Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1895-11-29
A COMMERCIAL DAY.
CENTENNIAL OF AMERICAN CONNER.
ClAL LIBERTY.

OuE GEOEEeha FROM Ine ltIne OF w hAAl-
ington-Dec. 10 the Day of Celebration.
For nearly 90 years the people of the
United States have indulged in patriot
ic centennial celebrations From the
Declaration Of Independence in 1915
down to the evacuation of New York by
the British in 1888 the struggle for
American liberty has been thus com
memorated, while in 1899, with i'm
posing ceremony, was recalled the inau-
guration in New York of George Wash
ington as first president. BY history and
oratory the country has been made ia
miliar with the story of its freedom
from foreign control and Of the COM
mencement of its government. The 10th
of December next is date pregnant
with 100 years Of progress and develop
ment Our prior centennials presented
upon the national canvas the picture
of the formation of the institutions
under which the people might govern
themselves. The 9th of December cele-
brates the results Of that government
and of those institutions for the first
100 years.
1t 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. The jealous colonies,
now states, were not able to work togcth-
er harmoniously. We had no foreign
commerce; our internal trade was in its
infancy. On the one hand, Great Brit
af, a ,,pxr.nrfa1 la,uarg,,1c
neighbor by land and had control of the
seas; and, ON the other, the people were
mad with frenzy for France and the
principles of the French revolution. An
other war with Great Britain was i'm
minent simply on account of this in
sane frenzy for the French revolution
lists. II is not difficult at this day to
form 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 juncture 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 ami unpopular mission
the first chief justice of the supreme
court of the Unfed 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 us could be found
only in 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, in connection
and collaboration with Alexander Ham
ilton and James Madison, had, in The
Federalist, 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 a contrast between en-
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
/ he lsgtrogeaI o,,,harraeca1 aud honly
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 European conflict
in which they had no interest and from
which they could by no possibility de-
rive benefit.
Jay s arrival in 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-
ments by its decisions-the supreme
court of the United States. Its majesty,
its dignity and its power appealed to
their imagination in the person of Chief
Justice John Jay. 1t 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 veile9 ha-
tired which England held for our coun-
try, and we wonder how the treaty was
obtained ty which such marvellous con-
cessions under all the conditions were
secured, and we wonder still more why
its benefits were not appreciated. TIE
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 sltips and their trade, the opening
Of the ports of the world to American
enterprise and commercial genius, the
untraIumeling of our territorial growth
by the removal of all British troops
from the western posts-these were the
results of the treaty obtained by Chief
Justice Jay from the British govern
ment.
New York, then, as now, the com
mercial center of the republic, appre
ciated the treaty. So did the CONNER
cial men of Boston and Philadelphia,
Against 1t were arrayed all the French