■w^^??^'- ^,;r/VA'^^ftf^^^^^!^®''" ^'^C^.. ^ r"^n'ri^ ' r^ ■ >n/NAo/^r>^^rN,Py/>^^r\, .n^?^^^ "^^'''^^^WS^^ ,^ci^;^c-~-'^^^^' ^r'^'^rx'N .fr^*««^^^?- -s;?;:'^.™-'^''^"^ »ff^ A/WiA -. ^C'^V'X T^'TTTT!TT^j;TTTv' 1ml! LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESENTED BY 5S«»(SS«oM^?«sf||^| «aiS'< '\T Ti ^.'^i«,^« UNITED STATES 01 AMERICA, fll ■, ' -a«a^a ^iA*«»-**»i!i ??S??*g?^*Mft«5«ikPS ^ /•/^AA^A'^^^rA^, ^;^^^^^?^^^^^^^ ^^«^«a ^^^,r.rv^:\^l^/" u^X^ft'^iJUfflaJ^I^ i/^{^SR,.'».A^^^, iyMiiAAWA^ f^^tff^'^^^l mf^^^m'r!^^ rATjMSbU^ffiWX '^aAP '^^^^^^^r^^^^f^ (SKRW«-'KWSo?«?r.fi52AKA^'^^^ 1/^pi '[ I '■S - - [CT^>M^^£fl3/goW cTrf Jf^^^i^ 'JmujJMuSn nmmj^w^. -!-v'^Q'?.©ft, ^0r-^■/:^ iriMJ2iM;kFy-^-^T''*'^'*M»^MM^^ 'Mmm W^^ Ij-T^H^''-' ^^ ^n '/^V^'-'PP''" '«^a««'^-^'^^'' ?mM-~ '^MfC'^'^ - "^^ f»^' ^f^m, ^H^.^^^^^M, ^AAA'Tr";:'r^, '^■AOT ^A,*^i^:^^k«^^^v^o^ 1^ ^^A-'aaAA a.AAa^^AaWaa _ .^ "»;s',.!,y-'zi' >- - X ORATION UELIVBUKD UCFORE THE City Council and Citizens of Boston. ONE HUNnREDI'll ANNIVERSAHY OK THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDEXCE. <^ JULY 4, 1876, BY HON. ROBERT 0. WINTHROP, LL. D.. I'RESII>ENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TI I S T O K I C A I, SOCIETY. ^ S t It : PRINTED HY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. M n O C C L X X V I . 5" oratio:n" DELrV'ERED BEFORE TIIE City Council and Citizens of Boston, ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION . OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, JULY 4, 1876, BY HON. EGBERT d^WINTHROP, LL. D., President of the M ass AcnusETTs Histouical Society. '■'Hvrx'-r'-^—' ■^^ Boston: PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. JIDCCCLXXVI. ^r.^ [Fifty Copies Quarto riuvATKLY ruiNTKi*.] lt««k««U h Cburchlll, Printcn, 30 Anb 8ue«u UmUh. CITY OF BOSTON In Common Council, July 6, 1876. Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council are due, and they are hereby tendered, to the Hon. Egbert C. Win- THROP for the very appropriate, interesting and eloquent oration delivered by him before the Municipal Authorities of this city, upon the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence ; and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same for publication. Sent up for concurrence. J. Q. A. BEACKETT, President. In Board of Aldermen, July 10, 1876. Concurred. JOHN T. CLAEK, Chairman. Approved July 11, 1876. SAMUEL C. COBB, Mayor. SEEVICES AT MUSIC HALL. The Oration was delivered in ]\Iusic Hall, which was appropriately decorated for the occasion. A large audience was present. After music by the Gei-mauia Band, the Mayor, the Hon. Samuel C. Cobb, addressed the audience in the following words : — " The audience will please give attention while prayer is offered by the Kev. Henry W. Foote." Kev. Henry "W. Foote, pastor of King's Chapel, then offered the following prayer : — PKAYER BY THE REV. MK. FOOTE. Lord God of our fathers, whose faithfuhiess and mercies are unto children's children, to such as re- member thy commandments to do them, Ave thank thee that we can come to thee in the name, and as discijjles, of onr Lord Jesus Christ. On this memorial day, as we rejoice before thee with grateful millions, we ask that the gladness of our comitry may be filled with thankfulness for thy mercies, and that thou wilt sanctify the proud memories and the glad hopes of this hour. We bless thee, O thou who art the God of nations and of men, that thou wast with our fathers in the days of old; that thou didst bring them 6 SERVICES AT MUSIC HALL. liither across the trackless deep, the seed-grain of a great nation; that thou didst cast out the heathen before them to make room for the ^■ine of thy choos- ing, and that our hills are covered with its shadow and the boughs thereof are like the goodly cedar. We thank thee that thou wast with our fathers in the time of battle to strengthen their hearts through Aveary years of war, to strengthen theu' hands to smite mightj' kings, and to give them the sure fruits of peace. We bless thy name that thou wast with them in the spirit of wisdom and under- standing, to inspire their hearts with those great principles of liberty and justice which shine as stars to lead all nations to a better day ; and we bless thee that thou wast with them in the spirit of knowledge and of thy fear, to establish their work in a nation that should endure for centuries. We remember be- fore thee with thankfulness the great and heroic men whom thou didst raise up to be their leadei's in the time of war, their counsellors in the days of peace; we bless thee for their patience in adversity, their soberaess in triumi^h, thcii- wisdom, their pui'ity, their patriotism, their faith in thee; and we pray that, as thy servant shall speak to us of the mighty and endiu'ing work which they wrought, the memorial of tlieir viitucs may abide in our hearts, and the power of their example strengthen us daily to thy service and thy praise. We thank thee, O our guardian JULY 4, 1876. 7- God, that as a reunited people, this nation bows before thee in this memorable hour; that thou hast put away all feeling of bitterness from between us, and from the l!^orth and the South, the East and the West, we come up together into thy kingdom of peace and love. Bless, we pray thee, our mother- country and her Queen; remove all memories of ancient strife from our hearts, and grant that the ties of blood and of faith may bind us together through centuries to come. Rule thou in the hearts of our rulers in the spirit of loyalty and incorrupt faithful- ness, and grant that this people may be indeed a nation whose God is the Lord, built upon that right- eousness which alone can exalt a jjeople. Hear us, we pray thee; strengthen us in thy faith and love, and let thy kingdom come and thy will be done. We ask it as disciples of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. At the conclusion of the prayer, the Gerniania Band played a selection, after which the Mayor introduced the reader of the Declaration of Independence, iu the following words : — Fellow-Citizexs, Ladies aot) Gextlemen, — On the 4th of July, 1776, a document was pub- lished in Philadelphia, solemnly proclaiming the birth of a nation. The passage of time has made that dec- laration good, and has placed that new-born nation 8 SERVICES AT MUSIC HALL. on a pinnacle of greatness and power, making the date an era in the history of civil liberty and of the AvorkFs civilization. It is fit that that historic paper should be read on this Centennial Anniversary in all the assemblies of the people throughout the land. It will now be read here; and I regard it as a felic- itous circumstance that its momentous utterances should reach us to-day through the lips of one whose ancestor's name stands subscribed to it, and who represents, in name and blood, a succession of illus- trious men who, in the highest stations of honor and public service, have borne a conspicuous part in the national history and counsels, from the fli-st day to the last of the intervening century. I present to you Brooks Adams, Esq. Tlie Declaration of Independence was then read by Mr. Adams, after wbicli the Mayor spoke as follows : — * In casting about for one who might worthily grace this Centennial occasion by taking the chief part in its observance, we did not have to search long before coming to a name so identified with the high accom- lilishments of the scholar, the orator, and the states- man, that the bare mention of it was equivalent to an election. We have considered it a fortunate coincidence that the gentleman designated for this service, by the JULY 4, 187G. 9 qualifications I have mentioned, bears the name of one who was conspicnoiis in the annals of Boston more than a century before the Declaration of In- dependence, — the name of one who presided with honor and dignity over the destinies of the infant city in the days when it was but a straggling village on the shore of this peninsula. We all know that neither the centiuy of our national existence, nor the two centuries and a half that have passed smce the settlement of Boston, have dinmied the lustre of that name and lineage. I present to you, fellow-citizens, the Honorable Robert C. Wixthrop. At the conclusion of the Mayor's remarks, the Hon. Robert C. Winthkop delivered the following oration. 2 I ORATION. Agadst and again, Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens, in years gone by, considerations or circumstances of some sort, public or private, — I know not what, — have prevented my acceptance of most kind and flattering invitations to deliver the Oration in this my native city on the Fourth of Jul3\ On one of those occasions, long, long ago, I am said to have playfully replied to the Mayor of that period, that, if I lived to witness this Centennial Anniversary, I would not refuse any service which might be required of me. That pledge has been recalled by others, if not remembered by myself, and by the grace of God I am here to-day to fvilfil it. I have come at last in obedience to your call, to add ray name to the distinguished roll of those who have discharged this service in vmbroken succession since the year 1783, when the date of a glorious act of patriots was substituted for that of a dastardly deed of hirelings, — the 4th of July for the 5th of March, — as a day of annual celebration by the people of Boston. In rising to redeem the promise thus inconsider- I 12 onATiox. ately given, I may be pardoned for not forgetting, at the outset, who presided over the Executive Council of Massachusetts Avhen the Declaration, which has just been read, was iirst formally and solemnly proclaimed to the people, from the balcony of yonder Old State House, on the 18th of July, 177G;* and whose jii'ivilege it was, amid the shoutings of the assembled multitude, the ringing of the bells, the salutes of the surrounding forts, and the firing of thirteen volleys from thirteen successive divisions of the Continental regiments, draAvn up ''in corre- spondence with the number of the American States United," to invoke "Stability and Perpetuity to American Independence! God save our AnuMican States!" That invocation was not in vain. That wish, that prayer, has been graciously granted. We are here this day to thank (iod for it. We do thank God loi- it with all our jiearts, and ascribe to Ilim all the glory. And it would be unnatural if I did not feel a more than conunon satisfaction, that the privilege of giviug expression to your emotions of joy and gratitude, at this hour, should have been assigned 1i> the oldest living descendant of him by whom that invocation was uttered, and that ])rayer breathed uj) to Heaven. Aud 11", indeed, in addition to this, — as you, Mr. * James Bowdoin. JULY i, 187G. 13 Mayor, so kindly iirged in originally inviting me, — the name I bear may serve in any sort as a link between the earliest settlement of ISTew England, two centuries and a half ago, and the grand cnlmination of that settlement in this Centennial Epoch of American Independence, all the less may I be at liberty to express anything of the compunction or regret, which I cannot but sincerely feel, that so responsible and difficult a task had not been imposed upon some more sufficient, or certainly upon some younger, man. Yet what can I say? "Wliat can any one say, here or elsewhere, to-day, which shall either satisfy the expectations of others, or meet his own sense of the demands of such an occasion? For myself, certainly, the longer I have contemplated it, — the more deeply I have reflected on it, — so much the more hopeless I have become of finding myself able to give any adequate expression to its full significance, its real sublimity and grandeur. A hundred-fold more than when John Adams wi-ote to his wife it would be so forever, it is an occasion for "shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other." Ovations rather than orations, are the order of such a day as this. Emo- tions like those which ought to fill, and which do fill, all our hearts, call for the swelling tones of a multitude, the cheers of a mighty crowd, and refuse 14 OKATION. to be uttered by any single Iniman voice. The strongest phrases seem feeble and powerless; the best residts of historical research have the dryness of chaff and husks, and the richest flowers of rheto- ric the drowsiness of "poppy or mandragora." in ])resence of the simplest statement of the grand consummation we are here to celebrate: — A Cen- tury of Self-Government Completed! A hundred years of Free Kepublican Institutions realized and rounded out ! An era of Popuhu' Liberty, continued and prolonged from generation to generation, until to-day it assumes its full proportions, and asserts its rightful i)lace, among the Ages! It is a theme from which an Everett, a Choate, or even a AVebster, might have shrunk. But those voices, alas! were long ago hushed. It is a theme on which any one, li^-ing or dead, might have been glad to follow the precedent of those few incom- parable sentences at Gettysburg, on the lOtli of November, 1SG.'>, and ibrbcar from all attempt al extended discourse. It is not for me, howevei", to copy that unique original, — nor yet to shelter my- self under an example, which I shoidd iii yarn aspire to eipial. And, indeed. Fellow Citizens, some lurnial words nuist be spoken here to-day, — trite, familiar, com- monplace words, though thc}^ may be; — some words oJ' commemoration; some words of congratulation; JULY 4, 187G. 15 some words of glory to God, and of acknowledgment to man; some grateful lookings back; some hopeful, trustful, lookings forward, — these, I am sensible, cannot be spared from our great assembly on this Centennial Day. You would not pardon me for omitting them. But where shall I begin? To what specific sub- ject shall I turn for refuge from the thousand thoughts which come crowding to one's mind and rushing to one's lips, all jealous of postponement, all clamoring for utterance before our Festival shall close, and before this Centennial sun shall set? The single, simple Act which has made the Fourth of July memorable for ever, — the mere scene of the Declaration, — would of itself and alone supply an ample subject for far more than the little hour which I may dare to occupy; and, though it has been described a hundred times before, in histories and addresses, and in countless magazines and journals, it imperatively demands something more than a cursory allusion here to-day, and challenges our attention as it never did before, and hardly ever can challenge it again. Go back with me, then, for a few moments at least, to that great year of our Lord, and that great day of American Liberty. Transport yourselves with me, in imagination, to Philadelphia. It will require but Uttle effort for any of us to do so, for all 16 ORATION. oui' hearts are there already. Yes, we are all thei-e, — from the At hint ic to the Pacific, from the Lalvcs to the CtuH", — we ai-c all tlicix', at this higli noon of our Nation's birthday, in that beantifnl City of Brotherly Love, rejoicing- in all her brilliant displays, and partaking in the full enjoyment of all her pag- eantiy and pride. Certainly-, the birthplace and the burial-place of Franklin are in cordial sym2:)athy at this hour; and a common sentiment of congratulation and joy, leaping and vibrating from heart to heart, outstrips even the magic swiftness of magnetic wires. There are no chords of such elastic reach and such electric power as the heartstrings of a mighty Xation, touched and tuned, as all our heartstrings are to-day, to the sense of a common glory, — throbbing and thrilling with a common exultation. Go with me, then, I say, to Philadelphia ; — not to Philadelphia, indeed, as she is at this moment, with all her braveiy on, with all her beautiful garments around her, with all the graceful and generous con- tributions which so many other Cities and othei- States and other Kations have sent for her adorn- ment, — not forgetting those most gracefid, most welcome, most touching contributions, in view of the precise character of the occasion, from Old England herself; — but go with me to Philadelphia, as she was just a hundred years ago. Enter with me her noble Independence Hall, so happily restored and conse- . JULY 4, 187G. 17 crated afresh as the Rvmnymede of our Nation ; and, as Ave enter it, let lis not forget to be grateful that no demands of public convenience or expediency have called for the demolition of that old State House of Pennsylvania. Observe and watch the movements, listen attentively to the words, look steadfastly at the countenances, of the men who compose the little Congress assembled there. Braver, wiser, nobler men have never been gathered and groujjed under a single roof, before or since, in any age, on any soil beneath the sun. What are they doing? What are they daring? Who are the}', thus to do, and thus to dare ? Single out with me, as you easily will at the first glance, by a presence and a stature not easily over- looked or mistaken, the young, ardent, accomplished Jefferson. He is only just thirty-three years of age. Charming in conversation, ready and full in council, he is " slow of tongue," like the great Lawgiver of the Israelites, for any public discussion or formal discourse. But he has brought with him the reputa- tion of wielding what John Adams well called " a masterly pen." And grandly has he justified that reputation. Grandly has he employed that pen already, in drafting a Paper which is at this moment lying on the table and awaiting its final signature and sanction. Thi'ee weeks before, indeed, — on the previous 7th 3 IS OKATIOK. of Juiic, — his own noble colleaji^ie, Richard Henry Lee, had moved tlie Kesolntion, whose adoption, on the 2d of dulv. had viitiially settled the wliole ques- tion. Nothing', certainly, more explicit or emphatic coidd have been wanted for that Congress itself than that Resolution, setting forth as it did, in langiuige of striking simplicity and brevity and dignity, " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." ■ That Resolution was, indeed, not only comprehen- sive and conclusive enough for the Congress Avhich adopted it, but, I need not say, it is comprehensive and conclusive enough for us; and I heartily wish, that, in the century to come, its reading might be sub- stituted for that of the longer Declaration Avhich has I)ut the patience of our audiences to so severe a test for so many years past, — though, happily, not to-day. But the form in which that Resolution was to be announced and j)roclaimed to the people of the Colonies, and the reasons by which it was to be justitied before thcAvorld, were at that time of intense interest and of momentous importance. Xo graver respcmsibility was ever devolved ui)ou a young man of thirty-three, if. indeed, upon any man oi any age, JULY 4, ]S7fi. 19 than that of pre^iaring such a Paper. As often as I have examhied the original draft of that Paper, still extant in the Archives of the State Department at Washington, and have observed how very few changes were made, or even suggested, by the illus- triotas men associated Avith its author on the corn- mittee for its preparation, it has seemed to me to be as marvellous a composition, of its kind and for its purpose, as the annals of mankind can show. The earliest honors of this day, certainly, may well be paid, here and throughout the country, to the young Virginian of " the masterly pen." And here, by the favor of a highly valued friend and fellow-citizen, to whom it was given by Jefferson himself a few months only before his death, I am privileged to hold in my hands, and to lift up to the eager gaze of you all, a most compact and convenient little mahogany case, which bears this autogi'aph inscription on its face, dated "Monticello, November 18,1825:" — "Thomas Jefferson gives this Writing Desk to Joseph Coolidge, Jnn""., as a memorial of liis affection. It was made from a drawing of his own, by Ben Randall, Cabinet-maker of Philadelphia, with whom he first lodged on his arrival in that City in May, 1776, and is the identical one on which he wrote the Declaration of Independence." "Politics, as well as Religion," the inscription pro- 20 OKATIOX. ceecls to say, "has its superstitions. These, gaining strength witli lime, may. one day, give hnaginary vakie to this relic, for its association with tlie l)irth of the Great Charter of our Independence." Superstitions! Imaginary value! Xot for an instant can we admit such ideas. The modesty of the Avriter has ])etraycd even ''the masterly pen." There is no imaginary value to this relic, and no superstition is re([uired to render it as precious and priceless a piece of wood, as the secular cabinets of the world have ever possessed, or ever claimed to possess. !N^o cabinet-maker on earth will have a more endui-ing name than this inscription has secured to " Ben Randall, of Philadelphia." Xo i)cn will have a wider oi- more lasting fame than his who wrote the inseri})ti«)n. The veiy tal)le at Runnymede, which some of us have seen, on wliich the Magna ( 'liarta of "o England is said to have been signed or sealed five centuries and a half before, — even were it authen- ticated l)y the gt'iuiine autographs of every one of those brave old Barons, Avith Stephen Langton at their head, — who extorted its grand pledges and promises from King John, — so soon to be violated, — could hardly exceed, could hardly equal, in interest and value, this little mahogany desk. What mo- iuentous issues for oni' eounti'v. and for mankind, wei'e loeki'd up in this narrow drawi'r, as night after night the rough notes ol" preparation for the Great . ' JULY 4, 187C. 21 Paper were laid aside for the revision of the morning! To what anxions thoughts, to what careful study of words and phrases, to what cautious weighing of statements and arguments, to what deej) and almost overwhelming impressions of responsibility, it must have been a witness ! Long may it find its appro- priate and appreciating ownership in the successive generations of a family, in which the blood of Vir- ginia and Massachusetts is so auspiciously com- mingled! Should it, in the lapse of years, ever pass from the hands of those to Avhom it will be so precious an heirloom, it could only have its fit and final place among the choicest and most chei'ished treasures of the IN'ation, with whose Title Deeds of Independence it is so proudly associated! But the young Jefferson is not alone from Virginia, on the day we are celebrating, in the Hall which we have entered as imaginary spectators of the scene. His venerated friend and old legal precejitor, — George "VYythe, — is, indeed, temporarily absent from his side; and even Eiehard Henry Lee, the original mover of the measure, and upon whom it might have devolved to draw up the Declaration, has been called home by dangerous illness in his family, and is not there to help him. But " the gay, good-humored " Francis Lightfoot Lee, a younger brother, is there. Benjjynin Harrison, the father of our late President Harrison, is there, and has just reported the Decla- 22 OUATION. ration from the Committee of the Whole, of Avhich he Avas Chairman. The "mild and philanthropic" Carter Braxton is there, in the place of the lamented Pe}i:on l\and(>li)h, the first President of the Con- tinental Congress, who had died, to the sorrow of the whole country, six or seven months before. And the noble-hearted Thomas Nelson is there, — the largest subscriber to the generous relief sent from A'irginia to Boston during the sore distress oc- casioned by the shutting up of our Port, and who Avas the mover of those Instructions in the Convention of Virginia, passed on the 15th of May, under Avhich Richai-d Henry Lee offered the original resolution of Independence, on the 7th of June. I am particular, Fellow Citizens, in giving to the Old Dominion tlie foremost place in this rapid survey of the Fourth of July, 177(5, and in naming every one of her delegates who participated hi that day's doings; for it is hardly too nuich to say, that the destinies of our country, at that ])eriod, hung and hinged upon her action, and upon the action of her great and glorious sons. Without A'irginia, as we must all acl\-nowledge, — Avithout her Patrick TTenry among the people, her l^ees and JelVerson in the forum, and lur Washington in the Held, — 1 will not say, that the cause of Ami'iican Jiibcrtv and American in- dependence must have bei'u ultimately defeased,— no, no; there was no ulthnate defeat for that cause in JULY 4, 187G. 23 the decrees of the Most High! — but it must have been delayed, postponed, pei'plexed, and to many eyes and to many hearts rendered seemingly hopeless. It was Union which assured our Independence, and there could have been no Union without the influence and cooperation of that great leading Southern Colony. To-day, then, as we look back over the wide gulf of a century, we are ready and glad to forget every thing of alienation, every thing of contention and estrangement which has intervened, and to hail her once more, as our Fathers in Faneuil Hall hailed her, in 1775, as " our noble, patriotic sister Colony, Vu'ginia." I may not attempt, on this occasion, to speak with equal particularity of all the other delegates whom we see assembled in that immortal Congress. Their names are all inscribed where they can never be oblit- erated, never be forgotten. Yet some others of them so challenge our attention and rivet our gaze, as we look in upon that old time-honored Hall, that I cannot pass to other topics without a brief allusion to them. Who can overlook or mistake the sturdy front of Roger Sherman, whom we are proud to recall as a native of Massachusetts, though now a delegate from Connecticut, — that " Old Puritan," as John Adams well said, " as honest as an angel, and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mount Atlas," — represented most worthily to-day by the distinguished 24: ORATION. Orator of the Centennial at Philadelphia, as well as by move tlian one distinguished grandson in our own State? Who ean overlook or mistake the stalwart figure of Samuel Chase, of Maryland, " of ardent passions, of strong mind, of domineering temper, of a turbulent and boisterous life," who had helped to bui'n in efligy the Maryland Stamp Distributor eleven years before, and who, we are told by one who Imew what he was saying, " must ever be conspicuous in the catalogue of that Congress " ? His milder and more amiable colleague, Charles Carroll, was engaged at that moment in pressing the cause of Independence on the hesitating Convention of Maryland, at Annapolis; and though, as we shall see, he signed the Declaration on the 2d of ^Vugust, and outlived all his compeers on that roll of glory, he is missing froui the illustrious band as we look in upon them this morning. I cannot but remember lliat it was my privilege to see and know that vener- able person in my early manhood. Entering his drawing-room, nearly li\'e-and-forty years ago, I found him reposing on a sofa and covered with a shawl, and was not even aware of his presence, so shrunk and shi-i\elled by the lapse of years was his originally feeble frame, (^not Libras in duce summo! ]Jut the little heap on the sofa was soon seen stirring, and, rousing himsell" from his mid-day nap, he rose JULY 4, 1876. 25 and greeted me with a courtesy and grace which I can never forget. In the ninety-fifth jear of his age, as he was, and within a few months of his death, it is not surprising that there should be Uttle for me to recall of that interview, save his eager inquiries about ■James Madison, whom I had just visited at Montpe- lier, and his affectionate allusions to John Adams, who had gone before him; and save, too, the exceeding satisfaction for myself of having seen and pressed the hand of the last surviving signer of the Declaration. But Caesar Rodney, who had gone home on the same patriotic errand which had called Carroll to Maryland, had happily returned in season, and had come in, two days before, "in his boots and spurs," to give the casting vote for Delaware in favor of Independence. And there is Arthur Middleton, of South Carolina, the bosom friend of our own Hancock, and who is associated with him under the same roof in those ele- gant hospitalities which helped to make men know and understand and trust each other. And Avith him you may see and almost hear the eloquent Edward Rutledge, who not long before had united with John Adams and Richard Henry Lee in urging on the several Colonies the great measure of establishing permanent governments at once for themselves, — a decisive step which we may not forget that South Carolina was among the very earliest in taking. She 2G OEATION. took it, liowevcr, Avith a reservation, and her dele- gates were not quite ready to vote for Independence, when it was first proposed. But Richard Stockton, of XeAV Jersey, must not he unmarked or umnentioned in our rapid survey, more especially as it is a matter of record that his original doubts about the measure, which he is now bravely supporting, had been dissipated and dispelled "by the irresistible and conclusive arguments of John Adams." And who requires to be remmded that oiu- " (Jreat Bostonian," Benjamin Franklin, is at his post to-day, representing his adopted Colony with less sujjport than he could wish, — for Pennsylvania, as well as Xew York, was sadly divided, and at times almost paralyzed by her divisions, — but with patriotism and firmness and prudence and sagacity and pliilosophy and wit and common-sense and courage enough to constitute a whole delegation, and to represent a whole Colony, by himself ! lie is the last man of that Avhole glorious group of Fifty, — or it may have been one or two more, or one oi' two less, than fifty, — who requires to Ijc pointed out, in order to be the observed of all observers. But I must not stop hei'c. It is fit, above all other things, that, while we do justice to the great actors ill this scene from other Colonies, we should not overlook tlu' delegates from our own Colony. It is JULY. 4, 1870. 27 fit, above all things, that we should recall something more than the names of the men who represented Massachusetts in that grejit Assembly, and Avho boldly affixed their signatures, in her behalf, to that immortal Instrument. Was there ever a more signal distinction vouch- safed to mortal man, than that which was won and worn by John Hancock a hundred years ago to-day? ^N'ot altogether a great man; not Avithout some grave defects of character; — we remember nothing at this hoiu" save his Presidency of the Congress of the Declaration, and his bold and noble signature to our Magna Charta. Behold him in the chair which is still standing in its old place, — the very same chair in which Washington was to sit, eleven years later, as President of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States; the very same chair, emblazoned on the back of which Franklin was to descry "a rising, and not a setting sun," when that Constitution had been finally adopted, — behold him, the young Boston merchant, not yet quite forty years of age, not only -vvith a piincely fortune at stake, but with a price at that moment on his own head, sitting there to-day in all the calm comi)osure and dignity which so pecuharly characterized him, and which nothing seemed able to relax or ruffle. He had chanced to come on to the Congress during the previous year, just as Peyton Eandolph had been 28 OKATIOX. compelled to relinqiiish his seat and go home, — return- ing only to die; and, liaving ])vrn unexpectedly elected as his successor, he hesitatetl about taking the seat. But grand old Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, we are told, was standing beside him, and with the ready good humor that loved a joke even in the Senate House, he seized the modest candidate in his athletic arms, and placed him in the presidential chair; then, tm-uing to some of the members around, he ex- claimed: "We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her, by making a jNIassachusetts man our President, whom she has excluded from pardon Ijy a public proclamation." Behold him! He has risen for a moment. He has put the question. The Declaration is adopted. It is already late in the evening, and all formal promulga- tion of the day's doings must be postponed. After a grace of three days, the air will lie vibi"ating with ihe joyous tones of the Old Bell in the cupola over his head, proclaiming Liberty to all mankind, and witli the res]>onding acclamations of assembled multitudes. Meantime, for him, however, a simple but soleuni duty ]-emains to be discharged. The paper is Ijelure him. ^'ou may see the very table on which it was laid, and the very inkstand Avhich awaits his use. No hesitation now. lie dips his jaen, and with an luilrembling hand proceeds to execute a signature, which would seem to have been studied in the JULY 4, 1876. 29 schools, and practised in the connting-room, and shaped and modelled day by day in the correspond- ence of mercantile and political manhood, initil it should be meet for the authentication of some immor- tal act; and which, as Webster grandly said, has made his name as imperishable, "as if it Avere written between Orion and the Pleiades." Under that signature, with only the attestation of a secretary, the Declaration goes forth to the Ameri- can people, to be printed in their journals, to be proclaimed in their streets, to be i^ublished from their pulpits, to be read at the head of their armies, to be incorporated for ever in their history. The British forces, driven away from Boston, are now landing on Staten Island, and the reverses of Long Island are just awaiting us. They Avere met by the promulga- tion of this act of oflence and defiance to all royal authority. But there was no individual responsibility for that act, save in the signature of John Hancock, President, and Charles Thomson, Secretary. Not until the 2d of August was our young Boston mer- chant relieved from the perilous, the appalling gran- deur of standing sole sponsor for the revolt of Thirteen Colonies and Three Millions of people. Sixteen or seventeen years before, as a very young man, he had made a visit to London, and was present at the burial of George II., and at the coronation of George III. He is now not only the witness but the 30 01?.\TI0N. iiisti'iiment. niul in soiiu' sovi the impersonation, of a far more sul)stantial cliang'e of dynasty on bis own soil, tlir liuiial of I'oyalty nnder any and I'very title, and the coronation of a Sovereign, Avhose sci'ptrc has already endured Ibr a century, and whose sway has already embraced three times thirteen States, and more than thirteen times three millions of ])eople! Ah, if his qnaint, pictnresqne, charming- old man- sion-house, so long the gem of Beacon street, could have stood till this day, our Centennial decorations and illuminations might haply have so marked, and sanctified, and glorified it, that the rage of recon- struction would have passed over it still longer, and spared it for the reverent gaze of other generations. But his own name and fame are secure; and, what- ever may have been the foibles or faults of his later years, to-day we will remember that momentous and matchless signature, and iiim who made it, with noth- ing but respect, admiration and gratitude. But Hancock, as I need not remind you, was not the only proscribed pati-iot \\lio i-epresented !Massa- chusetts at Philadelphia on the day we are connnem- orating. His associate in (Jeneral Gage's memoral)le exception from pardon is close at his side. lie who, as a Harvard College student, in 1743, had main- tained the afiirmative of the Thesis, "AVhethcr it be lawful lo resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Com- monwealth cannot otherwise be preserved," and who JULY 4, 1870. 31 during those whole three-and-thirty years since had been training up himself and training up his fellow- countrymen in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and of Liberty ; — he who had replied to Gage's recommendation to him to make his peace with the King, " I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings, and no personal considerations shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my country ; " — he who had drawn up the Boston Instructions to her Representatives in the General Court, adopted at Faneuil Hall, on the 2-ith of May, 1764:, — the earliest protest against the Stamp Act, and one of the grandest papers of our whole Revolutionary period ; — he who had instituted and organized those Committees of Correspondence, without which we could have had no imited counsels, no concerted action, no union, no success ; — he who, after the massacre of March 5, 1770, had demanded so heroic- ally the removal from Boston of the British regi- ments, ever afterwards known as " Sam. Adams's regunents," — telling the Governor to his face, with an emphasis and an eloquence which were hardly ever exceeded since Demosthenes stood on the Bema, or Paul on Mars Hill, " If the Lieutenant-governor, or Colonel Dahymple, or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove two; and nothing short of the total evacua- tion of the Town, by all the regular troops, will 32 ORATION. satisfy the public mind or [)reserve llu' peace of tlie Pi'ovince;" — he, "the PaHmirus of the American Revolution," as Jetferson once called him. hut — lliaidv Heaven! — a Palinurus who was never put to sleep at the helm, never thrown into the sea, but who is still watching the compass and the stars, and steer- ing the ship as she enters at last the haven he has so long yearned for: — the veteran Samuel Adams, — the disinterested, indexible, incorruptible statesman, — is second to no one in that whole Congress, hardly second to any one in the whole thirteen Colonies, in his claim to the honors and grateful acknowledg- mi-nts of this hour. We have just gladly hailed his statue on its way to the capitol. Nor must the name of llobert Treat Paine be forgotten among the five delegates of Massachusetts in that Hall of Independence, a hundred years ago to-day; — an able lawyer, a learned judge, a just man; connected by marriage, if I mistake not, Mr. Mayor, with youi- own gallant grandfather. General Cobb, and who liimselC inherited tlu' blood and illus- trated the virtut's of the hero and statesman Avhose name he bore, — Jvobert Treat, a most distinguished officer in King Philip's War. and afterwards a worthy Govci'nor of Ccmnecticnt. And with him, too, is Plbridge Gerry, the very youngest member of the whole Continental Congress, just thirty-two years of age, — who had been one of JULY 4, l,S7(i. 33 the cliosen friends of our proto-martyr, Cleneral Joseph Wan-en; who Avas with Warren, at Water- town, the very hist night before he fell at Bunker Hill, and into whose ear that heroic volunteer had wdiispered those memorable words of presentiment, " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori ; " who lived himself to serve his Commonwealth and the ^N^ation, ardently and efficiently, at home and abroad, ever in accordance with his own patriotic injunction, — "It is the duty of eveiy citizen, though he may have but one day to live, to devote that day to the service of his country," — and died on his way to his post as Yice-President of the United States. One more name is still to be pronounced. One more star of that little Massachusetts cluster is still to be observed and noted. And it is one, which, on the precise occasion we commemorate, — one, which during those great days of June and July, 1776, on which the question of Independence was immediately discussed and decided, — -had hardly "a fellow m the firmament," and Avhich was certainly " the bright, particular star " of our own constellation. You will all have anticipated me in naming John Adams. Beyond all doubt, his is the Massachusetts name most prominently associated with the immediate Day we celebrate. Others may have been earlier or more active than he in preparing the way. Others may have labored 34 "■ OHATION. longer and moiv zealously to instruct the })0]Hilar mind and inflame the i)oi)ulai' heart I'oi- tlie great steji Avliirh was now to be taken. Otiiei's may have been more ardent, as they un(|uestiona]jly were more prominent, in the various stages of the struggle against \\'rits of Assistance, and Stanij) Acts, and Tea Taxes. But from the date of that marvellous letter ol' his to Xathan Webb, in 1755, when he was less than twenty years old, he seems to have forecast the destinies of this continent as few other men of any age, at that day, had done; while from the moment at which the Continental Congress took the question of Independence fairly in hand, as a ([uestion to be decided and acted on, until they had bi'ought it to its final issue in the Declaraliun, his was the voice, abuve and belbre all other Noices, Avliich connnanded the ears, convinced the minds, and inspired the hearts of his colleagues, and ti-iunipliantly seeurt'd the result. I need not sj)eak of him in other relaticms or in after years. His long life of varied and noble service to his c-onntiy. in almost every sphere of public duty, domestic and foreign, belongs to history; and history has long ago taken it in charge, lint the testimony which was l)orne to his grand ellbrts and utterances, l)v the antiior ol' the Declaration himself, can never be gainsaid, never be Aveakened, never be forgotten. That testimony, old as it is, familiar as it is, belongs JULY 4, 1876. 35 to tins day. John Adams will be remembered and honored for ever, in every true American heart, as the acknowledged Champion of Independence in the Continental Congress, — " coming- out with a power which moved us from our seats," — " our Colossus on the floor." And when we recall the circumstances of his death, — the year, the day, the hour, — and the last words upon his dying lips, " Independence for ever," — who can help feeling that there was some myste- rious tie holding back his heroic spirit from the skies, until it should be set free amid the exultiug shouts of his country's first ]S"ational Juljilee ! But not his heroic spirit alone ! In this rapid survey of the men assembled at Philadelphia a hundred years ago to-day, I began with Thomas Jefferson, of Yirginia, and I end with John Adams, of Massachusetts; and no one can hesitate to admit that, under God, they were the very alpha and omega of that day's doings, — the pen and the tongue, — the masterly author, and the no less masterly advocate, of the Declaration. And now, my friends, Avhat legend of ancient Eome, or Greece, or Egypt, what myth of prehistoric mythology, what story of Ilei-odotus, or fiible of ^sop, or metamorphosis of Ovid, would have seemed more fabulous and mythical, — did it rest on any remote or doubtful tradition, and had not so many of 86 ORATION. lis lived to be startled. :uid thrilled and awed 1)y it, — than till' faet, that these two men, nnder so manv difierent cireumstances and surroundings, of age and constitution and elimate, widely distant from eaeh other, living alike in quiet neighborhoods, remote from the smoke and stir of cities, and long before raih-oads or telegi-aphs had made any advances towards the annihilation or abridgment of space, should have jjeen released to their rest and sum- moned to the skies, not only on the same day, but that day the Fourth of July, and that Fonrth of Jnl}^ the Fiftieth Anniversary of that great Declaration which thev had contended for and carried tluduuh SO triumphantly side by side! "What an added emphasis Jefferson Avould have given to his inscrijjtion on this little desk, — "Poli- tics, as well as Keligion, has its superstitions," — could he have foresei'u the close even of his own life, niucli moiv the simultaneons close of these two lives, on that Day of Days! Oli, let mv not admit the idea of superstition! Let me rather revei'ently say, as Webster said at the time, in that magnificent Eulogy which left so little for any one else to say as to the lives or deaths of Adams and Jefferson: "As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence, who is not willing to recognize in their ha])py termination, as wvW as in tluir long continuance, ])rools thai our counlry and its beneltictors are objects of His care?" JULY 4, 187(!. 37 And now another Fifty Years have passed away, . andw^e are holding our high Centennial Festival; and still that most striking, most impressive, most memo- rable coincidence in all American history, or even in the authentic records of mankind, is withoixt a visible monument anywhere ! In the interesting little city of Weimar, renowned as the resort and residence of more than one of the greatest philosophers and poets of Germany, many a traveller must have seen and admired the charming statues of Goethe and Schiller, standing side by side and hand in hand, on a single pedestal, and offering, as it were, the laurel wreath of literary priority or pre-eminence to each other. Few noljler works of art, in conception or execution, can be found on the Continent of Europe. And what could be a worthier or juster commemoration of the marvellous coinci- dence of which I have just spoken, and of the men who were the subjects of it, and of the Declaration with which, alike in their lives and in their deaths, they are so peculiarly and so signally associated, than just such a Monument, with the statues of Adams and Jefferson, side by side and hand in hand, upon the same base, pressing upon each other, in mutual acknowledgment and deference, the victor palm of a triumph foi- which they must ever be held in common and equal honor! It Avould be a new tic between Massachusetts and Virginia. It would be a 38 () HAT I ON. new 1)ond of that Union Avhicli is tlio safety and tlie gloiy of bdfli. It would 1)0 a new pledge of that restored good-will between the North and South, Avhich is the luM-ald and harbinger of a Second Cen- tury of National Independence. It Avould be a tit recognition of the great Hand of God in our liistory! At fill events, it is one of the crying omissions and neglects which I'cproach us all this day, that "glorious old John Adams" is without any ])ropor- tionate pi;blic monument in the State of which he was one of the very grandest citizens antl sons, and in whose behalf he rendered such inestimable services to his country. It is almost ludicrous to look around and see who has been commemorated, and he neg- lected! He might be seen standing alone, as he kncAV so well how to stand alone in life, lie might be seen grouped with his illustrious son, only second to himself in his claims on the omitted posthumous honors of his native State. Or, if the claim of noble women to such connnemorations were ever to be recognized on oiu- soil, he might be lovingly grouped with that incomparable wife, from Avhom he was so often separated by jniblic duties and j)ersonal dangers, and Avhose familiar correspondence Avith him, and his with lier. fui'uishes a picture of iidelity and alfection, and of patriotic zeal and courage and self-sacrilice, almost Avithout a parallel in our Kevolulionary jVnnals. .JULY 4, l»7i;. 31) But befoi'e all other statues, let us have those of Adams and Jefferson on a single block, as they stood together just a hundred years ago to-day, — as they were translated together just fifty years ago to-day : — foremost for Independence in their lives, and in their deaths not divided! ^N^ext, certainly, to the completion of the IS^ational Monument to Washington, at the capital, this double statue of this "double star " of the Declaration calls for the contributions of a patriotic peo^ile. It woidd have something of special appropriateness as the tirst gift to that Boston Park, which is to date from this Centennial Period. 1* I have felt, Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens, as I am sure you all must feel, that the men who were gathered at Philadelphia a hundred years ago to-day, familiar as their names and their story may be, to ourselves and to all the world, had an imperative claim to the first and highest honors of this Centen- nial Anniversary. But, having paid these passing- tributes to their memory, I hasten to turn to consid- erations less purely personal. The Declaration has been adopted, and has been sent forth in a himdred journals, and on a thousand broadsides, to every camp and council chamber, to every town and village and hamlet and fireside, throughout the Colonies. What was it? What did it declare? What was its rightful interpretation 4:0 < 1 1! A T I O X . and intention? lender -vvliat circumstances was it adopted? A^'llat did it accomplish for om-selves and for mankind? A recent and powerful writer on " The Cirowth of the English Constitution," whom I had the pleasiu-e of meeting at the Commencement of Old Cambridge University two years ago, says most strikingly and most justly: "There are certain great political docu- ments, each of which forms a landmark in our politi- cal history. There is the Great Charter, the Petition of Rights, the Bill of Rights." "But not one of them," he adds, " gave itself out as the enactment of any thing new. All claimed to set forth, with new strength, it might he, and with new clearness, those rights of Englishmen, Avhich were already old." The same remark has moi'e recently been incorporated into " A Short History of the English People." " In itself," says the writer of that admirable little volume, "the Chart (!r was no novelty, nor did it claim to establish any new Constitutional |H'iuci[)les. The Charter of Henry I. formed the basis of the Avhole; and the additions to it ai'e, for the most part, formal recognitions of the judicial and administrative changes introduced by Henry II." So, substantially, — so, almost jji-ecisely, — it may be said of the Great American Charter, Avhich was drawn u[) l)y Thomas Jefferson on the jjrccious little desk which lies before me. It nintlc no pretensions JULY 4, 18TC. 41 to novelty. The men of 177G were not in any sense, certainly not in any seditious sense, greedy of novel- ties, — "avidi novarum rerum.'^ They had claimed nothing new. They desired nothing new. Their old original rights as Englishmen were all that they sought to enjoy, and those they resolved to vindicate. It was the invasion and denial of those old rights of Englishmen, which they resisted and I'evolted from. As our excellent fellow-citizen, Mr. Dana, so well said publicly at Lexington, last year, — and as we should all have been glad to have him in the way of repeating quietly in London, this year, — " We were not the Kevolutionists. The King and Parliament were the Revolutionists. They were the radical innovators. We were the conservators of existing institutions." No one has forgotten, or can ever forget, how early and how emphatically all this was admitted by some of the grandest statesmen and orators of England herself. It was the attempt to subvert our rights as Englishmen, which roused Chatham to some of his most majestic efforts. It was the attempt to subvert our rights as Englishmen, which kindled Burke to not a few of his most brilliant utterances. It was the attempt to subvert our rights as English- men, which inspired Barre and Conway and Camden with appeals and arguments and phrases, which will keep their memories fresh when all else associated 42 UUATION. Avitli them is forgotten. The names of all tlii-ie ol' them, as you well know, have long been the cherished designations of American Towns. They all perceived and understood that we were contending for English i-ights, and against the viola- tion of the great principles of English liberty. Xay, not a few of them perceived and understood that we were fighting their battles as well as our ow n, and that the liberties of Englishmen upon their own soil were virtually involved in our cause and in our contest. There is a most notable letter of Josiah Quincy, Jr.'s, Avritlen from London at the end of 1774, — a few months only before that young patriot returned to die so sadly within sight of his native shores, — in which he tells his wife, to whom he was not likely to write for any mere sensational effect, that ''some of the first characters for understanding, integrity, and spirit," whom he had met in London, had used lan- guage of this sort: "This Xation is lost. Corruption and the influence of the Crown have led us into ])ondage, and a Standing Army has riveted our chains. To America only can we look for salvation. 'Tis America only can save England. Unite and jwrsevere. You must prevail — you nuist triumpli." Quincy was careful not to betray names, in a letter which might be interce])ted before it reached its destination. But we know the men with whom he JULY 4, 18 71;. 43 had been brought into association by FrankUn and other friends, — men like Shelbnrne and Hartley and Pownall and Priestley and Brand Hollis and Sir George Saville, to say nothing of Bui-ke and Chat- ham. The language was not lost upon us. We did unite and persevere. We did prevail and triumph. And it is hardly too much to say that we did " save England." We saved her from herself; — saved her from being the successful instrument of overthrowing the rights of Englishmen; — saved her "from the poisoned chalice which would have been commended to her own lips;" — saved her from "the bloody instructions which would have returned to plague the inventor." Kot only was it true, as Lord Macaulay said in one of his briUiant Essays, that "England was never so rich, so great, so fonnidable to foreign princes, so absolutely mistress of the seas, as since the alienation of her American Colonies ; " but it is not less true that England came out of that contest with new and larger views of Liberty; with a broader and deeper sense of what was due to human rights ; and with an experience of incalculable value to her in the management of the vast Colonial Sys- tem which remained, or was in store, for her. A vast and gigantic Colonial System, beyond doubt, it has proved to be! She was just entenng, a hundred years ago, on that wonderful career of con- quest in the East, which was to compensate her, — 44 OKATIOX. if it were a coin])piisation, — for lu-r ini])eiuling losses in the West. Her gallant Coi-nwallis was soon to receive the jewelled sword of Ti])poo Saib at Ban- galore, in exchange for that which he was now des- tined to surrendei- to AN'ashington at YorktoAvn. It is ccrtainl}' not among the least striking coincidences of onr Centennial Year, that, at the verv moment when we arc celebrating the event which stripped Great Britain of thirteen Colonies and three millions of subjects, — now grown into tliirtv-eight States and more tliaii Inrty millions of people, — she is Avelcom- ing the return of hei' amiable and genial Prince from a royal progress throngli the wide-spread regions of " Ormus and of Ind," bringing back, to lay at the foot of the British throne, the homage of nint' prin- cii)al Brovinces and a hundred and fortA'-eight feudatory States, and of not less than two hundred and foi'ty millions of people, from Ceylon to the Himalayas, and aft'oi'ding ample justification for the Qneen's new title of Empress of India! Among all the parallelisms of modern history', there are few more striking and impressive than this. Tile Aniei-ican Cohmies never (piarrelled or cav- illed about the titles of their Sovereign. If, as has been said, ''they went to war about a preamble,'' it was not about the preamble of the royal name. It was the Inipi'rial powi'r, the more than Imperial pre- tensions and usurpations, which drove them to JULY 4, 1S7G. 45 rebellion. The Declaration was, in its own terms, a personal and most stringent arraignment of the King. It could have been nothing else. George III. was to us the sole responsible instrument of oppression. Parliament had, indeed, sustained him; but the Colonies had never admitted the authority of a Parliament in which they had no representation. There is no passage in Mr. Jeflerson's paper more carefully or more felicitously worded, than that in which he says of the Sovereign, that " he has com- bined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction for- eign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, — giving his assent to tlwir acts of j)re- iended legislation.'''' A slip of "the masterly pen" on this point might have cost us our consistency; but that pen Avas on its guard, and this is the only allusion to Lords or Commons. We could recognize no one but the Monarch. We could contend with nothing less than Royalty. We could separate our- selves only from the Crown. English precedents had abundantly taught us that kings were not beyond the reach of arraignment and indictment; and arraignment and indictment were then our only means of justifying our cause to ourselves and to the world. Yes; harsh, severe, stinging, scolding, — I had almost said, — as that long series of allegations and accusations may sound, and certainly does sound, as we read it, or listen to it, in cold blood, a 46 OKATlv»X- centmy after the i$s4ies are adl happilv senled. it -was a temperate and a dignified unerance under the cir- en: -" - of the case, and iH^eathed quite enough " - to be relished or accepted bv thoeie - " - - ^ "■ z the bnmt of so terrible a struggle for life aud -- - . r. and all that was dear to them, as that w^--^ '^^sie issues involved. X r «i^ TVU- isam I .:.. ,_.- _ " - " '* ^ '- tJ>r» "^-Tr - _ •'-f I L- . r-:- : :i their - in the p"_ -rerve. I xfyr'Hi tb4 accursed, wicked. JULY 4, is7t;. 47 barbarous, ciiiel, unnatural, unjust, and diabolical war." I need not say, Fellow Citizens, that we are here to indulge in no reproaches upon Old England to- day, as we look back from the lofty height of a Cen- turv of Independence on the course of events which severed us from her dominions, ^e are by no means in the mood to re-open the adjudications of Ghent or of Geneva; nor can we allow the ties of old ti-aditions to be seriously jarred, on such an occasion as this, by any recent failures of extradi- tions, however vexatious or provoking. But, cer- tainly, resentments on either side, for any thing said or done during our Revolutionary period, — after such a lapse of time; — would dishonor the hearts which cherished them, and the tongues which ut- tered them. TTho wonders that George the Third would not let such Colonies as ours go without a strusrsrle? Thev were the brightest iewels of his crown. 'Who wonders that he shnank fi-om the responsibility of such a dismemberment of his em- pu-e, and that his brain reeled at the very thought of it? It would have been a poor compliment to us, had he not considered us worth holding at any and every cost. We should hardly have forgiven him, had he not desired to retain us. Xor can we alto- gether wonder, that with the views of kingly pre- rogative wliich belonged to that period, and in which 48 ORATION. he was educated, he should have preferred the policy of coercion to that of conciliation, and should have insisted on sending over ti'oops to suhdue us. Our old Mother (Jountry has had, indeed, a pe- culiar destiny, and in many respects a glorious one. !Not alone with her drum-heat, as Webster so grandly said, lias she encircled the earth. Xot alone with her martial airs has she kept company with the hours. She has cari-ied civilization and Christianity wherever she has cairicd her Hag. She has carried her nohle tongue, with all its iucomparaI)le treasures of litei-atui'e and science and i"eligion, around the globe; and, with our aid, — for she will confess that we are doing our I'lill part in this line of extension, — it is fast bi'coming the most- pervading speech of civiHzed man. \\"e thank God at this hour, and at every iionr, that "Chathanrs language is our motlier tongue," and tliat we have an inlu ritcd and an indisputable share in the glory of so many of the great names by which tliat language has been illustrated and adoi-ncd. Hut she lias done more than all this. Siic has planted the great institutions and pi'lneiples of cIn il freedom in vwvy latitude wIhtc she could lind a foothold. From her oui' Kevolutionary Fathers learned to understand and value them, and ii-om her they inherited the spirit to dei'end them, ^"ot in vain had her brave barons extortt'd Magna Charta JULY 4, 1870. 49 from King John. ISTot in vain had her Simon de Montfort snmmoned the knights and burgesses, and hiid the foundations of a Parhament and a House of Commons. Not in vain had her noble Sir John EUot died, as the martyr of free speech, in the Tower. IS^ot in vain had her heroic Hampden resisted ship-mouey, and died on the battle-field. Not in vain for us, certainly, the great examples and the gr-eat vs^arnings of Cromwell and the Connnon- wealth, or those sadder ones of Sidney and Russell, or that later and more glorious one still of William of Orange. The grand lessons of her own history, forgotten, overlooked or resolutely disregai'ded, it may l)e, on her own side of the Atlantic, in the days we are commemorating, were the very inspiration of her Colonies on this side; and under that inspiration they contended and conquered. And though she may sometimes be almost tempted to take sadly upon her lips the words of the old prophet, — "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me," — she has long ago learned that such a i-ebellion as ours was really in her own interest, and for her own ultimate welfare; Ijeguu, continued, and ended, as it was, in vindication of the liberties of Englishmen. I cannot forget how justly and eloquently my friend, Dr. Ellis, a few months ago, in this same 50 ORATION. hall, g-ave expression to tlic respeet whicli is so widely entertained on tliis side of the Allantic f'oi' the Sovereign Lady \\lio has now graci-d tlic ilritisli throne for neai'ly forty years. \o j)assage oi' liis admirahle Oration elicited a -warmer res])onse fi'(irtinus, the trcuiciidous ddds, of the contest into wliidi the ( 'olouics nuist be |)luiigi'd by •such a step. 'IMiink you that no appri'liciisious aud JULY i, 1S7G. 53 anxieties weighed heavily on the minds and hearts of those far-seeing men? Think you tliat as their names were called on the day we commemorate, be- ginning with Josiah Bartlett, of 'New Hampshire, — or as, one by one, they approached the Secretary's desk on the following 2d of August, to write their names on that now hallowed parchment, — they did not realize the full i-esponsibility, and the full risk to theii- country and to themselves, which such a vote and such a signature involved? They sat, indeed, with closed doors ; and it is only from traditions or eaves-droppings, or from the casual expressions of diaries or letters, that we catch glimpses of what was done, or gleanings of what was said. But how full of import are some of those glimpses and gleanings ! "Will you sign?" said Hancock to Charles Car- roll, who, as we have seen, had not been present on the 4th of Jidy. " Most willingly," was the reply. " There goes two millions with a dash of the pen," says one of those standing by; while another re- marks, " Oh, Carroll, yon will get off, there are so many Charles Carrolls." And then Ave may see him stepping back to the desk, and putting that addition — " of Carrollton " — to his name, which will desig- nate him for ever, and be a prouder title of nobility than those in the ])eerage of Great Britain which 54 ORATION. "wciv afU'Twnrds lulonicd by liis accomplislu'd jind fascinating grand-daugliters. "Wc must stand l)y each otlicr — wc iniisl liaiig together," — is pi-csciitly hcai'd from some one of tlie signers; witli the instant reply, ''Yes, we must hang togethei', or we shall assuredly hang separately." And, on this suggestion, the jwrtly and Inunorous Benj. Harrison, wliom we liave seen forcing Hancock into file Chair, may he heard bantei-ing our s])are and slender Elbridge Gerry, — levity provoking levity, — and telling him with grim merriment that, when that hanging scene arrives, he shall have the advantage: — "It will l>i' all o\'er with nic in a moment, hut you Avill he kicking in the aii' hall" an hour alter 1 am gone!" These arc among the "asides" of the drama, hut. 1 need not say, they more than make up in signiticancc lor all they may seem to lacd'C in dignity. The excellent William Ellery. (.f IJhodc Island. Avhose name was afterwai'ds hoi-ne hy his gi'andson. oiu' revci'cd ( 'hanning. ol'tcn spoke, we are told, ol' till' scene of the signing, and sp(don, and eye- it, with our fellow-eonutrymen, li-om ocean to ocean, and from the lakes to the gulf, as oui- National Birthday. And uobly has Philadelphia met the riciuisitions, and more than fultilled the exiiectations, of the occasion; furnishing- a fete and a pagi'ant of which the whole Xation is ])roud. Yet we are not cnlicd on to I'orget. — we coidd not l)e pardoned, indeed, for not remembering, — that, while the Dec- lai-atiou was boldly and grandly nuule in that hal- lowed Pennsylvania Hall, Tiulependence had already been won, — and won lierc in Massachusetts. It was said by somi' one of the old i)atriots, — John Adams, T Ix'lieve, — that '"the Kevolution was effected before tJH' war connnenced;" and Jefferson is now our authority for the assertion that "Independence I'x- isted before it was declared." They both well knew what they were talking about. Congi-esses in Car- jK'uters' Hall, and Congresses in the old Pennsyl- vania State House, did grand tilings and were composed ol' grand men, and we I'cndri- to llu-ir JULY 4, 187li. 59 memories all the homage aiul all the glory which they so richl}^ earned. But here in Boston, the capi- tal of Massachusetts, and the principal town of British !N^orth America at that day, the question had already been brought to an issue, and already been irrevocably decided. Here the manifest destiny of the Colonies had been recognized and accepted. It was upon us, as all the world knows, that the blows of British oppression fell first and fell heaviest, — fell like a storm of hail-stones and coals of fire; and where they fell, and as soon as they fell, they were resisted, and successfully resisted. Why, away back in 1761, when George the Thu*d had been Ijut a year on his throne, and when the 231-inter's ink on the pages of our Harvard "Pietas et Gratulatio" w^as hardly dry; when the Seven Years' War was still unfinished, in which Xew England had done her full share of the fighting, and reaped her full share of the glory, and when the British flag, by the help of her men and money, Avas just floating in triumijh over the whole American continent, — a mad resolution had been adopted to reconstruct — Oh, word of ill-omen ! — the whole Colonial system, and to bring America into closer conformity and subjection to the laws of the Mother Country. A Revenue is to be collected here. A Standing Army is to be established here. The Nav- igation Act and Acts of Trade are to be enforced GO OK AT I ON. jind t'xecutetl lieiv. And all withoul any representa- tion on our part. — The first ])racli(al ste]) in tliis direction is taken. A eusloni-house oilieer, named Coekle, api)lies to the Superior Coml at Salem for a writ of assistanee. That coekle-shell exploded like dynamite! The Court postpones the ease, and orders its argument in Boston. And then and there, — in ]7()], in our Old Town House, al'tei'wards known as the Old State House, — alas, alas, that it is thought necessary to talk aboiit removing or even reeonstrueting it! — James Otis, as John Adams himself tells us, *'l)reathed into this nation the breath of life." "Then and there," he adds, and he spoke of what he witnessed and heard, '^ tlien and there the ehild Inde])endence was Ixirn. In fifteen years, i. c, in 177(3, he grew uj) to manhood, and declared himself iice."'' The next year linds the same gi'eat scholar and orafoi' exposing himself to the ei-y of " treason " in denouncing the idea of taxation witliout representa- tion, and Ibrthwith vindieating himself in a masterl}^ pamphlet which I'xciti'd tlic ndiiiiratinn and sympathy of the whole people. Another year brings the first instalment of the scheme for raising a revenue in the Colonies, — in the shapt' of declai-atory resolves; and Otis mi'ets it plumply and l)ohlIy, in Fanenil TTall, — at tliat moment freshly rebuilt and reopenetl, — with the JULY -t, 1871;. 61 counter declaration that " every British subject in America is, of common right, by act of Parhament, and l)y the hiws of God and Mature, entitled to all the essential privileges of Britons." And now George Grenville has devised and pro- posed the Stamp Act. And, before it is even known that the Bill had passed, Samuel Adams is heard reading, in that same Faueuil Hall, at the May meeting of 1764, those memorable instructions from Boston to her representatives : " There is no room for delay. If' taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves'? . . . We claim British rights, not by charter only; we are born to them. Use your en- deavors that the weight of the other ]Srorth American Colonies may be added to that of this Province, that by united application all may happily obtain redress." Eedi'ess and Union — and union as the means, and the only meaus of redress — had thus early become the doctrine of our Boston leaders; and James Otis follows out that doctrine, without a moment's delay, in another Ijrilliant plea for the rights of the Colonies. The next year finds the pen of John Adams in motion, in a powerful conununication to the public journals, setting forth distinctly, that " there seems 02 ORATION. to l)e a (lii'cct and f'oi-inal dcsin'ii on I'not in Great Britain to enslave all Aniei'ica; '' and adding- most ominously those emphatic words: "Be it rt-mem- bered, Liberty must be defended at all hazards! " And, I need not say, it was remembered ; and Liberty was defended, at all hazards, lierr updu our own soil. Ten long" 3'ears, however, are still to elapse before tJK' wag'er of battle is to be fully joined. The stir- ring c'M'iits which crowded those years, and which have ])een so vividly depicted by Spai'ks and Ban- croft and Frothing-ham, — to name no others, — are too famifiar for repetition or reference. Virginia, through tlic clarion voice ol' Patrick Henry, nobly sustained by her House of Burgesses, leads oft' in the grand remonstrance. Massachusetts, through the trumpet tones of James Otis, rouses the whole Continent l)y a demand for a General Congress. South Carolina, througli the inlluence of Christopher Gadsden, res])onds lirst to the demand. "Deep calleth unto deep." In Octobt'r, ITG.J, delegates, regularly or irregularly chosen, Irom nine Colonies, ai'c in consultation in New York; and from. South Carolina comes the watchword of assured success: " There ought to be no Xew England man, no Xew Yorker, knowji on tlic Continent; but all of us Americans."' Meautune, the people are e\erywhere intlamed and JULY 4, 1876. 03 maddened by the attempt to enforce the Stamp Act. Everywhere that attempt is resisted. Everywhere it is resolved that it shall never be executed. It is at length repealed, and a momentary lull succeeds. But the repeal is accompanied by more declaratory resolutions of the power of Parliament to tax the Colonies "in all cases whatsoever;" and then fol- lows that train of abuses and usurpations which Jefferson's immortal paper charges upon the King, and which the King hunself unquestionably ordered. "It was to no purpose," said Lord ^orth, in 1774, " making objections, for the King would have it so." " The King," said he, " meant to try the question Avith America." And it is well added by the narrator of the anecdote, " Boston seems to have been the place fixed upon to try tlie question." Yes, at Boston, the bolts of Royal indignation are to be aimed and winged. She has been foremost in destroying the Stamps, in defying the Soldiers, in drowning the Tea. Letters, too, have reached the government, like those which Rehum the Chancellor and Shimshai the Scribe wrote to King Artaxerxes about Jerusalem, calling this " a rebellious city, and hurtful unto Kings and Provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time, and would not pay toll, tribute, and custom;" and warning His Majesty that, unless it was subdued and crushed, " he woidd have no poi'tion on this side tlie River." 64 ORATION. Til vain did our cloiiiU'iit young Quiiicy pnnv Inrtli his biirning words oi" iciiioustrance. The Port of Boston is closed, and lier jx'ojjle are to be starved into eoin- plianee. Well did Boston say of liersell". in Town Meeting, that "She had I)eeii stationed by l*i-ovidenee in the front rank ol" the coiitliet." Gi'andly has our ('loi|uent historian. Bancroft, said of her. in a sen- tence which suras up the whole matter "like the last embattling of a liouian legion": — " The King set himself and his ^linistry and his Parliament and all Great Bi-itaiu to subdue to his Avill one stubborn little town on the sterile coast of the Massachusetts Hay. '^riie odds against it AVere fearful; but it showed a life iiu'xtingnishable, and had bei'ii chosen to kei'p guard over the lii)erties of mankind!" (n'uerously and iio])ly did the other Colonies come to oni' aid. and the cause of Boston Avas everywhere a(d<'«A:n«, CCGfittrfA'w^^ ^Ar'*AAW' '^^(^f^r^^^ rNAPi'^rr •to^iiiA^iHSS^r \:SPe^ASV*'^^. "MW ;^^a*.«956^^ oo558C"^gQQ^CQ000K:CS9$25SS:?£S?;SS! K^S«Wll*l i^^,^c,.....;^^>f5A^§tSM??^ ^'^W^'^'^ .-^^ • , • r\(^> ^-^■^-^^^p^^OrH^r^X;;^^^^?^^^^ 'n" r^ ^A'ArN, '^ww^ W^'^^r^^^^AWy^r^ ,. a*?^/?,^/?r^ -^^^^IKa^) . Ai^^'^'^i i'i/^,: i«S®K, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 801 686 5 ^'l mm