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AN 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 YS-6 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNION AND LITERARY DEBATING SOCIETY, 
 
 JULY 4, 1838, 
 
 BY JAMES HOBAN, ESQUIRE, 
 
 A MEMBER. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
 
 PREVIOUS TO READING 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 
 
 BY AUGUSTUS F. CUNNINGHAM, 
 
 A MEMBER. 
 
 P1JBIiI8IUE:]> BV ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 WASHINGTON : 
 
 PRINTED AT THE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW OFFICE. 
 
 1838. 
 
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ORATION. 
 
 On this day, my Fellow-Citizens, sixteen millions of people in 
 tlie enjoyment of plenty, peace, and prosperity, inhabiting the 
 extent of this varied and vast republic, hold their political sabbath. 
 
 On this day they assemble — through the hills and the valleys, 
 
 by the ocean shore, and on the mountain lop ; from the chilly 
 
 North, where, in the watery chase, the bold adventurer smites the 
 
 Leviathan of the flood, to that generous and genial South, — 
 
 " Where the; citron and olive are fairest of fruit, 
 And the voice of the nightingale never is mute" — 
 
 In the halls of public legislation — in the open air — ^beneath the 
 
 umbrage of the leafy woods — in the temples raised up in honour 
 
 of the living God, they congregate — to celebrate the epoch of 
 
 their birth as a Nation — to pour out their gratitude to the Author 
 
 of all good for the blessings which he still continues to shower 
 
 upon them — for the complete success with which, in his wisdom 
 
 and goodness, he was pleased to crown the labours, the sacrifices, 
 
 the blood, and peril of their fathers in the season of severest trial, 
 
 and to bind around the monuments of the brave, the patriotic, the 
 
 dead, but the uiiforgotten, the fragrant ever green wreath of the 
 
 People's gratitude. 
 
 It is meet that this day should be ever kept holy. It will ever 
 refresh, it will ever profit, to contemplate the truths contained in 
 the Declaration which you have just heard read, and to dwell 
 upon the history of the times in which it had its origin. 
 
 As the waters are purest where first they bubble up from the 
 sandy earth, so are the fountains of political wisdom and virtue, 
 which find their sources in the days of the Revolution. 
 
 As the Arab loves to linger over the shaded springs of the 
 Desert, so do we over epochs in our history more refreshing than 
 the stream to the traveller thirsting, or rest to the weary. 
 
The Founders of this Nation, the early emigrants, were volun- 
 tary exiles from a country in which institutions of gross inequality 
 in their nature and tendencies, had grown grey with the State, 
 and where influences, incalculable in their variety and extent, 
 united to continue them. 
 
 In cruel persecutions they had felt the rod of arbitrary power. 
 That power at home they could neither bear nor successfully re- 
 sist. They brought with them to the New World a temper of 
 mind that could never have worked out its great consequences in 
 the Old. This Continent they found fresh from the hands of Na- 
 ture, where man roamed abroad upon its surface, stranger alike 
 to the evils of luxury or the advantages of civilization, subsisting 
 by the chase — nor formed into communities — nor crowded into 
 cities. The Sons of the Forest extended to them a generous, 
 confiding, liberal hospitality. Little did they imagine, in their 
 ignorant simplicity, what astoundmg results were soon to follow 
 the first impress of the footprints of the sturdy Pioneers upon the 
 virgin soil. They had come, perhaps, themselves, unconscious 
 of the magnitude of the enterprise, upon the mission of founding 
 a vast Empire. Here wealth could purchase no indulgences ; 
 titles and honours, and the silly pride of family and descent were 
 valueless. The chase or the plough must give them bread or sub- 
 sistence. The primeval woods would bow their leafy honours 
 only to the axe and the arm strongly nerved and untiring. Their 
 collision with the hostile tribes kept them ever active, and gave 
 their valour constant exercise. Thus were the Colonies planted, 
 thus they grew. Competent to their own support, they soon 
 learned the art of governing themselves. 
 
 Trained to enterprise and industry, accustomed to despise hard- 
 ships, and inured to the discipline into which they naturally fell, 
 of a condition, by necessity, warlike, they arrived readily at the 
 conclusion, that by the tenure of their own virtues, they held the 
 advantages which Providence had accorded to the labours and 
 privations which they had endured. They were the last people 
 on earth to pay ignoble tribute to the vices of a Government w^hich 
 
had driven them upon the pathless seas to seek a home — a Go- 
 vernment from which they were separated by a world of waters — 
 and yet still more widely by the dissonance between the habits and 
 institutions of a land fresh, vigorous, and virtuous, and one which 
 had long felt the enervating consequences of wealth to corrupt — 
 of power to intoxicate. Hence the contest which arose was that 
 of pride and the lust of dominion, on the one hand, of unbending 
 courage, and the love of home and liberty, on the other. The 
 legions of the Mother Country were hired with gold, and well 
 provided. The poor Colonists could neither pay, nor clothe, nor 
 feed the fearless defenders of their firesides. 
 
 Our enemies were excited by the hope of honours and rewards. 
 We were bleeding for our loved families and for our ourselves. They 
 trusted for support to the fleets and armies of a great nation. We 
 to our consciences, to our God, appealing for judgment upon our 
 motives, to posterity. They would bind us in fetters. We were 
 contending for principles which, in the expansive beneficence of 
 their action, might emancipate the world. 
 
 Ours was a cause which, in every heart that could feel, in every 
 soul capable of ambition or generosity, would find a natural advo- 
 cate. We had seen in the progress of the struggle, what we 
 might expect from the dominion which was sought to be estab- 
 lished over us. We saw the lineaments of the despotism we 
 hated in the scathing desolation of war, in the smoking ruins of 
 our homes, in the blood of our murdered brethren. Then, in- 
 deed, did the fair face of freedom look brighter and more beauti- 
 ful. Every Patriot felt, and knew his individual prosperity and 
 happiness to be embarked with the fate of the Republic. Such 
 was our cause. So holy, so just, sustained by motives so lofty! 
 The characters of our eminent men seemed fitted for its advocates. 
 Where in history shall we find another Washington? His fame, 
 how grand, how pure, how beautiful ! It rises in the midst of our 
 history like some alpine height, stretching from earth to sky — 
 drapened with the snows freshly fallen from the heavens — in all 
 its vast extent of surface without a spot or stain. How the 
 
G 
 
 heroes of other times dwindle before him. If Alexander as- 
 tonished by his extraordinary precocity, by a wonderful magna- 
 nimity, by a persevering ambition, by the extent and success of 
 a rapid and brilliant career of glory ; yet he dimmed the lustre of 
 all by a death, the base consequence of sensual brutality. 
 
 If Brutus be remembered as the expeller of Tyranny — the 
 chosen instrument of the institution of Roman virtue and li- 
 berty — the avenger of the murdered and chaste Lucretia — yet 
 the Casuist, the Patriot, or the Christian, may pause between 
 horror and approbation when he sentences his loved, his only 
 son, to death. 
 
 If Caesar was eloquent, if he adorned the literature of his coun- 
 try, if he spread the terror of the Roman name, and brought cap- 
 tives and gold to the Capitol, yet a selfish spirit directed every 
 action of his life — he distracted and destroyed — he laid unholy 
 hands upon the Treasury — and, in the Senate, like another Tar- 
 quin, tell by the hand of the later Brutus. 
 
 If the great modern hero smote the earth with alarm and won- 
 der — made kings and nations tributary — and, from an origin the 
 humblest, ascended to domination almost unlimited — yet the snows 
 of the North drank the blood of those legions, invincible but by the 
 elements — defeat, disaster, and death hewed down his myriads — 
 the barren rock of the ocean received upon its shores, like a drifted 
 weed, the disposer of kingdoms, the master of potentates, its si- 
 lent, melancholy, lonely exile ! 
 
 But with Washington no private improbity defaced the living 
 picture of his public virtues. In every relation of life his con- 
 duct was proof against the severest scrutiny. During the whole 
 Revolution he received from the Legislature barely the amount of 
 his actual expenditure ; his time, his labours, his privations, he 
 considered due to his bleeding country. As the pyramids in co- 
 lossal grandeur shape their sides in the direction of the cardinal 
 points, so his character, wide-spread and high-reaching, is ever 
 found controlled by the principles of truth and rectitude. In the 
 
darkest hour of our struggle, "the confidence of the country shone 
 like a halo around his person. Implicit reliance was always 
 placed upon his firmness, his sagacity, his devotion. When the 
 war ended, his last efforts were directed to avert the arms of his 
 fellow-soldiers, which were threatened to be directed against that 
 freedom which they had been drawn to achieve. His great- 
 ness is inseparably identified with the whole Revolution. The 
 same affection which called him to the command of the army 
 remained unabated when he delivered his sword back to Congress, 
 garlanded with victory, and stainless but with the blood of the 
 subdued enemies of human right. 
 
 After conquering in the field, to Washington was reserved the 
 added glory of lending the weight of his name and popularity 
 to the greater achievement of uniting us in the still more im- 
 portant measures of peace. His ambition was to bind together 
 our various interests, to render our success complete, our happi- 
 ness perpetual. Upon the institution of the new Federal Govern- 
 ment he was summoned with perfect unanimity to preside over its 
 operations. When the first term of his presidency had expired, 
 again was he called, without one dissenting voice, to the same 
 high station. Every honour which the people could confer still pur- 
 sued him, retreating into retirement. When he finally abandoned 
 those scenes of public labour, which had consumed so long a pe- 
 riod of his existence, like a father parting with his children, he 
 pronounced upon them his affectionate benediction. He wept, not 
 like Alexander, for new worlds to conquer, but tears of warmest 
 gratitude that the people were happy. He pronounced his Fare- 
 well Address, overflowing with feeling and full of the most profita- 
 ble advice. He warns the people against the enemies, under 
 whatever guise, of their continuing prosperity; and beseeches of 
 them the exercise towards each other of forbearance for errors, the 
 sympathy and kindness of brothers, and, above all, he charges 
 them to preserve inviolate the Union. Words of wisdom and pre- 
 science from the lips of purity and patriotism. 
 
 What are gold and jewels on the brow of royalty to the wreath 
 
8 
 
 which America has laid upon the temples of her first Chief Magis- 
 trate ? What is the splendor of regal coronation — the dazzling of 
 vain ornaments — the crowding of courtiers — the swarming of the 
 high-born and proud, kneeling at the footstool — the robed and the 
 mitred pouring oil and prayer upon one as humble in truth and as 
 perishable as the very minister who mingles the solemnity of the 
 religion of Heaven with the mockery of the pride of the power of 
 earth, to what America this day presents, where millions of his 
 fellow-citizens unite to do honour to the virtues of a man who has 
 long been gathered to his fathers — whose ear may hear no more the 
 benedictions pronounced upon his name — but who lives in the 
 glory of his own great deeds, in the memory, in the hearts of his 
 fellow-men. There is a moral grandeur in the perpetual homage 
 which we pay to Washington. Like the fires kept by the vestals 
 of old, it burns unceasingly upon the altar of the heart. A people 
 who can appreciate and reverence with intense and undying affec- 
 tion such a character, and such a man, can never be slaves. 
 
 The epoch of the Revolution was redolent, equally, of public 
 virtue and political wisdom. Great men sprung up equal to the 
 emergency which called them forth. " There were giants in those 
 days," Station the most exalted and the most humble was alike 
 prolific of genius. Every quality of mind was brought into the 
 councils of our country, considerate wisdom, powerful reasoning, 
 burning and beautiful declamation. A common sentiment pre- 
 vailed throughout the land. We were united by the same origin, 
 by like circumstances attending our emigration and settlement here, 
 by similar institutions, freedom and self-government, the sponta- 
 neous growth of our soil and situation, every where prevalent. 
 A blow aimed at one portion of our country was virtually struck 
 at every other. We were in spirit one people, we knew but one 
 cause — the liberty of all. The attack at the North caused imme- 
 diately the South to arm against aggression. If the rattle of the 
 first musketry was heard at Bunker's Hill, the thunder of the last 
 cannonading shook the earth at Yorktown. If the snows of a 
 frigid clime were the winding sheet of the early slain, the sands 
 
of' the South were stained with the blood of the continued contest. 
 Every State is the scene of some brilliant victory or bloody defeat, 
 where the martyrs in our cause left their bones to moulder. Their 
 silent and scattered remains, with the mute eloquence of the grave, 
 declare how expansive was the patriotism of the Revolution. If 
 thus, at every point, our fathers bled for the common liberty, how 
 dear and inviolable should be that union which gives us a country 
 and makes us a people ; that freedom and those institutions which 
 the Union only can perpetuate — an Union rendered sacred by re- 
 collections so touching. Withered be the parricidal hand that 
 shall ever be lifted up against it. The monuments, the memory, 
 the ashes, of the dead, the places of trial and glory, that belong to 
 a common soil and history, bind us to the sentiment — the hope of 
 its perpetuity — unholy is the mention, the very thought, of dis- 
 union. 
 
 July the fourth, 1776, the memorable Declaration of our Inde- 
 pendence was proclaimed. The spirit and the glory of our fa- 
 thers will live forever in that paper. In that Declaration they an- 
 nounce their principles. To support them they appeal not to 
 names, not to books, not to authority, but to human reason, and to 
 that sense of right which belongs to all. They enter upon no 
 hair-splitting disquisitions — but plain, practical, and powerful men, 
 they speak to the head — they speak from the heart. They embody 
 their political creed in few words ; they seek not to give it the ar- 
 tificial adornments of studied expression. They say "we hold 
 these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that 
 they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
 and that among these, are life, liberty, and the search after happi- 
 ness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted 
 amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
 governed; that whenever any form of government becomes des- 
 tructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter, or to 
 abolish it, and to institute anew government, laying its foundation 
 on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to 
 them shall seem most likely to eifect their safety and happiness." 
 
10 
 
 In terms so plain and direct, are conveyed the great truths of 
 political salvation. There are, my friends, in substance, but two 
 kinds of government ; to these divisions every form may be re 
 duced ; the one sustained by the force of the governor, the other 
 by the free consent of the governed. The Revolution asserted 
 this dogma, that power is legitimate only when instituted by the 
 people, and subject to their control. It asserted the true dignity of 
 man. It reformed the science of government by combining the 
 interest and duties of the maker of the law, with those of him of 
 ■whom that law enacts obedience to its mandates. The stale and 
 crafty priloxt that the people are too ignorant to know, and too 
 debased to pursue, their own happiness, our experience has fully 
 refuted. In other lands the gleaming of bayonets, the tramp of 
 cavalry, the discipline of war, betray the presence of authority ; 
 but with us the law asserts its moral dominion — it smites without 
 the sword — it operates like the elements and the seasons with an 
 energy unseen, but every where felt in protecting beneficence. A 
 nation vast and extended as ours, thus submissive to the mere ex- 
 cellence and beauty of her institutions, pleads the cause of human 
 liberty, with an eloquence far more persuasive than can belong to 
 the tongue, or to the pen. 
 
 The Revolution achieved for us Independence, both political 
 and personal. The Colonists were actuated not by that idle lust 
 of dominion, which has stained with blood so frequently the an- 
 nals of the world. Their victories w^ere over nothing great or 
 good. They chained no captive to grace their car of triumph. 
 They sought the establishment of principles, the example of which 
 was to be unlimited by time or country in their operation — to be 
 felt and enjoyed by the whole human family, long after those who 
 enforced their living truth should moulder in the dust. The jus- 
 tice of such a cause animated every bosom. In such a contest 
 we could stand up, erect like men, before the earth, and in the face 
 of Heaven, and with religious solemnity and confidence, invoke 
 the aid of the Omnipotent. 
 
 The members of the Congress of '76, in touching language, 
 
11 
 
 pledged to each other, in support of their common Declaration, 
 "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour." In the 
 simplicity of truth and suffering they declare their grievances : at 
 the bar of the people they arraign annointed sovereignty, they dis- 
 card the idle sophistry of the constitution of the Mother Country. 
 In the epithet of despot, they merge the sacred appellation of king, 
 and boldly announce "that a prince whose character is marked 
 by every act that may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a 
 free people." 
 
 Such were the men of the Revolution. For them, rank had no 
 awe, wealth no seduction, the bayonet no terror. When the de- 
 tected spy offered money profusely for ransom, the simple yeoman- 
 ry replied with scorn, "Briton, put up thy gold." When a bribe 
 was proposed to win the allegiance of a citizen of eminence and 
 poverty, he said, "I am poor, very poor — but poor as I am, the 
 King of England cannot buy me." A sentiment which deserved 
 to have given the form of him who uttered it, to the enduring 
 marble. 
 
 These are the fruits of the spirit of genuine Liberty. It swells 
 the heart, it elevates the soul. In whatever age, in whatever 
 clime, midst what people soever, this spirit has prevailed ; it has 
 called into activity every virtue that ennobles, every faculty that 
 elevates. 
 
 From the free Republics of the east, we have received, after the 
 lapse of more than two thousand years, arts, sciences, and letters, 
 beyond the capability of modern improvement. There the philo- 
 sophy which enlightened Paganism, teaching in the groves and 
 in the academy, assembled her numerous disciples. There was 
 heard that classic Eloquence — the perfection of style — brilliant 
 and beautiful of diction, magnificent and majestic, moving the 
 heart. There did Architecture rear her marble shapes of grace 
 and proportion, in after-times to be copied in tame servility, but 
 which none will dare to alter, nor indulge the hope to rival. 
 There did Poetry put forth those flowers, whose hue and perfume 
 have not been lost in the lapse of centuries. There did Sculp- 
 
12 
 
 ture chisel her noble models, before the unapproachable excel- 
 lence of which, man has bowed down in the silence of admira- 
 tion unutterable. There prevailed those virtues which we seek 
 to emulate, there those heroes of antiquity whom we love to 
 praise. 
 
 It was the spirit which had effected all this which our fathers 
 introduced upon this Western soil. Nature and freshness invited 
 her approach. She came, and " lo, the desert smiled." She 
 lifted up her Banner, and the stars of Heaven rejoiced to lend 
 it their radiance — the rainbow it gorgeous hues of hope — beneath 
 it the nations, the people of every clime, hastened to crowd. 
 
 The Patriot beheld it and rushed to death beneath its beauteous 
 folds. Unsmitten by the storm of domestic strife — untorn by the 
 iron hail of War — above the smoke and din of an hundred bat- 
 tles, it floated unharmed, until the enemies of our cause sunk in 
 submission before it. 
 
 Wherever that Banner is advanced the oak trembles before the 
 axe of the freeman — the forest disappears. The Savage retires 
 at our approach — the wild herds of nature yield to the presence of 
 civilized man. Temples are erected to the great Creator. Our 
 waters are whitened w^th the sails of growing commerce. Com- 
 forts and luxuries are showered like the refreshing rains of Hea- 
 ven over the whole land. The hills and the vales grow yellow 
 with the ripened fruits and grain of Autumn. The spirit of 
 American Liberty ascends the Alleghany top — she turns her face 
 to the setting sun — and lo ! where all before was wild and uncul- 
 tured the blue smoke curls up from the cabin of the settler — his 
 bright-eyed offspring crowds the places of public instruction — 
 within the period measured by the brief span of a single exisr- 
 ence, cities, towns, yea, nations, arise. Oh that I could summon 
 the dead that sleep — that I could reanimate Warren, the first that 
 fell, Montgomery, who in the arms of victory, perished on a 
 foreign soil — that I could bring before us now all who in '76 gave 
 their blood and their services for us and for our children. Oh that 
 they lived but to realize the magnitude of their virtues, the value 
 
13 
 
 of their deeds, in the picture of prosperity and glory which our 
 country this day presents. They could tell you, my friends, what 
 they suffered in the cold of winter when the snow was marked 
 with blood where passed their unshod feet — how they fainted in 
 the summer's heat — how they perished by the sword, by hunger, 
 by privation, in battle, by the horrid diseases of the camp. These, 
 they would tell you, they endured as the price of the Liberty you 
 enjoy. They would tell you, as I cannot tell you, with an 
 eloquence to which even the grave could give no added solem- 
 nity, to cling to the precious legacy which they have bequeathed 
 you. Yes, my friends, celebrate this day. Bring your children 
 to the altar, swear them to the support of the principles of the 
 Declaration. Shew them the simplicity and beauty of our Go- 
 vernment. Excite in their youthful bosoms, as the only means 
 of preserving our institutions, the same noble virtues to which 
 they owe their origin ; accustom them to visit the monuments, to 
 cherish the memory, of our heroes and sages. 
 
 Tell them that in this favoured land, where the earth gives forth 
 its fruitfulness obedient to toil and industry, no pampered clergy 
 claim, in the name of Heaven, the tenth of its produce — that no 
 debasing differences are instituted, between men by nature equal, 
 by the accident of birth. That no hireling soldiery is quartered 
 upon them to bayonet them by authority, and to " eat out their 
 substance.'''' Tell them that this they owe to the virtues, the 
 principles, the men of the Revolution. 
 
 Long as these principles prevail amongst us will our country 
 continue to shine, fixed and bright as the polar star — a light to 
 the nations — proclaiming to man liberty and regeneration. 
 
 Flag of my country ! long mayst thou float above the green 
 fields of this happy soil. From the wooden walls of our power 
 may it ever be reflected in the bosom of the deep. It is the 
 brilliant emblem of our union and our greatness — around it is 
 entwined the verdant glory of a thousand victories. When we 
 dishonour it Heaven will dishonour us. Long as the surf beats 
 upon our shores may it hang from the cliffs above its foam. Till 
 
14 
 
 the worlds of light cease to shine in the Heavens may its stais be 
 undimmed. In battle and in peace, in fortunes, prosperous and 
 adverse, as it covered our fathers, so long may it cover, with 
 blessings, us and our posterity. 
 
 REMARKS, ETC. 
 
 Friends and Fellow Citizens : 
 
 Whenever we are called upon to contemplate the important 
 paper which is about to be read to you, the mind busies itself in 
 speculations, and pleasing reminiscences of history, (for few if 
 any of us were in existence, on the day that it was first read to 
 the people of the then feeble but independent Colonies of Great 
 Britain,) as to the causes which lead to so bold, so unique, so 
 fearless, a declaration of their intentions, which if they had not 
 been guided by the most consummate wisdom, and sustained by 
 the most unflinching bravery and unerring skill, would have been 
 but their own signature to the death warrant for all those, whose 
 names are attached to this first fruit of the labours of our Puri- 
 tan fathers ! 
 
 I say our Puritan fathers, because it was the persecutions and 
 oppressions which they sufl^ered and bore in England on account 
 of their religious opinions, that determined them to brave the 
 Ocean, the Savage, the Desert, and the wild beast, to found an 
 empire, where they could worship their God in safety and in 
 peace. From the time they first landed on the Rock of Ply- 
 mouth, the seed of the tree of Liberty was planted, which has 
 grown to so mighty a size, that its branches now reach from the 
 
15 
 
 Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Frozen Ocean to the Straits of 
 Magellan, and millions upon millions refresh themselves under its 
 shadow, and enjoy its fruits ; the influence of whose healthful 
 odours has crossed the Atlantic, and is now operating with salu- 
 tary effect upon the governments of the Old World. Already do 
 the legitimate thrones and palaces of the monarchs and despots 
 of Europe tremble to their foundations as if they would seperate 
 and distribute the several parts of which they were composed 
 among their rightful owners. Concession after concession, of 
 usurped privileges, is forced from those who formerly declared 
 that they held their power by Divine right ! ! ! 
 
 It is an error to consider the Boston Massacre, the Duty upon 
 Tea, or the closing of the Port of Boston, or any of the many 
 attempts of the British Government to oppress this Continent, as 
 remote or proximate causes of the Declaration of Independence. 
 The Independence of America was an event which could as easily 
 be prevented as the procession of the Equinoxes, or the mighty 
 revolutions of the Planets of the Universe. They were but pre- 
 cusors which tended to strengthen and concentrate men's minds 
 to complete the Grand Design which had been determined upon 
 in the Divine Economy, from the foundation of the world ; and 
 "when they were fitted and prepared, when those great spirits, 
 great in Council, and determined in the Field, were collected 
 and ripe for the work, the signal was given for action ; and that 
 signal was the paper, a copy of which I now hold in my hand. 
 
 It is now sixty-two years since this invaluable document was 
 first proclaimed to an astonished and doubting world — doubting 
 that man was capable of Self-Government. It was generally be- 
 lieved in Europe, and by many eminent men in this country, that 
 if the restraints of monarchy were withdrawn from man, that in- 
 stead of increasing in happiness and virtue, we would fall into 
 anarchy and crime. How these doubts have come to nought, let 
 our present position, as a nation, bear testimony. "Unawed by 
 influence, and unbought by power " — for where is power but in 
 the People's hands ? — the democracy of this vast country have 
 
16 
 
 steadily pursued the path laid out by the fathers of the American 
 Revolution, and exerting themselves to educate their children, 
 and imbuing their minds with the holy fire of Liberty, and the 
 spirit which actuated them, they have trusted to this much ven- 
 erated and cherished instrument, which has been to them as a 
 " pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of smoke by day," to guide 
 them through the political wilderness which surrounded them. 
 By its light they have emancipated themselves, and now offer an 
 " asylum to the oppressed of all nations," and the Sons of Liber- 
 ty of every clime. 
 
 It is the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, infused 
 through all our institutions, that has given us such pre-eminence 
 as a nation, and astonished the world with our unexampled pro- 
 gress to maturity. It is its spirit that has called to our shores the 
 wisdom of the Sage, the sagacity of the Statesman, and the energy 
 of the Labouring Classes of other countries, to aid us in beautify- 
 ing and perfecting our Temple of Liberty. May no narrow policy 
 of our own deprive us of the advantages which such aids supply, 
 and which must weaken those countries from which they are 
 withdrawn ! 
 
 The reading of this Declaration of the object, the principle, and 
 the determination of our forefathers, has been objected to, by some, 
 as tending to keep alive an hostile spirit towards the mother coun- 
 try. With as much propriety might the Heathen object to the 
 Christian's reading the Holy Bible, which is believed to contain 
 the only declaration of the final ransom and salvation of man ; 
 and as soon would we expect that the holy Ministers of Religion 
 would lay that sacred Charter aside, as that the American People 
 would cease reading, on this great Sabbath of Liberty, the Decla- 
 ration of Independence ! ! 
 
 I have only to say, that I conceive it a high mark of the esteemi 
 of the Society, to have chosen me to perform the patriotic duty 
 assigned me ; and I regret that I cannot bestow upon it that grace 
 and effect which would transport us back, in imagination, to the 
 
 " TIMES THAT TRIED MEN's SOULS." 
 
 LRB "10 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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