The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-08-17
Our Religious Liberty.

II is only a few days ago since
monument was dedicated at Plym-
outh, Mass, to that immortal little
band which came to these shores In
the Mayflower-a little band which
Is represented to-day by these WIDE
spreading and prosperous United
States and which Is destined to be
inseparably and forever associated
with the principles of religious lib
erty. The monument is not itself a
new thing. 1t has been growing for
many years. Nor does It represent
new sentiment. The sentiment goes
back beyond the date of the founding
of the republic, back beyond colonial
times, back to the times when relig-
ious liberty was being crushed out IN
England, and when true. honest,
God-fearing men put conscience
above loyalty. above patriotism.
above everything which the world,
so.called, holds dear, and chose for
conscience's sake to leave all. to face
the raging deep, and to seek new
homes in the waste, bowling wilder.
ness.
OF these men, the grandest monu
ment is the United States of Ameri-
Cattle noblest monument eyer rear
ed by the active energy of a great
principle. The Plymouth monu-
ment. however, was not rendered un.
ecessary ny the grander monument
of the American republic. On the
contrary. the grander monument
rendered the lesser monument ne
cessity and the completed monu-
ment which now stands near the spot
where the first Pilgrims landed, In g
more crystallized form gives express
sion, and will continue to give ex'
preston, to sentiments which have
been the making, and which, so long
as they are life-giying to our people
will prove the salvation of this great
and glorious home of liberty.
II would almost seem as If the
completion of this monument haG
been reserved by providence to this
particular time for special and par
ticular purpose. Under the Ole
Testament economy, the Jews were
ever forgetting and ever being re
minded of their origin and of thu
purpose for which, as nation. they
were called into existence; and moi
infrequently were they. because O
their backsliding, delivered over tC
terrible punishment. The ways O
Providence, when properly under
stood. have been wonderfully alike
In all the ages and among all peoples
and there is nothing which history
more clearly teaches than that fidel
ity to the principles which have BULL
up a nation saves and preserves
while the abandonment or neglect Of
these principles saps the foundations
and leads to decay and death. w.
do not mean to make too much OF
the Plymouth monument when we
say that Its completion has been sim
gularly opportunate, and that the
monumental figure, sky-pointing,
with the lesser emblems beneath and
all around. has a lesson to-day for
the American people, to which they
would do we'll to give heed.
1t was when the chosen people of
old were most astray that the voices
of the prophets called most loudly.
1t was then that the Elijahs. and the
Ezekiels, and the Jeremlahs, and the
John the Baptists denounced most
fiercely and made the largest lamen-
tations. 1t is when America is in
danger of giving away her birth
right, when she is giving many signs
of forgetting the ladder by which she
has assembled, when the sentiments
and principles which have hitherto
given tone and character to her PEG.
pie are counted as matters Of indiffer-
ence, that the monument to the Pill.
grim Fathers is completed and in.
augurated, The circumstance is not
without Significance. 1t seems like
a voice calling upon US to reflect, to
remember what we are. and whence
we came to think of our rich inner.
itance, and how we came by it; to
bear in mind our duty to those who
are to come after us, and to see to it
that the inheritance does not suffer
in our hands.-N. y Mail and E.r-
press.