Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-06-21

The unyeiliDg was the only serious hitch
in the program. The recent rains bad SO
swollen the cords that the knife designed to
cut the cord that held the veil, refused to
work when Miss Virginia Andrews pulled
the rope, and the covering had to be lit
terally dragged from the monument.
Hon. D. o. Watkins Address.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentle
mem
In behalf of the County Of Glouces-
ter and upon the part of its people, /
thank you, and through you, the peo-
pie of our beloved commonwealth, for
this beautiful testimonial to patriotism
and in commemoration of that event
full battle of Fort Mercer, fought upon
these hallowed grounds, for the ac-
complishment of one of the grandest
achievements of all times; the ac-
Movement of human liberty; next to
the establishment of the Christian re-
ligion itself, the. most momentous to
mankind; the right of man to life, h
berty and the pursuit of happiness,
and to worship God according to the
dictates of his own conscience.
Our beautiful monument stands to-
day crowned with civilizations OF our
people. 1T may or may not be proof
against the cavil of critics, but nothing
is proof against the casualties of time.
The storms and winds of winter must
blow and beat upon it. The action of
the elements may soil and diScOlor it.
The lightning from Heaven may scar
and blacken it; an earthquake may
shake it's foundation. Some mighty
tornado or resistless cyclone may rend
its massive blocks asunder, and hurl
huge fragments to the ground, but the
principles which it commentaries, will
remain forever, unchanged and I'M
changeable throughout all future gen
erations, and will more and more
command the respect and homage of
all nations of the earth.
It is eminently fitting that our State
should have exercised its liberality in
the erection of this monument upon
the most important battlefield of the
County of Gloucester one Of the orr
ginal counties of the State, and which
then extended from Burlington county
on the north to the Ocean on the
south, and which ever, during its ex-
istence, has given literally of its
treasures and its best manhood to-
wards erecting and sustaining the
structure of freedom, which we now
enjoy, and from the darkest days of
Valley Forge and of Princeton to the
recent times of Cuba and the Philip
pines in the north and south of our
own country, and in the sunny cline
of Mexico, wherever the flag of our
country has moved onward and on
ward, in promoting and defending the
principles for which the heroes of
TIT struggled and fought upon these
grounds, the County of Gloucester,
rich in its history, has furnished its
full ranks of young manhood, and
there is scarce battlefield, wherein
a struggle has been maintained for
these principles, but has among its
unmarked, heroic dead, some sons OF
our beloved old county. who laid their
lives upon their country's altar, the
1oftiest sacrifice man can offer, in or
der that the work of the patriots sof
Rhode Island. should not have been in
vain.
No more fitting place than Fort
Mercer could have been chosen for the
erection of this noble shaft, for with
in hearing distance of these grounds,
across the now peaceful Delaware, in
the old City of Penn, rang out the
first salute from the pealing bell, to
the new Declaration of independence;
that work in the handwriting OF man,
but in the wisdom of its structure en-
dowed with omnipotent meaning and
strength, and the echo of the tones OF
that bell have since continued through
ali generations and all lands, and for
ever will continue, until the last OBJ
struction to the right of all peoples to
govern themselves, in governments of
the people, for the people and by the
people shall have been swept aside,
and all the world shall rise up and cry
out, as with one accord, Blessed,
blessed voice of Liberty"
No more fitting place than this,
either, because rising in its majestic
grandeur, upon the highest point Of
the River Delaware, just at the en-
trance to the important port OF Phila.
delphia, its view unobstructed for
miles down the river, the first impos-
ing object to catch the eye OF the
weary emfgrant, whose life has been
that of the serf and oppressed, and
leaving with his family and his little
all, the traditions of the old world and
seeking those of the new, as he leans
over the side Of the approaching yes
sci and queries in foreign tongue its
meaning, what his feelings, what a
teacher as it stands in grim silence,