The Democratic advocate., 1907-06-28
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE %. 1907
GRAFTON DELIVERED BY THE
LATE JOSEPH M. PARKE.

ers. =,
FELLOW CITIzFNs Having been call
ed so often by your kindness to otficlate Oh
occasions like the present, L would prove
recreant to the best feelings Of my hear
did not thank you, from its inmost core
for the distinguished honour. In return
it is no undeserved compliment to remark
that. by YOUR constant and faithful obser
vance of this glorious day, you prove t
the world that the patriotic fame which
animated the heroes of the Revolution
glows with undiminished ardor IN youl
breasts: and, that you will be ever ready
at the call of your country, to march tt
the battle field, willing to lose the last
drop of YOUR blood rather than surrender
vour precious birth right of Liberty ano
Independence.
The celebration of this day, In manner
consistent with religion and morality, Is
indeed the great duty of every American
freeman. It is due to the memory OF
those heroic souls who jeopardlzed then
lives and property, and P lodged thell
sacred honour to secure their country
freedom-whose chief consolation, amidst
iutolerable sufferings, was the hope that
we might reap the rich fruits Of their Ia
bours in peace, unmolested by foreign
domination. tits due to them If we would
cultivate in ourselves and posterity the
noble sentiment of gratitude; if we hold IN
proper estimation the glory Of our country
and. if we would wish to see their great
efforts in the cause of human liberty klndle
here beacon light which shall be guide
to future ages
This is solemn act Let us, while our
hearts rejoice in the felicity Of our own
condition, remember with the purest emo
tions Of gratitude, those to whom we are
indebted for all these comforts Time
rolls his ceaseless course, and, 1t Is t" he.
regretted that his resistless current has
made sad havoc in the ranks Of the patriots
of seventysix.
"How are they blotted from the things that he
How few all weak and withered OF their force,
Wait on the verge of the dark eternity,
Like stranded wrecks the tide returning h"'FSe
To sweep them from our sight.
But if the immortal spirits of 50 many
have escaped from their prison houses IN
this terrestrial atmosphere, and scared to
ethereal regions, "where spirits shine with
purer ray" yet there still linser some
among us who are not beyond the reach Of
our Offices of kindness, and can still be-
hold a nations gratitude. There is one,
at least, in this assembly whose modesty
| am sure, would shrink from being named; ;
who, in his tender years, together with his
brothers, was entered into the services Of
his country, by patriotic father; whose
mother lost her life by disease contracted
from attending, with devoted fondness, to
that father while lying sick and wounded
in the pestilential air Of a British prison
ship: who is the only relic of family dis
persed and ruined by the events Of that
war; and who bears upon his time worn
frame the scars of honorable wounds received
while in the service of his country
To have been soldier of the Revolution,
and CO. -laborer with Washington, Warren,
Montgomery, Lafayette, Greene, Wayne
and host of others, warriors and states
men, is preeminent glory 1t is enough
to secure the admiration of all patriotic
hearts, and should smooth the thorny
paths of the survivors, to the tomb
A race that knows them not cannot rise up
to fill their places Their achievements
cannot be forgotten-they are enshrined
in our hearts, and interviewer with the
history and destiny of our nation. We
feel the presence of the departed as the
presiding genii of our country; and every
fresh step that it takes as it rises to great
ness and glory, is the result of the undying
energy of the causes they called into action.
Every return Of this day brings us back
into the very midst of the Revolution.
The fields of Saratoga, Brandywine, and
Yorktown will never cease to tell their
stories, whilst the legends Of every spot
where any important transaction occurred,
will always be rife with events of the Rev
olution. The monumental marble will
proclaim forever the fame of Washington;
and the pilgrim to his tomb must always
feel his august presence still lingering
amidst the shades of Mount Vernon
To appreciate properly the price that was
paid to procure the Independence of our
country, it will be necessary to take pass
ing view Of events that preceded, and at
tended the Revolution. When the genius
of Columbus had discovered, far over the
Western main, this new world, those who
had long pined under the slavish and op-
pressive customs Of European nations, the
unchanged and Interchangeable relics of bar
barous ages, beheld in it future paradise
of Liberty; where the overgrown power of
an aristocratic nobility could not crush in
embryo the exertions of the human mind
naturally rising to liberty and equality;
when the slavish and absurd prejudices of
thousands of years would cease to bind the
minds and consciences of men; and when
the experiment Of human liberty might
take fresh start and flourish with the
country Of its adoption, a land which
heaven seems to have kept in reserve ex-
pressly for the purpose.
But scarcely had the first settlers of our
country begun to feel comfortable in their
new situation, when it was found that the
Atlantic was not too broad for the stretch
of arbitrary power. Demands were made
upon them, which even on the soil of SER
vile Europe could not have been exacted
The free and independent spirits who had
sought an asylum in the western wilds,
when, free as every object around them
they might worship their Creator unmo-
Tested, could not bear that the arm of the
oppressor should reach them here, in land
which Nature had declared independent Of
Europe by the Intervention of an ocean
three thousand miles wide; continent, in
which the productions of nature had -four.
ished unmolested for unknown ages; whose
inhabitants, the untutored savage, the wilc
beast of the forest, and the birds of heaven
had been free as the unchecked current O
its mighty rivers, and as unclaimed as tb,