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IN COMMEMORATION OF THE
FORTY SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE DECLARATION OF

ﬁmrwﬁtmm %iI‘®ﬂ®@EMﬂEMJ££ 4.

DELIVERED, JULY 4m, 1823,
BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE, R. I.

AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST.

BY ALBERT G. GREENE, ESQ.

.1

 
PROVIDENCE 2
Published by J elm Miller.

C I D 0 U 9 OI

Jr:

  eeartmt.

THE history of the world presents an almost
uninterrupted spectacle of misery and of crime;
Man bending beneath the scourge of arbitrary
power; Millions yielding implicit obedience to
the mandates of a few; Tyranny, robed in pur-
ple and throned in state; with "burdened Industry
alternately toiling to meet her artiﬁcial wants, and
prostrate in the dust, pouring forth his tribute of
blood and treasure, at her footstool.

Such are the cheerless scenes, afforded by the
annals of former ages. But brighter prospects

t are opening to our view. The dark clouds of error

which so long hung over the world, have already
partially faded away, and many of the causes
which held mankind in bondage, have in a great
degree, ceased toexist. A

It may not be improper on this occasion, to de-
vote a few moments to the purpose of tracing the
progress of ‘Freedom in the world; with some of
the principal causes of its advancement.

Among the most enlightened nations of anti»
quity, which have been digniﬁed with the appella-
tion of “ republicks,” there was scarcely one which
could, with justice, claim that title. Their,peo-
ple were too ignorant to be able to rule them-
selves; and whatever their forms of government
may have been, in theory ; they in practice, soon
degenerated into pure aristocracy; and from this:

there was but one more step to established despo~
tism.

6

Bowed down, beneath the cumbrous Weight of
their pagan mythology; acting more frequently
from the dictates of passion, than from those of
reason and experience: and comparatively destit.
tute of the means of general improvement ; the peo-
ple of the Grecian Republicks could not long con-.
duct a form of government, upon ﬁxed and stea-
dy principles. Hence causes, apparently triﬂing
in themselves, often changed the destinies of a
whole nation. A

In such astate of society, an increase of wealth
caused only an increase of effeminacy, with lit«
tle additional reﬁnement of intellect. The march
of mind was slow and unsteady. Their sa-
ges and philosophers could extend their Wis»
dom but to a limited degree beyond their own im-
mediate sphere. Their magniﬁcent academies,
indeed were open; but had few allurements for
an enervated and luxurious people. There were
no means for instructing the great mass of their citi-»
Zens. Even in the proudest days of Republican
Rome, in comparison with the whole number of
her population, her portion of enlightened citizens
must have been very limited. It was this which

caused their ruin: for they could not discern the

silent approach of their fate. Like every other
people who have been even partially free, they
could not have been made the vassals of a do-
mestic despotism, until they hadiconsented to as-
sist in putting on their own fetters. "When Caesar
crossed the Rubicon, he did not make slaves of the
Romans; but the Romans made “a tyrant of Cm-~

Tsar. They had become intoxicated with the bub-

ble of national glory; and in their delusion, they
chained tliernselves to the 4tri‘umphal car of their
idol. ' ’

A nation so ignorant, could not long resist the
tide of adverse fortune: and by the irruption of

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the northern hordes, all that was great or noble
in her character, was buried in one common
grave. When We compare her former situation

with her present state, she resembles one of her
tributary cities, over Whichthe boilinglava of the

volcano has passed; where all that she knew of

splendor or of beauty, the rexquisitet triumphsof
art, the wondrous productions of genius and of

taste, her gold and her gems, the marble which
almost seemed to breathe, and the aicanvascts warrn
withthe magic touches of the pencil; all lie bu-
ried in one wide spread incrustation; above whose‘
impenetrable surface, some few ruins alone ap-‘

pear; to tell, that here, she once was ; but that she 229,»
no more.

With the an of the Roman empire, commenced
a scene, from the contemplation of which, human-

iity revolts, With horror. The glad tidings of the
gospel had been given; the oracles of divine truth

hadgone forth; but they had been sullied by the
bigot, and made a mere state engine, in the hands
of tyranny. The chilling blight of superstition
fell upon the human intellect; which seemed to
wither beneath its touch. The register of an-
cient heroism, the .recordof past*experience,the
scroll which bore a the names of those who had

ltssuffefrediinh the cause of virtue, every thinggreat

andgoldilike which had ‘beern revealed by Time,

wwere together buried in the dark oloister of the
convent. Humanity appeared to have submitted

to her fate, and Man to have forgotten the image
which he bore. A
Religious and proliticaltrfreedoml equally depend,

“for their very existence, upon the general diffusion

of knowledge’ ; audioneof them can never ﬂourish,
independentof the other. Thus, when t e, ow»
er and arrogance of the church ‘wgat A i eight,

ﬁthe ‘chains of tlie feudal systemiwegre heaviest up--

8

on the christian World. The union. of the church
and state governments left all Christendom at the
complete disposal of its rulers :—---for, on the one
hand, the questionless mandates of the state came
forth under the awful sanctity of religion; and on
the other, the decrees of the church were support-
ed by the strong arm of the civil authority: and
under this double despotism, Man, with every suc-
ceeding age, was sinking deeper in a state of
mental degradation.

Although some master spirit Would, at times,
arise; and soaring above the prejudices of his
age, dare to assert the rights of scorned and per-
secuted Reason; yet the dungeon or the stake
were the sure reward of his temerity. The world

. then knew but two classes of men ;----the TYRANT

and the SLAVE. A
Superstition had poured her pollution into the

pure fountain of Christian benevolence. She‘

breathed into the sacramental cup, bearing the ho--
ly symbol of redeeming love; and it was convert-
ed into a chalice. of intoxicating poison. In the
name of the con on TRUTH, she deluded the
World: In the name of the corn or PEACE, she sent
her exterminating legions abroad; and made the
plains of Palestine one wide Golgotha: and at home,
she set the father against the son, and the brother
against the brother. She ﬁlled her dungeons, she
plied her rack, and ﬁred her altar, heaped with
human hecatombs; dooming their undying spirits
to an eternal hell; in the name of -we Gen or
‘LOVE’. AND MERCY.

But a change was preparing in the destinies of
man. A new scene was commencing in the great
drama of Time. An unexpected light burst upon
the world, when it hailed the invention of 'rr—na ART
or PRINTING. .

_ In vain, every expedient that ingenuity could dew
vlse, or Industry apply, was used, to crush the glo-

Jar;
9

rious invention in its infancy. The means of
lgnowleclge, at this time, were held, almost exclu-
sively, by the clergy and a few of the nobility.
They knew that their power was founded upon
the ignorance and credulity of the multitude.-—
They were aware that when thepeople began to
read,they would begin to reason; that they would,
then, soon learn their rights, and begin to vindicate

them. Hence the deluded people were told by ,

their ecclesiastical tyrants, that wicked men “- had
made a new language which they called ‘ Greek ;’
and that, in this language, a book had made its ap-

pearance, full of daggers and poisons, called the

New Testament.” «

The scriptures were read by the priests, in La-
tin; in order that the people might be kept in ig-
norance of their contents. The vengeance of the
civil power and the anathemas of '!'the church
were poured out on all who dared to read them in
the English  r

  
by death ; and the rinters were denounced, as the
workmen of the devil. ,

These very means but served to hasten the end
which they were intended to counteract; for but
seventy years elapsed from the time of this inven-
tion before the commencement of the Protestant
Retbrmation. This event arrested the attention
of all Europe. The iron rod of intolerance fell
heavy indeed upon the daring spirits who support-
ed it; and the wheel and the axerwere busy with
their victims. But the delusion, under which the
christian world had lain for centuries, was weak-
ened; and the magic spell of papal supremacy
was broken.

With the gradual increase of knowledge, a cor-~
responding changewas taking place, in the views
and feelings of thepeople. Henry the Eighth, of

‘ Eng1and.,is said to have honored his subjects with

2

 A This offence was punished .

10

the appellation of “Bmtes .4” but in little more
than a century afterwards, the World saw a ldritisll
sovereign arraigned and condemned for /tiglz. man-«w
son against t/ze people .- and the proud descendant oi
a line of kings died the death lot a, noa.letactor.
The period which almost immediately succeed»-
ed this, is one, to us, of peculiar interest. The
rage of intolerance, the horrors of civil war, and
the turmoils of faction, in Europe, were fast peo-
pling the American colonies. It was then, that for
the ﬁ;rst time since the creation, the spot now co-
vered. by this noble dome‘, was trodden by the toot
of civilized man. 4 The busy hum of industry,
which had been conﬁned to the shores of the At»-
lantic, was spreading into the interionr; and the
colonies were fast increasing in stre1“1gtl1 and num-~

bers. »

"With their increase of prosperity, comrnenced

‘the long course of oppression and conturneiy

which eventually caused their.=sespnirwtioz1t'r'orn the
mother country. This was borne with patient for-—
bearance, until forbearance was proved in vain;
and with submission, until submission became al-
mosta crime. .

Men are always disposed to submit to establish--
ed forms and customs, rather than to risk the dan—~
ger of a change. Under equal laws and a just ad»
ministration, the colonies would probably have
remained, for ages, under the sway of the British
sceptre: but the tyrannyof Britain did for them,
what they would not, for a long time at least, have
done for themselves. They were driven by it,
into their commerce; they were driven by it, into
their manufactures; and they were driven by it,
intoptheirt independence. Each act of despotism
roused them to new exertions. rThey coinmenced
with humble petitions for redress. These were
unheard.----Succeeding wrongs and insults produ--

Jet
11

ced remorxstranee and retaliation. This was fol-
lowed by new acts of oppression; which, at length,
were no bly met, by open deﬁance; with a pledge
to support it, “ with life, with fortune, and with
sacred honour.”

We should never allow ourselves to be swayed,
by feelings of national prejudice and animosity;
but the history of every age, the annals of every
nation, the record of their wisdom and their folly,
their virtue and their crime, is the rightful legacy
of posterity. It is the great chart, on which are
displayed the shoals and quicksands on which na»
tional power and happiness have been wrecked.

N o American should ever permit his feelings of
philantliropy to go so ‘far as to bury in oblivion the
wrongs which his country received in her infancy:
for when we forget the toil and suffering which
gained us our independence, we shall have lost
one of the ﬁrmest pillars that support «it.

We all know the dark story of our country’s‘

wrongs. Most of us read it in our childhood ; when

the expanding mind could scarcely grasp its mean--
ing. We have read it in after life; and have clos-
ed the volume which contained it, with admiration
for those who} were foremost in the struggle; and
with gratitude to Heaven, for its glorious issue.—--«----
But when we have heard the tale of some aged

veteran, himself, as it were, the connecting link V

between our own times and those which tried
men’s souls; when we have heard from his lips,
the‘deta.z'l.s' of that awful conﬂict; when Wehave
listened, until the mind’s eye could discern the
group around the midnight watch-«ﬁre, unsheltered
from the storms of winter, and wearied with hun-
ger and toiland privation; when we have, in im-
agination, seen them upon the march; leaving the
blood from their naked feet, upon the ice and snow,
at every step; where is the American, deserving

;F. V‘

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the name, whose cheek has not mantled with in»-
dignation, at the thought; that his country can ev-
er be unmindful of the price of her freedom, and of
the sufferings which gave her the blessing of a day
like this. i .

There is one part of the conduct of the British
government during the War of our independence
which we can never forget without the most base
ingratitude to the memory of the brave men who
were its victims. It was their determination to
force our country to an unconditional submission
to their Will. It was a part of their policy to cruslz»
and 6ruz°.s'etl*1e long—suﬁ’ering spirit of the American
people. They knew that our soldiers were few in
number, but that inthe ﬁeld of fair and open war-
fare, the attempt to cnnquer them, was vain : and
the idea of conﬁning their captives in the foul and
fevered holds of their prison-ships, was the ready
expedient of their unhallowed and remorseless
cruelty. l

The number of our brave countrymen who were
thus wantonly murdered, during the protracted
conflict, has never been Written, but by the pen of
the Recording Angel. yﬂunidreds were immured
together in the dungeons ofa single ship; Where
amid noxious and putrid vapours, every breath was
drawn with a throb of agony; and a lingering con-
ﬁnement, was certain death. In vain the joyous
beams of the sun shone brightly over their prison ;
for its genial heat Was, to them, buta cause of ten-
ture: the air of heaven was pure,'abovethe1n; but
it met them not: and the clear fountain ran near
them, on the bank; but its waters sparkled not for

them. And Whenever the exterminating plague

had claimed its allotted number, their mock inter»
ment, among the whitening bones of their prede-
cessors, on the beach, was but the signallfor the
approach of anew band of victims. But it is a

Ml
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fact, which does honour to human nature? that
when, among all this misery, the prisoners, on
board one of these ships, received an offer of in-7
stant liberation, on condition that they would join
the standard of their oppressors; but one‘individ-
ual could be prevailed on, to desert the cause of
his country; and when this was known, his dying
comrades raised their heads from the deck, and
joined in a shout of indignation against the traitor.

Far was it from the mind of Britain, when she
commenced her series of insult and oppression up-
on her colonies; that she was trampling on a pow»
er, which was so soon to prove her rival in the arts
of life: she did not dream, that looking from her
chalky cliffs, she wasiso soon to see herred cross
drooping in the billow, beneath the prowess of a
formidable nation: Little did she think, when her
thunders first roused the Eagle of the forest, that

  before his av-enging glance, her Lion was so soon

to cower; and learn the emptiness of his boasted
invincibility.

We can never be too grateful to the memory of
the men who guided our country through the
storms and troubles of the Revolution. We can
never too much admire the energy which bore her
through a struggle, unparalleled in the annals of
time; or the wisdom which framed for her a sys-
tem of government, which knows no equal on the
face of the earth. Their memories will be revered
while virtue shall exist; for their cause was the
cause ol'Man. The name of Washington alone is
like a wall of ﬁre around the liberties of the Ameri-
can people. And Wherever in the wide world,
Freedom shall unrol her standard; that name
will beherwatchword. Citizens of the American
Repnblickl Children of VVashingtonl “ Who
is here so Vile, he will not LOVE I-IIS COUNTRY ?”_

 
14

Other nations, in former times, have received
concessions and grants of privileges, from the mere
will of arbitrary power. Kings and potentates
have, at times, through policy or fear, been con-
strained to yield to their subjects, some portions
of their natural rights. But here it Was, that the

a voice of a people was first heard. proclaiming their

determination to make theirown laws, and to be
their own rulers; founding their civil power on the
deductions of their own reason; and the form
of their religion, upon the dictates of their own
consciences. The Magma Chartasof England, the
ancient boast of her citizens, was a concession
drawn, at the point of the sword, by a ‘number oi’

petty tyrants, from their common master. lt was

more an establishment of baronial power, than of
national freedom. And how different does this ap-
pear, on the page of history, from the united de-
clarationof Three Millions of Freemen :-—--VVe,'rHn
PEOPLE qf the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, ensure domesticls:
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro-
mote the general welfare, and secure the bless»-
ings of liberty. to ourselves and our posterity; do
ordain and establish this Constitution, for the Unit-
ed States of America.”
Towhatever fate our Republicl: may be doom»
ed by thewill of Heaven, there is, in all human
robability, one curse which she can never know:
 Established National Religion. Altl'1pugl1
the spirit of intolerance is sufﬁciently strong among
us; yet, under a form of government like our own,
the very freedom of inquiry and the reaction of

. feelingswhich it produces, is one of the greatest

barriers toﬁrts power. To produce a perfect union
of sentiment, is,impossible,; and to hope for it, is
absurd. Happily for us, such is the case. In a
free countrygthere always must be differentr par»

3/32.
is .

ties in politicks as Well as in religion. Although
these will oi'ten cause individual and sectional
feelings of bitterness; yet they, of necessity‘ tend
to promote that free spirit of inquiry, which it
should ever be our pride to maintain, as the bright
key-storie in the arch of freedom.

The high and glorious example of our country
has already excited the Wonder and the imitation
of other nations. It was hailed by the provinces
of the South; who tramplingon the badges of
their servitude, made their appeal to Heaven;
and have poured out the free libation of their
blood, upon the altar of Liberty. It has aroused

a spirit in Europe, which all the force of her rulers »

vvill never be able to subdue. France and Spain
have dared to assert their rights; and Greece has
arisen in her chains, and bared her arm for the
combat. In her present attempt she may indeed
be unsuccessful; but her struggles will be like
those of the dying Hercules. The power of the
vindictive Turk may again hurl her to the dust;
but it can never quench the energy by which she
is impelled. v i

The great contest is not between separate na-
tions in Europe; but it is between the people and
their oppressors. The Genius of Emancipation
has gone forth in her might. She saw Spain pining
under the bonds which she had worn for ages.----—
She heard the persecuted Catholic, groaning in

l the dungeons of the Inquisition; and, in the name '

of suffering Humanity, demanded the liberation of
the captive. She raised her wandof power, and
smote the blood-cemented fabrick: its massy ivalls
crumbled beneath the stroke; and the exulting
prisoner sprang forth to liberty,    

As the light of mind continues to Increase, its
progress must become proportlonably more rapid;
and if human reason can be relied on, it must

 
I6

eventually prevail. The cause of’ Emancipation

must, at length, triumph. , It may be cl1ecked_,,but l
’ a it can never be subdued, by the confederated at-

tempts of the Royal Banditti of Europe. _ i

It is a hope, cheering to the heart of the philan-
thropist; that, though far distant, the period may
yet arrive, when Man shall rise, igegenenrate, in the
noble attributes of his nature: when Tyranny shall
leave her dungeons and her palaces; when the
World shall learn the great truth, that, the good of
ALL is the universal zlwignggragigt ; and see its Laws and
its Religion ﬁxed on the broad pillars of Umvan-~
SAL JUSTICE: i ~ c

When, o’er the earth, the storms of war shall cease ;
And Man shall meet his fellow man, in peace :~—--
Shall see eternal TRUTH ascend her throne,

With earth’s free homage paidto her alone : _y

Shall spurn the chain, the sceptre and the rod ;

And raise his hands, "UNMANACLELD, to GOD.