NATIONALITY IN THE UNITED STATES.
npHE Liberty Bell has long - since ceased to echo the defi
jL ant and joyful tones that rang out on the Fourth of
of July, 1776; the bell-ringer has sought another occupation;
the hands that signed the Declaration of Independence are
wasted away; the framers of the Constitution do now rest
from their labors; but the tones of liberty and equality first
heard on Independence Day, 1776, are still ringing in the
ears and echoing in the hearts of the American people, and
the great American Republic, after more than one hundred
twenty-five years of national independence, exhibits to the
world the model government described in the preamble to
the Constitution.
The Stars and Stripes represent a unit—a nation whose
people are permeated with the spirit of liberty, fraternity,
and equality. Day by day the bonds of unity among the
states are becoming - stronger and more numerous. The
American people are united at moments of national concern;
though there may be many states, all vie with each other in
devotion and service to one flag and to one government.
The people are homogeneous,—a feeling - which stirs them
all alike, —rich and poor, farmer and mechanic, North,
South, East and West.
But conditions were not always thus. The general view
of our national developement is that the United States be
came a government through the adoption and ratification of
the Constitution, or even before, through the acts of the
Revolutionary Congress and the Declaration of Indepen
dence. We often think of the nation being born in a day
and not until we review the crises in the domestic life of our
country do we realize that the true nation is the result of a
process and plan worked out at a tremendous cast and sacri
fice. A nation is a unity of people and none can think of
claiming unity for the United States until the Civil War de-
Scnior Oration.