Norwich bulletin., 1917-06-25
EXERCISES ON FOURTH
 AT UNION SQUARE
Musical Committee is Hard at Work
 Preparinq the Programme.

The exercises marking the one nun dred and forty-first anniversary Of the | dissolution of all political connections | between the Colonies and Great l Britain. July 4th, 1776," are to be held upon Union square, in the early even ing of Independence Day.
 The musical committee: Charles D. Geer, Frederick W. Lester and Miss Mary Rogers are hard at work prepar- ing the programme.
 Tubbs Full Military band has been engaged to enliven the occasion with patriotic selections and there are to be community sings by. hundreds of school children with other forms of patriotic musical treats.
 Allied the nation Is today, with all it's strength supporting Great Bri- tain, against foreign foe, if Is per- haps, well to review the conditions as l they existd Al years ago.
 | The first continental congress assem- | bled in Philadelphia in September, | 1774. and there laid the foundations | Of the Republic. While it's assem- l blaze was first recommended by home meetings, the cause as already shown was taken up by the assemblies of | Massachusetts and Virginia. eGorEia alone was not represented. The mme bers were called delegates, who declar were appointed by the good people of | these colonies. It was called the rev | oIutionary government" because 1t de- | rived it's power from the people, and
 
 istfng government. Tn it's each colony I was allowed but a single vote, re- | gardless of the delegates, and here be- | gan not only the unit rule, but the | practice which obtains in the election | of president when the contests reach | es under the constitution and law | the national house of representatives. The original object was to give equal | ity to the colonies as colonies.
 In 1775, the second Continental | Congress assembled in Philadelphia, l all the colonies being again represent l ed save Georgia. The delegates were
 chosen principally by conventions of | the people, though some were sent by | the popular branches of the colonial | legislatures. In July, and soon after l the commencement of hostilities, Georgia entered the Confederacy. The l Declaration of Independence, passed in ITS. drew yet plainer lines between | the Wings and Tories. gulf of | hatred seperated the opposing parties and the Tory was far more despised | than the open foe, when he was not | such and was the first sought when 1 he was. Men who contend for liberty l ever regard those who are not for | them as against them-a feeling | which led to the expression of a po- | litical maxim, of apparent undyfng force. for it has since found a fre- i quent repititiOn in every earnest cam l paign. After the adoption of the Dec | iaration by the Continental Congress. 1 the " h1SS favored the most direct and 1 obsolete separation. while the Tories | supported the Crown. On the 7th of
 June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Vir- | ginia, moved the Declaration ir these l words:
 1 Resolved, That these united colon
 ies are. and of right ought to be, free 1 and independent states that they are | absolved from all allegiance to the | Britain crown, and that all political l connections between them and the | of T2rif ic rI,f | to be, totally dissolved"
 Then followed preparations for the | formal declaration, which was adopt ed the 4th of July 1776, In the precise | language of Thomas Jefferson. All of the state papers of the Continental | Congress, evince the highest talent
 and the evils which led to its exhibi- | tion must have been long but very l patiently endured to innpeI the study l of the questions involved. Possibly only the best lives in our memory in vite our perusal, but certain it is. the | higher capacity was never called to | the performance Of graver political 1 duties in the history of the world l It has been said that the Declaration | is in imitation of that published by 1 the United Netherlands, but whether this is true or false, the liberty-lov- 1 ing world has for more than a cen
 tury accepted it as the best protest | oppression known to political history
 great occasion conspired with a great author to make it grandly great l Dr. Franklin, early as July, 1775 | first prepared a sketch of articles of confederation betwe31 the colonies, un til their decGnciliaton with Great l Britain. and in failure thereof to be | perpetual John Quincy Adams says this plan was never discussed in con-
 gress. June II, 1776, a committee was 1 appointed to prepare the force of a | colonial confedera tion. and the day fol- | lowing one member from each colony fo1 A@ 1 The report was submitted, laid aside l August 20 1776, taken up April z | TIT. and debated from time to time l until November 18th of the same year
 when the report was agreed to. Ii | was then submitted to the legislatures | of the several states. these being ad | vised to authorizE their delegates to | congress to ratify the same. On the l 18th of June, 177S, the ratification was kordered to be engrossed and signed by | shire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Is- 1 land. Connecticut. New York, Pennsyl-
 Vania, Virginia and South Carolina
 signed July 9th. 177S; those of North
 Carolina July 21; Georgia, July 24th l Jersey, November 26th: same year; Delaware February 22nd and May 5th 1 1779. Maryland refused to ratify un-
 til the question of the conflicting | arate states to the property of the i crown-lands shold be adjusted This l was accomplished by the cession of the | lands in dispute to the United States | and Maryland. signed March 1st. 17s1 | On the 2nd of March, congress, assem- 1 bled under the new powers and con-
 tinued to act for the confederacy un- 1 til March 4th. 17S9, the date of the 1 the federal constitution. Our political | life has therefore three periods "the
 revolutionary government the con- | federation and that of "the federal
 constitution" which still obtains.
 l The federal constitution is the re- l suit of the labors of a convention call | ed at Philadelphia May, 1TS7 at a time | when it was feared by many that the l Union was the greatest danger. from l inability to pay soldiers who had in | 17S3, been disbanded on a declaration l of peace and an acknowIedgement of 1 independen From prostration of the i public credit anG faith of the nation 1 from the neglect to provide for the 1 aarnf nf int nna he