Glass 
 Book 
 
 
 
JM 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE WASHINGTON BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 
 
 OF 
 
 3 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 THIRTIETH OAY OF APRIL, 1812; 
 
 BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST INAUGURATION 
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 
 
 By WILLIAM SULLIVAN. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 PRINTED BY JOHN ELIOT, .TCN 
 
 1312. 
 
.&* 
 
 AT a meeting of the standing committee of the Washing- 
 ton Benevolent Society, on Thursday evening, April 30, 1812. 
 
 Voted, That the thanks of this Committee, in the name of the 
 Society, be presented to William Sullivan, Esq.. for his able and 
 eloquent address this day delivered before the Society, and to re- 
 quest a copy thereof for publication ; and that John Welles, 
 Samuel Livermore, and Francis J. Oliver, Esqrs. be a Commit- 
 tee to wait on Mr. Sullivan for this purpose. 
 
 A true copy, 
 
 Attest, LEMUEL SHAW, Secretary. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 PLEASE to accept my respectful acknowledgements for 
 the act of the Standing Committee of our Society. The copy 
 which you do me the honor to request, is submitted to your disposal. 
 
 WILLIAM SULLIVAN" 
 
 Hon. John Welles, Esq. 
 
 Samuel Livermore, Esq. 
 Francis J. Oliver, Esq. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 IF the principles upon which WASHINGTON 
 practised as a man, and as a ruler, have been forgotten 
 or supplanted, all men who feel attached to the country 
 which he saved, and to the institutions which he sup- 
 ported, will approve of every honorable effort to bring 
 those principles again into action. 
 
 A disposition to inquire into the character and con- 
 duct of WASHINGTON, and to appreciate his ser- 
 vices and virtues, has been generally awakened. The 
 design of erecting monuments to his memory, too long 
 delayed, has been revived with zeal. This design is 
 worthy of his countrymen. But it will be in vain that 
 we fashion bronze and marble to preserve his figure 
 for posterity, if we fail to prove by our lives and con^ 
 duct, that we have raised more durable monuments in 
 our hearts. 
 
 If we fail to cherish and transmit the feelings which 
 his acts inspire, the works which we raise in honor and 
 gratitude, will change to monuments of reproach to 
 our descendants, and to the memory of their fathers. 
 
 Nations, like the individuals who compose them, 
 move, in the current of time, subject to changes im- 
 perceptible by themselves. They must refer to prin- 
 
4 
 
 ciples to judge of the correctness of their course. As 
 the mariner, who is borne by winds and currents on 
 the surface of the deep, looks to the sun in its altitude 
 to learn what his course has been, and what it should 
 be, so should our nation look to the administration 
 of WASHINGTON ; so should individuals look to 
 the virtues which irradiated his fame, from manhood 
 to the tomb. 
 
 Happy is it, that whatever difference may have aris- 
 en among us as members of political society, there is 
 one subject in which we all agree, that of paying hon- 
 or to the memory of this National Benefactor. 
 We are come, then, to commune together on WASH- 
 INGTON. We are not come to cherish party ani- 
 mosities, or to touch the sensibility of pride of opin- 
 ion ; yet to be faithful to ourselves, to our countrv, 
 and to posterity. We invoke the sainted spirit of 
 WASHINGTON to witness, that his principles and 
 his practice are now avowed in the sight of heaven, and 
 of the world. 
 
 We remember him with the emotions, which follow 
 the poignancy of grief in the most painful bereave- 
 ments. We derive a melancholy consolation from 
 the fact, that he has existed, and was our own. His 
 fame is now confided to the custody of his country- 
 men ; it is for us to blend with this fame, our grati- 
 tude and interest. 
 
 In these days of adversity and dismay, we recur to 
 " the age of WASHINGTON," as we remember, 
 most vividly, the morning splendor of the opening year, 
 " while Winter loads the earth with snows ;" as the "mar- 
 iner is stung the sharpest, with the " thoughts of home," 
 while he struggles with the threatening tempest. If 
 the splendor of the opening year is to revisit our polit- 
 ical hemisphere ; if our struggle with the tempest shall 
 avail ; it must, and it will be, because we have the 
 
manliness to inquire, how and what we have been, 
 what we are, and thence to determine what we will be. 
 
 If inspiration should ever be hoped for, it would be 
 on such an occasion as this, that every citizen might 
 see his way of returning to the policy of WASHING- 
 TON ; that every man might be penetrated with the 
 truth, that he will be happy, in proportion to his approach 
 to the high standard of WASHINGTON'S worth. 
 
 It well becomes us to be thus employed. It was in 
 this vicinity that he renewed his military life. The 
 possession of this metropolis was his first conquest 
 from the enemy. When, long afterwards, he came in 
 the character of chief of our nation, knowing us, it 
 is hoped, far better than some statesmen who have sur- 
 vived him, he said to us, " I rejoice with you my fel- 
 " low citizens, in every circumstance that declares 
 " your prosperity, and I do so most cordially, because 
 " you have well deserved to be happy. Your love of 
 " liberty — your respect for the laws — your habits of 
 " industry — and your practice of the moral and relig- 
 " ious obligations, are the strongest claims to national 
 " and individual happiness ; and they will, I trust, be 
 " lastingly and firmly established." 
 
 If from the abode which his virtues have ajquired to 
 him he can behold the concerns of men ; if the hearts 
 of this assembly are open to him, he sees, that we have 
 continued to deserve his praise and benedictions. 
 
 It is necessary to have reviewed minutely the histo- 
 ry of the times, which preceded and followed the de- 
 claration of independence, truly to appreciate the char- 
 acter of WASHINGTON. The imbecility of the 
 powers of Congress ; the novelty of their situation ; 
 the shock which the provincial governments had re- 
 ceived in separating from the mother country ; the 
 destitution of men, money, and military stores ; the 
 division in opinion among the people ; rendered the 
 duties of WASHINGTON inexpressibly arduous. 
 
These circumstances did not discourage him, but 
 served to call forth the vigor of his mind ; and to sat- 
 isfy the public, that every thing which human ability 
 could effect, might be expected from him. 
 
 The warfare which he conducted, cannot be com- 
 pared with the difficulties which embarrassed, nor with 
 the victories which have given celebrity to the accom- 
 plished and powerful generals of other countries. The 
 occasion was as singular as the talents which were 
 given him to conduct it. More splendid victories 
 have been achieved ; but seven eventful years, in 
 which no error of judgment, no mistake in the selection 
 of agents can be found ; during which every quality 
 that varied and trying scenes could need, was prompt- 
 ly in use, will never again be recorded in the history 
 of men. 
 
 There is one event which future historians, who 
 will know so little of WASHINGTON as to com- 
 pare him with other men, will examine with won- 
 der. When peace and the object of the war had been 
 obtained ; when the officers, and the army, had seen 
 the end of their labors, but no prospect of reward, and 
 were smarting under what they conceived to be the 
 ingratitude of their country ; when the near approach 
 of poverty opened the way for desperation ; when 
 WASHINGTON'S will was the law; when mur- 
 murs were current, and swelling to a torrent on which 
 he could easily have passed to a throne, he not only 
 showed how abhorrent a perversion of his power 
 would have been to his own feelings, but repressed 
 the more than half-formed projects of his army. He 
 conciliated, and encouraged, and induced his unpaid, 
 suffering legions, to seek their cheerless homes. He 
 then resigned his exalted power to those who gave it, 
 and reduced himself to a level, in political rights, with 
 the humblest soldier of his ranks. Let the great men of 
 the world enter the lists with WASHINGTON in 
 
this single event of his life. If they shrink from his 
 presence, let them follow him at humble distance, and 
 mark his future progress in usefulness and glory. Let 
 them contemplate the reward of his virtue in die grate- 
 ful hearts of his countrymen, and him in that abode, 
 where such virtue is had in everlasting remembrance. 
 
 Twenty three years have this day elapsed since it 
 was the enviable fortune of Americans to see WASH- 
 INGTON at the head of their nation, under a system 
 formed by wisdom, reviewed by keen-eyed patriotism, 
 and received by a people, who knew and could value 
 the blessings of rational freedom. 
 
 Should the records of the age of WASHINGTON 
 be preserved, and descend to distant times, his valedic- 
 tory scene with his officers at the close of the war ; the 
 offerings of gratitude which made his path way from 
 Mount Vernon to New York when he assumed the 
 duties of President, will be regarded as such fictions 
 as are mingled with the origin of all nations. It will 
 seem to be fiction, because the history of men will have 
 contained nothing like this. 
 
 He had come to the chair of state, on the wings of 
 grateful acclamation, not to continue a well organized 
 and successful establishment, but. to become the soul 
 of a new creation ; to answer the hopes of a people 
 who hoped every thing ; to satisfy some who doubt- 
 ed every thing ; to bear the suggestions of jealousy ; 
 to encounter the malice of the disappointed ; to unde- 
 ceive the honestly disapproving ; to meet the fond ex- 
 pectations of his brethren in arms, who looked to his 
 beneficent haifli for the reward of their patriotism and 
 valor. He had come where there was no precedent 
 to guide, and where every thing depended, not on 
 power, but on public opinion. 
 
 The union of the independent states of America was 
 founded in Commerce. It will be seen, that the vir- 
 tues and services of WASHINGTON, are no where 
 
8 
 
 more interesting or valuable to us, than in our com- 
 mercial relations. 
 
 His active and prophetic mind had considered the 
 immense resources of this continent, and its singular 
 capacities to produce, or attract, whatever is precious in 
 human society. He had long entertained a hope, that 
 a regular and stable government, would evolve the 
 destinies of this favored land. 
 
 The constitution of the United States was also found- 
 ed in commerce. The power of making "war — 
 " peace — treaties — and levying money — with the cor- 
 respondent executive and judicial authorities," were 
 in practice, by WASHINGTON and ADAMS, ap- 
 plied to regulating commerce, to preparation for its 
 defence, or exertion to obtain redress for the wrongs 
 it had suffered. 
 
 The first fruits of the exercise of its powers was to 
 awaken universal industry. The value of property 
 which had been so long depressed, was immediately 
 raised; public and private credit revived. The re- 
 sources of the northern states for ship-building were 
 soon apparent. The treasures of the ocean were 
 brought to land ; and, while the labors of the fisher- 
 man enriched himself and his country, he acquired the 
 skill which enabled him to convey, in the ships drawn 
 from our own forests, the valuable productions of the 
 southern states. The cultivators of the soil found an 
 increasing demand on the sea-shore, for whatever they 
 could spare of the fruits of their labours ; they, and our 
 other citizens, found there also whatever they desired of 
 the products of all other climes. Theyjpund there the 
 means of knowing all that their fellow man had done, 
 or suffered, or enjoyed, upon the varied earth. 
 
 The changes wrought by commerce are not within 
 the power of description. They may be examined 
 singly ; but, like the virtues of WASHINGTON, they 
 cannot, at once, be viewed by the human mind. 
 
It was by commerce that you were employed, fed 
 and enriched at home, while your enterprizing coun- 
 trymen carried your new name and your flag, and re- 
 spect for your nation, throughout the habitable globe. 
 Your numbers rapidly increased, your towns, your in- 
 terior country, assumed a new appearance; your knowl- 
 edge and science advanced ; your hearts were made 
 liberal ; you enjoyed the means of education for your 
 children ; the path to honor was equally open to all ; 
 your homes were the abode of comfort ; you went 
 forth rejoicing ; you felt that WASHINGTON was 
 your guardian and protector. It is Commerce that 
 has adorned your country with so many temples for the 
 worship of the ALMIGHTY, and blessed you with the 
 labors and services of the able and the eloquent, who 
 speak to you in fervent, heartfelt language, to promote 
 the objects for which government is alone valuable, 
 and for which only, life should be desired. 
 
 Commerce rewarded you for the favors she had re- 
 ceived. She poured into your treasury the abundant 
 means of defraying every ex pence of government. 
 She gave you the means also of ample protection for 
 herself, on the high way of nations. It was the opin- 
 ion of WASHINGTON often repeated, in his private 
 and public transactions, that Commerce could not 
 exist without protection. That the only protection 
 she could have, was a sufficient force on that element 
 where, until the withering power of Napoleon was felt, 
 she waved the flags of all the christian states and em- 
 pires of the world. 
 
 Such also was the opinion of Mr. Madison. His 
 words in debate in Congress on the motion to establish 
 the tonnage duty were — " / consider an acquisition of 
 "maritime strength essential to this country. Should 
 u we ever be so unfortunate as to be engaged in war, 
 " what but this can defend our towns and cities upon the 
 B 
 
10 
 
 " sea coast ? or what but this can enable us to repel an 
 " invading enemy ?" 
 
 The impulse which WASHINGTON had given, 
 continued through the administration of his successor. 
 In his time our commercial interests were attended to 
 in the spirit which produced the national compact. 
 We saw the foundation of an American Navy. The 
 valor and resources of our country were displayed 
 against France on the ocean ; and the name of Ameri- 
 cans and heroism echoed from the coasts of Africa to 
 Europe. 
 
 " Such was the age of WASHINGTON." It has 
 passed. You contemplate what has been ; and, as 
 with those who walk among the tombs, reflections can- 
 not be suppressed. If human society was intended by 
 its DIVINE CREATOR to enable us to fortify our- 
 selves by union against the fraud and force incident to 
 our existence ; to reproduce the delights of life, and 
 assuage its sorrows by sympathy ; to fire invention by 
 comparison of powers, and advance our well being by 
 improvement of talents ; if from this condition come 
 enlightened views, benevolent affections, social and do- 
 mestic endearments ; if the grateful heart, attracted to 
 piety, lifts the chastened mind through revelation to the 
 GREAT AUTHOR of human blessings; if it is felt 
 that rational liberty is the bond of these blessings, and 
 that they only deserve who will defend them; if 
 in these are comprised all that heaven can give to earth, 
 such blessings we had throughout the age of WASH- 
 INGTON. 
 
 Here our theme of gratulation ends. The seeds 
 of change were sown long before WASHINGTON 
 had retired to the shades of Mount Vernon. As the 
 warmth of the sun invigorates the serpent, while it 
 clothes the earth with fertility, there came up men, who 
 could not endure the serene felicity of our nation, 
 nor the splendor of its author's fame. 
 
11 
 
 By the accession of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, 
 the fortunes of our nation experienced a deep and de- 
 plorable change. Whatever President WASHING- 
 TON was accustomed to do, President Jefferson 
 sought to avoid. He approached as though he held the 
 destinies of America in his hand, and had taken "a 
 bond of fate" that unvarying happine s should be 
 at his disposal. It was soon found that, through 
 the whole extent of executive patronage, uncon- 
 ditional submission to the will of Mr. Jefferson 
 was the only security, the only acceptable preten- 
 sion, for office. This feature of his administration, 
 too faithfully copied in Massachusetts, is in- 
 describably odious. It excludes from the service of 
 the Republic nearly half its members, however useful 
 and necessary their talents may be. It makes a govern- 
 ment of men and not of laws ; for it invites apostacy ; and 
 attracts around the throne, the ambitious, the needy, the 
 unprincipled. It is the venomous aliment of party. 
 Such exercise of power claims close kindred with des- 
 potism ; republicanism can have to it no relation, but 
 that of inexpressible abhorrence. 
 
 The Navy, which was the remaining hope, and 
 the pride of America, and which was in part the patri- 
 otic offering of that zeal, which dictated the Union, 
 was hastened into decay, while immense sums were 
 expended in a mode of naval armament, which showed 
 the difference between experiment and experience, 
 and was useful only as facilities to disaster, and sepul- 
 chres for the brave, untimely lost. 
 
 If Mr. Jefferson had submitted to the Senate, as it 
 was his duty to do, the favorable treaty which his own 
 ministers had made with England, and not returned it, 
 contrary to the courtesies which are due and practised 
 among nations not at war, our difficulties with En- 
 gland would have been adjusted, as they were in the 
 
 
12 
 
 time of WASHINGTON, and our country shielded 
 from the afflictive evils which it has since endured. 
 
 When the war in Europe was renewed, we found 
 no proclamation of neutrality ; no measures taken to 
 defend our rights upon the ocean. We became the 
 despicable convenience of the Belligerents ; and sub- 
 ject like all who have no means of defence, to insult 
 and to rapine. Even the worm turns against his op- 
 pressor ; and like the worm we attempted vengeance 
 Was it by fleets ?— Was it by calling into action the re- 
 sources of patriotism, and the strength of our nation ? 
 No. It was by a measure, which history will blush 
 to record ; a measure which stands alone in the policy 
 of nations,and which can be resembled only to that mon- 
 strous fable of mythology, which represents the father 
 oi the gods devouring his own offspring. 
 
 How would the soul of WASHINGTON have 
 been affected if he had been permitted to revisit the 
 earth, while this desolating evil was wasting the 
 strength and the honor, which he had laboured to es 
 tablish ! 
 
 A people, who had united for the express purpose 
 of asserting their right to the high way of nations ; 
 who had waged a just, an awful, and successful war 
 with their parent country; who had twice treated with 
 that country, and assured its own rights; a people 
 who had opposed its strength to that of the "great na- 
 tion^ and refused its insolent demand of tribute and 
 had resorted to the last appeal, and produced at once 
 the object of all legitimate war— honorable peace • 
 a people whose little fleet had spread terror amon? 
 the nations of the coast of Barbary ; it was such a 
 people that saw a wall of adamant raised in an instant 
 between them and the ocean ! The implements of in! 
 dustry fell from their hands ; the wealth of their enter- 
 prize and labor perished before them ; property sunk 
 
13 
 
 by millions ; the very purposes of society perverted ; 
 the rume of an American made odious. 
 
 When sometimes this wall was scaled to prevent 
 famishing, or to indulge a spirit of enterprize, which 
 deserved a happier fate, justice was called on to use 
 her sword, but not her balance, between the govern- 
 ment and its suffering citizens. 
 
 The sentiments of disgust which this measure pro- 
 duced towards the government, shocked, perhaps fatal- 
 ly, that confidence, which WASHINGTON sought 
 to inspire. It more fatally shook the principles of 
 morality, on which government is founded, by de- 
 stroying the means of industry, and abandoning a whole 
 people to idleness, or forcing them to devices and haz- 
 ards to elude rapacious power, by perverting the course 
 of national relationship in peace and war, that course 
 which GOD has ordained, and which his creatures 
 cannot change. 
 
 * This monster at length removed terrified by univer- 
 sal clamor, but " casting a longing, lingering look 
 " behind." Its progeny are too hateful to be number- 
 ed, or examined ; those only must be called up which 
 sadden the present hour. 
 
 While the ships of the United States have been al- 
 lowed to carry to England whatever their owners 
 thought fit, it has seemed to our rulers a proper policy 
 to forbid the importation of many millions of property, 
 owned and paid for, by our own citizens in ports of the 
 British empire when unwarned of, and unsuspecting 
 the interdiction of commerce. The duties on this 
 property would exceed in amount the monstrous loan 
 which the United States are now attempting to obtain. 
 
 England forbids us to go to or from France, or her 
 dependencies, and seizes our property if we do ; yet 
 convoys and protects our commerce wherever it is 
 found in other destinations. By the wanton and cruel 
 exercise of power by some of the commanders of her 
 
14 
 
 ships of war, some of our countrymen have been im 
 pressed, some have been taken by mistake, from simi 
 lanty of appearance and sameness of lansuaee and 
 hundreds of men have been taken, who are not our coun 
 try men, and who, by the law of nations, practise frauds 
 upon us, and the belligerents, in pretending to be such 
 France forbids us to go to or from any English " 
 Portuguese, or Spanish port, and seizes, sink?, or 
 burns all ships which she finds so employed. She 
 forces our seamen into her privateers to escape the 
 cruelties of her prisons. She pours into her treasury 
 millions of our hard earnings, as an act retaliating for 
 the laws of our own government. She expends tnese 
 treasures to increase the pomp of her festivals, or pur- 
 sue her relentless war to extirpate liberty and com- 
 merce. Meanwhile our own government declares 
 and repeats, that her decrees violating our neutral 
 rights are repealed. In this state of the' world our na- 
 tional councils were convened before the expected 
 time, and every eye was directed to them, with anxious 
 expectation. 
 
 The hope, that commerce was to resume its wont- 
 ed channels ; that our differences with European pow- 
 ers had yielded to the conciliation, which the times 
 demand ; that our resources were to be retrieved ; our 
 property brought home, and our nation restored to its 
 once exalted station, was overwhelmed by the sound 
 of war, issued from the palace, and caught and echo- 
 ed through the walls of the Capitol. In five long, 
 anxious months, taxes, and loans, and appointments, an- 
 nounced a war of conquest against a neighbouring prov- 
 ince, inhabited principally by a people, who hardly 
 know or care to what government they belong, and 
 who have no more agency or interest in the causes of 
 war, than the native Indians who dwell beyond their 
 borders. At length the sure precursor of war, it is 
 said, has come in the too well known form of embar- 
 
15 
 
 go ; a war for the honor of the United States. This, at 
 a moment when our treasury is exhausted — our credit 
 worse than doubtful — without a Navy — without defence 
 where alone we are vulnerable — our ships scattered over 
 the ocean — more commercial capital at the mercy of the 
 intended enemy than remains at home — the wrongs and 
 atrocities of France overlooked, or excused — our citi- 
 zens beseeching its government not to take measures 
 by which they only can suffer, and by which they must 
 be ruined ; in this unexampled scene, some believe 
 a war inevitable — some fear it — a great proportion think 
 it impossible— none but French hirelings wish it. 
 The whole is awfully confused, and confounding ; ef- 
 fects without causes ; ends without means ; all is mys- 
 tery, sophistry, delusion, madness ! 
 
 Americans ! rouse from this dreadful lethargy of 
 the soul ; break the ties which hold your reason cap- 
 tive ; the spirit of WASHINGTON beckons you 
 upward above the mists and jealousies of party, and 
 invites you to behold the nations of the earth in the 
 soberness of truth. 
 
 Think not of French, or of English, or of the party 
 names which disgrace and palsy you ; but look on the 
 face of the earth as it is. 
 
 You see in one part of continental Europe, the coun- 
 try of a people borne down by oppression, corrupted 
 by the licentious and the atheistical, suddenly over- 
 turning the foundations of empire, and the distinctions 
 which ages had cemented. You see them renouncing 
 the SUPREME BEING ; declaring death an eternal 
 sleep ; invoking liberty and reason as their deities ; 
 in their names breaking the bonds of civil society ; 
 annihilating virtue and morality, and even the native 
 sense of right and wrong ; shedding torrents of the 
 blood of their citizens in the mockery of trials, and in 
 wanton massacre. These monstrous deeds engender 
 an individual, who seizes on the ruins as his prey, and 
 
16 
 
 mounts over them, to that un-imagined height, which 
 history nature, reason, and all but faith in the nrovi 
 dence of GOD, behold with fearful and unsteaVi ze ' 
 A force, physical and intellectual, which bends all 
 things to its pleasure, having no limit to its will but 
 power; no limit to power, but that which is impos- 
 sible to man. You see it move with unceasing step 
 towards the subjugation of the world. The vo?ce of 
 nature sounds not to its ear ; the pulse of pity moves 
 not in its heart; conscience, remorse, never withhold 
 its arm. It tears from the agonized bosom of parents 
 their tender offspring to slaughter, and be slaughter. 
 ** J '^f b r missl ? n . can appease, no devotion concil- 
 iate. I he fate of its ally is more dreadful than that 
 of its conquered foe. Beneath its iron sceptre there 
 are those who are kind and brave, and generous and 
 wise ; but when such a power reigns, all must sub 
 nut, as the forest bends to the storm that pours over 
 it, or is prostrate never to rise. 
 
 _ In another portion of Europe you behold two na- 
 tions, lately allies of this power, and for whom these 
 nations expended their blood and their treasure now 
 struggling for existence against this terrific foe ' Hu 
 manity turns pale at the recital of the cruelties of these 
 invaders. " A fire devoureth before them, and behind 
 them a fame bumeth ; the land is as the garden of 
 " Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilder - 
 " ness." In another part, a nation, whose capital has 
 once been the trophy of the conqueror, and which 
 yielded a bride to his arms, awaits its doom, which 
 must be submission, or an expiring struggle. In the 
 north of Europe you see the only remaining empire of 
 the continent, probably now engaged in hardly doubt- 
 ful conflict, against the destroyer of nations. Such is 
 continental Europe ; where the sounds of commerce, 
 industry, peace, religion, learning, virtue, dwelt! 
 1 he presence, or the echo, of rapacious war ha* 
 
17 
 
 hushed them all. The dismal silence of armed despot- 
 ism is interrupted only by acts of daily suffering* 
 That communion so dear to the heart is gone forever. 
 No man dares whisper his sorrows even to a brother, lest 
 he should speak to one who is commissioned to betray. 
 
 On the islands, which border on the western side of 
 Europe is found all that remains of European liberty ; 
 all the liberty that can be enjoyed in a government 
 of kingly power, and hereditary distinctions. The em- 
 ployments, and the comforts of social life, which are no 
 longer found upon the continent, still exist in them. 
 Industry, learning, manufactures, commerce, have 
 given this people power by which they are become the 
 masters of the ocean. From these islands, immense 
 armies go forth against the French, in aid of the in- 
 habitants of the peninsula. 
 
 The great body of the people of England are indus- 
 trious, virtuous, and religious. Its commercial men 
 are the foundation of its strength and power. It is in 
 this land, that the religion which is the friend of com- 
 merce, and the basis of the laws of nations, numbers its 
 most learned and eloquent supporters. Here Shake- 
 speare rent the veil which concealed the human heart ; 
 — here nature opened to her favoured Newton, the 
 volume of her laws ; — here Locke discussed the 
 principles of liberty ;— here he disclosed to the human 
 mind the secrets of its own being ;---here Pope and 
 Milton charmed the listening world. 
 
 From these islands our fathers brought to the land 
 which we inhabit, the language which we speak, our 
 principles of justice, liberty, and religious freedom. 
 
 This mighty people France attempts to overwhelm 
 by every human effort. With England the object is 
 not conquest ; but the serious question whether she 
 can continue to resist the destroyer of the liberties and 
 rights of mankind. In her tremendous warfare, she 
 ought so to conduct, as to attract the sympathies and 
 good wishes of all, who are friends to the freedom and 
 c 
 
18 
 
 independence of nations. But proud, haughty, confi- 
 dent m her strength, she tramples, like France, upon 
 neutral rights. She would find, that the sons of 
 WASHINGTON, whenever their own government 
 abandoned its gross partiality, and unjust discrimina- 
 tion between her and France, would cordially unite in 
 seeking that redress for wrongs, which their undeviat- 
 ing attachment to their beloved country, so imperious- 
 ly demands. 
 
 If England falls, there will remain no obstacle but 
 America to _ the universal dominion of France ; and 
 when America is left alone to contend with this power, 
 fraud and force may chain her liberty and independence 
 to the conqueror's car. If such is to be our destiny 
 happy will be the fate of him, who falls in the contest 
 for his country's freedom ;— happy ! that he lives not 
 to witness the agonies of those who called him husband 
 father. ' 
 
 Return then to our own country, and survey it aloof 
 from party feeling. We rejoice that the ocean rolls 
 between us, and the scenes we have contemplated. 
 We feel that it is not for us to plunge into the endless 
 war of Europe ; to us a war without object, and with- 
 out hope. We see that while such conflicts have here- 
 tofore existed, we have preserved our rights by nego- 
 tiation, and by being prepared for war. It is not the 
 interest, and therefore not the wish of England to 
 make war with us. To France our friendship and our 
 enmity are equally unavailing ; her enmity is equally 
 unavailing to us, while England is unsubdued. If 
 she can league us in her plans for the destruction of 
 England, she will have aided her own grand object, 
 she will have diminished our strength, and will have 
 made us an easier prey, when our turn shall come to 
 be numbered among her conquered and wretched 
 vassals. 
 
 Unmindful of the blessings which distinguish us 
 irom all people who exist, or who have ever existed, 
 
19 
 
 we wrap ourselves in dangers, as with a garment, and 
 start not at the sounds, which may be the forging of 
 our chains. We start not at the dreadful fact, that 
 with British hostility, and French friendship, we may, 
 perftaps, cease to be a free people, or cease to exist. 
 
 The collisions and the misunderstandings between 
 this country and England, would not, according to the 
 policy of WASHINGTON, especially in the present 
 calamitous state of the world, have been considered 
 causes of war. Our nation is not satisfied, nor will it 
 be easily satisfied, that the evils of war might not be 
 averted by fair negotiation. How is it that we are ev- 
 er profoundly ignorant of our relations with France, 
 while every thing, and any thing, which can excite an 
 emotion against England, is the subject of an execu- 
 tive message ? Without stopping to inquire as to who 
 was the first agressor, the wrongs, injuries, and in- 
 sults of France, exceed those of England, an hundred- 
 fold. The most insulting injury of all, is the pretend- 
 ed repeal of the decrees, which is the present pretext 
 for the outcry of war. 
 
 If the war must come, France must be our ally. 
 History will record but once' throughout the lapse of 
 all her ages, that the only remaining republic, far remov- 
 ed from scenes of war, joined with that despot, who 
 had struck from being, nations, empires, republics, and 
 the rights of man, and helped him to crush the last 
 hope of European commerce and liberty. 
 
 Was government made for the men who are in of- 
 fice, or for the people by whose suffrage they have 
 power ? If for the people, can it be that such war is 
 intended ? Have those who would make it, ever re- 
 flected whether the people for whom, and in whose 
 right they act, will endure such war ? There is a 
 prudence of which elected patriots, as well as patriot- 
 ism, will take counsel. Let us rather suppose, that 
 the cry of war is raised, to reconcile us to the loss of 
 commerce. To fasten upon us the continental system 
 of Napoleon. When the use of our ocean is taken 
 
20 
 
 from us, when we are pressed down to poverty and 
 insignificance, we may be tauntingly consoled by the 
 assurance, that we have escaped a war ! 
 
 It is neither manly or profitable to condemn the 
 course of national, or individual conduct, without 
 showing that abetter conduct might have been pursued. 
 We look to the counsels of WASHINGTON. From 
 these we know, that if he could be recalled to power 
 he would instantly brush from the nation these dis- 
 graceful commercial restrictions. He would assemble 
 around him the enlightened and the patriotic, however 
 distinguished by political opinion. He would recall 
 the fleeting shade of commerce. He would repair 
 the nation's means of defence on the shore, and on the 
 deep. He would dispel the jealousies and delusions 
 which have been so industriously scattered among his 
 countrymen. When he had repaired the waste of years 
 in the national resources, morality, and spirit, he would 
 seek, with the olive branch in one hand, and the sword 
 in the other, that his country should be restored, by 
 treaty, to its former elevation. If these efforts failed, 
 you would see that the war he waged would not be 
 without object ; would not be without success ; would 
 not be without honor and glory to his beloved country. 
 
 You cannot recall WASHINGTON ; but his coun- 
 sels remain with you. You can practise his precepts ; 
 you can use your constant and honorable exertions, 
 that his counsels shall again take possession of the 
 hearts of your countrymen ; that your affairs shall 
 be administered by such men as he called his friends ; 
 not such as shunned his penetrating eye, and never 
 used his name with commendation, while he was a 
 ministering angel to this people. 
 
 STRONG was among the friends, who were dear 
 to WASHINGTON. Welcome him again to your 
 confidence. Silencing his fondest inclinations, like 
 WASHINGTON, he comes forth from retirement, 
 whenever his country demands his servic es. 
 
21 
 
 Gentlemen of this Society, 
 
 The regret which you entertain 
 for the absence of one of your officers,* is feelingly 
 reciprocated by him. He is soothed with the 
 consciousness of being engaged in the performance 
 of his duty. You are consoled by the fact, that his 
 duty is performed with that constancy, firmness, and 
 ability, which makes his fellowship an honor among 
 those who claim political kindred with WASHING- 
 TON. — You have solemnly pledged yourselves to 
 each other, and to the world, that you will follow the po- 
 litical tenets oi the. FATHER OF YOUR COUNTRY. He 
 has conjured you to maintain inviolate the constitu- 
 tion and the union of these states; upon these he 
 founds your hopes of happiness. But you are ever to re- 
 member, that the principle upon which the union of the 
 states is founded, is commerce ; without which you 
 " cannot, and do not wish to exist. 1 ' Inseparably con- 
 nected with commerce, is an efficient naval protection. 
 This is guaranteed to you by the terms, and the spirit 
 of your national contract. WASHINGTON warns 
 you of the dangers of usurpation. He inculcates the 
 necessity of guarding and of exercising your political 
 rights according to the dictates of conscience. 
 
 Knowledge and virtue are the pillars of the repub- 
 lic. Your purpose is to disseminate truth among your- 
 selves ; and by communing together, to obtain that infor- 
 mation, that practice of moral and political duty, which 
 will save your republic for your grateful descendants. 
 
 Fear not that your fellow citizens are chargeable 
 with a wish to dismember the union, and form alliance 
 with foreign powers. If you had no pledge but that 
 of interest, you would have enough to repel the sel- 
 fish and wicked calumnies, with which the air is freight- 
 ed ! When you add to this the feelings of honor, of 
 patriotism, of attachment to their families ; their con- 
 stant devotion to the common welfare, assured by years 
 of public labors, you will not the sooner listen to these 
 
 * The Hon. Josiah Q,uincy, one of the Vice Presidents. 
 
22 
 
 calumnies, because the dignity of 'high office has been 
 ■ abused to give them force. 
 
 But yem may and you ought, to fear those men who 
 exult in the deeds of revolutionary France, and enirtllv 
 in the victories of despotic France, whether gained in 
 equal and just war, or won from the g.a lam "Portuguese 
 and Spaniard, who resist on their own sou for liberty" 
 for life, for their wives, their children, for the sepul- 
 chres of their fathers. 
 
 You may, and you ought, to fear that temper, which 
 labors, without ceasing, to cast the odium of foreign in- 
 fluence on your worthiest fellow citizens, who strive 
 to save you from war, from the destruction of com- 
 7?ierct% and from the rapine of those, who seem to think 
 that government and the people were made for them. 
 
 You are pledged to remember and to imitate the 
 virtues of WASHINGTON. 
 
 His industry v/as such that time never came and 
 found him unprepared. He was benevolent ; his life 
 was a continued act of beneficence. He was prudent ; 
 for he had never to undo or recall his acts or words'. 
 He was brave ; for he never engaged in conflict which 
 his reason and conscience did not approve. He was 
 just ; for he held it the highest honor of his life to be 
 deemed an honest man. He was a christian. Through- 
 out his life he humbly reposed himself on the provi- 
 dence of his Creator, and was supported, in all his 
 efforts, by his hopes in his Redeemer. Among his 
 Inst words was the exulting expression, "/ am not 
 afraid to die.^ 
 
 Young Members of this Society: You will indulge 
 the suggestions of affectionate wishes for your useful- 
 ness, and welfare. With honest hearts, and generous 
 feelings, rising to the scenes of active life, it is for you 
 to study, and to cherish the character of WASHING- 
 TON. You are not yet the victims of prejudice, nor 
 bound in the shackles of party. It is the country in 
 which you have drawn your first breath, which claims 
 your zealous attachment to its republican institutions ; 
 
 1 
 
and your veneration for those things, which age and 
 wisdom have approved. Live, as you believe 
 WASHINGTON would approve. In a few 
 rapid years you will become heads of families. Be, 
 what you would wish your sons to be. The burthen 
 of supporting your country is devolving on you. You 
 will not be faithless to yourselves, nor disappoint the 
 fond hopes which centre in you. 
 
 Mothers, who honour us with your presence ;.... 
 you have a precious interest in this day's solemnities. 
 WASHINGTON was emphatically your friend. He 
 owed to his mother his education ; perhaps to her the 
 principles of action, which made him useful and illus- 
 trious. To him you are indebted, that the aspect of 
 your ho?nes has been so welcome, and so cheering. 
 It was h e who gave your husbands, and your sons, the 
 glorious example of being valuable to their nation,.... 
 and taught them to be so worthily dear to you. 
 
 You have a near and important relation to this So- 
 ciety. It is for you to stamp the unfolding minds of 
 your offspring, with impressions of virtue, of honor, 
 of piety. It is for you to found the fabric of their 
 worth, and enjoy, in their felicity, an invaluable reward 
 for all your solicitudes. 
 
 Friends of WASHINGTON !— We cannot suffi- 
 ciently value that principle of our national and state 
 constitutions, by which the people periodically deter- 
 mine by whom they will be ruled. Power, in most 
 other countries, is gained, lost, or transferred by vio- 
 lence, tumult and crime. We are blessed with an ea- 
 sy and certain remedy for the abuse of power, in the 
 exercise of the right of suffrage. 
 
 It cannot be imagined, that our fellow citizens have 
 other views in the selection of the objects of their con- 
 fidence, than the preservation of our constitutions, and 
 of the precious rights of civil liberty. 
 
 But this selection, to effect their object, must be gov- 
 erned by principle, and must be made with intelligence. 
 

 
 24 
 
 The principle to which all must refer, is WASH- 
 INGTON'S life and practice ;— intelligence may be 
 derived in associations formed for the purpose of faith- 
 ful and honest inquiry ; and of fair comparison "between 
 WASHINGTON and other statesmen. 
 
 All that conforms to WASHINGTON'S standard 
 of truth must be right, and all that this standard rejects, 
 must be wrong. 
 
 The veneration which is this day manifested for his 
 services, and virtues, forbids us to despair of our be- 
 loved country.-— Doubt not that your example will be 
 followed. The spirit of sober inquiry is gone forth. 
 There is a redeeming power in the good 
 
 SENSE OF THE PEOPLE, by which Our REPUBLIC 
 
 will be preserved and enjoved, according to the hopes 
 and the prophesy of WASHINGTON. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 IMPRESSED SEAMEN. 
 
 THE impressment of our seamen, is a subject, which does, and ought to 
 excite, the highest indignation. Nothing can touch the sensibility of an A- 
 merican more keenly, than that his fellow citizen should be held in captivity, 
 on board a war-ship of a foreign power, when his own nation is not at war. 
 
 But the extent of this evil has been greatly exaggerated, for mere party pur- 
 poses, by men who in fact care nothing for the seamen, or ships, of the north- 
 ern states. 
 
 There are three classes of men, who are called " impressed seamen." First, 
 those who have obtained fraudulent protections, and who are neither native, or 
 naturalized citizens. Secondly-naturalized citizens. Thirdly-native Americans. 
 
 The people of the UnitedStates will not go to war for the % first class. They 
 will not go to war for the second class. They did not ask, nor wish, these 
 foreigners to come here, and be naturalized. Notwithstanding their natural- 
 ization, the respective governments, within whose allegiance these men were 
 born, have a legal right to their services, in time of war ; — as the United States, 
 would have to Hie services of their native citizens, notwithstanding an oath of 
 allegiance to a foreign power. 
 
 The number of impressed, native Americans is few. How many men in 
 this State, or in the United States, can name an American citizen, who is 
 known, or supposed, to be held in captivity on board a British ship of war ? — 
 Of these few, how many have, with them, that evidence of American citizen- 
 ship, which has always been respected by every Government in Europe, ex- 
 cept that of France ? 
 
 THE POWER OF FRANCE. 
 
 The magnitude of French power, and its terrific character, seem to be little 
 understood, or if understood, too little regarded in America. 
 
 At the commencement of the French revolution, the population subject to 
 French power, was about twenty-eight millions. In addition to this number, 
 France has now, subjected to her control, seventy-five millions of people, who 
 composed within the last twenty years, nearly two hundred empires, states, re- 
 publics, and sovereignties ! 
 
 With such a power, what man who is not French in his heart, or in his for- 
 tunes, can endure alliauce ! 
 
 <8 
 
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