Ellis County Capital (Arnett, Okla.), Vol. 11, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, July 18, 1919 Page: 7 of 8
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ELLIS COUNTY CAPITAL ARNETT OKLAHOMA
Scene of Battle of Concord
lb
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood their flag to April’a breeze unfurled here once the embattled farm-
er stood and fired the shot heard round the world”
AMERICA’S DEBT
TO LAFAYETTE
- s
Washington Paid Tribute
to Great Services
Rendered
WHEN the Revolution began
Americans were still pio-
neers and straight shooters
The country was fall of men
who had seen service In war against
the French and Indians Washington
had been all his life a soldier It (s
not surprising that American officers
felt quite able to handle the military
situation without assistance from the
host of applicants for commissions
from abroad Therefore when Wash-
ington heard that a young Frenchman
named Lafayette had left his wife and
child and crossed the ocean to serve
the American cause as a volunteer
without pay he muttered : "One more
Incumbrance" But Lafayette pleaded :
‘‘Give me a chance I do not want to
be an honorary soldier"
He went to Washington’s camp and
there began a friendship which ran
through so many years like an Idyl In
1788 Brlssot visited Washington at Mt
Vernon with a letter from Lafayette
Lafayette
He says Washington "spoke to me of
M De Lafayette with emotion he
considers him as his child” Later
Lafayette sent to Washington the key
to the destroyed Bastlle saying: "It
Is a tribute which I owe as a son to my
adopted father as an ald-de-camp to
my general as a missionary of liberty
to Its patriarch”
French Eager In Liberty's Cause
The spirit of Lafayette was the
spirit of Rochambeau's army A host
of young French officers looked on the
expedition as a crusade for liberty and
crowded for places Toung Berthler
wafl a' volunteer at Torktown and ho
became a marshal of France Viscount
De Noallles marched afoot the whole
758 miles from Newport to Torktown
Toung Saint-Simon Closen Chastel
lux a brother of Mirabeau a brother
of Talleyrand Barras later Director
Barras and many other enthusiasts
for liberty -were in the expedition
They understood Americans Equality
was the particular American trait
which impressed them most and this
Idea was Imported by them from
America Into France
Rochambeau placed himself and his
army under the command of Washing-
ton The ragged Americans always
had the right' of the line In case of
equality of rank the American officer
always took command Not so much
as a cabbage was taken without pay-
ment Before Torktown the Ameri-
cans were not skilled in siege opera-
tions and Washington gratefully Ac-
knowledged the service of the French
engineers The French fleet closed the
river and the surrender came With-
out that French help we tremble to
think what might have happened
Fired Lafayette's Ardor
Toward the close of the year 1770
the duke of Cumberland who was the
brother of King George III of England
was traveling in France and one day
he arrived at the town of Metz then a
French possession A certain count De
Broglie a veteran of many battles
was In command of the garrison and
to do honor to his distinguished visitor
he invited some of his officers to meet
him at dinner Now It happened that
the duke of Cumberland was in dis-
favor with his royal brother — he was
In fact in banishment He had lately
received news that certain of his
majesty’s colonies In America had re-
belled and declared themselves free
declining to be subject any longer to a
tyrannical king It would seem that
the duke of Cumberland told the story
with some gusto as If he were not al-
together sorry that his brother was In
trouble One officer listened with par-
ticular attention He was a youth of
nineteen tall and thlh with a long
nose and reddish hair His solemn ex-
pression and his somewhat awkward
manner contrasted strongly with the
frivolous ease and grace of the other
young officers present He was a mar-
quis of long descent connected by
marriage with one of the greatest
families In France and he had at his
own disposition a very large Income
He listened ‘ Intently he asked many
eager questions and when he rose
from the table be had made a moment-
ous and historic resolution He had
resolved to abandon the pleasures and
luxuries of the gayest court In the
world even to leave his young wife
and child and to cast in his lot with
these strange rebels In America' In
his own words "When first I heard of
American Independence my heart was
enlisted 1” That young man was La-
fayette and when the American army
went to the front In France It merely
paid a small part of the debt of grati-
tude we owe that splendid young of-
ficer— that true nobleman
Appointed major general by Wash
lngton In July he fought at the battle
of Brandywine In September and :le-
ceived an ugly wound Soon again hi
the saddle he went through many vi-
cissitudes and privations with Wash-
ington at Valley Forge his crowning
exploit being the forcing of the retrfat
of Lord Cornwallis leading to his sur-
render at Torktown in 1781 Although
Washington and other famous Ameri-
can generals had joined him previous
to the surrender Lafayette with a
small force had Initiated the rout of
Cornwallis at the battle of Albemarle
That the highest credit was due to I a-
fayette Is shown by the fact that
Washington warmly thanked and cotar
pllmented him In the presence of the
troops after the great surrender whl !h
practically ended the war
Patriot of Marblehead
General Lafayette paid a tribute In
Marblehead Mass by making two
visits to the people by whom he whs
FREEDOM OVER
ALL THE EARTH
Due Recognition of Human
Rights Now the Aim
of Mankind
Independence hall Is holy ground at
the entrance to which like Moses at
the bush of fire
one should re-
move his shoes
but It pales into
Insignificance be-
side Interdepend-
ence hall which
some day we
must build across
the street from
the "birthplace of
'—AT American liberty”
One hundred two
score and three
years ago the
federation of the thirteen colonies Into
a federal nnton was a political event
of prime Import today it Is overshad-
owed by the thing of which Tennysod
dreamed “The Federation of the
World” The Declaration of Inde-
pendence Is a state paper of such sig-
nificance as to stand In a class by It-
self It Immortalized every man who
signed it "These united colonies are
and of right ought to be free and In-
dependent states absolved from all
allegiance to the British crown and
all connection between them and Great
Britain Is and ought to be totally dis-
solved” So run the words of fire the
Idealism of which was to be made real
If need be by the lives as well as the
property and sacred honor of the sig-
natories But the Declaration of In-
terdependence of all free peoples will
overtop that of July 4 1778 as the
oak overtops the daisy
Great Patriotlo Aim
Bnt at that time Independence was
the biggest and best thing the fathers
could purchase In a war of seven
years They could not enjoy the un-
alienable rights of "life liberty and
the pursuit of happiness” while ruled
by Great Britain for to be subject to
England meant to be robbed and ex-
ploited jailed or hanged at the behest
of a half-mad German George in who
wore the British crown
And so the patriots proposed to
stand alone to be Independent - They
proposed an equitable self-rule on lines
more liberal than ever had been tried
there were to be neither' kings nor
kinglets but rather a state of human
equality
Across the water It was a dark day
for human rights In all Europe lib-
erty was eclipsed there was not one
free people Monarchs were supreme
and more or less tryannlcal and so
it’ But I was never surprised at any re-
semblance that appeared when your boys
and ours stood side by Bide In the
trenches The mlnuteman of Concord Is
the Ideal of the young Englishman of to-
day who flung himself over the top giv-
ing away hie comforts and risking his life
for every man In his company
We long to see England rich In Just
such young men as your mlnuteman and
you make the same prayer for America
ao that In this as in all the things by
which men live you and we have the
same alms — liberty and the service of our
country and our God
I saw a very beautiful expression of the
feeling between us on Memorial day last
year says a writer In Scribner's I went
early in the morning to the Old North
bridge with flowers for the mlnuteman a
Southern friend was with me and the
two lost causes British and Confederate
were alone on the bridge We laid flow-
ers before the mlnuteman and on the
grave of the two British eoldters whose
fate so moved Hawthorne His spirit
may have joined us as we passed the Old
Manse but no one else was to be seen
when suddenly a ghostly procession cams
through the mist — six old veterans Just
risen from their graves four tiny boy
scouts hardly yet born and two young
mea of the present carrying a bugle and
flag
They went flret to the British grave
and for the first time In history they laid
on It England’s flag and a branch of New
England apple blossoms they saluted
blew a bugle call and passed on to do
the same for the mlnuteman and his flag
Then they stood In line on the bridge-
each of the 12 threw a flower into the
river and saluted while the leader said:
"We salute all the sailors who died In the
Civil war”
Then after a last ghostly bugle call
they melted away into the mist Was it
the mist of past or future?— for they had
saluted the three great facts of past
present and future history — the birth of
democracy the friendship of Anglo-Sax
onlsm and the future peace of the world
which will aurely spring from it
to stand alone and even aloof as
Washington counseled was to be pru-
dent No alliance was possible save
with that which they bad Just re-
nounced — kingcraft
Old Order Abolished
But “the old order changeth giving
place to new” Today in 1919 the
proper social desire of the individual
Is to “live In a house by the side of
the road and be a friend to man” And
similarly to live In the crossroads of
the nations and show vital Interest in
all that pertains to humanity is the
proper attitude for the nation The
setting for the next act on the world
stage must be big enough for Inter-
dependence and Internationalism In-
terdependence is life and opportunity
for both “We must hang together or
we will hang separately”
By maintaining independence and
aloofness the fathers hoped to suc-
ceed isolation spelled safety and so
they trusted that a deep wide moat at
their front door the Atlantic ocean
would keep their foes at a distance of
3000 miles while they should gain
numbers and wealth and experience In
governing themselves They minted
coins bearing the inscriptions “Let Me
Alone” and "Don’t Step on Me” the
latter beneath the figure of a colled
rattlesnake and cutting themselves off
from world politics and world Inter-
ests they became a self-contained self-
sufficient people enjoying free assem-
bly free speech free press and free
religion but making Americanism dan-
gerously near a big provincialism We
helped no other people to gain our
glorious liberty All was well If we
were let alone by the political and
warring world
Autocracy In Rout
But a new world order has come In
The western hemisphere Is all free
China has astonished the world by
electing a president "The bear that
walks like a man” becomes human for
a fortnight and Is free — until his lib-
erty mistaken for license enslaved
him to the bolshevlkL France and
Portugal are free Great Britain onr
ancient oppressor Is free and is our
friend The British empire is free a
galaxy of great self-governing peoples
— Canada Australia New Zealand
South Africa — all free even though a
figurehead king Is Its nominal head
but Lloyd George democrat not
George V autocrat Is the real ruler of
the British empire !
Now for "Peace on Earth”
Free peoples do not menace the Iran
qulllty of the world they are not bent
on conquest they seek not to Impose
their will on their neighbors even
though the neighbor be weak and
small They covet nothing which Is
their neighbor’s They stand for peace
on earth and good will among men
The considerations alike of safety and
ethics demand the observation of the
golden rule among nations
On July 4 1776 the old Liberty bell
rang out In order to “proclaim liberty
throughout all the land unto all the in-
habitants thereof" Suppose' that on
another July 4 It were permitted to
raise Its cracked and wheezy voice to
do a bigger and far nobler thing : Pro-
claim liberty to all the oppressed of
the world ! Where is
the man who would not
wish to live In that
good world? Surely not
one would pray with
Simeon "Lord lettest
thou thy servant now
depart In peace”
Let all the free peo-
ples of the world send
representatives to meet
in Independence hall
Let them create and
sign a nobler document
than that which the fa-
thers made and signed
nobler and larger for
one reason only — the
new document will be
the Declaration of In-
terdependence That declaration will
enable all free peoples to stand against
the aggression of autocratic spoilers
It will assert the solidarity of all who
stand for freedom and who love their
fellow men It will set forth the grow-
ing sense of human brotherhood It
will express In larger measure the high
political Ideals of our time It may
not ring In a thousand years of peace
but It will herald that dawn—
When light shall spread and man be
liker man
Through all the circle of the golden year
When the Declaration "Was Signed
An Old-Time Patriot Cut Off the Co
ner of His House That Lafayette’s
Carriage Might Go Through Ilia
Street
received with bands of music anil a
huge procession of citizens It is ’fe-
inted that on his flrpt visit in 1784
there was a controversy as to how the
procession was to proceed through the
main streets of the town owing to the
fact that at one of the sharp turns a
house so Jutted Into the road that the
general’s coach could not pass On the
morning of the great event It was dis-
covered that the patriotic family occu
pying the property had cut off a set
tion of the house removing the offcnl
lng corner and thus the coach ws
driven without a hitch through tl
street The house with part of tha
first story missing can still be seen In
this year of 1919 and la shown In tha
Illustration ' - -
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Seward, L. I. Ellis County Capital (Arnett, Okla.), Vol. 11, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, July 18, 1919, newspaper, July 18, 1919; Arnett, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1713429/m1/7/?rotate=270: accessed April 26, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.