The morning call., 1891-07-31
PATRIOTIC THOUGHTS.
Suggested by the Actions of Those Who
KebelIed Against King George.

Suggested by the Actions of Those Who
Rebelled Against King George.
Editor W0maR'S Column, Morning CuH:
Liberty is growth and in no nation has
she yet attained her full stature. The great
event which the Fourth of July commence
rates is but the setting Of the fruit bud, the
petals are opening one by one, but the full
fruition is yet to come. February 9. l775.
the joint Houses of Parliament. hoping to
awe the FESTIVE colonies, presented an ad-
dress to the King, declaring that rebellion
existed in massachusetts, and pledging
their lives and fortunes for its suppression.
Months later the news reached backwocds
county Of North Carolina, afterward
known as the Hornets Nest" Her citi-
zens assembled and, Isolated as they were,
surrounded by bears. wildcats and Tories
they issued tie Mechlenberg Declaration,
resolved, that 1--WE. citizens of Mechlen berg
County, do dissolve the political bands that
unite us to England" 1t was as if Mount
Brewer should secede from California
Thus in Nazareth, as is usual with great
ideas, was Graded our Magma Charta. The
North Carolina members Of the Continental
Congress Endorsed the sentiment of their
constituents, but as that Congress thought
itself loyal, they simply agiated. Within a
year most OF the colonies expressed similar
principles and June Z, 17T6, Richard Henry
greSS that these
UNITED COLONIES
Are, and of right ought to he, free and
Independent States. Four days later the
resolution passed, and a committee was ap-
pointed to draft reasons for separation and
to formulate the principles of the new ma
tI0n, the result OF which is the Declaration
OF Independence Imagine fifty men seated
around long table, at the head President
OF Congress John Hancock, dressed in ruff
hes aud elegant attire, about him cavaliers
In long stockings and the hair in eei-skin
queues, Puritans with cropped hair and
home-spun dress. There were men in
Quaker garb, and others, like Parson
Witherspoon, IN full wig and short clothes :;
there were Catholics like Charles Carroll,
Independents like Adams, Friends, Presby-
terians and Episcopalians; there were Sons
OF Liberty. representing the labor element;
there were landed proprietors, with ducal
possessions; there were men like Hancock,
whose sails whitencd every sea, and ali
knew that war meant priyateers en- their
commerce, maurauders on their homes, death
on the battlefield. The army in Canada
had just been routed by bad management
and smallpox; Parker and Clinton had
been driven from Charleston and were ex-
pected to besiege New York; the rich, the
great officials, those who had something to
lose, were, as rule, loyalists. and in their
midst sat honored men like Dickinson, who
counseled eXpedieney, the unwisdom Of
PRECIPITATING WAR,
Yet, though with locked doors and pledge of
secrecy, they deliberately voted for the
resolution, and. on the evening of July T.
1776. they adopted the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. putting a price upon their own
heads, looslng cutthroats upon their best
beloved by defying the Mistress of the
Seas" Thomas Jeffeis son was inspired to
write that document; he absorbed the best
thought Of all and focused it in the Declare