The record-union., 1896-07-05
idol of two hemfspheres-beloved La

of men whose meeting and whose de-
votion We commemorate to-day. No
| stained windows mellowed the light
for them-no armoriai bearings or ta-
pestried walls were there-the faces
of no departed heroes looked approx
| ingly from painted canvas on the bar
rem walls of their meeting place No
titles were worn by these plain men,
but there had not been one knightly
soldier or one patriotic statesman
standing for liberty in the splendid
centuries of English growth who did
not touch them with AN unseen acolade
and bid them to be faithful.
| There was Roger Sherman, the "Old
Puritan las honest as an angel, and
! firm In the cause of America as Mount
Atlas; and John Adams. who. in a
letter to his wife, July 3, 1116, made
that prophecy of the greatness of this
day that, revivified by the eloquence of
| Webster. will live while liberty is dear
to man. Il am apt to believe" he
said, that this day will be celebrated
by succeeding generations as the great
anniversary festival. 1t ought to be
commemorated as the day of deliver
ance by solemn acts of devotion to God
Almighty. II ought to be solemnized
with pomp and parade, with shows,
games. sports, guns, bells, bonfires and
| illuminatiOns from one end of this con-
tlnent to the other from this time for
ward for ever more"
| There is Benjamin Franklin, wise, sa-
gaclous, prudent, yet brave and pa,
triotic. You would know him among
the group of fifty men, as he dryly re-
marks, Yes, we must all hang to-
gether, or we will each hang separate
~" Patrick Henry was there: his keen
gray eyes, slight, strong. vigorous, ac-
tive, alert, aggressive and valiant.
John Hancock was President of the
| Congress. He sat in that chair, en-
| blazoned on whose back Franklin later
on deserted "a rising not q setting SUM-
He was placed there bodily by grand
old Benjamin Harrison, when a year
before Hancock was selected to take
the place of Peyton Randolph. and
modestly hesitated to take the seat in
the presence of so many older men His
name was the first upon that roll of
honor. What a responsibility to himi
f'or nearly a month his name and the
name of Charles Thompson, Secretary.
the one who promised Franklin that
America would light a different kind of
torch, were the only names signed to
| that historical document Alone he
| stood, wealth, honor, life cast in the
balance with the success of the revolu-
ton.
Yet calmly, steadily he writes that
name; bold, clear-cut as cameo it
stands as eternal and imperishable a
monument to his fidelity and courage,
as Though in Webster's words: 1T was
written in stars between Orion and the
| tderades." With that declaration a new
era on earth had dawned. In the words
OF Burke: "a great revolution has hap
pened. A revolution not made by chop
ping and changing of power in any of
the existing States, but by the appear
ance of a new State, of new species,
in a new part of the globe
| 1t has made as great a change in all
the relations and balances and gravita-
tions of power as the appearance of a
new planet would in the solar system"
Grandly did our fathers accomplish
their work and nobly did they fulfill the
duties cast upon them by the accumu-
lated wrongs and prayers of thousand
generations of suffering men and
women.
| 1 do not apprehend that when John
Adams prophesied the glorious future
OF this memorial he deemed that with
it's celebration alone the duties of Amer
ican citizenship were fulfilled Could he
to-day, viewing the magnificent proper
tlons which his country has attained
admonish his successors, there is no
duty he would so solemnly impose as
conscientious patriotism. Eternal vigi-
lance is the price of liberty but it is
not the vigilance of the watchman ON
the tower. 1t is the vigilance of each SOW
creign man. By assuming the right and
power to control the laws by which We
are governed, we also assume am obh-
CATION to our fellow citizens, our pos
teI-ity and our God, to as justly and as
wisely use that power as within us lies.
When in the past, kings have neglected
| their Kingdoms, or wronged their sub
jects, history has held their names UP to
| public deteStation and their subjects
| have deposed or killed them. But
| every American is sovereign in him
self. That power he cannot justly
shirk. What will history say Of us, if
| having been given the exercise of every
| God-given right, cowardIy, lazily, or
| corruptly we fritter them away and
either supinely sleep while aWarice and
greed seize the reins of Government and
| drive us ON to ruin, CT for some pail
J try honor or reward we lend our as
sistance to this fatal work.
This is our country and these are
our liberties, yet not altogether ours.
| You owe a duty to me and 1 to you,
and we each owe grave duty not only
| to our own sons, but to the sons of
| others and to future unborn millions.
| We assert that governments derive
| their just powers from the consent of
| the governed. We demand the right to
| make that Government conform to
| what we deem just and right. We ac
knowledge the obligations we owe to
| ourselves, to our neighbors to our pos
| terity and to God, and yet the great
| mass of responsible, respectable, hon
| orable and educated men devote to the
government of their country just
enough time every two years to stamp
| a cross upon a ballot opposite name,
placed there perhaps by some indecent
wretch whose hand they would not
| take and whose acquaintance they
would not form.
When I recall the blood these privi-
| legeS have cost, the agonies that pur-
chased them, and when I contemplate
the lofty grandeur of those heroic men
who secured and preserved them, and
when I see their descendants-me in
whose veins the very blood of Hancock,
of Lee, of Henry, of Adams, of Sher-
| man and of Jefferson flow, SO regard
| less of the priceless heritage their an
cestors bled for as to be unwilling to