St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-07-04
INDEPENDENCE DAY.

This is the first Fourth of July morning
in twenty-five years that the Democratic
rooster has had chance to crow. After
long night, lasting nearly quarter of a
century, the sun of Democracy once more
rises to brighten the face of the country
and to bless the land with new strength.
Deep and dark calamitieS have overtaken
us while the Democratic sun was eclipsed,
but the return of its splendid light brings
back the glad reinsurance that the primary
and fundamental object for which this gov
eminent was founded-the establishment
of liberty-cannOt be defeated One hun
dred and nine years ago to-day the Declare
ton of independence came from the hand
of that immortal statesman who was the
father of Democracy. To-day the people
of this country celebrate Independence day
with their government in the hands of the
same party which was founded by the IL
lustTiOnS JEFFERSON.
1t is proper that we should lay aside the
cares of business toll to-day. and as we
unite our reioicings in celebration of Ameri-
can independence we should seek to renew
and strengthen our faith i'll the ultimate sue
cess of free institutions by contemplating
the scenes through which they have already
passed. We have not been exempt from
the fierce blasts of human passion and HUI
man ambition. The cause of constitutional
government has been fiercely asSailed and
its forms subjected to severe strains. And
vet we have lived to see the storm of pas-
sions subside and the benignant power of a
higher and purer gospel substituted for
that of force and hatred. The trinity of
Love, Charity and Justice again presides
over lis as a nation. We have
passed through painful commissions and
again behold the star of peace
and honor and around it clus-
tering the heavenly constellation of in
dividual and national happiness. We look
back across the dark and angry face of the
waters we have crossed and we see in the
distance the reflection of that same star
which is over us to-day. We go back to
the days of the American Revolution and we
find there the principle which gave us ma
tiOnal life and progress and prosperity, the
principle which brought us safely through
all the dangers which have environed us.
the principle which still lives and makes us
to-day the greatest nation on earth. 1t
is the principle which JEFFERSON laid
down and taught us in the wonderful
Declaration of Independence, to preserve
inyiolate the rights of person and property
and the pursuit of happiness. To measure
ont the metes and bounds of power and es-
tablish them by constitutional land marks
has been the lofty purpose of every friend
r L. -
nate the annals of human conduct The
accomplishment of such purpose is worth
more than all the victories of conquest the
world has ever witnessed. The Declaration
Of Independence has been more valuable
and more glorious in the cause Of human
progress than all the wars of invasion and
subiugation with which the world has re-
sounded from ISsus to AusterlitZ.
SO it is to-day we, as American citizens,
find ourselves confronted with the great re-
spOnsibiliiy Of preserving for ourselves. and
of transmitting to the generations which are
TO come after us, the priceless boon of lib
! erty regulated by law. If we are faithful
! to the great trust imposed upon Us we must
walk in the pathway which our fathers trod
the pathway of constitutional freedom.
1t is the pathway in which the footprints Of
| the Sages of The Revolution are still visible.
Letus frequently return to an examination
| and study of the fundamental doctrines Of
| orr national existence. No day is more
suitable than this for pilgrimage to the
shrines of the mighty men who were the
tall spirits of The earth in &c. We have a
| great deal to boast Of in our past history.
| But it does not become lis so much to boast
OF what has already been done as it does TO
| address ourselves to the more important du-
ties Of the American citizen, on the full per-
! Torrance of which depends the future well
fare, yea, the very existence of the Ameri-
can republic. Under all circumstances let
us be true to liberty as lis recognized in the
American constitution; and this is the
great lesson this day brings to us.