The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-04
LIEF us REMEMBER.

To many-perhaps . majority-of people. the Fourth of July means day of noise and frolic. of holiday and eating and indulgence Of the appetite. and of all kinds of excesses in a great many cases. If they take a day on from their regular occupations they en- joy 1t in their own way and neither think or care for the real significance of the day.
 But to the thoughtful American the day has an important and solemn meaning as the date on which a new nation was borh and weak but brave people made 1t known to the world that they would no longer be the sub jects of King or queen, but would be . free and independent nation. Few more solemn occasions have occurred in the history of any people than this Few braver acts are recorded than was this solemn Declaration of Independ- ence. The leaders in that movement understood full we'll Its dangers and uncertainties, as well as they under stood its importance. They knew that the Colonies were weak in numbers. In finance and in all the munitions and ap- pliances of war. They were weak in everything but patriotism. courage ana devotion to their rights and the great cause of human independence.
 And so, on that historic day in the old city of Philadelphia, the delegates of a determined people assembled m solemn convention in 1ndependence Hall, took their lives, their liberty ana their property in their own hands. They locked the door asainst the motn- CT country and threw the key away. They burned all the bridges behind them and built wall in the path or retreat. Each man who affixed his name to the document knew that ne might be signing his own death war rant. The signature was agurative halter around his neck.
 For, whatever might be the result of defeat, so far as the common people were concerned, those who led in this movement knew that nothing but suc- cess could afford them security. If the failed they would be consid- cred traitors. and might expect the trait or's doom. Connscation of property. or the block was the fate of traitors and all that must have been in the minds of the signers as they gathered about the table and af- fixed their names to the document which at once freed them and bound them. It freed them from all allegiance to England and the King. and 1t bound them by the most solemn tie to the future of a new nation, an infant In size and strength but giant in sub lime devotion to the cause of human freedom.
 And so it Is not merely meet and proper that this day should be becom- ingly celebrated, but it Is duty which all good citizens owe to a great event and to those who inaugurated 1t. Pa triotic speeches and the reading of the great Declaration are timely. and fit method of paying proper respect to the occasion and to its origin. That 1t has to a great extent become day of roystering and dissipation and noise cannot destroy Its significance. Fire works are not inappropriate. because they typify the war which was then on, and which was made national by the signing of the Declaration But whatever is done. and in whatever way the day Is spent. we should bear in mind that on that memorable Fourth of July. 1776. brave, devoted and self sacrificing men most solemnly declared that the thirteen American Colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States That is senti- ment worthy of the best thought and best efforts of any people, and we who are reaping the benefits and blessings of the daring and devotion of the brave patriots of '76 should never allow the true significance of the day to escape us.