As the great luminary over our heads, dissipating fogs and mist, now cheers the whole atmosphere, so do the associations connected with this day disperse all sullen and cloudy weather in the minds and feelings of true Americans. Every man’s heart swells within him. Every man’s port and bearing becomes somewhat more proud and lofty as he remembers that seventy-five years have rolled away, and that the great inheritance of Liberty is still his,—his, undiminished and unimpaired; his, in all its original glory; his to enjoy; his to protect; his to transmit to future generations. THE FOURTH OF JULY BY CHARLES LEONARD MOORE (From _The Forum_.) Let be the herds and what the harvest brings; Give to oblivion all that’s sold and bought, The count of unrememberable things;— Our better birthright is this day’s report! Live our sires in us? Keep we their old skill To know Occasion’s whisper and be great? Can our proud blood in one contagious thrill Put admiration in the eyes of Fate? Wide is our realm, and twin seas feel our yoke, Aye, and the oarless ocean of the North;— Are we then mightier than that scattered folk, That fringe of clingers by the sea-beach froth Whose loins begat us? Let to-morrow show If their stern arts hereditary grow. LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS ANONYMOUS _Sursum corda._ We have in our own time seen the Republic survive an irrepressible conflict, sown in the blood and marrow of the social order. We have seen the Federal Union, not too strongly put together in the first place, come out of a great war of sections stronger than when it went into it, its faith renewed, its credit rehabilitated, and its flag saluted with love and homage by sixty millions of God-fearing men and women, thoroughly reconciled and homogeneous. We have seen the Federal Constitution outlast the strain, not merely of a Reconstructory ordeal and a Presidential impeachment, but a disputed count of the Electoral vote, a Congressional deadlock, and an extra constitutional tribunal, yet standing firm against the assaults of its enemies, while yielding itself with admirable flexibility to the needs of the country and the time. And finally we saw the gigantic fabric of the Federal Government transferred from the hands that held it a quarter of a century to other hands, without a protest, although so close was the poll in the final count that a single blanket might have covered both contestants for the Chief Magisterial office. With such a record behind us, who shall be afraid of the future? The young manhood of the country may take this lesson from those of us who lived through times that did indeed try men’s souls—when, pressed down from day to day by awful responsibilities and suspense, each night brought a terror with every thought of the morrow, and when, look where we would, there were light and hope nowhere—that God reigns and wills, and that this fair land is and has always been in His own keeping.