not come amongst us with force and violence, but he works insidiously and treacherously; he wraps his chain in chaplets of flowers, and thus he tyrannises over his countrymen. (Cheers.) Yes, freedom is Heaven's first gift to man. It is his heritage; he has it by charter from Heaven; and although it has struggled so long, this principle is still living, breathing, growing, and every day increasing in strength. (Cheers.) The infant of our father's day has become the giant of our own time. An American poet, speaking of liberty and its struggles, says,—
'Power at thee has launched
His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee;
They could not quench the life thou bast from Heaven.
Merciless power has dug thy dungeon deep
And his swart armourers, by a thousand fires,
Have forged thy chain.'
But liberty still survives, is indestructible, and man shall yet enjoy its blessings. But, bear in mind that, precious and excellent as this liberty is, there are certain conditions upon which alone it can be obtained and secured. You must rely upon yourselves for it. Liberty is too precious and sacred a thing ever to be entrusted to the keeping of another man. Be the guardians of your own rights and liberties. If you be not, you will have no protectors but spoilers of all that you possess. (Hear.) You can only hold it on the condition of perpetual vigilance. You must work at it as though it were a matter of business; you must consider this question of defending your rights as a concern no less important than that of providing for your family. What is it but this, if we come to look narrowly into it? This freedom for which you struggle is the freedom to live; it is the right to 'eat your bread by the sweat of your brow.' It is the freedom which was given to you even in the primeval curse; and shall man make that curse more bitter to his fellow-man? (Immense applause.) No; instead of despairing, I have more confidence and faith than ever. I believe that those old delusions and superstitions which, like verminous and polluted rags, have disfigured the fair form of this country's greatness, are now fast dropping away. I think I behold the dawn of a brighter day; all around are the elements of a mighty movement. We stand as on the very threshold of a new career; and may we not say that this League—this great and growing confederacy of those who love justice and hate oppression—has scattered, broadcast throughout the land, seed from which shall spring forth ere long an abundant, a glorious harvest of true greatness for our country, and of permanent happiness for mankind."
Before the separation of this great meeting, Mr. Wilson
