thy
throne,
And crown the impawned word with mighty
deed
Freedom is ours in trust-oh, priceless trust =
To guard with hearts that beat the GOdward
side
With souls that feel the impulse of the just,
And, rising, swell with HOnor's manly pride.
In every votary's breast she rears a shrine
Where inward glows her quenchleSs vestal
flame
Enthroned, she dwells in every, patriot mind,
And blazonS forth from fields of deathleSs
fame.
But all too soon, on Freedoms blazing shield
A darkling spot aSsails the startled eye,
And makes us tremble lest there lie concealed
a deeper menace than we now eSpy.
THE LUST OF WEALTH a monster vice hath
grown,
Before whose lep' rOus faint true Honor aies
And seeds of Discord thro' the land hath sown
That yet into anarchic storms may rise.
States are not made of wealth insatiate wrung
Unjustly from the hand of honest toll;
No if their fame shall be by poets sung,
On virtue must it rest, not ravaged spoil.
Such virtues as were signal in our sires,
Who rose in grandeur in the deadly strife,
And ere they faced grim wars impending fires
Pledged to the cause their fortune, honor, life!
Degenerate though the passing epoch seems,
And oft those high i'll place yield TO the test
Ot tempting brides to further shameful schemes
That in these days are on the country pressed
But still, so long as to the general sense
DiShonor hideOus seems, and pals the sight
So long as Wrong evokes mems hate intense,
And to the echo lauded is the Right
So long as Manhood bold defiance filings
Into the ranks of all the bestial things
That tatten in cOrruptiOns fetid way,
Columbia, thou art safe from swift decay
From that deep chasm, that grave of public sin,
Where erst all nations, rotten deep within,
At one fell plunge have been engulfed in.
When exudations foul offend the eye,
Anon, the sweet west wind, from Hygiene's
breath.
The poisoned air viii cleanse and purify
And lap away the noxious germs of death.
So, once the nations breath hath honest blown,
Away the horrid eXhalation flies,
And unclean things, from outraged station
Seek lower depths as public virtues rise.
Out from thy pregnant womb, oh Time, bring
Men equal to our country's future needs,
With faces skyward-hearts of purest worth
And iron nerves strung to the bravest deeds.
With these Wen bid defiance to the woes
That Fate may hurl against our hallowed
land
Cnyielding breasts will brave our open foes.
And Lonors foot on PROSTATE Baseness stand!
Music by the band. Mayor Brown
then introduced the orator of the day the
Hon. Henry Edgerton, who spoke as fol-
lows:
Mr.. President and Fellow Citizens: We cele-
brate today, with ceremonies consecrated by
the example of our revolutionary Sires, the
great festival of American liberty. By the
blessing of Almighty God. we celebrate it in the
midst OF general prosperity, and with no I'M
toward circumstance, foreign or domestic to
cloud our felicity or avert our minds from the
halOwcd associations and memories with which
it is insepanbly connected
1t is the anniversary of an event incOmpar-
able in the annals of the Anglo-SaXon race and
fertile in momentOus and benefCent conse-
quences to all mankind.
1t is the day on which, by the venerable
authority of our Industrious ancestors, the SOILS
and daughters of America are summoned from
their usual YOcatiOnS to assemble rs at a com
mon altar, there to bow before the God of Ma
tons in reyerent gratitude for the liberties they
enjoy; to rehearsc the exploits of the great men
by whose wisdom those liberties were consoli-
dated; by whose valor they were exalted, and
by whose constancy they were protected and de
Tended and to renew and SOlcinni2e our VOWS
OF attachment and fidelity TO that Government,
which is the only ark and anchor Of those
Liberties in the world
On such a day, and at such shrine, the ordi-
nary pursuits and cares OF life are set aside
our lines Of social and religious separation
eliaced, the aSperties of party soften 20 feelings
OF fraternity, and we meet and misgle as equal
heirs ola splendid Inheritance charged with
its preservation and transmission unimDaired,
to those who shall come after Us.
While the occasion invites the mind to a brill
liant national retrospect. and incitcs to glowing
expectation, it also fixes attention upon the
ample monuments OF national power and great
ness around us, and awakenS in the breast of
the citizen a poignant sense of COmplaceuCy and
pride. Here, age III its silver livery finds
sOlace in the assurance that it viii lace and con
qucr death, in the tranquil shadow of that be-
nign and equal government, which in the mani
fold conflicts and yiciSitudcs of life has been as
mighty rock IN a desert land Here, manhood
in It's golden prime. CXults in the solid prizes of
lawful ambition and enterprise. with which, as
with garland American liberty crowns It's
deserving sons. Here, womanhood in its queenly
grace, kindlcs with the inspirations of faith
in the perpctuity of those free institutions
which are the immutable title and silent surety
ofits sovereign power Here, youth in its flower
and strength, gathers resolution and courage for
those honorable contests in life to which
anticipation forward points the view
And here also infancy, in its lSping inno-
ceucc. IS first stirred by those powers and inn
pulses which mold heroes, and form and coin
the dcStinieS of States.
The privileges and immunities we enjoy and
eulogize to-day. have been preceded, AZ different
times and in different lands. by other and vari
Gus forms Of liberty. Looking back through the
long corridor of time, we see a Grecian liberty,
respondent with the nobleSt achievements in
philosophy and eloqucnce, poetry and art;
liberty which gave to the world the imperish-
able names of Percles and PhidiaS, and in
scribed upon the " adamants OF history, those
shining examples OF devotion and sclEsacrifice
which have animated heroes 10 deeds of glory
in every age. Yet without that consummate
division and balance of the powers Of govern
meut by which our forefathcTs nodded these
American states in perpetual Union,