YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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iii Ii

ORATION"
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
•
MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES
AND
CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE,
ON THE EIGHTY-FOURTH ANNITEESAET OF
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,
JTJIjY 4, I860.

ji
BY THOMAS M. CLARK, D. D.
PROVIDENCE:
KNOWLES, ANTHONY & CO., CITY PRINTERS.
1860.
1 „
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>Y^E°WJMIIV]II&SinrY« • ILKIBI^^IEir •

ORATION

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

M-UNICIPAL AUTHORITIES

CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE,

ON THE EIGHTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,

JULY 4, I860.

BY THOMAS M. CLARK, D. D.

PROVIDENCE:
KNOWLES, ANTHONY & CO., CITY PRINTERS.
1860.

CITY OF PROVIDENCE.
By the City Council, July 9, 1860 —
Resolved, That the Committee appointed to make arrangements for the
Municipal Celebration of the anniversary of American Independence, be
and they are hereby authorized to request of the Right Rev. Thomas M.
Clark, a copy of the Oration by him delivered on the fourth instant, and
to cause seven hundred and fifty copies of the same to be published in
pamphlet form for the use of the City Council.
A vx ue copy : attest,
SAMUEL W. BROWN,
Cily Clerk.

0RA.TI02N".

Fellow Citizens :
We have assembled to celebrate the birth-day of the
nation. It will be a most unfortunate token when this
anniversary shall be degraded to the purposes of politi
cal strife, or prostituted to the orgies of bacchanalian
revelry. Let it forever be regarded as a great national
Sabbath of joy and thanksgiving ; let all servile labor
be suspended, all narrow partizanship forgotten, all
distinctions of rank laid aside, and the people every
where come together, as children of the same household,
to recognize their common brotherhood, and join heart
and voice in one lofty anthem of grateful praise. Let
the banner of freedom wave from every hill top, every
bell ring out its merry chimes, garlands of flowers be
hung on all our public monuments ; let drum and trum
pet fill the air with music, while cannons thunder from
Maine to California, and the whole land smokes with the
incense of joy. Let no man feel himself exempt from

the solemn obligation to hallow this sacred festival;
teach your children to-day the lesson of liberty ; pray1!
for the oppressed, here and everywhere; let in light,
upon the dark dwellings of the poor; cast out the demons i
of bigotry, to roam in desert places ; and open wide the ,'
door for the bright angel of peace and love to enter in
and take up his abode with men.
There are memories connected with this occasion,
which impart to the day a peculiar sanctity. They are
very familiar, almost common-place — those old stories of I
the Revolution, hardships of winter campaigns ; forced |
marches under the sweltering heat of a summer's sun ; |
hunger and thirst and sickness of an ill-paid and ill- ]
provided army; sacrifice of temporal goods; long sepa
rations of parents and children, husbands and wives;
groans and agonies of wounded men in rattling tumbrils ;
pale faces on the battle-field, turned up to the cold moon
light, that will never smile upon the little ones at home
again — familiar, common-place, only fit for a Fourth of
July oration, we may call all this, as we complacently
gather in our rich harvests from the soil which our
fathers' blood made fruitful. No doubt that a mythical
halo has gathered about our revolutionary heroes, and
we begin to forget their frailties ; as far off mountains
are glorified by the distance, and all their roughness and
barrenness are softened into a cloud of violet : let it be
so, — let no man disturb the grand ideal which the world

by common consent has agreed to reverence. I never
saw, in our civic processions, the carriage which conveyed
the old soldiers of the Revolution, without a feeling of
respectful awe. They were, perhaps, rather ordinary
men in their common relations, not over nice either in
dress or speech, and perhaps nothing but their pension
kept some of them out of a poor house ; but I venerated
them still, as mossy, mouldered monuments of one of
the sublimest movements ever known on earth. I do
not know but they have all passed away now ; for years
the newspapers have periodically announced the last
surviving soldier of the Revolution gone, and he may
have gone at last. If so, hallowed be the turf that covers
his mortal tenement, and may God have received his
soul into the mansions of everlasting rest.
There are circumstances connected with our coming
into being as a nation, which indicate for us a peculiar
destiny. It was not until the world was ripe, that we
were born. We were spared the long infancy of barba
rism, through which older nations struggled to their matu
rity. The close of the eighteenth century was the most
favorable period for establishing a republic upon broad
and liberal principles, ever known in history. The true
elements of government, the inherent rights of man, the
laws of political economy, were better understood than
ever before. Physical phenomena had just escaped from
the nebulous regions of alchemy and astrology, and were

passing into the domain of science, thus preparing the
way for the wonderful inventions and discoveries which
have been crowded into the last half century. A
rational, inductive philosophy had recently superceded
the metaphysics of dreaming schoolmen ; the claims of
universal education were, for the first time in the history
of the world, recognized and reduced to practice ; books
were growing cheaper, newspapers began to be circu
lated, post offices established, public conveyances to run ;
the means and appliances of physical comfort more gen
erally distributed, the food, and clothing, and furniture,
and dwelling-houses of the people at large were better
than they had been ; and above all, a clearer view of
Christianity, in its practical application to the real neces
sities of men, now prevailed. We had the benefit of
nearly six thousand years experience to guide us in
framing our institutions ; all the successes and all the
failures of all the ancient monarchies and republics to
help us ; is it a weak conceit to infer that our Constitu
tion was wiser than all?
Consider, also, the advantages of our geographical
position. Separated by two oceans from the encroach
ments of the old world, the contaminating influence of
its effete institutions, and the debilitating effects of its
over-ripe luxury ; with such a reach of terrritory, that
while the ice still fetters the streams and snow enshrouds
the fields in one extreme, roses bloom and the magnolia

9

gives out its rich perfume in the other ; with such va
riety of soil and climate that, if it were necessary, we
could raise all we need, without recourse to any foreign
supply, with no political power north or south of our
territory, that we have cause to fear, — the only question
being how soon and how rapidly is it expedient for us
to take measures for the annexation of our neighbors ;
are we foolish in supposing that Providence intends that
we should accomplish some great destiny, and solve some
mighty problem in government and religion? And
what sort of men were they who first established them
selves on these American shores ? They were not angels,
as the aborigines, whom they so speedily exterminated,
can testify ; they held, as a class, no such notions of
religious liberty as poetry assigns to them ; but still
they were real men, strong men, good men, — perhaps
not fully rounded and symmetrical in their characters, —
not exactly the type of men that we would wish to see
perpetuated and made universal, — men rather to be ven
erated than loved, never to be ashamed of; just the
men to hew down forests, and lay broad and deep the
foundations of a nation.
One sad thought will intrude itself here, and that is
the heavy loss which their success entailed upon the
original inhabitants of our soil. There were elements
of nobleness in those Indian races, which the European
settler ought to have recognized and respected ; there
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were rights of possession inherent in those tribes, which
should have been more sacredly regarded; we owe a
debt to the people whom we have dispossessed, which we
have been too reluctant to pay, and every year it is
accumulating against us. Can nothing be done to save
the little remnant that remain ? Must they be left to
the tender mercies of border-ruffians, who combine in
their persons the worst features of barbarism with the
meanest and lowest vices of a pseudo-civilization? Must
the nation go on, paying the cost of wars which are
waged for no other purpose but to get possession of the
Indian territory by exterminating its owner? The
wrongs of this people, past wrongs and present wrongs,
cry to Heaven against us. There are laws for their
protection, but they are not executed. Would that
public sentiment might be roused from its apathy, and
that in season ; or else the last vestige of the red man's
wigwam will be swept from the face of the earth.
They were sturdy and stout-hearted Saxons, who first
planted here the institutions of free civilization.
And still it was most fortunate for us that they were
not allowed, in the beginning, to establish on this continent
independent States, but were obliged to remain for a
season as colonies, subject to the sovereignty of a for
eign power. Under any other condition of things than
that which actually existed, how would it ever have
been possible to form such a great federal Republic as is

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now constituted by these United States ? If the colonies
had been independent, Congregationalism would have
been recognized as the established religion throughout
New England ; Presbyterianism in New York ; Episco
pacy in Virginia ; and most probably the Roman Catho
lic faith in Maryland. This, of itself, would have been
a perpetual bar to confederated union. And what pro
bability is there that in the beginning, these separate
States would have formed themselves into republics at
all ? One little colony, — the least of all, — by the very
terms of its settlement, would have stood alone, free
from all ecclesiastical constraint, and acknowledging the
unrestricted right of the people to govern themselves ;
but with Massachusetts on one side, and Connecticut on
the other, how long would Rhode Island and the Provi
dence Plantations have retained an independent exist
ence? Nothing but the protection of the King and
Council in England saved our little territory from being
crushed to death between those two more powerful colo
nies. One debt of gratitude the State of Rhode Island
owes to the mother country as we still delight to call
her, notwithstanding the wrongs which have sundered
us from all allegiance to her crown, and it is only just
that we should acknowledge it to-day. And while we
protest against the encroachments of George the Third
and his ministers, we would not forget that even then,
there were many noble hearts in England that throbbed

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in unison with ours, and manly voices that were lifted
up in our behalf in her Parliament ; and we rejoice that
for so many prosperous years, the stars and stripes of
America have floated in amity with the red cross of
Britain over the same broad decks ; and that while the
child has never ceased to love the mother, the mother
has learned at last to honor the child. May it be so
forever. It would be as ungenerous for us to harbor
ill thoughts of the old country from which we sprung,
as it would be for her to be jealous of the prosperity of
her offspring, in which she so richly shares : let our only
rivalry hereafter be in seeing which can do the most to
civilize and Christianize the world.
And now we come to the question, what are the
problems which, in the Providence of God, it is devolved
upon us to solve ?
First, whether it is possible for a people to govern
themselves, under no other restraints but those constitu
tional restrictions, which they have deliberately imposed
upon themselves ? In the ages that are past, every ex
periment of this sort has failed ; the ancient republics,
in the very height of their splendor, when art and science
and literature had culminated, went down, like a ship
under full sail, foundering in the sea. It is predicted
that such will be our fate ; that this constitutional gov
ernment, of which we are so proud, must result event
ually either in anarchy, or a military despotism. We

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are told that it is only the sparseness of our population,
and the ease with which people at large are thus enabled
to secure a comfortable living, which now saves our in
stitutions from destruction; that it is folly to expect
there will be found intelligence and virtue enough in
the mass of any large population to render them compe
tent to the solemn duties which a republican govern
ment demands of them ; arid that the facilities which
this general suffrage gives to the ambitious demagogue
must sooner or later prove fatal. Even the wiser and
better men among our politicians, we are further told,
must in a measure demean themselves, if they would
win the popular heart ; you cannot carry an election,
without resorting to some unworthy device, raising some
ridiculous cry, getting up some vulgar nickname for the
candidates, lying in one way here and in the opposite
way there ; you do not dare to leave any great question
to be decided by the popular voice simply according to
its merits, because you know that the ignorant multi
tude, who hold the balance of power, are not competent
to form an opinion upon the real point at issue.
It is sad to hear all this ; it is sadder to fear that it
may have some foundation in truth. For if the experi
ment of a republic fail here, — that beautiful ideal of
government, in treating of which, even philosophy has
glowed with poetic fire ; — if it fail here, with all the ad
vantages which our antecedents give us ; if it fail here,

14
when we have the opportunity to test the problem more
fairly than was ever possible before in any age or land ;
when, where, and how can it ever again be hopefully re
newed ? And must we say to the oppressed and down
trodden nations abroad, who are looking to our example
and our success for encouragement, — waiting anxiously
for the time when they may point to these United States
in proof that human beings as a class are competent to
govern themselves by such rulers as they see fit to elect,
and by such laws as their chosen legislators may enact,
without the burden and annoyance of a great standing
army, without the impoverishing cost of a jewelled court
and throne ; must we say to those noble spirits who
to-day are struggling so earnestly and manfully, in
Southern Europe, to extricate themselves from the polit
ical and priestly vampires who have sucked their blood
so long, who are working so hard that they may be able
to say to the husbandman: Now go on, sow and reap
your fields without fear, the harvest shall be your own ;
to the artisan : Hammer and stitch, and ply your loom
with a merry heart, the bread which you earn shall go
to feed your children, and no foreign mercenary ; to the
thinker, the writer and the speaker: Give forth your own
thoughts, utter your real belief, give to the world boldly
that with which the Almighty has inspired you, there
are no more dungeons gaping for you ; must we cry
mournfully across the Atlantic to those great patriots :

15

Tour case is hopeless, if you succeed in your present
effort, the people whom you hope to benefit, will only be
worse off in the end ; sheath your sword, furl your ban
ners, let the trumpet peal of freedom that you have
sounded fall into a coronach of wailing ; flee for your
lives, and let the yoke be welded once more about the
necks of the people ; they are only fit to be driven ; only
fit to work in the harness ; leave them to the mercy of
the coronetted and anointed drovers, who, by divine right,
are appointed to care for them. Must we say this?
God forbid !
Let us, however, try to look fairly at our present
position, and see what are the unfavorable as well as
the favorable portents in our political horizon. There
always have been two great parties dividing the nation,
and it is well that it should be so ; for in a republic,
any body of men in power will need the watchful check
of an opposition out of power. But it is a very unpro-
pitious circumstance that this party division has of late
years become sectional, and is made to hinge almost ex
clusively upon the most delicate and difficult question
that has ever agitated our councils. The old party
issues seem to be utterly forgotten ; one topic has be
come the rallying cry in our elections, and the most
prominent subject of Congressional debate ; and that a
subject which, twenty-five years ago, was rarely alluded
to by our legislators, and was never heard of at the

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polls. It appears at present to be the only matter about
which there is any very prominent national difference
of opinion ; and if it were not for this vexed question of
slavery, it is difficult to conceive upon what ground our
leading political parties could divide.
' Within the memory of many whom I address to-day,
no man would have dared to rise in his place in the
Capital at Washington, and utter menaces against the
sacred Union of our States. Have you forgotten what
a shudder ran through society, when it was first an
nounced that certain persons had begun " to calculate
the value of the Union ? " We had been trained to
think that its value could not be calculated, that it was
not a matter for calculation, that it was too sacred, hal
lowed by too many precious memories, knit together by
too many tender ties, to allow any calculation of its worth;
our fathers had fought together, prayed together, and
died together in the Revolution ; there was no North
and South then ; the bones of Rhode Island's choicest
son lie buried to-day under the turf of Georgia ; the
statue of Washington stands serene in the capital of
Massachusetts as well as in the capital of Virginia —
North and South Virginia the colonies were once lov
ingly called — and shall we talk of disimion ? Shall we
rend the flag under which our illustrious ancestors
marched forth to victory ? It makes us hopeful to re
member that we have already survived so many event-

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ful crises, as they were deemed at the time. Nobody
now seems to care for those old matters which once filled
the political horizon with storm-clouds ; they can be
talked over almost anywhere, without stirring any ill
blood ; even the Hartford Convention disturbs no one's
dreams, and it has become a sort of fashion to worship
Gen. Jackson, who broke up the Bank and removed the
Deposits, and made South Carolina behave herself ; good
people, who once voted against him, and worked against
him, prayed against him, are not unfrequently heard to
express a wish that we had him back again, to adminis
ter a little wholesome correction in high quarters. But
we are now dealing with a question more vital, more
difficult to adjust than bank or tariff ; it is a question of
morals as well as economy, and it is the complication of
these two elements, which makes it so delicate and so
dangerous. I do not intend to inflict upon you a trea
tise on the subject of slavery. I do not think it is a
proper time for it; neither would I abuse the occasion
by saying a word that will be justly offensive to either
of the political parties that divide us ; but this opinion
you must allow me to express — that in this present crisis,
which is a very serious one, I consider it as a cause of
hearty congratulation that, inasmuch as we must have
two or more great parties in the North, we are also like
ly to have two parties at the South. Whoever succeeds
in the approaching Presidential campaign, whether it be
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the sturdy, honest, strong-hearted Lincoln, or the ener
getic, powerful, strong-minded Douglas, or the accom
plished, experienced, statesman-like Bell, or the cour
teous, captivating and eloquent Breckinridge, the next
administration will be more judiciously and wisely con
ducted, and the integrity of the Union more secure, be
cause of this fact. It is well that the political sphere
should be divided by lines of longitude as well as of
latitude ; for then we can take our bearings more accu
rately. There ought to be wisdom enough in the nation
to settle impending differences upon a just and equita
ble basis ; and there is wisdom enough, if we could only
bring it practically to bear upon our difficulties. The
heart of the people beats loyal yet, and our Constitution
is broad enough for us all to stand upon.
One of the most encouraging features in our popular
elections is the fact that just as soon as the balloting has
determined the final result, there is so general and peace
ful an acquiescence in that result. No one ever thinks
of keeping up the excitement after the election is over.
A few months since, this State was stirred, as it rarely
has been before ; men toiled and declaimed, and it is
rumored that some were even generous enough to con
tribute somewhat of their substance to carry the election
as they desired. There were anxious faces in the street,
earnest consultations in private rooms, tumultuous
demonstrations in public halls, flags swinging at every

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corner, bands of music playing, torch-light processions,
pictorial appeals of somewhat questionable merit, fearful
expenditures of printer's ink, laboring men were greeted
by their employers with unwonted cordiality, until, on
election day, the ferment reached its height, and then
you could hear the surging of the waves from Cumber
land to Pawcatuck ; the whole State was moved to its
lowest depths ; when, behold, in twenty-four short hours
all was as calm and placid as a lake in the still moon
light, and ever since, we have lain quiet in our beds at
night, fearing nothing from our young and enterprising
Governor, even though we had not the grace to vote for
him. So it will be in the coming campaign. We shall
hear all sorts of evil threatened on every side, we shall
be told that the South will secede, our manufactories be
denied their cotton, trade in general be interrupted,
if one party carry the day ; we shall be told that the
slave-roll will be called at Bunker Hill, and our Territo
ries cursed with perpetual servitude if the other party
win ; but the South will not secede, neither will the
good people who reside on Bunker Hill be troubled,
however the election may go. We shall all accede to
the result, with as good grace as we can ; and the de
feated party say, with as much cheerfulness as could be
expected : " Four years hence we will do better." It has
always been so heretofore, and I do not see why it
should not be so again.

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There is, however, one difficulty which strikes deeper
into the foundations of our political fabric, and is more
likely to shake the whole superstructure than any cas
ual tempest of party strife. Our country is a refuge for
the poor, the oppressed, the discontented, as well as the
enterprising inhabitants of the old world, and every year
they land upon these shores in countless multitudes.
New York is said to be the most cosmopolitan city on
the face of the earth ; there is a greater variety of lan
guages spoken there, and a larger proportion of foreign
ers, in comparison with the native population. And
who would wish this current of emigration to be stayed ?
We want all these men ; there is room enough for them
all ; they have as good a right to come here as our
fathers originally had, and the progress of our great im
provements would be fatally checked without their aid ;
we welcome them all, English, Irish, Scotch, German,
French, Italian and Japanese. Come and send for your
fathers and mothers and brethren after you get here, as
Joseph did when he went down into Egypt. Come and
beat us in trade, if you can honestly ; come and help us
to develope the resources of our vast country ; come and
worship God as you were accustomed to worship Him
at home. Come and bring your priests with you ; we
will give them a hearty grip of welcome, too, if they will
suffer it ; but is it too much for us to ask, if you intend
to appear at the ballot-box, more especially if you in-

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tend to hold office and regulate our political institutions,
is it too much to ask that you will take a little time to
study those institutions and inform yourselves as to the
nature of our government ? Universal suffrage is safe
only as it rests upon the basis of universal education.
If the great questions of polity which pertain to govern
ment, the rights of property, the rights of person, and
the rights of opinion, are to be virtually determined by
the mere preponderance of numbers ; if no questions are
to be asked of the voters who hold this responsible
power, except " Are you of age and a citizen of the
country?" if the vote of the most intelligent and vir
tuous man in the land may be nullified by the vote of
one who has just enough of the element of humanity
to keep him from going on four legs, — >and this is, in
plain terms, what the theory of universal suffrage amounts
to, — I can only say that it will require a great deal of
wisdom on somebody's part so to work the theory that
it shall result in a stable, permanent and elevated gov
ernment. Regarding it as a theory, and then considering what
is the actual condition in point of intelligence and char
acter of the mass of mankind, it is not so very strange,
after all, that even the reformers of older nations are
somewhat slow to recognize this as the basis of govern
ment. But we are substantially committed to the theory,
and it is not easy to see how in a republic it could be

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otherwise. Property qualifications, excepting such as
are merely nominal, would always be objectionable and
odious. Intelligence is not a commodity that can be
readily weighed — a man that cannot read, may be wiser
than one who reads to no purpose,— and it would be a
very delicate business for a public committee, even of
Congressmen, to sit in judgment upon the degree of
morality requisite to secure the right of suffrage. Our
business, then, is to make the best we can of this theory
and educate the community up to the serious responsi
bility which devolves upon them. It seems to be self-
evident that, as a matter of social protection, we have a
right to demand that every child in the commonwealth
should receive the elements of a sound education. A
republic, without schools and churches, is a practical
impossibility. If it were possible it would be a nuisance.
Sunday theatres, and beer saloons, and public dances,
and working-mens' associations and caucusses, are a poor
substitute for houses of worship and temples of learning.
And here let me observe, that in such a government
as ours, it is incumbent upon all intelligent and good
men, whatever their vocations, to take an interest in
political affairs. They should insist that every party
nominate its best members for important offices, and
then it would matter comparatively little which party
succeeded. Good men in office are more essential than
sound platforms, for bad men will knock a hole through

23

the soundest platform. Instead of the motto, " Princi
ples, not Men," let us have, " Principles and Men. If
every State in our Union were represented in Washing
ton by her most cultivated, virtuous, high-toned citizens,
would there be any cause for fear, whatever party had
the ascendancy ? It is undoubtedly incumbent upon
us to respect our rulers, but they ought not to make the
task too difficult. For it is a difficult task, when those
whose business it is to make laws habitually break the
laws. If they settle their disputes with bludgeons, it
cannot astonish us that their constituents sometimes
swing the slung-shot. If they stimulate themselves de
cently for debate, with hot potations, it is very natural
that some of the dear people who elected them should
occasionally be overtaken with what the law terms inde
cent intoxication. If they are open to pecuniary con
siderations, it is not strange that a hungry man should
once in a while appropriate to himself a few loaves and
fishes without a consideration. If they indulge in a vul
gar vocabulary and invent slang terms, they must not
be surprised if a Rhode Island Secretary of State pub
lishes a new edition of his Dictionary of Americanisms,
with incidental quotations from their debates. In our
plain republic, we dispense with stars and garters, horse
hair wigs and gowns, and all the regalia of royalty.
This hardly seems to warrant our venerable legislators,
while in solemn session, in dispensing with the garments

24

which are usually worn by our citizens in their daily
business. In some of these respects, there may be a
little need of reform; and it would be well if one of the
conditions of election to high office were, that an indi
vidual, while in office, should conduct himself as a gen
tleman. The only effectual mode of rectifying public abuses
amongst us, by elevating public opinion. For public
opinion, in our land, is king or tyrant, as the case may
be. There is a power surrounding us like an atmos
phere, from whose pressure we never escape, and which
is inhaled with every breath It is not the law written
on parchment; it is so superior to that as to render the
statute very difficult to be executed when it runs ahead
of public opinion, and a dead letter, when it falls behind.
Neither is it the written creed, which we subscribe with
our hand. It sits in judgment upon the formula of faith,
as well as upon the civil law, and sometimes destroys its
vitality, without disturbing the form — consumes the
meat and leaves the shell unbroken. The great purpose
of all our editors, lecturers and preachers is to conciliate
or modify this public opinion. Some are content merely
to reproduce what is understood to be the popular senti
ment of those whom they address, and such men are
called by their friends, very wise, judicious, and safe ;
they win great applause, if they can make the common
places of opinion seem profound, attractive, beautiful.

25

They are well paid, secure the best offices, and when
they die, have a splendid funeral and are forgotten.
Others feel constrained to say what they know to be
true and needful, without much regard to the prevailing
standard of opinion ; and when they die, there is no
marble monument erected over their dust, but their
words live, long after all the grave-stones have crumbled.
The popular opinion of the world in any given period
was the unpopular opinion of a few men, born prema
turely some centuries before. How important, then, that
we should have in our councils, real statesmen, real men,
competent and willing, at whatever cost to themselves, to
shape aright the popular sentiment of the nation ; men
who can hold a rabble in awe, whether in the street or on
the floor of Congress ; who can reprove and rebuke fanat
ics and fire-eaters, with the calm and overwhelming au
thority of a Washington, whose words were sometimes like
a two-edged sword, piercing the very joints and marrow.
Popular opinion is always prone to extremes, and re
gards with great contempt such as are disposed to take
the middle path ; towards which, after awhile, the ex
tremes themselves will inevitably converge. Now, I
have not a word to say in behalf of that class of persons
who evade all responsibility by never taking a positive
position, and whenever they are consulted, only shake
their owlish heads solemnly, and say with profound
gravity : " There is much to be considered on both
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26
sides." I do affirm, however, that in any time of great
excitement, when the community are sundered by any
serious issue, it requires ten-fold more of moral courage,
for one to stand in the breach, calmly proposing modes
of reconciliation, mutual conference, reasonable compro
mise, while the atmosphere is crackling with the thunder
bolts of wrath, than it does to plunge into the very
hottest of the fray, and shriek with the loudest. The
real hero is not the man who despises or defies public
opinion, but who seeks to guide it into its right channel,
let the temporary injury to his own interests or fame be
what it may. One of the best things which the moralist
Seneca ever said was this : " No one seems to me to put
a higher estimate upon virtue, no one to be more devoted
to her cause, than he who is willing to lose the reputa
tion of being a good man, rather than violate his con
science." And if ever there was a period when such
men were needed, it is the present. For some of the
most serious dangers which now threaten us, come from
tendencies to excess in the right direction ; from counter
feits which need but one stroke of the pen to make
genuine. The next thing we shall have to fear will be
the reaction that must inevitably follow ; the recoil of
the gun, after the explosion. Then your moral courage
must be shown by resisting the reaction, and claiming
that sound progress shall not be stayed, because it has
been pushed to excess.

27
The great use of conservative men is to stay the sud
den, premature precipitation of important social changes.
For a reform, good in itself, may work only evil, by
being wrought out of its time. And we need not fear
that a reformative public opinion, when the time has
come for its development, will find no opportunity to
utter itself. There was no free press in France, when
the corruption of the Court and the Church, stirred those
first faint murmurs, which afterwards broke out in the
awful howl of the Revolution ; but, notwithstanding this,
the people found or invented modes to express their in
dignation. The painted crockery on the dinner table,
the. pictures on their snuff-boxes, the paper that lined the
walls of their houses, the carvings on the ceiling, the
cards with which they played their loo and cribbage,
were all made symbolical of the follies and outrages of
the ruling powers. If hidden fire burns, smoke will
find its way through some crevice; the earth will crack
somewhere, when the elements are seething in the depths.
The virtues in which, as a nation, we are most want
ing, are patience and faith. The republic is yet young,
but during our brief existence we have seen such won
ders wrought, we have grown so huge, we have accumu
lated capital so fast, we have triumphed over so many
obstacles, that, with the brave enterprise of youth, we
have acquired not a little of its conceit. We are some
times thought to over glorify ourselves somewhat, on

28

occasions like the present. The American Eagle has
been called upon to perform feats far beyond the capac
ity of the most patriotic bird.
I think that our present danger lies in the direction
of despondency. I fear there is a growing class amongst
us who begin to despair of this republic. Their appre
hensions do not assume any definite form ; if this Union
is to be dissolved, they cannot say where the line of
separation will run; or how the division is to be brought
about ; if we must fall back into monarchy or a military
despotism, it is not possible to see how the first king
that sits upon our throne is to be designated, except by
a popular vote, and there is at present no very promi
nent warrior in the nation of a character to alarm us.
But they say, so long as this terrible question of Slavery
continues to agitate us, proclaimed to be a sin against
God in one section, and an essential institution of the
Gospel in another ; so long as we have so much corrup
tion in high places and so much ignorance and irreligion
in low places ; so long as the preponderance of power
in our larger cities lies with those who are utterly in
competent to exercise it aright, we are in an unsafe and
precarious condition. That there are great dangers
growing out of all this we must admit, and they ought
to excite every good citizen, and especially every Chris
tian, to put forth renewed exertions for the elevation
and sanctification of the people. Let the pulpit speak

29

more directly to the hearts of men, and bring the blessed,
renewing truths of religion closer home to the conscience;
let those who control the periodical press, that mighty
engine of influence, cease to pander to a corrupt and
vulgar taste ; let them be more scrupulous in their treat
ment of those who are appointed to rule over us, while
they never fail to rebuke sin and fraud, whoever may be
the transgressors; let our glorious system of public schools
be plied with more efficiency ; let parents train their
children with greater care, and set them a better exam
ple ; let there be a more living sympathy between the
rich and the poor, and we will still outride the storm,
and find safe anchorage at last. I believe that our
foundations yet stand firm, and that God means we shall
accomplish our destiny. The work that our fathers in
augurated with such a solemn sacrifice of blood, must
not, and shall not fail.
One great fact distinguishes our condition. No man
among us feels the presence of government unless he
offends against the law as a criminal. So long as we
behave ourselves, we are as independent of our rulers as
they are of us. They cannot touch our honest gains.
They cannot prescribe our personal movements. They
cannot control our opinions. They cannot hinder the
public utterance of these opinions. We have no press-
gang, no conscription, no levying upon our goods by
absolute authority. The rights of property are perfectly

30

secure, and if our Congress did not meet again for ten
years to come, we should probably be as well off as we
are to day — perhaps better.
We have our periodical political uproars, but nobody
is harmed if we keep out of harm's way. The nation is
vastly richer now than it ever was before. We have
comparatively little poverty but such as is imported.
We have multitudes of hospitals, asylums, retreats, re
form schools, and a Church of some sort for every six
hundred people in the United States. Our prisons are
wonderfully improved. Missionaries are promptly sent
to our destitute regions. There is not a gigantic moral
evil amongst us but there is also a gigantic effort to
control and exterminate it. Why should we despair ?
Do the signs of the times indicate that God has de
serted us ?
Fellow citizens of Rhode Island : two hundred and
twenty-four years ago, there was a declaration of inde
pendence made upon your soil, in which the rights of
the soul as well as of the body, the freedom of the will
as well as of the hand, were vindicated from the narrow
ness and tyranny of the past. We keep no anniversary
in commemoration of that event, one of the grandest in
all history. And we had almost lost sight of the burial-
place of the great man who anticipated the charter of
modern liberty. Monuments have been erected in mem
ory of awful butcheries, and there are noble statues

31
abroad in honor of men who never knew what it was to
be noble or honorable. But there is not a slab of mar
ble in the State with the name of Roger Williams in
scribed upon it, — not even a stone to mark his grave.
This reproach you now intend to take away. Tou are
pledged to build a monument to that man's memory ;
and not only so, but in testimony of the fact that after a
fair trial of two centuries, you continue to stand by his
principles. Let it be worthy of the man, worthy of the
doctrine he upheld, worthy of the State. There is not a
commonwealth on the face of the earth, in whose his
tory — I was about to say — there is less to be ashamed
of; I will rather say, more to be proud of — than there
is in the records of Rhode Island and these Providence
Plantations. No Indian tribe ever cursed you ; no man
ever suffered here for conscience sake. You have a
narrow territory — not over fertile, but you have grown
very rich. God has prospered you abundantly. Now
do something that will make your children proud.
Build a column that will stand when the State has
o-rown old ; a work of art that will elevate the taste and
quicken the patriotism of our citizens to the latest gener
ation. For, remember, the principles which that column
is intended to commemorate, are as eternal as God, and
as unchangeable as truth.
Fellow citizens : the symbol of our State is an anchor,
and this means " sure and steadfast." Our watchword

32

is " Hope." We are bound never to despair of the Re
public. The labor of the past has not been lost : the
labor of to-day is not in vain. No holy word, no right
eous act can ever die. Be hopeful. We are moving
on towards high noon ; — hardly out of the twilight yet,
it may be, — but, thank God, it is the twilight of the
morning, not of the evening. And the hour hand on the
great dial-plate of time never goes back. Slowly and
silently, except when it strikes, at long intervals, the
progressive epochs of the world, it advances towards the
meridian.