YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 05350 1756 Bri.igs, ^mtlUatn 31. ISrfssS) SSsq. BUKLINGTON. Printed at the Office of the Free Press. ....18?9.... Burlington, July 6, 1829. Seai'lSir: I have been directed by the Committee of Arrangements to express to you their thanks for your appropriate and patriotic Oration delivered on the 4th instant, and to request a copy of the same ibr the press. Your compliance with this riBquest will gratify not only those who have had 1 pleasure of hearing it, but, it is believed, the public at large, and no one more thanl Your friend and humble servant, JOHN C. THOMPSON, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, WltllAM P. Bbiggs, Esq. Richmond, July 8, 1829. Dear Sir : Yours of the Sth is before me. I am happy to learn that tlie Committee were grati6ed with my eiforts on the 4th, at Williston ; and although little time waa allowed, and that little during my professional duties in the county court, yet I have yielded to the wishes of the committee, and herewith forward you a copy for pubUca tion. Please tender to the Committee my acknowledgements for their flattering appre ciation of my Address, and accept for yourself the best wishes for your health and happiness. Yours, truly, „ , WILLIAM P. BRIGGS. Hon. John C. Thoiupsok. ORATIOIV. Fellow-Citizens : Assembled, as we are, on the fifty-third Anniversary of that day ' the remembrance of which kindles in the American bosom reflections of the noblest,, and most animated character, and inspires our hearts with gratitude to the bountiful Author of nature for the signal blessings bestowed on this favored land ; it might be expected, and even by some of our fathers has been thought wise and necessary, that the American orator throughout our generations should in his addresses on this day to his Fellow-Citizens resort to first principles ; that he should so blend history with philosophy in delineating the chain of causes and effect, as to show to the inhabitant of after times the causes which pro duced, and the consequences which followed our revolution ; that the scenes of that great drama, like the heaven-appointed passover of Israel, migh(^ never be forgotten. But perhaps it may not be thotight invidious, or improper, in your speaker of this day, to leave to the historian and the orators who have preceded, a subject which is already emblazoned on the records of immortality, and pass from the childhood and youth of this Republic, to examine with greater attention the circumstances of its approaching manhood. There is however one principle, that operated on the mind of revolutionary America, which has been too much neglected in ad dresses of this kind ; — a principle to which the orator, moralist or states man may resort with infinite advantage to his country. It is this : that simplicity and economy, as opposed to pride and extravagance, are essential to the durability of free Governments. Nations, especially Republics, are like individuals. The necessaries of life are few and simple. Nature requires not in the simplicity of her provisions, the acrid spices and hunger-propelling stimulants of either India, as necessary to the vigorous advancement of the healthy indivi dual ; but on the contrary, these subterfiiges of a pampered appetite, give to the system an artificial and ephemeral existence. So with Republics, when they leave the simple, rational, and established prin ciples of civil liberty; to follow the pomp, the pageantry of luxury and extravagance, — the substance is lost in the shadow, and they are ver ging to premature dissolution. In youth, we seldom behold the vices and the crimes of more hardened manhood. In this season, the affec tions are ardent, the heart warm from the hand of its Creator, and the bosom glowing with the hope that flowers shall everywhere em- border the path of life, — that no cloud shall intervene to obscure thd sunshine and mar the happiness of future days. But when the mind becomes hacknied in the ways of men, and contaminated with the vices of society, then is the maxim verjfied, " that man is the creator of infection and follows without resistance the attraction of example," So of a Republic, while the powers of her government are few and well defined, relying only upon ber wealth and resources, she fabri cates for herself the articles necessary for her own convenience, untram^ meled by a connexion with more aristocratical and ambitious govern ments — the simplicity of her manners, untarnished hy the trappings and splendour of imperial courts ; then it is, and only then, that she is truly and emphatically independent. Hence we are called to wonder and admire the patriotism and the wisdom of our fathers in resisting the luxuries as well as the despotism of England, They resisted not only the trifling tax, but the principles on which that tax was predicated. They spurned from their shores and buried in the bosom of the ocean, a luxury which tliey viewed in the consequences that might follow, as the pioneer of thraldom and of bondage. They disregarded the frip pery and etiquette of vassallated Europe, when contrasted with the sterling and invaluable requisitions of Liberty and Independence. So great was the excitement at that epoch, which was to establish the character of man and show him capable of self government, that the people with one accord abandoned the use of articles which carried with them an impression adverse to liberty. But from the circumstances in which the people of the United States were placed, having just emerged frora a long and distressing conflict, it became impossible to exist as a civilized nation without resort to the clothing commodities of Europe. The yeomanry of the country had many of them been ofiered on the altar of freedom. The fields and plantations of the agriculturist had been necessarily abandoned, — the cottage became tenantless, and the ewe scarce bleated on our hill sides. The people were thinly scattered along the seabord, with here and there a little " inland isle" surrounded hy a " forest sea," beaming i like a luminous meteor in the waste and Iwwling wilderness, and bright* ening the shades of primeval nature. No sound of the axe had brokeii the interminable gloom of our western forest, no distant echo reverbera ted the mingled and joyous notes of civilization and peace. What then were the abodes ofthe wolf and the panther, along the far-stretch ing waters of the west, are now the peaceful possessions of a hardy yeomanry — a virtuous and happy population, where, ever and anon the smiling village presents to the view of the traveller the spire decked temples of its religious freedom. In fine, so changed is the drapery of nature over this fair and wide-spreading Republic, so great is the contrast of half a century, that the contemplative mind seems rather to ascribe the discrepancy to the fairy hand of enchantment, than the slow but constant energies of patient and persevering industry. Their independence established, to live was then the first object of the American people. Two hational resources only presented them selves, Agriculture and Commerce. These required not the capital es sential to manufacturing establishments : for while one citizen erected the mast and adjusted the rigging, another stored the hull with the products of the soil ; and thus by an interchange of surplus commodi ties across the ocean, the coffers of the revenue were supplied, the government supported, and the farmer and mechanic were clothed from the workshops of Europe. Driven by the enterprising spirit of Ameri can seamen, our canvass whitened every sea. " The merchants of India hailed our arrival at their sultry harbours, and the wings of com merce wafted our fame to the icy cape and the Siberian desert." How short is the utmost ken of human foresight. The sages and statesmen of that day would have smiled at the visionary prospect of our soon becoming a manufacturing nation. How is the fact ? Some of those very sages have lived to realize that what was then chimerical and visionary, and existed only in the distant yista of hope, has now so far succeeded, that in the finer fabrics we have rivalled, and in the coarser eclipsed, all European competition. As we before observed, it was necessary, for the first thirty years of our existence as a nation, that our energies should be directed to agriculture and commerce. From the vast tracts of uncultivated land, together with the paucity of our population, the course to be pursued was dictated by the physical necessities of the times. Hence it was that the illustrious Jefferson, with many other statesmen, was led to believe and to say, " It is better for us to have our work-shops in Eu rope." And this principle at that period was, no doubt, correct ; but TL subsequent war for independence, together with the succeeding peace have presented a state of things entirely different. From the circum stances which attended and followed that important era in our national. history, it is obvious a very different policy must be resorted to in order to our becoming really and substantially independent. At the termination of that conflict, our treasury was exhausted, a consequence which must always follow a period of hostilities to any government, the sinews of whose treasury depend upon the uncertain reflux of a revenue arising from importations. At the return of peace our ports were thrown open to the cupidity of speculators, and the commercial magazines of Europe were disgorged upon our maritime towns. The inundation extended through the country. Every shelf and counter were put in requisition, and the goods met with a ready sale on credit, — for credit was the tune of the times. 'Tis true the treasury was replenished, but our infant manufactories felt the paralytic shock, from which many of them even under a better policy have been unable to recover. The opinions of men have undergone a thousand changes, — for like the mutations of all other mundane things, the causes which produced them may have ceased to exist. Nations, like individuals, are the creatures of circumstances. Hence it follows, that what in the opinion of her wisest statesmen was the best policy for this country twenty years ago, may not from a variety of causes be the best for her now. Nothing better displays the true greatness ofthe statesman than to so guide the national barque that she may catch the breezes which blow most to her advantage, and not from pride of opinion or the aberrations of party, persist in pursuing a course, in which experience has shown that the chance of reaching the desired haven, is altogether hopeless. The venerated JeSerson was one of those, who long ago abandoned the policy of dependance on foreign nations for the comforts of life, " We have, says he, experienced " what we did not then believe — that there exist both profligacy and *' power enough to exclude Bs from the field of interchange with other " nations, — that to be independent for the comforts of life, we must fab- " ricate them ourselves, — that we must place the manufacturer by the " side of the agriculturist. He, therefore, who is now against do- " meslic manufactures, must either be for reducing us to a dependance on " that nation, or to be clothed in skins and live like wild beasts in dens and " caverns." But let us go back for a moment, and review the course of our advance ment. Having overcome the difficulties incident to that war, which placed ug conspicuously on the map of nations ; and while the nations of the old world were involved in continued hostilities in fighting for do minion, or resisting the encroachments of arbitrary power, while the doc trines of legitimacy" were unsettled, and the holy alliance had not yet so firmly riveted the chains of degraded man — then it was that our ships became the carriers of European commerce, and the products of our soil were advantageously bartered for the manufactures of other countries. While thus situated, our people were industrious and prudent, and mark ed well the difiTerence between income and expenditure, and each indi vidual felt the increase of his own wealth proportionate to the prosperity of his country. It was in this golden age of our Republic, that our grandmothers were house-wives, and well knew the disbursements incident to a family. The diligent hand was applied to the distaff and the spindle, and the smiling family came forth clad in the habiliments of domestic art and industry. Our wives and daughters of that period coveted not the crapes of another hemisphere, neither would they sacrifice the products of a farm, to pro cure a robe of merino for the shoulders. Too much common sense was in the head to desire the whitened grasses of Leghorn for a covering. Beauty was beauty, though unadorned with stays and corsetts. The roseate and unveiled hues of native innocence were then the passports to love and admiration. The same spirit inspired the husband and the father. All was simple — all was prosperous in the domestic circle. These principles, purely republican, springing from the people, the source of power, were felt in every department of our Government. No eight dollars per day or forty cents per mile were then paid, that dandies might perch upon the seats of your Congress, No gorgeous dome surrounded the halls of legislation, rivaling in beauty and extrav agance the palaces of oriental despotism. No false or specious pretext of reform established the mutability of republics by furnishing the out fits and salary, and sending one foreign minister to do the business of his predecessor, and without allowing time for the former to present hia credentials. Neither was it requisite to pass a retinue of servants bab bling in barbarous dialects, in order to enter the portals of the Chief Magistrate of a plain people. The access of the people to a President of that day was not consequential, but immediate. All exotic forms of ceremonial grandeur were then unknown, or at least unpractised. Who shall attempt to describe the august, solemn, and more than Ro man greatness of the scene in which a President of that day, retired from the most exalted of human stations to the unostentatious dignity It) of a prtvate citizen ? With the visions of the pati-iot and the blessings of the patriarch, he committed under Providence the destinies of his beloved country to his successor, and with such fraternal feelings as carries to the hand direct the impulses of the heart, inducts him to the offiee, saying, " Brother from this pinnacle thou mayest behold the frailty of earthly grandeur, while far in the distance and below appear, surrounded by bayonettes and obscure'd by clouds and gloom, the coronets of hereditary power." On the other hand, the new incumbent/ trembling With kindred emotions, (but not as now, dizzy with elevation and arrogant with power) greeted retiring greatness, say ing, "servant ofthe people, well hast thou performed the task assigned thee, go While the blessings of the fiation attend thee to retirement." Among a people thus formed, with manners bland and social, proud only of their liberties, the duplicity of the courtier had hot thMi dis placed the open but stern integrity of the patriots " Oh luxury, thou curs'd by heaven's decree. How ill exchanged are scenes like these for thee !" But such, fellow citizens, with sorrow be it spoken, are not the times in which we " happen to live." The innocence' and virtue of yoiith, the unalloyed patriotism, the stern integrity, the disinterested benevo lence which were a wall of fire round about the inheritance that was bequeathed to us and to our children, are passing away. And in their stead is attempted to be substituted : for virtue, hypocrisy and double dealing ; for patriotism, a crafty and subtle management to procure power ; for integrity, falsehood ; for disinterested benevolence, that reckless and selfish thirst for office and emolument, which over comes the weakness of some, soothes and encourages the wickedness of others, and by encircling in its vortex the discordant materials of all parties, and by addressing itself to the worst of human passions, drives its infuriated votary to seek his own elevation, in the degradation of his country. You have recently witnessed an election of Chief Magistrate, the most momentous to the people and one the most alarming to the patriot, of any that has ever yet transpired. The pomp and circumstance of glorious war, that awful deflference to martial fame, which is almost instinctive in the human character, has called a citizen of Tennessee to the highest honours in the Republic. When in the peaceful and prosperous days of our republic, her first officer is selected for mere mili tary talents, — when our people, united^ in the great and leading policy of the government, shall divide, and amid the bickerings of party conflict shall remove the landmarks of social order, — when an existing adminis- 11 tration with au untireing zeal are fostering the best interests ofthe com monwealth-— when in view of all these things, the people suffer them selves to be yoked to the cars or fortunes of individuals, — when, in fine, on great national occasions large bodies of the people go wrong, then may we solemnly exclaim, " Ah, my cquntry ! it is now that I tremble for you." Here let us pause s^nd reflect, that we raay profit by this example. Pending this contest, a new philosophy is discovered-,-a philosophy with out reason or vif tme to support it. Our moral optics are inverted, and we are told that " all is ftwc in politics," — that "the end sanctifies the means."— Learn ye, therefore, to '¦^ do evil that good may come." Then followed a system of intrigue and political management, which had npt then been known beyond the limits of the State of New York- The public press, that palladium of a free government, was subsidized by the panders for office, — Editors, who were supposed to be the sentinels on the ramparts of freedom and the ministers at its hojy altar, became the hirelings of the political gladiators of the age. in this crusade for power, and Judas like, are now receiving not thirty, but hundreds of pieces of silver, for their treachery to the people. Chicanery and corruption became the order of the day. The monitory, and warn ing voice of the Father of his country was djsre.garded. Sectional jealousies and animosities were engendered and encouraged. Geogra phical lines were drawn, and the passions and prejudices of one portion of our beloved country were enlisted against another. In fine, our whole country from Maine to New Orleans, from the Atlantic to the upper waters of the Missouri, became a political arena, in this contest without principle, — in this contest for mere men. Men who had been cherished, hoiioiired, and supported by large districts, yea, by whole States, were bought by the promise of office, to disregard the feelings and interest of those districtsi and states. Were an instance wanting, among hundreds of more or less note, to demonstrate the truth of this remark, turn to the distinguished individual who has recently been appointed Envoy to Spain. Vermont adopted him as her child, on him she showered her honours and bestowed her favour, and to hira she looked in the time qf trouble for assistance and support ; and when nine-tenths of her population had spoken in language too plain to be misunderstood, her choice of a Chief Magistrate, he turned against her interest, defied her wishes, and compelled her through all her borders to exclaim in the language of good old King Lear — " How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child." IS General Jackson came into power under more favourable auspices and a better opportunity for engraving bis fame on the brightest page of our history, than most of his predecessors. With the Republic, prosperous and at peace with all the world — with a decisive majority in the Electoral Colleges,— with a patient acquiescence in the mi nority, with a promise on his part to remove the evils which had crept into the government under former administrations, " to cleanse the Augean stable," and to introduce a general " reform" into all the departments of the Government. He selected his own motto, " Let the tree be known by its fruit." Under such circumstances, and holding out such promises, did the present Administration commence its operations on the 4th of March last. It is not our purpose on the present occasion to prejudge this Administration, or to ask you to put it down, though "pure as the angels," nor to speak of it in the embittered phraseology of party animosity. These were epithets and this the language of other times and other men, and addressed to other public servants. Turn back the pages of human history and ask yourselves at what time and under what government was ever power wickedly and unjustly obtained, that was afterwards wisely and virtuously administered .' Associated man retains his identity in all times and under all forms of government. From the broad and manly declarations made by General Jackson to President Munroe, it was to be expected he would aim to be the President of a whole people. Was it to be anticipated, that the wishes and feelings of a minority, embracing at least five millions of the American people, were to be not only disregarded, but wantonly and openly insulted .' Who could have foretold, that a new lexicography was to be introduced, in which the word reform, that hobby of dema gogues, should be defined to mean a wanton, prodigal, and unexampled expenditure of the public fbnds i" Who could have believed, that he would search throughout all the veins and arteries of the body politic, from the minister of state to the entered apprentice in the purlieus of the custom-house — that all the officers within the reach of his ven geance might feel their " dependance on his will alone for the tenure of their offices." Who could have fancied that he would recall able and distinguished foreign ministers and consuls, for the sole purpose of rewarding parasites and pampering the appetite for executive favour, and thus rivetting the power in his own hands i It were some consolation in these all-searching operations, if those 13 qualifications and prerequisites for office were adopted, which were recommended in 1801 — to which prerequisites and qualifications every lover of his country must respond : " Is he honest .'' Is he capable ? Ia he faithful to the constitution i"' But instead of following that great republican leader, whose administration he professes to imitate, a new political liturgy is adopted : " Is he artful .'' Is he active ' Was he friendly to my election.'"' These are the quahfications for office in 1829. " Let the tree be known by its fruif." But for the honour of human nature, for the hope of human fi-eedom, in the name of every thing dear to republicans, may we no more be told that all these things are for the good of the republican party. These are not the sorrow-clad portraits of a heated and gloomy imagin ation ; but the sober realities of times which we trust in God are no more to be visited upon us. We are not of those who believe that the durability of our institutions essentially depends upon the course which may be pursued by any administration during the time for which it was elected. " Error of opinion is to be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it." The intelligence of the people will not suflfer them to be long deceived, and as only four months of the four years have this day terminated, there is yet an imposing opportunity for this administration to practise towards itself what it preached to others — "re/brm." We have then, roy countrymen, much to hope. Already has the veil been lifted, already has the hum of disapprobation and distrust echoed along our borders, " still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm." Already does the all-controuling voice of public opinion, like the hand upon the wall point to the 4th of March, thirty-three, and say to the present incumbents, " Beware, lest at that hour tbkel shall be written on all your doings," The impartial historian of fbture days when commenting on the in teresting and important annals of the last ten years, will find much for gratulation, " There will be presented in all the dazzling colours of just and deserved eulogium," the characters of the illustrious individuals who composed the late Administration, There will be presented in sin gular but instructing contrast the characters of the late and present Se cretaries ofthese States, Henry Cl at, of Kentucky, and Martin Van Buren, of New- York, are alike examples of that wise principle in our government which leaves open to the poorest citizen the road tq her highest offices and honors. They were the sons of poor and unhonored citizens, and are alike the authors of their own elevation and fortunes. 14 But how widely different and how infinitely varied are the operations pf the human mind. Each has arrived at the second office in the govern ment ; but by very different routes. While the one directed his ambi tion, and applied the unriyalled energies of his genius to some endear ing object of public utility, or to the laying broader and deeper the foundations of civil liberty, in this and other countries,— the other is busy in the dark recesses of some caucus conclave, with the wiles of the serpent distorting the judgments of men and planning the means of his own elevation and personal aggrandizement. In the history of the one we trace the noblest monuments of legislative enactment, directed to the best interests ofthe people, of these States, with that expansive love of liberty which encircles our southern brethren, and is hallowed by the benedictions of an entire continent. In that of the other we search in vain for any object that has by his efforts been effected for the good of his native state or the nation. He arrayed himself on the aristocratic side of the convention that formed the present constitution of New- York, and resisted to the utmost of his powerful but deceptive eloquence, those broad principles of suffrage, which are so ennobling in that instrument. From these men at no distant day will you be called on to select a Chief Magistrate, to direct the future destinies of this Republic. Choose ye, therefore, not whom you will serve, but who shall be yonr phblic servant. Let us now, my friends, treasure up the eventful inci dents of our progress, only that we may learn wisdom from the lessons of experience. Let us cherish the reflection, that liberty was given to man only '• upon the condition of eternal vigilance," always remem bering that it is " the bright day that brings forth the adder," that, only at the gate of new and novel theories will the destroyer enter. Far be it from me to spread a gloom over the festivities of a day which patriotism and piety have united to consecrate. Far be it from me to shade the prospects of futurity. Rather let our hearts kindle in view of a protecting Providence. Light beams on us from the future, and our national industry, wisely directed, will soon be disencumbered of its shackles. Patient labour does not hopelessly wait its promised reward. Inland navigation is connecting the distant sections of our population. Distance is forgotten in the rapidity of our land and water communications. Inventive genius is germinating the seeds of enter prise and wealth to husbandry and the mechanic arts, and the heart of the patriot is animated by many a beautiful bow in our political horizon. The lights of science and philosophy accompanied by the 15 knowledge of the true God, are encircling the habitable earth. Tiie condition of man is ameliorating. The genius of Grecian liberty has awoke from its slumber of two thousand years. The grasp of oppres sion's grim night has been loosened in the hemisphere of Ireland. The condition of degraded Africa is improved, — and*that disgraceful traffic in human beings, which for ages has hung over the world like the dark storms of autumn, portending the vengeance of heaven to the nations, is arrested in its progress ; and humanity is cheered by the hope that man will, ere long, cease to be the slave of man. When with a prospective eye we look down the vale of time, thro' the long annals of approaching years, and behold the sages that shall arise under the holy influence of freedom, to guard our country's rights, illume her councils, and crown her never-fading glories, we confidently hope our race shall long be free — '* Yes, tliere are hearts, prophetic hope may trust, That slumber yet in uncreated dnst, — Ordain'd to fire the adoring sons of earth With every charm of wisdom and of worth." Some future Washington, inflexible in the cause of virtue and of man, — some Franklin, teeming with his country's good, — some Henry, barrier to encroaching power, — some Allen, fearless as the bolt of heaven, — some Adams, resting on the heights of science, — some Jef ferson, with sapience and wisdom crowned. Men in whom an ardent zeal for the public welfare, shall out-wei|h the perquisites of office, fired by genius, enlightened by science, and directed by the providence of God. With such men may our lovely land be richly blest till time be lost in eternity, hope, end in fruition, **And earth be joined to heaven, and heaven to eartii, One kingdom, joy and union, without end." ^f. * >;s-'%; _,- '-,'».( ' • . ^-^, m1^ ' 1' .^j; - M 1 "'¦w-'""""'" '-, \ ¦¦ ,A ^"'^'^^ 'I'-.'). ' ^'f' '1- 't , '' - ' .^J ~. - t* v~ . / -^ __ — '~- - ' \ -v-. Jt ' ^ ""-1 *' *¦ "^ ^ J ^"^4 " <* r ; '^^h V^"^^'^ \ \>^:t4:-'^% ^ "^ \"$.V^.v' "1 f. v:t>.'7- ^^ s, V .\ , . _ - '- .1 - ¦. ^c.x >> i' -,- . - ' .i • I-/ .> ¦'' ..