Perjury of July 4th
July 5, 1836
“Yesterday, (for the sixtieth time!) the people of this vain and vaunting country perjured themselves afresh, in the presence of the world, by calling God to witness that they are a free people, that they abhor tyranny, and that they hold it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are created equal, and possess an inalienable right to liberty. O, the solemn farce, the comic tragedy! What a mingling of spurious patriotism and brazen hypocrisy, of glaring falsehood and open blasphemy! What ringing of bells, what waving of banners, what thundering of cannon, what blazing of bonfires, what long processions, what loud huzzas, what swaggering speeches, what sumptuous dinners, what alcoholic toasts, what drunken revels! All in grateful and honorable observance of the Fourth of July! A free country — and every sixth man on the soil a slave!” 1