Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-07-09
THE SPIRIT OF rs"
Ex-Secretary Bayard's Response
to the Toast.


A Patriotic Address.
"The Spirit of '76" was the toast to
which Hon. Thomas +. Bayard was in
vited to respond at the celebration Of the
160th university Of Washington's birth
day given by the Connecticut Society Of
the Sons Of the American Revolution. Mr..
Bayard's remarks on this occasion are
as follows.
Jfr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I fear
may disappoint you in speaking of the
spirit OF '76, upon an occasion so convivlal
as the present, for it was not born of mere
emulation, nor a passing frenzy, nor pas
siOnate impulse; II did not reverberate in
the throat nor in the lungs: but II had, and
it still has, its home silently in the hearts
of men. II entered into and took possess
sion Of men, hosiy and soul, with stern
mastery. When ] think Of the kind of
men who were inspired by the spirit of
l776-when | think Of what it inspired
them TO dol confess to you that hilarity
gives way to more serious mood. hear
not the clink of glasses nor the sound of
gay music, but the steady, solid tramp of
determined men. My ear catches not the
echo of jolly song but the quick, sharp,
imperative challenge of the sentinel, I'm
the name of liberty, who goes thereg'
The words of your toast recall Concord
and Lexington, and Valley Forge, and
Christmas night Of l776 on the frozen Del
aware and you could scarcely wonder if
scenes and sounds of distress and not of
merry-making crowd my memory and fill
my imagination. For what was the spirit
of l776? TO comprehend ii, its birth and
origin, we must go back to the times and
events amid which it was generated. As to
its results, We may possibly measure them,
II, with grateful hearts, we cast our eyes over
our national domain on this lG0th ami
versary of George Washingtons birth.
Our forefathers were British colonists
and loyal subjects, whose valor had added
to the domain of the empire, and whose
ties TO the mother country were many and
strong. They were anxious to retain their
filial relations and cherish the noble ira
ditions of their race. With Wordsworth
they would have said:
We must be free, or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spoke; the faith and
Which Milton held; in everything we are sprung
or Earth's first blood, have titles manifold.
In October, liza, Washington, then in
the Continental Congress, wrote from
Philadelphia 10 a friend, an officer in the
British army at Boston. After defending
the delegates from Massachusetts, against
the charge Of being "rebellious," he goes
OH to say
''Give me leave to add, and I think can
announces it as a fact, that it is not the
wish or interest of that government
(Massachusetts) or any other upon this
continent separately or collectively, to set
up for Independence, but this you may at
the same time rely on. that none of them
will ever submit to the loss of those valu-
able rights, and privileges which are essen
tial to the happiness Of any free state, and
without which life, liberty and property,
are rendered totally insecure"
And he continues: But / have done,
was inyoluntarily led into short discus
sion OF the subject by your remarks on
the conduct of the Boston people, and
your opinion of their wishes to set up for
independence. ! am well satisfied that no
such thing is desired by any thinking man
In all North America On the contrary,
that it is the ardent wish of the warmest
advocates of liberty that peace and tran
guilty, upon constitutional grounds, may
be restored, and civil discord prevented
Thus, first and foremost, they were free
men. They had sucked liberty in their
mothers milk, they had breathed its pure
air in their cradles; their line of descent
lay along the pathway Of laws marking
the boundaries over which power was not
to set its foot nor stretch its mailed hand.
They had birthrights-rights of birth not
to be sold nor bartered away-theirs by
inheritance, hard to win, but when gained
never to be questioned or invaded. There
fore, when they heard the words sovereign
power" addressed to them across the At
lantic, the reply of Sir Edward Coke rang
also in their cars over the two intervening
centuries Of British history and precedent:
Take heed what. we yield unto. Magma
Charta is such fellow. that he will have
no sovereign" wonder this sovereign"
was not in Magma Charta-or in
the confirmation Of it! If we grant
this by implication, we give sovereign
power above all laws. Power in law
is taken for power with force. The
sheriff shall take the power OF the coun-
try. What it means here God only knows.
Our petition Of right is grounded on the
these men and their thoughts had been
fortified by the current Of six centuries
of freedom under law. 1t was their right
to be free they had q constitutional, legal
right they knew its history and revered
its precepts. Magma Charta wrested from
the king in 1915. The Petition of Rights,
insincerely assented to by Charles in 1928.
The Bill of Rights, under which William
and Mary were enthroned in 1859. They
knew the law of the land that made kings,
but knew no law that king could make or
unmake at his will. Above the crown they
read the motto, LEX facit regem" Let
us give to the king that which the law
gives him and no more. said Coke: "Sov.
ereign power is no parliamentary word; it
weaEens Magma Charta and all the statutes,
for they are absolute They knew that
mo man could be imprisoned or restrained
by command of the king except for lawful
cause, expressed in a lawful warrant; that
the ancient and undoubted right of free
man is that he hath full and absolute
property in his goods and estate, and that
no tax, loan or other charge, should be
paid to the king or his ministers without
the common consent of parliament"
And now it had come to pass that our
forefathers were to be told that these were
not rights-their birth-rights-bu favors
to be granted or withheld at the caprice OF
a monarch, or at the will of minister, or
of parliament in which they were per-
mitted to have no voice whatever When
this decree was promulgated to American
ears--when the meaning of what was in
tended towards them dawned upon their
minds-then was born the Spirit of '75.
We knew liberty and comprehended its
value to the human soul and body. They
contemplated the threatened deprivation
of those principles of manly self-respect,
without which life was not worth living,
and into their hearts came the lofty aspira-
ton, the unconquerable resolve that
Patrick Henry voiced for his countrymen,
Give me liberty or give me death |"
Alors Janua Vitm.
Animated with such a spirit, they went
into the struggle not fighting for wealth, or
fame, or vengeance or conquest, nor In a
mere spirit OF military ardor and pugna-
city-they steadily fought for principle,
For elfgovernment, Millions" For
tribute, not one cent? The loved their
homes, their farms. their workshops and
studies, bnt each mans heart was singing
the song to which in years afterwards
Emerson set the words,
For what avail tho plough or sail,
Or land, or lie. II freedom fail?
The souls of the men of 70 were set in
the attitude of heroism, and thencefor-
ward, throughout the long and weary
struggle, they felt only contempt for ease