ORATION 
 
 Delivered July 4th, 1851, in the Capitol at Annapolis, 
 
 BY COL. GEORGE W. HUGHES. 
 
Class. 
 Book. 
 
 .A(. 
 
 izs\ 
 
A T I O 
 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 
 
 SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 0i i^t ijihrutiQn nf tjjie 
 
 INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 ULY 4, 1851, 
 
 IN THE SENATE CHAMBER OF THE CAPITOL AT ANNAPOLIS. 
 
 BY COL. GEO. W.' HUGHES. 
 
 ANNAPOLIS: 
 
 OFFICE Of THE STATE CAPITOL GAZETTE, 
 
 Corner of Public Circle and North-east street. 
 18 5 1. 
 
«^ 
 
 
ANNAPOLIS, July 7th, l§5l. 
 Col. Geo. W. Hughes : 
 
 Dear Sir, — The Committee of Arrangements are very desirous of liaving the interesting 
 and appropriate address, delivered by you in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol, on the occa- 
 sion of our last National Anniversary, placed in their hands for publication, that those who 
 had not the opportunity to hear rnay be gratified by a perusal of the noble and patriotic sen- 
 timents therein contained. 
 
 As chairman of the committee, I respectfully ask for a copy of yofir address for the pur- 
 pose above specified. 
 
 I hat^e the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 THOS. H. O'NEAL, Ch. Com, ofJrrangemenis. 
 
 WEST RIVER, Md., July 10, 1851. 
 
 My Deaf Sir, — I ha«^e the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 7th inst., 
 tequesting a copy of the address delivered by me in Annapolis, on the 4th of the present 
 month, for publication. 
 
 It is known to the committee of Arrangements, that owing to an accident, a very brief 
 time was allotted to me for the preparation of the Oration ; but I do not feel at liberty to 
 refuse your request, communicated in so kind a manner, and therefore place it at your disposal, 
 
 "With all its imperfections on its head." 
 
 Very respectfully, my dear sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE W. HUGHES. 
 
 To the Hon. Thomas H. O'Neal, Secretary of State, Chairman Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, AnnapoliSj Md. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 My Friends and Fellow-Citizens: 
 
 Seventy-five years have been inscribed 
 on the dial plate of time since the iathers 
 of tbe Revolution, which separated us from 
 Great Britain, in solemn conclave assem- 
 bled, published to the world the Declaration 
 of Independence, which we have just heard' 
 read, for the maintenance of which they 
 pledged "their lives, their fortunes and their 
 sacred honor." 
 
 This was no idle and unmeaning pledge, 
 for it was made, in the presence of the great 
 Judge of the quick and dead, to whom they 
 appealed for the rectitude. of their inten- 
 tions, and it comprehended almost every 
 thing which men in this world hold in the 
 highest .consideration. 
 
 From the beginning of time — from the 
 instant when the Supreme -Crsator of the 
 universe called this globe into existence — 
 placed the luminaries in the firmanent, and 
 said "Let there be light, and there was 
 light," the Sun never rose upon a more 
 glorious day, nor one more fraught with 
 the earthly happiness of mankind, than on 
 the 4th of July, 1776. He had sunk in 
 darkness He roi€ in splendor, and as his 
 beams were scaltered over our beautiful 
 country and gilded its mountain to]is, mil- 
 lions bowed in adoration before Iiim and 
 hailed his advent with the reverence of 
 eastern worshipers. ]l was the dawn rf a 
 new creation. The political world was in 
 chaos, and the daik spirit of despotism 
 brooded over its waters. It is true there 
 was occasionally an electric flash — a fitful 
 eruption of the volcano, and a fearful up- 
 heaving of the masses, which indicated for 
 
 the future a new and better order of things. 
 But intellect was w-anting to fashion these 
 elements into form and consistency, for 
 knowledge, taste and science had combined 
 with power to rivet still closer upon the 
 people, the fetters of ignorance and super- 
 stition. Even in England, the only limited 
 monarchy of that age, the true principles 
 of sovereignty were unknown, and the 
 rights of the people were disregarded — 
 Long and bloody civil and religious wars 
 had formerly desolated that beautiful island, 
 but in the moment of victory, toleration 
 was found to mean only the supremacy of 
 a sect, and liberty the privileges of an or- 
 der. The vo'ces of the working classes — 
 the laboring millions whose sweat and blood 
 had swelled her wealih, filled her coffers, 
 and extended her dominion by land and sea 
 until imperial Rome, in the height of power, 
 was scarcely her equal — was unheard in the 
 legislative councils of the nation. Others 
 reaped where they had sown and enjoyed 
 as well the fruits of their valor as of their 
 toil. If at that period such was the politi- 
 cal condition of the people of England, 
 their social position was undoubtedly supe- 
 rior to that of most of the continental popu- 
 lation, who out of the municipal corpora- 
 tions, were regarded as mere serfs of the 
 soil, to be transferred with the estates on 
 which they were born and to which they 
 belonged. 
 
 Jt was reserved for the new world to 
 first recognize the riglUs of man, and to 
 j)roc!nim to the old the fundamental truth 
 that the people are the natural source of all 
 power — of all honor and of all sovereignty. 
 
The success of our revoluliou, which was j sumptuously every day," liave generously 
 
 long regarded by many eminent men at home 
 and abroad, as a political experiment, has 
 excited all the efforts in Europe for the last 
 70 years in favor of the rights of the peo- 
 ple and the extension of liberal principles — 
 a holy cause, which can no more be arrested 
 by the hand of arbitrary power than the 
 surges of the ocean could be controlled by 
 the voice of Canute — a cause destined to 
 spread until it covers the face of the civil- 
 ized world, and the very name of king shall 
 become as odious as it was in Italy from 
 the exile of the Tarquins, until liberty ex- 
 pired on the bloody plains of Thessaly 
 There is novv a public opinion which per- 
 vades all Europe and is felt and recognized 
 every where. It is whispered in Constan- 
 tinople and muttered in Madrid. It descends 
 to the dungeons of the Inquisition. It is 
 proclaimed from the seven' hills of the 
 Eternal City and is omnipotent in Paris. 
 It has spread over all Germany and has 
 been heard like the sound of many waters 
 in imperial Vienna. It has even penetrated 
 the walls of the Kremlin and caused the 
 Autocrat to tremble on his throne. It can 
 be circumscribed by no geographical bounds; 
 it can be restrained by no cordon of armed 
 retainers. It is in the very atmosphere we 
 breathe, and "leaps from crag to crag like 
 the live thunder." No sovereign, however 
 despotic, will undertake in the present age 
 to say with the proud and arrogant Louis 
 Xiy, «/ am the State," for he feels that 
 there is within the State a stronger power 
 than his own, before which, when moved 
 into action, he will be compelled to yield as 
 the sturdy oak is prostrated by the temjjest. 
 The monarch is no longer the State, but the 
 especial guardian of his people, for whom, 
 they being incapable of self-control, he as- 
 sumes by the grace of God, the carking 
 cares and toils of government. But this is 
 an ungrateful world; and I have never heard 
 of the subjects of a monarchy having ex- 
 pressed any high Appreciation of the self- 
 sacrifice shown by those who, living in 
 marble palaces and 'dining in gilded halls, 
 •'wearing purple and fine linen and faring 
 
 taken upon themselves all the affairs of 
 State, except its burdens. 
 
 To avoid the acknowledgment of the 
 great and incontroveitible truth, that the 
 sovereignty of a nation resides in the peo- 
 ple, the British Constitution (if thejmere 
 will of parliament may be called a constitu- 
 tion) has adopted a ridiculous fallacy — a 
 fallacy so obvious that it can neither de- 
 ceive themselves nor others. The corner- 
 stone of their political structure is the ax- 
 iom that "the King can do no wrong:" and 
 yet they have beheaded one monarch — ex- 
 iled another, and, violating, according to 
 their views, the sacred right of primogeni- 
 ture, deprived hjs innocent son, whatever 
 may have been the crimes of the father, of 
 the succession to the throne, to which his 
 claim, according to the plainest principles 
 of the government, was clear and unques- 
 tionable; and placed "the sceptre in an un- 
 lineal hand, no son of his succeeding." 
 
 Any one who has carefully read the his- 
 tory of the British revolution of 1688-9, 
 must have been struck with the embarrass- 
 ments of the Whig party by the passive re- 
 sistance of James the II. Had they not by 
 the wiles of the Prince of Orange, operated 
 so far upon the fears of that pusillanimous 
 tyrant and cruel bigot, as to induce him to 
 leave the kingdom by flight, who can un- 
 dertake to say what the consequences might 
 have been.' In all human probability, the 
 flames of civil discord would once more' 
 have been enkindled, and the whole realm 
 have been drenched with fraternal blood; 
 and all this the result of ignorance of the 
 great political truth, (on' which, however, 
 they had practiced,) that the governor holds 
 his authority solely by the assent of the 
 governed, and is directly responsible to 
 them for its exercise. The monarch, 
 properly regarded, was simply the chief 
 magistrate of the nation, and like all other 
 magistrates and public officers vi-as invested 
 with special authority for the public wel- 
 fare; and if they had repudiated in princi- 
 ple, as they had in fact, his pretensions to 
 rule by the "divine right of kings," the 
 
whole question would have been easy ol 
 solution, and his throne without further 
 trouble been declared forfeited, by the abuse 
 of powfer. 
 
 In truth, disguise it as the British pub- 
 licists may, the crown was conferred on 
 "William and Mary" hy election, and there 
 is no avoiding that conclusion; for, if it 
 were not so, a grosser usurpation is unre- 
 corded in history. It is singular that the 
 dogma of "the divine right" should have 
 been so strenuously upheld by the hierar- 
 chy of England, when a perusal of Scrip- 
 ture so plainly teaches the salutary lesson 
 that the first king granted by the Almighty 
 to his chosen people w^as in akger, and 
 as a punishment for their sins and disobe- 
 dience. 
 
 The only monarch who has fully recogniz- 
 ed the people as the source of all sovereignty 
 was Napoleon Bonaparte, who, in his cele- 
 brated speech in the Champs de Mai, when 
 he restored the eagles to the difTerent regi- 
 ments of the French army, said, with as 
 much truth as sublimity, "General, Consul, 
 Emperor ! I hold all from the French peo- 
 pie " This was uttered in the same spirit 
 of enthusiasm and knowledge of human 
 nature as in his address to the troops before 
 the great battle of Egypt, when, stretching 
 forth his hand, he exclaimed: "From the 
 tops of those pyramids forty centuries con- 
 template your actions." It was remarked 
 w'ith great force by Robert Hall, an emi- 
 nent dissenting divine, and one of the first 
 intellects of his age, that "the battle of 
 Waterloo had set back the dial of history 
 ten degrees." And so. undoubtedly it did, 
 as regards the progress of liberal principles 
 in Europe. 
 
 Looking, my friends, to the consequen- 
 ces entailed by our revolution on the rights 
 and happiness of mankind, how much 
 cause have you and all of us for gratitude, 
 under Providence, to those great men who 
 set the ball in motion. 
 
 The history of the world records no 
 sjiectacle more full of moral sublimity and 
 grandeur than the assembling of the Ameri- 
 can Congress at Philadelphia, when they 
 
 first promulgated to the winds of heaven 
 the political axiom, "that all men are crea- 
 ted equal : that they are endowed by their 
 Creator with certain unalienable rights : 
 that among these are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness :" and that all gov- 
 ernments derive their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed." 
 
 These were new, startling but philosoph- 
 ical truths, very remotely connected with 
 the dreamy speculations of the imaginative 
 politicians of the 17th century, who sought 
 in what was called the "social compact" 
 for the authority of governments, in which 
 each individual man was considered, in his 
 normal condition, as surrendering a portion 
 of his natural rights, and those of his pos- 
 lerity,to secure the great ends of civilized 
 society. This view of the origin of gov- 
 ernments and the rights of the governed 
 belonged rather to the fancy of the poet 
 than to the philosophy of the statesman; 
 for no such condition of things can be found 
 recorded in the pages of history. On the 
 contrary, our Declaration of Independence 
 boldly proclaimed the practical fact, that it 
 was the living generation that had the right 
 to establish an organic law for itself, but 
 not to bind future generations, who in their 
 turn would possess an equal right to form 
 a government for themselves. 
 
 For the first time in the annals of nations 
 the highest intellect was arrayed against 
 despotic power. From that period may be 
 dated the true expositions of the principles 
 of government, — the correlative duties of 
 the rulers and the ruled, and the annuncia- 
 tion of the fact that all exercise of legiti- 
 mate authority should be for the "greatest 
 good of the greatest numbers," and beside 
 this, all else was usurpation and abuse. 
 
 There is a peculiar propriety that we 
 should assemble and meet together on an 
 occasion like the present, to return thanks 
 to Almighty God, who has blessed us be- 
 yond measure as a people, and to manifest 
 our sense of gratitude to the signers of the 
 Declaration of American Independence, 
 who were truly the benefactors of the hu- 
 man race. They were indeed men "out of 
 
xhe common roll." They brought with 
 them for the performance of their great and 
 holy task, high intellect," moral courage, 
 philosophy, purity of motive and the most 
 exalted patriotism; in fact, all the qualities 
 that diiijnify and adorn human nature. A 
 more august body never assembled on this 
 earth, nor one charged \vith a higher mis- 
 sion; for they may be said to have held in 
 their hands the temporal destiny of millions 
 yet unborn. When the barbarian Gauls, 
 under their leader Brennus, penetrated to 
 the Forum, and saw the venerable Roman 
 Senators in their robes of office, quietly 
 seated in their curule chairs and calmly 
 awaiting their approaching fate, struck with 
 admiration and astonishment, they ex- 
 claimed: "These are gods I" And yet, the 
 Roman Senate exhibited no greater firm- 
 ness, no higher moral sublimity, than our 
 Conscript Fathers, as each one placed his 
 name to that solemn Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, which in case of failure would 
 have proved the death warrant of the sign- 
 er. When Charles Carroll affixed his 
 name to that immortal instrument, some 
 one observed that it would be difficult for 
 the British Government to identify him, as 
 there were so many of the same name. 
 He immediately added "of Carrollton," a 
 designation which he ever afterwards re- 
 tained, and which has become a prouder 
 title than any ])atent of nobility which roy- 
 alty could confer. Another remarked: 
 "There goes a million with the dash of a 
 pen;" for he was emphaticallj', in more 
 senses than one, a "man of a million." — 
 They were indeed, my fi lends, men of stout 
 hearts and ready hands; they cast every 
 thing "on the liazard of a die;" the}' calm- 
 ly prepared to enter into a contest, for life 
 or death, with the most powerful nation of 
 modern times; "on whose d<iminions, "it 
 has been beautifully said, "the sun never 
 sets," and "the roll of whose drums at 
 reveille accompanies him in his daily 
 course;'' they well knew the disparity of 
 strength and wealth between the infant Col- 
 onies of America and the mother country, 
 and how doubtful such a conflict, lookinE: 
 
 to mere liuman moans, must be. It was 
 like the stripling David encountering the 
 Giant of Gath; but they, like he, trusted to 
 a higher than human power. They ap- 
 pealed from their earthly tyrant to the Su- 
 preme Judge of the Universe, and their 
 appeal was registered in the chancery of 
 heaven. Looking to him for assistance, 
 they threw down the gage of battle, raised 
 the standard of Independence, and called 
 upon their fellow citizens to rally round it. 
 You all know the history and the result of 
 our war of Independence. Yon have 
 learned it in childhood on your father's 
 knee. You may be said to have almost 
 drunk it in your mother's milk. The names 
 of VVashington and Hancock, Adams, Jef- 
 ferson, Franklin and their compeers, are as 
 familiar to you as "household words." I 
 shall not attempt to record their heroic 
 deeds; to detail their sufferings, their doubts; 
 to follow them to the field of battle, or to 
 trace their footsteps over plains of snow, 
 too often marked with blood, or to recite 
 their triumph. I shall say nothing of the 
 glories of Bunker Hill, or of Trenton, of 
 Saratoga, or the "crowning mercy" of 
 Yorktown. These are written on the 
 brightest pages of histor}', and will be read 
 with enthusiasm till time shall be no long- 
 er. "The history of our war of independ- 
 ence is but the story of the struggles of a 
 poor and peaceful, but a generally well in- 
 formed and educated people, against culti- 
 vated talent, abundant wealth and discip- 
 lined valor. Then, in the glowing lan- 
 guage of one of our own bards:"* 
 
 Then war liecame the peasant's joy; her drum 
 His merriest music, and her field of death 
 
 His conch of happy dreams 
 
 After life'ci harvesl-iioine. 
 
 Me battles, heart and arm, his own blue sky 
 Above him, and Jiis own green land around ; 
 Land of his fallier's giave, 
 His blessing and his prayers! 
 
 Land, where he learnt to lisp a mother's name, 
 The first beloved on earth, liie last forgot — 
 
 Land of his frolic j'oulh — 
 
 LaiiJ of his bridal eve! 
 
 *Halleck. Field of the orounded arms. 
 
Land of his children ! Vain your columned 
 
 strength, 
 Invaders ! vain your battle's steel and fire ! 
 
 Choose ye the morrow's doom, 
 
 A prison or a grave. 
 
 Of such, the mechanical and working 
 classes, were many of the brave men whose 
 intellect and blood secured our liberties. 
 ^Foremost among them was JYath. Greene, 
 the hero* of the South, the blacksmith of 
 Rhode Island, whom, Hamilton, while he 
 pronounced Washington to be the first man 
 of the age, declared to be "the first soldier 
 of the war." Then followed the book-binder, 
 Knox, afterwards Secretary of War, or as 
 Randolph of Roanoke, called him, "Master 
 of the horse," to President Washington; arid 
 amongst the mechanics of N. York, Mari- 
 nus Willet, the "bravest of the brave." 
 Our interests abroad were represented by the 
 printer, Franklin, one of the most illustri- 
 ous men of the age, who after a long life of 
 toil and privation, consecrated the fruits of 
 his philosophy to the sacred cause of hu- 
 man liberty, and was more honored in Eu- 
 rope for his republican simplicity than 
 princes of the highest rank. 
 
 In our councils at home, and one of the 
 most distinguished five to whom was en- 
 trusted the high honor of preparing the 
 Declaration of Independence, was the shoe- 
 maker, Roger Sherman, one of our sound- 
 est statesmen and most eloquent orators, a 
 man self-educated and self-sustained. Truly 
 "honor and shame from no condition rise." 
 What a salutary lesson may be drawn 
 from our history by the poor son of toil 
 who spends his days in labor and his nights 
 in study. With natural intellect, with in- 
 dustry, with virtue and sobriety, and an 
 abiding faith in God and love to his fellow 
 man, he may aspire to the highest honors 
 which his countrymen can confer — the high- 
 est honors in the world— the suffrages of a 
 free and enlightened people. He may find 
 a bright exemplar in Andrew Jackson, and 
 a practical illustration of the genius and 
 
 *This and the succeeding paragraph are con- 
 densed from an Address before "the Mechan- 
 ics' Institute of tiie city of New York,'' by G. 
 C. Verplank, Esq., 183a. 
 
 sound republicanism of our institutions. 
 Left at an early age an unprotected orphan, 
 invested vvith no adventitious advantages in 
 life, isolated and self-dependent, with no 
 support but the indomitable energy of his 
 own will, we find him elevated to his proud 
 position by the gratitude, respect and con- 
 fidence of his countrymen for his eminent 
 public services, his exalted patriotism and 
 his proverbial integrity. With instinctive 
 sagacity, they hailed him as the man of the 
 age, and breaking loose from the trammel s and 
 organization of party, and snapping asunder 
 the leading strings of interested and selfish 
 politicians, the masses rose in their strength 
 and carried him triumphantly on their 
 shoulders to the presidential chair. He 
 owed his advancement to no clique and to 
 no faction. No caucus, no convention was 
 necessary for his nomination, for there arose 
 spontaneously a voice from the East and 
 from the West, from the North and from , 
 the South, from the cities and from the 
 fields, from the valleys and from the moun- 
 tains, saying, " This is theman of the people 
 and we will that he shall rule over us." 
 One great element of his success consisted 
 in, what the mere politician cannot com- 
 prehend—his sterling integrity of char- 
 acter in every relation in life. Andrew 
 Jackson was one of the most honest men that 
 ever lived. He deceived no man; he violated 
 no pledges.' His election and administration 
 furnish proofs that Republics are not un- 
 grateful, but reward merit, intellect and em- 
 inent services wherever found; and that the 
 true " republicanism of this nation has 
 grown with its growth, and strengthened 
 with its strength." 
 
 If another example were wanting it may 
 be found in our present worthy chief mag- 
 istrate, the clothier's apprentice, who at a 
 most critical period of our history was 
 called to the exercise of the highest func- 
 tions of sovereignty, and who has thus far 
 filled his high destiny with honor to him- 
 self and to the country. 
 
 J!vly friends, your own lovely city of An- 
 napolis, the " time honored" capital of 
 Maryland, and under the proprietary gov- 
 
10 
 
 ernmeiit the metropolis oi the wealth and 
 fashion of the colonies, and which has 
 since so well sustained its ancient reputa- 
 tion for hospitality and beauty, is rich in 
 historical associations. It is the birth-place 
 of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence, and the last 
 survivor upon earth of that immortal band. 
 It was granted to him to attain extreme old 
 age, with faculties unimpaired, and to wit- 
 ness in the growth of our glorious union in 
 wealth and power, the full fruition of his 
 early hopes. He lived to enjoy what might 
 almost be called posthumous fame. It was 
 here that, following the example of Boston, 
 the obnoxious tea was destroyed, by which 
 act Maryland was committed to the cause 
 of the Revolution. And here within these 
 very walls, "the Father of his Country," 
 after the termination of one of the most 
 memorable struggles on record, and the se- 
 curity of our National Independence, divest- 
 ed himself of the almost dictatorial author- 
 ity with which he had been clothed, sur- 
 rendered his commission* to the power that 
 gave it, and retired for a while to the peace- 
 ful shades of Mount Vernon, until called 
 by the unanimous voice of a grateful peo- 
 ple to rule a country he had saved. It was 
 the sublime termination of a great historical 
 drama, performed on the stage of a conti- 
 nent, with the world for an audience, and 
 its actors heroes and statesmen. He entered 
 this hall the honored chief of a victorious 
 army, flushed with success, and devoted to 
 its leader. He left it a simple citizen, like 
 Cincuinatus, to return to the cultivation of 
 the soil. As he retired from this room how 
 many emotions must have agitated his soul! 
 How many associations must have rushed 
 on his memory, oppressing it with the 
 weight of their sweet and bitter recollec- 
 tions! The scenes through which he had 
 passed — the many hours of darkness, of 
 doubt, and of uncertainty, which had hung 
 over the Revolutinn — the battles he had 
 
 *Gen. Washington resigned his commission 
 on the 23d of December, 1783, subsequent to 
 the reception of the treaty of peace, but before 
 iti ratification by Congress. 
 
 fought, and above all the remembrance of 
 those whose lives had been sacrificed in the 
 holy cause of liberty, must all have beerj 
 called up before him with the distinctness 
 of reality. 
 
 And here the definitive treaty of peace, 
 signed in Paris on the 3d of September, 
 1783, by the plenipotentiaries of their res- 
 pective governments, which acknowledged 
 and established the independence of the 
 colonies, was ratified by Congress and the 
 great seal of the United Slates affixed ou 
 the 14th January, 1784.* 
 
 Your city nurtures within its bosom our 
 most venerable seat of learning, which can 
 boast amongst its alumni many of the emi- 
 nent statesmen of the age, while the names 
 of Humphrey and of Sparks will be recog- 
 nized wherever science is cultivated or let- 
 ters honored. 
 
 In taking a retrospective view of our 
 history for the last seventy-five years, how 
 much cause do we find for pride and con- 
 gratulation ! Many are still living, to 
 whom a merciful Providence has vouch- 
 safed the privilege of seeing the thirteen 
 feeble colonies risen to the stature of thirty 
 full grown and flourishing States inhabited 
 by a brave, intelligent and industrious pop- 
 ulation, devoted to republican institutions 
 and to our peculiar form of government . 
 whose energies and perseverance have 
 driven off the beasts of prey " and men as 
 wild and fierce as they ;" and whose hardy 
 hands and brawny arms have prostrated the 
 forests, and converted the howling wilder- 
 ness into a " garden blooming like the 
 rose ;" while railroads and canals traverse 
 almost every portion of our wide-spread 
 empire, and even the lightning of heaven 
 has been chained, by Afitierican genius, to 
 the heavy car, and has been rendered sub- 
 servient to the physical wants, and even 
 the messenger of the thoughts, of civilized 
 man. We have, indeed, 'much reason to 
 be proud of the present condition of our 
 magnificent country, and to look forward 
 
 *For these facts I am indebted to the inves- 
 tigations of Tlios. Karneij, Esq., of Annapolis. 
 
11 
 
 with bright anticipations to its future des- 
 tiny. Already we number more than 
 twenty millions of population, spread over 
 a continent whose shores are laved by the 
 waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — 
 possessed of every variety of soil and 
 temperature from the Hyperborean regions 
 of the North to the soft and sunny South ; 
 and whose mighty rivers bear on their 
 troubled surface, the rich agricultural pro- 
 ductions of every clime ; while within its 
 bosom have been deposited, by a beneficent 
 Creator, untold millions of mineral wealth. 
 It was such a glorious vision as this 
 which must have burst on the Poet-Pro- 
 phet,* when contemplating the rise and 
 fall of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Macedo- 
 nian and Roman empires, he exclaimed in 
 the spirit of inspiration, 
 
 Westward tlie course of empire takes his way ; 
 
 The four first acts already past, 
 A. fifth shall close the drama with the day : 
 
 Time's noblest offspring is the last. 
 
 Our increase in wealth and population — 
 our success in cultivating the arts and 
 sciences,, especiall)' those connected with 
 utilitarian objects, is unexampled in the 
 history of nations. We have shown, too, 
 our ability 'to maintain our high destiny by 
 an appeal to arms when necessary. The 
 aggressions of Great Britain, in 1812, com- 
 pelled us, once more, but most reluctantly, 
 to resort to war for the protection of " Free 
 trade and Sailor's rights," for we had seen 
 our ships plundered, our citizens outraged, 
 and our flag insulted on the great highway 
 of nations. To have quietly submitted to 
 this degradation would have been an act 
 of political suicide. . It would have blotted 
 us out from the list of nations, and there 
 would have been left to us only the poor 
 privilege of choosing a master powerful 
 enough to extend to us that protection 
 which we could no longer command for 
 ourselves. 
 
 And again, but a few years since, when 
 the duplicity and the oft-repeated injuries 
 inflicted on us by a neighboring republic, 
 so called — but in reality a military aristoc- 
 
 • Bishop Berkley. 
 
 racy — forced us once more to take up arms, 
 thousands, at the first call of their country, 
 left their plows and workshops — the luxu- 
 ries and comforts of home, for the toilsome 
 march — the nightly bivouac — the perils of 
 a pestilential climate, and the dangers of 
 battle in a foreign land. The question was, 
 " Who would be permitted to fight fur their 
 country ?" — not, " Who should be compel- 
 led to render military service .'" — for of the 
 masses who flocked to the rendezvous, 
 nearly one-half were rejected. " The race 
 was to the swift/' and the government 
 could establish no other rule than to accept 
 of those who first ofiered. 
 
 How different is this from other countries, 
 where the ruthless law of conscription year- 
 ly takes fiom home, rarely to be returned, 
 except in old age, with battered bodies and 
 shattered constitutions, nearly all of the 
 youthful male population. It is the law of 
 force ; and the subject is compelled to risk 
 his life in fighting the battles of a govern- 
 ment, that, perhaps, in his heart of hearts^ 
 he holds in contempt and hatred for its 
 corruptions and oppressions. 
 
 The military power and resources of our 
 country are unknown to Europe and scarce- 
 ly appreciated by ourselves. They saw 
 but a small standing force, too insignificant 
 in point of numbers to be called an army, 
 and wondered ^at our temerity in embarking 
 in a contest with a nation which had been 
 in a constant state of warfare for thirty 
 years, and had achieved its independence of 
 a country celebrated for its courage and ob- 
 stinacy; for it is well known that the world 
 never saw, from the time of the Macedo- 
 nian phalanx, a better infantry than the 
 Spanish under the "Great Captain," Gon- 
 zalvo de Cordova. And yet, while fighting 
 at a remote distance from our supplies, a 
 formidable enemy in his own country and 
 even before the walls of his capitol, we 
 were charitably feeding out of our abund- 
 ance the starving nations of Europe. But 
 the truth is, our little army was probably, 
 in discipline and the science of war, equal, 
 if not superior to any foice of like numbers 
 in the world, and every citizen of the Uni- 
 
12 
 
 led States is a soldier. While the whole 
 policy of our government is widely pacific, 
 the genius of our people is warlike, and 
 in no other country is military reputation 
 more highly appreciated and rewarded. If 
 this were the proper occasion, it would be 
 easy to show that this is a natural and 
 proper feeling, and one well calculated to 
 insure the perpetuity of our institutions — 
 but time is wanting. It will not, however, 
 be out of place to remark that one import- 
 ant element of our military strength is to 
 be found in the volunteer system ; a system 
 often held up by the ignorant to unmerited 
 ridicule — but one on which we can rely 
 with safety in the hour of pressing danger. 
 There is scarcely a large city in our union 
 that is not capable, with the assistance of 
 the forts built by the Federal government, 
 and which the volunteers may man, ol 
 self-defence against any force that will ever 
 probably be thrown upon our shores. Il 
 has been my fortune to visit most of the 
 great military powers of Europe, and to 
 examine their resources with the interest 
 which naturally attaches to the profession 
 for which I have been educated, and in 
 which I have spent more than half of the 
 life ordinarily allotted to man, and I do not 
 hesitate to assert, as the result of much 
 observation, that I could designate amongst 
 the volunteer corps of our own State, troops, 
 in point of drill, discipline, and military 
 bearing, far superior to the celebrated 
 French National Guards. And I have 
 no doubt that our distinguished fellow- 
 citizen, the Governor of Maryland, who 
 honors us with his presence, would, if 
 appealed to, fully confirm this state- 
 ment. The truth is that no people in 
 the world are so readily converted into 
 .=olditrs as our own people, and none 
 that so willingly conform to discipline, 
 submit to legitimate authority, and become 
 so soon proficient in the drill. This is the 
 natural result of their intelligence, love of 
 order, respect for authority, and attachment 
 to military life; and they soon comprehend 
 that their own safety, and reputation, dear- 
 er to them than life itself, are all depend- 
 
 ent on a proper subordination to those who 
 are placed in command. Resides this, they 
 are familiar with the use of arms, and in- 
 ured to labor. Like the Roman soldiers, 
 the field of battle is to them a relief from 
 their ordinary daily toil. In no other 
 country than this, will you hnd the citizen 
 equipping himself at considerable personal 
 expense and freely giving up his time to 
 learn the details of a soldier's life, without 
 the countenance and support of the govern- 
 ment. All this is on his part gratuitous; 
 but the consequence is that our government 
 could, at almost a moment's warning, if an 
 exigency should require it, call into the 
 field nearly half a million of well-drilled, 
 able-bodied and well-armed citizen soldiers, 
 whose natural courage and patriotism, 
 would more than compensate for any de- 
 ficiency in military science. 
 
 It is creditable to our volunteers, that in 
 the few civil commotions with which we 
 have been cursed, thejr have been found on 
 the side of law and order — the conservators 
 of the puhlic peace; and that they have not 
 hesitated when circumstances imperiously 
 called for it, to use the arms. placed in their 
 hands, against those who would make war 
 against the life and property of their fel- 
 low citizens. This, in combination with 
 the wise precaution of our government, in 
 sedulously cultivating, on the recommenda- 
 tion of General Washington, the highest 
 grade of military science, constitutes our 
 true military strength, and makes us one of 
 the most powerful nations of the earth. 
 
 It is also a matter of congratulation that 
 our government has established here a 
 school for our maritime arm of defence, 
 from which the best fruits may be antici- 
 pated, not only from the character of the 
 young gentlemen who compose it, but from 
 that of the gallant officers and accomplished 
 professors who are devoting their l)est en- 
 ergies for its success, and to meet the just 
 expectations of our people. We all look 
 with peculiar pride to the achievements of 
 our navy: and if there be any of ihose 
 young gentlemen, belonging to the Naval 
 Academy, within the sound of my voice, 
 
3et me say lo them earnestly, with the 
 kindness of one attached to a kindred 
 branch of llie connmon service, that they 
 have been selected from the youths of our 
 country as the special depositaries of a great 
 anJ precious trust — that ol upholding on 
 the uttermost v\-aters of the ocean the glo 
 riotis flag of "the stars and stripes," which 
 has never yet been struck in the face of an 
 enemy with dishonor or disgrace. I feel 
 sure that it never will be; it is in safe hands: 
 but woe betide the man that will first per- 
 mit it: " 'Twere better for him that he had 
 never been born." 
 
 But, my friends, there are other battles to 
 be fought besides those on the ensanguined 
 field': there are other conflicts which require 
 as much of firmness and of nerve, as to 
 charge with rushing squadrons in the melee 
 of the fight, or to strike for the honor ol 
 our flag. There are othef laurels to be 
 Won, though bloodless, as fresh and green 
 as those which deck the victofs brow, or 
 spring from the hero's grave. It is in doing 
 battle manfully for great constitutional 
 principles, and for the rights of the people. 
 These are the fields of civic strife ! These 
 the wreaths of civic triumph '! In a mixed 
 audience like the present, composed of per- 
 sons of widely different sentiments on many 
 of the great questions of the times, I shall 
 make no remarks on the struggle through 
 which we have just passed, nor indulge in 
 a^iy comments on the important instrument 
 which this day becomes, by the unmistaka- 
 ble and irresistible will of the people, the 
 Constitution of the State of Maryland. 
 
 We live in an age pregnant of great 
 events — a progressive age — in the arts and 
 sciences, and especially in the science of 
 politics. That which was adapted to the 
 wants of the last generation is unsuited to 
 the present: and that which may answer 
 oiir purpose, must, in turn, give way to the 
 wishes of our descendants. It would be 
 presumptuous in us to attempt, even if we 
 possessed the right, to enact a fundamental 
 law for the government of posterity. 
 
 It is well that we should sometimes re- 
 cur to the true theory of our government, 
 
 which is in practice too often violated or 
 denied; and this would seem to be a proper 
 occasion for such a purpose. As I under- 
 stand the matter, and as we received it from 
 our fathers, the fundamental principle of 
 republicanism, as contradistinguished from 
 monarchy — the corner-stone of our politi- 
 cal structure, is the axiom, that the people 
 are the depositary of all sovereignty — that 
 all public officers are constituted for their 
 benefit and should be directly responsible 
 to them for the exercise of their delegated 
 power; and that, in the language of the 
 Declaration of Independence, "Whenever 
 any form of government becomes subver- 
 sive of these ends, [the ends for which it 
 was instituted,] it is the right of the people 
 to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a 
 new government, laying its foundation on 
 such principles, and organizing its powers 
 in such form as lo them may seem most 
 likely to effect iheir safety or happiness." 
 Of the necessity of such changes then the 
 Uviag people alone can be the judge, and 
 the duty of a good citizen is to bow cheer- 
 fully to theilr mandate. This view of the 
 case is usually conceded in this country; 
 but is often practically denied; for while 
 the sovereignty of the people is admitted, 
 as an . abstract proposition, it is contended 
 that they are incapable of exercising many 
 of the attribirtes of sovereignty, especially 
 that of selecting the ministers of their will; 
 and that while they are competent to choose 
 their governors and enact their own laws, 
 through their representatives, they are 
 nevertheless incompetent to select those 
 who are to construe and give force to those 
 lavsrs — a higher than legislative authority. 
 If this be true, then is our whole theory 
 of government wrong and the people no 
 longer sovereign, for that very power in- 
 volves the exercise of one of the very 
 highest attributes of sovereignty. I can 
 very well understand why, in other coun- 
 tries, where the appointing power is vested 
 in the king, certain officers should be ren- 
 dered, by the tenure of office, independ- 
 ent of the appointing power; but I confess 
 that I do not comprehend the necessity 
 
14 
 
 with us, where there is but 07ie party, and 
 where they are instituted for the benefit of 
 the people, on whose interests and rights 
 they are called upon directly to act. I 
 wish to see with us no officer independent 
 of public opinion, or claiming to hold 
 power from any other source than that of 
 the sovereign authority. If there be any 
 truth in our principles of government, then 
 we canriot err when every public agent 
 is brought as near as possible to the peo- 
 ple, and held responsible to them. 
 
 1 have an abiding confidence in what 
 may be termed tiie instincts of the people. 
 In the settlement of great questions agitating 
 the whole land, they are seldom wrong. 
 How many examples of the truth of this 
 assertion may we not find in our history 
 for the last few years.' A single one will 
 suffice, as I desire not to be tedioua. In 
 what 1 shall now have to say, I trust 
 that I shall not be understood as speaking 
 in any mere party spirit, for such a suppo- 
 sition would do me great injustice, I wish 
 only to draw from past events, legiti- 
 mate conclusions, in which I believe those 
 who hear me will concur. We all remem- 
 ber the crisis through which we passed 
 when the Bank of the United States was 
 contending, with its power of wealth, to 
 perpetuate its existence. We all remember 
 the predictions of pressure and ruin in 
 case it were refused. We were told that 
 our ships would rot at our wharves— that 
 commerce would stagnate —that the ex- 
 changes would become deranged — that in- 
 dustry would be paralyzed, and we were 
 even threatened with violence and revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 This wag honestly believed by many of 
 the most eminent statesmen and the bright- 
 est intellects of the age; and yet amidst all 
 this elemental strife, this war of factions, 
 while all around him quaked with present 
 fear ani future apprehensions, the Hero of 
 JVew Orleans— the soldier sage, stood firm 
 and immovable. 
 
 While round its breost the rolling clouds arc 
 
 spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 "Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form, 
 Heaves from the vale, and midway meets the 
 storm; 
 
 And what sustained him in this contro- 
 versy.' It was the honest confidence, the 
 natural instincts of a generous people, 
 whose impulse scattered to the winds the 
 sophistries of those who wished to batten 
 on the public wealth, and to establish a sys- 
 tem, the tendency of which was "to make 
 the rich richer, and the poor poorer.'* 
 When the contest was over, the storm was 
 laid, the clouds disappeared, and the sun of 
 prosperity shone forth in his pristine splen- 
 dor. And when, let me ask, has our coun- 
 try, from the foundation of the government, 
 been more prosperous and happy than now? 
 When has our currency been more sound, 
 our commerce more active, our e.xchanges 
 more uniform, and when has labor been 
 better rewarded.' 
 
 It has been said, within the last few 
 years, by the great light of this or any other 
 age— by a man whose genius and patriotism 
 we all delight to honor— one of the most 
 strenuous advocates for the re-chaiter of the 
 Bank, that a ^^Bank of the United States 
 was an obsolete idea." The brilliant intel- 
 lect then of Daniel Webster was wrong and 
 the glorious instincts of the people were 
 right. We might multiply many examples 
 to the same purpose, but I shall thus briefly 
 dispose of the subject. 
 
 While we enjoy the inestimable blessings 
 of our political system, we should not for- 
 get that we bold a precious trust for the 
 benefit of posterity. This trust we can 
 honorably discharge only by respecting the 
 example of our fathers and transmitting it 
 unsullied to our descendants. We must 
 inculcate in our children their glorious pre- 
 cepts, cherish their republican principles^ 
 imitate their simplicity and economy, and 
 strengthen the institutions which they es- 
 tablished. Those institutions form a wise 
 and safe system of government to which 
 we should adhere with a religious devotion. 
 And above all let us not forget that our 
 national constitution, under the shadow and 
 protection of whose wings we have growii; 
 
15 
 
 lo be a mighty people, Was the result of a 
 mutual compromise of various and conflict- 
 ing interests, feelings and jealousies; and 
 that it can bfe sustained only by the same 
 sacrifices and compromises, by a steady ad- 
 herence to the great and immutable princi- 
 ples of justice, and by preserving inviolate 
 its conditions and guarantees. 
 
 it is not too much to say that the ingenu- 
 ity of man could not possibly devise a form 
 oi government better adapted in all its parts 
 to our geographical position in reference to 
 other nations, to our w^ants and to our ne- 
 cessities. It possesses the harmony and 
 ■order of the solar system, in which each 
 particular planet, keeping within its own 
 prescribed limits and moving within its own 
 orbit, revolves around the common centre 
 of the whole; nor can one "shoot madly 
 from its sphere" without disturbing the 
 equilibrium and endangering the safety of 
 all. By such an eccentric coarse on the 
 part of a State, our whole confederate sys- 
 tem might be destroyed. And where is the 
 master spirit, where the creative mind, that 
 could again call it into existence and mould 
 it into its present symmetrical proportions 
 from this political "wreck of matter and 
 crush of worlds?" As well attempt to 
 hreathe vitality into a skeleton, or to expect 
 iife from the galvanic action upon a corpse- 
 Our Union, by leaving to each State the 
 -unrestricted regulation of its internal and 
 domestic afiairs and admitting each to a fair 
 participation in the power and honors of 
 the General Government, is capable of m- 
 Jinite expanshn without incurring the dan- 
 ger, on the one hand, of centralization, or 
 on the other, of breaking asunder by tire 
 weight of its extremities. By this reason- 
 able arrangement the centripetal and centrif- 
 ugal forces of our political system are held 
 in just equilibrio; and a perfect harmony of 
 interest and action may thus be maintained 
 between different members of the confeder- 
 acy, notwithstanding an occasional pertur- 
 bation which may for awhile exert its bale- 
 ful and disturbing influences. The federa- 
 tion can as well embrace within its frater- 
 
 nal arms a hundred as thirteen States, and 
 with each sovereign increment gain in 
 dignity and power. Who then can pre- 
 sume to set bounds to its legitimate increase, 
 or to attempt to limit its territorial acquisi- 
 tions? Or who can stay its march, until it 
 covers the isles of our seas, and 
 
 ■'The whole boundless continent is ours?" 
 
 None but he who holds in the hollow of 
 his hand the fate of men and directs with 
 his finger the destiny of nations! 
 
 No government, since the first dawn of 
 civilization to the present time, with the 
 exception of our own, has ever satisfactorily 
 solved the great problem of fusing into one 
 homogeneous mass, men of difTerent nations, 
 tongues and creeds. The Babylonian and 
 Persian kings did not accomplish it. The 
 empire of the Macedonian conqueror — phil- 
 osopher as well as hero--expired with its 
 founder. The Romans signally failed in 
 their efforts ; and the sceptre and iron 
 crown of Charlemagne remained buried 
 in his sarcophagus, until seized by a 
 greater than Charlemagne for a period 
 as brief as it was brilliant. In recent times 
 the attempt io force a union between Bel- 
 gium and Holland resulted only in mutual 
 hatred and ultimately in bloody separation; 
 and at this lime we find in Central and 
 Northern Europe, the different races of 
 Teutonic, Finnish, Sclavonic and Maygar 
 origin, as distinct in feelings, language and 
 reli°;ion, as they were centuries ago; nor is 
 there any probable closer approximation to 
 be anticipated for the future. England has 
 not been more successful than her sister 
 monarchies in conciliating conquered or 
 peacefully acquired countries; for the peo- 
 ple ol Ireland and the habitants of Canada, 
 are at this day as hostile to her policy and 
 institutions as they were when first incor- 
 porated with her dominions ; while she can- 
 not even rely upon the colonies peopled by 
 her own subjects. And yet we have seen 
 in our own history a whole territory — ma- 
 ture as Minerva from the brain of Jupiter 
 — composed almost exclusively of a people 
 
16 
 
 foreign in blood, language* and religion to 
 the great mass of the population of the 
 rest of the country, admitted as a sovereign 
 member of our confederation; yet where 
 will you find a more loyal State, or one 
 more devoted to the Union than Louisiana? 
 She has shown it on the field of battle — 
 has consecrated herself by the best blood of 
 her sons, and as each revolving year brings 
 with it the anniversary of the victory of 
 New Orleans, she displays with a just 
 pride, the tattered but glorious banner of 
 the Louisiana Legion, torn by the balls of 
 
 * Not many years since one of the U. States 
 Senators from Louisiana could not speak 
 English. One of her present Senators is the 
 eloquent SoiiJe, a man whose views, it is 
 true, are rather ultra on the subject of Stale's 
 rights, but whose patriotism is undoubted. 
 
 the invader, who had counted with a false 
 security upon the disafluction of her inhab- 
 itants. 
 
 In the language of one of our most elo- 
 quent writers, "May the rights of the 
 State government be preserved inviolate — 
 the government of the United States be 
 sustained by the patriotism of the people, 
 in the faithful discharge of its constitution, 
 al duties, and the political Arch of our 
 Union ever remain as beautiful as that 
 glorious Arch which spans the heavens, 
 and as endearing as the firmament in which 
 it is placed." 
 
 In conclusion, let us apply to our Union 
 the patriotic words of the Venitian sage, 
 
 "ESTO PERPETUA," 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 801 665 8 # l^f 
 
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