Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Oration: Delivered Before the City Council and Citizens of Boston, July 4, 1884
That immortal scroll, to the reading Of which we have just listened, declaring these truths to be self-evident: 1. That all men are created equal; 2. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; 3. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, possesses a vital and enduring strength which has wrought many and vast changes for the welfare Of man. It is the first true assertion by a whole nation of the only real foundation Of civil government. It is the first blow at governments based upon divine right and conquest, and it proclaims to the world the inalienable sovereignty Of the people. A new society, without the traditions, the bonds, and the customs Of the Old World. Without bishops, without nobles, and without kings, was born in a day. It is a new era in the history Of mankind. It swept away all the rubbish Of accumulated centuries, the absolute authority Of monarch and priest, the hard rule Of class and caste, and the servitude Of ignorant and superstitious submission; and it founded a new nation, without religious tests and without religious establishments, without hereditary privileges and without born rulers, upon the coasts Of a virgin con tinent, stretching from the pines Of Maine, three thousand miles, to the golden sands of California. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.