Show ONE HUNDRED AND NINE YEARS Today the United States complete one hundred and nine years of their existence ex-istence as an independent government and a nation among the nations In the struggle with Great Britain for independence independ-ence and the right of selfgovernment they were successful after seven long years of war bloodshed and unprecedented hardships Whatever were the individual grievances of the Colonies they become the grievances of all Whatever were the interests and grievances of the Colonies Col-onies among themselves they were forgotten for-gotten in the time of strife with the mother country Near a century later the interests and jealousies of the Colonies had become the interests and jealousies of great and many States and a war far more gigantic in its size and in its results had to be fought to put at rest those interests and jealousies Now that strife is long since over and the victors and the vanquished are fast forgetting for-getting their enmities and they aro beginning be-ginning to look upon their country as their common country in all sections Twenty years of peace and prosperity have taught all people and all parties that perhaps neither party was so wrong as the North and the South thought three decades ago The struggle of a quarter of a century since had to come and it is well it came when and ended as it did From barbarous war the Union was saved and the people have loarned many valuable lessons They have learned that many things may be won by peace and moderation But the dangers of war are not the only dangers to which our country is exposed It is in times of peace when countries have grown great in population and in wealth and the discontents dis-contents and questions which then begin to appear that the dangers to liberty and society begin to grow The dangers which beset the American Government now are much the same as the dangers which beset all governments without regard to the form they are the dangers which grow out of the near neighborhood of wealth and poverty pov-erty of labor and capital In the United States all men are politically equal and tho dreams of the French theorists such as Rousseau Diderot DHolbach and the men of the Revolution have been realized in this respect but that which threatens the peace of society in America today is tho desire for social equality The majority ma-jority of men cure less for political consideration con-sideration than for social consideration and political consideration is chiefly sought for the social consideration that follows The dangers which come in times of peace are greater than those which come in times of war the dangers of war are usually from without and bold while those of peace are from within insiduous I and insinuating The problem of government gov-ernment is but the problem of mans re latiouship to man and the merit of the republican form over all other forms is its recognition of the right of each man to participate in the regulation of the common affairs of each those affairs af-fairs that must be regulated so long as man associates with man in society The American Government is a wise and beautiful adjustment of those I affairs leaving the domestic and local affairs to them in their I capacity as States and the States leaving to the citizens of the various municipal I I subdivisions tho control of their local affairs It is a Constitutional recognition of the natural right of the citizens of a I locality to control those affairs which concern con-cern that locality only Tho giving to the I j I i General Government the control of for I I eign affairs and those matters which comi cern the States as States was a wise and I welldevised plan From the days of I nullification to those of secession our j danger lay in disintegration Since the I close of the which war followed I the passage of ordinances of secession I by the Southern States our danger has lain in centralization and the usurpation usurpa-tion by the General Government of the I powers and rights of tho States The judicial construction of the Constitution by the Supreme Court has over been I most conservative and conservatism in 1 I governments lw YB tends to aggression i To preserve bur independence for another hundred and nine years there must be a just appreciation and observation of the I balance of power between the General and the State Government The Constitution Consti-tution must be observed in spirit and in I letter and in times of trial and peril the more nearly it is followed the safe will be the course steered The United States are no longer in swaddling I T 4i i 7 nclothes 1IIncI as each anniversary of their I independence recurs every citizen who I loves his country should give that day to the study and contemplation of those I dangers that our country as well as all others must encounter and see how they may best be avoided The brag and bluster that were so common on our anniversary anni-versary day some years ago are far less seemly now than then and while thankful thank-ful for having accomplished our independence independ-ence and tided over the dangers of the past it is to the future and its dangers that the Nation should turn its eyes on the morrow Of the past the country has but the memory while in the present and the future lies its progress or decay its life or its death |