asserts his fealty to this same supreme law: "If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would be assassinated on the spot!" Then he repeated again his calm, serious, intelligent consecration to the cause of Liberty and Union in these closing words: "I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of the Almighty God, to die by!” That was heroism, lofty, sublime, god-like heroism. It was grander far than the heroism of the battle-field, where mere brutal courage plays an important part; where revenge is sometimes fired by pain and sight of blood; where there is the wild enthusiasm of numbers massed under the lead of magnetic men; where there are thrilling battle-songs poured forth from bearded lips, joined with clang of cymbals, blare of trumpets, beat of drum; and where, amid booming cannon, ringing saber, and rattling shell, the soldier forgets fatigue, pain, even life itself, in the delirium of the hour. This defiance of death is heroic; this valor, audacity, and gallantry, worthy of praise; but it ranks lower than this serene quietude of soul that is born of humble, holy faith, which sustains one without these added supports. Our hero-dead are lying in a thousand burial-places from Maine to Louisiana. Peace reigns. But is there not still an unended contest of ideas? Are not the great tutelar forces of a Christian civilization in earnest conflict with hostile influences? Have we been wholly victorious over partisan hatred, the prejudice of caste, of color and of clan? Can any party show a wholly clean record? leaders a purely disinterested and patriotic purpose? Are there no ominous tendencies at work in the rapid growth of our material wealth and in the importation of alien and destructive elements? Its We have scattered our floral tributes to-day over the graves of the patriotic dead. These frail mementos of affection will soon wither, but let not the memory of these martyrs fail to inspire in us a purer, holier life! The rollcall brings to mind their faces and their deeds. They were faithful to the end. The weary march, the bivouac, the battle are still remembered by the survivors. But your line, comrades, is growing slenderer every year. One by one you will drop out of the ranks, and other hands may ere long strew your grave with flowers as you have done to-day in yonder cemetery. When mustered in the last grand review, with all the veterans and heroes of earth, may each receive with jubilant heart the Great Commander's admiring tribute "Well done!" and become with Him partaker of a felicity that is enduring and triumphant! E. P. THWING. THE SOUTHERN SOLDIER You of the North have had drawn for you with a master's hand the picture of your returning armies. You have heard how, in the pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glory in a nation's eyes. Will you bear with me while I tell you of another army that sought its home at the close of the late war an army that marched home in defeat and not in victory, in pathos and not in splendor? Let me picture to you the footsore Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was the testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, half-starved, heavyhearted, enfeebled by want and wounds; having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in silence, and lifting his tear-stained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What does he find let me ask you, who went to your homes eager to find, in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four years' sacrifice- what does he find when, having followed the battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half as much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful? He finds his house in ruins, his farms devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or legal status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions are gone; without money, credit, employment, material, or training; and, besides all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met human intelligence -the establishing of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves. What does he do this hero in gray, with a heart of gold? Does he sit down in sullenness and despair? Not for a day. Surely God, who had stripped him in his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity. As ruin was never so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from the trenches, into the furrow; horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and fields that ran red with blood in April were green with the harvest in June. Never was nobler duty confided to human hands than the uplifting and upbuilding of the prostrate and bleeding South, misguided, perhaps, but beautiful in her suffering. In the record of her social, industrial, and political evolution, we await with confidence the verdict of the world. HENRY W. GRADY. INDEPENDENCE DAY "Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift - JAMES THOMSON. A THE GREAT AMERICAN HOLIDAY MONG all the holidays of the year, one stands out as pre-eminently American; one appeals especially to that sentiment of patriotism and national pride which glows in every loyal American heart. Independence Day the Fourth of July — is observed in every State in the Union as our distinctive national holiday; and rightly so, for the event which it celebrates is by far the most important in American history an event no less, indeed, than the birth of the nation. Independence Day celebrates the signing, on the Fourth of July, 1776, of the paper which declared this country forever free from British rule. It had been under consideration for some time by the Continental Congress, assembled at Philadelphia, and final action was finally taken on July 4. From that time forward, the American colonists were no longer rebels in arms against their country, but a free people fighting for their independence. That the Declaration of Independence was mainly the work of Thomas Jefferson has been established beyond reasonable doubt; and it stands to-day one of the most remarkable state papers in the history of the world. At the time of the passage of the act, John Adams wrote NOTE. Selections suited to Independence Day will be found also under Washington's Birthday, Flag Day, Patriots' Day, Bunker Hill Day, and under Henry, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and other statesmen of the Revolutionary period. to his wife a letter which has become historic. "I am a believe," he wrote, "that this day will be celebrate succeeding generations as the great anniversary fest It ought to be commemorated as the day of delivera by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It oug be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, ga sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from end of this continent to the other, from this time for forevermore." Bonfires and guns there have been without limit; and deaths that have resulted from these celebrations w form no inconsiderable fraction of those lost during Revolution. For years, the celebration of this great day has consisted mainly of meaningless noise; but is a steadily growing sentiment in favor of a more w observance of the day, as a time when every loyal Ame should rejoice in the welfare of his country, and with pride the manner in which the Nation was establi SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I giv hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, th the beginning we aimed not at independence. But is a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injusti England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her interest and our good she has obstinately persisted independence is now within our grasp. We have b reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, shoul defer the declaration? Is any man so weak as no hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety life and his own honor? Are not you, Sir, who sit in chair, is not he, our venerable colleague near you, ar |