Excerpt from Historical Oration This resolution was donated from day to day until the 1st of July' when it was passed by a bare majority of the Colonies, and under it the Committee was appointed to prepare and report a proper declaration. Under parliamentary law, Mr. Lee should have been Chairman of this Committee; but well-knowing the peculiar fitness of his colleague, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Cue declined a position on the committee that Mr. Jefferson should be substituted i: i his place. In that Declaration of Independence, adopted by the representatives of the thirteen Colonies in Congress assembled at Philadelphia, was the doctrine of tho perfect equality of all men before the law for the first time in the world's history enuciated. "All men are created equal," was the key-note that rallied around the stars and stripes the bravo and the good. Yea, its clarion notes were heard across the Atlantic, and brought to the defence of that Declaration a La Fayette and De Kalb with hosts of others. Upon that theory is based the whole superstructure of our Democratic form of Government under which from thirteen dependent, oppressed and down-trodden Colonies in 1776, thirty-eight free and sovereign States, with a population of over forty millions of intelligent, patriotic, Christian people have sprung up within the cycle of one century - a growth without a parallel in the history of nations. Illinois, now the fourth State in the galaxy of the Union, was then but a howling wilderness, with but few civilized inhabitants. It, with the territory now embraced in many other of the Western States, was then known as the North Western Territory, and that portion embraced within the limits of the State of Illinois, so far us under the control of any civilized nation was in the hands of the Mother Country - Groat Britain. In compliance with the joint Resolutions of the Congress of the United States and the President's proclamation requesting this centennial celebration of our natal day to be devoted to local history of the various countries of those United States, we shall endeavor to give at least a portion of tho history of Grundy County, and more especially the early part thereof. The State of Illinois derived its name from a now extinct but formerly great nation of Indians, comprising no less than five tribes, known under the term Illini, or Illinois. The Tamarraos, Michiganies, Kaskaskias, Cahokias and Peorias, each of and within themselves was a powerful nation, and when united they were superior in numbers to the Six Nations, known as tho Iroquois, with whom they had many bloody battles, and by whom they were finally van-finished, owing to the superior arms or implements of war used by the latter from coming in more frequent contact with the whites, owing to their more eastern locality. Tho significance of the word Illini, afterwards changed by the French to Illinois, is real or superior men. ' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.