Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-07-25

of history. Such was Magma Charta:
such were the acts and resolutions of that
Puritan Parliament that brought an Eng
lish King to the block; such was the
great declaration Of rights which John
SOmers in the name of all the estates of
the realm hurled at the House of Stuart;
such were the rude but comprehensive
constitutions framed by the first corners
to New England; and such was the
Declaration of Independence which
Thomas Jefferson wrote, and a people
with the English love of liberty in their
veins sanctioned and inspired. There is
in the history, the literature, and in the
very language of our race, a sort of divine
cOmpulsiOn to self-gOvernment
I'VE must be free or die who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals
hold
Which Milton held
There is an insolubIe mystery in the
processes of historical development. We
only know what appears on the surface.
We see the wave, but not the force that
Whitens its crest, and dashes it against
the shore. And yet, there is a meaning
IN it, as there is a meaning in the strange,
tirefess and ceaseIess motion of humanity.
In some way we may be sure that moth
ing happens that ought to have been
omitted from the drama of history. There
is q right and a wrong; but God gathers
a
purpose too large for US to understand.
No one knows, or cares to know, the
names of those who died at Marathon;
but Marathon itself, the glOries that clus-
ter round the story of that heroic day,
are In our lives, common and prOsaic as
they seem. 1t is not only an alIuring
theory, but a truth, which science has
announced, that every human being, by
the law Of heredity, is an epitOme Of all
the generations whose blood is in his
veins. In the truest sense, all
the sacrifices of the past. the
agOnies, the sorrows and the tears,
were for US; and for us too, were the gIO-
rIes and the joys that tell how life may
be won, even when it is lost
More than century has passed since
the Declaration Of INDEPENDENCE was
published. How stately and formal its
sentences seem to us who have been
through the furnace to keep them from
being dishOnOred! Is it indeed true that
all men are created equal? Are life and
liberty really so sacred as our fathers
thought? Has time justified their lofty
words, the brave GOd-speed with which
they launched the bark that carried such
precious freight? History will answer
these questions; and your names will be
upon the page. They proclaimed self
evident truths; but alas! no truth ever
yet marched far towards its goal without
q struggle, and so the Fourth of July had
10 face the inevitable, not once, but twice;
and you are the witnesses of its courage,
its faith and its triumph
In the rush and hurry of these busy
days, and with the memories, sad and
tragic of our own contest fresh upon US.
we do not perhaps always do justice to
the men who were the first apostles of
liberty. Let US not vaunt ourselves, nor
set our music to the highest key. We
must not think because AppOmatox was
glorious, that Yorktown was of little mo-
ment. A life is a life; and liberty
counts all her jewels of equal
value. We trod rugged path,
but so did they who counted
not the years that were needed to bring
them their deIiverance.
The Declaration of independence is in
comparably the greatest, wisest, and
ctearest statement of human rights ever
put upon paper. And it is a curious fact
that neither the men who framed il, nor
their contemporaries were always sue
cessful when they put their hands to the
pen. The articles of confederation were.
from the first, a hopeless failure. Ten
amendments to the Constitution were
made almost Immediately after its adOp-
ton, two shortly afterwards. and finally.
=
written in blood. Even now, there are
many respects in which it could doubt
less be improved. But the Declaration
OF independence remains forever zone
entire and perfect chrysOlite;" and is
cOnfessedIy the true gospel of our free
dom, the true standard of American
rights. In that great statement of the
equality of men, is found the best medi-
cine for national disease, the best balm
for the hurts and bruises of the BODY
polite. 1t means equality of opportuni-
ty; just share in the gifts of nature: a
fair chance in the race of life, under laws
all have helped to make. The right to
these things is inalienable. They can
neither be taken away, nor can they vol
unfairly be given up; for the Declaration
OF Independence means that you cannot
rlghttully make your brother a slave even
by his own consent. In short, this great
charter, in the lines, and between the
lines, declares that the golden rule of
legislation and government, like the
golden rule of human conduct, is the IN
selfish recognition of the rights of others.
1t is high ideal; too high, perhaps. for
the eighteenth or the nineteenth century,
but not too high for the age that is com
ing, when the ashes of the dead shall
blossom IN hopes made real, and the
blood of martyrs shall crimson the flower
that truth sets in the wreath of the i'm
mOrtals.
We are sixty millions of people. What
an uncounted multitude of interests are
at stake, and how hard it is to keep the
strong and the weak, the rich and the
poor, the ignorant and the wise. each in
his own proper orbit; each in that har-
mOniOUs relation to the other which is
the aim of a government like ours. The
sublimity of such conception, the ideal
perfectness to which it aspires, adds to
the Declaration of Independence. nor
golden rules, nor the teachings of the
wise, nor the example of the good. have
cleared mems hearts of the ta1nt of sell
fshness- We still think of ourselves
first, of our section, our class, and the in
terest which lies nearest our own. The