| Show THE tile natali anatal DAY OF LIBERTY As the traveler through solitary allds ascends the occasional mountaintop mountain top to gaze backward over the scenes his feet have traversed or to peer forward into the intervening distance between him and his destination so the pilgrim rim through lifes wilderness pauses I 1 instinctively a on the summit of a great event to glance in retrospection over the range of human numan history or onward so far as his vision is permitted to extend athwart the tile dim I 1 and shadowy outline of the future standing today on such an eminence theanna venary of an occasion which looms like a mountain from the plain of mans experience our thoughts ny by backward and with a wave of imaginations wand whose thrilling touch revives the relics reiles of antiquity brings back the dead to life and paints a new anew the faded laded pictures of the past we are gazing this hour in common with millions g of our countrymen upon a panorama of sl frI orious events of which this day Is ife the ever memorable reminder eight years more than a century ago iss was given to the world tile the declara tion tiou of american independence a an n instrument which sundered forever the political ties between the mother alother nation and her colonies absolved them from their allegiance to uhe ehi british crown and raised oar conui eo lili 1111 y from an attitude of t tc E the ibe foot of a foreign throne it i ner iler ma iueli and rightful station as an independent power among aanon the nations of the earth mankind unaided by reason minde d by experience are prone to underestimate the importance of objects of familiar acquaintance and we vye who are arc basking in the full blaze of of libert ilbert liberty bequeathed from the heroic era orthe of the revolution are arc apt to depreciate preci ate not only the value of tile the priceless boon but likewise tle tie tle tie magnitude the sublimity of the undertaking which secured to us its peaceable amon among the brave brase band baud who af llred fixed th their air names to that immortal document pledging in their lives their fortunes and their sacred honor to the maintenance and vindication of the great principle involved how many gut sut but felt it was their death warrant warr ant they signed and they were lvere standing upon the brink of an abyss from which a single mieste misstep might hurl huri them into the e yawn yawning ng gu gulf guif Y f below if we do not ot lian llan liang ozether together og ether we shall hall hali hang separately epa ratel was a laconic yet si significant nie diw speech uttered on tuat that critical occasion such only as lia lla have ve occupied similar positions who have opposed might with richt right who have faced lacel for god and cons conscience ca encel sa kethe pitiless s storms t of persecution t the keen arrows of contumely or the savage q bolts of death sacrificing th their air earthly hopes of life liberty and the of happiness I 1 in n defense of a sacred conviction such only are quail nied nned to conceive the situ situation ailon allon of tile the fathers of our republic le public in face of ef death who w ho dared to ning ging def bel defiance deliance lance to a tyrant king and laid their fortunes lives and reputations upon tile the holy immaculate immaculate altar aliar of human liberty theirs va was a glorious deed it shines like the sun in the firmament of heaven and like that sun it nils fills the earth with light and beams for the welfare and happiness of the whole brotherhood of man the blow they dealt was in the common cause of 01 freedom the voice which appealed to high heaven beav en for the rectitude of their intentions sounded the deah kneil kuell of universal tyranny not hot america algee alone but th the wide elvide world has cause to rejoice over aye and to commemorate that illustrious event ev ent cut for on that day the axe was laid at the root of the tree of despotism a tree springing from the soil of human selfishness supported hup by the props of superstition and error and watered with widows tears and tie the the blood of marty martyred red innocence a tree whose poisonous roots had sunken deep into the heart of h humanity uman and for centuries had sapped the lile llie blood of tile the earth while its like branches fruit fruitful tui lul of naught but misery and despair arose and overshadowed with gloom the he genius the hopes and the exertions of the children of men weli why it might here be asked why in the economy of a merciful god was this hideous growth glowth permitted to develop fe feeding edini on the fat of the land and anu usurping in the vineyard of the lord places worthy to be tilled filled only n I 1 by plants of rarest virtue any di did not the master who tir tin finally ally aily gave command that it be hewn down doun and cast into the fire tire ages before while it was yet a feeble shrub cause it to be uprooted and destroyed dest destio destro roved ed pel pei perchance chance that man whose primal disobedience had forfeited ills his claim to a happier state might cat ills his nil fill of the fruits fi of bitterness and become wise alse through the experience peri ence of suffering or perhaps berha P s that once when the master Alaster would have answered the prayers ot of the oppressed and swept the umbrageous 7 curse from the face of his footstool and had hent sent ills his only son bon to inaugurate the work vork of reform the misguided children chil chii dien dlen of the world inured and wedded to sin preferring to crouch ben beneath eath the deadly shade of error and to eat of its product than to partake of the fruits of a pure and enlightened origin seized upon the son of their lord stripped him of ills his robes spat upon him in derision dension crowned him with thorns and hung ills his bleeding form upon the accursed tree where he offered up his life as a sacrifice for liberty I 1 jesus christ was a patriot I 1 ills his country was the world ills his laws were the eternal principles of liberty and ills his foll followers in in every a ae age e have been the chosen champions of freedom for ages that seemed multiplied by the crimes and sufferings they beheld the tree of evil dominion with its spreading boughs of priestly and political power was permitted to expand and flourish its snakelike snake ake abc like ilke tendrils grasping and c choking h ok 1 g out the fairest of tile tiie flowers and its death diffusing vapors scattering blight and ruin broadcast over the land but the fated time at length 11 drew nigh the rank and venomous crowth growth had encumbered the soil to an aa eident extent which threatened universal extinction the time for its downfall had arrived the great god of heaven had decreed its destruction but bat how was the blow to be struck the process of eradication must needs be gradual the supporting props must first be moved that its overthrow might b be ulily unimpeded eded the withered limbs must next be lopped lest tile the falling ruin crush with its tremendous weight the choice and tender shrubs of the garden amon among the most notable agents on whom tile the earlier duty devolved was a man named christopher columbus With tle tie unquenchable nire fire of enterprise enterprises 1 bui but burning nina ning in his breast and the light of inspiration beaming he like ilke a star oil on his pathway he explored the liquid wilderness of the west pushed his prows into the setting sun shattered to atoms tile the superstitions of his age and found the land laud lon ion long iong destined as the fostering nurse of life and Llo erty nark hark to the result the crash of falling branches on the eastern shores of tile the atlantic I 1 A german monk named luther has arisen and conti continuing 1111 the work of wyckliffe resurrecting I 1 the murdered lauss bluss following in the footsteps and fulfilling the tha mission of lils liis martyred marty red predecessors the rot ten fabric of religious tyranny is shaken from centre to circumference beneath the vigorous strokes of the axe of reformation the political bough Is next assailed the ironhanded iron tron handed cromwell I 1 ap appears ears cars and though his task was bois bols bold bola and bloody and lie requited with oppression the evils eslis of oppression he opposed yet the effects were destined to endure and the tiie power which nerved his arm and tired fired his soul to action evolved L good nod cven even from the evil he wrought wro ight the love of freedom and its a preci atio atlo nere now implanted w within itri the human heart the germa germs of liberty so sown gown wn on the soils of europe and transplanted to the fertile wilds of america were springing forth on every hand tilling filling tiie tile air with fragrance and giving in giad promise of a bright and flowery future the season deaso n was approaching when the father of llie lile the inspirer of patriots the almighty maker ol of the tho world would set ills his hand again a ain aln the second time to recover the I 1 lost Os t and found to clear away the e crumbling ru nibling debris ot of the past and 1 lish isil ills lils righteous cause forevermore in t the h e midst of mankind on the virgin shores of columbia a thousand leagues from the king bur bened dominions of the old world with a wall of rolling billows beti between the alloise dispenser of the uni universe had foreseen the tiie opportunity which favored ills his vast design the decisive stroke which the nin fin finger er of long dufferin suffering pi evidence ovidene had ad held for three centuries injuries In in abeyance at last descended the tiie whole earth shook with the concussion the heavens re echoed the exultant shouts of patriotism and tile the solid globe to its remotest bound reverberated the loud crash of tumbling Tyran tyranny nv the deed was done the problem r oblena planned of god propounded gy by the american declaration lar cl Jar tion had been solved by the weapon of a washington the results are themes of history great britain lost her colonies coloni cs and involved in for fur foreign eigil and domestic turbulence her star of prestige visibly waned wailed from the proud zenith of national supremacy the next blow fell a pon uvon france whose groaning millions bowed down forages for ages beneath the accumulated curse of monarchial and ecclesiastical despotism arose like a blind samson of wrath and grappling tle tie the pillars of the church and state with one stupendous effort threw down the gigantic structure of kill king and raft and founded the republic lle ite public of atheism misnamed reason upon tile the should ering ruins rains of the ancient state next behold the corsican bonaparte tiie tile invincible son of destiny striding C through P europe over prostrate potentates tates and powers himself the unconscious sciots instrument of deity breaking wreaking wre aking vengeance upon the wrongs of awes ages ages and humbling the pride of the hau haugney ty and the great conquering tyrants to become himself a tyrant aud and to fall in turn before the redounding resounding redound ing thunderbolt which previously cleft his ilis path to victory and renown the cause of freedom retarded by the excesses of her too zealous advocates or matricidal offspring q continued to roll forth greice greece with NV ith her Bo and Mi aulis aulls italy with her Maz and Gara baldis ireland with her emmetts emo emm metts and OCon nells nelis spain with her liberals and the disaffected factions of germany and rushed into the ranks of revolt while oil on our own continent the 8 south american states each with its patriot champion threw off the spanish yoke and established themselves vec upon the broad principles of republican government all joining hands as if by design and moving forward in the grand work ot of demolition moli tion and reform consciously or unconsciously executing the purposes of that being in whose eternal bosom it is decreed that the poor and meek of the earth shall inherit it and the pride and haughtiness of man exalted in corruption and unrighteousness shall be brought down to whisper from the dust lias has the past not been a fearful lesson a warning to the oppressor for all succeeding time will the world leardi ar wisdom fam from experience and henc benc henceforth accord mankind his sacred and inviolable rights or must the storm whose hoarse mutterings rings are arc heard throughout the earth burst forth to sweep it with the besom of destruction that t the he cries and prayers of the downtrodden down trodden shall cease to ascend into tile the ears of the lord of whose anger is kindled and whose sword is bathed in heaven to fall upon the workers of iniquity who forge fetters 1 for the souls of men and heedless of unnumbered premonitions wade through rivers of crime and corruption to the unhallowed exercise of unrighteous dominion let us hope the sad lesson has been learned that man will cease his inhumanity to man that the clouds of the past will be banished by chesun light of the future and the glorious ensign of liberty now wavine waving from ocean to ocean ere ion lon lonz lons will floa w triumphant over an unan inan 1 1 that the heroic Declaration ivy ily I 1 affirmed mans rights of freed freedo icaria 1 equality the grand old courtl 0 Q which guarantees those ri lits ilag gether with the gospel of lf restored for the high purpose of tie skir perpetuation will be everywhere ho lean ored as emanations of enith ltee three grand messages roes sages bages from modern times and tile trie media of fl fi cation catlon through which our world ha 1 eventually ascend to its glorious keli kehl d c eternal destiny among the ceiell stars ORSON IF eor for july ath 1884 |
