Oration

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from Oration: Delivered Before the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia, in Washington, on the Fourth of July, 1867The habits of the country were almost entirely rural. A rich and virgin soil repaid the labors of agriculture. Men were content with the quiet enjoyments, and to perform the retired offices, of life - the education of their children, the practice of hospitality, and other neighborly duties and amenities - without an aspiration beyond. General Washington, in his retirement at Mount Vernon, after the close of the French war, who was by nature and sentiment an agriculturist, was a specimen of the country gentleman of his day. He relinquished the habits of life which were congenial to his tastes, and yielded himself, at the call of his country, to years of exile, toil, and risk, with no other motive than to serve and defend it.The Declaration of Independence, which has just been read so impressively by our friend Dr. Blake, is a summary of political wisdom, as it was an act of devoted patriotism. It enumerates, as you have seen, the wrongs which impelled the colonies to that measure, pronounces their connection with the crown of Great Britian "severed, " and assumes that "as free and independent States they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all such other acts and things which independent States may of right do."If it shall be found upon examination that the American people, possessing as they do, a territory which is fraught with every sort of industrial capability, have wisely and beneficially exercised the enumerated powers thus assumed for the nascent State, and have, under the unenumerated, done all those things which were necessary for the general welfare, the progress of civilization, and the happiness and elevation of man, in other words, have fully acted out the correlative obligations of these assumptions, then there will appear proportional ground for the just pride we feel in our country, our race, and our institutions.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.