antiquity striigglecl to emerge from darkness into light — 

 and often struggled in vain. The weary and gloomy way 

 travelled by France and Spain and Italy, before they had 

 risen high enough in arts or arms or culture or power to 

 entitle them to national recognition, they did not forget. 

 And directed as they were by the best principles of gov- 

 ernment laid down in the past, strong in that remote iso- 

 lation which protected them against all foreign interfer- 

 ence, feeling the weight of responsibility which rested 

 upon them as the founders of a new empire on whose 

 success depended their own welfare and almost their own 

 existence, they advanced with a vigor unknown before in 

 the business of laying the foundations of the great social 

 and civil temple which they and their children were des- 

 tined to erect. In a century and a half the great prepar- 

 atory work was accomplished. Our foothold as a nation 

 was established on this continent. Our position was con- 

 firmed. We had a record of war of which the most mar- 

 tial people might be proud. We had thought out great 

 problems of state ; had solved to our satisfaction some of 

 the most difficult questions of theology ; had surrounded 

 ourselves with the comforts and luxuries of life ; had de- 

 veloped a civilization as high as any known on earth ; and 

 had perfected a social and civil organization whose health 

 and strength arrested the attention of the thoughtful as a 

 surprise, and are as superior to the eccentric and unusual 

 operation of a phenomenon or a curiosity, as the grand 

 march of the stars in their courses, is more majestic than 

 the erratic career of a meteor flashing across a midnight 

 sky. 



Brought then as we were through this amazing period 

 of vigorous infancy, we proclaimed to the astonished 

 world that the life of a nation had begun, and so pro- 

 claimed it, that the declaration marks a period of time as 



