Mr. Bryan's address, "The Declaration of Independence," was as follows:—
Mr." Consul-General, Bristol, fellow citizens, and our childven:—One hundred fifty three years ago. to-day, July "4, 1176, the id bell in. Independence Hall, Philadelphia, rang cut the lad' tidings: that' the birth cer title ate of the United States America had been signed.
To some documents. is. given i mortality. The Declaration of Independence is one of them. Ame can patriotism is for ever associated with it; but patriotism alone does not make it immortal. Neither does the vigour of its language or its indictment give it a secure place in the records of time. The secret of its greatness lies in the simple fact that it is one of the memorable Jand marks in the his tory of a political ideal which for three centuries has been taking! form and spreading throughout tee earth. That ideal, now so familiar, then so novel, is summed up in the simple sentence: "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."
The Unremembered Portion The Declaration of Independence ig a short document which may be printed in some four small pages; and the larger part of it is devoted to the specific grievances against the then King of Great Britain. This part of the Declarat nov" xarely yead and never remembered; and rightly so, for these specific acts charged against George my and once so vital, are now dead issues, man; and insofar as the principles which they proclaim are valid, they fare valid for Frenchmen, or' Russians or Chinese no less' than for That this is why the American Revolution has a universal and permanent, as well as local and temporary, importance. This universal sign: ficance is that for the first time in the Modern world, a new ani potentially powerful ' nation wes "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," and founded upon the principle that the legitimacy of any government re tupan the will of the people instew! of the will of the State. And for 153 years, the example of the United States has been one of 3 Strongest supports of this new faith which, however often forgotten or betrayed, is now accepted by the better part of the World.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.