The Fourth of July, The Speech of the Unknown

Transcription

1 The Fourth of July, The Speech of the Unknown Editors Note: The following text is taken from the book Washington and His Generals: or, Legends of the Revolution by George Lippard, published in Likely a fictional account of the signing of the Declaration of Independence as none of the Founding Fathers correspondence, or historical records collaborate The Speech of the Unknown. Lippard s text does capture the emotions and feelings many of the Founding Fathers were likely feeling that day. Dr. Benjamin Rush later wrote to John Adans, Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants? Of gibbets and hanging, Dr Benjamin Rush overheard a conversation between Benjamin Harrison of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, said Harrison, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead. Benjamin Franklin did jested, we must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately. Backed by historical evidence of God s hand in American history, Lippard was correct that God has given America to be free. For these reasons, and others, the text is worthy of consideration. THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1776 THE DAY...Look over the faces of these fifty-six men, and see every eye turned to that door. There is silence in this hall every voice is hushed every face is stamped with a deep and awful responsibility. Why turns every glace to that door, why is every face so solemn, why is it so terrible still!? The Committee of Three, who have been out all night, penning a Parchment, are about to appear. The Parchment, with the Signatures of these men, written with the pen lying on yonder table, will either make the world free or stretch these necks upon the gibbet, yonder in Potters-field, or nail these heads to the door post of this hall! That was the time for solemn faces and deep silence. At last, hark! The door opens the Committee appear. Who are these three men, who come walking toward John Hancock s chair? That tall man, with the sharp features, the bold brow and sand-hued hair, holding the PARCHMENT in his hand, is the Virginia Farmer, Thomas Jefferson. The stout-built man with resolute look and flashing eyes? That is a Boston man one John Adams. And the calm-faced man, with hair drooping in thick curls to his shoulders that man dressed in a plain coat, and such odious home-made blue stockings that is the Philadelphia Printer, one Benjamin Franklin. The three advance to the table. The Parchment is laid there. Shall it be signed or not? 1

2 Then ensues a high and stormy debate then the faint-hearted cringe in corners while Thomas Jefferson speaks out his few bold words, and John Adams pours out his whole soul. But there is doubt and that pale-faced man, shrinking in one corner, squeaks out something about axes, scaffolds, and a GIBBET! Gibbet! echoes a fierce, bold voice, that startles men from their seats, and look yonder! A tall slender man rises, dressed although it is summer time in a dark robe. Look how his white hand undulates as it is stretched slowly out, how that dark eye burns, while his words ring through the hall. (We do not know his name, let us therefore call his appeal) THE SPEECH OF THE UNKNOWN Gibbet! They may stretch our necks on all the gibbets in the land they may turn every rock into a scaffold every tree into a gallows; every home into a grave, and yet the words of that Parchment can never die! They may pour our blood on a thousand scaffolds, and yet from every drop that dyes the axe, or drips on the sawdust of the block, a new martyr to Freedom will spring into birth! The British King may blot out the Stars of God from His sky, but he cannot blot out His words written on that Parchment there! The works of God may perish His words, never! These words will go forth to the world when our bones are dust. To the slave in the mines they will speak Hope to the mechanic in his workshop Freedom to the coward-kings these words will speak, but not in tones of flattery! No, no! They will speak like the flaming syllables of Belshazzar s wall* THE DAYS OF YOUR PRIDE AND GLORY ARE NUMBERED! THE DAYS OF JUDGMENT AND REVOLUTION DRAW NEAR! Yes, that Parchment will speak to the Kings in a language sad and terrible as the trump of the Archangel. You have trampled on mankind long enough. At last the human woe has pierced the ear of God and called His Judgment down! You have waded on to thrones over seas of blood you have trampled on to power over the necks of millions you have turned the poor man s sweat and blood into robes for your delicate forms, into the crowns for your anointed brows. Now Kings now purpled Hangmen of the world for you come the days of axes and gibbets and scaffolds for your wrath of man for you the lighting of God! Look! How the light of your palaces on fire flashes up into the midnight sky! Now Purpled Hangman of the world turn and beg for mercy! Where will you find it? Not from God, for you have blasphemed His laws! Not from the People, for you stand baptized in their blood! Here your turn, and lo! a gibbet! There and a scaffold looks you in the face. 2

3 All around you death and nowhere pity! Now executioners of the human race, kneel down, yes, kneel down upon the sawdust of the scaffold lay your perfumed heads upon the block bless the axe as it falls the axe that you sharpened for the poor man s neck! Such is the message of that Declaration to Man, to the Kings of the world! And shall we falter now? And shall we start back appalled when our feet press the very threshold of Freedom! Do I see quailing faces around me, when our wives have been butchered when the hearthstones of our land are red with the blood of little children? What are these shrinking hearts and faltering voices here, when the very Dead of our battlefields arise, and call upon us to sign that Parchment, or be accursed forever. SIGN! If the next moment the gibbet s rope is about your neck! SIGN! If the next moment if this hall rings with the clash of falling axe! SIGN! By all of your hopes in life or death, as husbands as fathers as men sign your names to the Parchment, or be accursed forever! Sign and not only for yourselves, but for all ages. For that parchment will be the Text-book of Freedom the Bible of the rights of man forever! Sign for that declaration will go forth to American hearts forever, and speak to those hearts like the voice of God! And its work will not be done, until throughout this wide Continent not a single inch of ground owns the sway of a British King! Nay, do not start and whisper with surprise! It is truth, your own hearts witness it, God proclaims it. This Continent is the property of a free people, and their property alone. God, I say proclaims it! Look at this strange history of a band of exiles and outcasts, suddenly transformed into a PEOPLE look at this wonderful Exodus of the oppressed of the Old World into the New, where they came, weak in arms but mighty in God-like faith nay, look at this history of your Bunker Hill your Lexington where a band of plain farmers mocked and trampled down panoply of British arms, and then tell me, if you can, that God has not given America to be free? It is not give to our poor human intellect to climb to the skies and to pierce the Council of the Almighty One. But methinks I stand among the awful clouds which veil the brightness of Jehovah s [God s] throne. Methinks I see the Recording Angel pale as an angel is pale, weeping as an angel can weep come trembling up to that Throne, and speak his dread message Father! the old world is baptized in blood. Father, it is drenched with the blood of millions, butchered in war, in persecution, in slow and grinding oppression! Father look, with one glance of Thine Eternal eye, look over Europe, Asia, Africa, and behold evermore, that terrible sight, man trodden down beneath the oppressor s feet nations lost in blood Murder and Superstition walking hand in hand over graves of their victims, and not a single voice to whisper, Hope to Man! He stands there, the Angel, his hands trembling with the black record of human guilt. But hark! The voice of Jehovah [God] speaks from the awful cloud Let there be Light again! Let there be a New World. Tell my people the poor the trodden down millions, to go out from the Old World. Tell them to go out from wrong, oppression and blood tell them to go out from this Old World to build my alter in the New. As God lives, my friends, I believe that to be HIS voice! Yes, were my soul trembling on the wing for 3

4 Eternity, were this hand freezing in death, were this voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last impulse of that soul, with the last wave of that hand, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember this truth God has given America to the free! Yes, as I sank into the gloomy shadows of the grave, with my last gasp, I would beg you to sign that Parchment, in the name of God, who made the Saviour who redeemed you in the name of the millions whose very breath is now hushed in intense expectation, as they look up to you for the awful words YOU ARE FREE O many years have gone since the hour the Speakers, his brethren, all, have crumbled into dust, but it would require and angel s pen to picture the magic of that Speakers look, the deep terrible emphasis of his voice, the prophet-like beckoning of his hand, the magnetic flame which shooting from his eyes, soon fired every heart throughout the hall! He fell exhausted in his seat, but the work was done. A wild murmur thrills through the hall. Sign? Hah? There is no doubt now. Look! How they rush forward stout-hearted John Hancock has scarcely time to sign his bold name, before the pen is grasped by another another and another! Look how the names blaze on the Parchment Adams and Lee and Jefferson and Carroll, and now Roger Sherman and Shoemaker. And here comes good old Stephen Hopkins yes, trembling with palsy, he totters forward quivering from head to foot, with his shaking hands he seizes the pen, and scratches his patriot-name. Then comes Benjamin Franklin the Printer, and now the tall man in the dark robe advances, the man who made the fiery speech a moment ago with the same hand that now waved in such fiery scorn he writes his name.** And now the Parchment is signed; and now let the word go forth to the People in the streets to the homes of America to the camp of Mister Washington, and the Palace of George the Idiot-King let the word go out to all the earth And, old man in the steeple, now bare your arm, and grasp the Iron Tongue, and let the bell speak out the truth: FIFTY-SIX TRADERS AND FARMERS AND MERCHANTS HAVE THIS DAY SHOOK THE SHACKLES OF THE WORLD! Hark! Hark to the toll of that Bell! Is there a deep poetry in that sound, a poetry more sublime than Shakespeare or Milton? Is there not a music in the sound, that reminds you tones which broke from the angle-lips, when news of the child of Jesus burst on the Shepherds of Bethlehem? For that Bell now speaks out to the world, that GOD HAS GIVEN THE AMERICAN CONTENT TO THE FREE THE TOILING MILLIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE AS THE LAST ALTAR OF RIGHTS OF MAN ON THE GLOBE THE HOME OF THE OPPRESSED, FOREEVERMORE! 1 Endnotes 1. Lippard, George, Washington and His Generals: Or, Legends of the Revolution, Page ; G. B. 4

5 Zieber and Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, * Belshazzar s wall: From the book of Daniel 5:1-31 RSV King Belshaz'zar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshaz'zar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver which Nebuchadnez'zar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden and silver vessels which had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chalde'ans, and the astrologers. The king said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshaz'zar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed; and his lords were perplexed. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall; and the queen said, "O king, live for ever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is in your kingdom a man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him, and King Nebuchadnez'zar, your father, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chalde'ans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshaz'zar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. I have heard of you that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation; but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnez'zar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty; and because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him; whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him; he was driven from among men, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild asses; he was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of men, and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshaz'zar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. "Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 5

6 PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshaz'zar commanded, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put about his neck, and proclamation was made concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshaz'zar the Chalde'an king was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. ** Book Note: The name of the Orator, who made the last eloquent appeal before the Signing of the Declaration, is not definitely known. In this speech, it is my wish to compress some portion of the fiery eloquence of the time; to embody in abrupt sentences, the very spirit of the Fourth of July, When a people lose their history, they lose a part of who they are. Reclaim your heritage, pass this on to a friend or family member. Copyright 2008 Michael A. Shea - All Rights Reserved