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 ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION, 
 
 AT A STATED MEETING, 
 
 MARCH 16th, 1813. 
 
 BY A MEMBER 
 
 PHILABELPinA: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION 
 
 T. T. Stiles, printer. 
 
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IN his valedictory address to the American People, 
 on retiring from the stage of public life, General Wash- 
 ington, with a parental eye towards their future welfare, 
 admonished them to check the progress of party spirit. 
 Had the advice of that great man been followed, we would 
 have been at this moment a prosperous and united nation. 
 The smiles of happiness would illumine that brow, dar- 
 kened at present by the clouds of care. The ploughman, 
 whistling to the gale, serene and undisturbed, would urge 
 on his wearied team, while the hammer of the mechanic, 
 and the cheerful song of the sailor, would " stun the glad 
 ear" with vociferous industry. But the gloomy silence of 
 our streets, the anxious countenances of our merchants, 
 and the total stoppage of all business, indicate a most un- 
 fortunate situation of affairs, while the clamorous declama- 
 tion of politicians and the virulent denunciations of the 
 public presses, demonstrate the rancour of party animosi- 
 ty, and prove that we are a divided and distracted people. 
 Despising the excellent counsel of the venerable Washing- 
 ton, ambitious demagogues seeking to gain a name and to 
 acquire power, have assiduously endeavoiu'ed to fan the 
 flame of civil discord. 
 
4 
 
 Alter having, at the expense of blood and treasure, pur- 
 chased the independence of America, our revokitionary 
 patriots, ever attentive to the welfare of their country, and 
 sensible of the defective state of the existing government, 
 took measures for forming the present glorious constitu- 
 tion. Those A\'ho approved of it were called Federalists, 
 as it tended more firmly to unite the different states. It 
 met with considerable opposition from designing men, 
 who saw, in an effective government, a barrier to their am- 
 bitious schemes. These artful demagogues, by ffattering 
 the people, were, by the people, in their turn, almost 
 idolized. Using this inffuence as a ladder for their own 
 promotion, they made a desperate effort to obtain offices 
 and power ; and at last succeeded in their aim : — thus, 
 arose a faction, which bidding defiance to the laws and the 
 constitution, threatens the subversion of the liberties of 
 America. 
 
 Under the influence of this deleterious ambition, the 
 State of Virginia- — the mighty champion of Democracy — 
 worshipped by the factionists throughout the Union, has 
 deliberately conceived the bold design of exclusively gov- 
 erning the confederation. The ring-leaders of the Demo- 
 cratic party in the diflferent states, either blind to the views 
 of Virginia, or liberally re^varded for their aid, second her 
 dangerous claims with their whole force : — thus forging 
 letters for themselves and their countrymen. 
 
 Among the most calamitous evils which have befallen 
 our country — retarded its rising greatness — and blasted its 
 growing prosperit)^, may be enumerated the preponderat- 
 ing influence of Virginia over the councils of the nation. 
 When the social compact, which confederated the Ameri- 
 can Republics, was ratified by each State, it Avas explicitly 
 
understood, and lucidly explained in the instrument of 
 union, the Constitution, that it was formed " to promote 
 the general welflire," and not for the aggrandizement of 
 one section at the expense of the rest. The Federal Go- 
 vernment was calculated to establish an equality of rights 
 among the states. It appeared in theory, and in purity of 
 practice, a standard of Justice. It once was a beneficent 
 stream, whose branches spreading impartially around, fer- 
 tilized the soil in every part ; but now it is diverted from 
 its natural channel, and while its coures, in some places, is 
 obstructed, and there is left only a stagnant and unwhole- 
 some pool, its waters flow through other parts with the 
 most benign consequences. 
 
 When the National Government, in direct violation of 
 the salutary provisions and opening declaration of the con- 
 stitution, neglects or overlooks the interest of any class of 
 our citizens — when it evidently seeks to augment the 
 power of one section of our country, and to diminish the 
 influence and impede the progressive improvement of an- 
 other — the constitution is trampled under foot ; a blow is 
 struck at the very vitals of American liberty, and oppres- 
 sion is established. This seems to be the present situa- 
 tion of the United States. 
 
 By the intrigues of some of her chief citizens, and by 
 the blind infatuation, the tame acquiescence or the ineffec- 
 tual resistance of her sister states, Virginia has obtained an 
 uncontrolled ascendency over the administration of the 
 union. In consequence of this usurpation of power, the 
 interest of the other states has been disregarded, and their 
 happiness and tranquillity essentially interrupted. 
 
 In a country like the United States, comprehending so 
 extensive a territory, and so large a sea- coast, with so great 
 
a variety of soil, siicli a clifFerencc of climate, and diversity 
 of manners, there must necessarily be clashing interests to 
 reconcile, serious jealousies to appease, and jarring dissen- 
 tions to harmonize. 
 
 Wise and patriotic governors should therefore legislate 
 with impartiality, and adopt measures calculated to advance 
 the prosperity of the union. 
 
 In the interior, towards the west and to the south, the 
 fertility of the earth directs the attention of the inhabitants 
 to agricultural pursuits — Nature is bountiful to them in 
 the abundance of her gifts and the facility with which they 
 are obtained. They live in plenty and repose in ease. 
 The inhabitants of Virginia do not in general possess a 
 spirit of enterprise. The labour of their slaves supplying 
 the necessity of corporal exertion, they are accustomed to 
 find all their wants relieved by the issuing of a command. 
 Early habituated to idleness and ease, the busy scenes of 
 trade and the active exertions it calls forth, but unsuita- 
 bly correspond with their slothful and sedentary habits. 
 Though the commercial trait is not altogether unknown to 
 them, it does not form an important feature in their cha- 
 racter as a people. To Virginia trade is not an object of 
 primary interest — shatter into fragments, the mighty ma- 
 chine of commerce, and she scarcely feels the shock. 
 
 With a less productive soil and greater population, our 
 eastern brethren supply their wants by enterprise and in- 
 dustry. Commerce, to the people of New England, and 
 on the sea-board, is their birthright — a privilege coeval 
 with their settlement — rendered from their locality unalie- 
 nable, and which no circumstances, however exigent, can 
 justify the national government in wresting from them. 
 The Ocean invites them, and they commit themselves to 
 Iicr bosom — 
 
Their march is on the mountain wave ; 
 Their home is on the deep. 
 
 Nature has assigned them the interminable main for the 
 exercise of their hardy industry. Their fertile farm is the 
 boundless sea, and the productions of every climate, and 
 the manufactures of every country, constitute their luxuri- 
 ant harvest. With as much justice or constitutional right, 
 can you prohibit the plow- share of Virginia from turning 
 up the earth, as interdict their vessels from navigating the 
 inain. The wealth and power of the New England states 
 are so dependant upon commerce, that by removing this 
 pillar, the edifice of their greatness crumbles into ruins. 
 
 Jealous of the power commerce bestows upon them, 
 wishing to undermine it, and solicitous of monopolizing 
 the government of the union, the Virginians have been ac- 
 tive and unremitted in systematizing an hostility against 
 the tradinsT interest. 
 
 The absolute power exercised by them over their slaves, 
 has given to their character an arbitrary and dictatorial cast, 
 which, though it may verify the observation of Edmund 
 Burk, that from the degradation of servitude constantly 
 exhibited before their eyes, they are peculiarly tenacious of 
 their freedom, makes them disregard the claims of others, 
 and think that their will is to know no control, however it 
 may interfere with the rights, or trample on the liberties of 
 the rest of mankind. Commerce, which diftuses national 
 prosperity and individual happiness, bestows wealth and 
 power on governments, and distributes independence and 
 plenty among the people — commerce, which unites by one 
 common tie the human family, howe\'er separated by dks- 
 tance ; gives to the baiTcn rock or the sandy shore, the 
 abundance of the richest and most luxuriant soils ; pre- 
 
8 
 
 scnts tlie swelled breast of exuberance to the parched lips 
 of the wan and famished children of a sterile waste, and 
 gives to life its greatest zest and most elegant refinement — 
 commerce, which the wisest statesmen and tlie most pow- 
 erful monarchs in all ages and every country, have patro- 
 nised by the fostering care of the laws, has found among 
 the chiefs of Virginia, for the gratification of their local 
 prejudices and petty ambition, a mortal foe ; whose every 
 act and the whole scope of whose policy has been to poi- 
 son this glorious fountain, from whose source springs the 
 most delightful of human enjoyments, and the greatest fe- 
 licity of man. 
 
 Upon the reins of administration passing into the hands 
 of Jefferson, a plot was immediately formed for the ruin of 
 commerce, by leaving it in a destitute and defenceless 
 state. Under the imposing pretence of reducing the ex- 
 penses of government, and establishing an economical re- 
 form, our little nav}-; which had been wisely raised to 
 afford protection to our trade and our sea coast, was either 
 dismantled or sold. Was not this an assassin-like thrust 
 at the commercial interest ? Do we not read in this insidi- 
 ous act a premeditated design for the overthrow of com- 
 m.erce ? Have not subsequent events afforded an illustra- 
 tion of this policy, and clearly proved the real motive 
 which dictated that measure ? 
 
 Is it the mark of a wise statesman, for the sake of saving 
 a trifling expense, to expose to inevitable loss, property of 
 an incalculable amount ? Or nigardly to withhold an incon- 
 siderable appropriation, when required for the important 
 object of securing a revenue which would have enriched 
 the nation ? The economy of the Virginians has proved 
 most disastrous to the finances of the United States. What 
 
would have been sufficient to have raised a respectable naval 
 establishment has been squandered upon gunboats that are 
 of no use — in the purchase, at a heavy price, of a ten'itory 
 which we might with justice have obtained by our ai'ms, 
 and whose acquisition was principally intended to throw 
 an additional weight into the southern scale — in the pay- 
 ment of a ransom to a Barbary potentate whom we could 
 with ease, have reduced to such terms as, flushed with con- 
 quest, we might have been pleased to prescribe — in filling 
 the coffers of the French empire by the plunder and con- 
 fiscation of American property — and in dissipating "an 
 overflowing treasury" and involving the nation in an enor- 
 mous debt without securing the smallest benefit. Indeed 
 economy seems incompatible with the character of a peo- 
 ple like the Virginians, and quite at variance with their prac- 
 tice. It was the cloak used by the crafty Jefferson to hide 
 his wicked purpose of abolishing the ivdvy. Under this 
 mask the monster crushed it. 
 
 The ablest statesmen our country has produced have 
 been persuaded that the best possible mode of defending 
 our commerce and contending with a European nation is 
 on the ocean with an efficient navy. The utility of a navy 
 has been powerfully enforced, and the practicability of its 
 establishment clearly shewn by the very man who, in defi- 
 ance of his own conviction and in the teeth of his own 
 arguments, robbed his country of its safest protection. Be- 
 fore the heart of Jefferson was coiTupted by ambition, his 
 principles tainted by the school of Machiavel, and his aflfec- 
 tions alienated from America, he put on record his views 
 of the policy which he thought it would be her true inte- 
 rest to pursue, and has eloquently exhibited the fo/li/ and 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 wickedness of his subsequent measures^ and the frivoliti/ of 
 the pretext for adopting them. 
 
 In his Notes on Virginia, he confesses that a respectable 
 naval establishment of eighteen sail of the line and twelve 
 frigates conld be raised in a single year, at so moderate an 
 expense as might be spared withont inconvenience or dis- 
 ti'ess. "While he acknov\'ledges that snch a force is neces- 
 sary and could be easily obtained, he at the same time 
 destroys our navy built under the auspices of our greatest 
 men. 
 
 At the period when he was friendly to commerce, he 
 urged with importimity the absolute and indispensable im- 
 portance of a navy ; when afterwards he desired its annihi- 
 lation, he exerted himself to remove its safeguard and pro- 
 tection. 
 
 In the Federalist, a paper which Mr. Madison assisted 
 to conduct, w^e find the following important sentiment : 
 
 "If we mean to be a commercial people and even secure 
 *' on our Atlantic side, we must endeavour as soon as pos- 
 *' sible to have a navy;" and in the 41st number, the im- 
 mediate production of his pen, he declares that "the/c/- 
 *' pable necessity to provide and mahitain a navy, has pro- 
 " tected that part of the constitution from a spirit of cen- 
 " sure which has spared few other parts. " JFe are at a loss 
 to account for the great change in the opinions of these 
 gentlemen, in any other way, than that at the time they ex~ 
 pressed them, they thought as Americans, but that desert- 
 ing like Arnold, their country's cause, they have since con- 
 spired against her, and traitorously sought the exaltation 
 of Firginia on the ruins of the Constitution and the Union. 
 
 But, gentlemen, our little navy needs no advocate. Its 
 
11 
 
 valour is proclaimed from the canon's mouth — its eulogium 
 is written in the blood of our foes. While defeat and dis- 
 grace stain the banners of our army, plumed victory and 
 glory eternal as the heavens, attend the achievements of 
 our gallant navy ; and the applause of their countrymen and 
 the admiration of the world, reward the exploits of its tri- 
 umphant commanders. 
 
 That the most conspicuous citizens of the United States 
 whom the people seem to have delighted to honour, and 
 Avho have been raised to the first offices of the common- 
 wealth, should have stifled every feeling of gratitude and 
 love of country, and consented to become the minions of 
 an unprincipled tyrant, is ascribable to the same cause. 
 While France was professedly contending for liberty, the 
 affection which some enthusiastic Americans bore her, 
 admitted of some plausible justification; but that she should 
 have partizans in this country now, while her government 
 is wielded by a blood-thirsty usurper, whose poniard is 
 yet warm from tlie slaughter of freedom, can arise only 
 from a coincidence of views and an accordance of policy 
 between them and him. Bonaparte and Jefferson, intent 
 on the same object, the annihilation of commerce ^ have 
 taken similar steps for its attainment. While the United 
 States maintained a good understanding with England, 
 their vessels could ply the ocean unmolested by her n^xvy. 
 As this however, would defeat the views of Virginia, Jef- 
 ferson adopted measures for involving America in the Eu- 
 ropean war, and forming an alliance with the Emperor of 
 France. Hence has arisen the great devotion of the De- 
 mocratic party to the cause of the ruthless tyrant. 
 
 To gratify the inordinate arn].-)ition of Virginia, Jefferson 
 
12 
 
 has endeavoured, by every artifice, to provoke a contest 
 Avith Great Britain, with u view the more readily to destroy 
 commerce, lessen the power and greatness of the commer- 
 cial States, and pave the way for her grandeur and exalta- 
 tion. Was not the treaty formed by Jay, \\hich secured 
 to the United States peace and prosperity, received by him 
 and his adherents with clamorous dissatisfaction ? Inde- 
 pendent of deadening Embargoes and Non- Intercourse 
 LaAvs, designed to cripple commerce^ have they not set 
 themselves vigorously to work in injlaming the popular 
 passions and fomenting rancour against England ? Upon 
 the slightest indiscretion of an English captain, unautho- 
 rised by his government, were not all the pack hounds of 
 administration yelping loudly for war ? And have they 
 not at length through misrepresentation hurried us into the 
 contest? 
 
 The war declared against Great Britain is in fact a war 
 ivaged againat the commerce of the United States. 
 
 But the most extraordinary part of this atrocious pro- 
 ceeding is the daring attempt to conceal its true object in 
 the blustering assertion that it was undertaken in the defence 
 of trade. To protect our property then, we destroy it, 
 and to prevent a highwayman from robbing us, we throw 
 ourselves in his way, with all our fortune about us, un- 
 armed and unprotected, inviting his depredations — a prey 
 to his rapacity. The people who have an interest in the 
 prosperity of commerce, disavow the propriety of the mea- 
 sures undertaken professedly for its support. The great 
 sympathy aftcctcd to be felt for impressed Seamen is not 
 experienced in that section of the Union where our mari- 
 ners dwell ; because the people there know it to be an idle 
 
13 
 
 clamour artfully raised for abominable purposes ; the insin- 
 cerity of which is manifest from the declaration of Mon- 
 roe, when minister at the court of St. James, that a satis- 
 factory arrangement with Great Britain on that subject 
 might easily be formed, and from the treaty entered into 
 with Erskine, framed imder the supermtcndence of Madi- 
 50«, professedly ixccommo&cXting ever ij dispute^ wherein our 
 seamen were not named. 
 
 Let me not be supposed to palliate the conduct of Great 
 Britain. Her edicts have violated our rights as a neutral 
 nation. They, however, are no more. And perhaps these 
 obnoxious decrees may have derived their origin from 
 the unequivocal partiality of the American rulers towards 
 France, and their decided hostilit}^ to the British nation ; 
 while the xvide extended commerce afloat at the period of 
 the declaration of war ; the unprepared condition of the 
 country ; the unprotected state of our harbours ; the small- 
 ness of our navy, and the continuance of the war after the 
 repeal of the orders in council, taken in conjunction with 
 the whole course of the JefFersonian policy, authorise the 
 conclusion that it is waged not -in defence of our rights 
 against encroaching powers ; but to answer the ends of the 
 southern faction, and against our merchants. 
 
 That the Seamen of America do not bask in the sun- 
 shine of administration favour, and that their interest does 
 not, as is asserted, enter into the views of the present cabi- 
 net, is obvious from the heavy pressure of all its mea- 
 sures upon that class of the community ; whereby the 
 flourishing condition of their families has been revolution- 
 ized, by destroying the means of their maintenance; — 
 their proud and independent spirits become broken and 
 
14 
 
 dejected; — their wealth swept from them ; and ever}' bright 
 prospect that cheered their sight overcast with gloom. 
 
 Such are the blessed fruits of the rule of the Virginians ! 
 How they obtained so omnipotent a sway, and why the 
 other States submit to their domination, arises probably 
 from an idea of their superior virtue or more exalted genius. 
 
 The circumstance of the Virginians having obtained by 
 favouritism almost the ex(-lusi^ e possession of the lucra- 
 tive and important offices of government, and their conse- 
 quently becoming more conspicuous and better known, 
 has given currency to the unfounded assertion that they 
 only are able to fill them; — mankind erroneously suppo- 
 sing that in a republican government whose basis is virtue, 
 merit alone is consulted in the distribution of posts of emo- 
 lument or trust. An opinion has therefore been most in- 
 dustriously circulated by the admirers of Virginia, that all 
 the genius and talents of the country are centered in that 
 State — that it is the nursery of our great characters and 
 able stiitesmen. This is intended to reconcile us to our 
 bondage — to make us hug and glory in our chains. If we 
 can but be induced to believe that the Virginians are the 
 only pilots capable of guiding the ship of state through 
 the tempestuous sea of politics, and of steering it safely 
 through the difficult navigation of the present times, it will 
 be an easy matter for them to keep perpetual possession of 
 the helm. Ideas of their brighter natural parts and supe- 
 rior intellectual endowments are inculcated in the minds of 
 their infants at their earliest lesson. When they first lisp, 
 they arc taught to look upon Virginians as beings of a 
 more exalted order than the citizens of the neighbouring 
 States. This poisonous sentiment lias unfortunately pre- 
 
15 
 
 vailed among us, this opiate has lulled our jealousy, and 
 the fancied conviction of Virginian superiority has closed 
 our Argus eyes towards her ambitious projects. The Sy- 
 rens, by the charms of their voice, decoyed within their 
 reach the prey whom they devoured. 
 
 But is it true that every other State is barren of great 
 men ? Has Pennsijlvania produced no meritorious citi- 
 zens ? Did not the financial genius of a Morris, like a 
 firm column, uphold the tottering credit of our country ? 
 Has she not had Dickinsons in the senate and Waynes in 
 the field ? With a bar, unrivalled in America for learning, 
 for eloquence, and talents — with a mercantile class, solid 
 and intelligent — with agriculturalists of great sagacity and 
 information — with medical professors celebrated over the 
 world — with artists, the pride and ornament of their profes- 
 sion — -wuth philosophers and mathematicians of renown, 
 and ingenious mechanics — the great State of Pennsylvania 
 has been reproached by the presumptive Virginians as the 
 Beotia of America. Pennsylvanians ! treasure in the re- 
 pository of your memories, the recollection, that on the 
 floor of Congress, and before the eyes of the worlds your 
 native State has been by them branded xvith the stigma of 
 stupidity. 
 
 In support of this boasted superiority, it is said that the 
 independent situation of the inhabitants of Virginia, obvi- 
 ating the necessity of engaging in business, leaves them 
 ample leisure to attend to the improvement of their minds. 
 This is a fallacious argument insidiously calculated to de- 
 ceive and mislead. Look at the history of mankind, at 
 every period of chronolog}^, and in every quarter of the 
 globe, and it does not require a Fielding's kno^^•ledge of 
 
16 
 
 the liuman heart to be convinced that the pampered inheri- 
 tor of wealth, satisfied with the ease it affords him, unsti- 
 mulated by rivalship or ambition, deadens his genius by- 
 idleness, and sinks into the mire of debauchery and excess. 
 This is the obvious tendency of want of employment. 
 Prompted by the impulses of an active mind, some, shak- 
 ing off the lethargy creeping over them, may direct the 
 whole attention of their minds to the acquisition of know- 
 ledge. Few such, however, are to be found. But by 
 business, the secret springs of action in the human heart, 
 are set in movement ; latent faculties are drawn from con- 
 cealment and brought into operation ; genius is quickened ; 
 emulation is excited ; ambition is fired ; the volume of the 
 world is opened and read ; and the understanding is en- 
 larged. The Planter may learn principles from books, but 
 he cannot know mankind without stiring from his fire- 
 side. The Merchant often traverses the globe, and gains 
 wisdom in the rough school of experience. 
 
 Unused to action on the great theatre of the world, those 
 natives of Virginia who have been placed in public situa- 
 tions, have shewn great sagacity and knowledge of the 
 theory of government, but have evinced, by many mo- 
 mentous blunders and serious negligences, a profound igno- 
 rance of its practical operations. They are Legislators in 
 the Closet, but Cyphers in the Cabinet. Utopian plans of 
 government, founded on false notions of human nature, 
 are conceived by them with the wildest enthusiasm; yet 
 they have proved themselves inadequate to the manage- 
 ment of any rational system. The greatest misfortune 
 that has yet visited our country, was the choice of the 
 visionary sage of Virginia to the executive chair. 
 
17 
 
 But we can never forget that the immortal Washington 
 was born in Virginia. Yet his education differing materi- 
 ally from that in general received by the Virginians, form> 
 ed hiin in another mould. Early habituated to business, 
 a surveyor for lord Fairfax, no idle hours hung heavy on 
 him or enervrted his genius. He was unremittedly active. 
 Industrious habits and attention to business marked his 
 career. This most disinterested and magnanimous of 
 mankind, suffered no mean views of raising his native State 
 on the ruins of its neighbours to find entrance into his 
 liberal policy. Washington and his patriotic disciples 
 in every part of the Union, sought only the good of Ame- 
 rica. They were practical politicians. 
 
 But such is the present encroachment of State influence, 
 that the foulest crime a man can commit, is to oppose the 
 Supremacy of Virginia. Let him have rendered the most 
 important services to his country ; let his opinions on im- 
 portant political events correspond with the popular senti- 
 ment, yet if he dare breathe an insinuation against the right 
 of Virginia to rule the nation, the battery of every venal 
 press is suddenly opened upon him, and he who before was 
 regarded as a spotless patriot is denounced as a tory and 
 an apostate. De Witt Clinton is an ambitions demagogue^ 
 an aspiring adventurer^ because, forsooth! his claims to 
 the Presidency clashed with the interest of the Virginia 
 faction. The citizens of Boston are reviled as rebels and 
 miscreants because they have independence enough to 
 think and act as become freemen ; and start with horror at 
 the idea of beino: voked with a nea:ro slave and chained to 
 the car of a southern despot. 
 
 This is truly a critical moment. Danger, with her scowl- 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 ing brow, froAvns on us. The freedom of Elections — tlie 
 hfe'^s blood of the American Constitution — the vital prin- 
 ciple of our government — has been violated. On the elec- 
 tion ground, where the most uninterrupted freedom should 
 exist — uhcre the will should be spontaneous and the judg- 
 ment unchained — the soldiers of the United States attemp- 
 ted to intimidate by the beat of the drum, while the orga- 
 nized mob of government actually drove those who would 
 not boiv down and worship their Idol from the hallowed 
 spot. 
 
 When we contemplate this shocking corruption and 
 reflect that by this means the Virginians have again pos- 
 sessed themselves of the government of the country, we 
 tremble for the consequences. With the aid of a mob, 
 and supported by a vast standing army, entirely under their 
 control — may they not eflfuce every vestige of fi'eedom at 
 our future elections, and wrest our liberties from us? — 
 Accuse me not of an attempt to raise unfounded fears and 
 sound unnecessary alarms. The small cloud scarcely dis- 
 cernible above the horizon denotes the approach of a fright- 
 ful storm. The winds of heaven may harmlessly disperse 
 it, but, dark and terrific, with a furious blast, it may ap- 
 proach and overwhelm us. The inexperienced seaman 
 sees no danger in the distant sky ; while the veteran mari- 
 ner anticipates the tempest, and prepares his bark to wea- 
 ther it. 
 
 But Americans, let us not weep in fear and despondency 
 over the misfortunes of our country — let us rather strive 
 to amend them. 
 
 By a steadfast adherence to the principles of Washing- 
 ton, as the sheet anchor of our safety, and by union and 
 
ly 
 
 exertion in opposing the attempts of the wicked and design- 
 ing, we may yet shield the Uberties of our country, an^ 
 save ourselves from the dominion of tyranny. j 
 
 Docs the keen-eyed jealousy of Freedom sleep? HavJ! 
 the sentinels of Libert)- deserted their post and suffered 
 the tyrant to approach? Do we already hear the clank ingi 
 of our chains? Is the ton;h of Liberty extinguished? — \ 
 Arouse my brethren and keep alive the flame! Guard the 
 consecrated altar of Freedom from contamination! Parry ^ 
 the stab meditated at your Rights. 
 
S9 W 
 
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