The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-06-30
INDEPENDENCE DAY.

| Next Wednesday the American peo-
pie will again celebrate their natal day,
their day of independence, when. for
the first time in the history of the
world the doctrine that all men were
created and endowed with the right to
freedom compatible with the general
good, was enunciated. 1t may be re-
called that when the Declaration of
independence was proclaimed it's own
dicta failed of application in the coun-
try and among the people whose polit-
ical creed it was intended to be. Men
were not free nor equal, nor did they
have full opportunity to pursue happi-
ness, for when the fathers of the
country were laying its foundations
they were convinced, one and ALL that
the Declaration of independence was
for the white men and not for the
black. The wit who therefore said that
the old liberty bell cracked when pro-
claiming the Declaration of Independ-
ence because it proclaimed a lie, was
good deal of a philosopher after ALL
But time gave potency and fact to a
document which was originally a pos
sibility and a theory only. It is true
this latter condition was secured only
after protracted agitation and one of
the f1ercest wars in history, "a war that
grew to hatred as it was prolonged, a
hatred such as family strife only knows
and which ceased only when one party
to the strife was completely exhausted.
But the close of our civil war gave full
est compliment to the theories of the
fathers, and it was supposed that in
America for ever after the doctrine
that all men are created equal, in so
far as the right to enjoy life, liberty
and happiness is concerned, would
never be denied practical application
That people who had endured the
horrors of a civil war that decimated
almost millions of the population,
should ever forget the agony they en-
dured for a vital principle, and be the
first to reject the doctrines for which
they had contended for a hundred
years seems incredible
And yet, if recent events in American
ly show that in the present governing
classes there is a strong tendency to
depart from the principles whose adop-
ton and proclamation we with much
show and emphasis shall celebrate on
Wednesday, next.
How far the. tendency extends future
events must determine.
l.,
of July oratory of a different charac-
ter from the past, while there will not
be wanting those who will contend that
principles of freedom to which Ameri-
cans are entitled by divine right, are
not to be given to men fighting for
freedom in other parts of the world
The spirit of national ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
and vulgar commercialism will find
place on the lips of many a flambag-
ant orator.
We may hope, too, that in many parts
of our country there will be found
men who, with clarion voices, will re-
call to the minds of the people the
deeds of the past and thus arouse them
TO a sense of duty which grosser things
may for the time obscure in the minds
of some. If America has any destiny,
and we hear much of destiny these
days, it is to do right-to so act to-
wards others and weaker peoples that
they, too, may know the fitness of
larger life and enjoy the benefits to
which they are justly entitled.
Our next Fourth Of July will be a
failure unless we approach our duty,
not alone to ourselves, but to all man
Kind 2 G ,atnll