https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/
…On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. “Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.”
Citizens, your fathers made good that
resolution. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success.
The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this
anniversary. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation’s history —
the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.
Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
From the round top of your ship of state, dark and
threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance,
disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain
broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day — cling to it, and to its
principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. …
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