DISCOURSES 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 SUBJECTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 ARTS, AND LITERATURE. 
 
 BY GULIAN C/: V E R P L A N C K. 
 
 NEW- YORK: 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER, 
 
 NO. 82, CLIFF-STREET, 
 
 AND SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY THROUGH 
 OUT THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 M DCCC XXXIII. 
 
[Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
 hundred and thirty-three, by GULIAN C. VERPLANCK, in the Clerk s Office of the 
 District Court of the United States for^tke Soutjierji District of New York.] 
 
 Hoary Ludwifi", Printer. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following discourses and speeches, delivered on 
 different occasions, were printed at the time, and some of 
 them passed through more than one edition in a pamphlet 
 form. Though they were pronounced on various occa 
 sions and at considerable intervals of time, they have 
 yet a general unity of purpose, being all designed to 
 direct public attention to the history, biography, arts, and 
 literature of our own country. It has, therefore, been 
 thought, that they might be appropriately collected and 
 republished together. 
 
 The rapid progress of improvement in the United 
 States has made some of the criticisms and remarks 
 contained in them less applicable than they were when 
 first written. For instance, the publication of several 
 excellent works of American Biography, within the last 
 two or three years, has taken away much of the justice 
 of the complaint in the Historical Discourse, of our 
 neglect of the memory of our illustrious dead. 
 
 As, however, this and some similar remarks on other 
 points were perfectly correct at the time, and still apply, 
 though much less forcibly, it has not been thought proper 
 to erase them. 
 
 NEW-YORK, MAY 20, 1833. 
 
 M182637 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Anniversary Discourse before the New-York Historical Society. 
 II. . Eulogy upon the Founder of Maryland. 
 
 III. Address delivered at the opening of the Tenth Exhibition of the 
 
 American Academy of Fine Arts. 
 
 IV. The Schoolmaster Tribute to the Memory of Daniel H. Barnes. 
 
 V. Address delivered before the Literary Societies of Columbia 
 
 College, on the eve of the Annual Commencement. 
 
 VI. Speech on the law of Literary Property. 
 
 VII. Lecture Introductory to the several courses delivered before the 
 Mercantile Association of New- York. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 ON an occasion like this, in addressing a society formed 
 for the purpose of exploring and preserving the history 
 of our own country, I know of no theme that can be se 
 lected so appropriate and so copious, as the eulogy of 
 those excellent men who have most largely contributed 
 to raise or support our national institutions, and to form 
 or to elevate our national character. 
 
 The wide field of research, which the history of this 
 hemisphere opens to us, may indeed present to the phi 
 losophical, as well as to the antiquarian inquirer, many 
 objects of more curiosity, and, perhaps, some of greater 
 utility. The observation of the various results in legis 
 lation or jurisprudence, in public and individual charac 
 ter, already produced in this great school of political 
 experiment by hitherto untried combinations of the moral 
 elements of society the examination and arrangement 
 of that immense mass of useful facts exhibited in 
 our statistics the investigation of the character, the 
 languages, the traditions, the manners, and the supersti 
 tions of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country the 
 collecting and accurately ascertaining the minor facts and 
 minuter details of those great achievements which have 
 rendered the history of our liberties so glorious all have 
 their use and value. Hence may be drawn materials 
 A 
 
id- 
 
 "HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 enabling the philosopher to pour new light on the moral 
 and physical nature of man ; and it is thus that are pre 
 served those fleeting forms of the past, which may here 
 after rise and live again at the powerful bidding of the 
 poet or the painter- 
 
 But the habit of looking to our own annals for exam 
 ples of life, and of rendering due honour to those illustri 
 ous dead, the rich fruits of whose labours we are now 
 enjoying, has a more moral, and, I think, a nobler aim. 
 In paying the tribute of admiration to genius, and of gra 
 titude to virtue, we ourselves become wiser and better. 
 Instead of leaving our love of country to rest upon the 
 cold preference of reason, that slowest and most feeble of 
 all motives of action, we thus call up the patriotism of 
 the heart in aid of that of the head. Our love of coun 
 try is exalted and puritied by being mingled with the 
 feelings of gratitude, and reverence for virtue ; and our 
 reverence for virtue is warmed and animated, and brought 
 home to our hearts by its union with the pride and the 
 love of our country. 
 
 In this respect we have not been faithful to our own 
 honour. The short period of our existence as a people 
 has been fruitful in models of public virtue. Other lands 
 may boast of having given birth to men of rarer genius, 
 and of more splendid achievement. Yet how often has 
 that genius been the base flatterer or the willing instru 
 ment of oppression ; how often has it been low and self 
 ish in its ambition ; how often black with crime. But 
 the history of our illustrious men is a story of liberty, 
 virtue, and glory. Such, however, has been our culpa 
 ble negligence of their fame, that little other memorial 
 is to be found of most of them, than what has been in 
 corporated in the public records of their times. All that 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 11 
 
 is instructive in their private biography, all that is i 
 vidual in their characters, is rapidly fading from memo 
 ry ; and there is danger, lest to the next generation the 
 names of Greene, and Marion, and Wayne of Otis, 
 Laurens, Rutledge, and Pendleton, of Dickinson, Sher 
 man, Ellsworth, and Hamilton, will be mere names of 
 history, calling up no associations, inculcating no ex 
 ample, kindling no emotion. Their memories will, in 
 deed, be bright and ever-during, but they will shine as 
 from afar, like the stars of other systems, whose cheering 
 warmth and useful light are lost in the distance, 
 
 It is not my present intention to attempt to supply 
 any part of this deficiency. The collection of facts, 
 either floating in the memories of contemporaries, or 
 buried in the mass of unpublished correspondence and 
 official documents, is an employment for which I have 
 had neither the opportunity nor the leisure. The task 
 I have assigned to myself is much less laborious, 
 but scarcely less grateful. It is the commemoration of 
 some of those virtuous and enlightened men of Europe, 
 who, long ago, looking with a prophetic eye towards 
 the destinies of this new world, and regarding it as the 
 chosen refuge of freedom and truth, were moved by a 
 holy ambition to become the ministers of the Most High, 
 in bestowing upon it the blessings of religion, morals, 
 letters, and liberty. 
 
 When we look back upon the earlier European dis 
 coveries and conquests in this hemisphere, the mind 
 recoils with horror from the scene of carnage and de 
 vastation that opens the mighty drama of American 
 history. The genius and power of civilized man have 
 scarce ever been displayed to his weaker and un 
 taught brethren, except as ministering to avarice and 
 
12 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ferocity ; and never were that genius and power put 
 forth in more terrible and guilty superiority, than when 
 the American continent was first laid open to Spanish 
 enterprise and valour. Unrelenting avarice, under the 
 mask of religion, sent forth band after band of ferocious 
 adventurers, to rapine and murder. In the powerful 
 language of Cowper, 
 
 "The hand that slew, till it could slay no more,. 
 Was glued to the sword-hilt, with Indian gore. 
 
 Among these stern and bloody men there was one of a 
 far different mould. The young Las Casas.* whose 
 spirit of adventure had induced him, at the age of nine 
 teen, to accompany Columbus in his second expedition 
 to the West-Indies, was one of those rare compounds 
 which nature forms, from time to time, for the orna 
 ment and consolation of the human race, blending a rest 
 less and unwearied energy of mind with a heart alive to 
 every kind affection, elevated by piety, warm with bene 
 volence, and kindling at wrong. He saw, with grief and 
 indignation, the crimes of his countrymen, and the cry 
 of the oppressed entered deep into his heart. From that 
 hour, like the young Hannibal, but in a purer cause, he 
 vowed himself to one sacred object. Rejecting with 
 scorn, every lure held out by interest or ambition, to 
 tempt him from his course, refuting by the blameless 
 sanctity of his life, all the calumnies showered upon 
 
 *For the general facts of Las Casas life, see Robertson s America, 
 passim. Dupin ; Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastique, 16me siecle. 
 Rees Cyclopedia, article, " Las Casas." Nouveau Dictionnaire, His- 
 torique, Paris ; and especially, "Apologie de Barthelemy Las Casas, 
 EvequedeChiappa," par M. Gregoire > in the Memoirs de x Institut Na* 
 tionale," An, 8. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 13 
 
 him. despising danger, disregarding toil, braving alike the 
 sneer of the world and the frown of power, he laboured 
 with a benevolence which never cooled, and a zeal which 
 knew no remission, for more than seventy years, as the 
 protector of the Indian race. Dangerous as the navigation 
 was at that period, he crossed the Atlantic nine times for 
 this purpose, besides traversing Europe, and penetrating, 
 in all directions, the trackless wilds of the new world. 
 "We see him at one time breaking through the restraints 
 of courtly form, whilst he charged his sovereign to his 
 face, with the personal guilt of those atrocious measures 
 which had entailed misery upon a numerous and inno 
 cent people, whom Providence had placed under his pro 
 tection ; and urging this accusation home to his con 
 science with an impetuous eloquence that made the crafty 
 and cold-hearted Ferdinand tremble before him. Then 
 again, we find him, armed with that mysterious power 
 which virtuous enthusiasm bestows, mastering a stronger 
 mind than his own, and compelling the lofty and stern 
 Ximenes to partake of his zeal. Then he returns back 
 to his suffering people, and, amidst every form of danger 
 and hardship, administers in person his own admirable 
 plans for their protection, conversion, and instruction. 
 
 Finding that the impressions of his animated oratory 
 upon his countrymen and their rulers were constantly 
 effaced, and their effects frustrated by the arts, intrigues, 
 and falsehoods of the interested, he addressed himself, 
 through the press, to the whole Christian world. In one 
 of his publications, he described the devastation of those 
 parts of America which had been subjugated by the 
 Spaniards, with a copious and glowing eloquence that 
 kindled the sympathies of all Europe. 
 
 In other works, he took a larger range of argument, 
 
14 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and appealing in turns to the natural rights of man, as 
 pointed out by reason, and to that revelation which de 
 clares that God is no respecter of persons, without ever 
 losing sight of his main object, he discussed some of the 
 most interesting questions of liberty and public law, with 
 a courage and truth such as modern Europe had never 
 yet seen.* It is a remarkable fact, and one bearing ho 
 nourable testimony to the vigour and enlargement of his 
 mind, that a Spanish ecclesiastic, of the fifteenth century, 
 should have maintained that the peculiar form of civil 
 polity in a state ought to be determined by the will of the 
 people, upon the ground that, although the sanction is 
 from above, the power of the people is the efficient ; , and 
 their happiness the final cause of all government. In 
 another work, wherein he details at length the most 
 probable means of relieving the wrongs and meliorating 
 the condition of the Indians, he declares, that as liberty 
 is the greatest of all earthly goods, and as all nations have 
 an equal right to its possession, the attempt to subjugate 
 any of them under the pretexts of religion, or of political 
 expediency, is alike a crime against the natural and 
 against the revealed law ; and he adds, in words breath 
 ing more of the ancient Roman than of the Spaniard, 
 that he who abuses power is unworthy to exercise it, and 
 that no obedience is due to a tyrant. It is but too well 
 known that these glorious labours in the service of freedom 
 and humanity were in vain. Yet they were not wholly 
 fruitless. Las Casas closed his long course of indefatiga- 
 
 * See the "Apologie de Bart. Las Casas," of Gregoire. The abstract 
 of Las Casas opinions, given by Dupin, seems in general to justify Gre- 
 goire s eulogy, though it shows a greater mixture of the prejudices of 
 the times, with his purer views of truth, than M. Gregoire seems will 
 ing to admit. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 15 
 
 ble philanthropy in his ninety-second year, and his virtu 
 ous and venerable age was soothed by the knowledge 
 that some few of his proposed plans had been carried into 
 successful operation, and had contributed, in no small de 
 gree, to relieve the sufferings of the enslaved natives. He 
 enjoyed, moreover, the cheering recollection of having 
 called forth the testimony of the better spirits of his own 
 nation against intolerance and persecution, and of having 
 kindled among them an enlightened zeal for the best in 
 terests of mankind a sacred flame, long cherished "as 
 a light shining in a dark place," but now at last 
 kindling into brighter and broader radiance, and, I trust, 
 destined to guide for many an age hereafter, the nations 
 of Spanish America to public virtue and true glory. 
 
 Johnson is related to have exclaimed, in one of those 
 warm bursts of natural feeling which occasionally over 
 powered the narrowness of his political creed, " I love the 
 University of Salamanca for their decision on the law 
 fulness of the Spanish conquests in America." The de 
 cision Johnson had reference to, was that of the two Uni 
 versities of Salamanca and Alcala, on the public disputa 
 tion, held at Valladolid, in 1550, between Las Casas and 
 his ablest adversary, the learned Sepulveda, an acute, ma 
 lignant, and bigotted sophist. 
 
 The thesis maintained by Sepulveda, was the right and 
 duty of making war upon Pagans and heretics, in order 
 to propagate the true faith. Las Casas refuted him upon 
 the most liberal principles of universal toleration, and 
 these doctrines received the solemn approbation of the two 
 universities. 
 
 It is one of those melancholy instances of the retro- 
 gradation of the human mind which chill the hopes of 
 the philanthropist, that about thirty years ago, a mag- 
 
16 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 nificent edition of all the works of Sepulveda was pub 
 lished by the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, 
 in the introduction to which, that learned body did not 
 hesitate to give their sanction to the doctrines of this 
 apologist of oppression, and to approve of what they 
 term " the exercise of a just and pious violence against 
 Pagans and heretics." 
 
 I cannot leave the consideration of the character of 
 Las Casas, without stopping to repel a charge which 
 has attached itself to his fame, and to which the popu 
 larity of the several writers by whom it has been made, 
 has given a very wide circulation. Far from us be that 
 base selfishness which joys to see any surpassing excel 
 lence brought down to its own low level. Let us rather 
 delight to linger at the good man s grave, and to pluck 
 away with pious reverence " the weeds that have no 
 business there," 
 
 The charge cannot be better stated than in the words 
 of Dr. Robertson. 
 
 " The impossibility of carrying on any improvement 
 in America, unless the Spanish planteis could command 
 the labour of the natives, was an insuperable objection 
 to the plan of treating them as free subjects. In order 
 to provide some remedy for this, Las Casas proposed 
 to purchase a sufficient number of negroes from the 
 Portuguese settlements on the coast of Africa, and to 
 transport them to America, in order that they might be 
 employed as slaves in working the mines and cultivating 
 the ground. 
 
 " Cardinal Ximenes, however, when solicited to en 
 courage this commerce, peremptorily rejected this pro 
 position, because he perceived the iniquity of reducing 
 one race of men to slavery, while he was consulting 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 17 
 
 about the means of restoring liberty to another. But 
 Las Casas, from the inconsistency natural to men who 
 hurry with headlong impetuosity towards a favourite 
 point y was incapable of making this distinction, While 
 he contended earnestly for the liberty of the people born 
 in one quarter of the globe, he laboured to enslave the 
 inhabitants of another region ; and in the warmth of 
 his zeal to save the Americans from the yoke, pronounced 
 k to be lawful and expedient to impose one still heavier 
 upon the Africans. Unfortunately for the latter. Las 
 Casas s plan was adopted."* 
 
 This accusation has been loudly re-echoed by Ray- 
 nal, Marmontel, De Pauw, and Bryan Edwards,t all of 
 them ingenious and popular writers, though of but little 
 authority as regards strict historical accuracy. From them 
 it has passed without contradiction into many of our re 
 cent biographical compilations. 
 
 This charge bears such strong marks of improbability 
 upon the very face of it, and is in such direct opposition 
 to the uniform character of Las Casas, and the whole 
 current of his life and opinions, that it requires the most 
 direct and positive evidence in its support, to entitle it to 
 any credit with a candid mind. Now, it is remarkable 
 that the only authority for this accusation, entitled to 
 be considered as a original and independent testimony ? 
 
 * Robertson s America, Vol. I. Book III. 
 
 f "Las Casas auquel il manquoit des notions justes sur les droits de 
 1 homme, mais qui s occupoit sans cesse du soulagement de ses chers In- 
 diens," &c. says Raynal, with his usual flippancy and negligence of 
 truth. Histoire Philosophique des Indes. Liv. VIII. See also De 
 Pauw, Recherches sur les Americains, and Bryan Edwards, who ad 
 mits the fact, but being himself a eulogist of negro slavery, imputes, no 
 blame to Las Casas. Edwards s West-Indies, VoUI. 
 
18 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 is the Spanish historian, Herrera ; and his language is 
 by no means so strong or particular as that of Dr. Ro 
 bertson, who has, after his usual manner, amplified and 
 exaggerated the original statement, and spread over it 
 somewhat of that warm colouring which always renders 
 his historical pictures so striking and splendid in their 
 general effect, and yet often so incorrect in their most 
 important details. But even this testimony of Herrera, 
 when critically examined, will be found to be of little 
 weight. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to go very minutely into the 
 details of this investigation. Las Casas some few years 
 ago found an ardent and able defender in a congenial 
 spirit, the excellent Gregoire a man, who, like Las Casas 
 himself, devoted a long life to the defence of liberal prin 
 ciples, and to labours of humanity, who, like him, too, 
 was in turns a mark for the calumnies of the bigot and of 
 the sceptic ; who, participating in all the enthusiasm, 
 sharing in all the dangers, partaking in many of the 
 delusions, but unpolluted by any of the crimes of the 
 French revolution, with heroic moderation held on his 
 steady course through all its tempestuous scenes, at one 
 time the champion of toleration against bigotry, at ano 
 ther of his religion against triumphant and persecuting 
 atheism ; the defender of learning and the arts, in the 
 hour of their proscription, and always the friend of the 
 oppressed who will be associated in History with La 
 Fayette as a patriot, and with Wilberforce as a philan 
 thropist. 
 
 In an elaborate memoir, read before the Institute of 
 France,* M. Gregoire has with great research, learning, 
 
 * Printed in the Memoirs de 1 Institut National Sciences Morales 
 et Polities, Tom. IV, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 19 
 
 and acuteness, collected and examined the whole evi 
 dence in any way bearing on this subject. He first 
 proves most satisfactorily, that the earliest transportation 
 of slaves to America, took place, according to Hargrave, 
 (in the argument on Somerset s case,) in 1508, according 
 to Anderson* and Charlevoix, in 1503, and according to 
 Herrera himself, in 1498, that is to say, certainly four 
 teen, perhaps nineteen years previous to the date of the 
 project imputed to Las Casas. 
 
 He then shows, that although the history of those 
 times, and of the affairs of the new colonies had been 
 handled by numerous cotemporary writers, some of 
 them friendly, and others very hostile to Las Casas ; 
 and though the controversy on the treatment of the In 
 dians as slaves had called forth many elaborate argu 
 ments on both sides of the question, no trace or intima 
 tion of this charge is to be found until the publication of 
 Herrera s history. This was compiled about thirty 
 years after the death of Las Casas, and more than 
 eighty after the date assigned to this transaction. This 
 negative testimony, which he deduces from a minute 
 examination of above twenty Spanish writers of that 
 age, and many other more recent ones, is further 
 strengthened by the consideration, that the writings of 
 Las Casas, inculcate throughout, the duties of hu 
 manity towards all men without distinction of colour or 
 country, and it is hardly possible that his numerous and 
 inveterate adversaries, and especially his acute antago 
 nist, Sepulveda, should not have perceived and marked 
 so glaring an inconsistency. Gregoire farther states, 
 
 * Anderson s History of Commerce, and Charlevoix, Histoire deSt. 
 Domingue. 
 
20 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 that the life of Las Casas has been written in Spanish, 
 French, and Italian, by seven different authors, (one of 
 them a native of New Spain,) and they all pass over 
 this charge as if they never had heard of it ; while the 
 five biographers of Cardinal Ximenes, as well as the 
 several Spanish, French, and English authors, who have 
 written on the origin and progress of the slave trade, make 
 no mention whatever of Las Casas s concern in it, but 
 impute the project entirely either to certain Flemish lords 
 of the Spanish court, or to Chievres. a favourite of the 
 prime minister. 
 
 Finally, he observes that Herrera, though sensible 
 and ingenious, is considered by some of the best Spanish 
 writers on American history, as a careless and inaccurate 
 historian ; that he betrays evident marks of prejudice 
 against Las Casas ; and that, although, according to his 
 own statement, this transaction must have taken place 
 long before his personal recollection, he refers to no ori 
 ginal document or authority, in support of his accusation. 
 Whenever the historical inquirer can thus efface the 
 stains left by time or malice upon the fame of the wise 
 and good, he effects many of the grandest objects of 
 history. He strips away from vice the apology and conso 
 lation which it finds in the frailty of erring virtue. He ex 
 cites the ingenuous mind to measure its ambition by a more 
 perfect standard of moral and intellectual worth. He 
 gives new strength to the purest and most exalted senti 
 ments of our nature, by enabling us to embody, in some 
 permanent form of active virtue, those magnificent, but 
 undefined ideas of possible excellence, w T hich sometimes 
 float before the mind in its better hours, and then vanish 
 away for ever, before the breath of the world. If " that 
 man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 21 
 
 gain force on the plain of Marathon, and whose piety 
 would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona," sure 
 ly he too is to be pitied whose heart swells with no emo 
 tion when the mist of falsehood is thus rolled away, and 
 the form of moral greatness stands unveiled before him, 
 in all its majesty, towering far above the highest eleva 
 tion of selfish ambition ; like the pillar of Pompey, rising 
 aloft in solitary grandeur amid the waste and subject 
 plain. 
 
 Let us now turn to our own more immediate history. 
 The settlement of New-England forms an epoch in the 
 history of colonization. Never, until that time, had such 
 high principles, and such noble minds, been engaged in 
 the great work of extending the bounds of the civilized 
 world. Most of the founders of new states have been 
 driven abroad by necessity ; whilst in others, the spirit of 
 adventure was kindled sometimes by restless ambition, 
 or political discontent; sometimes by enlightened views 
 of commercial profit, but oftener by wild dreams of sudden 
 wealth. But, in the fathers of New-England, we behold 
 a body of men, who, for the liberty of faith alone, reso 
 lutely and deliberately exchanged the delights of home, 
 and the comforts of civilized life, for toil and danger, for 
 an ungenial climate and a rugged soil. They were 
 neither desperate adventurers, nor ignorant fanatics ; on 
 the contrary, there is every evidence that they generally 
 possessed a much higher degree of mental cultivation, 
 than was common at that period among the English 
 people. Indeed, the austerity of the moral habits of their 
 immediate descendants, and the remarkable freedom of 
 their language from the provincial dialects of England, 
 afford ample evidence of the general character of the an 
 cestors. They were men, 
 B 
 
22 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 : who spake the tongue 
 
 That Shakspeare spake, the faith and morals held 
 That Milton held.* 
 
 Nay, even if in the pride of a vain philosophy, we 
 should choose to suspect the praises of this portion of our 
 English ancestry as being but the delusions of national 
 vanity, and to dwell more upon their faults and follies 
 than on their virtues, still it is impossible to refuse some 
 share of admiration to the talents and courage of these 
 voluntary exiles, if we regard them merely as a bold and 
 honest portion of that party in church and state, which, 
 to borrow the coarse but strong language of Warburton, 
 had out-fought the cavaliers, out-prayed the puritans, and 
 out-witted the parliament. The period at which they 
 lived, is very remarkable for having been fertile in every 
 form of irregular greatness, and they partook largely of 
 the character of their times. In every great exertion of 
 genius, in that age, whether in poetry, in eloquence, in 
 moral and theological speculation or in active life, there 
 was an incongruous and unaccountable mixture of the 
 gigantic and the childigh--of glorious truth and misera 
 ble prejudice. Pope s criticism on the poetry of Milton, 
 may serve for a universal description of the talents of 
 that day, 
 
 Milton s strong pinion now not Heaven can bound, 
 Now serpent-like, in puns, he SAveeps the ground. 
 
 This defect of taste, however, was the most venial er 
 ror of the age ; the greatest one, and that which casts a 
 dark shade over our own early history, was the spirit of 
 religious persecution. In fact, the question as to the right 
 and duty of the civil magistrate, to restrain by punishment 
 
 * Wordsworth, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 63 
 
 the propagation of those opinions, which he conscien 
 tiously believes to be dangerous to the temporal or spiritual 
 well-being of his people, clear as it may appear to us now, 
 is yet, when fairly weighed, of all doubtful points of politi 
 cal speculation, the most difficult for mere reason to solve ; 
 probably, because mere reason cannot furnish from its 
 own stores the necessary data for the argument. These 
 must be drawn partly from the suggestions of our o\v.l 
 hearts, and they, we know, may be repressed by the 
 stern sense of duty, as well as by baser feelings, but 
 principally from long observation and experience of the 
 nature and disposition of man. The reason of the seven 
 teenth century, and never surely was human reason 
 more active or vigorous, had advanced no further than 
 to assert and allow the conflict of opposite duties, that 
 of the magistrate to punish, and of the martyr to suffer. 
 The rest was left to the justice or mercy of heaven. On 
 this single point, the Doctors of Rome, of Geneva, and of 
 Oxford, were of one opinion. The toleration of Crom 
 well s reign, imperfect as it was, and comprehending 
 neither the Catholic, the Unitarian, the Quaker, nor the 
 Jew, was but one of the arts of political management, by 
 which he raised himself to power, and can scarcely be 
 considered as indicating in him or in his party at 
 large, any settled and clearly defined principle :* while 
 the limited freedom of worship allowed to the Hugue 
 nots in France, was a measure of necessity extorted and 
 defended by force. 
 
 About the same time that Bossuet, the most illustrious 
 champion of the church of Rome, was engaged in main- 
 
 * A sufficient proof of this may be found in the treatment of John 
 Biddle, the learned Unitarian, during the protectorate. See Biographia 
 Britannica, Art.- Fiddle.- 
 
*4 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 taining, with all the force of his overwhelming eloquence 
 and inexhaustible ingenuity, that the sovereign was 
 bound to use his authority in extirpating false religions 
 from the state ; the Scotch commissioners, in London, 
 were remonstrating, in the name of their national church, 
 against the introduction of "a sinful and ungodly tolera 
 tion in matters of religion ;" * whilst the whole body of 
 the English Presbyterian clergy, in their official papers, 
 protested against the schemes of Cromwell s party, and 
 solemnly declared, " that they detested and abhorred tole 
 ration." " My judgment," said Baxter, a man noted in 
 his day for moderation, "I have always freely made 
 known I abhor unlimited liberty or toleration of all." 
 "Toleration," said Edwards, another distinguished di 
 vine, "will make the kingdom a chaos, a Babel, another 
 Amsterdam, a Sodom, an Egypt, a Babylon. Toleration 
 is the grand work of the devil, his master-piece and chief 
 engine to uphold his tottering kingdom : it is the most 
 compendious, ready, sure way to destroy all religion, lay 
 all waste and bring in all evil. It is a most transcend 
 ent, catholique and fundamental evil. As original sin is 
 the fundamental sin, having the seed and spawn of all 
 sins in it, so toleration hath all errors in it and all evils." 
 The dragonnades of Louis XIV., the bloody sentences 
 of the star-chamber, and the savage persecutions of the 
 Remonstrants in Holland, and of the Quakers by the 
 Independents of England and America, afforded terrible 
 commentaries on these doctrines. Now and then, in 
 deed, some purer spirits could pierce through this gloom, 
 and anticipate the lights of a succeeding age. Even in 
 that day, Fenelon could inculcate upon his royal pupil, 
 
 *Lord Clarendon History of the Rebellion, Book. XIL 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 45 
 
 that power might make men hypocrites, but could not 
 make them converts; and Jeremy Taylor raised his 
 voice for "the liberty of prophesying," and eloquently 
 testified against the " unreasonableness of prescribing to 
 other men s faith, and the iniquity of persecuting different 
 opinions." 
 
 Yet these were but solitary and unheeded examples, 
 and the voices of these sons of peace were drowned 
 amidst the clash of arms and the clamours of contro 
 versy. 
 
 The glory of having first set a n example of a practical 
 and extensive system of religious freedom, w r as reserved 
 for America ; and the first legislator who fully recognised 
 the rights of conscience, was Roger Williams, a name 
 less illustrious than it deserves to be ; for although his 
 eccentricities of conduct and opinion, may sometimes pro 
 voke a smile, he was a man of genius and of virtue, of 
 admirable firmness, courage, and disinterestness, and of 
 unbounded benevolence. 
 
 He was a native of Wales, and emigrated to New- 
 England, in 1630. He was then a young man of aus 
 tere life and popular manners, full of reading, skilled in 
 controversy, and gifted with a rapid, copious,, and vehe 
 ment eloquence. The writers of those days represent 
 him as being full of turbulent and singular opinions, "and 
 the whole country," saith the quaint Cotton Mather, 
 "was soon like to be set on fire by the rapid motion of a 
 windmill in the head of this one man."* The heresy 
 which appeared most grievous to his brethren, was his 
 zeal for unqualified religious liberty. In the warmth of 
 
 * Cotton Mather Magnalia, Book VII. in the chapter, entitled 
 <f Little Foxes, or the spirit of Rigid Separation in one remarkable zea- 
 let," &c. 
 
 B* 
 
26 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE: 
 
 his charity, he contended for " freedom of conscience, 
 even to Papists and Arminians, with security of civil 
 peace to all," a doctrine that filled the Massachusetts cler 
 gy with horror and alarm. " He violently urged," says 
 Cotton Mather, "that the civil magistrate might not 
 punish breaches of the first table of the commandments, 
 which utterly took away from the authority all capacity 
 to prevent the land which they had purchased on pur 
 pose for a recess from such things, from becoming such a 
 sink of abominations as would have been the reproach 
 and ruin of Christianity in these parts of the world." 
 
 In addition to these " most disturbant and offensive 
 doctrines," Mather charges him with preaching against 
 the Royal charter of the colony, "on an insignificant 
 pretence of wrong therein done unto the Indians." To 
 his fervent zeal for liberty of opinion, this singular man 
 united an equal degree of tenacity to every article of his 
 own narrow creed. He objected to the custom of return 
 ing thanks after meat, as, in some manner or other, in 
 volving a corruption of primitive and pure worship | he 
 refused to join any of the churches in Boston, unless they 
 would first make a public and solemn declaration of their 
 repentance for having formerly communed with the 
 church of England; and when his doctrines of religious 
 liberty were condemned by the clergy, he wrote to his 
 own church at Salem, " that if they would not separate 
 as well from the churches of New-England as of Old, he 
 would separate from them." 
 
 All his peculiar opinions, whether true or erroneous, 
 were alike offensive to his puritan brethren, and contro 
 versy soon waxed warm. Some logicians, more tolerant 
 or politic than the rest, attempted to reconcile the dispu 
 tants by a whimsical, and not very intelligible sophism. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 27 
 
 They approved not, said they, of persecuting men for 
 conscience sake, but solely of correcting them for sinning 
 against conscience; and so not persecuting, but punish 
 ing heretics. Williams was not a man who could be 
 imposed upon by words, or intimidated by threats; and 
 he accordingly persevered in inculcating his doctrines 
 publicly and vehemently. The clergy, after having en 
 deavoured in vain to shake him by argument and remon 
 strance, at last determined to call in the aid of the civil 
 authority; and the General Court, after due consideration 
 of the case, passed sentence of banishment upon him, or, 
 as they phrased it, "ordered his removal out of the jurisdic 
 tion of the court." Some of the men in power had de 
 termined that he should be sent to England; but, when 
 they sent to take him, they found that, with his usual 
 spirit of resolute independence, he had already departed, 
 no one knew whither, accompanied by a few of his peo 
 ple, who, to use their own language, had gone with their 
 beloved pastor " to seek their providences." After some 
 wanderings he pitched his tent at a place, to which he 
 gave the name of Providence, and there became the 
 founder arid legislator of the colony of Rhode-Island. 
 There he continued to rule, sometimes as the governor, 
 and always as the guide and father of the settlement, for 
 forty-eight years, employing himself in acts of kindness 
 to his former enemies, affording relief to the distressed, 
 and offering an asylum to the persecuted. The govern 
 ment of his colony was formed on his favourite principle, 
 that in matters of faith and worship, every citizen should 
 walk according to the light of his own conscience, with 
 out restraint or interference from the civil magistrate. 
 During a visit which Williams made to England, in 
 1643, for the purpose of procuring a colonial charter, he 
 
28 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 published a formal and laboured vindication of this doc 
 trine, under the title of " The Bloody Tenent, or a Dia 
 logue between Truth and Peace." In this work, written 
 with his usual boldness and decision, he anticipated most 
 of the arguments, which, fifty years after, attracted so 
 much attention, when they were brought forward by 
 Locke. His own conduct in power, was in perfect ac 
 cordance with his speculative opinions; and when, in his 
 old age, the order of his little community was disturbed 
 by an irruption of Quaker preachers, he combated them 
 only in pamphlets and public disputations, and contented 
 himself with overwhelming their doctrines with a torrent 
 of learning, sarcasms, syllogisms, and puns.* 
 
 It should also be remembered, to the honour of Roger 
 Williams, that no one of the early colonists, without ex 
 cepting William Penn himself, equalled him in justice 
 *and benevolence towards the Indians. He laboured in 
 cessantly, and with much success, to enlighten and con 
 ciliate them, and by this means acquired a personal influ 
 ence among them, which he had frequently the enviable 
 satisfaction of exerting in behalf of those who had banish 
 ed him. It is not the least remarkable or characteristic 
 incident of his varied life, that within one year after his 
 exile, and while he was yet hot with controversy, and in 
 dignant at his wrongs, his first interference with the af 
 fairs of his former colony was to protect its frontier settle 
 ments from an Indian massacre. From that time forward, 
 though he was never permitted to return to Massachu 
 setts, he was frequently employed by the government of 
 that province in negotiations with the Indians, and on 
 other business of the highest importance. Even Cotton 
 
 * The title of one of his books against George Fox, and his follower, 
 Burrowes, is " The Fox digged out of -his Burrows." 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 29 
 
 Mather, in spite of his steadfast abhorrence of Williams s 
 heresy, seems to have been touched with the magnani 
 mity and kindness of the man ; and after having stigma 
 tized him as " the infamous Korah of New-England," 
 he confesses, a little reluctantly, that " for the forty years 
 after his exile, he acquitted himself so laudably, that 
 many judicious people judged him to have had the root 
 of the matter in him, during the long winter of his re 
 tirement."* 
 
 At the very time that the puritan Roger Williams was 
 thus inculcating this humane and wise doctrine in the 
 eastern colonies, a Roman Catholic nobleman, George 
 Calvert, Lord Baltimore, was engaged in obtaining a 
 charter and enacting a code of laws for Maryland, on the 
 same liberal principles. 
 
 Lord Baltimore had neither the talents nor the eccen 
 tricities of Roger Williams, but he was a man of strong 
 sense and great worth. He had passed with reputation 
 through several offices of high political trust and import 
 ance, under James I., but in 1624 he resigned all his 
 employments on becoming a convert to the Roman Ca 
 tholic faith. He then projected a colony at Newfound 
 land ; but after visiting his settlement twice, bestowing 
 great expense and labour upon it, and once in person 
 rescuing it from a French invasion, despairing of success, 
 he abandoned his proprietary rights there, and procured 
 a patent for Maryland. After he had visited and explored 
 the country, he died, while he was engaged in making 
 
 * Mather Magnalia Americana, Book VII. cap. 2. Collections of 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, VI. 245. VII. 3. VIII. 2. IX. 23. X. 
 15, &c. &c. Brook s Lives of the Puritans, III. 577. Chalmer s Poli 
 tical Annals, p. 269. Gtiiarto edit. Dr. Trumbull (Hist. U. S. vol. I. p. 
 105,) speaks of Williams with cold praise, though he calls him "a gen 
 tleman of benevolence." 
 
30 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 the necessary preparatory arrangements for his 
 taking, and before the charter had passed the forms of 
 office; so that there is scarce any historical record of his 
 share in the colonial administration of Maryland. But 
 the little that tradition has preserved respecting him, 
 speaks volumes in his praise. We know that he dis- 
 pla) r ed the most perfect good faith in all his transactions 
 with the natives, and that it was to him that Maryland 
 was indebted for such a liberal code of religious equality > 
 that the province soon became the refuge, not only of the 
 Catholics who fled from Great Britain, but of the Puritans 
 who were driven from Virginia, arid of the Quakers ex 
 iled from New-England.* 
 
 His son, the second Lord Baltimore, deserves also to 
 be named with honour, as having inherited the enter 
 prise and the tolerant spirit of his father. 
 
 These admirable examples remained without imitation 
 for nearly half a century, until 1682, when William 
 Penn repeated the same experiment on a much greater 
 scale, and laid the foundation of the government of Penn 
 sylvania, with this " grand fundamental," as he termed 
 it, " that every person should enjoy the free profession of 
 his faith, and exercise of worship, in such way as he 
 should in his conscience believe most acceptable." 
 
 The resemblance of character between Penn and KXH 
 ger Williams, is striking. Penn, like Williams, was ei> 
 thusiastic, without being bigoted; he had the same be 
 nevolence, the same scorn of intellectual slavery, the same 
 love of controversy, and, above all, the same habitual 
 inflexibility of purpose and opinion. But he had mixed 
 more widely in the world, had more experience, and more 
 
 * Chalmer s Political Annals, p. 200, 4to. London. Biographia Eli*- 
 tannica, article "CalrerU" Marshall s Washington, I. 80 83. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 31 
 
 knowledge of character, a more bustling activity of dis 
 position, greater skill in the conduct of affairs, and, per 
 haps, a little more of worldly ambition, as well as much 
 more of worldly wisdom. He appeared, too, on a more 
 magnificent theatre of action, and has left the impress of 
 his own peculiar character very deeply stamped upon the 
 opinions and institutions of England and America. 
 
 Among the most remarkable peculiarities of his mind, 
 was that singular inflexibility of which I have spoken ; 
 and he was in the habit of applying it indiscriminately to 
 the noblest and to the most paltry uses. His range of 
 knowledge was extensive: he had looked, with an observ 
 ant eye, upon many forms of character and modes of 
 life, and he deemed k to be his duty to declare his settled 
 opinion upon every subject that fell in his way, and to 
 take a part in every controversy as soon as it arose. 
 
 It mattered nothing, whether the subject was of little 
 importance or of great, he was always stiff in his opinions, 
 bold in his avowal of them, ready and copious in expound 
 ing them, and ingenious in their defence. Yet, in spite 
 of these foibles, every ludicrous association is repelled from 
 his character, by the admiration he excites when we be 
 hold him inculcating the purest doctrines of religion with 
 the fervour of an apostle, and defending the dearest inte 
 rests of his country and the most sacred rights of man 
 with an ability, a courage, and a sagacity, which would 
 have done honour to Hampden or Algernon Sidney. 
 
 He lived in an age of controversy and intolerance, both 
 religious and political; and for a considerable part of his 
 life, he published a polemical tract every month, and was 
 regularly thrown into prison at least once a year. But 
 neither tyranny nor the continual irritation of controversy , 
 could change his steady character. Prosperous or un- 
 
32 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 prosperous, in peace or in controversy, in business and in 
 retirement, he was still the same ; kind, pure, patient, 
 laborious, fearless, zealous, pious. If his polemic ardour 
 now and then hurried him a little beyond the bounds of 
 his habitual meekness, still his violence was always con 
 fined to a few rough words ; and it is even worthy of 
 remark, that this occasional intemperance of expression 
 seldom extended much beyond his title-page ;* and as soon 
 as that slight effervescence was over, he quietly returned 
 to his accustomed calm, clear, and quaint simplicity of 
 style. 
 
 It was after a long and rigid discipline of adversity and 
 oppression, when his youthful presumption had subsided, 
 and his enthusiastic zeal had ripened into a wise and 
 practical benevolence, that Penn became the founder of 
 that commonwealth which so gloriously perpetuates his 
 name, his wisdom, and his virtues a more magnificent 
 and lasting monument than conqueror or despot ever 
 reared. 
 
 He arrived in Pennsylvania, in October, 1682. As 
 he was wont, according to the taste of the age and of his 
 sect, to allegorize natural occurrences, he might have 
 found, in the soft serenity of the season when he land 
 ed, an apt emblem of those happy and useful days he 
 was to pass in America. The rest of his life, like the 
 other parts of the year in this climate, was vexed with 
 many fierce and sudden varieties of change ; but the pe 
 riod of his administration in America, was destined to be, 
 like the American autumn, mild, calm, bright, and 
 abounding in rich fruits. 
 
 * As for example, " A brief Reply to a mere Rhapsody of Lies, Folly, 
 and Slander," &c. " An Answer to a False and Foolish Libel," &c. 
 are the titles of some of his tracts. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 33 
 
 Here, his genius seemed to expand, as if to fit itself for 
 a grander scene of action ; while his benevolence grew 
 warmer amid " the sweet quiet of these parts," to use his 
 own beautiful language, " freed from the troublesome 
 and anxious solicitations, hurries, and perplexities of wo- 
 ful Europe." In all outward things he was well satisfied, 
 and he had no desire left, but that of doing good. " The 
 land," said he, " is rich, the air clear and sweet, the springs 
 plentiful, and provisions good and easy to come at: in 
 fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would 
 be well contented with ; and service enough for God, for 
 the fields are here white for harvest."* 
 
 The history of man does not furnish any more inte 
 resting scene, nor one calling up finer associations or 
 more generous sympathies, than the first conference of 
 William Perm and his followers with the savage chiefs ; 
 when, to recur again to his own inimitable words, " they 
 met on the broad pathway of good faith and good will, 
 so that no advantage was taken on either side, but all 
 was openness, brotherhood, and love." 
 
 Montesquieu, with his usual brilliant and ambitious 
 originality, has styled Penn the modern Lycurgus. Pa 
 radoxical as this strange association of names may at 
 first appear, there is one marked point of resemblance 
 between the Spartan and the Pennsylvanian legislator; 
 widely as they differed in the character of their institu 
 tions, and the ultimate ends of their ambition. 
 
 Penn legislated for peace, as Lycurgus did for war; but 
 it is the peculiar glory of both, to have possessed a self-ba 
 lanced and confident energy of mind, enabling them to dis 
 regard all considerations of temporary expediency and pri- 
 
 * William Perm s Letters. 
 C 
 
34 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 vate interest, and to make every part of their system 
 harmonize in perfect unison with those leading princi 
 ples which were to pervade, animate, and govern every 
 portion of the state. 
 
 Never was there undertaken a more sublime political 
 enterprise than that of the founder of Pennsylvania. 
 Never was there a legislation more boldly marked with 
 that unity of intention which is the most peculiar and 
 majestic feature of all original conception. His system of 
 virtuous politics was reared upon benevolence, justice, 
 and liberty. With these objects he began, and with these 
 he ended. In an age when, with few exceptions, the 
 sound principles of civil liberty were as little understood 
 by those who clamoured for freedom as by those who 
 defended the doctrines of arbitrary power, William Penn 
 began his system of virtuous politics, by proclaiming to 
 his people, in words of noble dignity and simplicity, "that 
 the great end of government was to support power in re 
 verence with the people, and to secure the people from 
 the abuse of power, that they may be free by their just 
 obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just 
 administration for Liberty without obedience is confu 
 sion, and Obedience without liberty is slavery."* 
 
 With such views, thus liberal and temperate, his first 
 care was to divest himself of the almost arbitrary power 
 he had been intrusted with, and to establish a form of 
 government on the broadest plan of republican represen 
 tation. At the same time, well judging " that govern 
 ments rather depend upon men, than men upon govern 
 ments," he rested his sole reliance upon public morals 
 
 * Preamble to Perm s "Frame of Government," in Marshall s Life 
 of Washington, Vol. I. Appendix, note 4. The whole is curious, and 
 much of it admirable. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 35 
 
 and education for the preservation of public liberty. 
 " For," saith he, " that which makes a good government 
 must keep it, namely, men of wisdom and virtue, quali 
 ties, which, because they descend not with natural inhe 
 ritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous edu 
 cation of youth." 
 
 It is unnecessary to recall to the recollection of any 
 American, who is at all conversant with the history of 
 his own country, the gentleness and tolerance of Penn s 
 government ; his love of peace and its arts ; the kindness 
 with which he watched over the welfare, and laboured 
 for the instruction, of the African race ; his encourage 
 ment of useful industry and general education ; the mild 
 wisdom of his criminal code ; and, above all, his effort to 
 improve the administration of justice, by combining the 
 reformation of the offender with the punishment of the 
 offence a grand and original attempt, which, had he no 
 other claim to our gratitude, would alone entitle him to 
 a most honourable place among the benefactors of the 
 world. 
 
 It is true, that some of Penn s plans of peaceful legis 
 lation, have been found inapplicable to the actual state 
 and condition of mankind. But his very failures were 
 glorious, for they arose chiefly from a too sanguine expec 
 tation of the mental and moral improvement of the hu 
 man race, and too hasty anticipations of universal holi 
 ness and universal peace: an illusion so fair and lovely, 
 and so nearly allied to truth, that it sheds lustre over every 
 error with which it may be connected, and can even lend 
 momentary dignity and interest to the wildest specula 
 tions of Godwin and Condorcet. 
 
 The great name of John Locke, is associated with that 
 of William Penn, by a double tie ; by his celebrated con- 
 
36 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 stitution for the Carolinas, which enrols him among the 
 earliest legislators of America, and by one of those anec 
 dotes of private friendship and magnanimity, upon which 
 the mind gladly reposes, after wandering among the cold 
 and dreary generalities of history. 
 
 During the short period of Penn s influence at the court 
 of James II.. he obtained from the king the promise of a 
 pardon for Locke, who had fled to Holland from the per 
 secution of the dominant party. Locke, though grateful 
 to Penn for this unsolicited kindness, replied with a firm 
 ness worthy of the man who was destined to become the 
 most formidable adversary of tyranny in all its shapes, 
 "that he could not accept a pardon, when he had not been 
 guilty of any crime." Three years after this occurrence, 
 the Stuarts were driven from the throne of England; 
 Locke then returned in triumph. At the same time, the 
 champions of English liberty, to serve some party object, 
 proclaimed Penn a traitor without the slightest ground; 
 and all his rights as an Englishman, and his chartered 
 privileges, were shamelessly violated by the very states 
 men who had drafted the Act of Toleration and the Bill 
 of Rights. In this season of distress and desertion, Penn 
 was unexpectedly gratified by the grateful remembrance 
 of Locke, who now, in his turn, interceded to procure a 
 pardon from the new sovereign. In the pride of slan 
 dered innocence, Penn answered, as Locke had formerly 
 done, "that he had never been guilty of any crime, and 
 could not, therefore, rest satisfied with a mode of libera 
 tion which would ever appear as a standing monument 
 of his guilt." 
 
 The genius of Locke has been described by Dr. Watts, 
 with equal elegance and truth, as being " wide as the 
 sea, calm as the night, bright as thje day:" still his mind 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 37 
 
 appears to have been deficient in that practical sagacity 
 which so happily tempered the enthusiasm of William 
 Penn. The code of government and laws which Locke 
 formed for the Carolinas, contained many excellent pro 
 visions ; but it was embarrassed by numerous and dis 
 cordant subdivisions of power, was perplexed by some 
 impracticable refinements in the administration of justice, 
 and was, in all respects, unnecessarily artificial and com 
 plicated.* Nevertheless, it is, I think, a legitimate subject 
 of national pride that we can thus number this virtuous 
 and profound philosopher among those original legislators 
 of this country, who gave to our political character its first 
 impulse and direction. 
 
 The character and exploits of the founder of Georgia, 
 form a dazzling contrast to the calm virtues of this great 
 man. The life of General Oglethorpe would require but 
 little embellishment to make it a tale of romance. It was 
 full of variety, adventure, and achievement. His ruling 
 passions were the love of glory, of his country, and of 
 mankind, and these were so blended together in his mind 
 that they formed but one principle of action. He was a 
 hero, a statesman, an orator, the patron of letters, the 
 chosen friend of men of genius, and the theme of praise 
 for great poets. 
 
 In his youth, after having been the confidential aid-de 
 camp of the Earl of Peterborough, whom he resembled 
 in his restless activity of mind and body, he early attracted 
 the notice of the great Duke of Marlborough, and after 
 wards served with distinguished reputation under Prince 
 Eugene, in Germany, Hungary, and Turkey. From 
 
 * Marshall, L 190. Trumbull s History of the U. S. I. 206, and the 
 Constitution itself in Locke s Works, voL X. p. 175. 8vo. edition, Lon 
 don, 1801. 
 
38 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 his boyhood he uniformly enjoyed the friendship and 
 confidence of his gallant and eloquent countryman, John, 
 Duke of Argyle,* who, in an animated speech in parlia 
 ment, bore splendid testimony to his military talents, his 
 natural generosity, his contempt for danger, and his de 
 votion to the public weal.t 
 
 Passing from the camp to the senate, he soon became 
 conspicuous for his manly independence, and still more 
 for the ardour and purity of his benevolence. Anticipating 
 the labours of Howard, he plunged into the dark and 
 pestilential dungeons where prisoners for debt in Eng 
 land, were at that time confined, dragged to light the most 
 atrocious abuses, restored to freedom multitudes who had 
 long suffered under legal oppression, and obtained public 
 and exemplary punishment of the men who had been 
 guilty of these outrages against justice and humanity. 
 Soon after this, a colony was projected, which, without 
 any prospect of profit or remuneration to those who di 
 rected it, had in view the double object of relieving Eng 
 land from some portion of the daily increasing burden of 
 her pauperism, and of opening an avenue of useful and 
 independent industry to those who had fallen into unme 
 rited misfortune. General Oglethorpe was placed at the 
 head of this enterprise, and he entered upon it with his 
 characteristic ardour. Animated by the hope of gaining 
 glory, and of doing good, he cheerfully expended a large 
 portion of his private fortune, and encountered every va 
 riety of fatigue and danger. 
 
 It was in 1732, immediately after making a spirited 
 and patriotic effort in parliament to restore a constitution- 
 
 * " Argyle, the state s whole thunder born to wield, 
 And shake alike the senate and the field." Pope. 
 
 f Gentleman s Magazine, vol. XI. p. 400. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 39 
 
 al militia , and to abolish arbitrary impressment for the 
 sea-service, that he left England to become the founder 
 of the colony of Georgia. The suppression of the slave 
 trade has also long engaged his attention, and, under his 
 auspices this infant colony set the example of a legal pro 
 hibition of this traffic in the blood of man. 
 
 Various untoward circumstances conspired to check the 
 growth of the new settlement, and to frustrate the innu 
 merable plans of agricultural* and political improvement 
 constantly suggested by the busy and fertile mind of the 
 governor ; and, in a few years, these labours were com 
 pletely interrupted by the alarm of a Spanish and Indian 
 war. The benign legislator and magistrate, who had ri 
 valled Penn in the arts of peace and in acts of mercy, 
 then resumed, at once, the habits of his youth, and ap 
 proved himself the hardy, daring, and adventurous sol 
 dier. By his unwearied activity, and the example of his 
 personal courage, not less than by his military skill and 
 enterprise, in the laborious Southern campaigns of 1740 
 and 1742, he repelled the inroads of a far superior ene 
 my, who threatened the subjugation of Georgia and the 
 devastation of the Carolinas.t 
 
 * One of these was the introduction of the olive into the southern 
 colonies. 
 
 | "In the month of June, (1742,) the new colony of Georgia was 
 invaded by an armament from St. Augustine, commanded by Don Ma 
 nuel de Monteano, governor of that fortress. It consisted of six-and- 
 thirty ships, from which four thousand men were landed at St. Simon s, 
 and began their march for Frederica. General Oglethorpe, with a 
 handful of men, took such wise precautions for opposing their progress, 
 and harassed them in their march with such activity and resolution, 
 that, after two of their detachments had been defeated, they retired to 
 their ships, and totally abandoned their enterprise." Smollet s History 
 of England, Reign of George II. The history of this campaign and of 
 the preceding one of 1742, is given in a much more detailed manner in 
 
40 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 It was this fine combination of chivalry and philan 
 thropy in the character of General Oglethorpe, graced as 
 it was by a variety of accomplishments and the love of 
 letters, that excited the warm admiration of Johnson, 
 who intended to become his biographer that called forth 
 the eulogy of Pope, in those well-known lines, 
 
 And driven by strong benevolence of soul, 
 Shall fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole ; 
 
 And that induced Thomson to celebrate the praises of 
 the founder of Savannah, among those of the most 
 brilliant heroes and patriots of ancient or of English his 
 tory: 
 
 Lo! swarming southward on rejoicing suns 
 Gay colonies extend ; the calm retreat 
 Of undeserved distress, the better home 
 Of those whom bigots chase from foreign lands. 
 Not built on Rapine, Servitude, and Wo, 
 And in their turn some petty tyrant s prey ; 
 But bound by social freedom, firm they rise, 
 Such as of late an OGLETHORPE has formed, 
 And crowding round, the pleased Savannah sees.* 
 
 General Oglethorpe administered the affairs of the co 
 lony for about eleven years. He afterwards passed, 
 " without fear and without reproach," through many al 
 ternations of fortune, both in public and private life, con 
 stantly emulating Howard in the zeal and extent of his 
 charity, and sustaining a character as a soldier and a 
 gentleman, such as Sir Philip Sidney or Lord Falkland 
 might have envied. His habitual temperance and acti 
 vity preserved his health aud faculties to extreme old age.t 
 
 M Call s History of Georgia, vol. I. and in Dr. Trumbull s History of 
 the United States, vol. I. chap. 8. 
 
 * Thomson s Liberty, Part V. 
 
 t There is a considerable variance in the accounts of General Ogle- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 41 
 
 He died in 1785, affording the first example in modern 
 times, of the founder of a colony who has lived to see that 
 colony recognized by the world as a sovereign and inde 
 pendent state. 
 
 The latest distinct traces which are to be found of Ge 
 neral Oglethorpe, are in the amusing volumes of Boswell, 
 who has incidentally preserved many fragments of his 
 cheerful and instructive conversation ; and describes him 
 as living in London, during the latter years of his life, in 
 a style of elegant hospitality, associating familiarly with 
 Johnson, Goldsmith, and Reynolds ; an evening worthy 
 of so long and so bright a day.* 
 
 It was not until a late period of our colonial history, 
 that the British Government was awakened to a sense of 
 our growing importance. With but very few excep 
 tions all those who influenced and directed the public 
 mind of England, either by their literary or political talents, 
 agreed in regarding their North American provinces, ra- 
 
 thorpe s age. Nichols, in his Literary Anecdotes, states that he died 
 in his 88th year. A brief notice of him in Rees s Cyclopedia, extends 
 his age to 97 ; another account says 92. It is certain that after having 
 held a commission in the British service, he was an officer of rank in 
 the German army, under Prince Eugene, at the great siege and battle 
 of Belgrade, in 1717. I have been told by an American gentleman, 
 who saw him in 1781, that he then retained all the animation of youth ; 
 he walked erect and actively, retained his hearing, and read without 
 spectacles to his death. 
 
 * An authentic, and tolerably minute, Life of General Oglethorpe, 
 is a desideratum. The above notices of his character and life have 
 been gleaned from a sketch of his biography, in the European Maga 
 zine, for 1786. Nichol s Literary Anecdotes, vol. VI. TrumbulPs 
 History of the United States, vol. I. chap. 8. and Boswell s Johnson. 
 There are many detached passages respecting him, scattered through 
 the Gentlemen s Magazine, from 1730 to 1770. He was eulogized by 
 the Abbe Raynal, in the Histoire Philosophique ; by Warton, in his 
 
42 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ther as possessions affording certain means of commercial 
 advantages, than as integral parts of a great empire. It 
 had scarcely occurred to any of them, that whether fame 
 or the good of mankind were their object, there were no 
 means by which they could reap so quick and abundant a 
 harvest of honour and usefulness, as by sowing the seeds 
 of science and virtue on these western shores. This 
 arose, in the main, from mere negligence ; for the states 
 men in England, in those days, like the common 
 place politicians of every age and nation, were too much 
 engrossed by the little objects about them, to look forward 
 upon the grand and bright prospects of futurity. Some 
 times, moreover, that narrow policy which regards the 
 ignorance of the people as the firmest foundation of 
 power, shed its malignant influence over our colonial 
 governments. 
 
 One remarkable instance of this is worthy of being 
 particularly noted. Sixty-four years after the first settle 
 ment of Virginia, Sir William Berkely, then governor of 
 that province, in an official communication to the lords 
 of the colonies, observed, "I thank God, that there are 
 no free-schools nor printing-presses here ; and I hope, 
 that we shall not have them here these hundred years ; 
 for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and 
 sects into the world, and printing hath divulged them in 
 
 notes on Pope, and by several minor cotemporary poets. John Wes 
 ley also addressed a poem to him full of panegyric. The fullest ac 
 count of his administration and defence of Georgia, is in M Call s his 
 tory of Georgia. Since the first edition of this discourse, I have been 
 informed that the late excellent and learned Dr. Kollock of Savannah, 
 had been for some time collecting materials for a life of General Ogle- 
 thorpe. The sudden death of Dr. Kollock, in the prime of his talents 
 and usefulness, was not less a loss to literature than to the church. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 43 
 
 libels against the best governments. God keep us from 
 both."* 
 
 Such was the general disposition of our trans-atlantic 
 rulers, when a liberal scheme for diffusing light and truth 
 over the American continent, and the West India Islands, 
 was proposed by Dean Berkeley, a name that will be 
 venerable as long as learning is held in honour, or virtue 
 has reverence among men. 
 
 Berkeley was born and educated in Ireland. In his 
 youth, like his friend Oglethorpe, he had been patronized 
 by the Earl of Peterborough, (the famous Mordanto of 
 Swift,t) who, among his other uncommon qualities, had 
 a remarkable instinct for discovering and bringing for 
 ward men of talents of all descriptions. Berkeley was 
 also the intimate friend and companion of Pope and 
 Swift, whose wit and genius he honoured without partici 
 pating in their pride and selfishness. He had gained a 
 very high reputation in the learned world, by several of 
 those works which still entitle him to be classed among 
 
 * Ramsay s History of the United States, vol. 264. 
 
 f " Morsanto fills the trump of fame, 
 The Christian world his deeds proclaim, 
 The prints are crowded with his name ; 
 In journeys he outrides the post, 
 Sits up till midnight with his host, 
 Talks politics and gives the toast," &c. 
 
 Shines in all climates like a star, 
 
 In senates bold, and fierce in war, 
 
 A land commander and a tar, &c. &o. 
 
 The other lines are equally happy. Such a graphic delineation oi 
 character gives a more distinct idea of the man, than volumes of com 
 mon-place biography. When Lord Peterborough went to Italy, as 
 ambassador, he took Oglethorpe with him as his secretary, and Berke 
 ley as his chaplain, both of them then very young. 
 
44 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 the most profound and original inquirers into the philoso 
 phy of mind, and the first principles of knowledge. 
 
 In his Theory of Vision, he had taught us to distin 
 guish the immediate objects of sight as they actually af 
 fect the senses from those spontaneous inferences, which 
 long and universal habit has accustomed us to form.* 
 By thus disentangling the complicated associations of 
 sight and touch, he had solved several of the most per 
 plexing phenomena of optics, and made a very important 
 advance in the knowledge of the mode in which our 
 mind holds converse with the external world. Who 
 ever looks back upon the slow progress of intellectual 
 philosophy, and considers how little has been done by 
 metaphysicians, beyond pulling down the systems of their 
 predecessors, and erecting other theories of their own, of 
 equally short duration, will, I think, be led to regard this 
 speculation of Berkeley s as decidedly the most solid and 
 valuable improvement made during the last century in 
 the knowledge of our own nature. 
 
 In another essay he had, with the same acuteness, 
 overthrown the theory of abstract general ideas, and es 
 tablished that of generalization by signs and words, which 
 has, since his time, become the prevailing doctrine among 
 metaphysicians.! 
 
 But it is for his theory denying the existence of a ma 
 terial world, the most ingenious, and yet, in truth, the 
 least valuable of all his speculations, that he is now most 
 celebrated, and that he attracted the most attention in his 
 own day. He held, as is well known, that the things 
 we denominate sensible material objects, are not external 
 
 * Berkeley s "Essay towards a New Theory of Vision," first pub 
 lished in 1709. See also Reid s Inquiry, chap. 6. 
 
 fin the introduction of his "Principles of Knowledge." 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 45 
 
 to the mind, but actually existing in it, and are merely 
 impressions made on the intellect by the immediate pow 
 er of the Divine mind, acting according to its own fixed 
 and constant laws ; and that this uniform adherence of 
 the Deity to his own rules, alone constitutes the reality 
 of tilings to his intelligent creatures : these laws being 
 intended not as helps to the Creator, but as signs to the 
 creature, whereby he may know what to expect, in what 
 manner to govern himself, and how to direct his actions 
 for the obtaining of any end.* 
 
 Berkeley maintained this bold paradox with an inge 
 nuity of argument, which, in the happy phrase of 
 Hume, " admitted of no answer, and produced no con 
 viction." 
 
 His doctrines have been frequently assailed by coarse 
 ridicule ; yet, however fallacious they may be, it is but 
 justice to the memory of this great man. to observe, that 
 he never doubted of the reality of our sensations, nor of 
 the necessity of acting according to their information 
 that it is a gross misrepresentation of his opinions, to con 
 sider him as a skeptic who disbelieved his own senses 
 but that his theory regarded solely the causes of our 
 sensations, and his skepticism was confined to the single 
 point, whether they proceed from independently existing 
 substances without us, or from a stated and regular com 
 bination of sensible ideas, excited immediately by the 
 great First Cause. 
 
 With all this metaphysical subtility, Berkeley was 
 equally distinguished for the depth and variety of his 
 knowledge, the exuberance and gracefulness of his ima- 
 
 * " Principles of Human Knowledge," and " Dialogues between Hy 
 las and Philonous." " Siris," sect. 160. 
 
 D 
 
46 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 gination, the elegance of his conversation and manners, 
 and the purity of his life. It was about the fortieth year 
 of his age, that, wearied out by these fruitless speculations, 
 in which the most vigorous mind " can find no end, in 
 wandering mazes lost," he conceived the project of found 
 ing a University in the Island of Bermuda, on so liberal 
 a scale as to afford the amplest means of diffusing scien 
 tific and religious instruction over the whole of the British 
 possessions in America. Dr. Berkeley, at that time, held 
 the richest church preferment in Ireland, and had the 
 fairest prospects of advancement to the first literary and 
 ecclesiastical dignities of that country, or even of England. 
 All these, with a disinterestness which excited the aston 
 ishment and sneers of Swift and his literary friends, he 
 proposed to resign for a bare maintenance as principal of 
 the projected American University. His personal char 
 acter and influence, and the warmth of his benevolent 
 eloquence, soon subdued or silenced open opposition. He 
 obtained a charter from the crown, and the grant of a large 
 sum of money, to be raised from the sale of certain lands 
 in the Island of St. Christopher s, which had been ceded 
 by the treaty of Utrecht to the British government, but 
 had afterwards been totally forgotten or neglected, and of 
 the real value of which he had with great industry ac 
 quired an accurate knowledge. 
 
 To describe Berkeley s confident anticipations of the 
 future glories of America, we must have recourse to his 
 own words. 
 
 The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime- 
 Barren of every glorious theme, 
 
 In distant lands now waits a better time, 
 Producing subjects worthy fame. 
 

 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 47 
 
 In happy climes where from the genial sun 
 
 And virgin earth such scenes ensue, 
 The force of art by nature seems outdone, 
 
 And fancied beauties by the true : 
 
 In happy climes, the seat of innocence, 
 
 Where nature guides and virtue rules ; 
 Where men shall not impose for truth and sense 
 
 The pedantry of courts and schools : 
 
 There shall be sung another golden age, 
 
 The rise of empires and of arts, 
 The good and great, inspiring epic rage, 
 
 The wisest heads and noblest hearts. 
 
 Not such as Europe breeds in her decay, 
 Such as she bred when fresh and young, 
 
 When heavenly flame did animate her clay, 
 By future poets shall be sung. 
 
 Westward the course of empire takes its way; 
 
 The four first acts already past, 
 A fifth shall close the drama with the day 
 
 Time s noblest offspring is the last. 
 
 I have quoted these fine lines at length because I do 
 not recollect to have seen or heard them referred to in this 
 country. They were written fifty years before the decla 
 ration of independence ; and to the patriot who may now 
 exult with undoubting hope, in the great and sure desti 
 nies of our nation, they may well seem to revive the old 
 connexion between the prophetic character and that of 
 the poet: 
 
 For, in a Roman mouth, the graceful name 
 Of poet and of prophet were the same.* 
 
 Confiding in these glorious auguries, and animated by 
 the pure ambition of contributing to hasten forward this 
 " rise of empire and of arts," he sailed from England in 
 
 * Cowper. 
 
48 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 1728. He came first to Rhode-Island, where he deter 
 mined to remain for a short time, for the purpose of pur 
 chasing lands on this continent as estates for the support 
 of his college, as well as in order to gain a more intimate 
 knowledge of the Northern colonies. Here he soon be 
 came convinced that he had erred altogether in his choice 
 of Bermuda ; and he applied for an alteration of his char 
 ter, empowering him to select some place on the American 
 continent for the site of the University, which would, 
 probably, have been fixed in the city of New- York, or in 
 its vicinity.* But in the succeeding year all his sanguine 
 hopes were at once extinguished by an unexpected court 
 intrigue ; and a large sum, (90,OOOZ. sterling in all,) that 
 had been paid into the treasury from the funds pointed 
 out by Berkeley, and part of which had been solemnly 
 appropriated to the projected institution, by a vote of par 
 liament, was seized by Sir Robert Walpole, to pay the 
 marriage portion of the Princess Royal ; an additional 
 proof, if proof were needed, of the truth of the old repub 
 lican adage, that the very trappings of a monarchy are 
 sufficient to support a moderate commonwealth. 
 
 The two years and a half of Berkeley s residence in 
 Rhode-Island, had not been idly spent. It was there 
 that he composed his Minute Philosopher, a work writ 
 ten on the model of the Philosophical Dialogues of his 
 favourite, Plato, and, like them, to be admired for the 
 graces which a rich imagination has carelessly and pro 
 fusely scattered over its pages, as well as for novelty of 
 thought and ingenuity of argument. The rural descrip 
 tions which frequently occur in it, are, it is said, exqui- 
 . ,..:.; . ; u .-.. ; ; 
 
 * This is the opinion of Dr. Chandler, Life of President Johnson. 
 Others have said that it would have been transferred to Rhode-Island. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 49 
 
 site pictures of some of those delightful landscapes which 
 presented themselves to his eye at the time he was writ 
 ing. 
 
 His residence in this country, gave a general stimulus 
 to literary and scientific exertion. He became personally 
 acquainted with all who had any literary taste or acquire 
 ment, especially among the clergy of different denomi 
 nations, with several of whom he formed a close intimacy, 
 and continued to encourage and patronize them by every 
 means in his power during his whole life. He minutely 
 examined into the state of the public institutions in the 
 northern and middle colonies, and after his return to 
 England; rendered them several important services by his 
 pen and his influence. Having observed the serious in 
 conveniences, under which American students laboured, 
 from the want of books, and the defects of early classical 
 education, shortly after his return, he sent out to Yale Col 
 lege a large and choice collection of the best works in 
 different branches of learning, which still forms the most 
 valuable part of the public library of that respectable and 
 useful institution. He accompanied this present with a 
 deed of gift of his property in Rhode-Island, directing it 
 to be appropriated to the support of three scholarships, to 
 bestowed upon the best classical scholars of each year. 
 This soon produced a happy effect, and the Dean s Boun 
 ty, as it is still called, has materially contributed to keep 
 up, and gradually to raise, the standard of learning in 
 a college which has, for many years, educated a large 
 portion of the scholars and professional men of this country. 
 
 Dr. Berkeley was also a liberal benefactor to the library 
 of Harvard College;* and the college of New- York, on its 
 
 * This fact appears in the Life of Hollis, where, among the valuable 
 
50 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 first establishment some years after, was essentially in 
 debted to him for assistance and support. 
 
 Berkeley returned to Europe mortified and disappoint 
 ed ; but as there was nothing selfish or peevish in his na 
 ture, the failure of this long cherished and darling project 
 could not abate the ardour of his philanthropy. 
 
 The rest of his history belongs more to Ireland than to 
 America. Never had that ill-governed and injured coun 
 try a purer or more devoted patriot. His Querist, his 
 Letters to the Roman Catholic clergy, and his other tracts 
 on Irish politics, are full of practical good sense, unbound 
 ed charity, and the warmest affection for his country. 
 
 Such was the strong and general sense of the useful 
 ness of these labours, that, in 1749, the body of the Irish 
 Roman Catholic clergy, in a formal address to Dr. Berke 
 ley, who was then Protestant Bishop of Cloyne, returned 
 him " their sincere and hearty thanks," for certain of these 
 publications, assuring him that " they were determined to 
 comply with his advice in all particulars ;" they add, 
 " that every page contains a proof of the author s exten 
 sive charity, his views are only towards the public good, 
 and his manner of treating persons, in their circum 
 stances, so very uncommon, that it plainly shows the 
 good man, the polite gentleman, and the true patriot." 
 
 contents of the old library, destroyed by fire in 1764, are mentioned the 
 donations of the "liberal and catholic Bishop Berkeley." He died be 
 fore King s (no w.Columbia) College was fully established. As the first 
 president was his intimate friend, it is highly probable that, had he 
 lived, he would have patronized it very efficiently and liberally. While 
 the plan for erecting the college was in agitation, he exerted himself in. 
 its support, advised the course of study, and patronized the subscrip 
 tion. I believe, though I have no direct authority for the assertion, 
 that he also assisted, in the same way, the college of Philadelphia, now 
 the University of Pennsylvania, founded about the same time. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 51 
 
 This is a panegyric as honourable to those who gave 
 it, as it was to him who received it. It presents an in 
 stance of pure and enlightened benevolence on the one 
 side, and of liberal gratitude on the other, which, I fear, 
 has few parallels in the ecclesiastical annals of Ireland. 
 
 Berkeley s was one of those rare minds, which, by the 
 alchemy of true genius, can transmute and ennoble all 
 that they touch. In his Queries proposed for the good of 
 Ireland, he incidentally laid open many new and inte 
 resting views in the then uncultivated science of political 
 economy; and all his writings on ephemeral subjects are 
 marked with that sure indication of an elevated mind, 
 the habit of referring objects of local or transitory interest 
 to those broad grounds of general reason and conscience, 
 without the frequent contemplation of which, says he. a 
 man may indeed be a thriving earthworm, but he will 
 prove but a sorry patriot. Whatever may be the result 
 of his arguments upon any point, it is impossible to follow 
 him through his chain of reasoning without being in 
 structed and improved. In this respect as in some others, 
 he resembled Warburton. In every investigation, to 
 which these acute, intrepid, and excursive reasoners ap 
 plied their powerful minds, they continually struck out 
 brilliant thoughts and frequent flashes of light, even where 
 they failed in the ultimate object of their labours.* But 
 Berkely was very superior to the dogmatic "Lord of pa- 
 radoxal land," in the perfect candour and good faith with 
 which he maintains his opinions, and still more in the 
 beautiful moral colouring he always gives to his learning 
 
 * Berkeley s tract on the doctrine of Passive Obedience, which he 
 wrote when very youhg, is a strong example of this. He is, most 
 clearly, wrong in his conclusions, and yet, few discussions on abstract 
 politics abound with so many acute remarks and original views. 
 
52 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and his argument, and in the consequent moral effect on 
 the mind of his reader. For it was the unceasing aim 
 of all his philosophy "gently to unbind the ligaments 
 which chain the soul to the earth, and to assist her flight 
 upwards towards the Sovereign Good."* 
 
 He died at Oxford, in 1763, in his seventy-third year. 
 His epitaph in the cathedral church of that city, deserves 
 to be cited for the dignified and concise elegance with 
 which it records his praise.t 
 
 On a stone, over his grave, is the often quoted line of 
 Pope, 
 
 " To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven;" 
 
 and above it, after his names and titles, 
 
 Viro 
 
 Seu ingenii et eruditionis laudem 
 
 Seu probitatis et beneficentiae spectemus, 
 
 Inter primes omnium aetatum niimerando. 
 
 Si Christianus fueris, 
 
 Si amans patriae, 
 
 Utroque nomine gaudere potes 
 
 BERKELEIUM VIXISSE. 
 
 The mention of Bishop Berkeley s encouragement of 
 learning in this country, recalls the name of a still more 
 munificent patron of our literature. 
 
 Thomas Hollis, " an Englishman, a lover of liberty," 
 
 * Siris. 
 
 f It is ascribed to the late Archbishop Markham, then head master 
 of Westminster school. For the other facts respecting Berkeley s Life 
 and Writings, see Berkeley s Works, with Life and Correspondence 
 prefixed, 2 vols. 4to. London. Also, Biographia Britannica, article 
 Berkeley. And with respect to his university, and the influence of his 
 visit on the learning of America. Chandler s Life of President Johnson. 
 Clap s History of Yale College. Trumbull s History of Connecticut, 
 vol. II. chap. 12. Miller s Retrospect, II. 349. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 53 
 
 as he was wont to style himself, inherited an ample for 
 tune at an early age. From his boyhood he was grave, 
 studious, and austere, and as his mind unfolded itself, the 
 patriot passion took entire possession of his breast. 
 
 "When a boy at school," said he, "I used to rob na 
 ture of her rest to read Plutarch, honest Plutarch, and to 
 read again the lives of his heroes; and to him I owe, I 
 willingly confess, the finest dispositions of my mind." 
 
 This admiration of the heroes of ancient liberty, natu 
 rally led him to the study of the republican writers of 
 England, among whom, Milton and Algernon Sidney 
 soon became his prime favourites. He was inflamed with 
 an almost idolatrous admiration of the learned imagina 
 tion, the lofty sentiment, and moral wisdom of Milton ; 
 of the manly and simple, yet stately, A loquence of Sidney ; 
 and of the republican ardour of both. In endeavouring 
 to assimilate his mind to these great models, he contracted 
 some of the hard and stern features of their character. 
 At least, it is observable, that his indignation against the 
 wrong doer was generally more forcibly expressed than 
 his sympathy for the wronged ; and he was too ready 
 and bitter in imputing selfish or slavish motives to men 
 of as pure intentions as his own.* 
 
 He was besides a little tinctured with that exaggera- 
 
 * I allude, among other instances of the same sort, to his constant vi 
 tuperation of the good Dr. Seeker. I presume that it was on this ac 
 count that Mrs. Carter (Boswell s Johnson, III. 220.) censured him for 
 uncharitableness, and justly. But she erred herself in the same way, in 
 calling Hollis an atheist. 
 
 Hollis was not an atheist, nor had he any tendency, as Johnson said, 
 " to exuberate into an atheist." He was a devout man, though, like 
 Milton, he belonged to no sect, and attended no form of public worship : 
 but was, as Btirnet says of Sidney, " a Christian after a way of his 
 own." 
 
54 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tion of thought and artificial manner which usually ac 
 company a professed and studious imitation of any indi 
 vidual model, however excellent it may be. 
 
 Nevertheless, his zeal was always honest and always 
 well directed, and it may be said of him, in the Miltonic 
 language he loved, 
 
 all his mind was set 
 
 Serious to learn and know, and thence t6 do 
 What might be public good; himself he thought 
 Born to that end, born, to promote all truth, 
 And righteous things. 
 
 He despised all the parade of life, and indulged him 
 self in none of those luxuries or amusements common to 
 men of fortune, but devoted nearly the whole of his large 
 revenue to objects of public utility. The narrative of 
 his life is little more than a recital of a long series of libe 
 ral and public-spirited benefactions, either for the relief or 
 encouragement of meritorious individuals, or for the pro 
 motion of what he judged to be the most valuable inte 
 rests of mankind. He dedicated his literary talent and 
 and his taste in the fine arts to the same end.* " My 
 purpose," said he, speaking of one of his undertakings, 
 but, in truth, describing them all, "is to illustrate and sup- 
 
 * The splendid quarto edition of the Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, 
 (published by his nephew, T. B. Hollis,) is filled with engravings from 
 original drawings and portraits, which Hollis had published or distri 
 buted during his life. 
 
 These were designed and executed under his immediate inspection, 
 at his own expense, and from his own ideas, sometimes to encourage 
 and bring into notice a meritorious artist, or sometimes to spread or re 
 vive the fame of some favourite hero or author. They are all very cre 
 ditable to his taste in the arts. I do not rate his literary talent so high ; 
 but his style, though it is too affectedly antiquated, smacks of the ele 
 vation and grave dignity of Milton and Sidney. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 55 
 
 port Liberty, to preserve the memory of its champions, 
 to make tyranny and its abettors odious, to extend sci 
 ence and art, and to keep alive the honour and estima 
 tion of their patrons ; and if such should be the fitness 
 of things, to propagate the same benevolent spirit to pos 
 terity." 
 
 One of his most usual modes of carrying these gene 
 rous designs into effect, was the publication and distribu 
 tion, at his own expense, of valuable books. Besides re- 
 publishing in this way most of the classical writers of old 
 English republican politics, he reprinted in England, se 
 veral of the most important American pamphlets and 
 essays, that appeared during those political discussions 
 which led to our Independence. 
 
 He selected Harvard College as the particular object 
 of his munificence in America, as his father had done 
 before him ; and for many years continued to bestow 
 upon it benefaction after benefaction, with so much judg 
 ment^, and taste, and with such princely generosity, 
 that the Hollis family may be considered as the second 
 founders of that now prosperous, wealthy and learned 
 university. 
 
 Judicious beneficence has often the power of extend 
 ing itself far into futurity. The liberality of Hollis has, 
 since his death, called forth repeated similar instances of 
 individual bounty; to which Harvard is chiefly in 
 debted for her numerous professorships and her splen 
 did Library. 
 
 Hollis died suddenly, in 1774, and it was happily and 
 truly said of him, by one of his friends, that, " at his death, 
 Liberty lost her champion, Humanity her treasurer, and 
 Charity her steward."* 
 
 * For further notices of the life and benefactions of Hollis, see Me- 
 
56 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 As we approach the period of American Independence, 
 the names of the early friends of our liberties among the 
 patriots and scholars of Great Britain crowd upon my 
 memory. I would gladly dilate upon the worth and 
 merits of many of them. I would specially wish to ex 
 press the deep respect I feel for the memory of Dr. Rich 
 ard Price, as a philosopher trained in the school of Locke, 
 but who, rising to a higher and transcendental philoso 
 phy rejected the low and false conclusions whither his 
 master s doctrines would have led him, as to the theory of 
 moral obligation, and taught us to seek the deep founda 
 tions of right and wrong, in the immutable principles of 
 eternal truth ; as the firm and bold champion of ration 
 al liberty as the ardent advocate of our independence 
 as the friend, the adviser, and the benefactor of our best 
 men and our best institutions. I would gladly speak too, 
 of the philanthropist and scholar, Granville Sharpe, and of 
 David Hartley, who, worthily sustained the honours of 
 a name made illustrious by his father s philosophy. But 
 this discourse is already so far extended beyond the ordi 
 nary limits of such compositions, that were I to indulge 
 such wishes, I should have time for little else than a mere 
 enumeration of those virtuous and wise men of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, who have, on different accounts, 
 merited the gratitude of the American people. 
 
 Indeed, such is the sympathy between that nation and 
 our own, resulting from the unity of our language and 
 literature, aud the similarity of our laws, our tastes, and 
 domestic manners, that scarce any well-directed effort to 
 enlarge the knowledge or to promote the good of man- 
 
 moirs of Thomas Hollis, 2 vols. 4to. London, said to have been com 
 piled by the once celebrated Archdeacon Blackburne, author of the 
 Confessionals. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 57 
 
 kind, can be made in either country^ without its effects 
 being instantaneously felt in the other. 
 
 Nor have we, at present, any tta ng to dread from this 
 reciprocal influence. The time has now gone by when 
 a prudent policy might well look with suspicion upon 
 every thing which tended to impair the individuality of 
 our national character. It may have been wise to guard 
 the infancy of the nation from foreign corruptions, even 
 at the expense of foreign arts and learning. But we 
 have now risen into the manhood of our existence ; and 
 whether we look to the past or the future, every thing 
 conspires to animate us with the proud consciousness of 
 our independence. We may now gather without fear, 
 the fruits of British industry and genius. Theirs is a li 
 terature, rich and pure beyond example; theirs is the ri 
 pened wisdom of centuries, treasured up in the works of 
 Jurists, Divines, Philosophers and Patriots. If we are 
 but true to ourselves, that wisdom and that literature are 
 our own, unmixed with any of the baser matter, where 
 with power, prejudice, and corruption, have too often al 
 loyed the pure gold. 
 
 But we have, also, debts of gratitude to acknowledge 
 in other quarters. 
 
 We have no cause to blush for any part of our origi 
 nal descent, and least of all for our Dutch Ancestry. The 
 colony of New Amersterdam, was founded by Holland, 
 at a time when that nation had just sprung into political 
 existence, after a long, bloody, and most glorious struggle 
 against civil and religious tyranny, during which all the 
 energies of patriotism, courage, and talents, had been 
 suddenly and splendidly developed. 
 
58 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 And shall we not proclaim, 
 That blood of honest fame 
 Which no tyranny could tame 
 By its chain ? * 
 
 After having beaten down and broken for ever the co 
 lossal power of the Spanish monarchy, the Dutch republic 
 continued, for nearly a century, to hold the balance of 
 European politics with a strong and steady hand; and 
 when the rest of the continent crouched under the me 
 naces, and the English court was bought by the gold of 
 France, she stood alone and undaunted, defending the 
 liberties of the world with a perseverance and self-devo 
 tion never surpassed by any nation. During the same 
 period she had served the cause of freedom and reason, 
 in another and much more effectual manner, by breaking 
 down the old aristocratic contempt for the mercantile cha 
 racter; and her merchants, while they amazed the world 
 by an exhibition of the wonderful effects of capital and 
 credit, directed by sagacity and enterprise, and operating 
 on a vaster scale than had ever before been seen, shamed 
 the poor prejudices of their age out of countenance by a 
 high-minded and punctilious honesty., before which, the 
 more lax commercial morality of our own times and coun 
 try should stand rebuked. 
 
 It was about this same remarkable period of her his 
 tory, that Holland produced many of the most illustrious 
 men of modern Europe. There are no greater names in 
 politics and arms, than Barneveldt and Dewitt, than 
 Trompt and De Ruyter, than Prince Maurice and the 
 Williams of Orange none more conspicuous in letters 
 
 * Allston. 
 
 t Most English writers call him Van Tromp : this is an error. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 59 
 
 and philosophy than those of Erasmus, Grotius, and 
 Boerhaave. In physical and mathematical science, with 
 the single exception of the discoveries of Newton and Ga 
 lileo, more had been done in Holland than in any other 
 nation of Europe. It was there that were invented the 
 most important and useful instruments of Natural Philo 
 sophy ; the telescope, by Jansen ; the microscope and the 
 thermometer, by Drebell;* the micrometer, and the pen 
 dulum, in its application to clocks, and as a standard of 
 measure, by Huyghens ; and the Ley den Phial, by Cu- 
 neus and Muschenbroek. It was there that an arch of 
 the meridian was for the first time accurately measured.! 
 The Medical School of Leyden, in the time of Boerhaave 
 and his immediate successors, was what that of Edin 
 burgh has since become. In ancient literature, the scho 
 lars of Holland effected all that learning and industry 
 could accomplish, and prepared the way for that very in 
 genious and philosophical investigation of the principles 
 of language which has since been so successfully culti 
 vated in the Dutch Universities, by Schultens, Hemers- 
 tuis, Valckenear, and Hoogeven. Her Jurists were the 
 expounders of public and of civil law to the continent, 
 whilst the theologians of the whole Protestant world en 
 tered into the controversies of the Dutch divines, and had 
 ranked themselves, on either side, under the banners of 
 Gomar or Arminius. 
 
 * The French Dictionnaire Historique, a work of high authority, as 
 cribes these inventions to Cornelius Drebell, a Dutch chemist, and SQ 
 too does his countryman, Muschenbroek. Few English writers on op 
 tics mention him. But whoever was the inventor of the microscope, the 
 first man who made it* an efficient instrument of science, was Leuwen- 
 hock, who was also a Dutchman. 
 
 f Between Bergen op Zoom and Alkmaer, in 1617, by Snelius, a Dutch 
 mathematician. 
 
60 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Nor were the talents of the nation exclusively dedicated 
 to the severer muses. Their vernacular literature is much 
 richer than is commonly supposed;* but the narrow li 
 mits of a language which was in its extent little more 
 than a provincial dialect, forced most of the scholars of 
 Holland to seek for fame through the medium of the other 
 cultivated languages of Europe, and of the Latin. Some 
 of the most valuable contributions to French literature,! 
 are from the pens of Dutch authors; and the most per 
 fect specimens of modern latinity, both in prose and verse, 
 are to be found in their works. Among these is to be 
 numbered a history of their own revolution, deservedly 
 esteemed one of the most perfect specimens of modern 
 historical composition, and rivalling the elegance, acute- 
 ness, and condensation of Tacitus. 
 
 Besides attaining to distinguished excellence in other 
 walks of art and taste, Holland could boast of having 
 
 * In the Royal Library of Paris, there is a collection of dramatic 
 works in the Dutch language, containing near three thousand separate 
 pieces. The works of the historian Hooft, are scarcely known out of 
 his own country; they should be made part of the common stock of 
 European literature, by a good English or French translation. Mira- 
 beau calls him the Tacitus of Holland ; and speaking of his history of 
 the Low Countries, says : " Get ouvrage reunit tous les genres de merite. 
 II est reccommendable pour 1 ezactitude des fails, fortement pense", 
 purement ecrit." Lettres aux Bataves. 
 
 f Tenhove s Family of the Medici, may be taken as one instance of 
 this out of many. It is highly and deservedly commended by Gibbon 
 for its literary and historical merit, and as remarkable for having been 
 written by the native of one country, upon the literature of another, in 
 the language of a third. 
 
 | Somewhere in the Spectator, Addison justly extols the beauty 
 and pure taste of the monuments of the gr.eat admirals in the 
 churches in Holland, and contrasts them to the absurdities and bar 
 barism of that of Sir Cloudesley Shovel and others in Westminster 
 Abbey, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 61 
 
 formed a numerous and original school of painters, who, 
 for absolute verity of representation, and powerful deli 
 neation of ordinary nature and common life, are entitled 
 to the same rank in the imitative arts, that Le Sage and 
 Smollett occupy in literature. More than this it had 
 given birth to Rembrandt, who, by carrying to their full 
 extent the power of light and shade, and the magic of 
 colouring, produced, at will, the most beautiful and the 
 most sublime effects, and is, on that account, deservedly 
 enrolled among those great masters who have augment 
 ed the power of human skill, and multiplied the means 
 of intellectual pleasure ; who have raised painting from 
 imitation into poetry, from a mechanic art to a learned 
 and liberal profession. 
 
 In their internal administration the United Provinces 
 anticipated, and in some points surpassed, the wisdom 
 and equality of our own institutions. The traveller saw 
 with admiration the land that was but yesterday rescued 
 from the ocean by human industry, now filled with busy 
 and crowded cities, and beautiful in the placid richness 
 of high cultivation ;* no sign of misery or of oppression 
 anywhere met his eye, and in all that he beheld of pri 
 vate comfort or of public magnificence he was forced to 
 acknowledge the work of liberty. 
 
 This sketch of the early glories of the Dutch republic 
 is but slight and imperfect, and yet even this must fill us 
 
 * Diderot, who visited Holland in 1773, and therefore saw it a 
 little fallen from its former glories, though still under the influence of 
 its ancient government and manners, observes, " Une des choses dont 
 on est continuellement et delicieusement touche dans toute la Hollande, 
 c est de n y recontrer, nulle part, ni la vue de la misere, ni le spectacle 
 de la tyrannic." The Dutch nation still retains many points of its an 
 cient character, but it no longer enjoys this happy exemption from the 
 ills which afflict the rest of Europe. 
 
 E* 
 
62 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 with astonishment, when we reflect that such were the 
 exploits and attainments of a people occupying a terri 
 tory not equal in extent to Maryland,* and much infe 
 rior to it in natural advantages ; and whose whole popu 
 lation did not exceed the present census of the state of 
 New- York. 
 
 These remarks ought to have been wholly unneces 
 sary in this place ; but I know not whence it is, that we 
 in this country have imbibed much of the English habit 
 of arrogance and injustice towards the Dutch character. 
 
 English writers have long been accustomed to describe 
 the peculiar manners and customs of Holland with a 
 broad and clumsy exaggeration. This is a little injudi 
 cious in them, because most of their wit, if wit it may 
 be called, recoils back upon their own country, and strik 
 ingly resembles the flippant ridicule which their own 
 more lively neighbours have lavished upon the hard 
 drinking, the oaths, the gross amusements, the dingy 
 coffee-houses, the boxing matches, the beer, and the 
 coal-smoke of the awkward and melancholy Islanders.f 
 Their old maritime contests and commercial rivalry may 
 serve to excuse this misrepresentation in Englishmen, 
 but for us there is no apology. 
 
 The subject is not a pleasing one, and I do not wish 
 to dwell upon it ; yet I cannot refrain from observing 
 two most notable instances of this spirit among English 
 writers. Dryden and the other dramatists and occasional 
 
 * The seven United Provinces were calculated to contain something 
 less than 10,000 square miles. Maryland contains 10,660. 
 
 f See, among many other instances, the pleasantry of the witty Beau- 
 marchais on these subjects in his " Marriage de Figaro," and of the 
 lively author of the " duinze Jours a Londres ;" to say nothing of the 
 gross inventions of General Fillet and others. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 63 
 
 poets of Charles II. s reign are full of sarcasms upon 
 Dutch cowardice; and yet, strange as it may seem, most 
 of these sarcasms were given to the English public about 
 the very time that London was trembling at the sound 
 of De Ruyter s cannon on the Thames, and but a few 
 years after the time when Tromp, after defeating Ad 
 miral Blake, the Nelson of that day, triumphantly swept 
 the commerce of England from the narrow seas. The 
 other instance is of later date. Almost within our own 
 memory, a learned English judge, (Sir James Marriott) 
 in a formal and laboured opinion, took occasion to sneer 
 at the treatise of Huberus, De conflictu Legum, which 
 has settled the law of the greater part of the civilized 
 world on the often litigated points of the Lex loci con- 
 tractus, as " the dull work of a Dutch school- master, 
 written in the worst Latin, and printed on the worst 
 paper he had ever seen.* 
 
 It is more "in sorrow than in anger" that I feel my 
 self compelled to add to these gross instances of national 
 injustice, an early work of a writer of our own, who is 
 justly considered one of the brightest ornaments of Ame 
 rican literature. I allude to the burlesque history of 
 New- York, in which it is painful to see a mind, as ad 
 mirable for its exquisite perception of the beautiful, as it 
 is for its quick sense of the ridiculous, wasting the riches 
 of its fancy on an ungrateful theme, and its exuberant 
 humour in a coarse caricature.t 
 
 This writer has not yet fulfilled all the promise he 
 has given to his country. It is his duty, because it is 
 in his power, to brush away the pretenders who may at 
 any time infest her society, her science, or her politics : 
 
 * Sir James Marriott s opinion in the case of the Columbus, 
 f Knickerbocker s History of New-York. 
 
64 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 or if he aspires, as I trust that he does, to strains of a 
 higher mood, the deeds of his countrymen, and the un- 
 described beauties of his native land afford him many a 
 rich subject, and he may deck the altar of his country s 
 glory with the garlands of his taste and fancy.* 
 
 How dangerous a gift is the power of ridicule ! It is 
 potent to unmask the pretender and to brand the hypo 
 crite ; yet how often has it dissipated those gay illusions 
 which beguile the rough path of life how often has it 
 chilled the glow of genius and invention how often, 
 at its dread presence, have the honest boasts of patriot 
 ism, the warm expression of piety, the generous purpose 
 of beneficence, faltered on the lips and died away in the 
 heart ! 
 
 This colony was very early separated from its mother 
 country, and grew up into wealth and importance under 
 the influence of English laws and education. During 
 the forty years for which it remained under the Dutch 
 government it was too insignificant to attract much of the 
 attention or of the talents of Holland, then engaged in 
 struggling for existence, against the ambition of France 
 and the jealousy of England. But the last Dutch go 
 vernor, Petrus Stuyvesant, who was the governor-ge 
 neral of the Dutch American possessions, was no com- 
 
 * To those who judge of "W. Irving s powers solely from his 
 satirical and ludicrous compositions, this may seem an exaggerated 
 compliment. But he has given some samples, too few and too short I 
 confess, of what he is able to effect on these topics in his graver and 
 purer style. 
 
 [The above note was written and first published about fourteen 
 years ago. It is retained in the present edition because I feel proud 
 that my judgment of the graver talent of the author of Knickerbocker 
 has been confirmed again and again, and above all by the Life of 
 Columbus. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 65 
 
 mon man. He had served with reputation in the wars 
 of the United Provinces ; and in the history of his ad 
 ministration in this country, he appears as a resolute and 
 intrepid veteran, and a vigilant, sagacious politician. 
 
 From 1674 7 when this province was finally ceded by 
 treaty to Great Britain, until 1780, when the United Pro 
 vinces arrayed themselves in our aid in the war of Inde 
 pendence, New- York had little direct communication with 
 Holland. The only intercourse then kept up, was by 
 occasional emigrations, and by a regular succession of 
 clergy educated in the Dutch universities, to whom New- 
 York was doubtless indebted for most of the little learn 
 ing which was thinly scattered over it during its colonial 
 government. But as soon as America assumed her rank 
 among the nations of the earth, our former ties of friend 
 ship and affinity were renewed. From the first dawn of 
 the revolution, popular feeling in the United Netherlands 
 began to run strongly in our favour ; and although vari 
 ous circumstances for some time delayed their formal re 
 cognition of our independence, we looked thither from the 
 first for the sinews of war. 
 
 Amongst those European friends of liberty who en 
 gaged most ardently in the cause of American Indepen 
 dence, and contributed most effectually towards its final 
 success, must be named the late Professor Luzac, of Ley- 
 den ; who, though long esteemed and loved by several of 
 our greatest men, is little known among us, and has never 
 received from the people of this country the honour justly 
 due to his disinterested attachment, his zeal, and his im 
 portant services. 
 
 John Luzac was born at Leyden in 1746. He was a 
 son of the teamed printer of the same name, who esta 
 blished and for many years published the celebrated Ley- 
 
66 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 den Gazette. He completed his course of study at the 
 university of his native town with much reputation, and 
 was particularly distinguished for his acquirements in the 
 mathematics and the learned languages. He then ap 
 plied himself to the law as his future profession, and com 
 menced his career at the bar with the most brilliant pro 
 mise. But after some time, he was induced to relinquish 
 these prospects in order to take charge of the Leyden Ga 
 zette, This journal, under his care, soon became equally 
 celebrated for the elegance of its style, the accuracy of its 
 information, and for the comprehension, penetration, bold 
 ness, and correctness of its political views. There is not 
 at this day any publication here or abroad which affords 
 an exact parallel to this gazette, either as it respects ex 
 tent of circulation or influence upon public opinion. Most 
 of the presses of the continent were then under a rigid 
 censorship, and had entirely forfeited public confidence 
 on all, political siiujeCiS., This paper, issuing frcm a, freo 
 country, the very centre of political and commercial in 
 formation, and written in French, the universal language 
 of all who then aspired to speak or write on political mat 
 ters, acquired a reputation for extent and accuracy of 
 knowledge and independence of opinion, which, without 
 the parade of literary pretension, gave it something of the 
 same kind of rank held at present by the abler British 
 reviews ; while its circulation was far more general and 
 extensive. It was in fact the general continental and di 
 plomatic journal. There was not an ambassador nor a 
 statesman in Europe who was not in the habit of reading 
 it; and it has been said that it was regularly translated 
 at Constantinople for the use of the Divan. Its files are 
 still frequently referred to as affording the most authentic 
 and ample materials of modern European history. From 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 67 
 
 1770, the younger Luzac was the sole writer of the edito 
 rial part of this journal, and without solicitation or the 
 countenance of government, he enlisted all his talents 
 and information on the side of American freedom. 
 
 The effects of his writings on this subject, upon the 
 opinions of the continent, were, of course, gradual; but 
 they were very powerful, and they were acknowledged 
 and repaid by the friendship of Franklin, Adams, and 
 Jefferson, as well as of the other official representatives of 
 our government at the several European courts. 
 
 After our independence was acknowledged, he engaged 
 with warmth in supporting against encroachment the an 
 cient constitutions, under which Holland had enjoyed so 
 much prosperity. In consequence of this he was exposed 
 to much obloquy and persecution. But his private life was 
 irreproachable, and as a politician he was incorruptible and 
 inflexible. He had no personal animosities or selfish 
 views. If he was sometimes animated, and even harsh 
 in his censure, it always arose from " the strong antipathy 
 of good to bad ;" never irom private feeling; for he had no 
 enemies but those of his country and of virtue. 
 
 His political zeal never interrupted his literary labours. 
 He was elected to two separate chairs in the university, 
 and filled with ability the professorship of history, and that 
 of Greek literature. In the latter of these he proved him 
 self worthy to be the successor of the laborious and inge 
 nious Valckenaer, of whose posthumous works he pub 
 lished an edition, to which he afterwards added an original 
 work of his own, entitled Lectiones Atticce, written in 
 the same spirit of philosophical criticism. Finally he was 
 appointed Rector or President of the University. 
 
 On his inauguration as professor, he delivered an ora 
 tion on the civic character of Socrates, " de Socrate cive;" 
 
68 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and another on his installation as rector " de Eruditione 
 altrice virtutis civilis, presertim in civitate libera," on the 
 influence of literature on public virtue. Both of these 
 orations are very remarkable for their sound and stern 
 morality, as well as for their high and truly Roman spirit 
 of liberty, and the courage with which he stigmatizes alike 
 the tyranny of the many and the few. To these dis 
 courses he prefixed a long prefatory dedication, addressed 
 to his friend John Adams, at that time Vice-President of 
 the United States. It is distinguished, among other 
 things, for a most luminous eulogy on the then recently 
 adopted constitution of the United States, In this the 
 author sums up in Ciceronian latinity. all the prominent 
 and peculiar features of our federal government, touches, 
 with acuteness and foresight, on the several dangers to 
 which it is exposed, and finally expresses his confident 
 reliance on its power to ward off those ills to which his 
 own country had fallen a prey. The merit of this dis 
 cussion is the more conspicuous, from its contrast to the 
 perplexity and confusion which surround the best informed 
 European politicians in all their speculations on our con 
 stitutions, and particularly on the division of power be 
 tween the general and state governments. 
 
 After alluding with undissembled satisfaction to some 
 literary honours he had received from America, and to 
 his personal friendship with Adams and Jefferson, Luzac 
 adds, that he recollects, with pride, that he had been in 
 vited by them, and almost persuaded, to associate his for 
 tunes, under their auspices, with those of the American 
 republic, which, says he, had I done eight years ago 
 and then, as if overpowered with the recollections of the 
 recent discords of his own country, breaks off with " sed 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 69 
 
 quid ego tecum de nostris Batavorom per sedecem annos 
 temporibus atque fatis."* 
 
 To the soundest philosophy and the most various 
 knowledge, Luzac added a simplicity and an amenity of 
 disposition and manners that gave great interest to his 
 character and conversation. One of his biographers, who 
 had been associated with him in his learned labours and 
 in his political persecution, observes of him, " I knew the 
 whole charm of his conversation ; I sometimes fancied 
 myself in the presence of one of the sages of antiquity. I 
 could then forget my exile and proscription, and felt all 
 my severe losses mitigated." 
 
 His old age was honourable and peaceful. He filled 
 his high literary offices for many years, during which he 
 kept up a constant correspondence with several of the 
 most learned men of the United States, and had the sa 
 tisfaction of assisting, in various ways, the progress of 
 learning in America. In 1807, he was killed in the ter 
 rible explosion that destroyed a great part of the city of 
 Leyden.t 
 
 History derives more than half its value from the mo 
 ral parallels and contrasts which it suggests. It is a sin 
 gular coincidence of this sort, that between the years 1682 
 and 1 688, at the very time that William Perm, the gen 
 tlest and purest of all rulers, was rendering his name for 
 ever illustrious, by establishing, in America, a refuge for 
 the wretched and oppressed of the whole earth, Louis 
 XIV., one of the most gorgeous and heartless of sove- 
 
 * Luzac, Orationes, 4to. Lugd. Bat. 1795. 
 
 f For the above facts, see Luzac s Opuscula, and an account of hi* 
 life originally printed at Paris, in the Journal de V Empire, in 1807; a 
 translation of which is published in the Boston Anthology, for October, 
 1809. 
 
 P 
 
70 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 reigns, was delivering up three hundred thousand fami 
 lies of his protestant subjects to the atrocious tyranny of 
 the fanatical Le Tellier, and the sanguinary Louvois ; 
 and by his ambition of universal empire abroad, and his 
 bigotry and ostentation at home, was preparing for 
 France those calamities that have since fallen upon her. 
 The Huguenots were the most moral, industrious, and 
 intelligent part of the French population, and when they 
 were expelled from their native country, they enriched 
 all Europe with the commerce and arts of France. Many 
 of the more enterprising of them, finding themselves shut 
 out, by the narrow policy of the French court, from Lou 
 isiana, where they had proposed to found a colony, turned 
 their course to New- York and to South Carolina, where 
 they soon melted into the mass of the population. 
 
 Certainly we cannot wish to see perpetuated among us 
 the old Asiatic and European notions of indelible heredi 
 tary excellence : equally wild are those theories of a fan 
 tastical philosophy, which would resolve all the intellec 
 tual and moral qualities of man into accidental physical 
 causes. But surely there is a point where good feeling 
 and sound philosophy can meet, arid agree in ascribing 
 the best parts of our character to the moral influence of a 
 virtuous and intelligent ancestry. 
 
 Considering the subject in this light, we may well look 
 back, with pride, to our Huguenot forefathers. The mo 
 dern historians of France have rarely done them full jus 
 tice. The decline which the loss of their industry and 
 arts caused in the commerce of their own country, and 
 the sudden increase of wealth and power which England 
 and Holland derived from thrn, are sufficient proofs that 
 their general character was such as I have described. 
 
HTSTORICAL DISCOURSE. 71 
 
 Nor are they to be regarded solely as prosperous mer 
 chants, and laborious and frugal artizans. 
 
 The French character never appeared with more true 
 lustre than it did in the elder Protestants. Without 
 stopping to expatiate in the praise of their divines and 
 scholars, Calvin, Beza, Salmasius, and the younger Sca- 
 liger; Claude, Jurieu, Amylraut, and Saurin, nor on 
 those of Sully, the brave, the wise, the incorruptible, the 
 patriotic ; I shall only observe, that though his own coun 
 trymen have been negligent of his glory, and rather 
 choose to rest the fame of French chivalry on their Du- 
 nois, their Bayard, their Du Guesclein, and their Cril- 
 lon, we may search their history in vain for a parallel to 
 that beautiful union of the intrepid soldier with the pro 
 found scholar, of the adroit politician with the man of 
 unbending principle, of the rigid moralist and the ac 
 complished gentleman, which is to be found in the life of 
 the Huguenot chief, Mornai Du Plessis.* 
 
 Many of those who emigrated to this country, after the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes, were the companions, 
 the sons, or the disciples of these men, and they brought 
 hither a most valuable accession of intelligence, knowl 
 edge, and enterprise. 
 
 From that time, political circumstances cut us off from 
 all further intercourse with France, until the period of 
 our revolution. There are, indeed, in the history of 
 Louisiana and of Canada, some fine incidents of mag 
 nanimity, courage, and philantnropy, honourable to the 
 French character. On these I could dilate with pleasure ; 
 
 * Du Plessis is very conspicuous in all the histories and memoirs of 
 his time ; but the best account of his private character is, "Crusii Sin- 
 gularia Plessiaca, seu memorabilia de vita et meritis Philippi Mornoei 
 de Plessis." 8vo. Hamburg, 1724. 
 
72 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 were it not that I have already expatiated far beyond the 
 bounds I had prescribed to myself. 
 
 But I should do injustice to the gratitude of my coun 
 try, if, in commemorating her benefactors, I should omit 
 to pay some honour to the memory of Louis XVI. Our 
 distance from the factions, animosities, and interests of 
 Europe, enables us to place ourselves, as it were, in the 
 situation of posterity ; and this republic is as yet the only 
 land in which that much injured sovereign can receive 
 an honest and unprejudiced eulogium. Let us then lose 
 no opportunity of anticipating the justtee of history 
 towards the man, who, in the words of our old congress, 
 "was raised up by a gracious Providence to be our 
 friend," and who, as the same venerated body repeated at 
 the peace of 1783, "enabled us to close the war on an 
 honourable and firm foundation, in freedom, safety, and 
 independence." 
 
 Indeed, it is impossible to express the weight of our 
 obligations to him, better or more strongly than in the 
 very words of the men of the revolution. In a memora 
 ble and eloquent state-paper, written by John Dickinson, 
 and signed as President by John Jay, addressed by the 
 unanimous consent of congress to the several states, they 
 thus speak: "The corjduct of our good and great ally 
 towards us, has so fully manifested his sincerity arid kind 
 ness, as to excite on our parts, corresponding sentiments 
 of confidence and affection. Observing the interests of 
 his kingdom to be connected with those of America, and 
 the combination of both clearly to coincide with the be- 
 nifioent designs of the Author of nature, who unquestion 
 ably intended men to partake of certain rights and por 
 tions of happiness, his majesty perceived the attainment 
 of these views to be founded on the single proposition of 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 73 
 
 a separation between America and Great Britain. The 
 resentment and confusion of your enemies, will point out 
 to you the ideas you should entertain of the magnanimi 
 ty and consummate wisdom of his most Christian Ma 
 jesty on this occasion. They perceive, that selecting this 
 grand and just idea from all those specious ones that 
 might have confused or misled inferior judgment and 
 virtue ; and, satisfied with the advantage that must re 
 sult from that event alone, he has cemented the harmony 
 between himself and these states, not only by establish 
 ing a reciprocity of benefits, but by eradicating every 
 cause of jealousy or suspicion. They also perceive, with 
 similar emotions, that the moderation of our ally, in not 
 desiring an acquisition of dominion on this continent, or 
 an exclusion of other nations from a share of its com 
 mercial ad ventages, has given no alarm to those nations, 
 but has, in fact, interested them in the accomplishment 
 of his generous undertaking,"* 
 
 Nor is there any thing in the after-life of Louis to in 
 duce republicans to revoke these praises. 
 
 The French revolution has not yet found an historian 
 uniting entire freedom from the influence of party zeal 
 and prejudice to true feeling, commanding talents and 
 extended views. When hereafter its Tacitus shall arise, 
 what subjects will it afford for his philosophy and for his 
 eloquence ! Virtue and vice mixed in mad confusion ; 
 the basest passions and the noblest feelings, on all sides, 
 and often in the same breast, struggling together for the 
 mastery. France made glorious in a thousand hard- 
 fought fields by the universal and unrivalled valour of 
 
 * " Address of Congress on the present situation of affairs," 26th of 
 May. 1779. Dickinson s Political works, II. 53; 
 
74 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Frenchmen France rendered up a trembling 1 victim to 
 tyrant after tyrant, by the universal cowardice of French 
 men. The female character in its greatest elevation and 
 in its deepest depravity Woman, now dreadful with 
 fiend-like intelligence and malignity, and now, exalted 
 into more than Roman heroism by higher principles than 
 Pagan antiquity ever knew. 
 
 Throughout the long and dreadful narrative, the his 
 torian will never lose sight of the meek and steady virtues 
 of the patriot king. He will describe him. in early 
 youth, in the midst of a corrupt and sensual court, form 
 ing his conscience and regulating his life by the mild 
 and holy precepts of Fenelon ;* surrounded by bigoted or 
 heartless politicians, yet glowing with affection for his 
 people, and eagerly co-operating with the virtuous Tur- 
 got and other enlightened friends of freedom in reform 
 ing old abuses and lightening the burthen of his sub 
 jects. He will relate, that he staked every thing on 
 this vast and bold experiment of regulated liberty and 
 representative government ; and at last voluntarily offer 
 ed up his life in that cause rather than purchase it at the 
 expense of the blood of his countrymen. He will pour- 
 tray him, as the danger thickened, summoning all his 
 virtues to his heart, and rising greater and greater in the 
 hour of calamity. 
 
 Finally, the historian will paint the sorrows and the 
 consolations of his prison or rather, he will tell that 
 touching story in the plain words of those who saw and 
 loved him to the last:t and then, as he follows the king 
 
 *The "Directions for the conscience of a King," was the favourite 
 book of Louis XVI. 
 t Malesherbes, Clery, Abbe Edgeworth, and others. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 75 
 
 to the place of his death, accompanied by his last and 
 faithful friend, the venerable Abbe Edgeworth, he will 
 insensibly catch that good man s pious enthusiasm, and 
 with him, forgetting the wrongs of the patriot and tlie 
 sorrows of the husband and the father, in his veneration 
 of the saint and the martyr, he will exclaim at the foot 
 of the scaffold, " Go, Son of St. Louis, ascend to 
 Heaven." " Montez. Fils de iSt. Louis, tnonlez an 
 del." 
 
 As I have advanced, I find my subject widening upon 
 me on every side. It is true that few European names 
 are to be found to which we owe so large a debt of public 
 gratitude, as we do to those characters of surpassing ex 
 cellence, I have already attempted to portray. 
 
 Yet were I to add to this catalogue of the illustrious 
 dead, the names of our still living European benefactors 
 I should find materials for volumes. I might speak of 
 Lafayette, the model of republican chivalry, the hero of 
 three revolutions, of two centuries, and of both hemis 
 pheres. Yet why should I now add my feeble voice to 
 the full chorus of a nation s praise? I might speak also 
 of other excellent men abroad, who have largely contri 
 buted to promote the science, the morals, the liberties of 
 this land as dear to them as their own. 
 
 Indeed, in later years, there is scarce a single individu 
 al who has obtained a place in history, by his virtues as 
 well as by his talents, who has not, at some period of 
 his life, been ambitious of deserving the esteem of the 
 American people. In this point of view, our history is 
 rich indeed. It has not, like the history of the old world, 
 the charm of classical or romantic associations, and it 
 
76 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 bends itself with difficulty and without grace, to the pur 
 poses of poetry and fiction. But in ethical instruction, in 
 moral dignity, it has no equal. 
 
 The study of the history of most other nations, fills 
 the mind with sentiments not unlike those which the 
 American traveller feels on entering the venerable and 
 lofty cathedral of some proud old city of Europe. Its 
 solemn grandeur, its vastness, its obscurity, strike awe to 
 his heart. From the richly painted windows, filled with 
 sacred emblems and strange antique forms, a dim reli 
 gious light falls around. A thousand recollections of ro 
 mance and poetry, and legendary story, come thronging 
 in upon him. He is surrounded by the tombs of the 
 mighty dead, rich with the labours of ancient art, and 
 emblazoned with the pomp of heraldry. 
 
 What names does he read upon them? Those of 
 princes and nobles Avho are now remembered only for 
 their vices: and of sovereigns, at whose death no tears 
 were shed, and whose memories lived not an hour in the 
 affections of their people. There, too, he sees other 
 names, long familiar to him for their guilty or ambigu 
 ous fame. There rest, the blood-stained soldier of for 
 tune the orator, who was ever the ready apologist of 
 tyranny great scholars, who were the pensioned flat 
 terers of power and poets, who profaned the high gift 
 of genius, to pamper the vices of a corrupted court. 
 
 Our own history, on the contrary, like that poetical 
 temple of fame, reared by the imagination of Chaucer, 
 and decorated by the taste of Pope, is almost exclusively 
 dedicated to the memory of the truly great. Or rather, 
 like the Pantheon of Rome, it stands in calm and severe 
 beauty amid the ruins of ancient magnificence and 4( the 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 77 
 
 toys of modern state." Within, no idle ornament en 
 cumbers its bold simplicity. The pure light of heaven 
 enters from above and sheds an equal and serene ra 
 diance around. As the eye wanders about its extent, it 
 beholds the unadorned monuments of brave and good 
 men who have greatly bled or toiled for their country, or 
 it rests on votive tablets inscribed with the names of the 
 best benefactors of mankind. 
 
 Hie manus, ob patriam pugnando, volnera passi, 
 duique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat, 
 Ctuique pii rates, et Phoeb*o digna locuti, 
 Inventas attt qui vitam excoluere per artes, 
 duique sui memores, alios fecere merendo.* 
 
 Doubtless, this is a subject upon which we may be 
 justly proud. But there is another consideration, which, 
 if it did not naturally arise of itself, would be pressed 
 upon us by the taunts of European criticism. 
 
 What has this nation done to repay the world for the 
 benefits we have received from others ? We have been 
 repeatedly told, and sometimes, too, in a tone of affected 
 impartiality, that the highest praise which can fairly be 
 given to the American mind, is that of possessing an en 
 lightened selfishness; that if the philosophy and talents 
 of this country, with all their effects, were for ever swept 
 into oblivion, the loss would be felt only by ourselves ; 
 and that if to the accuracy of this general charge, the 
 
 *Patriots are here, in Freedom s battles slain, 
 Priests, whose long lives were closed without a stain, 
 Bards worthy him who breathed the the poet s mind, 
 Founders of arts that dignify mankind, 
 And lovers of our race, whose labours gave 
 Their names a memory that defies the grave. 
 
 VIRGIL From the MS. of Bryant. 
 
78 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 labours of Franklin present an illustrious, it is still but a 
 solitary exception. 
 
 The answer may be given, confidently and triumph 
 antly. Without abandoning the fame of our eminent 
 men, whom Europe has been slow and reluctant to ho 
 nour, we would reply ; that the intellectual power of this 
 people has exerted itself in conformity to the general sys 
 tem of our institutions and mariners ; and therefore, that 
 for the proof of its existence and the measure of its force, 
 we must look not so much to the works of prominent 
 individuals, as to the great aggregate results; and if Eu 
 rope has hitherto been wilfully blind to the value of our 
 example and the exploits of our sagacity, courage, in 
 vention, and freedom, the -blame must rest with her, and 
 not with America. 
 
 Is it nothing for the universal good of mankind to have 
 carried into successful operation a system of self-govern 
 ment, uniting personal liberty, freedom of opinion, and 
 equality of rights, with national power and dignity ; such 
 as had before existed only in the Utopian dreams of 
 philosophers ? It is nothing, in moral science, to have 
 anticipated in sober reality, numerous plans of reform in 
 civil and criminal jurisprudence, which are, but now, 
 received as plausible theories by the politicians and eco 
 nomists of Europe ? Is it nothing to have been able to 
 call forth on every emergency, either in war or peace, a 
 body of talents always equal to the difficulty? Is it 
 nothing to have, in less than half a century, exceedingly 
 improved the sciences of political economy, of law, and 
 of medicine, with all their auxiliary branches ; to have 
 enriched human knowledge by the accumulation of a 
 great mass of useful facts and observations, and to have 
 augmented the power and the comforts of civilized man, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 79 
 
 by miracles of mechanical invention ? Is it nothing to 
 have given the world examples of disinterested patriot 
 ism, of political wisdom, of public virtue ; of learning, 
 eloquence, and valour, never exerted save for some praise 
 worthy end ? It is sufficient to have briefly suggested 
 these considerations ; every mind would anticipate me 
 in filling up the details. 
 
 No Land of Liberty ! thy children have no cause to 
 blush for thee. What though the arts have reared few 
 monuments among us, and scarce a trace of the Muse s 
 footstep is found in the paths of our forests, or along the 
 banks of our rivers ; yet our soil has been consecrated by 
 the blood of heroes, and by great and holy deeds of 
 peace. Its wide extent has become one vast temple and 
 hallowed asylum, sanctified by the prayers and blessings 
 of the persecuted of every sect, and the wretched of all 
 nations. 
 
 Land of Refuge Land of Benedictions ! Those 
 prayers still arise, and they still are heard: "May peace 
 be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy pala 
 ces !" " May there be no decay, no leading into captivi 
 ty, and no complaining in thy streets !" " May truth 
 flourish out of the earth, and righteousness look down 
 from Heaven." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TO THE HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 No. I p. 1720 and 2527. 
 
 THE authority of Dr. Robertson, as an historian, has been 
 impeached by various writers, and particularly by the Abbe 
 Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, who charges him with 
 having, in his account of that country, misrepresented some 
 points, and mistaken others. Without entering into this con 
 troversy, it is, I think, pretty evident that Dr. Robertson al 
 ways writes for popular effect, and thus very frequently, 
 without any intention of disguising the truth, discolours it by 
 his endeavour to make the narrative striking and picturesque. 
 
 There is an instance of this, which I believe has never been 
 pointed out, and as it has reference to one of the subjects of 
 the preceding discourse, may be properly noticed in this place. 
 In his account of the banishment of Roger Williams, (Histo 
 ry of America, Book X.) he states that " Williams having 
 conceived an antipathy to the cross of St. George in the stand 
 ard of England, declaimed against it with so much vehe 
 mence as a relic of superstition and idolatry which ought not 
 to be retained among a people so pure and sanctified, that En- 
 dicott, one of the members of the Court of Assistants, pub 
 licly cut the cross from the ensign displayed before the Gover 
 nor s gate. This frivolous matter interested and divided the 
 colony. After a long controversy, carried on by both parties 
 with that heat and zeal which in trivial disputes supply the 
 want of argument, the contest was terminated by a compro 
 mise. The cross was retained in the ensigns of courts and 
 
 a 
 
04 APPENDIX. 
 
 ships, but erased from the colours of militia, Williams, on 
 account of this, as well as of some other doctrines deemed 
 unsound, was banished out of the colony." It is indeed true 
 that an absurd controversy, such as Dr. Robertson here des 
 cribes, existed about this period. But it formed no part what 
 ever of the grounds on which Williams was banished, and 
 instead of his being, as here represented, the hero of the con 
 troversy, Cotton Mather expressly states, that " in this differ 
 ence he (Williams) was indeed but obliquely and remotely 
 concerned !" Magnalia Americana, Book VII. Chap. 9, 
 The other chief authorities, on Williams history, are silent on 
 the subject. The truth seems to be, that this objection to the 
 flag was rather an inference which Endicott drew from his 
 pastor s discourses, than any formal discussion of the subject 
 by Williams. Endicott was a man of some talents, but very 
 extravagant in many of his notions, and likely to run into 
 any violence of this sort, of his own head. It was he, who 
 several years after, made a public declaration against wigs, 
 " as a thing uncivil and unmanly, whereby men do deform 
 themselves, and offend sober and modest persons, and do cor 
 rupt good manners." The story of the colours is amusing, 
 and Robertson finding it told in connexion with the rest of 
 Roger Williams history, without stopping, as a philosophical 
 historian should have done, to investigate the character of 
 this father of religious liberty, willingly took the opportuni 
 ty of enlivening his pages with a pleasant anecdote. 
 
 His building up the charge against Las Casas, of introdu 
 cing negro slavery into America, upon a sort of obiter dictum 
 of Herrera, probably arose from the same cause. Las Ca- 
 sas s inconsistency of character told well in the narrative, 
 and gave the historian an air of acute discrimination ; so 
 that he was willing to adopt the story, without any very rigid 
 investigation, and in relating it, naturally tinged it with the 
 colours of his own picturesque imagination. 
 
 Herrera s words, are these : 
 
 " El licenciado Bart, de las Casas viendoque sus concetos 
 hallavan en todas partes dificultad, y que las opiniones que 
 tenia por mucha familiaridad que avia conseguido y gran 
 
APPENDIX. 83 
 
 credito con el gran Canciller no podian aver efeto, se bolvio a 
 otros espedientes, procurando que, a los Castellanos que vi- 
 vian en las Indias, se diesse saca de negros, para que con el- 
 los en las grangieras en las minas fuessen los Indios mas ali- 
 viados : y que se procurasse de levanter buen numero de la- 
 bradores que passassen a ella con ciertas libertades y condi- 
 tiones que puso." Herrera, Historia de las Indias Occiden- 
 tales, dec. 11. Z. 2. cap. 20. 
 
 " The licentiate Bathelemey Las Casas, seeing that his plans 
 met with difficulties on every side, and that the expectations 
 he had founded on his great intimacy with the Grand Chan 
 cellor, and the high credit he had with him, were likely to 
 come to nothing, turned himself to other expedients, such as 
 the procuring for the CastiJians who resided in the Indies, 
 an importation of negroes, so that by their help the labours 
 of the Indians, in working the ground and the mines, might 
 be alleviated; and also the procuring of a good number of 
 labouring people, who should be induced to emigrate by the 
 grant of certain liberties and privileges," &c. 
 
 The writers who, without direct reference to this question, 
 impeach the general credit of Herrera, are the Dutch historian 
 Johannes De Laet, and his own countrymen Solis and Tor- 
 quemada. The last is author of the Monarchia Indiana, and 
 is considered the most accurate writer that we have on the 
 affairs of Spanish America, where he resided for the greater 
 part of his life. Munoz also, in the preface to his history of 
 the New World, though he palliates the crimes of his coun 
 trymen, and charges Las Casas with exaggeration on the sub 
 ject, yet accuses Herrera of relating doubtful traditions as 
 certain facts, of writing with careless haste, and adding or 
 omitting according to his own caprices or prejudices. 
 
 I have said in the preceding pages that Las Casas had the 
 satisfaction of having called forth the testimony of the better 
 spirits of his nation against persecution and bigotry. The 
 chief names which Gregoire gives, as worthy of being thus 
 honourably associated with that of Las Casas, (besides the 
 two universities of Salamanca and Alcala in their corporate 
 capacities,) are Francisco de Vittoria, (a writer frequently cit- 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 ed by Grotius,) Antonio Ramirez, who publicly refuted Se- 
 pulveda, Garces, Bishop of Tlascala, Avendanno, who wrote 
 largely against slavery, and defended the cause of the negroes 
 as well as of the Indians, and above all the Dominicans; Petro 
 de Cordova and Antonio de Montesino. 
 
 Rise, Muse of history, lend your tuneful breath 
 These must not sleep in darkness and in death. 
 
 While these pages were printing, I have unexpectedly met 
 with a very strong corroboration of the facts stated by Gre- 
 goire in support of the argument-urn negans, drawn from the 
 silence of competent witnesses. It is in the review of " Stewart s 
 Introduction to the Encyclopedia," contained in a late number 
 of the Edinburgh Review, which from the internal evidence af 
 forded by the splendour and variety of its style, and the remark 
 able knowledge of the history of metaphysical, ethical, and 
 political science displayed in it, I should assign to the pen of 
 Sir James Mackintosh. 
 
 In vindicating the right of the early writers on Inter-nation 
 al Law to a much higher rank than Mr. Stewart has allowed 
 them, the reviewer observes, " Francis de St. Victoria seems 
 to have been the first man who acquired reputation by this 
 study. He died a professor of Salamanca, in 1546. His 
 works we never have been able to procure. Of his scholar, 
 Dominic Soto, we can speak with greater certainty, having 
 perused his work " De Justitia et Jure." His book, the sub 
 stance of lectures long delivered at Salamanca, was published 
 there in J460. It is a work which contains many symptoms 
 of the improvements arising from the revival of letters, which 
 had penetrated into the Spanish schools. It ought not to be 
 forgotten, for the honour of these now forgotten jurists, that 
 Victoria condemned the wars then waged by his countrymen 
 against the Americans, under the pretext, or even for the pur 
 pose of spreading Christianity; and that Soto decided against 
 the lawfulness of enslaving the same unhappy tribes, in a dis 
 pute on that subject between Sepulveda and Las Casas, of 
 which the decision was left by the Emperor to him. What is 
 still more remarkable^ Dominic Soto was the first writer who 
 
APPENDIX. 85 
 
 condemned the African slave trade, and did honour to his 
 new science by employing its principles for the reprobation 
 of that system of guilt and misery which his countrymen 
 now almost singly strive to prolong. " If the report," says he, 
 "which has lately prevailed, be true, that Portuguese traders 
 entice the wretched natives of Africa to the coast by amuse 
 ments and presents, and every species of seduction and fraud, 
 and compel them to embark in their ships as slaves, neither 
 those who have taken them, nor those who buy them from the 
 takers, nor those who possess them, can have safe consciences, 
 until they manumit these slaves, however unable they may be 
 to pay ransom. Soto de Justitia et Jure." 
 
 Now it appears morally impossible, that a writer who had 
 thus treated these two questions, of Indian and African slave 
 ry, and who had been an umpire in the controversy between 
 Las Casas and Sepulveda, should not have made some allusion 
 to the inconsistency of Las Casas, had there been any ground 
 for the charge. While on the other hand, if Las Casas, na 
 turally benevolent, was only misled "by the inconsistency 
 natural to men who hurry with headlong impetuosity towards 
 a favourite point," as Dr. Robertson supposes, surely these 
 opinions, so decidedly pronounced by an eminent jurist and 
 a warm partizan of his own favourite doctrine, would have in 
 stantly awakened him to a sense of his error. 
 
 Those who are curious to know more of the details of the 
 controversy between Las Casas and his opponents, than is to 
 be found in the popular historians and common biographical 
 compilations, may consult Dupin s Ecclesiastical History, un 
 der the head Las Casas, among the writers of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 It is a little singular that the character of Roger Williams 
 should have been exposed to the same charge of inconsistency 
 with that of Las Casas, and nearly on the same sort of authori 
 ty. That laborious and judicious compiler, Mr. Chalmers, 
 whose authority, like that of Herrera, rests chiefly on his hav 
 ing had access to many important official documents, has 
 asserted in his Political Annals, that the toleration of Ro 
 ger Williams did not extend to Roman Catholics. 
 G* 
 
86 APPENDIX. 
 
 This charge has been repeated by several writers, and among 
 them by Mr. Rawle in an address to the Agricultural Society 
 of Philadelphia, soon after the publication of the first edition 
 of this discourse. The attention of Mr. Rawle was drawn to 
 the subject by the eulogy which I have, I think, correctly, 
 bestowed upon Roger Williams. His remarks are made in 
 the spirit of candour and liberality, and are evidently dictat 
 ed solely by a regard to strict historical truth. The writings 
 of Williams contain numerous passages which show that not 
 only Roman Catholics, but Jews and Mahometans, were in 
 cluded in his broad and liberal theory of toleration or, to 
 speak more correctly, of religious liberty. Still, however, if 
 as in the case of Las Casas, the charge had been made at a later 
 period, it would have been very difficult to have refuted it, 
 otherwise than by indirect and presumptive evidence. For 
 tunately for the fame of this truly great, though eccentric man, 
 this question was raised under more favourable circumstances ; 
 and Mr. Eddy, of Rhode Island, undertook the investigation 
 of the subject. 
 
 In a very able paper originally communicated to the New- 
 York Historical Society, and since published in the appendix 
 to Mr. Walsh s "Appeal from the judgment of Great Britain," 
 Mr. Eddy has satisfactorily demonstrated from a minute ex 
 amination of the charters, journals, laws, and records, of 
 Rhode Island, as well manuscript as printed, that the exception 
 of Roman Catholics from the general toleration of the colony, 
 formed no part of Roger Williams system, nor did it exist 
 under the original charter, or during the lives of the original 
 settlers : but was subsequently introduced with a view to ac 
 commodate the policy of the colony to that of the mother 
 country, some time after the revolution of 1688. Williams 
 himself died in 1682. Even this provision seems to have been 
 mere matter of form, as no penal law was ever passed, or any 
 test or oath ever required. 
 
 No. II. p. 23. 
 
 The conduct and avowed opinions of the Independents, 
 when they were in undisturbed possession of power in New- 
 
APPENDIX. 87 
 
 England, gives pretty strong proof that their proposition for 
 toleration in Old England, under Cromwell s reign, was a mere 
 measure of political management with a view to enlist all the 
 minor sects with whom they could in any way coalesce, against 
 their rivals the Presbyterians. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, 
 famed in his day as a learned divine, but now better known as 
 the author of that whimsical and quaint book, " The Simple 
 Cobbler of Aggawam, in America," was a very distinguished 
 and important man in England, as well as in Massachusetts. 
 He had been bred a lawyer, had travelled much, and was 
 thought to be so deeply skilled in the principles of general ju 
 risprudence, that he was employed to draw up a code of laws 
 for New-England. Cotton Mather calls him our St. Hilary, 
 and asks why he had no statue erected to him. " He was," 
 observes Mather, " the author of many composures full of wit 
 and sense, among which, that entitled the Simple Cobbler 
 (which demonstrated him to be a subtile statesman) was most 
 considered." In this " much considered work," which was 
 published in 1647, Ward says: "My heart naturally detests 
 toleration of divers religions, or of one religion in segregant 
 shapes. He that assents to the last, if he examines his heart 
 by day-light, his conscience will tell him he is either an 
 atheist, a heretic, or a hypocrite. Poly-piety is the greatest 
 impiety in the world. To authorize an untruth by toleration 
 of state, is to build a sconce against the walls of heaven, to 
 batter God out of his chair. He that is willing to tolerate any 
 unsound opinion, that his own may be tolerated, though never 
 so sound, will for a need hang God s bible at the Devil s gir 
 dle. It is said that men ought to have liberty of conscience, 
 and that it is persecution to debar them of it. I can rather 
 stand amazed than reply to this. It is astonishment to me, 
 that the brains of men should be parboiled in such impious ig 
 norance. I once lived in a city where a papist preached in 
 one church, a Lutheran in another, a Calvinist in the third. 
 The religion of that place was motly and meagre, their affec 
 tions leopard-like." 
 
 The practice of the Independents was very much of a piece 
 with this theory. Poor Biddle, the extravagant James Nayler, 
 and the stout-hearted John Lilbourne, could tell, from bitter 
 
88 APPENDIX. 
 
 experience, how hollow a pretence the Protector s zeal for to 
 leration was. 
 
 The ecclesiastical history of New-England is full of instances 
 of the church s borrowing the sword of the state, (to speak in 
 the language of those times,) in order to cut off the hydra heads 
 of heresy. The ordinary punishment of sectaries, in Massa 
 chusetts, was fining and banishment; but the Quakers were 
 not suffered to escape so easily. 
 
 Cotton Mather, (Magnalia, Book VII. chap. 4.) after giving 
 some account of the Quakers, whom he calls "the worst of he 
 retics," observes, that " The zeal of the Massachusetts Colony, 
 to preserve themselves from the annoyances of such a blasphe 
 mous and confused generation of men, caused them to make 
 Sharp Laws against them, in hopes that the terror thereby 
 given to these Evil doers, would keep them from any invasion 
 upon the colony. But, They must need go whom the Devil 
 drives; so these Devil-driven creatures did but the more furi 
 ously push themselves upon the government for the Sharp 
 which had been turned upon them; whereupon, the govern 
 ment unhappily proceeded unto the execution of the laws, in 
 scour ging, and then banishing, and (upon their mad return) 
 executing three or four of the chief offenders. But they consi 
 dered these wretches, Non qua errones, sed qua turbones ." 
 
 " A great clamour has been raised against New-England, for 
 their persecution of the Quakers, and if any man will appear 
 in the vindication of it, let him do as he please: for my part, 
 I will not." "Nor," saith this good-natured father of Ameri 
 can history, " do I look upon hereticide as an evangelical way 
 for the extinguishing of heresies." It is evident that Mather s 
 good feelings were at war with his abstract doctrines on this 
 point; and he is, therefore, glad to find some resting place half 
 way, and accordingly much approves of the opinion of "a 
 wise and good counsellor in Plymouth, who propounded, that 
 a law might be made for the Quakers to have their heads 
 shaved." This idea seems to please him the more, as it af 
 fords him an opportunity of indulging himself in his favourite 
 amusement of punning, by gravely remarking, " this punish 
 ment I confess was in some sort capital, but it would have 
 been the best remedy for them: it would have both shamed 
 
APPENDIX. BSf 
 
 and cured them." And afterwards he adds, that " Perhaps the 
 punishment which A. Gellius reports the Romans on certain 
 special occasions used upon their soldiers, namely, to let em 
 blood, would have been very agreeable for these Quakers." 
 
 Mather wrote about sixty years after these persecutions, 
 when the fiery spirit of the first Independents had much sub 
 sided, but before the true principles of religious liberty were 
 received, or, indeed, distinctly understood. He himself seems 
 to be decidedly in the Transition class, as the geologists speak. 
 
 In coarse and violent language, the Quakers were not a jot 
 behind their antagonists. George Fox and John Bunyeat styled 
 Roger Williams a " New-England firebrand," and called his 
 tracts " lying, slanderous, blasphemous books." Those great 
 divines, Owen and Baxter, fared still worse in their contro 
 versy with the Quakers: they were called " viper-grinning 
 dogs, raggedtorn threadbare tatter demalions, blind moles, 
 tinkers, cowdung, gimcracks, and whirlygigs." 
 
 Who can look back upon these things, without feelings of 
 gratitude towards the fathers of our religious liberty? A legal 
 toleration was the first step, and this has gradually produced 
 the toleration of private judgment. Yet, we have still some 
 thing to learn in the lesson of charity ; for it is a difficult thing 
 to be liberal without being latitudinarian, to be firm in our own 
 faith and charitable towards that of others. But whatever 
 progress society makes in this way is certain. We now find it 
 so difficult to realize these delusions of our ancestors, that we 
 are often disposed to underrate their other virtues and talents. 
 I have often admired Dugald Stewart s beautiful illustration of 
 that remarkable fact in the history of our prejudices, that as 
 soon as the film falls from the intellectual eye, we lose all re 
 collection of our former blindness. "Like the fantastic and 
 giant shapes," says he, " which in a thick fog the imagination 
 lends to a block of stone, or to the stump of a tree, they pro 
 duce, while the illusion lasts, the same effects with truths and 
 realities; but the moment the eye has caught the exact form 
 and dimensions of its object, the spell is broken for ever; nor 
 can any effort of thought again conjure up the spectres which 
 have vanished." 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. III. p. 55. 
 
 On turning to D Alembert s Eloge de Bossuet, I find that he 
 defends that eloquent Prelate from the charge of supporting 
 and encouraging religious persecution. He says that Bossuet, 
 accustomed to force his wandering brethren back to the church 
 only by the arms of argument, could not persuade himself to 
 consider bayonets as fit instruments of conversion. For the 
 honour of our nature, of which Bossuet s genius is a shining 
 ornament, I hope this may have been as D Alembert states it. 
 But certainly our faith in his authority on this point must be 
 a little shaken, when we find him, in the notes to this Eloge, 
 endeavouring also to exculpate Louis XIV. from the same 
 charge ; and asserting that that monarch, who prided himself 
 so much on directing and regulating every part of his govern 
 ment with his own hands, did not approve of the cruelties he 
 authorized. " Quoique les cruautes exercees contre les pro- 
 testans, le fussent au nom Louis XIV. il paroit que ce prince 
 naturellement juste et droit ne les approuvoit pas." It may 
 indeed be, that Bossuet, like Sir Thomas More and Dr. John 
 son, spoke from a wrong theory in his head, while he acted 
 from right feelings of the heart. At any rate, Bossuet s specu 
 lative opinions were such as they have been stated above. 
 Besides the avowed doctrine of his Politique tiree de VEcri- 
 ture, that the king ought to use his authority for the destruc 
 tion of false religion in his state, there is a well known passage 
 in his Histoire des Variations, in which he maintains the 
 church s right to the power of the sword, or, in his own words: 
 " L exercise de la puissance du glaive dans les matieres de la 
 religion et de la conscience ; chose qui ne peut etre revoquee 
 en doubte le droit est certain il n y a point d illusion plus 
 dangereuse que de donner la souffrance pour un caractere de 
 la vraie eglise." 
 
 It is true that these are but general and rather vague ex 
 pressions, and it is to be regretted that D Alembert did not go 
 further into the refutation of Jurieu s calumnies, if indeed they 
 are calumnies. Bossuet must be ranked among the greatest 
 men of modern Europe. He was the Milton of French prose. 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 His Histoire Uriiverselle is a wonderful feat of eloquence. By 
 the power of language and sentiment he has given to a mere 
 chronological table all the effect of high philosophy and ora 
 tory. His Latin style bears the same stamp. When Leibnitz 
 proposed a general council of Catholics and Protestants, and 
 as a preliminary desired that certain decisions of former coun 
 cils should be disregarded, Bossnet summed up his reply with 
 a sentence, of which Cicero could not have improved the ele 
 gance, nor Tacitus, the condensation and force: "Sic itaque 
 per prostrata anteriorum conciliorum cadavera, ad triste et in- 
 felix gradiemur concilium." No wonder that the universal 
 Leibnitz, who had carried his conquests through every region 
 of controversy, shrunk from the grasp of this mighty master 
 of language and logic, and confessed, in perhaps the highest 
 eulogy that ever was given to the power of style, " II nous 
 crase par 1 expression." " He crushes us by the force of ex 
 pression." 
 
 No. IV, p, 29. 
 
 Loyd, in his State Worthies, says, that "though Lord Bal 
 timore was a Catholic, yet he kept himself sincere and disen 
 gaged from all interests: and was the only statesman that, 
 being engaged to a decided party, managed his business with 
 that great respect for all sides, that all who knew him, ap 
 plauded him. and none that had any thing to do with him 
 complained of him. He was a man of great sense, but not ob 
 stinate in his sentiments, taking as great pleasure in hearing 
 others opinions as in delivering his own. Judge Popham and 
 he agreed in the public design of foreign plantations, but dif 
 fered in the manner of managing them. The first (Popham) 
 was for extirpating the original heathen inhabitants, the second 
 for converting them. The former sent the lewdest people to 
 those places, the latter was for the soberest; the one was for 
 present profit, the other for a reasonable expectation, liking to 
 have but few governors, and those not interested merchants, 
 but unconcerned gentlemen, leaving every one to provide for 
 himself, and not out of a common stock." See further in the 
 Biographia Britannica, article "Calvert." 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 Anderson, in his History of Commerce, has the following 
 notice of the first settlement of Maryland. "This year, 1632, 
 gave rise to the colony of Maryland, being a part of what was 
 then reckoned Virginia. Sir George Calvert, secretary of state, 
 having in 1621 and 1622 obtained of king James a grant of 
 part of Newfoundland, he some time after removed thither 
 with his family, but he soon found it to be one of the worst 
 countries in the habitable world; whereupon he returned back 
 to England, and he being a conscientious Roman Catholic, was 
 inclined to retire to some part of Virginia, there quietly to en 
 joy the free exercise of his religion, for which purpose he went 
 thither himself in or about the year 1631, but being discour 
 aged by the universal dislike which he perceived that the peo 
 ple of Virginia had to the very name of a Papist, he left Vir 
 ginia, and went farther up the bay of Chesapeake, and finding 
 there a very large tract of land commodiously watered with 
 many fine rivers, and not yet planted by any Christians, he re 
 turned for England, and represented to the king, that the colony 
 of Virginia had not as yet occupied any lands beyond Potow- 
 mack river; whereupon he obtained a promise of the king s 
 grant, but dying before it was made out, his son Cecilius took 
 it out in his own name, June 20th, 1632, the king himself 
 naming it Maryland, in honour of the Queen Henrietta Ma 
 ria." See also Sir William Keith s History of Virginia. 
 
 It is generally allowed that this charter, and the fundamen 
 tal code of laws, including the provisions for the protection of 
 religious liberty, were drawn up by the first Lord Baltimore, 
 and that his sons, Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, and Leonard Cal 
 vert, who was the first governor, merely executed the designs 
 of their father. 
 
 Our very accurate and laborious historian, Dr. Trumbull, 
 who seems to retain more of the spirit and tastes of good Cotton 
 Mather and his brethren, than any writer of our age, and 
 is never employed so much to his own satisfaction as when he is 
 relating the petty ecclesiastical squabbles of Connecticut, gives 
 an honest, if not a very warm tribute of praise to the Calvert 
 family. " The charter of incorporation was one of the most 
 ample which had been granted. It not only conveyed the lands 
 in the fullest manner, but authorized a free assembly, without 
 
APPENDIX. 93 
 
 the least royal interference. Liberty of conscience was allow 
 ed to Christians of all denominations. Presents were made to 
 the Indians to their satisfaction, so that the country was at 
 peace. These circumstances, together with the rigid princi 
 ples of the Virginians and some of the other colonists, had in 
 fluence to expedite the settlement. Remarkable it was, that 
 under a Roman Catholic proprietary, puritans were indulged 
 that liberty of conscience which was denied them by their fel 
 low protestants. Emigrants flocked in such numbers into the 
 colony, that it soon became populous and flourishing." 
 TrumbuWs General History of the United States, Vol. L p. 
 95. 
 
 No. V. p. 3035, 
 
 William Penn must be considered the father of Quakerism 
 as it now appears. George Fox, James Nayler, and others, 
 had indeed first given it the sectarian impulse, formed it into a 
 distinct body, planned its discipline, and taught most of its pe 
 culiar tenets. But it was Penn who freed his sect from the 
 wildness and extravagance of its first professors, and gave to it 
 that spirit of toleration, and that direction of practical benevo 
 lence, on which its members now justly pride themselves. 
 Thus he may be said to have had the same share in forming 
 the spirit and character of his sect, that Franklin had in the 
 discoveries of electricity. Franklin s predecessors had been 
 able to evolve the electric fluid, and to accumulate and condense 
 its force ; but it was he who first controlled its powers, and 
 made always harmless, and often eminently useful, what had 
 before been a strange and alarming phenomenon. 
 
 To be enabled to effect this salutary change, as well as those 
 other important results upon which his fame is built, it was ne 
 cessary that Penn, while he equalled any of his sect in fervent 
 zeal and sincerity, and far excelled them all in extent of know 
 ledge, as well as comprehensiveness and clearness of under 
 standing, should yet so far honestly participate in their failings 
 and eccentricities, as never to lose his strong hold upon their 
 sympathies. 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 We may smile when we see him and his friend Robert 
 Spencer, commencing their religious career by falling upon the 
 Christ Church students, after prayers, and tearing their sur 
 plices over their heads ; we may lay down his " No Cross no 
 Crown" with astonishment, when we find him suspending a 
 most noble strain of hortatory theology, (to use a Johnsonian 
 phrase,) in order to introduce a long discussion on the abomi 
 nation of hat- worship, or, when he is inculcating the practice 
 of virtue by recounting the brightest examples of benevolence } 
 piety, and purity, inserting among them the praises of Pope 
 Gregory for having entirely destroyed a number of Greek and 
 Latin historians and poets, and haying been nearly successful 
 in suppressing Terence, Martial, and Plautus ; and we may well 
 wonder how it could be possible that the same man, who in 
 1673, was busily engaged in controversy with a madman,* who 
 maintained that Christians ought always to keep their hats on, 
 unless they felt some special internal motion to take them off, 
 could, in 1678, appear at the bar of the House of Commons re 
 pelling the charges against himself and his people with the 
 firmness and dignity of John Hampden, and maintaining the 
 rights of conscience and liberty of faith of all. (even the then 
 hated and dreaded Roman Catholics,) with a mild eloquence 
 hardly inferior to that of Fenelon. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is very evident that, without this most ano 
 malous mixture of mental strength and weakness, Perm could 
 never have accomplished any of those important moral and po 
 litical changes, which have rendered his name so deservedly il 
 lustrious. If what appears at a hasty glance to be the incon 
 gruous part of his character could have been lopped off, Penn 
 might, like Evelyn, have been a most amiable, religious, and 
 learned country gentleman; he might have founded hospitals, 
 colleges, free-schools, and libraries, and very probably written 
 delightful books, and made good speeches in Parliament; but 
 
 * John Perrot, who maintained this doctrine in a book entitled " The 
 Spirit of the Hat ; to which Penn replied in " The Spirit of Alexander, 
 the Coppersmith, lately revived and now justly rebuked." Perrot re 
 joined, but Penn finally silenced him with " Judas and the Jews com 
 bined." Clarkson s Life of Penn, chap. x. 
 
APPENDIX. 95 
 
 he never would have become the founder of a great state, and 
 one of the most venerated fathers of the civil and religious li 
 berties of a mighty republic ; nor would he have left a name to 
 be held in reverence to the latest ages, as that of a great moral 
 benefactor of the human race. 
 
 Penn s fame is now so firmly established, that it is hardly ne 
 cessary to take notice of the slight aspersions which his cotem- 
 porary Bishop Burnet, and the historian Chalmers have cast 
 upon him. Burnet was a party man, and he had both a politi 
 cal and a personal dislike to Penn, much like that borne by 
 Swift and Arbuthnot to Burnet himself in his old age. He and 
 Chalmers accuse Penn of ambition, of which, doubtless, he had 
 a share; but it was of the purest kind, and of dissimulation, 
 from which no man was ever more free. With all his preju 
 dices, Chalmers allows Penn much merit, and expressly states, 
 that every change in his frame of government (and he made 
 several) was always in favour of freedom. 
 
 There were now and then some political discontents in the 
 province, which Penn s enemies exaggerated. These mostly 
 took place during his absence; his personal administration in 
 Pennsylvania was peaceful and prosperous. The happiness 
 and rapid growth of the new colony attest the wisdom of his 
 government. Proud, in his history of Pennsylvania, (Vol. II. 
 p. 111.) observes very justly: "As to what few irregularities 
 and deficiencies, that really existed in the government or ma 
 nagement of the province unmagnified by his adversaries, they 
 were principally owing to his absence from it ; which, it is cer 
 tain, was very much against his mind, and chiefly occasioned 
 by the necessity of his circumstances, the unsettledness of the 
 government of England, together with the attempts of his ene 
 mies, and his great beneficence to his province, with his small 
 and discouraging returns from thence." 
 
 " The style is the man," says a great writer. Penn s style 
 is peculiar and characteristic. It is full of thoughts and full of 
 words, yet most transparently clear. Altogether unlike 
 Taylor, and other copious writers of his own and the pre 
 ceding age, in whose long sentences, crowds of images^ 
 ideas, and words, are struggling together for utterance, Penn 
 deliberately presents his thoughts to the reader one by one, 
 
96 APPENDIX. 
 
 turns each round and round, displays it in every light, 
 and then passes to the next. His mind always seems to be 
 calm and equable, even when controversy betrays him into the 
 rough polemical language of his days, or, as he calls it, " When 
 he allows himself the freedom of the prophet Elijah against the 
 prophets of Baal." We must even grant that he uses this free 
 dom of retaliation but sparingly, when we consider " what 
 showers," as, he says, " of reproach had fallen often and thick 
 upon him." Penu himself might have thought the appellation 
 no compliment, yet he certainly was a gentleman in all his 
 deportment and feelings. "However differing," said he, with 
 much truth, " I am from other men, circa sacra, that is, rela 
 tive to religious matters, and to that world which, respecting 
 men, may be said to begin where this ends, I know no religion 
 which destroys courtesy, civility, and kindness. These, right 
 ly understood, are great indications of true men, if not of good 
 Christians." 
 
 In the State Trials, there is a report of one of Penn s trials 
 for illegal preaching. It is perfectly dramatic, and brings the 
 whole scene before the reader in the most vivid manner. You 
 there see Penn displaying all his peculiarities, and many of his 
 virtues. Instead of defending his cause as a private case, he 
 makes himself, as he always did, the champion of great princi 
 ples, and shows himself worthy such a cause. In the course 
 of the trial, he discovers another quality which we should less 
 expect to find in him a vein of grave, sarcastic, and yet good 
 tempered humour. After showing himself a much more learn 
 ed constitutional lawyer than any of the court, and having been 
 treated with the utmost indignity and injustice, he put some 
 home questions to the Recorder, on the law, who finally an 
 swered with great indignation, " I tell you to be silent; if we 
 should suffer you to ask questions till to-morrow, you would 
 be never the wiser." " That," replied Penn, with unshaken 
 gravity, " is according as the answers are." 
 
 On another occasion, after having been repeatedly imprison 
 ed, when he was brought before a magistrate, he began, as 
 usual, to argue against persecution, and to assert his natural 
 and constitutional rights, the magistrate, unable to reply, called 
 for a file of soldiers to take him to prison. " Nay," said Penn. 
 
APPENDIX. 97 
 
 "send thy boy with me; I know the way to Newgate." In his 
 "No Cross no Crown," there is a passage describing the plots 
 of plays and romances with much dry humour ; but he in 
 dulged this talent very seldom. 
 
 His letter of advice to his wife and children, on his leaving 
 England, is one of the finest moral tracts in any language. It 
 should be printed as a companion to Louis XVI. s instructions 
 for the education of the Dauphin; for almost every thing of 
 any value that can be said on the subject of education, is to be 
 found in these two little tracts. 
 
 The life of William Penn has been written accurately and 
 sensibly, but very heavily, by Clarkson. Our countryman, 
 Proud, has done it better, as far as he goes, in his history of 
 Pennsylvania. But the subject is a very rich one, and requires 
 a biographer who should be more sprightly, more eloquent, 
 and more philosophical than either of them. 
 
 No. VI. p. 4352. 
 
 In Swift s correspondence there is a letter from Dean Swift to 
 Lord Carteret, then lord lieutenant of Ireland, on the subject 
 of Dr. Berkeley s project; which contains some curious par 
 ticulars of the life, character, and plans of Dr. Berkeley, 
 and is, at the same time, very characteristic of the best and 
 worst parts of Dr. Swift s own disposition that is to say, of 
 his readiness to serve his friends, and his inclination to sneer 
 at every thing that did not agree with the rules of his own 
 selfish prudence. 
 
 " There is a gentleman of this kingdom just gone for Eng 
 land ; it is Dr. George Berkeley, Dean of Derry, the best prefer 
 ment among us, being worth eleven hundred pounds a year. 
 And because I believe, you will chose out some very idle mi 
 nutes to read this letter, perhaps you may not be ill entertained 
 with some account of the man and his errand. He was a fel 
 low of the university here, and going to England very young, 
 about thirteen years ago, he became the founder of a sect 
 there, called the Immaterialists, by the force of a very cu- 
 
 H* 
 
98 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 rious book upon that subject. Dr. Smallridge and many other 
 eminent persons were his proselytes. I sent him secre 
 tary and chaplain to Sicily, with my Lord Peterborough ; and 
 upon his lordship s return, Dr. Berkeley spent above seven 
 years in travelling over most parts of Europe, but chiefly 
 through every corner of Italy, Sicily, and other islands. When 
 he came back to Ireland, he found so many friends that he 
 was effectually recommended to the Duke of Grafton, by 
 whom he was lately made Dean of Derry. Your excellency 
 will be frightened when I tell you all this is but an introduc 
 tion; for I am now to mention his errand. He is an absolute 
 philosopher, with regard to money, titles, and power; and, for 
 three years past, has been struck with a notion of founding a 
 university at Bermudas, by a charter from the crown. He 
 has seduced several of the hopefullest young clergymen and 
 others here, many of them well provided for, and all of them 
 in the finest way of preferment; but in England his conquests 
 are greater, and I doubt will spread very far this winter. He 
 showed me a small tract, which he designs to publish; and 
 there your excellency will see his whole scheme of a life aca- 
 demico-philosophical (I shall make you remember what you 
 were) of a college founded for Indian scholars and missiona 
 ries ; wherein he most exorbitantly proposes a whole hundred 
 pounds a year for himself, [forty pounds for a fellow, and ten 
 for a student. His heart will break if his deanery be not taken 
 from him and left to your excellency s disposal. I discouraged 
 him by the coldness of courts and ministers, who will interpret 
 all this as impossible, and a vision ; but nothing will do. And, 
 therefore, I humbly entreat your excellency either to use such 
 persuasions as will keep one of the first men in this kingdom, 
 for virtue and learning, quiet at home ; or to assist him by your 
 credit to compass his romantic design ; which, however, is very 
 noble and generous, and proper for a great person of your ex 
 cellent education to encourage." 
 
 In the Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, a learned and 
 useful work, though written in an affected and pedantic style, 
 the author, Dr. Blackwall, thus speaks of the wonderful variety 
 and extent of Berkeley s knowledge: "I would with pleasure 
 do justice to the memory of a very great, though singular sort 
 
APPENDIX. 99 
 
 of man, Dr. Berkeley, better known as a philosopher and in 
 tended founder of a university in the Bermudas than as Bishop 
 of Cloyne, in Ireland. An inclination to carry me out on that 
 expedition as one of the young professors, on his new founda 
 tion, having brought us often together, I scarce remember to 
 have conversed with him on that art, liberal or mechanic, of 
 which he knew not more than ordinary practitioners. He tra 
 velled through a great part of Sicily on foot, clambered over 
 the mountains, and crept into the caverns to investigate its na 
 tural history and discover the causes of its volcanoes ; and I 
 have known him sit for hours in forgeries and founderies, to 
 inspect their successive operations. I enter not into his pecu 
 liarities, either religious or personal, but admire the extensive 
 genius of the man, and think it a loss to the western world, 
 that his noble and exalted plan of an American university was 
 not carried into execution." 
 
 ; And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley with a grin," says a co- 
 temporary poet. This epithet is too harsh to be applied to 
 Dr. Reid and the metaphysicians of his school, but really their 
 ridicule of Berkeley s system is very poor, and unworthy the 
 dignity of philosophical discussion. 
 
 Indeed, it would seem that Berkeley s theory does not differ 
 in its foundation from the old Socratic and Platonic philoso 
 phy. For in the Phredon, Socrates is represented as declaring 
 it to be his opinion, that he who supposed all things to have 
 been disposed and ordered by a MIND should not pretend to 
 assign any other cause of them. 
 
 The remark Berkeley makes upon Plato s writings, may be 
 applied to his own. " His works are the touchstone of a hasty 
 and shallow mind." Berkeley has no common-place ideas, 
 and those who will not take the pains of fathoming the depths 
 of his philosophy, can easily find enough of apparent paradox 
 to excuse their ignorance. His theory of vision was received 
 on its first appearance with a good deal of ridicule : it was 
 fully established, during his own life, by the case of a person 
 who was born blind, and restored to sight by an operation : 
 and all subsequent reasoning has tended to confirm his doc 
 trine. 
 
100 APPENDIX. 
 
 The most singular instance of this remarkable man s talent 
 for evolving great thoughts and grand principles from ordinary 
 subjects, is his " Siris, or a Chain of Philosophical Reflections 
 and Inquiries, concerning the virtues of Tar- Water." " This 
 is, indeed," says his ingenious biographer, in the Biographia 
 Britannica, " a chain which, like that of the poet, reaches from 
 earth to heaven, conducting the reader by an almost insensible 
 gradation from the phenomena of tar- water, through the depths 
 of the ancient philosophy, to the sublimest mystery of the 
 Christian religion." Berkeley thought with Bacon, that truth 
 and goodness are one, differing but as the seal and the print, 
 and in his constant endeavour to keep this connexion in view, 
 he often hazarded what may seem wild theories or too subtile 
 refinements. 
 
 His mathematical speculations are also unique in their way. 
 His objections to the doctrine of fluxions are considered, by 
 mathematicians, as having been fully refuted, and, doubtless, 
 this is the fact in a mathematical view of the controversy; but 
 the metaphysical difficulties which he has raised have never 
 been satisfactorily answered, and perhaps cannot be, until we 
 obtain some deeper insight into the principles of knowledge 
 than any that the present systems of intellectual philosophy 
 afford. Be that as it may, certainly there is scarcely any si 
 milar instance of ingenious mathematical speculation being 
 applied to important moral ends. The comprehensiveness of 
 Berkeley s understanding, the wide compass of his knowledge, 
 and the power with which he brings it all to bear upon appa 
 rently the remotest objects, seem to prove by example the sub 
 lime philosophical conjecture of Hooker, " that by circuit of 
 deduction, it may be, that all truth, out of any truth, may be 
 concluded." This idea, so bold and original in the age of 
 Hooker, now appears to derive fresh confirmation from every 
 day s experience, and we have recently seen a splendid exam 
 ple of the connexion of all knowledge in the illustration of ge 
 ology, from the observations of comparative anatomy. 
 
 The object of his Minute Philosopher, he states in his pre 
 face to be " to follow the Freethinker through his various cha 
 racters of atheist, libertine, enthusiast, scorner, critic, metaphy 
 sician, fatalist, and skeptic," in the course of which he employs 
 
APPENDIX. 101 
 
 against him several new arguments, drawn from his own ori 
 ginal speculations. That in particular, taken from the lan 
 guage of the eye, as he terms it, -is not only singularly inge 
 nious in itself, but leads the mind to many interesting views of 
 the principles of the imitative arts. This excellent work, like 
 many other standard publications of the last century, had fallen 
 into neglect in this country, when, a few years ago, the late 
 Dr. Dwight, of Connecticut, revived its reputation here, and 
 recommended a new edition of it to the American public, by 
 a short notice of its uncommon merits. This came with pecu 
 liar propriety from Dr. Dwight, who was himself an acute 
 metaphysical reasoner, and the President of Yale College, an 
 institution so much indebted to Berkeley. As this notice ap 
 peared only in the New-Haven edition of the Minute Philoso 
 pher, which is now becoming scarce, no apology is needed for 
 inserting it here. 
 
 " The minute Philosopher is an able defence of divine reve 
 lation. The writer is the celebrated Berkeley, Bishop of 
 Cloyne. universally considered as one of the first philosophers 
 who have appeared in any age or country. For the discussion 
 of this subject he was better qualified than almost any other 
 man by pre-eminent talents, both natural and acquired : par 
 ticularly by his great learning and singular powers of reason 
 ing. This work is an illustrious proof of these talents, and 
 may be considered as a store-house from which many succeed 
 ing writers have drawn their materials and their arguments. 
 The Minute Philosopher consists of a series of dialogues, in 
 volving most of the important topics in the debate between 
 Christians and infidels, the principal arguments by which 
 Christianity is defended, and the principal objections with 
 which it has been opposed. The reasoning is clear, sound, and 
 conclusive. The characters of the disputants are well chosen and 
 ably supported, and their conversation is spirited and natural. 
 The work is, of course, highly entertaining as well as con 
 vincing. In the character of Euphranor particularly, the wri 
 ter has given, perhaps, the best example of the Socratic man 
 ner of reasoning which can be found. Warton observes, that 
 the club composed of Pope, Swift, Bolingbroke, &c. regarded 
 this work, in spite of the prejudices of some of them, as a mas- 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 terly performance ; not, indeed, when first presented to them, 
 for they did not understand it; but afterwards, when thorough 
 ly explained by its author., who knew more of this and most 
 other moral subjects than all of them united. 
 
 " In a word, The Minute Philosopher may be confidently 
 recommended as a performance of the first merit, to all who 
 love to read the best reasonings on the most important sub 
 jects." 
 
 With respect to the University, it was Berkeley s design, to 
 " train up a competent number of young Indians in succes 
 sion, to be employed as missionaries among the various tribes 
 of Indians bordering upon our settlements. It appeared to be 
 a matter of very material consequence, that persons should 
 be employed in this service who were acquainted with the 
 languages necessary to be used ; and he had also a strong per 
 suasion that such missionaries would be much better received 
 by the savages, than those of European extraction. These In 
 dian lads were to be procured from the different tribes, in the 
 fairest manner, and to be fed, clothed, and instructed at the 
 expense of the institution." Chandler s Life of President 
 Johnson, p. 50. 
 
 Having thus provided for the conversion and instruction of 
 the savages, he intended to establish his university, in all other 
 respects, on the most liberal scale, so as to advance every kind 
 of improvement in the colonies. He meant, besides the usual 
 course of academical instruction, from which he would have 
 discarded much of " the pedantry of courts and schools," to 
 have all the useful and ornamental arts taught here. 
 
 As there now seems to be an increasing taste for the produc 
 tions of the fine arts among us, it may be a fact worthy notic 
 ing, as it is but little known, that the first regularly instructed 
 painter in North America was Smibert, who had been Berke 
 ley s fellow-traveller in Italy, and was brought out by him to 
 act as instructer in drawing and architecture in the intended 
 institution. Smibert was not an artist of the first rank, for the 
 arts were then at a very low ebb in England ; but the best por 
 traits which we have of the eminent magistrates and divines 
 of New-England and New- York, who lived between 1725 and 
 1751, are from his pencil. 
 
APPENDIX. 103 
 
 Horace Walpole, in his " Anecdotes of Painting, in Eng 
 land," gives some account of him. Walpole was a man of 
 fashion and pleasure, of wit and taste, and withal a most expert 
 hunter of antiquarian small game ; but he had no heart for any 
 thing generous or great, and he speaks of Berkeley s plans as 
 might be expected from such a man ; though he may be par 
 doned for slurring over, as he does, his own father s conduct 
 in the business. 
 
 " John Smibert, of Edinburgh, was born about 1684, and 
 served his time with a "common house painter; but eager to 
 handle a pencil in a more elevated style, he came to London, 
 where, however, for subsistence, he was forced to content him 
 self, at first, with working for coach-painters. It was a little 
 rise to be employed in copying for dealers, and from thence he 
 obtained admittance into the academy. His efforts and ardour 
 at last carried him to Italy, where he spent three years in copy 
 ing Raphael, Titian, Vandyck, and Reubens, and improved 
 enough to meet with much business at his return. When his 
 industry and abilities had thus surmounted the asperities of his 
 fortune, he was tempted, against the persuasions of his friends, 
 to embark in the uncertain, but amusing, scheme of the famous 
 Dean Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, whose benevolent 
 heart was then warmly set on the erection of a universal col 
 lege of science and arts, for the instruction of heathen children 
 in Christian duties and civil knowledge. Smibert, a silent, 
 modest man, who abhorred the finesse of some of his profes 
 sion, was enchanted with a plan that, he thought, promised 
 him tranquillity and honest subsistence in a healthful elysian 
 climate, and in spite of remonstrances, engaged with the Dean, 
 whose zeal had ranged the favour of the court on his side. 
 The King s death dispelled the vision. Smibert, however, 
 who had set sail, found it convenient, or had resolution enough, 
 to proceed, but settled at Boston, in New-England, where he 
 succeeded to his wish, and married a woman with considerable 
 fortune, whom he left a widow with two children in 1751." 
 
 Walpole adds, " We may conceive how a man, so devoted 
 to his art, must have been animated, when the Dean s enthu 
 siasm and eloquence painted to his imagination a new theatre 
 of prospects, rich, warm, and glowing with scenery which no 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 pencil had yet made cheap and common by a sameness of 
 thinking and imagination. As our disputes and politics have 
 travelled to America, is it not probable that poetry and painting, 
 too, will revive amidst those extensive tracts as they increase 
 in opulence and empire, and where the stores of nature are so 
 various, so magnificent, and so new ?" This was written in 1762. 
 There is at Yale College a large picture, and, from its sub 
 ject, an interesting one, representing Berkeley and some of his 
 family, together with the artist himself, on their first landing in 
 America. I presume that it is the first picture of more than a 
 single figure ever painted in the United States. 
 
 No. VII. p. 68. 
 
 As Luzac s works are not often to be met with in this coun 
 try, the passages above referred to are worth extracting. In 
 the dedication of his Oratio de Socrate cive, Lugd. Bat. 1795, 
 to Mr. Adams, he thus speaks of the Constitution of the United 
 States : 
 
 " Tale quippe hoc foedus est, quo omnia, quee ad conservan* 
 das, firmandas, augendas vires communes faciant, ullove modo 
 facere possint, conferre tenentur Socii ; quo, si qui officiis ad 
 salutem universorum necessariis fungi detractent, remedia prae- 
 scripta sunt et parata, ut ad praestandam fidem inviti etiam, 
 revocentur ; quo neque omnibus sociis, seu regionum magni- 
 tudine, aut divitiis ac numero civium praevaleant, seu tractu, 
 opibus et incolis sint caeteris minores, idem jus est, eadem fa- 
 cultas, eadeni vis suffragii, neque tamen nna alterave civitas 
 prcepotentior in sorores immodice dominari queat : secundum 
 quam denique Pacti legem unus est supremns Foederatorum 
 Senatus, una Delagotorum Concio, unum ^Erarium, una erga 
 externas nationes potentia et voluntas; et singulis tamen sociis 
 salva in rebus suse civitatis manetsumma auctoritas ; sal va jura 
 et tribunalia, salva legum ferendarum potestas, salva tributa et 
 vectigalia, salva (uno verbo) omnia quee ad robur, ad firmitatem, 
 ad externum etiam decus SociataB reipublicee, necessario non 
 
 erant abdicanda. Sic vos -ilia refugistis et feliciter evi- 
 
 tastis Federate civitatis vitia, quibus patria nostra per ducentos 
 
APPENDIX. 105 
 
 annos misere hue et illuc jactata, quassata tandemque in ulti- 
 mam perniciem acta est ; simulque cavistis, ne immoderata et 
 nimia unius reipublicse moles (quod serius ocyus fieri per re- 
 rum naturam necesse est) in varias ac discordes dilabatur fac- 
 tionum partes, aut in unius, nullis limitibus circumscriptam, 
 deveniat potestatem." 
 
 In another passage of the same work, after some words of 
 eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, " quorum dum nomina sepius 
 memoria recolo, gratus memini, a talibus me tantisque viris, 
 dum ad me invisirent, fuisse invitatum et tantum non adduc- 
 tum qui liberae vestrae Reipublicas adscriberer, vestra omnium 
 intima admissione usurus ; quod si ante hoc octennium feci- 
 
 sem sed quid ego tecum de nostris Batavorum per sede- 
 
 cem annos temporibus atque fatis?" 
 
 No. VIII. p. 71. 
 
 Du Plessis Mornay was such a character as we may imagine 
 Cato or Helvidius Priscus would have been, if converted to 
 Christianity, and graced with the manner and accomplishments 
 of chivalry. The modern French historians (among others 
 Lacretelle, if I recollect rightly) are disposed to sneer at his 
 stern morality and profound theological learning. Voltaire, 
 however, has been just and liberal in his praise. The finest 
 lines of the Henriade are devoted to the character and exploits 
 of " Le grand Mornay toujours calme et serein." See Chant. 
 VIII. and again in Chant. IX. 
 
 Non moins prudent ami que philosophe austere 
 Mornay sut Part discret de reprendre et de plaire ; 
 Son exemple intruisait bien mieux que ses discours ; 
 Les solides vertus furent ses seuls amours. 
 Avide de travaux, insensible aux delices, 
 II marchait d un pas ferme au bord des precipices. 
 Jamais Pair de la cour et son soufle infecte, 
 N altera de son coeur Paustere purete". 
 Belle Arethuse, ainsi ton onde fortune*e 
 Roule au sein furieux d Amphitrite etomie*e 
 Un chrystal toujours pur et des flots toujours clairs, 
 due jamais ne corrompt 1 amertume des mers. 
 I 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mornay, the sage austere, the prudent friend, 
 Knew the wise art to blame, yet not offend ; 
 His precepts less than his example mov d, 
 And lofty Virtue s charms, alone, he lov d. 
 Eager for toil, and deaf to Pleasure s call, 
 He trod her slippery brink, nor fear d to fall ; 
 The court s infectious breath he scorn d to fear ; 
 His soul still breath d its own pure atmosphere. 
 Chaste Arethusa, thus thy favour d wave 
 Rolls its swift course where Neptune s billows rave, 
 Yet pure and sweet thy chrystal waters glide, 
 Untainted by the brine of ocean s tide. 
 
 Mornay has also received the praises of a cotemporary of 
 as varied talents as his own, Grotius, " than whom," says W. 
 Penn, "these ages have not had a man of more universal 
 knowledge ; a light ! say the statesmen ; a light ! cry the 
 churchmen too." 
 
 Grotius wrote these lines for Mornay s epitaph. 
 
 Nobilitas, animo claro quam sanguine major^ 
 
 Res hominum solers noscere, resque Dei, 
 Consilium prudens, dives facundia linguae, 
 
 Hie cum Morneo, contumulata jacent. 
 
 Nobility of soul, by Nature giv n, 
 Nobler than blood of proud ancestral line; 
 
 Skill in the laws of man, and truths of heaven ; 
 Maturest counsel ; eloquence divine, 
 
 With Mornay here repose : his tomb their hallow d shrine. 
 
 Both of the above translations were contributed to a former 
 edition of this discourse by my excellent and lamented friend, 
 the late Anthony Bleecker, of New -York. 
 
 No. IX. p. 74. 
 
 It has been sometimes supposed in this country, that the aid 
 given by France to the United States, in the war of the revolu 
 tion, was wholly a measure of the French ministers, in which 
 the king had no share. This, however, was certainly neither 
 
APPENDIX. 107 
 
 the opinon of Franklin, nor of Dickinson, as appears from va 
 rious passages of their political writings. We know that Louis 
 XVI. was not at all a king of show: he was to the best of his 
 ability the efficient head of his government. This is evident 
 enough, from his correspondence, published a few years ago by 
 Helen Maria Williams ; in which it will be seen, with how much 
 interest and industry he directed all the departments of the state- 
 It was not intended in the eulogium which has been given to 
 Louis XVI. in the preceding pages, to vindicate every mea 
 sure of his reign. But though it is true that he often erred, 
 much must be pardoned to the difficulty of his situation, and 
 much allowed, when we consider the contradictory and often 
 profligate counsels of those by whom he was surrounded. Even 
 at this day, with all the lights of experience, it is impossible to 
 say, what measures on his part, would most have conduced 
 to the permanent prosperity and liberty of France. I have 
 spoken only of his motives, and they were always pure, bene 
 volent, and patriotic. La despotisme," said he, in a private 
 letter, " a ceque je vois, n est bon a rien," "Despotism, as far 
 as I can see, is good for nothing," and this, no doubt, was his 
 undissembled belief. It is not at all a rhetorical exaggeration to 
 say, as I have done, that he fell a voluntary victim, rather than 
 purchase his life at the expense of the blood of his country 
 men. There is abundant evidence of this fact in his correspon 
 dence. When the Count D Artois reproached him with not 
 having repressed the popular impulse by force, he answers, in 
 a letter dated 7th September, 1789 : 
 
 " Je pourais donner le signal du combat, mais quel combat 
 horrible ! et quelle victoire plus horrible encore ! J aurais don- 
 nee le signal du carnage, et des milliers de Frai^ais auraiant 
 ete immoles mais vous direz peut etre, le peuple a triomphe 
 il vous a prouve par ses exces qu il osait abuser de la victoire 
 et poignarder son ennemi vaincu. Ah ! ne contez vous pour 
 rien le calme d une bonne conscience. J ai fait mon devoir:" 
 &c. " Mon frere, je me suis sacrifie pour mon peuple." And 
 again, in a note to the Comte D Estaing, who commanded the 
 body-guards and Swiss, and who had urged the king to imme 
 diate recourse to arms. " Me defendre il faudrait verser le 
 sang des Fransais, mon cceur ne peut se familiariser avec cette 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 affreuse idee. Si je succombe, du moins je n aurai nul reproche 
 a me faire !" And again, in 1791, to M. De Bouille, a confi 
 dential friend. " Je ne murmure point centre la providence. Je 
 sais que la succes dependoit de moi ; mais il faut avoir line ame 
 atroce pour verser le sang de mes sujets pour opposer une re 
 sistance et amener la guerre civile en France. Toutes ces idees 
 ont dechire mon coeur, toutes mes belles resolutions se sont 
 evanouies." These sentiments pervade all his correspondence, 
 but they are no where more strongly expressed, than in a letter 
 written while he was still on the throne, to the Prince of Con- 
 de, who commanded the emigrant army. With the eloquence 
 of the heart, and a prophetic spirit, he says : " Les insenses, ils 
 veulent la guerre ? Ah ! si jamais le signal etait donne, elle 
 serait longue et cruelle. Comme elle n aurait d autre objet que 
 la vengeance et la haine, elle deviendroit barbare. O Dieu ! 
 preservez la France de ce funeste fleau ! que ces hurlemens 
 homicides ne soient point entendues! S il me faut descen- 
 dee du trdne, monter sur Vechafaud ou Charles I. fut im- 
 mole, abandonner ce que j ai de plus cher au monde, me voila 
 pret, mais point de guerre, point de guerre. Mon cousin, 
 vous qui desirez unir la gloire au devoir vous qui les emigres 
 regardent comme leur pere et leur chef, et qui j estime moi, 
 comme un frere loyal et magnanime, opposez vous, je vous en 
 conjure, aux projets insenses des Fra^ais reunis pres de vous: 
 faites leur bien connaitre tout le danger, opposez ma volonte, 
 mes avis, mes prierres meme." The correspondence, in which 
 patet veluti discriptd tabelld vita REGIS, the king s whole life 
 is laid open, abounds in so many noble, and such touching pas 
 sages, that I can scarce refrain from more numerous extracts. 
 I shall add but one ; it was his last letter to Monsieur (his brother? 
 Louis XVIII.) when he afterwards was brought a prisoner to 
 the hall of the National Assembly, after the massacre at the Thu- 
 illeries, on the llth of August, 1792. "Le sang et le feu ont 
 tour-a-tour signale 1 afreuse jour d hier, mon cher frere. Con- 
 traint de quitter mon palais avec ma famille, de chercher un 
 asile au millieu des mes plus cruels ennemis, c est sous leurs 
 yeux meme, que je vous trace, peut etre pour la dernier fois 
 mon affreuse position. Fra^ois premier, dans une circonstance 
 perilleuse, ecrivoit, tout est perdu, hors 1 honneur. Moi, je 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 n ai plus d autre espoir que dans la justice de Dieu, dans la pu- 
 rete des intentions bienfaisantes que je n ai jamais cessed avoir 
 pour les Fran9ais. Si je succombe, comme tout porte a le 
 croire, souvenez vous d imiter Henri IV. pendant le siege de 
 Paris, et Louis XII. lorsqu il monta sur le tr6ne !" 
 
 I have said, in the foregoing pages, " that there is no reason 
 why American republicans should revoke their praises of 
 Louis XVI." This observation was made, not because there is 
 any such disposition in the great body of intelligent Americans; 
 for, on the contrary, as far as my own observation goes, the 
 personal reputation of Louis is still dear to the people of this 
 country ; but because there have been a few instances, and dis 
 graceful ones as they appear to me, of this sacrifice of gratitude 
 to transitory party feelings. One of the most conspicuous of 
 these is in the Columbiad of the late Mr. Barlow. That work 
 was originally published at the close of the war of the revolu 
 tion, as the Vision of Columbus, and was afterwards expanded 
 by the author of the Columbiad, and published under that 
 name in 1808. The Vision of Columbus was dedicated, by 
 permission, to Louis XVI. 
 
 In the dedication, Mr. Barlow, among other eulogy, said, 
 " mankind who survey your conduct; and posterity for whom 
 you act, will see that the debt of gratitude is paid." And in 
 the beginning of the sixth book, there are many spirited 
 lines in honour of "the pride of monarchs," "the rising sun 
 of universal fame," &c. In the Columbiad all this has been 
 suppressed, and in place of it appear some frigid lines, in 
 which Louis is represented as cheated into the support of our 
 Independence, and aping the language of virtue "By honest 
 guile the royal ear they bend," &c. " He speaks the borrowed 
 language of the brave," &c. 
 
 This is indeed forgetting the independence of literary ta-^ 
 lent, and making history what old Chaucer calls it, " in very 
 dele a rock of ice and not of steel." 
 
 These pages have been consecrated to the praise of virtue, 
 and it is with reluctance that I have admitted this censure of 
 a man w r hose reputation, either literary or political, I feel no 
 disposition to undervalue. Let me, however, place in contrast 
 to his conduct towards Louis XVI. that of the venerable and 
 
 l* 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 eloquent John Dickinson. It is well known that that true 
 patriot, accomplished scholar, and excellent man, was a warm 
 admirer and defender of the principles of the French revolu 
 tion in its first stages. 
 
 His letters of Fabius, published in 1797, were in the United 
 States what Mackintosh s Vindiciae Gallics was in England, 
 not equal indeed in magnificence of language, but little infe 
 rior in elegance and in ability, or in exuberance of thought and 
 knowledge. In the course of this work, which is devoted 
 to the panegyric, the defence, or the apology of the French 
 republic, this tolerant and benevolent politician digresses to 
 rebuke the injustice of some of his own party friends towards 
 the "unhappy Louis." The concluding passage of this de 
 fence is eloquent, and the allusion in the closing quotation 
 to the lilies of the Bourbon escutcheon, felicitous. 
 
 It was his doom to live, not only in an age of revolutions 
 in government, but also of revolutions in morality. 
 
 "Scarcely was his head laid low in the dust, probably in 
 consequence of our liberty being established ; scarcely were 
 those lips closed in eternal silence, which never spoke to us 
 but in the language of benediction ; scarcely was that exist 
 ence, to which after virtue and piety,* fair fame was dearest, 
 dissolved and disabled to vindicate an aspersed reputation, than 
 
 a severe scrutiny was made into his unsceptred merits, 
 
 and it was discovered by Americans yes by Ameri 
 cans that he him.self was not entitled to our gratitude or 
 
 friendship, but was a selfish unprincipled villain. 
 
 MUCH injured Louis ! 
 
 " The charges of thy accusers undesignedly erect a lasting 
 monument to thy glory. They have proved thee guilty of 
 sincerely loving thy people. Thy feet were led into unbeaten, 
 unexplored tracts of policy, and thou hadst not been accus 
 tomed to its intricate mazes. Impelled by thy benevolence 
 towards us, a young, innocent, oppressed, .and inexperienced 
 people, struggling in blood, and hardly able to struggle, though 
 the prize was no less than PEACE, LIBERTY, and SAFE 
 TY, against the then most formidable nation in the world, 
 
 * See Malesherbes narrative. 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 and by thy tender affection for France, recently weakened by 
 deep wounds received from the same enemy, thou formedst 
 the kind and generous resolution to help us at our utmost 
 need, though the execution of thy noble design would exhibit 
 
 to mankind the surprising spectacle of a republic fostered 
 
 by a monarchy and in a portion of the globe far remote 
 
 from thy kingdom and in the neighbourhood of thy most 
 
 valuable foreign dominions and thou didst help us "effec 
 tually" till every man among us "from one end of our land 
 to the other, and from one side of our land to the other," 
 dwelt confidently with his family, "under his vine and under 
 his fruit tree," and allied with thee and thy people, " there 
 was none to make us afraid." 
 
 " But, in directing the course of thy exertions through an 
 unknown wilderness, dangers might start up on every side. 
 The accusers have convicted thee of being more anxious for 
 
 the welfare of thy people, than for that of strangers yet 
 
 heaven and earth are witnesses that to thee, to thee, un 
 der " a gracious Providence which raised thee up to be our 
 friend,"* " We, the people of the United States," stand in 
 debted for the best of blessings Liberty. 
 
 " Manibus date Lilia plenis : 
 
 " Purpureos ut spargam flores, animamque" Jlmici 
 
 "His saltern acumulem donis, et fungar inani 
 
 " Munere 
 
 Bring LILIES LILIES in whole handfuls bring, 
 With all the purple fragrance of the spring ; 
 These unavailing gifts let me bestow : 
 Tis all I can on thy dear shade below " 
 
 To those who are but superficially acquainted with the his 
 tory of the French revolution, it appears only as a story of 
 blood and crime. But among ten thousand atrocities to make 
 the heart ache with the sense of the depravity of our nature, 
 there may be found many examples of heroic excellence, as 
 well as of the gentler virtues. Though all the crimes which 
 
 * Words of Congress. 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 marked the black corruption of the Roman empire, were re 
 newed in modern France still the French patriot may proudly 
 add, in the words of Tacitus, and with a nobler application, 
 "Non tamen adeo virtutum sterilis patriaut non et bona exem- 
 pla prodiderit. Comitatae profugos liberos matres: secutrema- 
 ritos in exsilia conjuges: propinqui audentes: constantes gene- 
 ri : contumax etiam adversus tormenta servorum fides: supre 
 me clarorum virorum necessitates : ipsa necessitas fortiter to- 
 lerata: et laudatis antiquorum mortibus pares exitus." "Yet 
 was not our unhappy land so barren of virtue but that it pro 
 duced even then noble examples of faith and magnanimity. 
 Mothers accompanied their banished children; wives followed 
 their husbands into exile and poverty : relations were 
 daring in their kindred s aid; sons perilled their lives for 
 parents; servants gave proof of devoted faith and affection; 
 illustrious men reduced to abject misery bore it nobly; and 
 many of them in death showed a fortitude equal to that of he 
 roic antiquity." What example is there in antiquity of heroic 
 self-devotion and constant friendship surpassing that of Males- 
 herbes ? He has claims upon our admiration as an upright 
 judge, a philosophical lawyer, a man of letters, and a true 
 friend of civil and religious freedom ; but all this is forgotten 
 in the strong interest which he inspires when we see him re 
 taining, in his eightieth year, all the generous affections of 
 youth, and volunteering his services, at the risk of his life, in 
 the defence of his friend. " I was twice admitted," said he, in 
 his letter to the Convention, requesting permission to appear 
 as counsel for Louis XVI. "into the councils of him who was 
 then my master, at a time when that station was coveted by 
 every one, and I owe him the same duties now, when it has 
 become a service which many consider dangerous." How 
 eloquent is the heartfelt expression of Louis s gratitude ! " Je 
 n ai point des termes, mon cher Malesherbes, pour vous ex- 
 primer ma sensibilite pour votre sublime devouernent. Votre 
 main octogenaire s est etendue vers moi pour me rapousser de 
 1 echafaud ; et si j avais encore mon tr6ne, je devrais le pata- 
 ger avec vous, pour me rendre digne de la moitie que m en 
 resterait. Mais Je n ai que des chaines, que vous rendez plus 
 legeres en les soulevant. Je ne me fais pas illusion sur mon 
 sort." 
 
EULOGY 
 
 LORD BALTIMORE 
 
[As being connected with the subject of the foregoing Histo 
 rical Discourse, it has been thought not unappropriate to pre 
 serve in this place a brief eulogy upon the founder of Mary 
 land, which was delivered at the Festival held in 1829, by 
 the " Friends of civil and religious Liberty," in the city of 
 New- York, on the occasion of the final passing of the bill for 
 Catholic emancipation in Ireland. Dr. Wm. James Me 
 Neven presided, and one of the regular toasts from the chair 
 was; Charles Carroll, the virtuous surviving signer of the 
 great charter of our liberties. 
 
 The health of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was re 
 ceived with rapturous and long-continued applause. After 
 which Mr. Verplanck rose and addressed the chair.] 
 
EULOGY UPON LORD BALTIMORE. 
 
 THE enthusiastic feeling with which the name of this 
 venerable patriot has just been greeted, induces me, Mr- 
 President, to request your permission to break in upon the 
 regular order of toasts, and follow the one last given by 
 another similar in sentiment, closely connected with it by 
 various circumstances and recollections, and which I am 
 confident will be received in the same spirit. 
 
 The President with pleasure, Sir, it is in order, pro 
 ceed." 
 
 Mr. Verplanck then resumed. The name of Charles 
 Carroll, the patriot, the scholar, a liberal, enlightened and 
 exemplary Catholic, a Marylander of the ancient and ori 
 ginal Catholic race of that state, one whose name is so 
 gloriously and durably identified with the history of this 
 nation s liberties, and the charter of its independence, re 
 calls to my mind a remarkable fact in the early history of 
 his native state. 
 
 It is with reference to this fact that I am about to pro 
 pose to you as a toast, a memory a glorious and immor 
 tal memory, as it well deserves to be called, though with 
 a quite different application from that in which the phrase 
 is familiar to Irish ears. It is one of the most curious 
 facts in our early history, a fact less generally known 
 than it ought to be, that the first colony of modern times 
 which was founded on broad principles of religious free- 
 
1.16 EULOGY UPON LORD BALTIMORE. 
 
 dom, explicitly recognizing the rights of conscience and 
 the liberty of thought, was that of Maryland, a Roman 
 Catholic colony, founded by a Roman Catholic legislator. 
 Of the more minute and personal history and character 
 of Lord Baltimore, the founder of Maryland, not very much, 
 I believe is known, but we do know that he had served his 
 country faithfully and honourably in peace and in war, and 
 that in establishing a colony for the retreat of his fellow 
 Catholics, his first principle of legislation was Religious Lib 
 erty. That single fact gives glory enough for any name. 
 
 This, Sir, is not the first occasion on which I have at 
 tempted to draw the public attention to this history, and 
 to do honour to the memory of this wise and tolerant states 
 man. Some years ago, I had the honour to be appointed 
 to deliver an Anniversary Discourse, before a respectable 
 literary society of this state, instituted for the cultivation 
 and preservation of American History. The eminent and 
 accomplished men who had preceded me in that duty 
 among others, the late Dewitt Clinton, and Gouver- 
 neur Morris, had pre-occupied many of the most striking 
 and interesting topics peculiar to our history. One sub 
 ject, however, occurred to me as not unworthy of being 
 associated with those which had successively furnished fit 
 themes for the eloquence and philosphy of those distin 
 guished statesmen. It was the eulogy of some of those 
 virtuous and enlightened men of Europe, who long ago. 
 looking with a prophetic eye, upon the destinies of this 
 new world, were moved by a holy ambition to become 
 the messengers of Heaven, in bestowing upon the future 
 race who were to people these shores, the blessings of mo 
 rals, education, and liberty. 
 
 It was while preparing to do homage to the mild and 
 peaceful virtues of William Penn, that I was first forcibly 
 
EULOGY UPON LORD BALTIMORE. 117 
 
 struck with the fact, which though it must have been 
 already known to me, had yet never made any impression 
 on my mind, that sixty years before the foundation of 
 Pennsylvania, Lord Baltimore, had in Maryland, first set 
 the illustrious example of a practical and extensive system 
 of religious freedom. I did such justice at that time as 
 was in my power to both of these, as well as to a few 
 others of the European fathers of our country s liberties 
 and happiness. 
 
 This is neither the time nor place to enter into histori 
 cal details, nor are the minute fact and dates, in relation 
 to Lord Baltimore very fresh in my memory. But, Sir, 
 to estimate justly the rare merit of such a legislation, let us, 
 for a moment, but consider the period at which it occur 
 red. 
 
 It was at a time, when nowhere in the world could 
 be found a country or state, or even a single city, where 
 some dominant form of worship or belief did not crush 
 down and trample upon all who opposed or doubted. 
 Those who in one reign, or on one side of a river or chan 
 nel were heretics and martyrs, became at another time, 
 or at a different place, in their turns, persecutors and op 
 pressors. 
 
 It was too, at a period, wiien even the speculative idea 
 of equal religious rights was nearly unknown. Now and 
 then the faint and feeble voice of some obscure scholar or 
 philosopher, was raised for Toleration, that weak and im 
 perfect substitute for Liberty of Conscience but it was 
 raised sometimes from the depths of a cloister, oftener 
 from the depths of a dungeon, and rarely reached the ears 
 and never touched the hearts of the mighty ones of the 
 earth. Even on this western shore what at that period 
 J K 
 
118 EULOGY UPON LORD BALTIMORE. 
 
 was to be seen in the English colonies on each side of the 
 infant colony of Maryland ? In New England, the Pu 
 ritans just escaped from the prison and the stocks and the 
 scourge at home, had hardly taken breath before they set 
 themselves to persecute, and punish, and banish the Qua 
 kers and the Baptists. These very Puritans of New Eng 
 land, when enterprise or commerce brought them to Vir 
 ginia, found themselves again heretics, and there felt the 
 heavy arm of the Established Church. 
 
 Such was the spirit of the times such the circum 
 stances under which Maryland was founded, and such 
 the merit of its founder. 
 
 But it is not, Sir, as a mere piece of curious history, still 
 less as a theme of declamatory eulogy, that I have been de 
 sirous to bring these facts to the recollection of those who 
 are here assembled. It is because I regard them as af 
 fording an example, and a most brilliant and impressive 
 one, of a great, and holy, and consoling truth. 
 
 The founder of Maryland, in thus rising above the er 
 rors of his own age, and probably sacrificing the early 
 prejudices of his own education, had no higher view than 
 that of establishing a humble colony on a distant shore, 
 where a few of his countrymen might find rest and peace, 
 and worship God after the manner of their fathers, or the 
 conviction of their own minds. In this his prayers were 
 heard and his wishes granted, But, meanwhile, he was 
 unconsciously becoming the instrument of a still nobler 
 purpose. He was unwittingly laying the foundation of 
 a state destined to become one of the earliest members of 
 a great republic. He was preparing a race of repub 
 lican Catholics for the toils and dangers of the struggle 
 for Independence, and for the duties and privileges of self- 
 government a race jealous of their own rights and re- 
 
EULOGY UPON LORD BALTIMORE. 119 
 
 spectful to those of other men a race which was to give 
 to the church such men as the learned, pious, and liberal 
 archbishop Carroll to the state such men as his illustri 
 ous relative, whose name alone has just excited a burst of 
 generous feeling in this hall to which no pomp of words 
 nor power of eulogy could have given any additional 
 warmth or intensity. He was laying the sacred corner 
 stone of that great edifice of civil and religious equality, 
 which was destined gradually to take in the whole wide 
 circuit of this land a land where every man s religion is 
 protected and no man s religion is preferred, where, though 
 piety does not rear her mitred head in courts and palaces, 
 she finds her true and living throne in the hearts an^ con 
 sciences of men. 
 
 What lesson, then, may we draw from this grand and 
 beautiful result? To me it seems to teach, that no effort, 
 no exertion, no sacrifice in the great cause of equal rights 
 and common sense, is ever fruitless. Whether it be like 
 Lord Baltimore s, the sacrifice of opinion and prejudice to 
 truth whether it be like your own, Mr. President, and 
 that of so many others assembled around this board, those 
 severer sacrifices to liberty which bade you break the ties that 
 bound you to your native soil, and early homes, and youth 
 ful friends, to seek in another clime a new home and new 
 friends, (which I trust you have all here found,) or 
 whether the patriot be called to a still dearer sacrifice even 
 to lay down his life in the glorious martyrdom of con 
 science and liberty, like the English Sidney, or the Span 
 ish Riego, or the younger Emmet of Ireland the sacri 
 fice is never lost that blood is never spilt in vain. For 
 a season, the effect may be hidden from every human 
 eye. But the seeds of truth are scattered wide abroad. 
 They are wafted by the winds of heaven to the ends of 
 
120 EULOGY UPON LORD BALTIMORE. 
 
 the earth. On some remote shore, or in some obscure 
 nook they take root, and that root strikes deep and firm. 
 There they spring up in solitude and darkness, unnoticed 
 of men. But soon the vigorous trunk shoots aloft. It 
 towers to the skies. It puts forth its broad arms. Tribes 
 and nations seek shelter under its mighty shade, and gath 
 er from its branches the rich fruits of public greatness and 
 private happiness. 
 
 Then at length the almost forgotten name of the pa 
 triot, the hero, or the sage, so long overclouded by calumny, 
 or darkened by neglect, blazes forth at once in the clear ef 
 fulgence of true glory. It receives the homage of genius, 
 and the gratitude of nations. It becomes the precept of 
 age, and the example of youth. It is now for ever rescued 
 from oblivion. For it is 
 
 Freedom s now and Fame s ; 
 One of the few, the immortal names, 
 That were not born to die.* 
 
 Mr. President, it is in this trust, and with these senti 
 ments, that I propose to you as a toast, "The memory of 
 the wise and liberal founder of Maryland." His name must 
 be dear to every patriot, and his example is eminently cal 
 culated (in your own felicitious language this evening) 
 " to enlighten the understandings and change the hearts 
 of the living statesmen of Europe." 
 
 * Halleck. 
 
AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE OPENING OF^THE TENTH, EXHIBITION . 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN ACADEMY 
 OF THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 MAY, 1824 
 
 K* 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 ON THE FINE ARTS 
 
 MR. VICE PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ACADEMY. 
 
 WE have all of us, Gentlemen, very much 
 to regret that our venerable President has been compelled 
 by domestic calamity to relinquish the performance of the 
 duty he had undertaken at our request. If he could have 
 now addressed you, as was his intention, you might have 
 received from one who unites the character of a distin 
 guished artist to that of a man of letters, such views of 
 the philosophy and the history of his profession, as can 
 be given only by him who combines practical skill with 
 extensive and critical observation. 
 
 In attempting to supply his place upon this occasion, I 
 can only speak as an uninstructed lover of the arts ; and, 
 in speaking of what I have never practised, and have stu 
 died but little, must necessarily confine myself to some 
 general and perhaps vague observations. 
 
 Our Academy was founded about twenty years ago, 
 in the hope of contributing something towards the cultiva 
 tion of taste in this country, and the diffusion and improve 
 ment of skill in the arts of design. Amongst its original 
 founders and patrons, were some of the most distinguish 
 ed men of their times, whose names are durably inscribed 
 in the history of our republic. Among them, together 
 
124 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 with several who yet live to adorn and guide the councils 
 of their country, were the late Chancellor Livingston, 
 whose active, comprehensive, and accomplished mind was 
 ever fertile in plans of public improvement, and the late 
 Robert Fulton, whose brilliant and solid success in the 
 useful and mechanical arts did not render him either con 
 temptuous or indifferent towards those of taste and orna 
 ment. The institution which they established has not 
 wholly failed in its intention. Something has been ef 
 fected by it in instructing public taste, in affording mo 
 dels to the student, and in making the works and talents 
 of our artists more known amongst us ; yet various cir 
 cumstances have unfortunately conspired to hinder it from 
 realizing all the sanguine hopes of its early friends, and 
 to interrupt or destroy that unity of action among our 
 few artists and men of taste, which could alone give to it 
 that great and lasting utility of which it is capable, and 
 thus render it a deserving object of the pride of our city 
 and state. 
 
 But let us not look back to the past. Indulging the 
 hope that brighter prospects are now about to open upon 
 us, permit me to invite the attention of the numerous and 
 respectable assembly who have honoured the celebration 
 of our annual exhibition with their presence, to the con 
 sideration of the uses and value of the FINE ARTS not 
 so much with reference to the private studies and plea 
 sures of the artist or the amateur, but, as they deservedly 
 recommend themselves to the notice of the patriot and 
 the philanthropist, as they are fitted to add to the conv 
 forts and multiply the innocent enjoyments of life, to 
 adorn and dignify the aspect of society, to give impulse 
 and exercise to the latent talent, and fresh lustre to the 
 glories of our nation- and by their moral influence upon 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 125 
 
 all classes, to animate patriotism, to refine the manners, 
 and elevate the character. 
 
 It must be obvious to all, that the arts of design have 
 a direct and positive utility, far beyond their own imme 
 diate sphere, arising from the constant and indispensable 
 aid, which they afford to the mechanical arts, to physical 
 science, and to many of the most important pursuits of 
 civilized life. Drawing, engraving, the scientific princi 
 ples of construction, (as distinguished from those founded 
 in natural or conventional taste,) are of daily use in civil 
 engineering, in military and marine architecture, in pre 
 serving and making known the discoveries of the natu 
 ralist, the observations of the anatomist, the inventions of 
 the mechanician, and, in general, all the improvements 
 of natural and medical science. 
 
 But, that quick sensibility to the beauties of form and 
 proportion, that relish for purity of design and simplicity 
 of execution, which necessarily result from a familiarity 
 with works of taste, have a still broader, and (though less 
 distinctly perceptible in their operation) scarcely a less 
 efficient influence upon most of the arts of civilization, 
 upon commerce and manufactures. The beneficial effects 
 of good taste are to be found, even where you would least 
 suspect its presence. It every where silently excludes 
 wanton superfluity, or useless expenditure in labour or 
 ornament. It inculcates a wise and dignified economy. 
 It prompts art to achieve its ends by the simplest means. 
 It gives to the productions of mechanical skill all the du 
 rability and elegance, of which they may be susceptible, 
 by lending to them those forms, proportions, combinations 
 of colours, and agreeable associations, which, because they 
 are most simply and obviously fitted to their peculiar pur 
 poses, or are congruous to natural principles of man s phy- 
 
126 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 sical or moral constitution, have pleased for ages, and will 
 ever continue to please ; whilst the caprices of fashion, and 
 the cumbrous splendour of gaudy luxury, are inevitably 
 doomed to become in a very few years, offensive or ridicu 
 lous. The manufactures of England and France, as they 
 are at this day, compared with what they were half a cen 
 tury ago, present a signal instance of the operation of this 
 principle in assisting to improve the domestic comforts of 
 life, and to augment at once private wealth and national 
 resources. It is true, that this magnificent result must be 
 mainly ascribed to the splendid improvements of modern 
 science, and the application of its discoveries to practical 
 uses. But when, as if to prove that knowledge was not only 
 power, but wealth also, Mathematics and Chemistry is 
 sued from the library of the student, and the cell of the 
 alchemist, to mix in the pursuits of commerce and indus 
 try, pure Taste followed silently in their train ; and that 
 same power, which had anxiously watched over the in 
 spirations of literary genius, and had directed the boldest 
 flights of poetry, eloquence, and painting, may now often 
 be found in the workshop of the mechanic, or by the loom 
 of the manufacturer, superintending their labours with 
 just as patient a diligence, and as unwearied a zeal. 
 
 But to be tli us extensively useful, taste must become 
 popular. It must not be regarded as the peculiar posses 
 sion of painters, connoisseurs, or diletanti. The arts 
 must be considered as liberal, in their ancient and truest 
 sense, quia libero dignce, as being worthy of the coun 
 tenance and knowledge of every freeman. 
 
 Leaving the consideration of this their indirect utility 
 in other occupations of industry, let us now view them as 
 they are in themselves. 
 
 There is no walk of the elegant arts where our de 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 127 
 
 fects in science and taste are more palpable than in that of 
 Architecture. "The Genius of architecture," said Mr. 
 Jefferson, an ardent votary, and a skilful and experienced 
 judge of that classical and most useful art " the Genius 
 of architecture seems to have shed her maledictions over 
 this land." Forty years have now elapsed since the pub 
 lication of the Notes on Virginia, and during that period, 
 we have advanced with unparalleled rapidity in numbers, 
 wealth, power, letters, science: but, with some few brilliant 
 exceptions, we have done very little to prove that this curse 
 has yet passed away. 
 
 When a foreigner lands upon our shores I do not 
 speak of the bigoted and prejudiced tourist, who comeshere 
 only to gather materials for calumny, but of such a man 
 as most of us have probably known many, one instructed in 
 the arts and versed in the learning of Europe, who cherishes 
 as deep a reverence as any of us for our free institutions, and 
 as ardent a desire for the triumph of those principles of 
 which our republic is the depository and safeguard find 
 ing here, as he does, much to admire, much surpassing 
 his warmest expectation, the first among several sources 
 of his disappointment, arises from the general taste arid 
 character of our public edifices. He cannot expect to find 
 upon this side of the Atlantic the gorgeous splendours of 
 Versailles or Blenheim, and still less the lengthened aisles 
 and fretted vaults, the towering domes, and sumptuous 
 decorations of ecclesiastical pomp ; but every thought of 
 freedom, and glory, and patriotism, recalls to his mind 
 some recollection of the exquisite works of republican an 
 tiquity. He looks around him, and, it need not be added, 
 with disappointment. 
 
 There is, in fact, scarcely any single circumstance, 
 that can contribute more powerfully towards elevating the 
 
128 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS* 
 
 reputation of a people abroad, than the grandeur or beau 
 ty of their public structures, nor is there any manner in 
 which a republican government can so appropriately ex 
 hibit its magnificence. The tinsel trappings, the robes 
 and pageantry of office, that have been affected by some 
 free states, or states striving to be free, are not in harmo 
 ny with the general simplicity of republican manners, and 
 in their own nature are almost as selfish as the show and 
 pomp of patrician luxury. They may gratify or inflate 
 the individual, who, so bedecked, struts his restless hour 
 upon the stage of public life, but they add very little dignity 
 to the state which bestows them. But a noble hall for 
 the purposes of legislation or justice or a grand pile of 
 buildings for the uses of learning, is the immediate pro 
 perty of the people, and forms a portion of the inheritance of 
 the humblest citizen. An enlightened patriotism should, 
 indeed, rest upon much more solid ground, but no man, 
 who knows and feels that even in our best and wisest 
 moments, we can never become wholly creatures of rea 
 son, will object to the aid of local pride, and natural asso 
 ciation, to strengthen and animate his love of country. 
 The ancient legislators understood the force of such prin 
 ciples well. In the mind of an ancient Greek, the history 
 of his country, her solemn festivals, her national rites, her 
 legislation, her justice, were indissolubly combined with 
 the images of every thing that was beautiful or sublime in 
 art. Every scholar knows, too, how much the remem 
 brance of the Capitolii Arx alt a, the lofty majesty of the 
 capitol, entered into every sentiment of love and venera 
 tion, which the Roman citizen, when Rome was free, en 
 tertained for his native city. That venerable and vast 
 structure had been reared at the very commencement of 
 the commonwealth, by some of its greatest men, on a scale 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 129 
 
 of grandeur and magnificence, far beyond the needs or 
 the wealth of their times, in a spirit prophetic of the fu 
 ture empire of Rome. Unlike the short- lived archi 
 tectural works of our own country which scarcely outlast 
 their founders, it stood for centuries, a witness, as it were, 
 and partaker, of all Rome s triumphs and greatness, a si 
 lent and awful monitor frowning rebuke upon her crimes 
 and factions. 
 
 When danger threatened from without, or civil discord 
 raged within when the Carthaginian was at the gates, or 
 brother was armed against brother in the Forum, it was 
 there, that the sublime conception of a great and classical 
 modem painter, was, again and again, more than realised ; 
 for the rebellious or the timid remembered that 
 they were Romans, when, in their mind s eye, they be 
 held on the sacred walls of the Capitol, the armed Ge 
 nius of their country, followed by Fortune as her faithful 
 and obedient companion, and casting upon them a with 
 ering look of reproof. * 
 
 Something of this moral effect, it is always in the pow 
 er of the true and learned architect to communicate to all 
 his greater works. The taste, the rules, the character of 
 architecture, as well as its materials, having not less the 
 expression of durability than the reality of it, tend to lift 
 the mind above the " ignorant present," connecting our 
 thoughts with the past, expanding them into the future, 
 Of all the achievements of human skill or industry, this 
 noble art approaches most nearly to the sublimity and 
 vastness of nature ; and it is well worthy of remark, that 
 when the great poet of truth and nature so beautifully mo. 
 ralises his scene, and paints in a few impressive words, the 
 
 * Poussin, in the Vision of Coraolinus. 
 L 
 
130 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 fleeting state of all earthly things, it is in architecture 
 alone that he can find any material image of the power 
 and talent of man, worthy to be associated with the migh 
 ty works of his Creator ; 
 
 "The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous jmlaces,. 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve." 
 
 Nor will a benevolent mind overlook, or a wise states 
 man despise, theinfluence such displays of public grandeur 
 may have in imparting "an hour s importance to the poor 
 man s heart," in soothing the natural jealousies which 
 may arise in his breast, and enabling him for a time to 
 forget the comparative hardships of his lot, and to feel a 
 more real and palpable community of interest with his 
 wealthy neighbour. 
 
 Had the architecture of this country, like that of anti 
 quity, been of native growth, it is not improbable that it 
 would have sooner attained to the character I have de 
 scribed. But it has fared with this art as with our lite 
 rature; we have borrowed most of it from England and 
 France, and by no means from the best models which 
 those countries afford. It is only within a few years that 
 we have begun to think for ourselves, or to draw directly 
 from the purer fountains of antiquity. Hence it is that 
 when our increasing riches enabled us to erect large and 
 expensive public edifices, instead of embodying in them 
 those pure forms and scientific proportions of Grecian art 
 which have been admired for ages, or, wherever they 
 could with propriety be introduced, correctly imitating 
 some few of those light and graceful, or those solemn ef 
 fects of Gothic architecture, which it may be within our 
 power to execute satisfactorily, many of our most costly 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 131 
 
 buildings have been vitiated by the predominance of that 
 taste which prevailed on the continent of Europe, in the 
 reign of Louis XIV., and was universal in Great-Bri 
 tain throughout most of the last century, though it has 
 now given way there, as it did at an earlier period in 
 France, to a much chaster style, I mean that corrup 
 tion of the Roman, or rather Palladian architecture, which 
 delights in great profusion of unmeaning ornament, in 
 piling order upon order, in multitudes of small and use 
 less columns and mean and unnecessary pilasters, in 
 numerous and richly decorated windows in short, in 
 that ostentatious and elaborate littleness, which strives to 
 supply the place of unity and dignity by lavish embel 
 lishment and minute elegance of detail. When this style 
 is carried into execution in buildings of poor material^ 
 and where, as is too common in this country, artificial 
 stone-work, stucco, wood, lath, plaster, and paint, supply 
 the place of marble or freestone, the effect is exquisitely 
 paltry. It reminds the spectator of the tawdry and tar 
 nished finery of an underling player. This, too, is often 
 made more conspicuous, by an ambijious or ignorant de 
 parture from the common technical rules and fixed pro 
 portions. 
 
 But in its very best estate, this style of architecture can 
 rise to little more than a ponderous and imposing stateli- 
 ness, which, though produced by infinite labour and im 
 mense expenditure, is still poor and ineffective, when 
 compared with the grandeur and beauty of the works of 
 true taste. 
 
 Indeed it very unfortunately happens that the marks 
 of this false taste are but too prominent in our most splen 
 did and costly public building, the Capitol of the United 
 States, 
 
132 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 The plans, elevation, and decorations of this grand na 
 tional structure, when originally adopted shortly after the 
 formation of our present constitution, were wholly in the 
 style of Versailles and the interior courts of the Louvre, 
 according to the old school of French architecture. The 
 more classic taste of Latrobe, and the other successive 
 architects who were subsequently employed on the build 
 ing, introduced numerous and important variations and 
 alterations of the original design, with a view to over 
 power the littleness of its details by the broader and nobler 
 effect of their improvements. But, in spite of the rich 
 beauties of the great Portico and of the Loggia, the co 
 lossal proportions and stately splendour of the Represen 
 tative Hall, (unrivalled by any room for legislative pur 
 poses in the civilized world,) as well as of the bold and 
 massy magnificence of many other portions of the edi 
 fice, which remind one of the gigantic creations of Mar 
 tin s fancy, the Capitol still betrays the vices of its primi 
 tive design. It not only wants unity of effect as a whole. 
 but is subject to more serious objections in its parts, 
 arising from absence of congruity and convenience for 
 their several purposes. All these defects would have been 
 avoided, and much would have been gained in economy 
 and utility, as well as grandeur, had a more cultivated 
 taste presided over the commencement of the work. As 
 it is, it almost deserves the harsh criticism applied to it 
 by an architect of true science,* who called it "a magnifi 
 cent architectural monster." 
 
 In our few attempts at Gothic buildings, we have been 
 generally unfortunate in aiming at too much for our 
 means. Independently of their very peculiar and deeply 
 
 * The late George HadfieW, 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 133 
 
 interesting associations, which, I know not how, throw 
 back the architectural remains of the middle ages to a 
 much remoter antiquity in the imagination than those of 
 Rome or Athens, and which our familiarity with the 
 brief and recent history of our own nation, at once con 
 tradicts and destroys their sublime and solemn impres 
 sion is in a great degree produced by their admirable 
 adaptation to the ritual of the Catholic Church, by the 
 sense of the years consumed in their erection, of difficul 
 ties triumphantly surmounted, of toil, and labour, and 
 skill, unbounded and unwearied, expended not with a 
 view to any of those purposes, for which Protestant 
 churches are peculiarly destinedj but for solemnity, pomp, 
 impression, and varied rich ceremonial. All attempts to 
 mimic this upon a small scale, necessarily partake of the 
 insignificance of a builder s model. If we imitate the 
 architects of the middle ages, we should take them as our 
 masters throughout, and apply the same style of construc 
 tion and decoration on the same scale that they did ; and, 
 therefore, in our places of worship, we should be content 
 with copying their simpler and less adorned chapels and 
 halls, and smaller parochial churches, without making the 
 vain attempt to exhibit the vast proportions, the number 
 less and exquisite minuter beauties, and the infinity of pic 
 turesque combinations of Salisbury Cathedral, or York 
 Minster, in the cheapest and least durable materials, and 
 within the limits of a few square yards. 
 
 Besides these faults, most of our architects are very de 
 ficient in what may be termed the painting of their own 
 art that power, too rare elsewhere as well as here, of 
 giving expression to buildings, of making their appear 
 ance announce their uses, of assimilating the style of or 
 nament to the objects to which they are applied, of filling 
 
134 ADDRESS ON TttE PINE ARTS. 
 
 the mind with those sensations most consonant to the 
 uses, whether of amusement or learning, of legislation, or 
 of devotion, for which they were erected. 
 
 Our need of improvement in this art is by no means 
 confined to the public buildings of our national or state 
 capitals. Our domestic architecture is still almost exclu 
 sively copied, and sometimes not well copied, from the 
 common English books, without variety, and with little 
 adaptation to our climate and habits of life. 
 
 Our better sort of country-seats have often an air of too 
 much pretension for the materials, and their scale, in size 
 and expense. While we despise the humble beauties and 
 picturesque comforts of the cottage, we rarely attain to 
 the splendour of the chateau or villa. In short, our coun 
 trymen have yet to learn, that good taste and proportion, 
 so valuable in their effects, cost nothing. 
 
 These defects of our rural architecture, are the more 
 to be regretted, because it is in the midst of nature that 
 beautiful art always appears to its highest advantage. 
 This contrast is so pleasing, that any tolerably propor 
 tioned building derives a thousand unexpected beauties 
 from being surrounded by rich natural scenery. The 
 colonnade, the portico, or the tower, can never appear 
 with half so much grace and majesty, as when seen 
 through foliage, or " bosomed high in tufted trees." 
 
 I have made these remarks, harsh as some of them 
 may seem, with the more confidence, because it is evident 
 that public opinion is rapidly awakening to a true sense 
 of the importance of this subject ; good taste is every 
 where struggling forwards, and within these few years 
 several edifices have been erected of the purest and no 
 blest character. Mr. Jefferson s patriotic hope seems now 
 about to be realized, for "as sparks of science fall upon 
 
ADDRESS ON THE PINE ARTS. 135 
 
 minds of natural taste, they kindle up their genius and 
 produce rapid reform in this elegant and useful art." 
 
 Such an improvement is not solely directed to the mere 
 gratification of taste, and to giving pleasure to the critical 
 eye of the architect or connoisseur. Good taste is always 
 the parent of utility. Whilst in works of public dignity 
 it attains the grandest results by the simplest means ; in 
 private edifices it suppresses false and gaudy ornament/it 
 prevents all sacrifice of convenience to ostentation, it at 
 tempts no unattainable magnificence, no combinations of 
 irreconcilable qualities. When it is once firmly establish 
 ed, and good models have become familiar, it diffuses its 
 influence abroad on every side, directs the labours of the 
 mechanic, and, where it cannot appear in positive excel 
 lence, is scarcely less useful in banishing all that is un 
 necessary and incongruous, even to the smallest details. 
 
 Without assenting in full to that metaphysical theory, 
 which resolves all beauty into the perception of utility, 
 still, though use be not the efficient cause, it is the 
 inseparable companion of true taste, and the same facul 
 ty which regulated the proportions of the column, or the 
 composition of the frieze; presides with equal care over 
 the minutest arrangement conducing to personal conve 
 nience or pleasure. The prevalence of sound architec 
 tural science, in any community, may be traced as dis 
 tinctly in the increased comforts of the hospital, the im 
 proved commodicusness of the prison or penitentiary, and 
 the bold and secure lightness of the bridge, as in the 
 splendour of the palace, or the massive dignity of the ca 
 thedral. 
 
 I could willingly dilate much longer upon this sub 
 ject. Without pretending to any exact science in this 
 department, I have always found its study full of peculiar 
 
136 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 charms. In its philosophy, it is connected with some of 
 the most refined and curious speculations of intellectual 
 science ; in its theory, it brings together in very singular, 
 yet most harmonious union, the rigid and exact rules of 
 mathematics, and the undefinable and unexpressible, but 
 not less certain, laws of sentiment and taste ; in its his 
 tory, it is throughout interwoven with that of the progress 
 of society, of national character, and of genius; in its 
 practice, it contributes at every moment to private happi 
 ness and public grandeur. 
 
 Let us pass on to the sister Art of Painting. Why 
 should I expatiate on the uses and charms of that, with 
 which all who hear me must be familiar ? It is so inti 
 mately connected with the elegant literature, the general 
 cultivation, and even the amusements of our times, 
 that those who have no practical skill in it, and who 
 have never seen any original work of the very great 
 masters, have some understanding of its theory, and 
 through conversation, books, engravings, and copies, 
 know and feel much of the extent and majesty of its 
 powers. It is a natural and universal language, the lan 
 guage of description through the eye, in its elements 
 common to all mankind, but susceptible of an indefinite 
 and never-ending improvement, as it becomes instructed 
 by close observation, disciplined by practice, judged of by 
 a quick natural sense of the beautiful or the grand, elevat 
 ed by moral dignity of thought, or animated by deep 
 intensity of feeling. Through the senses it awakens the 
 imagination, and by her magic aid, reanimates the dead, 
 acts over before us the great deeds of history, realizes to 
 our eyes the most glorious visions of poetry, and can 
 transfer to a few feet of canvass the unbounded vastness 
 of nature s scenes, the cheering breath of her airs and 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 137 
 
 heavens, her changes of season, and " glad vicissitudes of 
 night and day." 
 
 The great artist moulders in the tomb. But his works 
 still live in the self-sustaining freshness of nature. Age 
 after age passes away, and they still beam forth beauty 
 upon one generation after another. In calm disdain, as 
 it were, of the petty and transitory interests, pursuits, 
 opinions, passions of the day, they continue with unde- 
 caying power, as years roll on, to address themselves to 
 the great principles of our common nature, soothing the 
 cares, elevating the thoughts, stirring in the very depth of 
 the heart the thrilling emotions of natural sympathy, or 
 awakening there the sleeping sense of the great, the sub 
 lime, or the holy. 
 
 Many of us have admired, and studied, and loved all 
 of us have heard and read, of the pure and matchless 
 beauties, the intense yet noble expression, the graceful 
 grandeur, the varied and lofty invention of Raffaele, the 
 harmonious brilliancy of Titian s colouring, Guide s 
 never-tiring sweetness, the splendour, the opulent fer 
 tility of the magnificent Reubens, the richness, the 
 truth, the magic of Rembrandt s " gorgeous gloom," the 
 severe and learned grace of Poussin, the Elysian and 
 ever- verdant imagination of Claude, combining all that is 
 venerable or grand in antiquity or architecture, in poetry 
 or mythology, with all that is most bright and beautiful 
 in nature. 
 
 In all this, what is there but the triumph of mind ? It 
 is the separating of the excellent, and fair, and durable, 
 and intellectual, and universally true, from that which is 
 little, and temporary, and sensual, and accidental. It is 
 the stripping off the grossness of sense from the forms of 
 
138 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 matter, and investing them with the dignity of intellect 
 and the expression of sentiment. 
 
 Can we then, as Americans, be content to look with 
 indifference upon the progress of such an art? Can we 
 coolly say, "All this is well for Europe, for the adorning 
 of courts and palaces, for the amusement of princes, or to 
 enable wealth and luxury, wearied out with their own 
 existence, to fill up the languid pauses of life with new 
 gratifications ?" Oh, not so. Nothing is unworthy or 
 unfitting the attention of a free and wise people, which 
 can afford scope for the employment of talent, or can 
 adorn or gladden life ; least of all, should we be indiffer 
 ent towards an art, thus admirably fitted for the mixed 
 nature of man, an art at once mechanical, moral, and in 
 tellectual,, addressing itself to every part of man s consti 
 tution, acting through his senses upon his imagination, 
 through his imagination upon his reason and his heart. 
 
 But, although it is in the hand of the great epic paint 
 er, who fixes upon his canvass the sentiment of religion, 
 or the glowing conceptions of poetic fancy, that the pen 
 cil has gained its chief honours, it is in another and much 
 humbler department, that this art appeals more directly 
 to the patronage, the judgment, and the natural affections 
 of all of us. It is perhaps in portrait painting, that we 
 are to look for some of its best and most extended uses. 
 
 I have called it an humble department of the art, be 
 cause such is the rank assigned to it by the aristocracy of 
 European taste, and because it really is so in respect to 
 the narrow field it presents for the exertion of fancy or 
 science; yet Reynolds has pronounced that the power of 
 dignifying and animating the countenance, of impressing 
 upon it the appearance of wisdom or virtue, of affection 
 or innocence, requires a nobleness of conception, which } 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 139 
 
 says he, "goes beyond any thing in the mere exhibition 
 of the most perfect forms." 
 
 While, too, our relish and judgment, with respect to 
 other productions of art, are only so far natural as that 
 they are founded in a sensibility, and a power of observa 
 tion and comparison, common to all men in full posses 
 sion of their faculties, but which require to be developed, 
 exercised, and disciplined, by experience or study; Por 
 trait appeals more directly to the comprehension of every 
 one. Though it is sometimes applied to the gratification 
 of vanity, it much oftener ministers to the best feelings 
 of the human heart. It rescues from oblivion the once- 
 loved features of the absent or the dead ; it is the memo 
 rial of filial or parental affection ; it perpetuates the pre 
 sence of the mild virtue, the heartfelt kindness, the hum 
 ble piety, which in other days, filled our affections and 
 cheered our lives. In the hour of affliction and bereave 
 ment, to use the words of a living poet for it is impossi 
 ble to speak feelingly of the arts, without borrowing the 
 language of poetry ; not that poetry for which we turn to 
 books, but that which lives in the memory, because it ut 
 ters the voice of nature, and seems but to respond to the 
 workings of our own thoughts, and to speak the secrets 
 of our own breasts. In that hour 
 
 Then for a beam of joy to light, 
 
 In Memory s sad and wakeful eye, 
 Or banish from the noon of night 
 
 Her dreams of deeper agony. 
 
 Shall Song its witching cadence roll, 
 
 Yea, even the tenderest airs repeat, 
 "Which breath d when soul was knit to soul, 
 
 And heart to heart responsive beat? 
 
140 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS, 
 
 What visions wake to charm to melt ! 
 
 The loved, the lost, the dead are near : 
 Oh, hush that strain, too deeply felt, 
 
 And cease that solace too severe. 
 
 But thou, serene and silent Art, 
 
 By Heaven s own light, wert taught to lend, 
 A milder solace to the heart, 
 
 The sacred image of a Friend. 
 
 No spectre forms of pleasure fled, 
 
 Thy softening, sweet ning tints restore, 
 
 For thou canst give us back the dead, 
 Even in the loveliest looks they wore. 
 
 It is an exalted and sacred office which art discharges, 
 when it can thus administer to the charities of domestic 
 life. But Painting becomes public and national, when it 
 is employed in perpetuating the expression of the mind 
 speaking in the features of the brave, the good, the truly 
 great of those whose valour made us free, or by whose 
 wisdom we may become wise ; of the heroes of our own 
 country, of the patriots of our own history, of the sages 
 and men of genius of all countries, who have left us those 
 works, which form the intellectual patrimony of civilized 
 man of the heroes of humanity, of the benefactors of 
 the human race. Then it becomes, indeed, a teacher of 
 morality ; it then assists in the education of our youth ; it 
 gives form and life to their abstract perceptions of duty 
 or excellence ; and, in a free state and a moral communi 
 ty, where the arts are thus made the handmaids of vir 
 tue, when the imagination of the young patriot calls up 
 the sacred image of his country, it comes surrounded with 
 the venerable forms of the wisest and best of her sons. 
 
 I well remember the vivid impressions produced upon 
 my own mind several years ago, when I first saw the 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 141 
 
 University of Oxford. The quiet grandeur and the 
 pomp of literary ease which are there displayed, did not 
 wholly disarm that dislike> I could not help feeling to 
 wards an establishment, which, possessing so much learn 
 ing and so much real talent, had for the last century, in its 
 public and academic capacity, done so very little for the im 
 provement of education, and had so long been the sanctu 
 ary of unworthy prejudices, and the solid barrier against 
 liberal principles. But when I beheld her halls and cha 
 pels, filled with the monuments, and statues, and pictures, 
 of the illustrious men who had been educated in her seve 
 ral colleges ; when I saw the walls covered with the 
 portraits of those great scholars and eloquent divines, 
 whose doctrines are taught, or whose works are daily con 
 sulted by the clergy of all sects throughout our republic 
 of the statesman and judges, whose opinions and decisions 
 are every day cited as authorities at our bar and in our 
 legislative bodies of the poets and orators, whose works 
 form the study of our youth and the amusement of our 
 leisure, I could not but confess that the young man who 
 lived and studied in such a presence, must be dull and 
 brutal indeed, if he was not sometimes roused into aspira 
 tions after excellence, if the countenances of the great men 
 who looked down upon him, did not sometimes fill his 
 soul with generous thoughts and high contemplations. 
 
 Why should not we also have every where the same 
 excitements to laudable exertion and honourable ambi 
 tion ? We should spread abroad over our whole land 
 this mixed and mighty influence 
 
 Of the Manners, of the Arts 
 Which mould a nation s soul, 
 And cling around their hearts. 
 
 We, too, have great men to honour, and talent enough 
 M 
 
142 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 to do honour, to them. In our public places and squares 1 ; 
 in our courts of justice, our legislative halls, and seminaries 
 of education, the eye should every where meet with some 
 memorial of departed worth, some tribute to public service 
 or illustrious talent. 
 
 Sculpture, in its rudest form, seems to be the instinc 
 tive effort of nature, in the early stages of society, to ex 
 press veneration and to perpetuate honour or gratitude by 
 the help of imitative skill. Nor does it lose its fitness 
 for these uses in the highest stage of refined and cultivated 
 art, although then, in place of the humble imitation of indi 
 vidual nature, it addresses and exercises the imagination, 
 the taste, and intellect. The durability of the material 
 suggests to the mind grand associations of past times, and 
 presents to it in dim and shadowy perspective, the idea 
 of long successions of future generations, who will gaze 
 upon the form now before our eyes, with thoughts and 
 feelings kindred to our own. But at the same time, the 
 severity with which this art rejects the aid of colour and 
 every other adjunct tending to illusion, compels and ha 
 bituates the rudest mind to an effort of intellectual abstrac 
 tion, whereby the undivided attention is fixed upon the 
 majesty of expression, or the truth and grace of form. 
 
 Though our sculptors may never vie with those of an 
 tiquity, in the expression of faultless beauty and ideal 
 majesty, yet they can always find a sufficiently ennobling 
 employment in the commemoration of our great men, 
 Statuary, austere and dignified in its character, is fitted 
 chiefly for public uses, and of all the arts it is that for 
 which private patronage can do least, and which most re 
 quires the fostering care of public munificence. Our na 
 tive sculptors have already given ample proof that we no 
 longer need the chisel of Canova or Chantrey, to com- 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 143 
 
 memorate our Washington and Franklin, and the sages 
 who shared their labours, or who may hereafter follow in 
 their footsteps. 
 
 We have already successfully called in the aid of En 
 graving. This is an art of less dignity and fame ; but 
 when I consider its multiplied uses to science, letters, and 
 taste, and the various and very peculiar excellencies of 
 which it is susceptible, I can scarcely call it an inferior one ; 
 for it is not, as the uninformed are apt to suppose, a purely 
 mechanical occupation. Whilst in itself it affords room 
 for the exercise of no ordinary talent, it stands in the same 
 relation to the other arts, which printing does to Eloquence 
 and Poetry, and by bringing their production within the 
 reach of many thousands, to whom they would have other 
 wise been wholly inaccessible more than compensates for 
 the loss of immediate impression by wider diffusion and 
 greater usefulness. 
 
 When such an artist as our associate Durand, has com 
 pleted an admirable engraving from one of the great 
 est scenes of our history,* or of any history, in which the 
 grand truth of the story takes a stronger hold upon the 
 mind, than mere fancy can ever gain, he has not only 
 done honour to his own talent, but he has discharged a 
 part of the debt of gratitude he owes his country. He 
 has enabled every one of us to bring the great scene and 
 the great actors of our Independence within our own doors, 
 to make them as it were, spectators of the blessings they 
 have earned for us, to place them before the eyes of our 
 children and, when our sons read the history of Grecian 
 heroism, or of English virtue, when their eyes glisten, 
 
 * Durand s engraving of TrurnbulPs Declaration of Independence. 
 
144 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 and their young hearts throb wildly with the kindling 
 theme, we can say to them, "look there, remember that 
 we too had our Epaminondas and our Hampden." 
 
 So great is the effect which may be produced by such 
 and similar means, that it sometimes happens that where 
 a people has degenerated from the virtues of their ances 
 tors, when some wide-wasting corruption has tainted their 
 morals, or tyranny has trampled down their liberties, the 
 arts have served to keep the mind of the nation vigorous 
 and lofty, to protect its talent from the general contagion, 
 and to preserve the love of country intense and ardent, 
 though without hope of liberation, and without the con 
 solation of power. In Italy, 
 
 Ahi, serva Italia, di dolore ostello, 
 Nave senza nochiero ;* 
 
 in lost, enslaved, distracted Italy, the arts still watch, 
 and have watched for centuries, with vestal care over 
 the flame of patriotism, as if commissioned by Provi 
 dence to preserve it from extinction, until the arrival 
 of that hour when it shall kindle up again, and blaze 
 into high and unclouded effulgence. Italy, divided 
 as it has been for ages among so many lords, has 
 still one common feeling and one common pride. It 
 is still one country where a great arid fallen nation, 
 like Marius among the ruins of Carthage, (such as the 
 classic hand of a member of our academy has por 
 trayed him,t) sits august amidst the wrecks of former 
 grandeur, powerless and hopeless, but cherishing an un 
 conquerable will, revolving the thoughts and breathing 
 the spirit of the past. 
 
 Foreign criticism has contemptuously told us, that the 
 
 * Dante. 
 
 f Vanderlyn, in his Marius at Carthage. 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FtNE ARTS. 145 
 
 national pride of Americans rests more upon the antici 
 pation of the future, than on the recollections of the past. 
 Allowing for a little malicious exaggeration, this is not 
 far from the truth. It is so. It ought to be so. Why 
 should it not be so ? 
 
 Our national existence has been quite long enough, 
 and its events sufficiently various, to prove the value and 
 permanence of our civil and political establishments, to 
 dissipate the doubts of their friends, and to disappoint the 
 hopes of their enemies. Our past history is to us the 
 pledge, the earnest, the type of the greater future. We 
 may read in it the fortunes of our descendants, and with 
 an assured confidence look forward to a long and conti 
 nued advance in all that can make a people great. 
 
 If this is a theme full of proud thoughts, it is also one 
 that should penetrate us with a deep .and solemn sense 
 of duty. Our humblest honest efforts to perpetuate the 
 liberties, or animate the patriotism of this people, to puri 
 fy their morals, or to excite their genius, will be felt long 
 after us, in a widening and more widening sphere, until 
 they reach a distant posterity, to whom our very names 
 may be unknown. 
 
 Every swelling wave of our doubling and still doubling 
 population, as it rolls from the Atlantic coast, inland, on 
 ward towards the Pacific, must bear upon its bosom the 
 influence of the taste, learning, morals, freedom of this 
 generation. 
 
 Such considerations as these give to the lasting produc 
 tions of our Arts, and to our feeble attempts to encourage 
 them, a dignity and interest in the eyes of the enlighten 
 ed patriot, which he who looks upon them solely with a 
 view to their immediate uses can never perceive. 
 
 M* 
 
146 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 Nor is it only for their indirect effect upon the present 
 or the future state of society, that the Arts should be cul 
 tivated and cherished. 
 
 They should be loved and fostered for themselves ; be 
 cause they call forth the exercise of a peculiar sort of ta 
 lent, apparently native to our soil, and every day spring 
 ing up fresh and vigorous before us. Our Arts have 
 heretofore unfolded and expanded themselves, not in the 
 genial sunshine of wealth and patronage, but in the cold, 
 bleak shade of neglect and obscurity. The taste of our 
 native artists, of whom so many have risen or are now 
 rising, here and in Europe, to the highest honours of their 
 profession, was not formed by contemplating the noble 
 remains of classical antiquity, or the beautiful productions 
 of modern Italy. They had not even the fainter stimu 
 lant of listening to the language of that affected and ex 
 aggerated enthusiasm, that while it is often wholly insen 
 sible to the excellence to which it does outward homage, 
 can sometimes excite in others the warmth it but 
 feigns itself. Nature was their only teacher, her works 
 their great Academy. 
 
 Indeed, it is difficult to account for the remarkable fact, 
 that so many of our countrymen should have become thus 
 distinguished, far beyond the natural demand of the coun 
 try, or even its forced patronage, without allowing the 
 existence of some organic physical cause, or some mental 
 peculiarity, strongly impelling talent in that direction. 
 
 In spite of the greatest disadvantages, and with little 
 in our public or social habits, peculiarly fitted to foster 
 the elegant arts, we have already given the most abun 
 dant and unquestionable proof of possessing the highest 
 capabilities of success in them. 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 147 
 
 But the names and the works of men of genius, be 
 come the property of their country. They form a rich 
 and lasting possession, which it is a legitimate object of 
 patriotism to acquire and increase. Older nations, in 
 summing up the long catalogue of their statesmen, poets, 
 and scholars, are proud to add to it such names as those 
 of Angelo, Canova, Raffaelle, Rembrandt, Poussin, 
 Claude, Murillo, Reubens, Reynolds, Lawrence. Why 
 should we not do the same ? To be able to do it, very 
 little is needed. The natural talent is here ; and, when 
 conscious of its heaven-given strength, but ignorant or 
 uncertain how to apply it, it heaves and pants in the 
 young breast, and rises in vain aspirations after it knows 
 not what, or wastes itself in idle and blind efforts, how 
 little is wanting to unveil to it the secret of its own pow 
 ers, to give to it a steady impulse and true direction, and 
 enable it to expand and dilate itself by its own energies, 
 to the full stature and majestic proportions of Genius ! 
 
 The young student of natural susceptibility and talent, 
 requires but a little instruction in some of the technical 
 and almost mechanical parts of his profession, a few 
 models, even such as the narrow means of an establish 
 ment like ours can afford, and which may provoke the 
 scornful smile of travelled connoisseurs some good casts 
 from the master-pieces of ancient statuary, the architec 
 tural publications of Stuart, Wood and Piranesi, some 
 spirited and faithful engravings by Edelinck, Strange, 
 Woolett, and Morghen, from the best works of the great 
 painters; the opportunity of studying a few pictures, 
 which, though they may not rank as the prodigies of 
 the art, are of real excellence : add to this, something of 
 public interest to cheer and animate his labours, some 
 thing of cultivated taste to judge and reward his works ; 
 
148 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 and it is enough. You have given him all that is abso 
 lutely needful ; the way is now open to him, and he 
 treads in the path of fame, with a firm and rapid step. 
 You have done well and wisely, and you have already 
 your reward. You have given a great man to your 
 country. His name, his fame, * his genius, the imagina 
 tive or true, the gay or grand productions of his pencil or 
 chisel, belong to us all and to our children. 
 
 But at length, perhaps, he finds that our scattered 
 population, the equal distribution of wealth among us, 
 or other peculiarities of our state of society present, if not 
 insuperable, yet certainly very serious difficulties in the 
 way of exercising his talent on the scale, and the sub 
 jects of which he is justly conscious that it is worthy. 
 Perhaps, too, he hopes to build up that talent to far higher 
 excellence, by the assiduous and constant study of those 
 great original models, which age after age has gazed 
 upon with increasing wonder and admiration, and all 
 have agreed in pronouncing to be the great examples of 
 Art. He leaves his native land it may be for ever. 
 Does he therefore rob us of our lot and portion in him? 
 Shall our country look upon him as an outcast and un 
 grateful son? Oh, no. 
 
 Go, child of Genius go, whither West, and so many 
 others have gone before you. Go where your high du 
 ties call you ; do justice to that art which you love, and 
 to yourself. Go, show to Europe a specimen of the mind 
 and the virtue of the new world ; bear with you the 
 wishes, the hopes, the pride, the benedictions of your 
 native country ; for she well knows that even in the 
 giddiest round of success and applause, you will look 
 with an undazzled eye upon the pomps of Europe ; that 
 you will never blush for the land of your birth ; that 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 149 
 
 you will sympathize with all its fortunes, ever venerate 
 its institutions, and glory in its honours. 
 
 I have touched very briefly upon some of the more 
 prominent points of my abundant and diversified sub 
 ject ; and that of necessity so rapidly and generally, that 
 I have rather suggested to your consideration those to 
 pics that have most impressed my own mind, than given 
 to them that developement and illustration they are ca 
 pable of. and which their importance so richly deserves. 
 There are yet many more unnoticed. I shall speak of 
 but one. 
 
 It is that general moral tendency which must natu 
 rally result from the cultivation of the arts of taste, as it 
 does from every thing in science or literature, which ha 
 bituates man to look for enjoyment elsewhere, than in 
 selfishness or sensuality. 
 
 I do not claim for the Arts, the holy power of reform 
 ing vice, or illuminating moral darkness. Without Re 
 ligion and her most fit and natural attendants, Education 
 and Freedom, they are weak and feeble agents indeed. 
 It is a presumptuous and terrible delusion to look either 
 to Letters or the Arts, as the moral guides of man, and 
 his best teachers of truth and duty. But in their proper 
 place and sphere, when controlled and purified, and 
 elevated by holier principles, they can, and they do con 
 tribute most efficiently to the moral melioration of society. 
 Placed as man is, in a world where on every side is pre 
 sented to him some object to allure or exercise his appe 
 tites, passions, affections, feelings, talents, reason, he must 
 find something to occupy the better part of his nature, or 
 the worse will be active. 
 
 Pleasing and elevating as is the study of the elegant 
 arts considered simply as an exercise of taste and skill, 
 
150 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 it is besides capable of producing other and far better 
 results. Its immediate effect is to direct the attention 
 more closely to the truth of nature. It next leads on its 
 real votaries from the pleasure derived from the mechani 
 cal imitation of nature s ordinary appearances to the 
 deeper delight afforded by the selection of whatever is 
 grand or graceful in her forms, powerful or lovely in her 
 expression. Then it is that new susceptibilities to some 
 of the purest and most exquisite of mental pleasures 
 awaken gradually in the breast, and we become con 
 scious of sentiments and powers before dormant and un 
 known. We no longer gaze around with that gross, 
 material sense to which nought but material objects can 
 be present and visible. A keener mental sight opens 
 within. To the eye of sense, the whole earth may be 
 cold and blank ; while to the eye of cultivated imagina 
 tion, every part of creation beams with rays of light, and 
 glory, and beauty. 
 
 In such moments for alas ! they are only moments 
 the world loses its hold, base cares and bad passions 
 flit away, and the mind, though riot redeemed from the 
 thraldom of vice of the burden of sorrow, is for a time 
 calmed and purified. 
 
 Among a people situated like this, to whom compara 
 tive freedom from those more pressing cares of life, which 
 weigh heavily and incessantly upon the most numerous 
 class of society in many other countries, leaves much 
 leisure, is it not wise, is it not prudent, is it not consonant to 
 the nature of man, to provide for him some occupations 
 and objects, far lower, we willingly admit, than the ex 
 ercise of his religious and social duties and affections, but 
 as far above the vicious gratification of grosser appetites* 
 something, that, while it engages and employs his fa- 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 151 
 
 culties in innocence, at the same time invigorates his 
 mind, and enlarges his conceptions? 
 
 Whatever utility in this regard may be justly claimed 
 for elegant literature, or speculative science, may, on the 
 same grounds, be ascribed to taste and knowledge in the 
 fine arts. If ; however, some stern and severe moralist 
 should yet doubt whether society derives any real benefit 
 from either source, we may at least ask him, if the time 
 thus employed is not well redeemed from coarse sensuali 
 ty, from the calumnies and slanders of malicious indo 
 lence, from ostentatious luxury, from the dull, dull round 
 of fashionable amusement, or from the feverish strife of 
 personal ambition ? 
 
 It is true, that the Arts have been at times the inmates 
 of corrupt and despotic courts, the flatterers of tyranny, the 
 panders of vice. But the alliance is not necessary it is 
 not natural. If the fertile and spirited pencil of some of 
 the ablest masters of the elder French school, wasted its 
 powers in allegorical adulations of a despot and a bigot - 
 if the higher genius of Italy could sometimes stoop to yet 
 baser prostitution, let us remember that such is the con 
 dition of man. Every acquirement may be abused, all ta 
 lent may be profaned. Poetry, Science, History, have 
 each in their turn been bent to serve some bad use. Boi- 
 leau is the most abject of flatterers, Dryden panders the 
 profligacy of a licentious capital, La Place is the advocate 
 of a blind and mechanical atheism, Hume lends his 
 matchless acuteness and the never-tiring fascinations of 
 his style, to cheerless scepticism, and to cold-blooded de 
 famation of the champions and the cause of liberty and 
 conscience ! 
 
 What then ? Is ignorance therefore necessary to vir 
 tue or to freedom ? Is the cultivation of the imagination, 
 the taste, and the reason of all those faculties, which 
 
152 ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 distinguish man from his fellow animals, unfriendly to 
 the improvement of the moral powers ? Believe it not. 
 Patriot, Moralist, Christian, think not so meanly of your 
 sacred cause wrong it not by unworthy suspicions. It 
 imposes upon you no useless austerities ; it asks no aid 
 from ignorance ; it loves the light. 
 
 Confident, then, that whatever pursuit or amuse 
 ment teaches man to feel his own capacity for purer and 
 better delights than those of sense, must in some degree 
 or other improve and dignify his nature, may we not say 
 with Reynolds, that "every establishment which tends to 
 the cultivation of the pleasures of the mind, as distinct from 
 those of sense, may be considered as an inferior school of 
 morality, where the mind is polished and prepared for 
 higher attainments?" 
 
 Let me conclude in the language of the same great and 
 philosophical painter, whose imaginative and almost Pla 
 tonic philosophy, whose acute perceptions of the princi 
 ples of the imitative arts, and placid dignity of eloquence, 
 have raised him to a rank of excellence in literature, even 
 superior to that which he had worthily earned in his pro 
 fession; and whose works present an admirable example 
 of the beautiful union of just and refined taste, with mo 
 ral wisdom and elevated sentiment. 
 
 "The labours of the artist," says he, "may extend 
 themselves imperceptibly into public benefits, and be 
 among the means of bestowing on whole nations refine 
 ment of taste ; which if it does not lead directly to purity of 
 manners, obviates at least their greatest depravation, by 
 disentangling the mind from appetite, and conducting 
 the thoughts through successive stages of excellence, till 
 that contemplation of universal rectitude and harmony 
 which began in taste, may, as it is exalted and refined, 
 conclude in Yirtue." He adds, in words of weighty 
 
ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 153 
 
 truth and solemnity, which I would impress upon the 
 mind of every member of this institution: 
 
 "Every artist ought well to remember, that he deserves 
 just so much encouragement in the state, as he makes 
 himself a member of it virtuously useful, and contributes in 
 his sphere to the general purpose and perfection of socie- 
 ty." 
 
 N 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO THE ADDRESS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 NOTE 1 Page 128. 
 
 " The glory of this work, says Tacitus, speaking of the Ro 
 man Capitol, projected under the Kings, was reserved for 
 liberty. It was completed and dedicated under the second 
 consulate of Horatius Puvilius, with a magnificence which 
 the immense wealth of the Roman people in after ages adorned 
 rather than increased." Tacitus, History III. 
 
 There is a secret charm in the writings of Tacitus, arising 
 from the constant struggles of an ardent and indignant spirit 
 of Roman liberty, as constantly repressed by that stoical dig 
 nity and studious impartiality, which he conceived to belong 
 to the historian. He sees, not without very deep emotion, the 
 great friends of liberty fall a sacrifice, one after another, but 
 his stern philosophy suppresses all expression of sympathy 
 for them, or of indignation against their oppressors. " I shall 
 speak of men," says he, " without affectation and without hatred. 
 " Nee amore quisquam nee odio dicendus est." But when he 
 relates the destruction off the capitol, by the armies of Ves 
 pasian and Vitellius, he throws off all constraint, and gives 
 vent to Roman feelings, in language such as Livy, or Lucan 
 might have used. 
 
156 NOTES TO THE ADDRESS 
 
 NOTE 2 Page 129. 
 
 These lines are, I believe, by Campbell, but I have never seen 
 them in his works, and know them only through quotations 
 and the newspapers. 
 
 NOTE 3 Page 140. 
 
 This is the language of our distinguished countryman, 
 Washington Allston, a poet and a painter, to whom I have 
 often applied the eulogy, which some mod-em Latinist has 
 given of a great artist of his own times. " Arte clarus, literis 
 ornatus, moribus pulchrior." 
 
 NOTE 4 Page 141. 
 
 The series of historical portraits of the Governors of the state 
 of New- York, and of a number of the naval my! military officers, 
 who distinguished themselves in the late war, together with 
 many of our most eminent magistrates, by Trumbull, Sully, Jar- 
 vis, and Waldo, which are now in the City-Hall of New- York, 
 would form an excellent foundation for a national portrait galle 
 ry. By adding to it, at the expense of a few hundred dollars every 
 j^ear, the portraits of our Presidents, Chief Justices, Chancel 
 lors, and distinguished Judges of the Federal and State Courts, 
 and of any great public benefactors in science or art, we should 
 have, in the course of twenty years, an inestimable collection, 
 to which every succeeding year would add fresh interest and 
 value. This would afford scope, too, for the exercise of the 
 talents of many excellent artists, who are now necessa 
 rily obliged to restrict themselves to mere face-painting. The 
 historical portrait is a medium between portrait and history ; 
 and where naturally, and without affectation, it can be com 
 bined with action, (as has been happily done by Jarvis, in his 
 picture of Commodore Perry, in the boat leaving his shattered 
 ship, to hoist his flag on board another, in the memorable 
 fight on Lake Erie,) it gives room for the higher powers of 
 the art. 
 
ON THE FINE ARTS. 157 
 
 The library of the College of this city, contains a number 
 of good portraits of the most eminent presidents and profes 
 sors of that respectable institution since its foundation, in 1753, 
 and this little collection is always seen with much interest. 
 But a college which can number among its sons such men as 
 Alexander Hamilton, John Jay,. Robert R. Livingston, Gouver- 
 neur Morris, and many younger men, who are now among 
 the foremost of our citizens in politics, at the bar, or in the 
 pulpit, would add to its own dignity and reputation, by ex 
 tending this gallery so as gradually to comprehend all those 
 of her sons of whom she has most reason to be proud. 
 
 Harvard University, founded in 1639, and Yale College, 
 founded in 1701, two most respectable and useful, and for our 
 country, venerable establishments, have already the ground 
 work of galleries of the same kind, and if these were to be 
 extended on this plan, they would soon contain the portraits 
 of very many of the greatest men of our nation. This would 
 not be mere ostentation. It is a wise thing as well as a proud 
 thing, for a seminary of learning to show itself to the inge 
 nuous youth under its charge, as 
 
 centum complexa nepotes 
 
 Omnes Coelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes. 
 
 NOTE 5 Page 141. 
 
 Almost all the statues and busts of our great men which we 
 have in this country, are by foreign artists, some of them of 
 the highest reputation. The statue of Washington for the 
 state of North Carolina, is, as is well known, by Canova, and 
 Chantrey has executed another for Boston. We have in 
 this and other cities very fine busts of him by Cerrachi, Thor- 
 waldson and Trentanove ; these are all historical likenesses. 
 The best portrait bust is probably that of Houdon. The 
 common-casts of Hamilton, and George Clinton, are from Ce- 
 rachi. Franklin employed the skill of all the eminent French 
 sculptors of his day. 
 
158 NOTES TO THE ADDRESS 
 
 Since the first publication of this address eight years ago, 
 we can congratulate ourselves upon the sudden developement 
 of the talent of several native sculptors. Greenhough, of 
 Massachusetts, who has enjoyed and improved all the ad 
 vantages of study and residence in Italy, is now employed 
 by order of Congress, upon a colossal statue of Washington 
 for the capitol. Frazee, of New- York, a self-taught and un- 
 travelled artist, has discovered powers of the highest order 
 which require only fit subjects and occasion for their exercise, 
 to do lasting honour to his country. 
 
 NOTE 9 Page 148. 
 
 West, Copely, Trumbull, G. Stuart, Malbone, W. Allston, 
 Leslie, Steuart Newton, Vanderlyn, Harding, Fairman, Dan- 
 forth, Cole, and Greenhough, are among the American artists, 
 in different walks, who have not only studied, but successfully 
 pursued their profession in Europe. 
 
 All of these, I believe, without exception, whilst (in the 
 words of Bryant) their hearts 
 
 have borne to Europe s strand, 
 
 A living image of their native land. 
 
 Among all the different scenes of their after life in Europe, 
 Still kept that earlier, wilder image bright. 
 
 There are obvious reasons which impede the American ar 
 tist, who aspires to display his talent in the mere poetry of 
 his profession, and in very large compositions. We may 
 look forward to a steady and growing demand for cabinet pic 
 tures, and such works as may be fitted for the scale of our 
 houses and our limited fortunes. But our public and national 
 establishments can seldom, with any propriety, or, indeed, in 
 any keeping with their general character, borrow other deco 
 rations from the Painter and Sculptor, than such as are purely 
 historical ; including in that term not only portraits and sta 
 tues of great men, but also those strictly historical works, the 
 
ON THE FINE ARTS. 159 
 
 subjects of which are drawn from our own annals. These, 
 though unquestionably affording scope for great excellence, 
 both in conception and in skill, still allow little room for the 
 bolder flights of the imagination, and the more exquisite re 
 finements of taste. The sagacity of Mr. West, many years 
 ago, pointed out to his American friends, the practice of ex 
 hibition as a mode of patronage peculiarly fitted for this 
 country, and it is a subject of felicitation to the friends of the 
 arts, that it is daily becoming more common to the United 
 States. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
[THE following Tribute to the memory of a very useful 
 and good man, was prepared in compliance with a vote of 
 the Trustees of the Institution of which he was Principal, 
 and was delivered at the Annual Meeting of the High 
 School Society, November, 1829, the members of the Ly 
 ceum of Natural History also attending, as a society, with 
 many other citizens. The Annual Report of the state of 
 the Schools under the charge of the Trustees, having first 
 been made by the President of the Board, he proceeded as 
 follows :] 
 
TRIBUTE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MEMORY OF DANIEL H. BARNES. 
 
 Having thus briefly discharged the ordinary official du 
 ty of the Board of Trustees, another and more melancholy 
 office remains to be performed. 
 
 It is to express in the name of all connected with the gov 
 ernment of this Institution, or who take an interest in its 
 welfare, our individual feelings of deep regret for the death 
 of the late Associate Principal, and to endeavour to pay to 
 his memory something of that honour which his talents 
 and virtues merit, and his zealous and faithful services 
 peculiarly claim at our hands. 
 
 In speaking of Daniel H. Barnes, I shall not use either 
 the language of ostentatious grief or of studied panegy 
 ric. Cut off, as he was, suddenly, in the midst of health, 
 and activity, and usefulness, his death is one of those mys 
 terious and dark dispensations of that Providence "whose 
 ways are not is man s ways," which, bringing home to 
 the most careless, the sense of the frail tenure of life, awes 
 the mind into stillness and solemnity, But severely as 
 the blow must be felt by the dearer friends of his own 
 family, the sorrow of others for the death of a virtuous and 
 pious man, whose stainless life had been ardently devoted 
 to the service of his Maker, the duties of his station, and 
 the best interests of society, has in it little of bitterness. It 
 is sad, and solemn, and calm, and durable. 
 
164 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 Nor less unsuited to the occasion would be the language 
 of rhetorical eulogy. The memory of a man who had 
 diligently devoted his whole life and talents to the acqui 
 sition of useful knowledge and the application of that 
 knowledge to the most beneficial purposes, will be best 
 honoured by a simple statement of his life, his studies, and 
 his character. 
 
 Daniel H. Barnes was born in the county of Columbia, 
 in the State of New- York, in the year 1785, and was edu 
 cated at Union College in Schenectady. He early devoted 
 himself to the instruction of youth, and soon after he had 
 completed his collegiate course, was appointed Master of 
 the Grammar School attached to Union College. Here he 
 gained not only ex perience but reputation, and some years 
 after, was chosen Principal of the respectable Academy 
 at Poughkeepsie, one of the incorporated seminaries 
 of .education under the patronage and visitation of the 
 Regents of the University of this State. That institu 
 tion flourished under his charge for several years, and in it 
 many individuals, now filling honourable stations in vari 
 ous walks of life, received the most valuable part of their 
 classical and scientific education. He was, however, 
 tempted to leave this station by an invitation to Cincin 
 nati, Ohio, where he was placed at the head of an incor 
 porated academic or collegiate establishment for the higher 
 branches of education. At Cincinnati his situation was 
 honourable, and his services, as usual, were laborious and 
 successful. The enterprise, the activity, the rapid growth 
 and improvement so conspicuous in that country, unparal 
 leled in its progress in population, cultivation, and refine 
 ment were congenial to the unwearied activity and be 
 nevolent ardour of his own mind. The yet unexplored 
 natural riches of that region of the west, added besides 
 fresh excitements to his liberal and indefatigable curiosity. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 165 
 
 But he found the climate of Ohio unfriendly to nis con 
 stitution, and was reluctantly obliged some years ago to 
 resign his duties there, and return to his native air on the 
 Atlantic coast. He then established a private classical 
 school in this city, where he soon acquired the same re 
 putation which he had enjoyed at other places of his resi 
 dence. In this city, his mind was enlarged and excited 
 by new objects of curiosity and instruction, and the so 
 ciety of men eminent in various ways for talent or acquire 
 ment. His studies took a wider range. He became an 
 ardent and successful student of Natural History. From 
 the languages and literature of antiquity he advanced 
 on to the higher branches of Philology and the 
 Philosophy of language. He improved his knowledge 
 of chemical and physical science, and became conversant 
 with their application to the useful arts. 
 
 During this period, too, his early and deep-seated re 
 ligious convictions and feelings, which had long ruled 
 his life, led him to the more regular and systematic study 
 of theology, and he became an ordained minister of the 
 Baptist church. 
 
 Sensible, doubtless, that the instruction of youth was 
 the peculiar talent which had been intrusted to him, and 
 believing that he could thus, "according to his ability," 
 best serve his Master, he never became the regular pastor 
 of any church or congregation. His appearance in the 
 pulpit was, therefore, rare and occasional ; but I am told 
 that his discourses and public prayers were distinguished 
 for the soundness of their reasoning and the earnest fer 
 vour of their eloquence. His theological opinions were 
 those of the Calvinistic Baptists. That he believed the 
 doctrines he professed firmly and conscientiously, his life 
 is a proof. That sincerity in his own belief was united 
 
 o 
 
166 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 in him with charity for those who differed from it, is at 
 tested by his friendly connexion in this institution with an 
 Associate Principal of the Society of Friends, and a Board 
 of Trustees of various other denominations; and still 
 more by the earnestness and fidelity with which, on pro 
 per occasions, he here enforced the great principles of faith 
 and morals, upon a large body of pupils educated in all 
 the different modes of worship known amongst us, with 
 out ever irritating the feelings or exciting the prejudices 
 of any parent or pupil. 
 
 The respect and confidence with which he was regard 
 ed by that numerous and respectable body of Christians 
 with whom he was immediately connected were shown, 
 first, by his appointment to a professorship of Hebrew and 
 G reek in a Theological institution, founded some years 
 ago, for the instruction of candidates for the ministry in 
 the Baptist church, and more recently, by his unanimous 
 election to the office of President of the Columbian Col 
 lege in the District of Columbia, a seminary of general 
 learning under the peculiar, though not exclusive patron 
 age and government of the same communion. This 
 last appointment, after some suspense, he relinquished in 
 favour of this institution, to which he had been devoted 
 from its foundation. 
 
 Our deceased friend s natural ardour of mind, directed 
 as it always was by the sense of duty and the sentiments 
 of philanthropy, made him one of those who can never be 
 come the slaves of routine and custom, and who cannot 
 be content with what is merely well, as long as it seems 
 practicable to make it better. Alike in the government o 
 his own heart and conscience, in the pursuits of science, 
 and in the business of education, his constant aspiration 
 was to improvement. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 167 
 
 It was, therefore, that his attention was early directed 
 to the monitorial system of Bell and Lancaster, and its 
 extension from simple elementary instruction to the 
 mathematics, ancient and modern languages, and such 
 branches of science as do not require the aid of lectures or 
 experiment. He had satisfied himself of the value of this 
 system by trial on a small scale in his own private classes, 
 when his confidence in its efficacy was increased by its 
 successful application in the High School of Edinburgh by 
 Prof. Pillans, as well as by the attestations of Drs. Mant 
 and D Oyley to its use in the Charter- House School of 
 London. 
 
 He, therefore, eagerly co-operated in the foundation of 
 the High school for Boys, in 1824, became one of the two 
 Associate Principals, and was, until his death, the faithful 
 and efficient head of the classical department. 
 
 The several preceding annual Reports of the School 
 committees, drawn up by some of our most distin 
 guished citizens, show the high sense of the value of 
 his services entertained by the successive Boards of Trus 
 tees ; while the great number of pupils (always averaging 
 from 500 to 700) gave still stronger evidence of his repu 
 tation with the public. 
 
 His School was often thronged with visitors and teach 
 ers from abroad, anxious to learn and diffuse its methods 
 of instruction, and one of the best proofs of its merit, is the 
 fact, that it was the model of numerous and most valua 
 ble similar establishments in various parts of the Union. 
 
 It was in the midst of this career of useful and honoura 
 ble service that he was snatched from us. 
 
 He had been invited last month by the Trustees and 
 Officers of the "Rensselaer School," recently founded near 
 Troy by the well-judged munificence of one of our most 
 
168 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 honoured, and patriotic citizens, to attend their annual ex 
 amination. He had taken great interest in this school from 
 its foundation, as it had been in part modelled on the plan 
 of his own system of instruction, and because it combines 
 with the usual elementary course, the rudiments of natu 
 ral and physical science, and the practice of agriculture. 
 
 "I must go," said he, in words of fatal import. On his 
 way thither, he was thrown from a stage-coach, and ex 
 pired a few hours afterwards. 
 
 He died regretted and honoured by all who knew his 
 public services, aud deeply mourned by those friends who 
 more intimately knew and loved his private virtues. 
 
 In this simple narrative of Mr. Barnes life, much of his 
 character has been anticipated. It is due, however, to 
 his memory to say something more of his character as 
 a scholar and a man of science, and his merit as an in 
 structor. 
 
 He was an excellent classical scholar, accurately skilled 
 in the Latin and Greek languages, to which he added 
 considerable acquirements in the Hebrew, and a familiar 
 acquaintance with modern languages and literature. As 
 a philologist, like other zealous cultivators of that branch 
 of study, he was perhaps disposed to push to an extreme 
 his favourite theories of derivation and the connexion of 
 languages ; but he was learned and acute. His acquire 
 ments in mathematics were highly respectable, though I 
 think that he never devoted himself to this science with 
 the same zeal as to other collateral studies. 
 
 It is probably as a Naturalist, that his name will be 
 best known to posterity, as it already is in Europe. He 
 was a most industrious member of the Lyceum of Natu 
 ral History in this city, a society which without parade or 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 169 
 
 public patronage, displaying in a rare degree the love of 
 learning the without parade of it, has for many years culti 
 vated the Natural sciences with admirable zeal, industry, 
 and success. They have joined us in paying the last hon 
 ours to the memory of our deceased associate and it is to 
 one of their members,* himself a Naturalist of well-earned 
 reputation, that I am indebted for the following brief, but 
 judicious and honourable statement of Mr. Barnes labours 
 and attainments as a Naturalist. 
 
 "About the year 1819, he turned his attention to the 
 Natural Sciences, and his connexion with the Lyceum of 
 this city nearly at the same time, gave additional impulse 
 to the characteristic zeal with which he prosecuted his 
 new studies. The department of Mineralogy and Geolo 
 gy occupied his attention, and the first fruits of his inqui 
 ries are to be found in a paper read before the Lyceum, 
 entitled a " Geological survey of the Canaan mountains, 
 with observations on the soil and productions of the neigh 
 bouring regions." t In this paper he shewed himself well 
 conversant with Botany and Zoology. To this latter 
 branch of Natural History he subsequently devoted his 
 leisure hours with greater avidity; and communicated to 
 the Lyceum a curious and original paper, " On the Gene 
 ra Unio et Alasmodonta," I a family of fresh water shells 
 distinguished for their beauty, and their almost infinite 
 variety of form. Shortly after appeared in the annals of 
 the Lyceum several other papers from Mr. Barnes on simi 
 lar subjects. Two of these may be particularly noted, one 
 on "the Genus Cluton," and the other on "the doubtful 
 reptiles." 
 
 * Dr. Dekay. 
 
 f Subsequently published in the 5th vol. of Silliman s Journal 
 JSee Silliman s Journal for 1823. 
 
170 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 The reputation of Mr. Barnes as a Naturalist will be 
 immoveably established upon his memoir on the shells 
 of his country. The introductory observations applicable 
 to the whole study of Conchology are marked by that 
 precision, clearness, and lucid order for which he was 
 remarkable. He described above twenty new species, 
 and a short time before his death he received a flattering 
 proof of the- estimation in which his labours were held by 
 the learned of Europe. 
 
 The great and splendid work of Humboldt on Mexico, 
 of which the Zoological part is now in the course of 
 publication, contains beautiful plates and descriptions of 
 the genera just referred to. The first Zoological critic of 
 Europe (the Baron de Ferussac) in commenting upon 
 this work, points out many errors into which the author 
 has fallen ; " errors," he observes, " which had arisen 
 from his not having consulted the works of American 
 naturalists, and especially the labours of Mr. Barnes." 
 
 As a naturalist, Mr. Barnes had very peculiar qualifica 
 tions. Familiar with the learned and several modern 
 languages, he was enabled to pursue his investigations 
 beyond the narrow limits of his own. His inquiries 
 were conducted with a caution, a patience, and a modest 
 diffidence, which cannot be too much imitated. He was 
 scrupulously exact in his descriptions, and exhibited a 
 laudable hesitation at generalizing from obscure or doubt 
 ful premises. Engaged in laborious avocations, occupy 
 ing the greatest part of his time, it was only in hastily 
 snatched intervals of leisure, that he could devote him 
 self to those pursuits which form the serious business of 
 life with those who have gained distinction in them. 
 The reputation, however, of a scientific man does not 
 depend upon the quantity of his writings, and if it should 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 171 
 
 be said that Barnes has written little when compared 
 with the labours of the professed naturalist, let it be 
 remembered that that little has been done singularly 
 well* 
 
 In addition to this just and discriminating praise, I 
 have only to add that he never regarded these acquisi- 
 sitions, or indeed any others not immediately entering 
 into the uses of life, as of ultimate value in themselves. 
 He cherished and cultivated the study of Nature as fur 
 nishing truer conceptions of the Creator s wisdom, as 
 giving employment to the understanding and habits of 
 accurate and attentive observation, and as frequently and 
 often unexpectedly leading to results increasing the pow 
 er or the happiness of man. 
 
 With these views of the objects of the science, whilst 
 in his more elaborate printed essays he addressed the 
 scientific naturalist, he was wont, in occasional popular 
 lectures to his pupils, to unfold to them the infinite beauty, 
 the diversified simplicity of the order of nature. To 
 borrow the eloquent language of an accomplished scho- 
 lart of our own country, who amidst the laborious occu 
 pations of a busy life, found leisure to become one of the 
 first naturalists of the age ; he taught them how, by the 
 light of science, " the very earth on which we tread be 
 comes animate every rock, every plant, every insect 
 presents to our view an organization so wonderful, so 
 
 * The opinion of Mr. Barnes s merit as a naturalist expressed as 
 above shortly after his death by friends and countrymen, has since 
 that time been confirmed by the general suffrage of the naturalists 
 of Europe. Within the last four or five years his memoirs have been 
 repeatedly cited by some of the first zoologists and geologists of the 
 age, as of the highest authority on the subjects upon which they treat. 
 
 t The late Stephen Elliot, Address to the Lit. and Phil. Soc. of S. C. 
 
172 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 varied, so complex; an adaption of means to ends so 
 simple, so diversified, so extensive, so perfect, that the 
 wisdom of man shrinks abashed at the comparison. Nor 
 is it to present existence that our observations are con 
 fined. The mind may thus be enabled to retrace the 
 march of ages ; to examine of the earth the revolutions 
 that have formed and deranged its structure of its in 
 habitants, the creation, the dissolution the continual 
 reproduction to admire that harmony which, while it 
 has taught each being instinctively to pursue the primary 
 object of its creation, has rendered them all subservient 
 to secondary purposes." With the same eloquent natu 
 ralist he could truly add, " The study of Natural Histo 
 ry has been for many years the occupation of my leisure 
 moments : it has lightened for me many a heavy, and 
 smoothed many a rugged hour : beguiled by its charms, 
 I have found no road rough or difficult, no journey te 
 dious, no country desolate or barren. In solitude never 
 solitary, in a desert never without employment, I have 
 found it a relief from the languor of idleness, the pressure 
 of business, and the unavoidable calamities of life." 
 
 In his own profession, as a teacher of youth, Mr. 
 Barnes had long enjoyed a merited reputation. Able and 
 willing to teach, and to teach well all those branches of 
 knowledge which the wants or opinions of society re 
 quire, as essential for pursuits of active life, he did not 
 consider the mere drilling of his pupils in those studies as 
 a sufficient discharge of his duty. He felt a warm and 
 parental interest in them, and delighted to throw before 
 them such collateral information as. might stimulate their 
 curiosity, or, without the labour of formal study, enrich 
 their minds with such hints and outlines of science as 
 might in after life be filled up and completed. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 173 
 
 Nor were the peculiar obligations of the minister of a 
 holy religion, forgotten by him in those of the teacher of 
 human learning. He omitted none of those opportuni 
 ties which the course of discipline and instruction con 
 stantly presented, to impress on those under his care 
 notions of sound morals, to correct those of false honour 
 and pride, to awaken rational piety, or to quicken those 
 moral sensibilities, which, though they may be dormant in 
 youth, are rarely dead. 
 
 It has been to me a source of pleasure, though a me 
 lancholy one, that in rendering this public tribute to the 
 worth of our departed friend, the respectable members of 
 two bodies, one of them the most devoted and efficient in 
 its scientific inquiries, the other comprising so many 
 names eminent for philanthropy and learning, have met 
 to do honour to the memory of a SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 There are prouder themes for the eulogist than this. 
 The praise of the statesman, the warrior, or the orator, 
 furnish more splendid topics for ambitious eloquence; but 
 no theme can be more rich in dessert, or more fruitful in 
 public advantage. 
 
 The enlightened liberality of many of our state govern 
 ments (amongst which we may claim a proud distinction 
 for our own) by extending the common-school system 
 over their whole population, has brought elementary edu 
 cation to the door of every family. In this State, it ap 
 pears from the Annual Reports of the Secretary of the 
 State, there are besides the fifty incorporated academies 
 and numerous private schools, about nine thousand 
 school districts, in each of which instruction is regularly 
 given. These contain at present half a million of children 
 taught in the single State of New- York. To these may 
 
174 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 be added nine or ten thousand more youth in the higher 
 seminaries of learning, exclusive of the colleges. 
 
 Of what incalculable influence, then, for good or for 
 evil, upon the dearest interests of society, must be the es 
 timate entertained for the character of this great body of 
 teachers, and the consequent respectability of the indivi 
 duals who compose it ! 
 
 At the recent general election in this State, the votes of 
 above three hundred thousand persons were taken. In 
 thirty years the great majority of these will have passed 
 away; their rights will be exercised, and their duties 
 assumed by those very children, whose minds are now 
 open to receive their earliest and most durable impres 
 sions from the ten thousand schoolmasters of this State. 
 
 What else is there in the whole of our social system of 
 such extensive and powerful operation on the national 
 character ? There is one other influence more powerful, 
 and but one. It is that of the MOTHER. The forms of 
 a free government, the provisions of wise legislation, the 
 schemes of the statesman, the sacrifices of the patriot, are 
 as nothing compared with these. If the future citizens 
 of our republic are to be worthy of their rich inheritance, 
 they must be made so principally through the virtue and 
 intelligence of their Mothers. It is in the school of ma 
 ternal tenderness that the kind affections must be first 
 roused and made habitual the early sentiment of piety 
 awakened and rightly directed the sense of duty and 
 moral responsibility unfolded and enlightened. But next 
 in rank and in efficacy to that pure and holy source of 
 moral influence is that of the Schoolmaster. It is pow 
 erful already. What would it be if in every one of those 
 school districts which we now count by annually increas 
 ing thousands, there were to be found one teacher well- 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 175 
 
 informed without pedantry, religious without bigotry or 
 fanaticism, proud and fond of his profession, and honoured 
 in the discharge of its duties? How wide would be the 
 intellectual, the moral influence of such a body of men ? 
 Many such we have already amongst us men humbly 
 wise and obscurely useful, whom poverty cannot depress, 
 nor neglect degrade. But to raise up a body of such 
 men, as numerous as the wants and the dignity of the 
 country demand, their labours must be fitly remunerated 
 and themselves and their calling cherished and honoured. 
 The schoolmaster s occupation is laborious and un 
 grateful ; its rewards are scanty and precarious. He 
 may indeed be, and he ought to be, animated by the con 
 sciousness of doing good, that best of all consolations, 
 that noblest of all motives. But that too must be often 
 clouded by doubt and uncertainty. Obscure and inglo 
 rious as his daily occupation may appear to learned pride 
 or worldly ambition, yet to be truly successful and happy, 
 he must be animated by the spirit of the same great prin 
 ciples which inspired the most illustrious benefactors of 
 mankind. If he bring to his task high talent and rich 
 acquirement, he must be content to look into distant years 
 for the proof that his labours have not been wasted that 
 the good seed which he daily scatters abroad does not 
 fall on stony ground and wither away, or among thorns, 
 to be choked by the cares, the delusions or the vices of 
 the world. He must solace his toils with the same pro 
 phetic faith that enabled the greatest of modern philoso 
 phers,* amidst the neglect or contempt of his own times 
 to regard himself as sowing the seeds of truth for pos 
 terity and the care of Heaven. He must arm himself 
 
 - K: * " 2*WB |5tft$W bttHl frl. } m &fJB, t ^l&JOi *I?O 
 
 w 
 
 * Bacon, " Serere posteris ac Deo immortali." 
 
176 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 against disappointment and mortification, with a portion 
 of that same noble confidence which soothed the greatest 
 of modern poets when weighed down by care and dan 
 ger, by poverty, old age, and blindness, still 
 
 In prophetic dream he saw 
 
 The youth unborn, with pious awe, 
 Imbibe each virtue from his sacred page. 
 
 He must know and he must love to teach his 
 not the meagre elements of knowledge, but the secret and 
 the use of their own intellectual strength, exciting and 
 enabling them hereafter to raise for themselves the veil 
 which covers the majestic form of Truth. He must 
 feel deeply the reverence due to the youthful mind fraught 
 with mighty though undeveloped energies and affections 
 and mysterious and eternal destinies. Thence he must 
 have learnt to reverence himself and his profession, and to 
 look upon its otherwise ill-requited toils as their own ex 
 ceeding great reward. 
 
 If such are the difficulties, and the discouragements 
 such, the duties, the motives, and the consolations of 
 teachers who are worthy of that name and trust, how 
 imperious then the obligation upon every every enlight 
 ened citizen who knows and feels the value of such men 
 to aid them, to cheer them, and to honour them! 
 
 But let us not be content with barren honour to buried 
 merit. Let us prove our gratitude to the dead by faith 
 fully endeavouring to elevate the station, to enlarge the 
 usefulness, and to raise the character of the Schoolmaster 
 amongst us. Thus shall we best testify our gratitude 
 to the teachers and guides of our own youth, thus best serve 
 our country, and thus most effectually diffuse over our 
 land light, and truth, and virtue. 
 
AN 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 PHILOLEXIAN AND PEITHOLOGIAN SOCIETIES, 
 
 OF 
 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
 
 Quid ni ego magnorum virorum elf imagines habeam incit amenta virtutis et na- 
 tales celebrem ? Quid ni illos honoris causa appellem ? SENECA EPIST. 
 
 Peace to the just man s memory, let it grow 
 Greener with years, and blossom through the flight 
 Of ages ; let the mimic canvass show 
 His calm benevolent features ; let the light 
 Stream on his deeds of love, that shunned the sight 
 Of all but Heaven, and in the book of Fame 
 The glorious record of his virtues write, 
 And hold it up to men, and bid them claim, 
 A palm like his and catch from him the hallowed flame. BRYANT, 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 The historian Polybius had examined the institutions 
 of the Roman republic, her laws, her customs, her mili 
 tary discipline, and her public policy, with the jealous 
 curiosity of a conquered Greek, and the enlightened 
 sagacity of a statesman and a philosopher. Himself a 
 distinguished actor in most of the important transactions 
 of Rome s history during his eventful times in turns 
 the opponent in arms or in negociation, and the chosen 
 friend of her greatest men, he had familiarly studied the 
 very elemsnts of Roman character, and was enabled to 
 trace in it the springs and causes of the nation s great 
 ness. 
 
 In a remarkable passage of his history he has pointed 
 out one ancient usage of the commonwealth as, in his 
 opinion, eminently efficacious in forming the character 
 of her youth, inflaming them with magnanimous desires 
 and generous sentiments, and fitting them for the toils, 
 the duties, and the glories of freemen. This powerful 
 agent he found in the public honours reverently and con 
 stantly paid to their illustrious dead. 
 
 It was not merely that the funeral rites of every citizen 
 who had deserved well of his country were solemnly at 
 tended by the whole body of the people, who, with in 
 tense and respectful interest, listened in silence to the 
 
180 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 praises of his virtues and public services, pronounced in 
 the Forum by the most eloquent of his kinsmen or 
 friends ; but it was moreover that on such, as well as on 
 other fitting occasions, the venerable images of a long 
 line of yet older patriots and heroes, who in former years 
 had illustrated the family of the deceased, were again 
 brought before the public view, decorated with the robes 
 and surrounded with the trophies of their well-won ho 
 nours, while their great deeds were recited and their 
 virtues extolled, and thus their memory kept fresh and 
 living from generation to generation. 
 
 " By these means, "says the historian, " the praise and 
 the fame of excellent men and their deeds are continually 
 renewed ; the names and the exploits of those who have 
 deserved well of their country are made familiar to the 
 people, and handed down to posterity; and what is by 
 far the chief of all, the young are perpetually excited to 
 the hope of imitating these illustrious fathers of the state, 
 and of earning that honourable name and grateful re 
 membrance which the good alone can obtain." 
 
 The effect of such a usage could not be otherwise ; 
 for it was founded in the deepest knowledge of human 
 nature. 
 
 The rules of prudence, the obligations of moral duty, 
 the lessons of high philosophy, the exhortations of ardent 
 patriotism, are all, in themselves, but cold generalizations, 
 which may command the assent of the reason and be 
 treasured away in the memory, without warming the 
 heart or giving any direction to the conduct. Embody 
 these in example, enable the imagination to give to them 
 voice and form, and they at once become living and im 
 pressive teachers of the noblest truth. Combine with 
 this strong influence that of another great law of human 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 181 
 
 nature, the principle of association; let these examples 
 be drawn from the lives of those who have laboured or 
 suffered for our own good, whose mother-tongue was our 
 own, who once breathed the air and trod the soil of our 
 own dear native land, the fruit of whose labours we are 
 now enjoying, the scenes of whose exertions are still be 
 fore our eyes, how eloquent then do such examples be 
 come ! When they have been made familiar to the 
 mind, when they are combined with our earliest recollec 
 tions, how little can be added to their force by fancy or 
 rhetoric ! A simply stated fact, a date, a mere name, is 
 then sufficient to excite the flush of patriotic sympathy, 
 or the thrill of generous enthusiasm. 
 
 For these, the most exalted uses of History and Biogra 
 phy, of literature and eloquence, America has already 
 rich and abundant materials. Here the ordinary history 
 of centuries has been crowded into the space of a single 
 life. Here the humble colony of one generation has, in 
 another, risen into a powerful state, and expands to a great 
 empire in a third. This rapid course of events could not 
 pass along without developing the energies of minds 
 worthy of the times, and equal to their greatest occasions. 
 Their scene of action was vast and magnificent ; they 
 were animated and sustained by stronger as well as purer 
 motives than heathen philosophy ever knew; whilst 
 science had armed their minds with powers, to which the 
 knowledge of the chiefs and rulers of past ages was as 
 that of children, It is one of the best and most exalted 
 duties of the men of the present day. to make the charac 
 ters and lives of these fathers of our country known and 
 familiar to the youth of our land, and to accustom them 
 to draw the lessons of wisdom, and the examples of virtue, 
 from our own annals: "Heroum laudes et facia par en- 
 
182 CODUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 legere" and from them to learn " qua sit cognos 
 ces virtus" 
 
 It is from these considerations, and with the hope of 
 discharging some part of this duty, that I have been in 
 duced to select the subject of the present discourse. It 
 seemed to me, that in addressing the literary societies 
 formed under the protection of our ancient college 
 amongst her students and graduates, for their mutual im 
 provement in the best uses of good learning, meeting 
 them, too, upon the eve of that literary anniversary when 
 our Alma Mater is again to send forth a fresh body of 
 her sons, from the discipline of education, to the cares 
 and struggles of active life, no theme could be more 
 appropriate than the praise of some of those illustrious 
 dead, whose memory our country cherishes with grate 
 ful affection, and whom our college proudly numbers 
 among her elder and favourite sons. 
 
 It has been the merit or the happy fortune of this in 
 stitution, to have educated no inconsiderable^ number of 
 America s greatest men. Here many of the most vigo 
 rous and original minds of the nation have received their 
 first intellectual discipline and impulse. This is no idle 
 boast, no fond exaggeration. From her origin, eminent 
 for sound and accurate instruction in classical learning 
 and mathematical science; placed in the midst of a city, 
 where the restless and unceasing activity of enterprize 
 and industry keeps the mind always awake, and presents 
 to the most careless looker-on every aspect of human 
 character and variety of human pursuit, this college has 
 long given her pupils most of the advantages that can 
 stimulate application or awaken genius ; and the fame 
 of many of her sons has amply repaid the cares of their 
 Alma Mater. Amongst these she can claim some of the 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 183 
 
 fathers of our civil liberties, the founders of our national 
 institutions, the teachers of our civil wisdom. On the 
 same roll are inscribed the names of public benefactors, 
 who by the improvement or wider application of science, 
 have enlarged the power and augmented the happiness of 
 man, and scattered plenty over the land. There, too, 
 are the names of those who " have turned many unto 
 righteousness," by devoting the best gifts of learning, 
 taste, genius, and eloquence, to the study and inculcation 
 of gospel truth and moral law. 
 
 It is not my intention to attempt giving a minute ac 
 count of the lives oivvirtues of any of them. That is 
 the proper business of the historian and the biographer. 
 My chosen task is a briefer one, but it is not less pleasing 
 or honourable. It is, to present in rapid review before 
 you the names and characters of some few of the most 
 distinguished of those who have thus illustrated our aca 
 demic family, and, from this literary rostrum, amidst the 
 scenes of their youthful studies and earliest distinctions, 
 surrounded in imagination by their venerable forms and 
 the trophied honours of their maturer lives, to speak to 
 you briefly of their virtues and talents. I cannot indeed 
 speak of them with the eloquence of antiquity, but I 
 trust to do it in its true spirit; turning aside from the 
 recollection of the errors or frailty which haply may have 
 sometimes alloyed their excellence, expelling from my 
 own breast every narrow or bitter feeling excited by dif 
 ference of opinion, which might tempt me to wrong the 
 fame of any one of them, and striving to raise myself 
 and my hearers to a congenial admiration of moral and 
 intellectual worth and high deserts. 
 
 At the commencement of our revolution, this college 
 had been in successful progress for about twenty years, 
 
184 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 under learned and able instructors, with all the collateral 
 aids of science which the times afforded. The weight 
 of station, authority, and perhaps of talent, in this city, 
 was with the mother country. Dr. Cooper, the President 
 of this college, was a wit and a scholar, whose learning 
 and accomplishments gave him personal popularity and 
 respect with his pupils, and of course added authority to 
 his opinions and those were the opinions and prejudices 
 of the high-toned English University tory of the last 
 century. To these halls then we should scarcely have 
 looked for any of the earliest champions of American 
 rights. Yet why not? In them classic lore had un 
 folded to the student the grand and exciting sentiments 
 of ancient liberty ; here the discipline of mathematical 
 reasoning a discipline, if possible, still more valuable 
 than the conclusions which that reasoning establishes 
 had trained him to think and to judge for himself: and 
 here he had been directed by the great masters of Eng 
 lish philosophy, by Bacon and Locke, to venerate, to feel, 
 and to assert the rights of private judgment and con 
 science. Yes learning may be, and too often has been, 
 the slavish handmaid of power, hoodwinked by early 
 prejudice, lured by interest, or dazzled by ambition. But 
 these are not the true and natural results, they never 
 can be, of any study which otherwise enlarges the un 
 derstanding and elevates the soul. Those who so be 
 lieve, do but vilify Heaven s best gifts to the human race. 
 Well hath it been said of such reasoners, by a philoso 
 phical and republican poet 
 
 " Oh, fool ! to think the man whose ample mind 
 Must grasp at all that yonder stars survey ; 
 
 Must join the noblest forms of every kind, 
 The world s most perfect image to display, 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 185 
 
 Can e er his country s majesty behold, 
 Unmoved or cold ! 
 Oh, fool ! to deem 
 
 That he whose thought must visit every theme 
 ******* 
 That he, if haply some presumptuous foe, 
 
 With false, ignoble science fraught, 
 Shall spurn at freedom s faithful band ; 
 That he their dear defence will shun, 
 Or hide their glories from the sun, 
 Or deal their vengeance with a woman s hand." 
 
 AKENSIDE. 
 
 The annals of our college bear testimony to the same 
 elevating truth. Her Alumni were among the foremost 
 champions of American Liberty in the cabinet and the 
 field. There were early found Jay, and Livingston, and 
 Morris, and Benson ; Van Cortlandt, and Rutgers, and 
 Troup, and Hamilton. 
 
 At the beginning of that glorious struggle, Alexander 
 Hamilton was still a youth, engaged in pursuing his 
 college studies with that ardour and application which 
 characterized all his mental efforts throughout life. The 
 momentous questions of the rights of the colonies, and 
 the powers of the parent state, had been discussed in 
 New- York with no ordinary talent on both sides. The 
 mind of the future statesman was roused by the subject. 
 Like the Swedish warrior, who, when he heard for the 
 first time the whistling of bullets about him, exclaimed, 
 u This henceforth shall be my music," young Hamilton, 
 with a nobler instinct, when he then first turned his 
 mind to the investigation of great principles, the duties 
 of subjects, their rights, and those of their rulers and of 
 the state, felt the true vocation of his genius, and rushed 
 impatiently forward to enter upon his destined career of 
 a patriot statesman. Then it was that his talents were 
 
186 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 first employed in the public service ; and (in the words 
 of his eloquent funeral eulogist*) " America saw with 
 astonishment a lad of seventeen in the ranks of her ad 
 vocates, at a time when her advocates were sages and 
 patriots." A few months more found the same youth 
 the companion in arms and the confidential friend of 
 Washington. Who amongst us does not know the other 
 events of his life ? I can touch only upon that part of 
 it which is identified with the history of our constitution. 
 It was to his foresight, his influence and eloquence, 
 more than to any other man, perhaps more than to all 
 others, that we owe that union of the states under the 
 present constitution, which rescued us from weakness 
 and anarchy, and gave us a permanent rank among the 
 nations of the earth. It is well known that in the con 
 vention which framed it, opinions as to the character of 
 the proposed instrument were held, so widely variant 
 from each other, and so warmly, as to threaten the disso 
 lution of the assembly without coming to any useful 
 result. Hamilton s own theoretical plan of a constitution 
 was undoubtedly not in unison with the principles and 
 feelings of a majority of the people ; for he thought that 
 the state of society at home, and of public affairs abroad, 
 required a frame of government as secure from the fluc 
 tuations of popular opinion as could be made consistent 
 with its foundation in the public will. This was a the 
 ory, in my view, deduced from an imperfect estimate of 
 the American character, and of the tendency and effect 
 of representative institutions, which our ampler experience 
 has, I trust, contradicted and refuted. But he hesitated 
 not to sacrifice his pride of opinion to the practical good 
 
 * Dr. Mason. 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 187 
 
 of the country. Amidst the discordant elements of par 
 ties, and the collisions which proceeded from them, his 
 great talents were devoted with steadfast singleness of 
 purpose to the object of national union. To this he 
 sacrificed every secondary consideration. He sought 
 union in the spirit of union, and finally attained it, not 
 by the victory of a party, but, as the convention solemnly 
 declared, "as the result of a spirit of amity and mutual 
 deference and concession."* 
 
 As this spirit gave birth to our federative government, 
 so surely will it long continue to animate and sustain it. 
 Whoever commends this spirit of mutual submission and 
 concession merely as a salutary remedy against whatever 
 ills may threaten our national union, in my mind, sees its 
 operation but darkly and imperfectly. It is far more 
 than this. It is the vital and animating soul of our form 
 of government, throughout all its stages. It is bound up 
 in all its provisions. It is taught in all our political insti 
 tutions and usages, general, and state, and local. It is 
 the earliest and most frequently repeated lesson of every 
 citizen; it is inculcated upon him in every exercise of 
 his elective rights. A wisdom higher than human fore 
 sight has thus made that which is the essential support of 
 our civil polity, the natural result of all its operations. By 
 this the Union was formed, and by it the Union will be 
 preserved. 
 
 The effective defence of this constitution, its luminous 
 exposition, and its victorious adoption after a doubtful and 
 embittered contest, give to Hamilton other and equally 
 enduring claims upon the gratitude of posterity. In his 
 speeches in the convention of this state, and in the more 
 
 * Address of the Convention to the People of the U. S. 
 
188 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS* 
 
 expanded vindication and exposition of the constitution 
 contained in his numbers of the Federalist, whilst the im 
 mediate object of clearing up doubts, satisfying scruples, 
 and refuting objections was victoriously obtained, he has 
 left to succeeding generations a treasure of political science, 
 that must ever be resorted to as the most authoritative and 
 masterly exposition of our constitutional charter, and the 
 most luminous commentary upon the nature and history 
 of representative and federative government. 
 
 Then succeeded his short but brilliant administration 
 of our finances, rendered memorable by that efficient or 
 ganization of the public revenue and resources which re 
 plenished the bankrupt treasury, raised the prostrate na 
 tional credit, and placed it on a firm and durable basis, 
 gave immediate activity to commerce and the arts, and 
 security to all their pursuits. It was memorable too for 
 a series of official reports from his pen, which have proved 
 the inexhaustible source of instruction, of argument, of au 
 thority to our statesmen, political economists, jurists, and 
 orators, under every administration and all forms of par 
 ties. Of the doctrines sustained in these reports, many 
 belong to the still debatable and debated questions of eco 
 nomical and constitutional discussion upon which great 
 parties and great minds have heretofore divided, and still 
 differ. How is it then, that Hamilton s writings, like his 
 fame, have ceased to be the property of a party, and have 
 become that of the nation? 
 
 It was not merely that he brought to the consideration 
 of vast and complicated questions a mind original, inven 
 tive, logical; that those native powers were supported by 
 an untiring industry and abundant knowledge, which 
 drew elucidation and argument from every collateral 
 source. But it was, that this vigour of mind and ampli- 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 189 
 
 tude of knowledge were but the instruments of a frank, and 
 simple, and manly integrity of purpose, unstained by any 
 selfish motive, always seeking for truth as its object, al 
 ways looking to the public good as its ultimate end. It 
 was this that stamped its peculiar character upon his elo 
 quence, whether spoken or written. Filled with the 
 strong interest of his subject, he had no thought of him 
 self. There were no flights of ambitious rhetoric, no gau 
 dy ornament, no digressions of useless learning or osten 
 tatious philosophy; every thing he said had relation to his 
 subject alone, and that was viewed in every light, tried 
 by every test, examined, scrutinized, canvassed, discuss 
 ed; no objection suppressed, no difficulty avoided; till 
 at last, whatever might be his own conclusion, nothing 
 was wanting to enable the hearer or reader to judge for 
 himself. His stream of thought, as it proceeded, was 
 swelled from a thousand fountains, yet it still flowed on 
 in one full, clear, and mighty current. 
 
 It was this same characteristic of moral and intellectual 
 frankness, that, during his life, made him. without office 
 or patronage, the acknowledged head of a talented and 
 powerful party; that, amidst that violence of contention 
 which alienated friends and brothers, gained for the lead 
 er and champion of a minority the confidence of the 
 whole nation in his purity and patriotic intentions. This 
 won for Hamilton the high tribute of his illustrious rival, 
 Thomas Jefferson, not only to his "colossal talents," but 
 to his private virtues, and the good faith and undissembled 
 honour of his public conduct. When he died, it was this 
 recollection above all others that filled the land with 
 ^loom and sorrow. 
 
 Many years have passed away I was then very 
 young but I still remember as if it were yesterday, the 
 
 Q. 
 
190 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS, 
 
 manner in which the news of his fall flew throughout this 
 city the earnest inquiries which were heard the ex 
 pression of anxious and painful interest seen in every 
 countenance. On the green before the house near this 
 city where he lay expiring, I saw collected, in silent 
 groups, all that society most esteemed for ability or worth. 
 There, and every where, past differences, personal or po 
 litical opposition, were sunk at once and for ever, in grief 
 and honour for the honest statesman and the eloquent 
 patriot. 
 
 The name of John Jay is gloriously associated with 
 that of Alexander Hamilton, in the history of our liberties 
 and our laws. John Jay had completed his academic 
 education in this college, several years before the com 
 mencement of the revolution. The beginning of the 
 contest between Great Britain and the colonies found him 
 already established in legal reputation, and, young as he 
 still was, singularly well fitted for his country s most ar 
 duous services, by a rare union of the dignity and gravity 
 of mature age with youthful energy and zeal. At the age 
 of twenty-jeight, he drafted, and in effect himself formed, 
 the first constitution of the state of New- York, under 
 which we lived for forty-five years, which still forms the ba 
 sis of our present state government, and from which other 
 states have since borrowed many of its most remarkable 
 and original provisions. At that age, as soon as New- 
 York threw off her colonial character, he was appointed the 
 first Chief Justice of the state. Then followed a long, rapid, 
 and splendid succession of high trusts and weighty duties, 
 the results of which are recorded in the most interesting 
 pages of our national annals. It was the moral courage 
 of Jay, at the head of the Supreme Court of his own state, 
 that gave confidence and union to the people of New- 
 York. It was from his richly stored mind that proceeded, 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 191 
 
 while representing this state in the Congress of the United 
 States, (over whose deliberations he for a time presided) 
 many of those celebrated state papers, whose grave elo 
 quence commanded the admiration of Europe, and drew 
 forth the eulogy of the masters orators and statesmen of 
 the times of Chatham and Burke whilst, by the evi 
 dence which they gave to the wisdom and talent that 
 guided the councils of America, they contributed to her 
 reputation and ultimate triumph as much as the most 
 signal victories of her arms. As our minister at Madrid 
 and Paris, his sagacity penetrated, and his calm firmness 
 defeated, the intricate wiles of the diplomatists and cabi 
 nets of Europe, until, in illustrious association with 
 Franklin and John Adams, he settled and signed the de 
 finitive treaty of peace, recognizing and confirming our 
 national independence. On his return home, a not less 
 illustrious association awaited him in a not less illustrious 
 cause the establishment and defence of the present na 
 tional constitution, with Hamilton and Madison. The 
 last Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the old confede 
 ration, he was selected by Washington as the first Chief 
 Justice of the United States under the new constitution. 
 
 I need not speak of the talent with which he dis 
 charged the duties of this latter station. His early edu 
 cation and regular industry had made him a learned 
 technical lawyer ; and after a long suspension of these 
 studies, he returned to the law with a mind invigorated 
 by constant and laborious employment, enlarged by a 
 variety of knowledge and observation, and habituated to 
 the investigation and exposition of the first principles of 
 right, of liberty, and of government. 
 
 His able negociation and commercial treaty with 
 Great Britain, and his six years administration as Go 
 vernor of this state completed his public life. 
 
192 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 As the character of Hamilton presents, in its soldier 
 like frankness and daring, a beautiful example of the 
 spirit of chivalry applied to the pursuits of the statesman, 
 so in that of Jay, pure and holy justice seemed to be em 
 bodied. He lived as one 
 
 Sent forth of the Omnipotent, to run 
 The great career of justice. 
 
 He was endowed above most men with steadiness of 
 purpose and self-command. He had early sought out 
 for himself, and firmly established in his mind, the grand 
 truths, religious, moral, or political, which were to regu 
 late his conduct; and they were all embodied in his daily 
 life. Hence the admirable consistency of his character, 
 which was the more striking as it seemed to reconcile 
 and unite apparently opposite qualities. That grave 
 prudence, which, in common men, would have swayed 
 every action to the side of timid caution, was in him 
 combined with invincible energy. So too in his opin 
 ions. No man was more deeply penetrated with the 
 doctrines or the sentiment of religion ; no man more 
 conscientiously exact in its observances ; whilst no man 
 could look with more jealousy on any intermixture of the 
 religious with the temporal authority; no man more 
 dreaded, or watched with more vigilant caution, every 
 invasion, however slight, upon the rights of private con 
 science. 
 
 After a long and uninterrupted series of the highest 
 civil employments, in the most difficult times, he sudden 
 ly retired from their toils and dignities, in the full vigour 
 of mind and body, at a time when the highest honours 
 of the nation still courted his acceptance, and at an age 
 when, in most statesmen, the objects of ambition show 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 193 
 
 as gorgeously, and its aspirations are as stirring as ever. 
 He looked upon himself as having fully discharged his 
 debt of service to his country ; and satisfied with the 
 ample share of public honour which he had received, he 
 retired with cheerful content, without ever once casting 
 a reluctant eye towards the power or dignities he had 
 left. For the last thirty years of his remaining life, he 
 was known to us only by the occasional appearance of 
 his name, or the employment of his pen, in the service 
 of piety or philanthropy. A halo of veneration seemed 
 to encircle him, as one belonging to another world, 
 though yet lingering amongst us. When, during the 
 last year, the tidings of his death came to us, they were 
 received through the nation, not with sorrow or mourn 
 ing, but with solemn awe; like that with which we 
 read the mysterious passage of ancient scripture "And 
 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took 
 him." 
 
 Among the immortal names of our revolution and 
 earlier political history, our college may claim yet a third 
 son, worthy to be ranked with those of whom I have 
 spoken. 
 
 Eloquent and learned, graced with taste and fancy, 
 the accomplishments of elegant letters and arts, and the 
 acquisitions of solid science, Robert R. Livingston was 
 the fellow-labourer of Jay and Hamilton in achieving 
 the liberties of the United States, and in rearing the fa 
 bric of our civil institutions, as well as their ablest rival 
 and opponent in the subsequent division of parties. He 
 filled for twenty-five years the first law office of this 
 state ; and during that period of the revolution when 
 the best talent of the nation was employed in its diplo 
 matic service, acted as Secretary of Foreign Affairs to 
 
194 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 Congress, with an ability and talent at that time duly 
 estimated, but which had fallen into oblivion, and become 
 unknown to most of the present generation, until then- 
 effects were again conspicuously brought to light by the 
 very recently published Diplomatic Correspondence of the 
 American revolution. These alone are signal claims to 
 distinction ; but in him they are lost in the blaze of far 
 brighter and more lasting honours. His first act as an 
 American statesman, was as one of the committee of 
 five, (Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, 
 and Robert R. Livingston,) who, in the Congress of 
 1776, prepared and presented the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence. His last political transaction was the nego 
 tiating and concluding that treaty which added to our 
 empire, Louisiana, with the command of the Mississippi 
 and that vast territory whence one mighty state after an 
 other is now successively bursting into life. Thus the 
 name of Livingston is deeply inscribed upon the very 
 corner-stone of our national liberties, and on the broadest 
 arch of our national power. 
 
 But the most important part of a country s history is 
 not always that which is written in its political annals. 
 The advance of knowledge, commerce, agriculture, arts, 
 whilst they seem but to follow in the train of good go 
 vernment, often operate in silence changes as gigantic in 
 their influence on human happiness, as those revolutions 
 that shake the world and give birth to nations. Such 
 changes have we witnessed within our own lives, and 
 in our own country. 
 
 Splendid as were the incidents of Chancellor Living 
 ston s official and political career, he himself wisely looked 
 with more satisfaction, and his best fame may hereafter 
 rest, upon his efficient agency as an enlightened private 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 195 
 
 citizen in hastening forward the march of improvement 
 over our land. He was among the first in this state who 
 applied to agriculture the science and the interest of a 
 liberal study, braving the laugh of the ignorant, and the 
 sneers of the prejudiced, at the failure of his experiments, 
 and richly rewarded in their success by the general good 
 he had earned. The arts of taste and design found in 
 him one of their earliest and most judicious patrons. 
 Under his auspices the first academy in this country for 
 their cultivation was formed, and under his immediate 
 direction it was provided with the best means of im 
 provement for the artist, and of instruction and refine 
 ment to the general taste. Above all, his agency in the 
 invention of steam-navigation, his enlightened science in 
 early perceiving its practicability and admirable use, his 
 prophetic confidence in ultimate success amidst repeated 
 disappointments, losses, and ridicule, and finally his sa 
 gacity in seizing upon and associating with himself the 
 practical genius of Fulton, whose plans had been rejected 
 with scorn by the rulers, the savans, and the capitalists 
 of the old world, combine to place him in the highest 
 ranks of the lasting benefactors of the human race. It 
 is a beautiful thought of Lord Bacon s, that, antiquity, 
 whilst it honoured the law-givers, the founders or deliver 
 ers of states, but with the title of worthies or demigods, 
 rightly bestowed upon those who had invented or im 
 proved the arts and commodities of human life, "honours 
 (as he terms them) heroical and divine ;" because the 
 merit of the former is confined within the circle of one 
 age or nation, but that of the others is indeed like the 
 benefits of heaven, being permanent and universal. 
 " The former," says he, "is mixed with strife and per 
 turbation; but the latter, like the true presence of Deity, 
 comes without noise or agitation." 
 
196 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 It was therefore a proud eulogy, as well as a true one, 
 which a distinguished professor (whose own name adds 
 scientific lustre to the catalogue of her sons) lately pro 
 nounced upon this college, when he traced to her walls 
 and lecture-rooms, the germs of the greatest practical 
 improvements bestowed by science upon our state and 
 nation, the steam navigation of Livingston and Ste 
 vens, (for the name of Stevens belongs also to us) and 
 the canal system of Morris and Clinton. 
 
 The memory of De Witt Clinton, the first graduate 
 of our Alma Mater after the peace of 1783, is another 
 brilliant and treasured possession of this college. After 
 the numerous tributes which have so recently been paid 
 to his memory, and especially that luminous view of his 
 character as a scholar and a statesman, as the promoter 
 of good education and useful improvement, contained in 
 the discourse lately delivered from this place, by Profes 
 sor Renwick, any thing I could now say on the same 
 subject would be but useless repetition. Else would I 
 gladly pay the homage due to his eminent and lasting 
 services, and honour that lofty ambition which taught 
 him to look to designs of grand utility, and to their suc 
 cessful execution, as his arts of gaining or redeeming 
 the confidence of a generous and public-spirited people. 
 For whatever of party animosity might have ever 
 blinded me to his merits, had died away long before his 
 death ; and I could now utter his honest praises without 
 the imputation of hollow pretence from others, or the 
 mortifying consciousness in my own breast, of rendering 
 unwilling and tardy justice to noble designs and great 
 public service. 
 
 I have already exhausted much of the time and at 
 tention I have a right to claim of you ; and there still 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 197 
 
 remain many names worthy of much honour, whom I 
 had intended to commemorate. Some of these I must 
 reluctantly pass over in silence, and of others I can do 
 no more than awaken your respect or affection by a brief 
 and hurried mention. 
 
 Yet the lives of some of them afford the richest mate 
 rials for biography, and are indissolubly associated with 
 the most interesting events of our history. There was 
 Richard Harrison, alike in years and in parental care 
 the father of our college, for half a century the most 
 learned and accomplished lawyer of a learned bar, who 
 during a long and busy life continued to pursue with 
 unbated interest and application, the study of the best 
 literature of antiquity and modern languages, and who 
 found in those studies which in early youth had ripened 
 his taste, and which graced the severer and profound 
 legal science of his maturer years, the still animating 
 occupation and amusement of an honourable and honour 
 ed old age. 
 
 There was the eloquent and highly gifted Gouverneur 
 Morris, fitted for the stirring times of revolution by the 
 buoyant energy of his character, and formed to grace 
 alike the scenes of business and of pleasure by the ready 
 versatility of his talent, the brilliancy of his wit and 
 imagination, and the wide range of his knowledge and 
 accomplishments. The marks of his genius are to be 
 seen every where ; for he was the companion of Hamil 
 ton and Jay in their labours for the independence of this 
 nation, and the establishment of this government ; and 
 he was the associate of Clinton in joining the ocean with 
 the lakes. 
 
 Nor can I pass over in utter silence the amiable Tomp- 
 Idns, the rival and opponent of Clinton ; for there is one 
 
198 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 remarkable incident in his life, peculiarly proper to be re 
 membered here, in this seminary of learning and upon 
 a solemn literary anniversary. It is not that in the short 
 space of twenty-five years, he passed in quick and un 
 broken succession through every high trust which the 
 people of this state could bestow upon him. It is not 
 that in all of them he showed himself equal to their im 
 portant duties ; that throughout all of them, his gentle 
 bearing, his many amiable and generous qualities, won 
 for him the people s love ; that in the dark hour of na 
 tional peril, when the power of the Union was shattered, 
 and its resources bankrupt, he put that popularity to the 
 noblest use, by rallying the people of this state as one 
 man to the common defence, until, in the oblivion of 
 former political contentions. New- York rose with a giant s 
 strength and raised its united voice, that voice to the 
 whole land, 
 
 -The liveliest pledge 
 
 Of hope, in fear or danger ; heard so oft 
 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
 Of battle where it raged. 
 
 These are recollections that still warm the hearts of 
 thousands. There is another which more peculiarly 
 belongs to us. It belongs to us as the Alumni of his 
 and our Alma Mater, the oldest seminary of learning 
 in the state of New- York, as the friends of liberal and 
 universal knowledge, as scholars, as patriots. It is this. 
 During his administration of the government of this state, 
 and under his recommendation and direction our com 
 mon school system was formed and put into operation 
 a system admirable for the happy ingenuity with which 
 state patronage and superintendence are combined with 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 199 
 
 local and individual support and supervision full of 
 present efficiency, and yet capable of illimitable expan 
 sion and improvement adapted to the wants of an in 
 creasing population, and their progressive demands for 
 better instruction and higher knowledge. 
 
 Rough and imperfect as these outlines of character 
 have necessarily been, they have yet covered so much of 
 my canvass that I have little room left for others, whom, 
 when the plan of this discourse first occurred to me, I 
 meant to have made conspicuous in it. To our states 
 men and jurists, the benefactors of society and the pro 
 moters of the arts, I wished to add with equal respect our 
 departed scholars and authors, and divines. They are 
 many, but must not all be wholly omitted. We can 
 never in this hall forget the mild wisdom of our former 
 President, Bishop Moore.* His placid dignity of aspect 
 is still before me. The tremulous melody of his win 
 ning and touching eloquence still sounds in my ears. 
 And, too, if I can place no worthier differing on the tomb 
 of Bowden.t let me at least mention his name with a 
 pupil s grateful remembrance, as a scholar, a reasoner, 
 and a gentleman ; and bear witness to his pure taste, 
 his deep and accurate erudition, his logical acuteness, 
 and the dignified rectitude of his principles and character. 
 Thence I might lead you along among the tombs of 
 the learned and the good, who, in their days of youth 
 and hope, filled these halls, and who now rest in peace ; 
 pausing ever and anon, to mourn over some one of those 
 
 * Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in the sjtate of New-York, and President of Columbia Col 
 lege. 
 
 t Dr. John Bowden, for many years Professor of Moral Philosophy 
 and Logic in Columbia College. 
 
200 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 whom we have revered or loved, until we stopped to 
 gether at the still fresh grave of young Bruen 
 
 -Dead before his prime, 
 
 Young Lycidas ! and hath not left his peer. 
 
 Within a few days a bright light has been extin 
 guished, a mighty mind has departed. If scholarship, 
 at once extensive and profound, if the rare union of inti 
 mate acquaintance with books, and deep learning in the 
 spirits and ways of men, if eloquence powerful, impres 
 sive, peculiar, original, if that strength of mind which 
 masters others to its will, and sways opinion, if devotion 
 and zeal for the best interests of mankind, animating and 
 directing that learning, sagacity, and eloquence, if such 
 endowments can add lustre or dignity to character, that 
 praise is Mason s.* 
 
 Almost from the hour he left these walls, he exercised 
 a wide and commanding influence over the minds of 
 others. Posterity will doubtless judge of his talent chiefly 
 from his written productions. These are but fragments 
 of his mind ; the vigorous but accidental exertions of his 
 strength. Yet the future reader will see in these, the 
 productions of original genius acting upon ample stores 
 of learning. The author is there seen seizing his sub 
 ject with the Herculean grasp of Johnson or Horsley, 
 stripping off and throwing contemptuously aside the 
 common places which might belong to it, and embodying 
 his own weighty sense in language always peculiarly his 
 own, always forcible, always perspicuous, frequently con 
 densed and polished, often fervid, glowing, and impas 
 sioned. 
 
 Still his writings afford, I repeat, an inadequate idea 
 
 * Rev. John M. Mason, D. D. 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 201 
 
 of the riches of his intellect. A more favourite field of 
 exertion than that of mere authorship, (for I believe that, 
 like many men of the fullest and the readiest minds, he 
 sat down reluctantly to the toil of elaborate composition,) 
 was in the business of education. It was as Provost of 
 this college, as President of Dickinson college, and, for a 
 much longer period, and with yet greater zeal, as head of 
 the theological school of his o\vn church, that he ap 
 plied those principles which he has laid down with ad 
 mirable force and precision, in that masterly report to the 
 Trustees of Columbia College, which forms the basis of 
 their present system of academic instruction. There it 
 was that he laboured, not to teach the mere knowledge 
 of words, or the mere knowledge of things, but (I use 
 his own language) cc to teach his pupils to get knowledge 
 for themselves, by eliciting their faculties, and forming 
 them to the habit of thinking"* 
 
 But by far the highest proofs of Dr. Mason s ability 
 were shown in their proper place, his own pulpit ; and 
 there, chief of all, in that immense and continuous sys 
 tem of scriptural exposition and commentary, which he 
 was, for many years, accustomed to give, according to the 
 old usage of the Scotch churches. 
 
 Whilst the very nature of these unwritten and extem 
 poraneous, but not unprepared expositions, rejected the 
 forms and method of rhetorical art, they were the more 
 singularly adapted to the kind and variety of his talents. 
 
 There, he was wont to pour forth the overwhelming 
 opulence of his mind in irregular but magnificent pro 
 fusion, laying alike under contribution to his object, theo 
 logical learning, classic lore, and the literature of the 
 
 * Report to Trustees of Columbia College. 
 R 
 
202 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 day ; illustrating the conclusions of the logician by acute 
 observations upon life and manners ; alternately con 
 vincing the reason, and searching and probing the deep 
 recesses of the conscience ; now drawing moral lessons 
 from the history of the long-buried past, and now com 
 menting upon the events or the vices of the day, or per 
 haps the follies of the hour ; nou r lifting aloft the blazing 
 torch of Christian philosophy to guide the honest seeker 
 after truth, and now showering his withering scorn upon 
 the scoffer s head ; explaining, defending, deducing, en 
 forcing his doctrines or precepts, sometimes with colloquial 
 familiarity, and then again, in a bold and swelling elo 
 quence, that stirred and w T armed the heart like the sound 
 of a trumpet, or the triumphant shout of a rejoicing 
 multitude. 
 
 It was in his noon-day of life, his prime of mind, 
 when the little asperities of character, so often accom 
 panying the consciousness of high mental power, were 
 softened and mellowed away, when his earlier and per 
 haps narrower views and opinions had been opened and 
 liberalized by large experience and independent thought, 
 when every thing promised a long, and glorious, and 
 useful career, that the numbing hand of disease was laid 
 upon him, and the infirmities of premature age arrested 
 alike his professional duties and his plans of literary en- 
 terprize. Such are the hopes of man ! Over the loss 
 of his usefulness to her churches, her studies, and the 
 training of her ministry, Religion has mourned long 
 before we were called to mourn his death. Among his 
 literary enterprizes thus interrupted, was his long medi 
 tated biography of Hamilton, on which he had wished 
 and hoped to put forth the whole force of his genius. 
 He had studied his subject deeply ; he was intimately 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 203 
 
 acquainted with the character of his hero and his friend 
 and he would have poured forth his soul in his eulogy, 
 with the sympathy of congenial talent, and the elo 
 quence of fond affection. 
 
 It has accidentally happened, (for it was not in the 
 precise order of time) that I commenced this broken re 
 cord of our deceased collegiate worthies with the name of 
 Hamilton. Can I close it more appropriately, or with 
 more dignity to our college, than with that of Mason ? 
 
 MY FRIENDS AND BROTHERS 
 
 OF THE PHILOLEXIAN AND PEITHOLOGIAN SOCIETIES 
 
 The short and hurried notices I have now 
 presented to you, form, I fear, a very poor tribute to the 
 worth of those whom I have aspired to celebrate ; but, 
 for the end I had mainly in view in selecting their eulo 
 gy for my theme, I have said enough, and more than 
 enough. I have hoped to show you, by the clear evi 
 dence of such examples, the rich advantages of educa 
 tion which you have enjoyed, the solemn duties such ad 
 vantages impose, the ample heritage of renown which it 
 has fallen to you to preserve or augment, the claims of 
 society upon us, the broad avenues of glorious and be 
 neficent exertion that open before us. Thither truth 
 and virtue point you the way. Thither the great men 
 who have formerly issued from these halls beckon to you 
 to follow them. 
 
 In our connexion with them and their fame, there can 
 be- nothing to inflate vanity or to sooth indolence. It 
 cannot, like the privileges and pride of noble birth, be 
 turned to any purpose of delusion to others, or furnish 
 food for our own self-conceit. Our accidental education 
 
204 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 in the halls where Jay, and Livingston, and Clinton 
 once studied, confers no dignity upon us, except so far as 
 we may worthily emulate them ; but it overwhelms us 
 with shame if we disgrace the memory of our elder 
 brothers if we prove false and recreant to our academic 
 mother. 
 
 The character of our country s genius is eminently 
 practical ; and it has struck me with great force, that this 
 too is the predominant characteristic of all those whom I 
 have pointed out to your emulation. Not one of them 
 was a mere scholar, contented with the bare acquirement 
 of learning, or of learned fame. Their science, their 
 literature, their talent, were all consecrated to the duties 
 of society, and the general weal. In this, surely, we 
 may imitate them. 
 
 Differing as they did in some important points of 
 opinion from each other erring as they sometimes did 
 in conduct those differences and errors may teach us 
 the infirmity of all human wisdom, and the duty of can 
 did and tolerant judgment ; yet let us look rather to their 
 virtues than their imperfections, and remember that they 
 now live in our grateful memory, because formerly they 
 lived not for themselves alone. 
 
 Let us not soothe our sloth, or vindicate our selfishness, 
 by the poor excuse, that their excellence was the fruit of 
 rare genius, or still rarer contingencies of fortune, which 
 we have no right to claim or to hope. For us this is no 
 apology. What may be the value of our talents or at 
 tainments to others as well as to ourselves, cannot be 
 known until it be tried. If we are once excited to warm 
 aspirations after true excellence, the materials of action 
 will not long be wanting. 
 
 It is true that we have not again a nation s liberties to 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 205 
 
 achieve. We have not now to lay once more the foun 
 dations of its government. But our liberties are always 
 to be watched over, guarded, and defended. Our laws 
 are to be improved, somewhat in their equity, much in 
 their policy. Physical science, much as it has advanced, 
 may now be carried forwards far beyond what was once 
 deemed the extravagance of the wildest dreamer. That 
 science, as well as all other valuable information, is no 
 longer to remain the hoarded possession of a chosen few, 
 but must be made popular and elementary, and placed 
 within the reach of all. In that other vast region of 
 science relating to mind and morals, our duties are still 
 more numerous and urgent. Prejudices and errors are 
 to be vanquished ; truth is sometimes to be defended 
 from assault or insult, always to be inculcated, explained, 
 enforced. 
 
 It is our happy lot to live in an age and country where 
 the field of usefulness is literally unbounded ; where, in 
 the indefinite increase of numbers and general intelli 
 gence, no well-directed effort to better the condition of 
 others can ultimately fail. As it recedes from us, its ef 
 fect swells up into illimitable and startling magnitude. 
 Diffidence, or rather sloth in her garb, may whisper, that 
 it will be far beyond our strength to work out any of 
 those conquests over moral or physical evil, for which pos 
 terity reserves the never-fading wreath of true renown, 
 Be it so. Yet wherefore has talent been given to us, and 
 knowledge painfully won, if w r e cannot, in our place and 
 sphere, contribute something to the sacred cause of vir 
 tue, freedom, happiness, truth ? Obscurely it may be, 
 but not the less honestly ; without the gratification of 
 personal distinction, but certainly not without the better 
 reward of conscious well-doing. 
 
206 COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 Nevertheless, despite of these and all such considera 
 tions, it must be that in some of us, indeed, at times in all 
 of us, low thoughts and selfish passions will gain pos 
 session of the mind. 
 
 I am speaking to scholars, and may without pedantry 
 recall to them that familiar but striking passage of an 
 cient history, of which the great English moral poet has 
 made so exquisite a use when the conqueror of his 
 country, 
 
 Ignobly vain and impotently great, 
 
 Showed Rome her Cato s image drawn in state : 
 
 As her dead Father s reverend image past, 
 
 The pomp was saddened, and the day o ercast ; 
 
 The triumph ceased tears gushed from every eye 
 
 Even so may it be with us. The memorials of those 
 who have shared our early studies, and turned them to 
 worthier uses than we have done, need not be sought for 
 in the sculptured marble and bronze. They are around 
 us and about us ; they meet us in the halls of legislation 
 and the courts of justice ; in the busy commerce of our 
 ports, and the richly-freighted navigation of our rivers 
 and canals ; in our system of education, our schools, our 
 colleges, and pulpits. Every where we may trace the 
 impress of their minds, every where we may hear their 
 monitorial voices. 
 
 Then, whatever tyrant passion may have obtained 
 the mastery of our hearts ; whether bad ambition, or base 
 avarice, or the love of pleasure, or more fatal indolence ; 
 let us listen to those voices ; let us be roused by the ad 
 monition of those memorials to bid the triumph of the 
 passions cease, and suffer the world s gaudy pageant to 
 pass along unheeded. 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 207 
 
 That sway is then at an end. Those misty delusions 
 fade away. The guiding star of our youth beams 
 brightly once again upon the rough pathway of virtue 
 before us. We erect ourselves to holier contemplation, 
 and purer desires. We gird ourselves to the true purpose 
 of good education, the performance of our duty to our 
 God, our country, and our kind, 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 
 
 NOTE I. p. 180. 
 
 E| u> 
 
 [*.v 7} Tav Kcthov Tt $iot,7rgee,%ot[Aevav eu 
 rots 7rohhot$ } Troi^x^oa-t^c^ rots tTrcytvopevots v\ 
 yiverott o%&. ra 
 
 VtOt 7TCtg6gf6(tlVTCt:l TTgOS TO TTcv UTTOfAeveiV V7TSP T&V XOivl 
 
 avfyav euxte/cts Polybius, Hist. VI. 52. 
 
 NOTE II. pp. 186189. 
 
 General Hamilton died June, 1804, at Greenwich, near the 
 city of New- York, whither he was brought after the fatal 
 meeting at Weehawken, on the opposite side of the Hudson. 
 That scene has been commemorated by a distinguished gradu 
 ate of the college, the late Robert C. Sands, in strains worthy 
 of the subject. 
 
 When the great strife for freedom rose, 
 Here scouted oft her friends and foes, 
 Alternate through the changeful war, 
 And beacon fires flashed bright and far , 
 And here when Freedom s strife was won, 
 Fell in sad feud her favoured son ; 
 
 Her son, the second of the band, 
 The Romans of the rescued land. 
 
210 NOTES TO THE 
 
 Where round yon cape the banks ascend, 
 Long shall the pilgrim s footsteps bend ; 
 There mirthful hearts shall pause to sigh, 
 There tears shall dim the patriot s eye. 
 
 There last he stood. Before his sight 
 FlOAved the fair river, free and bright, 
 The rising Mart, and Isles and Bay, 
 Before him in their glory lay, 
 Scenes of his love and of his fame, 
 The instant ere the death-shot came. 
 
 In a review of the first edition of this address by the same 
 eloquent and fertile writer, after extracting the passage in p. 
 186 on the natural alliance of sound learning with liberal poli 
 tical principles, and the quotation from Akenside with which 
 it concludes, he adds the follow ing anecdote, which is undoubt 
 edly correct. " Mr. Verplanck might have stated as a most 
 pointed illustration of his own theory and the poet s, that the 
 boy student, Hamilton, was actually engaged whilst listening 
 daily to the doctrine of the Tory President, in carrying on 
 with him a controversy in the public papers, in which the lat 
 ter did not know his antagonist, and the lad in the people s 
 opinion certainly had the best of the argument." 
 
 NOTE III. p. 194. 
 
 The diplomatic correspondence of the Revolution preserved 
 in the archives of the government of the United States, was, 
 for obvious reasons, kept secret for many years. Those rea 
 sons having now ceased, and the correspondence become mere 
 matter of history, it was ordered some time ago to be publish 
 ed under the direction of the President of the United States, 
 by a joint resolution of the two houses of Congress; and 
 twelve volumes, containing the diplomatic letters of Franklin, 
 Jay, J. Adams, Laurens, and others have been printed. In 
 the first years of the revolution, the correspondence was ad 
 dressed by our Ministers abroad to the Committee of Foreign 
 Affairs, and the negociations conducted under their direction. 
 Various inconveniencies arose from this arrangement, and our 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 211 
 
 agents abroad "frequently complained that their despatches 
 were not answered, and that they were embarrassed for want 
 of intelligence." In consequence of this, in 1781 the commit 
 tee was dissolved, and the foreign correspondence placed under 
 the control of a Secretary of Foreign Affairs, to which office 
 Robert R. Livingston was appointed. When he came into the 
 office, says the preface to the official publication of this corres 
 pondence, "a salutary change took place. His letters are 
 numerous, full, and instructive." This too, it must be remem 
 bered, was during the most important period of our foreign 
 relations, when the negotiations were pending which led to 
 the first treaties with the powers of the European continent 
 acknowledging our independence when the first loans were 
 negotiated abroad on the credit of our government and final 
 ly, when the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain was 
 settled and signed, after many delays and difficulties. 
 
 NOTE IV. p. 196. 
 
 Col. John Stevens, of Hoboken, a graduate of 1768, is now 
 one of the oldest living Alumni of the college of New- York. 
 His agency in the invention, introduction, and gradual im 
 provement of steam-boats, from the early and imperfect expe 
 riments made upon the Hudson and Delaware, between 1785 
 and 1800 up to the admirable mechanism and models of the 
 boats now constructed and owned by his sons, is well known 
 to all who have paid any attention to the history of steam na 
 vigation ; and had not the plan of this address excluded any 
 honours to the living, it would have claimed a distinguished 
 place in these pages. I cannot, however, pass over this op 
 portunity of noticing another less known claim of this vene 
 rable and patriotic citizen to public gratitude, in another in 
 stance in which his enlightened science anticipated the pro 
 gress of improvement. There is no subject which now occu 
 pies a larger portion of the capital, enterprize, and useful 
 science both of this country and Europe, than the use of rail 
 roads. But many years before their adoption and use upon 
 any extensive scale, and long before the combination of steam- 
 
212 NOTES TO THE 
 
 carriages with them had been suggested elsewhere, Col. Ste 
 vens addressed a memoir to the Canal Commissioners of New- 
 York, then engaged in the preparatory surveys for the Erie 
 and Champlain canals, wherein he pointed out and explained 
 the practicability and advantages of rail-roads upon the largest 
 possible scale. This, with the correspondence with De Witt 
 Clinton, R. R. Livingston, and Governeur Morris, which re 
 sulted from it, he published in 1812, under the title of " Docu 
 ments tending to prove the superior advantages of rail-ways 
 and steam-carriages over canal navigation." 
 
 In 1819, he again brought this subject before the public in 
 another and modified form. I then represented the city and 
 county of New- York in the state Legislature, and was a mem 
 ber of the committee upon canals and internal improvement ; 
 in consequence of which I had the honour of presenting an 
 elaborate and able memorial from Col. Stevens, wherein he 
 again stated and explained the advantages of this mode of 
 transportation, with all the additional lights which the expe 
 rience of eight years had afforded, and recommended to the 
 Legislature the combining of rail-roads with the great system 
 of canal improvement in which the state was then ardently 
 engaged. He was, however, still too far in advance of the 
 times ; and though the memorial received a respectful refer 
 ence, and was ordered to be printed for the use of the Legisla 
 ture and distribution, it led at that time to no immediate 
 practical result, though it was probably the germ of many of 
 the useful private enterprizes of this nature since carried into 
 successful operation. 
 
 NOTE V. p. 198. 
 
 Daniel D. Tompkins between the years 1801 and 1825 was 
 consecutively chosen or appointed a member of the Assembly 
 of New-York, and representative in Congress, a Judge of the 
 Supreme Court of New- York, four times Governor of the 
 State, a Member and President of the convention for revising 
 its constitution, and a Vice President of the United States. 
 
COLUMBIA COLLEGE ADDRESS. 213 
 
 NOTE VI. p. 199. 
 
 The Rev. Matthias Bruen died a short time before the de 
 livery of this address, and the Rev. Edmund D. Griffin a few 
 days after it, both of them young divines of high promise and 
 distinguished literary talent. Among the graduates of Colum 
 bia College cut off immaturely, who have left behind them 
 honourable contributions to the science or literature of their 
 country may be specially named, the Rev. John Blair Linn, 
 and Matthias Bruen of the Presbyterian church, the Rev. 
 James Eastburn, Cornelius R. Duffie, and Edmund D. Grif 
 fin, of the Episcopal, Dr. Jacobus Dyckman, and the late Robert 
 C. Sands. 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
[Congress during the session of 1830-31, passed a law 
 for the amendment and consolidation of the several acts for 
 the protection of copy-rights to books, prints, &c. This 
 act gave much additional security to copy-rights and more 
 than doubled the term of legal protection to them, besides 
 improving and simplifying the law in various other res 
 pects. Shortly after the adjournment of Congress a public 
 dinner was given in New- York in celebration of this act of 
 wise and just legislation, by a number of citizens distin 
 guished for the successful cultivation of letters and the arts. 
 On that occasion the following speech was made in reply 
 to a toast and speech from the chair, complimentary to Mr. 
 Verplanck for his agency in producing this beneficial re 
 sult. 
 
 As it contains a view of the past and present legislation 
 of the United States upon the important subject of Literary 
 Property, it has been thought proper to reprint it from the 
 newspapers of the time, and preserve it here.] 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 I THANK you, Gentlemen, for your kindness. I cannot 
 but feel that is to that I am mainly indebted for the 
 honour which you are now pleased to bestow upon me. 
 It would, indeed be a poor affectation were I to pretend 
 that I did not look with satisfaction on the part which it 
 has been my good fortune to bear in protecting and ex 
 tending the rights of publishers, artists, and authors, by 
 the recent law ; and I feel the honest consciousness that 
 in assisting to guard their interests I have done some 
 service to the state. But I cannot receive in silence the 
 whole honour of that measure. There are others who 
 are entitled to as full share as myself in your thanks and 
 approbation. My only merit is that of having almost 
 four years ago, during the first session of the 20th Con 
 gress, called public attention to this subject, of having 
 with some industry collected the requisite information 
 from those who had practically experienced the difficul 
 ties and imperfections of the laws then in force, and of 
 having framed and introduced a bill for the purpose of 
 correcting those evils a bill certainly not perfect, but 
 which could serve as a convenient basis for maturer 
 legislation. That was, as we all recollect, a period of 
 high political ferment ; when, in addition to the usual 
 
218 THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 causes of party warmth, Congress was agitated by those 
 discussions on the tariff or protecting policy, which involve 
 such important interests and always excite such intense 
 and deep feelings. Although, therefore, the bill I had 
 prepared received the approbation of some of the most 
 distinguished Senators and Representatives, of both 
 political parties, I found it utterly impossible during the 
 Avhole of that Congress to act upon the bill, or even to 
 draw the attention of any large portion of either house 
 to the measure. I confess that at the time I was disap 
 pointed and mortified. But shortly after the end of that 
 Congress and before the meeting of the next, I was as 
 much gratified by a spontaneous, unexpected, and zealous 
 support, of a kind which in this country of free opinion 
 and discussion is the most powerful of all that of the 
 press. 
 
 It would be unjust on this occasion to omit to mention, 
 with special honour, the first and ablest champion who 
 then appeared in this cause, and I ha\~e only to regret 
 that I cannot mention him by name I mean the author 
 of a well-written, and well-reasoned article in a valua 
 ble legal journal of Boston, the American Jurist. I have 
 not the pleasure of any acquaintance with the editors, nor 
 have I ever been able to ascertain the name of the author 
 of the article to which I allude.* But it is due to him 
 to say, that in his essay on the law of the copy-right, he 
 placed in a striking point of view the defects of the then 
 existing legislation, and the obvious justice and policy of 
 an efficient reform, asserting the rights of literary property 
 with the learning of an accurate lawyer, the congenial 
 
 * I have since understood that it was from the pen of Willard Phillips, 
 Esq. of Boston. 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 219 
 
 feeling of a man of letters, and the large views of a 
 statesman. 
 
 This able writer was immediately and powerfully se 
 conded by the newspaper press, less elaborately of course, 
 but not with less zeal and effect, in this city, in Boston, 
 Philadelphia, and Washington, and I add with pleasure 
 to the number some of the most respectable presses in the 
 interior of this state and of Ohio. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the question was presented 
 to the last Congress with far more favourable auspices. 
 The very respectable Judiciary Committee of the House 
 of Representatives, at an early period, consented to adopt 
 my bill of the last year, and, with some useful modifica 
 tions, introduced it as their own. In doing this, they 
 not only gave to it the great weight of their unanimous 
 sanction, but also added to its support the very ardent and 
 able assistance of the member of their body who reported 
 the bill, Mr. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, a gentleman in 
 heriting the sterling and practical talent of his father, the 
 venerable Oliver Ellsworth, whose praises I need not 
 speak here ; they are to be found in the most honoured 
 records of our legal and constitutional history. Mr. Ells 
 worth accompanied the bill with a brief but excellent 
 report, stating its intention and uses, and lucidly and 
 strongly enforcing the claims of the proposed measure. 
 The bill was so favourably received that its friends ex 
 pected to carry it through without any serious opposition. 
 In this we were mistaken ; but I do not regret the cir 
 cumstance, since it led to a decision of the house very 
 honourable to them, in my judgment, and equally so to 
 the cause, the triumph of which we have assembled to 
 celebrate. 
 
220 THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 As the debate was very imperfectly reported, and 
 the particulars of it not generally known, I may be in 
 dulged in trespassing upon your patience by briefly stat 
 ing the decision to which I allude. 
 
 The general policy of extending the term of copy-right 
 to authors, artists, or their assigns, so as to double their 
 former short term, as proposed by the bill, was decidedly 
 objected to by a gentlemen whose experience, ability, and 
 faithful public service had acquired for him much influ 
 ence in the House ; and he still more warmly and point 
 edly opposed the particular provision designed to enable 
 those whose literary rights had been secured under the 
 former laws, to receive the benefit of this extension. His 
 argument was in substance this. The author or inventor 
 has and can have no rights of property beyond what the 
 law confers upon him. This right is for a limited term 
 only, and at the expiration of that term his book or in 
 vention ceases to be his, and belongs to the public. If 
 Congress should think fit to extend that term to those 
 who may hereafter contract with the public though the 
 policy of so doing was broadly denied they have cer 
 tainly the power, but they have not that of giving to 
 any individual for twenty-eight years what are now the 
 vested rights of the individuals who compose the public. 
 
 I felt myself called upon, not less by my own personal 
 feeling for many meritorious individuals, (some of them 
 my earliest friends) to whom this provision specially ap 
 plied, than by a sense of justice and the duty of asserting 
 what I believed to be the rights of mind, to repel this ar 
 gument, especially as it seemed to have made some im 
 pression upon a part of the house. 
 
 I therefore denied that the right of the author or 
 inventor was the mere creation of the positive law of the 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 221 
 
 land. I maintained that the right of property in the 
 productions of intellectual labour was as much founded 
 in natural justice as the right of property in the produc 
 tions of corporeal labour that he who toils with the 
 mind is as honestly entitled to the fruits of that toil as 
 he who works with the hands. That the recognition 
 of this species of moral right of property is a natural 
 suggestion of the common sense of mankind, and is 
 manifested even in the spontaneous and general feeling 
 of indignation at literary plagiarism, or any other con 
 version of reputation or of property acquired by mental 
 exertion to the use of others than those who had thus 
 earned them. That such was alike the doctrine of the 
 highest speculative ethical authorities and of the soundest 
 practical lawyers, and especially of that great light of 
 modern jurisprudence. Lord Mansfield, all whose reason 
 ing in the great English case of the law of Literary 
 Property, was founded upon this principle. Such too 
 was the doctrine of the framers of our own constitution, 
 as I maintained was quite evident from the peculiarity 
 of their language on this point. They had not used 
 any word, which could imply that they thought " to give 
 rights to authors and inventors," but had authorized 
 congress " to promote the progress of science and the 
 useful arts by securing to authors or inventors the exclu 
 sive right to their writings or inventions." They clearly 
 did not think they were enabling congress to give these 
 rights, but presuming them to exist, they provided for 
 protecting them by a legal remedy. The limitation of 
 the term of legal exclusive enjoyment and protection 
 was indeed the effect of positive law. But this limita 
 tion was precisely of the same nature with the terms of 
 prescription of property and limitation of actions in all 
 
222 THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 legal systems, which may be longer or shorter according 
 to views of public policy, the natural and moral rights 
 of property remaining unchanged. Therefore, in this 
 instance I inferred, we did nothing more than prolong 
 to the author the period during which the laws of his 
 country would enforce his natural rights by a legal 
 remedy. 
 
 As this question was distinctly presented to the house 
 on this argument, and as on the vote a majority of above 
 fifty (being nearly two to one of all the members present) 
 refused to strike out the section containing this provision, 
 I cannot but consider this as a very strong declaratory ex 
 pression of legislative opinion, recognizing the true and 
 sound doctrine of intellectual and literary property. 
 
 In the Senate, the bill met with no formal opposition. 
 On the contrary, it was one of the many pleasing inci 
 dents that attended the passing of this law, that there it 
 received the cordial support and high sanction of those 
 brilliant talents which had been arrayed in opposition to 
 each other on the greatest questions now dividing national 
 politics. It was examined with great care and deep in 
 terest, and was favourably reported upon to the house by 
 Gen. Hayne, and was explained and supported by Mr. 
 Webster. 
 
 But whilst I must disclaim much of the honour of this 
 improvement of the law of literary property, which is the 
 just due of others with whom I have but co-operated, I 
 am far from affecting to undervalue the importance of the 
 measure itself. It is fit and salutary, considered merely 
 as an emendation of the law ; since it removes nume 
 rous difficulties and requisitions of the former statutes 
 not essential for any public use, and which had heretofore 
 been so embarrassing as almost to defeat the object of 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 223 
 
 their enactment, and of the constitutional provision on 
 which they were founded. So many and so embarrassing 
 were these difficulties, that I have learned that some of 
 the most valuable copy-rights ever taken out in this 
 country are of doubtful validity, and that even one of 
 our most learned legal writers has hazarded and probably 
 lost the copy-right of his works by the accidental over 
 sight of some clerk or agent of his printer. It extends 
 the protection of the law much more amply than here 
 tofore to the arts of design, and for the first time to mu 
 sical compositions. It relieves publishers from expensive 
 advertising, and other charges and requisitions trouble 
 some to all, and exceedingly onerous to the most numerous 
 and least costly, but not the least valuable publications, as 
 well as to prints and maps. It secures to the author and 
 artist, in lieu of the former narrow term of fourteen years, 
 with the contingent chance of one renewal if living at the 
 end of the term, the sole and secure benefit of his work for 
 forty-two years ; and it is not the least valuable provision 
 in my view, that it also extends the privilege of copy 
 right and renewal to the widow and children of the 
 deceased author ; thus securing to them the enjoyment 
 of the most honourable, and too often the only legacy, 
 which a man of genius can leave to those who had 
 depended upon him for bread, who had shared his affec 
 tions, and who cherish his memory. 
 
 It is an act of justice in itself. It is an act of great and 
 useful public policy. It goes far to attain an early and 
 favourite object of the founders of our constitution and 
 the fathers of our civil liberty. For it is a fact, I believe 
 little known, but well worthy to be mentioned with honour, 
 that even in the old Congress of the revolution, one of 
 their first measures of general and pacific legislation, 
 
224 THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 after the dangers of the war had ceased to press upon 
 them, was a recommendation to the states for Congress 
 had not the power to pass such a law under the old con 
 federation to provide proper remedies, by law, for the 
 security of copy-rights and patents. The venerable 
 Madison was a member of the committee that intro 
 duced this measure. 
 
 In the convention which framed the present constitu 
 tion of the United States, resolutions and amendments 
 to the same effect were brought forward from different 
 quarters; and when the section giving Congress this 
 power was reported in the form it now bears, it appears 
 to have been adopted unanimously. These venerable 
 and great men judged well and wisely. They knew 
 that the best security of national union and national 
 power, was to be sought in the influence of national 
 literature, science, arts, and education. They saw clearly 
 that their own legislation, and that of those who were 
 destined to administer the government they had reared, 
 would be but feeble and temporary without the aid of 
 that more potent and far more lasting, though secret and 
 silent legislation, which acts on the mind and the affec 
 tions. They were deeply read in the history of the past, 
 and all history had taught them that truth. Philosophy 
 and poetry had repeated the impressive lesson. 
 
 Lycurgus fashioned Sparta s fame, 
 And Ccesar to the Roman name 
 
 Gave universal sway. 
 Where are they ? Homer s reverend page, 
 Holds empire to the latest age, 
 
 And tongues and dimes obey.* 
 
 If it be the rare lot of few countries and of ages far 
 apart to produce genius peerless as that of Homer, yet 
 
 * Akenside. 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 225 
 
 our patriots saw that in our state of society the absence 
 of such glory, should that haply be the destiny of our 
 country we trust far otherwise would be more than 
 supplied in aggregate effect by the number of powerful 
 and cultivated minds, their activity, intensity, and con 
 stancy of action, through every channel of education, 
 of instruction, of mental gratification, and amusement. 
 
 These are causes which, (to use the expressive phrase 
 of an excellent and highly-gifted countryman of ours, 
 who, if he had not been impelled by his genius to aspire 
 at being the Raphael of his "native land, might have 
 been its Tasso I mean Washington Allston,) these are 
 causes and influences " which mould a nation s soul." 
 These causes are now, they have long been, at work ; 
 they are every day becoming more vigorous j and, if our 
 country is to escape the fate of other free governments 
 if our happy frame of government as I have ever 
 trusted with undoubting hope is to continue for ages to 
 shed its blessings upon our posterity, these causes will 
 be among the most efficient agents in perpetuating our 
 liberties and our union. Their agency works its way 
 without noise or pomp ; but it is felt in the hearts of the 
 people. It is exerted not less in the humblest literary 
 effort to instruct the infant mind, than in the labours of 
 the teacher of high science, or in those of the philo 
 sophical historian, or statesman, or in the glorious inspi 
 rations of the orator, the painter, or the " poet. 
 
 If in the first awakening of noble and disinterested 
 eriiotions in the youthful breast, those generous feelings 
 are associated with the eventful story of our liberties 
 if, when the thrilling sympathies of the young are 
 awakened by the tale of courage, virtue, and patriotism 
 of Leonidas, Cato, or Sydney, they are taught to know 
 
226 THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 too the names and deaths of Warren and Montgomery 
 if, with the first stirrings of the imagination, the fancy 
 can be fired by eloquence or poetry drawing its materials 
 or illustrations from our own land if the scenes conse 
 crated by acts of virtue or the great deeds of our own 
 history are made familiar by the pencil of high art, and 
 brought by her faithful handmaid, engraving, before the 
 eyes of all our citizens if, with the lives and acts of 
 the departed good and wise of our land, our sons are 
 thus made familiar with their venerable forms " and fea 
 tures, the great soul s apparent seat 1 if science, morals, 
 law, can be impressed upon the student s mind, not as 
 mere abstract truth without reference to our own moral 
 or physical state, but as they bear upon our own condition, 
 wants and character, if all these are taught by men 
 trained under our own institutions and are illustrated 
 from all that is about us then indeed will be formed, 
 there are already formed, ties of our union and guards 
 for our liberties stronger than any laws can make, 
 stronger than even our mutual interests (great as they 
 are) can create, far, far stronger than can be imposed by 
 arms or power. 
 
 Such, Gentlemen, are the high privileges and the glo 
 rious duties of those who form and influence the nation s 
 mind, through its education, its learning, its tastes, and 
 its affections. It is, too, the peculiar happiness of our 
 own times and of our country, that our state of society 
 co-operates with our constitution and laws in compelling 
 those amongst us who seek for either honor or profit in 
 this direction, to look for reward, not to the patronage of 
 the great or opulent, but to that of an enlightened and 
 moral public. Here they are freed from that base temp 
 tation, that depravation of the heart, and that consequent 
 
THE LAW OF LITERARY PROPERTY. 227 
 
 Degradation of the intellect, by which, in other countries, 
 the highest minds have been borne down, and compelled, 
 serpent like, to crawl in the dust of abject, and servile, 
 and profligate dependance. The very law you have 
 this day assembled to honour, is alike the evidence and 
 the result of this happier state of things with us. How 
 much, then, can our country justly claim from her 
 authors, her artists, and all her sons ministering directly 
 or indirectly to the mental wants of the people from 
 those whom she thus guards in their honest rights, whom 
 she protects from temptation to wrong ! But these are 
 views and sentiments already familiar to all whom I see 
 around this board. I will trespass no further upon your 
 patience than to express them again more briefly in the 
 form of a toast : 
 
 Our Authors and Artists Their country recognizes 
 and protects their rights of intellectual property. It is 
 their high privilege to repay that protection a thousand 
 fold, in their country s glory, and the freedom and virtue 
 of her sons. 
 
A LECTURE 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THE COURSES 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 MERCANTILE ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 IN 183132. 
 
[The Mercantile Association was founded a few years 
 back, with a view of advancing the moral and intellectual 
 culture of the large body of young men employed as mer 
 chants clerks in the city of New-York. After establish 
 ing a well-selected library, with excellent reading-rooms, 
 its enterprising and judicious patrons and founders under 
 took to provide regular courses of popular lectures in 
 various branches of science and art. These were nume 
 rously attended for some years. 
 
 During the last two years, some very distinguished citi 
 zens have added fresh interest to the regular courses of 
 scientific lectures, by short, voluntary courses on such 
 branches of learning or art as were most familiar with 
 their previous pursuits. The subjoined lecture was deli 
 vered as introductory to the several courses on Natural 
 Philosophy, Chemistry, Commercial Law, Moral Science, 
 Political Economy, and the Fine Arts, which were deli 
 vered during the winter of 1831 32.] 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 I congratulate you, Gentlemen of the Mercantile Asso 
 ciation, on the occasion which brings us together. Your 
 institution, founded for the moral and intellectual im 
 provement of the commercial youth of this city, has long 
 been eminently useful. Its judiciously selected library 
 and well supplied reading-rooms, with the excellent lec 
 tures and addresses heretofore delivered in this hall, have 
 proved not less honourable to the zeal and public spirit of 
 its founders than important in their effects on the charac 
 ter of an immense body of young men full of ardour, 
 intelligence, and enterprise, who are, year after year, car 
 rying into active life the deep and lasting influences of 
 their present pursuits and amusements. 
 
 Surrounded as they are on all sides, in this gay and 
 opulent city, with temptations to idle dissipation or vicious 
 indulgence, exposed to the contagion of the worst and 
 most alluring examples, freed, as many of them are, 
 from the salutary restraint imposed by the sanctity of the 
 parental home, and deprived of its resources of domestic 
 fire-side pleasures, they have discovered in these halls 
 amusements, ever new and fascinating, innocent and in 
 tellectual. Here they have met associates and found 
 friends eager in the same pure enjoyments. Here they 
 
232 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 have been led from harmless entertainment to useful 
 reading, and thence onward to the most noble and invi 
 gorating exercises of the mind in the study and contem 
 plation of physical and moral truth. 
 
 But the course of lectures which has been arranged 
 for this winter forms a new epoch in the progress of this 
 association. It is not merely that fresh and valuable 
 sources of information will now be opened. That is much. 
 But I cannot but regard the number, the talent, and the 
 well-earned reputation of those public-spirited citizens 
 who have volunteered to deliver the several courses, as 
 giving a most flattering testimony to the value of this 
 institution. It is a proof of the deep public interest taken 
 in the character and welfare of our commercial youth, 
 whilst at the same time it must furnish to them motives 
 of kindling excitement in the pursuit of all that can ex 
 alt and dignify the character of an American merchant. 
 
 These gentlemen, severally and honourably distin 
 guished in the law, science, fine-arts, literature, politics, 
 and public eloquence of the country, divided in many 
 points of opinion, but uniting in a generous zeal for the 
 public good, have, amidst the pressure of private avoca 
 tions, found or made time to devote a portion of their 
 talents and acquirements to the instruction of those whom 
 I now address. It will not be invidious to distinguish 
 amongst them two venerable and patriotic men, one of 
 whom, for years, administered, with masterly ability, our 
 national finances, or was engaged in the negotiation of 
 treaties involving our dearest interests ;* whilst the other 
 presided, for nearly as long a period, in the highest courts 
 of common law and of equity in this rich and populous 
 
 * Hon. Albert Gallatin. 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 233 
 
 state, with a reputation that cannot be increased by any 
 praise of mine.* Such are the men who now delight 
 to unfold to the young inquirer the elements of those sci 
 ences on which their own fame was founded. This is 
 an example worthy of republican antiquity, honourable 
 to our state of society, and especially honourable to you, 
 for whom the labour was undertaken. Let it be also to 
 us and to you an animating example of unceasing and 
 unflagging devotion to the common good, and the welfare 
 of others. 
 
 I cannot but feel it as a high compliment to have been 
 invited to deliver an introductory lecture to such a course 
 of instruction, and for this I tender my most grateful 
 acknowledgements. 
 
 The lectures intended to be delivered here, though 
 by men intimately and extensively conversant with 
 the subjects they have selected, must yet, from the 
 narrow compass to which they must be confined, be but 
 sketches or outlines, of those several subjects. These 
 will stimulate the mind to inquiry, furnish broad views 
 and leading principles, as well as point out the sources of 
 more minute and accurate knowledge; but they will 
 not, nor do they profess to make you masters of any of 
 those extensive walks of science, of art, of taste, or of 
 speculation. To become a proficient in any one of these 
 requires the labour of years ; to become skilful in all of 
 them must demand the constant toil of a long and stu 
 dious life. Of what use then to those who can give 
 to such pursuits little more than hasty and broken inter 
 vals of time, and minds distracted by other duties and 
 other cares of w r hat real use is that general and su- 
 
 * Chancellor Kent, 
 
234 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 perficial information to be gained by these and similar 
 aids? 
 
 The question is natural, and it is important. I have, 
 therefore, thought that the reply to it, showing the true 
 advantages of general knowledge to men engaged in ac 
 tive business, would l?e no unappropriate or unfruitful 
 subject for this introductory lecture. 
 
 Upon this head the pedantry of erudition, and the pe 
 dantry of worldly wisdom are for once agreed in uniting 
 to despise and degrade such acquirements, the one, 
 viewing them as leading only to vanity and self-conceit, 
 and the other, as a trifling waste of time for no practical 
 purpose. 
 
 Pope, a poet distinguished above his brethren for saga 
 city and shrewdness of observation upon men and man 
 ners, has said 
 
 " A little learning is a dangerous thing ; 
 Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring : 
 There, shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
 And drinking largely sobers us again." 
 
 Triis opinion, so agreeable to the pride of learning, 
 has been re-echoed by thousands with whom no poet 
 would be an authority on any other question, until it has 
 almost become an adage. Like all remarks of acute ob 
 servers, and like all maxims obtaining any currency, this 
 too has its share of truth ; had it not so, it would never 
 have been received as true. But it is true only of the 
 smatterer in every thing ; it is true only of him who has 
 never disciplined himself to any regular pursuit what 
 ever; of him whose superficial acquirements are not the 
 recreations of an active and useful life, nor the decorations 
 of a mind exercised in other and solid avocations. 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 235 
 
 Of the vague knowledge of such a man, pride and con 
 ceit may well be the result, but they are much more fre 
 quently its cause. All human knowledge, however 
 learned arrogance may strive to disguise it, is but little. 
 This then is truly but a question of more or less. The 
 profoundest scholar the man of the rarest and the lof 
 tiest science, who loses sight of this truth, and forgets the 
 immensity of the Unknown, in gazing fondly upon his 
 own little treasure of fancied science, may be as truly 
 intoxicated by such comparatively shallow draughts, as 
 the most superficial sciolist, whom he scorns. And this 
 intoxication, too, if we can trust to frequent observation, 
 is far more likely to befall the professed, but trifling scho 
 lar, than the accurate man of business, who seeks in 
 books a refreshment from toil, or who flies to science to 
 satisfy the craving desire of knowledge. But all knowl 
 edge is in itself valuable. It was made for man, and his 
 mind was formed to covet and grasp at its attainment. 
 It is an innate desire, springing from the highest appe 
 tencies of his nature, the desire and the object of it being 
 alike the kind gifts of his Creator. 
 
 Let us for a moment pause, and cast a rapid glance at 
 the means of intellectual accomplishment which in this 
 age and country, nay, in this very Institution, are within 
 the reach of any young man, who, without defrauding 
 his daily calling of a single duty, or a single thought due 
 to it, will yet devote to better objects those hours which 
 might be passed in indolence or folly. 
 
 Let us suppose these hours faithfully and judiciously 
 employed for a few years, and then estimate fairly the 
 amount and the value of the information thus accumu 
 lated. Let us see whether the knowledge thus reward 
 ing his liberal curiosity, and which must confessedly fall 
 
236 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 short of the accuracy and extent of that science, won by 
 the exclusive votary of learning, is yet in a ay sense worth 
 less or little. 
 
 It has been justly remarked by more than one philo 
 sophical observer, that there is in the nature of our men 
 tal operations and of language, in the power of classify 
 ing insulated facts and discoveries under general terms 
 and broad laws of universal application, in the corres 
 ponding power of again deducing individual truths from 
 these general laws, a provision for the gradual and pro 
 gressive improvement of mankind. As knowledge is 
 extended it becomes more easy of acquisition ; for as the 
 magnitude and the variety of known truths are aug 
 mented, in the same proportion the processes of study 
 necessary to acquire them have been abridged and sim 
 plified. 
 
 An eloquent French mathematician, in a frequently 
 quoted passage,* has admirably illustrated this truth by 
 the history of mathematics, from the elementary propo 
 sitions of geometry, treasured up by the Egyptian priest 
 hood, down to the conclusions that have limited the last 
 inquiries of the modern calculus. He has shown 
 throughout the whole, how every discovery of genius 
 has been accompanied or followed by a simplification of 
 science, making these discoveries level to the compre 
 hension of all. 
 
 Thus it is, to apply this truth to our own case, that 
 the leisure hours of the modern merchant, should he 
 give that direction to his studies, will soon place him far 
 beyond the mathematical attainments of the most skilful 
 of the doctors or professors of Padua or Paris, two cen- 
 
 * Condorcet, as quoted by Stewart and others. 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 237 
 
 turies ago. That acquaintance with the branches of 
 mathematics, entering into the familiar uses of life, such 
 as to the mathematician of our own day may well seem 
 " a little learning," indeed, was but two or three genera 
 tions ago the proudest boast of those who had drunk 
 longest and deepest at the head springs and fountains of 
 the severer sciences. Now, surely, the knowledge so 
 valuable then, can have lost nothing of its real value in 
 use by losing much of its rarity, and becoming more 
 easy of access. 
 
 Nor is it alone in this rigid methodical science that the 
 progressive accumulation of knowledge has brought with 
 it a proportional, or more than proportional increase of 
 facility in acquisition. 
 
 Let us select from among the illustrious dead of past 
 ages some great man ardent in the search of philosophy, 
 and crowned with all its honours ; a man who wasted no 
 labour on the mere curiosities of learning ; whose talent, 
 character, and station, led him to apply his powerful 
 intellect to such studies only as had a direct bearing on 
 the uses of society or the conduct of life. Let us then 
 estimate, at their real worth, the attainments of such a 
 man. Let us, for example, take Cicero. He was a 
 man of wealth, rank, and genius, whose eloquence was 
 the rich fruit of many a midnight study, and who by 
 that eloquence became the saviour of his country. Na 
 tions were his clients, wealth and power were the reward 
 of his talents ; but, though he neglected no duty, and 
 shrunk from no toil, he fled gladly from the tumultuous 
 applause of the forum and the sway of the senate to the 
 silence of his library. " Who has a right to blame me," 
 said this model of brilliant and successful literary applica 
 tion, " who has a right to blame me if that time which 
 
 u 
 
238 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 other men are wont to bestow upon festivals and shows, 
 upon grosser and meaner pleasures, or even upon the 
 rest and relaxation of body and mind ; if as much time 
 as they give to convivial feasts, to their sports, or to the 
 gaming-table, so much have I given to letters and phi 
 losophy ?" 
 
 " Other studies," said this ardent and accomplished 
 student, then in the height of his fame and the noon-day 
 of life, " other studies belong to particular times, or places 
 or callings, or periods of life alone ; but these nourish 
 and strengthen the youthful mind, they please and soothe 
 old age. They adorn prosperity, they afford a refuge 
 and consolation in adversity. They delight at home, 
 they are useful abroad. They are with us and about 
 us, by day and by night, on the road and in the fields." 
 
 Such was the ardent eulogy which the most accom 
 plished man of antiquity poured forth on his favourite 
 studies in one of the most magnificent effusions of his 
 genius. It was doubtless just, and yet the amount of 
 useful acquirement and elegant accomplishment, deserv 
 ing, as it did, all his toils and all his praise, that this 
 great man could attain, not only by diligent study, but 
 by travel extensive as the then known world, and by 
 wealth and power, devoted to the collection of books and 
 works of art all this was far inferior to that within 
 the reach of any one w T ho now listens to me. 
 
 This assertion may seem absurd. Its apparent extra 
 vagance may provoke a smile, yet the slightest analysis 
 will convince us of its substantial truth. The orator, 
 philosopher, and statesman, of the Roman republic s last 
 age, had studied under the first teachers of Athens, then 
 still " the mother of arts and school of sages," all that 
 the times knew of physical philosophy. He had become 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 239 
 
 intimately acquainted with the theories and conjectures 
 of the most celebrated teachers ; but he soon learned 
 that theory and conjecture were all that they had to 
 teach, and " finding 1 no end, in wandering mazes lost," 
 concluded that it was .impossible for a wise man to form 
 any definite opinion on the laws of nature. He turned 
 away from the study of the material world, dissatisfied, 
 declaring, with Socrates, that such inquiries were rather 
 curious than profitable. 
 
 Let us now look upon our own times and country, 
 and mark what are the opportunities of knowledge 
 afforded to those who can employ the hours not en 
 grossed by real business, in attending the lectures of 
 some competent teacher of physical science. Here, a 
 learned and able professor, with the aid of an apparatus 
 in which the most recondite discoveries of science are 
 experimentally illustrated by some of the most ingenious 
 and delicate productions of mechanical skill, can unfold 
 to the attentive pupil the great laws of attraction and 
 repulsion, of motion, of mechanics, and of light. These 
 are laws generalized from thousands of observations and 
 experiments, perhaps destined hereafter to be more accu 
 rately ascertained, or resolved into even still more uni 
 versal rules, but never to be contradicted or unsettled by 
 any future system. He can guide you to an acquaint 
 ance with truths beyond the reach of mere observation, 
 but learnt from the demonstration of pure reason ; those 
 mathematical laws of matter and motion, which, when 
 once apprehended, are felt to be beyond the pow r er of 
 time or change, to reach far beyond the bounds of our 
 little earth, to extend throughout all actual or possible 
 creation, to be infinite and eternal as the Omnipotent 
 
240 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 himself, and. as it were, a natural revelation of his im 
 mutable and all-wise government. 
 
 In the kindred science of chemistry he will exhibit to 
 you the boldest achievements of science, and her hum 
 blest and most useful toils ; now analyzing the atmos 
 phere, or resolving the globe into its constituent elements ; 
 and now descending, with patient industry, to the aid 
 of the dyer at his vat, or the metallist at his furnace ; 
 or to throw the friendly light of her safety-lamp, over 
 the perilous path of the miner in the dark bowels of the 
 earth. 
 
 Now then, let me ask, is such knowledge, be it general, 
 be it comparatively superficial can such knowledge be 
 worthless ? Had antiquity obtained a prophetic glimpse 
 of that science now laid open to your inquiries, it would 
 have been 
 
 " The prophet s prayer, the glad diviner s theme, 
 The old man s vision, and the young man s dream." 
 
 Must not such knowledge give new interest to all that 
 we see about us ? Must it not fill the soul with kindling 
 and ennobling thoughts ? Must it not give juster con 
 ceptions of the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, 
 of the powers, the duties, and the destinies of man ? 
 
 If from natural and chemical we turn to moral phi 
 losophy, the same parallel holds good. In that most 
 favourite study of Cicero s, the science of mind and 
 morals, how feeble is the light that glimmered amidst 
 the darkness of ancient discussions and systems ; how 
 rough the road to knowledge, how uncertain its attain 
 ment ! But the youth who is now incited by a generous 
 desire to know himself and his duties, can travel in a 
 smoother road, and follow surer guides. Here he will 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 241 
 
 be directed to seek light from those who have kindled 
 the torch of science at a consecrated flame ; writers who, 
 like Fenelon, and Addison, and Johnson, have " given 
 ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth ;" or who, like 
 Pascal, Paley, or Butler, have made logic and meta 
 physics the handmaids of sober piety. 
 
 Of history, literature, poetry, the elegant arts, of all 
 that by example unfolds the mysteries of the heart, of 
 all those fair illusions which spread their charms over 
 life, and soothe its pains or anguish, how ample is the 
 treasure contained in any well-selected English library 
 of original and translated authors ! How far superior 
 in amount, in variety, and (with a very few rare excep 
 tions) in excellence, to the treasured volumes of Cicero s 
 much-loved collection ! 
 
 Even in jurisprudence, Cicero s own and peculiar 
 department, the brief and elementary, but able course of 
 commercial law to be delivered here, will afford to you 
 information which, could it have been offered to the illus 
 trious Roman advocate, would have filled him with de 
 light and astonishment. I need not speak of the 
 value of that information to you as men of business or 
 men of the world ; but independently of its immediate 
 and personal uses, it is in itself admirable. This is not 
 like some parts of jurisprudence, the fruit of blind usage 
 or arbitrary enactment. It is the happy result of the 
 energies, intelligence, enterprise, and ingenuity of the 
 whole civilized commercial world, applied to legal pur 
 poses by a succession of the strongest and most acute 
 judicial minds of France, Holland, England, and America 
 much the greater part of it, bearing the test of Cicero s 
 own definition of rational and equitable law, being alike 
 good law at London, Paris, Amsterdam, and New-York. 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 Classical latinity does not even contain a name for the 
 contract of insurance. Commerce, the Romans left to 
 be carried on by the slaves or freedmen of their patrician 
 senators ; and navigation was pursued only with a view 
 to war and conquest. But in our law of insurance, in 
 that of shipping, and of exchange and negotiable paper, 
 those sound and clear principles of reason and natural 
 equity which the old Roman law always asserted in 
 theory, are applied to the most ingenious inventions of 
 modern times, for giving circulation to capital, and facility 
 and safety to commerce. 
 
 I know not, then, why you may not with equal, and 
 more than equal justice, apply to your own studies the 
 eulogy of the eloquent ancient upon his. These our 
 studies, may you say, snatched as they are amidst the 
 calls of business, and in hours given by others to indo 
 lence or vice, " will nourish and strengthen the ^/outhful 
 mind, and soothe and gladden old age ; they will adorn 
 prosperity, and furnish a refuge and consolation in ad 
 versity." 
 
 The present state of society, thus abounding in the 
 means of instruction, has one marked point of contrast 
 to that of former ages ; and it is one which it is the evi 
 dent tendency of some of the most important improve 
 ments of society in wealth and skill, constantly to 
 augment. It is, that as mankind advances in art and 
 power, the division of labour grows greater and greater. 
 As the aggregate power of society thus increases, the 
 danger is that that of each individual may be narrowed 
 to the limits of his personal occupations. The ancient, 
 like the savage, was called upon to know and to do all 
 that could be known or done by any man of the times 
 and nation. The member of a modern civilized state 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 243 
 
 has frequently but one part to perform. He is but a 
 single wheel or cog in a huge and complicated machine. 
 The inevitable tendency of this is to enfeeble and dwarf 
 the mind of every individual. The mere scholar, the 
 mere lawyer, the mere merchant, the mere artisan, can 
 not attain the full perfection of his nature, or his full 
 capacity for happiness. But it is an admirable and 
 benevolent provision of Providence, that this very ad 
 vance of the aggregate wisdom and power of society, 
 thus swallowing up the strength of individuals, carries 
 with it its own corrective, in those very facilities of 
 acquirement of which I have spoken. Thus he who is 
 confined by the order or duties of society to a single 
 round of occupations, can yet find, in the leisure left at 
 his own disposal, the opportunity of liberal inquiry, and 
 that variety of contemplation which exercises and disci 
 plines the whole intellectual man. 
 , In this wide survey of knowledge, the pride natural 
 to those who have successfully exerted themselves in 
 some limited sphere, is rebuked by comparison with ac 
 quirements beyond their reach ; and thus, whilst general 
 knowledge makes man more respectable, more useful, 
 and more happy, it cannot fail, unless in minds singular 
 ly ill constituted, to produce that rational humility, so 
 finely called by Burke, " the deep and broad foundation 
 of every virtue." 
 
 In addition to these considerations of the benefits of 
 an acquaintance with science to man, in his personal and 
 individual interests alone, there are others, touching the 
 common interests of society. In proportion as knowledge 
 is widely diffused, morals are secured and liberty protect 
 ed. If there is any circumstance wherein the present 
 age bears an advantageous comparison with preceding 
 
244 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 times, such as to authorize a rational and confident ex 
 pectation of the extension and permanence of free insti 
 tutions, it is to be found here. Probably France and 
 England a century ago contained as many men pro 
 foundly skilled in their several departments of science, 
 learning, and art, as they now do ; but how different was 
 the state of the general mass. 
 
 It was, I believe, Steele who, in describing the learned 
 lawyer of his day, makes his whole conversation begin 
 and end with the great case of Grimgribber. This was, 
 of course, a caricature, but still from the hand of such a 
 master it was probably a likeness, though broad and dis 
 torted. But it was also in some degree the portrait of 
 every other class. Civilization had then divided society 
 into its several occupations, but general information had 
 not yet corrected the narrowness accompanying that di 
 vision. The man of letters was then a mere man of the 
 closet, or else a mere author about town, the dependant 
 of the great and of the theatres ; and, in either case, 
 equally ignorant of the substantial business of the world. 
 Their Grimgribber was, as it might happen, the slang 
 of the town, or the pedantry of ancient metres and phi 
 lological trifling. The merchant was proud of knowing 
 nothing be)^ond his counting-house, and the country gen 
 tleman led a life of vulgar enjoyment and boisterous ig 
 norance. Below these there was no public, who read or 
 who reasoned. In France this state of things was va 
 ried only by the more effeminate profligacy of the great, 
 and those who imitated them, and the still lower degra 
 dation of the peasantry. Commerce, that enlightener of 
 nations, has, during the last hundred years, done much 
 in England in breaking down those party-walls which 
 penned in knowledge among the classes of its immediate 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 245 
 
 professors. Much still remains to be done ; but the ef 
 fect has been already seen in liberalizing and improving 
 the law, the literature, and the science of England. 
 They have come forth from their cloisters, and fitted 
 themselves to the society of men. It has been felt among 
 England s merchants, her farmers, and her mechanics. 
 They have studied their own interests, they claim their 
 own rights, they instruct those who were heretofore their 
 teachers. In France this state of society continued un 
 til the revolution. It was from this cause mainly that 
 the French revolution, after dawning so brightly, was so 
 soon and so long overcast with dark and bloody clouds. 
 That liberty it then promised did not come until two 
 generations had been successively thinned by the guillo 
 tine and the bayonet, by battle and massacre, in the 
 streets of Paris and the woods of La Vendee, on the 
 sands of Egypt and the snows of Russia, and the blood- 
 drenched plains of Flanders. 
 
 And even now on what foundations rest the hopes, 
 the power, the future protection of the rights and liberties 
 of Frenchmen? Not upon the virtue and wisdom of 
 their chiefs and rulers. Not upon the provisions and 
 pledges of laws and charters. Not even upon that last 
 and sacred resort of an oppressed people, an armed resis 
 tance to tyranny when it becomes too grievous to be 
 borne. No, not upon any or all of these, honoured and 
 prized as they may well be ; for all of these have here 
 tofore balked the hopes of the patriot and the calcula 
 tions of statesmen. No, not these, but upon the annu 
 ally increasing thousands of the men of " young France" 
 whose minds have been opened by various and useful 
 knowledge who read, who think, and who reason. 
 
246 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 and who can therefore understand and maintain the du 
 ties of their rulers and the true interests of the people. 
 
 I need scarcely say that it was to a state of society in 
 this country, wholly different from that of France, as 
 France once was, that our own revolution was chiefly in 
 debted for its calm and prosperous issue. 
 
 Here was a public fitted by reading and reflection to 
 comprehend, and to feel the reasoning of the patriots 
 who called upon them to withstand the aggressions of their 
 rulers. Here was a people upon whom the wisdom and 
 argument of the founders of our constitution could not 
 be wasted. Therefore it was, that America alone, of all 
 the nations of the earth, has passed tranquilly from a 
 warlike revolution to a peaceful and stable republic. This 
 glorious possession of regulated liberty it is for us to pre 
 serve by the same means that enabled cur fathers to 
 achieve it. The member of an ignorant community 
 must hold his liberties and his property by a precarious 
 tenure. It is only in an enlightened republic that the 
 people know all their rights, and feel all their duties. 
 Above all, it is there only that the rage of faction, which 
 in ignorant democracies has always broken out into blood 
 shed and violent revolution, is mitigated into the fair con 
 tests of parties, who strive for victory through the press 
 and at the polls, according to the rules prescribed by the 
 constitution and laws of their country. 
 
 But these exalted duties of guarding our civil liberties 
 and watching on the bulwarks of our constitution, 
 though the most precious are not the most constant, often 
 not the most useful privileges of the well-informed and 
 patriotic citizen. 
 
 There are numerous subjects of internal legislation, of 
 municipal administration, of the management of the or- 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 247 
 
 dinary machinery of society, forcing themselves upon 
 the attention of the most careless, and the most selfish, 
 and affecting the interests and happiness of every man. 
 The questions of currency and banking, and interest 
 and usury, the laws of taxation, and public debt, alike 
 applicable to the finances of an empire, and those of a 
 town, the administration of poor laws, of charities, of 
 schools, of prisons, of markets, even of pawnbroker s shops 
 all these are subjects involving the welfare and com 
 forts of thousands. Upon all of them we may have the 
 assistance of a long-continued and a broad experience, 
 and of the reasoning of good and wise men, so that he 
 who presumes to decide upon any of them from his own 
 first impressions, without consulting those aids, is in his 
 way but a rash theorist. On all these subjects, quack 
 ery, under the disguise of plain common-sense, self-in 
 terest masked as philanthropy or public spirit, are con 
 stantly at work. All these questions require in such a 
 government as ours a large and intelligent public, some 
 of them prepared to reason and investigate for themselves, 
 and many well fitted to comprehend and judge. 
 
 Considerations of the same nature give a similar value 
 to the general cultivation of literature and of taste in 
 the arts. Most powerful is the sway exercised by those 
 mighty agents over the morals of the community. 
 
 Theirs is the potent mastery 
 
 O er the mind s sea in calm and storm, 
 O er the heart s sunshine and its showers, 
 O er Passion s moments, bright and warm, 
 O er Reason s dark, cold hours.* 
 
 Whether or no you chose to belong to it, they will 
 
 *Halleck. 
 
248 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 form a public for themselves, and they will influence and 
 govern it. Of that public your friends and neighbours, 
 your wives and sisters and children, will be a part. 
 
 This influence is every where. It pervades the my 
 riads of books which the prolific press pours forth, the 
 daily sheet, the light periodical, the popular exhibition, 
 the ornaments of our houses, the conversation of our 
 firesides. 
 
 The author or artist who has the power of pleasing, 
 has committed to his charge a vast control over the tastes, 
 feelings, and sentiments of all within his reach. But he 
 is himself re-acted upon by those whom he influences. 
 He that hopes to please must accommodate his talent to 
 the tastes and habits of those whom he addresses. " Un 
 happy Dryden " said the great ethical poet of England, 
 with a touching brevity, as he mourned over the fatal 
 prostitution of his master s genius, dragged down from 
 the pure elevation whither his nature gave him to soar, 
 and forced to grovel in the filth his patrons loved. In 
 the words of another man of genius,* kindred to his 
 own, but of happier fortune and unspotted fame, lament 
 ing over the failure of that poem of epic chivalry which 
 Dryden had planned, in the hope of rearing a monu 
 ment worthy of his own fame and that of his country 
 
 " Dryden in immortal strain 
 
 Had raised the Table Round, again, 
 
 But that a ribbald king and court, 
 
 Bade him toil on to make them sport ; 
 
 Demanded for their niggard pay, 
 
 Fit for their souls, a looser lay, 
 
 Licentious satire, song and play ; 
 The world defrauded of the high design, 
 Profaned the God-given strength, and marr d the lofty line." 
 
 * Walter Scott. 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 Our authors, artists, editors, and publishers may have a 
 ribbald public to deal with as well as Dryden his ribbald 
 king and court. If your ingenuous minds revolt with 
 disgust at that thought, you will feel it to be your duty 
 to aid in averting such an event by acquainting your 
 selves with a sound, an undefiled, and wholesome litera 
 ture, and thus becoming a part and if a part, then cer 
 tainly an influential and ruling part of that reading 
 public. Thus it is that the literature which now serves 
 to amuse your youthful hours may hereafter be the 
 means of guarding the morality of your own homes 
 from contamination, or of cheering, animating, and aid 
 ing the literary talent of your country when directed to 
 its best ends of truth and virtue. 
 
 But of a literature, thus guarded, thus directed, and 
 thus purified, how rich are the treasures, how excellent, 
 how elevating the influence ! Not by barren precept, but 
 by example, by illustration, by constant association with 
 the purest sources of pleasure it teaches the "noblest 
 morals of the heart." For in directing the mind to 
 whatever is wise, just, pure, or lovely, it exalts and un- 
 sensualizes the thoughts. It emancipates the soul from 
 the bondage of the world, lifting it above the desires, the 
 cares, the meanness, and the follies of the present, and 
 teaching it to reach after, and in part to know, and feel 
 the power and the joys of its future and better being. 
 
 I have thus far considered the advantages of a liberal 
 curiosity as confined to the opening of new sources of 
 happiness within yourselves, or as diffusing light and 
 truth over the wide surface of a well-informed public. 
 But it would be unjust to the native talent of my country 
 did I omit one other, and not the least happy of its ef 
 fects. 
 
250 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 I will not meddle with the controversy on the exist 
 ence, or the causes of peculiar original genius the in 
 quiry whence it comes, that certain individuals are spe 
 cially fitted for excellence in certain walks of speculation 
 or of art. It is enough that this difference among men 
 does exist. There are minds whose best powers seem 
 to slumber until the excitement of some occupation or 
 study congenial to their faculties rouses them into gigan 
 tic vigour. Now, the acquisition of varied, though it be not 
 profound knowledge, is precisely the most efficient mode 
 of presenting to every ardent and stirring mind the sub 
 ject best fitted to its powers and tastes. Then it is that 
 natural talent feels its strength. The attention is roused, 
 the curiosity vividly excited, the faculties sharpened. The 
 duties of life need not be neglected, for that would be 
 unworthy of a mind capable of such energies. It tries 
 its strength in solitude and silence ; but society, perhaps 
 the civilized world, at last gathers the fruits of those 
 solitary efforts. 
 
 Such were the studies and experiments of Benjamin 
 Franklin. I need not dilate on his character, or the inci 
 dents of his life, for they are doubtless familiar to you. 
 His unrivalled sagacity and common sense must have 
 given the printer of Philadelphia wealth and distinction 
 any where. The revolution calling out as it did the 
 whole talent of the nation, would have made him a legis 
 lator and a statesman. But it was his taste for general 
 knowledge and love of scientific information, turning his 
 mind to observation and experiment upon nature, that 
 made him the discoverer of the laws of heat and of the 
 principle of electricity. This added dignity and influence 
 to his character and opinions, in his own time, whilst in the 
 present day, the patriot whom we honour as one of the 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 251 
 
 founders of our independence and our constitution, is re 
 vered by every other civilized people as the sage who has 
 given to their dwellings protection against the lightning of 
 of heaven and comfort amidst the blasts of winter. 
 
 In the same manner it has happened within our own 
 times that some of the most splendid works of literary ge 
 nius and the most admirable discoveries of scientific 
 investigation have been produced by the leisure studies 
 of men engaged in commercial business or professional 
 labour. 
 
 There is scarce a single science among those to be ex 
 plained to you by the eminent lecturers who are to suc 
 ceed me that will not furnish some striking example of 
 this fact. Look, for instance, at chemistry. Sixty years 
 ago it was a compound of wild hypothesis, and insulated 
 facts or unexplained processes. The common consent of 
 the scientific world ascribes its elevation to the rank of a 
 science to Priestley. He was by profession and prefer 
 ence throughout life a teacher of religion and of learning, 
 and an unwearied and prolific theological and metaphysi 
 cal author. He was not at least in my judgment, for it 
 may be that in this respect I wrong his memory he was 
 not possessed of any remarkable force as a moral rea- 
 soner. Nor had he, I think, that rare power of steady, 
 long-continued, unbroken attention which fixes the 
 whole mind continually upon its chosen subject, until 
 the very foundations of the inquiry are laid bare. But 
 he had to an uncommon degree that liberal curiosity, 
 that thirst for information to which no knowledge ap 
 pears indifferent. To this were united incessant ac 
 tivity of thought and singular sagacity, minuteness and 
 clearness of observation. An accidental circumstance of 
 his life, his residing in the neighbourhood of a great 
 
252 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 brewery by casually calling his attention to the pecu 
 liar appearances attending the extinction of lighted 
 chips in the gas floating over fermented liquor, directed 
 his curiosity to the examination and analysis of the se 
 veral gases, and the curious results of his first experiments 
 led to others, which in his hands soon became the science 
 of Pneumatic Chemistry. 
 
 To chemistry he devoted his leisure time reserved 
 from the faithful discharge of numerous other duties 
 and that time only. No man could be more patient, 
 more industrious, or more ingenious in inventing and ap 
 plying those experiments so happily termed by Bacon, 
 " the judicious interrogation of nature." His interroga 
 tions followed each other with restless rapidity, and na 
 ture replied by the revelations of mystery after mystery. 
 
 Thus did Priestley win for himself the proud title of 
 the father of modern chemistry. This science has since 
 been wonderfully augmented in its power over nature, as 
 well as improved in the philosophical accuracy of its ar 
 rangement and nomenclature ; but the brilliant discove 
 ries and labours of subsequent chemists, from Lavoisier 
 to Davy, who have devoted their whole lives to this 
 study, so far from eclipsing the glories of Priestley s lei 
 sure, may in fact be considered as being but their deve- 
 lopement and consequences. 
 
 Turning from the material to the moral sciences, we 
 may observe a precisely similar instance in the history of 
 political economy. 
 
 It is with the reverence due to an intellect, of which I 
 can never enough admire the penetration, the order, 
 the comprehensiveness, and the strength with the gra 
 titude due to one whom I view as a public benefactor, and 
 to whom I feel deeply indebted for the discipline and iro- 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 253 
 
 provement of my own mind, that I pronounce the name 
 of David Ricardo. 
 
 He was, as many of my hearers know, a London 
 banker, and acquired in that business a most ample for 
 tune. He was also many years a member of the British 
 parliament, where he was very prominent and efficient 
 on all subjects of finance and currency. Yet amidst the 
 daily pressure of such employments, he was able to con 
 centrate his mind to one favourite investigation, that of 
 the principles of political economy. The French and 
 Italian economists had been fertile in ingenious theories, 
 which, though they had not the merit of truth, had the 
 utility of affording a convenient basis for inquiry. Sir 
 James Stewart had collected many facts, and explained 
 some of them. Galliani, Turgot, and, above all, Adam 
 Smith, had gone further. They had arranged and ana 
 lyzed, and given to political economy the method and 
 clearness, but neither the precision nor the certainty of a 
 science. What the statesmen and philosophers of Eu 
 rope had failed to achieve, whether in the learned ease of 
 universities, or aided by the experience of the bureau, 
 was effected by the English banker in hours borrowed 
 from the turmoil of the exchange and the stock-market. 
 
 He it was, who, when the governments, the capitalists, 
 and the talent of Great Britain, during the suspension 
 of specie payments, after deceiving themselves, had com 
 bined to delude the people on the depreciation of bank 
 paper, dissipated that delusion by the clear evidence of 
 reason and fact, proved the mischief it was producing, 
 and pointed out the remedy. His other and more elabo 
 rate writings, on the fundamental principles of political 
 economy, are full of the most original and the severest 
 reasoning, but always leading to the most practical con- 
 
254 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 elusions. Possessing, in a most eminent degree, the 
 talent of philosophical abstraction and generalization, 
 his sagacity detected, and his rigorous analysis demon 
 strated the principles which pervade the laws of value 
 and exchange ; and he pursued these principles to their 
 ultimate results with a close hut bold logic, that, from the 
 apparent contradiction of many of its inferences to par 
 ticular facts, or the experience of life, sometimes bore to 
 the careless or prejudiced reasoner the air of paradox or 
 palpable error. This mental peculiarity, which might 
 have been expected in a solitary and studious man of 
 philosophical genius like Newton or Locke, was the more 
 singular and striking in a man habitually and daily con 
 versant with those practical details, the scientific theory of 
 which he investigated and expounded. But when those 
 general laws and principles, thus obscure or startling in 
 their abstract and naked enunciation, are correctly applied 
 to the actual affairs of life and their mutual combination 
 and limitation with, and of each other are traced out, then 
 their truth, their beauty, and their application become evi 
 dent, and we see and acknowledge in Ricardo, the true 
 union of the sagacious man of business and the profound 
 philosopher. His masterly analysis of the mannerin which 
 labour governs the exchangeable value of the products of 
 human industry, his discovery of the ruling principle of 
 the laws regulating the rates of profit and interest, his 
 developement of the true doctrine of agricultural rent, and 
 his application of the whole to the theory of the opera 
 tion of taxes, appear to me to be the most admirable 
 intellectual exploits of the present age. They have 
 formed a new era in the science of enlightened political 
 administration : and unless my admiration of his genius 
 deceive me, Ricardo is destined to be the guide and in- 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 255 
 
 structor of future statesmen, and the legislator of all well- 
 governed nations. 
 
 I have trespassed too long upon your patience, but I 
 cannot refrain from adding to these memorable examples 
 in the two most modern of the sciences, another of emi 
 nence in literature, gained under similar circumstances. 
 It is one that, whilst it illustrates my argument, affords 
 me a most fitting occasion to pay a passing tribute to the 
 memory of a venerable friend, the late William Roscoe of 
 Liverpool. He has long ago received the richest offerings 
 of American eulogy. The praise which Washington 
 Irving* has bestowed upon him. as a scholar and a gen 
 tleman, must be familiar to most of you. With his 
 accustomed graceful and polished eloquence of style, he 
 has painted Roscoe as having almost created his own 
 mind, springing up and forcing its Avay through a thou 
 sand obstacles ; as self-prompted, self-sustained, and almost 
 self-educated : conquering every obstacle, and making his 
 own road to fame and fortune, and after becoming one 
 of the ornaments of the nation, turning the whole force 
 of his talents and influence to advance and embellish his 
 native town. He has pointed out " his private life as 
 peculiarly worthy the attention of the citizens of our 
 young and busy country, where literature and the ele 
 gant arts must grow up side by side with the coarse 
 plants of daily necessity, and must depend for their cul 
 ture, not on the exclusive devotion of time or wealth, 
 but on hours and seasons snatched from the pursuits of 
 worldly interests by intelligent and public- spirited indivi 
 duals. He has alluded to the dignity with which Ros 
 coe sustained the reverses of fortune in his old age, and 
 
 * Sketch Book. 
 
256 MERCANTILE LECTURE. 
 
 the solace he then found in the company of those mute 
 loved associates, whom his muse has hailed as the 
 " teachers of wisdom, chiefs of elder art." 
 
 To the justice or the beauty of Irving s eulogy in 
 these regards, I could add nothing : but it was my own 
 good fortune to have viewed Roscoe under yet another 
 aspect. 
 
 The circumstance of my having, as a member of the 
 legislature of this state, been officially engaged upon the 
 improvement of the penitentiary system, which subject 
 had attracted much of Mr. Roscoe s attention, led to the 
 renewal of a slight personal acquaintance that I had 
 formed with him several years before, and to a correspon 
 dence that lasted till his death. I can bear testimony to 
 the philanthropic zeal with which he entered into the 
 examination of that and of every question of improve 
 ment on this side of the Atlantic to the warm interest 
 he took in every thing that concerned the cause of civil 
 or religious liberty, of education, or of humanity ; to his 
 zeal, his courage, and his unwearied efforts in promoting 
 the success of all of them. 
 
 Roscoe s reputation, as a scholar and an author, was 
 principally gained by his familiarity with the beautiful 
 language, the elegant literature, and the fine arts of 
 Italy, and by his excellent historical works, by which he 
 placed those hitherto inaccessible branches of knowledge 
 within the reach of the mere English reader. Now I 
 know of no finer example of the combination of the 
 beautiful with the useful, and of the manner in which 
 the one may be made not only to harmonize with but 
 to aid the other, than that in which Roscoe applied the 
 reputation and influence won, and the literary talent culti 
 vated by studies such as these, to all the best and most 
 
MERCANTILE LECTURE. 257 
 
 practical uses of society, and among them, to the im 
 provement of the coarsest, and in the view of a fastidious 
 mind, the most revolting parts of the machinery of so 
 cial government, to the statistics of vice, the police of 
 prisons, and the prevention and punishment of crime. 
 
 His memory has yet other and special claims upon us 
 who are here assembled. 
 
 As teaching by his own example and by his writings 
 the value of a union of commerce with intellectual pur 
 suits ; as showing, by his life, how they may be made 
 to harmonize, and to benefit each other, as the founder of 
 the Atheneum of Liverpool, upon which this and simi 
 lar establishments in America were modelled, we may 
 justly regard him as one of the fathers of this institu 
 tion. Such, I am sure, would have been his own feeling 
 towards it ; he would have joyed over the advantages that 
 it now affords to the youth of New- York with a truly 
 paternal fondness. 
 
 He died during the last summer, at the venerable age 
 of eighty years, retaining, to the very last, his activity 
 of mind, his love of letters } and his zeal for the service 
 of mankind. His death was mourned by the intelligent 
 and the good of Great Britain, as a public loss. It is 
 fitting that we, too, should do him honour. I have 
 therefore thought that this place, and the occasion of 
 opening a course of varied instruction before a commer 
 cial audience of New- York, demanded this public tribute 
 to the talents and worth of WILLIAM ROSCOE, 
 
ERRATUM. 
 
 P. 190, line 21, for " twenty-eight," read " thirty." 
 
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