The Republican journal., 1911-07-13
JULY 18th AT MONROE.
Address by NJ. ]. Dow of Brooks

Address by NJ. J. DOW OF BROOKS
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FELLOW CITIZENS:
In accordance with the custom and traditions
of more than century, we met together
amid the beautiful surroundings of this lovely
valley to celebrate the birth of our nation.
And in doing this we are not merely engaged
in local holiday. 1t is not we alone in this
quiet sequestered town who have thus come
together. All over this broad country today
are gathered our people for the same purpose
which brings us together here They have,
with one accord, in every State of this union
laid aside the usual avocations of their daily
lives. The husbandman has left his farm. the
merchant has closed his store, the artisan has
quit his shop, men of all trades, business and
professions, have for the day become gentle
men of leisure, with little thought of the re-
curing troubles and perplexities of the daily
routine of their existence. For the nonce dull
care is banished, the grinding round of daily
TOLL the struggle for mere existence or for
great success, is forgotten, and all unite in the
pleasures of a general holiday. The air re-
sounds with the strains of martial music.
we love, float upon the breeze. Everywhere
there is an atmosphere Of exuberent vitality,
of joyousness, of rejoicing, of strength, of a
reawakened civic and national pride. Even
excuses not usually allowable sometimes
tacitly permitted in the general enthusiasm.
And why? Why should this custom for more
than a century be continued? Why should
be still observed by the thoughtless as well as
by the sober-minded and thoughtful? Any
school boy will tell you that it is because on
July 4, 1776 the thirteen original colonies de-
cared that they were, and by right should be,
free and independent States. These colonies,
weak in material strength, and poorly provid
ed for the unequal contest with a powerful
nation, loyalty stood by their Declaration of
independence, took the field against the
embattled legions of the tyrant mother
nation, and made good their declaration.
On that day they publicly and officially laid
aside the swaddling clothes of an infant ap
pendage, and allowed by their declaration that
they owed no allegiance as a subordinate to
any nation, but that they were and would be
free and Independent. And since that time
the anniversary of that date has been observed
as independence Day. The associations of this
day we celebrate are of nature to arouse
within US all the latent sentiments of patriot
ism of love of country, of grand thoughts and
noble aspirations. We are aroused to admire
the bravery and heroism of those men, who,
scantily clothed, poorly fed, and destitute of
the necessary arms and munitions of war, for
seven long years sustained the unequal war
fare, and at last made good their word, and
sent the splendidly equipped, thoroughly
drilled legions of rich and powerful nation
back across the ocean in disgrace. Those men,
whose descendants we are, risked liberty and
life and all that the home loving citizen holds
dear in defence of principles which they
Loyalty cherished. Starving freezing, leaving
their bloody footprints in the frozen snow,
heroically meeting an enemy superior in every
respect except that of determined, skillful and
persistent bravery, they presented to the world,
and bequeathed to US, an example of heroic de-
votion to sacred cause.
Thus for more than one hundred years the
brave deeds of the men of the Revolution in
their defence of the principles of the Declare
ton of Independence have been rehearsed to
their descendants upon each returning Inde-
pendence Day. In the face of the heroic
records of our men in the Civil War, both Of
the blue and the grey, and in spite of the
many great and important events in the his
tory of our country, we as naturally bark back
to the stories of the Revolution and the decla.
ration of independence which was the formal
laying down of the principles which have
made US nation, as we in memory turn to the
associations, the stories and traditions of our
childhood home. 1t was the formal beginning
of our career as free and Independent nation
A nation respected and feared as possible
enemy by any single nation in the world today.
Poor and weak and destitute, harrassed by the
willy and treacherous redmen of the forest, as
well as combating powerful foreign foe,
meeting and subduing the beasts Of the forests.
wrestling a sustenance for themselves and
families from the then inhospitable shores