JULY 4, 1916


History is revelation. It is the manifestation in human affairs of a
"power not ourselves that makes for righteousness." Savages have no
history. It is the mark of civilization. This New England of ours
slumbered from the dawn of creation until the beginning of the
seventeenth century, not unpeopled, but with no record of human events
worthy of a name. Different races came, and lived, and vanished, but the
story of their existence has little more of interest for us than the
story the naturalist tells of the animal kingdom, or the geologist
relates of the formation of the crust of the earth. It takes men of
larger vision and higher inspiration, with a power to impart a larger
vision and a higher inspiration to the people, to make history. It is
not a negative, but a positive achievement. It is unconcerned with
idolatry or despotism or treason or rebellion or betrayal, but bows in
reverence before Moses or Hampden or Washington or Lincoln or the Light
that shone on Calvary.

July 4, 1776, was a day of history in its high and true significance.
Not because the underlying principles set out in the Declaration of
Independence were new; they are older than the Christian religion, or
Greek philosophy, nor was it because history is made by proclamation or
declaration; history is made only by action. But it was an historic day
because the representatives of three millions of people there vocalized
Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the world
that they were acting, and proposed to act, and to found an independent
nation, on the theory that "all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The wonder and