Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-07-04
This Day.

One hundred and twelve years have
passed since our fathers declared them
selves an independent people, capable of
managing their own affairs in their own
way. Then less than three millions, of
whom an influential minority was in sym
pathy with the mother country, we are
today nation of more than sixty millions
of souls, the richest and most prosperous
people in the world, occupying the farest
domain ever owned by II single nation
For the best of reasons this natal day of
the Republic should be c0mmemorated
In manner worthy of civilized
freemen. John Adams was right
in his patriotic prophecy, that it
would be celebrated with bonfres and il
Nominations by the generations who should
come after the signers of the magma
charta of American emancipation. There
are enough appropriate and enjoyable
ways of commemorative the heroic
patriotism of our ancestors and of call
Ing wildly to mind the great national
work they achieved. There are other
ways Of spending this day which brings
shame on the deeds of our fathers and
tend to prove that we can show our
selves utterly unworthy of the polti-
cal and social blessings we possess
1t Ia a trite saying. which needs to he
often repeated, that liberty is not license,
that separation from Great Britain is not
Independence from the Almighty, and that
no freedom Is allowable or worth having
except under control of deeency and law.
Rum and rowdyism no..more comport with
the spirit, memories, and objects of this
day than do the grovelling antics of
ssine in the garden and lawn of tire well
kept homestead, or the coarse riotings of
savage wigwam in AN orderly COM
munity. II man or boy is to turn beast
on Fourth Of July, it would he far better
that such should not possess the
boon which decent people know
how to enjoy. If man is to become the
slave of brutal appetite on Fourth of July,
better that he had never known of the
glorious achievement which makes this
day immortal. Far better to be a politi-
cal subject of the Russian Gar, a trained
soldier of Hapsburg, or an obedient SER
want of the British crown, than to be a
slave to strong drink. Aud he who pol
lutes and scandalizes the birthday of the
nation by peddling rum and whskey,
breaking the laws, human and divine, in
he
the homes of wives and children
into living hells of misery and shame
these robbers roaming in the highways of
American life are more to be feared and
less to be tolerated by the patriotic citi-
zens of our time than the soldiers of Eng
lish tyranny who shot down our ancestry
at Lexington aud Bunker Hill, or the red |
handed savages who applied the torch to
New England villages in the early period
of our history. Liberty to be worth hav-
ing is as remote from license and rowdy-
ism as light from darkness. From this
repulsive picture, but too often obtruding |
on the presence of thoughtful American
citizens, We turn to more agreeable objects
Anu sCefcs. Outs IL SoouiN itnu. IIONl-
dence smiles upon us in giving us tie
fairest opportunities any people ever had /
placed before them. We have innumera-
bic reasons for rejoicing. There is room
for all. There is land, air and food for
all. The laws are of the peoples own
making. They bear impartially upon all.
None but the base and unworthy need fear
their operation. Schools, religion, all that
tends TO human welfare, are free to all.
No over-shadowing despotism is near our
borders. We can live and thrive in the
sunlight Of liberty and peace, and
are not constantly passing under
the shadows of war and the
terrors of vast soldiery, such as is the
fate Of hundreds of millions on the other
side Of the Atlantic. Let us not under
value the priceless blessings which Al
mighty God and our fathers have given
us in free America. In this spirit and
guided by these ideas of liberty, truth
reason and right, of all that is elevating,
peaceful and joyous, Fourth of July may
well be kept as a great national day by ,
present and future generations. Ii
Papa" said the beautiful girl, as she hid /
her blush.ng face on her fathers shoulder, I