{A

"BY T111‘

PRESENTED TO THE FRIENDS

OF

COLONEL JACKSON,

AS A SOUVENIR OF HIM.

AN ORATION,

DELIVERED AT WINDIIAM CENTRE, GREENE COUNTY, N.Y..,
JULY 4, 1859,

BY THE LA.'.[‘E

COL. WILLIAM A. JACKSON,

0}!‘ TIIE ‘E-I(3}I1'1‘.E:.ENTlI R‘Ii}(3‘wIMl"J1.*IT 01*‘ NEW-YORK VOLUNTEERS.

G. VAN BENTIFIUYSEN. PRINTER.
1863.

ORATION.

IT has been said, Fellow-citizens, that as a
nation, We have no history. But when I read of
the cntcrprize, the couicage, the determination
which peculiarly characterize the colonization
of our land ; and when to-day, in looking about

me, I perceive the Wonderful results that have

been accoin alished since the Saxon arin becran
ti:

the conflict with primeval nature on our own
shores, I am persuaded that no other chapter in
the history of the World presents so splendid a
t)l1asc of l11J.1]:1{LD_ develo nnent.

1

Our history does not offer the reader the

eventful succession of a lo11g and brilliant mo-
narchy : it has no feudal and chivalric period,
no grand armada, no Waterloo ; but it records
the patient endurance, the heroic suffering, the
God-given energy and will which have upreared
a migflnty empire. It records the story of a
revolution, which marked a new era in the
progress of the race ;, it writes, onithe page of
heroes, the namesiof thousands Whose brave
hearts beat for humanity.

.__.....5___.

The contemplation of these facts in our hi-
story should give us great pride. From these We

can learn What it is to be American citizens in.

the full and proper sense. They offer us e:<.«:an1ple
and advice. Let us ask ourselves What is Ame-
rican citizenship ; What the position, the duties,
the rewards. To be a citizen of this free land
implies sovereignty ; not domination over a
crushed people, not the unbridled license of one
against the fetterecl liberties of all others, but
the sovereignty over self, the freedom of un-
trammelled utterance, the privilege of a voice
in the creation of the laws which govern.

The political condition of the American
citizen is anomalous, in the present conclition
of the world. The causes that mal~;:e it thus are
Written in our revolution, in our constitution,
in our political system. And because it is ano-
malous, because the American citizen is the sole
representative of the principle of self-govern-
ment, because to his care history has bequeathed
the priceless ideas asserted and established by
patriots at Athens and at Rome, because from
buried ages comes the Warning voice of the
Forum and the Capitol, because humanity sends
from the old World its Wail of lamentation,
should each citizen feel himself the exponent

_.__,7..__.

of the system under which he lives, and so act
by voice and vote as to strengthen its power
for good. The position of the American citizen,
then, is one of great responsibility. A Provi-
dence in history has made him a prominent
figure in the World’s drama. He is looked upon
and envied, because he is free. He possesses
every riglit which man can ask. It is not then
merely his pleasure to enjoy his freedom and
his rights, but his duty to prove them Worthy
of enjoyment by st1"e1igtl1e11i11g and defeiidiiig
them, by preserving their purity, and thus
giviiig them a voice of moral streiigtli which
shall speak like the voice of prophecy to the
nations of the earth.

011 the responsibility of freedom! Do the

men of America feel it ? Do they properly re——i

member, on this our Nation’s great festival, the
occasion and the means that gztve it birth’? Do
they remember that they possess theirliberty
in trust? Do they remember that they should
render it with increase to their children ? Do
they bear in mind that the magnitude of a
blessing is a measure of responsibility’? Let
every man Write over his hearthstone, “lVl1ere
muchis given, much will be required.” A

..._...g.._._.._

The sovereignty and responsibility of Ame-
rican citizenship involve the performance of
many duties. In What spirit do We perform
them? Is it With the purity of sentiment and
the dignity of action which their importance
requires ? I leave the answer to the conscience
of each citizen.

‘When the voice from Faneuil Hall evoked
from the bosom of the times the effort for li-
berty, and, like the gushing Waters which fol-—
lowed the rod of Israel’s leader, it poured itself
upon the land ; when the fathers, after solemn
prayer, made that declaration which is as im-
mortal as the principle which it asserts; when
the men of the Revolution had driven from the
desecrated homes and ravaged shores of the
colonies the mercenary instruments of British
tyranny, and when the olive branch once more
blossomed, and the Federal Union, supplanting
the alliance of the colonies, had given our flag
a national character, the duties of the American
citizen received their inauguration, the orbit of
their performance was designated. The vvork
had begun. The  Warriors of the Revolu-
tion, the statesmen Who had directed and sus--
tained their efforts, Were approaching the hour
appointed for all. To their children they be--

...........9r----~

queathed their swords and their principles :g
to their children they bequeathed the liberty
they had gained, secured by an entail which
reckless folly alone can break. In their Wisdom
and in their great love for that liberty, they
placed the responsibility for its preservation
upon each citizen. Upon each citizen that re-
sponsibility reniains : its binding force grows
stronger with time. Each year develops the
resources of our continent; each day adds to
the number of our people, and each moment
records our national sins for their final punish-
ment. Every man l§Z1T1OWS that the Wisdom of
our ancestors placed in our hands the means of
redressing political Wrongs. It is a privilege to
be exercised with care, but fearlessly. It is a
Weapon against Wrong, only While its purity is
preserved. It is a trenchant blade Whose polish
and edge are so brilliant and keen, that While

in ‘honest hands it will hew down the Inightiest

iniquity, it Will tarnish and grow dull if it be
wielded in the service of corruption. V

This privilege is the Elective Franchise, the
proper exercise of which is the first political
duty of the citizen. That it has been shamefully
abused, has been made time and again to sub-

‘Z

-—.-——10—~+

serve dishonest purposes, has been employed to
subvert the constitutional sovereignty of the
people, has been in some localities so degraded
that men of pure and honest sentiment have
pronounced it a failure, is, alas, too true. But
the fact that this abuse exists, furnishes the
strongest motive for those who love their coun-
try to rally to its rescue. There are honest men
Who do not vote, because the ballot-box has
been corrupted. Are they guiltless? Do they
not, by refusing to exercise a right, commit a
great Wrong, as Well as those who pervert it to
dishonest purposes?

My Countrymen, the destinies of this nation
are in the ballot-box. He who does not vote,
and he Who votes corruptly, are alike guilty.
Let those who lament the misuse of the elective‘
franchise, yet do not attempt to preserve its
standard, remember that it furnishes its own
correction. The people are honest, and it has
ever been found that the corrupt are a minority.
Never has there been a period in our history,
when it was more essential for the people to
vindicate their honesty, than at the present.

A disposition has been manifested to sully the

purity of our dearestrights. The unclean hand

.........-.]_1........;

of corruption has reared an altar for its Wor-
shippers in the temple of our liberties; the
venders of political Wares have made its holiest
sanctuary their market-place. Let the people
drive out the money-changers; drive them out
by the force of honest votes ;. drive them out,
by performing the duties of citizens. Thus shall
the glorious covenant with freedom, ratified by
our fathers, not be broken. Shrink not from the
duty of the elective franchise, if you would
preserve, in their primal strength and beauty,
the cardinal principles of our system. But if
citizens allow business or pleasure to absorb the
single hour their country asks them to give to
her service ; i.f they bewail corruption, Without
arrestiiig its progress, they need utter no com-
plaint if it blasts the purity and truth of the
people, and renders our national character 
byword and a reproach ; a lie against freedom,
a libel upon humanity.

The neglect of this primal duty has led, in
various portions of our land, to confusion and
anarchy. Because honest citizens have neglected
to perform their duties, political corruption has
accomplished the vilest purposes; and so po-
werful in their misuse of the ballot—box had
the miscreants who corrupted its purity become,

.......,12———-

that revolution was the only means by Which
they could be ousted from their usurpation.
But it is a dangerous experiment. Our system
contains its own correction, if the citizen Will
apply it in time. Vigilance committees were
never contemplated by the Constitution; but
every citizen is exhorted, by the spirit of that
instrument, to exercise that true vigilance
which will destroy an evil before it can mature,
and guard our liberty against the insidious Wiles
of the serpents it has nourished by its Warmth.

There are other duties ofaction and of’ speech,
Whose proper fulfilment should ever be opera-
tive upon the American citizen 3 but they are
all intimately connected with his duties at the
ballot—bo:x:. They must be manfully perfmrinecl,
to render us the efficient champions of the
liberties We enjoy.

The future contains the elements of disorga~
nization. There is to be a terrible 1:'ecls:c11i11g in
the old World, between the people and their
rulers. Liberty and despotism are preparing for
their final conflict, and Liberty looks through
the gloom to us for a ray of hope to cheer her
in the battle.

Upon the plains of Italy, thebattle--smoke
wreathes upwards from the initial conflicts of a

___..13...._...

struggle, Which, to my mind, presages the final
liberty of Europe; but it will be an ordeal of
fire and blood. The conservative influences
which have, for selfish purposes, evoked the
demon of War, have also aroused a spirit in the
people which cannot be propitiated or allayed.

Are We to remain silent spectators of the
scene? Time alone will disclose our part, But
in view of our position as a nation, representing
that principle of government for which the
earnest souls of Europe pant as “the hart for

7

the Water-brooks ;’ in view of the fact, Written
unmistakably in history, that Providence has
assigned to us the solution of the great problem
of our race, the capacity of man for self-—
government, it behoves us to preserve from
taint our institutions, and to inake our nationa-
lity so conspicuous in all true and manly re-
quisites,that it may be a beacon Whose rays
shall ever shine with an undimmed and certain
lustre.

And is the future Without its dangers to our-
selves? Is our isolated position to protect us
from collision with l the mighty powers beyond
the Atlantic? God grant it may. But with our
growth as a nation, our interests have proper»
tionately extended. We are threatening to

.._._...14.....__.

overshadow the continent. Our relations With
the South-American States that are now in-
volved in civil War, may force us to assert the
superior right of a progressive civilization to
the control of a land upon which nature has
heaped every blessing, over the misrule of semi--
barbarous governments, Which, in the name of
liberty, trample upon humanity and laW,.and
employ the superstitions of a degraded church
to debase the intellect of the people.

But such a step on our part would arouse the
watchful jealousy of foreign powers. If they
should deny our right, as the leading govern-
ment of the continent, to arrange, supervise and
control, for the protection of our citizens and
the furtherance of our commercial interests, the
disordered affairs of our sister republics, War
would be the melancholy but inevitablelresult.
Are We prepared for such a struggle? VVould
the men of ’59 breathe the patriotism of ’76?
VVould the spirit of Lexington again animate
the citizens? VVould our batteries awake the
echoes of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane ? I pause
not for an answer. A patriotism as pure and

devoted as that of the Revolution would be

exhibited : there would be but one cry, “ To

_......_1_5......

arms;’’ but one spirit, Dulce et decorum est pro
patria man’.

But the patriotism which would rally the
people about the national standard, the spirit

‘ which would animate tl1e battle-field, must

spring from the consciousness of an honest per-
formance of the manifold duties of citizenship.
That alone can nerve the arm to strike right-
handed blows for country, home, and altar.
The citizen who performs his duties is en-
titled to reward. Grecian and Roman antiquity
decreed triumphal processions, wreaths and
crowns, to him who on the battle-field or in the
senate had served his country. The reward of
the American citizen is the satisfaction of pro»
moting the great cause of human freedom.
The liberty of the ancient republics was re-—
strictive : ours is as expansive as the universe;
its pulsations beat time to the march of the age,
and throb with the heart of humanity. The
lands conquered by our arms are blessed with
our institutions. The presence of our flag gua-
rantees the privileges of the Constitution. We
annex, not alone to impose our civilization, but
to confer our liberty. With what pride should
the American citizen contemplate the progress
of his land ! What nobler reward for duty

........15.._....

performed can he ask, than to feel that the pro-
sperity of this great nation has been entrusted
to him, and that he has fulfilled the trust?

Every true citizen has a right so to feel. He
has filled his sphere : he has given an example
to the timid ; has been a reproach to the cor-
rupt. He has assisted in accomplisliing the pur-
poses of another cycle of time, as it rolled on
to its eternal jiidgiiieiit. What, in comparison,
are crowns and Wreaths ? What, to the satisfac-
tion of a great political duty performed, is a
triumphal procession with its train of languid
slaves, its 11eighi11g steeds, its glittering display
of beauty, arms, treasure!

If the citizen will look over the vast expanse
of the continent, and, seeing everywhere the
evidences of aaelhigl1‘lcivilization, will remember
that it is the growtli of years, not of centuries ;
will recal the fact that this Wonderful develop-
ment is due to the application of a single prin-
ciple, the right and the ability of man to govern
himself; and will learn, from the Constitution
under which he lives, that to hiscare is en-

trusted that principle, his manhood must be

aroused to meet and assist the great necessities *

of the times.

...__ 17 ..........

The crowded marts of commerce, the teeming
cities, the plain and hill-«side blooming under
the skilful hand of man, the White sails dotting
every lake and river, the energy that moves in
every enterprize, speak to him with an eloquence
and poetry so grand, so beautiful, so true, that
he must respond in the performance of those
acts which will sustain these efforts of the age,
and keep in motion that high principle of pro-
gress which, on our shores, has found a develop»-
ment to cease only with time. Do We appreciate
the position, perform the duties, enjoy the re»
wards? Do We, possessing the fullest liberty,
know what it is to be free ? Do We comprehend
that the United States has established another
fact in history, that republican liberty is com-
patible with good government ? Ask the victim
of Austrian persecution, What is liberty: of the
martyrs to N apoleon’s despotism on the pesti-
lential shores of Cayenne, ask What is liberty:
open the dungeons of the Neapolitan monster,
and ask the noble souls there lingering in pain,
what is liberty; and they will answer you by
pointing to America. In our Revolution, they
recognized the success of the principle. They
sought to achieve it for themselves, in the very

3

......_1g..__...

efforts which have consigned them to the dun-
geon or to exile. Should not We Who enjoy the
blessing, appreciate it as fully as those who can

only sigh for it? Should not theirefforts to V

obtain it, make us all the more jealous of its
care ?

In the faithful performance of our duties, We
discharge an obligation due to humanity. We
are entrusted with a principle, Whose preserva-
tion should be as dear to us as life and honor.
When the Fathers announced it, they pledged
to its success “ their lives, their fortunes, and
their sacred honor.” That pledge was redeemed;
the principle triumphed, and we today are
living Witnesses of their devotion. From this
We learn to value our inheritance, and to per-.«
form the conditions upon Which it is ours. When
we forget by What tenure We hold this inheri-
tance, We pronounce our own sentence of die-e
privation. But can: it be that We shall ever
forget? Is the victory of the Revolution to be
sacrificed? Is the spirit of the Constitution to
be thwarted? Are the glorious results of more
than eighty years of freedom to be nullified?
What say the men of America? Shall it be
written in history that the last experiment of
freedom failed, because the citizens of the re-

___19_..._

public forgot their duties ? It is not because we
are prosperous, not because our growth has no
parallel in the experience of centuries, not be»
cause our strength is greater than at any other
period, that We are to defy the possibility of
national ruin. It is for these very reasons that We
are to guard more jealously than ever the bul-
Warks of our strength; that we are to avoid the
false expediences that usurp the place of princi-
ple; that we are to inculcate the elemental truths
upon which our government is based, and upon
Whose preservation depends our perpetuity as
a union.

Let us not boast of our strength. It is in the
hour of success that the germ of decay is un-
folded. It is in the day of prosperity that we
should cling most firmly to that truth and virtue
which sustained our patriot fathers, and made
us free.

Men of America! Forget not your trust.
Liberty, battling everywhere with oppression,
looks to you as her standard-bearers. See to it
that no stain sullies the stars and stripes. See
to it that the glorious emblem of our freedom
Waves ever from our shores, the signal of rescue
and assistance to oppressed humanity. The
genius of our institutions, in the name of that

spirit of universal freedom before Whose resist-
less presence the shackles of the slave fall off,
and the man arises in the dignity of his nature,
charges you to think of your privileges and your
duties; to remember that Providence permitted
you to exist as representatives of those great
ideas Which Will one day vindicate their truth
to the nations of the earth; to remember that
your duty is to give these ideas that expansion
and direction which their importance claims;
to remember that liberty is unselfish, confined
to no land, but belongs as a God-given right to
every man that breathes; to remember, above
all else, that, possessing liberty, it is your duty
to protect it from the degrading contact with
corruption at home, as Well as against the at-
tack of enemies from abroad. Make it a bright
and burning light, an example to the nations,
a reproach to despotism, an incentive to arouse
the oppressed to vindicate their humanity.
And when,‘ my countrymen, you have ac-
complished all this, you can claim, with just

pride, descent from those patriot fathers whose

lives were spent in stern conflict for great prin-
ciples, Whose deaths were blessed by the sweet
consciousness of duty Well performed. Then
can you claim as your countryman, him Whose

__..21._......

name, luminous with the glory of the noblest
life which history records, is Written in the
heart of humanity, as before all others her
chosen champion; Whose pure and devoted
patriotism is the corner--stone of our liberties.

Citizens, on this day renew your vows to
your common country. Swear, at her altar, that
no defection of yours shall cause her to swerve
from the path of right. Swear that the holy
flame of patriotism shall burn

“ Unquenched through ages,
Like Vesta’ s sacred fire.”

Make your standard of political excellence the
faithful performance of your duties, and you

secure to yourselves and your posterity the V

enjoyment of a freedom which will be purified
and exalted with time.

.A.4“n.4n.
"Te

THE following poem and letter are introduced here
as an appropriate accompaniment to the preceding

address.

ELEGY

uulvuuj

0 friend of other days!
So early fallen in thy manly prime I
In vain alike our grief, our praise —-—--
Another victim of the traitor’ s crime.

Was it for this? —- the toil of studious years --
That Spartan training for the Forum’s strife ;
Was it for this, that first among thy peers,
We saw thee move with splendor into life?

All had been lost, but that true hearts like thine,
‘When “ shriekecl the timid and stood still the brave,”

Strove to arrest the nation’s swift decline
To an untimely, an ignoble grave.

=3? =il= =X= #4 4!! =3? '49 ii‘

I would not look upon thee, dead.
Well_ rnemory holds the living form,

That, when our last farewell was said,
Vanished in darkness and in storm.*

0 grave! there comes a princely guest I
Witliiii thy oharnbers dim and cold,

VVhere‘ sleep the brave, there give him rest,
Wit.11 heroes of the Days of Old.

N o more I hear that martial tone
Ring boldly out on Freedom’s side :
There are, Whose words are Words alone ;
But thou in Freedom’s cause hast died.

0. B. HITCHCOCK, Glass of ’52.

'“‘At our Class Meeting in ’55, the late Col. JACKSON was present by invitation.

We separated at a late hour.

LETTER.

Wrunnam CENTRE, February 21, ’62.
Pnornsson Jacrcsou :

I THANK you for the kind expressions of your letter in reference to
my slight tribute to the memory of the late Col. Jacxcsozs, your son,
and my friend in college days.

Except the meeting mentioned in the note to the fourth stanza, I
have not seen W"1LLra:M since leaving college. His presence at our
class-meeting was almost a thing of course. He always seemed to
belong with us as much as to his own class; for he had many friends,
many society and personal associates among us. He was quick to
discern character; nor did class or society connections, those barriers
to common minds, oppose any obstacle to his search for intellectual
fellowship and social intercourse.

On my way to the West, July 8d, ’59, I must have passed without
seeing WILLIAM. He was to deliver the anniversary oration on the
next day in this place. The compact and classical oration was pu-
blished,’* a copy reaching me in the Mississippi valley. Well do I
remember that afternoon of mingled reading and reverie out upon
the prairie. The identity of the favorite speaker of the Philomathean
was preserved in it : that the flower, this the fruit. The rhetoric of
the collegian was condensing into the ethics of the statesman.

It would be difiicult for me to recall another scholar of aspiring
mind, so generous in his estimate of others, so exacting towards
himself‘. His singular beauty of person was in harmony with the
structure of his intellect, elegant without efieminacy, graceful yet
full of strength. I-Iis habits of conversation did not tend to idle talk,
but he touched at once some point of philosophy or criticism, working
habitually in lines of thought which others traversed only at set times
and after special preparation. His fine critical acumen I have had

it It was published in the newspaper issued at ‘Windham Centre. No copy of this

discourse was found among the papers of Col. Jacxsou; and for its preservation,
his friends are indebted to the writer of the above article.

......_.24_._.._.

occasion to verify in subsequent studies : the sententious and just
synthesis was not easily forgotten. Guarding himself from the al-
lurement of literary embellishment by a patient study of the great
masters in history and ethics, it was evident. that his eye was upon
the future, with wise forecast anticipating the need of discipline and
accepting the established conditions of success.

It seems as yesterday that we walked in the garden, discussing the
problems of life and history; joined in the debates; read or listened
to the appointed essay. It seems but yesterday that he stood in his
accustomed place, his eye suffused with inward fire, his voice rich and
full of melody, his manner working upon all with a subtle pervading
power, and eye and tone, gesture and presence, form and spirit, so
wrought and attuned, so moulded and moved, so fashioned and in-
formed with a vivid intelligence, that the mind’s ideal was satisfied
when VVILLIAM JACKSON entered with his whole strength into a con-
tested and prolonged debate.

Yesterday! a decade has passed! Duty took from his hand the
pen, and replaced it with a sword, saying: Go, serve your country.
It is the law of sacrifice. The unblemished is for the altar. Friendship
mourns; a light has gone out in your dwelling, that no power shall
ever relume; but “the great cause for which he died invests with its
own sacredness his memory. The light which is piercing our gloom,
and which we trust shall fill all our sky, will shed upon the grave of
your fallen son its own imperishable glory.

Very respectfully yours,
0. B. I-IITCI-ICOCK.