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ORATION 
 
 RELIGION: THE HOPE OF THE NATION 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JAMES A. SUPPLE, D. D. 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITY GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS OF BOSTON 
 
 IN FANEU1L HALL, ON THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH 
 
 ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 OF THESE UNITED STATES, JULY 4, 19 14 
 
 DE LI 
 
 CITY OF BOSTON 
 
 PRINTING DEPARTMENT 
 1914 
 
<-r;A0E5 te teuNciO 
 
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KELIGION: THE HOPE OE THE NATION. 
 
 Fourth of July Oration, 1914. 
 
 By Rev. James A. Supple, D. D. 
 
 Your Honor and Fellow Citizens: 
 
 This day, set apart by the government to com- 
 memorate the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, recalls the principles of justice and 
 liberty upon which this republic was founded 
 when she took her place among the nations of the 
 world to begin her career: a career which seems 
 destined under the Providence of God to rival the 
 grandeur of ancient dynasties and historic empires, 
 if indeed she has not already excelled them in scien- 
 tific discovery and invention. 
 
 The very atmosphere of rejoicing is tempered by 
 the necessity of retrospect regarding those prin- 
 ciples which are the corner stones upon which has 
 been reared this temple of self-government, this 
 refuge of all who seek liberty. The resounding of 
 cannon from the armored ships in our harbor, the 
 festive embellishment of our public buildings, the 
 measured tread of our country's defenders lose 
 much of their meaning if we, conscious of our 
 
4 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 present power and contented with our satisfying 
 past, do not examine the beginnings and aims of 
 our government. This is the time to apply our 
 keenest methods of scrutiny to discover the course 
 of our Ship of State and to ascertain if the path 
 across the surging years has been in accord with 
 the compass. 
 
 This is an occasion when we not only present to 
 the Master of Men and the Protector of Peoples a 
 grateful heart for His many blessings, but with 
 earnest searchings we examine our national con- 
 science to consider how we have fulfilled the trust 
 committed to our care, what account we can give of 
 our stewardship. 
 
 One hundred and thirty-eight years have elapsed 
 since the memorable hour when the framers of a 
 new nation signed that singular document known 
 as the Declaration of Independence. We of to-day 
 cannot appreciate the significance of that occasion. 
 What that hour meant to them it is almost impossible 
 for us to estimate. We are too remote from the 
 time to understand the conditions of that day and 
 generation, the difficulties which confronted them, 
 the obstacles that impeded the way to peace and 
 progress; in consequence we cannot adequately 
 value their achievement. 
 
 Independence was the dream of years; their 
 message of a free nation to the thirteen colonies 
 was not merely the end of oppression and unjust 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 5 
 
 taxation. No, it was something more; it was the 
 fulfillment of a hope that had been the source of 
 constant inspiration and encouragement; it was 
 the answer to the prayers of those who had gone 
 before them, the yearnings of an exiled people who 
 had braved the seas to reach these distant shores 
 where they might find on alien soil freedom to worship 
 God and build the future for themselves and their 
 children. 
 
 We may read of the pass at Thermopylae; the 
 legions of imperial Rome may have stamped our 
 memories with indelible impressions of their deeds 
 of war and conquest; the career of Napoleon with 
 its striking manifestation of power and genius 
 we may know by heart, but our appreciation is 
 dull indeed when compared to the sentiments of 
 those who took part in the conflict and were actual 
 participants. They heard the strife of battle; saw 
 the flash of bayonets; looked upon the field of 
 blood covered with the dead and dying. They 
 knew the worth of victory for they witnessed the 
 price paid for it. 
 
 The thoughts of those at home, the happiness 
 of the future, the welfare of the nation, all these 
 give to triumph a zest beyond even the keenest 
 imagination. True it is that we weep over the 
 tragedies of the past, our hearts may be torn in 
 anguish by the mere recital of wrongs which nations 
 have endured in times of suffering and persecu- 
 
6 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 tion, but our sorrow is a phantom when compared 
 to the calamity of the moment which caused the 
 tragedy and made the time of trial an era of per- 
 secution. So must it be with us. We cannot 
 comprehend the full significance of the Declaration 
 of Independence because we have not felt the 
 conditions which stirred the colonies to rebellion 
 and conceived the idea of liberty. It is for us 
 rather, who have received the blessings, to revere 
 and perpetuate the same principles of justice and 
 liberty upon which the nation has been founded 
 and which have accorded her for nearly a century 
 and a half a unique and honored place in the 
 universe. 
 
 It was in this same vein that President Lincoln 
 pleaded when, on the battlefield at Gettysburg, 
 his whole being flooded with the emotions of the 
 Civil War, he spoke a thrilling message for the 
 future: "We cannot dedicate, we cannot con- 
 secrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave 
 men, living and dead, who struggled here, have 
 consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or 
 detract. The world will little note nor long remem- 
 ber what we say here, but it can never forget what 
 they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be 
 dedicated here to the unfinished work which they 
 who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
 It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
 task remaining before us that from these honored 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 7 
 
 dead we take increased devotion to that cause for 
 which they gave the past full measure of devotion 
 that we here highly resolve that these dead shall 
 not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, 
 shall have a new birth of free sons and that govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 What will save this republic of ours? What will 
 hold this country steadfast to its principles, con- 
 stant to its traditions amid the vicissitudes of time 
 and the incessant influx of new and strange yet 
 fascinating theories? Surely no human power can 
 stay the ravages of error; no human voice can still 
 the discord of contention; no human law can hold 
 within its sanction the conscience of a nation that 
 welcomes to her shores the children of every habit- 
 able quarter of the universe. 
 
 Sicut patribus, sit Deus nobis: As He was to 
 our fathers, so may he be to us, our God. Religion 
 is the hope of this nation, the bulwark of its 
 morality, the safeguard of its prosperity, the angel 
 guardian of its very existence. 
 
 In spite of certain vague and visionary theories, 
 it still remains a fact that the family is the basis 
 of the nation. Nay, more; the family is not only 
 the foundation of the nation, it is the source, the 
 principle of its vitality. Family life is to a nation 
 what the heart is to the body; it has been aptly 
 described as the second soul of humanity. So 
 
8 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 dependent is a nation upon its family life that the 
 advancement or degeneration of the former may be 
 measured by the people's esteem of the latter. 
 
 History affords the discerning mind undeniable 
 evidence of the truth of this assertion. The pros- 
 perity of the Roman empire fluctuated with the 
 integrity of her family life and even to-day nations 
 are not a little concerned about their own imme- 
 diate future because of conditions in their family 
 life that are far from moral. Respect for parental 
 authority, obedience and affection in the family 
 are coexistent with national vigor and power. The 
 evident unity of the English nation with her world- 
 wide extent of empire is coincident with a devotion 
 and love for home unequalled by any people of 
 modern Europe. These concomitant prosperities of 
 nation and family are not accidental. There exists 
 between them the relation of cause and effect. The 
 welfare of the nation is the product, the result of 
 the good order of the family and not vice versa. 
 
 In a nation as well as in the family we need the 
 same laws, the same qualities, the same virtues. 
 The training and education of children, the develop- 
 ment of habits and character, the formation of 
 future generations takes place in the bosom of the 
 family. It is the home that sows the seed; the 
 nation reaps the harvest. The nation imposes her 
 duties, her obligations; the family trains the chil- 
 dren to accept, to perform them. Men of character 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 9 
 
 are not made to order; they are the fruits of early 
 and persistent training; they are the products of 
 a real home. 
 
 If the family does not make men, the state never 
 will. The lovers of the flag, the defenders of a 
 nation, the patriots of to-day and yesterday are 
 not formed in the barracks or on the battlefield 
 nor aboard the training ship; they are patriots 
 when they leave their mother's embrace and bid 
 farewell to the old home. There their education 
 was begun and there too, as far as solidity is con- 
 cerned, it was perfected also. It is the Spartan 
 mother and the mother of the Machabees who gives 
 true patriots to a nation. 
 
 Patriotism will never fire the heart of people 
 devoid of love for their homes and respect for their 
 families. Patriotism is devotion to that land which 
 we call our own, around which are associated all 
 those memories that men and women hold dearest 
 in life. It brings into play and makes of them the 
 impetus of action and the motive of sacrifice those 
 hallowed ties that have become as it were a part 
 of ourselves. What will military tactics or army 
 maneuvers accomplish for sons trained in a weak, 
 indolent, pleasure-loving family? Men are made 
 of different stuff. Soldiers such as these would 
 prove traitors rather than heroes of the nation of 
 which they formed the army. 
 
 Family life without religion is like to the house 
 
10 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 built upon the sand. "And the rain fell, and the 
 floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat 
 upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall 
 thereof." To attempt to erect it upon any other 
 foundation is to trust its stability to the caprices 
 of the heart, the inconstancy of human affection. 
 The heart is the throne of love. It is capable of 
 great things; it is the all-conquering power of the 
 universe. The master paintings of the artist, the 
 most sublime creations of the sculptor, the noblest 
 deeds of the hero — all have been the labor of 
 love. Love stands at the threshold of every human 
 endeavor worthy of being remembered by future 
 generations. The zeal of love will attempt even 
 the impossible, for love knows no fear and is well 
 acquainted with sacrifice. 
 
 Yet love is not permanent; the human heart 
 will vacillate. Of its very nature it demands the 
 influence, the guidance, the check of religion. 
 
 Family life without religion is a story of strife 
 and sorrow. Even the pagans acknowledged it. 
 They gave religion the place of honor in the family 
 circle. They united their altars and their hearths. 
 
 To-day, perhaps because of the greater activity 
 of the apostles of material progress, a discordant 
 note is sounded to disturb this universal harmony; 
 an isolated voice is heard bringing its message of 
 discord and striving to maintain the integrity of 
 the family on a purely natural basis. Listen to 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 11 
 
 that voice, banish God from your homes; expel 
 the influence of faith, do away with the prin- 
 ciples of religion, and what have you left? The 
 heart: yes, the heart with its frailties, its caprices. 
 Love governs the heart but religion must govern love. 
 
 Would you have the nuptial couch without honor, 
 children without respect, husband and wife unfaith- 
 ful to their promise and matrimony itself a mere 
 mercantile contract? Do you want one of the 
 most sacred of human bonds broken at the will of 
 its fickle contractors until divorce stalks the land, 
 your nation becomes polygamous and you have 
 immolated on this sacrilegious altar the happiness 
 of your children, the welfare of the entire country? 
 
 "Matrimony is a sacrifice rather than a contract, 
 a crucial test for both man and woman." Duties 
 must be performed, obstacles overcome, crosses 
 are to be borne. Sacrifice without religion is not 
 easy. It is faith that teaches the merit, the nobility 
 of sacrifice. It pierces the clouds and reveals the 
 hidden God; it offers men and women the road 
 beset with abnegation; it counsels them to proceed 
 without fear, for it teaches them that though the 
 world may know nothing of their sacrifices, there 
 is a just God who, witness to what they bear, will 
 console them in their trials and tribulations. 
 
 It is the law of God that safeguards the stability 
 of the family: it is the love of God that strengthens 
 men and women for its burdens. 
 
12 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 The home is also the sanctuary of the children, 
 the most important factor in the future of a nation. 
 The child of to-day is the citizen of to-morrow. 
 Responsibilities await him. He is needed to succeed 
 the men and women who built well in their genera- 
 tion and left the legacy of conserving that for 
 which they labored and for which many of them 
 sacrificed their lives. 
 
 The task of preservation is a difficult one. It 
 is precisely in days of prosperity that we need be 
 anxious. When the motive of patriotism that 
 springs from a sense of danger is wanting, men and 
 women are not governed by circumstances or 
 environment but the sheer force of moral character. 
 
 The training of the child is the making of the 
 man. The traits of childhood developed with care 
 or left to grow at random manifest themselves in 
 later years. They acquire at the same time the 
 strength and persistency which are the natural 
 products of growth. While the lower creation acts 
 through instinct, man is governed by his will and 
 the will because of its innate freedom must be trained 
 along right paths; otherwise disaster lies before it. 
 Let children grow without restraint and the forces 
 of nature will prevail independently of the rights of 
 others and the obligations incumbent on each 
 human being. Man is a creature of habit. Habit 
 is his second nature and in time becomes so pre- 
 dominant that a man's habits determine his char- 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 13 
 
 acter. All those complex factors that form character 
 are largely due to habits intentionally or uninten- 
 tionally contracted. The period of training is the 
 early years. Then the mind is more plastic, the 
 will more easily influenced. Later their power of 
 adaptability is lessened and the learning of a new 
 habit implies the breaking of an old one. Many 
 good habits if not acquired in early life are not 
 acquired at all and if so, not so perfectly, while 
 the defects in the adult may be traced and attributed 
 to his first training. 
 
 To teach children the ground work of future 
 character, to guide them along the lines of correct 
 habits, religion is indispensable. The law of God 
 is the eternal standard of right and wrong. Without 
 God duty is a word without meaning and obliga- 
 tions have no sanction. The supreme law giver is 
 the vindicator of all authority. "Honor thy father 
 and thy mother" is the ultimate appeal, the tribunal 
 that guarantees the peace and good order of every 
 family. 
 
 When the influence of religion is set aside in the 
 education of our youth fads and fancies are sub- 
 stituted in its place. They thrive for awhile and 
 perish. To-day they propose the knowledge of 
 sin. It is not knowledge that we need but virtue. 
 Sex hygiene will not make better men and women 
 but the observance of the ten commandments will. 
 
 Silence the name of God in your homes, your 
 
14 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 schools and institutions in which your children, 
 the future citizens of the nation, are trained and you 
 may write over their doors what Dante saw written 
 over the gates of hell: "All ye who enter here, leave 
 hope behind." 
 
 Well has it been said that if the child is not a 
 lawmaker he will become a lawbreaker and that 
 in the near future. If respect for authority is not 
 inculcated in our youth, then look for rebellion and 
 anarchy. Children will not grow up spontaneously 
 into law-abiding citizens. Obedience to law, rever- 
 ence for superiors, honesty in public and private 
 life, respect for the rights of others do not spring 
 in human lives like mushrooms in a field over night. 
 These virtues need careful, constant cultivation. 
 Without the help of religion the task will be in vain. 
 Education to-day as always without religion will 
 prove a failure. The court records rarely bear 
 witness to the fact that crimes are committed 
 through lack of education. Rather improper edu- 
 cation is responsible for crime, because it has left 
 the consciences of men dead, without God, without 
 religion. 
 
 If the family is to be the faithful nursery of a 
 nation, for nursery it is, we must make room for 
 God, that through His teachings children may obey 
 their parents, honor their fathers and mothers, 
 bring into the lives of those with whom they meet 
 the principles of justice, reverence, respect, charity, 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 15 
 
 which are the foundation of genuine character and 
 the only substantial corner stone upon which the 
 future of a nation can safely rest. 
 
 As the integrity of a nation depends upon the 
 morality of its family life, so its material prosperity 
 varies with the condition of the working classes. It 
 is the workingman that produces the nation's 
 wealth, and whether his labor be in the field or on 
 the sea or in the factory, it is his constant, daily 
 toil that makes for the country's greatness. Hence 
 it is that the question of labor is one of the most 
 engaging problems to be solved by any community 
 and never before as in our time has it demanded so 
 much study and attention. It involves the con- 
 sideration of labor in itself and the relations be- 
 tween employer and employed. Neither can be 
 settled satisfactorily on any other basis than that 
 of religion. 
 
 Take God and the consolations of religion out of 
 labor and what does it become? Drudgery. It is 
 described as such in the language of pagan classics. 
 Aristotle calls work illiberal; Plato tells us that the 
 man who worked was frowned upon and considered 
 unworthy of Grecian citizenship; Cicero, spokes- 
 man for the Latin people, regards laborers as an 
 inferior class to be treated as slaves. Terence 
 assures us that to gain respect and win the esteem 
 of the populace men must lead a life of leisure, and 
 the satirical pen of Juvenal reveals the chasm be- 
 
16 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 tween the rich and poor, the wretchedness and 
 desolation of the laboring classes. 
 
 This degraded view of labor still exists in coun- 
 tries where the name of God is never spoken. Work 
 to the Brahmins was a sort of legal contamination, 
 and the Indians of our own country refused to 
 labor. That was menial service relegated to their 
 women whom they regarded as slaves. To-day 
 with all our enlightenment labor is honored in word 
 only. Money is the idol of the moment. Men 
 demean themselves before the rich. They bow 
 before wealth and influence. They look askance at 
 the common laborer whose hands are hardened by 
 honest toil. 
 
 Religion alone can dignify the condition of labor. 
 Without it labor is equivalent to the energy of a 
 machine and the mechanic is placed on a par with 
 the machine he operates. What difference is there 
 between them? None, or very little. Both labor 
 for the same result; one works for wages, the other 
 does not. One is an absolute slave, the other a 
 conditional. Is this the only difference between 
 a machine and a man? God forbid. 
 
 Labor is inseparable from the man. No em- 
 ployer can hire so much labor as he would buy a 
 machine. Labor is a part of the man and his rights 
 must be considered when we speak of labor. Man 
 does not live to work; he works to live and to 
 live as God created him, a free, intelligent, moral 
 agent and not a slave. 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 17 
 
 The evil is not in labor nor in the organization 
 of labor. The evil lies in the fact that labor has 
 been paganized. Viewed from this standpoint labor 
 is slavery pure and simple and the laborer must 
 groan under his daily burden like the slave under 
 the master's lash. 
 
 The various issues kindred to labor, the living 
 wage, competition, inequality of wealth, poverty, 
 industrial capital, private property, can never be 
 answered without the aid of religion. The whole 
 question is .not a purely economic problem; it 
 involves moral rights and principles. Labor is 
 the product of human as well as physical activities. 
 Labor force is the man himself and when we speak 
 of labor the innate rights of the laborer must be 
 respected and given fair play. It is not within 
 the competence of the laborer to renounce or even 
 barter away his rights to life and health, morality 
 and conscience. The employer is bound to hold 
 them sacred and guard them against violation. 
 These are God's gifts to the working man and this 
 is why labor must be treated from the standpoint 
 of religion, for religion declares the immutable 
 standard of justice and gives an appeal to the 
 Court of God Himself, Who has revealed the princi- 
 ples of social right and Christian charity for all 
 men, whatever their condition may be, in their 
 relations with one another. 
 
 It is absolutely true, as the Socialist says, that 
 many of our economic evils are due to vicious 
 
18 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 organization, absolutely callous to the woes and 
 lamentations of the working classes. While it 
 means liberty to the strong to abuse their strength, 
 in ironic contrast it degrades labor to commercial 
 slavery. The poor must take the terms upon 
 which they are to earn their daily bread or starve. 
 There is no alternative. No less a light than Pope 
 Leo XIII. says practically the same thing: "The 
 preservation of life is the bounden duty of each 
 and all, and to fail therein is a crime. It follows 
 that each one has a right to procure what is required 
 in order to live, and the poor can procure it in no 
 other way than by work and wages. There is a 
 dictate of nature more imperious and more ancient 
 than any bargain between man and man, that the 
 remuneration must be enough to support the wage- 
 earner in reasonable and frugal comfort. If through 
 necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accepts 
 harder conditions because an employer or contractor 
 will give him no better, he is the victim of force 
 and injustice." 
 
 We do not deny the evils which the Socialists 
 emphasize, but the remedies they propose are utterly 
 inadequate. You cannot change conditions unless 
 you control the principles that are responsible for 
 them; you cannot alter principles unless you can 
 reach the consciences that inspire and make them; 
 you cannot stir conscience without the law of God. 
 
 It is the fatherhood of God that makes the 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 19 
 
 brotherhood of man. It is precisely this spirit of 
 fraternal charity coupled with social justice that 
 can meet effectually the present problems of the 
 industrial universe. 
 
 Justice is necessary that peace and order may 
 reign in the world but justice is incomplete without 
 charity. A world ruled by justice alone would be 
 unbearable. Justice can lessen the poverty of the 
 world; justice can lessen the suffering of the world 
 but justice can never take the place of charity. 
 
 When the relations of justice have been perfectly 
 harmonized — if that can ever be — there still 
 remains the need of another force to guarantee the 
 happiness of the individual and the welfare of 
 society. That wonderful power that stirs men to 
 their best is known under the name of charity. 
 
 So it is with the relations between employer and 
 employed. Those relations are properly adjusted 
 by the law of God who made the toiler and the 
 master; before whose tribunal both are amenable; 
 whose law of brotherly love is incumbent upon each; 
 with whom there is no exception of persons; who 
 demands an account of each stewardship. 
 
 Employers are bound to treat those who work 
 for a living as fellow-men. They do not belong to a 
 lower order of creation. In everything essential 
 they are equal to those who employ them. They 
 are created by the same God; they are made to 
 the same image and likeness; their souls are as 
 
20 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 valuable; they are endowed with the same faculties. 
 Often they stand higher in the moral code than the 
 men who employ them. 
 
 Imperfection in education, the lack of social 
 distinction, their position in an inferior station does 
 not deprive men of the right of being considered 
 human beings. If those who hire labor would admit 
 these simple truths not only in theory but in prac- 
 tice, carry them out to their legitimate consequences, 
 much of the sorrowing of the working classes would 
 cease to exist. Men do not rebel against work; it 
 is by work that they live. They understand that 
 well. It is not work that wounds but the unjust, 
 unscrupulous and even inhuman attitude of those 
 for whom they labor. 
 
 When men are no longer pitted against each 
 other but look upon one another as brothers; when 
 they realize that work is the means and not the end 
 of living and that those who serve a trade should 
 live by the trade; when the workshop becomes as 
 it were an extension of the household and workmen 
 are regarded as members of the master's family; 
 when both parties work for the common good, with 
 protection on one side and loyal service on the 
 other; in a word, when we have conscience in the 
 industrial world men will hold themselves account- 
 able to the supreme law giver and then and then 
 only may we hope for brighter conditions among 
 the laboring classes. 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 21 
 
 The laborer has his obligations also. He must 
 give his employer respect, obedience, loyalty. 
 Respect; for in a certain way he is dependent upon 
 his employer for the means of his livelihood. Obe- 
 dience; the toiler contracts to do a certain work. 
 He is engaged and paid to do not his own will but 
 the will of the employer. Loyalty; the laborer is 
 in a position of trust. Confidence has been put 
 in him. He must not betray it. He has accepted 
 a pledge. He must keep it. 
 
 To give the minimum of brain and brawn in 
 return for wages is absolutely wrong and against 
 all justice. The obligations of the workingman are 
 just as stringent and bind him as sacredly as those 
 of his employer. There can be no toleration of the 
 unscrupulous, deceitful laborer. Not only must we 
 condemn the designing demagogue who goes about 
 fomenting disturbance and rousing the working 
 classes to evil courses which will never serve their 
 true interests but we must denounce as well the 
 laborer who in receipt of fair wages scamps his work, 
 wastes time, shirks duty except under supervision, 
 injures his employer's machinery and materials, 
 makes unreasonable demands, or who strikes need- 
 lessly and without proper warning or has recourse to 
 violence in striving to redress his rights. 
 
 The prosperity of the nation upon which the 
 happiness of the entire people depends is the product 
 of two forces, labor and capital. When these two 
 
22 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 forces work harmoniously together instead of oppos- 
 ing each other, peace and order are assured in the 
 industrial world. Each performs a necessary func- 
 tion and is indispensable to the other. Neither is 
 the enemy nor the servant of the other, but both 
 capital and labor have reciprocal duties, and on the 
 faithful discharge of these duties the welfare of the 
 nation depends. 
 
 Labor and capital reach the ideal in the scales of 
 justice and charity when they harken to the word of 
 God, Who sets the standard for the employer and 
 employed. To the latter he says: "Be obedient to 
 them that are your masters in the simplicity of your 
 hearts as to Christ, not serving to the eye as it were 
 pleasing men, but as the servants of Christ, doing 
 the will of God from the heart, knowing that what- 
 soever good thing man shall do, the same shall he 
 receive from the Lord"; and to the employer: "And 
 you, masters, do the same things to them, forbearing 
 to threaten, knowing that the Lord both of them 
 and of you is in Heaven, and there is no respect of 
 persons with Him." 
 
 These in a few words are the obligations of the 
 employer and employed. If accepted and carried 
 out conditions will be as nearly ideal as we can 
 hope to make them. Religion is the leaven of 
 social regeneration. The law of God becomes the 
 standard of right and wrong; the consciences of men 
 are governed by its benign and salutary teaching; 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 23 
 
 the pagan idea of convenience and self-interest is 
 relegated to the age to which it belongs, when men 
 were regarded as slaves and work looked upon as 
 drudgery. 
 
 As the welfare of a nation depends upon the 
 integrity of its family life and the condition of its 
 labor, and these in turn upon the influence of relig- 
 ion, the peace of a republic is assured by its 
 acknowledgment of a supreme Being and its due 
 regard for His eternal laws. Nations fall into ruin 
 once they have forsaken their faith in God. Then 
 vice has no restraint, virtue no reward. The world 
 becomes a theater and life a stage of sin and sorrow. 
 When France was drenched with human blood 
 Figuier declared it was not petroleum but material- 
 ism that destroyed her. 
 
 And so it must be. Without God there is neither 
 law nor order. All is chaos. What upholds the 
 authority of a nation, the dignity of its magistrates? 
 God's sanction. Do away with that sanction and 
 laws are valueless and magistrates powerless. 
 
 God is the origin of right and duty. Exclude 
 Him and the very notion, as Pope Leo says, of 
 what is right and good will perish. We have no 
 rights except what we have received from God and 
 there is no authority but His to vindicate them. 
 The rights of men are inseparable from those of 
 God. Sever the tie that binds them and human 
 rights are no longer facts but chimeras. 
 
24 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 When the name of God is without fear, right 
 gives way to force, slavery, despotism. "What we 
 take from the sovereignty of God we add to that 
 of the despot." 
 
 The city of Cambridge did a lasting service not 
 alone to herself but to the entire nation when she 
 carved over the portals of city hall: " God has given 
 ten commandments to men. From these command- 
 ments men have framed laws by which to be 
 governed." 
 
 When we pretend to build a nation on the foun- 
 dation stones of reason and morality without God 
 or religion; when professors teach that prime and 
 final causes are nothing more or less than the 
 abstractions of idealists and philosophers; and that 
 even supposing that there be a God, He does not 
 concern Himself about us, and man in consequence 
 is irresponsible in his actions and morals; when the 
 leaders of a people play fast and loose with the 
 fundamental principles of right and wrong; when 
 the public conscience is deprived of guidance, peace 
 and order will be sought in vain. 
 
 To make a nation, gold is not enough. The altar 
 was and the altar always will be the corner stone of 
 any nation that is to endure. To look upon religion 
 as an intruder in civil matters, to seek to relegate 
 its influence to matters purely personal or eccle- 
 siastic; to refuse it a forum in politics, business, 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 25 
 
 education, economics and the manifold relations of 
 men with one another, is to assume that God has 
 abandoned men in their mutual relations although 
 the most vital interests of the human race depend 
 upon them. 
 
 The assumption cannot be proved. God has 
 not only created individuals; He is the author of 
 their mutual relations also. He has so formed 
 human society that men's acts have not merely 
 an individual but a social character. He has multi- 
 plied the points of contact, as it were, between the 
 individuals that make society. He has surrounded 
 each one of us with a network of influences, rights, 
 duties. He has placed between Himself and each 
 individual a host of others, so that we reach God 
 by acts that affect others as much as by personal 
 sanctity. 
 
 The relations and activities of social life not 
 less than those of private life are dominated by 
 moral laws. They who teach the people to adore 
 no God but gold, to recognize no laws but those 
 of self-interest, are the real enemies of a republic 
 though they are not always publicly so regarded 
 nor dragged before the courts of justice to be 
 sentenced. 
 
 Justice and virtue are the necessary conditions 
 of genuine progress. When religion has lost its 
 hold upon a people's heart, virtue will lie buried 
 
26 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 under the ruins of truth. It is impossible to act 
 well when one believes and loves ill. Withdraw 
 the light of faith from the public conscience, the 
 family is humbled to the dust; obedience is shame; 
 property is disputed; sacrifice and abnegation are 
 driven out by egotism and idleness; pleasure and 
 convenience become the standard of living; natural- 
 ism is the apology for vice; photography, lithog- 
 raphy and journalism make friends with scandal; 
 virtue is sold as a mere commodity and we have 
 wholesale traffic in the honor of the nation. 
 
 The need of the present generation is men of 
 faith, men of religion. As long as there are such, 
 we need never fear for the future of the republic. 
 It is related that when the last hero of Poland fell 
 on the battlefield he cried, "The end of Poland." 
 So also when the fires of faith are no longer kindled 
 at our hearths, when among our people those who 
 believe in the justice of a God who rewards and 
 punishes are deprived of that belief through the 
 insidious doctrines of materialism; when the name 
 of God is no longer held in reverence by our nation, 
 we may take up the cry and exclaim, "The end of 
 America." 
 
 But that day, please God, shall never be. This 
 nation has been blessed too bountifully by Him to 
 forget its benefactor. Our public men have uttered 
 His sacred name with honor; they have counted 
 upon His help to work out the future of the nation. 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 27 
 
 "An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is 
 all that is left us. They tell us, sir, that we are 
 weak — unable to cope with so formidable an 
 adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will 
 it be the next week or the next year? Will it be 
 when we are totally disarmed, and when a British 
 guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we 
 gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall 
 we acquire the means of effectual resistance by 
 lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive 
 phantom of Hope, until our enemies shall have 
 bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if 
 we make a proper use of those means which the God 
 of nature has placed in our power. Three millions 
 of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in 
 such a country as that which we possess, are invinci- 
 ble by any force which our enemy can send against 
 us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. 
 There is a just God who presides over the destinies 
 of nations and who raise up friends to fight our 
 battles for us." 
 
 The first president of our great republic said: 
 "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to 
 political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 
 pensable supports. In vain would that man claim 
 the tribute of patriotism who would labor to subvert 
 these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
 props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere 
 politician equally with the pious man ought to 
 
28 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 
 
 respect and cherish them. A volume could not 
 trace all their connections with private and public 
 felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the 
 security for property, for reputation, for life, if the 
 sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which 
 are the instruments of investigation in courts of 
 justice? And let us with caution indulge the sup- 
 position that morality can be maintained without 
 religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
 ence of refined education on minds of peculiar 
 structure, reason and experience both forbid us to 
 expect that national morality can prevail in exclu- 
 sion of religious principle." 
 
 The words of Washington in his farewell address 
 may be linked with those of Wilson in his inaugural : 
 "God helping me, with the aid of all good and 
 patriotic men to counsel me, I shall not fear of 
 success for the future." 
 
 Give God His rightful place in the nation. Call 
 Him by His proper name — God. Away with 
 those seductive titles of Nature and Science by 
 which a mistaken age would hide His identity 
 and over whose temple it would carve as the Athe- 
 nians of old: "To the unknown God." 
 
 Give God an honored place in the family; let 
 Him enter the industrial, commercial, social and 
 political life of our people; do not relegate Him 
 to the church, the altar, the pulpit, and then the 
 
FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 29 
 
 dream of those who framed the Declaration of 
 Independence will be realized; the words of the 
 inspired Psalmist will find a counterpart in our 
 beloved country: there is no other nation like to 
 ours, and the reason of it will be because no 
 other nation has its gods so near to it as our 
 God is to us. 
 
A LIST 
 
 BOSTON MUNICIPAL ORATORS. 
 
 By C. W. ERNST. 
 
BOSTON ORATORS 
 
 Appointed by the Municipal Authorities. 
 
 For the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. 
 
 Note. — The Fifth-of-March orations were published in handsome quarto editions, 
 now very scarce ; also collected in book form in 1785, and again in 1807. The oration 
 of 1776 was delivered in Watertown. 
 
 1771. — Lovell, James. 
 
 1772. — Warren, Joseph. 2 
 
 1773. — Church, Benjamin. b 
 
 1774. — Hancock, John. 8,2 
 
 1775. — Warren, Joseph. 
 
 1776. — Thacher, Peter. 
 
 1777. — Hichborn, Benjamin. 
 
 1778. — Austin, Jonathan Williams. 
 
 1779. — Tudor, William. 
 1780. — Mason, Jonathan, Jun. 
 
 1781. — Dawes, Thomas, Jun. 
 
 1782. — Minot, George Richards. 
 
 1783. —Welsh, Thomas. 
 
 For the Anniversary of National Independence, July J/., 1776. 
 
 Note. — A collected edition, or a full collection, of these orations has not been 
 made. For the names of the orators, as officially printed on the title pages of the 
 orations, see the Municipal Register of 1890. 
 
 1783. — Warren, John. 1 
 1784. — Hichborn, Benjamin. 
 1785. — Gardner, John. 
 
 a Reprinted in Newport, R.I., 1774, 8vo., 19 pp. 
 
 b A third edition was published in 1773. 
 
 1 Reprinted in Warren's Life. The orations of 1783 to 1786 were published in large 
 quarto; the oration of 1787 appeared in octavo; the oration of 1788 was printed in small 
 quarto; all succeeding orations appeared in octavo, with the exceptions stated under 
 1863 and 1876. 
 
34 APPENDIX. 
 
 1786. — Austin, Jonathan Loring. 
 
 1787. — Dawes, Thomas, Jun. 
 1788. — Otis, Harrison Gray. 
 
 1789. — Stillman, Samuel. 
 
 1790. — Gray, Edward. 
 
 1791. — Crafts, Thomas, Jun. 
 1792. — Blake, Joseph, Jun. 2 
 1793. — Adams, John Quincy. 2 
 1794. — Phillips, John. 
 1795. — Blake, George. 
 1796. — Lathrop, John, Jun. 
 1797. — Callender, John. 
 
 1798. — Quincy, Josiah. 2 - s 
 
 1799. — Lowell, John, Jun. 2 
 1800. — Hall, Joseph. 
 
 1801. — Paine, Charles. 
 
 1802. — Emerson, William. 
 
 1803. — Sullivan, William. 
 1804. — Danforth, Thomas. 2 
 
 1805. — Dutton, Warren. 
 
 1806. — Channing, Francis Dana. 4 
 
 1807. — Thacher, Peter. 2 ' 5 
 
 1808. — Ritchie, Andrew, Jun. 2 
 
 1809. — Tudor, William, Jun. 2 
 1810. — Townsend, Alexander. 
 
 1811. — Savage, James. 2 
 
 1812. ■ — Pollard, Benjamin. 4 
 
 1813. — Livermore, Edward St. Loe. 
 
 2 Passed to a second edition. 
 
 3 Delivered another oration in 1S26. Quincy's oration of 1798 was reprinted, also, 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 4 Not printed. 
 
 £ On February 26, 1811, Peter Thacher's name was changed to Peter Oxenbrldge 
 Thacher. (List of Persons whose Names have been Changed in Massachusetts, 1780- 
 3892, p. 214 
 
APPENDIX. 35 
 
 1814. — Whitwell, Benjamin. 
 1815. — Shaw, Lemuel. 
 
 1816. — Sullivan, George. 2 
 
 1817. — Channing, Edward Tyrrel. 
 
 1818. — Gray, Francis Calley. 
 1819. — Dexter, Franklin. 
 1820. — Lyman, Theodore, Jun. 
 1821. — Loring, Charles Greely. 2 
 
 1822. — Gray, John Chipman. 
 
 1823. — Curtis, Charles Pelham. 2 
 
 1824. — Bassett, Francis. 
 
 1825. — Sprague, Charles. 6 
 
 1826. — Quincy, Josiah. 7 
 
 1827. — Mason, William Powell. 
 
 1828. — Sumner, Bradford. 
 
 1829. — Austin, James Trecothick. 
 1830. — Everett, Alexander Hill. 
 
 1831. — Palfrey, John Gorham. 
 
 1832. — Quincy, Josiah, Jun. 
 
 1833. — Prescott, Edward Goldsborough. 
 1834. — Fay, Richard Sullivan. 
 
 1835. — Hillard, George Stillman. 
 
 1836. — Kinsman, Henry Willis. 
 
 1837. — Chapman, Jonathan. 
 
 1838. — Winslow, Hubbard. " The Means of the Per- 
 petuity and Prosperity of our Republic." 
 
 1839. — Austin, Ivers James. 
 
 1840. — Power, Thomas. 
 
 1841. — Curtis, George Ticknor. 8 " The True Uses of 
 American Revolutionary History." 8 
 
 1842. — Mann, Horace. 9 
 
 6 Six editions up to 1831. Reprinted also in his Life and Letters. 
 
 7 Reprinted in his Municipal History of Boston. See 1798. 
 fc Delivered another oration in 1862. 
 
 ' There are five or more editions ; only one by the City. 
 
36 APPENDIX. 
 
 1843. — Adams, Charles Francis. 
 
 1844. — Chandler, Peleg Whitman. "The Morals of 
 Freedom." 
 
 1845. — Sumner, Charles. 10 "The True Grandeur of 
 Nations." 
 
 1846. — Webster, Fletcher. 
 1847. — Cary, Thomas Greaves. 
 1848. — Giles, Joel. "Practical Liberty." 
 1849. — Greenough, William Whitwell. "The Con- 
 quering Republic." 
 
 1850. — Whipple, Edwin Percy. 11 "Washington and 
 
 the Principles of the Revolution." 
 
 1851. — Russell, Charles Theodore. 
 
 1852. — King, Thomas Starr. 12 "The Organization of 
 Liberty on the Western Continent." 12 
 
 1853. — Bigelow, Timothy. 13 
 
 1854. — Stone, Andrew Leete. 2 "The Struggles of 
 
 American History." 
 1855. — -Miner, Alonzo Ames. 
 1856. — Parker, Edward Griffin. "The Lesson of 
 
 '76 to the Men of '56." 
 
 1857. — Alger, William Rounseville. 14 " The Genius 
 
 and Posture of America." 
 
 1858. — Holmes, John Somers. 2 
 
 1859. — Sumner, George. 15 
 1860. — Everett, Edward. 
 
 1861. — Parsons, Theophilus. 
 
 1862. — Curtis, George Ticknor. 8 
 1863. — Holmes, Oliver Wendell. 16 
 1864. — Russell, Thomas. 
 
 10 Passed through three editions in Boston and one in London, and was answered 
 in a pamphlet, Remarks upon an Oration delivered by Charles Sumner .... July 
 4th, 1845. By a Citizen of Boston. See Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, by 
 Edward L. Pierce, vol. ii. 337-384. 
 
 " There is a second edition. (Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1850. 49 pp. V2°.) 
 
 12 First published by the City in 1892. 
 
 13 This and a number of the succeeding orations, up to 1861, contain the speeches, 
 toasts, etc., of the City dinner usually given in Faneuil Hall on the Fourth of July. 
 
APPENDIX. 37 
 
 1865. — Manning, Jacob Merrill. "Peace under 
 Liberty." 2 
 
 1866. — Lothrop, Samuel Kirkland. 
 
 1867. — Hepworth, George Hughes. 
 
 1868. — Eliot, Samuel. " The Functions of a City." 
 1869. — Morton, Ellis Wesley. 
 
 1870. — Everett, William. 
 
 1871. — Sargent, Horace Binney. 
 
 1872. — Adams, Charles Francis, Jun. 
 
 1873. — Ware, John Fothergill Waterhouse. 
 1874. — Frothingham, Richard. 
 
 1875. — Clarke, James Freeman. " Worth of Republi- 
 can Institutions." 
 
 1876. — Winthrop, Robert Charles. 17 
 
 1877. — Warren, William Wirt. 
 
 1878. — Healy, Joseph. 
 1879. — Lodge, Henry Cabot. 
 1880. — Smith, Robert Dickson. 18 
 
 1881. — Warren, George Washington. "Our Repub- 
 
 lic — Liberty and Equality Founded on Law." 
 
 1882. — Long, John Davis. 
 
 1883. — Carpenter, Henry Bernard. "American 
 
 Character and Influence." 
 1884. — Shepard, Harvey Newton. 
 1885. — Gargan, Thomas John. 
 
 14 Probably four editions were printed in 1857. (Boston: Office Boston Daily Bee. 
 30 pp.) Not until November 22, 1864, was Mr. Alger asked by the City to furnish a 
 copy for publication. He granted the request, and the first official edition (J. E. Far- 
 well & Co., 1864,53 pp.) was then issued. It lacks the interesting preface and appendix 
 of the early editions. 
 
 "There is another edition. (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859, 69 pp.) A third 
 (Boston : Rockwell & Churchill, 1882, 46 pp.) omits the dinner at Faneuil Hall, the 
 correspondence and events of the celebration. 
 
 "There is a preliminary edition of twelve copies. (J. E. Farwell & Co., 1863. (7), 
 71 pp.) It is " the first draft of the author's address, turned into larger, legible type, 
 for the sole purpose of rendering easier its public delivery." It was done by " the 
 liberality of the City Authorities," and is, typographically, the handsomest of these 
 orations. This resulted in the large-paper 75-page edition, printed from the same 
 type as the 71-page edition, but modified by the author. It is printed " by order of the 
 Common Council." The regular edition is in 60 pp., octavo size. 
 
38 APPENDIX. 
 
 1886. — Williams, George Frederick. 
 
 1887. — Fitzgerald, John Edward. 
 
 1888. — Dillaway, William Edward Lovell. 
 1889. — Swift, John Lindsay. 19 "The American Citi- 
 zen." 
 1890. — Pillsbury, Albert Enoch. " Public Spirit. " 
 
 1891. — Quincy, Josiah. 20 "The Coming Peace." 
 
 1892. — Murphy, John Robert. 
 
 1893. — Putnam, Henry Ware. "The Mission of Our 
 
 People." 
 
 1894. — O'Neil, Joseph Henry. 
 
 1895. — Berle, Adolph Augustus. "The Constitution 
 and the Citizen." 
 
 1896. — Fitzgerald, John Francis. 
 
 1897. — Hale, Edward Everett. "The Contribution of 
 Boston to American Independence." 
 
 1898. — O'Callaghan, Rev. Denis. 
 
 1899. — Matthews, Nathan, Jr. "Be Not Afraid of 
 Greatness." 
 
 1900. — O'Meara, Stephen. "Progress Through Con- 
 flict." 
 
 1901. — Guild, Curtis, Jr. "Supremacy and its Con- 
 ditions." 
 
 1902. — Conry, Joseph A. 
 
 1903. — Mead, Edwin D. "The Principles of the 
 
 Founders." 
 
 1904. — Sullivan, John A. "Boston's Past and Pres- 
 
 ent. What Will Its Future Be?" 
 
 17 There is a large paper edition of fifty copies printed from this type, and also aD 
 edition from the press of John Wilson & Son, 1876. 55 pp. 8°. 
 
 18 On Samuel Adams, a statue of whom, by Miss Anne Whitney, had just beer 
 completed for the City. A photograph of the statue is added. 
 
 "Contains a bibliography of Boston Fourth of July orations, from 1783 to 1889, 
 inclusive, compiled by Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library. 
 20 Reprinted by the American Peace Society. 
 

 APPENDIX. 39 
 
 1905. — Colt, Le Baron Bradford'. "America's Solu- 
 tion of the Problem of Government. " 
 
 1906. — Coakley, Timothy Wilfred. "The American 
 Race : Its Origin, the Fusion of Peoples ; Its 
 Aim, Fraternity." 
 
 1907. — Horton, Rev. Edward A. "Patriotism and the 
 Republic." 
 
 1908. — Hill, Arthur Dehon. "The Revolution and 
 a Problem of the Present." 
 
 1909. — Spring, Arthur Langdon. "The Growth of 
 Patriotism." 
 
 1910. — Wolff, James Harris. "The Building of the 
 Republic." 
 
 1911. — Eliot, Charles W. "The Independence of 
 1776 and the Dependence of 1911." 
 
 1912. — Pelletier, Joseph C. " Respect for the Law." 
 
 1913. — MacFarland, Grenville S. "A New Declara- 
 tion of Independence." 
 
 1914. — Supple, Rev. James A. "Religion: The Hope 
 of the Nation." 
 

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