The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-07-13

On assembling at the proper hour
the vast crowd was called to order
by Chairman Slncell of the recep-
ton committee, who introduced as
the first speaker of the day Hol..
Benz. A. Richmond, of Cumber-
land. Mr.. Richmond's address was
a carefully prepared one and we
give it space in our columns to-day.
The address Of Mr.. Richmond
was as follows:
The significance of the Declare
ton of Independence is best mani
tested by the fact that to-day, one
hundred and seventeen years there
after, the people of the most power
full nation on earth are everywhere
met together to celebrate it.
The French indeed have their
10th of August and their 9th Their
midor, but their remem brance is
clouded with the recollection of
many crimes, and the relapslng in
to servitude, and the inglorious
shedding of innocent blood. Eng
land and Germany and Russia and
Spain, have their birthdays of
Kings and Queens and Emperors
which for want of better, dc SER
vice for patriotic days. But we of
all the earth celebrate the birthday
of a Crrnat nation
We celebrate also a day upon
which was rung the death knell of
monarchy throughout one half the
globe: upon which the dominant
idea of the divine right Of a few, to
rule the many. was boldly spurned
and denied by the representatives
of u whole people.
The signers Of that great mani
festo were not merely political re-
formers; they were political icono-
ciasts; they did not merely seek to
amend or to change the course of
current thought on matters of gov
eminent; they struck mortal blow
at the very root and foundation of
it.
They overturned a political idol,
which had been worshipped with
out hesitation, and without ques-
ton for centuries.
They mined deep beneath the
thrones of Kings and revealed the
fact, till then unsupported, that
they rested not so much upon the
Divine DEGREES of Heaven, as upon
the credulity and the false pre-
fences of men. They found there
the sepulcher of liberty, and the
manacles of free speech and the
cerements of individual independ-
ence, around which had rankly
clustered the Prescriptions and
assumed prerogatives and supposed
privileges of royalty.
1t was the business of these bold
declarers of our independence to
at once and forever sweep away
from the soil of America this idea
of power and right; to tear away
the mask from the face of this
fetch Of past centuries, and reveal
the plain fact that crowned kings
were, after all, but men, and that
their asserted birth-right to rule
and govern was the fruit of imp2r-
Thence and egotism on the one
hand, and of ignorance and SER
Witty on the other.
The truth had been so long OBJ
scured by the gauds and pomps and
pretences of the nobility, and the
truculent obeisance of the proleta-
riat, its simple essence seemed lost
forever. 1t lay however in one
simple axiom: "All men are born
free and equal" One great man
gave breath to it; it was taken up
and believed in by the assemblies
of an infant nation; and now it is
the watchword of government for
half Il world.
The'extraordinary characteristic
of this plain but radical announce
ment is the rapidity with which it
was assimilated by all classes in the
American colonies. Other nations
had made some feeble progress in
the struggle for individual liberty
and had even attained to some
spasmodic or partial successes, but
the gain on the whole was discour-
agingly slow 1t is the boast of
Englishmcn that IN many of the
essentials of individual liberty, and
the justice of laws and the security
of life and the protection of prop,
erty, Great Britain is the equal and
in some respects the superior of all
other nations. And this is I'M
doubtedly true. But what is strik-
ing is this; that while it has cost
her centuries of time, and the cruel
est of wars and the wasting of I'M
counted treasure to discover. and
bring her people to believe in even
part of this great political axiom,
the patriots of &c were able to