all her faults, grand, glorious old Virginia still-spurning the mottɔ, "God save the king," gave to the world the more noble one of "God save the liberties of America." Be that our prayer forevermore. Be it not the prayer of a discordant and disunited people, but of a united and fraternal people. Moved by the grand, holy and hallowing memories which rise from the early years of the historic century just closed, let all Americans invoke the blessing of God upon our country and her institutions. Freemen! catch ye the inspiration of the day, join in the glad and sounding anthems of praise, swell the mighty refrain, unite in the prayer, "God save the liberties of America."

CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

BY HON. GEO. W. C. JOHNSTON, MAYOR OF CINCINNATI, AT CINCINNATI, OHIO.

DELIVERED JULY 4TH, 1876.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,- More than twenty years have elapsed since a general demonstration of this nature has been had among us; but to-day, Cincinnati, ever responsive to patriotic calls, moves with one common impulse in celebrating the birthday of the Nation.

Thanks to the managers, the procession of this forenoon has been magnificent.

We meet in this building, ere its removal, to give place to the elegant Springer Music Hall, to further commemorate the deeds of the men of 1776, and to make particular mention of those who signed that grand Charter of Freedom, the Declaration of Independence.

They were men of high thoughts and boldness of character. Charles Carroll, not to be misunderstood as to identity, added after his name, "of Carrollton."

John Hancock, after signing in his large, bold hand, said, throwing down the pen: "There it is. I guess John Bull can read that without spectacles."

These men signed not for that day alone, but for all time and for all people.

It is the day we celebrate.

In this land, dedicated by these men to freedom, the foreignborn and the native citizen enjoy equal rights and privileges.

While the foreign-born retains his early recollections of his first home across the seas, and many of the manners and customs thereof, he yet unites, heart and soul, in doing honor to this day, with those native and to the manner born.

One hundred years has wrought great changes in the appearance

of this land, but it has not dimmed our love of liberty or hatred of oppression.

The spread of intelligence preserves us. A celebrated divine, in an eloquent passage, commending the education of the masses, said:

"We must educate; we must educate, or we must perish by our own prosperity. If we do not, short will be our race from the cradle to the grave."

This spirit survives among us-the evidence of that fact is here. If intelligence preserves patriotism and virtue, Cincinnati makes her showing in the school children before us.

We are, therefore, celebrating this day with an intelligent understanding of the magnitude of the benefits and blessings we enjoy.

THE PAST CENTURY REVIEWED.

AN ORATION BY GEN. DURBIN WARD.

DELIVERED AT EXPOSITION HALL, CINCINNATI, OHIO, JULY 4TH, 1876

AMERICAN Independence is one hundred years old. Since the morning stars sang together, a century so grand, so crowded with events, so full of progress, has not closed its record. As heirs to the glory of our ancestors we proudly recall their deeds. From youth to age we have looked forward to the consummation of this grand event, and our eyes now behold the utmost fruition of our longing. Inspired with the memories of the noble past of our history we look forward with assured faith to the sublime future of our country. Struggling with the emotions of this hour, words are shadows of thought, and can but faintly express the burning conceptions of the soul. The face, the eye, the whole inspired mien instinct with eloquent silence must supplement the faltering lispings of the tongue. But looking upward in humble faith to the Great Father, speech and silence are alike worthy of this solemn occasion. So far as words can illustrate this epoch, what can they do more appropriate than recall some of the great movements of the past and contemplate, as though it were already here, the grandeur yet in store for America.

In reviewing the past century, an American cannot fail to remember that even the existence of this Continent was made known to the Old World by a discovery so sublime in heroic adventure as to make America from the first an object of profound and allpervading interest. The high motives and daring courage which settled our shores also inspired respect and wonder, and the hardy purity of the colonists in their new home was everywhere the theme of praise. But, even after all this, Europe was taken by surprise when the Colonies declared their Independence. That the government to which the Mother Country had subjected them was not a galling tyranny, though in many respects oppressive, was well

known. It was not the cankering chain of political servitude against which they rebelled. They made a broader assertion of the sacred rights of freedom, and staked their lives and fortunes on the wager of battle. An effort to throw off the oppressive rule of Great Britain would have won them sympathy. But the grand canons of principle they formulated and announced fired with enthusiasm the dawning spirit of liberty. The Declaration was the voice of one crying in the wilderness: the forerunner of a new political era. And, though we have heard the story a thonsand times, it still enthuses the patriot, and may the day never come when it does not! Cold reason may be enough to guide the head of the scientific thinker, but the burning flame of a holy passion ought to fill and rouse the hearts of the people! The rising generation must glow with the same patriotic ardor that nerved their forefathers.

Behold in the feeble little city of Philadelphia, having a popu lation of a few thousand merchants and artisans, but the metropolis, small as it was, of two millions poor, struggling agriculturists, scattered in the wilderness! Behold the immortal Fifty-six, in the broad sunlight, uncovered before their only earthly masters, the people, with the voice of their authority, "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof! The stern countenance of resolve, and the earnest, thundering shouts of approval speak a nation into life by the word of their power. There stand the great apostles of the people and their cause; the venerable Franklin, who had snatched the lightning from heaven; the youthful Jefferson, whose electric pen was ablaze with the lightning of genius; and there, too, are the courtly Hancock, the chivalrous but trembling form of Carroll, and there stands the boldest spirit of them all, the impetuous and eloquent Adams, with Sherman, and Lee, and Morris, and Livingston, and Wythe, and the whole immortal group around him, ready to do or die at their country's bidding. It is a scene worthy of the greatest pencil, and presents even to the imagination a picture no other event in history can surpass.

Then followed the long and dreary struggle, the hopes and fears, the victories and defeats, the patriotism and treason at home, the slow recognition and the generous aid from abroad, the unfaltering,