Excerpt from An Oration Delivered by Hon. Benjamin A. Willis, Member of Congress 11th District N. Y: On the Occasion of the Centennial Celebration of American Independence at Turner's Station, Orange Co;, N. Y., July 4, 1876 Other nations have been born with more of pageantry and pomp - sanctified by devotion no less earnest, by suf ferings no less intense. Other nations have rejoiced in a growth no less marvelous, in struggles no less fierce, in victories no less renowned. Other nations, indeed, have mourned over defenders no less heroic than ours. Yet no other people have a national birthday to celebrate; no other people do homage, as we do to the memory of our benefactors martyred in bloody strife. Why is this? Because, not in the deep, black, mysterious past, not through all the ages does the priestess of history point to that other nation, founded upon a complete and perfect recognition of the only legitimate purpose of human gov ernment. Republics there have been in name - Democ racies, se-called, have also had short being, at long inter vals, in the world's history. But be not captivated by names, these serve only as decoys to mislead the superfi cial and unthinking: they were wanting in the essence of republicanism and democracy; were characterized simply by vigorous rulership of ambitious demagogues, who, by the exercise of political arts and contrivances, held an ignorant people in subordination to their purposes, and betrayed them into the insane belief that they were in full possession of liberty. 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.