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ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY 
 
 SOCIETY 
 
 CENTRE COLLEGE, 
 
 FOURTH OF JULY, 1835. 
 
 BY JAMES S. ALLAN, ESQ. 
 
 11 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 PUBLISHED BY ELI TAYLOR. 
 
 1835. 
 

 Chamberlain Hall^ 4th July, 1835. 
 Dear Sir: — At a special meeting of the Chamberlain Philosophical and 
 Literary Society of Centre College, this evening, it was resolved, that a com- 
 mittee be appointed to assure you of the very great pleasure felt by the Soci- 
 ety in listening to your address, this day, and to request a copy of it for 
 publication. 
 
 With great respect, yours, &c., 
 
 James C. Patrick,) 
 
 Aaron A. Hogue, > Commiike. 
 
 William N. Todd, > 
 
 Mr. James S. Allan. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 
 PRINTED BY F. S. BENTON, 
 
 Corner of Main and Fifth Streets^ 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Chamberlain Society: 
 
 The discussion, at least in part, of a literary or scientific 
 subject, would, probably, be preferred by this audience which 
 has chosen to participate with an academical society: I shall, 
 however, in conformity with a suggestion in your letter of 
 invitation, adhere to the common topics of the occasion. 
 
 This is the fourth of July. It has returned for the fifty- 
 ninth time since it was the birth-day of American independ- 
 ence. The sun which saw our fathers pledge themselves to 
 resist the tyranny of Great Britian, is again in the heavens. 
 
 How much there is in a day like this, to exalt patriotism, 
 and give a salutary direction to the national mind! Its arrival 
 tells us that another year has separated us from our fathers, 
 and borne us on towards the period when we, like them, shall 
 exist only in the memory of posterity. We look around, 
 and where are the millions who shouted when news of the 
 declaration of independence was heard? If the present gen- 
 eration was removed, and the remnant of those days left, 
 melancholy would be the spectacle: frail, white-haired men, 
 — few and far between; one might raise his voice, and none 
 be near enough to answer. Scenes of the past, usually dim 
 in the mind, are made vivid by the associations of the day. 
 Things of the present hour are for awhile laid by; we enter 
 into communion with the departed; our fathers rise in strong 
 vision, distinct, like the pale stars which gather in the sky 
 when an eclipsed sun spreads its solemn twilight. The cla- 
 mor of ordinary strife and pursuit being hushed, ancestral 
 admonition is clearly audible. 
 
 ' What! silent still, and silent all? 
 
 Ail no — the voices of the dead 
 Sound lil\e a distant tonei)t"s (all 
 
 And answer — Lei one living head, 
 But 07ie arise — JFe come, we come, 
 ''Tisbul llie liring who are dumb.'' 
 
 Hail, venerable spirits! we here on the birth-day of our free- 
 dom, pledge ourselves anew to transmit unimpaired to our suc- 
 cessors, the legacy bequeathed by you, to us! 
 
The character of our great anniv-ersaries is peculiar. In 
 older nations, they are commemorative of events which have 
 grown indistinct with antiquity. The actors are too far re- 
 moved to excite much interest except that which surrounds 
 the personages of poetry; the distinctive features of the man 
 being lost in the hero of romance, the fancy, and not the heart. 
 is touched. Others may be said to bend with subdued melan- 
 choly and speculative admiration over the classic, antique 
 sepulchre of an ancestor whom they have never seen. With 
 us it is different. Our emotions come warm from the heart. 
 To extend the figure just used, we stand by the new-made 
 grave of a familiar friend, whose image is yet perfect in the 
 mind. For, some of the living remember the birth-day of the 
 government; and the moss of age has hardly yet greened the 
 tombs of the fathers of liberty. With others, contemplations 
 of the past are comparatively calm and unexcited; for, their 
 history resembles that of a hundred other nations, and their 
 institutions have been moulded by the slow hand of time; 
 whereas ours are lively, and thrilling, and full of wonder, — so 
 unprecedented do we stand, — so astonishing are the develop- 
 ments crowded into the short span of our history, — so far 
 does the next scene in the drama promise to surpass the one 
 before us. 
 
 We have no reason to regret that our annals do not extend 
 back into romantic antiquity. The clear light resting on 
 every part, enables us to analyze our institutions by retracing 
 them through every step of their progress, and to shape our 
 course by a certainty of the past. The origin of other nations 
 is seen, as it were, by a moonshine which beautifies the land- 
 scape, by throwing a shade on what is rude, and allowing 
 fancy to sport in the obscurity. Such a condition would avail 
 nothing in our case, where the obscuring of a feature would 
 be the loss of a charm, and the addition of a fiction, a subtrac- 
 tion from the interest of truth. 
 
 The scope of history, which, from antecedentand subsequent 
 connection with the fourth of July, 1776, comes under review 
 to-day, fills the mind wdth lively astonishment at the rapidly 
 successive revolutions in the history of this country. We 
 first see a continent overspread by a primeval wilderness, in 
 whose shade, countless tribes of savages hunted and fought; 
 and its unnavigated shores embraced in the ideal sovereignty 
 of a monarch three thousand miles distant. In 1607 the red 
 man saw strangers of another complexion enter the skirts of 
 his forest. Wilds, where no ax but that of time, had been 
 heard, are startled by the frequent crash of falling trees; the 
 echoes give their first answers to sounds of the saw and 
 
hammer; and Jamestown rises. Such, only 220 years ago, 
 was the embryo of North American civilization. Men who 
 saw the foundations of the first European town laid, might 
 live to see the continent from New Hampshire to Georgia, par- 
 celled out into distinct governments. In less than a centmy, 
 the aborigines found the strangers whom they had struggled 
 so hard to exterminate, extending along the sea coast two 
 hundred and sixty thousand strong, and fast widening the long 
 strip of their usurped domain towards the interior. But these 
 were a handful, compared with the population at the time of 
 the peace of Paris; at which period there were thirteen com- 
 munities, bearing the aspect of old settled governments. — 
 Now enthusiastic in their sympathy with events in the mo- 
 ther country, now contending with royal governors, or in an 
 illhumor with the crown, concerning some infringement of 
 their chartered privileges, the colonies down to the close of 
 the French war, may be considered loyal members of the Brit- 
 ish empire. Here commences a new state of things; a sort 
 of twilight connecting the periods of loyalty and alienation. 
 Then follow the stirring scenes of the revolutionary contest. 
 Acknowledged independence succeeds, and British dominion 
 shrinks behind the great lakes. The prosperity of this coun- 
 try, from this moment, receives a new impulse onwards, like 
 a vessel which having moved sluggishly out of a sheltered har- 
 bor, darts away with the speed of the wind on reaching the 
 open sea. A region the most interesting on the continent 
 is civilized; the wave of population which rose on the Atlantic 
 border, rolled over the Allegheny into the Mississippi valley, 
 and is sweeping on up the further slope towards the Rocky 
 mountains. We of the new states in the great valley regard 
 the taunting remark of the thirteen colonies, that Great Brit- 
 ain, a mere speck on the map of the world, ought not to be 
 allowed to rule over the extensive American settlements, with 
 the same want of admiration for their dimensions, which thev 
 entertained for those of the mother country. 
 
 All this is crowded into the compass of 220 years. This 
 period, which may seem long, compared with the life of man, 
 is but an hour in the age of nations. Viewing our country 
 thus springing up into sudden maturity, in contrast with the 
 lingering growth of its predecessors, we are struck with some- 
 thing of the surprize, with which the divinities of antiquity 
 saw Minerva leap from the brain of Jove, a majestic goddess, 
 clad in armor, and flashing her a3gis ! 
 
 To illustrate the particular subject of this occasion let us 
 advert to a few aspects of our connections with the mother 
 country, during our colonial state. We will examine, somewhat 
 
 1* 
 
in detail, the grounds of the charge so current in England dur- 
 ing the discussion of the American revenue acts, and, with 
 some modifications, often repeated since, — ' that the Ameri- 
 cans, planted by the care, nourished by the indulgence, and 
 protected by the arms of the mother country, would not con- 
 tribute their mite to relieve their benefactress from her heavy 
 burdens.' 
 
 With every reason to cherish the fondest regard for her 
 immigrant offspring, it can be shown that Great Britain, 
 throughout, treated the colonies with the harshness of a step- 
 dame. 
 
 Before there was an European establishment on these shores, 
 the mighty nation to arise here, was foreseen. A Latin poem, 
 written by a native of Hungary, before the expedition of sir 
 Humphrey Gilbert, contains this remarkable idea: 
 
 ' A well known isle, 
 England, for wealth, for numbers, deeds renown'd, 
 Aware that time may come when pow'r immense, ' 
 
 By its own weight may fall, new walls she seeks, 
 And stretches far for her own sons, her realms.' 
 
 Did England from the first manifest an indulgent regard for 
 a land where her sons, her language, and institutions, mod- 
 eled after her own, were evidently destined to fill an empire 
 vast as that of the Caesars? Did the romance natural to dis- 
 tance heighten her afi'ection for sons separated from her by a 
 broad ocean? No. 
 
 We are apt to attribute the sarcasm and vituperation thrown 
 out against us of late years, wholly to the spleen of a baffled 
 enemy; but indications of an ungenerous disposition are coeval 
 with the earliest colonies. A narrow jealousy of the prospec- 
 tive greatness of this country, was exhibited before it came 
 into existence. Attempts were made to dissuade king James 
 from his projects of colonization, by the prophecy, that Eng- 
 land would be drained of inhabitants, and her yoke finally 
 thrown oft'. Various instances of difterent dates might be 
 cited, showing England's ridiculous apprehensions for her 
 supremacy, whilst the colonies were infant settlements. In- 
 cessant efforts were made to destroy the charters, into which 
 the carelessness, cupidity, or unwonted goodhumor of her 
 sovereigns had allowed a liberal genius to be introduced. 
 vSchemes of the most contracted commercial monopoly were 
 persevered in; various plans to cripple colonial manufactures 
 were devised; and in fine, every regulation was dictated by 
 avarice, or unmanly apprehension. There is afull exemplifica- 
 tion of this spirit in the design of confining the colonies to the 
 sea coast; which, for the sake of holding them in a state of 
 
subservient weakness, was willing to allow the French, to 
 stretch an insurmountable barrier at their backs, and to fore- 
 go the extension of British civilization into the magnificent 
 regions beyond the mountains. Inhabitants of the far, far west 
 — you who are so fast climbing the Arkansas and the Missouri, 
 and on whose sons the evening shadows of the Rocky moun- 
 tains will rest, what think you of the idea of imprisoning Bri- 
 tish population between the Blue Ridge and the atlantic! 
 
 Our obligations to the parent country were inconsiderable. 
 Several of the colonies were refugees from oppression; twelve 
 of them attained to considerable size, without the least assis- 
 tance from the treasury of the mother country; and they all 
 struggled unaided against their savage foes. The wars in 
 which we find the metropolitan and colonial armies, side by 
 side, were, in almost every case, British wars involving the 
 whole empire. It was not till the only nerve by which Brit- 
 ish protection could be put into motion — the one terminating 
 in the exchequer — was touched, that the first sail was unfurled 
 to protect our trade. England was always unwilling to do 
 justice to the character and merits of her colonies. She usu- 
 ally affected to regard them as the Beotia of the empire; and 
 swelled the loudest and longest note in the chorus of Ameri- 
 can degeneracy, composed and arranged by Raynal and De 
 Paw. Their hearty services were generally repaid with ridi- 
 cule or negligent ingratitude. 
 
 To reasons already given why the kindest feelings should 
 have been entertained for us, many more may be added. The 
 colonial trade was the basis of England's commercial ascend- 
 ancy. The power, of whom it is now said, 
 
 ' Her march is on the mountain wave, 
 Her home is on the deep,' 
 
 like the famous Roman sire, drew strength from the exuberant 
 bosom of a youthful offspring. 
 
 In the almost continual wars which Great Britain waged 
 for upw-ards of eighty years, our fathers bore more than a just 
 proportion. The thunders of battle were no sooner heard in 
 the old world, than they were answered by mimic echoes in 
 the wilderness of the new. 
 
 Incedunt pueri pariterquc ante ora parentum lucent. 
 
 But remembering the land of their fathers, the colonists, in 
 defiance of cold "civility, and neglect, and ill-treatment, re- 
 mained affectionately loyal till a short time before the separa- 
 tion; and we may attribute the views of several historians who 
 pretend to discover earlier symptoms of disaffection, either to 
 national prejudice, or, that selfapproving acuteness, which, 
 
8 
 
 when a remarkable event has happened, wonders that all the 
 world did not foresee it. 
 
 The old foe, who, as it were, by a fatality which held her in 
 eternal enmity with her neighbor, sat down by the side of 
 England in the new world, was driven from the continent, 
 in great part by the vigorous cooperation of the colonies; 
 and the peace of Paris saw the power that stretched from 
 Georgia to New Hampshire, cross the great lakes and over- 
 spread the spacious realm beyond. The broad cloud which 
 had long poured down its storms on either side of the Atlan- 
 tic, rolled away, and the rainbow of peace connected Eng- 
 land and America with its radiant span. 
 
 If there was ever a time when the heart of the parent coun- 
 try ought to have overflowed with aftection for a dutiful off- 
 spring, it was surely then. But the first sounds from beyond 
 the sea, that broke^ the tranquility, were those of hammers 
 forging fetteis for us. The disengagement of the national 
 strength, which we had so augmented, brought about by a 
 peace which we had labored so faithfully to procure, was taken 
 advantage of to strip us of our liberties, and lay us bound hand 
 and foot at the mercy of the taxgatherer. This period was 
 chosen for the introduction of the stamp act, and the succeed- 
 ing masquerade, in which the same principle appeared under 
 so many habiliments. 
 
 Here the colonies assumed a peculiar attitude in respect to 
 the mother country. Entertaining almost to the last, pro- 
 found respect and affection for old England, they resisted not 
 the spirit of the British constitution, but the usurpations of a 
 bad administration. They resisted a reigning monarch, tak- 
 ing their stand on immunities granted by his predecessors. 
 
 In concluding this copious topic, I will remark, that as our 
 fathers were Englishmen up to the time of the declaration of 
 independence, and as such, must be judged of respecting their 
 conduct to the mother country, we ought to rejoice that they 
 remained loyal and dutiful, though treated with severity, and 
 were, at last, led into the necessity of setting up as an inde- 
 pendent nation by circumstances which must justify them in 
 the eyes of an impartial world. 
 
 I feel proud that the mightiest orator since Demosthenes,, 
 and one whose abilities as a statesman were scarcely inferior 
 to his eloquence, in his last and best eflbrts, vindicated the 
 character of our colonial ancestois and denounced the mea- 
 sures, in opposing which they became free. There is a sub- 
 lime connection between the genius of Chatham and the birth 
 of American independence. The last gleam of his setting 
 spirit was to show his countrymen the ruin before them. Our 
 
oppressions were the subject of the noblest strains of the voice 
 that made Covvper congratulate himself, ' that Chatham's lan- 
 guage was his mother tongue.' ' My lords ! you cannot conquer 
 America.' Prophet, worthy of the event predicted! Nations 
 have made comets and prodigies herald their ' changes of 
 times and states;' ours were sufficiently dignified by the 
 prophetic thunders of Chatham's eloquence. 
 
 The 4th of July, 1776, arrived; a day that surpasses the 
 thousand canonized periods, at the annual recurrence of which 
 the nations rejoice, as far as the discovery of America exceeds 
 other remarkable events — or the Andes other mountains — - 
 or the Mississippi and Amazon other rivers — or Niagara 
 other cataracts — or the vast and magnificent valley where we 
 dwell surpasses all other valleys. 
 
 This country, before that period, though firmly insisting on 
 its rights, might have been reconciled. Though there was 
 darkness, a crescent of the eclipsing orb was still uncovered; 
 kindred mountains jarred by an earthquake, were indeed sep- 
 arated by a fissure, but the growing granite might reunite them; 
 though the youthful daughter stood before the mother with a 
 dignified determination on her brow, her hand was held out for 
 reconciliation. But that hour came, and the sun fell into total 
 eclipse; the mountains were disunited till a storm might roll 
 between; the glowing, beautiful daugiiter withdrew her hand, 
 and turned from the huge, though wrinkled, scowling, envi- 
 ous beldame for ever! Lo! among the nations, a new one has 
 taken a stand: another eagle spreads its wings amid the en- 
 signs of the earth. 
 
 That we may more sensibly feel the admiration and grati- 
 tude due to the fathers of American independence, let us fancy 
 our country carried back from its present prosperity, to its 
 condition in 1776. See how the scene is changing! The 
 broad front of westwardly marching population, which, mov- 
 ing as perceptibly as sunshine chases a cloud's shadow along 
 the ground, marks its conquest by the crash of falling forests 
 and the razing of the plough, is arrested. The aboriginal wil- 
 derness rises, and spreads with an obliterating shade towards 
 the Allegheny. The smiling fields — 'the new-born hamlets — 
 the expanding cities — the swarming thousands busy in these, 
 fade from the 'far west,' and state after state is blotted from 
 the Union. The fiither of rivers, no longer buoying the 
 steamer, and cheered by the sounds of commerce, rolls through 
 a solitude of three thousand miles, a waveless mirror for the 
 moon, when not rippled by the canoe; and silent, when not 
 echoing the war-whoop, or the shout of the red man exulting 
 in his boundless freedom. Where is Kentuckv? This soil 
 
10 
 
 bears only the tracks of Boone, and Findley, and Harrod» 
 This is the ' dark and bloody ground,' a region noted for fero- 
 city, even by savages. Stripe after stripe disappears from the 
 national flag, till the thirteen stars are left alone. Nothing 
 remains, but a narrow skirt of civilization lying along the sea 
 shore. Is this whnt our fathers are in the habit of calling the 
 'continent?' Is this the America which was declared inde- 
 pendent? Of the fourteen millions of inhabitants, hardly three 
 are here. Intelligence, instead of flying abroad in publica- 
 tions numerous as fireflies on a summer evening, through im- 
 proved mediums of conveyance, which have rolled up dis- 
 tance as a scroll, creeps through the country in about forty 
 newspapers. A plan of confederation, concerted in haste and 
 danger — an untried machine, vast and complicated — a code 
 for thirteen distinct and jealous communities, without a sanc- 
 tion for its laws; or, in other words, a monster, whose brain 
 cannot compel the limbs to act — stands in place of a constitution, 
 which, embracing twenty-four states, provides for the common 
 defence and general welfare as eflectually as if they were one 
 consolidated empire, and acquiring stability from the number 
 and variety of the component parts, grasps the western wild- 
 erness in its embrace, ready to receive the new-born states as 
 they rise. No flag bearing the emblems of twenty-four states, 
 streams from a capitol on the banks of the Potomac, worthy 
 to hold the representatives of a great nation; the Philadelphia 
 statehouse, which we have seen wearing a look of antiquated 
 simplicity, amid the elegance of the modern city, contains 
 the convention which is about to declare the United States of 
 America free and independent. 
 
 Fancy alone can pass the closed doors of the congress to 
 witness their momentous proceedings. Unfortunately, a few 
 fragments, only, of the debates are preserved. What displays 
 of patriotic devotion, what fervid eloquence, what overpow- 
 ering arguments for independence are lost! — for men of the 
 most capacious minds and souls are there, and an empire's 
 fate vibrates in the balance. It is the evening of the fourth of 
 July, and the debate of four days, on the resolution to make a 
 formal announcement of independence, is closed. The pro- 
 posed declaration is adopted. It makes the blood run cold to 
 picture the solenm scene of this moment. Hancock is sub- 
 scribing his name. The stroke of the pen only is heard in 
 the silence of the chamber. Mark what the pencil of Trum- 
 bull has well portrayed, the emotions expressed in the vari- 
 ous faces; the philosophic serenity of the venerable Franklin, 
 the majestic boldness of John Adams; the luminous calm of 
 Jefferson; all grades of feeling, from daring enthusiasm down 
 
11 
 
 to foreboding acquiescence; every brow weighed down by a 
 sense of awful responsibility! 'Tremendous moment! it gives 
 birth to an empire. Will our vision of prosperity in store for 
 it be realized; or, will we at last be forced to cry out, O that 
 it had never been born? Absolute independence, and not the 
 redress of grievances which we have struggled for eleven 
 years, is now our aim. We indeed but echo the expressed 
 sentiments of our countrymen, but are we sure the people are 
 ready for the measure? May not the exaggerations of popular 
 zeal deceive us? Will foreign nations take revolted colonies 
 by the hand? A long war, war with all its incalculable re- 
 sults, is before us. Who can say that a chieftain, after res- 
 cuing his country, will forbear to wrest away her liberties? 
 Justice and the spirit of a people striking for freedom, are on 
 our side; but against us are the troops, the immense resources 
 of Great Britain. But let us go forth of good cheer; heavy 
 as is the darkness hanging before us, through it we behold 
 this day greeted with glad acclamations, as it rolls in the an- 
 nual revolutions of the sun through a thousand generations!' 
 
 The merits of the declaration of independence appear 
 greatly augmented, when we reflect that it was the result of 
 devotion to principle. Few wars in the world have other 
 motives than ambition, revenge, or avarice. It is generally 
 impossible to move the people except by something gross and 
 palpable. The amount of an inconsiderable internal tax, did 
 not cause the colonies to take up arms; for regulations and 
 restrictions of their commerce greatly more injurious to them, 
 had thrown millions into the British treasury; but in the im- 
 position of a few pence on tea, they resisted the infraction 
 of a great principle of constitutional liberty. To remove a 
 consequential and perhaps remote danger, they defied the 
 veteran arm of England: a remarkable indication of spirit and 
 intelligence in the people. 
 
 For a young, unprotected nation, without regular armies, 
 without a navy, without certain pecuniary supplies, to provoke 
 the prowess of the most formidable power on earth, except in the 
 last extremity, shows uncommon resolution. But additional 
 circumstances render it doubly glorious. If there had been a 
 body in the habit of deliberating on war and peace from time 
 immemorial, and a tower where the trophies of a hundred vic- 
 tories were stored, and a hall eloquent from the voices of a 
 long list of orators who had roused their countrymen to bat- 
 tle, — our fathers might have been led by venerated prece- 
 dents — they could have gathered strength and confidence from 
 the past. But the congress of 1776 had been in existence only 
 
12 
 
 three years, and they were surrounded by all the sources of 
 irresolution incident to adventurers in an untried path. 
 
 And it was Old England they had to contend with! Old 
 England, whom they and their fathers before them were so ac- 
 customed to obey. They certainly felt all the strength of the 
 impulse, which we see portrayed in romance, where men in 
 the independent maturity of life, after resisting every argu- 
 ment, drop their arms nerveless in the very act of perpeti'ation, 
 at the voice of a decrepit and unreasonable parent — so 
 forcibly does the old habit of obedience in youth return. 
 
 If any people in the world would form an appaling idea of 
 British hostility, it was certainly the colonics. Conversant 
 with the history of England, her thousand military achieve- 
 ments stood out in bold relief in their memory; being English- 
 men, they were accustomed to clothe her power in the exag- 
 geration of a native. 
 
 My limits will not allow me to trace many of the conse- 
 quences of the American revolution. The most interesting 
 incident of subsecjuent history is the formation of the federal 
 constitution. Our freedom was there systematized, and brought 
 into practical operation. It was an experiment in politics, 
 as unprecedented as the voyage of Columbus was in naviga- 
 tion. The confederation under which the revolution had been 
 carried on, fell into ruins when the common danger that held 
 the parts together was removed, and the political elements 
 were in a state of chaos requiring new organization. Formi- 
 dable were the dilhculties of the task. To embrace a great 
 variety of interests, prejudices, and climates; to extract power 
 enough from state jealousy to give adequate strength to a cen- 
 tral government; to distribute and balance the powei's of a 
 newly invented species of government; these were some of 
 them. Our constitution, however, was constructed by a con- 
 vention in a few months, and adopted by the people in the 
 course of two years. The immense complicated machine 
 moved on smoothly from the first, and after an experience of 
 forty-six years, few improvements can be suggested. The 
 fate of Locke's constitution for Carolina, and of the constitu- 
 tions which, during the French revolution, after being de- 
 clared perfect, burst like bubbles at the touch of experiment, 
 testify to the dithculty of the undertaking. The degree to 
 which men entirely conscious of the faults of their govern- 
 ment, will permit it to become clogged before they venture a 
 reformation, aflbrds additional proof. So hard is it to induce 
 a people to submit to a new system of laws, that legislators 
 formerly employed Egerias and VVodens, to give their codes 
 the sanction of divinity. Other constitutions, if such they 
 
13 
 
 ought to be called, are the slow and misshapen products of 
 time and chance. They resemble an alluvial island, in whose 
 various strata, we may trace the irregular accretions of ages; 
 here, is the fissure of the earthquake; there, a promontory has 
 been swept away; and to-morrow's flood may change the 
 whole scene. Our constitution on the other hand reminds us 
 of the island of Delos emerging, pei-fect, and at once, from the 
 bosom of the sea. 
 
 The subtraction from the welfare of mankind would, cer- 
 tainly, have been very great, if the colonies had remained part 
 of the British empire. Things have, indeed, been tending for 
 some time to the production of systems of government based 
 on a proper comprehension of the rights of man; but the in- 
 cumbrance of old habit would have postponed the full accom- 
 plishment for a long while, had not a theatre peculiarly fa- 
 vorable been found in the new world; and we know not but 
 that accident might have thwarted it forever. This country 
 did not merely stop even with the best lights in the old world; 
 it took a step a century beyond. The growth and national 
 prosperity of America, would have suffered much by a con- 
 tinuation of the union. England, to prevent the escape of the 
 colonies, would have kept them crippled. We have seen an 
 example of her dispositions in this respect, in the project of 
 hindering the extension of the colonies into the interior of the 
 continent. The flagging of commerce under a rigid monop- 
 oly; new systems of colonial government framed with an eye 
 single to the maintenance of entire subserviency to parlia- 
 ment; scenes of the rapacity of Clive and Hastings acted 
 again by royal favorites; a branch of the Church of England 
 introduced in order to strengthen the ties binding the new to 
 the old empire; the early introduction of the gross luxury of 
 an old state; enormous taxation to meet the demands of over- 
 burdened England, and to maintain a military force sufficient 
 to keep us in awe, would all perhaps form part of the specta- 
 cle which this country would have presented to-day. We 
 may add to the picture, ourselves this day, east of the moun- 
 tains not yet crossed, in some national saturnalia, drinking 
 healths to king William, at the sign of the Golden Crown. 
 
 I might have specified in my catalogue of evils, the prohibi- 
 tion, to a great extent, of foreign emigration to this country. 
 A disposition to prevent the colonies from attaining to un- 
 manageable size, would be sufficient for this. Moreover, settle- 
 ments of strangers who might adhere to the enemies of Great 
 Britain, during the frequent wars with their paternal coun- 
 tries. And thus America could not now have been called the 
 land of hospitality — the asylum for the oppressed of nations. 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 I shall pause here to express my hearty disapprobation of the 
 narrow policy of objections advanced at this day, against the 
 leaving of our doors open to all the world. As to the intro- 
 duction of habits and opinions uncongenial to republican in- 
 stitutions — it would be as hard for rivers to make the sea 
 fresh, as for any possible influx of foreigners to corrupt the 
 vast nation which has grown up with free principles. If they 
 occasion some inconveniences, they pay for them well, by 
 adding to the wealth and strength of the country. Fresh 
 from the scourge of tyranny, they keep alive in the nation, 
 forgetful in its prosperity, a salutary recollection of sufferings 
 in the land of Egypt. Sons of oppression, welcome ! For 
 many a day there will be vacant places for you. Come, and 
 share with us, the land which heaven seems to have hidden 
 so long that it might at a proper time be opened, an asylum 
 for the oppressed of nations ! 
 
 Our fathers in 1776, it may be said, stood but in the vestibule 
 of the continent; the great temple itself has been since entered. 
 The West, the great and growing West, has been opened! 
 Let us turn to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of the 
 father of the West. The first of modern English poets has 
 inscribed the romantic name of Boone on a monument which 
 will outlast the language; in the splendid rotunda of the na- 
 tional capitol, a statue of the intrepid backwoodsman stands 
 by the side of the pilgrim fathers; but the state on which he 
 impressed the first footsteps of civilized man has never dedi- 
 cated a festival day to his memory. Let us here enter our 
 protest against a continuance of this neglect. May Ken- 
 tucky and her younger sister states soon hail the anniversary 
 of Boone's emigration with the enthusiasm with which New 
 England remembers the pilgrim fathers. The story of Puritan 
 fortitude climbing the waves of a wintry sea in search of a 
 home in the western wilderness, has been told till the world 
 knows it by heart. Yet what is there in the situation of the 
 Mayflower, when tost on the highest billow, her crew saw 
 the cold waves curling their white tops interminably before 
 them, that strikes us more than Boone's, when the eagle, 
 scared from her clifls by the while face of the stranger, sailed 
 round the heavens and saw him moving lonely as the sun, 
 through the hunting ground of the red man, separated from his 
 home by a thousand hills! 
 
 The st\]rdy virtues planted by the pilgrims, are eulogized, 
 justly eulogized by their descendants. The younger states 
 cheerfully concur with them; for the characteristic principles 
 of New England following the w^cstward emigration of her 
 sons are scattered throughout the Union; of inappreciable 
 
15 
 
 value to institutions, whose durability greatly depends on 
 morality, and excellent correctives of the giddy vices engen- 
 dered in republics. But the spirit infused into the west by 
 our pioneer fathers is no less to be applauded. The ardent, 
 impulsive, buoyant character of their children, is suited to 
 the growth of generosity, enterprize, elevated pride, boldness 
 of original conception; in a word, all that constitutes the soul 
 of a state. Carver, Brewster and their companions laid the 
 foundations of New England, not a moiety of the 'old thir- 
 teen.' Boone unlocked the West — the West: what emotions 
 of gigantic sublimity crowd the mind at the mention of that 
 word! Even since I spoke, its farther expansion has extended 
 Boone's claims to admiration. 
 
 I shall conclude by alluding to the additional sanctity which 
 this canonized day lately received. 
 
 ' Another morn 
 
 Hath risen on mid noon.' 
 
 Two, whose names arc subscribed to the title deed of our 
 independence; two statesmen, who were successively presi- 
 dents of the United States; two patriarchs, whose declining 
 hours were illumined by the smiles of a grateful country, pre- 
 serving in their entrance into another life, the coincidence 
 which marked their progress in this, rejoined Washington, 
 and the departed signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
 (all gone but one) on the fiftieth anniversary of the Fourth of 
 July. 
 
 The master-passion is strong in death. The soul seems 
 then to take a fervid farewell of that to which it has most 
 fondly clung. Armies were rushing in the visions of expiring 
 JN'apoleon. Jefierson's spirit was back in the stormy days of 
 the revolution; his last exclamation was, 'let the committee 
 of vigilance be watchful, for the enemies of fretdom are 
 abroad P How far surpassing all epic invention were the 
 last moments of Adams and Jefferson! Even whilst their 
 master-passion — love of liberty — glowed within, they heard 
 the thanksgiving acclamations of millions of freemen. 
 
 Who will not indulge with me the imagination that their 
 spirits, winging their way from earth, beheld their ancient 
 compeers bending from the heavens, spectators of the jubilee 
 of a land on which their mortal labors had been bestowed; and 
 that they lingered in their ascent to contemplate the sublime 
 spectacle beneath— a mighty nation rejoicing— sentinel shout- 
 ing on to sentinel from the sea to the wilderness, from the 
 gulf of Mexico to the lakes, alPs well, alVs well! to look from 
 sea to sea on to the ends of the earth, tracing the starred and 
 striped banner floating over all, and sails from every shore 
 
16 
 
 wafting the oppressed to the land of refuge ; to behold the 
 nations gradually awaking at the light they had assisted to 
 kindle — nations destined soon to see the day when rejoicings 
 over the birth-day of American independence would not be 
 confined to America, but rising with day in the eastern 
 islands, roll round the globe with the sun till lost in the 
 solitudes of the Pacific. 
 
011 782 947 9 
 
 
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