0ZB.A'I'ION'
A tenonouxcnn nnpom: Tm: étfirxznfis %o%:s'% rRov;n1§.NcE,
’ on THE Founm orémfi, me, BEING frnr. % %
  fiftieth 7 Anniversary

. QF

  .a.MERIo.a.N INDEPENDENCE ,«,-

      “ BY WILLIAM HUNTER.

  ammm Emwm 

V ‘PROVIDENCE :
E A Smith 8t_ Parmenter, Printers.

‘ u n ¢ a O o U Q cg

RHODEJSLAND nrsrnrcr, 8:01

[L. S.] : Be itremembered, that on the sixth day of July, in the year of
our Lord one tliousand eight hundred and twenty-six, and in the fif'ty~first year
of the independence of the United States ofAmerica, SMITH 8: PARMI-‘.N'I‘Z€R,
of this District, deposited in this office a title of abook, the right ‘whereof they
claim as proprietors, in the words following, viz :

“ Oration pronounced before the citizens of Providence, on the Fourth of
July, E826, being the Fiitieth Anniversary of American Independence. By
W1LLI.AM Hnnrnze.”

In conformity to an act of Congress of the United States, entitled “ An act
for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and
books ‘to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the time therein
mentioned ;” and also to an not entitled “ An act for the encouragement of
learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and
proprietors of such copies during the time therein mentioned, and extending
the benefit thereof to the art of designing, engraving and etching historical and

ether prints.” Vvitness,
BENJAMIN COWELL,
Clerk of Rhoda-Island District.

 Prmridmce, July 5th, 18%.
IIONOURABLE wmnnmlnonona;

SLR,-..The undersigned Committee of Arrangements, in the name of‘ the citizens of Providence, tender
you their unfeigned thanks for the eloquent and appropriate Oration pronounced before them on the 4th
instant, and respectfully request a copy for publication.  A L

It is not in more compliance with custom ‘that we Quake this x?eque.s't.« Your production embodies facts
which are a source of honestpride to every son of Rhode Island; anti we wish the remainder of our fellow
citizens to share the pleasure of those who witnessed its delivery.

We have the honor to be your obliged and obedient servants,
R. G. ALLEN,
JOSIATEI WIEEITAKER, §Commi¢tcc.

N. S. DRAP R

Providence, July 6th, 18216.
MESSRS. R. Gr. ALLEN, JOSIAH 'WHI'I‘AKER, N. S. DRAPER, Committee, «ye.

GENTLEJVIEN-~I comply with your polit: request, but with extreme reluctance. My address was
unworthy of the occasion, and undeserving of your encomium. If it possessed any interest, it must have
arisen from the recital of those facts, drawn from authentic authorities and records, illustrative of the cha-
racter ofour state; To some of these authorities and records, I shall refer in a short appendix, which, with
your permission, will be annexed to the address.

With great respect,
I have the honor to be,
Grentlemexi,
Your obedient,

Faithful servant,
WILLIAM HUNTER-

easement

I have been admnished, Fellow Citizens,
that I have been guilty f an imprudent, if not
an improper act,  accepting your too partial
   ration, t address you on the present occa-
sion.

It has been urged, and with a friendly voice
-,---What literary honour can be acquired by the

 

presentment of an exhausted theme’! What b«en--

efit can arise, by the repetition of old, a‘cw1—

edged truths? i As to literary honour, I answer, 
,  do not seek it. It would be worse than vani-

ty on such an occasion, to make an effort for ap--
plause; and as t.o the repetition of acknowledged

ttruths, it is delightful to recognize and enforce

them. It is delightful to bring back recollec-
tions that are endeared to us, by the merits, the
sufferings, and the successes, of our forefathers;
toawaken from their sweet repose, those stern

~ emotions, those mighty urposes,r and those he-—

roic passions, that achieved our country’s glory,
and secured our present happiness. Every

6

thought, and feeling, that gave rise to the indeu
pendence of our country, are lodged in the bosorns
of all who hear me : an overstrained effort at
novelty or prettiness of phrase on this occasion,
would be as repugnant to taste as to truth. He
who would address you, with the humble hope

of affording satisfaction, ought to act on the bean-

tiful Platonic theory, which supposes the perfect
form of every idea to be pre~existent in the mind,
and which is only developed and rendered audi-
ble,by the sympathy of occasion, and the instruw
mentality of language. A glance of the mind’s

eye, at once intuitive and introverted, will con-»

vince you that on the tablets of your own hearts,

  are written as by theffiingeripofst God, 
nal truths which gave impulse to »+0ur.srieivolution,,
and triumph to ourindependence. A  These truths
‘ by you never canbe repelled as thre~ad—bare, or
 unbelved even if worn to tattersgt they will al-

ways be as the garment of good repute, bright as
the sacred vestment of the prophet, glitteringwith
heavenlylight. You can again and again look

at the person, or even the resemblance of a dear

friend, a patriot hero, or a sainted sage».i—----r

Yourknow there are some topics, which are ‘so
noble,.land commanding, that like the peculiarity
in the appearance of our Washington, the impres-
sions of our sacred awe and severe delight, are
never eflaced, even by frequency, of intercourse.

No. If I must assign the motive for my being

7

here, and confess that feeling, which conquered
an inexpressible reluctance to make this sort of
exhibition of myself again, upon such an occa-
sion. I avow it was a superstitious or, if YOU
will accord it a pious emotion “of gratitude.—-----
This is the Jubilee of our Independence,and I
was overwhelmed by the reflection, that I Was as
old as that-——-that I had from my birth, breathed,
not only the pure air of English freedom, but
the purer, of American liberty and independence.

That born amid the convulsions and distresses  

ofmyretcountry, I had lived to witness its tran-
qrrility and prosperity, had been a witness of its
Wonderful progress in arms and arts; had seen
its scanty population, grow as it were, under my

i own eye; had traced its immense acquisitions in

territory, in commercial opulence,in manufac-it
turing industry, in literary acquirement, and rep-

utation ;, and, above all, had seen“ it advance in“ i  

moral} elevation and improvement.

tisitnot necessary to dwell on the history of

our independence. It is astonishing that this
history “Was “written, precisely written before
that independence was achieved.i*” I allude to

i What, at thetime, was deemed ~a phrensied

oration of Wilkes, in the House of Commons,
in 31775, on the motion of Lord 7 North to de-
clare the province of . Massachusetts in a state‘
of rrebellion. He was indeed, “, not only ani-
mated byrirarardour, but enlightened by prophecy.”

8

For he exclaimecl---“I~Iow then, a successful
resistance, is a REVOLUTION, not a rebellion.
Rebellion indeed, appears on the ,back of a
flying enemy, but revolution flames on the

‘breast-plate of the victorious warrior. I fear, a

that from the decision of this day, the Ameri--
cans will rise to independence, to power, too
all the greatness of the most renowned states;

for they build on the basis of general liberty.
The Americans will triumph----—the whole con-

tinent of North America will be dismembered
from Great Britain, and the Wide arch of raised
empire fall. Witliin a few years the indepen-

dent, Americans Willtcelebrate the glorious era
of their revolution of 1775, as We do that of
1688. They will have their jubilees and their a
VCENTENERIES.” Hovv could the result be

otherwise’! The colonists, our forefathers, lived
 that strong period of their country, when
principles of religious and political freedom,
as opposed to those of the hierarchy, and
the crown, were in perpetual conflict, subject
to alternate triumph and defeat. The votaries
of freedom, were animated by hope that made
the heart glad, and only so cast down by disas-
ter, as to fix an immutable affection   to their

‘own great, good cause, and an unconquerable

hatred to thatof their adversary. These prin-
ciples never   could be forgotten. , Time and

security would , mitigate their excess, more

9
deeply rationalize, but never eradicate ithem.
They, were not learnt by rote.   Before their
time, they had not been digested in some con--
venient code, or articled in some condensed

  creed. The principlewas taughtand impressed

by the occasion; it was suggested, as  

inspiratiorlp during some” Pious address

Heaven, or from a real or imaginaryl responses
to that address; whispered to the inward man.
It was sanctifiedby battles, l whether victorious
or fatal; it was equally ibroughtiout and con-.
firmediy prosperity and adversity. It stabili--it

tat votaries, in the palace or the tower;  

whether sinking as victims to the despotic ener-
gy of Arch Bishop,Laud, exercised through the

Inquisition of the H Star-Chamber or the Court

of   Commission, or sitting as  M

 

pomp of awful power, at ‘Westminster.  

   undauntedt spirit, which fills all the  
   of M iltOIUa "filled in a more 91' less  
  the hearts of our forefathers,’  .

 

 

 colonists. To such men, 

royal foresight, were given charters,*which,

  though intended to make them more corpora-  

tions, subjecteto the crown, in truth bestowed.

 

  

tentiality, and, at their distance from in~ ~

spection, the actual exercise of the forms and
 of a free constitution, in full imagery  

of  the mother country. It was inirvgain
that, in   controversy, we were told by
6)

f‘-'

 

I0
special  hers that we were more corporations

and    to all  privilege, to hold’
 s oftlie  freeeornrnon socage

   the royal of Greenwich in Kent.

 is surpassing belief (though having reference

to the result not deplorable) that so little should  
have been known of the progress of sentiment

and opinion, and that too of men who Wereaccu--
rately familiar with all the old country had donee
for freedom; who knew themselves to beright-
fully entitled to all the liberties and privileges
of that country 3 men who were imbued with

  the spirit of Magma Charta, who reverenced
 the provisions of the statute of free talliages,

the petition of right, and the V trial   and

who adopted at a breath, and felt themselves

acquiringand possessed of, the habeas corpus,

p the act of ‘settlement, the doctrines of  
W everyother irnprovement in the freedom and

l extension, or security of t the rights of “l the sub-
  jest, as they were adopted, acquired and pos»  
  sessed athome. Yesgwhat they were willing, to

call, and‘ did,   unofiended, and unoppressed,  

always call home. But always 

   had not merely a nominal or legaalehlome,  

   dearer Home-----at Horne,  their own
 amid their own fam:ilies,o their parents,

  theirs   Wives, their children.  the colonies  
i   were   those on Whom most had been bestowed,  
  but mere corporations, seems, in cold‘  

ll

review, one of the strongest arguments of. the
CrownLawyers against what they called our
pretensions and usurpations. Yet what mis-
erable pedantry, what presumptuous dealing
with futurity, what a moon-stricken fatuity it
Was, what a fortunate fatality, that ministers
and statesmen, should have contrived the slight

frame-—vvork of a legal corporation, to hold 
restriction the expansive power of freedom,  

springing from principles of such seed and root,

planted in such a rich and congenial soil, cher-y

ished by such suns, fanned by such breezes,
cheered by such auspices. It was as absurd, as
to plant the acorn of the British oak, in a flow-
er vase, and bid it not burst its boundaries, but
to yrsemain stationary in pretty dwarfishness, as

 it were not destined to strike its root to  

tral earth, to shoot with aspiring top to heavn,

'  every Zephyr that waved, every storm that
   shattered its branches, but iitending

 

 

  corroborate, and elevate it. ‘After

 use  frame-worlt of institution, f  
natelythey, lret us alone. a They i tr.aced.notvo;~r
steady progress L, to stability, to vprosperitso , to la
self-estimation.  In the deep solitudes of our

‘forests, apart from all the World, we Were se-

 and silently preparing the massy mate-
 of thetiedifice of our future freedom 

 

renown.v    lwerte nourished by neglect. A ,0ur V

limbs explanded the more freely, because-~ i’%they

12

were not kindly swathed and swaddled. Our 4

blood flowed in a purer and stronger current,
because we were unpampered by dainties, and
our sleep that of a giant, training for combat,

was the sweeter and sounder, because unblessed

by the lullabies of affection, or the lien’

 

skill and care. But when attention was direct?

ed towards us, we were regarded but as a subser-
dinate community, and that connected with “a
greater, must from the nature of things, be sub»-
jeqt to the extremes of prideand power. In all
matters of controversy, it would” of course be
decreed, that the Weaker was in the wrong. It
was impossible said one of the earliest and

ideepestv   on this subject, to ireooncile

the unwielded haughtiness of a great ruling” nae-A
tion, habituated to command, pampered by enor-
mous wealth, and confident from a long couri’s*‘e

of victory, and prosperity to the high spirit offree r

dependencies, animated with the first glow and
activity of juvenile heat, and assuming to them;
selves as their birth-right, some part of that

very pride which oppressed them‘’‘‘. That  

 

greater territory should have so far forgotten’

own history on the great point of the   cointest,

s have risked every thing to enforce taxa--.

A tion “without representation, is only to be ac}-

countedl for by that delusion, which-ever makes

a   . V 9*‘ Edmund Burke.

13

power forgetful of right, and persuades it with
blinded selfishness, to convert the victory which
valour and fortitude and Heaven accorded to
the oppressed in one era, into the means of op-
pression at another, and this too, in a cause
less doubtful than their own, under circumstan-
ces less equivocal, upon blamelesstviictims, who
had never, in all their perils, and necessities,
even by temporary acquiescence, given a sem-
blance of right, to this unconstitutional demand,
which soon filled and rounded itself into the de-
claration at once, pompous, impotent, and tyran-—
ical, ofaright on their part, to subject the colo-
nies to unconditional submission in all cases
whatsoever. Independent of this primary and
paramount question of taxation, the whole
scheme of colonial connection was erroneous p, of

itself, tending to abuse; and it was abused.»-~ l

Every new act of trade, wascalculated to en-
large advantages of the metropolitan pow-
er, to restrain and enfeeble the colonists.-~—

  To break loose from such a yoke, to burst such

shackles, was no more than the instinct andim-
pulse of Nature, the unavowed, but the U stern,
silent, but solemn resolve, of bold hearts and
vigorous minds, who delayed its execution only

until prudence justified resistance, and foreshew i

suyiccsess.   We defied a gigantic power, just at
the mment it had been taught its own strength,
and while Europe was crouching beneath» it.«-.--—-.—~

14+
i”We were literally an infantine nation.   We
had neither fleets, nor carmies, nor organized
scheme of finance, no universtallpyoperative pow-—
er toenforce taxation or obedience. Something

better than a Delphic Oracle must have inspir— 2

red the determination to resistance- \ Human
calculation’ was againstus.   It was Heaven or

‘ madness that impelled us. In ourf'eebleunpro-

vided, state, it was   either a lie and a delu-.-

s sion, the act of one possessed of devils, or it was

truthand prophecy, uttered from the mouths of
babes and sucklings. ‘ Independence was dew
clared. A nation was born, in perfect and ma-«
turteforrn.     was not only a well formed,
 ;                      

   

  the allusions ofimytholotgy than they deserve,  
  may without exaggeration say ; that it, was .Mi-

i  strange to tell, what every civilized,.?,..;

nerva springing out, at the blow, from the brain

of Jove, in complete panoply. It was Wisdom  
and courage, emanating from, and strengthened

by, natural and honest and mighty power----a

people’s will, the product and the object a  

pe0ple’s affections. All was done that Inafl   

do. So far all was effectuated, that we  

 
  

   

gednation of Europe hoped. 
:«1lmost;mistaken our aspiration, for our ability.

  The aim.

 

itlties We encounterei were immense,
and, in lking back to the period of our 
tclaration toffl Independence, we have sensatio

  

15

 

altoge r difl"erent ‘from those usually attend-
ing the successful termination of V a brave and
perilous adventure. We have these sensations
the stronger, in proportion as We study, more
carefully the history of that day,  consult the
signs of those times.  ‘When We measure the

space,we lookwith fearfulness and sihuddering, at A
  the leap our Congress, made, from one side of the

fissure of the precipice, to the other. If We had-
not succeeded, it was too certain» the chasm that
would havesengulphed us was deep, and dark,
and interminable, but by degradation and slavery,
The pressure for our Declaration of Indepen-
dence, its propriety, and wisdom, nay its abso-
lute necessity, arose from our peculiar situation.

We wrestled manfully till we were faint. We a
wanted steel and gold, “ war’s prime  
By the Law of Nations, unless We were name,  

Q and by self declaration at least, an Independent    

   we ceuld not form foreign alliances, or

 

 aid, of men, of money, 

arms.Vi ~ were, it must he confessed, Worn. 
derfullye favoured “by What a. heathen,,even,  

Cicero, or Csar would call, good fortune,

brnwhichive in a spirit at once rnoremeek and

 .rs§§l:igrlrtened, are bound to attribute to Providen-

   
 

  :' andinterference; A But if itw as decreed

    

  age should finally triumph, it was likewise

 

stthat We should sufler--—-—-actually seer.  
l     betesickened by suspense, and

16

hope deterred. That we should long abide in
the desert, before we reached the promised
land. The great interest of our story arises
from the inadequacy of our means, not to ac-
complish what We did, but ‘even to save
ourselves from irretrievable ruin. There were
moments in our affairs, when the stoutest hearts
must have been dejected, if not appalled---
moments, When, but for the infatuation of the
enemy, the great cause of America and Free-
dom had perished. Moments, vvhen, if‘ the
enemy had acted, they would have found us
disbanding one army, and in vain endeavouring
to embody another,,:, blank shot of
their cannon.   Monients, ay !idays,ivvhen, they
would have found us without ammunition
enough to sustain an half-hour’s contest; when,
half famished, and more than half naked men,
must have submitted, however reluctantly, and
indignantly, to their fate.   But why overcast
the day of jubilee with such gloomy confessions’!
Is it for the purpose of taming our national
pride’! of dampening our national ardour? No,
it is with the sole view of deepening those
emotions of gratitude towards Heaven, which,
penetrating every heart, ought to constitute the
true indulgence and luxury of this auspicious
day. It is —Wltl1 a View of inducing you to
dwell habitually upon the merits and sufferings
of our revolutionary army, which never have

17

been, never can be duly appreciated. We can
hardly believe, what yet we acknowledged to be
proved. To the private indigent soldier, we
have rendered tardy justice. “But as to the
leaders, it appears to me welmustyydisbelieve
What we know, else a proud and generous na~i
tion, Would before ‘this have done them justice,
not compassionated them, on the score of indi-
gence; not rewarded them, under. the name of
bounty; butetpaid them, on the grounds of merit
and contract. They whoelforeboreon account
.of our inability, have a right to their due, from
the plentitude of our present means. The
victories, the sustained military operations of
our   commanders, derive a double glory from
the instruments with which they were obtained ;
and, in spite of i the- exploits, which have since
«emblazoned the page of military history, the
merit, the praise, it the Wonder of their’s remain.

Victoryproduced alliances; and the acute sa-_

gacity, and the refined policy of the ministers
of Lewis the 16th’; the chivalrous enthusiasm
of La Fayette and other congenial spirits,
,brought us powerful aid. Spain and Holland
were on our side, the rest of Europe, neutral,
or favourable. Our cause excited universal
interest. The first blows struck in our war, in
an obscure village of a remote, and almost
unknown country, seem to have been heard all
over the "world. i Thefinhabitants of Europe
3 .

I8

seemed roused as from the trance of ages, and
soon from anxious spectators, became generous
and animated actors. . We had as our friends,
and fellow combatants, the patriotic and chiv-
calrous spirits of Poland——--Pulaski and Kosciusko.
The gallant and accomplished Fersen of Swe-

den. The tacticians and disciplinarians of Aus-» A

tria and Prussia, De Kalb and Steuben. We
mustered in our train the flower of the French
nobility.   The mind of Europe was with us;
and we received from every philosopher, poet,
or patriot of the i day, cheerings of gratulation.
They wept at our , disasters,   they rejoiced in our
victories. They it as ieir own  triumph,

when, for theifirstt ti‘me,.i;1*the annalsof man, in

the parent and the sovereign power, acknowledig-»
ed by the treaty of 1783, the rightful indepen-

dence of the reproached, rebellious child, and
is the rightful establishment, in full sovereignty, of

a new empire.

If the birth of our nation was in 1776, the
baptism was in 1783; K and the sponsors, were
our late great enemy, the King of England;
our magnanimous allies, the Kings of France
and Spain; their High Mightinesses, and his
Serene Highness, the Stadtholder of Holland.
The guests who thronged it the festival, were
ambassadors, and lords, republicans and mon-
archists, Whigs and tories; the descendants of
Efnglish Puritans and Independents, and of the

19

exiled French Protestants. They acknwledgs»
ed,  t only the child’s name and birth-right,
but in ample and precise settlement, fixed its
‘estate, of almost boundless territory, and secur-
ed to it its rents, revenues,a  profits,
in indefeasible fee—simp;le for I aban-
don the grander theme, of general and
national history of our revolution, and  defi-
ance of rhetorical precept, descend to particuu
lars. I :approach a Inore ,rnute,*but not less
interest,   subject.‘          

What part,   ye    i:eB;hod»e-Island, and
Prvince ‘Plantations,  perform in this
splendid drama’!  does your primary for-
mation and institutions suggest, as characteris-

 

  
   

tic, and prophetic, of your resolves, labours, and

, Struggles, in this mighty cause ‘lo a I rejoice that i
i the»answ'ers «to  t:,rig.atfories Willtagll tend
 your honourg  self-estimation. Let

       American principle
  i Bhodeelslandii standard. Let us With-
,     from the workings of the mihty

   

  en '   lgiomplicated and tremendous power,

as  the entire United States; and
elucidate  principle, has in a lecture:-room,
 the little model. a Let us withdraw our
    led gaze from the extended epic painting of
prowess,’ crowded with pm‘-

 
   

     

  ies,x1hte by the volcanic blaze of ba3V;%lZ1BS§

 
 

:4 aeled  darkening cleuds of sorrow ,

12
disaster, and look with endeared emotions of
tenderness and love, at the MINIATURE ‘of our
parent state. By the very precepts  taste and
art, to perceive the full and best efieot, ’We“mnst'
contemplate the grand national picture at a dise-
tance. But, on the:  m‘iniature We can  a
nearer and intenseii gamete; It is the lmliniatirre

that‘ We hang round our necks, that We pressttto
our lips," that We hug to our hearts. Menfof  

Rhode-Island, ye are the descendants of those
who were twice pilgrims; the descendants M of
the victims of a double persecution. This fact
of a your origin has shaped your Whole political
character, influenced all your pgppolitical anove;
    association,
“ poor stricken deer,”   epths of tl‘1e‘” for-
ests of this then houseless land, to the ‘resent

moment; and may God grant it  "

influence, and direct you. Ye are  descené
dants, equally with the best of thoseilvyhoiitalie
pride from this descent, of those puritans and in-
dependents, who fled from, persecution
in England, in the hope of enjoying reli*igi0fitS
freedom here. Why your forefathers did
could not, enjoy it, is a dark passage inithe his--

tory of asister state, which We would gladly ‘

expunge, if it twere not a record necessary to

prove your genealogy and birth--right. It is

a subject, on «Which we ought to speak rather

in sorrow than anger.  ;I will not speak in my a

ocwri Wwrdsat all, ut‘I condense the history of
this str"ange““‘anomaly of human thought and con-
dsuctgin a single sentence of a great authority-~1-—
Edmund rBurke. “ They Who tin England,’ 3
says he, 5‘ could not bear being chastised with
rods, hadno sooner got free from their fetters,
than they scourged their»? fellow refugees With
scorpions.” 'I‘he centrast of this is your histo-

ry. Roger VVil1iarns, the founder of Providence l

Plantations, the learned and popular divine of

, Salem, insisted : for freedom of conscience in

Worshipfeven “to ~Papists- and Armenians :”,,
vvithsecurityoof civilpeace.  He was banished‘
in 163445, as a is disturber of the peace of the
church and commonwealth. You know the
rest---I dare not dilate “upon it. The Water of
that spring nearjywhich he took refuge, overlook-
ed from therneighbouring hills by armed, but to
him harmless savages, ought to be on this day
the «exhilarating beverage of   his descendants»--p-i
 e réelsarating andheart-cheering, “than cost-
liest £lin:es,,aof Chios or of Crete,”aMrsi.i Hutch-

 
 

r eson Wl10,»a$C0tt011 says, “ was once“ beloved,

 all the faithful. embraced her conference, and
blessed God for her fruithfiil discourses,” * with
Coddington, and all her train of Antinomians,
were disfranchised and banished, and in their
place of refuge the great island of Adquidneck,
Rhode-Island, passed in solemn resolve, the
earliestl   the most strenuous declaration of

22

the principles of perfect freedom in religious
concernments, the world had ever known.’*‘ The
third and last, but not less interesting foundation
lay these primary associations that formed this
state, all proceeding from the same persecution,
and the same manful opposition, wasriithe settles-at
ment of the Grotoniéts, on Iandspurchased of
Shaw ()met, the Sachem of the Narragansetts.
These are the men of Kent the settlers of the
town of Warwick. If ever there was a com-
plete and victorious vindication against the sar-

casm, that our ancestors were so barbarous, as

not to be capable of good sense and good En»-
glish, it is furnished by thepaper issued by the
      Omet, dated
 October 164»3.  This paper was address
to certain men styled Commissioners,sent from
the Massachusetts supported by an  rce,
Whose names, they say in contemptuous efi,
ance-—--“we know not.” That  heroic,
and Homeric  Demosthenian, htisuperiour to
Demosthenes. “If you come,” say they, “te
treat us in the ways of equity‘ and peace, toger     

therewith, shaking a rod‘over our heads,‘ 5 a
band of soldiers 3 beassured that We have
 our childhood in that point,  are  the
commission of the Great God, not children
in understanding,neither in ccura‘g.e,, at to acquit

 
 

‘.4. an

ete  appendix.    

23

ourselves like men. We strictly charge you
hereby, that you set not a foot t upon our
lands, in any hostile way, but upon your
perils, and that, if any blood be shed, upon
your ‘heads shall it be: And know, that if
you set an army oftmen upon any part of our
land, contrary to our just prohibition therein,
we are under command, and have our commis-
sion sealed, all ready to resist you unto death.
For thisis the law of our God, by whom we
stand, which is written in all men’s hearts, that,

r if you spread a table before us as friends, we sit

not as men invective, envious, or mal--content,
not touching a. morsel, nor looking from you,
who point us unto our dish, but we eat with

r you, by virtue of the unfeigned law of relations,

not only to satisfy our stomachs, butto increase

, friendship andilove, the end of feastings: So al-l

so, if you visit us as combatants, or warriors,
by law of relations We will resist you
unto death.” But their courage could not save
themfrom overwhelming force, succeeded, how-
ever, by the basest treachery. Gorton, and his
assotziates, Green, Holden, and others, were
imprisoned; and Gorton was condemned as a
lasphemous enemy of the true religion and its
ordinances, adjudged to be confined and set to
work, and to hear such bolts as may hinder his
escape during the pleasure of the Court; but

should he break his confinement, then to sufl'er L

U‘

24:

deathft Do you not perceive in this paper, anti
the history connected with  the hereditary spi-
rit of our own Nathaniel Greene This character
moulded and influenced by traditionary lore '2
have you not already, in the vvorkings #of your
own spirits, anticipated this iremark,I*“va’nd the
purpose and moral of this partof myidiscourse’!
flo you not perceive, Freemen of Rhode-Island,
that the basis of your political institution, was

not merely toleration, but a perfect freedom in

matters of religious concernment '2 Nonice ex-

ceptions, no insulting indulgences, Which, while

they allow the exercise of voluntary Worship,
deny the right, and pretend to rconferyalt favour-—p—p~
deface the consistent beauty of our A A Eve-
ry aspirant to Almighty favour, A inthe sincerity

of his devotion, has a perfect, unobstructed,  V
obstructible right, to “seek it in the way he thinks ,

fit. iHe may choose the simplestlor the richest
form. He may drinkthe Waters of life, in rude
simplicity, from the palm of his hand, from the
chrystal cup of reformed episcopacy, or from the
embossed and enchased golden chalice of papal
gorgeousness. Your ancestors announced this
opinion and enjoyed its legal exercise, long before

‘the able and amiable Roman Catholic Lord Bal-

timore, orthe sagacious and benevolent Quaker
illiam Penn, adopted and enforced it. In this

i "“Vide Appendix, note B.

25

great discovery, you have the incontestible

merit of priority. This is a glory of which
you cannot be robbed, a glory which no histori-
an dare pass by unnoticed; though he may be
born in a land which reluctantly eulogises, What
it secretly evinces, the proud pre-eminence in
effectuating that, which has contributed to the

repose and felicity of mankind, more than any ,

other discovery or declaration; saving that of
the Gospel, whence it was borrowed, and from
which it necessarily results. For wethave its
clear authorityr for the assertion, that “ Where
the spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty,?f--é-

and that his service isperfect freedom. This  

freedom is not only unconqnerable, but it must
conquer. Opposition toit makes martyrs, but

never slaves- Its advocates, likeSaint Paul

are firm, self possessed, and self devoted;
while its oppressors, like “Felix, tremble.”

It old age and tottering infirmity, with
juvenile and iundaunted courage; and bids it

say‘, as didthe venerable Polycarp at the page
of 90, to the brutal Herod; “ I will not desert

the Lord,  never deserted me.” It braces a
up the martyr, while the fires are kindling

around him, and impels him, like Cranmer, to

hold out his hand to meet and defy its rage. It  
inspired humility itself, the person of Wen1ocl§p—v

26

Christerson,‘*"_ before the Massachusetts Court,
to appeal to the judicatories of their common

country, and to demand, “What . statute of

England it was, that condemned a Quaker to
death?” Where this principle is, there is a

Vlargeness of thought, a loftiness of conception,

that naturally breaks the way, and opens the

avenues to political rights and enjoyments.‘

,VVherever this freedom exists, political freedom
co--exists. This is not too broad a position, but
at any rate fearless of contradiction, ‘we may
assert that civil and political liberty, cannot » be
long securely maintained, without religious
freedom.   What man candeem himself free,

when the primary concern and consolation of

his present, and the hopes and’ fears of his future
existence, he is shackled by authority, deliarred
from light, and taught to shrink from at vagrant
uprising thought of non-conformity’ to the pre-
scribed Creed,‘ as blasphemy and enmity to-
wards God ’! Political Freedom, vvith cau-
tious, not with timid step; though with her
personihalf concealed, and the brightness her
glory veiled, attended in the train of the protes-
tant Reformation in Europe. In the North
American Colonies, she marched with a fear-
lessand defying tread and bearing, and,“ with a.
voice sometimes loud and dread, sometimes soft

‘”‘Appendix, note C‘.

27

and composed, scattered ‘dismay over her foes,

W or breathed hope and condolence to her votaries; ,

because her waywasv opened by her pioneer--—

because she was strengthened, sustained, and
invincibly secured, by her heaven-born sister,
religious freedom. ' A A t   t   a 
I am apprehensive that these thoughts may be
deemed too vague  general, and, in some de-
gree inapplicable to the present occasion. But
this is the Jubilee of our Liberty and Indepen-
dence, and the orator of this day ought to be,
what Shakspeare has defined man, “ a creature

A holding large discourse, looking before and af-
ter.” I assure you, if they do at first seem epi-

sodical, they are connected with the main story.
These thoughts, burst as fromytheir natural and

jpurest fountain, your a history 34 the origin, rise,

and pro,gress_ of your institutions.  Youaerer
would have been, you never could have been,

you have been,  what you politically

  for the principles of religious, al-
waysyylfollowed and accompanied by those of po-
litical freedom. They bothwere equally

simultaneously adopted and consecrated  your

institutions. i Your ancestors always had a spi-
 and a daring, an original, unaccommodating
character, an insurgency and elasticity of mind,

 cannot otherwise be accounted for.‘ We ,

 not. We always have been in‘ Rhode-
Islandireproached for heresy, both religious and

28

political; which word heresy, being rightly in-
terpreted, unless I have forgetten my Greek,
from which language the Word is derived, means
the atrocious offence, of the assertion of a man’s
own opinion. The spirit of ‘ these remarks,
emanates from our legislative history. ‘The
charter ultimately procured by the talents, ad-
dress, and good fortune of Clark, under the
form of a corporation, has all the essentials of

a well--tempered democracy. The king, after

he granted it, virtually excluded himself from
any interference with it. He had no vice-—roy,
he had no vetoon the laws of thecolony. We
endured not his actual or constructivepresence.
We felt his power hardly at all, his influence
rarely, but always benignantly and beneficially,
In the first session of the Assembly under that

charter, and indeed before it had passed through L
 theyyceremoniesof a royal grant, we antici-—

pated settled that topic of controversy,
which a century afterwardsrconvulsed the World.
In March 1663, in an act for declaring the
privileges of his majesty’ s subjects, it Was”enact«-‘
ed, “that no tax shall be imposedor requireiitof
the colonies but by the act of the GeineriailiAs--
seInbly.”"“ When Andros, under theecomrnisw
sion of James the 2d called for the surrenderof

our chartaer, we did not surrender it. Though

\   5‘ Appendix note D. A T

we bent before the storm, We did not break
down under it. We preserved the charter
as the talisman of our being, the palladium of

our rights, the idol of our affections. Awaiting
the revolution of 1688, we temporized, and though

the charter had been, so far as irregular power,

could do it, annulled, after that glorious event,
viz. the revolution of 1688, We went on acting
under it, without clamour or apology, as un--
harmed and unforfeited. When the mother
country was in the right, or We thought itso,
nothing could surpass the energy and enthusiasm
of our patriotism. Under the fascinating influ-
ence of the administration of the elder Pitt, We
sent 500 men into the Canadian expedition.-—-
Wle assisted, and more than in our proportion
assisted in the seige and conquest of the Haves-
na. The truth - is, that our consciousness of
military merit and fortitude, was taught us by
 Cjsanadianiwar. We were received, and at

firstespised as provincials; but we were Yan-

kees learnt rapidly. We frequently reliev-
edour royal and courtly associates, frm the
effect of error  panic, by the skill of our just
taught, almost self taught oflicers ; and we sus--
tained them by the unbroken fortitude, or the
hardyenterprise of men, who habituated to the
exercise of self opinion, and prompt in invention
 all the means necessary to an end, and undaunt-
ed in their execution, knew not despair or sick»

30

ness of heart. This fact is of much more impor-
tance in the history of our revolution, than has

tbeenassigned to it. A We had fought by the side
(of British oflicers and soldiers, and though

wedid not in the result. despise them, we were
by no means taughtto despise ourselves. This
was true in a certain sense of all the colonies,

but the feelings arising out of these transactions,

operated much more decidedly in Rhode-Island,
on account of the immense disproportion of our
levies, compared to our population. This was
the secret cause of our not being dismayed by
the threats of regular troops, of the king’s forces,

a of fleets, that wouldbatter and conflagrate our

towns. We were unintimidated by fillrriinations
of devastation, and extermination. «Here, in

. Rhode--Island, we spurred on the contest. We
* had spirits that were solicitous to hasten events,
l     battle inevitable. In cool review such

   

 

pears incredible, and would still seem

 

mere fatuitous or   head-long rashness, if we did
not know that men of consideration, who had

a much to risk in fortune,'character and domestic

happiness, were foremost in these feelings and  

 th8.,i_enterprizes to which they led. T We lvvere
- : pre-eminently a commercial colony. Beforethe

enactent, or during the negligent enforcement  
. ofthe hellish Laws of Trade, wezgrew up with  

T t‘p1-odigious thriftiness. The new system adopted
after the peace of 1763,   not only checked our

31'

commerce, but indicated a systematic design of
oppression. Of this design, we had an intuitive
conception, and to it an invincible repugnance.
It has lately, not two months ago, been stated by

a British minister in the House of Commons,

“ that however theattempt at taxation might be
viewed as the iimmediate cause of the American
explosion, yet the trainhad been long laid, in the
severe and unbending efforts of England to,ex-
tend more rigourously than ever the Laws of

T Trade. “Every little case,” he says, “ that

was brought before the Board of Trade, was
treated with the utmost severity.”* The two
really great cases that occured, originated here.
The first was the attack at Newport on the 17th
June 17 69, of the armed revenue sloop Liberty,

  whose captain had been guilty of some oppres-f
sions and enormities.   She was ‘attackedby a ,

band of unknown people, who cut her cables,
let her drive on shore onthe point, where they
cut away her masts, scuttled her, carried both

, her boats to the recently planted Liberty Tree,

at the upper end of the town, and burnt them.
The second was the affair of the Gaspee on the
9th of June 1772. The first blood that was
ehed in the revolutionary contest, by that very

act begun, stained o her deck, and it was drawn» T

by a Rhode-Island hand. Yes, the blood of

lieutenant Duddington, was the first bvloodf» drawn  

v °'*,,‘Huskisson’a Speech 12th May last, 

32

in the American cause. The scene of the
transaction is within our view, and you have now
in this assembly, four of the lads, now veterans,
who were zealous and foremost partizans, on

«that brave‘ occasion. How powerfully perma-

nent is the effect of early principle and habit,
how indestructible the cast of original character!
How true it is, that f‘as the twig is bent, the
tree inclines.” From all I know of these gen-
tlemen, and I have known a good deal--—fron1 all

their merits and their peculiarities, I should have I

said, that these were the men, that were engag~
ed  that enterprize. They are they, who on
the proposition of their patriotic leader, John
Brown exclaimed, “ we are the boys that can
debit.” I i   i I * i    
We are obliged to read in our own American
books, disquisitions, almost controversial, on the
ques‘tion,'i“ who gave the first impulse to the ball
of i:fl1§irievolution,” as some in degrading meta-
phoi  to express the thought. I
have been compelledj to listen upon this topic,

to inflated declamation, rather than just argu- o
ment, from grave senators, on the question,

whether Virginia or Massachusetts struck‘ the
first and decisive blow. The debate, in feigned
mutual difference, and sweet complacency, al-
ways proceeded on the thought, that those two
most ‘important and meritorious states, solely
begun, sustained and accomplished the revolu-

33

tion. That all the other states, had hardly an i
interest or a participation. Iihode-Island and
the Gaspee it was always convenient to forget.
It is from foreign, and impartial historians, that
weare reminded of the relative importance of
that deed, which first impressed a bloody hue
on our proceedings, and doomed its perpetrators,
if the virtue of the country could have permitted
their detection, to irremissible death. Hear
what Governor Hutcheson says on this subject.
In a letterto commodore Gambier . dated Bos--

ton, June 30th,. 1772, he states----—“ Our last I

ships carried you the news of the burningof the
Gaspee schooner at Providence. I hope if  

there should be another like attempt, some con» .

cerned in it may be taken prisoners and carried

directly to England. A few punished at esxecu-»  

tion-dock, would be the only effectual preven-
tive of any further attempts.” In another let-

terto secretary Pownall dated August 29, 177 2,  

he says.i “People in this province, both friends ,

and enemies to government, are in great expec~ 
tations from the late affair at Rhode  of

burning the   kingis schooner, and they considers

 manner in which the news of it will be re- _

 in England, and the measures to be ta--n
 decisive. If it is passed over without;

a  and due resentment, our  libertyi  
people theynmay with impunity com-‘

mit any   ‘violence, be . they ever so atro-

34

cious, and the friends to government will de-r
spond, and give up allhopes of being able to
withstand the faction. The persons ‘who were
the immediate actors, are men of estate and
property in the colony. .A prosecution is im-
possible. If ever the government of that colo-
ny is to be reformed, this seems to be the time,
and it would have a happy “effect, in the colonies‘,
which adjoin it.” Again, September 2, 1772,
he writes to Samuel Hood, Esq. that-----“ Cap-

tain Linzee can inform you of the state of Rhode

Island colony better than I can. So daring an

  insult as burning the king’s schooner, by people i

whoare as Well known as any who‘ were con-
cernedin the last. rebellion, and yet cannot be
prosecuted, will certainly rouse the British lion,
whichphas been asleep these 4 or 5 years. Ad-
miral Montague says,’ that Lord Sandwich will}

  ipleave pursuing the colony, until it is dis-L

froaehised. If it is passed over, the other colo-

   

nies Will followthe example.” I hope that the A. l

importance of these singular  authentic docu--
ments, in some degree expiates the ,ofl'ence: of
tediousness, in referring to them. Asjto  ef-»
fect produced by this daring act, and its .bafl‘led
prosecution, the dread of ministerialvengeance,

and the deep but calm “determination to meet,

thatvengeance, I must depend on tradition, and‘
appeal to the recollections of the few, survivors,
of that portentousoperiod. The effect was uni-ye

35

‘versal.   The flames of the Gaspee seem to have

been notonly seen, but felt throughout the con-

‘tinent. There were signs abroad which prog-

nosticated a hurricane. Creation seemed op.

pressed for a while with adead calm.  The sky

  sincerity of  heart, ready at all times to hlé  

  pendehcie’,   

was cloud1ess,hut the sun was red.  The stars
seemed enlarged. Stilly sounds issued from the

clefts of the ,earth, and the sea rose without

wind into vast waves. Butthe will of Rhode
Island was fixed. Independence, unqualified
independence, its aim, and it proceeded accoré
dingly. In 1774» you did an act, if possible,
more positive, daring, and decisive, more une-
quivocally indicative of   your war-like spirit and
your determination to be independent. You

rose, as the British lawyers said, from common  

felony to high and atrocious treason.  As 
as the proclamation, prohibiting theimportation
or arms from England, was known here, you
 the king’s fort at Newport, and took
possestasibn of 40 pieces of cannon. All our

leading men, not only had at heart, but avowed 1
the same sentiment as that contained in  «

Greei1e’s lettter togovernor Ward, then a miein~

  herof the first Congress, dated on thevéth Juné,
.  at the camp on Prospect hill. “ Permit

me-ii ’5 seals he then “ to recomnieiid from thé
’ i , '9 

 

in 7  cause,  declahiatioli of up 
 can iipbh the wdrld  thgreat

 

God whogoverns it, to witness the propriety

and rectitnde thereof.” We anticipated Con-
gress in the declarationfof independence; for,

by a solemn act of our General Assembly, we

dissolvedall connexion with Great Britain, in
the May previous. We withdrew our ._ allegi-
ance from the king, and renounced his govern-
ment forever, and, in a declaration of indepen-
dence We put down in a condensed, logical state-

 ment,   our unanswerable reasons for so doing.
Idraw my facts from records, nothing is colour-

ed or exaggerated. 3 VVhat, then, would be the

conclusion, if you were a jury impannelled on
    give  verdict, withthese facts so proved

   .9       

 

the revolution’? But cannot be a jury.

T You are deeply interested in honour and reputa-~

tion, which on sucha question constitutes the
very and the true interest. But those who are

  disinterested, those who are even adverse, foreign
writers and statesmen, and even a present minis- \~

ter of Great Britain, have settled the case in
your favour. a y 4       
Our conduct in the War, was in perfect keepe
 with our previous character. The news of
the battle of Lexington, reached this town on the

evening 91' the same day, the 19th of April, 17 75..

In spite of‘ the evasions and vacillations of   the

Governour. lieutenant Governour, three days  

  after   you your hasty levies of militia, a

37

large detachment into Massachusetts. 3 In the
same year you raised and had in service 1200‘

regular troops.   You afterwards raised three
state regiments and this from a population of
about 50,000 souls.»--a.n astonishing fact! Ac»
cording to Gibbon, the calculation confirme;g:lhy
the experience of all ages, is that A a community
that sends into the field more than the one hun-
dreth part of its population, will soon perish from
exhaustion. You did vastly more than this——---

voluntarily more than Bonaparte in his severest

conscription ever dared demand. The truth is

your spirit was high and warm, your generosity

reckless, your soaring, romantic. It is one of
the few evils amidst the innumerable blessings of
a confederacy, composed of states of unequal

territory and population that the small must from  
-the nature of things, contribute morein propor-

tionthan thelargerstate ; it can be more easily
aregated and excited.. The flashes of senti-

 

.  conducted from one to another, and to
thewhole with electric celerity. Thercitrizens
  are prompt in the performance of , whatthey

promptly resolve. They hear the burden, they

 fight the battle, they shout the victory, and re»
  turning from its well fought field, descrythetardy
  contingents of larger and perhaps   Wiser states,
  plodding their cautious  Way to see, to admired
and  to enYy,what has   been done. .   t

 

You took   high  your members 

«Congress, as to the ‘mode of: conducting the war.

V,   if  ‘

You eneavoured to give it naval cast. tDis--

'  shed for your commercialimaiYe, and for
the enterprize and intrepidity   of your oimariners,
you felt the necessity and urged the expediency

of ‘naval military exertion. The firstilittlerfleet,

the germ, the nautilus of our present naval cha-

racter and fame, was commanded by a natixre‘

Rhode-Islander, commodore Esek Hopkins, who

surprized New Providence, captured the gover—
nour, lieutenant governour and other oflicers of

the crown, seized a hundred pieces of cannon,

 toff all  munitions of warrmm the

and with What is and  hope ever will he the  

   

        

characteristic of American and Rhode-Island

commanders, with 7a most scrupulous respect for

private property and individual feeling. With-

  out striking a negro, with outinsulting a woman, r

without frightening a child, “beauty and booty,” 

were not their Watchwords. ‘ Surely ‘these are

instances enough to illustrate What was   the  

American principle, as tested by the iflhedeé
 standard.  But many more  he
cited.   r   s     i

 geographical position is pec    As A

our Ion ago said in their arldress to

  Charrles2d,.¥‘weare situated rinthe heart of

  nmajestyiscolonies.’1 lihode-Island prop-V

39’

er, the head of the Narragansett Bay, in every a

War, must be the point of contest. Its unriv-
alledharbours must be filled ‘With fleets. Ite-
little territory‘ covered with armies. Of New
England it mustbe the armed front, the barrica-—~
doed door. In regard to .New--York, as the «senti-t

nel of Long Island Sound, its proper defence and
occupation, its retention from an enemy, are es--»
sential and indispensible, to the safety of that
great city and state. It is equally so in regard ,

to the Chesapeake; for Rhode--Island is just at

that striking distance for the infliction of a blow, L

by jointnaval and military operation, which na--

, val and military sagacity has always preferred.

Rhode-Island in a relative and connected point
of view, in regardto the safety of the Whole
countrywinythe opinion of scientific men, of our
own and foreign engineers,oughtto be an object
of the mostexact, unceasing,and liberal care,
eofathjewrgeneral government. M She is like the fa-~l

bled sea-nymph,l‘ described in the Grecian an-e
thology,  depicted on antique gems and came-

es, of exquisiteexiltity of form,butvvhose long,

a slender, e and » streamy. arms, embrace 1 in their: “

graceful fold,p   a a hundred other islands 
shres.   e

 My humble attempt, hitherto, has been that“

of suggesting thegeneral national spirit that {led

to,  efl'ected,, our revolution, and the partic-»

ular, llftltili. efficient share, that, from institution;

to

_character, and vpre-4-disposition, Rhode-Island

contributed to the main design. This last it at;
tempt, will be blamed, as fostering a delusive
vanity, and deceptive self’-esteem.   But if indi-
viduals have a natural right to feel a generous
consciousness of a pure and virtuous ancestry---~
if the Romans placed in the vestibules of their

houses,‘ the statues of their progenitors, that 4

they might, by beholding them as they passed,

‘be excited to ‘a rivalry of their excellence, sure-~
ly you as a state have a peculiar and indubita-  
ble right, to indulge in a state pride. It is jus--- ,
tified from the purified and pious motives which
i   primary institution, as a bod y

  

           econrducted,i ,  continued, i i and

~ upheld you,  in the same direction, through all

your difficulties, dangers, and distresses,through
good report and evil report, even unto the end.

That,which in the individual is a selfish or ab» ,
 diffused, mitigated, and generalized v

by a community, is patriotism---the cement of

union--M-the spring of virtuous emulation-p--the*

nurse of lofty thoughts, and the impulse to he--i
roic deeds. Rhodeélsland has had, as yet, no
historian; of our heroes and «sages it may in-

‘deed be said-—---“ they had no poet and Rthey»

died.” u t 6%‘

But it will likewise be said---+5‘ You have ut-r
tered truths in regard to our neighbour, Which,

from policy and icomity, from a sort of pious

431

f’ra,~ud,t  ght have been repressed in pious si-a
li‘e-noes. Youtshaves opened Wounds, which ought
liong’ since to have been closed.”   I shall be

  reminded from Burke, who said, when justify-»~

ing the crimes of kings, thast “ there  much of
history that ought to be forgotten.” Iimight in
the spirit of ,tRhod‘e-Island defiance say, “ I‘

thought otherwise, and; therefore‘ acted other»
wise.” E‘nlightened,. scientific, and literary
 Ma.ssachusetts,i at the present day, and long be--

fre the present day, under the arneliorationsé of
opinions, produced by the reasonings and exam-«s
p1es-o“fRogér” Williams, Lord Baltimore, r Wil-

 Penn,» John Locke, and Thomas J efi'er- a

son; under their own reformed constitution, un-~
der the influences of the constitution of the Uni»
ted States, enjoys now nearly asrpyu1aea~a;nd,*'er—~
feet a religious freedom e as  "state. They
marvel as much: as we do at the strange delu-

sion loaf‘ their fathers. They impute it as We V

id,» to  spirit of that age, which, out of sin-

cere? iety  deep erudition, engendered" the,

monster bigotry, They treat it as and epide

for the  mind, and so do we. Theyrfeel  

littleconcernto account for their Rhode-

IslandQ.uakers,* upon no evidence of wrong, as  

thehanging of their own people, and the best of’
their own ’ people, soon afterwards, for witc, 
craft,  what they called spectral evid%ence,,

 

 3* Appendix, note G.
.6 4, pp

4.2

obtained by   torture.   We cannot account for  

these things, nor canthey. “‘ The motions of

the heavenly bodies can be known tothe end of »

centuries-—-—-the impulses of the human heart can-

  not be known from day to day.’’ But at this

day, such is the diffusion-of light and liberality,
that the most powerful appeals to human rea-re

son, the most impressive displays of divinehew

nevolence, the mostpowerful defences” of reli-~

gious and general intellectual freedom, issue‘,  
from the Massachusetts press, and from the a

Boston pulpit. Is it unjust, or ungenerous, to

  i suggest, that one of the most powerful and ta»
lented champions of these a true opinions, one
, who has   extorted praise from the Cluarterly,

and written in W successful rivalship pf   the Edin--  
burgh Review, is a native of Rhode-Island.

That the spirit he breathes is that of his forefa- .

  thers '1 That hisiinfant mind was trained by his  

grand-father,‘ fa signer of the declaration of In»
dependence ‘.3   If that flower of theological lite-

rature has exhaled the fragrance of renown over a

American letters, let it be recollected that it his

  sustained in its noon-tide lustre, becauseitwas  
  freshened by our morning dews, and sea.-5-born

zephyrs. e i

Chronology, perhaps propriety itself, would  

dictate, that I ought to fill up the space from

 1776 to the pliesent hour, withlareview of the

 vast and various events that fill, deform, or em-5, 

§

43
ibellish, that marked space, that luminous tract
of human existence. But to do this would be
to Write the World’s history. To condense even
the appropriate matter, so as to betfit for your
acceptance, would surpass thecompressing en-—

ergy of Tacitus or Montesquieu---ordinary abi-

lities must, and do shrink from such hopeless
and endless labour. It was our revolution that

hasmade the history of the World What it is for 

the -last fifty years, and rendered that period
worthier of profound meditation than all the rest
of history besides.

generated, accommodated to itself, annulled,

or endeavoured to annul, all that was contra--  
V7 dictory to its elementary principle---the asser-
, , tion of the rights of 1 Human Nature.

But to
encompass in the mind’s grasp, all its politi-
cal etfects, to study or explain, A how it has and
does influence foreign and remote nations--—~«

makes the brain ache with intensity of thought, «
and sublimates imagination to evanescence.-Aw v

France and s its tremendousrevolutions ; Spain.
a and its appalling destiny 3 Its emancipated col-  
onies nowrepublics modelled after our own like-  

ness, Greece with her woes and vvrongs.--;—-

Greece calling on our great name, as she strikes  

her desperate,I hope not feeble blow, invoking us

;,j'jI‘hatJ revolution was like  
the spirit of God moving on the face of the wa-
rters. ~ It produced a new creation of political
mind---it engendered prodigious. events---it re-

i4;«4x

as shewrithes in her agonies. r’ A,ell—*thes”e mighty
themes, with all their associated trains of reflec-
tion, wouldcrowd upon and overdo the mind.
If in passing from what actually has "been, and
is, in hope of sweet refection and rrepose, We suf-

» fer ourselves to be lapped in the Elysium of pro-

phetic reverie,“and permit the splendid, visions

, of reformed Europe, of civilized Africa, ofchris-
tianized and invigorated Asia, of Greece doubly

endeared by triumphant emancipation, to unfold
themselves in blissful futurity; like the wings of
«cherubim overspreadvvith gold, and starred with

gems of gradient and heavenly hue-,-—-dazzled ‘by i

excess of light we are equally overcome; the

surcharged soul” sinks «uner -its »*ex:tacies; the

fired and phrensied brain can endure ‘it no longer, \
and we shriek out with the maddened bard,
“visions of‘ glory spare my aching sight.” ,

But if possible, let us be tranquil and com-
posed; p To confine that review to our country,
would present such aseries and complication of

facts, principles, parties, factions; of so many V

V p hopes disappointed, so many predictions fa1sifi--- ‘

ed, of so many unforeseen results, of so many
undeserved and even unsolicited blessings ;'that

the mind, r-fixed upon a particular topic, is lost in W‘

abstraction, or endeavouring to touch, hardly to
Settle 01.1 8.11, is distressed by the variety and
exhausted by the continuity of pursuit. If time
and space would permit, it would be useful and

46

instructive, I cannot say delightful, to dwell on
that distressing period of our history, from the
ratification of the peace of 1783, to the adoption

of the Federal Constitution. It would be more 
instructive and at the same time unexceptionably  

pleasant to dwell on the history of the forma-
tion of that constitution, to “linger with fond
delay” upon the elucidation of its principles,
uniting as they doaLiberty with Order, security
to the people’s rights, and enlightened obedience

from the people, to the authorities they them»-

selves constitute. A constitution, enacted by the
people themselves, providing for the general wel-
fare, promotive, if rightly understood and prac-

tised, of domestic harmony; lif'ting,~~‘us,\,above. ,
. ‘ o 0 ‘ . .2‘ _.o V 5‘ 
foreign controul or foreign alliance, enabling us

to disregardyforeign annoyance and scornfuliy to
defy foreign subjugation.   It wouldihe at once

M useful and delightful to review and_ toieulogize
the administration of Washington. To approach
nearer to our own times, might be treading on

debateable ground. It might raise at least an
apprehension, that something casually said, or
indirectly insinuated, might trench on the sacred
rights of individual opinion. I hope that noth--
ing of this sort, violative of my own prescribed

t course, has been as yet done. N 0, let us stop
' here, not from mere dread of offending, but in

the spirit of a true charity and mutual forbear-
ance. Let us on this‘ day, if on no other, he

_4.+6

animated by “ that perfect love which casteth
out all fear.” This is the sabbath of our Free-

dom, the Jubilee of our Independence. Let us ’

march forth, then, with hearts penetrated by

‘gratitude, and purified by prayer, the champi-
L ons of Union, the devoted lovers of our common
» Country. Let us go and share “ the a feast of

reason, and the flow of soul.” Let the con—-
scious possession of rare political felicity, pro»-
cured by rightful means, mingle vvith, and add
new charms to our private enjoyments. Let
this sentiment refine and spiritualize the plea-
sures of this day. Let it diffuse a gaiety over

the severe brow of moral freedom. Our plea-

sures to-day, are those which expand the heart,
and enlarge, the mind-—---«pleasures permitted by
reason, ennobled. by sentiment, and approved
by Heaven. to

fl 

Iui-vunuanulnvab-man

Note A. This resolve can he found in the earliest Rhode-
Island Records. I cannot venture to give the words from
memory, and I cannot obtain a copy of the record in time for
the Printer.

Note B. See Hutchinson’s History vol. 4. page 117-38.

Chalmers’ Annals, chap. 8, 195--6, who quotes from what
he calls the New England Papers Bundle, 3. p. 6.

The following paper shews on what conditions the inhahi-~
tants of Warwick were at length discharged. From the
same paper, Bundle 3, p. 392.. .  

At a general court, at Boston, 7th of the 1st month, 1643
---4. L

It is ordered, that Randal Holden and the rest of that
company shall be set at liberty; provided if they, or any

of them, shall, 14 days after such enlargement come  

within any partof our jurisdiction, either in the Massachu-
setts or in or near Providence, or any of the lands of Pan-
ham, or Sokonoko, or elsewhere within our jurisdiction, then‘
such person or persons shall be apprehended and shall sufw
fer death by due course of law.  
Per. Cur. Increase Novel, Secretary.

Note 0. The General Court in October 1656, enacted,
That all Quakers coming into that jurisdiction shall for the
first offence be sent to the House of Correction and have
one ear out off’, shall for the second _off'enc,e undergo the
same "punishment, for the third offence shall have their
tongue bored and shall be confined till sentaway, at their

Jown charges. Chalmers, chap. 8. p.160.

Three actually suffered these severe punishments in Sep-~
tember 1678. Neal, vol. 4th 315--p-16.

When unable or unwilling to pay the expences of their pros-~ 2
ecution and deportation, the Quakers were ordered to he ‘

sold to any of the English Plantations of Virginia or Bar»

  hadoes to answer the same. At last all “ the accursed sect, of"

the Quakers were banished upon pain of.‘ dea.th.” Neal rel.
4. p. 323.

$

APPENDIX.

New--England ordinances abridged, 47. Four were a.c— i

tually condemned, and among them two women, Mary
Scot and Mary Dyer. p

e The spirit and talents displayed by Wenlock Christison
on his trial would have done honour to Sidney. Being ask-
ed what he had to say why he ought not to suffer the law, he
inquired by what law they would put him to death. And
the Court answering, by the late ordinance made against the
Quakers; he desired to know who empowered them to make

such an edict, and if it was not repugnant to the laws of
‘ England. The Governor replied there was a statute in Eng»

land to hang the Jesuits. But rejoined the prisoner if you
put me to death, it is not because I go by the name. of a.
J esuit but of a Quaker. I appeal to the judieatories of our
common Country. The defence was overruled. N eal, 4.
vol. 333. ‘Chalmers 191.“

The Rhode Island feelings as to religious, and the effect of
those feelings as to civil concerns, is illustrated by the fol»
lowing extracts- ‘L a -

At present the general assembly J udgeth it their duty to
signifyhis. l.\l%;.ejeest;y’s; gracious pleasure vouchsafed invthese
words to us, verbe;ti1n.. viz. That no. person within the said
colony at any tzime hereafter shall. be any way molested,
punished, disquieted» or called in question, for any~difi“erenee
of opinion in matters of religion and do not actually» disturb
the civil peaceof the said colony. Late transeniipt by Ms.
Gyles page 254. Antient Records frorn. 1..688.to= 1.670.

p Secret~ary’s ofiiee.

We have long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as
any people we can hear of under the whole heavens. ‘We
have not only been long free together with all. English, from
the yokes of wolfish. Bishops and their popish cerernonins,
against whose grievous oppressions God raiseclup yorirrxoble
spirit in Parliament; but we have sitten down“, quiet, and; dry

frornthe streams of’ blood spilt by thew,-at‘ i110ur. nativepWC0.uJ1-~‘

try. We have not felt the new chainsof the Pr.e,s,l3yte.1fia,n

1 4 tyrlants, nor in this new colony have W6. beennonsumedswith
the overjealous fire of the (so called) god-ly and. Christian

Magistrates. We have not known ,wh.a;t an__E,.:toise. means.
We have almost forgot what Ttythes are, Y6?!/a;0if T axes, ei-
ther to G“huroh.orcoIAnmon weal. L“ette~r "tothe truly Hon-
ourable Sir Henry Vaneat his Iclopuseinr Belreant in
conshire. ~~ ‘ A

.5/‘ate D. See Chalmers p. 276. State Records: &.o,

APPENDIX.

Note E. See Schedule of Legislative proceeedings May

1776. ’ a .
.N'ote F. The exertions of this State in Sullixvan’s_ expedrtio

in 1777, were to the highest degree spirited ; volunteers crowd»
ed from all quarters. See J ohnson’s Life of Greene vol. 1.
p. 110. Greene pledged himself under the protection of

the Guns of the Frenchfleet, to lodge his troops within the p

lines of the enemy, p. 113. D’Estaing and the French fleet
however did not sustain us, but Went to Boston. Greene
reaped only the honour of a well conducted retreat. . An
Ezzglislz. writer says of Him on this occasion----“Though he
was most vigorously pursued, and vigorously attacked in
every quarter, where ever an opening was made, yet he took
his measures so well, and had chosen his posts so judiciously
that although much honor was claimed and deserved on both
sides, he gained the North end of the Island without. any‘
considerable loss. Quoted in J ohnson’s Life of Greene
“vol. 1-    Y   l e  
. In 1780, when the French fleet under admiral De Tier»:
nay, and the French troops under Rochamheau were at
Rhode--Island, Massachusetts liberally, but Rhode-Island in
her usual disproportion, sent four or five thousand men who
all took the field with great ardour and perfect willingness.
Rochambeau retained only two thousand, and sent the rest
back to their harvests. Rochambeau’s Memoir, American
Register vol. 2 p. 160. ‘~ l t t p  
Note G.   See an account of the European Settlements in

lNorth America vol. 2, pp. 150--1»-2-3-4-5.

g.

Owing  the despatch used in printing this address, the typographical inac- e
curaeies corrected below, together, perhaps, with a few others, unavoidably oow ‘

cured. V a
i ERRATA ET CORRIGENDA.

Page 6 line 3 from the bottom dole “ our.” page 8 line let for “‘ Hove” ~

read “ Know.” page 8 line 12 from the bottom for “ strong” read “ stormy.”

page it) line l3from the bottom for “ 1788” read “ 1688.’? a page 14 line 2 o

 the top for “ nor organized” read “ no organized.” page 35 line 2 from the
bottom for “ actually ’7 read “ acutely.” page 23 line 9 from the bottom fiat
“succeeded ” read “ preceded ” page 12 instead of“ that the greater .terri-
tory should have have forgotten,” read that the greater community,” (not in-
deed the greater territor .) page 25 line 6 from the top instead of “ evinces”
read“ envies.” page 3 line 4 from the bottom for “ difference” read.“ defile»
rence.” page 12 line 13‘fi'om the bottom for “nnwielded” read “unwieldy.”

_ ‘Ale