The Washington critic., 1888-04-03
OUR CENTENN1AL GUESTS.


The passage by the Senate Of the
hill providing for suitable celebra-
tion at Washington of the Centennial
of the Constitution in the spring of
1880, will be followed by similar ac-
tion on the part Of the House.
The anniversary is of such charac-
ter that an American Congress, prop
erly comprehending its historical asso-
Citations and animated by its patriotic
inspirations, cannot do otherwise
than make liberal provision for its
observance; nor would the American
people tolerate with patience any
thing in the nature of dereliction to
such sacred and obvious duty.
The subject grows upon the contem-
plation the more it is considered.
The birth of free government--of
government based upon the unre-
stricted will of the people-is in itself
a great event--the greatest in modern
times.
The growth of popular liberty under
the benefcent influence OF the parent
Republic, until it has permeated the
nations Of an entire continent, put
ting the ghosts of old despotisms to
flight and substituting progressive in
telligence for stolid ignorance, all
within the limits of n century, is the
wonder of the worlds history-a
miracle of surprising grandeur.
According to the general programme
outlined in the bill, the details of
which remain to be arranged, the
guests of the United States at the pro-
posed Centennial Celebration will not
only embrace the fifteen Central and
South American Republics that have
patterned their governments from our
own, but the Dominion of Canada,
with its Republican sympathies; the
Empire of Brazil, with its constitu-
tional limitations upon imperial
power, and even San Domingo and
Hayti, that after shaking off a foreign
yoke and surmounting the waves Of
repeated revolutions, have come to be
rated at last among the free peoples
of the earth.
All these countries will be repre-
sented at Washington twelve months
from to-day, not only by their official
tlignitaries, but by thousands and tens
of thousands of their citizens, having
common purpose in view and wor-
shipping at common shrine--the
altar of liberty that the Fathers of the
American Constitution set up a hun,
dred years ago.
There are sixty millions Of people
in the United States having an interi
est in this occasion.
There are over fifty millions of peo-
pie in the countries named in the
Senate bill-l3, 900, 900 in Brazil alone,
1o,000,000 in Mexico, 100000 in
Canada, 10000 in the United States
of Colombia, 100000 in the Argen-
tine Republic, 100000 in Peru, g.
100000 in Chill, 100000 in Vene-
zuela, 100000 in Bolivia, over 1,000,-
600 in Guatemala, 1000, 900 in Ecua-
dor, and so on through the list--all of
whom have tasted in greater or less
degree the sweets OF civil liberty
that was wrought out for them by the
founders of the first American Re-
public.
With an invitation list out aggre-
eating one hundred and ten millions,
is itat all unlikely to suppose that we
shall be called upon to welcome at
least five hundred thousand guests
Is million beyond reasonable
estimate?
1t is to be borne in mind that some-
time during the same spring-nearly
Contemporaneous with the celebration
of the Centennial-a great Internas
tional Congress is also to be assembled
in Washington that will in all proba-
bility add many thousands to the
throng of visitors, drawn hither with
a view Of uniting by closer bonds of
commercial union the peoples that
are so near akin in their political in
stitutions.
All together it will be the most mo-
table gathering the annals of civiliza-
tion have ever recorded. The eyes of
Europe and the far Orient will be TO-
cussed upon the amazing spectacle
this grand reunion of the New World
tocelebrate the permanent foundation
of religious and civil freedom and the
outspreading of principles of self
government that even during the life
time Of persons still surviving have
well-nigh illumincd the whole West
ern Continent with the lustre of their
conquests.
CRISES APPEAR to be epidemic in
Europe twelve months in the year.
THE New York EeeHiR9 Post says
f1o4 oI4hat,oh D,aciIavf fuaua1an1 is