ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 277 



leaving no doubt of his identity. lie left no chance of 

 doubt as to his danger or his duty. 



Franklin, the dry old wag and philosopher, said, "We 

 must all hang together or we will all hang separately." 



When Thomas Jefferson had laid down his pen the next 

 man to take it up was Benjamin Harrison, and two of his 

 descendants have already presided over the destinies of 

 the nation that was that day created. The two Adamses 

 — Samuel and John — signed one after the other and on 

 the 4th day of July, 1826, John Adams and Thomas Jef- 

 ferson celebrated the great event by passing at the same 

 time from the immortals of earth to the immortals in the 

 higher life beyond. 



Happy is the family that can trace its ancestry to one 

 of the fifty-six who took their lives and their pens in their 

 hands one hundred and twenty-five years ago today at 

 the old Independence Hall of Philadelphia. 



We meet today to hear the old, old story, ever old and 

 ever new. Like the Apostles' Creed, the Sermon on the 

 Mount, and the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of 

 Independence is ever a new and cheering declaration of 

 the rights of man. 



We have grown accustomed to much national glorifica- 

 tion in this day. The eagle has the right to scream. We 

 laud ourselves, our day, our generation, and our country 

 until the orators of this occasion run the risk of being 

 known as "Fourth of Juliers." 



The chief improvement of the time that has elapsed 

 since the Revolution of 1776 is the general dissemination 

 of education and of knowledge. The highly educated we 

 then had, but the days had not yet gone by when the tav- 

 ern signs were the White Hart, the Boar's Head, or the 

 Saracen's Head; so used because the common people 

 could recognize the pictures though they could not read 

 the signs. 



