The Springdale news., 1889-05-03

"1%> >fTStH l\'' '"
 HON. CHAUNcpY N bEPEw.
 tice or the abstYactions of philosophy. The time, the country, the heredity and envir- | Onnent of the people. the folly of it's enc | mics, and the noble courage of its friends | gave to liberty after ages of defeat of | trlal, or experiment., of partial success and
 substantial gains this immortal victory.
 Henceforth it had refuge and recruiting
 station Tho 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, i to regenerate the world.
 Puritans in New England Dutchmen in ! New York, Catholics in Maryland, Hugue
 nots Ill South Carolina had felt the fires of persecution and were welded to religious ' liberty They had hcch purified in the fur l nace and in high debate and on bloody bat | Il '-helds had learned to sacrifice all ma ! terlal interests and to peril their lives for 1 human rights. The principles of constitut
 uonal government had been impressed | upon them by hundreds of years of strug 1 gle, and for each principle they could point l to the grave ut an ancestor whose
 death attested the ferocity of the fight
 wrung from arbitrary power They knew
 the limit tlons of authority, they could ' pledge their lives and fortunes to resist eh- | croachments upon their rights, but 1t re- | quired the lesson pf Indian massacres the { Invasion Of the armies of France from
 Canada, the tyranny of the British Crown, ! the seven years war of the Revolution and ! the hye years of chaos of the Confederation ' to evolve the idea, upon which rest the ] power and permanency of the Republic, | that liberty and union are one and insepar-
 able.
 These men were not reyoluttonists, the, 1 were the heirs and the guardians of the ! priceless treasures of mankind. The Brit
 lsh King and his Ministers were the revolt
 tlonsts. They we're reactionaries seeking i arbitrarily to turn back the hands upon the l Glal of time. A year of doubt and debate, 1 the baptism of blood upon the battle fields, where soldiers from every colony fought, ' under a common standard, and con
 sohdated the Continental Army, gradually ! lifted the soul and understanding of this i'm | mortal Congress to the sublime declaration:
 We, therefore, the representatives of the { United States of America in general Con- | Gress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectltude of our intentions do, in the name and by the au- 1 thoTity or the good 5eouie of these colonies.
 sole nnly publish and declare that these
 united colonies are, and of right ought to | be, frC1 and independent $ dt s.n
 To this declaration John Hancock pro-
 scribed and threatened with death affixed i a signature which has stood for a century | like the pointers to the North Star in the
 
 taunted that among many Carols, he, the
 richest man in America might escape,
 added description and identification with
 "of Carrollton." Benjamin Harrison, a dele
 gate from Virginia, the ancestor of the dis { tinguished statesman and soldier who to-
 day so worthily fills the chair of Washing
 ton, voiced the unalterabe determina- tion and defiance of the Congress.
 He seized John Hancock. upon whose
 head price was set, in his arms, fs ,4la an4T in n1Ifl fIs1
 chair, said: We will show Mother Britain ! how little we care for her by making our i President a Massachusetts man, whom she
 has excluded from pardon by public proc
 lamation;" and when they were signing tho ! Declaration. and the slender Elbridge Ger
 " uttered the grim pleasantly, We must
 hang together or surely we will hang sep 1 arately,p the portly Harrison responded
 with the more daring humor, Tt will be all
 over with me in moment, but you will be l kicking in the air half an hour after I am
 gone" Thus flashed athwart the great
 charter which was to be for its signers a death warrant or a diploma of immortality,
 as with firm hand, high purpose and un-
 daunted resolution they subscribed their
 names this moclcery of fear and the penal ties of treason
 More clearly than any statesman of the
 period did Thomas Jefferson grasp and di i vine the possibilities of popular govern
 mcnt He caught and crystallized the spirit
 of free institutions His philosophical mind i was singularlv free from the power of l precedents or the chains of prejudice. He l had an unquestioning and abiding faith in
 the people, which was accepted by but few
 of his compatriots Upon his famous
 axiom Ot the equality of all men before
 the law he constructed his system. 1t was
 the trip-hammer essential for the emer-
 genoy to break the links binding the colo | nies to imperial authority and to pulyerize
 the privileges of caste. It inspired him to
 write the Declaration of Independence, and l persuaded him to doubt the wisdom of the | bowers concentrated in the constitution. In i his passionate love Of liberty he became in l tensely jealous of authority. He destroyed | the substance of royal prerogatiye, but never
 emerged from it's shadow. He would have l the States as the guardians of popular I riphts and the barriers against cen I ing power of the Nation ever-increasing l encroachmentS upon the rights of the peo- ple For the success of the pure Democracy | which must precede Presidents and Cab 1 inets and Congresses t was perhaps provi- J dential that it's apostle never believed a ! great people could grant and still retain, ! could give and at will reclaim could dele ] gate and yet firmly hold the authority which ultimately created the power of their 1 Republic and enlarged the scope of their | own liberty.
 l Where this master-mind halted. all stood | ] was apparent but each State must have i hold upon the bowstring which encir- l cled its throat It was admitted that union i gave the machinery required to success 1 fully fight the common enemy, but yet there was fear that 1t might become a 1 frankenstein and destfoy it's creators. Thus patriotism and fear, difficulties of communication between distant commu- mites and the intense growth of provincial pride and interests, led this Congress to { frame the Articles of Confederation, hap { rily termed the League of Friendship. The result was not government, but ghost \ By this scheme the American people were ignored and the Declaration of Independ- ! ence reversed
 ' But while the perils of war had given ' temporary strength to the Confederation, [ peace developed its fatal weakness
 States passed exclusive and hostile laws ' against each other. and riot and disor- der threatened the disintegration of society Our stock is stolen our houses are plundeeed our Harms are raided, , cried a delegate in the Massachu- setts convention; "despotism is better than | anarchyin To raise four millions of Gollars year was beyond the resources or the 1 Government, and three hundred thousand was the limit of the loan it could secure \ from the money-lenders of Europe. Even | Washington exclaimed in despair: II see I one head gradually changing into thirteen; ! l see one army gradually brauching into ] thirteen, which, instead of looking up to | Congress as the supreme controlling power, are considering themselves as depend ing on their respective Statesn And later, when independence had been won, the impotency of the Gov ernr.lent wrung from him the exclama- tion: After gioriously and successfully { contending against the usurpation of Great Britain, We may fal prey yo our own folly end dispptesn