The rays from this torch illuminate a century of unbroken friendship between France and the United States. Peace and its opportunities for material progress and the expansion of popular liberties send from here a fruitful and n.o.ble lesson to all the world. It will teach the people of all countries that in curbing the ambitions and dynastic purposes of princes and privileged cla.s.ses, and in cultivating the brotherhood of man, lies the true road to their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. The friendship of individuals, their unselfish devotion to each other, their willingness to die in each other"s stead, are the most tender and touching of human records; they are the inspiration of youth and the solace of age; but nothing human is so beautiful and sublime as two great peoples of alien race and language. CHAUNCEY MITCh.e.l.l DEPEW.
From "Oration at the Unveiling of the Bartholdi Statue."
With consciences satisfied with the discharge of duty, no consequences can harm you. There is no evil that we can not either face or fly from, but the consciousness of duty disregarded. A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed, or duty violated, is still with us, for our happiness or our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us. We can not escape their power, nor fly from their presence. They are with us in this life, will be with us at its close; and in that scene of inconceivable solemnity, which lies yet further onward, we shall still find ourselves surrounded by the consciousness of duty, to pain us wherever it has been violated, and to console us so far as G.o.d may have given us grace to perform it.
WEBSTER.
From "The Trial of John Francis Knapp for the Murder of Captain Joseph White."
In the short s.p.a.ce of time spanned by a single life, as if by "the touch of the enchanter"s wand," the people have built a government before which the mightiest realms of the earth pale their splendors as do the stars of night before the refulgent glory of the coming day. Population has increased from three to thirty millions. Instead of thirteen, thirty-one stars now shine in the clear blue of this glorious flag. The mult.i.tudinous pursuits of enlightened life are cultivated to their highest pitch. The press is mighty and free. Peace and contentment smile alike around the poor man"s hearth and the rich man"s hall. Education scatters its priceless gift to every home in the land. Religion gathers around its altars the faithful of every creed. Statesmen have arisen "fit to govern all the world and rule it when "tis wildest." Orators have appeared who have rivaled the great masters of antiquity. The doors of the American Parthenon are ever open to invite the humble but aspiring youth to enter and fill the loftiest niche. The highest dignity is within the grasp of all; for the lowly boy, born and reared in our own sweet valley of c.u.mberland, shall, when the spring comes round again, be clothed by the people with the first of mortal honors--that of guiding for a time the American republic upon her highway of glory.
DANIEL DOUGHERTY.
From "Oration on Democracy."