The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-04

| to concentrate your affections. TBe name of America, which belongs 10 you. in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriot ism.'
 Inspired by Washington's example, the French patriot, the Marquis ae | Lafayette, hastened to America to aid in her struggle for independence Looking back on that day, he wrote: From the moment that l first heard the name of America, loved her; frou' the moment that l learned of her struggle for liberty. 1 was inflamed with the desire of shedding my blood in her cause"
 But a people cannot long retain 1, their liberty without a system of gov ernment and law. Among those who clearly saw this truth was AleXander Hamilton, who toiled day and his mt i for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. When that Con- stitution was in danger he said: "A nation without a national gov ~ernment is in my view an awful spec tacle. The establishment of a Constl- tuition in time of profound peace, by the voluntary action of all the people is prodigy 1t is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Az mi ghty hand which has been so frs- quently and signally extended to on. relief"
 These words of Alexander Hamilton inspire us to loyalty to the Constita- tion of the United States. Our Con- stitution established the most popular and at the same time the strongest government that the world has ever seen, and it did so because it adde law to liberty and made both secure.
 Yet our forefathers were conscious L great patriot, Thomas Jefferson, said:
 Though the will of the majority IS in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable :. the minority possess their equal rights which equal law must protect and to violate which would be oppression"
 By these words we are warned that self-contro1 and a sense of Justice are vital to the preservation of liberty.
 And now, having liberty, law and justice, is this not all to make na- tion great? Benjamin Franklin did not think so. Born in poverty, Le won his position among our national leaders by his toll, an experience which taught him that political free dom does not lessen the necessity for individual effort. as he forcibly re- minds us in these words:
 The taxes are, indeed, very heavy; anu II tliOSC ldlu Oli Dy lHc SONCIHlilc were the only ones we had to pay. we might the more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness. three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the com missioners canot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement"
 ha 1f i,yx EVra LII less than his words emphasizes the truth that industry thrift and honesty are necessary to maintain freedom.
 Having established our government, our forefathers realized that it could not be preserved without the continued devotion of it's citizens. Nowhere, perhaps, is the individual responsibil- ity of American citizenship more strik- ingly set forth than in these words of Daniel Webster:
 "If in our case the representative system ultimately fail, popular gov ernment must be pronounced impos- sible The last hopes of man kind therefore. rest with us, and if it should be proclaimed that our ex- ample had become an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded throughout the earth"
 At about this time men were begin ming to build homes in the west ard there they learned still more of the blessings of a free and law-abiding country. One of the greatest of these pioneers, Henry Clay, at the end Of his brilliant career in the United States Senate, said:
 T emigrated from Virginia to the state of Kentucky now nearly 45 years ago; I went as an orphan boy who had not yet attained the age of ma jority; who had never recognized fathers smile, nor felt his warm ca- resses; poor, penniless, without the favor of the great. with an imperfect and neglected education, hardly slf- ficient for the ordinary business and common pursuits of life; but scarce had I set my foot upon her generous soil when I was embraced with par ental fondness and caressed as though I had been favorite child"
 The life of Henry Clay is a per- petual reminder of the gratitude to which the United States is entitled from her citizens.
 In the days of Webster and Clay our country was facing a great crisis,