Show I 1 1 ORATION EY Y PARLEY pauley L wllliam WILLIAMS ESQ ORATOR OF THE DAY JULY 5 1890 igo mr arr president ladies and gentlemen en elpe experience r lence and observation teach us that the sentiments of mankind are strongly influenced by association the recurrence of anniversaries naturally revives the recollection and renews the impression of events with which they are connected rd places renowned in history a e a power powen to awaken sensations which are universally recognized but the tho event we are met today to day to commemorate is independent of local associations more restricted than thelast the vast expanse of our territorial domain it is an event of that character which supplies its own reflections and anth enthusiasms riis and brings with it its just encomiums the declaration of independence was at the time considered ana and properly considered by the american america ca people le to be a transaction in inhuman liu ilu anu fla aOu affairs irs of vast importance but as time removes us from the date of the event and us with its result swe are better enabled to estimate its grandeur and appreciate its importance and value As a political act of the first magnitude it has held and still holds its place in history and as such it will maintain itself as long as the love of liberty shall exist in human bosoms yet the scene and the actors who figured in it owed nothing to imposing surroundings or to dramatic effects for the profound impression it made upon the world on an occasion like this assembled as we are to express our gratitude for the a act et and admiration a din ira lra t 1 on for tho those 8 e who participated in it the thoughts instinctively turn backward and spanning the gap ot of more moore than a century aided by gah gap the he lights of history imagination llon lion supplying the details we look in on the ath day of july 1776 upon u the deliberations of that littye little body of men constituting the colo coio nial congress in the lower east room of a building then the state house of the colony of pennsylvania but since and now known as independence hall the room small plain and furnished with simple and inexpensive furniture the building itself an unpretending and recent structure in a city ot of a population but slightly in excess of ot this ill in which we are now assembled a city remarkable even amongst american lowns of that feriod period for its rural ruml m aspect an and for tile tiie u a int simplicity of its pian plan and t d structures are assembled bled between 40 and 50 persons person tile tiie deput deputies les lea and i p alq from the 13 colonies the business that is engaging their attention is the consideration of a paper prepared by one of their nu number aber a young virginia lawyor lawyer setting forth the reasons for tile tilo resolution of independence pen dence which had been adopted two days beforehand before and tile the political principles by b which the newborn new born empire silou should d bo be guided perhaps the most conspicuous personage in the assembly and the one to whom our thoughts turn first I 1 made so by reason of his connection with the tile paper on the details of which the tile discussion is turned is its author he is only 33 years old of a delicate organization and modest bearing but ho he has brought with him from his native colony a reputation for learning and sagacity at that early age lie he is distinguished for tile the consummate ability he has displayed in state papers which ho he lias has already written and by the general consent of virginia eginia stands first among her civilians he possesses great power in mastering te ring details as well as in searching for and discovering general principles in his very nature lie is a lover over of freedom and a hater of superstition bigotry and intolerance and more important than all else in completing his fitness for tilo the performance of this task he is of that sympathetic nature which en on ables him liim with instinctive perception to read the soul of the tiie nation and having collected in himself its best thoughts thou lits and noblest feeling sto give the them i out in clear and bold words mixed with so little of him self that his country as it goes along with him finds nothing but what it recognizes as its own the possession of these qualities has so impressed his associates that the work of preparing the important declaration ilas has been left almost wholly to him two other members a are ire re commanding figures a in the assemblage adams far readier in debate jefferson and the ablest and defender of independence benjamin franklin a man fu advanced iu in years than either of others and of whom by reason his profound learning and his knowledge of men and things the has already heard something these three are aye perhaps the most prominently before us as we recall the long on vanished scene although others are re there of fine presence distinguished abilities and all impress us as thoughtful Z substantial representative men but nothing could be more modest and unpretending more destitute of display and that pomp and circum stan calculated to impress the senses than this small assembly of persons who for the most part are hitherto unknown to fame after a somewhat lengthened discussion as to some minor changes and amendments and towards the close of that most memorable day in our annals the declaration which has just been read in your hearing was adopted without a dissenting vote and so the transaction was completed if imposing circumstances were essential to make an event like this memorable there could be found others in our history far more worthy of commemoration As compared with multitudes in general history kit hit it would sink into insignificance yet today to day one hundred and four years from the adoption of that paper throughout the whole landeith land with RE its teeming millions of people j a people whose enterprise rushes rushe s over sea and land with the speed of the wind propelled by engines not then imagined in a time so full of exciting hopes and busy aspirations that it scarcely has time to contemplate the pas past t we pause from our toll toil and traffic and eager plans and impetuous debate and with animated and joyous hearts we join in celebrating the grand event now why is this since there was nothing in the special circumstances of the action there must be something in its nature to justify this long record of it we recognize as one of the elements of its power that it was the spontaneous gs action of a people and not merely of persons and such action has always a momentum a force a significance which appertains r to no individual arguments or appeals it was the genuine effusion of we the soul of the country at that time the revelation of its mind milid when when in its youth its enthusiasm thusia sm its sublime confronting of danger dangen it arose to the highest creative power powers of which maniacap man is capable but while it was theeb the expression pres slon sion of the sentiment of the people of these colonies brought about by a public exigency in their own affairs it was more it was the clear comprehension and fearless enunciation of that universal and pervading principle of liberty which for the first time tinie finds ex expression in those impressive words pwe we hold these truths to be self evident that ali all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are ilfe life liberty and the pursuit of happiness there lies imbedded bedded im in that brief sentence more of living and pervading force than could have ever been applied to secure permanence to all the vast monuments of egypt or the world that which the ancient peoples and republics perceived but dimly and in crude and imperfect form which came to be more distinctly felt and comprehended by our english ancestry through a growth of a thousand years finding partial expression in their magna charta wrung by the barons from king mug john on the plain of runnymede in 1215 and years later in their petition of right whereby parliament sought to protect the people of england from the tyranny of charles the finst First attained and completely realized in the declaration of independence the slow tendencies ot of 20 centuries came suddenly to consummation in that immortal scroll the heart of jefne Jefre jefferson in wilting writing it and of congress in adopting it beat for all humanity the assertion of right was made forthe for the entire world and all coming generations without any exception whatever for the proposition which admits of exceptions can never be self evident the character of the conduct of the agents who performed this act is to be determined b by y a consideration of the he difficulties and impediments that surrounded them and the subject and by the abundant evidence that they comprehended ended its gravity and importance on the morning of the first day of july the day which had been previously set apart for considering the resolution of independence john adams opened the proceeds proceedings publia edw edl ga with prayer and with a sublime me faith and confident of the result as if the vote had been already taken he invoked the blessing of heaven to make the newborn new bom born republic more glorious than any which had gone before with a courage as heroic as that of the most mosi most renow renowned nel nei of that ancient commonwealth be called to mind the fixed rule of the ito bo mans never to send or receive ambassadors bass adors to treat of peace with their enemies while their affairs were in a disastrous situation and he was cheered by the belief that his countrymen were of the same temper and principle and at the end of tho the great day upon which the declaration cl was adopted he wro wrote te c the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in Amer america fea led and a greater perhaps never was nor never will be decided among men that that tint day would be memorable epoch in the history of america that it would be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival commemorated as a day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to god almighty from one end of the continent to the other from that time forward forevermore that he was aware of the toll toil and blood and treasure that it would cost to maintain the declaration and defend these states yet through all the gloom that thit he could see the rays of light and glory that the end was worth all ali the means that posterity would triumph in that days transaction even though they should rue it and thus with this grand prophetic phe tic tie r realization tio tto n of the fut future urethe these se in men en by eais eals a voluntary lun iun agn ign and responsible chol choi choice cholee will willed and performed the deed estimated in this light the illustrious act covers all who participated in it with the glory of its own renown and makes them forever famous among men on that day our fathers enacted a scene infinitely exceeding in real im in ortance that inlang inlag imagined tried by the great poet for which he invoked A rausa ot A kingdom pr or a stage princes to act lland iland and monarchs mona to behold the tho swelling soonee sone sene yet avith that wise discretion that belongs to real greatness and is ls A a part of it the colonies while they emancipated themselves from the tile tyranny to which they had bad been bean subjected did not with mistaken zeal attempt the overthrow of all traditional inequalities tile tiie they thes y i were V er 0 not rebels against the past nor did they tiley exhibit any eagerness to blot out the memorials of their former state they sent forth no hugh peters to recommend to the mother country the abolition of monarchy nor to counsel the english people to undertake undertaken a revolution at home homo because revolution existed in america they recognized in their own people the elements essential to a free government erdmen ern ment t but being Z impressed with tho the reality only and not the mere form they did not become the propagandists of their own system where the conditions of success were wanting in the formation of their then government they chose to follow that political theory which founds tile the commonweal commonwealth tn on the immutable principles of morals they considered kings and aristocracy but useless forms and that the idea that reli rell religion gion glon required the physical power of the state to enforce its tenets and acts of conformity and for the punishment of to maintain and support it was a condemnation of religion itself they sought in vain for any title of authority of man over his fellowman lowman fel ful except that of superior capacity and a higher morality thoy They recognized the p people eoll I 1 9 soa moa qa the structure which the great Artificer and arch architect teet feet all aji the tho rhile while cared for and built up and thoroughly convinced that the people had now reached all that fitness and preparation forsell for self seif government which existing institutions could confer in harmony with the political faith they had they seized the opportunity clothe them with the attribute their own sovereignty they thus discarded the throne and its adjuncts u nets the titled nobility and with them the established church but with these exceptions english ideas were largely preserved Ther owns ewas was not an element of popular right which had been wrested from the crown and privileged classes in any age which they did not I 1 keep not a legal or equitable rule for the protection of private rights or the punish ilent jentof of crime which A ich ieh was not precious in their eyes and which not claimed by them as 9 a birthright the question may then be asked how far this new state of a new species has contributed to the peace the progress and the permanent welfare welthe of the people by which it was created and of other nations which it has affected it cannot be claimed by us any more than of other people that we vel have attained an ideal state of private liberty or coin eoin complete le P public bile order or the most upright administration dm is tra tion indeed in reference to the efficient and honest administrations of our institutions if coin coln compared ed with some elsewhere I 1 think I 1 may venture a modest doubt whether or not the comparison would in all cases result favorably to us the political as well as the religious world is looking forward and not backward for its millennium and how long it will wiil bo lie before we reach it or what tumultuous struggled shall shail precede its coming it is not vouchsafed us to know but whatever of imperfection there may may have havo been in the past or exists in the tho present management of our affairs it but operates to augment the portion of the general good due to the perfect perfections fons lons of the design and frame of our government in this country there have been immense special causes to hinder progress in many things which are highest our people have had a continent to subdue they have llave been from the start in Ina lna a continuous state of ml migration gration westward with the star of em from the hudson the motile awk and the james through forests around the lakes over the prairies acro neross across the great river onward over oven alkaline plains and vast mountain chains until the golden gate out on ou the ocean as if nothing less could stop the march such has been the popular movement from froni almost the very day of the declaration yet for all ali this we may ask with confidence and patriotic f pride if there is not much in our condition and circumstances that comforts comports com ports with the sounding phrases of the great manifesto despite the struggle with untamed nature and of foreign conflict and the shock of civil war the republic has more than held its place j in |