The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-06-04
their lives and their life-work. The
Grand Army of the Republic, the

Grand Army of the Republic, the
Woman's Relief Corps, the child
rem of our public schools and the pat
riotic citizens of the land, vie with
each other in the sincere and loyal
observance of the day.
The men whose memory we seek to
honor by the services of this day
saved the Nation. Whether their SER
vices were insignificant or in the
highest degree valuable depends up
on our estimation of the value of our
institutions, our flag and our country.
1t is but proper, therefore, that on this
occasion we should speak of our be-
loved country; its struggles, its ele-
ments of weakness and strength, its
history, its hopes, and its aspirations.
One hundred and twenty one years
ago our forefathers we're preparing
for the revolutionary war. They did
not complain of acts of violence and
oppression so much as the denial of
the rights and privileges indispensi-
BILE to freemen. One would say now
in looking back over that period that
their available capital consisted more
largely of independence of character
and love of freedom, than in actual
strength and wealth so necessary in
the prosecution of a great war. The
thirteen colonies in which was involved
the freedom of onr race we're less
than three millions in number. and
their settlements we're scattered
through vast wilderness fringing the
eastern coast of our continent for a
distance of a thousand miles. Eng
land was the mother of their language,
the home of their ancestors and ira
ditions, and the source of their laws.
With the confidence inspired by rec
titude of conduct and an ardent love
of liberty, they resisted the demands
of one of the most powerful nations
of the world, fought the Revolution
ary war and prepared the way for
American constitutional government.
The names. of the revolutionary lead
ers are our household words-Wash-
ington and Green and Marion and Lee
and Wayne in the army, Franklin and
Jefferson and Hamilton and Adams
and Morris and Otis and Patrick Hen
ry in the councils of the colonies,
Lexington and Bunker Hill and Mon
mouth and Saratoga and Yorktown!
These names will always live in his
tory and in the hearts of a grateful
people. The great struggle ended
and our forefathers found themselves
free but without government.
The progress of liberty is like the
advance of a tide. When it's crested
wave is highest, it breaks and recedes,
but the eternal ever-changing ocean
keeps what it gains. 1t renews it's
strength, repeats its blow, and advan-
ces its steps. After the period of the
Declaration of Independence and the
Revolution came the pitiful season of
broken faith and unpaid debts, di-
vided councils and rebellions, national
weakness and dishonor. But out of
this period came the greatest forward
step ever made by mankind; the
framing and adoption of the Constitu-
tion of the United States,amid it's aus
picious Inauguration under our first
president, the "Father of his Country"
The more I study the Constitution of
our country the more revere the
names of it's trainers. 1t was an able
convention of able men. Washington
was there, with the laurels of honor
crowuing his brow won on many
hard fought field, always conservative,
always wise. John Landon and Ru-
fus King were members, both men of
experience in the Continental Con-
gress. Roger Sherman was sent by
Connecticut as her strongest man.
Alexander Hamilton was there, the
the youngest member and the most
brilliant scholar Of the age. William
R. Livingston and Jonathan Dayton
helped to make up the membership of
this great convention. Benjamin
Franklin, an intellectual genius, sat
in the convention, now an old man,
honored for his scholarly attainments