Do you say that prisons and poor-houses have multiplied with the increase of schools? You forget that where there are no schools, the beggars and lepers throng the streets, and the thieves and robbers lie in wait for you at every turn. The stimulus to care for the one, and restrain the other class, is the outgrowth of enlightened sympathy on the one hand, and of intelligent justice on the other.

To educate the people is not to make the college man less, but the common man more; it is to level up, and not down.

The effect is not to cheapen culture, but to elevate our standards; it does not impoverish the few, but enriches the many; it only prevents the mountain peaks from appearing so lofty by the mighty uplifting of the foot-hills.

And, finally, my friends, it seems to me that any element in the social and civil economy of a nation, that produces such results and tendencies as I have hinted at, is not only worthy of exaltation and glorification on her hundredth birthday, but on all her birthdays to the end of time.

OUR DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY.

AN ORATION BY HON. JOHN F. DILLON.

DELIVERED AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT DAVENPORT, IOWA, JULY 4TH, 1876.

LET us, gladly let us, as a solemn duty, with one accord, and at the outset, raise our hearts in devout thankfulness and gratitude to our God and the God of our fathers for the signal mercy and favor which hath preserved our nation entire and our liberties unimpaired from all perils without and perils within during the century which has just closed, and enabled us with such trustfulness to enter upon the century to come, and with prospects so full of hope and cheer.

For one hundred years has this day been commemorated, but the people of America have never welcomed it with such emotion as those with which they welcome it to-day, when the nation is just commencing to pass through the portals of the second century of its life.

One hundred years ago, in old Independence Hall in Philadelphia, was proclaimed a solemn State instrument, which, more than any other political document ever given to the world, has influenced the history of nations and affected the fortunes of mankind.

It is that immortal paper and its fruits here and elsewhere, that gives significance to this day, and which have filled all hearts in this country with the common purpose of commemorating the Centennial year of our history in a manner that shall fitly distinguish it.

The Declaration may be viewed in a two-fold aspect, first, in the light of its immediate purpose and effect as the instrument which asserted the Independence of the Colonies from the King of Great Britain, and second, in the light of the principles of permanent and general application, which it asserted, and its effects upon the destiny of this country and upon the world at large.

In the first view the Declaration by itself considered is an event of dramatic and thrilling interest. It was made under the most solemn and, as far as the human eye could see, the most discouraging circumstances. The Colonies were feeble, without any legal political bond of union. They were without money, without established credit, without a navy and without organized armies. The skies were, indeed, dark, and the zealous Henry, when pressed with the inequality of the struggle, could only answer the argument with more faith than reason: "God will raise us up friends." It was an act of lofty and heroic courage in an infant and scattered people, boldly to fling the gauntlet of defiance at the most obstinate and unforgiving of monarchs, and the proudest and most powerful of nations.

The Declaration made a solemn appeal to war as the only remaining arbiter between the colonies and the mother country. The stage of debate and negotiation had now passed, and henceforth in the tragic language of the great Chancellor of Germany uttered in our own days, "The decision can come from God only, from the God of battles, when he shall let fall from his hand the iron dice of destiny," and the unity of this country, like the unity of Germany 100 years later was, "could be obtained but by blood and iron."*

But the greatest glory of the Declaration is found when it is viewed as the magna charta of the race, as an exposition of the principles of true government and national rights of man. It declared a new theory of government-one which revolutioned the basic idea on which nearly all existing governments were constructed. It asserted in unlimited terms and with most comprehensive scope the absolute and equal rights of man—of all who, whatever their race or country, bear the image and superscription of their common fathers.

Its central proposition-its inspiration, its vital power, its crowning and fadeless glory, is in the grand distinctive utterance— worthy to be written in imperishable letters of living light across the face of the whole heavens that they might be read in all time, by all men, in every quarter of the globe :-" We hold these

Klacrko's "Two Chancellors-Gortschakoff and Bismarck.”

truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and happiness."

"That all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

These were the baptismal vows which the new Republic took upon her lips when she entered the family of nations with fear and trembling one hundred years ago. Let us not forget them. Let us raise and keep ourselves up to the great height of their infinite meaning. For the name of God is written upon every human being-lofty or lowly-white or black-in the tropics or at the polls-and this glorious truth gives to every rational person on the earth an unquestionable title to his life, liberty, and manhood rights-a title which every just government ought not only to recognize, but secure and protect.

It is only within a very recent period that the rights of man as man have been recognized by the governments established over him, and which demanded unlimited submission and unquestioning obedience.

Manhood is older than Nationality; Brotherhood is older than Race.

It is since the era of the Declaration of Independence that popular rights-the equal civil and political rights of all-have been at all recognized in the architecture of governments. All Asia is, and from time immemorial has been, a despotism. Tyrannus built the pyramids. The thousands who toiled upon them and the kingly number supposed to be entombed within them are alike forgotten.

Popular rights as we understand them, and in this country possess them, were unknown:

"Monarchs and conquerors there
Proud o'er prostrate millions trod-
The earthquakes of the human race,
Like them, forgotten when the ruin
That marks their shock is past."

Passing to Europe and coming down to the middle ages "a line was drawn" says the judicious Hallam, "between the high-born

and ignoble classes almost as broad as that which separated liberty from servitude. All offices of trust and power were in the hands of the nobles. A plebeian could not possess land. What was worse than all, labor was degrading, and a gentleman could not exercise any trade or follow any profession without losing the advantages of his rank." And he sums up the previous condition of the race at large in the remarkable statement that "In every age and country until times comparatively recent, personal servitude appears to have been the lot of a large, perhaps the greater portion of mankind.*

Even to-day, my countrymen, in most countries, ours excepted, the avenues to profitable labor and personal distinction are extremely narrow, by one as of deep-rooted prejudices, proscriptions, monopolies, class legislation and class distinctions. Fortunately it was after the struggles for civil and religious liberty in Europe had ended and feudalism had decayed, and the New World had received into her bosom the first seeds that took permanent root and ripened into Colonies that lived and flourished.

It has been justly remarked: "The history of European society of the feudal system; the record of its rise and growth is the history of Roman polity and primitive barbarism; the record of its decline and fall is the history of modern social development. Ancient progress was toward extreme social and political inequality. Modern progress is toward extreme social and political economy. Submission was the great lesson taught by the former, freedom is the still greater lesson taught by the latter. Monarchies and aristocracies were the flowers of the old seed; democracy is the fruit of the new."

The famous saying of Abbe Sieyes is familiar. It was made during the revolt of the people of France, known as the French Revolution, against ancient and grievous oppression, and it gave a strong impetus to that justifiable, but in the end perverted movement. He asked, referring to the rights of the people under the name of the third estate," What is the third estate (tiers etat ?) and answered "Nothing." "What ought it to be?" and he answered, "Everything."

* Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. ii. part ii.