Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-05


duced Miss Louise Manfred, announcing
that she would sing 'The Star-spangled
Banner" Accompanied by the band,
Miss Manfred sang the National song in
a very pleasing manner. Her voice
was both loud and clear, and
when she concluded, the rapturous
applause which rang out demanded
an encore, which was graciously given.
More music followed. and then Mr.. M.
Cornell, of the Pyke Opera Company
read the Declaration of Independence
Mr.. Cornell handled the we'll known
lines in an able manner, his dramatic
delivery adding greatly to the forcible
wording of the decree. Applause fol-
lowed his efforts, and after few
more bars Of music had been played,
Mr.. Portland @. Hunt, the orator of the
day, was introduced, and delivered the
following telling speech:
MIR. HUNTS GRAFTON.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-Two princi-
pies have contended for the mastery in
human government at all ages of the
worlds history. They have engaged the
thoughts of people in every rank and
condition of life, and from their far
reaching influence has long since risen
the great conflict OF the centuries,
whether favored few should rule and
receive tribute, or whether the toiling
many should shape and control public
affairs for their own benefit. In
the history of ancient nations
we find that the former principle,
the government Of the few, has usually
prevailed. Here and there an exception
can be found to this general rule, but the
idea of government based upon free
suffrage, empowering its own people to
control themselves in matters of public
and private concern, was but little more
than Utopian dream until sought and
secured on American soil.
The latter principle, however, the
government of the many, was engrafted
into the Constitution of the United
States. The wise and gifted trainers of
that immortal instrument, it is true, had
no model on which to execute the stu
pendous work, but they saw with
stronger light than all the public rulers
OF antiquity that the divine rightof kings,
the existence of privileged orders in So
ciety, and the accumulation of political
power into the hands OF favored, fortu-
nate few, we're oppressive to the natural
rights and liberties of the people. Equal
and exact justice to all men, exclusive
privilege to none, is sentiment
to which the blood of our heroes
and the wisdom of our sages were de-
voted, and which lead them through an
era of revolution and reform; senti-
ment which was secured on the fields OF
the revolution, and which alone made
this government of the people, admin
istered by the people and for the benefit
of the people.
Sir, what has been the outgrowth of a
government like this? Has It not made
| US the pride and the wonder of all the
! world? Breaking the yoke Of British
bondage, it has started us on great and
| glorious career of progress, of invention
and discovery, such as the world has
never hitherto had to admire.
The educational institutions of this
country, which are now world wide and
extolled on every civilized shore, is the
result of our Republican form Of govern
ment. They have been fostered, en-
lation, by law makers who regarded
them as more valuable to the rising
generation than was the Polar star to the
mariner on the trackless sea. The little
brick school houses which sprinkle the
land here and there, tightening
our hill tops and illuminating
our valleys, have brought more blessings
to mankind than the wall of Babylon,
the hundred brazen gates of Thebes,
the pyramids OF Egypt, and all those
melancholy monuments of toll, super
stition and despotism which now darken
the pages of history. Those gorgeous
structures brought not a single blessing
to mankind. They stand, not as the
glory, but as the shame of human labor.
Not SO with the common schoolhouses.
They sheddeth radiance on the avenues
to fame and prosperity. They illuminate
our land as shining emblazonry, send
| ing their undimmed rays of light amid
!. the hills of New England, over the fields
of the sunny South, and through the
plains of the great West.
j But what shall be said of the American
scientists, who have revealed 60 many
secrets of nature, and whose unclouded
genius has added more fame and glory
to the annals Of their country than any
king that ever graced the throne? Like
Humboldt and Laplace, they have read
the beams of fiery Mars, lovely Venus,
ringed Saturn and majestic Jupi-
ter, but their immortal renown
relates rather to useful Inventions.
graphy; Field, who stretched the cable
esSAS9o oAAO AHA6hUJ NCOR, AAOWC, WIZ 0C-
vised and set into operation the sewing
machine, that humble companion of the
| freside; Whitney. who invented the
cotton gin, the saver of manual labor;
Fulton, whose genius walks the waters OF
the earth, whose ships sail upon the
bosom of every ocean, lake and navigable
river OF the globe; Franklin, whose kite
mastered the Pickering lightning Of
heaven-their names have been en-
balmed by the tongue Of the orator and
by the pen of the historian. They have
been added to the starry scroll of immor-
tails, and around them will cluster, as
centuries roll by, halo-light, and more
to be coveted, than ever encircled the
fame of julius Caesar or Napoleon Bona
parte.
Strange, strange, and without a paral-
lei; alone, solitary, and without peer
in all history has been the career of this, 4
| the peoples country-a country to which
the statesman, with his proudest themes,
and the poet, with his sublimest passages,
will in future ages refer as the great
luminary around which revolves the star
of all other nations on earth. Does not
the voice of our brief history drown and
stife all other voices? Egypt may have
recorded of the presence of the Deity on
| earth and of her laws which were adj