Conversation Piece, p. 4
Dublin Core
Title
Conversation Piece, p. 4
Description
“One More Fourth of July
The Fourth of July is a blessed day and symbol in the history of this nation. It is indeed the favorite of our national holidays, for were we not able to celebrate it we should scarcely have occasion to commemorate other notable days at least, in the history of the United States.
The Declaration of Independence Ah, what a document! What a great expression of inspiration and high aspiration. What a moving and glowing symbol!
We love the Fourth of July, because it is a fact and a promise and not all the wordy, insincere, flag waving exhibitionism of many mountebanks can ever render it less dear to us. We love the Fourth of July because in the words of Lincoln it raises a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair.
The Declaration was more than an argument to “justify” an armed rebellion against an absentee power, against taxation without representation; it was, whatever the motives of the men who signed it, a grand statement of the principles of free government, of the rights of man, an articulation of beliefs long centuries had been defining and bringing gradually forward in the conscious feeling, thinking and acts of countless men.
Perhaps, we love the Declaration most because, as a standard to which wise and honest men can repair, it serves sharply to reveal the insincerities of so many of the people in our national life whom we are dealt dislike to places them under the floodlights of the enlightened public democratic conscience. It serves to bring out into the open the anti-democrats, and anti-libertarians, th[e] political charlatans, opposers of the “People’s revolution’ of which Vice President Wallace spoke so eloquently. It places in proper perspective the Martin Dies Gene Talmadge, and their spiritual brothers, the American Manufacturers Association of Commerce, their monopolistic sponsors and supporters.
We love the Fourth of July and the Declaration it commemorates because it brings to the public view those public men, judges, mayors, governors, attorney generals and other “custodians of our liberties” who pounce upon citizens of this republic who dare read and quotes from the Declaration of Independence in public places.
We love the Declaration, not merely because it makes ridiculous the claims of such men and organizations as we have noted above to democratic leadership or aspirations, but also because it holds out today as in 1776 a hope a philosophy and a procedure which cannot fail to hearten all who look upward.”
The Fourth of July is a blessed day and symbol in the history of this nation. It is indeed the favorite of our national holidays, for were we not able to celebrate it we should scarcely have occasion to commemorate other notable days at least, in the history of the United States.
The Declaration of Independence Ah, what a document! What a great expression of inspiration and high aspiration. What a moving and glowing symbol!
We love the Fourth of July, because it is a fact and a promise and not all the wordy, insincere, flag waving exhibitionism of many mountebanks can ever render it less dear to us. We love the Fourth of July because in the words of Lincoln it raises a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair.
The Declaration was more than an argument to “justify” an armed rebellion against an absentee power, against taxation without representation; it was, whatever the motives of the men who signed it, a grand statement of the principles of free government, of the rights of man, an articulation of beliefs long centuries had been defining and bringing gradually forward in the conscious feeling, thinking and acts of countless men.
Perhaps, we love the Declaration most because, as a standard to which wise and honest men can repair, it serves sharply to reveal the insincerities of so many of the people in our national life whom we are dealt dislike to places them under the floodlights of the enlightened public democratic conscience. It serves to bring out into the open the anti-democrats, and anti-libertarians, th[e] political charlatans, opposers of the “People’s revolution’ of which Vice President Wallace spoke so eloquently. It places in proper perspective the Martin Dies Gene Talmadge, and their spiritual brothers, the American Manufacturers Association of Commerce, their monopolistic sponsors and supporters.
We love the Fourth of July and the Declaration it commemorates because it brings to the public view those public men, judges, mayors, governors, attorney generals and other “custodians of our liberties” who pounce upon citizens of this republic who dare read and quotes from the Declaration of Independence in public places.
We love the Declaration, not merely because it makes ridiculous the claims of such men and organizations as we have noted above to democratic leadership or aspirations, but also because it holds out today as in 1776 a hope a philosophy and a procedure which cannot fail to hearten all who look upward.”
Creator
Mare Moreland, P.H.D.
Publisher
Arkansas State Press
Date
1942-7-17
Collection
Citation
Mare Moreland, P.H.D., “Conversation Piece, p. 4,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 28, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/16.