INDEPENDENCE DAY x 



In accordance with a custom of over a century, we meet 

 today to celebrate an event of importance to the whole 

 world. 



It was a very simple and unostentatious act. A paper 

 had been drawn up and a body of fifty-six men attached 

 their signatures to it. But the placing of those signa- 

 tures to that paper was an act big with the fate of man- 

 kind. 



We are accustomed to speak of and think of these men 

 as venerable fathers of a new republic. They were, in 

 fact, most of them, young men, and Franklin was the 

 patriarch of the body. Every man who signed that im- 

 mortal paper knew that he was signing his death war- 

 rant if the movement should fail. A rebellion is a revolu- 

 tion that fails. A revolution is a rebellion that succeeds. 



John Hancock headed the list, and he signed his name 

 so plainly that King George and all his followers could 

 read it. That beautiful and striking signature became a 

 model for mankind, and for one hundred and twenty-five 

 years men have proudly signed documents of importance 

 with the remark, ' ' There is my John Hancock. ' ' 



When Charles Carroll, the richest man in the Con- 

 gress, went forward to sign his name, some one said, 

 ' ' There goes a few millions. ' ' Another one said, ' ' There 

 are several Charles Carrolls, and King George will not 

 know which one to punish." Thereupon Carroll took up 

 the pen again and added after his name, "of Carrollton," 



1 Address by John F. Lacey, July 4, 1901, Toledo, Iowa. 



