The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-07-19
THE GLORIOUS FOURTH.
Bow Your Uncle William Arp Spent the
Day.
atlanta Constitution.

The 4th of July is big thing. We
had forgotten that it was so big and it is
a good sign that our people are waking
up to it again. The first rebellion gave
it birth and ne were proud of it but the
last was such failure and brought so
much trouble that rebellions were at
discount and we quit celebrating-we
hung our harps on the willows and, like
the Jewish captives, refused to sing the
Lords song in strange land, but we are
all harmonizing now and it is a good
sign to see our people celebrating the
same old Fourth. The first rebellion was
against the old man and the boys whip.
ped him but when the boys got to fighting
one another with no ocean between it
was q different thing. Their first decla-
ration of independence, that great secces-
sion document, was conceived at
Williamsburg, Va, in the old Raleigh
tavern, but it had to 60 over to Philadel-
phia to be born, because there was big
bell there I reckon. Williamsburg was
the seat of government of the Virginia
colony, and the declaration was read
there on the 1st of June, by Thomas
Jefferson to the house of burgesses, and
a more solemn scene was never witnessed.
There was no hilarity, no gush, or
enthusiasm. The whole thing was like
funeral. Love for the fatherlands and
fear of her power were mingled with a
burning sense of her tyranny and oppres.
sion. The older members dreaded to cut
the cords that bound them, and had the
declaration been left to quiet vote it
never would have carried; but when
Patrick Henry closed his immortal speech,
the house rose up as one man, and with
quivering emotion endorsed bis closing
sontiment-Give me liberty or give me
death. History says that one of the
delegates said an hour afterwards that he
would give FIVE hundred pounds 10 recall
his vote. It was q terrible trial, and
reminds US of the solemn passage of the
ordinance of secession in 1861. John
Adams and Patrick Henry we're the
orators and carried the day by storm.
There was no resisting their patriotic
eloquence. 1t was like great tidal wave
and overwhelmed everything. The like
oft bad never been heard before, and
Daniel Webster aaid would never be
heard again. Let the young men of this
age read that history and will do them
good. In soul.stirring emotions it sur
passes sill the romances ever written. 1t
is far more sublime than Burke's i'm.
peachment of Warren Hastings, for the
cause was greater and the men were
greater. The old independence bell was
rupg until it cracked, and strong men
met upon the street and wept.
Well, now, what was this all about?
Nothing very much outside of principle.
We would not call it very great oppres.
sion now. The biggest thing was q little
tax on tea-a sort of tariff that did not
protect. Nobody drank tea but the
New England yankees. The stamp act
had been repealed two years before.
But all the Southerners from Maryland
down were just as mad about that tax as
if it had been on whiskey. There vas no
whiskey here, but New England rum was
all the same thing to them. Everybody
was fighting mad-even the citizens of
the city of brotherly love. They went to
fighting, and they whipped the fight. and
it was glory, and We are all proud of it;
but if they hadn't whipped it and had
been forced back under old Johnny Bull
it would have been treason, and there
would have been more amendments made
to the English constitution than you
could tote on stick. When these rebels
made a constitution after The war was
over, Patrick Henry and old Ben Harri.
son refused to sign it for long time
because it did not secure the rights of the
States as strong ss>tbey wanted. At the
last they signed under protest, and the
historian says that Henry never recover.
ed from his fears that come day the
States would lose their separate indepen.
dence.
heard an old whig say not long ago
that Jefferson was more of demagogue
than statesmen, and that the declaration
of independence was no extraordinary
document, and most any smart school boy
could write more grammatical compost
ton. "For instance" said he, stake the
first sentence, wherein he says "a decent
respect for the opinions of mankind
Now what kind of respect is that; who
ever heard of an indecent respect. Why
diden'5 he cay respect for the opinions of
mankind What made him put in
that useless and inappropriate adjec.
tive"
heard another man say that Jefferson
didn't compose very much of that dec!a-
ration, no how, but got it from cd
Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, where
secession had its birth two months before.
That is what q tar.heel told me. 1 wss
talking to a Scotch Presbyterian yesterday,
and he said that Jefferson got the general
hang Of the thing from the confession OF
faith. Well, it don't matter. 1t is q
lively old document, and is still good
reading on the Fourth of July, or any
other day.
Last Wednesday I ran over to Talla'
poosa to see how those imported yanka
were getting along and how they were
going to celebrate the day. They did it
| up in stile. They hoisted a flag pole 1lC
feet high and hoated splendid streamel
of stars and stripes from the masthead
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