The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-05

for a that" whether he dug ditches or picked cotton. While one section of our country would at one time build on the cornerstone of slavery, God determined for us that we should build on equal rights for all and fair play for every
 man. There will never be any roll Of 1 slaves called from the top of Bunker l Hill. There is no gentleman m l America who does dot recognize the equality before the law of every eitt- zen.
 It takes great faith in humanity to
 believe that all men can safely come to ! govern themselves. It has been pru-
 tally said that all the insurrectionists 1 of Cuba put together are not worth the
 life of a single educated American. l But no matter how poor and degraded
 he is, we must look upon him in ms simple manhood and reverence that,
 and if need be die for it. Our fathers
 began with God and human nature,
 founding their government upon truths l which they disdained to argue, declar-
 ing them self-evident. Richard Henry
 Lee exclaimed: "The right to life and
 the right to liberty are inalienable,"
 Said some: "If the discussion of hui |
 pressed in this country there would
 have been no war" Doubtless so; and
 there would have been no country, nor
 any freedom, either!
 As we have received our religions
 through Judea our art from Greece,
 and our Jurisprudence from Rome, we have plainly received our liberties
 through England While other nations
 have adopted liberty, England was to
 this manor born. It is the natural habit of her native bent and character
 istic. Religious, political and civil lib-
 erty is England's great boon to the
 world-a boon and glory it has been
 well said beyond that of Shakespeare,
 of Bacon or Newton-beyond all her
 lofty literature, her endless enterprise
 and inventive genius, her maternal
 prosperity and boundless empire, The
 names of her Alfred, her Langton, her
 Earl Simon, her barons of the thir-
 teenth century are on the Saints calen-
 dar of all liberty-lovers. Liberty, as
 we understand it, is an English tradi-
 tion.
 We inherit it, possess it, we trans
 init it under the forms peculiar to the
 nglish race. It is liberty clad in the ce-
 lestial robe of laW--the authoritative
 expression of the will of the people.
 Representative government, trial by
 jury, freedom of speech and of the
 press, freedom of religious faith-these
 are the family heirlooms of the Eng
 fish tongue, says one, there is no sound
 sweeter than that of the common school . bell; there is no principle dearer than
 the, equal rights of all men; there is no
 vision so entrancing to his hope as that those rights shall some time be
 secured by all men.
 , Our revolutionary war was a defense of England against herself Liberty
 was being smothered in the old land.
 George, be a king" was the constant
 exhortation of the rulers mother. No
 matter what capacity, or virtue, or re-
 ligion George possessed, he and his
 courtiers stood for absolutism. As the eighteenth century grew to close a small band of political leaders only were aroused for freedoms sake, but back of them was the great mass of common people. In the American col onies charters had been taken away, religious affairs intermeddled With, : home rule denied, taxes arbitrarily laid with a view only to enriching the mother country The colonists claimed only "the rights and privileges of Eng lishmen" They asserted that their gen. eral courts could lay taxes and make , laws for them better than a distant 5 parliament, restricting their markets : and manufactures, and using the col
 onies simply for revenue. The dangers to liberty throughout the world were
 appalling. In Spain, Italy and France I it had long disappeared. Only small < band of liberals in England were dis , posed to fight for it. How the Ameri- f cans saved Anglo-Saxon freedom to ! England and the world is memorable l story.
 2 Proceeding Dr. Gilbert said that the American revolution was in reality a I strife between two parties in one peo- l ple--between the conservatives and Y radicals. The struggle excited in both $ countres--on the fields of America and r quite as fiercely in the halls of parlia- f ment.
 When the news reached London that - America had appealed to arms, Will Q liam Pitt, one of the greatest English - men, rose in his seat in parliament and Q thanked God that the Americans re- f tained enough of English blood to fight f for their rights. And with him stood F Burke and Camden and Chatham, Fox g and Walpole. Nine Englishmen out of ten, outside of the court influence, re- - joiced in the success of American arms. a1 The masses-the non- n-conformists-- S the traders--were for the rebels. After
 Burgoynes surrender Walpole joyfully exclaimed that ''the Americans were 1 better Englishmen than the English
 themselves" Pitt declared the at- 6 tempt of England "accursed, wicked 4 unnatural diabolical." It was thought
 that the defeat of the Americans would \. be probably followed by the subver. :, sion of the constitution of England anc
 the suppression of popular rights and :, there was good reason for the belief = The common people hoped for us ant ,, prayed for us, rejoiced with us. Sol |. diers for the English armies could only ~ be got by emptying the prisons anC J hiring the Hessions. Independence ' day should be as much red lette . day for every genuine Englshman al " for every genuine American for Wash .I ington but trod in the footsteps O ~ Hampden. Victory here brought vic x tory there.
 II tho ,ra-apt ,,oopoopt