forgetting that other foreign nations aided us in achieving our independence that Germany sent us a Steuben to teach our men the art of arms, and a DeKalb, who fell pierced by eleven wounds at the battle of Camden; that Poland gave us Kosciusko and Pulaski and other nations sent us also brave men, we must leave the old world. All the struggles for liberty there, whenever and wherever made, whether in Germany, the land of the brave; in Ireland, the home of the daring; in Poland, Italy, Greece, Hungary or elsewhere, are worthy of success, but they are made against well-defined opposition and fearful odds.

To-day the United States of America stands, the most powerful, the most respected, and the most patriotic nation on the face of the globe, able at one and the same time to conquer its enemies from abroad and to keep peace among its people at home. The old emblem of freedom, yonder stars and stripes, speaks to every nation a language all its own. It tells of liberty, equality, and fraternity-it represents bright events in the past and glows with radiant hopes of a triumphant future. Events, the mention of which stirs up a well spring of patriotism in every American heart, hopes, that a nation of citizens, like those I see before me, will not disappoint.

Great as our nation has become, as a government it has not in that regard excelled its advancement in those departments, which mark and encourage individual greatness. Agriculture, trade, commerce, manufacture, the arts, science, and education of the masses, have all kept pace with the liberty-loving, liberty-sustaining spirit of our people; while among our great historical events the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln stands boldly out as one of the proudest and noblest. Each one, and all these results, are the natural, the almost spontaneous outgrowth of those sentiments which so fortunately led our ancestors to declare themselves and their posterity free and independent.

To you my countrymen and countrywomen; to you, who to-day are assembled a worthy representation of the patriotic citizens of this union; to you and to those in this broad land who like you, and with you, rejoice that they live under a free government, was bequeathed an invaluable legacy by the immortal sons of seventysix. Thus far, guided by the Great Author of human liberty, we

have travelled safely on our way in the fate of freedom. The toils we have endured, the obstacles we have overcome, and the lives which have been sacrificed, both to achieve and to preserve the old union, serve but to render it all the nearer and dearer to us.

By every act, then, let us encourage and promote the true principles of the government. Let the love of Liberty hereafter, as heretofore, be dearer than love of life. Let it be our highest aim to promote and uphold everywhere, in those whom we choose to man the old Ship of State, from the cabin boy up to the captain, a spirit of strict honesty-to purify the ballot box, and perfect the ballot, and 1976 shall be emblazoned on the radiant banners of a still free and independent people. Then the citizens of Omaha who stand where we stand to-day, to celebrate the second centennial will represent a city counting its inhabitants by the hundred thousand-a virtuous and exalted community living under and enjoying all the institutions of a model republic.

Then too, other nations in the old world, with confidence in our example will have developed into powerful republics; and in this new world, other republics shall have been established, and, if it shall have become necessary for the safety of our government, other territory shall have been annexed, and it may be, a hundred States shall consult together in the halls of our National Congress, and be represented on the old war-scarred banner by a hundred stars spangled on its field of blue; basking then, as we do to-day, in the bright sunlight of civil and religious liberty.

OTOE NATION.

AN ADDRESS BY HON. R. J. TOMLIN, MAYOR OF
NEBRASKA CITY, NEV.

JULY 4TH, 1876.

Ir is with pleasure I extend to you a hearty welcome to our city, and trust your visit on this, the one hundredth anniversary of our American Independence, will be as pleasant and agreeable to you, as it is to our people. We have been highly gratified to have you meet with us, and I assure you that your presence has been the means of attracting thousands of persons here-to see for themselves the former occupants of this land-the best and most productive of any portion of these United States.

You have already expressed surprise at the rapid development of the soil, and the magnificent farms, orchards, towns and cities that adorn our beautiful domain-where but a few years since roamed the wild beasts of the forest. These improvements, my friends, I assure you have been obtained-only, by the hardy yeomanry of those whom you meet on our streets, in the shop, in the fields and elsewhere, when labor is necessary to make a rich and prosperous people.

And I am glad, and so are your brethren here, to learn that you have good men who are looking after your interests that will ultimately result to your benefit.

Again allow me to welcome you among your many friends, and hope that the friendly relations that have existed so long between us, may continue in the future.

RESPONSIVE ADDRESS.

BY BIG SOLDIER, JR., CHIEF OF THE OTOE NATION. DELIVERED AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF NEBRASKA CITY, NEV., JULY 4TH, 1876.

My friends we are glad to meet our friends again. We have been pleasantly entertained by you and it gives us much pleasure to see our white brethren in so prosperous a condition. We shall return to tell how well you have entertained us, and they will be well pleased to hear from you.

FREEDOM'S GRAND REVIEW.

AN ORATION BY HON. C. E. DELONG.

DELIVERED AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT GOLD HILL, NEV., JULY 4, 1876.

MR. PRESIDENT AND COUNTRYMEN: I beg you to realize the grandeur of this moment of time. Centuries clasp hands in our immediate presence. Time seals at this holy moment, as an accomplished fact, the grand experiment of our fathers. We, who have carried in security the ark of the covenant of our father's faith above the reach of the mad waves of foreign intrigue and domestic commotion down to the eternal shores of the irrevocable past, now press with our pioneer footsteps the golden coasts of a new century of time. God, in His loving kindness, has reserved for us this sublime and delightful honor. Time now stretches forth his hand to reverse the glass and shift the sands of centuries, and at this moment our gaze rests upon the beauteous dreamland of the future, radiant with the rainbow hues of peaceful promise; and behind us stretches far away the grand highway of our national progress. It winds amidst sweet valleys and by silvery streams, each step of its course honored by the deeds of heroes and sanctified by the graves of martyrs. At its commencement point still gleams the beacon of our faith, flashing from the turret of the Temple of Truth. In the soft light of their glow we behold the lilies of enduring love nodding in sweet holiness by the last resting place of the just, and hiding with their merciful shadows the graves of the erring. Fame sounds her wildest trump of joy to-day, Hope spreads her proudest banners on the sky, and Faith inscribes anew thereon the maxims of Liberty:

"Man is capable of all self-government

"All men by nature are born free and equal."

My countrymen, that we may fully appreciate the triumphs of the present, let us indulge in a brief review of the past.

One hundred years ago this day, in old Independence Hall at Philadelphia, the Convention was about concluding its labors. That Convention had met to discuss the rights of man, and frame the argument and appeal of the oppressed. It had met in defiance of gathering armies and circling fleets, bearing the vengeance of the most powerful despot on earth. It deliberated amidst the storms of menace hurled by the haughtiest Power on earth; it sat in the fearful shadow of the forest of gibbets; the Convention now awaits the report of its Special Committee of Three; the tall form of John Hancock fills the chair; over his head is spread a banner upon whose union glisten the rays of thirteen feeble stars. That banner is scarcely one year old. It was born a brief twelve months ago amidst the smoke, carnage and death of Bunker Hill. It as yet is unknown to the world. My countrymen, that banner was the infant flag of the free.

Presently the Committee enters and all is attention. At their head walks the Chairman, bearing in his hand the parchment upon which is written their report-the ink is not yet dry. That man is Thomas Jefferson, the sage of Monticello. That report is the grand old Declaration of Independence-to the splendid rendition of which you have listened this day-embodying the logic of Liberty, which our gallant ancestors with their flaming swords wrote in letters of fire upon the tablets of enduring time.

With Jefferson advances his associate members, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. What other cause had arrayed as its champion such a trio of intellectual giants? All is silence and awe in that chamber as the reading of the report commences. Its extreme boldness excites the fears of some, but as its silvery logic and golden truth distils drop by drop into the heart of each listener, conviction follows. Then comes the rush to sign, and fifty-six men, the fathers of our faith, pledge to each other and to Freedom their lives and sacred honors.

Thus was Liberty born.

Men trembled; but angels, divining the purposes of God, caught up the holy messengers of sound and bore them through the spheres. That music, circling this earth, coursing through the arches of heaven, returns to us to-day in the grand chorus of rejoicing millions now swelling upon the air. Behold the scene at