\%^^ ORATION, DELIVERED BEFORE THE /^^ 5*" DEMOCRATIC CITIZENS OP ALLEGHENY COUNTY, CELEBRATING THE 57tH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, ON THE FOURTH JULY, 1833, BY WILSON McCANDLESS, Esa, PITTSBURGH; (Published by ordeir of the Committtee.) J. B. BUTLER, Printer. -b I I i { --r Pittsburgh, July 5, 1833. Dear Sir — A number of those who had the pleasure of listening to your Oration, delivered before the Democratic citizens of our City and County, on the 4th of July inst., believing that the patriotic sentiments- so eloquently expressed in that address, would be gratifying to your fellow citizens, on behalf of many of your personal friends, request a copy for publication. Very respectfully, &c. ^ CHARLES SHALER, M. B. MILTENBERGER, ^ ROBERT CHRISTY, T. M. HOWE, ^WM. LECKY, J. B. GUTHRIE, ^S. KINGSTON, GEORGE A. COOK,^ ^ ROBERT BURKE, WM. M. SHINN, ^ GEO. R. WHITE, JOHN HARPER, JOHN B. BUTLER, R. H. DOUTHITT. ^ Pittsburgh, July 8, 1833. Gentlemen— At a time when, within our own city, one of the most distin- guished statesmen of the country is pouring a flood of light upon the nature and effect of our republican institutions, any effort of mine, upon a similar topic, must necessarily be both feeble and imperfect. It is, therefore, with unfeigned reluctance, I furnish for publication a copy of the Oration deliv- ered on the 4th inst. For the flattering terms in which you have been pleased to express your approbation, accept my thanks. I am, with much respect. Your obedient servant, WILSON M'CANDLESS. To Hon. Charles Shaler, and oiiiers. ORATION. You have come together, my fellow citizens, for no ordi- nary purpose . To hold in grateful remembrance this holy Sabbath of American liberty, calls forth the noblest and most exalted feelings of our nature, and elevates you in the estima- tion of all human kind. All your common avocations are this day suspended, and you have assembled round the festive board, to forget your former feuds and animosities, to soften your po- litical prejudices, to contemplate the grandeur and stability of your republican institutions, and to sing the pas an of your country's deliverance. No event can be more interesting — no spectacle can be more sublime, than to witness you doing ho- nor to the mighty dead, and holding up to public admiration, "Amid the blaze of their sunset halos," the deeds of those heroic men, who laid the corner stone of the Republic, in the sombre hour of the Revolution. Other people celebrate the birth-days of their kings and potentates, whose whole lives may have been a scene of moral carnage; but to you is reserved the ennobling privilege, by spontaneous consent, of marking the annual return of a day, that spoke into exist- ence a nation, and on which was performed the proudest act recorded in the annals of humanity. Their public fete may be attended with all the splendor of royal magnificence, and all the opulence of the aristocracy, enlisted by the impulse of a time-serving motive; but yours is the voluntary offering of the heart, for achievements that are past, but vivid and bright in the recollection of all. The 4th of July, '76, has no parallel in history. The repre- sentatives of thirteen infant colonies, without power or strength, save that ardour of soul which characterizes men struggling to be free, declared in the presence of God, and the whole com munity of nations, that their thraldom should be no more. — Standing up in all the majesty of their natures, they asserted the proud prerogative of governing themselves, and of tramp- ling under foot the edicts of a king, who claimed to reign by the grace of God. Europe beheld with wonder, and on the British royalist came fear, and trembling. The king issued his proclamations, appointed his commissioners, and offered pardon to the rebels who should submit to his royal clemency; but Con- gress and the people, aggravated to the last extremity by repeat- ed grievances, laughed to scorn this unwarrantable assumption of imperial authority. "The castle of our defence was strong," the hearts of our countrymen were impregnable. The Declaration of Independence, altho' the act of afew patri- otic individuals, was countenanced &. supported by the great bo- dy of the American people. And does this assembly, so large, so intelligent, enquire, what actuated those heroic men in thus as- serting their independence? I should do you injustice, my fel- low citizens, to suppose, that every edict which heaped oppres- sion upon the colonies, &. every act of vigorous resistance, on the part of the American people, was not well and intimately known to you all. History's broad and unerring page, speaks facts that cannot be falsified. In characters darker than Erebus and the shades of night, are there traced the wrongs and oppres- sions of thfs then suffering people. All the exploits of British renown, whether upon the sea or on the land, have as yet been unable to efface this stain infused into her national honor. Lookback to the early history of the country — to the settle- ment of the Puritans, who fled from the political broils of their own country, to find a home and a refuge in this. No armwas stretched out for their assistance. They were left to drive out the savages, and hew down the stately forests of America; and the government neither offered the use of her treasury, nor the protection of her armies. When, by indefatigable labor, they had reared a prosperous and wealthy colony, the hoary avarice of the British ministry, looked to them as a source whence might be derived much pecuniary and political advantage. The whole coast of North America, studded with infant but progres- sive colonies, became the theatre of their moral depredations. Not content that the people should "be hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the parasites of royalty in America, they imposed taxes without their consent, and denied them the right of legislative representation. None but a despot will deny the importance of free represen- tation. — It is the "vital principle of political existence." With- out it the government is of precarious tenure, and the people under the domination of men, who acknowledge no responsi- bility. Without it, the judge may take a bribe, and the public rulers be guilty of the most palpable heresies, and not be amen- able to any tribunal for their political sins. The sturdy yeomanry of America spurned such a system. Having no voice in the public councils, they denied the right of a British Parliament, to impose upon them the evils of taxa- tion. Supporting a foreign as well as domestic government— re- fused the privilege of shipping their products to any other than an English port — paying heavy duties when there — their man- ufactures embargoed to subserve the interest of British monop- olists, and the country drained of its resources, without any corresponding benefits, were burdens too heavy for the expand- ing souls of American yeomanry. Hurling the gauntlet of de- fiance at their imperious sovereign, they burst the chain of civil despotism, and scattered the fragments to the winds. On that day the glory of the British sun was obscured, and up rose, in the political firmament, a new constellation of THIRTEEN brilliant and dazzling STARS. Political as- tronomers gazed, and wondered much, and long, to ascertain the beiaring of this novel appearance in the heavens. The stars separated not. A belt as strong as that of Saturn, and as beau- tiful as the girdle of Venus, bound them in indissoluble UNION. All agreed, that they were not fixed stars, but were on the rap- id ascent to the brightness of the zenith. When this mystery appeared in the heavens, the British king, like Belshazzer of old, was drinking from golden goblets, and feasting with his wives and the wise men of the realm. And when the king beheld it, "his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, an>i his knees smote one against another." And the ministers and soothsayers, and astrologers were called in to in- terpret it. They stood amazed, while horrors chill ran through all their veins. "They spoke not a word ; But like dumb statues, and breathless stones, Stared at each other, and looked deadly pale," until the great Chatham, faithful and fearless, shewed the in- terpretation — declaring "that the king had been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; and that his kingdom was divid- ed, and given to the Medes and the Persians." Such was the scene presented on the other side of the At- lantic — what was the result of the Declaration here? A glorious impulse was given to the cause of liberty — a new courage was infused into the bosom of the army. Disregarding present hardships, and urged on by the new born spirit of In- dependence, mountains were leveled to plains, gulphs were con- tracted to the space of rivulets, and there was no obstacle, mor- al or physical, that was not overcome with ease and facility. Gazing down the vista of time, they saw, with a prophetic eye, the final accomplishment of all their wishes. Stimulated by tJie conscious justice of their cause, and the distant echo of victory, they advanced from campaign to campaign, from battle field to baltle field, through ice and snow, and amid a continued tempest of the elements. Defeat followed defeat, but the kin- dling spark of eternal liberty could not be extinguished. "Like earth's central fire, it may be smothered for a while, oceans may overwhelm it, mountains may press it down, but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the land, and at some time or other, in some place or other, the volcano will burst out, and flame up to heaven." Keeping steadily in view the high purpose of the glorious stru^le, no adverse consequences could shake the "firm re- solve." Their march was onward, onward! — And then, like the quick succession of the vivid lightning, victory followed victory, until the impulse given at Bunker Hill, finally con- summated the glorious achievement on the plains of Torktown. WASHINGTON returned his sword to its scabbard, saturated with the blood of his country's enemies. And he, and his com- patriots in arms, returned to the peaceful shades of private life, amid the acclamations of the people, and the loud reverbera- tions of triumph. Our constitution adopted, with the hero of a hundred bat- tles at its head ; what a spectacle did we present to the admira- tion of the civilized world 1 Inexperienced in the science of government, we were a problem for the solution of mankind. Our system bore but a slight resemblance to the republics of an- tiquity — the sphere of its operation was more extensive, the revolution of its parts more complicated. Numerous lesser wheels within the rim and protection of a greater, required the utmost vigilance, to guard and mark their regular rotation. The foundation of the Engine, was the unhewn block of a new hemisphere, on which the science of political mechanics, was heretofore unknown. Cunning artificers and skilful workmen were necessary to build it up, and bold and resolute engineers to set it in motion. From the first opening of the valve, the machine started off gracefully, and with wonderful harmony, and has continued its revolutions unimpaired by internal acci dent, until the present day. Forty-four years have now elaps- ed, and no doubt exists of its perpetuity and stability. That its happy operation may continue, whilst the sea girds it, and the heavens canopy it, is the fervent aspiration of the patriot! But what has been the effect of the adoption of this political system upon our own country, and "the great glolje itself?" Improvements, prodigious and vast, have characterised our progress. Mountains have been emboweled, and their hidden B 10 treasures brought forth, and appropriated to the uses of life. Rivers have been travelled with the rapidity of the thunderbolt, and time and space annihilated by the locomotive and the steam engine. The dogma of the ancient philosophers that a democ- racy could not exist in a great extent of territory, is here obvia- ted by theTimely application of steam. The air has been tra- versed by the balloon, and the beauties of the upper sky ex- plored by the intrepidity of the jeronaut. Rail roads and ca- nals intersect the whole country, as the veins and arteries, thro' which run and circulate the vital blood of the body politic. From continent to continent our sails whiten the ocean, and our flag wafts in the breeze of every sea "under the whole heaven." The ground tilled and cultivated under peaceful and benignant skies, brings forth fruitful and abundant harvests. By the aid of the pulley & the lever, lofty temples have been erect- ed to the service of the Almighty, and magnificent mausoleums and monuments to the memory of the illustrious dead. Knowl- edge beams forth from the walls of a thousand seminaries of learning, and her benign rays have expanded the views, and ameliorated the condition of the people. Here let us pause, and take a rapid sketch of our own noble city. When the Declaration just read was adopted amid the plau- dits of the American multitude, the place on which you now stand, was a barren and vinproductive forest. The influence of our free institutions has shorn the stately oak of his leafy honors, and prostrated his lofty trunk beneath the axe of the improver. On his ruins a great metropolis, the queen of man- ufacturing cities, has risen as by the force of magic. "As the swoln columns of ascending smoke," so swells her grandeur. From a thousand chimnies are emitted the living evidences of her prosperity. The busy hammer, the flaming fire, the revolving roller, all give daily, hourly proof of her rapid advancement. Here the rough, mis-shapen elements of nature are formed and moulded to suit the purposes of man. . 11 Here machines, to mitigate the toil of the laborer, and facilitate the intercourse between the states, are made with a skill Unsur- passed even by the old world . Here the naked are clothed and the poor fed by the revolution of machiney, and "the po- tent agency of steam." From hence the anchor is heaved, to give security to the weather beaten mariner, and from hence the shovel and the mattock, the plough and the harrow, go forth to ease the labors of the husbandman. What a contrast would have been presented, had not the act of the British Parliament, passed in 1750, with a special refer- ence to Pennsylvania, been abrogated by our separation from the mother country ? By that act, Pig iron was admitted into Eng- land, duty free; but the erection of any rolling or slitting mill, ov any tiU hammer, furnace or forge, for the manufacture of iron or steel, was prohibited under the penalty of two hundred pounds. "They were declared common nuisances, and the Governors of the several colonies were directed to have the same abated within thirty days, under the penalty of five hun- dred pounds." Such, my fellow citizens, would have been the damper pla- ced upon the ardor of your mechanical zeal. — Such would have been the block and the executioner of your inventive faculties. Under a foreign dominion, where would now be your spindles, and looms, your forges and furnaces? Where would now be your mighty steam engines, possessing more power than the hundred hands of the fabled Brearius? And where yonder stacks, and stately piles, erected to perpetuate the fame of the mechanic? In the grave, dug by British oppression, in the charnal house built by British tyranny ! In contemplating the beauty and prosperity of our own country, let us not forget that the "electric spark" of liberty has been communicated by us to other nations of the earth. Ten years ago, a "lowering cloud" hung over South Ameri- ca. Ten years ago Amazon, king of rivers, rolled through a land, filled with (lie sons of bondage. ;'iid Chinibcrazo. fron^ 12 ills iotty topsj surveyed millions of slaves writhing beneath the oppressor's rod. Providence raised up champions to lead on the brave to battle. Glowing with indignation, and ani- mated by our glorious example, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Co- lumbians, burst the manacles that bound them, and resolved to be free. The yoke of Spain was broken. Her long cherished hope that the mines of the new world should be gathered into her store-house, on that day died ; and as the golden vision pass- ed from her eyes, she uttered a groan of agony. That was another great day for America — a new birth in the republican family — a general rejoicing among all her sons. Greece, too, "the native clime of song," the country of Le- onidas, the place from whence emanated the first democracy; she received back from us a portion of her ancient fire. Al- though she does not enjoy that system of government congenial lo our feelings — although the holy Alliance still wield their sceptre over her, yet she has made a rapid stride towards the glorious consummation. We cannot reconcile it with the ex- alted admiration entertained for that sacred land, the school of the philosopher and the architect, the ancient theatre of heroic valor, "the lofty seat of canonized bands," that she should be degraded and subjugated by the ignorant and haughty Otto- man. Let us hope that the day is not far distant, when classic Morea will assume her wonted greatness, and her people meet us in the Congress of Republics.- Pass on to France, and see the effects of our example there: "As Samuel's shade to Saul's monarchic eyes," 30 has been risen Freedom to the house of Bourbon. The spectre of their misdeeds and usurpations, has caused their throne to tremble, and Europe to feel the vibration. Urged on by the same causes that led us to independence, fluctuating from principle to principle, receding and advancing, her luxuri- ous vineyards have been deluged with blood, and a carnation hue infused into the bosom of all her rivers. Unfortunately compelled