Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 25, Number 47, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 July 1876 — Page 2

THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL WEDNESDAY JULY 12 , 1876.

1S76.

AT PHILADELPHIA. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. At the Cradle of American Liberty. EVARTS' ELOQUENCE. AND BAYARD TATLOB'i) WOOINO OF THE PATRIOTIC HD E PHILADELPHIA IIC A BLAZK of glory and crowded with VISITORS A BRILLIANT GALAXY OF DISTINO CI-H KD GUESTS ROYALTY. HOB'OB4 WITH DEMOCRACY. Philadelphia, July 4. The day was ushered In by the filing or a national aainte in Fairmoant Park, and by tbe ringing of tbe chimes and church beils throughout the city. At very early boar thrones of people from all sections of tne city co iura need moving towards tbe streets over which be mili ary par.de was to past), and by half pat eight those i-trefe' s were crowded to their utmost capacity. The display of buntlngon the principal stree's was simply wonderful. Hanks, s-iores public bulldingi aud private residence were all gay with ü r, .treamers and drapery. Tho military formed lu Hue on Broad 8ir-e , and commenc-d to move at half-past 8. The troops were enthusiastically cheered at different points on the route. A stand had been erected at Independence Hail, from which the troops were reviewed by CJen. Sherman. To the right of hlru npou theplatlotm was Prince O-caror Sweden, and on bis left secretary Cameron. Tbe fo. lowing persons bad place on the sund: Uen. Ha I go, of the Japanese Ceniennla' Co "inlshlou ; txl. Marin of Spain, Dr. JiiO. Fernle of Eug and, Capt. Ulner, Lieut. Bousivltz aud Paymaster U. 8. Brink, of the rtwtxllsa Irlgate Balder; Uapt. Ankarkrona and Lieut. fasse, of the Hwedifh navy; Gov. Conner of Maine, with his full staff; Gov. LippetV of Rhode Island. ex-Uo. BiKley of rennsylvanta, x-Ueut.-Uov. Cox of Maryland, en. Hawley, president ol tbe Centennial ommlm-lon. There were also upon tbe platlorm a number ot forelgi Centennial cominisaioners and military and naval officers. Among the FEATURES OF THE PARADR iras tbe Centennial Legion which was organized especially Ut the occasion and was esmtosed 'A a company from each of the 11 original states. The commencement exercises Of the day were held In lndeper.dence Square and at 10 o'clock evtry available spot on tbe Square and on the streets in the vicinity was crowded with people. A stand with Beats for four thousand Invited guests had ben erected, and at lv:lä. wben tue ceremonies) commenced, was enUreiy rilled. The members or the Japanese Centennial commlssiou were among tbe first to take their t laces on tbe Slatforro. Tne arrival of Governor Hayes and eneral Sherman and Lieut. General Sherldau eooa alter wan the s gualtor great cheering. Amon? the other distinguished persons were Oov. Barley, of Michigan, tx-Uov. Xoye of OlIo, llev. Dr. wom rviue ot hcotland, Oov. IXppett oi Rhode Island, Gov. Axtel of New Aiexico, Bishops Howe and S miRon, together wl-h geuti meu wbo participated directly in tbe proceedings of th day. At fifteen min utes past ten o'cl ck G?n. Hawley cal ed tbe irnmense assembly to order and ai orchestra of two bum i red and fifty musician, ander the leadership of Utlmore, opened with the grand oven nre of "The Ureat Republic," arranged for the occasion. While tue inualc was in progress. A SHOUT OF ENTHUSIASM signalized tbe arrival of tbe Brazilian em peror, Dom Pedro. lie Cime directly to tbe front of the platform and acknowledged tbe heers of the people by raising bis bat, and then retired to his seht. At the conclusion of the music. General Hawley advanced to the stand and made the following address: Fel-low-cltlaens and Friends of all Kations One hundred years ago a republic was proclaimed on this spot. We have come together to celebrate to-dav by a peaceful and simple observance, out wonder, our prld and our gratitude. These presence prov tbe good will txiNtlig amoi g all rations. To th Stranges among us, a tnonsatd we: comes. Apptnaw To the land we love, lib ri , p-ace, Justice, prosperity and the blasting of God to alt time. By tbe direction of tbecomml-sioners i bve the honor to announce as presiding officer of the day the Hod. Thorn a- W. Ferry, vice president of tbe Untied States. General Hawley was greeted with an out bum of applause as he took bissest. Mr. rVrry spoke as follows: CiMs ns ot oar Centennial The regrttinl absence of th president of tbe United btatescasis on me thehot orof presiding on this eventful occasion. Much as lvalue the official distinction, 1 prlz raucu more the fact that severally we hold and successfully we mintain the tight to the prouder tite of American citizen. ItranksaUi-tbers, It mate e office, onrnas-e officers, and o ea es Ilea Ful.oaing the rea-img of the declaration came a greeting from Brazil, a hymn for tbe first Centennial of American independence composed bv Carlos Gormzof Brazil, at the request of his roaj-at, Dm Pedro second emperor. Tbe entennlal ode was then read by Mr. Bayard Taylor as follows: TI1E NATIONAL ODE. BT BATAKD TATLOE. San of the stately day. Let Asia into the shadow drift. Let urop toast in thy ripaied ray, And over the severing ocean lift A brow ot broader splendorl Give light to tbe eager eye Of tbe land that wait to behold thee rise: The gladne of morning lend her. With the triumph of noon attend her. And the peace of the vesper skies! For, lot she cometh now With hope on the lip and pride on the brow, 8tronger and dearer and fairer. To smile on the love we bear her Ts live, as we dreamed her and sought her. Liberty's latest daughter! Ia the clefts of the rocks, in the teeret place. We found her traces; On the hills, in the crash of woods that fall, We heard her call; When tbe lines of battle broke. We saw her face in the fiery smoke; Wrought through toil and anguish and desolation, We followed, and found her With the grace of a virgin nation As a sacred so tie around her! Who shall rejoice With a righteous voice. Far-beard through tbe ages, if not she r For the menace is dumb that defied ber, The donbt I dead that denied her. And she Itaods acknowledged, and strong and free! au, oar at ine solemn undertone On every wind of human story blow a. A large divinity moulded fate Questions the right and purpose of a State, And In its plan sublime Onr era are tbe dnst of tiaae. The far-off yesterday of power Creeps back with stealthy feet. Invades the lordship of tbe boor, ' And at oar banquet take tbe nu bidden seat. From all nncbrunicled and silent ages Before the future first begot tbe Past, 'Till Histoiy dared, at last. To write et-rnal words on granite pages; From Egypt's lawny drift, aud Asaur'a Moaad, Aud where, nplifted whi and far. Earth highest yearns to meet a star. And Man bis manhood by tbe Gange foand, Imperial head, of old millennial sway. And still by some pale splendor crowned. Chill as a eorp-e- light in oar full -orbed day. In ghostly grandeur rise And say, through stony lips and vacant eye: "Thon that asserted freedom, power and fame, Declare to as thy claim!" On the shores of a continent cast ' 8be won the Inviolate imuI, ' By loss of heirdom of all tbe past,' And taith in the royal right of toil! She planted house on tbe savage ad: Iuto the wilderness !ne She walked with fearless foet, In her hand the diviniog rod; Till the views of the mountain' beat

With fire of metal and force of stone! She set the speed of the river bead To turn the mills of her bread; She drove her plowshare deep Through tbe prairie's thonsand-centarled sleep; To the South and West, and North, She called Pathfinder forth. Iter faithful end sole companion. Where the flushed Sierras, snowy-starred, Her way to the sunset barred A ad tbe nameless rivers ia thunder and fossa Channeled the terible canyon! Nor paused till ber uttermost boms

Wae built in the smile of softer iky; And the glory of beauty still t be, Where tbe haunted wavee of Asia die On the itrand of tbe world wide teal The race, in conquering. Some fierce Titanic joy of conquest knowsf Whether in veins of serf or king. Oar ancient blood beats restless in repcee. Challenge of Nature unsubdued Awaits not Man's defiant answer long; For hardship, even as wrong. Provokes the level-eyed, heroic mood. This tor herself Ehe did; but that which lies, As over earth the skies, Blending all forma in one benignant glowCrowned conscience, tender care. Justice, that answers every bondman'" prayer. Freedom where Faith may lead or Thought may dare. The power of minds that know, , Passion of hearts that feel. Purchased by blood and woe, Guarded by lire and steel Hath she secured! What blazon on ber shield. In the clear Century's light Phines to the world revealed, Declaring nobler triumph, born of Right. Foreseen in the vixion of sages. Foretold wben martyr's bled. She was born ot the loniDgof ages, By the truth of the noble dead. And the faith of be living fed! No blood in her lightest veins Freta at reniem tiered chains, Nor shame of bond ige has bowed her Lead. In her f rm and nature still The untdenching Puritan will. Cavalier honor, Hngnenot grace. The Quaker truth and sweetneso, Anil the strength of tbe danger-girdled raoe Of Holland, bieud in a proud completeness. From the homes of all, where her being began, She took what she gave to man: J u tire, that knew no station. Belief, as soul decreed, Free air for aftpiratiou, Free force fur independent deed! She takes, but t.i give again. As the sea returns the rivers in rain; And gathers the chosen of her seed From the hunted of every crown and creed. Herßermany dwells by a gentler tihiue; Her Ireland aeee the old suuburst shine; Her France pursues some dream divine; Her Norway keep bis mountain pine; Her Italy waits by the Western biine; Aud, broad-batted under all. Is planted Kngland's oakcu-beirted mood, As rich in fortitude As e'er went worMward from the Island-wall! Fused in her caud'd light. To one stmnr race all races here anite: Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemea Forgt-t their sword and slogan, kith andclani 'Twas glory, once, to be a Roman; She aaakes it glory, now, te be a man! Bow down! D ft thine Ionian crown! (tne hour forget The glory, and recall the debt: Make expiation 01 humbler mood, For the pride of hin exultation O'er peril conquered and s. rife subdued! But half the right ia wrested When victory yield her prize, And half the marrow tested When old endurance dies. In the sight of them that love thee. Bow to the greater above thee! He faileth not to smite The idle ownership ol right. Nor spares to sinew Iresh from trial, And virtue schooled in long denial. The tests thai wait for thee I.i larger perils "f prosperity. Here, at tbe Century's awful shrine. Bow to thy Fathers' God, and thine! Behold! she b.ndelh now. Humbling the chaplet of her hundred years: There is a solemu sweetness on her brow, And in her eye are sacred tears. Can she forget. Id present joy, the burden of her debt. When for a captive race She grandly staked and won The total promise of h. r power begun, And bared her bosom's grnce To the sharp wound that iuly tortnres yet Can she forget The million graves her young devotion set, Here, where the Rulnr of to-day, The citizen of to-morrow. And equal thousands to rejoice and pray Beside these holy walls are met, Der birth-cry, mixed of keenest bliss and sorrow? Where, on July's Immortal morn Held forth, the People saw ber head And shouted to the worlds " The King is dead, But lol the Hair is born!" When fire of Yonth. and sober trust of Age, In farmer, Soldier, Priest aud Sage, Arose and cast upon ber Baptismal garments, never robes so fair Clad priure in Old World air, Their lives, ih ir fortunes, and their sacred bonorl Arise I Recrown thy head, Radiant with blessing of the deadl Bear from this hallowed place The prayer that purifies thy lips. The light of courage that defie rciipse, The rose of man's new morning on thy face I Let no iconoclast Invade thy rixing pantheon of the past. To make a blank where Adams stood, To touch the Father's sheathed and sacred blade, Ppoil crowns en Jefferson and Franklin laid. Or wash from Freedom's feet the stain of Lincoln's blood! TTearken, a from that haunted ball Their voice call : -"We lived and died for thee: ' We greatly dared that thon might'st be ; So, from thy children still, We claim denial which at last fulfill, And freedom yielded to preserve thee free ! Beside clear-hearted right That smiles at Power's uplifted rod. Plant Duties that requite, And Order that sustains, upon thy sod, And stand in stainless might Above all self, and only less than God !" Here may thy solemn cualleuge end, All proving pait, and each discoi dance die Of doubtful angury, Or in one choral with the present blend. And that half-heard, sweet harmony Of something nobler that cur sons may see! Thvugh poiftnaut memories burn Of days that were, and may again return. When thy fleet foot, 0 Huntress of the woods, The slippery brinks of danger knew, And dim tbe eyesight grew That was so sure in thiue old solitudes, Yet tys some richer sense Wen from th mixture of thine elements, To guide tbe vagrant echeme. And winnow truth fiom each conflicting dreamt Yet in thy blood shall live Some force misspent, some essence primitiv To seise the highest use of thing; For fate, to mould thee to her plan. Denied thee food of kings, Withheld tbe adder and the orchard-fruits, Fed thee with savage roots. And forced thy harsher milk from barren breast man 1 O sacred Woman Form, Of the first People's need and passion wrought No ihln, pale ghost of thought, But fair as alurniug, and as heart's-blood waraaWearing the priestly tear on Judah's hills; Clear -eyed beneatti Athene's helm of gold; Or from Rome's central seal Hearing the pulsee of the Continent's beat I a thunder where her legions rolled; Compact of high heroic heart and wills, Whose being circle all The selfless aims of men, ad all fulfills; Thyself not tree, so long as one is thrall; Goddess, that a a nation live, And as a nation dies, . That for her children a a man defie. And to her children as a mother givesTake our fresh fealty now! No more a chl-fiainess, with wampum son And feathrr-cinctuied brow; No more a new ttrittania, grown To spread an equal banner to the breeze, And lift tby trident o'er the double sea; But with unborrowed crest, In tbiuerown native beauty dressed The front of pure commaud, the unflinching ey. thine owui , Look np, look forth, and ont There's light in the d.wniug sky: The cloud are parting, the night t gone: Prepare for the work of the day I Fallow thy pastures lie And far thy shepherd's stray, And to fields of thy vast domain Are waiting for purer eed ' t Of knowledge, desire and deed. Tor keener sou.hlne aud mellower raiaf Bat k -p thy gaimenta pure: Pluck them back, with tbe old disdain. From touch of the baud thai stain t So shall thy strength endure. . Transmute iuto good the gold of Gala,

Compel to beauty thy ruder powers. Till the bounty of coming hour Shall plant, on thy fields apart. With the oak of Toil, the rose of Art t B watchful, and kep a so: Be strong, and fear no foe:

Be just, and the world shall know! I With the same love love us, as we give; And tbe day shall never come, That finds us weak or dumb To join and smite and cry In tbe errat task, for thee to die. And tbe greater task, for thee to live ! July 4, 1)76. Hon. William M, Evarts, the orator of the day, was then introduced, who delivered the following address: ADDRRSS OF HON. W. M. XVARTS. Tbe event which to-day we commetnerate supplies its own reflections and enthusiasms, and brings its own plandits. They do not at all hang oa tbe voice of the speaker, nor do tbey greatly depend upon the contacts and associations of the place. Tbe Declara tion of American Independence was, wken It eecurred, a capital transaction In human affair; at such it has kept its place la history; as neb it will maintain itself while buwso interest in human institution shall endure. The scene and tk actor, for their profound impresstca upon tbe werld, at tbe time and ever since, have wed nothing to dramati effects, nothing to epical exaggerations. To the eye there was nothing wonderful, orTaxt, or splendid, or pathetic la tbe movement or the display. Imagination or art can give no sensible grace or dncoratiou to the persvns, the place or the performance which made np the business of that day. Tue worth and force thet belong to the agents and the action rest wholly on tbe wisdom, tbe courage and the faith that formed aad exeouted the great da Ign, and the po tency and permanente of its operation upon the affairs ot the world which, a foreseen and legitimate consequences. followed. The dignity of the act is the deliberate, circumspect, open aud serene performance by these men in the clear light ot day, and by a con current purpose of a civic duty, which embraced the greatest tiaxards to tnemw-lves and to all Wie people from whom tbey held this deputed discretion, bat which, to their soler Judgments, promised benefit to that people and their posterity, from g-neration to generation, exceeding th.-se hazards and commen surate with its own fitness. Tbe question of their conduct is to be aieasured by their actual weight and pressure of the manifold considerations whl b sur rounded the subject before them, and by the abundnt evidence that they comprehended their vastuess and variety. By a voluntary and responsible choice tbey willed to do what was dene, and what without their will would not have been done. Thus estimated, the illustrious act covers all who participated in it with its own renown, aud makes them forever con spicuous among men, as it is lorever famous among events. And thus the signers of the declaration of out indepeudence "wrote their names where all natious should behold them, and all time should not etince th-ra." It was "in the course of human events," iutrusted to them to determine whether the fullness ol time had come wheu a nation should be 1-vrn in a dy. They declared tbe independence of a new nation in the sense iu which men declare emancipation or deClare war; the declaraiion created what was declared. Famous, always, among men are the founders of states, and fortunate above all others in such fame are these, our fathers, whtM-e combined wisdom aud courage began the great structure of our national existence, and laid sure the foundations of liberty and justice on which it rests. Fortunate, first, in the clearness of their title and in the world's acceptance of their rightful claim. Fortunate, next, in the enduring maguitude of the state they fouuded and the beneficence of its protection of the vast interests of human life and happiness which have here bad their home. Fortunate, again, In tbe admiring imitation of their work, which the institutions of the most powerful and must advanced nations more and more exhibit; and, last of all, fortunate iu the full demonstration of our later time that their wot k is adequate to withstand tiie most disastrous storms of human fortunes, and survive u a wrecked, aushaken, and unharmed. This dat has now been celebra'ed by a great people, at each recurrence ot its anniversary, for a hundred years, with every form of ostentatious joy, with every demonstration of respect and gratitude for the ancestral virtue which gave it its glory, and with tne firmest faith that growing time should neither ob scure it luster nor reduce the ardor or discredit the sincerity of it observance. A reverent spirit ha explored the live of the men who took part in tb great transaction, has unfolded their characters an exhibited to an admiring posterity the pnrity of thel motives, tbe sagacity, the bravery, the fortitude, tb perseverance which marked their conduct, an. which secured the prosperity and permaueuce i: their work. Philosophy ha divined tue secrets of all thl power, and eloquence emblazoned the magniflcen of all its result The heroic war which fcugbtout the acquiescence of the Old World io the independence of tbe New; the manifold and masterly I riiis of noble character and of patient and se en wisdom autb tbe great influence ot the time begat; the large aud splendid scale on which these elevated purpose were wrought out, and the ma jestic proportions to which tbsy have been filled up; tbe unendod line of eventful progress, casting ever backward a flood of light upon the sources of the original energy, and ever forward a promise and a prophecy of unexhausted power all these have been made familiar to our people by the geuius and the devotion of bistort ns and orators. The greatest statesmen of the Old World for ihis same period of a hundred years have traced the initial steps in these vents, looked into the nature of the institutions thus founded, weighed by the Old-World wisdom, and measured by recorded experience, the probable fortunes of this new adventure on an uuknowa sea. This circum-pect and searching survey of our wide field of political and social experiment, no doubt, ha brought them a diversity of judgment a to the past. and of expectation as to the future. But, of the maguitude and the novelty and the power of the forces set at work by the event we commemorate, no competent authorities have ever greatly differed. Tbe contemporary judgment of Burke is scarcely an overstatement of the European opinion of the imtu use import of American Independence. He declared: "A great revolution has happened a revo lution made, not by chopping and changing of power in any of the existing states, but by the appearance of a uew state, of a uew species, in a new part of the globe. It has made as great a change, in all the relations and balance aud gravitations of power, as the appearance of a new iilanet would In the system of the solar world. It is easy to understand that tl e rapture between the colouies aud tbe mother country might have worked a result of political independence that would have involved no such mighty consequence as are here so strongly announced by the most philosophic talesman of his age. Tne resistance of ih Colonies, which came to a bead iu the revolt, was led in the name and for the maiuteuance of the liberties of Englishmen, against parliamentary usurpation and a subversion of the British constitution. A triumph of those liberties might have ended in an emancipation from the rule of the English Parliament and a coutiuued submission to the scheme and system of the British monarchy, with an American Parliament adjusted thereto, upon the true principle of the English constitution. Whether thia uew political establishment should have maintained lojilt to the British sovereign, or should have been organized under a crown and throne of it own, the transaction would then have had no other importance than auch as belongs to a dismemberment of existing empire, but with preservation of existing institutions. There weuld have been, to be suie, a "oew state," but cot "of a new species," and that it was "in a new part of the glob'' would have gone far to make the dis memberment bat a temporary and circumstantial disturbance in ibeold order of things. Indeed, the solidity aud perpetuity of that order might have been greatly confirmed by this propagation of the model of the European monarchies ou tbe boundless regions of this coutiuent. It is precisely her that the Declaration of ludependenoe ra it immense importance A a civil act, and by the people' decree aud not by the achievement of the army or through military motives at the firs stage of the conflict it assigned a uew nationality, with its own institutions, aa tbe civilly preordained end lo be fugbt for aud secured. It did not lave it to be an after-fruit of triumphant war, shaped and measured by military power, and conlerred by the army on the people. This assured at the outset the supremacy of civil over military authority, the subordination of the army to the unarmed people. This deliberative choice Of the scope an l goal of the Revolution made aar of twj things, which must have been always greatly iu doubi, if military reasons and events bad held the mastery over the civil power. The first was, that nothing less thau the independence of tbe ua'ior and it separation from the system of Europe, would be attained if our arm were prosperous; and the second, that tbe new nation would always be the mistress of its own institutions. The might not have been its fate had a triumphant army won the prize of independence, not aa a task set for it by the people, aud doue iu its service, but by its owu might, and heid by its own title, and so to be shaped auJ dealt with by its own will. There ia the bes reason to think that tbe Congress which declared our Independence gave its chief solicitude,-not to the hazards of military failure, not to tbe chance of miscarriage iu the project of Separation fr.mi England; but to the grave responsibility of the mi'ltary success of which they made n doubt and as to what sboU'd replace, government to the uew natioa, tbe monarchy of Euriant, whU rt they considered a gone to them forever from tbedateof the Declaration. Nor did this Cougress feel any uncertainty, either iu disposition or expectation, that the natural and necessary result would preclude the formation of the uew Government out of any other materials than such a were to be found in society as established on his side of the Atlantic. The mtteriale tbey foresaw were capable of, and would tolerate, only such political establishment a woaU maintain aud

peretuate the equality and liberty always enjoyed in the several colonial communities. But all these limitations upon what was possible still left a large range of anxiety aa to what was probable, and might become actual. One thing was

too essential to be left uncertain, and the founders of this nation determined that there never should tie a moment when the several communities of the different colonies should lose the character of component parts of one nation. By their plantation and growth up to the day of the Declaration of Independence tbey were eutjjects of oe sovereignty, bound together in ofie political connexion, parts of one coatitry, uo4-r one constitution, with one destiny. Accordingly the Declaration, by its very terms, made the act ef separation a dissolving by "one people of "tbe political bauds that have connected the with anotker," and the proclamation of the right and of the fact of independent nationality was, "that these Mailed coluaiee are, and of right ought to be, free and Independent State. ' It was thus that, at one breath, "independence and union " were declared and established. Tbe confirmation of tbe first ay war, and of the second by civil wiliru, was but the execution of tbe single de. sign, which it is the glory of this great instrument of our national existence to have framed and announced. The recognition of oar independence first by France. and then by Great Britain, the closer anion by the article of confederation, and tbe final Baity by the Federal Constitution were all but muniment ef title of that "liberty and union, one and inseparable," which were proclaimed at this place, and on this day, one hundred years ago, which have been our possession from that moicent hitherto, aad which we surely avow shall be fur possession forever. Seva yea a of revolutionary war and twelve year of consummate civil prudence brought a, in turn, to the conclusive peace of 1781 and to the perfected Constitution of 1787. Few chapters of tbe world's history covering such brief periods are crowded with so many illustrious names, or made up of event of so deep and permanent interest to mankind. I cannot stay to recall to your attention these characters or these incidents, or to renew the gratitude and applause with which me never case to contemplate them. It is only tl.eir relation to the Declaration of Independence itself that I need to insist upon, and to the new State which it brought into existence. In this view, these progressive processes were but the articulatiou of the members of the State aud the adjutmeut of its circulation to the new ceutres of its viul power. These proeees'-s were all implied and included in this political creation, and were as necessary and as certain, it it were not to languish aud to die, asiuany natural creature. Within the hundred years whose flight in onr national history we m.irk to-day we have had occasiou to corroborate by war both tbe independence and the uuity of the nation. In our war azainst England for neutrality we asserted and we established the absolute right to be free of European entanglements, in time of war as well aa in time of peace, and so completed our independence of Europe, And by the war of the constitttion a war within the nation the bonds of our unity were tried and tested, as in a fiery furnace, and proved to be dependent upon no shifting vicissitudes of acquiescence, no partial dissents or discontents, but, so tar a is predicable of Human fortunes, irrevocable, indestructible, puapetual! CaSibuM Iure mtllm, nullo deM.ili crro. We may be quite sure that the high resolve to stake the future of a great people upon a system of society aal of polity that should dispense wkh the dojrniA, the experience, the traditions, the habits and the sentiments upon which the firm and durable fabric of the British constitution had been built up was not taken without a solicitous and competent survey of the history, the condition, the temper, aud the moral and intellectual traits of the people for whom the decisive step was taken. It may indeed be suggested that the main body of the elements, and a large share of the arrangements of the new government were expected to be upon the model of the British system, and that the substantial of civil and religious liberty and the institutions for their maintenance and defense were already the possession ot the people ot England and the birthright of the colonists. But this consideration does not much disparage the responsibility assumed in discarding the correlative parts of the British constitution. I mean the established church and throne; the permanent power of a hereditary peerage; the coufiuemeut of popular representation to the wealthy and educated classes; and the ideas of all participation by the people in their own government coming by gracious concession from the royal prerogative and not by inherent right in themselves. Indeed, the counter consideration, so far as the question a as to be solved by experience, would be a ready one. The foundation, and the walls, and the roof of this firm and noble edifice, it would be said, are all fitly framed together in the substantial institutions you propose to omit from your plan and model. The convenience and safety and freedom; the pride and happiness which the inmate of this temple and fortress enjoy, as the rights and liberties of Englishmen, are only kept in place and play because of th firm structure of these ancient strongboidsot religion and law, which vou now desert and refuse to build anew. Our fathers had formed their opinions upon wiser and deeper views of man and Providence than these; and they bad tbe courage of their opinions. Tracing the progress of mankind in the ascending path of civilization, enlightenment and moral and intellectual culture, tbey found that the Divine ordinance of Government, in every tage of the ascent, was adjustable on principle of common reason to the actual condition of a people, and always bad for its objects, in the benevolent counsels of the Divine wisdom, the happiness, the expansion, the security, i he elevation of society, and the redemption of man, They sought in vain for any title of authority of man over man, except of superior capacity and higher morality. Tbey found tbe origin of castes and ranks, and principalities and powers, temporal or spiritual, in this conception. They recognized the i-eople as the structure, the temple, tbe fortress, which the great Artificer all the while cared for and bui't up. As through the long march of time this work advanced, th forms and fashions of government seemed to them to be but the scaffolding and apparatus by which tbe development of a people's greatness was shaped and sustained. Satisfied that the people whose institutions wjre now to be pro jected bad reached all that measure of strength and ntness of preparation tor self-government which old institutions could givefthey fearlessly seized tbe happy opportunity to clothe the people with the ma jestic attributes of tbeir own sovereignity, and con secrate them to tbe administration of tbeir own priesthood. The repudiation by England of the spiritual power of Rome at the Reformation was by every estimate a stupendous innovation in the rooted allegiauce of the people, a profound disturbance of all adjustments of authority, But Henry Mill., when he displaced th- dominion of the Pope, proclaimed himself the head of the church. The overthrow of the ancient monarchy of France, by the fierce triumph of an enraged people, was a catastrophe that shook the arrangement of society from center to eircumference. But Napoleon, when he pushed aside tbe royal line of St. Louis, announced, "I am the people crowned," and set up a plebeian Emperor a the impersonation and depositary in him and his line forever of the people' sovereignty. The founder of our Commonwealth conceived that the people of these colonies needed no interception ol the aupreme control of their own affairs, no conciliation of mere names and image of power from which the pith and vigor of authority had departed. They, therefore, did not hesitate to throw down the partition of power sod right, and break up the distributive bare In authority ot rank and orders of men which, indeed, bad ruled and advanced the development of society in civil and religious liberty, but might well be neglected when the protected growth waa assured, and all tutelary supervision, for this reaaoa, henceforth could only be obtrusive and incongruous. A glance at the fate of the English essay at a com niouwealth, which preceded, and to the French experiment at a republic, which followed our own Institution "of a uew State, of a new species," will show tbe marvelous wisdom of our ancestors, which struck the line between too little and too much; which walked by faith indeed for thing invisible, but yet by sight for things visible; which dared to appropriate everything to the people which had belonged to Csar, but to assum for mortal nothing that belonged to Ood. Notieub, it was a deliberation of prodigious dfflculty, and a decision ot infinite moment, which should settle the new institutions of England after the execution of the Kin, and determine whether ttiey should be popular or manarchial. The problem wa ico vast tor Cromwell and tbe great men wbo stood about him, aud, halting between the only possible opinions, they simply robbed the throne of stability, without giving to the people the choice ot their rulers. Had Cromwell assumed the state and style ot King, and nss.gned the constiiut onal limits of prerogative, the ttatesmen of England would have auticipated the establishment of 168$, aud saved the disgraces of the intervening record. If, on the other hand, the ever-recurring consent of the people i. .... .t.. .i,t.r h.,i itean accented

fir the constitution ot the state, the revolution ! perience and fortune here had done nothing to rewould have be-u intelligible and might have prove! I duce, everjtliing to confirm, the tiews aud traits permaneut But what a "lord proWtor" vu no- I which brought them hither. To sever all political bod knew, and what he might grow to be eve ybody I relations, then, with Europe, .eemed to these people

wondered and feared. The aristocracy could endure no dignity above them less than a Ring . l ne people knew the meaiiiie and the ti le of the chartered I bertles which bad been wrested or yielded from the king's prerogative; but what the division between theo; aud a lord protector would be no one could forecast. Abrief fluttering between the flrmajnent above and the firm earth beneath, with no poise with either, aud the discordant schem was rolled away as scroll. A hundred year afterward Montesquieu derided "tlrU impotent effort of the English to establish a IH m.cracy," and divined the true cause of it failure. The supreme place, do !ougr sacred by the divinity that doth hedge about a king, irritated the ambitious to which it was inaccessible, exxept by faction and violence. "The government was incessantly changed, and the astonished people (ought for ,i.m.,. it nnvk.ra After much violence and many shocks and blows, they were fain to

all back upon the same government they bad overthrown." The English experiment to make a commonwealth without sinking its foundation into tbe firm bed of popular sovereignty, aecessarily failed. Its example and its less in, unquestionably, were of the greatest service iu sobering the spir t of English reform in government, to the solid eatHblishment of constitstional monarchy, on the expnlsion of tbe Stuarts, arid in giving courage to the statesmen of the Anieronn revolution to push on to the solid estaMishme nt o republican government, with the consent of the peodie aa its every day working force.

But if the English experiment stumbled in its i lopic, by not going far enough, the French philosoi pliers tu to greater disaster, by over-passing the line which mark the limit of human authority and human liberty, when tbey undertook to redress tbe disordered balance between people and rulers, and renovate the government of France. To the wrath of the people against kings and priests they gave free course, not oi.ly to the overthrow of tbe establishment of the church and state, but to the destruction of religion and society. They defied maa, and thought to raise a tower of man' building, as of old, on the plain of Shinar, which should overtop the battlement of heaven, and frame a constitution of human affairs that should displace the providence of God. A confusion of tongue put an end to this ambition. And now out of all its evil have come tbe salutary checks and discipline in freedom, which have brought passionate aud fervid France to the scheme and frame of a sober and firm republic like our own, and, we may hope, as durable. How much, then, hung upon the decision of the great day we celebrate, and uion the wisdom and the will of the men who fixed the immediate, and, if so, the present fortunes of this people. If the body, the spirit, the texture, of our political lite, had not been collectively declared on thi-t day, who can be hold enough to pay when and h.iw independence, liberty, union, would have been combined, confirmed, assured to this people? Behold, now, the greatness of our debt to this ancestry, and the fountain, as from a rock smitten in the wilderness, from which :be stream of this nation's growth and power takes its source. For it is not alone in the memory of their wisdom ami virtues that the founders of a state transmit and perpetuate their influences in its lasting fort unes, and shape the character and purposes of its future rulers, "in the birth of societies," says Montesquieu, "it is the chiefs of a state that make iu institutions; and. afterward, it is these institutions that tonn the chiefs of the state." And vht was this people, and what their traits and training that could justify this congress of their grat men in promulgating the profound views of government and human nature which the Declaration emliodies. and expecting their acceptance as "self-evident?" How had their lives been disciplined, and how their spirits prepared, that the new-launched ship, fre ishted with all their fortunes, could be trusted to their guidance, with no other chart or compass than these abstract truths? What warrant was there iorihe eouii'lence that upon these plain precepts of equality f riht, community of interest, reciprocity of duty, a polity could be framed which minht safely discard Egyptian mystery, and Hebrew revurence, and Grecian subtlety, and Roman strength, dispense, even, with Euglish traditions of "Primoenity and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels." To these questions the answer was ready and sufficient. The delegates to this immortal assembly, speaking for the whole country, aud for the respective colonies, their constituents, might well gay: "What we are, such are this people. We are not here as volunteers, but as their representatives. We have been designated by no previous otlicial station, taken from no one employment or condition of life, chosen from the people at large, because they can not assemble io person, and selected because they know our sentiments, and we theirs, on the momentous question which our deliberations are to decide. They know that the result of all bang oa the intelligence, the courage, the constancy, tbe spirit of the people themselves. If these have riseu to a height, and grown to a strength and unanimity, that our judgment measures as adequate to the struggle for independence, and the whole sum of their liberties, they will accept that issue and follow that lead. TUey have taken up arms to maintain their rights, and will a t lay them down till those rights are assured. What tbe nature and sanctions of this seem it y are to be they understand must be determined by united counsels and concerted action. These they have deputed us to settle and proclaim, and thia we have done to-day. What we have declared the people will avow and confirm. Henceforth it is to thia people a war for tbe defense of their united independence agaiust its overthrow by foreign arms. Of that war there can be but one issue. And for the rest, as to the constitution ot tbe new state, its specie ia disclosed by its existence. The condition of tbe people is equal, they have the habit of freemen and possess the institutions of liberty. When the political connection with the parent state is dissolved they will be self-governing and selfgoverned of necessity. As all governments in this world, good i nd bad, liberal or despotic, are of men, by men, and for men, this new state, having no caste or ranks, or degree discriminating among men in this population, becomes at once a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. So it must remain, unless foreign conquest or domestic usurpation shall change it. Whether it hall be a just, wise, or prosperous government, it must be a popular government, and correspond with the wisdom, justice and fortunes of the people." These, feelings, common to the whole population, were not of sudden origin and were not romantic, nor had they any tendency to evaporate ia noisy boasts or run wild io airdrawn projects. The difference between equality aud privilege, between civil rights and capricious favors, between freedom of conscience aud persecution for conscience' sake, were not m Itters of most debate or abstract conviction with our countrymen. The story of these batthl of our race was the warm and living memory of tbeir forefathers' share in them, for which, "to avoid insufferable grievances at home, they had been enforced by heaps to leave their native countries." Tbey proposed to settle forever the question whether such grievances sh uld possibly befall them or their posterity. They knew no plan so simple, so comprehensive, or so iure ti this end as to solve all tho minor difficulties In the government of society by a radical basis for its source, a common field for its operation, aud an authentic and deliberate method for consulting aud enforcing the will of tbe people as the sole authority of the State. By ihis wisdom they at least would shift, within the sphere of government, the continuous warfare of human nature, on the field of good and evil, right and wrong, "Between whose endless jar, justice resides," from conflicts of the strength of the many against the craft of the few. They would gain tbe advantage of supplying as the reason of the State, the reason of the people, and decide by tbe moral and intellectual influences of instruction and persuasion, the issue of who should make and wbo should adminis.er the laws. This involved no pretensions of the perfection of human nature, nor did it assume that at other times, or under other circumstances, they would themselves have been capable of self-government; or, that other people then were, or ever would be, so capable. Their knowledge of maukiud showed them that there would be faults and crimes so loug as there were men. Their faith taught them that this corruptible would put on incorruption only wben this monal should put on immortality. Nevertheless, they believed in man and trusted in God, aud on these imperishable support they thought tbey might rest civil government, for a people who bad these living conceptions wrought into their own characters and lives. . And so this people, of various root and kindred of the Old World settled aud transfused into their cisatlantic home into harmonious fellowship in the sentiments, tbe interests, tbe habits, tne affections which develop aud sustain a love of country were committed to the common fortune which should atteud an absolute trust in the primary relations between man and bis fellows and between man aud bis Maker. This Northern Continent of America bad been opened and prepared for the transplantation of the full-grown manhood of the highest civilization of the Old Wund I a place where it could be free from mixture or collision with competiugor hostileelemeuts, and separated from the weakness and the burden which it would leave bebind. The impulse and attraction wi.i:b moved the emignatiou, and directed it hither, various in form, yet had so much a common character aa to merit the description of being public, elevated, moral, or religion. Tbey included she desire of new and better opportunities for insti tutions consonant with tbe dignity of human nature, and with the immortal and iu Quite relation of the race. In the language of the times, tbe search for civil and religion liberty animated tbe Pilgrim, the Pnntana, ani the Churchmen, the Presby.erians, the Catholic, and the Quakers the Huguenots, the Dutch, and the Walloons the Waldeuses, the Germans, and the swedes, in tbeir several migration which made no the colonial population Their ex ! but the realisation of the purposes which lea tueni across the oc. au but the wue thing needful to com plete this continent for their home, and to giv tbe absolute assurance of that higher life which thej wi-hed to lead. l'h preparation of the past aud the enthusiasms of the future conspired to favor the pro ject of self-government said invest it with a moral grandeur wtiich furnished the best omen and the best guarantee f r its prosperity. Instead of a capricious and giddy exaltatiou of spirits, at its new gained liberty , sober and sol-ran senee of the larger trust and dnty took possession of their souls; as if tb Great ii aster had found them faithful overafea things, and bad uow made them ruler over many. Tbe past and the present are the only mean b which man foresees or shapes the future. Cpon th evidence of the past the contemplation of the presen i of this people, our statesmen were wiiiiug to commence a system which must continually draw, for ita

sustenance and growth, upon the virtue and vigor ' the people. F'om this virtue and this vigor it cat'..jne be nourished; it ntnst decline in their decline atd rot in their decay. Tey traced this vieor aud virtue to inexhaustible springs. And. as tbe unspent heat of a lava soil quickened by the returniug Summers, through the vintages of a thousand years, will still glow in the grape and sparkle in the wine, o will the exuberant force of race supply an unstinted vigor to mark tbe virtue of immense populations and to the remotest generations. To the frivolous philosophy of human life which makes all the world a pupt show, and history a book of anecdotes, the moral wurtare which fills np the life of a roan and the record of his race teems as uureal and as aimless as the conflicts of the glittering host upon an airy field, whose display lights np the fleeting splendors of a northern night. But frea Government for a great people never comes from or a-ets aid from such philosophers. To a true spiritual discernment there are few things more real, few things more substantial, few thiugs more likely to endure in this world than human thoughts, human passions, human interests, thus molten into the frame and model of our State. " 0 morrmprttclaram, ductphnamque, yaam mijoribus acctpimu; ti amidem tenermm. 1 I have made no account, as unsuitable to the occasion, of the distribution of the natioual poWer between the general and the state governments, or of the special arrangenienss of executive authority, of legislatures, courts and magistracies, whether of the general or of the state establishments. Collectively they form the body and the frame of a complete gov- " eminent for a great, opulent and powerful people, occupying vait regions, and embracing in their possessions a wide range of diversitv of climate, of soil and of all the circumstantial influence of external nature. I have pointed your atteution to tho principle and the spirit of the gjvirnmr-nt for which all this frame and body exists, to which thev are eulsjervient, and to whose mastery they mut"conforiu. The life ot the natural body is the blood, and the circulation of the moral and intellectual forces and iinpiil-es of the bo.lv politic shapes and molds the üational life. I have touched, therefore, upon the traits that determined this national life, as te bof, from, and for the people, and not of, from, or for any rauk, grade, prt or tection of them. In these traits are found the "ordi uances. constitutions and customs-' by a wi-e choice ot which the founders ol states may, Lord Bacon says, ''sow greatuess to their posterity and succession.'" Aud uow, after a century of growth, cf trial, of experience, of observation, and of demonstration, we are met, on the spot and on the date of the great declaration, to compare eur age with that of our rathers, our structure with their foundation, our intervening history and present condition with their faith and prophecy. That "respect to the opinion of maukind," in attention to which our statesmen framed the Declaration of Independence, we, too, acknowledge a a sentiment most fit to influence ns iu our commemorative gratulatious to-day. To this opinion of mankind, then, how shall ws answer tha questioning of this day? How have the vigor and success ot the country's warfare comported with tue sounding phrase of the great manifesto? Has the new natiea been able t bold its territory on the eastern rim of the continent, or I as covetous Kuroe driven in its boundaries, or inleriu.l dissensions dismembered it integrity? Have its numbers kept pace with natural iucrease.or baveth mother countries received back to the shelter of firmer institutions the repeutant tide of emigration? or have the woes of unst&Me society distressed and reduced the shrunken population? Ha tbe free suffrage, as a quicksand, loosened the foundations of power and undermined the pillars of the Mate? Has the free press, with illimitable sweep, blown down the props aud butresse of order and authority in government, driven before Its wind the barriers which

fence in society, and unroofed the homes which onca were castle against the intrusion of a king? IIa freedom in religion ended in freedom f r. ns religion. and independence by law run into indejieudence of law? Have free schools, by too much.learnlns. made the people mad? Have manners declined, letters languished, art faded, wealth decayed, public spirit' withered? Have other nations shnnued Ihe evil example, and held aloof from its infection? Or have reflection and hard fortune dispelled the illusions no de r which this people "burned incense to vanity, and stumbled in their ways from the ancient paths?" uave tney, neeitw irom tbe double destruction which attends folly and arrogance, restored the throne, rebuilt the altar, re laid the foundations of societv. and again taken shelter in the old protections agaiust th perils, shocks and changes in human affairs, which "Divert and crack, rend and deracinate Tbe unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixture." Wbo can recount in au hour what ha been dene in a century, on so wide a field, and in all its multitudinous aspects? Yet I may not avoid insisting upon some decisive lineament of the material, social, and political development or oar coun'ry which tbe record of the hundred years displays, and thus present to "the opinion of mankind." for it ceneroos judg ment, our nation a it i to-day our land, our people and our laws. And, first, we notice the wide territory to which we have steadily pushee on our limits. Lines of climate mark our boundaries north and south, and two ocean east and west. Tbe spsce between, speakinr by and large, cover tbe whole temperate zone of the continent, and, in area, measures near tenfold the possession of the thirteen colonies. The natural features, the climate, the productions, the influences of the outward world, are all implied iu the immensity of this domaiu, for they embrace all that the goodness and she power of God have planned for large a (hare of the habitable globe. Tbe step of tbe successive acquisition, the impulse which assisted, and the motive which retard.-d th expan sion of our territory; tl e play of the competing elements in our civilization and tbeir incessant struggle each to outrun the other; the irrepressible conflict thus nursed in the bosom of the state; the lesson in humility and patience, "in charity for all and malic toward none," whicn the study of the manifest de signs of Providence so plainly teach us these may well detain us for a moment s illustration. And this calls attention to that ingredient in the population of this country which came, not from th culminated pride ol Europe, but from the abject despondency of Africa. A race discriminated from all tne converging streams of immigration which I have named by luefTacable di-tiuctious of nature; which, was brought hither by a forced migration and iuto slavery, while all others came by choice and for greater liberty; a race uurepressnted in the Con press which Issued the Declaration or independence, tins now. in the persons of 4.I.SSJ ihju of our countrymen raised, by the power of the great truths then de clared, as it were from the dead, and rejoicing in ona country and the same constituted liberties with ourselves. Iu August. 162. a Dutch slave ship landed her freight in Virginia, completing ber voyage soou after that of the SI y flow T commenced. Both ships were ou the ocean at the same time, both sought our shores, and planted their seeds of liberty and slavery to grow together ou this chosen field until the barvest. Until the separation irom England tne several colonies attracted each their own emigration, and from the eparceness of tbe population, both in the Northern and Southern colonies, ana tne poucy oi England in introducing African slavery, wherever fi might, iu all of them, the institution of slavery did not raise a definite and firm line oi division vetween the tides of population which set in upon New Eng land and Virginia from the Old World, and from them later, as from new point ot departure, were diffused over the continent. The material interest of slavery bad not become very strong, and in its moral aspects no sharp division of sentiment Dad yet shown itself. But when unity aud ind- penuence of gov ernment were accepted by the colooie, we shall look lu vain for anv adequate barrier against the natural attraction of the rafter climae and rich productions of the Öoutb, which could keep the Northern population in their harder climate and on their less grateful oil, except the repugnancy of the two systems of freaand slate labor to commixture. Out of this grew the impatient, and apparently premature invasion or the Western wild, pushing constantly onward, in parallel line, tbe outpost of the two rival interests. What greater enterprise did for the Northern people in stimulating this movement was more than supplied to the So t hern by tbe pressing necessity for new lauds, which the requirement of the ystem of slave cultivation imposed. Under the operation of tbeea cause tb political divisions of the country built up a wall of partition rnnning east and weit, with tha uovel consequence of the "border state," of th country being ranged, not on our foreign boundaries, but on this middle line, drawn betw-en tbe free and slave state. The successive acquis tions of territory, by tbe Louisiana purchase, by the annexation of Texas, and by the treaty wP h Mexico, were all in tha Interest of the Southern policy, aud, as such, all suspected or resisted by lb rival iut-resl in th North. On the other band, all echeme or tendencies toward the enlargement of our territory on ihe north were discoursg-d and def ated byihettouth. At length,, with the immense influx of foreign immigration, reinforcing the flow ol population, the streams of fre labor shot across the.conlinent. The end was reached, rti bound of our habitation were secured, i he Pacific possessions became ours, and the uiscovered gold rapidly peopl.-d them Irom the hive of free labor, rbe rival energies and ambition which bad fed the thirst for territory had served their purpose, in completing and assuring the domain of the nation. The partition wall of slavery was thrown down; the line of border tate obliterated; tnoe who had battled tor territory, as au extension and perpetuation of slavery, and those who bad fought against it en largement, as a disparagement aud a danger to liberty, were alike coufonud. d. Those wbo feared undue 4iid precipitate expansion of our possessions, aa loosening the ties of union, and those who desired it, t. a step toward dissolution, have suffered a common discomfiture. The immense social and political forces hieb the existence ot lavery in tbi country, and ihe invincible repugnance to it of the vital principle f our state, together, generated, have had their play upon tie passion and th interest of thi people, uave formed tbe basis of parties, divided sects, agitated and invigorated Ihe popular mind, inspired tu eloquence, inflamed the seal, informed the undsr-