Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-03

Va" NAAo NAJoSSu Nv JUS VI ~ lin
and drum, assembled in houses of wor-
ship to exploit brief patriotic discourses
upon the goodness of God in vouchsafing
them freedom from oppression. the liberty
of speech and the right to worship Him
as their consciences dictated. and then
banked their Creator for the blessings
enjoyed by a free people. retired to their
homes, quenched their thirst with a mug
OF hard cider, read a chapter of the Bible
or a chapter in the laws of their COM
monwealth, uttered a short prayer and
retired to sleep the sleep of the just.
The following morning would find them
ing the soil, bartering it's products, or
whipping a wife-beater. putting a liar,
slanderer or petty thief in the stocks,
banishing undesirable neighbors or MAX
the indolent and the few who would live
by their wits alone.
80
But our forefathers were blessed by an
absence of Free Lovers, Mormons, Bella
mites, Communists, Socialists, Anarch-
lists. dynamiters and the various other
''ers,' %"ites," and lists which breed and
flourish under our advanced civilization.
They attended strictly to their own bust
ness and let that Of others alone. They
had no trusts, syndicates, bankrupt laws,
millionaires, tramps, fortune-hunters or
plethoric prisons. They celebrated the
Fourth as they solemnized a wedding or
conveyed a neighbor to his last resting |
place. displaying a seriousness and ear |
nestness in perfect accord with the spirit,
the firmness and overpowering sense of
duty which distinguished the bold. brave !
signers of the Declaration of Independ-
ence.
The spirit of 10" as displayed during |
the administration of the elder Adams
was. doubtless. as stalwart, deep-rooted
and patriotic as it was when Washington
and his little army stained the soil of
Valley Forge with the blood of their UNI
protected feet, and satisfied the cravings
of hunger with roasted potatoes. But it |
was largely favored with that uncharit-
ableness and illiberality which found ex-
preston in the enactment of an alien and
seditious law which worked untold hard
ships upon the very class of emigrants the
~, - ~ ho,, ~, r+ Dr. to r -. |
son assumed the reins of government in
1901, that same spirit lost the intoler-
ance and ~harshness which rendered the
four years administration of John Ad-
ans SO unpopular. This is %abundantly
evidenced by the Louisiana purchase, the
changed attitude of the people toward ,
their domain. and, at the same time. to
resist any e~ncroachment upon theirrights.
The observance Of the birthday of their
nation more largely partook of the spirit
which animated it's people over a quarter
Of a century before. The fires of pa
triotism We're burning as fiercely, though
scattered over a larger area of territory.
~
The history of this country, during the !
administration of Madison, who succeeded
Jefferson in 1909, plainly evidences the
fact that the people were as loyal, as pa
%triotic, as earnest in their attachments to
free institutions, and as firmly deter
mined to resist any invasion of their
rights as a free, independent people as
were those who had passed away in their
presence. The wal of 1912 emphasizes the
truth of the assertion. That spirit which
to strike down a great power and estab-
fish a republic in a comparative wilder
ness, still possessed the souls of the peo-
pie of nearly 80 years ago., and the con-
tention of the mother country tina she
could, with %impunity, exercise the right
of searching our merchant ships for her
teachings of rs again found expression,
and the sons of the young republic en-
| tered a long season of rest from the
armed presence Of an envious foreign
power.
-
The administration of Monroe, which
began in 1917, and gave place to that of
John q. Adams in 1925, was distinguished
for the "peace and good will' which pre-
vailed in the young nation. The COM
memoration of the Fourths lost much of