Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1897-07-07
DAILY INDEPENDENT.
s.r. Earn nEton's Oration.'
[Coptinued from tlir I page.

sued to SINE worthless favorite
warrant authorizing him to imprison
whoms0ever he chose within those
grin and cruel walls until it should
please his fancy to grant release,
knew what world of meaning lies
hi Iden in the word Liberty"
When the -, c.aration of lndepen-
dence was promulgated it came to
man ,ind as new revelation from
he wen; it came, at time when abso-
lutte despotic power was enthrowned
Q "r!where. except in Holland and
En- :and. The King was the state,
the King was the Government. the
I King was everything. He was the
30 law ma err; his pleasure ":s his
only rule; he levied taxes without the
con sent If TN sc who had to pay; he
ageL var to avenge personal insults
or to &C omplish personal ends; he
sent men to prison without any crime
being laid to their charge. and might
keer them there without trial until
they died: he claimed and exercised
the unqucstioned authority t" dis oSe
Of the lives and property Of his sub
jects.
The Revolutionary Fathers were
discover RS and inventors. They
did no. blin,ily follow the examples
of those who had preceded them,
they were not walking in beat
EN- paths. nhcy were pion GERS heMinG
broad highway into the trachless
wilderness, following as their pole
star those immortal principles "All
men are created free and equal, all
governments derive their just powers
from the consent Of the governed"
They brought every question to the
bar of their own judgment, they con-
strucsed their system Of government
upon new and untried principles. they
looked through their own eyes. they
looked upon the problems before
them even as the first man on the
first day in Eden looked upon the
opening g'ories Ut the morning. 1t is
not to he understood that work Of the
fathers WIS one of pure originality.
OH tile contrary, they appropriated
wha lever appeared to be goou in the
experience and the teaching Of those
who had preceded them in 40 far as
it was adapted to the conditions OF
the new world, but we must remem.
Der that the sum Of human krowl-
edge was in that day exceedingly
limited. In ITO the printing press
of Benjamin Franklin was almost
the only one in the United States,
and as late as 1850, it is said there
we e more newspapers in the State of
New York alone, than in the whole
world outside Of the United States.
Outside Of the United States public
schools we're wholly unknown, The
revolutionary fathers knew nothing
Of railroads. telegraphs and tele-
phones, and OF steam, electricity and
the other great agencies of modern
industrial life they were almost
wholly ignorant. Their knowledge
in the realm Of politics and state.
craft was exceedingly circums cribed
We read ouch Of the democracies
and republics Of the ancient world,
we are fred by the stories Of their
better days and by the record Of their
struggles against the expressions and
wrongs Of those days; yet the liberty
and freedom Of those times has no
more resemblance to that Of the
great republic Of the Western Hem.
isphere than has the little sire ,ra
which rises in tho mountains of VI On.
tana to the mighty river winch rolls
into the Gulf OF Mexico. Greek
fire. dom was the freedom of the few
and the slavery Of tho many. Ro
mmI freedom was the rule of the IA.
trician over nation of slaves. The
ancients had no more conception q,
the idea that all men are createf