USA > California > Los Angeles County > An historical sketch of Los Angeles county, California. From the Spanish occupancy, by the founding of the mission San Gabriel Archangel, September 8, 1771, to July 4, 1876 > Part 14
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When we wander back in patriotic piety to that lone rock of Plymouth. where, beneath a frowning sky, and witnessed by the wild, fierce, wintry grandeur of the wilderness, the germ of our government was planted,and to-day behold that government laying its hands upon two oceans, upheld by the strong arm of nearly fifty million people, commanding and receiving the loyal homage of a continent, and the profound respect of the universal world, we can scarcely comprehend the wonderful trasition.
And yet, sir, this great consummation is not the work of chance, nor this great model specimen of govermental architecture the result of magic. No; it is born of legitimate cause. This great growth, great development, great pro- gress, great advancement,annihilating wildernesses,spanning rivers, girding a continent with steel, is the result of fixed, immutable laws, and has been brought about by means which could not fail of such an end. And, sir, in the contemplation of those great casual facts we may read the lesson which this day with its memories should inculcate; that we ourselves have a duty to perform in connection with this great work; and that this heritage of free- (lom, this mighty government of protection, this lovely land of peace and progress, is not an inheritance entailed upon us and our posterity which may not be defeated ; that we are not to stand as mere, awe-stricken admirers and enjoyers of this product of the labor of past generations, wondering how long the splendid scene will last, and the great protecting arch of liberty stand, but realize that we are links in the great chain, wheels in this monster machine, active makers of the glory of this Republic, and responsible alike to the past and future for the manner in which we study and perform our part.
It is plainly evident to any candid reviewer of the work of our fathers that it was their carnest aim and intention to found a government based upon the active participating consent of the governed. A government whose sov- ereignty should be perpetual because its power was equally distributed among all who enjoyed its benefits. A government in which the rights of all would be respected and protected, because the power and remedy were placed equally in the hands of all. A government which would be strong because it was to the interest of all to make it strong. A government that should be progress- ive, in that, all being equal, it must keep pace with the progress of all. And sir, there was much to impel them to the establishment of such a system .- They had become the hereditary victims of a mighty oppression; they were the descendants and representatives of those who for centuries had felt and experienced the evils of the prevailing forms of government, and the necessi- ty of a new form and system avoiding the errors of the old. They had learn- ed, either by direct experience, or immediate tradition, that in the existing forms, power was not only hereditary, but was righteousness, and that free- dom of thought was dependent upon the accident of birth.
Throughout the ages, the "mills of God," which 'tis said grind slow but yet exceeding small, had been grinding out this grist which culminated in a government based upon the equal rights and equal will of the governed.
It was the legitimate tendency of such causes to produce such effects. The evil which had hitherto existed was the concentration of power in the hands of the few. The remedy adopted was a universal distribution of pow- er among the governed. In short, from the time of the promulgation of the American Declaration, and the laying of the foundation of the American sys- tem, the universal right of equality,-the innate dignity of man, and the sov- ereignity of the people, have been recognized.
This creed, so broad and grand, planted the colonies, led them through the desert and sea of ante-revolutionary life; railled them all together to re- sist the attacks of a king and minister; sharpened and pointed the bayonets of all their battles; strengthened their sword arms, and gave fatal aim to their
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bullets; burst forth from a million lips; beamed in a million eyes, sounded out in the revolutionary eloquence of fire; awoke the thunder and gleamed in the lightning of the deathless words of Otis, Henry and Adams; survived the excitement of war, and the necessities of order; penetrated and tinged all our constitutional composition and policy, and all our party organization, and stands to-day radiant and defiant npon the summit of our greateess-the au- thoritative proclamation of freedom to humanity.
And this thought sir, is worth nothing only as it leads us to a contempla- tion of the correlative duties which must follow, and a realization of our joint and individual responsibility to humanity and God for the progress, the per- petuation and the success of this greatest of human experiments .. It is to an appreciation of that duty-its exalted sublimity-its o'erweening importance -its high responsibility-that the memories which are borne upon the gold- en sunbeams of this anniversary should lead us-to the contemplation of this great trust direct us. It must be evident to all who give the subject thought, that a great portion of the American people have never arrived at a proper estimate of the sublimity of their political eminence, of their responsibility for the disasters which have shadowed the march of our national progress. We are apt, in the age of excitement, of struggles for wealth, of false social rules and systems, and of poisoned ambition, to lose sight of our own sover- eignty and its incidents. We see those who, by nefarious practises, aided by our own indifference, have reached places of official eminence, wasting the wealth of the nation, the time belonging to their constituents, destroying the credit of the Government, prostituting the dignity of their power to the fur- therance of measures which are portentous of evil and pregnant with calamity.
We murmur and complain, give loud utterance to our momentary indigna- tion, and then turn to our individual avocations as if we were impotent to avert the evil, powerless to resist the cyclone of disaster, as if we had no re- sponsibility in the matter. Is this a proper exercise of our boasted sover- eignty ? Is this the discharge of a duty we owe to a government whose very life, and our protection under it, depend upon the active, thoughtful partici- pation of each of its citizens ? Are we thereby paying for the great benefits we have received ? Are we keeping faith with the past, or maintaining our in- tegrity with the future ? Is it not rather our duty to call those public officers to account, and make of them such an example that none will dare repeat the experiment ? Why not arraign tliese mighty criminals before the bar of public opinion, and by their utter condemnation and discomfiture stay the progress of this mighty evil ?
I look upon it, sir, as the first duty ot an American citizen to ascertain his political obligations to his country and faithfully and religiously dis- charge them. He should feel as if the right of suffrage depended upon its exercise, and never fail in the latter until he is willing to surrender the form- er. He should actively contribute to the formation and preservation of an elevated, pure public sentiment, which shall cause peculation, duplicity, demagogueism and political corruption to retreat shame-faced from its pres- once.
We may not excuse ourselves upon the plea of ignorance of public af- fairs. Basking in the sunlight of perfect freedom, sitting beneath the shad- ow of universities, visited daily, yea, almost hourly by the messengers of lit- crature and news, receiving by the harnessed lightning record of every heart- throb of the nation, and every shock to any nerve in the great system-we are not ignorant, we cannot be ignorant; nor can we by such a plea deceive the world or ourselves, nor lull our conscience to sleep.
We owe it not alone to the past and future, but to our own age, its migh- ty progress, its glorious history, its wonderful triumphs, its past promise to know and do.
There is, sir, to my mind, another duty of great magnitude which we should carefully consider and faithfully discharge, and the neglect of which threatens the most disastrous consequences. I refer to the necessity of pro- lecting ourselves from the contaminating influence of political and moral skepticism, resulting from the immigration hither and settlement in our
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midst of those who believe in no government bnt a despotism, and no moral obligation beyond fealty to a monarch.
There are, sir, those who think the expansive power of this government is nearly exhausted, and that our invitation to the people of every clime to join in our great enterprise and participate in the work of glory our fathers inaugurated should be withdrawn. This is in part true, in part false. Our present greatness as a nation is attributable to the mixed elements of worth which the fascination of our theory has drawn from the world. It has ever been the better class, viewed govermentally, that has severed the ties of home and nationality to lay the offering of future life and toil as a tribute to the theory of a government absolutely free and equal in that it gave every man an opportunity to make himself the equal of every man.
The ingenious Swiss, the practical Englishman, the polished French- man, the philosohic German, the gallant Spaniard, the busy, country-loving Irishman, and the sturdy Swede, bringing the peculiar characteristics of cli- mate, birth, education, skill and surroundings, and a devoted admi- ration of our governmental system, have by constant admixture become the common parents of the American of to-day. To all such the theory is false. To them and their descendants, now and forever, and to all who come with brain or muscle or skill to enjoy the blessings of our government because they believe in its principles and love its doctrines, and desire to contribute to its success, the invitation is irrevocable, and the doors are forever open. They are brothers in blood, in thought, in aspiration and inheritance,
But, sir, there is another class, with regard to which this theory is true. "There is a pagan element, wedded to monarchy, devoted to idolatry, despis- ing our institutions, hating our civilization, spitting upon our social system, laughing at our patriotism, preying upon. our substance, and demoralizing our people, against whom the gates should be at once and for all time closed.
This grand continent, with its civilization and wondrous development, its cultivated valleys and happy homes, is not the lap into which China may spew its criminals and paupers, its invalids and idiots, its surplus moral and physical leprosy. Now, at once, in a manner respecting all law, and becom- ing the dignity of a great nation, must they be made to understand, not only that their presence is unwelcome, but that their further immigration will not be tolerated. Let the world to-day know that none are entitled to permanent seats in the temple of liberty who are not willing communicants at her altar. The duties devolving upon an American citizen who would live up to the fulness of his privilege are manifold, and I may not pause, and in this brief hour attempt their enumeration. I may not stop to consider how every citi- zen, directly or indirectly, regardless of vocation or station, is intimately con- nected with and exercises his influence upon all that is useful, grand and good. We all feel that every triumph of art, of science or of literature which is achieved under the broad liberality of the American system, is a triumph in which we are all participants-a glory in which we are all contributors.
But, sir, there is one duty of such paramount importance that I cannot pass it by. The late unhappy struggle which shook our continent, the years of blood, the desolated homes, new-made graves, cold, white monuments, bleaching, uncovered bones, those sad, sad pages of our history, have tended to bring it into bold relief, and it is meet, fitting and proper that upon this day we should, around our country's century-christened altar, pledge our faith to its performance. I refer to the duty of establishing and maintaining a more exalted standard of American nationality-a more comprehensive brother- hood-a more universal love. Have we not been negligent in the cultivation of that near acquaintance which alone can bind, unite and cement a nation ? Wooed by different influences, lost in local individuality, we became section- alized, and allowed those words, disastrous to our peace and destructive of our harmony-North, South, East and West-to creep into our vocabulary and be spoken in our national councils. Yielding to local rather than na- tional interests, local rather than national traditions, we became alienated, and our alienation resulted in the bloodiest war of history, threatening the overthrow of our government and the final downfall of Republican institu-
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tsons. We may learn from this sorrowful chapter the necessity of more in- timate relations, the cultivation of a more national and united aspiration, a feeling of more perfect oneness, that our government is our common mother. Let us fully realize that our greatness is dependent upon our harmony, and make sacrifice of all that will imperil our national growth or our national liberty.
And, sir, in our system of education we must endeavor to inculcate a broad and statesmanlike intelligence and faith. We must not educate sim- ply in art, science, mechanism, or social and classic literature, but in the sci- ence of government, the meaning of our constitution, the importance of its perpetuity, the concessions and compromises born of charity and incident to a Democratic form of government. We must teach our children, and learn ourselves that sectional words or feeling can have no place in the treatment of national questions. But that the preservation and good of the whole country must be the keystone of all systems of national policy. Let us, up. on this sacred occasion, visit in fancy the graves of our great statesmen who have left the record of a life's devotion to America, and all of America. Who, loving home and their immediate constituents, yet, when the ark of our safety was imperiled, ever rose to the true dignity of American states- manship and counseled for all, yea, for all; and let us return robed in the mantle of their patriotism.
I thank God that to-day, around the birthplace of American liberty, the brave and war-stained of every State and Territory, burying their differences and mistakes, leaving under the shadow of the laurel and the willow their sorrows and their dead, are marching hand in hand, with one heart, one hope, one flag and one destiny.
Sir, the day might be spent in discussing the duties which its memories bring, but I forbear. I have endeavored to speak of the more important ones and avoid the pollution of an hour so sacred by a display of rhetoric or idle words. And if, when the sun, kissing the night and sinking to rest upon its bosom, lulled by the murmuring waves of our own mighty ocean, shall close the history of this day, we shall have been drawn in any one respect nearer the fountain of political truth, or been impelled to more firmly re- solve to do our own duty and our whole duty as citizens, then our meeting and celebration will not have been in vain.
»Sir, we are now a great people, standing at the head of the governments of the world. Our navy floats in every water; in all progress that character- izes civilization we bow to none. In all that tends to make a nation great, we have made a glorious history. True, some of its pages bear the stain of tears and blood, and evidence of our follies finds a place upon the record, yet it is grand as human record ever has been, and if we profit by the lessons our follies have taught us, devote our lives and intelligence to the establish- ment of a higher nationaltity, a broader patriotism, a more self-sacrificing devotion to our common country, when, in another century, our children's children shall meet to celebrate our governmental birth, America shall be the pride and boast of the free, the Queen of the earth.
And when, upon the last day, before the great Founder and Ruler of all governments, the nations of the earth are summoned to bring the record of their stewardship-when England shall come with offerings of manufactures, her commerce and her proud statesmanship; France, with her centuries of refinement; her proud achievements in letters, wit, thought and science; Spain with her conquests and song; Germany with her broad philosophy, grand poetry and wondrous learning; Italy with her ages of music and art; America, robed in equal rights, radiant with universal love and liberty, shall approach the throne Divine, and depositing as her offering the trophics of peace and the benedictions of mankind, shall be crowned with the approval of the Everlasting God !
At the conclusion of Mr. Eastman's magnificent effort, which was listened to with rapt attention throughout, the audience burst out in a roar of enthusiastic applause.
After Mr. Eastman, the President of the Day introduced Mr. Morenhaut, the venerable French Consul of Los Angeles, who delivered, in a very low
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tone, however, some appropriate remarks in reference to the Revolutionary era of our country and the distinguisned part France took with us in our infant struggle.
Rev. Mr. Edelman was then introduced, and delivered the benediction, which closed the exercises.
- -0-
NOTE.
The heading of Chapter I. should read to January, 1847, instead of August, 1846.
Chapter I. was prepared by J. J. WARNER.
Chapter II. by BENJAMIN HAYES.
Chapter III. by DOCTOR J. P. WIDNEY.
AN
HISTORICAL SKETCH
- OF - -
LOS ANGELES COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA.
From the Spanish occupancy, by the Founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, September 8, 1771, to July 4, 1876.
PUBLISHED BY LOUIS LEWIN & Co., No. 14 SPRING STREET. 1876.
Mirror Printing, Ruling and Binding House, Los Angeles, Cal.
.
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