Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1877 — The Next Fourth of July. [ARTICLE]

The Next Fourth of July.

In :i lfte number of tlie Magnolia (Miss.) Herald , we find the following communication: Mb. Editor.—Within the next 1 thirty days we slmll have attained tl’«e first anniversary of tlie second centennial of our government, and I lake this method of calling the attention of my fellow countrymen to that occasion. Oil that memorable day one hundred and one years ago a small band of devoted patriots in solemn council assembled, proclaimed to the world their disetthrallment from the government of an unjust king, and used on that occasion the following sentiments, applicable to day to our changed political condition: “We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these l ights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed etc. Feeling that the letter and spirit of til in passage of the declaration has been fulfilled on this anniversary, the first since the arraignment of tlie two great dominant parties against each other in 1861 and their

resort to the aroiti ament of arms, I welcome this occasion as one eminently proper for every child of tlie old government to reverenee its parent and do, homage to the sponsors and guardians of its infancy. They were not to blame for tiie troubles they knew not of and strove to avert in tjieir constitution and their councils. Shades of John Hancock, Benj. Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, llobl. Morris, Benj. Kush, Richard Henry Lee, Benj. Harrison, John Adams, Samuel Chase, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Charles Carroll, and all that noble band of self saerific.ing patriots who subscribed their names to the following earnest, soul-stirring and chivalrous sentiments: “And for the support of this declaration, with a linn reliance in Divine Providence, we mutually pledgeto each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor;” and of George Washington, Nathaniel Grteu, Israel Putman, the gallant Montgomery, Delvalh, the Marquis of La t ayette, and of that brave army who fought and suffereo through seven weary years to bequeathe to posterity the forms of a government whose model attracts the attention of the civilized world. Must our fathers be forgotten and their legacy despised because factions have disgraced and the common 8:il has been crimsoned with fratricidal gore? There runs in the veins ot every American, from the. Sierras to the Gulf, a strong efjr , rent ot tile ancient blood, and in each heart a latent spark that i*r. ds but the occasion to rekindle the' flames of former national pride ' We are Americans, co heirs midi equ?«l inheritors of this great framework ot human liberty—with ill of its attemluut glory, aims and Aspi-

rations. Let- the dead past bury the past, and with the return of state self-government, the recognition’of our representative* in the chambers of the nation and oar complete restoration to our “inherent and inalienable right*,” let us assemble together on that great anniversary and revive the old memories, bring floral offerings in honor of and benedictions for the wise, the brave and the good patriot* of

1776.

CONTINENTAL.