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Applet on, John
Oration. . .
Portland, 1838.

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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

®]1A^E(0)H

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

DEMOCRATIO REPUBLICANS

«ip

PORTLAND AND VICINITY,

July 4th, 1838.

BY JOHN APPtETON.

PORTLAND :
PRINTED AT THE AKGUS OFriCE.
1838.

PORTLAND, July Sih, 1838.
Dear Sib ;— By unanimoua vote of the Democratic Committee of Arrangements, for the
4th of July, I am requested to tender to you their thanks for the yery excellent Oration^
__pronounced on the occasion of our late National Anniversary, and to request of you a
copy thereof, for publication. With great respect,
1 have the hontff to be,
Your OB't Servant,
FREEMAN BRADFORD,
John Appleton, Esq. ch. of saitt Commilee.

PORTLAND, July 6th, 1838.
Dear Sie .-—The Oration, haatfly prepared, at the request of the Committee of Arrange
ments for the late Democratic Celebration, I herewith place at their disposal.
With many thanlcs for the obliging manner in which they have spolien, through you, of
my services on that occasion— 1 have the honor to be,
Tpur Obed't Servant,
JOHN APPLETON.
' Freeman Bbai>pobd, Esq., Ch, of the Committee,

4-20 a

ORATION.

¦ ¦ My Demochatic Fellow Citizens: —
At the close of sixty-two years, we are assembled to commem-
raorate the day of our National Deliverance, Once more we have
come together, with emotions of pride and gratitude, to trace back
to its first glorious commeneement, the history of the only free and
democratic Government, which the world can boast. Again we
would listen to the eloquent and kindling story of the Revolution.
Again we would contemplate those bright revelations which it makes
of all that is lofty in wisdom, sublime in patriotism, and great in
action. And if there be a man here who is tired of the theme —
who deems that the story has been too often told, and who does not
feel his spirit stirring within him at the very mention of an enterprise
which made him the descendant of an unthralled freeman, rather'
than of a privileged slave — if there jae a man who does not exult
in the idea of a handful of brave men forming the high purpose of
a nation's freedom, and then going on through long, long years of
sufFeriiig and of toil to fulfil that heroic purpose, and redeem the
pledge which they had given to their couhtry, and to each other, of
*'their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors ; " that man has
not an American soul within him. He is unworthy of the high
destiny to which he has been called. "He does not deserve, " in
the language of another, " to breathe the pure air, to tread the green
fields, to drink the cold springs, and hear the Sabbath bells, of a free
country. " But, I am wrong even to imagine such indifference —
much more, to imagine it in an assembly of American Democrats.
Here, at least, if no where else, the record of those early days may
be safely unrolled. Here, at least, the incidents of the Revolution
still preserve their power. Familiar to you as " household words "
though they be, they have, nevertheless, lost none of that syblime
energy, which has, in other tiiBes, thrilled your hearts with feelings
of admiration and gratitude, that, while they did honor to the memory

of your fathers, proclaimed you worthy to have had such fathers.
But, it is not for the gratification of an idle pride, that we rise to the
associations of our early history. We do it, in obedience to the best
impulses of our hearts, that we may render our honest tribute of
respect to those great principles by which the Revolution was ani
mated. And, in so doing, we think we exhibit most purely, our
deep reverence for the men, who, with their lives, asserted and
defended them. If we were called upon to celebrate mere martial
prowess, and physical courage, we might find them in all the fulness
of perfection, long before America had become the Sanctuary of the _
Puritans. The eagle standard of Rome, led on to fight and victory,
spirits as brave as ever ra:llied beneath the inspiring folds of the
"star-spangled banner" — And imagination cannot depict a more
heroic devotion, than that which defended the pass of Thermopylae,
and contested the field of Marathon. Athens, withstanding single-
handed the banded power of Greece, is a spectacle which, so
far as mere valor is concerned, may compare worthily with the
struggle of the Colonies with England. But the bravery of ancient
times was impelled by merely external circumstances, and aimed to
accomplish no great and general end. Men were actuated from with
out rather than from within, by events rather than thoughts, and, as
organized machines, were moved only by material objects. Their
contests were, at best, between one Tyrant and another, and. who
ever conquered, the number of slaves remained the same. They
fought to exchange an old master for a new one — not to arrest
their own inviolable supremacy — for certain actual privileges, never
for abstract rights. In later times, the Crusades exhibited an agency
of a more refined character, and in the struggle for religious liberty,
at the period of the Reformation, we behold new and higher interests
at stake, and see mankind incited by objects without the sphere of
the senses, atid by "passions which pressed forward to Eternity. "
But the Crusades were undertakTjn from enthusiasm, rather than
principle, and were marked more by passion, than by deliberate
conviction ; and the Reformation was but the commencement of that
series of causes whose glorious results were to be witnessed in
another century, and on a different continent. It was reserved for
the age of Washington to develope the complete triumph of the'
mental, over the material ; and to exhibit the novel and sublime
spectacle of a people struggling, not for conquest and power, but
for equality and right— contending, not for a King, or a party, or a
dynasty, but for the insulted majesty of our divine nature  warrin<r

not for the breach of a national treaty, but for the marred and broken
treaty of universal humanity — pleading, not chartered rights, but
the rights of man — striking not for liberty here, but for liberty every
where^— deciding not only their own destiny, but the destiny of their
common race. It is the broad and general purpose, then, for which
they labored, which sanctifies the efforts of our ancestors, and erects
in every freeman's heart an altar to their memory. It is for the
wide career of improvement which they opened to the world'— for
the mighty impulse which they gave to popular rights — for the vast
discovery, more valuable than the finding of many continents, which
they made of man's capacity^ — in a word, it is because, in the lan
guage of Lafayette, they gave "a lesson to oppressors and an
example to the oppressed, " which shall endure through all time,
that we, this day, render them our praise. The minds of the people,
at the time of the Declaration, were thoroughly and deeply itnbued
with this grandeur of their design. The great principles of the
contest had been long familiar to them. As early as 1754, we find
John Adams predicting " the expulsion of the French from the
Continent, and the establishment of an independent Government on
the basis of the Union of the Colonies." In 1761, James Otis
asserted the inalienable rights of man as fully and decisively as they
were afterwards asserted by Thomas Jefferson. It wafe in his cele
brated argument against writs of assistance, which President Adams
characterized as breathing the breath of life into the nation. "Otis,"
says he," was a flame of fire. Every man, of an immense, crowded
audience, appeared to go away, as I did, ready to take arms
against Writs of Assistance. Then, and there, was the first act of
opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then, and
there, the child. Independence, was born. In fifteen years he grew
up to manhood, and declared himself free. " The municipal records
of the towns, at a period a little subsequent, are full of similar evi
dences of knowledge and patriotism. For the ten years previous
to the outbreak at Lexington, the people were constantly discussing
the great question of Colonial rights. As their grievances increased,
their remonstrances assumed a higher tone. And the reason of their
watchfulness is given in one of their town documents, that "thus,
whether successful or not, succeeding generations may know that
we understood our rights and liberties, and were neither ashamed
nor afraid to assert or maintain them ; and that we ourselves may
have, at least, this consolation in our chains, that it was not through
our neglect that this people was enskived. " It seems strange, under

these circumstances, that events did not sooner attain their crisis —
that'the seeds of independence, so diligently sown, did not, at an
earlier period, reach their harvest maturity. It is surprising that so
much time was wasted in proposing half-way measures, and attempt
ing compromises which, if they had been granted, could only have
produced a temporary relief. The truth is, the leading men of the
time were whigs — British whigs. They distrusted the virtue and
stability of the people. They were wanting in that firm reliance
upon their patriotism which they were afterwards so faithfully taught.
They were contented, therefore, at fii-st, to demand British justice
instead of natural justice. James Otis speaks of the independence
of the Colonies as sornething which none.but " rebels, fools, or mad
men, would contend for" — And yet he had asserted, and defended
more eloquently than any other man, the leading principles upon
which that independence rests. But he feared the people. He
dreaded the anarchy and confusion which history taught hira to
anticipate. "Were these Colonies left to themselves to-morrow, "
he writes, "America would be a mere shambles of blood and con
fusion, before little petty States could be settled. " But this error
was soon corrected, and corrected, too, by the people themselves.
They were seen at a time when English authority was substantially
abrogated, and they, in truth, had no government — were left to them
selves — observing a spirit of law, and order, and forbearance, sur
passing what they had ever exhibited in the most loyal times. "The
consciousness of an exalted, and resolute common purpose, took
the place at once, and with full efiicacy, says Edward Everett, of
all the machinery of constitutional government. An unseen spirit
of order, resource, and power, walked, like an invisible angel through
the land, and the people, thoughtful, calm and collected, awaited the
coming storm. " It is worthy of remark, that during all the phrensied
excitements which occurred in Boston between the years 1765 and
1776, not a single human life was taken by the inhabitants, either by
assassination^ popular tumult, or public execution. At Lexington,
too, the people were seen- taking their own cause into their own
hands. From the nature of the case, there was at that fight little
organization, or preparation, or discipline. But every thing was
supplied tiy the spirit, and zeal, and intrepidity, of the men. They
needed no commanders. They wante* no directions. They were
led and governed by the souls within them. There was a similar
display at Bunker Hill. To this day it is not known who was
the commander of that glorious mound— and tlie people did not

stop to ask. They obeyed the deity which stirred within their
bosoms. They did not wish the animation of music and dress,j.'tho
gfitter of burnished arms, and consecrated standards, " the"pride,
and pomp, and circumstance, of glorious war. " They were con
tented to go — they did go-rinexperienced, irregular, undisciplined,
and half armed, and contending with the/[choicest of Europe's
soldiery, they made that battle ground a classic soil — the Marathon
of America. It was by such arguments as these that the people
urged forward their cause, and carried home to every man the
conviction that they could be trusted. Then it was that Whiggigm
was thrown aside — then it vvas, that no longer distrustful and afraid,
our fathers embraced that doctrine of faith in man, which is the
vital principle of pure Democracy.
" Then into life an infant empire springs !
" Then falls the iron from the soul ;
"Then Liberty's young accents, roll
" Up to the King of iUngs ! "
" The people, the people, " said John Adams, " if we are true
to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves,.gloriously through
this struggle. " Nobly was the prediction fulfilled ! Well did the
people redeem the pledge ! Unblenchingly did they share the vary
ing fortunes of the War ! In defeat, and in success, paid or un
paid, fearing neither the heat of Monmouth, nor the cold of Valley
Forge, dreading no sacrifice of pleasure, or property, or life itself,
under any and all circumstances they preserved their original fidelity. '
Gladly would I trace their changing history to its bright consumma
tion. The field is an inviting one. Trenton and Princeton, Ben
nington and Camden, Saratoga and Yorktown — these, and a host of
other eloquent names, press with all their glorious^ associations upon
the memory^ and claim the full tribute of our kindling hearts. And
they have it. Sacred j ever sacred is their soil regarded as the Re
public's Holy Land. " •
But we may not pause to read their inspiring records. We have
other duties to perform, than that .of gratitude. — other claims than
those of the. honored .dead.i We may no longer, amid the bright
memorials of our, fathers' glory, forget the obligations which rest
upon their descendants. And, at tlje. present time, when the nation,^
is fearfully convulsed by the struggle of contending principles, and
parties,are divided with mofe than ordinary zeal, upon great questions
of permanent policy, we may profitably investigate the spirit of our
institutions, and ascertaiuj if we can, how far we are progressing in
that system of free government, which was at once the purpose and

8
the fruit of Revolutionary effort. The period of our separation
from Great Britain, was by no means- the termination of our national
difficulties. On the contrary, they had not, until then, reached their
unhappy maturity. We had pulled down a bad government, but
we had not yet constructed a new and a better one. We had emerged
successfully from a contest with R6yal tyranny, but we bad the far
more doubtful task remaining to conquer ourselves. During the
war we had been united by the very pressure of absolute necessity.
This pressure being removed, the only ligament which had effectually
bound us, was snapped in twain, and the inefficiency of the confed
eration was at once disclosed. Then, indeed, our day of trial came.
We were wearied and exhausted by the labors and exertions of the
late struggle. The ordinary business of life was at a stand, and its
usual occupations suspended, or destroyed. We had no commerce
either external or internal, and were oppressed by a worthless and
deranged currency. Our credit abroad was annihilated, and we had
no resources with which to repair it. It was the very state of things
which, in other countries, had rent society to its deep foundations —
the "very gulf in which revolutionized France soon after plunged all
the brilliant expectations she had excited. The friends of Liberty
in the old world were looking on with intensest anxiety, and the
most fearful forebodings, and patriots here, who, in the darkest
times, had never yet despaired, were now seen to turn pale at the
gloomy prospect before them'. And' yet the machine of authority,
weak and deficient as it was, we^t on. The people, the feared, the
abused, and mistrusted people, ortee more displayed their stability
and virtue. They held, as it were, in suspense, all their mighty
energies until they could be directed mto safe, and proper channels.
They guarded their rushing passions, and restrained their pent up
feelings until, like the lightning of Heaven, they could be conducted
harmlessly away. They exhibited, in short, the sublime spectacle
of enlightened public opinion successfully taking the place of con
stituted law. It was a triumph mightier than that of arms  an
achievement greater far than the conquest of many armies. When
Cicero wished to eulogize the great general of antiquity, it was his
highest encomium that he knew how to moderate success. " It is
much, no doubt, " says he, " to succeed in a great and decisive battle;
but to govern the passions, to quell the rage of combat, to moderate
the insolence of victory— these are actions that elevate a man above
the sphere of vulgar greatness ; that raise him, as it were, to a sort
of similitude with God himself. » It was this virtue, pervading the

eonimon mind which preserved society from convulsion, until the'
distracted colonies were gathered, in union and harmony, under the
broad asgis of the new Constitution. In the formation of this sacred
instrument the popular principle had to encounter a formidable
opposition. The admirers of the English Government were men of
distinguished genius, and commanding influence, and the whole
energy of their strength was exerted to make that government the
model, and the mirror of our own. Nothing could exceed the
reverence with which they regarded the institutions of our Father
Land. " The immortal spirit of the wood nymph Liberty, " Fisher
Ames once said, " dwells only in the British oak. " " *rhe British,"
it was a. favorite opinion of General Hamiltotr, "with all its corrup
tions, is the best constitution ever established by the wisdom of man."
And these were, at this time, the opinions of a large and powei-ful
party. In throwing off the yoke of England, they had not cast off
their old English feelings and habits. Like the lion, described by
Milton, they were but half animated, and were still struggling in
their original clay. Though they had burst from political thraldom
they still wore the degrading badges of their former masters. They
were still British whigs. And in the low and unworthy spirit of"
their faith, they believed that man could only be governed by fbrce,
or by corruption. VVith Sir Robert Walpole, their great exemplar,
they held the doctrine that " every man has his price, " and that the
potency of money could effect whatever was beyond the reach o^
power. The sovereignty oi the people, in its full, broad, and exalted
sense, as implying a capacity to discern the right, and a disposition
to obey it — as preferring the teachings of the common mind to the
results of individual thought — the combined intelligence of the manyj
to the imperfect knowledge of the few — as gathering its perfect
wisdom from the collected opinions of the great multitude, and as
reposing with unswerving fidelity upon the dictates of theiiniversal
conscience — this was a principle whose novelty they thought only
equal to its absurdity. Their great object seemed to be, to save the
people from tlie consequences of their own ignorance — to restrain
them from self-destruction.' And for this purpose, in the benevolence
of their honest heai'ts, they wished to bind them in the splendid
chains of a strong government. An. Executive for life, with the
power to appoint State Governors, and a Senate during good be
haviour, were the conservative checks which they proposed to
modify any popular impulses that might be felt under our national
union. Happily the rallying Democracy defeated these dangerous
provisions ; and under the auspices of Washington, the people's
suffrages ratified the existing Constitution. Failing, thus, at the

10
outset, in their opposition to republican principles, the federal party
by no means relinquished their purpose. Still trembling in fear of
anarchy, and dreading the disorders and convulsions of the ancient
Republics, they aimed, by every possible expedient, to strengthen
what they called, the feeblen^s of the general government. And
by this leading object, from that time to this, has their whole policy
been moulded and directed. To build up a great central power of
almost despotic energy, at the expense of State rights, and individual
freedom— a- power, the poison of whose "wholesome restraints"
should be felt in every department of business, and every walk of
life, and the curse of whose " protective care " should control the
daily concerns of its subject citizens, has been the great result for
which they have'unceasingly labored. The first accession of strength
was obtained by transplanting here the involved financial policy of
Great Britain. The political and monied powers united, it was
thought, could wield an influence sufiicient even to curb the licen
tiousness of the dreaded multitude. As if insubordination was not
the true child of tyranny ! As if faction, and tumult, and disorder,
were not lashed into life by .the rod of despotism ! As if the people,
like some ferocious monster, were only safe when confined in a deep
dungeon, and surrounded by massive chains ! It was thus that with
a national debt for its basis, and a national bank for the binding
keystone of its arch, the ponderous fabric of the Funding System
arose, and federal authority rejoiced in an ally more potent even
than itselp It was the first departure from the divine idea of our
fathers — the fiist retrograde step in the path of popular freedom. —
It marred at once and .completely, all that beautiful simplicity which
was the prevailing character of our political charter. Instead of a
government of defined powers, and restricted to a few plain and
simple purposes, we had one, the limits of whose control, and the
number of whose objects, no man on earth could pretend to deter
mine. For certainty we had substituted uncertainty. For the
unchanging text, the varying exposition. The whole value of a
written constitution was utterly lost. For its only advantage is that,
like the laws of the Medes and Persians, it is fixed aud unalterable.
By the doctrine of construction and implication, we had made it as
diffused and uncertain as the pretended charter of England.
The Alien and Sedition Laws, by which the constituted authorities
were next supported, exhibit the worst of purposes accomplished by
the worst of means. Their object was to intimidate and silence the
enemies of the Administration, and this they proposed to effect by
banishing obnoxious foreigners, and imprisoning those natives who
were " Jacobins " enough to dread the accumulation of irresponsible

11
power. It is amazing that men should have been mad enough to
attempt such an experinjfent upon the American People. It wag a
measure which not even a sceptred king could have safely ventured
upon the subjects of his consecrated sway. A similar edict was the
moving cause of the Belgian revolution, and it was in the effort to
silence the complaints of his abused people, and muzzle the battery
of an opposing press, that Charles the tenth was hurled from his
throne to make way for a citizen king. It is not strange, then, that
this community was agitated to its centre by an indignation which
knew no bounds, and that, at the coming election, they swept away,
as with the blast of a whirlwind, the dynasty which had thus op
pressively exerted its authority. Many apologies were invented to
abate the violence with which this ill-judged act was censured, and
there were not wanting great minds, who, with as bad ingenuity
attempted to disguise its alarming tendencies. It indicates the in
telligence of the people that, through all its disguises, they penetrated
at once to its real character.; and it demonstrates, most strikingly
their virtue, that they waited patiently until they could apply the
.peaceful corrective of the ballot box. To administer the proper
remedy, and "bring back the government to its republican tack,"
was the fortunate task of Thomas Jefferson. Upon no abler man
could the great work have been devolved. Who, so fit as the author
of the Declaration of Independence, to be the illustrious defender of
its principles ! It is mournful to reflect, that the lofty purity of his
sentiments, and the sterling wisdom of his measures, did not save
this great man from calumny while alive, and cannot now protect
his memory from the unholy slanders' of those who should shrink
into iftsignificanee at the very mention of his distinguished name.
.But it is the common law of our nature.
*' He who ascends to mountain tope, shall find
*' The loftiest pealcs most wrapt in clouds and snow ;
" He who surpasses, or subdues mankind
" IMust look down on the hate of those below.
" Though high above the sun of glory glow,
"And far beneat/ithQ earth and ocean spread,
" liownd him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
" Contending tempests on his naked head,
¦" And thus reward the. tolls which to those summits led. "
But a little while, however, and his slanderers will be forgotten,
while his fame, ever new, and ever young, shall grow brighter and
brighter, as successive generations complete, their appointed course.
The " life of Aaron Burr " will be forgotten almost in the brief
space of a single life-time, but every future Republic, as it inscribes
on its corner stone the glorious truths — " All men are created free
¦and equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain in-

12
alienable rights"— will remember, with gratit;ide, hitn who first
promulgated them. Like what the nobleJVIarcius prophecied of his
youthful son, he shall prove,
" To shame invulnerablef and stick i' the wars,
" Like a great sea mark, standing every flaw,
" And saving those who eye him.^'
Another, and perhaps the most favorite method of strengthening
the hands of Government, is, by limiting the universal right of
suffrage. For no one doctrine have the federal party more strenu-
pusly and consistently contended, than that which allows only proper
ty holders to exercise the elective franchise. He who has no " stake
in the community," they perpetually declare, ought nut to be allowed
to influence its destinies. As if there was no stake but money ! no
interest in the whole universe but the interest of wealth ! As if
intelligence, and virtue, and wisdom, were nothing^and lands, and
• goods, and houses, were every thing ! As if the patriot's heart did
not beat as warmly beneath the coarse garments of the honest laborer,
as beneath the rich vesture of fortune's favorites ! They tell us,
I know, that the poor are likely to be ignorant, and that the rich, on
the other hand, possess all the means of abundant information, and
they dernand, they say, their exclusive privilege, not so much by the
right of wealth, as by the rigjit of superior mind. If this were true
— if the extent of a man's possessions was a sure index to his mental
character, the injustice of which we complain would still exist, For
why should he, who, by the intellectual endowments which nature
has given him can already exert a wide and overmastering influence,
be clothed with additional power by the strong arm of legislative
enactments ! But it is not so. It is not true, that in a free com
munity, poverty and ignorance go together, and knowledge is only
to be obtained by him who can purchase it with gold. No ! The
means of improvement, here, are as widely extended as the dispositon
to improve. It is the glory of our Republic to have repealed the
monopoly of learning, and to have thrown broadly open every
avenue which leads to instruction. The spirit of qur institutions
contemplates no such thing as an ignorant man. The same free
schools which sent forth Franklin to conquer the elements, and
Washington to awe the world by his mingled wisdom and integrity,
still exist in all their original efiicacy to pleatl the cause of humanity,
and strengthen the foundations of free government. And he, who
with the high responsibility of an independent voter resting upon
hiijfi, does not prepare himself fitly to discharge his trust, can comT
plain only of his own base and degenerate soul. Is it said that time
is requisite as well as money, and that the period necessary for im-
p-qvement must be deyoted tonhat labor which earns the daily

13
bread. In the old world this would be fearfully true. And when I
remember the fondness which pervades so many minds for the
institutions of Europe — the desire, which is so prevalent, of building
up splendid incorporations, and accumulating vast masses of power
in the hands of a few, and the unbounded reverence for wealth
which even now seems fast growing into a national passion, I trem
ble, I confess, lest it may one day be realized here. That time,
thank Heaven ! has not yet arrived. And if the people are but
true to the cause of human enlightenment, it never will. Among
us, if no where else, there are still such rights as the rights of labor.
Whatever else is monopolized, we do not yet allow the monopoly
of time, and not yet in America are the great purposes of moral
existence sacrificed to an unceasiBg toil for gain. Our laborers are
flot compelled, like those of England, to vifork by night as well as
by day, and to wear away their bodies and their minds, that they
may not be starved, and that their etnployers may be rich. And
when we are pointed to England, as an example of national greats
ness, we should remember the price of human suffering, at which
that greatness has been purchased. When we are told of her riches,
we should remember her army of paupers. And when her justice
is lauded, and her- magnanimity praised, we should point indignantly
to India, which her avarice has desolated, and to Ireland, poor,
metpd out, and oppressed Ireland, whose scorched and blasted fields
are fit emblems of the broken spirits of her sons, and ask, if these
are the fruits of her evenhanded, and liberal ju.stice ! Great and
prosperous is she called — the workshop of the world ! Go into her
maniifactories, and there learn, from the sickly looks, and the lifeless
eyes^from the enfeebled frames, and the dwarfed intellects of the
human machines which you behold, that when wealth is thus obtaiuT
ed, it is criminal to be rich, We might rival her, perhaps, in this,
her greaf pre-eminence. We have already accomplished wonders
towards doing so. But is it desirable that we should .' Will it
increase the virtue, and the happiness, the honor, arid the true glory,
of the nation ? " Will it strengthen," says Pres. Humphreys, "our
republican institutions, and give us Spartan hearts, and Spartan
sinews, to defend them ?' Is it best, that upon the banks of every
stream which can be made to yield a great water power, we should
be able to marshal a mile of factory girls, to be reviewed by our
Presidents in their tours of observation ? " "I marvel," he adds, and
who does not share his wonder f " how so many sensible mothers
can consent to part with their daughters, and how the daughters can
be willing to come down from their green, fleece-clad hills, and
exchange their bright skies, and healthy breezes, and wide spread

14
landscapesjifor the confinement of heated rooms, the annoyance of
chemical odors, and the deafening clatter of a thousand-handed
machinery.'' Let me not be understood as waging war upon this
large and valuable department of human industry. I only protest
against its unreasonable extension. I only ask, that upon the ques
tion of its -increase, something besides mere money-making may be
taken into the account. The spiritof gain should not be the presiding
igenius of our community. The God we worship should be a nobler
Deity than avarice.
In their opposition to a'system of government thus Consolidated,
the Democracy has ever been consistent and unyielding. And after
sthe triumphant success of Mr. Jefferson, in 1800, it is curious to see
ihow quickly it was deserted by its very originators. Thesame'men,
who, but a little before, had exhausted the whole vocabulary of
sorrow in lamenting the weakness and inefficiency of the constituted
-¦authorities, wei-e now heard denouncing them in unmeasured terms
;as arbitrary and despotic. In building, with so much care, a strong
government, they had not looked to see it administered by any other
hands than their own. It was with deep and bitter disappointment,
aherefore, that rhey beheld the sceptre of their ill-acquired power
wrenched, like that of Macbeth, -from their grasp, "by an unlin-
«al hand, no son of theirs succeeding. " They did not, however,
as we are told of the proud cardinal of history, retire in humility,
and resignation, bidding "along farewell to all their greatness."
Because, perhaps, they could not, like him, boast "that peace above
all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience. " But rather like
the Roman Coriolanus, they sought to destroy the country which
had deprived them of power. To rule or to ruin, truth justifies us
in saying, seems at this period to have been their full determination.
And they literally moved the three worlds to accomplish it. Never
did a hostile nation pursue a public enemy with more intensity of
hate, than they followed, under all circutnstances, the administrations
of their successors. The annals of party warfare can exhibit no
parallel to their malignant energy. Instead of coming up to the
support of government, at a period of great danger and difficulty,
and yielding their private animosities, and party rancor, to a prevail
ing regard for the general good, they endeavored to widen every
division, and to paralize and defeat every measure which was adopted
for the national defence; They seemed to prefer universal ship
wreck, rather than to be saved while their opponents grasped the
helm-even though that shipwreck was of the richest freight of
human happiness and liberty that was ever borne upon the waves
of time. We were struggling in the fearful tempest of a foreign

15
war. Upon her own element we were contending for supremacy
with " the mistress of the Ocean." Young as we were yet as a
nation, and limited as were our naval resources, we relied with
confidence upon the stout hearts, and strong arms, of a patriotic
community. So long as the people were true, our country, we
knew, for we had been taught it in other times, was absolutely invin
cible. " The storm sails, " says another, " may fly in ribbons to the
wind, mast and topmast may come down, and every billow of the
ocean boil through the gaping seams ; and the brave ship, by the
blessing of Heaven, may yet ride out the storm. But if, when the
winds, in all their fury, are beating upon her, and the black and
horrid rocks of a lee shore are already hanging over the deck, and
all other hope and dependence fail, if then the chain-cable gives
way she must, with all on board, be dashed to pieces. " That cable,
in the phrensy of their infatuated madness, the Federalists sought
to sever ! And what was the result .-' The war rolled on — gloriou.sly
— triumphantly rolled on, covering our arms with fresh lustre, and
adding to the bright catalogue of our nation's heroes, the names of
another host, As great as those
Who at Philippi for their coimtry fell.
The people did not slop to inquire into the causes of the wnr. They did not
asU, when the enemy was at our very door, whether it might not have been avoided.
But burning with indignation against foreign aggression, and responding to the
lofty sentiment of him whose patriot fame should live forever — " our (Tounirj, right
or wrong!" they bore up our national honor untarnished, and made the ** star
spangled banner" forever afterwards a sufficient protection to all who floated be
neath its folds. The Government might be weak — its conduct Injudicious, and its
acts unwise, but the people would not look tamely on to see it degraded and over
thrown by a public foe. So true it is,
" That how e'er crowns and coronets be rent,
" A virtuous populace shall rise the while,
" And stand a wall of fire, to guard their native soil. "
It is to that uncorrupted populace that the government still looks for protection.
Once more a disappointed and factious party have attempted to overthrow it. —
Once more our own citizens have been. heard' rejoicing at national misfortunes, and
again the privileges of the few have been sought at the price of the destruction of
the many. We contend not now against the arms of Britain, but against the more
potent, though silent, Influence ofher corrupt example. We contend against those
foreign systems of financial policy by which it is attempted to assert here the
supremacy of wealth. We would preserve, in all their original purity, those plain
and republican institutions which were founded, not in luxury and splendor, but in
nimplioity and truth. We would make our republic strong, nqt in the dazzling
glory of its golden shrines, not in the glittering pomp of its regal establishments.
but in the stern virtues, and honest independence, of its Intelligent sons. We
Would remember the lessons which come to us from the crumbling ruins of ancient
freedom. Amid the fragments of once glorious but now fallen empires, we would

16
learn wisdom for the preservation of our own. That wisdom teaches us, that the
Tyrant's yoke is only fastened upon the hecks of slaves, and that a State h never
destroyed while its children retain unbowed within them, the erect, and haughty
Bphh of nature's freemen.
" It ia the moral of all human taleg ;
'' Fir.^i Freedom, and then-^lory^-when that faild,
" Wealth, vice, Gorruption-^Barbarism at last.
" Bear witness, Greece, thy liviftg page !
" Attest it many a deathless age !
" 'T were long to lell, and sad to trace,
' " Each step from splendor to disgrace :
¦ " Enough — no'foreigh foe could quell
" Thy soul, till from itself it fell.'
" Yes, self abasement paved the way,
" For villain bonds, and despot sway* ''
And Rome, too^ the Empress of the world,
¦ " She who was named eternal, and arrayed
" Her warriors but to conquer" —
was crushed only beneath the weight of her own luxury and vice. The seeds of
her destruction were sown long- before Caesar cros.sed the Rubicon, and the Goths
ahd Vandals never polluted the sacred inclosure of her capiiol, until her people had
been degraded enough to pay the tribute money. Whether the same causes of
national ruin developed here, shall overthrow Ameiica, and this ''newRorae rising
in the West " shall only equal the splendor of the seven-hilled city, to share also
its ftielancholy fate, it is forJier citi&enjr, under Providence, to determine. Upon
their virtue and intelligence her preservation depends. The world will not lament
her fall, until she shall first mourn their degeneracy. Let us, then, do our part (or
the cause of popular improvement. With vestal watchfulness let us cherish those
pure principles of morality which have been transmitted to us by a pious ancestry.
Let us guard against the first approaches of that luxury and ostentation which are
aTike fatal to private happiness, and public stability. And let us keep our political
institutions in all their original purity, unconnected with pecuniary interests, and
untainted by that corruption which is the dangerous consequence of huch a connec
tion. Then may Our country rejoice in the hope of new glory, and continued ex
istence. For-ihen, in the language of Virgil, where he speaks of the future glory
of the Roman empire, she will he,
" Felix prole virum : quali^ Berecynthia mater
" Invehitur curru Phrygias turrlta per urbea
"LfEta deum partu, centum complexa nepotes,
*' Omnes CoelicolEa, omnes supera alta tenentes.
" Proud of her sons she lifts her head on high —
" Proud, as the -mighty mother of the sky,
" Wlien through the Phrygian towns, sublime in air
" She rides triumphant in: her golden car,
" Crowned with a nodding diadem of lowers,
" And counts her offispring, the celestial powers,
" A shining train who fill the blest abode ;
" A hundred sons, and every son a God. **
EaiiATiTM.— On page 4, twenty-fifth lino, for " arren" iread asserl.

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