Garrison the Perjury of July 4th

“Yesterday, (July 4,1836) the people of this vain and vaunting county 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!  …..a mingling of spurious patriotism and brazen hypocrisy, of glaring falsehood and open blasphemy, what long processions, what loud huzzas, what swaggering speeches, what sumptous 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!”