I said the date marked other great crises in our history, and take time to mention two of them, both in the memory of living men. The first, and the greater, was in the midst of our Civil War, when the news of the twin victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg flashed over the land. Dark days were still to come, and men were still discouraged; the war was to be proclaimed a failure by a great political party, but the power of the Rebellion was broken, and, after July 4, 1863, the setbacks to the cause of nationality were but temporary and comparatively insignificant. A second great crisis was safely passed.
The third great Independence Day, great for what it brought to others than ourselves, was thirty-five years later, when the tremendous news came that the Spanish squadron, practically all remaining efficient of Spain's navy, had been destroyed off Santiago. That day marked the downfall of Spanish power on this continent, and the liberation of oppressed peoples in both hemispheres; the culmination of a righteous war against a civilized and honorable foe, whose principal shortcoming was a hopelessly antiquated point of view and inability to deal intelligently with modern conditions.
These great anniversaries all marked the definite passing of crises; the present one rather falls within a protracted period of crisis than marks the passing of one. If we were to celebrate the anniversary of the greatest crisis of recent times, I should name July 18th, 1918, when, as most of those here will remember, the glad peals of the bell above us sounded the news that the great allied offensive had opened. Of this more in a few minutes.
But July 4 as a date does not even mark the signing of the peace treaty. It is suggestive, however, of two things to be borne in mind at this time: the genius of our country as a lover of liberty and fair play, and the relation of that genius concretely to the problems of the recent past, and the present, and the immediate future.
The announcement of such a subject gives me pause, for it is one for mature consideration and careful discussion by the best of statesmen. But there are some considerations, rather obvious perhaps, but still worthy of inclusion at this time, which I should like to present.