«l 
 
 ^-- ^^.^t^ ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^^/4 /^ 
 
 V 
 
 ^^^^*^;>^ki!4^ 
 
 MR. DUNLAP'S 
 
 ^r 
 
AN 
 
 ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST 
 
 Wik^^llTS^©!? S©(01^®^* 
 
 THE CITY OF BOSTON, 
 
 SVJ.'X 4, 1832. 
 
 BY ANDREW DUNLAP. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 TRCE AND GREENE, PRINTERS, WATER STREET. 
 
 1832. 
 

ORATIOJV. 
 
 Fellow Citizens, 
 
 We are assembled according to the honored cus- 
 tom of our country, to commemorate an event of the 
 deepest interest to the friends of republican princi- 
 ples. A glorious political experiment was commenc- 
 ed on this continent, when the sages of the American 
 Congress proclaimed to the astonished world, the 
 Independence of these States of all European domi- 
 nation, and that a Republican Government had arisen 
 in the new world, to maintain the rights of man, 
 which in the old world were crushed, under the ac- 
 cumulated weight of the oppressions of ages. At 
 this national jubilee, the aged citizens of the Repub- 
 lic are cheered, by the recollection of the triumphs 
 which they were witnesses and participators, and 
 
4 
 
 among them yet remains to breathe his blessings upon 
 his beloved country, one venerated man, — last sur- 
 vivor of a sacred band, — awaiting the summons to lay 
 down the mortal vestment of a lofty spirit, that will 
 soon wing its flight, borne up to Heaven by the 
 prayers and the praises of his countrymen. While 
 the hearts of the young glow with emulation of the 
 past, they cherish high anticipations of the future 
 march of the nation, in the path of glory. The native 
 citizen pours forth his thanks, that he was born on 
 this soil renowned by the valor of freemen, and the 
 grateful exultation of the emigrant, who has here 
 found a sanctuary and a home, swells the tide of na- 
 tional sentiment, which spreads from the Atlantic 
 cities, to the most distant settlements in the shades 
 of the majestic forests of the West. 
 
 While we rejoice at our Independence, it should 
 not now be our aim to excite violent indiscriminate 
 animosities, against the people of that country, from 
 which our forefathers parted, with the sorrow of the 
 good and the wise, leaving forever the endeared 
 scenes of their youth, and the sepulchres of their an- 
 cestors. The rank offences of the British King and 
 his Temporal and Spiritual Aristocracy, deserve all 
 the reproaches which have been heaped upon them, 
 
and ill the United States their memories will be 
 lioldcn in infinite contempt, to the latest generations. 
 Every word in the Declaration of Independence, de- 
 nouncing the injustice of the British Government, and 
 the tyrannical measures adopted to enforce their usur- 
 pations, is the imperishable language of truth. The 
 sentence of the world inscribed on the tablet of histo- 
 ry, has attainted their reputation, and all future ages 
 will sanction the correctness of the judgment. But 
 at this period, when the vindictive excitements of the 
 struggle have subsided, truth and justice require, that 
 a marked distinction should be made, between the 
 Government that claimed the right, which none but 
 absolute masters assert over slaves, to bind this coun- 
 try " in all cases whatsoever" and the republican 
 portion of the British people, who were themselves 
 galled by the chain of arbitrary power. Perpetual 
 rancorous hostilities against a whole nation, are the 
 weeds of prejudice which spring up in the soil of cold 
 hearts and contracted minds, for from the rising to the 
 setting sun, his rays shine in every civilized country, 
 upon gifted and high souled men devoted to freedom's 
 cause, whose virtues and endowments honor the hu- 
 man character, and deserve the love and respect of 
 their republican brethren throughout the earth. 
 
That country on whose white cliffs our Pilgrim 
 ancestors cast many a lingering look, as they bade it 
 their solemn farewell, had for ages been famous in 
 arts and in arms, and on the pages of its history are 
 bright and enduring memorials of noble struggles, for 
 the liberties of the people. It had preserved in the 
 midst of the barbarous feudal despotism, which so 
 long darkened Europe, a faint image of a free govern- 
 ment, — a shadow which served to remind mankind, 
 that the proud reality of a republican government had 
 once existed. The Colonists transplanted to Ameri- 
 ca, England's boasted Magna Charta, and those free 
 principles of the British Constitution, the right of the 
 people to a share in the Judicial and Legislative de- 
 partments of government, by Juries and a represen- 
 tation of the Commons. These redeeming principles 
 were diffused throughout the Colonies. They were 
 the good seed, that fell upon the good ground, and 
 produced a glorious harvest, the Thirteen Republics 
 of 1776, and the Twenty-four Republican States of 
 1832, — the hope of freedom and the admiration of its 
 friends. 
 
 The colonists preserved the name, the language, 
 and the laws of the parent country applicable to the 
 condition of a people, in a great measure under the 
 
blessed necessity of rocnrring to original principles, 
 in the establishment of their political institutions. 
 Between the Republican party of Britain, and the 
 Puritans, powerful sympathies existed. The leaders 
 of that revolution, which reared on the ruins of the 
 Throne the Nobility and the Hierarchy, a Common- 
 wealth that commanded by its spirit and energy the 
 respect of Europe, looked to New England as the 
 City of Refuge, in the event of the failure of their 
 efforts. At one period clouds and darkness gathered 
 upon their prospects, and the ship which was to have 
 borne Cromwell and his fortunes and his friends to 
 the new world was unmoored. It was their destiny 
 to be detained, to perform lofty parts on the theatre 
 of European politics. Among the great actors of the 
 drama were those, who had been deeply imbued with . 
 the bold spirit of New England republicanism, and 
 the ardent and eloquent Sir Henry Vane had been 
 the Governor of Massachusetts. The friend of the 
 towering genius of that revolution, like the Templar 
 of the days of chivalry " half soldier and half priest," 
 was a Minister of Salem, — that patriotic town whose 
 inhabitants in the next century, at the time of the 
 Boston Port Bill, indignantly spurned with the spirit 
 of Hugh Peters, the offer of the British Government 
 
8 
 
 to build up Salem, on the ruin of Boston, if they 
 would renounce their republican principles, and for- 
 sake their republican brethren of the Capital. 
 
 After the Restoration of the Stuarts, some of 
 the Judges, who condemned Charles the First, fled 
 to Massachusetts. They were received by Governor 
 Endicott and the inhabitants, with the respect, which 
 their private virtues eminent piety and undaunted 
 courage inspired, in the breasts of a daring and en- 
 thusiastic people. A safe retreat from the pursuit of 
 the Court, was here found for the distinguished ex- 
 iles, — the victims of fatal mistakes in politics too 
 often committed, — the re-establishment of an odious 
 form of government overthrown by the valor of the 
 people, and the restoration of an obnoxious Dynasty 
 blasted by the fire of their indignation. 
 
 Another Revolution soon became necessary to 
 revolutionize the Restoration, and Massachusetts an- 
 ticipated the work of reform, the other side of the 
 Atlantic. Ere the glad shout of triumph, which rose 
 to the skies at a nations deliverance, was borne to 
 these shores, the democracy of Boston rose against 
 the restored Stuarts, as the democracy of Paris late- 
 ly rose against the restored Bourbons, and the minion 
 of despotism, — the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, 
 
recoivcd in cliains tlic intcHii;;(!ncc, that this master 
 had been driven by acclamation, from the Throne of 
 his ancestors. 
 
 When till! Biitisli CJovernment attempted to 
 impose the burden of unconstitutional taxation upon 
 the Colonies, the Republican party of Great Britain' 
 espoused the justice of our opposition. The great 
 commercial cities remonstrated against the measures 
 to subjugate America, and a letter to Lord North from 
 the Duke of Grafton retiring from the cabinet, con- 
 tains the assertion, that " the inclinations of the 
 majority of persons of respectuhility and property in 
 England, differed in little else than words, from the 
 declaralions of the Congress^ While Samuel Adams 
 the leader of the democracy of the North — the Junius 
 Brutus of our history, with a host of patriotic associ- 
 ates in the popular assemblies and Legislative Halls, 
 was rousing his countrymen to a vindication of their 
 rights, the House of Peers was illumined with the 
 eloquence of Chatham in the same cause, and the 
 glowing declaration of the Prince of the British ora- 
 tors, " I REJOICE THAT A.MERICA HAS RESISTED," 
 
 reached the heart of every Whig in the land of our 
 forefathers. The thunders of eloquence rolled in 
 vain. The Monarch was sustained in his pride of 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 power, by the Aristocracy of his khigdoni, and the 
 counsels of the Whigs had no influence in a House of 
 Commons, — a mere mockery of a representation of 
 the people, where the current price of the rotten 
 boroughs was at that day notoriously raised, by the 
 ambition of wealthy slave dealers and opulent plun- 
 derers of the East Indies, who had transmuted into 
 
 gold, " THE GROANS OF AlRlCA AND THE Tt'ARS OF 
 
 HlNDOSTAN." 
 
 Is it not manifest, while we have abundant cause 
 for the deepest detestation of the principles and con- 
 duct of the Aristocratic party of Great Britain, that 
 yve have also reason to cherish the strongest attach- 
 ment to the Republican party of that Country, and 
 to wish for the success of all their efforts to maintain 
 their rights, — redress their wrongs, — and reform the 
 abuses which press them to the earth ? According 
 to the Declaration of Independence, we hold the 
 British nation " enemies in war, — in peace friends." 
 In two wars they have found us enemies, who could 
 command their respect, both on the ocean and the 
 land. In peace we hold them friends, and at this 
 moment it is our earnest and friendly hope, that the 
 freedom of the British Constitution may be restored, 
 and the rights of the people respected, and justly 
 
11 
 
 rcprosente.'I. TIio hrcczcs boar across the ocean the 
 aspirations of our citizens, that justice may prevail 
 over corruption, right over power, and that the Repub- 
 licans of Great Britain may achieve as signal a tri- 
 umph over the Aristocratic party, as the Republicans 
 of Ainorira obtained over the same party, in the Rev- 
 olutionary contest. Who drove with the scourge of 
 persecution the Pilgrims over the rolling seas to a 
 wilderness, covered with the snows of a northern 
 winter ? Who turned the; deaf ear of the adder to 
 the supplications and remonstrances of our revolution- 
 ary fathers? Tiie Aristocratic party of Britain — 
 always arrayed against the cause of liberty and re- 
 form, and whose main pillars the Prelates, hold their 
 titles and their princely revenues by means of the 
 Reformation, and claim to be the representatives of 
 the Christian Patriarchs, — the great reformers of a 
 world. 
 
 The purity of the character of the American 
 Revolution, sheds lustre upon its ^history. It was a 
 contest not of ambition, but of principle. Those who 
 shone in the council, and gained laurels in the field 
 were not pursuing the shadow of false glory. Their 
 sole desire was to secure the freedom of their coun- 
 try. They knew that the conflict would be arduous. 
 
12 
 
 exhaust the resources, and shed the best blood of an 
 infant people. With the courage of heroes, they 
 united the mild virtues of philosophers and philan- 
 thropists, and never appealed to arms, till the measure 
 of injuries was full, — till all hope of redress vanish- 
 ed, — and the only alternative left, was that before 
 Brutus and the Romans, — to " live freemen" or " die 
 slaves." If there ever were a people under the sun, 
 who were armed in honesty, and could with sincerity 
 appeal to Heaven, for the sublime purity of their mo- 
 tives and purposes, it was the people of America 
 bursting the ties, which had united the Colonists for 
 more than a century with Great Britain. 
 
 The world acknowledged the justice of our 
 cause. France and Holland became our friends, and 
 the Great Frederic of Prussia left on record in his 
 Avorks, a condemnation of the wickedness and mad- 
 ness of the British Government. After the loss of 
 thirteen Provinces, a hundred thousand of the lives of 
 his subjects, and a hundred millions of their treasure, 
 the British Monarch M'as compelled to acknowledge 
 American Independence. Many of the most inveter- 
 ate enemies of America became convinced of their 
 errors. Even the celebrated General Burgoyne re- 
 canted his political heresies, and confessed in the 
 
13 
 
 House of Commons, that " the principle of the Amer- 
 ican war was wrongs Yet .his convert had been 
 one of our most violent persecutors, lie had, (to use 
 his own language) "thrown himself at his Majesty's 
 feet," and solicited the honor of crushing those 
 " wilful outcasts," — the American rebels, to whom 
 he afterwards surrendered at Saratoga. It was this 
 General who denounced upon our country, " devasta- 
 tion, famine and every concomitant horror,'''' and threat- 
 ened to let slip those " dogs of war" his savage 
 auxiliaries, the employment of whom, the great friend 
 of America called in vain upon the Lords Bishops to 
 oppose with the " sanctity of their lawn," and whose 
 merciless aid had been secured at a war feast, (where 
 as an eminent English historian relates) the King's 
 Minister Plenipotentiary to the " poor Indians," was 
 invited to "banquet upon a Bostonian and to 
 DRINK HIS BLOOD." The violators of our rights at 
 length received the punishment of tlieir transgres- 
 sions. It was the last wish of Lord Chatham, " that 
 the vengeance of the nation might fall heavy upon 
 the Ministry." It was the hope of Mr. Fox, that 
 they might be sent into ignominious retirement, 
 " with the curses of their country upon their heads." 
 That wish was accomplished, — that hope was realized. 
 
14 
 
 The maledictions of their country followed them, 
 and the reprobation of posterity will forever rest upon 
 their memories. Is it not a subject of the proudest 
 reflection, that our country was right, as well as suc- 
 cessful, and that the American Revolution as much 
 deserves admiration, for the lustre of its political vir- 
 tue, as the brilliancy of its military triumphs ? 
 
 This is a great age, teeming with magnificent 
 events, and adorned with illustrious men. It was 
 observed by one of the most celebrated of the French 
 Philosophers, that there had been four great ages, 
 those of Alexander, — Caesar, — Mahomet the Second, 
 — and Louis the Fourteenth. Far more splendid is 
 the age, which has produced the American and French 
 Revolutions, and given birth to Washington, — Jeffer- 
 son, — Franklin, — the proscribed patriots Hancock and 
 Adams, — La Fayette, — O'Connell, — the Liberator of 
 South America, — the Hero of New Orleans, — and the 
 Great Napoleon ! The Emperor of the French, whose 
 career of glory was of about the same duration as that 
 of Alexander, performed more wonderful actions in 
 that short period, than are recorded of all the heroes 
 of the other ages. A Lieutenant of Artillery becomes 
 the victor of Italy, — the conqueror of Egypt, — the 
 First Consul of the Republic, — the Imperial ruler of 
 
15 
 
 France, — and the Dictatoi' of Continental Europe. 
 On the burning sands of the desert, surrounded by the 
 Mamelukes, he countersigns the chart(;r of protection 
 to the Hermits of Mount Sinai, whicli had been sign- 
 ed by the hand of Mahomet. In a few years he is iu 
 the midst of tlie polar frosts, enconij)assed by the Cos- 
 sacks, the master of the ancient Capital of Russia, 
 and beholding from the Kremlin, the sublimity of the 
 conflagration of Moscow. We look down upon the 
 captive of Elba, and at the next moment, borne from 
 Frejus to Paris in the arms of the people, he reascends 
 in triumph the Imperial Throne, to which he was 
 originally elevated by the suffrages of the French na- 
 tion. His unrivalled military career is terminated by 
 the banishment to which he was condemned, by the 
 Despots of the Holy Alliance, who envied his great- 
 ness, and dreaded his popularity. In the cruel agony 
 of exile, he evinced more true grandeur of soul, than 
 he had displayed even in his most brilliant days of 
 prosperity, and on the sultry rock, where he was 
 sent to perish,— rlike Wolsey, 
 
 " He gave his honors to the world again, 
 
 His blessed part to lieaven, and slept in peace." 
 
 The confinement at St. Helena, of the Legislator of 
 France, and the Great Captain of the Age, has stained 
 
16 
 
 with indelible dishonor, the character of the Prince 
 Regent, who in the nineteenth century refused an 
 asylum to the Themistocles of Europe, throwing him- 
 self upon his magnanimity, which even Xerxes, he- 
 fore the light of Cliristiauity dawned upon the world, 
 extended to his great enemy, — the master spirit of 
 the Athenian Republic. 
 
 We live in the age of Revolutions, and a Revo- 
 lution is the fountain of our Independence. From 
 the impulse and obligation of universal benevolence, 
 which binds man to man, we rejoice at the sufccessful 
 efforts of othernations to throw off their fetters. The 
 struggles of the South American patriots, were ob- 
 served at every period with intense solicitude, and 
 the declaration of President Monroe, that any attempt'" 
 to reestablish European domination, must be consid- 
 ered an attack upon the foundation principles of our 
 Independence, was approved by the feelings and 
 judgment of the whole people. All the efforts of 
 beautiful enlightened and brave France, to trample in 
 the dust the chains of Bourbon despotism, have been 
 hailed with enthusiasm. Our prayers ascended for 
 Greece rising against her oppressors, that the spirit 
 of the ancient Republics might revisit the classic land 
 of the poets, the painters, the sculptors, the philoso- 
 
17 
 
 phers, the historians, the orators, the statesmen, and 
 the heroes, and animate their descendants, with the 
 gallantry, with which their brave ancestors successful- 
 ly resisted the Great King, and his million of barba- 
 rian followers. Whose heart refused to beat with 
 joy, when hope so long deferred was realized, and the 
 Emerald Isle was liberated by the Catholic Bill, from 
 the bondage of religious bigotry ? But when Poland 
 fell, — when the vanguard of the liberties of Europe 
 was trampled down and the standard of despotism 
 planted on the ramparts of Warsaw, the shriek of 
 freedom smote on all hearts throughout this widely 
 extended republic. Let the work of political improve- 
 ment go on, while an abuse remains to be reformed 
 on the face of the globe ! May all the mounds erected 
 by the political engineers, to stay the flood of liberal 
 principles, be swept away by the torrent of knowl- 
 edge, now rushing with constantly accumulating 
 force I Heaven grant that the blessings of liberty 
 may be extended, till man shall every where stand 
 forth in all the glory of his nature, in the enjoyment 
 of his unalienable rights, and under the protection of 
 free institutions, favourable to the full developement 
 of his virtues and talents, and the elevation of his 
 
 character to the highest point of perfection ! 
 3 
 
18 
 
 Our Revolution was a political experiment, and 
 principles were to be tested in the new world, which 
 had been exploded in the old. The Republics of an- 
 tiquity had crumbled to dust, and Greece and Rome 
 were remembered, not for the glories of their free- 
 dom, but the splendors of their literature. The dis- 
 covery of Columbus opened a new field, — a vast con- 
 tinent beyond the Atlantic, where the Republican 
 banner might be once more unfurled. In a little 
 more than a century from the day, when that greatest 
 man of his time, with the loftiest emotions that ever 
 filled a human breast, first "stood triumphant on 
 another world," our ancestors laid the foundation of the 
 proud edifice of our freedom, on the rock of Plymouth. 
 While the Spaniards, under the successors of Cortez 
 and Pizarro, sought the gold of Mexico and Peru, the 
 Pilgrims sought the more precious treasures of civil 
 and religious liberty. 
 
 Important have been the consequences, of the 
 experiment, commenced on the glorious day we cele- 
 brate ! The example of the American Revolution 
 has inspired all the efibrts in Europe, for the last 
 half century, in favour of the rights of the people, and 
 given an irresistible impulse to the liberal cause, — a 
 cause destined to spread, till the whole earth shall be 
 
19 
 
 cheored and the whole horizon iUuminod, hy the re- 
 splendent light of freedom. North and South Amer- 
 ica are now covered with republican governments, and 
 in almost every region, from the fall of Niagara to 
 Cape Horn, the name of King is as odious, as it was 
 in Rome, from the expulsion of the Tarquins, to the 
 overthrow of the Republic at the battle of Pharsalia. 
 The Thirteen Colonies have risen to the stature 
 of twentv-four flourishing Republican Stales, inhabit- 
 ed by an intelligent population, a great majority of 
 whom are united in political sentiment, and who 
 changing the wild into a blooming garden, and culti- 
 vating with ardour the arts of peace, are able to de- 
 fend their country against the world in arms. We 
 have no national debt, the mill stone which is sink- 
 ing the British nation, in the depths of despair — no 
 Established Church, " to take from the mouth of labor 
 the bread it has earned," — no Patrician order to over- 
 bear merit and insult the nobility of nature, — no laws 
 but those made by the wisdom of the people, — no rulers 
 but the nations choice, — no Sovereignty but the sove- 
 reignty of the people. The present President of the 
 United States, is a practical illustration of the genu- 
 ine republicanism of our government and citizens, for 
 he was elevated to his exalted station, solely by his 
 
20 
 
 merit, public services, and sound political principles 
 Yet this illustrious citizen called, by an overwhelming 
 demonstration of the confidence and respect of his 
 fellow citizens, from his plough, to the Chief Magis- 
 tracy of the Republic, and elected to the first office 
 in the world, was left at an early age an unprotected 
 orphan, with no fortune but his talents, — no support 
 but the energy of his own character, — no patronage 
 but the friendship of a just and enlightened people. 
 His election and administration are alike proofs, that 
 the republicanism of this nation has grown with its 
 growth, and strengthened with its strength. 
 
 In the possession of our inestimable political 
 blessings, we also hold a precious trust for the benefit 
 of our posterity. How shall we discharge this trust 
 with fidelity, and deserve the respect, with which 
 we delight to honor our fathers ? Is it not by 
 imitating their glorious example, cherishing their re- 
 publican principles, and preserving strengthening and 
 embellishing their republican institutions ? Those 
 institutions form a wise structure of government. 
 By the Constitution of the United States, the ener- 
 gies of the State Governments, for the management 
 of external and national affairs, are united in the 
 Federal Government, which should be preserved as 
 
21 
 
 it was established, in the spirit of compromise and 
 mutual affection among those who had shared a com- 
 mon danger, and gained a common triumph. To the 
 State Governments chiefly belong the direction of the 
 great mass of the powers of all governments, those 
 which relate to affairs of an internal and domestic 
 character, and all powers not expressly granted to the 
 Government of the United States. By this structure 
 the strength and stability of our institutions are not 
 weakened, but increased, by the progress of our set- 
 tlements, the extent of our empire, and the addition 
 of new States, for each new State extends the bless- 
 ings of a Republican Government to the most dis- 
 tant regions, while it adds to the members of the 
 American Confederacy, and strengthens the National 
 Union. May the rights of the State Governments 
 be preserved inviolate, the Government of the United 
 States sustained by the patriotism of the people, in 
 the faithful discharge of their Constitutional duties, 
 and the political arch of our Umon ever remain as 
 beautiful as that glorious arch, which spans the heav- 
 ens, and as enduring as the firmament in which it is 
 placed ! 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 :l' I'.lll 
 
 011 782 719 7 *