Year: 1876

AS 0NO"otOA Va Wi doSSACAlhS hClC
to-day is one Of universal interest. The
One Hundredth Anniversary of the Dec
laration Of our Independence is being
commemorated in all the towns and ci
ties and places of note in The United
States, and our minds reyery, NV volunta
riiy to tile stirung eveHts s1ere be-
ing enacted one hundred years ago. We
like to think of the 4th of July 1776 as
the initial point of time, when these in
FAINT states set out their grand march
from colonial dependence to the sublime
destiny which awaited them as an indie
pendent people. We like to think Of
that day and of this. Of the long inter.
vening years, and of the wonderful chan
ges that have been wrought in the NOR
al and political world by recognition
of the principles Of our Declaration of
Independence, and their embodiment in
the constitution and laws of the American
States. How steady, yet rapid, ur pro-
gress from infancy to manhood, from
poverty to wealth and from weakness to
power, until now at the close of CEN
tury from our birth as a nation we are
deservedly recognized as one of the great
nations of the earth. In power and in
fuenco, if not in wealth, the peer of any
of the nations of the old world, and the
superior of any of them, as we believe,
in the excellence of our governments and
the extcnt to which they secure to the
people the blessings of civil and religious
liberty.


In view then of the surroundings of
this Gay and of the consequences which
have flown and are still flowing from the
Declaration of Independence, it is that
the celebration of the day at Philadelphia
around and about old Independence Hall
has been gotten up with an eclat CON-
mensurate with the greatness Of the oc
casion, a most interesting feature OF
which is the grand International Exhibi-
ton which is attracting SO much atten-
Etl% t!9g' and ta wA'e" all = world i i0zi'


On such an occasion the mind rccurs
without effort to the war of Independence,
its cause. The long and seemingly
doubtful struggle. Its battles and seiges.
It's victories and defeats, and the final
triumph. In alluding briefly to the war
of the revolution, it is not my purpose to
follow that eventful struggle from the
first armed collision of the beliggcrants
at Concord, to the surrender of Cornwall
lis at Yorktown, but in reference to that
war to remark, that the separation be-
tween Great Britain and her Colonies,
sooner or later, was inevitable. 1t was
written in the book of fate. Sagacious
and far seeing English Statesmeneof the
age of Elizabeth and james the First who
witnessed the first infant settlement al
jamestown and Plymouth Rock reason.
ing from cause to effect must have reach
ed the conclusion that these infant colo
MES would in the not distant future grow
and expand into powerful states, and hav.
ing thus grown and become powerful
would in the very nature of things seek
to throw off the dominion of the parent
state and would be true to Anglo Saxon
nature and the best interests of humani
ty by setting up Independent self govern
ment as the best security for the liber-
ties of the people.


Whether the most propitious time
had arrived for the great act of sep.
eration-in word, whether the imposi
ton of tax Of three pence per pound
on all the tea imported into the colonies
in addition to the other wrongs enumer.
ated in the Declaration of Independence
were sufficient causes Tor tAe startling
measures of war, revolution and indepen
dence, is not now an open question. In
the estimation of our ancestors the time
and occasion for prompt action lad or.
rived, and the great act of separation was
accomplished by the Declaration of In
dependence, sustained and made good by
the triumphant war of the revolution.


Having thus briefly alluded to the
Declaration of Independence and its far
reaching consequences, and to the uni
versal interest that surrounds this cen.
tennial celebration of that event, have
now to invite your attention to the proc
lamation of the President OF the United
States, bearing date the 25th day Of May
1876 in which be recommends the people
on this day to assemble in their respec
, tives counties, towns and other places o
note to listen 10 an address to be deliv
cred by some person chosen for the oc
casion, to'embrace historical sketch o
such counties, towns or other localities
and I having been invited to speak o