Arizona republican., 1892-07-05
THE LESSONS OF '76
BY JUNIUs HENRI BROWNE.

Middle aged men must remember how
 very different the celebration of the
 Fourth of July was during their boy
 hood from what it is in these days.
 Everything of course seems tame after maturity in contrast with it's seeming in our early teens.
 The civil war, with it's terrible tension,
 Eolicitude, agitation, uncertainty, made
 the youngest of us feel old,
 But, apart from age and event, the
 Fourth has in it's observance long ceased
 to bo what it was before the war That great strife naturally dwarfed tho minor but not less heroic struggle of tho last century and rendered us comparatively indifferent to its commemoration. We should still remember, however, that our independence was won by trials, by hardships, by untlinching fortitude, to which in our later abundance and pros perity we were necessarily strangers.
 In this generation we can scarcely realize, so altered are our surroundings, what our fOrefathers endured, suffered and dared, as colonists, in taking up arms against the eXactions and oppres- siOns of tho mother country-one of the strongest governments and greatest pow CTS of the Old World. They did not hesitate to oppose regular, disciplined soldiers, who had fought on many fields, with raw recruits, having no other weap- ons than such as they could get in an emergency, and no other hope than that inspired by love of freedom, and the resolution to resist tyranny tothe death. Those were indeed the times to test courage and patriotism, and the hardy colonists never winced or faltored
 It Is pleasant to recall the ringing words of Patrick Henry at the begin ming of the troubles, when he declared at the old Continental congress in Phila- delphia, in l77i: British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the colonies The distinctions between Virginians, New Workers, Pennsylvauians and New Englanders are no more. am not a Nir- ginian; l am an Americanr The seven arduous, often desperate, years of the Revolution, in which we were so gener- Ously aided by the French, proved the stuff we were madeof. Always without money, often without food or clothing or any proper equipment for war, Wash ington sustained defeat after defeat with equanimity and unfailing courage, ana won his cause at last at Yorktown. De- feat and disaster never diminished his faith in ultimate triumph or dampened his excessive ardor. Within three months, during 11S0, two American armies, numerous for that day, were destroyed, and the most formidable of the partisan bands in the south. under Sumter, was dispersed by Tarleton.
 Nevertheless q detachment from Corn wallis forces was wholly defeated in North Carolina, at Kings mountain, by 9O0o our militia, and 1, 100 of the enemy were killed, wounded and captured. Thus failure and success alteInated until the final and complete victory gained by the surrender of COrnwallis, with more than 5000 men, including sailors.
 Our troops raised during the Revolu- ton numbered some 230,O00 Continental soldiers and j6,000 militia How small this force seems, compared with the grand armies the north and south mar shaled in lSG1-5; how insignificant the cost of life and treasure then to the esti- mate in the later struggle, of loss of million of men and more than billion of money. But in the civil war the Union was immensely rich; it had un- limited credit; we were provided with . every martial requirement. In 1776-S3 the gallant patriots marched often over frozen roads with shoeless and bleeding feet; fought while half famished and half clad; left their blows in the furrow; quilted the harvest with scythes in their hands to give their lives, if need be, for independence. They were intrepid sons of intrepid sires; they were genuine grit, of unconquerable stock.
 Too much honor cannot be paid them. We, their descendants, should always keep their memory green. Their ex- ample should never be permitted to grow dim. We should not allow the celebration of the glorious Fourth 10 languish. We owe it to them to keep it up as we did in the earlier days, when we were boys. We are boys now, though of an older sort: we should be boys in our enthusiasm and rejoicing over the immortal day that disclosed the spirit of l776, commemorative of the stern pe- riod that put us to the proof, that tried us by fire in the crucible of diversity and brought us out pure gold.
 Let us observe the Fourth as afore. time, with boufires and illuminations with music and cannon, with fireworks and reading the Declaration. with large assemblies and patriotic speeches, with every form of sympathy and demon stration belonging to the day and de- serving of ourselves.