The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1899-06-28


guments of John Adams" And the
president of the congress. the glorious
John Hancock! See him In his chair,
the same chair I'm which Washington
was To sit eleven years later as presi-
dent of the convention which framed
the constitution of the United States.
He was not yet 40 years of age. had
princely fortune at stake and a price
upon his head. There he sat in the
calm dignity which no vicissitude of
life was ever able to ruffle.
Behold him. He has risen for a mo-
ment He has put the question. The
Declaration is adopted. 1t is already
late in the evening. and all formal pro-
mitigation Of the days doings must be
postponed. After a grace Of three days
the air will be vibrating with the joy
Gus tones of the old bell In the cupola
over his head proclaiming liberty to all
mankind and with the responding ac-
carnations of assembled multitudes.
Meantime, for him, however, a simple
but solemn duty remains to be dis
charged. The paper is before him. He
dips his pen and, with an untrembling
hand, proceeds to execute a signature,
which, as Webster said, has made his
name as imperishable as if 1t were
written between Orion and the
Pleiades.'
Under that signature, with only the
attestation of a secretary. the Decla-
ration goes forth to the American peo-
pie. to be printed in their journals, to
be proclaimed in their streets. TO be
published from their pulpits, to be
read at the head of their armies, to he
incorporated forever into their history.
The British forces. driven away from
Boston, were then landing on Staten
Island. They were met by the pro-
mitigation of this act of offense and
defiance TO all loyal authority. But
there was no individual responsibility
for that act. save in the signature of
John Hancock. president, and Charles
Thomson, secretary. Not until Aug. 2
was the young Boston merchant re-
lieved from the perilous. the appalling
grandeur Of standing sole sponsor for
the revolt of thirteen colonies and
100000 of people.
I'm that congress were many oppos-
ing voices. But the voice of the out
ragged people had not called in vain,
and ii was as their representatives
that Adams. Jefferson and Lee found
ed republic and snatched America
from British tyranny forever"
Whi1a 1nIihnpa tod in
Philadelphia war stalked over the
land. The patriots of New York,
while they steadily voted for indie
pendence, saw the great English feet
riding securely in their harbOr and
heard the signal guns which pro-
claimed that armies greater than any
they ever beheld, were landing on Sta
ten Island. On the coasts of New Eng
land lurked British cruisers great
feet threatened the southern harbors,
and the ruins of Norfolk showed there
was cause to fear. From New York
to Georgia the scalping knife of the In
dian was the assistant of the invader.
In the Declaration of Independence
Jefferson tells the story of the woes
that possessed the land. Amidst the
clamor of war. the clash of contend
ing armies, in the presence of n thou
sand perils and of n dark and omin-
Gus future, the people. enraged. reso-
lutte, unyielding, went calmly to the
polls and voted for independence"
Small and obscure was the party of
independence at the first sitting Of
the congress in 1874. But the cruelty
of the mad king, George Ill, during
the intervening time reused the people
even before 1t aroused their leaders.
Says Eugene Lawrence, writing on the
theme of Independence
How often had men sighed for a
land in which honest industry might
enjoy its prudent gains and virtue win
certain tolerance! How often had
the wise and pure of every age met to-
gether to found a republic and been
deceived. When Europe was a saw
age wilderness, except for a thin line
of settlements around the Mediterran-
can sea. when all England and France,
Germany and Spain were the haunts
of savage tribes. fair. adventurous.
brilliant race had sprung up on the
shores of the Aegean. and medtated
from the acropolis on the rights OF
man. The Greeks invented the prin-
ciples of the commonwealth. The half
inspired intellect of Greece founded a
series of republics that faded one by
one before the influence Of caste and
slavery. A Latin race took up the con-
ception. The plebeians of Rome dis
cussed beneath their seven hills the
rights of man. the theory Of universal
suffrage, the equalization of property
and the principles of the public veal.
But slavery disappointed all their
hopes. Freemen disappeared Society
knew but two classes, the enslaving
and the enslaved.
Emigration cultivated all western
Europe: but the theory of a republic
vanished in a universal tyranny. The
republics of the middle ages-rude.
coarse, severe, yet progressive-fell in
to the hands of tyrants. The refor-