Yale University Library
39002034563446

keWog^

Ar\G kt.

ORATION:

DELIVERED JULY 4th, 1836,

BEFORE THE

SO CIAL UNI ON SOCI ET Y

OF AMHERST COLLEGE.

BY E. H. KELLOGG,
m •
A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY.

AMHERST:
J. S. & C. ADAMS, Print.
1836.

ORATION

It is not to be supposed that American citizens of any class,
are indifferent to the Fourth of July. It does not become
them to suffer any occupation, or any multiplicity of business,
to hush up the story that the Anniversary calls to mind. The
more deeply and profitably we are engrossed in present pursuits,
the more earnestly are we called upon, by the common impulses
pf gratitude, to remember on this day our fathers. While the
aspect of our wide country so richly abounds with tokens of
plenty and the signs of happiness, a dutiful regard for them
calls upon the husbandman to stay his plough in the furrow,
the mechanic to leave his tools untouched, the student to
quit his study, the manufacturer to permit the hum of the
spindle and the play of the loom to cease, the tradesman to
close his. door-s, and the sailor-boy to set his stars and stripes
fluttering oh high to every breeze that sweeps the ocean ; in
honor of the birth-day of the nation.
The tide of prosperity is fast carrying the nation away from
the scenes of its infancy, and we should seize upon the lessons
of the Great Epoch, and bear them on with us triumphantly
above the flood, for our own safety and the good of coming
generations. How fast are the men of those times dropping
away ! How few of us now have an aged grandsire who ' listed
during the war,' whose eye we may behold rekindle with its
ancient fire as his voice trembles with t^e stirring story ! More

and more thrilling comes every knell that announces the depar
ture of another spirit of the Old Revolutionary Army. Like
children watching the breathings of a dying father, the nation
feels that every peal brings nearer and nearer the aching void.
Still the rewred survivors, tottering over the grave even, look
out upon our happy country, and thank God that their own
eyes rest upon a scene far outrunning their flightiest hopes in
dulged in those times when hope was the only indulgence.
And how happy are these illustrious few, if they can interest the
young, busy, thoughtless American in the scenes that tried
them so faithfully ! Ah ! the grey-headed old men still speak
of the nineteenth of April, and the seventeenh of June, wilhr
out mentioning the year. They suppose that their sons must
feel as they feel ; must we say that they are mistaken .? Not a
soldier in the war, but knew that it was the hope alone of bring
ing the blessings of liberty to every door that nerved each arm
throughout the protracted contest ; and he might well expect
that those who were to reap the fruits, would bear his deeds in
grateful remembrance. The greater and happier we become as
a nation, the greater is our debt of gratitude. Our population
is now about five fold, and our wealth probably thirty fold", as
great as they were in 1780, and the change only attests the val
ue of the institutions founded by our fathers. However fast
we may settle our lands, however incessant may be the tide of
immigration, however often we may double the < Old Thirteen/
we shall not escape the protection of those institutions. As
the waters when they roll into the sea, are under the same name,
so are we under the same great shield. Every American son
should know to whom and for what he is so deeply indebted.
Every village and hamlet should know, that every other village
and hamlet in the world are not as happy as themselves. The
blood of our fathers is not satisfied with the thank-offerings of
those who stand upon the ground they trod ; it cries to the.
prosperous millions beyond the mountains, that, as they, journey

up in ceaseless succession those great arms of the Mississippi
with which she grasps the roots of the Roefty Mountains,
and there under the over-shadowing wings of peace, plantfr
the happy abodes of civilization ; they will awaken the
mountain echoes with their morning guns, and pour the songs of
freedom over their ocean-like prairies, on every return of the
Great Anniversary Festival.
It were for the good of the patriotism, the liberty, the
morality of the nation, if all its citizens were to suffer the
noise and the passion that wealth and prosperity has introduced
to die away with.the going down of the preceding sun, arid rise
on the morn of the Fourth with hearts fujl of gratitude to God,
and that band, not of military, but citizen. heroes, who through
so much expense of treasure, amount of suffering, and profusion of
blood, were permitted to achieve our Independence. Let them
also sieze upon the fleeting incidents of thoseeventfiil times, as
they escape from those tongues,, coming alas ! too fast under the
seal of eternal silence, and fix them on the page of the history
of Liberty in this country, with a brightness and precision, that
shall carry gladness to the hearts of all .her fiiture worshippers.
We intend that ehronologists shall not have so much debatea-
ble ground about the time of the origin of the free states of
modern times, as those of ancient times ; the Grecian states, viz.
one thousand years.
If it is the duty of all American citizens to become thus
interested in the early condition of the country, it may be
reasonably expected that those who may be supposed to be
better acquainted with subjects of historical interest, will give
that of the Revolution the first place in their minds. If the
principles of the American Revolution are the ones destined to
prevail over the world, it is time they were lifted into view, as
if in the arch of the sky, in their original beauty, and matchless
integrity. Those pripciples never have-, under the light of any
events, and never will, under any combination of circumstances,

reveal so distinctly their benign features, as in the blaze itself
of the Revolution. That lamp should light them to the eyes
^which shall seek them for all time to come. For it is hazard
ing nothing to say that future ages will look back upon the his
tory of the quarter of a century between 1765 and 1790 with
an intenser gaze than upon that of any other twenty-five years
that the flight of time has revealed. True, those times will
have gone far, they are retreating fast into the dimness of dis
tance ; but the men who acted in those scenes are coming forth,
they shall come forth, as the stars when day departs, into brighter
and bolder relief. It were strange if, with such illustrious and
immortal founders, and in a day of such light and knowledge,
the infancy of the nation did not shine in the bright light of his
tory, and her storehouse of recollections were not well sup
plied. We are no longer bound to pay undivided praise to little
old Attica. Though we acknowledge her Athena, and promise
always to call her Queen in letters and the arts ; yet the
World looks to us for models in erecting the temples of liberty.
A modern Greece has sprung from the wilds of America, not
without her heroic exploits, not without her scenes of Epic
grandeur, not without her adornments of civilization. While
therefore we ring our changes on Marathon and Thermopyle,
The battle-fields where Persia's victim horde
First bowed beneath the brunt of Hella's sword ;
let us consider the Marathons and Thermopyles that rise full
oft to view from the heights of Abraham to southern Charleston,
embracing in their blood-stained bosoms, the bones of heroes
who met the Persian, not only in a single fight, but who defended
their soil against him for seven years. And when we allow
ourselves to be thrilled, transported, caught up, by the victori
ous power of that tongue that
Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece,
To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne :

Let us give ear to the trumpet blasts of our mother tongue as
they come over our plains and among our hills from the breath
of an Otis, a Henry, an Adams, and a Lee. Or if we would
listen to him, *
Who firmly good in a corrupted state,
Against the rage of tyrants stood
Invincible !
While he discourses of the probability of there being a God in
Heaven ; let us turn and see the head of a great nation, civil
and military, trusting in Providence for the issue of a righteous
cause. . But it is yielding: but halting praise to the memory of our
forefathers, to confess ourselves gratified with the valor, patience
in suffering, and love of liberty they displayed ; or to amuse
ourselves in comparing them with other characters in history.
'T is not enough to turn a listless gaze upon the barren order of
occurrences during the Revolution. The picture and the prin
ciples of that great drama should appear enstamped upon the
heart of every American, at home and abroad, both now and for
ever ; and ere that takes place,those entablatures must be warmed
by the heat of her fires. Let the mind gain ' a countermarch of
time ' and notice the events as they arise, — when the petitions
began to lift their suppliant voices to the royal ear against the
portentous change in the colonial policy at the close of the Old
French War, when those voices grew louder upon the royal re
fusal of relief, when those same voices came upon that same
royal ear in the harsher tones of remonstrance against the as
serted right ' to bind us in all cases whatsoever,' when odious
laws once repealed, were re-enacted, and Americans began to
pledge their faith to rely upon their own soil, already becoming
dear to them, for sustenance and comfort, when they found de
tachments of the British standing army quartered amongst them,
when a wicked and revengeful enactment shut up one of our

8
most important seaports, challenging the united resistance of
the continent, when the industrious citizens began to look about
for means of defence, and the war-ciy ran through the whole
country ; in short, when the mighty fleets of Great Britian
floated her deadly armies up to our peaceful coasts, throwing the
disciplined hordes into all our great cities to riot, plunder, and
kill, and pouring their destructive thunder into our weak defen
ces, while the glittering ranks of the. British veteran and plaided
Highlander are dashing off, in bold manoeuvres, under the eager
lion to subdue the rebel colonists, the mercenary German
stealing his night marches, the ' blue-eyed Brunswickers ' thread
ing the northern wildernesses to cut off New England from the
sister colonies, the plumed savage darting down from the moun
tain with the scalping knife, or springing from the valley with
his tomahawk ; let also the question be asked, if this chivalry
of the European wars and American barbarity can be stayed by
the few resolute yeomanry repairing to the meagre lines of the
American array, the husband with knapsack and musket leaving
his weeping wife and staring little ones scarcely provided with
the necessaries of life, the son breaking away from his widowed
mother and tearful sisters, to go and die where his father died,
every town, village, and familymost beseechingly called upon
to furnish heavy contributions and enlistments for the army ;
every soldier fighting on unpaid, except by the useless securi
ties of the poor continental Congress, still obeying the repeated
calls of his beloved Washington, and that sentiment that no ter
rors of earth shall shake in his heart, the love of liberty : —
more than all, let the ear be given to the tones of the great con
troversy as they ring across the waters, while the declarations
of covetous power, are triumphantly met by the denouncers of
unconstitutional taxation, while the ambitious pretensions of the
cunning English Cabinet are boldly exploded by the unheard of
statesman of America, while asking grows into demand and re
fusal into defiance, until the menacing thunders of St. Stephens

and the spirit-moving cries for truth and justice from Fanueil Hall,
from Congress Hall, and from Williamsburgh, meet in angry tu
mult above the ocean ; the battling of the antagonist principles
of the Old and New World.
It is thought by some an objection to the exercises usually
had on these occasions, that they tend to keep alive unfriendly
feelings towards the mother country. The spontaneous inclin
ation of the national feeling should not be checked by such a
scruple. Besides, appropriate commemorations of the exploits
of our fathers are nowise inconsistent with the purest sentiments
of amity and courtesy towards England. The untutored feel
ing of the English nation, ere it was warped by misrepresenta
tion and inflamed to resentment by ministerial appeals, was un
doubtedly in favor of the American cause. The reproach of
those measures that drove us into the arms of independence^
falls, not on the English nation, but upon a few men then in
power, whose sentiments, we are justified in saying, have always
leaned too much towards that line of policy by which they
attempted to ruin our prosperity.'. We niay be pardoned, then,
if we do occasionally, through indirect means, send through our
well known neighbors' bosoms, the old unpleasant sensation.
But this class of the English people do not so much apprehend
the revival of revolutionary hostility, as they fear the' growing
fame of institutions in dangerous proximity to their own. Amer
icans should not become propagandists. The only way in
which their institutions will operate effectually upon the world, is
through the happiness with which they are seen to clothe the
people. But it becomes Americans to see to it, that the vulgar
prejudices of the old world do not decry them prematurely. I
know of no sentiment of courtesy that requires the friends of
American institutions to bow deferentially to the lumbering
trumpery heaped up by feudal barbarism, to the eternal, anoy
ance of liberty. And while we would not attempt to force any
influence upon the anti-republican states, we are bound to vindi-
2

10
cate our character and just fame ; to set forth the true nature of
our institutions^ before crowned heads as well as the lowly born.
If this be done, we need not fear for the result. France,
Spain, Portugal, the South American Republics, have they not
turned and overturned, and struggled, some of them, in seas of
blood for the priceless heritage that we possess in comparative
security ?
Let Americans then fear not to rejoice on the return of the
day in which they escaped from colonial vassallage, because
Felix may tremble. The Tory party in England ought to
know that it is fit on such occasions, to help to consign their
course of policy to a damning fame. The dependencies of
Great Britain have always received oppression at their hands.
The unworthy selfishness, the life-blood of the party, ever im
pelled them on to desperate undertakings to gratify a few at home
at the expense of the many abroad. Do they want proof?
Let them listen to the wailing of millions, as it booms up from
the deep interior of India ; the victims of pillage, extortion, and
sometimes, the besom of war. Lo I too the meagre arm
of Ireland, upraised for ages in touching, though useless, petition
to he relieved from the desolation that envious, ungenerous, cruel
laws have carried over her beautiful isle. Above all,, see the
ruinous system that they attempted to impose on colonial Amer
ica ; though against the loud, incessant, and eloquent remonstran
ces of the confessedly great and good men of the English na
tion. So bold, so unexpected, were their odious measures ; that
Americans were not more alarmed for their liberties^ than sur
prised that such men should be at the head of the nation,
and that such folly should be put into their counsels. But the
tables were turned against them, And may we not suppose
that, were our fathers amongst us, they would deem it a fit oc
casion to rejoice that the principles for which they contended,
are not only working a sure progress in the institutions of the
mother country, but that they promise ere long, in their trium-

11
pbant career, to bless their brethren in England with the full
possession of their long, long, lost rights.
But without balancing consequences, we know that such a
debt of gratitude never rested upon a people, as upon us. _ To
discharge that debt, is right in the eyes of the universe. And
we feel it to be any thing bpt a compliment to our character, to
Suppose that we are so dead to the noblest feeling that adorns
humanity, as to fail in its discharge for fear of some collateral
evil arising from its misinterpretation. Men, not so worthy as
our fathers, are embalmed in our memories. Exploits, of less
interest to humanity than the Revolution, receive our contin
ued regard. If the civilized world has ever paid its trib
ute of admiration to the Spartan ' three hundred ' who wish
ed the monument attesting their fall, might only say. to the
traveller, 'Go ; passenger, tell at Sparta that we died here in
obedience to her laws ; ' laws, which, while they reared the
promising child into a bold, lion-hearted, soldier, took the weak
one from the arms of its mother and threw it to the wild, beasts
on Taygetus ; — if the English people still gaze with rapture on
the consecrated banners of Gressy and Agincourt, and glow
with pride at the names of Nile and Trafalgar ; how should we
cling to the memory of our fathers who fought, not because they
had been educated to fight ; who bled, not to boast of their
scars ; who marched, not because they were commanded by an
unseen power for unknown reasons ; who died, not because they
had learned to be reckless of death ; but who fought because
they could not be oppressed by foreign legislation ; because they
. wanted a free home for their wives and children, because they
hoped, though many must fall, some might survive ; and be
cause they chose to meet the contest for liberty when it offered,
and not shuffle it off on to us their children.
On the twelfth of June Gen. Gage has declared the whole
province of Massachusetts Bay to be in a state of rebellion, but
invites the people to return to their allegiance, and offers his

12
Majesty's most gracious pardon to all who will receive it, ' ex
cepting from the benefit of such pardon ' says the proclamation
'Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose crimes are of too
flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that
of condign punishment.' And is this so? Has Massachusetts
found reason to rebel against England whose cause she but yes
terday so cheerfully espoused, and whose arms she sustained
with her blood and treasure ? Is she now ready to fight the
mother country, with whose troops she lately marched, shoulder
to shoulder, a greater proportion of her citizens than France
poured out at the call of her Napolean ? Will not this rebellious
member of the family be immediately opposed by those distin
guished leaders, Putnam, Stark, Gates, Montgomery, Lee,
Washington, who have carried the British arms triumphantly
against the Frenchman and Indian, from the St. Lawrence to
the Gulf of Mexico ?
This proclamation was issued about two months after the
affair at Lexington and Concorde That occurrence had con
vinced the people that to be vigilant, and ready, was their only
safety. Gen. Gage having learned that a few military stores
are collected together eighteen or twenty miles from Boston,
bethinks himself that it will be a pleasant excursion for seven
or eight hundred of his stately grenadiers, to run out under
cover of night, destroy the stores, and in the morning, march
back to Boston in their blazing regimentals, to the great admira
tion of the much surprised inhabitants. And indeed what is
likely to defeat the well-planned expedition ? Officers have
been sent out on the roads to cut off all possible communication
of the plan to the country towns. Darkness throws her man
tle over city and country. Late in the evening the gay regu
lars march out of the streets of Boston full of the soldier's an
ticipations. They move silently over the waters. They land
in hushed stillness. See them glide along on the road past the
houses, with wary tread and muffled drum. What now shall

13
prevent the destruction of those stores and perhaps the confla
gration of the town ! Who will rescue those patriots of the
Provincial Congress, now asleep in their beds at Lexington, and
already named for the halter ! Oh ! might not an alarm be
somehow given ? Yes, yes, the royal, Governor's determina
tion was well known before sunset. The. whisper has run
through the villages to Lexington. The alarm guns have spread
the tidings. The bells have taken them, up and rung them
from the steeples around all the towns ; and the quick roll of the
drum «has already called the militia on to the lines in the streets
of Lexington and Concord.
Those troops do commence their return march on the morn
ing of the nineteenth, 'that glorious morn for America,' which
they had fondly hoped would bring them into such high gusto
with the gazing villagers. But it reveals to them spectators
with quite another object -in view than to gratify curiosity.
They discover the unending ranks of a foe whose singular mil
itary arrangements they do not understand, and whose order of
battle they cannot possibly comprehend. Thus unexpectedly
perplexed, and very much impeded in their march by the wound
ed, and thinking continually of the one hundred comrades they
have already left behind them dead in the road ; they would
fain quicken their step ; the officers too would fain dismount
and march along side of their war horses, and every now and
then, when they think they have found the light-footed foe in
an assailable condition, make the very useless effort to form a
line for battle ; for say the. British officers in their letters home ;
'we attempted to stop the men and form them two deep; but
to no purpose, the confusion rather increased than diminished.
The rebels,' tbey continue, ' killed and wounded many of our
troops by keeping up a deadly fire from behind walls, trees, ditch
es, and other ambushes. Those weary regulars having found
safety in the arms of Lord Percy's reinforcement, gain with
difficulty the heights of Charlestown by sunset, in good season,

14
if not to dine, yet to sup, with his Excellency and congratulate
him upon the encouragement his Majesty's troops have receiv
ed from their first onset upon the rebellious Yankees.
The Provincial Congress immediately despatched to Great
Britian a statement of the rencountre, with depositions from eye
witnesses, showing that the British troops were clearly the ag
gressors; again enumerating their wrongs, and concluding their
paper with the emphatic language ; 'Appealing to heaven for
the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free.' The
feelings of the people now demanded decisive measures.-* The
Congress resolved at once that an army of thirteen thou
sand should be raised for the defence of the Province. And
now the old dusty drums, that sixteen years before had called
so cheerfully the British soldier and American militiaman to
gether to the battle field on the North Western Frontier ; are
again heard rattling forth their merry summons among our hills,
for every village company to repair to Boston, to ' the quick
march step of liberty/ That's good to fiddle, sing, or play,
And just the thing for fighting.
The gathered forces encamp in the environs of Boston. And
now the foe will no more invade us. An attack will soon drive
them from the city that Lord North calls ' the hot bed of sedi
tion.' But on the left wing of our army is an eminence that
commands the laffd communication with Charlestown : will not
the safety of the inhabitants be secured if we take possession
of that hill ? That was Bunker's hill. The next morning the
British beheld that eminence, within cannon-shot, capped with
an entrenchment eight rods square and four feet high. Major
General Howe and Brigadier General Pigot resolve to cross
Charles River and dislodge the Americans posted there.
They land hurriedly, and hasten at the eager call to form. They
move with deliberate step along up the hill side, every eye on

15
the redoubt. The , militiamen within wait in silence, their bo
soms heaving more and more with emotion, as the foe ap
proaches. They withhold their fire until they can pick out every
officer and level their guns with certainty. They withhold it
no longer. From the windows and roofs of the houses in Bos
ton, thousands of people are looking on in breathless anxiety.
And now two thousand citizens aire rushing out from burning
Charlestown on to the neighboring eminences that overlook the
scene ; some weeping, some frantic, now turning their agonized
countenances towards the growing flames ; and now on the
scene of action, to know what lot next God has in store for them.
The British, twice repulsed, are again called upon to form and
repeat the attack. They do it. But those sonsof the Amer
ican soil are fighting, not from the recollection of their families,
but from their presence. They know' that those distressed wo
men, and children, and old men around them, hold their breaths
at every charge of the enemy; that they feel every fire cut
themselves to the heart. Will they yield then, as long as they
have the means of defence ?
, Fifteen days pass away and George Washington is on his
way from Mount Vernon to take the lead of the army. The
continental Congress, now in its second session,.at Philadelphia,
has thought it best, since the battles of the 19th of April and
17th June to take up a regular defence and have appointed a
Commander in Chief. He is not from Massachusetts, the seat
of the war, but every one speaks well of him and he has once
been appointed Commander in Chief of all the Virginia farces.
He comes escorted by very respectable volunteers, and is ac^
companied by the gallant Major General Lee, and the accom
plished Mifflin. 'At Springfield, one hundred miles from Bos
ton, a committee from the Provincial Congress meet him and
attend him to Cambridge, where he receives the warm congrat
ulations of the whole army ; and would undoubtedly be greeted
with an animating salute if they had the gunpowder to tune the

16
cannon. The organization of the army is very difficult. But
a small quantity of stores and military equipage are provided.
The first fresh courage of the men has somewhat abated since
the battles. The lines of the army stretch from Roxbury Neck
around to Prospect Hill in front of Bunker's; a crescent of twelve
miles. Can we support such an extent of line against any at
tempt of the enemy, now eight thousand strong ? They hold
all the waters around Boston, all Boston Bay, with their floating
batteries and armed vessels ; shall we not be flanked by forces
thrown out upon any part of the coast ? Shall we not give up
the blockade and retreat where the Welsh Hills in Cambridge
may cover our rear, and the army assume a more compact and
defensible form ? But a retreat will disappoint, dishearten,
the people. They expect that at least no ground will be given
to the invaders ; that they will rather be driven from their strong
hold if possible. Under these circumstances Gen. Washington
would risk an attack but a council of general officers disap
proves the measure. The last of December draws near when
the time of the militia drafts expires. The army is to be dis
banded and another recruited ; the whole line of posts also to
be maintained ; within gunshot of the enemy. The new Com
mander from abroad, but great Washington, has performed no
brilliant exploit to attach the body of the soldiery to him ; he must
contrive to induce them to reinlist. The enemy must not by
any means learn the naked condition of our lines. The Gen
eral feels the peril of his situation. Writing to Congress he
says ;" ' To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy,
for six months together without ammunition ; and at the
same time to disband one army and recruit another within that
same distance of twenty British regiments, is more probably
than was ever attempted.'
On the seventh of June, about five months after the evacua
tion of Boston by the British, a member rises in his place in the
Congress at Philadelphia, and, instructed so to do by the Virgin-

17
ia Assembly, offers a resolution declaring the colonies free and
independant states. Are the care-worn countenances of those
patriots, chosen for their wisdom from three millions of people,
turned suddenly towards the member in surprise? Oh no, the
great subject has weighed long and heavily on the minds of the
most resolute. They have already corresponded for some time
with members of the Provincial Legislature on this topic. They
have held earnest conversation with each other for many a still
hour of the night. They have foretold to each other that the
course of the British ministry was, fast preparing the people for
this step. They have rejoiced to hear of the Virginia instruc
tions. Arid their countenances tell of a. deep, delightfulj sensa
tion thrilling each bosom as Mr. Lee pronounces the words of
the resolution. Their hearts leap forth to welcome it : for they
feel perplexed, having been one year in arms against Great
Britian in the character of her subjects, and they fear the whole
world must soon call them rebels ; they think too, that the moth
er country will treat with them on better terms as an indepen
dant nation than as repenting rebels; they are afraid also that a
part of the people have already received too deep injuries to
forget, and will be liable to ill-advised risings, and to become the
victims of some designing leader ; that the blood of those mas
sacred at Lexington and Concord^ and of the brave who fell at
Bunker's hill, will not let them settle down as contended sub
jects; that the blood of Warren, in his own words' crying from
the ground' will startle tnem fjrom their inglorious slumbers;
and they hope the measure, by opening free trade with -all the
world, will bring those important commercial places, now so im
patient under non-importation and, non-consumption covenants,
more heartily to espouse their cause ; they think they could en
courage the army with the prospect of ample funds from the
public lands ; that they could form alliances with foreign nations ;
and they are animated with the prospect of these colonies hav
ing their interests at their own disposal.
3

18
On the other hand the more moderate would pause. They
cannot but start back sometimes" when they attempt to scan the
prospect that this step will unveil. The army of defence has
now been out one year, and the enemy on the coast is as fear
less as ever ; the expedition we sent off so confidently against
Canada, has entirely failed. Our Montgomery has fallen where
he saw Wolf fall ; more fleets and more armies are this moment
on their way from Great Britian ; the Howes in all probability
will soon offer terms of some kind for reconciliation, if we do
not fall in with them we know they are determined to send
more fleets and more armies ; their resources are inexhaustible,
while our army is now alarmingly distressed, the service very
materially impaired for want of pay ; we can raise no taxes, that
power restsin the hands of the colonial legislatures ; still we
have already issued paper to the alarming amount of five mil
lions, giving our word that the colonies will redeem it in the pro
portion we assign them ; they trust us now, but can we long
keep up suchunusual confidence ; will they not fall out among
themselves about this matter ? The empirical experiments we
made to regulate the prices of provisions have proved absurd ;
two or three colonies have signified their opposition to this meas
ure by instructing their delegates here not to listen to it ; dissat
isfaction and distrust will grow with the growth of these burdens,
and who can discover the end of them ? We shall fall to pie
ces through division ; the enemy will not fail to seize on this
state of things to madly overrun the country ; the chains of op
pression will be drawn still tighter on our children, when we,
who are thus leading the country on, shall have been taken and
brought to an ignominious death on the scaffold : is it reasonable
then, is it wise, is it right, in the name of heaven is it right, for
gentlemen to say that our children will thank us for passing a
resolution pregnant with such consequences ? It was a great
question ; those great and good men felt their hearts oppressed
with the sense of their situation. They reasoned, they weigh-

19
ed, they counciled together, they prayed to God. They in
dulged in no lightness of mind, in no flighty speeches. - They
felt that they could not
Charm ache with air, or agony with words.
Day after day passes away. Continued reflection proves favora
ble to the Resolution. Those members who, in debating upon the
subject at first, had seemed to themselves to speak with halters
about their necks, began to appear more cheerful. The senti
ment of the nation seemed responding clearly to the resolution.
The restrictive instructions were withdrawn from the delegates.
The feeling verged towards unanimity, and after twentyseven
days of such deliberation, they gave their hands and their hearts
for the resolution. This is the return of that day. Who does
not love to be, who does not thank God that he is, in its light ;
the light of its sixtieth dawn, and America what she is ; free,
prosperous, powerful, happy, honored all over the world!
Six days after the declaration of Independence, the eyes of
the nation were turned towards Sandy Hook off New York.
Admiral lord Howe, Commander of all British ships on the
American station, was there standing up to the Narrows with
his proud fleet, as if already on the wings of victory. The
British attacking army was twenty-four thousand strong. Gen.
Washington, by the advice of Congress and the gerferal officers
had agreed to try to keep possession of New York, manifest-.
ly the destined rendezvous of the enemy. The Declaration
had been read to the army with their most hearty consent.
Still the eye -of the General quickly discovers alarming difficul
ties in the way. The passages of the North and East rivers,
being so important, arid the islands between him and the enemy,
must be defended. He must divide his forces so as to man a
line of posts stretching fifteen miles, retaining enough notwith
standing to repel any attack on the city. There is great need
of arms; two thousand men being in camp without them. The

20
States have not sent in their expected quotas of troops. The
militiamen are unpractised. Brooklyn, opposite New York,
must be defended ; ' and in case of an attack,' says the General
to Congress ; ' I can promise myself but one more battalion.' He
knows he will be attacked. And his own never-failing prudence
whispers regret at the situation into which he has suffered him
self to lead the army. In his addresses to the soldiers under
the momentary expectation of an attack, he betrays more mis
givings as to the result than at any other time during the war.
Writing to Congress, he says ; ' the appeal may not terminate
so happily as I could wish, yet the enemy will not succeed in
their views without considerable loss. Whatever advantage
they may gain, will I trust cost them dear.' On the 26th of
August, the British land under cover of their ships on the south
western extremity of Long Island. They form in three divis
ions under Clinton, Grant, and D'Hester; and the noise of
preparation reaches the Americans. The sun of the 27th arose,
but the night had seen important rnovements on the part of the
British. I pass over that day. The anguish of that blow did
not wring the heart of Washington with more pain, than it filled
the hearts of his countrymen with% alarm. More than one
thousand killed ; more than another thousand taken prisoners,
with one Major and two Brigadier Generals. The troops look
ed about like men in trouble, and began to quit the ranks and
march home by large parties, sometimes by whole regiments.
Still by the advice of the general officers, the General resolves
to hold New York. The enemy is in possession of the East
river and can land forces above the city. Detachments must
be stationed as far up as White Plains to prevent invasion. In
a few days notwithstanding, five ships are seen moving up the
river without feeling a fire from the Americans, and under their
cover three miles above the city, four thousand troops land un
der the brave, the too well known, General Clinton. And is the
American army so soon to be cut to pieces ? The American

-21
lines here, however, are capable of defence. But the men are
apprehensive that some of the unintelligible manoeuvres of the
27th will be repeated. As the ships begin to throw in their fige
they take up their retreat for New- York. They meet two brig
ades despatched to their assistance. They take the panic and
all flee towards the city. They meet the Great Washington,
whom they always love to obey, but whom, they, cannot obey
now. Those earnest calls to them, must be, are, disregarded.
We hear, my friends, that a great occurrence now took place :
that Washington, Washington, faltered and trembled on the brink
of despair. It was then, surely, it was a time that tried men's
souls. A few days pass away with one defeat succeeding another, until
fort Washington and Lee with two thousand men and very valua
ble stores, fall into the hands of the enemy. Behold ! the Amer
ican General, with his army fleeing precipitately through the
Jerseys, before Cornwallis. The soldiers and the people seize
fast upon the proffered pardon of the Howes. As the fleeing
three thousand escape from a village, they discover the van
guard of the pursuing army enter it. They strain for the Del
aware. They leap it, and seize with them as they go, the boats
from the grasp of the enemy. But will this pleasant river
check the impetuous race of* the British army for the national
capitol ? Ah ! but misfortunes are indeed sometimes blessings
in disguise. With the recuperative energies of despair, and on
the quick wings of new-born hope, the defeated fly into the
midst of the enemy, and achieve the brilliant exploits of Tren
ton and Princeton. The confidence of the country is at once
reassured. Congress thank the General and the whole army.
I have no time to inquire how this great contest will finally ter
minate. But methinks that the hopes of this nation of patriots
must at-last be fully realized.
For Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, "
Though baffled oft, is ever won.

22
In May, 1787, the Convention met at Philadelphia, to re
vise the articles of the federal government. The horrors of war
had retired from our borders and left the declaration of Indepen
dence most fully sustained, but no crisis in the Revolution ever
called louder for the best efforts- of the nation than the present
arduous duties of peace. Those men who had encircled their
brows with civic wreaths in councils during the war, gathered
together there with their experience. Those, who had sur
rounded their names with the brightest glories of arms, had also
come there as lawgivers. The beloved leader of the armies of
the Revolution presided over the assembly. But the alarming
fact was soon discovered, that the great variety of conflicting in
terests of a country so extended, rendered it extremely doubtful,
whether even with their experience, with their wisdom, and
with their patriotism, a satisfactory system, could be devised.
But they were again permitted to achieve great things, They
sent the Federal Constitution to the States for adoption. ' That
union had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, pros
trate commerce, ruined credit.' Under its creating energies, we
have arisien, as we have ; I cannot tell how, or to what height
even. Look around on our great country. Words are useless.
The eye must look, and look, and look, and yet have but a poor
conception of the reality. Here in our own beloved country,
where a few years ago, raged a protracted war for national exis
tence, all the records of national prosperity have been surpass
ed, and the fancies of a More and a Plato found to be scarcely
beyond the truth. When we cast our eyes back, we are aston
ished at the mighty strides we have taken ; when we cast. them
forward we are amazed at the prospect that seems to crowd on
the vision. True we are not without difficulties, present and pros
pective ; but they are evils inherent in the system. It brought
tears of sorrow from our fathers, that they were not permitted,
by the counsels of an all-wise Providence, to preserve the plan
free from them. Let us not, on this joyful day, by complaining

23
of these evils, arraign their wisdom ; or, by indulging in dismal
forebodings, start afresh the closed fountains of their grief. Let
us rather, by opening our hearts to the great lessons inculcated
by their actions, learn from them how to bear cheerfully, pru
dently, wisely, with the difficulties from which they could not re-
relieve us. Let nothing dampen the ardor of our gratitude to
those men who beheld their nation a dependant province, and
permitted their children to behold it, in sixty years, powerful,
prosperous, honored in every land and on every sea ; the freest,
the happiest, the best land for freemen, that the sun, in his
rounds, has ever been able to find.