AN

ORATION,

DELIVERED BEFORE THE
CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS OF BOSTON,
IN
FANEUIL HALL,

ON ’I‘.'l}IT{22
SIXTYZSEVENTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

DECLA.RATION OF IN DEPEN DENCE,

JULY 4, 1343.

BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

BOSTON:
JOHN H. EASTBURN, CITY PRINTER.

1843.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In the Board of flldermen, July 5, 1843.

Rnsonvnn, by unanimous vote, that the thanks of this Board be pre—
sented in behalf of the City Council, to CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, ESQ,., for
the able and eloquent Oration delivered by him, before the Municipal Au-
thorities of the City, at the recent Celebration of the Anniversary of the
Independence of the United States ;~——-and that he be requested to furnish a
copy of the same for the press.

A true copy of record.
Attest, S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk.

HON. MARTIN BRIMMER, Mayor of the City of Boston.

QUINCY, JULY '7, 1843.,

DEAR SIR,

Your kind letter, enclosing the vote of the Board of Aldermen, respecting
my Oration, was received yesterday. In submitting with great diffidenee a.
copy of it for the press, agreeably to your and their request, I beg leave to
express to you my Warmest thanks for the very indulgent reception it met
with on the part of the City Authorities as Well as the audience generally.

I am, sir, very truly
Your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

ORATION.

 

l7ELLoW Ctrlznns AND Fnrnnns,

Upon an occasion like this, an Anniversary
which has now returned so many times, it is not my
purpose to attempt, l hope it is not your disposition
to erspect much that is new or e:x:t1'aordina.1*y. Sixty»
seven years have elapsed since the occurrence of the
great event which We meet to comnieniorate, the
Declaration of our National Independence, a period
of time embracing according to the common mode
of computation at least two entire generations of
rnanliind. That which fouglit the battles to establish
the independence which it declared has for the most
part passed away. And the next which reared to
maturity the National Institutions which it also aided
to create is rapidly retiring from the scene. Of
these two generations, most of the individuals who
distinguished themselves by qualities that mark the
Statesman, the Oratcr and the Patriot lavished their
powers in the celebration of this day. It would then
appear not a little presumptuous in one of a suc-
ceeding age to nurse a hope that he could open
views that had escaped the observation of those Wl'1O
have gone before him, or even that he could vie
Witli them in the developenient of old ones. The
rnornent seems to have come, when the ambition of

6

figuring as an Orator upon this Anniversary must

cease. The field has been cropped. of its bright  

flowers. The mine has yielded all of its glittering
ore. Nothing is left to the pride of authorship---—
nothing to the vanity of declamation. To the ju-»
venile aspirant for distinction, the opportunity is of
little value because it presents more chances of fail-
ure than success and by the elder members of socie-
ty it has become perhaps too generally associated
with the unmeaning ceremonies of ordinary festive
days.

We may be permitted to regret this result even
though We cannot hope to resist it. This celebra-
tion is a feeble homage of a prosperous people to
the virtue of those who made them what they are.
It is one link of a chain which makes us yet suscep-—
tible of emotions which animated there. It is a me~
dium through which a ray of light may he shot into
our own bosoms to ascertain how we compare with
them. My friends, what do we know through any
trials which as a nation We have had to encounter,
of the sacrifices of the revolution? T he men of that
day were formed just as We are, they had the same
passions to contend With, the same selfishness to sub»-
due and they loved peace and their ease as ‘Well as
we do. The payment of a few pence per pound on
tea was a trifle in comparison With the cost of an
effort to resist it. What was it then which tempted
them to choose the diflicult and dangerous road
rather than to dally in the lap of pleasure? It was
devotion to a prtinczple. It was the devotion to that
something beautiful and good, the pursuit of Which
has produced allthat does honor to human nature in
the annals of mankind, which cannot be found in

‘7

‘worldly possessions, which the treasures of India
cannot buy and which the power of the most despot-
ic sovereign on earth cannot command. Do we at
this day realize the extent of the e*li'ort which they
made to secure it? With us devotion to the cause of
the people is for the most part the mere perform.-
ance of lip-seryice which they l~I.11OW best how to
practice who are the least capable of a real sacrifice
to sustain it. It is the submission of one’s self to do
What costs nothing, What it is often very agreeable
to do, and What one is Well paid in honor and ofiicial
distinction for doing. It was not so when the arm-
ed enemy was at the gate, and when the utterance
of an abstract truth was to be forthwith maintained
by the pledge of property and of blood. The hour
when each cannon shot that sounded in the ears
might be the knell of a patriot, and when every ball
sent from the neighboring heights Was like a volun-
tary offering of one’s dwelling to the cause of the
country was indeed an hour which needed the sup.-
port of some soul exalting sentiment to make it pass
Without agony. There are none such now. » “Je-
shur-un hath Waxed fat.” Our contentions are with
each other. We war with the dangers of our pros-
perity and are apt to forget that any others ever ex»
isted. Now is the accepted time and this is the fit.-
ting place too, for us to profit by the remembrance
of them. Here let the living Wells be found from
which We and our posterity may drink and be re»-
freshed, Whenever We may be called to make simi-.
lar sacrifices, and undergo similar labors. Here let
the memory of good bear unmingled sway. Give
to selfish contention Whatever else you please. Let
the spirit of party raise the surge of the political

8

ocean until it sweep mountain high over the land at
every other time, but in this spot, on this day, keep,
0 keep the sky sunny and serene.

Yet, my fellow citizens, let it not be supposed that
in pleading for this, I would advocate the formation
on this occasion of a sickly, artificial temperature,
fit only to promote the growth of feeble or exotic
plants. It is the ‘WlI1d--tOSS8Cl tree that will most stifil
ly resist the tempest. The Anniversary of our Na-
tional Independence is not a suitable day to sing
praises to those who do little to deserve them, or to
flatter the citizens of to»-day because their ancestors
made them what they are. A people has no more
right to boast of hereditary claims to honor than an
individual. In the one case as in the other, it is
desert alone Which should Win the meed of praise.
There are duties incumbent upon every race of men
although it may well happen that the precise char»-
acter of them will not always be the same. We are
not called upon to tight for our families and fire»
sides, nor yet to build up a new system of polity in
the room of one that had been shaken to the ground.
But We are called upon to do What experience has
shown in other countries to be quite as ditlicult as
either, and that is to govern ourselves. How this
may best be done, vvhat are the dangers most to be
apprehended, and What the advantages that will flow
from complete success might indeed furnish an am.-
ple theme Worthy of the occasion and of the strong»-
est mind you could summon to the discussion of it.
The task does not however belong to me. It inn.-
plies a right to teach which I cannot claim, a right
to be earned only by Wisdom and experience. Well
tried must that vision be which shall discern amid

9

the various appearances of our political horizon
each object in its exact   dimensions, and which will
not be liable on the one hand to take a mere Wind-
cloud for that which brings a thunderbolt, or on the
other, to fancy a fertile and vine clad eminence, the
ground ‘Wl’liCl1 is swelling With the pent up tires of
Vesuvius.

But, though I cannot hope to reach the position
of a teacher or a prophet, it may perhaps be allowed
to me to take a View of the position We assumed as
a people at the era of our independence and con-
trast it with that which We now occupy. I have al-—
ready noticed the fact that two entire generations of
men have passed from active life since the date of
our national freedom. The hands that cradled that
infant, and those which taught the boy the Way he
should go are no longer here. They have Vanished
and their nursling has grown up to be a giant who
is in his turn cradling and educating swarms of his

own. And upon the result of his instruction far

more than upon all which has yet been done dee-
pends the realization of the fairest hopes that were
ever formed for the improveinent of mankind. For
it should be distinctly borne in mind, that those gen-
erations of which I have spoken, constitute only the
state of transition in America from one political sys-
tem to another. The men Who‘ effected the inde-1
pendence of this people and who made them re-
publicans were not themselves the offspring of the
schools of theoretical democracy, hovvmuchsoever
they may have passed their lives in the exercise of
practical equality. Their judgment had been to a
considerable extent affected by the existence of dis-
tinctions recognised hy the law which made the

10

source of their social system and the basis of their
political education. A King, Lords and Commons,
an established Church, a system of entails and farni-«
ly settlements designed to overturn the equal distri-
bution of property in families, that corner stone of
social equality, though little felt in the primitive
condition of affairs on this side of the Water and
Wherever felt, not relished, were nevertheless parts
of a settled order of things to which for its other
compensating merits respect Was generally inculcat-
ed from the earliest infancy, and Withreference to
which as a model the opinions of persons of all ages
were formed. Allegiance to a sovereign, Whether
Queen Anne or King George  acknowledged to
be due here not less than in Great Britain. The re—~
Wards of public conduct Were all associated With the
system of ranks prevailing in the mother“ country.
To go to it was to go “ home” and to receive from
it the details of domestic and foreign events, of
peace or vvar with the other nations of Europe and
most particularly with France was to receive intellri»
gence deeply affecting their own happiness and
safety. Their habits of daily life, their love of or.-
der, their obedience to lawful authority Were all
parts of their English inheritance, and however ad»
mirably these may have adapted themselves to the
maintenance of the democratic institutions Which
their favorite theory led them to establish, they must
be admitted to trace an earlier origin. These qual-
ities did Wonders in the safe organization of the new
system of government and in carrying it unharmed
through the dangers incident to social revolution,
but it is only now, at this comparatively remote pe-

riod of time that We may begin to claim credit to c

11

that system itself for the fact that we continue to
possess them. Now it is, that the first generations
born and bred under a republican government in
the United States assume the undivided control of
it. But a single Chief Magistrate of the Union has
yet been elected Whose birth dates since the year
1776. They must probably all do so for the future.
Now then does the true developernent of our social
system formed after the democratic theory, become
apparent in practice. Every day is adding increas-
ed weight to the great experiment upon which our
happiness as a people depends. The government
is now entirely in the hands of the children of the
fourth of July, 1776. The country has gone through
in safety its first great change. And although it
must be conceded that heretofore it has been the
men of a former time who created and sustained our
free Institutions, it may now on the contrary be
claimed, that by a reacting grocess for the first time

p become distinctly visible, it is the free Institutions

which make the men.

An interesting question must immediately present
itself to our minds. In this transfer of the country
from the hands of one generation to that of another,
is there any rnarked change in the character of the
people? If there were it would be difficult for
any one of us to discern it. We lmoyv that the boy
changes from his condition of obedience to parental
authority, to that of manhood when he relies upon
his own judgment, is often impetuous and generally
wilful, hoping much and fearing little, and then
again he passes into age when experience has in-

spired the consciousness of human infirmity, and ex»

hausted nature in dread of chan ge seeks in the recol-


lection of the past a compensation for the uncertainty
of the future. Yet strilting as all this ought to be,
who is there who Watches the change as it goes on
around him day after day? To us the face of a
friend appears the same now that it was yesterday.
l/Ve do not observe that one hair has become gray,
or that one wrinltle is more deeply set in the inter-
val. And if We cannot juclge of the alteration in his
outer lineaitnents, how much less able are We to de»
cide upon the change that is going on equally fast in
the mind and in the heart. Just so, fellow citizens,
must it be on a larger scale with States. V/Vho does
not see that the Monarchy of Victoria is not in every
respect the same With that of the sailor lazing, still
less does it resemble that of the first ot secend of the
Brunswick line, and least of all that of William of
Orange. Yet in the centmfy and a half that has in»
tervened between the earliest and latest of these
reigns What British citizen could liave pointed out
Wlierein the state of his country differed in one
month from that of the preceding. it is easy to con-
trast distant periods, but it is not so easy to trace the
finer tlnreads as they run which connect the changes
which we can observe to liate happened. And if
this 1‘81’”i1{:t1‘l{ be true of older countries, With how
much 1noi*e force Will it apply to the more rapidly
moving United States. The people in 1848 present
an aspect very different from that of 1W6. They
do not exactly resemble the people of 1789, or 1803
or 1816 or even of 1829. Yet it would he Very difl
ficult to define the precise points in which the differ-
ence consists or the causes of that difierence. The in--
fant Hercules strangled serpents in his cradle, and yet
he was after all at that time but a strong child need-~

13

ing guidance and direction from age and experience.
The moral elements of his character were yet to be
combined. Neither did he even by time gain them as
fast as his physical powers increased. The poisoned
shirt of Nessus and the funeral pyre on the summit
of Mount Oeta were but a legitimate consequence of
his failure to «acquire the mastery of his own passions.
And so it may yet be with our own country. We
snapped the bonds in youth Which a misguided foster»
parent strove to impose upon us, but the moral dis-»
cipline which follows as a necessary consequence of
our growth and freedom from external restraint is a

perpetual lesson which the progress of time makes
more ditficult to be learnt in the same ratio that the

necessity of learning it becomes more and more ab»-
solute. it

Let me now recur for a moment to the Declara——
tion of Independence itself. It was once called by
a celebrated Virginian,* “ a fanfaronade of abstrace
tions.” Talten as a composition, and Without re»-
ference to the action which made it a great histor-»
ical fact, it is a Well Written exposition of the prin-
ciples which justify a people in overturning a gov»
ernment. But there liave been such both before
and since which have lived their hour and been for»
gotten. Vi?" hat is the reason Why this one bids fair
to be immortal? It is because it embodies the action
of a people. It is because it constitutes the standing
testimony to their devotion to a principle. The dis-—
tinction to be drawn between this and other acts of
a similar kind .. lies in the factthat is was not the ofi”~
spring of a momentary popular impulse, but of long
reflection and mature decision. Of the Congress

4* John Randolph of Roanoke.

Ms

Wllicll met in 1”?’ W24, there were probably not more
than four or five members who on coming together
suspected the probability of such a result, and even
they Viewed it as rather a possible consequence of a
coiiflict of opposite principles than as a certain ter-
mination to their labors. The people of the Var‘ious
Colonies were at that time by no means united in
sentiment as to the course which it would be proper
to pursue. Massachusetts and Virginia were far in
advance of New York and Pennsylvania, but none
of them were prepared for action. lt is one of the
standing proofis of the Wisdom of the Delegates in
Congress that they did not attempt to forestall it, but
rather directed their efforts to the great object of se-—
curing united opinion. The separate organization of
the Colonies was one of the most serious difficulties
with which they had to contend. The people were
not homogeneous. They were of difFe1'ent national
origin, of opposite modes of religious belief, not all
speaking the same language, and living under thir-
teen distinct forms of government administered by
persons not all of them by any means equally odious.
Nothing could have overcome the obstacles thus pre-
sented to the adoption of a common Declaration of
Independence but mature deliberation. It was like
bringing thirteen clocks to strike at noon exactly to—-
gether, a more difficult task, if We may credit the
anecdote respecting one who had tried both, than
governing a kingdom, and it was done at last by re-—~
liance upon the intrinsic power of one abstract prin-
ciple. T he annunciation of self-evident truths with

which the Declaration begins, that “ all men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Crea-~
tor with certain unalienable rights; that among these

l5

are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That
to secure these rag/tts, gocemmeizzs are rfnstitzcted
among men, deriving their just powers flom the con»
seat of the goeem2.ed” would have been a mere flour-

ii ish of trumpets, had not the people of the coun-

try prepared themselves forthvvith to maintain by
an example the principle which they approved.
They undertook to show to the World What had
never been seen before, that a government could
be instituted among men securing to them their
unalienable rights and yet deriving its just poW—-
ers from the consent of the governed. Their suc--
cess in this attempt thus far makes the glory of
the revolution, because it shows the hand of a re»
fleeting people. It Was not the throwing off the
shackles of Great Britain that gave dignity to the
struggle of the patriots of 1776, but it Was the great-
er act of perforniing the high duties devolving on
them as representatives of a governing people. They
felt themselves creators. They saw that the substitu-
tion of a new system would constitute the only true
justification for the demolition of an old one. And
diflicult as was the task of at once carrying on the
War which threatened their personal safety, and re--
moulding the Institutions which were crumbling un-~
der the contest, it is the desire to execute it in all of
its broad extent which marks the Congress of 1776,
as composed of men Worthy to rank not only among
the patriots but the statesmen and legislators of his.-
tory.

It was the opinion of Brutus and his fellow con»-
spirators that if they could murder Caesar, the repub»~
lican government of Rome would again go on of
itself. They succeeded in their attempt but the only

16

consequence was War, anarchy, prescriptions and
the ultimate resort for safety to a despotic govern»
ment. The secret of the failure lay in the fact that
the scheme was a hasty idea of a few disconnected
from a systematic movement to be sustained by the
final approbation of the people. How dill"erent was
the action of 1776. It was on Monday the 10th day
of June that the Congress in Committee of the Whole
aggreed to the following resolution.

“ Resoloed, That the United States are and of right ought to be free
and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the

British crown and that all political connexion between them and the
State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.”

A Committee was ordered to prepare a Declara--I
tion to the same effect, and the names of those who
reported the celebrated paper Were placed upon
the Journal of the next day, Tuesday.

Thus far Went the dissolving and destroying pro--
cess vvhich was a tribute to the principles of Liberty.

But immediately after the entry of those names
there follows the following sigrrificant resolve.

“ Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare and digest the
form of a confederation to be entered into between the Colonies.

“ That a Committee be appointed to prepare a plan of treaties to be
proposed to foreigrr powers.”

This resolve was subsidiary to one which had been
adopted exactly one month previous, recommending
to the several Colonies to organize the powers of
government under the authority of the people them»
selves, and it was intended to perfect the system.
At the same time, another resolve was adopted cre-
ating a board of War and arming it with full execu-
tive and War-niaking powers.

Here, fellow citizens, were the outlines of a great A

17

plan which showed that those who assumed the
sovereignty were capable of executing the powers it
conferred. Here lay the pledge that the Declara-
tion of lndependence was not a mere voice. It had
“ become necessary for one people to assume among
the powers of the earth, the separate and equal sta-
tion to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God
entitled them.” But the immediate corollary from
this position was that the people thus assuming its
proper station, should by some act of its own, secure
the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
which rights had been so far endangered by the ac»-
tion of Great Britain as to justify the renunciation of
her authority. This could only be done by adopting
a form of government ‘-" deriving its just powers from
the consent of the governed.”

Here commenced the preserving process which
was a tribute to the principles of Law.

It is not very easy for us in looking back a period
of sixty or seventy years to form an exact idea of the
difliculty of executing at the same moment this two-—
fold process. Neither can it surprise us that the
efibrt was not in all its parts attended with equal suc-
cess. A keen foresight taught the signers of the
Declaration the necessity of proceeding even in War
to the adoption of measures which should securethe
rights for vvhich they were contending after the re-
turn of peace. Domestic? anarchy or a dissolution
of the Union which would have prevented the bene-
ficial developement of the people’s energy would have
made the support of a “ fanfaronade of abstractions”
by a War a very costly and wasteful sacrifice. Yet
how were these evils to be avoided excepting through

a common form of government? A common form
3 *

18

of government had been however up to this time a
somewhat novel idea to many if not all of the inhabit-
ants of the thirteen separate Colonies. They were
jealous of restraint which they felt obliged to impose
upon themselves at home where they could Watch
and immediately correct any abuse of their authority,
by agents of their own appointment. How were
they to become reconciled to the admission of an ex»-
ternal power in regulating which they were to have
but a proportionate control? Not Without reason
Was it then that the Congress of 1776 lostnot a mo»
ment in applying itself to this great duty. A Decla-
ration of Independence eost little beyond a few
strokes of a rhetorical pen, a War might be carried
on with the aid of the popular courage, but the eon-
servative principle vvhich was to make both the De-«
claration and the War conduce to the benefit of Inil—-
lions yet unborn rernained to be developed in the
voluntary establishment of a free and yet a vigorous
government.

It can give little cause of surprise that the first
efibrt to attain this object Was not successful. The
Declaration of Independence had announced the
assumption of a» separate station among the nations
of the earth of one people. The first form of com--
pact that was agreed upon under the name of the
Confederation resolved it into thirteen. It granted
powers Without providing the authority to execute
them. It organized a system and destroyed the or--
gans which could give it vitality. It was exactly
described by the homely figure applied to it in its
own day. “Thirteen staves and ne’er a hoop Will
not make a barrel.” The jealous spirit of liberty an»
imating the people of the several States had Well

19

nigh emasculated the law. The consequences in
poverty, discontent and the impatience of any Wl10l8-
some restraint soon began to make themselves per-
ceived. But at that very moment, when the mon-
archists of Europe thought themselves sure of a tri-
umph, when they were ready to point to the Ameri-
can people as a signal instance of the vanity of all
the republican doctrines, at that very moment did
the people most remarkably disappoint their e.:s:pect-
ations. The confederation only furnished evidence
that they could repair an error. Instead of confess-—
ing incapacity they set themselves to the Work. of
conferring greater powers on the Law. It was thir-
teen years after the issue of the paper which called
them “ one people” before the World, about “ to as-
sume among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the laws of nature and
of nature’s God assigned them,” that the Constitm
tion of the United States was adopted, predicated as
it Was upon the consent of that people itself. This
was the great act which made the other something
more than word. This was the great seal set to
that instrument of our National Liberties. Then
and not until then did it cease to be a “fanfaronade
of abstractions,” as the Virginian chose to denomi--
nate it. Then and not until then Was the great
pledge which its signers gave of their lives, their
fortunes and their sacred honor really redeemed to
their own country and to the world. The great ex-—
periment of a government deriving its just powers
from the consent of the governed, that problem of
the union of Liberty and Law which had filled the
imagination of patriots of all ages, vvhich they had
sought for but never found, was now fairly solved.

Q0

Americans had devised the scheme. Americans
had put it into operation. And now, my fellow citi-~
zens, after more than half a century has passed
away, I may add, that upon the will of Americans
alone does it depend for a period to its full success.

It is one of the most remarkable peculiarities at-—
tending the form of government thus adopted, that
it has accommodated itself to the most rapid and
Wonderful growth of a people that was ever known.
in history. The number of States which compose
the Union is now twenty-six, or exactly double that
which declared our Independence. The population
has probably increased six-fold, and the Wealth and
resources of the country in a still greater proportion.
Yet notwithstanding this enormous enlargement of
the machine, the consequence in some degree of its
favorable movement, its operations are still carried
on with even less difiiculty than when it was new
and small. The people become more rather than
less homogeneous notwithstanding that they spread
over avvider surface, and their attachment to the
common bond of government appears to increase
instead of diminishing. In this respect there has
been a steady adherence to the same sentiment dur-
ing the entire period since it was adopted. Fond
as Americans are considered of change, fickle as
they may be in their attachment to men, and addict—-
ed as they are to every species of novelty in politi-
cal and in private life, they have never swerved from
their faith in the Federal Constitution. And now
the Very extension of the country has become a bar--
rier to the probability even of useful amendment.
For the interests which operate upon the people
have become so diversified, that it would be diffi--

321

cult to propose an alteration which would be likely
to secure the concurrence of a sufficient number of
States to obtain its adoption.

Yet, my fellow citizens, although upon looking
back during fifty years we can see that the move»
ment of the country continues the same, and the
form of government has not been visibly altered, it
is not the less certain that a very considerable
change has actually taken place both in the disposi-—
tion of the people and the character of the govern»
ment. It is the remark of a profound writer* that
“ a republican form must change its character in
proportion as the country extends its limits.” The
historian when reviewing the period will mark the
acquisitibn of Louisiana as the era of change in our
system. This change the consequences of which
have as yet barely begun to show themselves, was
effected without the adoption of any amendment to
the Constitution, through the agency of a Chief
Magistrate and the treaty making power. That
very Chief Magistrate, Mr. Jefferson, had earned
for himself a high reputation with the people of his
own day for the rigid manner in which he confined
the powers granted to the National Government,
and yet by an inconsistency to which all public men
are liable, his acquisition of Louisiana by a simple
executive act will mark him forever as having done
more to change the nature of the general govern-
ment than all the other acts of all the other Presi-
dents put together. Neither is this so simply be-
cause the treaty introduced into the Union without
any consent of their own, a people of a different or-
igin subject to a different law. It did much more---

'* Montesquieu.

22

it introduced a territory of indefinite extent suscepti-
ble of profitable cultivation by an unfortunate race
Whose presence on the American soil had up to that
hour been regarded as an evil by no means beyond
the hope of remedy. It opened a region of extra-
ordinary fertility for the creation of new States
with some interests adverse to those of the elder
members of the Union, and with power enoughto
change the balance as it has heretofore existed. It
created a proximity to other States Which may yet
subject the whole country to hazards either of for.-

. eign War or of domestic discord in comparison with

Which all the trials of the last half century sink into
insignificance.

Such is the nature of the first great departure
from the principles laid down in the Declaration of
Independence. That paper had announced it as an
axiom that the right of altering or abolishing any
form of government Which had become destructive
of the great ends for the preservation of which it
Was instituted, lay in the people themselves. But
the people of Louisiana were never for a moment
consulted in the rapid transfer which was made of
them first from the authority of Spain to that of N a-
poleon Bonaparte, and then from his to that of the‘
United States. The only source of N apoleon’s pow-
er was in truth the right of conquest, which had
been exercised in Italy to such an extent as to com-
pel from Spain her assent to any surrender of her
other possessions which it Was the fancy of the great
military chieftain to dictate. The United States de-
rived their right from the purchase of this conquest,
and from nothing else. This is the sole title of a
nation which professed to derive the just powers of

23

government from the consent of the governed.
Whatever might have been the feelings of the citi-
zens of that territory on the occasion of this most im-
portant transfer of themselves to a new and strange
jurisdiction, and whatever their natural rights, no
opportunity was allowed to give them scope or eX-
pression. On the 16th of January 1804, Mr. J efi’er--
son, the very person who had drafted the immortal
paper which declared our own independence, sent
a message to both branches of the National Legisw
lature announcing that the Commissioners of the
United States had taken possession of Louisiana.
“To be prepared for anything unexpected which
might arise out of the transaction,” these are his
own words, “a respectable body of militia was or»
dered to be in readiness in the States of Ohio, Ken»-
tucky and Tennessee, and a part of those of Ten-
nessee was moved on to the N atches. N o occasion,
however, arose for their services.” The people had
suffered themselves to be transferred like cattle, first
by a formal surrender from Spain to France, and

then by an equally formal surrender of France to the

Commissioners of the United States. But had their
disposition been otherwise, had any thing unexpected
occurred, to use the phrase of Mr. Jefl°erson for re»-
sistance, we are left to infer from the presence of a
respectable body of militia from Ohio, Kentucky
and Tennessee what the result would have been,
and just how far the consent of the governed would
have been asked to the mode thus adopted of secur-—
ing to them their unalienable rights.

Yet in saying thus much of the extraordinary
manner in which our country departed from its own
doctrines laid down inthe Declaration of Independ-

24+

ence, in the instance of Louisiana let me not be mis»-
understood. I desire to make no personal charge
against Mr. Jefierson. There is reason to believe
that he was well aware of the inconsistency to which
circumstances of stronger force than he could resist
Were impelling him. The control of the Mississippi
and the possession of New Orleans as Well as the
territory attached were objects of intense desire to
the people of the Weste1'n States. Mr. Jefferson
probably foresaw that a treaty was the only Way to
escape the danger of War and that a title by pur--
chase would be more creditable than a title by the
right of the strongest. There might have been and
probably Was much in the peculiar circumstances at-
tending residence on the borders of a great river af-
fording the only easy outlet of produce to the Atlan-
tic to justify the demands of the Western people.
But after all, We must come back to the fact that in
this instance the doctrines of expediency overcame
the attachment to a fundamental principle. The
distrust of the disposition of the people to restrain
themselves Within the bounds of the law and the Con-
stitution prompted the government to a stretch of its
legitimate powers. The end may have been greatly
beneficial to the Union notwithstanding the ques-
tionable nature of the means by which it was pro--
cured. But Whether it was or not, the fact of the
acquisition in the manner here described still remains
to make an era in the history of the American
Union.

A new generation has come upon the scene since
this great event.   A stream of population has been
constantly from that time flowing through the Valley
of the Mississippi, which is filling the Waste places

'25

even to the furthest limits of the acquired territory.
Again are We arriving at the borders which separate
us from a coterminous people. My fellow citizens,
are the same arguments which have once availed to
stretch our territory at the expense of our principles,
likely to be pressed again? I say not that they will
be, but in looking at our present condition and com-
paring it with that of 1776, I see that our physical
power has enormouslyincreased. Has our spirit of
self—restraint grown strong in proportion? If it has,
then is one danger to be apprehended removed. If
on the other hand, it has not, then Will the solemn
principles adopted in the Declaration of Independ-
ence be regarded as “ a fanfaronade of abstractions”
when compared with the plunder to be obtained
from following in the footsteps of the Spanish con—-
queror of Mexico.

It Was a beautiful feature of the Roman Mytholou
gy, the respect Which they manifested to the deity
they called, Terminus, or the god of boundaries.
They owed the idea to N tune the only one of their
early statesmen who seems to have built a system on
the principle of peace. This deity Was supposed
never to concede his place, not even to Jupiter him-
self,* and the rights that were paid to him were not
to be defiled by sacrifices of blood. Had Rome ad-
hered to the pacific policy thus pointed out, she
might not indeed have become the mistress of the

* Quid, nova cfim fierent Capitolia? nempe Deorurn
Cuncta Jovi cessit turba, locurnque dedit.

Terminus (ut veteres mernorant) conventus in mde
Restitiz: ; et magno cum Jove temple. tenet.

Book 2d of the Fasti of Ovid, 667--7'0. Those who take pleasure in the
Classics will be gratified by reading the whole passage which is too long
to quote. It further shows that the inhibition of blood was not adhered
to any longer than the pacific policy which it suggested.

4

26

World, but neither would she have become a proverb
on account of her rapacity, or have ended by nurs-
ing military chieftains to Whom her liberty would fall
a prey. Her fate may well serve as a Warning ex»
ample to all future republics not to set the disposi-—
tion to acquire above the law. The United States
are not Wholly exempt from danger in this respect.
The pioneer population of the west is almost neces-
sarily both martial and predatory. And the charac-
ter of the existing generations throughout the Union
so far as it can be developed in along period of
profound peace is warlike. In no particular does
this show itself more strikingly than in the devotion
paid to military reputation which sometimes tran-
scends the respect paid to the law itself. To regu»
late this feeling and keep it Within legitimate bounds
is among the most imperative duties of the patriot
spirits of the Union.

I may, indeed, be told that the great remedy is
universal education. Only provide the school and
you will obtain the intelligent voter conscious of the
blessings he enjoys and always ready to act in a
manner that shall best preserve them. Now, it is
by no means my disposition to undervalue the ad»-
vantages that unquestionably follow from instruction
generally diffused. I see and admit that it must
form one of the pillars of our republican system of
government. But it is only one and that not the
most essential. What is there, I would ask, in the
mere advancement of the intellectual powers of men
which will lead to efiective resistance against the
dazzling qualities of a successful vvarrior P Did New
poleon Bonaparte have no servile flatterers among
the literary men of France?‘ Have not poets, and

27

historians and orators of all ages united in extolling
military success above every other kind of success?
Do the annals of inanhzind award the proper degree
of censure to the crimes of great conquerors from
Alexander the Great down to Cortez and Pizarro?
Fellow citizens, our fathers manifested their patriot-
ism by devotion to ct pritzciple. It was in defence of
that principle that they took up arms. They mani-
fested no aggressive spirit, no disposition merely
to acquire. The same temper will be maintained
among us only by developing the high moral attri-
butes of our nature through the agency of a mild
and catholic religious faith. This is the true sheet
anchor of our free Institutions, and this can never
be secured by mere instruction of the mind. Our
highest duty as a people is selti-restraint. The cry
has gone out among us, educate, educate, as if the
schoolmaster Were the-‘sovereign remedy against the
ills which unregulated passions occasion. But I would
ask: whether education has contributed nothing here-
tofore to the nursing of irnmoderate ambition? Has
it never furnished fuel for unjustifiable popular ex-
citement? Does it supply no means to confuse in-—
stead of clearing the sense of right and wrong?
Does it never pander to power Whether residing in
the many or in one man? Was not Julius Caesar
one of the most educated men of antiquity, and yet
how did this promote his patriotism? And almost
within our own day do We not know that the most
cultivated minds of France combined in an attempt
to overthrow at once its religion and its social sys-
tem? Yes, the fertile fields of that magnificent
country Were drenched With the blood of multitudes

of its best citizens because the arrogant intellect of

28

its educated men chose to substitute an idolworship
of philosophy for faith in the true God and respect
for the moral ties which bind man in society with his
fellow man.

I have spoken of the spirit of aggrandizement as
of a danger to which the American people is now
exposed, because it leads to war and ultimately to
military domination. There is another danger to be
dwelt upon of a wholly different kind, a danger of
domestic discord leading to the destruction of all au—-
thority by the violence of party spirit among us.
But you will not imagine, fellow citizens, that I am
going into a commonplace invective against parties.
In a popular government like ours where numbers
have the ultimate control of the public policy it is
impossible for men to get along without associating
in the support of an opinion. If principles are ever
to be carried into action, the only way to do so is
for those who agree in holding them to unite. It
may often happen in this process that individuals
find themselves compelled to sacrifice something of
their own sense of propriety and become subject to
well founded charges of personal inconsistency.
The theory of our government rests so little upon
individual power and so much upon the control of
the masses that each man who takes an active part
in public affairs is liable to be called upon to sacri-
fice something of the abstract beauty of character
which might otherwise belong to him to a desire to
aid in some practicable way a greater end. i Against
this necessity, it is not worth while to attempt to re-
monstrate. Much as it weakens the moral power
which great minds might exercise over the public,
the evil must be borne cheerfully so long as it is con»

29

fined strictly vvithin the limits that an honest judgm
merit would prescribe. When great principles are
at stake much sacrifice of less important objects
may be tolerated, but as soon as these no longer ap-—-
pear, and irnerely personal motives take their place
then is there great danger that by persevering in
similar sacrifices both party and public sentiment
Will become dernoralized.

Unhesitating devotion to the dictate of the rnajori-—
ty is the indispensable condition of party confidence.
If that dictate be l§ZI1OWI1 to apply to soinetliing really
based in principle, then it is justifiable in a consci-«
entious man to obey it. But when it ceases to re»

gard any precise line, vvhen the public questions

which are agitated are no longer resting upon any
basis except expediency, the case is somewhat
changed. The endeavor to insist upon devotion to
the party after the party has ceased to hold any
common piinciple, becomes an endeavor to make
party organization instrumental to the promotion of
certain individuals at the expense of others. It is
obvious that under this condition, the persons who
are least scrupulous in abandoning every thing that
makes a man’s character in private life respected,
those who are prepared most fully to sacrifice their
honesty and their independence to the fluctuating
fancy of the many will have a great advantage over
the more upright and scrupulous and conscientious
of the community. VVhen the true questions re»-
specting the public good which rnay naturally divide
public opinion have been disposed of, there Will be
an inclination to create new ones not so much for
the sake of principle as with the intent to preserve
party distinctions. And in these new questions there

30

will always be an effort to establish some test so ultra
in its character as to secure to the most violent and
least Worthy an advantage over the moderate which
if all were equally left to be estimated only by the
weight of their personal character, they could not
enjoy.

Yet after all is done that can be done in this Way,
there is in times of profound peace a counteracting
tendency towards the rapid settlement of questions
of policy which destroys the most cunningly formed
plans of division. The ei"l'ort to keep a party to-
gether upon some common basis of doctrine then
gives place to the endeavor to make the name alone
a rallying point for the support of men, who by vir-
tue of the party recommendation are to be forthwith
inducted into ofiice, Without any examination of
their merits. A majority which has sufficiently con-
solidated itself to need no other means of concen-
tration than a Word may divest itself of moral dis-
crimination and proceed to assign the responsible
posts of .governmeiit to its members on the ground
of rotation. Considering all individuals as implicit-
ly bound to obey the expressed will of the party,
and consequently as mere machines to execute that
which shall be prescribed to them, it becomes a Very
secondary point Whether the best or the Worst men
of the community be selected. It can scarcely be
denied that the theory of democracy somewhat jus-
tifies this undistinguishing enumeration of citizens
with little regard to the moral qualities which make
some men so much more worthy of confidence than
others- But Whether it does or not, the doctrine
should be steadily resisted Wherever it is uttered.
The effect of it will be to lower the standard of our

31

public men----to take from the ambitious individual
the hope of reward for conduct that is upright and
noble, and substitute a love of low and selfish in-
trigue----to give to helpless and ignorant and vicious
mediocrity the station which so far as the public
good is concerned ought to be filled only by moral
and intellectual excellence. These difliculties are
the offspring of a high state of prosperity, I admit.
They will never be met with when the State is in
real danger and calls aloud for help from her best
and ablest citizens. But they are nevertheless diffi-
culties which in time sap the foundation of human
authority. Parties Without principles soon become
factions. And factions soon forget the public good
in the desire to establish their power against oppo-~
site factions. Respect to individuals in authority
ceases, and anarchy begins. “The corruption of
every government, says Montesquieu, commences
by the corruption of the principle upon which it rests.
That of democracy is corrupt When the people cease
to respect their Magistrates, and insist upon dic-
tating to them every thing they shall do.” Virtue
being according to that author the foundation of de-
mocracy, it must crumble when the people no long»
er honor it in the persons of those whom they set to
rule over them.

Fellow citizens, you must perceive that I do not
intend to confine myself to describe evils pressing
immediately upon us. I am looking at the Declara-
tion of Independence as the great exposition of our
national faith. Ithere see announced as self—-evi-
dent truths, “ that all men are created equal---~that
they are endowed, by their Creator with certain unw
alienable rights; that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness-—--That to secure these

32

rights, governments are instituted among men, do-
riving their just powers from the consent of the
governed,” and I am naturally led not merely to the
comparison of our present position with these doc-
trines, but also to a view of the duties incumbent
upon the men of this day to guard them against fu-
ture dangers. The two dangers I have described
are, on the one side, the spirit of aggrandizement----
on the other, the spirit of faction. But you may be
led to ask of me, admitting the possibility of such
dangers, what is my renzedy. I ansvver the only
remedy is to keep in mind the example of the patri-»
ots of 17 76 in their devotion to a principle and not
to a party or to a name. Remember that “this
government was instituted to secure our rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It can-
not conduce to that happiness to hazard foreign
Wars for the acquisition of more territory, neither
can it promote it to cherish domestic contentions
about men. Let us remember then, Whilst retain»-
ing all proper attachment to the party which sus--
tains principles, to avoid unqualified subjection to
that which disputes only about men. ‘Whenever
parties degenerate into factions, let us leave them.
Whenever parties propose unworthy men, let us re-»
fuse to vote for them. I estimate not the bonds of
party half so much as I do the safe administration of
the public affairs, and I Would rather trust a quiet
citizen who gives me evidence of his character by
his steady and successful attention to his own affairs
than a wrangling demagogue who spends so much
time upon the public business as to make the public
purse necessary for his support. In this connexion,
I remember an anecdote told by an ancient historian
of a people living in Miletus, a territory of ancient

33

Ionia. He says that during the two ages precied-—
ing that of which he was vvriting, Miletus had been
greatly distressed by internal factions, and to heal
the disorders thus occasioned the Milesians applied
for assistance to the people of a neighboring island,
Paros. “ The Parians sent over a deputation of their
most distinguished citizens, who perceiving on their
arrival, that the Whole State was in extreme confir-
sion, asked leave to examine the condition of their
territories. Wherever in their progress through the
desolate country, they observed any land Well culti-—
vated, they wrote down the name of the owner. In
the whole district however, they found but few es—
tates so circumstanced. Returning to Miletus, they
called an assembly of the people, and they placed
the direction of affairs in the hands of those who
had best cultivated their lands; for they concluded
that they would be Watchful of the public interest
Who had taken care of their own.” This had its ef-
fect of restoring the general tranquility and of ulti-
mately creating a degree of prosperity which made
Miletus the pride of Ionia.* A

The government of the United States has now
passed into the hands of the children of the 4th of
July, 17 7 6. During the half century that has elapsed
since an effective government Was established, one
portion of it has been spent in the settlement of dis—-
putes vvith foreign countries growing out of an almost
constant and very general state of War in the world.
The foreign policy Was then the predominant sub--
ject upon which the two parties in the United States
divided. But although each of the two in its turn
obtained the possession of the government, the gen-

*Herodotus, Book 5th, Chapter 253*, 29,---Beloefs Translation.
5



eral principles upon which it was administered re-—
mained substantially the same. The wisdom which
guided our own revolution steered us in safety
through the dangers of a revolutionary period.
Peace with all nations, entangling alliances with
none, was the doctrine which then saved us from
the confusion into which the nations of Europe fell.
A general. peace followed the fall of Napoleon.
And during the period which has since elapsed
the questions agitated among us have been of a
wholly domestic character. Sharply as these have
been disputed between the contending parties they
have not been of a vital nature to the happiness of
the people or touched any but their pecuniary inter-
est. Whether well or ill—~settled, the country has still
gone forward, sometimes ernbarrassed by the folly of
parties but never entirely cliecked. The recupera-
tive energy to be found in its own bosom has suppli-
ed a more than sufiicient counterpoise to the ill ef—-
fects of human error. When the only topic of dis-
pute is the extent towhich the prosperity of a nation
shall be developed, and the way in which it shall be
done, the people very naturally’ will differ without
mixing much asperity in their contests. It is the
tendency of such matters to subside under the influ-
ence of repeated decisions made at the popular elec-
tions. Most of the dividing questions of the last
thirty years are becoming obsolete by exhaustion,
and if it be desirable to preserve the lines of distinc-~
tion between our citizens from running together in
default of a distinctive principle, it will before loiig
be necessary to look for it soinewhat deeper than in
the doctrines which they now publicly profess.
Fellow citizens, it is not in the nature of the pub-

35

he mind in America to remain torpid a great length
of time. A new era must take place and questions
of magnitude must again arise, the settlement of
which may call into play all your patriotism. VVheth--
er those questions be of foreign or domestic policy
or more probably both together, they will be likely
to test the principles of those in Whom the people
trust, as Well as their own fidelity to the doctrines of
the revolution. The great lesson to be learnt is self-
restraint. No entangling alliances, no standing ar--
mies and no Wars. The age is full of gigantic sys-
tems, the country is full of exaggerated sympathies.
Within as Well as Without the elements of commo-
tion are working to produce fearful agitation, the
direction of which Whether. to the principles at the
foundation of the social system at home or to the
spread of our own system over the territories of
neighboring nations it is impossible to foresee as it
might be dangerous to conjecture. VV ell hath said
an ancient poet.

“ They, whose minds

Delight in glory, wars enlarge on Wars,
Spurning at justice, and the Wasted state
Unpeopling: one the pride of martial sway
Allures; the insolent pow’r of doing Wrong
Infiames another; and the sordid gain

Hath charms for some; each of the people’s toils
Reckless, or what they suffer. In each state
Are n1arl:’d three classes: of the public good
The rich are listless, all their thoughts to more
Aspiring: they that struggle with their wants
Short of the means of life, are clarnorous, rude,
To envy much addicted, ’gainst the rich

Aiming their bitter sliafts, and led away

By the false‘ glosses of their Wily leaders:

Twixt these extremes there are who save the state,
Guardians of order, and their country’s laws.”*

*3‘ Euripides. The Suppliants translated by Potter. The two last lines
are rather a. paraphrase than a translation.



It is our good fbrtune, fellow citizens, that with us
the second of these three classes infinitely predom-
inates in number over the other two. Upon that
devolves the great responsibility of preserving the
Institutions which their fathers have left them.
Equality of social condition, moral qualities founded
upon religious faith, and devotion to the public in-
terest--———these are the three great pillars of our politi-
cal system, which must support it against the shocks
of enemies abroad and factions at home. Let us
hope that We enjoy the advantages resulting from
them all. Yet I see no reason Why in appreciating
the blessings We have, We should ever depart from
that spirit of humility which becomes a people not

lessthan it does an individual. It is the prerogative

of conscious strength to dispense with boasting. If
We continue to be just and prosperous and content-
ed then Will our example in itself carry with it an
overwhelming power over the Institutions of other
nations. But it is not for us to assume a superiority
over them which they will never acknowledge, and
which irritates them and does us no good. Have
we no faults? Have our Institutions no blemishes?
Have our people no sins to answer for which may
yet bring down upon us a severe retribution for in-
dulging an arrogant spirit? I cannot look upon the
red man or the black and answer no. Blind indeed
must they be who do not see sores in the body politic
that Will not even bear a probe. Fellow citizens, on
this day, I will not name them-——---but neither will I
contrast our nation too confidently with others, nor
claim the merit of virtues of inheritance which may
yet be lost by our own vvilful conduct. Let us rather
go on in the narrow path of our duty, rigidly adher~

37

ing to the right and trusting that the same God who
looked with favor upon the honest exertions of our
forefathers to benefit their country, posterity, and
mankind, Will not withdraw the light of his counte--
nance from us Whilst laboring to continue Worthy to
be called their sons.

But, fellow citizens, you are probably Weary of
this somewhat unusual discourse on the fourth of
July. Imigl‘1t indeed have said to you more fiat-
tering things. I niight have enlarged upon the
state of perfection to which We inthe United States
have arrived, socially and politically, but if I had so
done, I should have said that which I do not rnyself
believe to be true. And it is only the part of a par-
asite to earn his Welcome by such means. N o----
perfection is a condition denied to man upon earth,
nor will the people of America make an exception
to the rule. But virtue is attainable by them as by
the rest of their l:ind—«--—-that virtue which is the result

of a victory of the good over the bad principle of

our nature---that virtue which is manifested in con-
duct by attachment to all that is noble and pure and
exalted, as Well as by avoidance of What is low and
grovelling and base. I need no evidence of this
truth out of the limit of these Walls. When I re«-—
member What lips have spoken here, and the idea
of a people crowding to testify by its action the
most unhesitating deaoziorz to or pr/z77z.cr27_73Ze rises up in
association with this scene, I cannot help believing
that Patriotisrn is not a dream, that Liberty and
Law constitute a blessing vvhich rnankind, if they
only Will it, may every vvhere secure. This great
boon gained for us by the heroism of a past genera-
tion it is our lighter task to transmit to another that

538

is to come. But though it has little brilliancy, it is
not the less a task to which We should devote our-
selves. The happiness of those* who this day learn
new incentives to duty in being called here to hymn
the glory of the great anniversary We celebrate de*
pends upon our fidelity to the trust committed to us.

Let us then leave this sacred temple deeply irn—-
pressed vvith the spirit Which breathes in its halls.
That spirit shall animate us to contend against the
selfishness of ordinary life—---~it shall repress in us the
fires of unholy ambition, it shall incite us to follow
the right at Whatever cost--it shall prepare us to
meet any greater trials which adversity may have in
store for our country. That country shall be to us
the object of an honest pride as Well as of a jealous
affection. In her service let us cheerfully do all that
she ought to require of devoted children. But
above all, let us try that she knovvingly do no vvrong
---—-no, not for the mines of the Indies-—--—-not for the
sovereignty of the world. Have We not before our
eyes the images? of those who were among the first
to establish a new principle, the securing of the un-
alienable rights of men through a government dravv—-—
ing its powers from. the consent of the governed?
How would they seem to us if We should ever aban~
don it! How would they even from the silent can-—
vass cry sliarne upon us for Whose sake they haz--
arded their lives, if We should blast their hopes of
the irnprovernent of mankind! No! I am confident

““‘The musical performance was by a select choir of pupils from the
public schools of the city.

iArnong the pictures in Faneuil Hall are those of George "Washington,
John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who signed the Declaration of Indra»
pendence and who took an active part in the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, , ~ g

39

this shame shall never be ours. I know by the spirit
that animates you even While I speak, that the Cra-
dle of Liberty Will never by any fault of yours be-
come equally k1’10W1’l as having proved her gfave.
I see that you will transmit as pure ae you received
it the great principle of Alnerica.

LIBERTY AND LAW, ONE AND INSEPARABLE.