THE END - CENTENNIAL ORATION AND CELEBRATION OF FOURTH OF JULY 1876, IN TIFFIN.

(From the Tiffin Tribune of July 6th, 1876.)

ONLY AND ORIGINAL CENTENNIAL!
HOW WE CELEBRATED IT!
NOISE, DISPLAY, PATRIOTISM, ETC., ETC.
THE FOURTH IN TIFFIN.

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FIRST DIVISION - CAPTAIN F. K. SHAWHAN COMMANDING
Marshal C. Mutchler, and Tiffin Police.
Tiffin Light Guards
Harmonia Bard
St. John's Benevolent Society.
President, Orator, and Mayor,
Reader and Chaplains.
Vice-Presidents.
Decoration Wagon.
Centennial Choir.

SECOND DIVISION - MAJOR W. W. MYERS COMMANDING
St. Patrick's T. A. & B. Band and Association.
Fort Ball Cadets.
Tiffin Fire Department

THIRD DIVISION - CAPTAIN A. W. SNYDER  COMMANDING.
Boos' Band.
Independent Zouaves.
Turners.
Bruderbund.
Druids of Humbolt Grove.
Knights of Pythias.
Knights of Hurrah.
C. W. Mueller's Brewery Wagons.
Theil & Gassner's Stone-Quarry Wagon.
Citizens in Carriages.

     The procession paraded through the most important street, after which the people gathered at the court house yard to listen to the other exercises.  Mayor Bachman introduced the president of the day, R. W. Shawhan, who made the following brief and very appropriate remarks:

     FELLOW CITIZENS: The pleasant duty now devolved upon me of calling this large assemblage to order; and in doing so I may be permitted to state that we have come together to celebrate and commemorate one of the greatest of all historical events.  Go back through all the traditional and historic ages of the past, from Adam and Moses, and then down to the ushering in of our Christian era, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six years ago - saving and excepting that mysterious birth at Bethlehem - the birth of our nation by the Declaration of Independence, one hundred years ago to-day, was the grandest event ever enacted on the face of the globe.  And now with fervent thanks to God for all who have lived to witness and to celebrate this Centennial anniversary, and thanking you all for the honor conferred upon your presiding officer, we will now proceed with the exercises of the day."
     Mr. Shawhan's remarks were followed by a patriotic song by the centennial choir, which was executed in a highly creditable manner.  Rev. G. A. Hughes then made a most fervent prayer, which was followed by the reading of the Declaration of Independence by D. C. Tunison, who delivered it in a clear, strong voice, and in a most impressive manner.  At its close the bells of the city were rung, and the lands played a patriotic piece.  The

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choir sang again, when Mr. Shawhan said: "I now have the pleasure of introducing to you our worthy citizen and ripe scholar, Judge Wm. Lang, who will now address you."  Judge Lang came forward and spoke as follows:
     MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:  One hundred years have come and gone; a century has flown off into the ocean of time, with all its epochs for weal or woe to the human race, since the old bell at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, called together a small band of patriots, who had assembled to represent the people of thirteen colonies under the government of Great Britain, to consult together as to the best mode for the redress of the grievances the people of the Colonies were then suffering.  The result of their deliberations was that declaration of principles just read in your hearing; a production that brightens with age and glows with a fire of patriotism that shines forth and points out to the oppressed of all nations the pathway to justice, independence and equality.  It is like the leaven that leaventh the whole loaf.  It has aroused the pride and patriotism of intelligent men everywhere, and to-day thrones that claimed their power by the grace of God exist simply by the permission of the people.  Man has learned to know his rights, and knowing, ill maintain them.  England, Germany and Italy have removed many oppressions and compelled their governments to rule in conformity with the will of the people.  Spain struggled, but failed for a season, while France enjoys a new life under a republican form of government of their own, having nobody to rule over them by the "Grace of God."  Even Herzegovinia, in her night of abject despotism, has caught a ray of the light that burst forth on that day, and she struggles like a hero for independence.
     The days of inspiration did not close with the end of Holy Writ, and I mean no sacrilege when I say that every holy, noble, generous thought, motive or action is inspiration, and proves the better part of man, the spark of the deity that is within us, and I claim the right for myself to believe that the work of those great and good men on that day, the fruit of their deliberations in the form of the declaration of those principles of human rights, with the glorious results of a century gone, was the work of inspiration in which God's holy purpose seems manifest.  Now while we meet and have just cause to rejoice, every heart should give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings we have enjoyed as a people under the sun of freedom, and pledge anew our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor that we will, for ourselves and our posterity, preserve and maintain that same form of government in its purity so vouchsafed to us by those noble men of 1776.
     Time will not permit me here to give you anything like even a synopsis of the achievements of these one hundred years.  Permit me only to say that the thirteen colonies have increased to thirty-eight prosperous states; the three millions of inhabitants that struck for freedom have increased to 44,000,000, enjoying the same, spreading from ocean to ocean, and from the lakes to the gulf; that the ship of state during this period breasted the storms of two terrible wars with foreign powers, and a most lamentable fraternal one, and safely sailed home into the harbor of the constitution, and came out of the fire as those youths did out of the fiery furnace, without even the smell of smoke upon their garments.
     The form of government is all-important when man claims his natural rights.  Perhaps the best interpretation that can be given to the word free-

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with her population than any other county in the state.  We have no paupers running at large.  In all departments of life, her citizens who have acquired honorable distinction are self-made men.  She enumerates 12,000 children entitled to the benefits of the common schools, and pays $79,000 per year for their education.  The personal and real property of the county for taxable purposes increased from about $3,000,000 in 1850 to nearly $18,000,000 in 1874.  In 1826 her taxes did not exceed $300.
     But I must close, and in so doing let me rehearse a short ode on the Fourth of July, by an unknown author.  It is so very much in harmony with the spirit of this festive occasion.