AJHQN,

% DELIVERED ON THE FOURTH or JULY,

am. m mam

AT NEWPORT,’ R. I.

r

B1’ HON. ASHER ROBBINS.

PROVIDENCE:
MILLER 8: HAMMOND,
3827.

Fourttz of July, 1892*?’ .
HON. ASHER. noemns,

SIR.-~—-The Committee of Arrangements for celebrating. in the town of Newport, the birthday oi‘
American Independence, hasten, in behalf of their fellow citizens,to present to you their thanks for the
Oretion you have this day, at their request, delivered before them.

The uncommon degree of interest and pleasure with which you have been listened to, is conclusive evi-
dence, that whoever possesses taste and talents to comprehend and appreciate the great models of Grecian
Eloquence which you so much admire and have so successfully cultivated, cannot fail to attain a powerful
influence over the minds as well as the hearts of his audience.

The Committee request you to favor them with a. copy o1‘yourOration, that they may gratify the on
pectations and wishes of your fellow citizens by the publication ofit.

JOHN P. MANN.

DUTEE J. PEARCE, .
BENJ. WAITE CASE, C°m*m“°*—
HENRY Y. CRANSTON.

R. B. CRANSTON,

 

DEAR SIRS,

In according to your request, aeopy ofmy Oration for the press, I beg leave to make my acknowledg-
ments for the very flattering manner in which that request is conveyed. Ifl could hope that my hum-
ble effort to dojustice to our Revolution, was, in any measure entitled to the compliment implied in your
note ;and that the Oration bore any resemblance, even the most distant, to those perfect models to which
you allude; lshould entertain fewer fears than I now do, of aless indulgent opinion of the public. I will
not dissemhle, however, that I have endeavored at some resemblance ofthose models ; but I am sensible (no
one can be more so than I am) how faint that is, and how far beneath them I have fallen.

ASHER ROBBINS.

Newport, 5th July, 1827'»
Messrs, '

JOHN P. MANN, _
norms J. PEARCE, _

BENJ. W. CASE, °°”"‘”‘“°°"

nenitr Y. CRANSTON,

R. B. CRANSTON”,

ORA.TION,—.

Ib¢“IluIuI!'I

WE have now met, my friends, to commemow
rate and to celebrate our Revolution. There has
been no revolution known in the history of mankind,
so interesting in itself, for the national character it
attested; so memorable in its circumstances, for the
national virtues it evinced; so favorable in its con»
sequences, directly to the people who accomplished
it, and indirectly to the rest of mankind. It stands,
and will for ever‘ stand, as a monument of peculiar
glory to the American people; and as the guiding
star of every other in their struggles for freedom.
Whenever, and Wherever any people, indignant at
their Wrongs, shall rise resolved to vindicate their
rights, they will turn their eyes to this guidirig star;
to cheer and to animate, as Well as to guide them.

,Our example will be their study, their model; here

they will take their lessons; here they will learn
how to fight the battles of freedom, and to triumph

in the contest; here they will learn the more diffi-

cult lesson, how to secure and to perpetuate all the
blessings of that triumph; here they will see demon-
strated that thepeople are capable of self—g'overn-
ment, and of a government, too, far excelling all
others  security, and the blessings it bestows;
here they willfind a practical refutation of the doc-

trine so industriously taught them by their rulers in

every age, that a power independent of their own, and

<4:

i superior to their own, is essential to their happiness,

as being essential to their security; here they will
see that the most powerful, the most prosperous, and

  the most happy of all governments, is the govern-

ment of the people, by the people.

Such a guiding star it has already been to the
liberated nations of the South on this continent.-
In the great resolve to achieve their freedom and
independence; in the severe conflicts of their long

and sanguinary struggles ; in their institutions, and

forms of government ; they have studied, have
imitated, have emulated our great example; and
success has crowned their efibrts. t They too have
hadand havetheir sages, andtheir heroes; if they
have not had a Wasnsrneron, that seems afavor re-
served by Providence for our peculiar felicity; re-
collect that VVASHINGTON stands alone ; without com-
peer in the ages‘ that preceded, and probably to be
without compeer in the ages that are to follow him.
It is fabledthat there could be but one Phoenix; it
would seem a fact that there can be but one WASH-
INGTON; he stands, and probably will for ever stand,
at the head of human kind; too elevated to have a
rival, almost too elevated to have a second. But
though they have not had the compeer of Washing»

 ton,they have had, as I said, and have, their heroes

and their sages who have enabled them to achieve

theirfreedomandindependence, it They have now
i taken their equal stations with the independent na-

tions of the earth; with Whom they have formed,
and are forming their relations; they have adopted
and are adopting institutions on the model of our

town; institutions thatwill give full scope to all the

iv

-1’)

energies of regulated freedom, operating throughout
their immense regions, fertile in boundless iresour~

ces, No longer the hand of a foreign domination

lies there as a curse upon the land; withering and
blasting even nature herself; that made the most
fertile portions of the earth, in a manner, a barren
waste; that lay like an incubus upon the faculties
of man, and benumbed like a torpedo. Nogthat
blasting hand,‘ is now itself blasted, and is shaken
off: Freedom now reigns there; from the summits
of their Andes, to the shores of either ocean,~her
banners, unfurled to the b,reeze,vfloatl. in triumphant
pride; blessing those nations, by those happy’ na-
tions blessed. l The Genius of our Revolution tower-
ing to the heavens, and pointing tothose happy na-—
tions, maylsay, in pride of heart may say, “Ecce

meos filios.”,

It also has been, and now is, the guiding star of
bleeding hapless Greece; now wading through
seas of blood to gain, if possible to gain, the shore
of a tranquil liberty. O ! God grant that she may
gain it. 0 ! the cruel destinies of ill-fated Greece ;"
crushed beneath the foot of a foreign domination
now for more than twenty centuries; first of the
Macedonian, then of the Roman, and lastly and
worst of the Turk, the barbarian, the merciless

Turk. Her children trodden under foot by the

slave of slaves. Her children (0! heart rending

thought) contending for her independence of the

Turk; and contending too with hereditaryvirtue ; a

virtue not inferior to that by which it was defended

by their glorious ancestors, againstthe l Persian ; and
no friendly hand is foundto , help them in the dubious

6

strife? Yes; the immortal fires of Grecian genius,
and of Grecian virtue; though smothered for so ma-
ny ages, are unextinguished and still burn in Greece.
Where, 0 civilized man, where is thy gratitude?
Where thy remembrance of thine obligations to
Greece’? Thy civilization thou owest to her; she
was the original of it all. There the arts first sprang
into existence; and thence diffused themselves over
the earth. She was their inventress ; and what she
invented she perfected. She gave you the patterns
of every excellence; and so perfecttltat to this day
they remain matchless and unrivalled. The glory
of the arts in every other country is a borrowed glow
ry, borrowed from her; in her alone it is original
and underivedg in her it shines with unequalled
splendor; like the sun it shines, and every other is
lost in its blaze. There too the sciences first dawn-
ed; Greece opened their paths to mankind; and if
mankind in after ages have proceeded further in
them, it is because those paths run to an intermina-
ble length; because what is gained by one is gained

to all; and because no advance -in them can be lost;
not like the arts, which are definite in their bounda-

ries ;. nor the productions of the arts, which are limi-
ted by the limitation of the faculties, which produce
them. She too gave to the world examples of ev-
ery thing noble, of every thing ennobling in the hu-
man character; examples that exalt to every mind
the dignity of the human species ; examples that
cannot be contemplated, without a feeling of con»
scious pride, in our common nature, from such sub»
lime flights it of human virtue. l And shall the ld_escen-
dants of such apeople, the heirs of suchglories, and

’7
of such obligations upon mankind, find from n1an:-v

kind no returns of favor in this their hour of need’?
Will they still look with cold indifierence on their

l agenieing struggles, to redeem their country from

the hands of barbarians? See them perish in that
struggle, or again submit to their bitter bondage ‘I

 See the foot ofthe barbarian, and now irritated and

vengeful Turk, again put and with aggravated ‘in-
dignities, upon the neck of prostrate Greece’? Has
a cold“ and calculating policy, looking only to self,
and to the present moment, extinguished every gen-
erous sentiment in the human breast? or forbid
every act in obedience to its impulse’! Is every 113.»
tional movement in their favor to be stigmatized as
a crusade; and Worthy onlyof the Quixotes of the

_ age’? Shall even the impulses of private sympathy

be frowned upon, or ridiculed; and endeavors made

to lock out from their relief the resources which

those impulses might give them’! If mankind are to
remain dead to every sentiment of sympathy with
suffering humanity; to every sentiment of ' grati-
tude to the children of the benefactors of their spe-
cies; every sentiment of every ennobling virtue; if
interest and interest only is to influence and to go...
Vern; let it be, in God’s name, let itbe an enlarg-~
ed, an enlightened interest. And will emancipated
Greece, not promote that interest? will it be 1104»
thing to civilized nations, to have such anassociate
as a partner in the cause and career of human im-—
provement '2“ Soon would modern“ Greece, if eman--

cipated, vindicate her descent from the anlcient.
, Farther genius, "‘isnot dead but sleepethj” sooner

would it rouse itself from the long slumbierof ages,

.5

and array that eountry in all its former g1o1* ; would
call up from their graves their buried arts ; would
summon home their Muses to their native seats,
again to infuse their divine inspirations ; would re«-
open their Porticos and their Lyceums, and again
read there the lessons of an immortal wisdom; again
too would be heard, the strains of that impassioned
eloquence “ which shook the Arsenal of Athens and
fulrnined over Greece ;” there too Science would
again plume her wing for stronger and bolder flights
than ever. This may be deemed the picture of a
visionary hope,’which emancipated Greece would
never realize. She might not to the letter ;but who
can doubt but she would make some approaches to it’!

At any rate who can doubt but independent Greece, ,

left to all the energies of A a regulated freedom, act-
ing upon all her own resources----would be an im-

portant acquisition in every point of view to the civi~ '

lizedworld ’!p But if every other people were to re»
main insensible“ tothe claims of suffering Greece
upon their affections ; it is strange that we should,

we the American people. To us their laffectioilsl

flew, from the first moment of their unfurling the
banner of independence ; to us they looked as their
great example. It inspired their bold design---1t
animated to their deathless acts of self devotion in

their country’s cause ; it has kept alive their hopes, i ”

in all the gloomy hoursiiii of adverse fortune, and un-
der the most appalling disasters. Yes ; not even
the memory of their own glorious ancestors has had
so sustaining, so animating an influence. ’ No; not
even of those, who stood self-devoted at the pass of
Thermopolse; nor of those who fought the fields of

9
Marathon and Platea ;...nor of those who fouglit the

.-final and triumphant battle in the Straits of Salamis ;

tlicugh deified to them by the eloquence of her own
Demosthenes. No ; and our Vvasnxnerron has been

to them a more enkindling name than that of their -

own LEONIDAS.

But‘ I forget myself; this is not the occasion to
plead their cause; and if it were, I could not plead
it, as I feel it ought to be pleaded; and if I could I
should plead it in vain; for, “ O judgment, thou hast
fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their rea-_-
son.” a it

Thus it is the American people have led and are

leading in the van of freedom for mankind. The

march of that freedom may be slow; but there is
reason to believe, it will be sure and irresistible,

‘ and that all absolutethrones will sooner or later fall

before it. Already those throneshave to rely on the
brute force only of the military arm; for they have
lost or are fast losing their two other great props,
the ignorance and the superstition of their people,
by the diffusion of knowledge and of the spirit of
inquiry among them. Nor is this military arm, sin-
gly for each, deemed by them a suflicient security
to each; for, abjuring their mutual Wars of ambition
and conquestj they have leagued together for their
mutual defence against their own people 3 and have

deemed the united force of all necessary to each,

against the single people of each. N ow this spirit
of the people, so dreaded by these thrones, takes
its great force from the example of our revolution;

there it feeds itself, thence it grows and becomes thd a

ruling passion. The love of liberty is a sentiment

«J

l0

natural to the human heart; but the Want of it,
though that is always felt as a severe privation, it is
not felt as a reproach, so long as it is the common
lot of all; and if the privation is not aggravated by
outrages, it is not apt to impel to action : But if lib-
erty has been acquired and is enjoyed by others,
and the example is ever present tothe view, and the
results are enviable, then it is coveted; then the

a contrast makes the privation felt as a reproach. It

is the sting of this reproach, this Wounded pride,eim-
patient of degradation, and eager to avenge itself,
grafted on this innate love of freedom, that impels
to action; that prompts the noble purpose, that
urges the daring hand to vindicate the rights of in-
sulted nature. Yes: insulted nature; for every ar-
bitrary throne is an insult to nature. What greater
indignity to man than to be made the property of his
fellow-man; to have no share in thepower that
rules him; to be subject tothe abuses of that povvu
er, and that power always tending to , abuse; cor-
rupted itself, and corrupting its possessor; by
its own natttre and necessary operation corrupt-
ing him. It is thus that the influence of our Revo-
lution is silently undermining arbitrary thrones, and
preparing their fall; it is by nourishing the spirit of
liberty, by begetting and infiaming an impatience of
its privation ; r and they must fall. Their leagues,
their holy alliances, may delay, but they cannot pre-
vent their final fall. That is; the arbitrary power

 must be surrendered; the people must have freedom,

4‘ That freedom which God hath given

Unto all beneath his Heaven 5 r

With their breath and from their birth, l
Though guilt yvoulcl sweep it from the earth 5"?

ii

and that freedom must be secured to the people by
their farms of government.

it is the great mind and the great heart that
makes a people great, and capable of great things;
and not their numbers, though these may be as the
stars of heaven innumerable.‘ What signified the
millions of Asia, but slaves With the minds and
hearts of slaves, pouring like the inundation of the
universal deluge upon Greece, against the Greeks
of that day; though theirnumbersr Were compara-
tively as nothing: against Spartans that could cool-
ly say to the leader of that countless host; who to
induce their submission by addressing their fears,
told them, that the flight of the arrows of his host
in battle, would make a cloud, and intercept the sun;

, Spartans that could coolly reply—-—--—“‘ Then we shall

fight in the shade ;” who were prepared to prove as
they did at Thermopolae and on all occasions, that
this reply was no rhodomontade; was not the as-
sumed language of an affected magnanimity ; but of
their real indifference to and contempt of the danu
ger: Against Athenians, who when reduced to the.
alternative, either of submitting or of abandoning

their homes, and embarking with their families on

board their ships ; did nothesitate a moment in ma!-
king the choice ; who instantly abandoned their
homes, and embarked with their families on board
their ships ; but first stoned to death the only Athe-~
nian who had been pusillanimous enough to counsel

t them to submit: Against men who only lived in the

life of their country: and who considered herfree-it

domas that life; who defended it as their own ; “and

to whom their own in comparison with heirs, was as

‘I2
nothing. Such men make a country great because
they make it free; they cannot be made slaves ;for
if freedom perishes they perish With it; their virtue
will not let them survive it.
The national character, displayed in our revolu-s

tion, and it Was truly great, and in many traits pe- -

culiar and unparalleled, was the people’s--theirr1a~
tural inherent character. It was not imparted to
them by their leaders; for their leaders were but
samples of themselves ; and were leaders only be-«
cause they were so, and were animated by the same
spirit which animated them. Neither were they
formed by their leaders, but were self formed for
the occasion. It is idle to talk of “the first im»
pulse given to the ball of the Revolution ;” that im-~
pulse was the soul of America; and that soul was
not local, it was universal. It was as idle to ima-

gin e, as was imagined that the Revolution was moved,

and might be controlled, by individuals. No indi"
vidual, not even the greatest, had the least power
independent of the conformity of his sentiment with
the popular sentiment; nor of the popular belief of
that conformity; even Washington’s had no other
basis. That national character consisted pre-emi—

nently in a high enlightened sense of their own

rights; andin a spirit to brook no compromise of
them; to refuse no dangers intheir defence. They

were not a people of slaves, debased by the vices.

of servitude; and goaded by its severity to break
from their bondage. N 0:. they were a people of
freemen, nurtured in freedom, possessing all its vir-
tue ; and but threatened with servitude. It was not
the grievance itself, for that was not severely felt;

13

but it was the principle thereby asserted, the right
claimed to impose it, that was so intolerable to the
jealous spirit of freedom; that kindled that high spi-

rit to a flame ; and led on to the Rev'olut.ion. Their“

right to perfect freedomwwas. thereby challenged;
and they would not endure to have it questioned. As
becamethem, they first tried and exhausted reason;
but finding interested power deaf to her voice; and
immovable from its purpose; their universal cry’
was---to arms! to arms y!----and though fully aware
of the mighty odds of the conflict; the disparity did

not weigh a feather against the cry. Great Britain,‘

then wielding the greatest power on earth; flushed
with a recent conquest over the mighty power of
France; and menacing them with the Whole force
of her power; yettheir unconquerable Virtue could
say to Great Britain----“ you may destroy our towns,
may cut us off’ from the superfluities, and even the

conveniences of life; but we are prepared to de-

spise your power; and will not lan1ent their loss,
while we have our woods and our liberty. For li-
berty we will forego our profits and our pleasures;
and the peaceable enjoyment of ourdearest con»:
nexionsf’ Yes: such sacrifices wererthese lofty
spiritstprepared to make; and would have made,
had; the extremity of the conflict required them“
The Declaration of Independence which followed;
and which you have now heard, and annually hear
read, was but the national record of the national
sentiment; and will remain its eternal monument.
The hand that drew it is now cold in death; but it
willfor ever remain a livingpicture of his own im-
mortal mind, in; that which it gave of the mind of

it

his country. The same high spirit was also atteste-
ed in the instant union of so many distinct and un«
connected communities; so divided and so distant

williiilifrolztreach other; a unionwhich nothing could pre-

vent, which nothing could “break; no art, no in-.

- trigue, no corruption ; no force Without, no treachery

Within ; no hopes, no fears; no promises, no dan-«

gers ; no description, no length of -calamity, no ex- A

tremity of suffering. The “ divide ct impem,” that
insidious and ‘almost never failing policy of domi-G
neering power  similar cases, had no effect here».
When Persia invaded Greece, she was able to sea-
duce some of the Grecian States, from the common
cause, eminent as their common peril Was; and to’
engagethem on her side; but here and herein, if
not here only, was displayed more than Grecian
virtue.   .

I have said that their sense of their own rights
was an enlightened sense. it Perhaps no people, as
a people, ever possessed a more masculine under-
g1;a1'1rfi,gl; more robust minds, in robust bodies.
Their situation and mode of life hadno doubt the
greatest influence in producing this peculiar strength

  of understanding; though other causes contributed

to the same effect. That situation was full of me.

it cessities ; calling for expedients to meet them, and

throwing the individual every where upon his own
resources ; induci_ng habits of thought and. refiection,
and strengthening these faculties by constant exer-
cise. This Was assisted too, by the rudiments of
learning which they universally possessed; (univer-
sallyl say, for so rarely was any adult person found
among them not possessed of these rudiments, _tha_t

Md

lo

the acquisition is to be considered as universal ;)
opening to their minds channels of information; and
the means of A profiting by the thoughts of others, as
Well as by their own. By the joint operation poi‘
these causes, and of other ;‘ and among the other
perhaps a more vigorous nature; go Where 

i would among them, the traveller would  
people intelligent; and mingled among them every

where minds of a superior cast. No populated dis-
trict of the country, no town, no village, no ham-
let even, was to be excepted; none in which minds
were not to be found fitted by nature to cope with
the difficulties of the most arduous undertakings.
Accustomed to reflect, reason had over them a re-
markable ascendancy ; accustomed to discriminate,
they could not easily be deceived, by its merely
specious appearances ; and if their understandings
might ever be made the dupe of their passions, they
could not be impelled, by impelling their passions, to
acts of lawless violence. I doubt if all the provi.n-
ces together, though ransacked for the purpose,
could have mustered one such rabble as might be

wrought up to a riot of blood and violence, by the -

  harangue of an Anthony over the dead body of a \

Cesar. Bred up in every species of hardy indus-
try, and of adventurous enterprize, their bodies were

fitted to every toil, and superiour to every toil of

every undertaking to which their minds impelled
them. a A beautiful picture, but not more beautiful
than just, of this vigour of body andmind, is given

by Burke: He is speaking of A them, before the Re»
volution, but just on its eve: He says--“ Pass by .

oJth_er parts, hp and look at the manner in which the

16

people of N ew-England have of late carried on the
whale fishery. While We find them among the
tumbling mountains of ice ; and behold them pence-

, trating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hud-

son’s Bay and DaVis’s, Straits, , Whilst we are look-
 for them. beneath the Arctic circle, we hear that
they have passed into the opposite regions of polar
cold, that they are at the antipodes, and engaged
under the frozen serpent of the south. Falkland
Island, A which seemed too remote and romantic an
object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a
stage, a resting place, in the progress of their Vic-
torious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more

discouraging to them than the accumulated Win-

ter of both the poles ; we know that while some of
them draw the line, and strike harpoon on the coast

of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their

gigantic game along the coast of Brazil, N 0 sea
but what is vexed by their fisheries ; no climate that
is not Witness totheir toils. Neither the perseve-
rance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor

the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enter-

prise, ever carried this mode of hardy iiidustry to
the extent to which it has been pushed by this peo-
ple; a people, who are still as it were in the gristle,
and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.”
And Chatham, contemplating the same people
about the same time, sees in them the genuine (not

the fabled) sons of earth ;, and forsees that they

must prove invincible. , i a
That prudence, (to use the Word in its original

F sense,) that prudence which discriminates the na-

ture of things, and assignsto each its just considew

err

ration; to the good, to the evil, and’ to the indifl"e-=
rent; which foresees the future, and provides for it,
or against it, according to its nature : That justice,
which, recognizing the rights of all, exacts and pays
respect to all the rights of all: That fortitude,
Which, proposing noble ends, by noble means, has
the perseverance and the patience to accomplish
them: and that temperance, the virtue of the vir-

tues, which controls them all, and prevents each

from running to that excess at which it ceases to be
virtue and becomes vice; that by its forbearance,
its clemency, its charity, and its modesty, diffuses
graces “over them all, gives to all their finishing pere-
fection, and to the union of all its transporting ef-
fect : These virtues were so common to our ances-
tors, who effected the revolution, that they were in

V truth national virtues; and they were so eminent,

that even WASHINGTON is but the Corinthian capital
of that column, which the virtues of the land dis»
played; all was in proportion, all was in keeping
with that crowning beauty of the whole; and he
was this Corinthian capital, because all the virtues
were found united in him, and united in their great.»
est perfection. His fame is but the reflection of his
virtue; and what a fame it is ! Whose is like it’? so
pure, so bright, so boundless, so likely to be eteré»
nal’! What part of the habitable globe, civilized or
savage----What human being of any part, hath not
heard of the name of Wasrrruc-Ton? whose lips
have not repeated, whose feelings have not kmrdled
at, his name C? He has wanted no Homer to be the
herald, of his fame; his name is its own herald, bel-
catlse igis but vanotiher ;I¥&1113 for Virtue hersvelf; and

I8‘
is identified with all that is conceived of virtue. His
gallant armies too, Worthy of such a chief, beloved
and admired by him, as the means of his success,
and asthepartners of his glory; by Whom he was
enabled towin the battles of freedom, and give to
his country her independence; what virtues they
displayed! not merely the more vulgar virtue of
courage, but that higher virtue which combats for
glory, in a glorious cause; superior to all dangers,
to all sacrifices, to all privations: glorious armies,
abounding in chiefs who were great and glorious
men, and some of them all but WASHINGTONS: pa-
triot armies, with every title to the gratitude, and I

will add, to the munificence of their country. 0! i

may it never be said that anyof them have or shall
lay their bones in one that is ungrateful. The time
would fail me to particularize persons, and speak
with duepraise to individual merit ; and it would be-_

uiijnst and invidious to notice some, and to pass by ’

others equally entitled to notice. To the historic
muse I commit and commend their praises. A

. l VV ill it be said that this ascription to the nation of

such national virtue, is but the vain boast of nation-
al egotism’! I ask Where is, where ever was a peo-

ple before, whose privatevirtues were a substitute

for government itself, and a sufficient substitute ‘.3 and
such Werelthe private virtues of this people. In some
of the provinces government itself was suspended,
with all its authority and functions; by the policy of
the mother country suspended, with a View to let
loose anarchy upon the people, and by its reign and its

horrors to coerce them into submission to her authori- ,
ty ; but it was found that ‘anarchy had nomaterials

‘ 19

among them; that their habits of self-control operated
like government, and preserved the same order. I
ask again, Where is, where ever was a people ‘before,

 Whose self-command was such, that during a pro-

tracted civil war of eight years continuance, they
never once abused their power; never permitted
themselves to be hurried into any one scene of san-
guinary violence? Such was the self-command of
the American people; Yet what provocations, what
trials, their virtue endured. But these I purpose-
ly omit to describe or to mention. Let that nation-
al dignity which could forbear the retaliation, now

forbear the reproach. Let the mantle of silence,

and, if possible, of oblivion, be thrown over those
disgraceful, those inhuman cruelties, now, and for
ever hereafter. A 1

~ “Te owe the revolution to the virtue of the peo-
ple, and our empire to the revolution; we owe our
government to the wisdom of our sages; and to

that our national felicity; the unexampled rapidity ll

of our growth, in numbers, in strength, in resources,
in prosperityof every kind; and the Well founded
hope, the moral certainty, of equal, if not greater

rapidity of advance in all future time,to our latest

generations; opening prospectsof happiness and
glory, brighter than ever before have beamed upon
any people; prospects deeply interesting to man-

kind, 'While they are so auspicious to ourselves.

Thesehigh destinies of our empire, embracing now

the foundations of an empire, grander by far than

everyet has existed on earth; not excepting the
last, and the greatest of the series, the Roman;
no  theflightsof her eagle hada less limiteyd range

720

than ours, and hers never soared to the height that
ours may; these destinies are liable to fail but, as I
fondly believe, by one event, and that depending
entirely on ourselves ; I mean thedissolution of our
“Union. From every other danger they stand guar-
ded, and, as I think, safe. But the loss of our
Union would be the loss of every thing; every
thing in possession, every thing in prospect; that
moment our sun sets, to rise no“ more ; and the hopes
of mankind perish for ever.  For the dissolution of
our Union would lead ultimately to the loss of our
liberties. Mutual disputes vvould ; produce mutual
wars, mutual wars standing armies, and standing ar-
mies arbitrary governments; and these, not only all
the general evils of despotism, but further, all the
peculiar evils of petty contiguous ‘despotisms. I
forbear to point out, and to pourtray, these evils on

this occasion; it would lead me too far; besides,

they will present themselves on reflection to every
~min‘d, and speak forcibly to every heart. a This pe-
ril, and this not probable, hardly possible, (for the
same Wise forecast which induced the Union, I trust

can never be Wanting to this people ; and therefore
can never fail to preserve it,) is the only peril, as I g
said and believe, , that attends our march to our

great and glorious destination. That march may be
more or less rapid ; so but will be sure and certain.
Its acceleration depends on government “devising the
"merans, and steadily pursuing the means Tbest calcu-
lated to unfold all the faculties of all the country;
and giving to. all their full growth; and these means
are so obvious that they cannot escape the sagacity
of the government; indeed they have not escaped,

32.1.

They have been visible to the government from the it

beginning; and never to any administration more
clearly and comprehensively than to the present.

a These means involve no sacrifice of a part to the

Whole, nor of the interest of apart to the interest
of the whole ; they require in any part only the ex-
ertion of that common. prudence, which foregoes a
small immediate, but very temporary interest, for
the sake of a great and permanent, and not distant
future interest. The opposition to the pursuit of
these means is diminishing; and Will, We may safe-
ly predict, speedily vanish before the great and in-
creasing lights, by which every where it is recom-
mended and supported. The great capital of the
country is its land; and the great desideratum is
that policy, Which, by giving full activity to that capi-
tal, will give its full value to that land; and that po-
licy is found in these means. This done, and our
national . wealth, and national power of all sorts, is
in the end, beyond all assignable limits. Yes; they

become too large an object for the grasp of the
imagination itself; she stretches herself in vain, and

sinks overpowered by the infinitude of the object.
That problem in the science of government the

most difficult in its nature, but the most interestin

to mankind; at which the greatest minds of all ages
in all ages have labored, and labored in vain ;_ has
been solved here, and our destinies depended on
-the solution; solved by that illustrious body of sa-
ges, who framed our Constitution of Government.
That problem was, how to make a government,
purely popular, and yet perfectly practicable and
-perfectly efficient foragreat country. Those sages

.29;

saw that----siniply national it could not be, for that
would involve the annihilation of the States; and
besides it was equally forbid by the great eazteiit of
the country ; the representation to be adequate
would be too unvvieldy to be practicable; and the
potver of the executive to y be adequate would be
too great to be safe : That simply federal it could
not be; for that simple principle never had been
found sufiicient any Where at any time ; and our own
experience had demonstrated that it was not, and
could. not be suficient here; indeed its insufficiency
is inherent in the nature of man and of things, and
remedy for it there is none; It Was conceived by
those great men, and the conception was original
with them, that the national principle might be graft-
ed on the federal, in such a manner, as thereby to
obtain all the I advantages of both, and to avoid all
the evils of both; and, what is glory indeed, they
realized the happy conception. g They produced a
constitution. that has all this perfection ;-—--purely
popular, yet perfectly practicable and perfectly ef-
ficient for the government of this great and growing
country; that is indeed the great means of its
growth; that is formed to adapt itself to ‘any’, en-
largement of territory, any increase of numbers;
and to gain in efficiency Without impairing its per»
fect freedom, by every such accession. A govern-
ment of beneficence itself; good for all, and equally
good for all ; its power and its ‘effect the same eve-
rywhere ; r on the extremities as [at theiiicentreyg on

the shores of it the Pacific, as” on the shores, of the

Atlantic ; along the margin of y the Mexican Gulf in

the South, and along the borders of the Lakesin i

@273

the North, as at its seat in the city or Washington,
By its own excellence insuring the general prospe-
rity glprecluding thereby, if not the possibility of fac-
tion, the possibility of danger from faction. By pre-

venting the existence of different orders, in the so-- ,

ciety, possessing different privileges’; that eternal

‘source of contention in all the ancient republics,

and finally fatal to them all; it opens to all the citi4
zens and equally to all the path to distinction and
honors, by merit, and by merit alone. iThis Constiw
tution is a monument that does honor to the human

understanding; and is the peculiar glory of l the saw 
ges who framed it; but that glory is shared by the i

people ; for by adopting the wisdom of their sages
they made it their own; and it is a proof of high
understanding that they were able to see, and ap-
preciate in the theory all the t practical benefits of
the system. When Lord Chatham saw the delibe-
rations of our first Provincial Congressiat Philadel-

phia, they filled him with admiration of the WlSCl0i11

of that assembly. In his place in Parliament he
said :   l A  

. “.My Lords--—For my part I must declare and avowf
that in all my reading, and it has been my favorite

study, I have read Thucydides, and studied and

admiredthe master states of the world; that for

solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and Wisdom

of conclusion under such a complication of diflicult
eircumstanees, no nation or body of men can stand
in preference to the General Congress at I’l1iladel-:-

aphia.” Had thatgreatrnan lived to witness another

GeneralCongress, assembled to deliberate under
st-.111 more clificyult circumstances, on the best form;

‘$24

of government for their great and growing coun-
try; and, to witness the result both as to. theory
and practice, and had occasion to speak of their
merits, would his admiration, would his panegyrick

‘of them have been less’? would he not have pla-=

eed these states, among those master states of the
world which he had studied and admired? I verily
believe he would have placed them at their head. ~

It is by its nature formed for duration; and is not
endangered but is guaranteed by situation. It has
been supposed that all governments have, in their

 original composition, some principle of mortality;
, and must thereby perish sooner or later. This may

be so, asto all governments founded in force, and
which subsist by force ; for they are liable to be de-
stroyed by the re--action which that force tends to
produce; it may be so, as to states founded in con-
sent; but composed of different orders, possessing
diflierent privileges ; those orders are not proper,-

, ly balanced; and even then they are liable to be

destroyed, by whatever accident may destroy that
balance. But our government has in it no such

principle; is liable to no such danger. r Pericles

said to the Athenians, that virtue was the only thing
which never grew old; the principle of our govern-
nient is of the nature of virtue; it is the principle
of equal right. This government is founded, and it
is the first of a great country that has been founded,

. in the pure principle of equality; political equality;

it is the government of r all, by all, for the equal
good of all; and the people musttire of their own
equal rights, and of their own happiness, before this
principle can lose its force. The power is in the

Q5

people, and must remain so ; because the property‘
is in the people, and must remain so; if the govern»
ment is destroyed then, it must be a voluntary de-
struction, by the people themselves, self-moved to

the Work. We have a government. then that in its

nature is formed for immortality. Safe Within it-
self, how is it Without’? It is placed, securely placed,
beyond the reach of accident. W7 e may save wars‘

. made upon us, but our subjugation is morally impos-
sible. With a World of our own, and separatedr

from Europe by the wide Atlantic ; all Europe com-
bined, could :not subdue our country. But there
can be no such combination. Then the probability
of wars is daily diminishing, in proportion  our
ability to meet them is daily increasing ; and I need

A not say how rapid that is. That policy, too, which
is improving the security of the country, and the

means of its defence against War, is the best of all
policy to prevent war; it is the policy of true ‘WlS--
dom, of true economy. It is placing us, and at no
distant day, in a situation which will guarantee to
the country a perpetual peace ; a situation in which

no nation will dare to do us wrong; or if done, to

refuse reparation. Neither will there beany fear
of war from our own injustice ; justice to all nations

will be, as it ever has been, our standing policy-
Thus secure of perpetual peace, and launched on

our course, We shall proceed to our destination, with
every sail unfurled to the breeze, and every breeze
propitious.

Among the glories of that destination; I fondly
anticipate, as the greatest and the brightest, those of

science, of literature, and the arts. These glories
«at -*

26

are the true elixir of national immortality; they
alone give immortality to the countries which they
adorn; they survive the revolution and destruction
of empires, the extinction oftpeoples, of tongues,
of every thing but time itself; they only cease to

flourish when time itself shall cease to be. What

remains of Greece and Rome but theseglories’?
What else has remained for ages and ages? and
these will for ever remain; and for ever make their
people the objects of the admiration of mankind.
These glories would indeed be stars in our national
banner; to shine like stars in the heavens, and no
less eternal. But let us not deceive ourselves ; we
have not yet attained to these glories; for wide is
the difference between medioc_rity,_ and that excel-
lence which gives immortality to works ; nothing is
more easy than the one, and which we have attain-
ed; and nothing more difficult than the other, and
which we have not attained. Neither let us despair;
for there is that in the American mind, to overcome
every difficulty; a force, an ardor of pursuit, that’
never has been surpassed in any people ; and that
mind has but to take this direction, guided by proper
lights, and aided by proper means, to reach that ex-
cellence. We Want a Baconto point out our defi-
ciences and their sources ; to open to us the paths
to improvement, and to give directions therein; to
advise, in a word, all the means to this end. Wey,
want, too, that policy, which looking to, and covet-
ing this species of glory, will not grudge the means,
nor stint the means necessary to procure it; and
will make it a national concern, Soon would that

1737

policy usher in the day, of w11ioh we have now only
the promise in the g1i:o11ne1° of its demo.

Thus have I{e11deaVoured to present to you, my
fellow-‘citizens, some of the views suggested by our
Revolution’, to exalt, if I could, and as the oeeasion
required, one common corantry in our common af~
feetion, Refleeting on ‘chose things, let us in com-
mon Wiflx our A nation, be grateful to that Allniglmr
Being, indwhose hzmds are meeissues of empires;
who hath giVe11 to us our goodly 11eritage; who

from the begim1i11g hath seemed to gathelwls under,

the wings of his speeia1ProVidenee, to be our shield
in the hour of special danger; and still humbiy
hope, as in the pasjz, so in the future, his hand nmy
lead us, and his right hand sustain us.