CENTENNIAL ORATIONS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 HON. HIRAM L RICHMOND 
 
 AND 
 
 REV. A. B. HYDE, D. D., 
 
 AT MEADVILLE, PENN'A, 
 
 JULY 4th, 1876. 
 
Glass 
 
 Book_ 
 
 M4g 
 
 zn(* 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATIONS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 HON. HIRAM L. RICHMOND 
 
 AND 
 
 REV. A. B. HYDE, D. D., 
 
 ,^ 
 
 ;V> 
 
 JULY 4 th, 1876. 
 
/"■?7fc 
 
 CENTENNIAL ORATION, 
 
 Delivered in Meadville July 4th, 1876, by Hon. Hiram L. Richmond. 
 
 Ladies and Gf< nth nu n — M< n and Worm, n 
 
 of .\i,n Hca : — L rejoice with exceeding and 
 
 j"> . thai ii is inj privilege to meet 
 
 j on on this uieinoi ial occasion. 1 rejoice 
 
 thai you and i have lived to greel this our 
 
 inial birthday as a nation. We keep 
 
 al to-daj such as has never b 
 
 oc jurred in t he liistory of our ra 'e, w ith 
 
 ips one excepl ion. In 1788, Em 
 oiu- mother country, celebr; snten- 
 
 of her deliverance from the tj rami) • f 
 the Stuai ts. And ii is an interesting fact 
 that on thai oc 'asion Robert Burns, 
 peasant-poel of Scotland, casting his keen 
 \ ision through the years far into 
 the future, made the prophetic declaration 
 that, as they were then celebrating their 
 deliverance from the tyranny of the Stuarts 
 -—so we, the American people, just ack- 
 nowledged victors in oui long revolution- 
 ary struggle, would, in 1876, celebrate our 
 deliverance from British bondage and 
 thraldom. All over this broad landoi ours, 
 from imperial cities down to the rudest 
 hamlets amid our mountain fasl nesses, our 
 people are found to-day gathered on public 
 grounds, or in their churches, or in the bo- 
 som of their grand old forests, rendering 
 praise to Almighty God for his great and 
 exceeding goodness to us as a nation. 'I his 
 is proper, and as it should be; for the be- 
 lief in a God from whom every good thing 
 cometh, and to whom we shall all have to 
 account for the deeds done in the body, and 
 a firm faith in the t mil is of our holy < "hris- 
 tianity, constitute the verj corner-stone 
 upon which all our institutions rest. This 
 gives to them their beauty, their strength, 
 t heir grandeur and their permanence. 
 
 Lord Bacon has said that --every great 
 
 event in the past had its presage or prog- 
 nostic." No meat moral or political revo- 
 lution lias ever occurred in human history 
 that did not have its forecasting shadow. 
 apprising of its approach, and whose com- 
 ing was not foretold — sometimes centuries 
 before theevent transpired. A [earned and 
 able writer has said: "Human affaire make 
 themselves — they grow out of each other, 
 and thus it is that they happen a-s they have 
 happened, with but little variation." And 
 the good Book tells us that, "the thing that 
 hath been, — it is that which shall he: — and 
 that which is done is that which shall be 
 
 done." By studying closely the history of 
 men gathered into societies, and the logical 
 
 Sequent f events as they flow on in the 
 
 current of human affairs — hot.- smoothly 
 and quietly — anon boisterously and storm- 
 tossed — the wise and philosophic states- 
 man is enabled sometimes to foretell the 
 fu1 lire in the life of a people, the rise or 
 the fall of a nation or an empire, with ama- 
 zing accuracy. 1 hiring the progress of the 
 French Revolution Lord Mansfield was ask- 
 ed how and when lie thought it would end ? 
 Bis lordship replied : "It is an event without 
 precedent, and therefore without prognos- 
 tic." 
 
 Perhaps there is no country in the world 
 with regard to which prognostics and pre- 
 lictions have been more plentiful than our 
 own. Away hack in the bygone centuries, 
 wise men. statesmen, philosophers and po- 
 ets, looked on through the ages and pre- 
 dicted our coming, and our greatness. — 
 sometimes almost with the certainty and 
 precision with which past events an 1 des- 
 cribed by the historian. Near two thous- 
 and years ago Seneca wrote : "There shall 
 come a time, in future ages, when Ocean 
 shall relax his chains, and a vast continent 
 appear, and a pilot shall find new worlds. 
 and Thule shall be no more Earth's 
 bounds." Now. who was that pilot? and 
 what those new worlds? Bacon calls the 
 verses from which this wonderful passage 
 is taken, "a prophecy of the discovery of 
 America.*' In 1492 the event transpired 
 towards which the prediction of the ancient 
 poei and philosopher pointed. Columbus 
 sailed on his adventurous voyage, America 
 was discovered, and a new and a vast con- 
 tinent, was given to the world and to civili- 
 zation. 
 
 Almost, immediately after the discovery 
 of America emigration to her shores com- 
 menced. The people of the old world. 
 driven from the homes of their childhood 
 by the relentless tyranny which oppressed 
 them, sought refuge and relief amidst the 
 wilds and solitudes of the new. Let it be 
 remembered that these men were neither 
 .scaped convicts nor Botany Bay colonists. 
 There was no imperious necessity compel- 
 ling them to flee the mother country. The 
 larger proportion of them were from the 
 industrial middle classes of the old world, 
 
and came voluntary exiles For conscience 
 sake. It was not so much tyrannj over 
 their persons and possessions they sought 
 to escape, as it was tyranny over free 
 thought and speech, over mind and soul. 
 conscience and convicl ions. Toescape this 
 tyranny they fled from comfortable homes 
 . and the graves of their fathers, thousands 
 of miles away, to a land of forests and in- 
 terminable woods, where white man had 
 never set hisfoot. As oneof the old chron- 
 iclers of the New England Pilgrims says: 
 "For being now passed the vast ocean, and 
 a sea of trouble before them in expectation, 
 they had now no friends to welcome them* 
 no inns to entertain or refresh them ;,.■ 
 houses, or much less „owns to repair unto 
 for succor — what could they see hut a hid- 
 eous and desolate wilderness, tilled with 
 wild beasts and wilder men?" 
 
 The colonies were settled in a religious 
 age, under circumstances the best possible 1 , 
 calculated to develop the idea of the natural 
 equality of all men. If I may classify them 
 accordingto their nationality, or their so- 
 cial or religious preferences, they were — 
 the Puritans of New- England, the Dutch 
 of New York, the Germans and Quakers of 
 Pennsylvania, the .Swedes of New Jersey 
 and Delaware, the English Roman Catho- 
 lics in Maryland, the Churchmen in Vir- 
 ginia, the non-Conformists in North Caro- 
 lina, and the Huguenots in South Carolina. 
 These all had the one great purpose in 
 view in abandoning their native land and 
 seeking new homes in an untried clime and 
 an unexplored country, the enjoyment, in 
 security and repose, of that liberty which 
 they all felt to be equally the birthright of 
 every human being, irrespective of color or 
 nationality. 
 
 By right of discovery England claimed to 
 hold all of North America, extending from 
 the Atlantic coast indefinitely westward. 
 To people this extensive region she adopted 
 different methods. Sometimes she sent 
 out a Governor of her own choice, who 
 ruled a portion of the country in the name 
 and under the immediate orders of the 
 Ciown. Sometimes grants of large and 
 extensive territories were made by the 
 Crown to an individual or Company, in 
 which case all authority, civil and political, 
 fell into the hands of one or more persons, 
 who. under the supervision and control of 
 the Crown, disposed of the lands and gov- 
 erned the colonists. There was still a 
 third system, which consisted in allowing 
 a certain number of emigrants to form 
 themselves into a political association, un- 
 der the protection of the mother country, 
 and govern themselves as they pleased, So 
 
 thai they did nol come in conflict with her 
 laws. This system of colonization, so fa- 
 vorable to liberty, was peculiar io New 
 England. Charles I. granted a charier of 
 this kind, in l(52S, to emigrants who colo- 
 nized Massachusetts; and so, al later dates, 
 io the other New England colonies, 'i hese 
 did not deny the supremacy of the home 
 Government, yel the\ aid not derive their 
 powers from it. They formed themselves 
 into societies— made their own laws— bid 
 ii was not until some forty years 
 their existence was recognized by a royal 
 charter from Charles II. Li is difficult to 
 discover in what consisted the authoritj of 
 the home Government over the New Eng- 
 land Colonists. The latter continually ex- 
 ercised all tin' rights of sovereignty, even io 
 declaring war and making peace— the high- 
 est acts of a supreme power. They were 
 abundantly able to govern themselve's, and 
 to hi' the founders of a meat Empire. 
 They were all from the better classes of 
 their native country : scareelj <«.if id" r.hem 
 that could not read and write. Many of 
 them were men of learning, who had been 
 distinguished -in the old country for their 
 talents and virtues. Considering their 
 number, they had a greater mass of talent, 
 than could he found in any European na- 
 tion. They very appropriately styled them- 
 selves "Pilgrims," and, generally, belonged 
 tothat class of religionists whose austere 
 lives and stern principles had got to them- 
 selves the name of "Puritans." Democrat- 
 ic principles of the most absolute character 
 was an element in their religion. They 
 had among them neither lords nor conn: ion 
 people. Each man was the peerofeverv 
 other man. Their notions of human rights 
 and of the origin and proper sphere of gov- 
 ernments were eminently republican, and 
 spread to their neighbors, and were soon 
 diffused through all the colonies. The 
 early New England civilization has been 
 compared to a beacon lit upon a hill, 
 which, after it has spread its warmth im- 
 mediately around it, also tinges the distant 
 horizon with its glow. 
 
 Having survived their first fearful strug- 
 gle with enemies that met them on every 
 hand, the colonies increased rapidly in 
 in wealth and population and in all the 
 arts of civilized life. At the period of the 
 greai English Revolution in Kiss, their 
 population numbered aboul 200,000. The 
 emigration of their fathers, though like the 
 introduction of Christianity into Rome, hut 
 little noticed by cotemporary writers, was 
 the most momentous event of the ITtl) cen- 
 tury. They were to originate new theories 
 
 of government, to achieve new victories in 
 the great battle of human rights, and es- 
 tablish new institutions, popular andele- 
 
rating in their character — in short, to in- 
 augurate a reform in government and in 
 social life which was ultimately to change, 
 materially, the entire structure of human 
 society. The day of their great battle ap- 
 proached. As they grew in wealth and 
 power and prestige, and began to attract 
 more closely the attention of Europe, Eng- 
 land began to look with covetous longings 
 upon their increasing wealth and opulence. 
 Her numerous wars had involved her in a 
 heavy national debt, and she began to 
 preach the doctrine that America ought to 
 aid in lifting the load from her shoulders. 
 Charles Townshend, one of her U 
 
 d : ••! would govern the 
 Americans as subjects of Great Britain. 1 
 would restrain their trade and their manu- 
 factures, as subordinate to the mother 
 country." So argued "Junius" in his cele- 
 brated letter-. Hence the '"Stamp Act," 
 the "Act id' Trade," the "Revenue Act," 
 aiil others of like character, which gave 
 such mortal offence n> the Ameri< 
 
 It was claim id by British statesmen who 
 were not of the school of Chatham, and 
 v\ ho then I a I control of the governm 
 thai Parliament had powertotax America; 
 that taxation was an incident of legislation, 
 and. therefore, to deny to Parliament the 
 right to tax America was to deny to her 
 all power to legislate for America. To 
 this the col plied that legislation 
 
 and representation, taxation and represen- 
 tation, are inseparable — thai they could 
 not be taxed by a body in which they were 
 not represented — that in theory the colo- 
 nies wen- independent of the British Par- 
 liament — that, being entitled to thefree- 
 dom of ECnglishmen, no actofabody in 
 
 which they were denied the right to be 
 
 present by their representatives, could im- 
 pose upon them any legal obligation what- 
 ever. And no doubt they were right. The 
 principle, with us, is fundamental, is or- 
 ganic, and our fathers would not surrender 
 it. or j ]•')■! one jol or tittle to the British 
 claim. 
 
 lhit one of the principal causes that pre- 
 cipitated the Revolution, and brought on 
 the conflict of arms, was the blow struck 
 by Parliament at the charter governments. 
 The first was aimed at Massachusetts, by 
 an act intended radically to change the 
 Constitution of that province as it stood 
 upon the charter of William and .Mary. 
 granted more than eighty years before. The 
 act passed Parliament in 1774, and provid- 
 ed for an executive power of a character en- 
 tirely different from that created by the 
 charter, and so remodeled the judiciary as 
 to give to the crown the appointment of 
 their magistrates and judges, who were to 
 hold their offices at its will. This new 
 
 machinery was purposely designed to se- 
 cure the more certain execution of the ob- 
 noxious acts of Parliament. The people 
 who had been governed by their charter for 
 nearly a century, looked upon it as a sacred 
 compact between themselves and the crown, 
 not to be changed or annulled without 
 their consent. The colonies generally took 
 the alarm, for this was the assertion of a 
 i'nwei'. by the parent government, to abro- 
 gate, at will, the charter of each and every 
 oneoftheui. Let it be remembered that 
 at this period there had existed, for many 
 years, in all the colonies, local legislatures, 
 
 branch of which was chosen by the 
 ieople — was, indeed, the organ of the peo- 
 ple, without whose consent no law could 
 
 ssed, or was binding upon them. If 
 the power claimed by Parliament was le- 
 gitimate, or was for one moment admitted 
 
 Jtiinate. the very existence of these 
 bodies was id. 'J lie English gov- 
 
 ernment could, at one fell swoop, strike 
 from them all legal rights, save such as the 
 
 ii should he pleased, in its great con- 
 
 insion, to permit them to enjoy. To 
 these enactments, to this assertion of an 
 
 absolute power overthem in all that related 
 to their government, the Americans could 
 not and would not submit. They loved 
 i ither country, the land of their fath- 
 ers. They hated to break the bonds that 
 >ound them to her. They remonstrated, 
 
 they petitioned, hut all tO no purpose. The 
 
 time had come, in the providence of God, 
 
 when they must assert their rights and 
 maintain them at whatever cost of blood 
 tnd treasure, or live and die slaves. They 
 did not hesitate to accept the gage, and pre- 
 pare to meet the bloody 01 deal, if it must 
 come. Events hastened. 
 
 The battle of Lexington, the first battle 
 of the Revolution, was fought on the 19th 
 of April, 177"). Its effeel upon the Colo- 
 nies was electric. No man longer doubt- 
 ed. No true American longer hesitated as 
 to his duty. A new light seemed to kind- 
 le all along the horizon, beautiful and bril- 
 liant, and Hashing up into the heavens, as 
 if to guide them on their sure way to vic- 
 tory and independenae. Lord North's con- 
 ciliatory resolutions, and lavish promises 
 of favor which arrived the next day, were 
 treated with deserved scorn and contempt. 
 It was too late! The hour of reconcilia- 
 tion had wasted its last sand. The Rubi- 
 con was passed, and the battle cry "Liber- 
 ty or Death." ran", up from all the valleys, 
 
 and was echoed from mountain top to 
 mountain top throughout the land. 
 
 Thi' news was received in England with 
 amazement and dread alarm. The pe >ple 
 were appalled, the ministry struck dumb, 
 Britain was at war with herself. The mo- 
 
I her was slaughtering lier own offspring. 
 Dartmouth began to awake from his dream 
 of reconciliation. "The effect," * ml he, 
 "of Gen. Gage's attempt al Concord is fa- 
 tal. By that unfortunate event, the happy 
 moment of advantage is lost." The French 
 minister wrote to iiis government : "The 
 Americans display, in their conduct, and 
 even in their errors, more thought than en- 
 thusiasm. They have show n in succession 
 thai they know how to argue, how to nego- 
 tiate, and how to fight." From that mo- 
 ment the people of England were convinc- 
 ed that the Americans could not be con- 
 quered, and that their independence must 
 be conceded. They raised large sums of 
 money "to be applied," they said, "to the 
 relief of the widows, orphans and aged pa- 
 rents of our beloved American fellow sub- 
 . who, faithful to the character of En- 
 glishmen, preferring death to slavery, were 
 for that reason only inhumanly murdereo 
 by the King's troops at Lexington and i Ion- 
 cord." I >n the day but one after the new-, 
 of the battle reached England, John Wes- 
 ley wrote his famous letter to Dartmouth 
 and Lord North, in which he thus remon- 
 strates against the course and policy of the 
 government: "I am a high Churchman and 
 the son of a high Churchman, bred up 
 from my childhood in the highest notions 
 of passive obedience and non-resistance; 
 and yet, in spite of all my long-rooted pre- 
 judices, 1 cannot avoid thinking these an 
 oppressed people, asking for nothing more 
 than their legal rights, and that in the most 
 modest and inoffensive manner, that the 
 nature of the thing would allow. But bar- 
 ring this, I ask is it common sense to use 
 force towards the Americans? Whatever 
 has been affirmed, these men are not to be 
 frightened, and they will not be conquered 
 easily. .Some of our valiant officers say 
 two thousand men will clear America (it 
 the rebels. No, nor twenty thousand, be 
 they rebels or not; nor perhaps treble that 
 number. They are strong, they are' val- 
 iant, they are one and all enthusiasts, en- 
 thusiasts for liberty, calm, deliberate en- 
 thusiasts. In a short time they will under- 
 stand discipline as well as their assailants. 
 But, you are informed, they are divided 
 among themselves. So was poor Rehobo- 
 am informed concerning the Ten Tribes. 
 So was Philip informed concerning the 
 people of the Netherlands. No. They are 
 terribly united. They think they are con- 
 tending for their lives, then children and 
 liberty. Their supplies are at hand. Ours 
 are three thousands of miles off. Are we 
 able to conquer the Americans, suppose 
 they are left to themselves? We are not 
 sure of this; nor are we sure that all our 
 neighbors will stand stock still." Thus 
 
 spoke John Wesley, when he felt it would 
 be sin for him longer to be silent. < >ther 
 strong men protested. The English heart 
 was against tin- war. But what mattered 
 it. The British Government haddetermin- 
 ed on the enslavement of the Colonies, and 
 if they submitted, they were doomed for- 
 everand inevitably. Events freighted with 
 the destiny of our race crov\ ded on events. 
 Ladles were fought. Victories were lost 
 and won. Every day made it more mani- 
 fest that the bond which bound us in poli- 
 tical dependence to the Fatherland must be 
 severed. We were of age, and the hour 
 come when we must assert our full, 
 free and independent manhood, and assume 
 the duties and obligations it imposed. One 
 'Kindred years ago this blessed day— and 
 on Tuesday, the same day of the week- 
 was issued, from Independence Hall, Phil- 
 adelphia, that immortal instrument which 
 made us free, the Declaration of American 
 Independence. Within the sacred « allsof 
 that ancie it, venerable building, the patri- 
 ots, with .John Hancock at their head, who 
 composed the Congress of 1776, in number 
 fifty-two, representing the thirteen Colo- 
 aies, deliberated long and seriously. They 
 knew well the hazards they run and I he 
 dangers they courted, that in signing and 
 publishing this Great Charter of our liber- 
 ties, i hey did an act which Parliament and 
 the Court of King's Bench could find no' 
 difficulty in pronouncing and punishing as 
 treason. With them failure was ruin, ut- 
 ter and irretrievable. Success, the achieve- 
 ment of their country's freedom; of a victo- 
 ry in which all humanity was interested. 
 The Declaration having received its last 
 signature was read from the balcony to the 
 assembled multitude. Immediately the 
 Old Bell suspended in the tower, bearing 
 the prophetic inscription "Proclaim Lir- 
 
 ERTY THROUGHOUT THE La\J> AM) To 
 
 all the People Thereof," ran- out its 
 triumphant peal— a proclamation of free- 
 dom to a new-born and emancipated na- 
 tion. 
 
 The effect of the Declaration was to sep- 
 arate the Colonies from all allegiance to 
 and political connection with the Mother 
 Country. Henceforth they were a separate 
 and distinct people, owing to each other 
 only those duties and obligations which 
 pertain to independent nations. The < !ol- 
 onies were converted into free and sover- 
 eign States. They might be conquered, 
 devastated and enslaved. This or the full 
 and final establishment of their independ- 
 ence and sovereignty were the only altern- 
 atives. More vigorous measures were 
 adopted, more energy was infused into the 
 government; the people, with more alacri- 
 ty, flew to the rescue; and the war was 
 
6 
 
 prosecuted with various fortunes until tlie 
 surrender of Lord Cornwallis. Victory 
 rested upon our standards, and the peace 
 of L78 I admitted us to the familv of na- 
 tious, Oil an eqi al footing with everj other 
 nai ion. 
 
 Peace, however, found us without a gov- 
 ernment of sufficieni strength to preserve 
 the harmony and secure ihe unity and sta- 
 bility of ihe States, whether coi 
 iudependenl sovereignties or in their Fed- 
 eral relation, 'l he Articles of < lot fedeia- 
 lion, a sufficient bond during the war, ut- 
 terly failed of their purpose, now thai peace 
 w as proclaimed. Their ve\ ision was nec- 
 essary, or a new Constitutit n should be 
 formed. For this purpos ia ' onvention of 
 all the States except Rhode Island met in 
 Philadelphia in May. ITS". Never before 
 in the world's history had it been known 
 thai the representatives of a great nation, 
 chosen by the free action of large commu- 
 nities, had assembled I'm- the purpose of 
 amending, changing or forming anew its 
 organic laws. Modern times furnish no 
 precedent for such a proceeding — the an- 
 cient, no analogy. The men ofthe Con- 
 vention were from the mosl illustrious in 
 the land, and were highly distinguished for 
 practical knowledge and public service. 
 Franklin was among them. Washington 
 was its President. It closed its labors in 
 September, after a session of four months, 
 and submitted to the people for their rati- 
 fication our mo t excellent Constitution. 
 The last signature having been fixed to the 
 instrument, Doctor Franklin, pointing to a 
 picture of the rising sun in rear of the 
 Speaker's ('hair. said. "Mr. President, 
 painters have tumid it very difficult in their 
 art to distinguish between a rising and a 
 Betting sun. often and often during the 
 proceedings Ofthe ('(invent ion have 1 look- 
 ed at that in rear of your seat, without be- 
 ing able to determine whether it were ris- 
 ing or setting; but now. Sir, I see it is a ri- 
 sing and not a setting sun." And most 
 grandly and gloriously has it ascended high- 
 er and still higher towards the zenith, dur- 
 ing the eighty-live years thai have passed 
 Since the ratification of this great Federa- 
 tive Compact. Its perfection as a legal 
 document constituting the organic, the fun- 
 damental laws of the "United States," is 
 manifest from the fact that during all the 
 eventful years of its rule over us as a people, 
 no essential amendment bas been required 
 save those demanded by the resultsofour 
 Civil War. And its strength and power to 
 give to us unity, efficiency and irresistible 
 energy in the hour of our most Imminent 
 pei ii was made still more strikingly mani- 
 fest by the triumph it seemed us in the re- 
 sults of a conflict the most terrible and ap- 
 
 palling through which anj nation was evi r 
 d to pass. 
 
 l-vilow countrymen, this is our Centen- 
 nial Year. We. as a nation, are one hun- 
 Ired years old to-day. What a history do 
 those years pieseuty not only in our own 
 country, but in all the countries ofthe 
 world. Since the days of our own deliver- 
 ance from British bondage, the constant 
 tendency of events in the old world has. 
 been to crush out Absolutism and elevate 
 •he masses, to recognize the manhood of 
 man. the womanhood of woman. Doctor 
 Richard Price, an able English Divine, wri- 
 immediatuly after the Revolution, and 
 speaking ofthe probable benefits the world 
 would derive t herefrom, says : "Among oth- 
 er things, perhaps 1 do not uo too far when 
 I saj thai next to the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity among mankind the American Re- 
 volution may prove the most important 
 step in the progressive course of human im- 
 provement." Fast history proves the saga- 
 city and truthfulness ofthe learned doctor's 
 conceptions ofthe blessings which our suc- 
 cess was destined to confer upon mankind. 
 
 One hundred years ago! Contrast our 
 condition then with our condition now. 
 Then we were but "Thirteen States" with 
 two and a half millions of a population, 
 scattered mainly along the Atlantic coast. 
 Now we have thii'ty-eighl Empire states 
 forming one grand Confederacy, self-gov- 
 erned, extending from the Northern lakes 
 io the Southern gulf, spanning this broad 
 continent from ocean to ocean, and filled 
 with 44,000,000 ofthe freest, the happiest, 
 the best provided, the most Independent 
 people on earth, who. now at peace with 
 all the world, are celebrating the one hun- 
 dredth year of their national life, and 
 thank (bid there is not a slave in all the 
 land. 
 
 The fact which strikes the foreigner who 
 visits the United States most forcibly, is 
 the general equality of our people. This 
 wa- aptly illustrated by an incident which 
 occurred at the Centennial the other day. 
 A noble German was standing on the plat- 
 form looking over the vast multitude that 
 
 surged and swayed like a sea before him. 
 After gazing a while with absorbed inter- 
 est "Why," said lie. turning to an Ameri- 
 can friend, ••where are your peasantry?" 
 He missed the blouse, the wooden sandal, 
 the cringing form, and humble iook that 
 told the presence of this class in the gath- 
 erings of his own country. "Where are 
 our peasants," replied his American friend, 
 ••look again over that mass of human life, 
 of men, women and children, all well 
 1. all happy, all equally intent on see- 
 ing all they can. They are our only peas- 
 antry. They are from every walk of pro- 
 
fessional ami business life. We have no 
 class distinctions here. We have here nei- 
 ther peers nor peasantry. All are on the 
 same platform as to civil rights and privi- 
 leges. The only distinction admitted 
 among us is thai which rests upon charac- 
 ter ami intelligence." 
 
 My countrymen, how grandly and beau- 
 tifully did the year open upon us. The 
 lasi minute of December had scarcejy died 
 away, when the whole Ian. I was aroused 
 from its slumbers by the booming of can- 
 non, the firing of guns, the ringing of bells, 
 the blare of steam whistles, ill" heating of 
 drums, and the roar and rattle of pyrotech- 
 nic preparations. Jts first morning was il- 
 lumed as with the smiles of a May morn- 
 ing. So sofl ami bland, with a skj of the 
 puresl din,.. I!,,. -,\ hole day seemed one id' 
 June rather than January. Ami the \\ in- 
 ter that followed, out of mercy to the poor. 
 forgot its chilling frosts, pinching winds. 
 and rude storms of snow and sleet. Ami 
 our population seems to have wakened up 
 to a sense of religious duly and obligation. 
 If is especially noticeable that thereli 
 heart, of the Amu lean people seem i ti 
 ed as with a live coal from th • altar. The 
 voice of prayer ami praise is heard ail over 
 the laud, as if in holy recognition of thai 
 Supreme Being who has beeri with us from 
 the beginning, through all our eventful ea- 
 rei. sometimes to punish, bill far more fre- 
 quently to prosper and bless. 
 
 The -real event which will signalize the 
 year above any other inhuman history will 
 he tin' vast gathering of the people at Phil- 
 adelphia mi this, our one hundredth Inde- 
 pendence Day, coming upfrom every quar- 
 ter of the habitable globe. The nations of 
 Europe, and Asia, and Africa, and of South 
 America, and of Australia, and of the Lsles 
 of the Sea. will be there by their represen- 
 tatives, gathered with our own people in 
 the very shadow of Independence Hall, to 
 join in the Jubilee of American Independ- 
 ence and Universal Emancipation. What 
 a history has the century written up for 
 us! And now what of our future ? Time 
 will not permit me to dwell; but it is in 
 Heaven's decrees that the entire continent 
 and the isles of the adjacent seas will yet 
 be ours ; are to come under the governmen- 
 tal control, sharing equally with the older 
 States, the power and protection of the 
 Great Republic. 
 
 I cannot, my friends, let this memorable 
 occasion pass without impressing upon 
 your minds the great fact, which I fear we 
 are too prone to forget, that it is because 
 God has been with us, throughout all our 
 eventful career, from the landing of the 
 Pilgrims down to this glad hour, that we 
 have been thus blessed and prospered above 
 
 / 
 
 all the nations of the earth. IF we wish to 
 
 perpetuate our institutions, ever and al- 
 ways increasingly prosperous; if we wish 
 thai our children, when we are gone, shall 
 enter upon a still grander heritage, our 
 faith in a I igher Tower '-who doeth all 
 things well" must not cease. We must la- 
 bor to preserve our holy Christianity in all 
 its purity and perfections. As already in- 
 timated, we are essentially a Christian peo- 
 ple. In all our greal public acts, through- 
 mi our entire history we have, in various 
 forms acknowledged a directing and over- 
 ruling Providence, and soughl aid from 
 Him who inhabiteth eternity. Lei us 
 cleave to this, our ancient faith, with all 
 i he assurance of undoubted conviction, and 
 all the trust of unfading hope. And fur- 
 ther, as aids to this, we must cherish, with 
 tenucrest care, our Common School system. 
 Proffering to all a Christian education with- 
 ou! denominational preferences, let , ; - 
 to it that no profane hand disturbs the us- 
 tice and equity of its administration, 
 keeping in mind our national motto. "In 
 (hid We Trust"— in all things seeking only 
 to advance the common good, we may rest 
 assured that great things remain to lie ac- 
 complished by us for humanity and the 
 world. When the Declaration' of Inde- 
 pendence was proclaimed to the excited 
 crowd from the balcony of the old State 
 House, Bosfon, President Winthrop, of the 
 Executive Council, uttered the fervent ejac- 
 ulation, "God save the American States !" 
 During all the century upon which we have 
 now entered with so much of promise, may 
 that ancestral prayer ascend, a morning 
 and evening orison, from every hearthstone 
 in the land. 
 
 ORATION OF PliOF. A. B. HYI>E AT THE 
 PLANTING OF THE CENTENNIAL OAK. 
 
 The honored citizen whom I follow as 
 speaker to-day. found his inspiration in 
 the past, a past illustrious and secure. My 
 part is to point you to the future. 
 
 He who plants a tree looks forward to fu- 
 ture ages and plants for posterity. Poor, 
 indeed, is the oak that does not outlive him 
 who placed it. Often does it live, beyond 
 all memory of its planter, who is content 
 to he forgotten if his tree may but stand 
 and unfold itself in a large and copious vi- 
 tality. They who are glad under its foli- 
 age or are cheered with its fruit, need not 
 stop to ask for the nameless man to whom 
 in the first instance they owe their pleas- 
 ures. He lives in his tree, and, like Ossi- 
 an's hero-shade, looks and smiles, himself 
 invisible. 
 
 The life of a tree spans many genera- 
 tions of mortal men. At the beginning of 
 our Era the men of Hebron gathered where 
 
. 
 
 • 
 
 the sun was hot, under a giant oak which, 
 they believed, was or Adam's own planting 
 -4.D >0 j ears before! The mighty groves of 
 ( 'alit'uniia boasts its 1,500 years, a thousand 
 older than our modern world. Why 
 may not our oak seea hu idreil years? Al 
 the crossing of Baldwin street and I'aik 
 Avenue st amis a centenarian oak, the 110- 
 blesi tree of our c.ty, worth in a painter's 
 eye a score of common tree,. Alas! it is in 
 tiic Avenue and meets the vulgar fate! 
 it down! Why cuinbereth it the 
 iiul :''" ( ;ih 11 is set v> here no im- 
 provement can imp.ove it out of existence, 
 m this sacred soil. Afera hundred years 
 may its huge roots feed « ide and fat be- 
 neath these diamond sods, and its hundred 
 anus will toss in the air so strong and 
 kingly that, whether wrestling with the 
 blasts of winter or swaying softlj the 
 green banners of summer, a future BtEoran 
 u Til fain stop and secure it upon his can- 
 vass. 
 
 Our fathers planted Freedom's oak a 
 hundred years ago, and to-day its roots 
 take the moisture of both oceans. The 
 beams of the far-traveling sun come early 
 and stay late upon its foliage. From its 
 sap are fed, like the mistletoe, many 
 growths of beauty and blessing. It is still 
 m its mighty youth with no dead branch or 
 leaf, its top is conspicuous abroad, and 
 nations come to spend a summer day be- 
 neath its shade and learn to plant their 
 oak. 
 
 We may almost reverse our rhetoric. 
 
 ••When I remember," said a Spanish 
 monk, showing the old Murillos of his 
 Convent, ••how many generations of us 
 monks have looked at these pictures, 1 al- 
 most think that they are substance and we 
 the shadows." So our liberty seems the 
 real tree and this a suggestion, a Meeting 
 fancy. Let us look eastward towards the 
 future. Who does not feel a rosy (lush as 
 if his face weic upon the morning? Not, 
 indeed, a morning coming out of night, but 
 another morn risen on midnoon ! He is 
 nol old whose work is yet unfinished, and 
 shall we think that this country will have 
 finished its work in another hundred 
 
 years. 
 
 Three 
 
 nerat ions will hasten 
 
 across it and leave it still young. Ourcity 
 w ill even then be young. The College 
 
 will look on the ( 'olllt House, and the 
 Couii House will look on the Diamond, 
 still blest with summer greenness beneath 
 sun and rain. I'l e College, enlarged and 
 
 developed by generous patrons, will dis- 
 pense to rising minds its gathered wealth. 
 rich in all resources and manned by faith- 
 ful men to whom life is duty and duty 
 more than lite, it will be thronged with 
 faces on which can be read the rich pur- 
 
 pose to win garlands of victory for the 
 good, the true and the beautiful. From its 
 seal richer in honored names than any 
 Grecian grave, it will look upon the homes 
 of our ancient families, upon parks, plains 
 and hillsides and bright streams, and all 
 over I bis ever beaut iful contour \\ ill state- 
 ly mansions rise. Around this Diamond 
 will still be temples of Justice and Relig- 
 ion to. repress the disorders of this life and 
 inspire hopes of the life to come. 'I he mu- 
 sic of evening will rise upon the air. and 
 life will have itsjoy after all now here 
 gone not to return, to the ever-grow- 
 ing confines off rreendale. 
 
 tint of what sort will the people be who 
 shall then walk these streets or stop be- 
 i this tree? The nations this year 
 Come Or send to see what people a hundred 
 years of freedom have produced below. 
 Shall the selfsame mould produce the self- 
 sane' men, or worse, or better? Whatwill 
 be the growth of Still another hundred:' 
 
 We have not degenerated. Whal officer 
 of Continentals could have led his men 
 moie gallautly than ourCapt. Myers, every 
 inch a soldier? If, as the highest military 
 personage in our city has said, we are to 
 have three wars per century, how shall we 
 be represented in the Held and hospital of 
 our future ( rettysburg? 
 
 ••Will then breathe that haunted air. 
 The sons of sires who conquered t here, 
 
 With arm to strike and soul to dare. 
 As quick, as far as they." 
 
 What will our city have done in the hap- 
 pier aits iif peace'.' What men and wom- 
 en will it have reared as guides and bene- 
 factors to the race:' The generations will 
 eat and drink, will plant and build, will 
 marry and he given in marriage. They 
 will share the common lot. will obtain vir- 
 tue and heaven upon the same unchanging 
 terms, and should the) gather here to li-t 
 to the summer serenade, it will he hem ath 
 the moon that silvers these nights of ours. 
 
 find -rant them speed at least equal to our 
 own. and lei not His mercy thereafter fail! 
 The Laureate of England makes the 
 chief character in a beautiful ballad, "The 
 Talking Oak." It rehearses to a lover's 
 ear in all the charms of songthe reveries 
 and the sweet wins of a fair rambler in 
 
 wlmm of all the earth he was most con- 
 cerned. Could we hut use the poet's li- 
 cense! Could our oak al the close of its 
 century murmur an intelligible language 
 and speak of this day and of what will have 
 
 intervened! What hearing would it gain! 
 What appla se of listening multitudes ! 
 
 •■( >h ever may thy green return 
 
 Old oak! we love thee well. 
 A thousand thanks for whal we learn! 
 
 For age thy story tell !" 
 

 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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