Evening journal., 1892-12-20
IMPERISHABLE ROCK.
Stepping Stones to the Liberty
of America.
PATRIOTIC WORDS BY MR. BAYARD.

sented Rather the Three Hundred of
Leonidas Than the Four Hundred :of
Ward Macallister-NIen of Force, Ca
pacity, Integrity and Honor.
The Pennsylvania Society of the Sons
Of the Revolution celebrated the 115th
anniversary of the encampment of Wash
ington's army at Valley Forge in the
banquet room of the Bullitt Building,
Philadelphia last evening.
Among those present at the speakers
table were Mayor Stuart, Auditor Gen
eral Gregg, Congressman Stone, Robert
i. Belknap, of New York; DR.. William
Elmer of New Jersey; Captain Green
of the Saratoga, Judge Wilson and
Arnold and Hon. Thomas f. Bayard.
Speech by DeIaware's Son.
Supreme Court Justice Mitchell presid-
ed. He introduced Mr.. Bayard who said:
81 must tonight only sketch rapidly
what these men, who founded our gov
erhment, meant when they formed the
principles of the greatest nation on the
globe
"Who and what were these men2
They were British subjects, second to
none in loyalty to their king. What
were they doing when they founded
this government2 They were defending
their inheritance their liberty-liberty
secured by law.
"Seven centuries must be traversed
in the search for the education which we
seek from the history of the glorious
movement. We must go back to the
year 1915, when the Magma Charta was
signed, TO the year 1923, when the Peti-
tion of Rights was formulated, to the
year 1889, when the Bill of Rights was
drawn up, and to the year 177G, when our
own Declaration of independence was
signed
These were the stepping stones to the
liberty of the world What our fore
fathers fought for they inherited and
left for us to transmit for them to pos
teritv. They saw, wherever public laws
were diverted from public to private
power, to the extent of diversion the
principle Of liberty was endangered.
But there was something in the gov.
ernment they founded even more pro-
found It was founded upon the imper-
ishable rock Of moral law.
''lhe fact is, that these plain home
spun men, our progenitcrs, whose mem
ories are with us tonight, were simple
gentlemen, representing rather the 300
of Leonidas than the 400 of Ward Mac
,Alister.
But they were men Of force, capacity,
integrity and honor, who formed the
band Of those whose spirits / hope hang
over US to night They were the noble
men of nature, and not the creation of
Efnfre ulau 1afN F-ar 90
government which was in every way
adapted to continue what l call the i'm
perishable force of the moral law.
'Ihey left us a government not only
to serve liberty, but to check corruption,
which undivided powers must necessarily
carry with them. The dreadful taint Of
administrative corruption is checked by
thi5 strict separation of powers and by
the frequent subdivision of those pow
ers.
There are things to-day that act as
object lessons to warn us of the danger
of forgetting these plain and simple, but
fundamental and essential principles
upon which our liberty can safely stand
"The powers of Government must be
kept separated, i'm order that individual
liberty may survive Is there nothing to
look at in our own country We are
proud of and rejoice in and we enjoy the
luxury of our times. We live in the free
atmosphere Of the aw, and it is so simple
TO inhale the breath of Justice, of honor
and of right But is there not today
shadow overhanging the prosperity of
the humblest worker and the richest man
in the United States that the measure of
the value Of every dollar of wages and
the value of all property shall be shakeni
If ii be true that our measure of values
has been by the hand of private interests
acting under the forms OF public law so
based, there is not the wages of the hum
blest man nor the wealth of the richest
that is not at its mercy.
''lf it be true that we are threatened
by laws which aim TO control wages
aud property and value, are we not in
danger? And what has caused this2
Why, the use Of that which our fathers
forbade, the use Of public law for private
power
'Ihe American people stand to-day in
danger from the class who are engaged
in digging from the bowels of the earth
the silver that God has placed there
Applause
depend upon it the safety and great
ness Of our great country consists
chiefly in the holding of the great
powers intended for us all from the
greedy touch and grasp Of any man or
any set of men,
Let as keep the power Of this great
nation, growing greater day by day.
more carefully within the grasp Of the
whole people
Liberty, liberty not for the strong,
but liberty for the weak for the
majority. but for the minority
liberty for the weakest member of
the minority was the principle upon
which this Government was founded