Glass E 2,^f. 
 
 Book . B 71_ 
 
 ^ 
 
AN 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED JULY 4, 1832, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 CITY COUNCIL 
 
 INHABITANTS OF BOSTON 
 
 
 BY JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 JOHN H. EASTBURN....CITY PRINTER. 
 
 MDCCCXXXII. 
 
 Vuu, VaJ. \f\AJ, 
 

 
 CITY OF BOSTON 
 
 In Common Council, July 4, 1832. 
 
 Ordered, That tlie Mayor and Aldermen be requested to present 
 tlie tlianks of the City Council to Josiah Quincy, Jun. Esq. for 
 the eloquent and spirited oration delivered by him, at their request, 
 upon the Anniversary of American Independence, and to request 
 a copy for the press. 
 
 Sent up for Concurrence. 
 
 JOHN P. BIGELOW, President. 
 
 In the Board of Aldermen, July 5, 1832. 
 Read and Concurred. 
 
 CHARLES WELLS, Mayor. 
 A true Copy — Attest, 
 
 S. F. M'CLEARY, City Clerk. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Fifty-six years have now elapsed, fellow citizens, 
 since it was " solemnlj published and declared, that 
 these United Colonies were, and of right ought to he 
 free and independent States." From that period, to 
 the present, the recurrence of this day has called for 
 a yearly tribute to the valor, disinterestedness and 
 patriotism of our Fathers ; and has, on former oc 
 casions, summoned the eloquent of our land to con- 
 sider the feelings, manners and principles, which led 
 to the Revolution ; and to deduce from them sen- 
 timents calculated to awaken patriotism and ex- 
 cite to duty. The labourers have, indeed, been nu- 
 merous. They have reaped and gleaned, but the 
 soil is not exhausted; and he, who, on this day, seeks 
 in the history of the past, for the spirit which should 
 actuate the present, will find the field again white 
 to the harvest. 
 
 They who first addressed their countrymen on this 
 occasion, spoke to an incensed and a jealous people, 
 whose wounds were yet open, and whose fears were 
 yet alive ; who saw in each movement of Great 
 
4 
 
 Britain, an intent to renew her dominion. The war 
 had ceased, the tempest had blown over, but the 
 swell of the political ocean showed the strength of 
 the blast that had swept its bosom. 
 
 Our position is changed. Our strength forbids 
 fears from any thing external. " The strong man 
 armed, keepeth his house, and his goods are at 
 peace." The feelings connected with our Revolu- 
 tion need no longer be resorted to, as topics of tem- 
 porary or national excitement. It is not necessary 
 for the honor of our Fathers, that we keep forever 
 alive the hostility that glowed in their bosoms. It 
 is a nobler praise to them, and a higher duty for us, 
 to study their history, and to learn how to suffer and 
 how to act from their example. 
 
 The ostensible cause of the American Revolution 
 was the tyranny of the British Administration, and 
 the love of liberty in the American people. But 
 the philosophic observer will find its germs implanted 
 in the nature of man, and in the relations that then 
 existed between Great Britain and her colonies. 
 
 The permanency of a great empire, its peace, its 
 prosperity, all require harmony among its members.^ 
 Such harmony can only subsist where there exists a 
 community of interest, a common sense of the ad- 
 vantages of union, and a reciprocity of feeling and 
 affection. Time, distance, and the unexampled in- 
 crease of wealth and numbers among the colonists 
 had destroyed, or greatly weakened these, long be- 
 fore the Revolution. That event was the conclu- 
 sion, — the last act of a drama which had been for 
 nearly two centuries in progress. 
 
There was a community of interest ; but it was 
 not strong, and it was one which every succeeding 
 year had a necessary tendency to diminish. The 
 country was settled by men who fled from oppression 
 in England. They felt, indeed, like children, but like 
 children disinherited and disowned. All the associ- 
 ations with their country, all the advantages they de- 
 rived from her protection, were in their view" lighter 
 than the dust of the balance, when weighed against 
 their liberties or their riirhts. Great Britain consi- 
 dered that she derived some strength from the num- 
 bers of the colonists, and some wealth from the mo- 
 nopoly of their trade. But there was no deep or vi- 
 tal source of attachment. What existed arose from 
 the hope of the future, rather than from the actual 
 enjoyment of the present. The crown offices were 
 not lucrative, and certainly were no sinecures, and 
 the sterile shores of our country presented no El 
 Dorado, where her sons could amass wealth in a mo- 
 ment. 
 
 This want of a community of interest naturally 
 destroyed a common sense of the advantages of 
 union. Great Britain looked upon the colonies as on 
 children who received far more from her patronage 
 than they repaid by their revenue. And the colo- 
 nists learned, that an emancipation from the tutelage 
 of the parent state would give them a standing 
 among nations, and open a wider field for their in- 
 dustry, and a nobler theatre for their ambition. They 
 were unwilling hastily to snap asunder the connex- 
 ion, but many thought that their ultimate welfare 
 might be promoted by the measure. 
 
6 
 
 The want of a community of interest, and a com- 
 mon sense of the advantages of union, were not in 
 their case supplied by that reciprocity of feeling and 
 association whose invisible bonds are stronger than 
 those of adamant. The colonists were Englishmen? 
 or the descendants of Englishmen, but they were 
 Englishmen who left their country to escape from mo- 
 narchical and ecclesiastical tyranny. The blood of 
 the Puritans, of ihe friends of Hampden and 
 Cromwell, swelled in their veins. They wanted 
 those associations with the regal glories of England, 
 which would have hallowed and rendered tolerable 
 their sufferings under a monarch. The chivalrv of 
 the lion-hearted Richard, the victories of the Fifth 
 Henry awoke no romantic interest in their bosoms. 
 They looked through the halo that time had thrown 
 round them, and saw brute courage and tyrannical 
 power, where the loyal Briton saw only the image 
 of his country's greatness. 
 
 If there was no cement to their union in the asso- 
 ciations of early history, there was still less in the 
 more recent successes of England. They took no 
 part in the triumphs of Marlborough. They receiv- 
 ed no share in the glories of Wolfe. And though 
 they poured out their blood freely on the frontiers, 
 at Ticonderoga, and Louisburg, yet it was English 
 forces and English commanders, who received the 
 praise. The lal)our was ours, the laurel was given 
 to another. Our ancestors felt that, like brave men, 
 they had played their part for their firesides and their 
 homes; but their all v»as too little to be observed 
 among the greater glories of their parent state, and 
 they became attached to the soil they defended, ra- 
 
tlier than to the government under which they 
 served. 
 
 The modes of communication between the parent 
 state and the colonies, had a natural tendency to di- 
 minish the feeling of any community of interest, 
 common sense of the advantages of union, or reci- 
 procity of feeling, and to produce false views of mo- 
 tives, mistaken opinions of power, and contradictory 
 notions of interest. 
 
 The colonists saw in their harbours the fleets of 
 the then mistress of the ocean ; they were crossed in 
 their paths by the splendid trappings of her army. 
 But the commanders of those fleets, and the ofiicers 
 of that army looked upon, and treated them, rather 
 as dependants than as equals. They felt as though 
 they represented the country they served, and their 
 aristocratic manners had no tendency to create a 
 feeling of affection on our part. 
 
 The effects of this medium of communication 
 were not confined to this side of tlie Atlantic. It 
 was the representations of her military and naval of- 
 ficers that taught Great Britain to look u})on the co- 
 lonists as on an unthankful, rebellious and disorderly 
 race, who had the inclination, but not the power or 
 courage for resistance. The master spirits of the 
 aoe in vain combated their assertions. In vain did 
 Burke and Chatham prove from history, from expe- 
 rience, from the nature of man, that the struggles of 
 a great people for liberty were irresistible. Their 
 eloquence had no effect. An officer offered to march 
 through America with three regiments, and they w ere 
 answered. 
 
8 
 
 It is in circumstances such as these, that the phi- 
 losophic historian finds the causes of the American 
 Revokition. It is in the want of those honds of in- 
 terest and affection which have held, and which now 
 hold nations together, under far more trying cir- 
 cumstances. The immediate cause was compara- 
 tively trifling. It produced effects which neither 
 party anticipated, by acting upon feelings, of the 
 power of which, both were unconscious. The Stamp 
 Act, the Duty on Tea, and the oppressive measures 
 that followed, only accelerated what would certainly 
 have come without them. For a century and a half 
 the explosive materials had been accumulating, and 
 needed but a spark to rend asunder an empire. 
 
 Such is the history of the past; what lessons does 
 it suggest for the future ? The people of the United 
 States are again the inhabitants of a great empire. 
 It depends on the men who shall successively occupy 
 this territory to decide whether its prosperity and 
 greatness shall be transmitted to their descendants, 
 and uninterrupted happiness shall realize the hopes of 
 their patriotic sires. 
 
 The responsibilities of this people are great, per- 
 manent, and universal ; not to themselves, not to 
 their children, not to their country merely, but to 
 human nature and the human race. Should the 
 United States follow the fate of all former republics, — 
 from dissension to anarchy, from anarchy to military 
 sway, and from military sway to despotism, — what 
 hope will there be of a confederated union, among 
 free and independent states hereafter. How, and 
 
9 
 
 where, can such a union be effected under more fa- 
 vorable auspices ? 
 
 'But what cause for alarm?' cry the indifferent and 
 the indolent. ' Our prosperity is unrivalled. The 
 sounds of danger have always been heard, but they 
 have hitherto produced no ruin.' But a feeling of 
 security is not always a proof of safety. The hus- 
 bandman on the side of ^tna sees the smoke over 
 his head, hears the rumbling beneath his feet, but he 
 has witnessed no eruption, he trusts that the conflict- 
 ing elements will neutralize one another, and that 
 the volcano, for his day at least, will remain tranquil. 
 But Nature is true to herself The materials mul- 
 tiply ; and in the midst of his fancied security, the 
 labours and hopes of his life are laid prostrate in an 
 instant. 
 
 Oceans are not required to divide the interests of 
 nations, nor to create discords among a people. The 
 dangers of a great confederacy are from within, and 
 the more therefore to be dreaded. External pres- 
 sure would give solidity to the arch of union. It 
 would bring its parts more closely into connexion. 
 But when there is nothing external to unite it, the 
 cohesion of its cement must constitute its strength. 
 On w hat then does the firmness of this political ce- 
 ment depend ? How is it to be strengthened, per- 
 petuated, and made imperishable? 
 
 From the records of the past, we have seen that 
 the want of a sense of common interest, the absence 
 of a reciprocity of feeling, the jealousies that na- 
 turally spring from ignorance, and want of intercourse 
 among the parts of a great empire, were the remote 
 2 
 
10 
 
 but efficient causes of one revolution. What in for- 
 mer days dissolved a monarchy may in our own, dis- 
 member a republic. 
 
 And what are the signs of the times ? Do we not 
 hear, even on the floor ol Congress, of incompat- 
 ibilities of interests, — of sectional rivalries, — of cal- 
 culations of the value of the Union, — of conventions, 
 and nullification ? And do these portend nothing to 
 be dreaded? Read the legacy left us by the father 
 of our country. ' 
 
 " The unity of government," says he, " is a main 
 pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the 
 support of your tranquillity at home, of your peace 
 abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that 
 very liberty which you so highly prize. It is of in- 
 finite moment that you should properly estimate the 
 immense value of } our national union to your collec- 
 tive and individual happiness. That you should che- 
 rish a cordial, habitual and immoveable attachment 
 to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of 
 it as the palladium of your political safety and pro- 
 sperity, watching for its preservation with jealous 
 anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest even 
 a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and 
 indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every 
 attempt to alienate any portion of our country from 
 the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now 
 link together the various parts." 
 
 Will it be said that the blessings of union are ex- 
 aggerated by the greatest of patriots, and of men ; 
 that it possesses no such essential advantages, and 
 separation no such terrific dangers ? Let reason be 
 
11 
 
 consulted. Let experience answer. Let the voice 
 of history be heard. 
 
 Suppose the times, some sanguine spirits so com- 
 placently anticipate, come. Suppose the union gone, 
 and every State independent. What a conflict of 
 interest, — what an excitement of passion, — what 
 an accumulation of animosity among rival, powerful 
 and discordant nations! 
 
 Having almost identically the same interests, they 
 must pursue them in the same track. Our rivalries 
 would not be confined to our native shores. We 
 should find each other in every climate and on every 
 sea. Our sons might take the wings of the morning 
 and fly into the uttermost parts of the earth, but 
 wherever they went, they would find the bitterness 
 of fraternal competition, and jealousy, and fear, and 
 hostile feeling. This would follow them among the 
 ice-mountains of the pdle, and under the burning 
 heats of the equator. 
 
 Nor would this feeling be pprmitted to grow cold 
 or inactive. Foreign nations would foment and 
 quicken it. They would increase their influence by 
 increasing our dissensions. The hostile powers of 
 the old world would take sides with the hostile pow- 
 ers of the new, and America would again become 
 the battle-ground of Europe. What an alteration 
 would this make in the scenery of our fair country, 
 and in the habits, the manners, and the happiness of 
 our citizens ! Every height would be crowned with a 
 fortress, — every frontier bristle with bayonets ! Our 
 young men would be called from their avocations to 
 defend their firesides. Our old men would be drag- 
 
12 
 
 ged from their retirements to shed their blood in bat- 
 tle for their country. The habits of life, of thought, 
 of action, would be changed. Ingenuity would be 
 spent in devising new modes of destruction. Mar- 
 tial valor, and military achievement would again be 
 synonimous with virtue, and the laurels of the con- 
 queror would overshadow and blight the olive-plant 
 of peace. The light of civilization, like the sun- 
 beam on the dial-plate of Hezekiah, would go back- 
 ward, and that revolution, which we this day cele- 
 brate as the commencement of a new era in the his- 
 tory of the liberties of our country and our race, the 
 future patriot may be compelled to consider a greater 
 curse on the prospects of our species, than the tyran- 
 ny of all the monarchs who have sat upon the thrones, 
 of Christendom. 
 
 Interest would thus produce collision ; but sepa- 
 ration would bring into action other and more pow- 
 erful elements of evil. It would almost change our 
 natures. We now look with delight on our increasing 
 population. Every stroke of the woodman's axe 
 beyond the Mississippi seems to enlarge our domin- 
 ion and augment our power. At the return of every 
 census, the arm of our country seems strengthened 
 by a thousand sinews that have started into existence 
 since the last. But divide, and all this is changed. 
 Our interest and our passions will make us look upon 
 the increase of states, which will then be our rivals, 
 perhaps our enemies, with an eye of fear. The 
 preservation of the balance of power, a principle that 
 has desolated Europe, must then cross the Atlantic, 
 and bring more destruction in its train than pestilence 
 
13 
 
 or famine. The object of each state would be to ad- 
 vance the physical power of its own section and to 
 arrest that of all others, and instead of rejoicing at 
 the progress of civilization and the useful arts, of hail- 
 ing, as man, the soil that is waving with plenty, of 
 exulting, as christians, at the numbers, vi'ho are pass- 
 ing with us through this good land to a better and a 
 happier, we shall learn to delight in every thing 
 that checks the progress of humanity, to prefer the 
 tangled forest to the smiling cornfield,— the howl 
 of the wolf and the yell of the savage, to the sound 
 of useful labor, the hum of the schoolhouse and the 
 voice of praise. 
 
 But interest and fear and foreign intervention will 
 not be the only incitements to discord. Party spir- 
 it will give to each a fearful activity. We now com- 
 plain of the influence of party, of the hostility it 
 engenders between individuals, of the calumnies to 
 which it exposes the good. But what we have yet 
 witnessed is but the breath of the South over a bed 
 of violets, in comparison with the tempest that will 
 then ensue. The parties of small states are always 
 the most bitter and least scrupulous. State politics 
 are now in a great degree subservient to the national. 
 Revenue and wealth are in the hands of the general 
 government, and " where the carcass, is there will 
 the eagles be gathered together." The extent of 
 our country prevents the leaders of different sections 
 from coming into immediate contact. This produces 
 its effect on the statesman. It has still greater on 
 the people. Interests and topics that agitate part of 
 the community have no effect on the rest. The storm 
 
14 
 
 may desolate one section while others are enjoying 
 serenity and sunshine. But divide, and the poison 
 that is diffused in the stream will be concentrated in 
 the goblet — the current is increased by the contrac- 
 tion of its channel. 
 
 But, of all the means of exasperating national hos- 
 tilities, none will ccfmpare with the possession of a 
 common language. Adjoining and hostile powers hi 
 Europe clothe their thouglits in different modes of 
 speech, and the sarcasm of one nation falls pow- 
 erless on the ear of another. But on this conti- 
 nent the universality of our language gives the press 
 an unequalled power for evil or for good. Jn any 
 situation of our country, the newspaper will find its 
 way to every log-house in the land, and the asser- 
 tion made in one state concerning another will pro- 
 duce rancour and lead to retaliation. The effusion 
 of an anonymous writer may be considered as repre- 
 senting the deliberate sentiments of the section to 
 which he belongs, and the insect that is too small 
 for notice may sting the lion into fury. 
 
 Shall we be told by any that this picture is exag- 
 gerated ? That it is drawn from fancj^, and has no 
 foundation in fact ? Let such turn to the page of the 
 Grecian historian and view the violence, distrust and 
 enmity which arose among divided republics, and 
 among republics, that had not half of our causes for 
 dissension, let him reflect on the disorders which pro- 
 ceeded from faction within, and intrigue without ; 
 on the brutality of the party which was dominant, 
 and the suffering of that which was depressed. And 
 then let him decide whether those who look with 
 
15 
 
 complacency and apparently with desire, on disunion 
 would not find that their present sufferings, supposing 
 them to be as great as their feelings represent them, 
 are nothing when weighed against a tithe of the mis- 
 eries and evils that would be produced by a dissolu- 
 tion of the Union. 
 
 If then it be true that seeds of discord are scatter- 
 ed among states as well as among individuals, if 
 circumstances will accelerate or retard their growth, 
 and if, like plants springing from the fissures of the 
 decaying wall, their fibres may imperceptibly expand 
 until they burst asunder the edifice, — what is the 
 duty of the American patriot of the present day ? 
 It is to learn their nature, in order to check their ex- 
 pansion and counteract their influence. 
 
 If, among the causes of disunion, are the want of a 
 due sense of our present advantages, let every lover 
 of his country kindle in his own bosom, and excite 
 in the bosoms of others, a lively sentiment of the par- 
 ticulars in which these advantages consist. If an un- 
 friendly feeling be cultivated in one part of the Union 
 towards any other, let the inhabitants of that other 
 be watchful not to give countenance to such jeal- 
 ousies nor color to such suspicions, — let every man 
 eradicate them from his own breast, and by example 
 and precept endeavor to remove them from the breasts 
 of others. 
 
 Different states must, from the nature of things, be 
 placed in different circumstances of prosj)erity. These 
 differences will be often attributed, and sometimes 
 directly traced to the unequal operation of equal 
 rules. In such cases, let it always be remembered 
 
16 
 
 that human ingenuity cannot frame laws that will act 
 in tlie same manner under different circumstances, 
 and let it be the endeavour of each, whether North or 
 South, East or West, to understand the rights and 
 relations of others, and always, as far as possible, 
 yield something of its own claims to their real, if not 
 to their imagined interests. Let the continu- 
 ance of the Union bo considered as paramount to eve- 
 ry thing else, and lei all so urge their respective pre- 
 tensions and so limit their reciprocal claims as to nar- 
 row the ground of controversy and avoid the principle 
 of collision. Let the christian rule of doing to oth- 
 ers as we ^vould that they should in change of cir- 
 cumstances do to us, predominate, and sectional preju- 
 dice, which like the morning mist distorts and mag- 
 nifies the object it shrouds, shall vanish before the sun 
 of truth and the warmth of fraternal affection. A spir- 
 it of concession and mutual accommodation is the 
 only one that can continue the Union or our happi- 
 ness under it. Any thing short of this will be insuf- 
 ficient. External compliments and formal civilities 
 are but putting the hands right on the dial-plate and 
 neglecting the movement of the wheels. It is gild- 
 ing the dome, to strengthen the foundation. 
 
 In this connexion, there are considerations that 
 come to the bosom and press upon our hearts the du- 
 ties of this section of the country. 
 
 It is our happy lot to live in a land where there is 
 no slavery. Not our virtue, but our fortune and our 
 climate have given us this distinction. 
 
 In another, and in this respect less happy portion 
 of our country, this curse has been entailed upon its 
 people, their misfortune and not their fault. 
 
17 
 
 With us the question of emancipation may be dis- 
 cussed without exciting a fear or awakening an anx- 
 iety. With them — " the alarm bell never tolls for fire 
 but the mother clasps her infant closer to her bosom." 
 Discussion of the question is of the deepest and most 
 awful import, not to be thought of without self dis- 
 trust or spoken of without a profound sense of re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 If as philanthrophists, we feel for the condition of 
 the slave, both as philanthropists and citizens we 
 ought to reflect on that of the master. The former 
 is bound to us by the tie of a common nature, — 
 the latter is bound to us by that tie and by the addi- 
 tional one of social intercourse and constitutional ob- 
 ligation. Amidst our anxieties and endeavours to 
 relieve the servitude of the one, let us never be un- 
 mindful of what we owe to the other. Let us re- 
 member that all schemes of emancipation must be 
 prospective — all extensive reforms gradual. That to 
 give political privileges to a man whose habits, 
 knowledge and education have not fitted him to en- 
 joy them, is but to open the cell of the maniac and 
 arm him for the destruction of others and of himself. 
 
 Is it wonderful that the manner in which this ques- 
 tion has sometimes been treated here, should have 
 produced excitement and caused jealousies entirely 
 incompatible with that reciprocal affection and mu- 
 tual confidence, which is the bond of states as well 
 as of individuals ? Cordiality will not return in a 
 moment, but remove the disturbing force, and the mag- 
 net will in time point to its cynosure again. 
 
18 
 
 It is not however bj avoiding subjects which natur- 
 ally irritate, that the lover of his country can alone pro- 
 mote the union of these states ; he can do it more 
 effectually by bringing the inhabitants of distant 
 states into more immediate contact. By facilitating 
 intercourse, acquaintance will be augmented, dif- 
 ferent sections will become more intimate, and the 
 opportunity will be diminished for designing men 
 *' to acquire influence in particular districts by mis- 
 representing the opinions and aims of others," against 
 which Washington warns us, as one of the most ef- 
 ficient expedients of party. 
 
 In this view, the lover of his country must rejoice 
 at the facilities of intercourse that have arisen with- 
 in a few years, bringing into proximity distant 
 sections of our vast republic. When Fulton chain- 
 ed to the oar an agent as invisible and more 
 powerful than the genius of the Arabian tale, he 
 gave to the merchant an auxiliary in the acquisition 
 of wealth, and to the man of leisure a facility in the 
 pursuit of amusement. But the patriot will consid- 
 er his invention as productive of a higher good, as 
 being the means of binding together states, and of 
 strengthening the mutual affection of this increasing 
 people. 
 
 There is another bond of union to which, on this 
 day and in this place we should recur with deep sen- 
 timents of fraternal attachment and filial gratitude. 
 It is to the common sufferings, labors and sacrifices of 
 our common Ancestors. — Citizens of Boston, descen- 
 dants of the founders of our republic, — you stand up- 
 on the spot where stood your fathers when they 
 
19 
 
 resolved to hazard life and property for the preser- 
 vation of freedom. It was while they were assem- 
 bled within these walls, that the destruction of prop- 
 erty took place, which led to the Boston Port Bill, 
 to the oppression of this part of the country, to the 
 union of the whole, and to the ultimate emancipation 
 of this people. 
 
 It is good on this day to be here. These walls 
 heard the accents of Otis and Adams, which nerved 
 your sires to resist oppression and vindicate the lib- 
 erties of their country — These w^alls received, but 
 could not circumscribe their outcry. It burst 
 these narrow boundaries and traversed the country 
 with the celerity of lightning. The broad ridges of 
 the Green Mountains caught the sound and flung it 
 back from every elevation. It was heard in the 
 highlands of the Hudson, on the shores of the Del- 
 aware, along the banks of the Potomac, among the 
 high hills of the Santee, and wakened every where 
 an echo that reverberated through the continent. 
 The universal answer w as like the rushing of many 
 waters. It was the sound of brave men hurrying to 
 the contest, of brother marching to brothers' aid. 
 It struck upon the ear of your fathers and gave them 
 courage for the approaching conflict. It told them 
 that though alone, they were not deserted, — that 
 though distant, they were not forgotten, — that brave 
 hearts and strong arms would become cold and mo- 
 tionless, sooner than abandon them in their day of 
 trial. The sound swept over the country, and our 
 native warriors started from the soil, ready armed for 
 the conflict. 
 
20 
 
 Nor was this all. The cry of struggling freedom 
 crossed the Atlantic. Brave hearts and noble spirits 
 came to participate in our danger. Pulaski, to pour 
 out his life blood in our defence. Kosciusko, to learn 
 on our shores how to fight the battles of freedom on 
 his own. And more than all, the friend of our coun- 
 try and of man, Lafayette, in his youth, here devoted 
 himself to the cause of liberty, and swore that fealty 
 to constitutional freedom which diuinir a Ions: life he 
 has maintained, and in his old age has not forfeited. 
 
 There may be a question concerning the present 
 interest and the future destinies of our country — But 
 the past is secure. We are united by the same holy 
 recollections of our fathers' memories. Our fathers' 
 graves are a common inheritance. We are united by 
 a common relation to the greatest and best men that 
 the world has produced. We are united by being 
 the depositaries of republican institutions, and of 
 civil freedom. 
 
 Citizens of Boston, you are now assembled where 
 more than half a century ago your fathers stood, and 
 where half a century hence your children will prob- 
 ably stand to celebrate the glories of the American 
 Revolution. May the orator of that day speak of a 
 confederated republic, stretching from ocean to ocean, 
 filled with arts and civilization and Freedom, May 
 he speak of the fathers of the revolution as the in- 
 struments of establishing and extending the bless- 
 ings of liberty over this land and over the world. 
 May he appeal to the then living Constitution of our 
 country, as an abiding witness of the wisdom and 
 foresight of men, who framed an instrument which a 
 
2\ 
 
 century could scarce improve. May he kindle the 
 patriotism of his hearers by pointing to the Monu- 
 ment that rises high over the spot where Warren fell, 
 and to the fields throughout our land that v^^ere 
 wet with the blood of the victims in the cause of 
 Independence. But in the height of his enthusiasm, 
 may he pause, and testify of the men of this genera- 
 tion. May he say, and say truly, that they gained a 
 victory more glorious than was ever won on a tented 
 field ; that the men of the east, and the west, — the 
 manufacturer of the north, — the planter of the 
 south, — overcame selfishness, and immolated local 
 interest on the altar of peace and union ; — That 
 drawing wisdom from the experience of the past, 
 and weighing the consequences of their actions on 
 the future, they calmly and deliberately sacrificed 
 temporary and transient views to the permanency of 
 ancient friendship ; — That they transmitted unim- 
 paired the Constitution of the United States, the 
 Palladium of their own and their country's liberty, to 
 their descendants, and deserved the name of the 
 preservers and perpetuators of the peace, liberty and 
 happiness of these states, then, and forever One — 
 United — Indivisible. 
 
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