Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-07-03


dependence day, writes Edward Ever.
EFT Hale in The Independent. In the
well remembered speech which he
puts into the mouth of Adams, the
| speech which a million schoolboys
have repeated, he makes Adams use
/ these words:
/ we make this a glorious, an i'm
mortal day. When we are in our
! graves, our children will honor it.
They will celebrate it with thanksgiv-
ing, with festivities, with bonfires and
Examinations. On it's annual return
they will shed tears, copious, gushing
tears, not of subsection and slavery,
not of agony and distress, but of ex-
ultation, of gratitude and of joy. Sir,
before God, l believe the hour is
| comet"
And at the end of the Adams speech,
as Mr.. Webster reproduces it, after
the words, independence now and in
dependence forever" Mr.. Webster
says:
And so that day shall be honored.
illustrious prophet and patriot, So
that day shall be honored, and as often
as it returns thy renown shall come
along with it, ard the glory of thy
life, like the day of death, shall not
fail from the remembrance of men,
] The reader will remember that by
one of those extraordinary coinci-
dences which stagger men who try
! to resolve history into myths Jefferson
! A cd he ;ofh
anniversary of the Declaration of In
| dependence
In truth there was a formal discus
| sion in the continental congress, be-
| ginning on the LIST of July, on the
: question of the Declaration. John
| Dickinson wanted to place himself on
record. The delegates just arrived
from New Jersey wanted to hear the
reasoning on both sides. There is
no record left of that great days de-
bate. OF the friends of the resolu-
ton for independence
Lee, who had moved it had been
called home; Mr. jefferson was no
speaker; George Wythe was sensible,
but not eloquent; Witherspoon was
| clear, but a trifle heavy. The de-
batting talent must be admitted to
have preponderated on the opposite
side. 1t claimed John Dickinson,
James Wilson, Robert R. Livingston
of New York and Edward Rutledge of
South Carolina.
These are Charles Francis Adams
| words. Dickinson took part in the
discussion and spoke against inn
mediate independence, ard the duty of
defending the proposal fell naturally
upon John Adams. Of this speech,
as really made. not one word has
been transmitted to posterity. But
the accounts of it agree in represent
ing it as having been in the highest
class of oratory.
/ Adams himself wrote to his wife on
the Sd of July, after the final vote had
been taken ON Lees resolution. 1t is
Webster has caught few passages
which he has interviewer into his
sketch of the speech of Adams. In
this letter Adams says:
But the die is cast. The second
day of July viii be the most mem
orahle epoch in the history of
America. / am apt to believe that it
will be celebrated by succeeding gen.
erations as the great anniversary fes-
tival 1t ought to be commemorated
as the day of deliverance by solemn
acts of devotion to God Almighty. 1t
ought TO be solemnized with pomp and
parade. with games, sports, guns,
bells, bonfires and Examinations, from
one end of this continent to the other.
from this time forward forevermore."
/ AS is well known, the celebration of
the 4th of July instead of the I'd
comes from the fact that on that day
the Declaration was signed by all
the members present
So soon as this was done a broad
side was issued which was sent to the
different states. The newspapers
copied it Immediately, and it was read
in public assemblies, sometimes from
. h. -srrS~ ~