Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1900-07-12
oRArIoN BY cHAs. coHILL


off TO the far east where lay the Philippine
Islands wherever our glorious flag is
raised, thousands-aye, millions of our
fellow countTymen are gathered together
for the same purpose that brings us here
and twenty fourth birthday OF our national
Independence This is the first national
birthday of the beginning of the twentieth
century, and il is fitting that we should
celebrate it in a manner creditable to our
selves and to our country.
When we look back to the Fourth of
July 1776, when the entire union, COM
posed as it was OF thirteen States contained
a population of scarcely FIVE millions of
people, and see to what vast proportions it
has grown, TO day composed as it is of
forty-iour States and five territorial
governments, with a population of more
than eighty millions of people, we are lost
in admiration and amazement, for never in
the history of the world has any country
grown and prospered like ours. We are
the granary OF the world. We stand far
ahead of any nation in the front rank of
manufacturers in every branch of industry
Nearly all the labOr-saYing machinery used
for farming purposes and in the Various
branches of manufactures during the past
fifty years, together with the telegraph and
telephone, have eliminated from American
brains
We bald the finest ships of any nation
of the world. and can fit them out with
their machinery and ordnance stores, as is
demonstrated by the fact that Russia and
Japan have been our customers Tor years
when they wanted something better than
the mechanics of Europe could furnish
them
We are ahead in the matter of rapid
fire guns and ammunition, and when it
comes to a practical demonstration OF their
use we can furnish ."the men behind the
guns equal, if not superior, to any nation
ON the face Of the eartn.
But it is not alone in the art of war that
we excel. We stand in the front rank in
all the arts of peace. We are the greatest
agricultural nation in the world. Looking
oyer the statistics of the Bureau of
Agriculture for the past year, we are in-
formed that the State of Kansas alone raised
400,000000 bushels OF corn, besides up
wards of $4,000 900 bushels of wheat The
two Dakotas North and South raised
100 000, 000 bushels of wheat these are
only three out of our collection of forty
four States). We have food enough to
spare, of bTeadstufIs and canned meats to
feed the whole Of Europe. Indeed the
densely populated countries of the old
world would 90 hungry if theydid not have
the food supply of the United States 10
draw from,
We have sent ship loads of provisions
free to feed the starving subjects of Rnssis.
We have done the same for Ireland in years
gone by when the crops failed, and we are
now collecting money and food to save
Great Britains starving subjects in India,
while the British Government is ton busy
with their army OF more than 200 600 men
IN wiping out two little Dutch Republics
from the map Of Africa, to pay heed to
their own starving subjects.
Nearly all the powers of Europe are
building large navies. Germany, France
and Russia, while Great Britain, seeing
that her already vast navy is composed OF
ships of the old fashioned, absolete type,
are hustling to keep up navy double the
size of any Of the Others What will these
vast nayies amount to without an adequate
supply of coal The coal mines of Great
Britain have reached their maximum out
put, and are on the wane. So also are
those of all the other European powers.
How is it with as. Every week we read
of the discovery of new coal deposits. The
little State of West Virginia is found to
be underlaid with such an immense strata
Of coal that in one county alone, bordering
on the Ohio river, deposit of coal has
been found that would be sufficient to
furnish all the navies of the world with
fuel for forty years
Let as now revert back for short time,
and take up the history OF the thirteen
colonies Immediately preceding the Decla-
ration of Independence. Our country had
been overrun by government officers ap
pointed by the British crown, who lock
advantage of every opportunity &c hsrass
and bully the peaceably disposed inhabi
tants. Taxes we're imposed upon nearly
all goods of prime necessity. Food was
taxed clothing was taxed building ma
terial was taxed and so on throughout the
entire catalogue When citizens met in
town meetings TO discuss and demonstrate
against these wrongs, they were dispersed
by the civil authorities, and when that
failed, the military were called into use,
and thus on the 18th Of April, ITS, the
first gun of the American REVOLUTION was
fired at LexiDgtonl a body of British troops,
composed Of eight hundred grenadiers and
light infantry 10 arched from Boston to
c ncord and thence to LexingtOn,a distence
Of about eighteen miles, where they found
seventy men belonging to the minute COM
pany of the town on the parade ground
under arms. M.j3r Pitcairn, who led the
British troops. gailoped up to them and
called out, "dlsperse, disperse, you rebels,
throw down your arms and dispense" The
sturdy yeomanry, not Immediately Obeying
the command, were fired upon, and eight
Of their lumber were killed, and several
wounded. The shooting Of this handful
of men was like the application of fire.
brand to a powder magazine. The minute
men returned the FIRE and retreated, and
the whole country was aroused. Men from
farms workshops and factories, armed
themselves with any weapons that were at
hand and pressed forward to avenge the
deaths of those eight men that were killed
at Lexington.
Major Buttrick, of Concord, offered to
command the Americans and formed them
INTO something like military order The
colonists were armed with the most primi-
tive firearms. reech-loadiDg guns had
not even been dreamed of in those days
and tn ey had to depend upon the old flint
locks which were OF very little service in
wet weather They returned the ERE Of
the troops and killed q captain and one
private. Messengers were sent in every
direction, and men came pouring in, and
the British soldiers were forced TO retreat
The reinlorcements attacked the retreatiDg
troops from all sides. Some fired from be-
hind stone walls and other coverts and
drove them six miles back to Lexington.
Here the British troops were reinforced by
Lord Percy with eighteen hundred men
and recommended their march, but the
provincials keptup such calling fire from
behind their cover, and their aim being SO
much superior TO that of the British, that
they were utterly routed and reached Bos-
ton during the night where they took
shelter under the guns OF the Somerset
man of war and the next morning went
into Boston. IT the Salem and Marble
head regiments had arrived 10 season to
have cut Of their retreat, in all probability
bat few of the detachment would ever