Benjamin Franklin #262616

We have been brought to realize, as could have been done in no other way, the richness and picturesqueness and dramatic interest of the history which America has already created. It seems fortu nate indeed, on the threshold of a new Century of National life, when we are confronted with many grave problems, widely different from, but no less momentous than, those which have thus far taxed the energies of the Nation, that pause should be given to our eager steps, and that our closest attention should be drawn to the character, the methods, and the deeds of those great men, the founders of our Government, to whom we and the whole world ow'e so weighty a debt of gratitude. We are met here, in this famous old city, to cele brate such an incident, of striking historic interest not only on account of its date, but of the princi ples it illustrated, and of the men whose names are inseparably connected with it.