Omaha daily bee., 1896-06-28
GLOOMY FOURTH OF FIFTY-SIX
A Year When Good Americans Wondered
if There Would BE Another,
IT WAS A PRESIDENTIAL YEAR
Interpretation of Declaration of In
dependence Involved in CAMPAIGN
--Abstrnct of II Speech by Lin
coin Hitherto Unpublished.
Copyright. 1896. by $. s. Meclur, COS

Copyright, 1896, by $. s. mcclure COS
1t is difficult for an American mind to
grasp the idea that the foundations of the
Fourth of July were ever less imprcgnable
than today and yet only forty years ago-in
1856, not only the popularity, but the very
existence of the great holiday was seriously
threatened.
Eighteen hundred and ffty-six, like
1896, was a presidential year, but
while today the country is divided on
a matter of pure financial policy, a matter
which calls into question none of the funda-
mental principles of our government. then
the country was agitating the very founda-
ton on which the Fourth of July itself rests.
The greatest clause of the Declaration of
Independence, A men are created free
and equal was in dispute. What did 1t
mean? "All men, without regard to rank,
condition., or color, or was 1t 'all white
men, or might it not be "all white Protes-
tant men"
The disputants had gone so far as to Or
ganize parties and put up presidentil candi-
dates who stood for these various interpreted
tions, First, there were the republicans
with Fremont for president. They came out
squarely for a literal Interpretation of the
clause. Second, there were the democrats
with Buchanan at their head. who insisted
that equality was confined to white men.
Third, the know-nothings, with Fillmore as
leader, who restricted equality to white
Protestants.
While the politicians wrangled over the
meaning of the Declaration of independence,
the people naturally were regarding the day
which celebrated the document with suspi-
cion, a part of them declaring with Hosea
Biglow:
Folks don't want Fourth of July t inter
With the business Consarns o. the rest of
the year.
Another part repeating a sarcastic com
ment of Abraham Lincoln:
The Fourth of July has not quite
dwindled away; it is still a great day-for
burning tireworks!iI'
The debate had grown so warm in the
months before the Fourth that in congress
an advocate of the first Interpretation,
Charles Sumner. had been beaten over the
head by an advocate of the second. In
Kansas the two parties We're in an actual
state of civil war, one side contending that
the territory must admit only free men,
the other that it must receive slaves. In
New England Garrison in disgust at the
idea that the constitution of the United
States protected slavery in the south had
even burned this sister of the Declaration
Of independence and a chorus of ardent
'amens'' had greeted the smoke. In the
south there was an incessant abuse of aDoli-
tionism combined with threats of disunion.
OBSERVANCE OF THE DAY.
1t is curious to see how the country and
its great men spend this Fourth, the first
after democrats. Know-DothingS and repub-
licanS were fully organized for the fight
which was to decide what the day did really
mean; was to decide, in fact, whether It
was to exist any longer. In Washington it
was spent ominously. Congress was still in
session and before it lay the reports of
the committee that had been investigating
affairs in Kansas. The debates were stormy
and men who had been friends for years
were beginning to break apart. Partic-
ularly bitter were the friends of Sumner
who was still lying in Washington (the as
sault on sumner occurred on May 22)
William H. Seward spent his Fourth in
visiting the sufferer: He is much changed
for the worse he wrote after he got home.
His elasticity and vlgor are gone. He
walks and in every way moves like a man
who has not altogether recovered from a
paralysis. or like a man whose sight is
dimmed, and his limbs stiffened with age
Many another great mans thoughts
turned to Sumner that day, even the gen
tie Longfellow's. The poet was at Nahant
nursing a lame knee. He had hurt it just
as he was on the verge of going to Europe,
but so excited was he over the politics Of
the country that he even declared he was
glad to stay at home to save his vote. 81
have great respect for that now, though
| never cared about it before he wrote.
Jefferson Davis, soon to take so promi-
nent a part in the contest, was secretary
OF war. 10 MN IL lSll 10 hScp OIttI III
Kansas, a task which required no little
discretion on this critical Fourth of July.
That he did it without bloOdshod is to his
credit. Douglas, Toombs, Stephens were
all in congress, struggling with the theo-
rctical part of Kansas, as Davis was with
the practical, and succeeding not quite
SO well, it should be noticed. John Brown
was in Kansas, his hands still wet with
the blood of the massacre of the POttawat-
omie, urging constantly on the free soil
party his favorite maxim, Keep cool and
fire low Henry Ward Beecher was help
ing on his side of the cause by raising
'.Beecher's Bibles for the free soil party
of Kansas, the bibles being tirst-class
rifles. And so it was all over the land,
the men of north and south We're actively
supporting their peculiar Interpretation of
the Declaration OF independence. Those
who happened to be in Europe were 70
less anxious than those at home. To them
the condition of the country seemed hope
less, beyond compare. las | read these
things so far away wrote Lowell from
Dresden. lit seems as if | were reading
the history of a republic in the last
wrotched CONFUSION before absolute disso-
luton. Yet | believe it will somehow be
turned to good and that out of this fer
menting compost heap of all filthy materials
a finer plant of freedom is to grow. But
When?"
CELEBRATIONS IN EAST n WEST.
The celebrations which took place were
in many places in the east studiOusly dis
Greet, every effort being made to avoid any
reference to slavery. In New York they
got on particularly we'll, for there they had
a pleasant duty to perform. which took ait
tention entirely off politics-this was UNI
yelling the familiar equestrian statue Of
Washington, which stands in Union square,
1t was "out west" that the Fourth of
July of 1856 took the most pronounced po-
litical tone. The west had produced the
republican party and the members of the
new organization, most of them young, com
bative, fearless men, We're glad OF so good
a chance to heap sarcasm on the interpreta-
ton their opponents were giving to the
Declaration of Independence.
In Kansas a particularly dramatic act
was planned. Kansas had at that time a
territorial government Of the usual kind,
but it was pro-slavery in its sympathies.
The advocates of free Kansas or the free
state party" as ii was called, had the year
before QS55) organized a state government
of its own, elected its own representative
to congress and set about preparing a con-
stitution. Thus Kansas had in 1856 two
governments, one under the direction of the
United States authorities, one self-directed,
The latter planned that the legislature IL
had elected should meet at Topeka, the
capital of the state, on July 4, and by the
morning of that day part of the members
and a large body of sympathiZers were in
. 81 4 800.