Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-07-05
JULY FOURTH I776-l9|8
The One Hundred and Forty Second Anniversary of The
United States of America-The Beginning Present
and Future of The American Ideal

Just 142 years ago the founders of
this First American Republic signed
the Declaration of Independence, the
logical sequence of the Magma
Charta, and herald of a new era in
the social, economic, industrial, polit-
ical, and religious relations of people
one to another. 1t was more than
the announcement of group of peo-
pie dwelling in a more or less con-
tiguous territory that they declared
their independence of that govern
ment to which they had been held
amenable and that they were about
to set up government of their own
differing in some radical points from
any other government then existent;
it was the declaration of the discov-
cry on the part of men themselves
of the independence of their own
souls; their equality before the stand
ards of Eternal Truth and Absolute
Justice; their inalienable rights in
the presence of the Infinite God and
the sovereignty of Manhood and Wo-
manhood endowed by the Creator.
That Declaration Of independence
was the beginning of the ultimate end
of unjust oppression or control of the
lives and destinies of men and wo-
men under the name of government,
Of tyranny, of wrongful usurpation of
authority, and of the substitution of
any other standard whatsoever for
the supreme standard of human
Freedom and Equality.
How well those founders of this
great nation did their work is mat
ter of history. That they made their
mistakes, errors of judgment, and
were sometimes swayed by their own
human prejudices all fair minds may
be ready to admit; but these things
sink into 'insignifcance when COM
pared with their loyalty to their own
high ideals and the heroic sacrifices
they made to maintain them. They
had the courage of their convictions
there was no wavering, no hesitancy;
theirs was no divided service; per-
sonal interests, ambitions, fortunes
comforts, pleasures, all made secon-
dary and subservient to the attain
ment of that independence and free
dom which they declared was theirs
by right, and not for themselves alone
but for all people; nothing they could
give, even life itself, was in their es-
timation too great a price to pay tc
secure for themselves and their pos
terity and all those who might come
to cast in their lot with them, a free
land where men might worship theil
| God according to the dictates of theil
own conscience, build up their owl
homes and provide for their owr
without fear or favor. There was NJ
authority to dictate who should gt
to meet the enemy or who shoulc
stay; no government to levy take:
to meet the expenses of war; they
came voluntarily to give themselve;
and their possessions to the grea
cause of human Liberty Washington
stands unique among the great lead
ers of men in all the history of tn,
race. His private and personal in
terests were all in another spher
than that of the common people; h,
could claim by right of birth a Sc
cure place in the ranks of so-callet
aristocracy as one who might expec
according to the system of the times
to profit by the labors of others. Blu
renouncing all this, he gave his time
his ability, his energy, himself, to tn
cause of Democracy. He could no
sit in White House and call a
army into the field to defend hi
standards. There was no Whit
House, no organized government
through which to raise the necessar
funds with which to equip and main
tain an army and yet this mar
George Washington, creates an arm
men rally to him as leader, be
cause they have the same spirit a
himself and are willing to join hir
in making the sacrifice necessary t
sustain and maintain a noble caust
The Spirit of '76, unsurpassed in a
the annals of history! The glory c
their honor remains undimmed. Thes
are they who unselishly gave then
selves to establish a free nation.
1t remained for Abraham Lincol
in whom this same American idei
: shone with unabated brilliancy,
tell the world in unforgetable wore
what these men of '76 have done
They established here on the Yves
ern continent a government "of tt
people, by the people, and for tt
people" They have stated for q
:. time the undying principle that q
. just government must derive it's rigl
authority from the consent of Il
governed.
$ 1t remained also for Abraham Lii
coin to lead this nation in sweepir
: from its boundaries that glaring col