Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/433

 and mindful of the sacred trust committed to them to hand down liberty to their children, dared to speak and to act. "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof," is the significant text of Scripture inscribed on the bell in the steeple of the time-honored State-house, Philadelphia. That bell rang out a joyous peal on the 4th day of July, 1776; it has continued to do the same, year after year; and, by God's blessing, it will continue to do the same, unto the latest ages. "The day is past," writes John Adams, the most able and eloquent advocate in favor of the Declaration; "the 2d day of July will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forth and forevermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all this gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means; and that our posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it,—which I trust in God we shall not." The annual jubilee is indeed held, not on the 2d, but on the 4th day of July, when the Declaration of Independence set forth the grounds of our fathers' course, and put on record the solemn pledge which they then and there gave, that as we are of light, so we will be, even to death,.

It was plainly evident, as is remarked by the philosophic M. Guizot, that "the day had arrived when power had forfeited its claim to loyal obedience; and when the people were called upon to protect themselves by force, no longer finding in the established order of things either safety or shelter. Such a moment is a fearful one, big with unknown events; one, which no human sagacity can predict, and no human government can control; but which, notwithstanding, does sometimes come, bearing an impress stamped by the hand of God. If the struggle, which begins at such a moment, were one absolutely forbidden: if, at the mysterious point in which it arises, this great social duty did not press even upon the heads of those who deny its existence, the human race, long ago, wholly fallen under the yoke, would have lost all dignity as well as all happiness."

Whatever might have been thought by many, at the time, of the propriety of this step, there can be no doubt, we think, that the Declaration of Independence was, in every point of view, not only necessary, but wise and well-timed. Every consideration of sound