Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-12-06
A COM MMERCIAL DAY.
CENTENNIAL OF AMERICAN CONNER.
 GAL LIBERTY.


 Chauncey Depew Writes the History of
 Our Progress From the Time of Wash
 ington-Dec 10 the Day of Celebration.
 For nearly 20 years the people of the United States have indulged ill patriot ic centennial celebrations From the Declaration of Independence in 1776 down to the evacuation of New York by the British ill 17S3 the struggle for American liberty has been thus com memorated, while ill 1889, with i'm posing ceremony, was recalled the inau- guration ill New York of George Wash ington as first president. By history and oratory the country has been made fa- miliar with the story of it's freedom from foreign control and of the com mencement of its government. The 18th of December next is date pregnant z with 100 years of progress and develop ment. Our prior centennials presented npon the national canvas the picture of the formation of the institutions under which the people might govern themselves. The 18th of December cele- brates the results of that government and of those institutions for the first 100 years.
 It is difficult at this time to grasp the situation which Washington, as first president, had to meet The republic was exhausted by the seven years war of the Revolution. Thejealous colonies, now states, were not able to work togeth- CT harmoniously. We had no foreign commerce; our internal trade was ill it's infancy On the one hand, Great Brit ain was q powerful and most dangerous neighber by land and had control of the seas; and, on the other, the people were mad with a frenzy for France and the principles of the French revolution. An other war with Great Britain was i'm ninent simply on account of this in- sane frenzy for the French revolution ists. It is not difficult at this day to form a judgment as to what would have been the result of such a struggle France could have rendered us no assist ance and England would either have. crippled or reconquered the country.
 At this juneture that calm, coura- geous, farseeing man to whose mind and character we owe everything periled his great popularity and the confidence which his countrymen had in him by resisting the French frenzy and encoun- tering the public clamor and distrust in an effort to establish commercial rela- tions with Great Britain. He selected for this difficult and unpopular mission the first chief justice of the supreme court of the United States, Washington felt that the emergency required more than diplomatic talent or legislative skill. He felt that it needed profound legal requirements, calm judgment and lofty character, such as could be found only i'll the head of that majestic tribu- nal whose decisions and influence have excited the wonder and admiration of the statesmen and jnrists of the world.
 No ordinary man, and no man unless possessing great dignity both of office and achievement, could have obtained any footing at that period at the court of St. James John Jay. ill connection and collaboration with Alexander Ham ilton and James Madison, had, in The F'ederalist, fought and overcome the passion and prejudice of the colonists against the adoption of the federal con- stitution He, when convinced of the right, was serenely immovable to the clamor and bowling of the hour. There never was such q contrast between em- bassadors as between Chief Justice Jay, envoy extraordinary to promote the commercial treaty with our then most detested enemy, Great Britain, and Ge- nest, the French minister to the United States-the one struggling to obtain for bis distressed, embarrassed and bank rupt country peace and honor the other seeking to carry the torch of revolution among our people and to involve them in the horrors of a European conflict in which they had no interest and from which they could by no possibility de- rive benefit.
 Jay s arrival ill London was an event. English statesmen were just grasping the future possibilities of the relations with the mother country in her Eu- ropean entanglements of this new nation of their own kin across the seas. They were looking not for enemies, but for allies. Always, as English statesmen are, students of the development of the principles of Magma Charta and the bill of rights, they saw the possibilities of the future of this new authority in gov ernment overriding kings and parlia- nents by it's decisions-the supreme court of the United States. Its majesty, its dignity and its power appealed tc their imagination in the person of Chief Justice John Jay It is the unwritten story of impressions, associations and influences of the day which makes the history of nations.
 We have the Jay treaty. We read of the abuse and condemnation with which it and its author were received in this country. We know the thinly yelled ha- tired which England held for our eoun- try, and we wonder how the treaty was obtained by which such marvellous con sessions under aIl the conditions were secured, and we wonder still more why its benefits were not appreciated. The Freedom of the seas for American ships, free intercourse by our inland lakes and rivers, free access to the ports of Great Britain and its colonies, the protection of the American flag for our citizens, their ships and their trade, the opening of the ports of the world to American Enterprise and commercial genius, the untrammeling of our territorial growth