Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-07-05
ASBURY PARK
HEARS WILSON
Governor Mads Stirring Ad-
dress on July.
Special By United Press Wire.

Ocean Grove, July 5;-Governo1
Wilson was the principal speaker al
the Fourth of July celebration here
yesterday. He said in part;
1t is an interesting and delightful
circumstance that the celebration Of
the Fourth of July never grows stale
with us. The birth of the nation will
always be for us a memory of thrill
ing and t~ranscendent interest. We
can never cease to rejoice that q
free government came into existence
in such memorable circumstances on
this continent, which was destined to
be devoted to free institutions. The
greater the nation grows the more
vital will her early history seem to
us, the more truly significant of the
important and memorable things
that were to follow.
1t is not the memories of the strug-
gle that made us free, not the def
mite recollection of the causes and
proyocations of the war of indepen-
dence that excite US. These things
grow dim with us. We have lost the
feeling of a small and struggling ma
ton. We have taken our place in
the great family of nations, along
side the great power whose rule we
then flung off. The bitterness of the
struggle is long past. We look back
to 1t without resentment and deal
with the great nation from which
we then separated not only without
hostile feeling, but with genuine cor
diality and an affection sprung out of
memories Of common origins and
common institutions.
Yet the whole transaction seems
&c grow IN interest rather than to
lose it. The point is not that we re-
jected the authority Of England. The
very men who led the Revolution
reverenced the constitution Of the
mother country, knew the rong and
handsome history of the struggle for
liberty by which 1t had been built
up; knew that, even in that day of
blunders and mistaken policies that
alienated her colonies, her govern
ment was the freest in the world, the
model Of all peoples who then looked
to see representative government
supplant tyranny that held other
lands in it's grip. Their motive was
the permanent motive in the history
of liberty. What gives the American
Revolution Its character and distinc-
ton Is not that the colonies in Am
erica rejected a government insult
ed for England, but that they re
jected a government unsuitable for
themselves. The whole point of the
struggle was that the English gov
eminent could not understand them
and their affairs, could not adjust
it's authority 10 their interest, would
not give them the latitude and free
dom necessary for their own devel-
opment, was too narrow in its con-
ception of authority to allow colo
MES anywhere to grow to the full
stature of vigorous states. 1t was a
cas- Of maladiustment and of author
ity exercised in a way that was not
suitable to the real circumstances
and interests of those upon whom it
was eXerted.
Our connection with England cut
off, the struggle, the incessant, i'm
p~lacable struggle, was transferred to
this side the water. Having cast off
the authority of England as ~unsuita-
BILE, We set about putting together
institutions for ourselves which
would be suitable, anr the history
of u politics since that great tran
saction has been the history of read
1ustment. At each stage there has
been disclosed a new necessity for
some fresh declaration of indepen-
dence, independence of this, that or
the other wrong adjustment of law
or unfortunate development of eco
nomic relationship.
The thing to be proud of and to
base u hope upon is that these
declarations of independence have
one by one been made ~effectual as
the first declaration was. 1t is my
wish today to dwell upon the
things that have so far kept US from
error and misfortune.
In the first place, we have at each
stage of this struggle for develop
ment and constant readjustment
looked at the facts with clear, UNI
clouded eyes. We have had the sa-
gacity at each stage to see things
as they were, to handle them as we
handled the original matters Of rev.
o%lutiOn, not as fancies, but as def
mite, indisDutable facts. This is our
title to self government.
In the second place, at the same
time that we say clearly, we have
acted in a spirit of self possession
like men, not like children; like men
schOOled to the orderly developments
Of law, unlike impatient nOvices
who think that law car be thrust
aside and every process FASTENED
beyond the pace with which law can
be kept up.
We have been blessed moreover,
with calm leadership. Our develop
ment has been guided by men who
not only had a full comprehension o.
what It was we desired and needed
to hefe, but also Of the means, the
rea3Onable and prudent means, by
which it could be obtained. States
rIanship naturally fourishes among
a people habitually able to see things
as they are.
We have accordingly acted upor
constructive, not destructiA pro
grams; by process of com1 coun-
ell and not by process Of Epatien1
revolt. We have been mSsters o
our own life and Of ovr fortunes