The Portland daily press., 1889-05-01
WASHINGTON, FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY
Centennial Grafton by Hon. chaun-
cey NJ. Depew.
a Hundred Years OF Constitutions
Government.
Lessons from the Old Statesmen
and from Past Events.

We celebrate to- day the centenary of our
nationality. One hundred years ago the
United States began their existence. The
powers of government were assumed by the
people of the republic and they became the
sole source of authority. The solemn eeremo-
NAL of the first Inauguration, the reverent oath
of Washington, the acclaim of the multitude
greeting their President, marked the most
unique event of modern times in the develop
ment of free institutions. The occasion was
not an accident, but a result. 1t was the Gull
mination of the working out by mighty forces
through many centuries of the problem OF
self government. 1t was not the triumph of
a system, the application of a theory, or the
reduction to practice of the distractions Of
philosophy. The time, the country, the hered-
i,y and environment of the people, the folly of
its enemies and the noble courage of its
friends, gave to liberty after ages of defeat, Of
trial. of experiment, or partial success and
substantial gains, this immortal victory.
Henceforth it had refuge and recruiting sta
ton. The oppressed found free homes in this
favored land, and invisible armies marched
from it by mail and telegraph, by speech and
song, by precept and example. to regenerate
the world.
Puritans in New England, Dutchmen in
New York, Catholics in Maryland Huguenots
in South Carolina had felt the fires of persecu-
ton and were welded to religious liberty.
They had been purified in the furnace, and in
high debate and on bloody battle fields had
learned to sacrifice all material interests and to
peril their lives for human rights. The prin-
ciples of constitutional government had been
impressed upon them by hundreds of years Of
struggle, and for each principle they could
point to the grave CT an ancestor whose death
attested the ferocty of the fight and the value
of the concession wrung from arbitrary power
They knew the limitations Of authority, they
could pledge their lives and fortunes to resist
encroachments upon their rights, but il re-
quired the lesson of Indian massacres, the in
vasion of the armies of France from Canada
the tyranny of the British crown, the sever
| years war of the revolution, and the five years
of chaos of the confederation to evolve the idet
| upon which rest the power and permanency o.
| the republic, that liberty and union are on,
| and inseparable.
The traditions and experience of the colon
| lists had made them alert 10 discover and quick
to resist any peril to their liberties. Abov,
all things, they feared and dstrusted power
| The town meeting and the colonial Legislature
| gave them confidence in themselves and cour.
| age to check the royal governors. Their in.
terests, hopes and affections were in their sew.
| cIdA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS anu SdCH DiOW Nv tut
British ministry at their freedom, each attacl
upon their rights as Englishmen, weakened
their love for the mother-land and intensi6ec
their hostility to the crown. But the sam
causes which broke down their allegiance 4
the central government increased their conf
dence in their respective colonies, and thei
faith in liberty was largely dependent upol
the maintenance Of the sovereignty Q
their several States. The farmers shot at Lex
ington echoed roundthe world the spirit whicI
| itawakened from its SAUNDERS could do and dar
and die. but it had not yet discovered III
secret of the permanence and progress of fire.
institutions. Patrick Henry Numbered in tn
Virginia convention, James Otis spoke wit
trumpet tongue and feryid eloquence fo
united action in Massachusetts,, Hamilton, ia
and Clinton pledged New York to respsn
with men and money for the common caus,
but their vision only saw a league of indie
pendent colonies. The vail was not vet draw
from before the vista, of population and powe
of empire and liberty, which would open wit
national union.
The Continental Congress partially grasped
but completely expressed, the central idea
the American Republic. More fully than an
other body which ever assembled did it repre-
sent the victories won from arbitrary power fS
human rights. In the new world it was Il
conseryator of liberties secured through cen
turtles of struggle in the old. Among the de-
egates were the descendants of the men WI