The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1928-06-29

The OVe OF liberty is mSIlnc-
tive to all men in all ages. To the
Latin and Slavonic races, liberty
has been like some heavenly nebu-
la, luminous and unattainable. To
the fierce and practical Saxon, it
was a concrete thing upon which
he must verify lay his hands.
The story of the American Con-
stitution is the story of the Anglo
Saxon race. It's realization is the
outcome of a slow process of his
torical development from the Nor
man Conquest to the surrender at
Yorktown.
The seeds of Anglo-Saxon self
government fruited at Runny-
mede, when the barons of Eng
land forced King John to sign the
Magma Charta. They fruited
again when Oliver Cromwell
drove his worthless sovereign
from the English throne. They re-
produced a thousandfold when
Washington, submerged in the
wintry SHOWS of Valley Forge,
called upon his God to deliver his
Nation from the British chains of
depotism. From the days of Mag
ma Charta to the days of George
III, liberty had been developing.
America is the destiny of a mas
pioneering people deter
to preserve in the New
World the fruits of a thousand
years struggle for freedom in the
old. The story of our country is
grander than that of the Greek,
and nobler than that of the Ro-
man. It's struggle for existence.
it's expansion, and the courage and
endurance of its men and women,
challenge the best and noblest of
all the recorded past.
Struggles of the CoIonists
From the earliest colonial per-
iod, all the aspirations for politi-
cal security and progress led to
the establishment of the principle
Of representation in government.
The charters under which the
colonists built their settlements,
he laws they made, their at
at union, and their grow
.ng independence up to 1889, all
'orm the background of our Con
;titution. Starting with the es-
Adjustment of the Virginia House
If Burgesses 1919, there was a
continuance in the growth of re-
preventative assemblies in all of
he colonies, so that by the time
If the Revolution, the political
struggle had become one between
Parliament on the n hand and
the representative assemblies on
the other.
When English liberties failed
the North American colonists they
Detitioned the King. In vain they
appealed to Parliament for the
lights of English men. The ans
yer to this petition and appeal
vas fleets and armies. the blood
If Lexington, and the fires of
J~harlestown.
The colonists writhed under
he principle of taxation without
representation, and strong only in
he justice of their cause and the
;toutness of their hearts, they
lung defiance in the face of the
mightiest military power in Chris
tendon.
Then dawned a new era for the
country, because the divine
spark of nationality first kindled
by that act, was famed into a
mighty flame, which Immediately
throughout the thirteen
colonies. "Union!" "Union.i" was
the instructive and simultaneous
cry throughout the land. indie
.pendence was declared and the
il~lustrious Washington led his
country through a long, despair
ing victory over a people who had
acknowledged no victor for 700
years.
Drifting Into Chaos
The veterans who stood with
Washington and Lafayette at
Yorktown saw cleaning the rain
bow of promise of a new nation,
under whose institutions liberty,
order. and opportunity should be
enjoyed by millions. They saw a
nation with new ideals and new
purposes conceived in the holy
thoughts of Liberty, Equality,
and Freedom" the most sublime
doctrine since the Sermon on the
Mount.
Let us never forget that we pos
sess a noble inheritance bought
for us by the toll and suffering
and the blood and sacrifice of our
ancestors.
At the close of the Revolution,
the liberated colonies We're drift
ing into anarchy and chaos for
the need of an effective central
government. In 1777, Congress
adopted the Articles of C~onfedera-
ton which were ratified by the
States in 1881. These soon proved