YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY I 3 9002 06126 4413 -~R> Branom, Mendel E. The Agricultural Economy of the American Bottoms. St. Louis Mo., 1941. ~n<' •'Vt' YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of Mrs, Vernon M. Simonds W' 18 6 0, AT ROSL YJV, L. I. BY WILLIAM E ONDERDOM, ESQ. ir^MfSTHAD: Printed at the Office of the QoE|a,r, the mutual dependence, bring all yank down to a co^iHiQn leyel. The theory which is the substratum of the old forms of Government, that the people are to submit themselves to bo rule.i by those who claim to be above and beyond and supei'ior to themselves, to whom they owe allegiance, ai,d who owe no responsibility in return, was giv ing way. It had been viewed in the clear light of nature and of reason, undimmed aud un- distorted by doctrines whose monstrous per versions of truth had, in the Old World, ceased to shock only because they had come to be fa miliar. — But here its wickedness and injustice were revealed. It was stripped at once of the glare which falsehood and sophistry, the splendor of Courts and the imposing rights of power had thrown around it; and which served to dazzle and deceive if not convince. — The eagle eye of truth blinked not, but fixed upon it its steady gaze, and kept it there until it had penetrated deep beneath the surface, and the falsehood and imposture stood exposed. — Then started frcm its slumber, of ages, with strength renewed and limbs refreshed, like a giant rejoicing to run. his course, the truth which had been so long bound in fetters and chained down ; that in matters of Oovemment THE PEOPLE are the ultimate source of all pow er ; the rock on which rest the pillars of the State. Nevertheless, this old and pestilent doctrine, now grown bold and fearless by reason of the success it had won, obtruded itself into the New World and would have defied the Truth. The seed was wafted across the Atlantic wrapped up in Acts of Parliament, Orders, and other State Documents, and its fibres struck them selves into the ground and began to grow — Had American soil been favorable to its deve lopment it would, like the Banyan Tree, have extended and drooped its branches on all sides, to take fresh root, until it had overshadowel this Continent as it had done the Old. But neither the climate nor the soil favored its growth. It became dwarfed and of uncouth proportions. The fruit it bore was knotty and hard, fell from the tree before it matured, and possessed not the rich flavor which made it so agreeable to its advocates in the Old World. — It was acrid and sour, and even its best lovers jnade wry faces as they tasted it. It is true that it took root, but the soil possessed not the essential elemenls from which it could draw a vigorous sustenance. And when, after much struggling, a sickly shoot began to show itself, the Sun of Freedom darted upon it its burning beams, and it wilted and withered away. The stem dried up, the leaves curled and fell to the ground. But the plant did not die outright. — The root still possessed some life, and at inter- v.als new sprouts would be seen, breaking the ground. But they grew more and more sickly. Other trees, the offshoots of Freedom, were standing up on every side, out-topping and overshadowing it. It needed no prophet to foretell the result. One of the phases in which it presented itself, was in the obstinate determination evinced by the Motlier Country to tax the Colonies without their consent ; to draw from them a revenue for her own benefit ; to withdraw the resources which they had gained by peril, exposure, suf. fering and death, from purposes tending to their own safety and comfort, and to divert them into her own coffers. By navigation acts, bv stamp acts, by duties on articles of trade was this de- sign attempted to be c.irried out, and that these might be the more effectually enforced, diffi culties growing out of the execution of them were referred to the Court of Admiralty, whose judges were amenable directly to the King, and proceeded without the intervention of a jury. Against this unjust and oppressive exercise of po w er the Colonies protested. Th ey looked upon it as a violation of those riglits which, even as Englishmen, they were entitled to. They entered their protest against the act which deprived them cf their property with out their consent ; in other words against the principle of taxation without representation. In England taxes were voluntary gifts on the part of the people throngh their representa tive, the house of Commons. Americans were not represented in Parliament, and for that body to impose taxes upon Americans, was for it to give away the property of others, without their consent ; a proposition which needs only to be stated to show the monstrous iniquity of the principle involved. The Colonies resisted and forwarded remonstrances to the Mother Country. Many of the Statesmen in the Brit ish Parliament condemned this treatment of the colonies, and raised their voices against it. At length all the duties were abolished except one, the duty upon tea. The Ptrliament of Great Britain was too timid to persist in all its unjust exactions, and too obstinate to come boldly for%vard, and acknowledging its error, to retract it. It therefore pursued an uncer tain and temporising policy. By repealing most of the laws which imposed taxes, it re lieved the colonies ft-oni the burden of the ex actions, and by retiining the tax upon one article, it reasserted the right it had claimed It doubtless thought that Lhe sense of relief which the colonies would experience by hav ing the burden of taxation lightened, would in duce them to take counsel of their case and perr mit the assertion and practical enforcement of the principle of taxation, in this one instance, to pass unnoticed. Thus might a precedent be established which might be serviceable in the future. But it mistook the men with whom it had to deal. Witli them principle was every thing, ease of no account. The relief which lyould flow from the act of parliament, dwin dled into nothing in the presence of that ob noxious doctrine which stood up, in unmitiga^ ted ugliness by its side. The determination of the colonies was at once t^ken. They refused to use tea as a beverage, and prohibited its introduction into the country, Attempts were made to force it upon them. — The spirit of the people was aroused. The feel- ijig was almost unanimous in the different colonies. They cheered, sustained and support ed each other. Tlie south and the north were as one in their resistance to a common oppression. A blow aimed at either, struck the common heart of both, and called forth a united resist ance. A ship laden with tea arrived at Bos ton Harbor. A meeting of the People Avas immediately called, and they resolved — "that the ',ea should not be landed, that no duty should be paid, aud that it should be sent hack in the same vessel," The English Gover nor of Massachusetts refused to grant the C'np- tain peimission to return. The issue was thus made up. On the evening of the ] 8th of De cember 177S, an immense collection of people assembled at the wharves, and a band disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels in the h.irbor, ¦End poured into the ocean the contents of 342 chests of tea. The war of the Eevolution may now be said to have commenced. The blow was struck at the north, but the next gale that oaiue from th 3 South bgre upon it the clano- of arms taken np to vindicate and enforce the rights of distant brethren. It iras not, as we have seen, the amount of the tax which threw the colonies into open oppo sition to the mother country. That wa,s inW fling and, Comparatively speaking, unimportant. But the Parliament of Great Britain had enun ciated the doctrine that they had " the right to' legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever," aud the tax upon tea was one of the ways in' which that doctrine waste be practically carried out. It was not the amount, hut the principle which was involved that impelled our fathers to take their stand boldly and decidedly and at every sacrifice aud every hazard against it. If admitted and allowed, it would prove a fatal- blow to the liberties and the rights of the people, It would yield the tenet which was dearer to them than their hearts' blood. If merely permit ted and acquiesced in for the present, the seed thus introduced would take root and grow aud be more difficult to eradicate. There fore our fathers opposed it at the start. — : They saw that the principle contended for by the British Parliament was inconsistent with tlieir liberties. They did not wait until it had grown to maturity. They saw the bud and knew the fruit that it would yield, and they determined that that fruit should never grow on American soil. Therefore they arrayed' themselves at once in opposition. In the lan guage of one of our greatest statesmen* — . whose mortal body, cold and lifeless, is sleep ing its last sleep in the bosom of that country beloved so well, but whose immortal intellect glowing with an almost celestial fire " still lives," and now speaks to ns^n the language of that great statesman : " It was against the recital of an act of Par liament rather than against any suffering under its enactment, that they took up arms. They went to war against a preamble. They foqght seven years against a declaration. They poured out their treasures and their blood like water in a contest against an assertion which those less sagacious and not ^ well schooled in the principles of civil liberty would have regarded as barren phraseology or mere parade of words. They saw in the claims of the British Parliament a seminal principle of mischief, the germ of un just power ; they detected it, dragged it forth *Daniel Webster, from underneath its plausible disguises, struck at it; nor did it elude their steady eye or well directed blow till they had extirpated and de stroyed it to the smallest fibre. On this ques tion of principle, while actual sufferiug was yet afar off, they raised their flag against a poiv- er to which, for pui'poses of foreign conquest and subjugation, Romeinthe height of her glo- ty is not to be compared ; a power which hns dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, w hose morn ing drum-bealt, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the hiar- tial airs of England." Suoh let it be borne in mind was the founda tion and corner stone of the American Revolu tion. It was not so much actual suffering from the acts of tyranny, as hatred of the doctrine Itself and a jealous care and vigilance for the future. The simple tax upon tea might appear to many too unimpoi'tant to demand a resist ance which would throw the colonies into a tfar and array against them the entire strength and power of England. The hardships the sufferings the perils, which would inevitably result from a conflict w'lth the mother country might be deemed too high a price to pay for that which was but little more than the assertion of a sentiment. It -Were better, it might be thought, to yield a little for the sake of peace and quiet ratherthan to expose the country to the manifold evils of open resistance. And so it would, had not that which was demanded of them involved the sacrifice of a great principle. Thsit waste be raaintained in all its entireness and integ rity at all hazards and at every cost. So thought the fathers of our country, and at the sacrifice of domestic happiness, of comfort, of health, of life,' comprehending and apprecia ting in all its depth and height and length and breadth the magnitude of the act they were about to commit, and the momentous and fear ful train of consequences, reaching through all time, which it involved^' calmly, deliberately, in the fear of God and for the love of men, they planted themselves upon the broad and solid platform of principle, ready to abide whatever in the providence of God might be the result. Where in the history of Nations is recorded the act which, in its every feature, so rises into the ¦ublime as that which was witnessed on the 4tli day of July 1776 ? A nation asserting the liberties of the people ; the perfect equal. ity before law of all men ; the right and the capacity ot the people to govern themselves without the interference of Kings f That was indeed a new thing under the sun. Nay — ^but it was an old thing, one of the oldest of all things, as old as time itself. But it had be come hidden from sight beneath the falsehoods and sophistries of selfishness, of love of power of lust for rule on the part of the few, and per haps of unbridled factiousness and restlessness under a wholesome restraint on the part of the many. And there it had lain, buried and con cealed for centuries and ages, until it had be come forgotten, and as if it had never been. — And while the truth was thus hidden and ctna- eealed, falsehoods and sham which overlaid it, flaunted themselves before the world, decked out with all the meretricious glare of rank and wealth (of courts and Kings) and palmed them selves off for truth. And the lie was so oft re peated, and mimicked so well the air of truth, that it at length began to be believed, and was received as undoubted verity of political faith. But the fathers of the Eevolution brought to bear upon it the telescope of liberty. They savr what appeared so luminous and imposing was but a shining cloud without body or substance, and that beyond and beneath this, and so ob scured by it as to be invisible to the common eye of men, was the star of truth, beaming with a lustre clear and bright and tranquil as that of the morning star when it heralds in the approaching day. And they at once put this truth before them as the Polar Star by which their action for the future was to be directed. — They would not withdraw from it their gaze. Its beams lay like a silver thread upon the ocean h»^whicli they had been launched and marked out, clear distinct and unmistakeable, the track that led to freedom. From that they would not deviate. And now when it was at tempted t,o force them from their course, they stood up in the imposing majesty of a people who knew their rights and were conscious of their strength, and there pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor that they would be true to the cause of truth. They knew well the sacrifices they were about to make, they counted the cost, and then with so lemn and deliberate emphasis they spoke the 8 word. That word withdrew the colonies from a state of dependence upon the Mother country proclaimed their freedom, and added another member to the family of nations. We have met together, Fellow Citizens, at this time and upou this occasion, the anniver sary of the birth day of our Common Country, to celebrate that great event. It is well that the people of this great Empire, upon each re turn of this season, should pause in tho midst of their avocations, and turn their thoughts back upon the past. That they should call to mind the seven long years of war, of toil, of suffering and privation, the sacrifice of treasure, of blood and life, by which and through which, as through a burning fiery furnace our fathers had to pass before their liberties were achieved. How that, to insure our happiness, they planted the principle of Free Government, watched over it by night and by day, through the storms of winter and the scorching heat of summer, inter posed their bodies to receive the blows which otherwise would have struck it to the ground, watered it with their blood, protected it with their lives. How that with a noble generosity, actuated by the purest patriotism, they surren dered all local preferences, all peculiar views, every project no matter how dearly cherished, which embraced a narrower range than their Countiy, and their whole Country. How the cradle of our Republic was rocked amid the storms of a desolating war; and the thunders of the cannon and the fierce rage of men en gaged in deadly strife were the only lullaby wnich soothed its troubled slumbers. It is well jOT us to pause awhile and put aside the cares of life, the pursuits of pleasure, the turmoil and din of business, and summon before our minds these shadows of the past which, while they wrap the infancy of our country in such a deep and awful gloom, impart to it, as well, a solemn and majestic grandeur. They are facts, stern, serious facts which rise up frora the grave in which the past lies buried, and stand before us with melancholy and reproachful looks, as though they would upbraid us for forgetting in the excess of our rejoicings, that such had been endured in establishing a principle which should secure to us the enjoyment of life, li berty, and the pursuit of happiness. They re veal to us also the quality of that patriotism of the olden time, which looked to suffering, pri vation and death as its best reward, and invite us to compare with that the loud-mouthed pa triotism of the present day, which hatched out in a nest well feathered with the " spoils," raises up its head, and with upturned eyes as severates that, its " sufferings are intolera ble," and are only submitted to for the coun try's good. It is well, then, that for a few brief hoursi the loom should be stayed, the hammer cease to clang upon the anvil, the hum and din of business should be hushed, that we may gather around the altar of our common country, and read her history as it is written there in the blood of her martyrs. And as we read. Oh! may we imbibe some of that spirit which ac tuated them. They periled everything, en dured everything, that they might lay broad and deep the foundations of a Free Govern ment which should shelter in its fostering arms their posterity, the men of the present time, you and me, and all, who to-daj', breathe the pure air of freedom. They accomplished their purpose, and that which they won, they be queathed to us, as a rich legacy. We can enjoy it, sitting " under our own "V^ine and Fig Tree," in entire security. We dread not the bayonets of soldiers, hired to act the part of human butchers, and strike to the earth brethren of their own blood ; we fear not the tomahawk, gleaming in the hands of a savage and vindic tive foe ; our sleep is not startled by the fierce and lurid glare of flames, from the torch of a relentless enemy, burning and destroying. — These perils have been passed. They were the trials and afflictions through which our fathers trod, not, let it be remembered, that they but that WE might enjoy the blessings which were thus so dearly bought ; and high np above them all they bore the Standard on which was written in letters of light the watchwords of Liberty — " Tlie greatest good of the greatest number" — and as they passed from earth to render their account to a Higher Power, than Kings or Princes or even the People themselves, they committed that flag to the protection of us, their children, and pointing to their crim soned wounds, implored us that as we had re ceived it from them so should we transmit it to our children — not one stripe erased, one star blotted out, or one fold draggled in the dust. — Ours is an easy work, and as we contemplate the past may we derive fresh hope and courage for the future. That future with its duties is before ns. It is for the men of this day to preserve and car ry on the work which their fathers commenced. They went forward, as go the first settlers of a new country, amid exposure and hardship and toil, to subdue the forests, to break up the rug ged soil, to overcome the swamps and marshes, around which hover the dread malaria pregnant with the seeds of disease and death. They ef fected the work they had to do and passed on. We have succeeded them. It is ours to preserve and strengthen, to beautify aud adorn. Constant and unremitting vigilance is indispensible. We are working out the great problera of self-government, and the old decaying dynasties of Europe — trembling and tottering from premature infirmity on the brink of that precipice from whose deep abyss even now corae up the low mutterings of that con vulsive struggle which ere long will overwhelm them — 'turn npon us their bleared eyes filled with rage and hatred, and hoping against hope that we may yet fail. But failure is irapossi ble. We may hasten or we may retard the progress of our country ; but her future be it sooner or later, is inevitable. Notwithstanding the predictions to the contrary, ve have proved that a Popular Government can exist without degenerating into anarchy or licen tiousness. We have proved not only that it can exist, but that under its protecting care good order and prosperity find their chief sup port and strength ; the arts and sciences with their refining and ennobling influences dwell among the People opening to thera new and higher spheres of usefulness and enjoyment in the domain of thought and the practical affairs of life ; and commerce stretches her wings ¦with eagle-strength and penetrating to every quarter of the globe returns laden with the spoils of every clime, to pour them with lavish hand into the lap of enterprise, while ehe leaves behind her, scattered broad-cast over the world, those seeds of liberty which already have taken root and soon will yield an abundant harvest. And the gathering in of that harvest has been commenced. Wit ness the surging ¦Wave of freedom -which has rolled across Italia, bearing in upon its crest the ark of liberty, and overyyhelming With its flood the blood stained robbers of hu man rights. Witness also the uprising in Sici Iia, where Garibaldi the candle-maker of Sta ten Island, has lighted a flame brighter a thousand times than if all the candles he had ever made, multiplied by millions were set on fire at once. The fire he carried with him in his bosom from this country, and in his own land he found candles ready made, and had but to touch them with the hidden spark, to set them in a blaze. But as we were saying Amer ica is now successfully proving the problem, that a popular government is the one best calculated under proper safeguards to insure stability, order, and a dne observance of indi vidual and national rights. True civil liberty is as far removed from anarchy as it is from despotism. It can hold no fellowship with either. Where they exist it droops and pines, where it exists they must flee. It is based up on the intelligence of the People, upon the su premacy of the Law, upon the integrity of the Constitution. These are all the deadly foes of anarchy, and so long as these the walls and buttresses of civil liberty remain firm and un shaken, so long will it stand in all its beautiful proportions. It has been secured at great cost of blood and treasure, in this our Western He misphere. Block after block has been hewn out and added to it until now it rises np like a polished shaft to the skies, the dread of despots and the admiration of mankind. Wherever the pulse of Freedom throbs beneath the grasp of the oppressor ; wherever men stand up in the dignity of manhood to assert their rights and strike a blow for liberty j wherever a people grown weary of their chains lay hold upon the pillars which bear up the despot's throne, to hurl it to the carth, each eye is turned upon this shaft and as it glows and brightens in the morning's sun, there issues from it as of old there did from Memnon's Statue a note of music which thrills to the inmost soul and rouses up a spirit that tlrges on to do or die. — It is the Landmark of Freedom to the nations. To us and to our care it is committed. No sa crilegious hand raust be permitted to strike one block from that fair edifice. Just as it stands now, complete in all its parts, must it pass to the succeeding generation. Do we appreciate as we ought, our position and its responsibilities? Do we feel the full 10 weight of the obligations which, as American Citizens, devolve upon us? do we realize the boon which, purchased at so inestimable a cost, is given into our care to be preserved from the hands of the spoiler. The danger to its safety comes not from abroad. When our country is assailed by a foreign foe, all her children come up with one heart and one voice, to her rescue, and thus united they need fear no enemy. There is a danger, how ever, which more than any other threatens a republic — I mean a disregard of Law, and a restless desire under a mistaken notion of liber ty, to be freed from all restraint. This is the danger against which we must guard. It may manifest itself in a practical indifference and neglect of enactments standing on the Statute Book; it may show itself in outbreaks ofMob- , violence; it may reveal itself in a lust of for eign conqiiest,/^nd a covetous desire for that to which we have no right ; or worse still, ¦ft may in the very phrenzy of fanaticism, seek to trample under foot the compromises of the constitution, as an " atrocious bargain," and hold the knife of servile insurrection to the bosom of a sister state. In these and a thou sand other ways may this agrarian and de structive principle develope itself. It is our duty to crush and destroy it, come from whence it may. The hydra-headed monster is in our midst, continually plotting and executing mis chief There is about him- a principle of vita lity which makes him almost invulnerable. — Cut off one head and forthwith another shows itself. There is now however, as there was of old, a Hercules to whom we may look for the extermination of the monster. To the people do we turn for safety. They are the power which makes the Law, and which afterwards requires it to be obeyed. And herein rests our security for the present and our hopes for the future, iu the supremacy and integrity of the law. It is the great conservator of freedom and of human rights. It checks and balances the irregularities of society and evokes or der out of chaos. It protects the weak against the strong, the poor man against the rich. It knows no distinction of r.'ink or station. In its presence the rights of the humblest are as sacred and entitled to as much respect as those of the most exalted. It dispenses exact and equal and impartial justice to all alike, to the beggar in his rags, and the rich man in his pur ple. It possesses, as far as that which is mere ly human can possess, the attributes of Deity. Of course I speak of that Law which is the child of liberty : not the law of Despots, not the law of Tyrants, whether that tyrant be a King, an autocrat or a Mob ; but of that law whicli looks to the enforcement and protection of human rights, and which is based upon the virtue, the intelligence, and the religion of the people. Here, then, we come to the ground work of our safety and of our liberties. Show me the country where virtue and intelligence, based upon religion, dwell among the people, and I will show you a free and happy Gov ernraent. Where these are wanting there can be no real freedom ; for the only lasting basis on which either individual or national prosperity can be built is Christian morals. As a people, perhaps we are in danger of drifting away from this only sure anchorage. There is a foreign element, year by year infusing itself among us, and which, like the-seed with a subtle but ever active power, is insinuating its baleful influence throughout the entje lump. Throwing off all sense of dependence upon a power higher than themselves ; ignoring the vei-y existence of a God ; looking upon themselves as mere waifs and strays which the waves of chance have cast upon the shores of life, there to remain for a brief period, and then to be overwhelmed by another wave, into an eternal oblivion; acting upon the epicurean theory that the great object of existence is the present enjoyment of such ob jects as can minister to the gratification of the senses ; rejecting all the restraints of religion and morals except so far as the exactions of so ciety require conformity to the outward decen cies of life ; the representatives of this foreign element, under the pretence of a zealous regard for religious liberty, are at this very time brtrny i iegjhe public conscience and shocking the pub lic sentiment of the country, by their determined efforts, in contempt of existing laws, to engage in the public demonstrations of their peculiar ideas. In their vindication they interpose the specious plea of liberty, but it is liberty ¦ivhich runs -wild and blossoms with licentiousness, and which if unchecked will gnaw away the veiy foundations of fiee government. We would give a welcome to all who come to cast their lot among us, but not to the introduction of customs and habits which are at variance with the genius 11 of our country and our government, and which endanger their prosperity. Comity does not require ot us to permit a guest who is sitting at our table to mix arsenic in the food, because he has so accustomed himself to its use, that his sys tem craves it as an article of food. It may be agreeable to him, but might prove quite the re verse to ourselves and families. Aud should ho, notwithstanding our remonstrances, insist upon mingling it in the sugar, er sprinkling it upon the frait with which we seek to regale ourselves, neither politeness nor hospitality would be vio lated should we say ',0 him, "Friend, we will be happy of your company if you ¦\vill leave your poisoned stuff" at horae, but if you insist upon bringing it with you, and forcing it upon us, the do "T through which you entered is still open, and quite large enough to admit ol your with drawal. Our fathers founded this as a Christian nation, and as their descendants we intend to preserve it as a Christian nation." These principles, fellow citizens, which are essential to a free and stable government should be kept in mind, and when will there offer a better opportunity than the present, the anni versary of our countrj-'s birth, to dwell upon them. Let us theu celebrate the day as the birth-day of this Great Republic should be ce lebrated. Not merely as a day of amusement, as a day of recreation, but as a day of reflec tion, a day of resolves. Bonfires and illumina tions are well, but they are not all. Let us go back to the fourth day of July, 1776, and there witness the deep solemnity, the anxious ear nestness, the undaunted intrepidity stamped upon the conntenances of those noble men who set their hands to the celebrated document which you have heard this day read. Let ns call to mind the struggles which that act pro duced and which gave to us our freedom, and contrast the present state of our country with her then condition. Perhaps some of us may have witnessed sailing up the harbor of New York, a few days since, that wonder of the day, that leviathan of steamships which has just com pleted her first ocean voyage. As she approach ed, majestically riding upon the waves, and cleaving, yet with scarce a ripple, the waters in her rapid course, her gigantic hull and towering masts excited an admiring wonder, while her splendid model and exact proportions called forth expressions of unqualified approval. And, per haps, there was no one fact connected with this grand achievement of naval architecture, which exacted more universal adniiration than the ready obedience which she yielded to the guidance of her skilful pilot, by which the safety of her voyage was secured. What a contrast does this noble ship whose decks furnish an unbroken promenade of about one-eighth of a mile in length, with her ten enormous furnaces, and eight engines, her paddle-wheels and screw, her accommodations for 4,000 passengers, her 22,000 tonnage, and her elaborately ornamented cabins present to the little vessel, scarcely as large as the life-boats of the Great Eastern, which brought Columbus to these shores. And yet not gi eater than this is the contrast between our country now and '.ighty-four years ago. Then we were the frail bark, small and weak, setting out upon a voyage of discovery, entering upon au un known sea, and having our,prow^qwards a fn- Ccuui,ijL ture, clouded witli mist, shadowed in uncertainty, encompassed with dangers, (and in a great mea sure dependent for our progress upon the humors of a heterogeneous people, as fickle and uncertain as thewind). Now weare the majestic ship, loom ing up above all competitors, sublime in propor tions but so welded and bolted together, that al though composed of separate parts, we constitute but one entire and perfect whole, combining strength with colossal size, and propelled by the democratic elements of self-government, as much superior to the old element of aristocratic privi lege as steam is to wind. Our great progress and success furnish reasons for rejoicing, but not for vain boasting. The noble ship met with many drawbacks. It was a long time before she was successfully launched, and then, only after repeated failures, and at an expense of treasure and the sacrifice of life. — Many stood looking on, and shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders and prophesied that so vast a structure would prove nnman- agable and that when lashed by the furious waves her very size would prove her ruin. — On her trial trip, this democratic element of steam, hy sorae mismanagement, burst through its bounds, carrying with it, to - some extent, destruction and death, and the doubters said " Aha ! did we not tell you so ? " Bnt still she struggled on, and now these dangers past, her only safety lies in the skill of her pilot to guide her in accordance with the chart, and in her ready obedience to the helm. May we not see in all these things an emblem of our country, past and 13 present; and from them learn a lesson, and perhaps above all the practical lesson, that her safety now consists in having a skilful pilot at the helm, who can see ths rocks and reefs laid down in the great chart our fathers made as a guide for her future progress, and in a willing obedience on her part, to he so guided and di rected. Fellow Citizens, — ^We have but to cast our eyes npon our country as she is, to realize her present grandeur, and the corresponding obliga tions devolving upon us as citizens of the freest and fairest country upon the earth, to secure her present stability and her future greatness. Here then let us pause for a single moment ami i the most glorious superstructuie that has ever been reared hy human hands or cemented by the life- blood of the patriot. Let us realize, if we can, her power, her influence, her wealth. Let us witness the happiness and prosperity of the peo ple. Let us contemplate her as the asylum of the persecuted and oppressed of other lands. Let us behold her from her abundant stores and over flowing granSgries, freighting her ships with the staff of life to minister to the wants of those across the ocean, over whose own land famine has spread her wings, shutting out the genial sun shine and shading it in gloom. Let us remem ber that this capacity for good, this power, this influence, this wealth, have all flowed from that Fountain of Free Government which was un sealed not four score years ago. Above all, let us turn our mind upon him who, by common consent, is the Father of his Country : that man of lofty patriotism, of unsullied virtue, of spot less name, who, in those dark days that tried raen's souls, was the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, on which the eager eyes of all were turned to guide them through the wilder ness of war into the promised land of peace ; who was " the first in war, the first in peace, and the first in the hearts of his countrymen ; " whose name has penetrated to the utmost corners of the earth and is revered by all of every clime who can appreciate whatever is good and pure in life, and lofty iu sentiment and heroic in action, the great, the immortal 'Washington, our Com mon Father. Then standing amid the riches and wealth, the exuberant abundance and pros perity, the overflowing garners, the spoaliing ¦^ commerce of our land, and beholding around us on every side, a happy, united, and prosperous people, let us invoke the spirit of that onr Fa ther, and, like Hannibal of old going with him to the altar of our Common Country, let us lay our hands upon it, and swear Eternal enmity to all who think or plot her downfall. .- ¦;>•'-' i \3 ¦ ft. '1 ¦ Si.-** !* ; ' " »• ' <".''.!? ¦'-./i;,- ' i