Arizona republican., 1907-02-23
NATIONAL IRRfVERFNCt
 OF AMERICAN PEOPLE
Former President Grover Cleveland Describes
 Lack of Interest in Holidays
The Address of the Former President Before the Union League Club of Chicago On the Occasion of WashingtOn's Birthday.

Chicago. Feb. 22.-FOrmer President Grover Cleveland this afternoon ad-
 dressed the Union League club of Chi
 cagO on the occasion of the celebra-
 ton of WashingtOn's birthday. The
 general topic of MT. Cleveland's re-
 marks was the condition of the repub-
 lie. He said:
 The American people are but little given to the observance Of public hOli- days. This statement cannot be disposed
 of by the allegation that our national
 history is too brief to allow the accu- mutation of days deserving civic com
 memOratiOn. Though 1t is true that
 our life as a people, according to the standard measuring the existence of nations, has been a short one. 1t has filled with glorious achievements; and though 1t must be conceded that it is not given to us to see in the magnify ing mirage of antiquity, the exaggerat- ed forms of American heroes, yet in the bright and normal light shed upon
 our beginning and growth. are seen grand and heroic men who have won imperishable honor and our everlasting remembrance. We cannot therefore ex- cuse a lack of commemorative inclina- tiOn and languid interest in recalling the notable incidents of our cOuntry's | past under the plea of a lack of com memOrative material; nor can we in this way explain our neglect adequately to observe days which have actually been set apart for the especial mani ! festatiOn of our loving appreciation of the lives and the deeds of Americans, | who in crises of our birth and develop ment have sublimely wrought and mo- | hly endured.
 ! If We are inclined to look for other 1 excuses, one may occur to us which | though by no means satisfying. may appear to gain a somewhat fanciful plausibility by reason of it's reference ! to the law of heredity. It rests upon ! the theory that those who secured for 1 American nationality its first iOothOld and watched over It's weak infancy
 were So engrossed with the persistent
 and unacceptable labOrs that pressed
 upon them, and their hopes and aspira- tiOns led them so constantly to thoughts of the future that retrOspection nearly | became with them an extinct faculty and that thus it may have happened | that exclusive absorption in things per- taining to the present and future. be- came So embedded in their natures as | to constitute a trait of character de- scendible to their pOsterity even to the ! present generation.
 ! There is another reason which might [ be advances in mitigation of our lack ! Of commemorative enthusiasm which is
 so related to our pride of Americanism ! that if We could be certain of it's sui
 ficiency we would gladly accept it as ! conclusive. It has to do with the un- deriving qualities and motives of oui ! free institutions. Those institutions ' had their birth and nurture in unselfist
 patriotism and unreserved cOnsecra-
 ton: and by decree of fate beyond
 recall or change their perpetuity and
 benifience are conditioned on the con-
 stant devotion and single-hearted loy- alty of those to whom their blessings are vouchsafed.
 But after all why should We attempt ] to delude ourselves? I am confident that l voice your convictions when l
 say that no play of ingenuity and nc
 amount of special pleading can frame
 an absolutely creditable excuse for our remissness in appropriate holiday Ob- 1 servance.
 The cOmmemoratiOn of the day or which American Independence was born, has been allowed to lose much ot I it's significance as a reminder of Prov
 idential and the inflexible patriotism ot
 the fathers of the republic, and ha.
 nearly degenerated to a revel of sense less noise and dangerous explosion 1 leaving in it's train far more of mishaT 1 and accident, than lessons of good cit | izensEip or pride of country. The ob- ! servance of Thanksgiving day is kep
 alive through it's annual designation b! federal and state authority. But it is