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OUR NATIONAL BEOINNINOS 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 HON. J. HAMPTON MOORE 
 
 Member of Congress, Third District, Pennsylvania 
 
 INDEPENDENCE HALL 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 Monday, July 5, 1909 
 

 
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 09 
 
OUR NATIONAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ADDRESS OF J. HAMPTON MOORE 
 
 Member Congress, Third District, Pennsylvania 
 
 AT 
 
 INDEPENDENCE HALL 
 Philadelphia, July, 5, 1909 
 
 Ladies and CjEntlemen : 
 
 One of the pleasing incidents toward the close of the Constitu- 
 tional Convention, which met in Lidependence Hall in 1787, was a 
 statement by Dr. Franklin, who, while, the members of the conven- 
 tion were signing the Constitution, called attention to a painting 
 behind the chair of Washington, which represented a bursting sun. 
 Painters had found it ditificult, he said, to distinguish between a 
 rising and a setting sun, and he had thought frequently during the 
 four months of debate that there was grave doubt whether the 
 painting, allegorically applied to our country, represented a rising 
 or a setting sun, but now that the convention had put aside its 
 differences and had come to an agreement resulting in a Constitu- 
 tion for the LInited States, he knew it was not a setting but a ris- 
 ing sun. 
 
 There is, therefore, more than usual significance in the presence 
 here to-day as the orator of this occasion, of the Ambassador from 
 the great Empire of Japan, wdiich, in that country, is called, 
 "Nippon," "The Land of the Rising vSun." It is a pleas- 
 ure to greet His Excellency, Baron Takahira, upon this, the central 
 day and the occasion of American patriotism. In many respects 
 the marvelous development of his country, the commercial 
 importance of which was first made known to us by Commodore 
 Perry, and which brought to us the silk industry through the Cen- 
 tennial Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876, has been coincident with 
 our own. 
 
As we exchange fraternal greetings on this day so dear to the 
 American heart, we cannot turn the initial pages of history without 
 at once observing the great disparity in age between the United 
 States and Japan. The land of the Mikado is one of the oldest 
 while we are the youngest of all tlic great nations, and the 
 difliculties and turmoils through which we liave passed are 
 doubtless old, familiar stories to our ciders of European and 
 Asiatic countries. But what we are in the way of substantial gov- 
 ernment, and of wcaltii in consequence of that government, proceeds 
 dircctl\- from this old Hall in which the American spirit first deter- 
 mined to free itself from British domination, and in which our 
 forefathers of the Constitutional period fcamed the immortal docu- 
 meiu tliat made it possible for tis to grow and prosper as a union of 
 Slates. 
 
 It was no mean city in which the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was written and prcjclaimcd, and in which the Constitu- 
 tion was framed. We were strong socially, commercially and 
 financially. No city in all the c<ilouies held greater prestige than 
 did Philadelphia, and though there be some wlio criticise it, it is yet 
 to be said, after the lapse of a century and a cpiarter, that it has 
 maintained itself upon safe and conservative lines and that its 
 l)eople in the main have been prosperous and happy. In no city of 
 this Union is there so much of historic interest. 
 
 We have the beginnings of most of those things which have made 
 the nation great, h'very one of the great statesmen of the Revo- 
 lutionary period was in some way or other identified with this 
 goodly city, and the memorials of them and their work are still here 
 to be revered liy the lovers of their country. In every great move- 
 ment in the country's progress we have played a conspicuous and 
 a helping part. In the War of the Revolution, in the War of iSi2, 
 in the .Mexican War, and in tlie C.reat Ci\ii War. Philadelphia, with 
 men and luoney, did its full part. 
 
 In this old I lall. with its Uilierty Pell, now ilu' treasured heritage 
 of the Nation, llie di'legates to the Continenial Congress sat, and 
 from it they fir^t proclaimed the Declaration of Independence. 
 Here, too, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention held 
 those long and earnest discussions, which u!tini;itely gave to the 
 separate slates a new ;uid lasting bond of union. Within a rifle-shot 
 of this spot Jefferson drafted the Declaration, Morris financed the 
 Revolution, and Washington resided as Ihc Nation's First President. 
 Within that distance is old Christ Church, where ihe Continental 
 forefathers worshipped and wlu-re many of the signers of the 
 Declaration are buried. .Xroimd ihe corner, at Fom-lb and Arch 
 
Streets, is the last resting place of Benjamin Franklin, and one 
 block nearer is the scene of his experiments with the lightning. 
 Nearb}- is the honse in which Betsy Ross is believed to have first 
 made the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 In front of this platform is a monnment to John Barry, the 
 first Commodore of the American Navy. His bones lie interred 
 in old St. ]\lary's Chnrchyard, on Fonrth Street, aliovc Spruce. 
 At old St. Peter's a few .steps beyond, lies Stephen Decatur, the 
 intrepid veteran of the Mediterranean. "My country," said he, 
 "may she ever be right, but, right or wrong, my country." 
 
 From the river bank yonder, John Paul Jones .sailed out to 
 fame and glory under the first American flag. It was there, full 
 nigh a century before, that William Penn had landed to establish 
 this city of Brotherly Love. Here he wrought ; here all our 
 illustrious progenitors labored, until liberty and peace were assured 
 the people. Over on Walnut Street, within the sound of my voice, 
 John ^Marshall, the great interpreter of the Constitution, died, July 
 6, 1S35. Then, it is related, the Liberty Bell tolled fur the last 
 time. It cracked sounding his knell, and its tuneful life went out 
 with that of the great Chief Justice. 
 
 Philadelphia indeed has come to be known as the repre- 
 sentative city of homes — the cit}' of good-citizenshi]), of ])eace-loving,. 
 domesticated people. The test of the quality of its people 
 rests upon its home-life. It has more than .?oo,ooo sejiarale and: 
 detached dwellings. What city can boast of such comfort and 
 convenience to so great a pr.)portion of its people! It was the 
 birthplace of the building assoeiation, which miw encompasses in its 
 beneficent operations, more than 2,000,000 of wage-rarners of the 
 United States. It has 650 building societies of its own. uitli 170,000 
 members, who are paying for their homes through this system of 
 thrift. 
 
 Where in the whole country are there savings funds like unto 
 those in the city of Philadelphia? Show me the man or the woman 
 wdio is keeping within his or her income — even though it be the 
 lowdiest wage — and is still laying aside a modicum for the rainy day, 
 and I will show you that type of citizenship which well assures the 
 permanency of the nation. In one savings fund society alone in 
 this city there are 260,000 depositors, whose total deposits aggre- 
 gate the enormous sum of $90,000,000. Only 21,000 of those 260,000 
 deposits amount to $1,000 or over. In another company $25,000,000 
 of deposits represent 54,000 accounts. Ask the secret of Philadel- 
 phia's conservatism, and we point to the savings funds, and trust 
 companies, and lianks, for the answer. The people prosper here:.. 
 
they save here. The policeman does not have to stand by to keep 
 the savings fund depositor within the law. 
 
 Proud as we are of our city and of all that has gone forth from 
 it, we must own to our own weaknesses and annoyances. No 
 country in the world has been free from them. All great cities the 
 world over are suffering from them to-day. The wonderful awak- 
 ening of the Empire of the Mikado after centuries of strife and 
 dissension, did not take place until half a century ago. All that our 
 enterprise and energy would accomplish may not be secured at once. 
 The Declaration of Independence did not bring on immediate 
 freedom. It took full seven years to end the Revolution. Men differed 
 upon public questions in 1776 and 1787 much as they do to-day. 
 Every representative of the colonies in the Congress that adopted 
 the Declaration and in the convention that framed the Constitution, 
 had previously been a subject of the King. There were nearly 
 4,000,000 of people to be harmonized when the Articles of Confed- 
 eration failed. Large states and small states were ulierly at var- 
 iance. Indeed, if we are to trespass into the secrecy of the proceed- 
 ings of the Constitutional Convention, we will find the aristocrat 
 fighting with the representative of the plain people; the delegate 
 suspected of Tory inclinations struggling with the representative 
 who doubted his sincerity. We are told by one of the delegates to 
 that convention that there were times during the discussions when 
 it seemed that the union of the states was being sustained but by 
 the strength of a single hair. What were they discussing then? 
 The rights of the states; the rights of individuals; the rights of 
 property; the right to hold office; the right to appoint men to office; 
 the right of one state over another state; the right of one state to 
 tax commodities that came from another state. Oh. there were hun- 
 dreds of questions over which the patriots of 17S7 wrangled and 
 fought as in a death struggle. 
 
 From that convcnlion two delegates that had been sent from the 
 great state of New ^'ork withdrew before adjournment, reporting to 
 their Governor that the cau>e of slates' rights was hopeless. Out of 
 that convention before adjournment, went Luther Martin of Mary- 
 land to report to his Legislature that the lives and liberties of the 
 common people were being throttled and that he, for one, would be 
 willing to sacrifice his every i)ersonal possession if the country 
 could be induced "to reject those chains which are forged for it." 
 Back to Virginia too, went Edmund Randolph to report to his Legis- 
 lature that his objections to the Constitution were so deep-rooted 
 that he refused to sign it. But the country approved the work 
 of that convention. The people assembled in the various states, 
 voted their endorsement, and in the end, the prediction of Benjamin 
 
Franklin was fulfilled, the union of states became an established 
 fact, and the painted sun behind the seat of Washington was a 
 rising and not a setting sun. 
 
 If we had time, it would be more than interesting to compare the 
 fears and predictions of those who opposed the adoption of the 
 Constitution with the great incidents of subsequent history. In one 
 particular some of the objectants were right. Our constitutional 
 forefathers were weak upon the question of slavery. They left that 
 problem so open that it rankled in the American mind, until Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was compelled to cut the Gordian knot ; but the fears 
 that a president would become a king, the dread that one state would 
 overpower another state, the doubt of the wisdom of a central legis- 
 lative authority, or of a central administrative power to enforce the 
 laws ; the fear that a Supreme Court would become the mere pup- 
 pet of the ai)pointing power — all these seem to have been dispelled in 
 the course of time and experience. 
 
 Differ as we may upon questions, constitutional and legislative, 
 even to this day; no man can deny that we have been blessed with 
 prosperity such as the world has never seen, and an observance of 
 law and order such as are the envy of other countries. 
 
 We are the wealthiest nation in the world. We create more 
 wealth each year than any other nation. Our debt as a nation is 
 less than that of each of the great countries and of many of the sec- 
 ondary powers. We cannot contemplate the growth and progress of 
 the United States, now extending its population and busy energy 
 from ocean to ocean and lakes to gulf, without congratulating our- 
 selves that we are citizens of Philadelphia, within whose narrow 
 limits the plan of so great a national government was laid. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS