Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1885-02-26
The Moral Heroism OF the Revolution.
ary Patriots.

The sermon last Sunday night by Rev
N. ID. flaming, pastor of the Prcsbyte
rlan church, was one of peculiar pub
lie interest as 1t had particular reference
to the moral herolsm that ac!uatcd tho
patriots of the Revolution in their deyo.
ton to principle founded in the eternal
and inv:nclble light of right. His text
was the latter clause of the third verse of
the third chapter of Hebrews: He who
hath builded the house hath more honor
than the house.
The discourse was directed to the epoch
of thirteen years from the Declaration of
Independence to the formation and adop.
ton of the Constitution. He said there
was distinction between bravery and
heroism; that person might be brave in
facing danger in bad cause, but he
could not be hero unless he had as his
incentive consciousness Of right above
personal ambition or spirit of revenge.
1t was not the few dollars tax exactcd of
the provinces by the British government
that stimulated our revolutionary fathers
to resistance, but the denial of principle
OF right. They had first petitioned and
then supplicated the mother country for
redress of grievances and restitution of
rights. These failing they declared their
rights and their independence of gov
ernment that withheld from them these
rights. The declaration of independence
contained fortyone counts CT Indictment
against the mother country which were
unanswerablc and indefensible. 1t pro.
claimed the ina1ienabIe rights and pollti-
cal equality of man, and was revolution
OF ideas of government more than revolt
against the British government, and that
idea was constrnctively the idea upon
which the constitution was founded
though the words were notlncorporated In
it; that the idea was further carried out in
the emancipation and enfIanchlscmen of
the colored race, but would not be fully
realized until every man and woman of
mature age and sound mind in the United
States is invested with the power and
right of directing government, a govern
ment which derives Its just powers from
the consent of the governed These were
the principles for which our fathers left
their homes and families dependent upon
them and braved the dangers of conflict
with the most powerful nation in the
world; for which they left trail of blood
from their unshod feet in the retreat
across the Delaware, and endured the
torture of hunger and cold at Valley
Forge A mere handful of men almost
without munitions of war IN wilderness,
with foes in front and behind them, and
with savages on the right and upon the
lelt, anlc tne snee's aud jaers of the ma
tlons of the earth waging war OF DC
fense of right against nation whose
fleets sailed the monarch of every sea,
they were sustained by moral heroism
through q conflict such as the world had
never seen before. Republics in name
y------------
Greece and in Rome, but they were not
the rule of the common pc, pie. The
heart of the people is right, and where
the people rule every wrong will be
righted. There will be individual dif-
ferences of opinion, but upon the general
principles Of right and justice the great
heart Of tie nation can be trusted, and
the majority OF the people have the moral
heroism to declare for the right.