The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1921-07-02
New Note
in Nations
Celebration

Today there is Il new note struck
on the Fourth of July. The old VIC
tories of the Revolution recede into
the dimmest past and poets who have
written. as did that patriotic son Of
New Jersey, Doctor Thomas Dunn
English, of how
There flows Assanpink; yonder Mon
mouths plain
Spreads green before us. fertile with its
slain:
There Trenton rises, where our fortune
Turned to the flood when at its ebb the
worst;
There Princeton. too, whose college folk
Where startled Britons took their first
degree:
There is the Tory blockhouse on the ridge,
There Paulus Hook. Red Bank and ouin-
tons Bridge;
or, like Bryant, have sung how
The British soldier trembles
When Marion's name is told,
will be the bards of ancient American
history-a history ever to be cherished
but no longer to fill the foreground
in the national annals. Even Gettys-
burg and Chickamauga recede, and
the bloody shirt, buried deeper than
ever plummet sounded, seem forever
incapable of another languid flap. New
tliumphs and new ideals fiji the minds
of abe people who have. in part at
least, realized the aspiration of the
patriot who declared:
Our banner still defiance nings
To seeptered power and may not rest until
All peoples and all lands alike are free
From threat of princes and their brood
of tyranny.
None the less, many of the old eX-
%hortations still ring true. To the end
of time Americans can repeat the
words uttered by Daniel Webster, not
many months before his death, when
the republic completed its seventy
fifth year and the great orator entered
on his SEVENTEEN:
IllS anniversary uliiihulto anu
gladdens and unites all American
hearts. On other days of the year
we may be party men, indulging In
controversies more or less important
to the public good we may have likes
and dislikes, and we may maintain our
political differences often with warm
and sometimes with angry feelings.
But today we are Americans all in all,
nothing but Americans. y y Ev-
cry mans heart swells within him
every mans port and bearing become
snneVhat more proud and lofty as he
4am fk.tpat seyeni1lfive yeaEStha4v
rolled away and that ne gre~O1nheri-
T. nee of liberty is still his-his un
diminished and unimpaired, his In all
x original glory, his to enjoy, his
" protect, and his to transmit to
~ generations
retar's rival ORR .om
his own state, Edward Everett, they
can apostrophize the flag:
"All hail to u glorious ensign |
Courage to the heart and strength to
the hand, to which in all time 1t shall
be intrusted May it eve wave in
honor, In unsullied glory and patriotic
hope on the dome of the capitol, on
the country's stronghold, Oh the en-
tented plain, on the wave-rocked top
mast Wherever IN the earth's sur
face the eye of the American shall
behold 1t, may he have reason to bless
It'll On whatever spot it is planted,
there may freedom have a foothold,
humanity a brave champion and reli-
gion an atari Though stained with
blood In a righteous cause. may 1t nev-
er in any cause be stained with shame !!
alike when It's gorgeous folds shall
wanton in lazy holiday triumphs on
the summer breeze and its tattered
fragments be dimly seen through the
clouds of war may it be the joy and
pride of the American heart! First
raised in the cause of right and liber-
ty, in that cause alone may it forever
spread out its streaming blaZonry to
the battle and the STORM Having
been borne VIGOROUSLY across the con-
tinent and on every sea, may virtue
and freedom and peace forever follow
where it leads the way!"
With Henry Ward Beecher at a
later date, they can stand beside the
graves Of their dead and take com
fort from the truths that an enlarged
vision brings within their grasp:
"Oh, tell me not that they are dead
that generous, that airy army Of
invisible heroes. They hover as a
cloud of witnesses above this nation.
Are they dead that yet speak louder
than we can speak, and a more uni
versal language? Are they dead that
yet act? Are they dead that yet
move upon society and inspire the
people with nobler motives anu more
heroic patriotism? Ye that mourn, let
gladness mingle with your tears. He
was your son, but now he is the ma
TONS. He made your household
bright; now his example inspires a
thousand households. Dear to his
brothers and sisters, he Is now brother
to every generous youth In the land.
Before, he was narrowed, appropriated,
shut up to you. Now he is augmented,
set free and given to all. Before, he
was yours; he Is ours. He has died
from the family that he might live
to the nation. Not n name shall be
forgotten or neglected; and 1t shall
by and by be confessed of our modern
heroes as it is Of an ancient hero, that
"