Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1915 — Page 3

OUR COUNTRY AS IT IS TODAY

DOCUMENT THAT MADE A NATION

Text of the Immortal Declaration of Independence With Which All Americans Should Be Familiar. WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evi-dent —that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Inalienable rights; that among theqe are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their Just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying itß foundation on such principles, and organizing its power in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Providence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to while evils are sufferable,- than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw*?® such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world: He has refused his assent\to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the phblic good. He has forbidden* his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless these people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyranny only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the .rights of the people. He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to the civil power. He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; For protecting them by a mock trial, from punishment, for say murders which they should commit on . the inhabitants of these states; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; • For imposing taxes on us without Mr consent;

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses; For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citi-zens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connection and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of

Officer Reading Declaration of Independence Before the Army.

mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have fall power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, sad to do all other acts anil things which independent states may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration. with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

HIS NAME HONORED

Nathan Hale a Synonym for the Highest Patriotism. How Youthful Martyr to the Cause of Liberty Met Death With Fortitude That Can Never Be Forgotten.

When the farmers of Lexington fired the shots that brought on the war of

boy was Nathan Hale. His heroic sacrifice to his country’s cause is one of the treasured pages in American history.

New London went wild with excitement when the news of the battle of Lexington reached there. Bands of patriots paraded the streets. Guns were fired and speeches made. A meeting was called at once to determine what that city should do in the war. Every man of prominence spoke and then the young schoolteacher was called to the platform. What words he said that day have been lost to posterity, but we do know they must have been the most stirring of the occasion, for immediately after he left the platform men began marching forward to enlist. One sentence of Nathan Hale’s that day has been preserved and it is worthy to rank with the greatest sayings of our nation. “Let us march immediately and never lay down our arms until we have obtained independence,’’ he said." That is all the more remarkable when one remembers that it was more than a year later before independence was talked of in the continental congress and it was two years before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Nathan Hale enrolled as a lieutenant in the regiment of Col. Charles Webb. His studious habits stood him in good stead, and soon he was one of the best officers in the regiment. He

Too Late, He Realized That... the Boat Was Filled With British Marines.

went with his company to Boston and during the siege of that city by the army under General Washington the twenty-year-old boy was promoted' to be a captain for bravery and efficiency. When the British evacuated Boston and Bailed for New York a greater part of the American army went down that way. Captain Hale ali bis regiment were among them. They took part in all the hardships of that campaign. Late in the summer of 1776, when the British had driven the American army from Long Island, General Washington was particularly anxious to establish some sort of secret information line into New York. He tried many plans without success. Finally he summoned his officers to a council and told them to be on the lookout for some bright, courageous man who would undertake the dangerous task. He spoke, among others, to Colonel Knowlton of Knowlton’s Rangers, the regiment to which Captain Hale was attached. Colonel Knowlton conferred with his officers. When he put the proposition to them every cheek paled. If the messenger should be caught they all knew he would be hanged as a spy* The word spy is a horrible one to an honorable man. No one volun-> teered to risk a death of shame. For a few moments there was a hush in the room. Then Captain Hale walked in and said: "I will undertake it, sir.” Captain Hale had been sick in bed for some time, and his fellow officers crowded about him seeking to dissuade him from his purpose. Among them Capt William Hull, a classmate of Hale’s at Yale, spoke the longest. But the youthful captain could not be shaken from Us purpose. “Gentlemen,” he said, "I owe my country the accomplishment of an object so important and so much desired by commander of our armies. I know of no mode of obtaining the information but by assuming a disguise and passing into the enemy's camp. I am fully aware ot the consequences at

American Independence that April day in 1775, a pale, slim boy, not yet tyreaty years old, destined to become a martyr to our freedom, laid down his badge of office as a schoolteacher at New London, Conn., and took up the sword. That

discovery and capture in sach a situation. I wish to be useful, and every kind of service for the public good becomes honorable by being necessary. y " In such' manner did Captalri Hale turn spy. That night he left the camp at Harlem Heights dressed in the brown garments and broad brimmed hat of a schoolteacher. He was accompanied a short distance by Sergeant Hempstead and his faithful servant, Ansel Wright, who arranged to have a boat ready for Captain Hale for his return, September 20. Nathan Hale had no trouble in penetrating the British lines. He went to New York and over to Brooklyn, carefully collecting Information about the number of British soldiers, their cannon, ammunition, other supplies and fortifications, in Latin, and concealed it in a hollowed out place in one of his boot heelß. September 19 he began his return. He spent the night at a farm house near the place where the boat was to wait for him. The next morning he went to breakfast at a little wayside inn, “The Cedars,” kept by a widow named Chichester. During his meal a man entered and stared at him. Captain Hale paid little attention, as he thought he was safe by now. As soon as the meal was finished he hurried off to the-vendezvoua. It was a misty morning. As Hale approached the beach he saw a boat pulling in. Glad almost beyond belief to be rid of his dangerous task he hurried down to meet it. Too late he realized that instead of Sergeant Hempstead and Ansel Wright the boat was filled with British marines. He turned to run, but the marines caught him. “What are you doing out so early?” a marine demanded. “Isn’t it proper for a schoolteacher to get a breath of fresh air?” Hale asked in reply. “Why did you run?” “I thought you were rebels.” The marines would not believe Hale’s assertions of innocence and began to search him. They looked everywhere without success. One pulled off his boots and reached inside. Nothing suspicious had been found and the marines reluctantly were preparing to turn him loose when one Of them, with an oath, threw the boot he held at a tree. That tore away the strip that covered the secret hiding place and the papers fell out. Captain Hale was then taken aboard a frigate in the harbor and later to New York, where General Howe questioned him. There was nothing to do but admit that he was a spy. General

Howe immediately ordered that the young patriot be hanged the following day and turned him over to .an officer named Cunningham, the provost marshal. That night Hale was kept in solitary confinement. He begged to be allowed to write letters to his mother and Alice Adams, his sweetheart, in New London. Cunningham furnished him with paper and ink and then destroyed the letters in front of Hale, saying: “The rebels should never know they had a man who could die with such firmness.” Hale asked that a minister or a Bible be sent to him. Both were refused. The only favtor he received was being allowed to rest in the tent of a young British officer while on his way to his death. Early on the morning of September 22, 1776, it was Sunday, Hale was conducted to the scaffold. Cunningham cuffed him brutally and said: “Make your dying speech." Hale had been praying. He continued and when he had finished rose to his feet and faced the crowd pf British soldiers and townspeople. In a loud, clear voice he said: “I regret that I have but one life to give to my country.” “Swing the rebel off!” Cunningham shouted, and thus died one of the most heroic figures in our history.

Real Lession of the Day.

The Fourth of July properly symbolizes the liberty for which the patriots stood ready to sacrifice their lives in order to launch the United States as a national craft which should be anchored by no weight of foreign despotism.

Most Enduring Tribute.

After all, if should be remembered that the finest sad most enduring tribute we can pay to “Old Glory” is to so lire our lives as individuals that the nation may be truly great in the character of its citisensfaip and the ideals for which the flag stands.

THE JOYOUS FOURTH By William Gerard Chapman Gn, don’t I wish tH* Fourth, wux b*r*» ' It MMB( UKe I can't watt Until the day* J*at catch up with That Mams’ red-sits gar data. I got a lot o* flra-worha. Oh, more’n you could thtnK, A bully cannon, too, of bras*. So ahiny mahes you blinH- « The minute whan I gat await*. 'Bout four o’clocK or so. You bet I’ll hustle in my- clothes An' grab my box an' go A-Kltin’ out behin’ the bam An' light my punh -- an', aayl You won't hear nothing much but no»s* The rest o’ that whole day- - S> - - -. But, gosh! that ain’t a circumstance To what'll happen when It gets right darH. You Jest be there, You’ll see some doin's, then! We’ll breaK in Si, the blacKsmtth’s, shop An get his anvils out An' shoot them all around the town. Then there'll be noise, don’t doubt 1 Afore each house we’ll sat on* down t An' pour the powder in. An' set the other top of it Then Jest you hear the din! Some fonts’ll come a-runnin’ out An’ raise an awful row. But most’ll laugh lihe fun an* shout “Jest get along, boys, now." Oh, gee. I wish the Fourth wux here! But Ma sex, “Mercy me! Why you’re so set on gettin’ bums An’ blisters, I can’t ae* But shucKsl who cares for things UK* that? A boy's Ma never learns As how he has Jest loads o' fun A-getttn' of those bums. (Copyright, IMS, by W. G. Chapman.)

WASHINGTON PORTRAITS

The last sitting given by Washington yras for Sharpless, who made a mathematically correct profile which furnishes the authority for the proportions of the subject’s features. Of all painters, none achieved more than Gilbert Stuart, who, it is generally agreed, has given to the world the best likeness of the man. Stuart's success was probably due to the fact that he kept his subject from selfconsciousness by Entertaining him. In the two originals of this artist, and in the twenty-six copies which he made, he left noble personification of wisdom and serenity to the American people in the person of the first president. In color and finish, as well as in lifelike resemblance of features, no Washington artist has approached him. At the time of the Stuart sitting Washington’s mouth appeared rather unnatural on account of two new seahorse ivory front teeth which substituted for the general’s own. failure of the first portrait, which was destroyed, was probably traceable to this fact. The Stuart picture of Washington standing with a sword in his left hand was made expressly for the Marquis of Lansdowne, who was so delighted with the canvas that he declared It was only his advanced years which prevented his crossing the ocean to

TWO NOBLE POLES

Not to be outdone by Prance or Germany, “bleeding Poland,” today a nation only In the wonderful unity of its people the world over, and In revolutionary times In last throes of involuntary dissolution, sent her sons to wage in America the struggle for freedom that had gone against them at home. So Count Casimir Pulaski and Thaddeus Kosciuszko came to this country. To tell of the life of Kosciuszko would be to tell of a wonderful oldworld romance, of love and hardships, of discouragements and great triumphs. Son of a Lithuanian noble, he came to this country as a result of a love affair with one of higher rank than he, bearing with him, it is said, a bloodstained handkerchief, the only memento of the gbi who had won his heart, only to be snatched away from him by force, at the conclusion of a dramatic attempt to elope. The couple were overtaken and Kosciuszko was left all but dead, the for gotten kerchief on his breast. But his youth and iron constitution brought

thank Washington for allowing this picture to be taken. Although several copies of this painting were made by Sturt, the painting in the White House, *9 long considered his, was not done by that master. It is the work of an obscure artist, who substituted his own copy for an original which the government purchased for |BOO. - T Another Interesting fact about this picture is that during the time when the British were In Washington in 1814 it stood out in inclement weather for several days. This was because the man to whom it was intrusted was afraid to keep it in his bouse for fear of being punished by Rngllsh invaders. ' As Stuart did not excel in representing Washington's figure, this picture ( does not meet all the requirements of a good painting. The hand is said to be too small, as Stuart used the wax model of his own hand in making the picture. Stuart’s famous Washington portrait, made for Mrs. Washington, was never entirely becauie the artist always managed to delay completing the background. Finally, Washington, after frequent sittings, became annoyed and told the artist that he would sit no more, but to send the picture home when it was finished.

him round and, Poland having no further attraction for Idm at that time, be came to aid the struggling colonists in America. Through Franklin’s aid he was given a place on Washington’s staff, and afterward made colonel of engineers, a position for which he was eminently fitted by a careful military training in the best schools of Europe. He was with Gates at Saratoga, with Greene in the Carolines, and again in charge of the' fortification of West Point on the Hudson. When he had finished at West Point that place was considered the strongest fortress in America, and Washington took pains to pay tribute to Koaciuszko’s genius. At the end of the war he was a major general in the Continental army. Then he went back to Poland U> fight for his own people. His efforts were unsuccessful, and, after a checkered career, he died in 1817 at Soleure, Switzerland. Hie heart was buried under a monument there, mud his body embalmed and afterward laid at rest at Cracow.