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 '>N THE FIFTY SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN 
 INDEPENDENCE, 
 
 BY GEORGE LUNT 
 
 NEWBURY,rORT 
 nBIJSIIED BY J G, TILTON, & B. E, HAL 
 
 1833 
 

 Nr.WBURYi'onT, July 5tii, 1833! 
 Geo ROE LcwT, Esq. 
 
 Sir : The Committee of Arrangements for llic celebration of the 4tk 
 iust. in this town, re9i)cctfuily request a copy of tlie Oi-ation, pronounced 
 by you on that occasion, for the press. 
 
 With assurances of esteem, 
 we are Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 JACOB STONE, ) 
 
 SAMUEL TJTCOMB, I ^ 
 C. J. BROCKWAY, }. <^ommit 
 JOHN N. WILLS. I """ 
 F. V. NOYES, J 
 
 TEE, 
 
 Newburyport, 5th July, 1833. 
 Gbntlemen of the Committee — 
 
 I am happy to comply with your kind and polite request. If I have 
 been able to add no new force to the sentiments appropriate to the day 
 and the times ; it is my fervent wisii, that the performance may have some 
 influence, however slight, iir cultivating those feelings which become every 
 intelligent citizen of a great Republic. 
 I am, Gentlemen, 
 
 \v^ilh respect and esteem, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE LUNT 
 Messrs. JACOB STONE, 
 
 SAMUEL TITCOMB. 
 C. J. BROCKWAY. 
 JOHN N. WILLS, 
 F. V- NQYES: 
 
 
ORATION 
 
 The birth-day of a people must always be a great and il- 
 lustrious occasion. The heart, which is dead to the ordinary 
 impulses of human feeling, at sucii a time will sivell with 
 uncommon exultation. Thoughts, which do not generally 
 suggest themselves, come thronging home to our bosoms. 
 All that the past had of disaster is forgotten in the glory of 
 its splendid recollections ; — all that the future may have of 
 dread is overwhelmed in bright and beautiful anticipation. 
 The aspect and condition of external things has undergone 
 no revolution, but the man is wanned by new feelings, and 
 awakened to unusual energies. Whatever constitutes the 
 value and the exeellence of his rights becomes this day dear- 
 er to the citizen and the man. However he may have been 
 abttjrbed by private interests and private duties, he is wil- 
 ling to forget them to-day, upon the grand theatre of public 
 congratulation. However he may have been worn by per- 
 plexing thoughts, his heart leapt; to-day, to meet and to thrill 
 in the impulse oi' universal juy. However he may have min- 
 gled in the conilicting passions, which agitate the crowd; — 
 however he may have been in bondage to fear and a slave 
 to care, — to-day, at least, he feels that he is free. He iias 
 forgotten, perhaps, that he was born under extraordinary ad- 
 vantages : tiiat while oUiers are groaning under all the com- 
 plicated evils oj systems so rooted by time and use, — so in- 
 terwoven with the mighty interests of the strong, that the 
 weak may scarcely dare lo hope for relief j — so hemmed in 
 and circum tested by j)rcjudice and power, that humanity 
 trembles, lest the remedy slic offers may bring ruin instead 
 oi reform ; — he has forgotten the security and comfort anij 
 happiness of his own conditio!); that where others must bend, 
 lie may; stand erect amongst the proudest; that tl\e iccp 
 
tfc cannot control Ins mind, nor ihc crosier ubrooato hiu 
 conscience : that the sword cannot ravage his fields, nor le- 
 galized oppression pollute his dwelling : that his privileges 
 are recognized and obvious and unquestionable : his own by 
 birth-right, but reclaimed and established by the blood ol 
 his fathers : that he is lord of his own liberty by the heritage 
 of nature and master of himself by the endowment of God ! 
 — But to-day, if he think at all, he reflects that he stands up- 
 on a free soil and surrounded by innumerable and inestima- 
 ble blessings, and his soul is stirred and elevated by loftier 
 emotions. The familiar things about him assume an aspect 
 which cannot be estimated by the trampled and shrinking 
 slave! The bright earth glows with fresher verdure beneath the 
 tread of a freeman, and a more radiant glory shines for him 
 out of the resplendent magnificence of heaven! Some such 
 reflections as these might become the mind of the most ordi 
 nary citizen of a free community : but the intelligent ob- 
 server of human affairs will regard his condition with broad- 
 er views and in a far nobler attitude. The present and its 
 thoughts weigh heavily upon the heart of one; while the 
 other will cast his glance backward upon the misty records 
 of the past, or with still more curious interest forward into the 
 deep abyss of the future. He is not content with the fleet- 
 ing circumstances which are near and around him. lie 
 compares his own era with the others which have vanished 
 into the distant niariit. The civilized and the savage — Bar- 
 barian and Scythian — bond and free — all come within the 
 compass of his intellectual vision. The world — a grand and 
 imposing spectacle, — unfolds itself before him. He fixes his 
 eye upon the monuments of ages ! The thoughts, — the feel- 
 ings — the deeds of human beings become subjects of his im- 
 partial investigation. He speculates upon the theory of 
 man ! The great ocean of time, — wonderful in all its as- 
 pecis, — beautiful in slumber, terrible in tempests, — is rolling 
 at his feet. He com})arcs all that has been with all iliut is — 
 and thus learns to appreciate the c'laractcr of the present, 
 and prophet-like, to behold some vision of the future. 
 
 1 am aware how diflicuU it is to impart any nevv- interest 
 to the themes ai>pro[)riale to this day. And yet, it is the in- 
 dulgence of those reflections which become a freeman, — the 
 
^.Uiiiiestion of tliosc causes winch gained inm Uiis cnviabic 
 distinction; of those recollections, which dignify his social 
 position ; of those motives, which should lead him to regard 
 the institutions of his country with fresh reverence, and to 
 stand up manfully for their preservation; — it is these things 
 alone, which can consecrate the day, and render it worthy to 
 be had in perpetual remembrance. 
 
 The age in which we live is destined to work an immense 
 influence upon the moral and social condition of man. The 
 mighty changes, which ithasalready wrought, have out-strip- 
 ped the slow current of eighteen centuries. 13ut let us not 
 arrogate to ourselves an undue importance. The revolu- 
 tions to which I allude are taking place in the great family 
 of human beings : but man, as he might always have been 
 found in individual existence, has forever exhibited the same 
 lofty endowinents,- — the same wonderful characteristics which 
 are now becoming so much more general and extensive in 
 their efficient operation. The world has not been left witii- 
 out witnesses and examples of the glorious destiny of man- 
 kind : and however ignorance and superstition and debase- 
 ment may have brooded upon the many, like the dreams of death 
 — there were never wanting some whose minds were animated, 
 — whose energies w'ere aroused, — whose souls were alive to 
 the noble and eternal purposes of human existence. While 
 all else was cold and sad, their spirits have played, like light- 
 ning, upon the gloomy cloud ; and when almost universal 
 darkness has seemed to settle upon the face of nature, their 
 minds have glittered like stars, through the portentous waste, 
 to tell that the light of heaven and its hopes were yet there ! 
 Neither should it be forgotten that the tendency of the great 
 mass of mankind has always been towards improvement and 
 reformation. However inelfeclual its elTorts may have been 
 to secure the permanent benefit of the whole, still enough 
 has been done from time to time, through all j)eriods of the 
 world, to keep the sacred principle of liberty hi remem- 
 brance and in being. Weak and powerless and almost dy- 
 ing it may have oftentimes lain ; but it has been found ready 
 to start, at every fresh impulse, into newer and warmer life, 
 with an energy that deiied death and knew nothing of decay. 
 But heretofore the progress of society has been slow and un- 
 
certain. The occasional elibrts of the few, for the good of 
 the many, seem heretofore to have served little better pur- 
 pose, than to connect one age with another, and to transmit, 
 from generation to generation, thememory of principles, des- 
 tined one day to encompass and elevate the world. Some true 
 idea of liberty might indeed have blended itself with the 
 beautiful speculations of the philosopher and the sage ; but 
 they regarded it as a good almost too abstract and distant 
 ever to be really enjoyed ; and the hero and patriot toiled 
 rather under the pang of some temporary wrong, or to se- 
 cure for their own country some temporary advantage, than 
 with any just views of the grand theory of freedom— that 
 general independence of mind and heart and soul,— price- 
 less, beyond all estimation,— whose hopes flutter over the ut- 
 most confines of human wretchedness and whose aspirations 
 are boundless as the universe. But it was reserved for the 
 master spirits of our own day to collect from all time and all 
 experience, the full strength and wisdom of this ennobling 
 principle, and to illustrate and enforce and disseminate it, 
 until armed oppression may well tremble and shudder to tlie 
 inmost fibre of its iron heart. 
 
 Our own is decidedly the age of revolutions. Those events 
 which once might have amazed and alarmed the world are 
 now amongst the most familiar occurrences of the times. 
 The change of a dynasty might once have been the occasion 
 and the theme of contemporary history : and fierce and pro- 
 tracted wars might once have founded themselves upon the 
 distinction of a name : but our day only has seen throne fall- 
 ing after throne, and empire crumbling upon the ruins ol 
 empire,— and the mightiest political revolution so hastily 
 following upon the footsteps of its predecessor, that the at- 
 tention is at length exhausted by a succession of events, so 
 strange — so rapid — so unexampled ! 
 
 But we must not deceive ourselves into false opinion^' 
 We look at things long past through an illusory medium. 
 And while we contemplate those great transactions of his- 
 tory, which stand out bold and prominent amidst the barren- 
 ness of centuries,— vvc are apt to forget our own comjnirativc 
 iittlcncss ;— to imagine that we are the actors in singular 
 achievement?, and to wonder that events, so iamiliar to'our- 
 
selves, should evci have excited the uncommon admiralu , 
 and astonishment of the world. We forget that we aie 
 reaping the harvest of other men's labors: that they were 
 the precursors and exemplars, whose footsteps vvc arc pur- 
 suing : that what our own times have seen executed with 
 ease, they commenced in difficulty and danger, and accom- 
 plished only with extreme toil: that the way was untrodden, 
 until they set up its way-marks, and the desert uncultivated, 
 until they opened and fertilized it, step by step, with their 
 blood. But if we would justly appreciate the objects and 
 tendency of human existence, we must forget the distinctions 
 of periods and people. We must remember that there is a 
 universal bond of brotherhood between man and man. No 
 matter, when or where he may have had his being : whether 
 he stands with us to-day in the light of freedom, or grovelled 
 ages ago, where its name was never whispered : no matter, 
 whether he toiled and fought and died, in the vain anticipa- 
 tion of seeing those glorious results, which our eyes have 
 witnessed: no matter, whether he fell with Liberty at Chre- 
 ronca, or saw it and was glad, when it welcomed our fath- 
 ers to the battle-plain of Lexington : no matter, whether he 
 perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition, or worships 
 God, as he pleases, in his stately temples ;— no matter, 
 whether his body slumbers under the ghastly ruins of an- 
 cient superstition, or the fresh soil of a free land presses 
 lightly on his bosom ; — civilized or savage, — high or low,— 
 living or dead,— he is a member of the same human family. 
 Wherever the sun-beams publish God's glory, or the liberal 
 elements utter his bounty, they have found man the same : 
 always an intellectual and a moral being, aspiring sometimes 
 feebly and again more earnestly, towards the same high 
 objects : actuated by the same motives, worn by the same 
 sufferings, elevated by the same hopes, tried by the same 
 temptations: now overborne by intolerable wrongs and anon 
 nsmg and trampling upon cowardly oppression : travelling 
 through earth with a struggling mind and a beating heart, 
 and longing for heaven ! The sage who thought, and the 
 hero who conquered, are all connected with us by innumer- 
 able ties. The illustrious achievements of other days be- 
 long to us rather than to them, for v^e enjoy their full influ- 
 
8 
 
 once and harvest iheir coniplote fulfilment. All that has 
 over bcc!i executed for the cjood of man, — all exalted enter- 
 prise, — all heroic devotion, — all self-sacrificing fortitude, — 
 every generous impulse of tiic affections and every lofty 
 olTort of the mind, — constitute but one unbroken chain ol 
 brilliant events, all tending to accomplish the same glorious 
 and eternal end. If then we contemplate man in this inter- 
 esting aspect ; as one great mass of human existence, press- 
 ing constantly forward, under the direction of a benevolent 
 Providence, to secure the ultimate happiness of the race ; — 
 that happiness, which consists in a free intellect and the re- 
 moval of every fictitious and unnecessary restraint from tlie 
 bodies and the souls of men; — if we look at him in this rela- 
 tion, hindered and checked, at times, in his career, but with 
 a mind never totally paralyzed, and a heart never altogether 
 broken, — like some single noble spirit, which misfortune 
 may indeed stagger, but cannot subdue ; — if we consider all 
 the illustrious actions of our predecessors, but as distinct 
 pulsations of the same mighty heart : — every gallant stroke 
 for independence, — every splendid example of magnanimous 
 endurance and heroic martyrdom, — but as one grand series 
 of connected causes, whose consequences have been accu- 
 mulating, until they arc ready to spread over and refine and 
 liberalize the world ; — with what thrilling interest shall we 
 then regard the history of the past ! with what profounder 
 emotions shall we dwell upon the character of the present 
 and speculate upon the boundless prospects of the future ! 
 It is thus, that the friend of his country, at whatever remote 
 and obscure period he may have existed, becomes indeed 
 the friend of mankind : that the great reformer has toiled, 
 arid the great philosopher taught for all coming generations, 
 and the myrtle-bough, that wreathed the sword of the patriot, 
 thus lives and flourishes forever, in the beauty and the glory 
 of immortal loveliness ! 
 
 There is something inexpressibly cheering in the encour- 
 agements which such considerations inspire. If there be 
 any one who has desponded in his views of the progress of 
 society, — let him take courage and hope from such reflec- 
 tions. It is no new idea, that the men of this age were losing 
 their individual and peculiar characteristics. But if it be 
 
Jndeed the fact, that it is owiog to the improved condUiou 
 of human fellowship, — it is a noble and consoling thought, 
 Men have commonly been considered as divided into dis- 
 tinct races, and in the various nations of the earth, as sepa- 
 rated from each other by innumerable fictitious atnd often 
 absurd distinctions: but if the tendency of society be 
 towards such a reformation ; if, as the individual sinks, the 
 people rise ; — if, as light breaks upon the world and diffuse* 
 itself throughout the vast expanse of the general mind'; — 
 if those great principles, which have been, here and there, 
 illustrated and defended, through every period of the world, 
 are now beginning to be generally understood and valued 
 and enforced ; — if those grand causes are now at work 
 which are to raise not this class or that, not this nation or 
 another, but the whole human race to its highest point of 
 attainable equalization, — 'What new and ennobling views 
 does it open to mankind, — and who would venture to with- 
 hold from its career his most fervent and devout aspirations ? 
 It is true, that perfect equality can never be attained. 
 Heaven has not so ordered it. He who expects it, dreams, 
 — and will never awake to its realization. It is equally im- 
 possible and unnecessary to human happiness. But that the 
 time is approaching, when men will lose their inordinate at- 
 tachment to the trifles of a moment; and will regard with 
 the same value the great things of existence : when igno- 
 rance shall be enlightened, and hope come to all, and liberty 
 go free :— Vv^hen anarchy shall be dissolved, and the oppres- 
 sor cease : — when crowns shall lose their lustre, and swords 
 grow dim, and superstition fall into eternal burial undes 
 the ruins of her mouldering fabric : when a new and glorious 
 day, — a day of light and knowledge and christian freedom,-— 
 shall encompass the Universe :— it is no illusion — for the 
 currents of life are tending towards its consummation, and 
 the oracles of God are pledged to its fulfilment! 
 
 A new era has already commenced. A new impulse has 
 been given to the tide of time. The fountains of the great 
 deep are breaking up; and a spirit of inquiry, not .easily sat- 
 isfied and irresistible in its energies, is breaking, like a 
 flood upon ancient prejudices and beating down the bul- 
 warks of old opinions. Let us hope that it may be regulat- 
 ed by a wise discretion ! Let us pray that it be governed 
 3 
 
10 
 
 by « decefjt'iovereiico; and that, in destroying what is use- 
 fces, it sweep away nothing that is truly excellent;— and be 
 fervently hopeful of its success. But it is not the diffusion 
 of human knowledge alone, or all the countless blessings of 
 fjumnn civilization, which can effect these wonderful results. 
 The refinements of life corrupt as well as polish. They 
 nourish in themselves the elements of their own dissolution. 
 Their brightest glories are but the heralds of their own de- 
 cay^ AM history instructs us, that human learning and wis- 
 dom and skill, were never and cnnnot be the stable founda- 
 tions and safeguards of ihe state: and that man's noblest in- 
 stitutions must perish in the using, unless a divine spirit 
 mingles with the debasing mass of human passions, and pu- 
 rifies, elevates and controls. If it were not so, — the mighty 
 empires of the old world might have been standing to-day. 
 If it were not so, — Assyria might never have fallen ; nor 
 Egypt, the seat of the Pharaohs, — the mistress of science, 
 the nwther of arts, — the fountain of philosophy, the depos- 
 itary of wisdom, — might not have sunk as she did into a 
 gloom as palpable, as that which she once before felt, wheD 
 she was encompassed with the,darkness of a seven-fold night. 
 If it were not so, — the Median might have thundered in vairt 
 Zt tfts gates of Babylon ; and the wild beasts of the desert 
 "Would not now be rioting in her pleasant palaces : Rome 
 jTD'ght still have stood, in all the simple and beautiful gran- 
 deur of the old Republic ; and Greece might to-day have 
 lifted her laurelled head, the wonder and the majesty of the 
 world! They indeed perished ! But a temple was soon to 
 arise upon their ruins, whose worship was to involve sublimer 
 views of the destinies of our nature than their most exalted 
 imaginations ever conceived, and whose foundations were 
 eternal in the Heavens! The revolutions of the ancient 
 ■world had been hurried forward by the impetuous tumult of 
 mortal passion. But it was no profound sense of man's ob- 
 ligations to his fellows, — no lofty conception of his account- 
 ableness to his Maker, — no just appreciation of the dignity 
 of his own nature, — which gave him wisdom in council and 
 valor in the field! I know it has been said, that the object 
 of Christianity was not tp disturb the political relations of 
 life : that it eamc: not to build up or to dismember king- 
 d^m.v^as> tlKUiglr Kwin's social condition were not a neccs- 
 
11 
 
 sarv purpose of God's providence : — and I R-iiow ihai Its in- 
 fluence in this respect was for a long period slow arid inci- 
 dental in its operation : but as firmly us I believe the 
 principle of immortality to be the very essence of our be- 
 ing; — rooted in our breasts and inseparable from our exist- 
 ence — and intimately and forever associated with every 
 earthly as well as heavenly interest, — so firmly do I believe 
 that it is about to exercise a direct and immediate and victo- 
 rious influence in accelerating the progress of human soci' 
 ety towards happiness and perfection. So will it have its 
 perfect work ; — so will it exemplify its sovereign dominion ', — 
 so will it enter into the deepest recesses of mysterious 
 thought, — will disencumber it of that worst of all servitudes, 
 bondage to error and superstition and vice, — and unfold all 
 the sublime capacities and exalted attributes of a free intel- 
 lectual and moral nature. And, if it has hitherto been con- 
 sidered as instructing man simply in his higher thities and 
 filling his mind with immortal hopes, — it will at length 
 be discovered, that whatever juster appreciation he mav 
 have entertained of his civil rights owes its ennobling origin 
 to the liberal spirit of the gospel ; — that whatever brighter 
 light may have risen upon his social obligations caught its 
 first bright beam from the star that shone over Galilee! 
 The destiny of man until tluit time had been obscure : his 
 purposes feeble; his intellect bounded; his aspirations un- 
 certain ; his energies confined ; his very existence apparent- 
 ly to terminate with a day ! But the triumphant paeans of 
 the illustrious host which, on that night, filled the amplitude 
 of nature with their songs of rejoicing, proclaimed to man 
 that lie was a freeman ! And the mild radiance of that 
 sweet star, if it has awakened nobler anticipations of the 
 blessedness of heaven, has equally and shall forever shed 
 newer glories on his pathway through earth. The gospel 
 came, and man felt that he was free! No longer the slavo 
 of debasing thougiits, the range of his intellect was unlimit- 
 ed as the universe. In mind and body and soul he was en- 
 titled to be free! His faculties were no longer enchained. 
 He was no more the slave of doubt and under the yoke to 
 dismay. No earthly authority could control his endless 
 hopes. In the prison, he felt that his soul, at least, could 
 overleap the barriers of oppression. At the stake, his heart 
 
12 
 
 whispered that he was soon to rise above all principalities 
 and powers ! Creation's object, he was higher than nobles! 
 The heir of Heaven, he was superior to kings! He knew 
 that his fellows were created with the same endowments — 
 •inheritors of the same privileges, — destined to the same 
 end: i.'iW^d it neutralized the distinctions of rank, and tote 
 off the glitter from pomp! He had been instructed in a 
 theory, which equalized mankind, — and why should he be 
 allured by false splendors, or awed by fictitious and illusory 
 magnificence ! 
 
 This then was the first great revolution : the source and 
 epring of all others, which have very materially affected the ex- 
 ternal as well as inward condition of man. Let it be owned, 
 that, for many ages, its pure and noble spirit was scarcely re- 
 cognised ! Let it be acknowledged that, after the first glorious 
 onset, the day again seemed lost. Let it be granted, that it 
 slumbered for fifteen centuries. If it slept, it was not the sleep 
 of death. Its day of trial was not accomplished. Its hour of 
 triumph had not arrived. The fullness of time was not yet 
 come. It was silently to interweave itself with the history of 
 ages. It was gradually to become the familiar friend and com- 
 panion of life and to instil itself gently and imperceptibly into 
 our profoundest confidence and our deepest affections. The 
 grand principles which it inculcated were to accumulate power 
 and veneration and love, until it was ready to ride forth in glory 
 to conquest and dominion. If its standard ever wavered ; it 
 rose again and again and forever, over the shock of war. 
 There was always a soft light melting itself into the gray dawn, 
 that gave sure promise of the coming morning ;— amidst the 
 darkness of the night, there were flashes here and there, full of 
 foretokens of that approaching storm, which was to purify and 
 enliven the distempered atmosphere. — It came at last in the 
 torrent of the Reformation. The world had long been prepar- 
 ing for its advent. Men were beginning to shake themselves 
 free from the corruptions of barbarism. They were beginning to 
 ■acquire some just ideas of their inalienable privileges : tliey were 
 beginning to understand how they had been wronged in their 
 dearest rights, — how they had been oppressed and trifled with 
 and deceived ; and if Luther had never hurled his defiance at 
 the thrones of kings and at the still more terrible throne of pa- 
 pal supremacy, — men must soon have roused themselves : they 
 
15 
 
 must soon have insisted upon understanding the truth ; and 
 God would have raised up his own instruments to have re- 
 lieved them from their absurd and bitter thraldom. 
 
 I confess, it has seemed to me a fair inference from history, 
 that a profound religious sentiment, under the enlightening in- 
 fluence of the Preformation, has associated our intellecJiit and 
 moral qualities into much stricter alliance, and given a stronger 
 and wider developement to the higher capacities of our nature : 
 and, while it has deprived it of all unfounded pretension, has im- 
 parted a real dignity, which it never before exhibited, except 
 under very peculiar and unusual circumstances. The condition 
 of the people, during the middle ages of the world, had been 
 wretched to the utmost extent of human degradation. They 
 were held down by an iron hand, I might well say, with an iron 
 foot, — for their very necks were trampled in the dust. Violence 
 recognised no law, but its own inordinate rapacity : strength as- 
 sumed to be the sole standard of justice, and credulous fear, 
 shrinking into its own v/eakness, trembled and believed ! But 
 the Reformation, while it taught men to think and act for them- 
 selves, inspired their minds with rational notions of human lib- 
 erty, and exalted their opinions of the vast capacities and the in- 
 estimable value of human knowledge. It was these sentiments, 
 burning in their hearts, like living flame, which were preparing 
 England for the great and singular spectacle, which she was 
 soon about to exiiibit. The whole surface of society was 
 changed. Every element, which could agitate, was at work in 
 its bosom : and one great mind came rapidly up after another, 
 to the investigation of acknowledged dogmas, like wave after 
 wave, beating and thundering upon the shores of the boundless 
 sea. They received nothing in the faith of ot'ier men's opinions. 
 They arrogated to themselves an unheard of independence of 
 soul. They assumed an insatiable spirit of inquiry. They med- 
 dled with topics heretofore forbidden and carefully concealed 
 from their research. They cavilled at principles, whose sacred- 
 ness had indeed depended only on the general ignorance, and 
 assaulted strong-holds, which were strong only because their 
 weakness had never before been demonstrated. They boldly 
 advanced to the discussion of opinions, which had before been 
 handled with the utmost reverence. They began to examine 
 into the tenures rather than the names of their rulers. It was 
 not whether they should pay homnge to the Tudor or the Stu- 
 
14 
 
 art; not whether the asphing blood of York, or the still more 
 aspiring blood of Lancaster, ran in the veins of the heir of king- 
 doms; — but whether the sove;-;ign himself was or ought to be 
 more than tlie permitted chief magistrate of a Free People. 
 They scrui)led not to scoff at hierarchies, and finally questioned 
 the divine right of kings, with arguments sharper than any rhet- 
 oric. It was these thoughts and feelings which nourished the 
 illustrious spirits of England's great days, and laid the founda- 
 tions of a Revolution, reserved for another soil than her own, 
 and destined to be considered, as I think, the second grand 
 crisis in the affairs of man. It was this which made them less 
 careful of success, than determined to pursue the right. It was 
 this which animated the sagacious eloquence and devout ferven- 
 cy of Pym : the intrepid mind and strong heart of Hampden ; 
 the profound skill, the stupendous talents, the victorious enthu- 
 siasm of Cromwell, — great, indeed, if he had never reigned: 
 the republican virtues and magnificent intellect of Milton, — en- 
 grafting the graces of the christian upon the stern simphcity 
 and lofty temper of heroic times : — the noble genius and stead- 
 fast integrity of Algernon Sydney — a part of whose lofty senti- 
 ment, written in voluntary exile at the summit of the Alps, when 
 he thought his country unworthy of his presence, our own Com- 
 monwealth has adopted as the motto of its arms — 
 
 Manus ha)c, invicta tyrannis, 
 
 Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem : — 
 u man, worthy of the best days of old Home, — ready for the un- 
 just martyrdom which he suffered, and deserving another Plu- 
 tarch to record his history. It was the same mighty and uncon- 
 trollable spirit, which inspired the compeers and friends of these 
 great names, the pilgrim founders of a new world, — those apos- 
 tolic men, who came upon a mission unexampled since the era 
 of the apostles : who left their pleasant homes, — pleasant if Free- 
 dom had dwelt there, — all that binds us so closely to kindred 
 and country, — the familiar voice and aspect of our friends, — the 
 valley we have wandered over, — the hill-top we have climbed, 
 the very trees and sun-beams, that will not look so pleasant in 
 another land; — who left old England, — 'merry England,' — 
 fuller than other countries of beautiful and splendid recollec- 
 tions ; — who dared the savage, the winter and the storm ; — who 
 stood, ' young men and maidens — old men and children,' upon 
 rocks where the ice only glittered, — the clear cold heavens above, 
 
15 
 
 (• , 
 
 the rolling waters below, and around them, the desert solitude 
 of untrampled snows, — dauntless and undismayed, witli strong 
 hearts and clear minds, trusting in God, rejoicing that they 
 were Free ! 
 
 It was the good seed sown by these men which at the dis- 
 tance of a century and a half afterwards, produced so boun- 
 tiful a harvest. It was their hatred of oppression — their love 
 of liberty, — their veneration for virtue, — their estimation of 
 knowledge, the ennobling sentiments which they cultivated 
 in themselves and transmitted, in purity, to their descendants, 
 which, at length displayed itself in the Great Instrument which 
 you have heard read to-day. It was these causes, acting upon 
 high minds and resolved purposes, which followed up that 
 unexampled Declaration with all its brilliant and sublime con- 
 sequences : — which drew men of all ages and conditions 
 away from their peaceable pursuits, to maintain their princi- 
 ples with blood, whose voice shall cry forever in the ears of 
 their children! 
 
 The history of the American Revolution is yet to be writ- 
 ten. Its momentous conflicts, — its heroic sacrifices, — its gal- 
 lant achievements, — its transcendanl result, may have alrea- 
 dy been detailed. But its moral history has not yet been at- 
 tempted. Ten thousand revolutions had indeed hurried 
 over the world. Brave and noble spirits had often before led 
 men to victory and freedom. But the success of one splen- 
 did moment the next wrested from their grasp. For who 
 could secure liberty to the grovelling beings, who knew not 
 the value of its priceless possession ? Who could hope to 
 found its elevated temple in the heart of the willing and sat- 
 isfied slave .'' Many a revolution has succeeded our own. 
 And Poland might say, how nobly, but in vain, she struggled 
 in the grasp of the gigantic and ruthless despot : and France 
 might tell, how she worshipped at the shrine of a false Deity, 
 till she was scorched to the very heart, by the flames of his 
 altar ! But here — upon this soil, — in that struggle, the hearts 
 of the people were as the heart of one man : — for it was not 
 for conquest, not for ambition,not for the world's glory ; — 
 but for peace, and happiness, and religion, — for a free mind 
 and an untrammelled conscience, — for all things that are 
 dearer than blood and better than life, — that they fought 
 and triumphed ! Their souls were prepared for the sacred 
 conflict, and they dreamed of no failure. The unparalleled 
 
16 
 
 events of that gieut period are now acting upon the world* 
 Many a gallant struggle has since been commenced, which 
 caught its first impulse upon the plains of New Eno-land. 
 Many a bright flame has since ascended to Freedom, which 
 was first kindled upon the green hills of our native land. It 
 is a flame that is inextinguishable. It is the cause of truth 
 and freedom and light, — and it must prevail. The great 
 principles, which that age defended and established, have 
 ever since been spreading, with silent but irresistible activ- 
 ity, into the extremes! nations 'of the earth. They are now 
 shaking the deepest foundations of European Society. But 
 if this grand reformation, whiH^ seems everywhere collect- 
 ing its energies for the mighty contest is finally to prevail : — 
 if the great battle is to be won — of human improvement 
 against bigoted prejudice, — of equal rights against arbitrary 
 oppression, — of justice against violence, — of light against 
 darkness, — its leaders would do well to remember the sacred 
 energy which animated our fathers — and that they owed 
 their unexampled victory to Virtue, which is Power and Truth, 
 which is Eternal ! That although they drew their swords to 
 resist the tyranny, which was galling their own necks, — they 
 felt that they were contending not for themselves alone, 
 but for all future time. We may conceive some of the feel- 
 ings which inspired Prescott, Putnam, Stark, and the good 
 men with them upon the eve of that first momentous conflict. 
 We may conceive a youthful and gallant spirit, like Warren, 
 on the morning of Bunker-Hill, — full of devoted courage and 
 generous enthusiasm and about to pour out his life-blood for 
 his country, — thus inspiring the hearts of his compatriots : 
 
 We stand here for freedom ! — It is no dream of the imag- 
 ination, but a glorious possession beyond all price ! Life 
 becomes worthless when it-is lost. Let us win it or die ! It 
 is a high gift of God ! Let us not betray it ! By his strength 
 we will conquer ! Our iiomesare upon the issue ; — our moth- 
 ers, — our sisters, — our wives, — all that we love — demand of 
 us victory ! Our fathers rejoiced in the anticipation of this 
 day. Posterity requires us to defend its inheritance. The 
 world is regarding our actions. Heaven smiles benignantly 
 upon true hearts. The enemy is many, — but they are slaves : 
 we are few, — but we are freemen ! Be not dismayed ! It 
 
 IS THE CAUSE OF MaN J THE CAUSE OF LiBERTV LiBERXT 
 
 iiow — Liberty forever !