The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-07-20
FINE ADDRESS The 4th
Delivered by John Elliott at The
Celebration at the Farm of j..
f. CARRIER, July 4th.

| Today under Americas skies, whose
hills and wales and groves are kissed by
Gods sunshine and caressed and cool
ed by ten thousand breezes, in village
and town, in cities and groves, eighty
millions of people have assembled to do
homage to the birth of our nation. In
capitols of the old world, in London, in
Paris, Berlin and Vienna, and wherever
Americas missionaries of commerce or
government or religion may abide,
wherever American manhood or woman
hood may be, whether in countries
governed by monarchial institutions
the most autocratic, or whether under
limited republics, the stars and stripes
will be unfurled and anthems express
sive of the triumphs OF republican insti-
tutions and our progress as nation
will ascend, and today the people will
again be reminded as they have been
for l30 years past, that every citizen of
our broad land is a sovereign crowned
by the rights of American citizenship,
the right to worship God according to
the dictates of his sown conscience, and
the right to carve for himself a name on
the tablets Of time the equal of the
proudest achievements of man. and
these grand institutions of government
bequeathed to us by the consecrated
blood and brain of our ancestry, have
been to all races from Briton and Celt.
to Frank and Slav, to the Latin races,
to Moslem and Greek, a guiding star of
hope and haven filed with grand op-
portunities, and that have perhaps lift
ed something of the oppression and ty-
; ranny from his own national conditions.
For today the boundaries of nations are
leveled by commerce and the world is a
community of interests bound by steam
and electricity. and modified by the in
tellectual standards that are the prop
erty of all nations.
There are two elements that are pres
ent at the birth of nation. These are
either grand personal magnetism or a
grand principle. The Macedonian en-
pire was the product of the military
genius of Alexander, the rise of the
Persian empire was due to the organiz-
ing abilities of Cyrus the Mead, the rise
OF the first empire of France in modern
times was due to the commanding mill
tary genius of Napoleon. But the rise
OF the republic Of the United States of
America was heralded by that grand
principle for the first time proclaimed
among the sons of men, that all men are
created free and equal before the law.
For this principle was the hillsides of
, New England and the valleys and wood
lands of the sunny south enriched by
the blood of our patriotic fathers.
The human race takes step forward
and centuries have been written in the
great book of time. Nearly three thous-
and years ago in Greece, in Carthage
and Rome, the name republic or demoo-
racy and its meaning were coined, the
meaning of self government was imper
fectly understood, each while laudine
freedom as the greatest boon of condi
4 tions among men, created inequalities
among citizens. Rome was divided into
two classes, patrician or nobility, an6
|plebian or common people. From one
was selected senators and tribunes ant
governors of provinces; from the othel
class, the plebians, came hewers O
wood and drawers of water. In Greco.
some cities imposed the death penalt,
on senator for engaging in commercial
pursuits, or manual labor, creating al
aristocracy of conditions. The ancien
spar tans, controlled and restricted il
all the social and civil walks of life, We
extolled and applauded the name O
liberty. Unable to select their wive
without the sanction of the state, com
PEELED to walk in a certain style, to tall
/ in certain tone, their individualit,
surrendered to the state in hundreds Q
ways, yet they believed themselves TIL
best governed people in the worlG
The Roman republic whose code g
jurisprudence was founded upon tn
J laws of the Grecians, whose government
endured for 200 years, was such tina
whenever a legislator proposed ne,
law he stood up in the midst of all tn
D people with rope around his neck an
proposed his law, and if it was reiecte
) by majority Ct the votes of all the pee
pie the unfortunate legislator was in
mediately strangled. Such was the be
Iginning Of the dawn Of republican inst
tutions.
Our forefathers had taken step fol
ward by declaring for no condition {
inequality in title, nor placed no dil
grace on any useful occupation. A
energy of body OF intellect directed /
Iany useful pursuit receives the con
mendation Of our social institution
Our puritan fathers landed on the blea
shores of Plymouth Rock to encounts