K A T I O N 
 
 DELIVERED BY APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMITTEES OF THE CORPOKA- 
 TION, AND THE SEVERAL CIVfC AND MILITARY SOCIETIES, OF 
 THE CITY OF ALBANY, AT THE METHODIST EPISCO-' "^ 
 
 ' PAL CHURCH IN NORTH PEARL STREET: 
 
 IJJ" COMMEMORATION OF 
 
 -^^^EEICAN INDEPENDENCE : 
 
 JULY FOURTH, 1839. 
 
 1 ••'^^ 
 
 By SOLOMON SOUTHWICK 
 
 Published in conformity to a Resolution of tlie Committee of Arrangements, and of the 
 Common Council, of the city of Albany. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 PRINTED BY ALFRED SOUTHWICK, LAW BUILDINGS. 
 
 1839. 
 
Book ■ . >^ s 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/orationdelivered01sout 
 
AN 
 
 O E A T I O N 
 
 DELIVERED BY APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMITTEES OF THE CORPORA- 
 TION, AND THE SEVERAL CIVIC AND MILITARY SOCIETIES, OF 
 THE CITY OF ALBANY, AT THE METHODIST EPISCO- 
 PAL CHURCH IN NORTH PEARL STREET: 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF 
 
 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 
 JULY FOURTH, 1839. 
 
 By SOLOMON SOUTHWICK* 
 
 Published iu conformity to a Resolution of the Committee of Arrangements, and of the 
 Common Council, of the city of Albany. 
 
 s 
 
 ALBANY: \^^o,^ '' o^ 
 
 PRINTED BY ALFRED SOUTHWICK, LAW BUILDINGS- 
 
 1839. 
 

ORATION 
 
 '^^ When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God 
 shouted for joy," the burthen of that celestial song was the freedom 
 of mankind. Well indeed then might the vaults of Heaven resound 
 with the shout of triumph and of exultation, when the seal of re- 
 demption was to be set upon the human race, and the celestial spirit 
 of liberty was to descend upon the earth in the person and compan- 
 ionship of the Son of God. This is no fiction of a poetic imagination, 
 but a sober reality. Man was made a slave by the fall of Adam, and 
 became free by the blood of Christ, and by that alone : Nor was the 
 freedom, for the birth of which, when sung in heavenly strains, 
 " the sons of God shouted for joy," a spiritual freedom only : It 
 was, at the same time, the harbinger and the principle of moral and 
 political regeneration ; the harbinger of all the pure and innocent 
 joys that spring from human existence, human society, and human 
 skill or labor ; all the blessings that flow from communion with God ; 
 all the rights and privileges of self-government ; all the delights of 
 love and friendship ; all the pleasures of intellectual intercourse and 
 enjoyment : And, in short, all the harmonies of Nature, which 
 bind man to man, which fill up the measure of his happiness, and 
 constitute the climax of his glory. 
 
 The same Almighty Being, therefore, who said, " Let there be 
 light ;" and physical light came forth to dispel the chaotic darkness 
 of the material world ; said also, Let man be free ; let moral and 
 intellectual light dissipate the mist of his mind, whilst the fire of 
 liberty shall warm his heart : And let these impel him onward in 
 the paths of devotion, the labyrinths of politics, and the fields of lite- 
 rature and science ; in exploring the heavens with all their plane- 
 tary orbs, and searching into the secrets or mysteries of the air, the 
 earth, and the ocean ; thus ascending the steeps that lead to the 
 
summit of human science, happiness and fame ; and thence to the 
 everlasting heights, where saints and angels pour forth songs of 
 gratitude and praise to "the giver of every good and perfect gift." 
 
 That God intended man should be free, must be admitted at once 
 by all who have studied his divine word. One passage of holy writ 
 alone demonstrates it, beyond the shadow of a doubt. " God said, 
 Let us make man in our own image :" And who that reflects for a 
 moment on this passage, can believe that the Creator intended the 
 being, upon whom He impressed the stamp of His own divinity, 
 should ever become a slave ! Common sense, without the aid of 
 logic, intuitively perceives the gross absurdity of a conclusion, so 
 insulting to the wisdom and majesty of God, and the understanding 
 and dignity of man. 
 
 After creating man in his own image, it was perfectly natural and 
 consistent, that God should confer, as he expressly did, upon this 
 favorite being, " dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
 earth."' 
 
 Here again we instantly perceive, that God would not have be- 
 stowed upon his favorite, Man, absolute power over all other ani- 
 mals, and endowed him, at the same time, with the exalted privilege 
 of self-government, if He had intended that this superior, erect and 
 graceful being, should ever bow the knee to earthly kings or ty- 
 rants, or become in any shape the slave of his own race. 
 
 These passages of the Divine Word also clearly unfold the reason 
 why the Hebrews, as every thorough student of History knows to 
 be the fact, were the only free people, the only true Republic that 
 ever existed, until, by the Providence of God, the Republic of the 
 United States had its birth in our glorious Revolution of 1776. 
 
 The chosen people of God were absolutely and entirely free, as 
 He intended they should be, under the pure and mild system of the 
 Judges, and the Sanhedrim of their own choice, until they provoked 
 Him, by their impious disobedience, to give " them a king in wrath, 
 which He refused to take away in mercy." Well might He ex- 
 claim, when He beheld their mad infatuation : — " I had planted 
 Thee a noble vine ; how then art thou turned into the degnerate 
 plant of a strange vine unto me !" Jer. ii. 21. And well might He 
 resolve, at the same time, that since they had rejected His govern- 
 ment, they should be given up, at least during His pleasure, to the 
 delusion of their own corrupt imaginations, and ignorant and obsti- 
 nate wills ; to that slavery and degradation which their ingratitude, 
 in disobeying His Divine Injunctions, so justly merited. 
 
Thus we see that Monarchy flowed at first from the wrath of 
 God : And hence we are not surprised, in spite of all the sophistry 
 of its advocates, from the silly sons of Samuel, down to such sages 
 as Filmer and Salmasius, that although it has inflicted curses innu- 
 merable, it has rarely, if ever, bestowed a solitary blessing, upon 
 mankind : It has been, it still is, and it ever will be, no matter 
 what shape be given to it, the bane of the earth, until the returning 
 mercy of God, which has already dawned upon the United States, 
 shall relieve the human race from its cruelties and oppressions, and 
 banish it back to its native regions of darkness. 
 
 For a period of from two to three thousand years, Man labored 
 under this curse of Monarchy, when God, whose mercy never tires, 
 whose justice never fails, at length saw proper to lay the founda- 
 tion of his deliverance. He inspired Faust with the sublime idea 
 of the invention of printing ; and Columbus, shortly after, with the 
 still more sublime conception, if that be possible, of the existence 
 and discovery of a new world ; a new and a vast theatre of action 
 for the human race : And on that vast theatre, of which " our own, 
 our native land," constitutes so fair a portion, He commenced the 
 divine operation of restoring to man his long lost political rights ; 
 of re-investing his own image with its original brightness and 
 divinity. 
 
 Hither, in due season, came our pilgrim fathers, flying from their 
 monarchical and hierarchical tyrants and persecutors : And here did 
 they find time, not only to make " the wilderness blossom as the 
 rose," but to reflect seriously upon the creation, nature and destiny 
 of Man — his relationship to God — his duty to that Supreme Being, 
 and to himself — the government that best suited him in this world, 
 and the means by which he should find his way to another and a 
 better one. 
 
 Here, independent of vain, pompous and arrogant Hierarchs, t}^- 
 rannical and despotic Kings and Princes, and titled and tinselled 
 iniquity of every description, they breathed and enjoyed in its ful-= 
 ness the pure atmosphere of freedom. Here, without let or hin- 
 drance, they opened, read, and understood for themselves, the Sa= 
 cred Volume ; and from that only true fountain of spiritual, moral, 
 historical and political light, they found themselves more and more 
 confirmed in their pre-conceived opinions, that Freedom was the 
 original gift of Heaven — that Monarchy was afterwards inflicted as a 
 curse — and that hence Rebellion to Tyrants was Obedience to God. 
 
 Here too our gallant, our venerated fathers, renewed their ac- 
 quaintance with those inimitable writings of Milton, Harrington, 
 
Sidney, Locke, Hoadley, Trenchard and Gordon, in vindication of 
 the freedom and dignity of mankind : And thus did they prepare the 
 way for that glorious revolution, the success of which we this day 
 celebrate ; and of which Washington was the Moses, and Greek 
 the Joshua ; the Congress of 1776 the nursing fathers ; Morris 
 (Robert) the Sully or grand financier, and Paine the Tyrt^us. 
 If indeed, great and unsurpassed as were the merits of Washington 
 and Green, still, had not the unrivalled financial skill of Morris de- 
 vised the means of raising money, and the vigorous pen of Paine 
 delineated the charms and delights of liberty, the cause might have 
 totally failed : For in that day Paine was an effectual instrument^ 
 in the hands of Divine Providence ; then his muse, like the lyre of 
 the deformed son of Archimhrotus, on the plains of Lacedemon, 
 kindled in the bosoms of our fathers the sacred flame of freedom, 
 cheered the toils of our sages in council, animated the hearts of our 
 warriors on the battle field, and impelled them onward to victory 
 and to glory. O ! how lamentable, how humiliating to the pride of 
 human nature, that a man to whom God had given a genius so bril- 
 liant, sublime and useful, should afterwards become the miserable 
 dupe, the wretched victim, of his own bewildered reason and way- 
 ward passions : And having forgot his God, and lost his conscience, 
 should expire at last like Swift, his prototype, " a driveller and a 
 show :'' For what Swift was, in a certain crisis, to the people of 
 Ireland, Paine was, in a far more important crisis, to the people of 
 these States. While, therefore, we lament his degeneracy, and his 
 melancholy end ; let us not forget his invaluable services, nor prove 
 ungrateful for them ; let his virtues live in our hearts and our memo= 
 ries, while his errors and his vices lie buried with his bones. 
 
 We owe, then, under Divine Providence, to Washington and 
 Green, the Congress of 1776, Morris, Paine, and their coadjutors, 
 " Solomons in council, and Sampsons in the field, ^' that great and 
 glorious Revolution, which gave birth to the only free nation, the 
 only true Republic, or Democracy, that has ever existed, since God 
 overwhelmed with destruction the Egyptian Tyrant and his host, 
 and with His " cloud by day," and His " pillar of fire by night," 
 led His chosen people through the wilderness, and finally crowned 
 their exertions with the blessing of a pure Democratic government 
 I cannot, for obvious reasons, go into the proof here, that this is 
 only the second Republic that has yet been instituted on earth ^ 
 Would time and the occasion permit, however, I could prove, that 
 excepting the Hebrews, neither the Persians nor the Egyptians, 
 neither the Greeks nor the Romans, nor the men of the Middle 
 
Ages, nor any of the Modern European Nations, have ever enjoyed 
 even the shadow of a true Republic or Democracy ; for to talk of 
 Aristocratical Republics, Oligarchical Republics, and Monarchical 
 Republics, and some other similar crudities, as one of our great and 
 good men has done through a large volume, is, in my humble opi- 
 nion, a waste of words. Any philosophic mind may indeed perceive, 
 on a mere glance at the subject, that before the invention of the 
 art of printing, the excitement of the Reformation, and the sublime 
 and unparalleled discovery of Columbus, nothing in the shape of 
 a true Republic, excepting that alone which God instituted in mer- 
 cy, and dissolved in wrath, could possibly exist : For how, I ask, 
 without the special exercise of Divine Wisdom and Power, could 
 either a true simple, or a true representative. Democracy, like our 
 State and Federal Democracies, exist among nations immersed in 
 ignorance and barbarism, and consequently the miserable dupes of 
 a mere handful of selfish, cunning, unprincipled and aspiring men. 
 
 O ! what great reason have we to rejoice, that God has thus 
 singled us out as the pioneer of nations, in reviving and extending 
 on earth the sacred flame of liberty ; that hallowed flame which 
 shall eventually consume, and scatter to the winds, the last vestige 
 of Monarchy, and the last minion of Tyrants, and restore to 
 the human race the unsullied image of their Creator, with the rights 
 which he originally intended they should enjoy. 
 
 Let us, then, on this day, briefly consider, how we shall preserve 
 this lofty stand, this high and sublime character ; how we shall 
 preserve the precious and the glorious privileges conferred upon 
 us, and hand them down unimpaired to posterity. 
 
 In the first place, permit me to ask, is it not our imperative duty 
 to recollect, and never for a moment to forget, that God destroyed 
 the genuine Democratic Republic, which He had bestowed upon 
 His chosen people, and inflicted upon them the heavy curse of Mo- 
 narchy, because they were ungrateful and disobedient to Him, from 
 whose goodness they had received the precious boon of freedom. 
 We are eager enough to look into profane history for lessons of 
 wisdom and experience — and shall we not once recur to Sacred 
 History, for a lesson, on the proper understanding and remembrance 
 of which depends the salvation of our liberties, and those of all 
 other nations. God gave freedom— pure Democratic Freedom — to 
 the Jews : But they forgot their Divine benefactor — they deserted 
 his holy altars— they disobeyed his laws— they became idolaters— 
 they gave themselves up to avarice and foul ambition — they made 
 money, instead of Jehovah, their god, and became the tyrants and 
 
8 
 
 oppressors of their species : And lo ! where are now all their splen= 
 did cities, and their lofty towers and battlements ? Jerusalem, their 
 ancient capital, has dwindled into insignificance 5 and where are the 
 cities of the plain ? Alas ! they are prostrate in the dust. Those 
 which the sword of the conqueror spared, the fire of indignant 
 Heaven descended upon and destroyed : And the owl and the bit- 
 tern, the fox and the wolf, the lion and the jackall, as predicted by 
 a prophet of God, now reign the sole tenants and sovereigns of the 
 barren hill and the desolated vale. 
 
 Having pointed out the first great duty, which we owe to God 
 and to ourselves, it cannot be expected that I should dwell at large, 
 on this occasion, upon all the other important duties, which our 
 condition as freemen demands at our hands ; but I feel myself, ne- 
 vertheless, bound to go as far at least as your candor and patience 
 and my own strength will permit. 
 
 Exert, then, I conjure you, all your energies, to extend the bles 
 sings of sound education, without which there can be no true vir- 
 tue ; and without true virtue there can be no solid and permanent 
 freedom. To Charondas, of Greece, we owe the origin of com- 
 mon schools. Though this ancient law-giver enacted some very 
 silly laws ; yet he ordained, " that all the sons of every family 
 should be taught reading and writing under masters in the pay of 
 the public." " This law alone," says an American Sage, " has 
 merit enough to consecrate to immortality, the memory of this le- 
 gislator, and deserves to be imitated by every free people at least."* 
 Let us, then, never remit our exertions to attain this great end. 
 Let us never rest contented till all our public lands are divided 
 equally between the several States of the Union ; and by each State 
 constituted a fund, the interest of which to be perpetually appro- 
 priated to the support of common schools, and the education of 
 teachers to conduct them. 
 
 Never lose sight of the union of these States, on its just and pro- 
 per foundations of State Sovereignty and limited Federal Jurisdic- 
 tion ; yielding neither to Nullification on the one hand, nor Conso- 
 lidation on the other. With written fundamental Constitutions, such 
 as no other nation, now in existence, has ever enjoyed, in posses- 
 sion of the ballot boxes and universal suffrage, it will be owing to 
 our own criminal neglect, if we split upon the small rock of nulli- 
 fication, or the great ice-berg of consolidation. 
 
 Nullification is the extreme of State Sovereignty ; Consolidation, 
 the extreme of Federal Jurisdiction. We must indeed abhor and 
 
 " John Adams. 
 
detest Consolidation under any pretext whatsoever : And respect- 
 ing Nullification, though we might possibly find it necessary in 
 some very extreme case; yet we should never forget, that the great 
 cases, in which it has been more or less successfully resorted to — I 
 allude to four cases of great and universal importance — do not ap~ 
 ply to us now, as they once did to our fathers. 
 
 Moses nullified the laws of Egypt, because their tyranny was in- 
 supportable ; and there was no written constitution, no ballot-box, 
 or right of suffrage, either limited or universal, to appeal to for re- 
 dress. The sword was the only resort. 
 
 The great head of the church, and his Apostles, for the same 
 reason, among others, nullified, by the sword of the spirit, the laws 
 both of Jews and Gentiles : For the words of the Saviour — " Ren- 
 der unto CcBsar the things which are Cctsar^s^^ — implied neither sub- 
 mission nor opposition to the Roman Government. 
 
 Luther, and his party, on the same ground, nullified, at least sa 
 far as they could do it, the laws of the Papal See. 
 
 Washington, and his gallant companions in arms — the author of 
 the Declaration of Independence, and all who signed it with him— 
 did the same with George III. and his tyrannical laws : for as Eng-- 
 land never had a written constitution, nor universal suffrage, to ap- 
 peal to, the sword was the only weapon with which our Fathers 
 could cut their way to the Temple of Liberty : And thanks be ta 
 God, who inspired them with the virtue and the courage to do it^, 
 they drew the sword, and threw away the scabbard ; and none but 
 cowards, or willing slaves, will ever shrink from striking the same 
 blow, under the same circumstances. 
 
 The time must and will come, when the sword may be turned 
 into the ploughshare, and the spear into the pruning hook, and 
 peace and liberty be preserved without the aid of either. This is 
 a promise of God, which will not fail. But till this promised bles- 
 sing shall descend upon us, never yield the right to possess arms 5 
 and to bear them, if necessary, in defence of your altars and your 
 fire-sides, against domestic tyrants, as well as foreign foes : And 
 never forget, that it will always be easier to drive a hundred legions 
 of foreign invaders into the ocean, than to dispossess one domestic 
 tyrant, who has become firmly seated in power, with the sword 
 and the purse-strings at his command, and a servile majority to 
 obey his nod. Never therefore give up your arms ; but never 
 draw the sword to procure a redress of grievances, until all possi-- 
 ble constitutional means have been repeatedly tried in vain : And 
 then let your tyrants knoWj that your courage and fortitude are 
 
10 
 
 equal to your generosity and forbearance. This example our gallant 
 fathers gave us—let us never forget it. 
 
 Never suffer a standing army, exceeding five thousand effective 
 men, to be kept up in times of peace. A free people, indeed, ought 
 to have no standing army at all ; but every citizen should be a sol- 
 dier, and ready, at a moment's warning, to gird on his armor for 
 battle against foreign foes or domestic tyrants. Standing armies 
 have, in all ages, been the instruments of usurpation and tyranny. 
 This vi^as the creed of our fathers ; and rather than keep up such 
 an army of more than five thousand men, it vrould be better policy 
 to encourage the voluntary formation of such companies, not ex- 
 ceeding a regiment to each State, as our noble spirited Burgesses 
 Corps, by furnishing their military equipments, on a pledge of ho- 
 nor that they should be carefully preserved in good order as long 
 as possible. The companies thus voluntarily organised and equip- 
 ped, vrould constitute citizen soldiers in the true sense of the terms ; 
 and being composed, as they would be, of young men of fair cha- 
 racters, would feel the more forcibly the obligations of civil and 
 political liberty and justice, which bind men to the true interests 
 of thfeir country. 
 
 Never suffer the liberty of the press, or the liberty of speech, to 
 be unjustly invaded or impaired ; and never attempt to curb the 
 licentiousness of either by ex officio informations, or public prosecu- 
 tions. It is sufficient that individuals have the right of private or 
 personal action for damages against the writers or publishers of 
 libels that affect their characters or lawful pursuits and inte- 
 rests. But the arm of the public should never be raised to crush 
 the press under any circumstances. This, however, is not the time 
 or the place for the argument. I will merely remark, therefore, 
 that the only proper use of the press is to spread useful knowledge, 
 and in this respect alone it is the Palladium of Liberty. The pub- 
 lishers of licentious books, like the novels of Bulwer and his wife, 
 and the editors of licentious newspapers, whoever they may be, are 
 the worst enemies of mankind : And it would indeed be much to 
 the honor of the press, and the credit of our country, if all of our 
 publishers and editors would recollect, that the pens of those im- 
 mortal spirits, to whom I have already alluded, Milton and Har- 
 rington, Locke and Sidney, " overthrew the tyranny of the Stuarts, 
 without the aid of ribaldry or licentiousness ; and that the illustri- 
 ous Reformers of the fifteenth century, contributed largely to con- 
 firm the morality of Europe, while they beat down the arrogant 
 pretensions of sacerdotal and papal usurpation.''* 
 
 * Helen Maiia Williama 
 
11 
 
 Nullify at once and forever the doctrine of gratitude to youi 
 public servants, unless it be for some very great service, beyond the 
 ordinary routine of their public duties. Clinton, though Governor 
 of a State only, was the benefactor of the Union, and hence he vras 
 entitled to public gratitude. But as a general rule, vrhen you pay 
 a President Twenty-five Thousand Dollars a year for his services, 
 you owe no debt of gratitude either to him or any of his family. 
 The obligation is altogether on the other side. The salary is both 
 remuneration and gratitude enough for the ordinary services of any 
 man at the head of any government in the world. Public gratitude 
 is due only to those who serve their country gratuitously, as Wash- 
 ington did with his sword, and Jeiferson, Franklin, Jay, John and 
 Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Ezra Stiles, Solomon Southwick,* 
 and many others did with the logic and the eloquence of their pens 
 in the revolution. This is the true foundation of public gratitude. 
 Can there be a grosser delusion, than to allow any man to pocket, 
 as President, Two Hundred Thousand Dollars of the public mo- 
 ney, of which, if he make the office, as he ought to do, " an office 
 of business and not of s^ow5,"t he can save with ease One Hundred 
 and Fifty Thousand ; and then allow him to tax the people with a 
 debt of gratitude at the same time ! 
 
 Never give up annual elections for your State legislative depart- 
 ments, biennial for the Executive chair of a State, and for the house 
 of Representatives of the Union, or quadrennial for the President 
 thereof. 
 
 So perfect do I conceive our federal constitution to be, that I am 
 fearful of any attempt to amend it. Still I think it would be much 
 gained for freedom, if the term of service of the Senators of the 
 United States should be reduced to four years : That no Senator or 
 Representative should receive any appointment from the President 
 who should be in office at the same time with them : — And that no 
 man under forty years of age should hold the office of President, 
 Senator or Representative. A volume would not suffice to portray 
 the evils, which history clearly proves to have arisen from the in- 
 experience and rashness of precocious and undisciplined ambition. 
 
 Never elect any man to any office whatsoever, whose private life 
 is profligate or licentious ; for no such man can be safely trusted as 
 
 ^ My father, one of whose works alone fixed the minds of the people of Rhode-Island for the 
 Revolution, as Gordon, the historian, acknowledges. In an article, which appeared in a Rhode- 
 Island paper of 1813, written by a distinguished lawyer of Newport, it was said—" When the his= 
 tory of this state shall be fairly written, justice will be done to Solomon Southwick." 
 
 t It was John Quincy Adams, who said the Presidency '-^ ought to be an office of buaness, and 
 aot of show." We owe Mr. A. a small debt of gratitude at least, for this maxim. 
 
1-2 
 
 the guardian of a free constitution : But look out steadily and vigi= 
 lantly to secure able and honest law-makers, as well as able and in- 
 corruptible judges : For if you elect, or appoint, incapable or cor= 
 rupt men to responsible stations, you not only jeopardise your liber- 
 ties for the time being ; but you dampen and destroy the ardor and 
 emulation of all men to qualify themselves for the service of their 
 country. Why should any man labor day and night, in studying the 
 works of historians and philosophers, to qualify himself for a states- 
 man, when he sees every day ignorant men preferred to learned 
 ones, and stupid men and knaves to men of genius and integrity. 
 
 Never wish to discard a President at the end of his first term, if 
 he has been faithful in that : And never, under any circumstances 
 of peace or war, pestilence or famine, elect him more than twice. 
 The example of declining a re-election, and retiring to private life, 
 established by Washington and Jefferson ; and confirmed by Madi- 
 son, Monroe and Jackson, ought ever to be considered a sacred law 
 of the Republic. It should be considered the more binding, the 
 more sacred, inasmuch as not only two such illustrious civilians as 
 Jefferson and Madison, but two such immortal military chieftains 
 as Washington and Jackson have sanctioned it ; the former by set- 
 ting the first example, and the latter by following it : For it is well 
 known, that like Washington and Jefferson, the farmer of Tennessee, 
 the hero of at least two great wars, had popularity enough to have 
 ran a third time with success ; but he had too much democratic 
 virtue to attempt it. This, then, I repeat it, should be considered 
 an inviolable and sacred law of the Republic. 
 
 As a safe general rule, never suffer the expenses of your govern- 
 ment to exceed its just and legitimate income ; and consequently 
 never incur a state or federal debt, if it can be reasonably avoided ; 
 nor tax the mouth of labor unnecessarily. 
 
 Never yield to the Federal Government the right of making in- 
 ternal public improvements : To do so, will be to destroy, without 
 hope of redemption, both the Sovereignty and the Union of the 
 States. Usurpation and Consolidation must and will be the inevi- 
 table consequences. If we do our duty to ourselves and our pos- 
 terity, we shall never permit that government to stick a spade or a 
 pick-axe into the soil of a state beyond the limits of tide-water ; and 
 then only for purposes clearly essential to " the common defence," 
 or the " general welfare." On this one question alone, we shall 
 find, that with us, " the price of liberty is eternal vigilance." 
 
 Above all other considerations, would you perpetuate the pre- 
 cious privileges which you now enjoy at the hand of Divme Pro- 
 
13 
 
 videiice ; would you hand down unimpaired to posterity, the glo- 
 rious Democratic Constitutions of your country ; then, I beseech 
 you, never forget, that the Christian Religion is indispensable to 
 the preservation of those precepts, principles, and moral virtues, on 
 which alone liberty and justice can safely repose. The bare cir- 
 cumstance, that our blessed Saviour chose his Disciples and Apostles 
 without respect to persons, without the least reference to worldly 
 station, wealth, or influence, proves clearly that Christianity was 
 the ancient cradle of Liberty. It is indeed because there is little 
 if any thing more than a merely nominal Christianity in Europe, 
 that Tyranny there rides triumphant over the rights and dignity of 
 human nature ; and that Monarchs, Hierarchs, Lords, and their 
 minions, revel and riot in luxury and splendor on the hard earnings 
 of the honest and industrious mechanics and tillers of the soil. It 
 is a remarkable fact, worthy of being remembered on this day, that 
 one of the Fathers of our Republic, Thomas Jefferson, acknowledges, 
 " that he received his first correct notions of a republican form of 
 government from the proceedings of a Baptist" — that is, a Christian, 
 " Congregation in his neighborhood." Let us then, fellow-citizens, 
 cherish the pure spirit of Christianity, and the safe and salutary in- 
 stitutions of piety and devotion, which flow from it, and cannot 
 flow from any other source. These, rely upon it, are the main 
 pillars of our freedom, prosperity and happiness. 
 
 I could multiply these brief admonitions, would the occasion per- 
 mit, and were it not that I feel it my duty to be rather more pro- 
 lix, on a subject which has been lately revived, though never fairly 
 discussed, among us. A correct view of it, however, is important, 
 at least to the stability of our freedom and prosperity. To come 
 to the point, then, fellow-citizens, as the means of preserving that 
 social harmony and good feeling, on which our freedom and happi- 
 ness, as a people, so much depend ; let us beware of creating invi- 
 dious distinctions, or exciting groundless jealousies, between the 
 rich and the poor. Such distinctions, such jealousies, have here- 
 tofore done much evil, involving whole communities in anarchy, 
 violence and bloodshed ; for when once begun, there is no end to 
 the heart-burnings, and the animosities, which grow out of them. 
 In this country, where there is no ground in our civil, political, or 
 religious institutions, for any such feelings, it is to be regretted, that 
 they were first excited, whilst the present federal constitution was 
 under discussion, by a book, written by Mr. John Adams, ostensibly 
 in support of the constitution, and by a speech of Mr. Gouverneur 
 Morris, in the Convention of 1787, which framed that instrument. 
 
14 
 
 The doctrine of Mr. Morris's Speech, which is in spirit, if not 
 literally, the same as that of Mr. Adams's book, is, that the House 
 of Representatives, originating from the people, will ever be sub- 
 ject to precipitancy, changeability and excess. To check these 
 evils, he proposed, that the Senate should be composed of none but 
 men of great and established property, an Aristocracy • and that 
 besides their riches, to make them completely independent, they 
 should be chosen for life, or they would be a useless body. This 
 permanent, rich and aristocratic Senate, was to keep down the tur- 
 bulency of Democracy ! " History proves, I admit," said Mr. Mor- 
 ris, '' that the men of large property will uniformly endeavor to es- 
 tablish tjT^ranny. How, then, shall we ward off this evil ^ Give 
 them the second branch, and you secure their weight for the public 
 good !" Again, said Mr. Morris, " the wealthy will ever exist ; 
 and you never can be safe, unless you gratify them as a body, in 
 the pursuit of honor and profit!" Mr. Morris concluded by avow- 
 ing himself the advocate of a strong government ; and he asserted 
 expressly, that " a government by compact is no government at all." 
 
 The last clause is a hard saying of Mr. Morris ; for if the idea of 
 a compact be excluded from the idea of a government, the latter is 
 of course an absolute despotism. It denies the people to be even 
 the source of power, much less the sovereign power itself. It is 
 at war with sacred history ; for we there find that David especially 
 made a written compact with the people, by which he was to be 
 guided in his government. It is at war with all the republican 
 writers on government ; for they all contend for a written social 
 compact, and all insist, that where it is not written, it is implied 
 from the principles of natural justice. 
 
 It is not even remarkable, much less surprising, that such doc- 
 trines should have caused, as they did, great murmurings among 
 the people, and especially among the poor of that day. I myself 
 heard those murmurings, and witnessed the excitement which they 
 created in my native state ; for though Mr. Morris's speech had 
 not then come to light ; yet Mr. Adams's sentiments were well 
 known, and generally promulgated : And as we have lately wit- 
 nessed something in the shape of an appeal to the poor on this sub- 
 ject, in several public journals, let us now come to the question : — 
 
 Does history prove, as Mr. Morris asserted, that the rich will 
 uniformly endeavor to establish tyranny ? 
 
 I think not. I believe it is not supported either by sacred or 
 profane history. I shall however pass over the rich Noah and 
 Abraham— the richer Job and David, and the still richer Solomon, 
 
15 
 
 and other rich worthies of Scripture History, because they were 
 cured by divine grace of any inordinate desire to oppress the poor, 
 arising from their enormous wealth . Abraham proved his forbear^ 
 ance in his noble spirited and generous conduct to Lot, in relation 
 to the first dispute about property, of which we have either legal 
 or historical record : And Job was literally the father of the poor ; 
 for he not only fed and clothed them by hundreds, but defended 
 them against every oppressor. Job, xxix. 30. 
 
 Without further reference, therefore, to the ground of antiquity, 
 I will at once come down to modern history, and refer you to the 
 Italian house of Medici. They were rich — splendidly rich : But 
 such was their noble spirit, that their wealth contributed largely to 
 the advancement, not only of their native land, but of all Europe in 
 science and freedom. A large portion of their splendid wealth, the 
 just reward of their great commercial genius and enterprise, was 
 lavished at the dawn of the revival of letters, in patronising the 
 learned Greeks who fled from the capture of Constantinople, when^ 
 through its fall by the Turkish arms, the last ray of old Roman 
 Power and Glory expired ; " whilst a new era, pregnant with a 
 purer philosophy than that of Aristotle ; a more diffusive spirit of 
 intelligence ; a more improved state of the arts ; a more extensive 
 cultivation of letters ; a more cordial and universal social and com- 
 mercial intercourse between men and nations ; a more enlarged and 
 rational view of human rights and duties ; and finally, a more mild 
 and tolerant religious feeling began to shed its bright and cheering 
 beams on the horizon of a too long benighted and barbarous world. 
 Gibbon, Voltaire, and Roscoe, and indeed every writer on those 
 times, concur in applauding the munificence of the Medici, than 
 whom no family ever obtained popularity and power more deser- 
 vedly. I may indeed safely add, that by the universal consent of 
 his own countrymen, the Republic of Letters, and mankind at large, 
 Cosmo de Medici was denominated the protector of the needy, the 
 refuge of the oppressed, the constant patron and supporter of learn- 
 ed men."* 
 
 Another rich Italian, Niccolo Niccoli, devoted his life and fortune 
 to the advancement of literature and science, and was the first man 
 to establish, at his own expense, a public library in his native land. 
 
 I could point even to a Monarch of France, a rare instance, it is 
 true, among kings, but not the less deserving of credit, and his 
 illustrious Prime Minister,! than whom no two men ever expended 
 more treasure in diffusing happiness around them. 
 
 ^ See Roscoe's Life of Leo X. f Henry IV. and the Duke of Sully. 
 
16 
 
 Juan Padilla was one of the richest men in Spain in the 15th 
 century ; yet a purer, a more generous and exalted spirit never 
 existed. Even the Poet Laureat of the British Monarchy, has be- 
 stowed a glowing epitaph on the virtues of this illustrious enemy 
 of kings, and friend of the people. From 1420 to 1422, the genius, 
 valor and generosity of this noble Spaniard, sustained the cause of 
 Freedom, to which he finally sealed his attachment with his heart's 
 blood ; And to the honor of her sex, as well as her own glory, his 
 illustrious wife, not only participated in all his toils and dangers, 
 but after his death assumed the command of the patriot forces, de- 
 fended Toledo bravely, gained several victories, and did not quit 
 her post, till she was deserted by the cowardly citizens, unworthy 
 of so glorious a leader, and a disgrace to their country and to hu- 
 man nature. 
 
 The De Witts of Holland were rich. They held the highest 
 posts of honor, and had the best opportunities to accumulate great 
 wealth ; yet John De Witt, like Juan Padilla, suffered a glorious 
 martyrdom in the cause of liberty. He was a republican, and that 
 was a sufficient crime, in the eyes of a royalist faction, for taking 
 his life in the most barbarous manner. We have seen in this State, 
 a descendant of this illustrious man, draw his sword for our liber- 
 ties in the revolution, and live among us fifty years after that event, 
 surrounded by well-earned wealth and prosperity ; but always the 
 virtuous and inflexible friend of liberty and of mankind.* 
 
 The two great German Reformers, John Wickliffe and Martin 
 Luther, the former of whom, though of a rich and noble family, 
 was called the " morning star of the Reformation," as we may 
 Justly style Luther the meridian sun, were both of them surrounded 
 by all the comforts of life, and might have had these heaped upon 
 them ten-fold, perhaps a hundred, had they not preferred what 
 they believed to be their duty to God and mankind, to the sweets 
 of luxury and monastic ease. 
 
 Lord Bacon, whom Pope basely, but vainly, attempted to hold 
 up to the scorn of the world, was splendidly rich ; and whilst his 
 unrivalled genius created a new era in Philosophy, his immense 
 wealth was lavished in acts of the purest humanity, and the most 
 disinterested benevolence. 
 
 John Hampden was one of the richest merchants of England ; 
 and "the greatest patriot Statesman of his times; the man whom 
 the tyrant Charles I. would gladly have seen drawn and quartered ; 
 whom even Clarendon," the scribe of monarchy, and the friend of 
 
 ' The late Simeon De Witt. 
 
17 
 
 Charles, *' paints as possessing, beyond all his cotemporanes, i? 
 head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute ; and 
 whom the fervent Baxter, another Royalist, " revered, as able-, by 
 his presence, to give a new charm to the repose of the saints in 
 Heaven :"* And yet we know, that this very rich and all-accom- 
 plished private citizen of England, and Lord William Russell, one 
 of her richest, most learned and illustrious noblemen, did not shrink 
 from meeting death, the one on the field of battle, and the other on 
 the scaffold, for the freedom and glory of their country. 
 
 Algernon Sidney, that inflexible and immortal republican, born 
 to inherit a title of nobility, and a splendid estate ; whose mind 
 was illumined by the brightest beams of genius, whose brow was 
 adorned by the proudest trophies of learning, and who wrote alto- 
 gether the best book ever yet published on the subject of human 
 government ; voluntarily sacrificed all these brilliant possessions^ 
 and the fair prospects connected with them, in the same glorious 
 cause, for which Hampden bled on the field and Russell on the 
 scaffold. What reflects the most lustre on the memory of this rich 
 patriot, is the fact, that like Curtius, he made a voluntary sacrifice 
 of himself to his country. He was indicted for writing an essay 
 in favor of Liberty ; but the tyrants who thirsted for his bloody 
 had no proof of the authorship, but the circumstance, that the 
 manuscript was found in his house. But rich as he was, possessed 
 of all that could render life the more dear and death the more 
 dreadful, he confessed himself the author of the work, sealing his 
 own doom, and at the same time securing his immortality, by a 
 declaration the noblest that ever flowed from the lips of man : — 
 " When God," said he, " has brought me into a dilemma, in which 
 I must either tell a lie, or forfeit my life, he tells me that it is time 
 for me to die !" And what are we to think of the royal monster, 
 and his servile judge, who could sacrifice such a man ^ 
 
 In the late French Revolution, when it would not have been 
 surprising, if a different spirit had prevailed amid the scenes of 
 anarchy and blood that shocked the universe, many of the richest 
 citizens proved their zeal for the cause of their country at the im= 
 minent peril, and in many cases the absolute sacrifice of their lives. 
 
 I could fill a volume with such examples of self-sacrifice and 
 hallowed devotion to the cause of freedom, by rich men abroad ; 
 but it is time to come home, and ask a few questions of our own 
 altars and fire=sides, before we join in such sweeping denunciations 
 
 ■^ See Bancroft '3 inimitable History of the U= S= vol. i> 
 
18 
 
 of the rich, as this of Mr. Morris— himself a rich man— or those 
 which I have lately read in several of our political journals. 
 
 First and foremost, then, in the galaxy of illustrious men, who 
 shine on the page of history, or occupy the Temple of Fame, was 
 not our beloved Washington as rich a planter in Virginia as John 
 Hampden was a merchant in London ? And did that rich planter, 
 surrounded by all the endearments and luxuries of life, hesitate a 
 moment to risk his fortune, his fame, and his heart's blood, to re- 
 deem his country from the grasp of Tyranny ? No— he did not 
 
 hesitate ; but emerging from his plantation, at the call of his 
 
 country, as the morning sun ascends the horizon to warm and cheer 
 the animal and vegetable worlds ; he came forth to animate the 
 hearts, and direct the energies, of his fellow-citizens, in a glorious 
 struggle for freedom ; ready, alike, to wave the Olive Branch, in 
 the spirit of mutual justice and benevolence ; or, that being re- 
 jected, to " ride upon the whirlwind and direct the storm" of war. 
 In imagination I now hear him urging the brave and the patriotic 
 to defend the rights of their country and the cause of freedom : — 
 Let us, says he, my friends and fellow-countrymen, have Peace, if 
 with Peace we can have Liberty : But if not, then let us meet our 
 enemies as they land upon our shores. Let us show them that we 
 have minds to understand, arms to defend, and hearts ready to bleed 
 for the freedom and glory of our country. If driven from one' 
 stand, let us seize upon another : If we cannot do better, let us 
 fall back and erect our standard upon the rocky mountains : And 
 if hunted at last by the myrmidons of tyranny and oppression, to 
 the verge of the Pacific Ocean, there let us give shout for shout, 
 and blow for blow, till we turn the tide of battle on our foes, or be 
 driven into the waves to become food for the monsters of the deep ! 
 
 And who were the compatriots, that with Washington put their 
 names to the Declaration of Independence ? Many of them were 
 rich, very rich for the times ; and of whom the latest survivor, the 
 noble-spirited Roman Catholic Carroll, was among the richest: 
 And yet with the gibbet or the scaffold, and the executioner with 
 his instruments of death, in the gloomy perspective, did these rich 
 and noble-spirited men fearlessly sign the document which pro- 
 claimed the liberty and independence of their country, which pro- 
 claimed through the universe, from shore to shore, and from pole 
 to pole, the downfall of tyrants, and the freedom of the human race : 
 And to this Declaration they added the noble pledge of their lives, 
 their fortunes, and their sacred honor, that they would persevere 
 m the glorious strife till Liberty or Death should close the scene. 
 
19 
 
 Again, look around this vast country, matle free by the generous 
 sacrifices and the deathless deeds, of those rich, noble-spirited, and 
 immortal patriots : And ask yourselves, fellow-citizens, whose mo- 
 ney, whose liberality, whose patriotism and piety, have reared 
 among us so many temples of literature, science and religion ; so 
 many academies, colleges, churches and chapels, so numerous and 
 so magnified, that almost every beam of the sun is obstructed by 
 their spires. 
 
 Who, may I not ask, can at this day travel from Albany to Lan- 
 singburgh, without passing by the way a Temple of Science, es- 
 tablished and liberally endowed, by one alone of those rich indivi- 
 duals, who are the ornaments of their country and of human na- 
 ture ; and who, notwithstanding many of their benevolent deeds 
 are pubhshed by the voice of gratitude, still delight to 
 
 " Do good by stealth, and blusk to find it fame?" 
 
 Nor was the establishment and endowment of this Temple of the 
 Muses, all that the rich individual alluded to could boast of having 
 done for the good of his country and mankind, if his taste and edu- 
 cation, his delicacy, dignity and elevation of mind and of heart, had 
 permitted him to boast at all : For I can truly affirm, that from the 
 same source, many other valuable public institutions were munifi- 
 cently aided ; while far more numerous, if not more generous, 
 streams of bounty flowed in private than in puWic channels, to 
 •cheer the habitations of poverty, alleviate the pangs of sickness, 
 heal the wounds of adversity, and animate the exertions of genius 
 for the public welfare^ Nor can we forbear, even on this pressing 
 occasion, to pay one more tribute to the memory of that good rich 
 man, whose modest pathway through life, shone with a mild and 
 steady splendor, illumined by the rays of his own goodness, mingled 
 with the blessed beams of faith and of grace : For who more ready 
 than he, when the trump of war called his country to arms, to 
 forego the delights of social and domestic life, gilded, as they were, 
 by the kindest and purest affections, and the most splendid gifts of 
 fortune, for the privations of the tented field, and the perils of the 
 day of battle ! O ! how beautiful in the eyes of the generous, how 
 refreshing to the souls of the just, to behold the tears of regret and 
 of gratitude flowing in a thousand streams, when this good mam 
 died : And long, long will it be, before his country, and especially 
 the sons and daughters of adversity, will again " look upon the like" 
 of Stephen Van Rensselaer ! 
 
 There is another illustrious name in the annals of our country^ 
 whichj whenever I think of it, or hear it mentioned, comes upoK 
 
 3 
 
20 
 
 me, in the language of a beautiful poet, '^ like the memory of past 
 joys, pleasant and mournful to the soul." I knew De Witt Clinton, 
 when he was splendidly rich. I knew him again when he was 
 assailed by the chill blasts of poverty, and the keen arrows of per- 
 secution. But neither in prosperity nor adversity, did that great 
 and good man ever harbor a wish, much less make an effort, to in- 
 jure the liberties of his country : But calm and serene, amid the 
 cares and toils of state, he was found faithful to her free Consti« 
 tutions, steadily pursuing the Grand Improvements, which will 
 enrich her through all time, and ensure his own imperishable fame. 
 
 So Jefferson, Monroe and Tompkins, an illustrious trio, were all 
 rich at one time, but all died in poverty : And where, at any time 
 of their lives, did the poor ever find better friends, or the cause of 
 liberty firmer advocates ? 
 
 And again I ask, whose money has carried Missionaries, with 
 the glad and glorious tidings of salvation, to the remotest corners 
 of the earth ? And who are they that have built houses of refuge 
 at home, for the blind, the deaf, the dumb and the insane ; for the 
 unprotected orphan, the penitent Magdalene, and the worn out or 
 aged seaman ? The rich, fellow-citizens, have done all this great 
 good ; and without them it could not and would not have been 
 done. 
 
 With all due deference to the talents and memory of two &uch 
 illustrious men as John Adams and Gouverneur Morris, I have said 
 enough to prove, that wealth does not uniformly make tyrants of 
 its possessors ; nor does poverty uniformly make patriots : For 
 many a poor, vicious and worthless demagogue has enriched him- 
 self and his posterity, by usurping the liberties of his country, and 
 tyrannising over it. Of this we find sufficient examples in the con- 
 flicts, from time to time, between the Plebeians and the Patricians 
 of Rome ; and also in those numerous and bloody struggles for 
 power and popularity, which occurred during the Middle Ages, a 
 period of about a thousand years between the fall of the Western 
 Empire of Rome in A. D. 475 and that of the Eastern in A. D. 
 1453 ; such struggles as will never exist, where true religion and 
 a corresponding education prevail. 
 
 In the course of such conflicts, sometimes a poor native Dema- 
 gogue has destroyed his country, and at others a poor foreign ad- 
 venturer. But 1 must pass over these at present to come nearer 
 home. 
 
 When the poor Corsican Adventurer, Napoleon BuonapartCj 
 grasped the sword and the purse-strings, in a country where he 
 
21 
 
 was a stranger, and by various wheedllngSj as well as daring deeds, 
 deceived the people, the liberties of France fell before him. No 
 warning voice, like that of La Fayette, could stay his career ; no 
 patriot pen nor sword could for a moment arrest the course of the 
 Usurper. Those who had escaped the guillotine, under the tyranny 
 of such poor demagogues as Robespierre, Marat and Cloots, were 
 now driven by a more daring upstart, to be sacrificed on the field 
 of battle, to sink into the morasses of Italy or Germany, or perish 
 by thousands on the frozen plains of Russia : And here let me give 
 you a friendly hint. Trust no man, who, being poor himself, sets 
 out in life by declaring war against his rich neighbors. It is not 
 by pulling down others, that a just man wishes to rise in the world, 
 but by honest ingenuity, industry and enterprise : And the man 
 who thus succeeds, will never, whilst running the race, envy either 
 his immediate rivals, or those who have successfully gone before 
 him. 
 
 Of poor demagogues, rising by the basest means, from the lowest 
 conditions, and doing great mischief, the occasion will not allow 
 me to give but one more striking example, in the character of an 
 adventurer, from whom not only Buonaparte, but other intriguers 
 and usurpers, have learned the detestable lessons of a false and a 
 foul ambition. Not far from the times, when some of the illustri- 
 ous rich men I have named, were shedding their blood for the 
 liberties of their respective countries ; and when the rich and truly 
 illustrious house of Medici, by their great commercial enterprise, 
 their immense wealth, and their Christian benevolence, were scat- 
 tering blessings over their native land and the neighboring states ; 
 cherishing by the noblest munificence, genius and science, litera- 
 ture, liberty and religion ; a base and unprincipled upstart, the 
 Abbe De Retz, whose poverty was exceeded only by his private 
 vices, and his profligate sentiments, was raising himself, amid the 
 civil commotions of France, by means of a vile and wicked system 
 of intrigue, crime and corruption, to the highest station, save one, 
 which either the state or the church could bestow. This poor and 
 detestable profligate sat out with a determination to become Cardi- 
 nal of France ; and he resolved, at the same time, that he would 
 not stop at any means, however base, to gain his end. He cor- 
 rupted the youth of France, so far as his machinations could reach 
 them ; and the young men, in the Parliament at Paris, he made 
 the instruments of his foul ambition, by exciting their jealousy 
 against the aged, talented and venerable members ; and having ac- 
 complished his designs, he left the victims of his duplicity, of all 
 
22 
 
 parties — for he cajoled and cheated all by turns — to take care of 
 themselves. His success was equal to his expectations ; but it 
 was obtained through a sei'ies of complicated and unparalleled 
 crimes and corruptions, such as none but the vilest of mankind 
 could stoop to contrive, much less to execute. 
 
 Having briefly noticed what this poor and vicious Demagogue 
 was doing for his own benefit, at the expense of the ruin of France ; 
 whilst the rich and virtuous Cosmo de Medici, was devoting his 
 life, and his immense fortune, the fruit of his honest industry and 
 enterprise, to the prosperity and happiness of Italy ; let us return 
 for a few moments to a more grateful theme. 
 
 This, of all others, is the day to do homage to the memory of 
 Washington ; and the more especially as a celebrated British States- 
 man has justly said, that " it will be the duty of the historian and 
 sage, in all ages, to omit no occasion of commemorating this illus- 
 trious man." Several more able pens than I can pretend to, have 
 delineated the character of Washington, as it stands alone in its 
 sublime native dignity — 
 
 " As some tall cli^ that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the val« and midway leaves the storm 5 
 Though on its breast the rolling clouds are spread^ 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 But I will now, in my own humble style, compare this ricli 
 patriot — this Patriarch of Liberty- — with a once poor Demagogue 
 In France, to whom I have already alluded ; a base and unprincipled 
 adventurer, like De Retz, but aiming, by the same or similar vile 
 means, at a far loftier flight. 
 
 George Washington and Napoleon Buonaparte were both- 
 practical methematicians and soldiers in early life ; but from the 
 difference of their dispositions, they directed their civic and mili- 
 tary talents to far different ends. Washington had acquired a splen- 
 did fortune by his honest industry, before he came forward to risk 
 all in attemptiiig to redeem the liberties of his country. Napoleon 
 was poor, if not pennyless, when he commenced his career of usur- 
 pation. Washington attempted in one shape, and a very proper 
 one, what Napoleon did in another shape, and a very odious one. 
 Washington nobly and generously aimed at leaguing the United 
 Staftes in a confederacy for the good of the whole ; for the purpose 
 of establishing liberty and justice, and the benign arts of peace and 
 civilization, under the protection of law, and the mild, salutary and 
 indispensable influence of religion. Napoleon aimed at forming all 
 Europe into a grand consolidated mass, not for the good of Europe,. 
 
23 
 
 but for his own personal aggrandizement : It was, that he might 
 sit upon his blood-stained and blood-cemented throne, hke Jupiter 
 on mount Olympus, and receive the servile homage of the nations 
 he had conquered and enslaved. Washington aimed at becoming, 
 and by the blessing of God did become, the benefactor of his coun- 
 try and of mankind. Napoleon aimed at becoming the universal 
 subjugator and tyrant of the human race. If Washington, through 
 the frailty of human nature, ever committed an error, calculated to 
 shed a malign influence on his grand enterprise ; the whole life of 
 Napoleon was a tissue of such errors, to say nothing of the crimes 
 connected with them. The course of Washington was the path of 
 the just, shining brighter and brighter at every step. The path of 
 Napoleon was that of conquest, ruin and desolation, in which no 
 solitary gleam relieved the gloomy perspective, or enlivened for a 
 moment its cheerless aspect. Washington was the modern Fabius, 
 Napoleon the modern Alaric Washington, even in the heat of 
 battle, was as anxious to spare the blood of his soldiers, as he was 
 to gain the victory. Napoleon, eager for the victory alone, cared 
 nothing for the blood and carnage which it cost. Washington 
 signed with painful reluctance the death-warrant of an enemy^ 
 although taken, tried and convicted as a spy, in league with Arnold^ 
 the traitor. Napoleon, with cold-blooded malignity, ordered his 
 enemy, the Duke de Enghein, to be shot, not for having acted as 
 a spy, but as a man of frankness, honor and romantic heroism ; 
 qualities which Napoleon neither possessed himself, nor respected 
 in others. Washington served his country during the revolution^ 
 without pay or reward, excepting his bare expenses, the modera- 
 tion of which excited the surprise of many, aed the admiration of 
 all. Napoleon knew no such magnanimity, and not only grasped 
 immense sums from the public treasury, for his own benefit, but 
 enriched every member of his family with the spoils of office, and 
 the fruits of public plunder. Washington was never known to 
 tremble at danger, or exhibit fear in any shape, however appalling 
 may have been the circumstances by which he was surrounded. 
 Napoleon, the fact is well established, when, like Cromwell, though 
 from far less nobler motives, he turned the national representatives 
 out of the capitol, trembled from head to foot, his blood recoiled 
 upon his heart, and his face turned as pale as though the hand of 
 death had passed over it ; whilst his brother Lucien, who was 
 also his brother conspirator, though President of the Convention, 
 reproached him in the presence and hearing of the spectators,^ for 
 having betrayed his want of courage and self-possession. Wash- 
 
ington was great in every sense of the term. The God of Nature 
 had stamped the character of his mind with grand and majestic 
 features J and had given him at the same time a heart alive to every 
 just and good impression = Napoleon was great in strength and 
 brilliancy, but not in dignity, of mind ; and his heart was the seat 
 of the worst of passions : And while we are not a little surprised, 
 that so many brave and able generals followed in the train of a 
 tyrant so selfish and unprincipled, we derive some small share of 
 pleasure, at least, from the fact, that two of the best and bravest 
 among them, Bernadotte and Moreau, denounced his tyranny, and 
 disdained to submit to it. Plutarch gives to Romulus more honor 
 than to Theseus, because he rose from small beginnings ; but he 
 does not tell us whether he rose by fair or foul means ; for here 
 lies the honor or the shame. We know that Washington, by a 
 stern and steady adherence to truth and justice, rose from the hum- 
 ble station of a land surveyor, to the Presidency of a great and 
 free people. Napoleon, by every species of intrigue and deception, 
 raised himself to Empire, it is true, but only to sink again into his 
 original insignificance. Washington treated not only his own sol- 
 diers, but his prisoners, with kindness and humanity. Napoleon 
 would at any time sacrifice a regiment or a legion to gratify his 
 selfish pride and vanity. Washington adhered faithfully, through 
 life, to the woman who had won his early affections, and to whom 
 he was married. Napoleon divorced himself from his first wife, 
 basely deserting the woman to whom alone he owed all his pros- 
 perity and splendor, to take another far less amiable and accom- 
 plished, from motives of the meanest selfishness and the foulest 
 ambition : Nor did he in this case alone, exhibit his total destitu- 
 tion of principle, in his disregard of the matrimonial law, which 
 Ood ordained : For he divorced his brother Jerome from the beau- 
 tiful and talented young American wife, whom he had married in 
 Baltimore, because she was not of royal blood, forcing his depend- 
 ent brother to marry the daughter of a petty prince ; thus violating 
 the most sacred of obligations, and severing the tenderest ties : For 
 although he had no affection for the wife whom he had abandoned, 
 nor for any other human being, any further than some selfish inte- 
 rest bound him ; yet Jerome did sincerely love his wife, and felt 
 the separation as a keen and incurable wound of the heart. Such 
 was the pride of Napoleon, on this occasion, that he would not 
 suffer the beautiful American wife of his brother to land on the 
 shores of France ! Where, then, is the noble-spirited and virtuous 
 woman — ^^vhere, then, is the brave and honest man — of the United 
 
25 
 
 States — who can either respect the memory, or regret the fall, of 
 this upstart tyrant ? Washington was the sincere professor and 
 friend of Christianity : — " Of all the dispositions and habits," said 
 that great and good man, " which lead to political prosperity, reli- 
 gion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that 
 man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert 
 these great pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of the 
 duties of men and of citizens." Napoleon was devoted to the cross 
 or the crescent, as his interest dictated, being a Christian one day, 
 and a Mahomedan the next ; a Roman Catholic one day, and a 
 Protestant the next ; one day grossly insulting and basely plunder- 
 ing the Pope, and the next courting his favor, inviting him to his 
 court, and pretending to be his obsequious admirer. Washington's 
 religion was of one complexion, one steady flame of pure piety and 
 rational devotion. Napoleon's religion, if it be not a profanation of 
 the term, had all the colors of the rainbow, with none of their bril- 
 liancy ; and all the changes of the moon or the winds, without any 
 of their benign effects. Washington, secure in the affections and 
 the gratitude of a free people, voluntarily retired from power, to 
 adorn and dignify the scenes of domestic ease and tranquillity. 
 
 "AndO! Columbia, by thy sons caressed, 
 There dwelt the Father of the realms he blessed: 
 Who, no wish felt to make his mighty praise, 
 Like other chiefs, the means himself to raise. 
 But there, retiring, breathed in pure renown, 
 And felt a grandeur thai disdained a crown 1" 
 
 Napoleon, with no security in the affections, and no claims on the 
 gratitude, of his country, or mankind, grasped the sword and the 
 purse-strings, till they were wrenched from him by force, and then 
 sought safety by an inglorious flight. Washington, thanks be to 
 our God, and the God of our fathers, lived to see his benevolent 
 and grand design accomplished, to see his country free, prosperous 
 and happy; and died at last with all his laurels fresh upon his 
 brow, without having lost a solitary ray of his pure and imperish- 
 able glory. Napoleon, totally defeated in a career of usurpation 
 and tyranny, unparalleled in the history of mankind, was banished 
 to a narrow, solitary and dreary rock, in the midst of a vast ocean ; 
 there to die a lingering and a miserable death, in which the justice 
 of Heaven was as vividly displayed on the one hand, as the mean 
 malice, treacherous hospitality, and cowardly fears of his enemies 5 
 and especially of the British Government, were clearly evinced on 
 the other. The life and death of Washington attract the universal 
 admiration and envy of mankind : for who would not live the life. 
 
26 
 
 who would not die the death, of the great and the good, the just 
 and the righteous man ! The life and death of Napoleon, on the 
 contrary, attract no admiration, excite no envy, from any enlight- 
 ened and philosophic mind, or any honest and generous heart. 
 Great, good, and brave men have wept at the tomb of Washington, 
 the unassuming, honest and faithful republican chief. None but 
 drivellers or dotards ever shed a tear over that of Napoleon, the 
 upstart usurper and the remorseless tyrant. 
 
 Again — Washington died glorying in the cross of his Divine 
 Master ; and in the full assurance, that there was eternal life and 
 unspeakable joy laid up for him in heaven. But Napoleon, in his 
 last moments, found his future prospects as cheerless, and his heart 
 as cold and comfortless, as the rock to which he was chained. 
 Every view which Washington took of his by-gone days, could serve 
 only to enliven his hopes of the future, and gild his prospects be- 
 yond the grave : For like Enoch he had walked with God, and 
 like Abraham he felt assured that his faith was imputed to him for 
 righteousness. But whenever Napoleon turiled to the past, every 
 view brought some fresh sting with it, to goad his conscience and 
 to pierce his heart ; while the future was clothed with terrors that 
 haunted him by night and by day. I have studied alt '"'story, both 
 sacred and profane; and I fear not to assert, that its pages exhibit 
 no spectacle more disgusting to a correct mind, or more de[ "^ing 
 to human nature, than that of this Usurper and Tyrant, sub d by 
 adversity, but unsustained by grace. Behold him fretting and fu- 
 ming like a beldame at every trivial vexation ; and daily, if not 
 hourly, venting his spleen, in the most unmanly and even childish 
 ebullitions, upon his brutal military keeper, instead of rising supe- 
 rior to the insults which he received from that insignificant and 
 contemptible tool of power, and sustaining himself by communion 
 with his creator, and the page of inspiration. But alas ! poor De- 
 magogue, he had sunk the Emperor in the Exile, and the philoso- 
 pher and hero in the dotard and pitiful complainer. He felt himself 
 abandoned both by God and man, whilst no ray of peace or conso- 
 lation enlivened the gloom of his .solitude, or pointed the way for 
 him to another and a better world. We learn from the Journal of 
 Las Casas, who shared his exile, and was his bosom friend, that 
 just before his death he lamented bitterly his want of religion. On 
 one occasion he called for the reading of our Saviour's Sermon on 
 the Mount ; and though struck with the highest admiration of the 
 simplicity and purity, the beauty and sublimity of the morality it 
 contains, still he could not find in that divine composition the con- 
 
27 
 
 solation which his hopeless condition required. It was in this 
 state of mental anxiety and uncertainty, although flattered by his 
 vanity to believe, that he had committed no great wickedness, that 
 he exclaimed :— " What, then, would be my happiness, if the 
 bright prospect of futurity presented itself to crown the last mo- 
 ments of my existence!" O! miserable man! He had ridden 
 upon the whirlwind, and directed the storm of a tremendous revo- 
 lution ! He had usurped the power, and subverted the liberties of 
 a mighty people. He had wielded that power to the prostration of 
 Kings, and the destruction of Empires. He had received, on their 
 bended knees, the homage of millions of slaves and sycophants. 
 Even genius and learning had stooped from their high career to 
 minister to his pride, to flatter his vanity, and to aid in perpetuating 
 his power ! But in vain had minions bowed, and kings and em- 
 pires fallen before him. In vain had the pride of learning and the 
 splendor of genius been humbled and obscured by the fame of his 
 achievements, the blaze of his glory, and the colossal magnitude of 
 his power : And instead of looking forward with the great and 
 good Washington, to a crown of righteousness and glory in heaven, 
 his imagination was harrowed with the spectre of a crown of thorns 
 in a far difT.rant region. The sun of Washington had set in mild 
 and majestic splendor, cheering with its departing beams the liberal 
 hopef-j^of |the. votaries of liberty and religion of all nations : But the 
 sun„.Jf^apoleon had gone down in clouds and darkness, leaving 
 none lo mourn his fall but the ignorant and deluded, or those con- 
 genial spirits of foul ambition, who had shared with him the spoils, 
 won by his unparalleled crimes and corruptions. Let no sickly 
 sentimentalist say, that I am treading rudely on the ashes of the 
 dead : I am, if I know my own heart, the last man to forget what 
 is due to the memory of the good and the great, or to lose sight for 
 a moment of that decorum which the grave silently but impressive- 
 ly exacts from all who approach it. But the sacred cause of truth, 
 freedom and humanity demands, that history should no longer veil 
 the crimes and corruptions of usurpers and tyrants ; and that their 
 tombs should be stripped of the false glory that surrounds them. 
 
 The fate of Napoleon, however, does afford one ground of great 
 consolation to the friends of freedom throughout the world. It 
 holds out a perpetual lesson, a solemn warning to mankind. His 
 life is on record ; and thanks to the invention of printing, that dark 
 record cannot be lost, while time and art survive : And so of the 
 soHtary spot where his relics lie buried. It seems to have been 
 marked out by divine predestination, as a memento to all future 
 
 4 
 
28 
 
 ages. Scarcely a mound or a monument, a turf or a stone, now 
 points the traveller to the tomb of any one of the thousands of ty- 
 rants and oppressors, who have heretofore disturbed the peace, and 
 trampled upon the rights of mankind. But the tomb of Napoleon, 
 I rejoice to repeat it, can never be either lost or forgotten. Men 
 of all nations, and of all ages to come, will pass in sight of it with 
 every breeze that shall ever blow. Often will they find themselves 
 becalmed around it in numerous ships, bearing the flags of every 
 country and of every clime ; their eyes will behold the lonely spot ; 
 their meditations will dwell upon it ; and they will hold converse 
 of the Tyrant, whose ashes it entombs : And there will it thus 
 stand through all time, as a beacon to warn the world against all 
 such as he was : And let every one such, before he commences his 
 foul career of usurpation, visit, in imagination at least, if not in 
 reality, the solitary rock of St. Helena : And as he there hears the 
 dark storm of the ocean sweep with a howling blast over the deso- 
 late tomb ; and beholds the thunderbolts of heaven descending with 
 awful sublimity on the desecrated and gloomy scene : Let him 
 pause, let him meditate on the fate of this modern Alaric : Let him 
 commune with his conscience and his God : Let him stay his foul 
 purpose, and nobly resolve to become the friend of freedom, and 
 the benefactor of his race, instead of the enemy of the one and the 
 tyrant and destroyer of the other. Let him not reconcile himself 
 to usurpation, by saying with Caesar, Cataline or Caligula, that his 
 country is so degenerate as to need a master ; but let him say with 
 Plato, that if he cannot contrive to exalt and save, he will not con- 
 tribute to degrade and enslave her. 
 
 But to return from this digresson, if it be one : — I have been ra- 
 ther prolix on the subject of the rich and the poor, from a sense of 
 duty alone to the cause of liberty, which must depend upon social 
 harmony : For I have been taught to believe, that men are to be 
 distinguished by their ignorance and their vices, in contrast with 
 their talents and their virtues : And as God has made no other dis- 
 tinction than this, excepting that of male and female, we cannot 
 justly acknowledge any other. Let us not, then, excite or cherish 
 prejudices between those, who, on the principles of our republican 
 constitutions, ought to be united, if possible, in the common cause 
 of liberty and humanity : But let us enquire of Truth, and she 
 will teach us, that if Paul had been as rich as Croesus, he would 
 still have died as nobly as he did, without a solitary murmur, in 
 defence of her cause : And believe me, that riches would not have 
 transformed Columbus into an Almagro or Pizarro ; nor would 
 
29 
 
 poverty have made either of these cruel and mercenary tyrants to 
 resemble him in his matchless genius and god-like virtues. So if 
 the Medici, or Hampden, or Washington, had been as poor as the 
 vile demagogues and upstarts, De Retz and Napoleon, their virtues 
 vrould have been the same, whilst the possession of all their wealth 
 would not have cured the latter of their vices. 
 
 I cheerfully admit, what no well informed man will deny, that 
 the unequal distribution of property, carried to extremes, may af- 
 fect if not totally destroy the liberties of a nation ; for we know 
 that it has, for nearly three thousand years, subjugated nearly all 
 Europe. All that I have aimed at is, to convey the impression, 
 that in proportion to their numbers, there have been no more con- 
 spirators against the rights of man among the rich than among the 
 poor ; and that it is neither wealth nor poverty, but perversion of 
 mind and of heart, that makes men proud, imperious, or unjust : 
 And this can be cured only by the light and the spirit of revelation, 
 though it may be molified by the light of nature and common edu- 
 cation : And here it may not be amiss to remark, that the greatest 
 and vilest conspirator this country ever knew, the man, who, in the 
 revolution, sold us all and received his price in British gold, though 
 defeated in performing his contract, was Benedict Arnold, the poor 
 demagogue of Connecticut, whilst the vigilance and fidelity of 
 Washington, the rich planter of Virginia, foiled the Traitor, and 
 saved his country. Arnold was involved in debt beyond the hope 
 of extrication ; but still, if he had been an honest man, his poverty 
 could not and would not have betrayed him into the commission of 
 so great a crime. 
 
 If the bulk of property in Europe be in the hands of the rich, it 
 is owing to their old feudal system, and their ancient barbarism and 
 ignorance- These gave to the crown, the nobility and the hierar- 
 chy, the chief possession of the soil, and rendered the tillers of it, 
 the farmers, not merely political slaves, as our fathers were before 
 the revolution, but personal slaves, the same nearly as our colored 
 slaves in the south. But here, with the exception just alluded to, 
 the tillers of the soil are the lords of the soil ; the tenants are but 
 few and far between ; and the proprietors nearly the whole popu- 
 lation. Here no proud lord — for we have, thank Heaven, no such 
 vermin as lords among us — with his parasites, his hunters and his 
 hounds, in his train, can leap the land-marks and trample down 
 with impunity the grass or the grain of the husbandman, or gather 
 it into his own garners, when ripe for the scythe or the sickle, 
 leaving only the gleanings for the mouth of labor : And here no 
 
30 
 
 Priest or Bishop can demand tithes of us, or take them by force if 
 refused : For here our rulers and our priests are our servants and 
 not our masters ; here no man or set of men can impose laws, 
 tithes or taxes, upon us, without our consent ; nor can tithes or 
 taxes for the support of a priesthood be imposed at all : And here, 
 then, we shall never have either the rich or the poor, but ourselves, 
 the whole people alone, to blame, if by sanctioning unequal and 
 unjust laws and privileges, we make the rich richer and the poor 
 poorer, till property shall entirely change owners, and what is now 
 so equally distributed among the many, shall be grasped in the 
 hands of the few. But this can never be, so long as we preserve 
 our state rights and constitutions as they now are ; the federal con- 
 stitution of the Union as it now is ; all being based, as they now 
 are, upon the principle of representation before revenue or taxation ; 
 and the choice of our rulers by the ballot boxes and free and uni- 
 versal suffrage, instead of having them imposed upon us by a king 
 or a despot, and their tools or minions : And above all, so long as 
 we shall feel, and act upon, the obligations which flow from Chris- 
 tianity, and form the strongest and the only permanent foundations 
 of freedom. 
 
 Surely, then, where all possess equal rights under the constitu- 
 tion and the laws of their country, none can have a right to com- 
 plain. Still, even under a political state of things so just and equal, 
 the most ingenious, industrious and enterprising, if Divine Provi- 
 dence smile upon their exertions, will obtain the most wealth : 
 And why should they not ? For to complain of this would be im- 
 pious : It would be to find fault with our Creator, for having be- 
 stowed upon our friend or fellow-countryman his superior qualifi- 
 cations for the toils and enterprises of life. On the contrary, so 
 long as the superior skill, enterprise and industry only of our rival, 
 give him the advantage over us, we ought to rejoice, instead of 
 repining, at his prosperity : For all good men must rejoice in the 
 merited prosperity of their friends or fellow-citizens. But if the 
 constitution, or the laws under it, or in violation of it, give my 
 rival a privilege, which, under the same or similar circumstances, 
 it denies to me ; and by means of this exclusive, unnatural, and 
 unjust advantage, he triumphs and I fail, it makes him so far a ty- 
 rant, and me so far a slave ; and I have then a right to complain. 
 
 But I now come to a serious question. Since both Mr. Adams 
 and Mr. Morris have argued, that the rich will tyrannise over the 
 poor, and have recommended, therefore, to keep them quiet and 
 good humored by fixing them for life in the Senate and other high 
 
31 
 
 places in the state, the army and the navy ; it is time to enquire 
 seriously, whether these gentlemen — themselves rich men — were 
 in earnest in thus impeaching the rich ; or was it mere policy, 
 adopted for the moment to carry a favorite point : First, to alarm 
 the people, by showing them a Lion in their way ; and then per- 
 suading them to put the dangerous beast into a splendid cage, a 
 palace, becoming the ferocious dignity of his royal bruteship, and 
 there to feed him with the richest and the choicest viands, instead of 
 slaying him as Sampson did. I must say, indeed, that of all the rare 
 cataplasms, or quack remedies, for physical, moral and political 
 disorders, this new plan of curing tyrants of their inordinate and 
 foul propensities, by placing them in the highest offices for life ; 
 this proposition to lengthen and strengthen the claws of the Lion, 
 or the fangs of the Serpent, instead of cutting them off or pulling 
 them out, is of all others, ever known or heard of, in my humble 
 judgment, the rarest illusion or hallucination of brilliant minds ! 
 That such truly illustrious men, and profound geniuses, should hit 
 upon such remedies to prevent or to cure political disorders, is at 
 least one more proof that, in the language of Job, " great men are 
 not always wise !" 
 
 Let us, then, I repeat it, away with all mean suspicions, all vul- 
 gar jealousies, between the poor and the rich : And let us all unite 
 to secure to ourselves, and our posterity, the continuance of the 
 blessings of Union, Liberty and Justice. 
 
 To the poor and meritorious man of my country, I would say — - 
 Does any rich man look upon you with contempt, merely because 
 he is rich and you are poor, remember that it is his individual folly, 
 weakness or wickedness, that excites the frown upon his brow : 
 And upon such an arrogant fool, the poorest mechanic, or the hum- 
 blest laborer, with a sound head and heart, may justly turn the 
 sneer of scorn and contempt : He may say to him, in the conscious 
 pride of honest American Democracy : — Who art thou, weak and 
 vain upstart, that dares to turn up your nose at a fellow-creature, 
 made like yourself in the image of his Creator ; and who, if his 
 wealth be not equal to yours, has that within him which you do 
 not possess — a mind enlightened and guided by the principles of 
 justice, and a heart warmed and animated by the fire of freedom : 
 And, therefore, as my father once said to thy father, get thou be- 
 hind me, vain reptile as thou art, and shrink into thy native insig- 
 nificance ! 
 
 And to the rich man of my country, I would say : — Forget not 
 your origin in the common clay of which God created man : If born 
 
32 
 
 rich^ abuse not the blessing, and be grateful to God who bestowed 
 it upon you : If born poor, still be grateful to God for raising you 
 from poverty and obscurity to wealth and distinction ; unless indeed 
 you feel conscious that your path to wealth and distinction has been 
 the path of iniquity. But seek not, whether your wealth and 
 standing have been justly or unjustly acquired, to trample upon the 
 liberties of your country : For whoever shall attempt that, will 
 find, to his confusion and disgrace, that if his countrymen are poor 
 in purse, they are rich in spirit. He will indeed find, too soon for 
 his vile purpose — and Lexington, Bunker Hill and Saratoga, Mon- 
 mouth, Germantown and Yorktown, attest the glorious fact — that 
 there is a spirit in the bosoms of Americans, which will make him 
 feel, that he has to encounter — 
 
 " Men, high minded men '. 
 Men, who their duties know, 
 But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain ; 
 
 Prevent the long aimed blow, 
 And crush the Tyrant while they rend the chain 1" 
 
 Thus much would I say both to the poor and the rich man : And 
 I would at the same time, sincerely exhort you, my hearers, and 
 all of our fellow-countrymen, never for a moment to suffer intoler- 
 ance, bigotry, false pride, or party spirit, to blunt your feelings of 
 humanity or benevolence ; but make Truth alone the guide, and 
 Liberty alone, both temporal and spiritual, the object, of all your 
 political, moral or religious conflicts. Well indeed might the patriot 
 muse of France, in the fervor of generous sentiment, exclaim — 
 
 « O LIBERTY • can man resign THEE, 
 Once having felt thy sacred flame? 
 Can dungeons, bolts, or bars confine THEE, 
 Or whips thy noble spirit tame 1" 
 
 O ! how sublime and beautiful, in its proper sense, is the very 
 name of Liberty ! Liberty, the gift of God, the glory of men, 
 of saints and of angels ; the terror of tyrants ; and the theme of 
 that song which was sung by the Morning Stars, when all the sons 
 of God shouted for joy ! O ! what a scene for God and good An- 
 gels to behold, was that, when Freedom had her birth in the coun- 
 cils of Jehovah ; when the vaults of Heaven resounded with the 
 song of her triumphs to come ; whilst Hell trembled to its founda- 
 tions, and Lucifer, the father of Kings, Tyrants, and Monopolists, 
 " grinned horribly a ghastly smile," and flew to hide himself in the 
 deepest recess of his dark domain ; there to bewail the fall of his 
 power, and the inevitable fate of his tyrannic offspring, from Ne- 
 buchadnezzar, driven by God, for his crimes and corruptions, to 
 
33 
 
 herd and to feed with the beasts of the field, down to Napoleon, his 
 modern Representative, exiled by the same Divine Providence, for 
 the same crimes and corruptions, the same hostility to his country 
 and to mankind. In comparison v^^ith these two Tyrants, whom 
 God so justly doomed to destruction, the present Monarchs of Eu- 
 rope are but the dwindled and insignificant pigmies of the old Sa- 
 tanic brood. Still, they are the same enemies to freedom and hu- 
 manity ; the same enemies of their people, and of the human race : 
 And moreover, they are at this moment plotting the ruin of this 
 country, because it is the only abode of Freedom on earth, and 
 they dread the example it holds out to mankind : But thanks be to 
 God, a storm is now gathering, which will sweep them all, not, I 
 hope, after Nebuchadnezzar and Napoleon ; but into the ranks of 
 private life, where, uninfluenced by the arts of their old master, 
 and yielding to a purer and a holier spirit, they may redeem their 
 lost time, by repenting of their crimes, and praying for acceptance 
 at the Throne of Grace : For there the blood of thousands of mar- 
 tyrs, like Warren and Montgomery ; Brissot and Roland ; Emmet 
 and Fitzgerald ; Lount and Matthews ; Von Schoultz and Perrault ; 
 Abbey and Woodruff; still cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance, 
 and will be heard : For never yet did the Almighty turn a deaf ear 
 to the cry of innocent blood. Yes, I repeat it, from the tombs of 
 these martyrs, and of thousands of other martyrs, to the sacred 
 cause of freedom, a flame is now ascending and spreading, from 
 " the Towers of Julius," in the modern Babylon, to those of the 
 Tyrant Turk on the banks of the Euxine ; and from the Palace 
 Royal of Madrid, to that of the Northern Autocrat, upon whose soul 
 the guilt of destroying the liberties of Poland, and butchering her 
 heroic defenders, now presses with a weight, which divine grace 
 alone can prevent from bearing it down to the dark realms of eter- 
 nal perdition : And that flame, by the blessing of God, shall sweep 
 all Tyrants from their blood-stained Thrones, and consummate and 
 consecrate the freedom of the human race. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Civic and Military Associations ! 
 
 I should fail in my duty here, were I to pass over in silence 
 the harmonious and delightful manner in which you have come to- 
 gether to celebrate the birth day of freedom. It is a beautiful and 
 sublime spectacle, and excites emotions to which words would fail 
 in giving utterance, to behold so many different associations, resting 
 on so many various foundations, and with such variety of laudable 
 
34 
 
 objects in view, rushing like the mingled waters of so many pure 
 and limpid streams into this sanctuary, to rejoice with one accord 
 in the possession of that liberty which was the first best gift 
 OF God to Man. The moral which it conveys should never be 
 lost sight of — never, for a moment, be forgotten : — In Union there 
 is moral beauty and sublimity : In Union there is civil, political 
 and religious liberty : In Union, there is national strength, safety, 
 and glory. This, gentlemen, is the grand and impressive moral, 
 which the union, on this day, of so many different civic and mili- 
 tary societies, whose brilliant emblems and decorations blend to- 
 gether like the colors of the bow of promise, must convey to every 
 liberal and enlightened mind, every warm and generous heart. I 
 could not say less, and I need not say more, to gentlemen, whose 
 presence here, under such harmonious circumstances, evinces that 
 they are devoted, intellectually and sentimentally, to the liberty, 
 prosperity and glory of their country. 
 
 Brave and venerable Heroes of the Revolution ! 
 
 How ought you to rejoice, that the hallowed flame of liberty, 
 destined to consume the tyrants of the earth, first kindled by the 
 breath of God in the bosom of Moses, was re-kindled by the same 
 Divine Power in the bosoms of Washington and his fellow-laborers 
 of 1776, with whom you had the honor to stand, side by side, in 
 defending with your trusty swords the liberties of your native land. 
 I congratulate you on the return of this day, in which you have 
 so much reason to rejoice at the recollection of what God has gra- 
 ciously done for your country and yourselves. On her He bestowed 
 the precious boon of liberty in the revolution : And you He saved 
 through the perils of that awful conflict, to enjoy the fruits of your 
 generous valor, in her prosperity and happiness, and to witness on 
 this day the commencement of the sixty-fourth year of her free- 
 dom and independence. Well, then, may you look back with 
 honest pride and joy upon the past : And well may you look for- 
 ward with the calm eye of hope to your future prospects, and with 
 pure and unmingled delight on those of your country : For, believe 
 me, the present day is but the dawn of that light, freedom and glo- 
 ry, which, thanks, under God, to your valor, and that of your 
 brethren in arms, the nations of the earth are destined to receive 
 from these shores. 
 
 There seems, indeed, to have been a prophetic ministering spirit 
 at the side of Rogers, when, in the last canto of his beautiful poem, 
 
35 
 
 " The Voyage of Columbus," he introduces the vision of an An- 
 gel, addressing Columbus in his sleep. " Not thine," says the 
 Angel, to the slumbering but immortal son of Genoa — 
 
 " Not thine the olive but the sword to bring, 
 Not peace, but war ; yet from these shores shall spring 
 Peace •without end : From these, -with blood defiled, 
 Spread the pure spirit of thy master mild I 
 Here, in his train, shall arts and arms attend. 
 Arts to adorn, and arms but to defend ! 
 Assembling here, all nations shall be blessed, 
 The sad be comforted, the weary rest !. 
 Untouched, shall drop the fetters from the slave,. 
 And HE shall rule the world, HE died to save 1 
 Hence and rejoice ! The glorious work is done, 
 A spark is thrown that shall eclipse the SUN 1" 
 
 Such, my venerable and venerated friends, is the destiny of your 
 country, which I rejoice to believe can neither be retarded nor 
 averted, by any Aristocracy, Oligarchy or Hierarchy ; by any up- 
 start Usurper, Despot or King : And to that high destiny, how 
 grateful ought you to be, that your valor and achievements have 
 been made instrumental by the Divine Power. Did purer glory 
 ever glitter on the brows of the living ! Did brighter laurels ever 
 bloom on the graves of the dead ! Farewell, my friends : And 
 since my race as well as yours is nearly finished, let us pray for 
 the precious hope, that should we never meet here again, we may^ 
 through the merits of our Divine Redeemer, meet hereafter in. 
 another and a better world I 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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