Year: 1876

iH'sSloI' AlIeduy lne hover OF the Brit


lsh army was pouring upon our shores


already the mercenaries of Hesse Cassel


and other petty German sovereignties


were enlisted in the armies which had


driven the Continentals from New York


and were even now preparing to descend


upon the very city in which their dolib-


erations were being held. But there was


no wavering in the minds Of those deter


mined men. Some, indeed, thought it


best to delay the final act which should


declare a formal separation from the


mother country, but with all the blood of


the martyrs of Lexington and Bunker


Hill, OF White Plains and Long Island


could admit Of but one atonement. the


liberty of the land for which they had


died. They held, and held Justly, that


they could not ask the sympathy and


recognition Of other powers, while yet


protesting allegiance to the throne of


Great Britain. The hope held forth that


they could, by delay, obtain substantial


aid from France and other countries hos


tile to England, might be baseess one.


And while this hope could not fail to in


spire them with confidence OF final sue


cess, yet each and every man knew that


God helps those who help themselves"


and that the step they were then taking


would bring forth an Independent nation,


or leave all engaged in it to the tender


merces of n brutal tyrant.


But OF the power, the extent, the pro-
gress, the advancement in those princi


pies of government, which secures ":he
greatest good to the greatest mum ber,"
within one century from that day, the
sgners of the declaration could not have
dreamed. They fought for the liberties
of the thirteen colonies, and to them the
weary miles which lay beyond to the Pa
clhc was terra dncognito. They had
heard the trapper's tales of the natural


wealth and beauty Of this land of its


boundless plains black with herds of buff


fao of its lofty ranges of mountains


whose peaks were whitened with eternal
SHOWS of its broad and rapid rivers, the
arteries of future commerce of its null
titude Of savage natives. That This vast
region, claimed by a people whose alli-
ance they were courtng in this struggle
for freedom should, at time in the near
future become part Of the nation they
were creating, that the center of the Re
public should be on the western side of
the Mississippi, would have been held ms
the thoughts Of a lunatic or the Utopian
dreams of visionary. The world of
America was comprised in theirown mar
row limits-nearly three centuries had
elapsed since its discovery, and n century
and half since their fathers had raised
the standard Of religious freedom and
sought home in its wilds. They could
not anticipate the triumphs of science
and invention, which were 50 soon to rev
olutionize the civilized world. All they
sought, all they asked, all they contend
ed for then was the right to self govern
ment and it was in pursuit OF this right
that the bells of Liberty rung out the
changes to an exulting people on that
July morn one hundred years ago.


1t is not my purpose to-day, to follow,
throughout the dread struggle in which
this act engaged them. Their suferlngs,
their trials, their devotion, their lortitude,
their sacrifices, and their final triumph
are written in the unseaed books of our
country's history, and every child in the
land should know them. For seven
years the tide OF war swept over the land
with varying fortune, while many of the
spirits who had first girded on the armor
of battle sealed their devotion to country
with their lives. For n time the war
cloud threatened the death OF patriotic
hopes, as the feeble armies Of the colo
nsts were overpowered by the trained le-
gons which swept over the land. But
their cause was in the hand Of the God of
battle, and He had destined the Western
World as the nursery of Liberty. Out
Of the darkness came the light, and in |
the victory ofthe men Of 76, came the
freedom and nationality whose birth we
are here to celebrate to day.


The work of our fathers was not com
pleted with the recognition Of their indie
pendenco. The land thus liberated re-
qured government, and the warrior
laid down the sword to enter upon the
duties Of the statesman. In the science |
of government there was but few adopts,
the provincial congresses, and |
the legislative bodies of the colonies |
which had joined in the Articles of Con- |
federation, had developed minds which .
looked to more advanced and liberal .
form of government than any presented .
by the powers of Europe. All forms Of
government are simply delegations of
power, in which society bands together
to better demonstrate the truth Of the prin-
ciple that the first great law of Nature
is self.preservation. Tie self protection /
we cannot exert in our own behalf, we .
ask of society in the form OF law. The /
true and just form of government places
all its subjects upon an equality before .
the law rights the wrongs ofthe oppress-
ed protects the weak and helpless from
the overbearing and exactions of the .
strong. In good government and good
law are recognized the perfection Of hu-
man wisdom. Such was the form of
government which our fathers sought to
establish. Their way to do so was not so
clear as it may seem in the light Of the
present. The history of Republics, as
handed down to them in the records Of
the Old World, were not fraught with
promise for the success Of the attempt to
establish q government, republican in