They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. It is fashionable to do so but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried men’s souls. Everybody can say it the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. As with rivers so with nations.īut, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men but nations number their years by thousands. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July.
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