and political freedom, are the rights of each individual.
Time moves on with its never ceasing changes. The
rugged yet precious jewel is beginning to assume definite
proportions; here and there can be seen the sparkle and
scintillation of a polished face; still nearer comes the time
of its perfection; small fragments have been chiseled off
which in turn are worthy of tne lapidary's attention; now
"is the time that tries men's souls;" the blood of the first
American Patriots has crimsoned the fields of Lexington
and Concord; there was "fired the shot heard round the
world" and whose echoes shall reverberate thro' endless
generations. The critical moment is at hand, the jewel is
almost completed; the Declaration of Independence is drafted
and signed, and then and there "Columbia, the Gem of the
Ocean," the Precious Jewel of the Occident, for the first
time shed its radiance upon an astonished world.
The United States, the last born of the great nations, is
first in all that makes a people renowned. It sprang from
Christian parents; Christain manhood and valor have an
unlimited opportuninty to expand; and we are not yet
old enough to forget the pious political heroes who framed
the first laws and became the first executive officers of the
young nation. Our nation, the greatest and grandest re
public of the world, with her natural treasury of mineral
and vegetable wealth, can indeed feel proud of her standing;
in the height of her glory and power she sways the nations
of the world. When. our Forefathers fought for that libert y
so dear to them and to us, they did not conceive of a republic
so vast. The true import of our country was shown
in the Civil War, when the North "Triumphantly
vindicated the rights of humanity" and perpetuated our
glorious union. What a wonderful change, to the world if the
South, believing that they were in the right, had dissolved
the unity of states' and trampled our glorious Stars and
Stripes in the dust.
Through every clime, in every land, as the American