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PRESENTED BY 1.876 miTED STATES OF AMERICA. -OSS' > 7V-» -fc. 3 >> >]) " :z>'5f>:> 3 3 _3>13R> ^^^'^^2» ?V -^» ''^' J>>>»:» » >3 _> > >3i> >5 ^> 33 3l> ^ * > 3>^ »33> : ^3 : ^9 ?> i^ ► ^'^-^ ?t=^ 3-.» -_2 3 »>:>->: •'■^^^ >^.>^33 > 3>i> :3 353> :z> 33E>^ 336> ^> . ^3.i> - >)3S?> •" >3JS> ~ ^ 3 ' :> 2» 3>^>^3J>; 3 3l> 3 35- 3 3 • 3>>>^^: 3 3> ^, i^3 3:»J>. 0)V3 _ 3»' >-:s»3K> 5> '3 , ^>i2»^JK>3 3..'' ^:s:*::3K>3^3^ »3C> P3 3 •^^^ J? _J O ' . > :)'3 .^ ■■^-3,g»>?:^^ ^ 3 J ::>yy:> :5 "^^> i>^:^ :>:> 6> 3 0,^ ?'^ ^:3>3 ^>5i» »t3 -^>^ > >>'>-^ 55 :0y m*J» >> 3a» ■ ~t*3>^ ::»7> >^ >^^ ^ 73)i>:> 0)> 3> ^ao 3.D> 3> ^3.3 ^21. :3» ^ t£> 3j:a 3 l> 3i3> 3^^^^i:3^^:^a^ :);o 3 3> 3 )>3 ^^ ■^ T> r> ::2> ~> i2)3 ~:mf> ^^ >33 3E> ^ 3 3 ^^^ ' > O .3^ > :» 3 3.^ :3»^^^-3:>^>' 3>-^:^ ^ 35>>^» ^^ ^ ^ ^^s^ ^»^^ ^>yi^ ^n ^ ^ ^Bsm> ::^^l> .:5g^:^ ^>;i ORATION, Delivered by S.O.Griswold, Esq., at the Centennial Cel' bration in the City of Cleveland, July 4th, 1876. 1274 ORATION, Delivered by S. 0. GRISWOLD, Esq., at the Centennial Celebration in the City of Cleveland, JULY 4th, 1876. Mr. President and FelloiD Citizens : The phenomena of movement in the heavenly bodies could not fail to arrest the attention of men in the primeval days. The natural impulse of those untaught men was worship, which lifted upward their hearts, conveying their thoughts from material to spiritual corceptions, and inducing a culture whicli slowly led them from savagery to civilization. In the earlier times this culture extended beyond the mere alternation of days and nights and led them to the observation of the recurrence of longer periods, and to the divisions of tin: e, known as months, years, cycles, centuries. These divisions of time naturally became the points from which to date events that peipetuated themselves in the world's memory. But in the progress of the race, as by natural metaphor, this order was reversed, and great events themselves became the marking points in time and his- tory. In that great city of antiquity, which sub- dued the cultured east and the barbaric west, add for so many centuries imposed its law and rule upon the world, time was offi- cially reckoned from its own beginning. For ordinary purposes they adopted the received cbronoloey, and their own greatest genius reformed the calendar, and furnished the rules for its universal use, but all public acts were ofBciaily dated, Anno Urbis Conditm — from the year of tlie founding of the city — and in this designation there was a continued appeal to the pride and patriotism, alike of rulers and people. When the nations of Western Euiope emerged from the barbarism into which they relapsed after the withdrawal of the central power of the Empire, they had nothing in their own national experience upon which to found a chronological succession. The chiefs of that hierarchy which succeeded the imperial with their spiritual sway, adopt- ed for general use the Julian tables; and these Western nations, more submissive to priestly than political supremacv, readily accepted their i.nstruction, and tooK with them, as their initiil po'nti a reckoning, that which they were taught to believe was the year of the Divine Advent to earth in their behalf. Offspring of these Western nations, the people of America continued the use of the common calendar, but the founders of the new form of Government, when they or- dained the same in this Western Hemis- phere, took a new departure in time. With more than prophetic prescience, they be- lieved that here would arise and grow an Empire of the People, mightier and more beneficent than that of Rome. Animated by that great example, and influenced by the same motives, they intended all acts of their Government, so long as it endured, should bear proper relation in time and history to that great event,— the Birth of the Nation, and so they practiced; and whenever an act has been or is done in the name of the Gov- ernment it is always recited as "Done in the year of the Independence of the United States of America." And we, fellow citizens, are here assem- bled to celebrate the Hundredth Anniversary of that great event. It is in the highest de- gree appropriate that this celebration should be conducted by the performance of relig- ious ceremonies, by music, by civic and mil- itary display, and by all the modes in which intelligent men may testify their reverence, their gratitude, and their joy. It has also been recommended by Congress and the CEN'TENXIAL. President of tbe United States that on the occasion of this celebration, in each town and city, there should be prepared an ad- dress, embodyina: the local history of the place, the same to be deposited in the archives of the Nation. In this city of ours there exists a Society, the object and pur- pose of which is to collect and preserve all the material relating to the history of the place from tlie earliest period to the present date, and the distinguished President of that association has prepared with great care and labor that history, and his work is set forth in an elaborate volume, which is al- ready deposited in the National library. It was therefore requested of me by your Committee of Anangvments that this recom- mended duty be ou my part omitted, and in their behalf to submit to j'ou a few words such as I should deem fit and appropriate to the time and occasion. I doubt not, the thought uppermost in the minds of all, is the change dur- the Century. On the 4th day of July, 1776, Cleveland was not; and now .behold the fair city with all its pride and beauty in which we are assem- bled — located on a site which would have delighted even a Greek Eponymist — itself a livinsr exhibition of the progress, the de- velopment, and the results of the cen- tury. If one were possessed of the paint- er's skill, or engraver's art, there might be presented a scene which would convey to your minds by a single glance all the grand features of that contrast which a vol- ume of words would fail to express. Here, would be shown thp broad lake, its wateis unvexed by keel or prow, washing a tenant- less shore, with a river debouching from a vast forest into it, whose sluggish waters were slowly forcing iheir way through the bar at the mouth of the channel. In the forest glpde. might be seen, a few savage men maintairing a precarious conflict for life with equally savage beasts. There, might be seen, the ocean line, its border fringed with the habitations of men, and their overhanging sun and sky would be darkened bj' smoke of the battle of contending armies. In the center of that habited region, thrre would be seen a fair city, the abode of peaceful men; in the city's midst, a council cham- ber, in which was gathered a company of Elders, whose form and appearance would indicate that Plutarch's men had returned to earth again. The chief of that council would be holding in his hand an unrolled scroll upon which all eyes were intent, and on that scroll, in letters all of iivinir gold, flash- ing with a brighter than electric light, those never to be forgotten words. "All men are created equil." There, leading out from the inhabited land, might be seen a proces- uion, the leader of which was a surveyor, with his compass and chains; following him a hardy emigrant, ax in hand, with his slow team of oxen bearing his family and scanty household goods; then would appear an established highway with moving teams of better appointed travelers; then, the artificial inland river with its slow-moving burdened craft; then, the rushing locomotive.followed by a great company which no man might number. Here, might be seen, the woodman making a clearing in the forest, and beyond, the cabin, the school house, the church, fair fields, plains, cities, and stretch- ing out an illumined vista horizoned by ihe millennial gates, the groupings of which scene none but a God might frame, and only the genius of Homer fitly describe. I find it most diflacult,from the many strik- ing features which this great contrast of the century presents, to select a topic for re- mark in the brief time allowed me in tbe performance of the ceremonies of the day, but I have chosen, and I pur- pose for a few moments calHng your atten- tion to the Continental Congress, as con- nected with the subject of Government by *he Representative Assembly. In the early days, when men were limited in numbers and association to the family, the village, or tribe, the problems of gov- ernment were lew and simple; but when numbers increase, ideas enlarge, the vil- lage becomes a city, and the tribe a nation, these problems become all-absorbing ques- tions. How to combine individual liberty w'th central authority; to protect the simple and guileless from the artful and cunning; to insur*^ peace, order, and security to life and property, and yet not fall into the meshes of tyranny; on the one hand to be free from the evils of anarchy, and on the other from CONTINENTAL CONGRESS — THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY. the evils of despotism — are questions which have occupied the best thoughts of the best men in all civilized States. I need not dwell upon the disturbing forces against which no theory can provide, or upon the thousand practical attempts at the solution of these problems. I hesitate not to say, and 1 believe it to be the unbi- ased judgment of the "candid world," that of all the modes of government which the wit or wisdom of man has yet contrived, the best and most successful is the Repre- sentative Assembly. 1 do not deny the excellencv of the An- cient City. I acknowledge the g!ory of tiie Periklean State, but the strain was too great for human nature to endure, where every citizen is continuallj' called upon to exercise the functions of a legislator, a judge, and a soldier. For a short period the system shone with great splendor and its light still illumines mankind, but it was adapted only to limited territorial posses- sion, and reqviired its citizens to be support- ed by the libor of a servile class. T acknowledge the peace and security of the Empire. Under its benign and peace- ful sway, local and provincial enmities were subdued, free intercourse established throughout the world, and the sure foundations laid for the steady development of all the arts and ideas which lead to a more perfect civilization. But the Em- pire at its best estate operates as a thrall on human energy and thought, and is only successful when its chief is a Hadrian; but if the emperor be a Caligula, it would seem as if the world had been given over to the power of the Prince of Darkness. The Representative Asa.em-blv appears to be the just mean. Under it the whole electoral body nte called upon to exercise some politi- cal duties. To the great majority, these duties are not absorbing, and leave them the full opportunity for their own best development in mind, body, and estate. Those, who are called upon to ex- ercise the functions of rulers, are them- elves members of the electoral body, and, in theory, are selected because of some special qualitication of fitness for their re- spective stations. They can have no inter- est, as a class, antagonistic to the general electoral body, and hold their station by the choice of their fellow electors. The history of the origin ot this mode of government is lost, in the lost early history of our race. Its rise and progress can only be traced in the svirvivals of ancient customs. Its germ undoubtedly existed in those an- cienti councils of the German forest, when the yea was pronounced by the clashing ot buckler, and the nay by equally significant dissent. It is the great contribution of the Teutonic race to the common civilization of the world. It was an idea, when once conceived of, too valuable to be lost. It possessed of itself a vital force, which would not permit it to be destroyed. It survived among the people during the period of the Roman domination, nor was it buried in the barbarism wh'ch ensued. It reappeared in the Gemot and Witan and found its first, fullest develop- ment in the Parliament of England, whose people were the growtli of the graftings of the best stocks of the race. Of all the famous Assemblies which have ever convened, none can favorably compare with the Continental Congress save the Long Parliament, and the French National Assem- bly. Tne Continental Congress was more successful and fortunate than either of these. The Long Parliament degenerated into a mob, and was dispersed with contemptuous words by the servant itself had chosen to execute its command, and he, after vainly attempting to establish for it a successor, was compelled to uphold the totterino- state by his own vigorous will. The French Na- tional Assembly shrank into a murderous club, from wnose bloody hands the nation was only saved by submitting itself to the rule of a dictator: and for nearly a hundred years that brilliant nation has passed through the greatest alternations, and only in our day, under the bitter mortification of a foreign occupation finally established the Repiesentative Assembly. The Continental Congress, though more favored by fortune, was no produce of chance, or of sudden inspiration It was the result of centuries of experience. It was the natural outgrowth of the race, with special cdvantages of time and place. In the first century following CONTINENTAL CONGRESS— THK REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY. the discovery ot America, the Spanish na- tion was the toremost power of the world, and the energies of that people had been di- rected to Central America, their chief object the gain of wealth; to aid the old and not to establish a new empire. Durinsr the first half of that century the English nalion had been engasced in internal conflict. Its whole people had been aroused by the great religious awakenine of the Reformation, but these internal conflicts had for a time great- ly weakened the state. During the long sway of Elizabeth the nation had recuperat- ed, and the capacity of the race and its gen- eral development were shown by the apptaraace in a single generation of such men as Raleigh, Bacon, and Shakespeare. When the Armada was destroyed England stepped to the front rank; and all those eager eyes which behold the future turned their gaze to this Western Hemisphere. The first emigrants were of course mere adventurers for gain, or religious en- thusiasts, who combined in themselves some ot the best as well as worst elements of human nature, but they were not the stuff out of which nations are formed. The troublous times which preceded the Great Rebellion induced hither an immense emigration. I lately noted, in a publication containing the official register of the port of London, that in the months of April and May of the year 1635 there sailed from that port alone bound for isew England and Vir- ginia, twenty-two ships loaded with passen- gers. In one of these the names of two hundred and eleven passen- gers are given in full, and those names have been perpetuated, and some of them may be read to-day on tl.e signs in your business streets. In the len jears, from 1630 to 1640, the great bulk of the emigra- tion of the first half of the century took place. I also noted in the same regis- ter, that these persons who embarked had ob- tained from the proper parish officer a certifi- cate, either tbat they naa paid cr were not sub- ject to the subsidy (ship money) tax. They were men of the substantial middle class of the people upon whom this burden fell grievously. They had not the same stake in the soil as the great leaders of the opposition to the Government, and when they emigrated hither, they came with the intent of building up in Massachu- setts, Connecticut, and Virginia a new Eng- land, freed from the existing thraldoms of their native .and. They had the average education of the middle class. The influence of the Reformation had awHkened and quick- ened their moral natures, and they had had experience in civil rights as jurymen and mem(:)ers of municipal and village councils. If not rich in worldly goods, they had two priceless possessions; a devout resrard for the moral rule, and a knowledge of the com- mon law. They came generally by com- munities, the large majority accustomed to agricultural pursuits, l)ut they endeavored always to unite and join with them in their enterprise, the mason and the carpenter, the tanner and the shoemaker, and all the trades- men needful to form a complete industrial society. There came also with them re- ligious teachers who had generally received the culture of the Universities, and lawyers who had been trained at the Temple. They were, in the main, a devout, indus- trious, thriving people, and above all a race of surpassing valor. They were brethren and next of kin of the famous Ironsides of Cromwell; soldiers, who, m fair and open fight on their common native soil, overcame cavalier, noble, and prince; who swept as with the whirlwind the hardy Scot at Dunbar, and trampled as on the chaff of the threshing floor the Irishry of Muns- ter; and who, when their seryice ended, quietly disbanded and fused with tlie mass of the people, and in the succeeding years when in community any one was dis- tinguished above his fellows "for diligence in business, sobriety, and regularity in the pursuit of peace," it was to be noted of him that he had been a soldier in the regiments of Cromwell. Owing to the advantages of soil and climate their natural increase was great and there was added to them a contin- ued accession by emigration. In the forms of government provided by the charters of the different colonies, the principles of representative govern- ment were always included; indeed, in the framing of those charters, and in providing modes of constituting the Representative Assembly, the wisest and CONTINENTAL COX.iKKSS — THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY. purest scholars and statesmen of England were otten consulted, and some of these charters were so excellent as to have re- mained w'thout change long after the Revo- luuon. It was not till after the subjugation of the Canadas, to which the soldiers of the colo- nies had greatly contributed, that difficulties began to arise. Hitherto they had either been left to themselves, or if interfered with, it had been done with good will, and a purpose to aid and foster their growth. The oppressive acts of Parliament, of which the colonist complained, were rather the result of prejudice and ignorance than of any real design to injure. The King of England was not a man of cruelty, or possessed of any purpose to be unfaithful to any of the prin- ciples of the British Constitution, which, by his coronation oath, he had sworn to up- hold. It is to be noted that most ot the charges set forth in that terrible arraign- ment which has just been read in your hearinsr, were acts done after the conflict had ripened into war. But the King was grossly ignorant, and was obstinate to a de- gree almost amounting to insanity — in fact, he subsequently became insane. The amus- ing stories related by our citizens who travel abroad, of the present extreme ignorance in regard to this country on the part of apparently intelligent people, are but a faint shadow of the general ignorance which then prevailed. A. few far-seeing statesmen realized the actual condition of affairs, and most nobly, but in vain, sought to stay the hand of the Government, which was daily proceeding from bad to worse. In 1774, matters had proceeded so far thai a Congress, deputed in part by the Colonial Assemblies, and in part by poUtical conventions, met at Philadel" phia to consult for the common good. They passed a prea^mble and resolutions, asserting their rights under the British Constitution, and recited the numerous acts of Parliament which they deemed to be in deroga- tion of their rights under the com- mon law. They recommended to the people modes of peaceful resistance, and adopted a memorial to the British Government. The idea of a separation had not yet pervaded the minds of the people, and they looked up to England as to a venerated mother. In her soil were entombed the bones of their fathers and kindred, and they felt themselves to be partakers in her splendid fame. They had witli alacrity sprung to arms at her call to battle against the ancient enemies of the nation. They eagerly marched under her standard to drive the French from the Can- adas, and were equally ready to join in ex- pelling the Spaniard from the Antilles and Central America. They claimed none of the oidinary exemptions from military duty. The Major-General of the forces of one of the colonies, an ancestor of one of your most eminent divines, was aged sixty- seven. In the journal left by him, in which he kept a record of the long and successful campaien against Louisbnrg, the most valuable part is that which evinces the unabated vigor of his body and mind and his profound rearard for the Colonial As- sembly, from which he had received his commission. Another distinguished officer, being dissuaded from accepting a command offered by the same Assembly in the expe- dition against the Spaniards, on account of his family and the dangers of a trapical cli- mate as well as the dangers of war, replied: "lean leave my family with Divine Provi- dence, and as to my own life, it is not left with man to determine the time or plaoe of his death. I think it best not to be anxious about it. The great thing is to live and die in our duty. I think the war is just. My call is clear. Somebody must veqture, and why not I as well as another?" The voice of the General Assembly was to him as the call of God to the Prophet of old, and in the same spirit of obedience he answered, "Here am I." Death relieved him of his command, and his grave was soon hidden by the rank growth of that tropic soil, but his faith was well founded, his family have continued, and one of his di- rect descendants is a citizen of your city, who by his great acquirements and contri- butions to geologic science, has made your city distinguished as a home of learn- ing. At the beginning of the latter half of the century, the Hollanders and Swedes, who were the predominating element of the Middle States, had become indistinguishable CONTINENTAL CONGRESS— THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY, from the common mase of the citizens. The former were a tough and hardy race, which had been trained to a high develop- ment under the leadership of the iruc, princely house of Orange; the fathers of the latter had followed the victorious banner of Gusiavus Adolphus, lo upholc the cause of religiotjs liberty against the combined forces of the Papacy anc the Empire, and both were of the original stocks of the Anglo-Saxon combination. The small ele- ment of the Celtic and Huguenot class, ky their religious training ^vas lilted to assimi- late with the rest of fhe people. Undoubtedly, the comparatively lean soil and more severe climate of Massachusetts had forced her citizens to fisheries, com- merce, and other aciive pursuits, and given to them a more adventurous spirit, which with their numbers and wealth, naturally gave them the leadership; but on the whole, the inhabitants were a homo^eaeous people. For more than a century their civic education had been promoted by the rule of the Colonial Assemblies. In his great speech in Parliament in favor of conciliation of the Colonics, that famous orator and statesman, who. it ha:^ been said, possessed in the highest degiee the facultv of perceiving th3 distant and the past, as if it were actually present, mentions the 'act of the number of the copies of Blackstone's Commentaries exported hither, and statistics show that more volumes were here annually sold than in the rest of the kimrdom. Their experience in the Indian and French wars had accustomed them to the use of arms, and trained them in the art of war. Of all these things, the blind Tory majority which ruled Parliament and supported the King were profoundly ignorant. The memorial of the Congress of 1774 was treated with contempt, and regarded as a sign of weak- ness. In all the pages of history, there is no record of greater folly tlian this, by wbich the affections of such a loyal body of citizens were alienated. The issues rapidly led to open conflict in whicli blood was shed. At once the several States took immediate steps lor the armament of I'.ie f.eoole. The farmer left his plow; the artizan his toil; the merchant his pursuit of gain; the doctor his patients; the lawyer his clients, and all went forth incited and supported by the praye-s of priest and woman. On the 10th of May, 1775, the Conti- nental Consrress assemt)led, deputed by the different States to assume the general con- trol. They came together without prece- dent, or any fixed rules of authority. They had no legally established constituency, but one in fact existed, which they did not fail to recognize, and for which they boldly as- sumed to act. So during the centuries, in the womb of the continent had been gendered a nation which knew not itself, whose birth, to the aston- ishment of the world, was accomplished b^^ the bloody pangs of war, and the Contlnent.al Conaress, as by divine commission, be- ■stowed upon it baptism and a name. Time would fail me to recount the history of that Congress. " It raised armies, ap- pointed generals, levied taxes, negotiated foreign loans and treaties," carried the war to a successful termination, and finally ex- torted from unwilling England a full recog- nition of the perfect legitimacy of this new memlwr of the great family' of nations. I cannot stop to speak of the diffi- culties with which it had to contend, of the noble manner of its own dissolutiou, or its unselfish ac- tion in aiding to submit to the people for adoption the New Constitu. tion which was to provide in its stead a per- petual successor with fixed and defined pow- ers, the lack of which had been the jrreat source of its own weakness. I cannot dwell tipon the individual character of its members, or even of that member whom it aopointed to be general of its armies; that Man. of men, who, when the victory was won, refusing all compensation for his long service, modestly returned to it the sword of command, and quietly returned to the home he so dearly loved, and engaged in those avocations and pursuits of peace which he enjoyed with so much zest. I cannot, however, forbear to mention one of its acts of wi.se statesmanship. Apprecia- ting the importance of the great Northwest, ^ of which little had then been explored be- yond the present State of Ohio, they settled and adjusted the conflicting claims of the CO^fTINENTAL COXGRESS — THE EEPEESENTA.TIVE ASSEMBLY. different States to the title of the land, and adopted for the Government of the t'^rritory the Ordinance of 1787; and to enable the in- coming inhabitants to enjoy the "blessings of liberty," which the new Constitution was ordained to secure, they appointed their own distinguished President fobe its Governor — to protect tliem by his valor and to teach them by his civil experience. I should, however, do injustice to my tbeme if I did not make brief comment upon those two great truths they so boldly asserted and su resolutely maintained — the civil equality of man, and that the consent of the governed gives sanction to Govern- ment — those truths upon which Government by the Representative Assembly is based- After the lapse of a century we can hardly realize the importance of the declaration of these political principles. It is still more difficult to appreciate the force and potency of the b3lief, in the world at large, of pre- cisely the contrary doctrine. The origin and persistence of this contrary be- lief, popularly called "the Divine Tight of Kings," is one of the most remarka- ble chapters in the history of the human m- telJect. In ttie early days men, unable to give an account of their own ;;^enesis, and perceiving the manifest distinctions in the gifts of mind and body, readily yield to the claim of di- vine origin by the superior man. It is an assumption so flattering to natural pride and vanity that the claimants came to believe their own fiction. It is on 3 of the survivals of Aryan barbarism, and the belief has per- vaded all branches of the race. The Ho- meric kingly heroes all are given a genealo- gy ascending to Olympus. In historic times, the royal houses of Sparta and Macedon called themselves Heraclidse and traced through their four\der, their origin directly to the All-Seeing Zeus. The other leading families of Greece claimed a like descent from him. or some other Olympic Divinity. Even the great Julius, so cultivated and so enlightened, cherished the weak fancy that his ancestral mother was the Divine Beauty, Aphrodite. The same belief was current in the old Teutonic tribes. Those long- haired warriors, with all their natural in- dependence, conceded the right to the family of the Divine Amali to furnish a Chief, or King for their selection. This survival of the barbaric days had been fostered by the priestly class which, under a like claim of divine author- ty, always sought to rule, or to ally itself with the ruling power. A hundred years ago there pervaded nearly the whole civil- ized world a belief that something of sa- credness was attached to the kingly office. Down into the present century the idea, that tliere was some occult and mj^sterious power connected with the succession to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, still affected the imagination of men. This general belief was most rudely as- sailed when the Long Parliament, after ar- raignment and trial, brought the head of the faithless Charles to the block. As a legal entity it was effectually eradicated from the British Constitution, when the Convention of 1688 deposed the foolish son of the faith- less father and called to the throne a prince, who solemnly pledged himself to recognize the representative assemblies of the nation as the supreme law-making power. Yet thousands of pious hearts were greatly outraged at this violent de- position of one whom they believed held his office by divine right, and had received a visible token thereof when the sacred oil was poured upon his head by a high priest who, they also believed, held his office in the right of an unbroken succes- sion from the Son of God; and they yielded to the new dynasty a mourn fui allegiance, quieting their tender consciences with the fona belief that in the new dynasty there could still be a found a trace of tlie blood of the royal race of the ancient ^thelings. The Continental Congress struck at the very root of this belief and laid down as an axiom — as a fundamental principle not to be questioned — that all men are created equal. Henceforth in the State no man was to be regaraed as having an inherent right to rule. High and low, rich and poor, gifted and simple, all were to be equal before the law. In the domain of conscience men might still assert divine commission to teach, and in default of production of the original parchment of authority, persuade their 8 CONTINENTAL CONGRESS — THE KEPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY. followers by such secondary evidence as they could furnish, but such evidence was never to have comi^etency in the State. Men might still follow in private belief those who claim such divine authority, but iu the State, priest, and believer, were all to stand as equal children of the Common Father. These truths of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, of course, are to be taken with the necessary limitations applicable to all political doctrine. They were intended to apply only to men who, by culture, had at- tained to the height of understanding the obligation of the moral law. Nor, because they failed to include in their state the ne- gro and the Indian, does It follow that tLe one could be rightly held as a slave, or the other exterminated as a savage beast. They laid down the truth for intelligent man- hood, and as such to be applicable to all men, for all time. With this princi- ple as the basis, they anticipated the time when the untaught African by training and education, and the savage Indian by the sub- jection of his natural fierceness, might both attain the capacity to enjoy the benefits of the Government thus established. Of all the progress and achievements of the century, nothing is more notable than the steady growth of these truths, and the adoption, as a necessary CDnsequent, of the mode of government by the Representative Assembly. It has been established in all the nations of Western Europe, in United Italy, in resurrected Greece, and even among the most progressive peoples of the Turanian race. It matters not whether the Executive be chosen by univeral suffrage, or selected from a particular family, which is made the depository of the executive office, whether the executive officer be called President, Marshal, Prince, King, or Emperor, in all these Nations, the exercise of the executive functions is performed in obedience to the Representative Assembly as the lawmaking power. How much of all this is due to the culture and progress of the people, or how much of their culture and progress is due to this form of government, are questions for the student of history, upon which I cannot dwell. It mav be claimed our nreat success is more due to the Federal than to the Rep resentative system, but the idea of a Federal Union was no novel device. It had been long known and used equally by pure democra- cies, and by nations under monarchical rule. It was first applied in the later peri- od of the Greek City, and was evolved in that struggle when the freedom of Greece was being crut^hed between the upper and nether millstones of Macedon and Rome. It was adopted here because of the accident of different charters for the different Co- lonial States. This and the sparseness of the population have combined to extend the Federal bond, and this Federal system is perhaps the only mode in which the prin- ciple of representative government couid be- apolied to so vast a country. The occasion will not permit me to dis- cuss the methods of selecting the members of the representative body, or the needed reforms in existing methods; and upon the quesiion whether the system can be adapted equally to mere municipal government, and to an universal state, I can only make ,a passing remark. The city of modern civilization is only a limb, not the soul of the State. In it the greatest social distinctions arise. It is also the refuse of the criminal class, and the home of those who follow occupations for which there is no opportunity in rural li*e. Hitherto the application of this mode to mere municipal rule has not been a pronounced success. In its exercise there has occurred misrule, ex- travagance, oppressive taxation, betrayal of trusts, and disgraceful corruption. The su- perficial observer, comparing our greatest city most unfavorably with London or Paris, does not hesitate to declare this mode of government, for municipal rule, a failure. It should be remembered that the breaking up of a new soil is always productive of malarial diseases. I cannot stop to discuss the hopes or conditions of reform, but merely suggest that even in that great and illy governed city of the United States the opportunity for a free education is furnished to every child. The possibilities of this system for an universal empire I leave to political theorists. For myself I do not be- lieve it can ever become a practical question. CONTINENTAL CONGRESS— TUE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY. 9 Distinct nationality is one of the conditions of iauman existence, and impracticable diffi- culties arise in tlie attempt to unite what na- ture itself divides. The opposing inter- ests will be too great to permit one body to make equal general laws. The chain will bi'eak by its own weight. The cosmopoli- tan IS not the ideal man. I appreciate the tine culture which eradicates all local man- ners and prejudices, but its tendency is to the elimination of the higher virtues. The earthly millennium is an empty dream, for always in human nature there is an inlier ent weakness, and in the blossoming of the highest manly virtues there is ever present a scent of provincial flavor. The moral of my theme — the conditions of the permanency of this mode of govern- ment — must be obvious to all. In our gen- eration we have witnessed somewhat of a lowering in the character of the Represent ative Assembly, both in the States and Na- tion, and the air is rife with the charges of their corruption. These, however, are but mere passing clouds. As are the people, so will be the character of their representa- tive bodies. We also in our generation, with mingled tears of pride, joy, and sorrow, have witnessed tiiat the ancient valor of the people is undiminished; and may we not hope in this Centennial year for a renewal of the ancient civic virtues. The condi- tions of these, and of their continuance are moral and intellectual culture It should ever be borne in mind that the race is renewed in weakness; each infant contains m h'mself all the fierce instincts of the original savage, and he can only be brought to perfect man- hood by training and education. To keep him in his proper line, those centrifugal tendencies must be checked and balanced by these opposing forces. Let the state, by invincible and never-changing will, educate the intellect of youth, and, trusting to the higher social instincts for the moral culture, we may fondly hope that the success of the Centurv will continue through ttie ages. ^^ ^f& <:cc CMC -CC ^c:c<' c-c C«:cc ;C CC iCCcc ccr c< '< ^ <^C CC" CC -^c .. cccd' c< j^ccc: CC ' „ XCC O'C . cr cc: ' C^c _«G CC <: cc: c^ 'Ofcc - cr dfCC_ d^cd ; cc« c c \ Cc r .A (r«dc C cCtc C C «5:«tS f : ccvc 7 ec CTCCC c C i.( ( ci;c^ i^> c.^^ C^vO- CCC C O^^ccC <^c;_c ^^ rS ^'^ CCC c <3"CC- ^C oc" ^Ccvc: «::. ^Cc c-