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ORATION

DELIVERED IN

CARPENTERS' HALL

THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE MEETING OF

THE CONGRESS OF 1774

BY

HENRY ARMITT BROWN

**It is a tale brief and familiar to all; for the examples by which
you may still be happy are to be found not abroad, men of Athens,
but at home."— Demosthenes, 30 Olynthiac.

PHILADELPHIA
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1875

PHILADELPHIA:
COL].INS, PRINTER. 705 JAYNE STRE15T.

FIFTY COPIES ON LARGE PAPER.

No. <j.f :.

PHILADELPHIA;
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.

Carpenters' Hall was built ty tire tompany whose name it bears, in the
year 1770. It stands in a small open space at the head of a narrow court lead
ing southward from Chestnut Street, about half way between Third and Fourth.
It is constructed of imported bricks alternately black and red, and bears a general
resemblance, in the style of its arcliitecture, to the State House, on Independence
Square. The building is cruciform. The lower floor is occupied (with therex-
ception of a vestibule and stairway) by a hall about fifty feet long by forty wide,
the walls of which are pierced by twelve windows, and by a door leading into a
garden at the rear. At the southern side, opposite the main entrance, is a recess,
twenty-five feet wide and half as deep, at the entrance of which are two handsome
columns of painted wood. The floor is covered with tiles, and the walls and
ceilings frescoed. On both sides of a long entry which runs through the second
story are large chambers; one of which (on the west) contains the Company's
library, consisting chiefly of works on architecture and mechanics. The lower
room, in which the Congress of 1774 held its memorable sessions, has been re
stored, as nearly as possible, to its original condition, and the whole building is
jealously kept in perfect order and repair.
In the summer of 1873 the Carpenters' Company determined to offer to the
Congress of the United States the use of the Old Hall for a celebration by that
body of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Assembling of the First Conti
nental Congress, and memorials to that effect were accordingly prepared, taken to
Washington by a Committee of the Company, and presented to the Senate and
House of Representatives during the following winter. Both bodies, however,
adjourned without taking action upon them, and the Company, therefore, decided
to celebrate the occasion on its own account.
About the middle of August invitations were sent to the President and Vice-
President of the United States, to members of the Cabinet, Judges of the Courts,
the Governors of all the States, Senators and members ofthe House, and to many
other distinguished persons in all parts of the country, as well as in Philadelphia.
At 2 o'clock on Saturday the 5th of September, 1874, u great crowd assem-

bled in the neighborhood of Carpenters' Hall. Admission to the exercises
was by ticket, but the Hall was densely packed before two o'clock, even the
windows being filled, and a large throng occupying the court and the garden
around the building. At half-past two the Committee of Arrangements, accom
panied by the officers for the day and other guests, who had assembled in the
library, entered and took their seats upon a platform which filled the recess at the
southern part of the Hall, John Welsh, Esq. (who had been selected to preside
in the absence of the Governor of Pennsylvania), and the Vice-President of the
United States, sitting, in the centre, between the columns, in two of the original
chairs which had been used by the Continental Congress.
The Hall was quaintly decorated with relics given to the Company or loaned
for the occasion. A likeness of the Rev. Dr. Duch^, who made the first prayer
in the Congress of 1774, in one place; one of Thomas Mifflin, a member of that
body, in another; and, at the end of the room, an original portrait in oil of its
President, Peyton Randolph, of Virginia.
The meeting was called to order by John M. Ogden, the venerable Chairman
of the Committee of Arrangements, who nominated for presiding officer John
Welsh, Esq., the President of the Centennial Board of Finance; and, on motion
of Walter Allison, of the Committee, Charles S. Ogden was chosen Secretary.
The exercises, which were extremely simple, opened with a prayer by the Rev.
Thomas F. Davies, D. D. , who had been asked to perform that duty as the successor
of Dr. Duch^ in the Rectorship of St. Peter's Church. Mr. Welsh then made an
address, at the close of which he introduced Henry Armitt Brown, who proceeded
to deliver the following oration.
The singing of a Hymn written for the occasion closed the exercises, and the
audience, about half-past five o'clock, dispersed.

ORATION.
We have come here to-day in obedience to that
natural impulse which bids a people do honor to
its past. We have assembled to commemorate a
great event — one of the most famous in our
history. In the midst of prosperity and profound
peace, in the presence of the honorable and hon
ored Vice-President of the United States, of the
chosen rulers ofthe people, ofthe members ofthe
present and other Congresses — the successors of
the statesmen of 1774 — of the representatives of
the learned professions, and of every department
of human enterprise and industry and skill, we
have gathered beneath this roof to celebrate, with
reverent and appropriate services, the one hun
dredth anniversary of the meeting of the First
Continental Congress.
It is a great privilege to be here, and we have
to thank the Carpenters' Company for it.* The
* "The Carpenters' Company of the city and county of Phila
delphia" was founded in the year 1724, and has continued to the
present moment in activity and vigor. It is made up entirely of

Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia has always
been a patriotic body. In the months which
preceded the Revolution it freely offered its hall
for the meetings of the people ; and besides the
high honor of having entertained the Congress of
1774, it can point to its having sheltered the
Committees of Safety and the Provincial Com
mittee for a long time beneath this roof. The
Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia is a very
ancient body. It came into existence when
George the First was king, when Benjamin
Franklin was a printer's lad, and Samuel Johnson
was a boy at school. It was founded fifty years
before an American Congress met, and it is now
half as old again as American independence.
And more than this, it is a very honorable body.
Its members have been counted among our best
citizens for industry and character. Both this
hall, in which the nation may be said to have been
born, and that other, where in 1776 its articles of
apprenticeship were cancelled, are the monuments
of its earlier skill, and there are few houses in this
City of Homes in which its members have not
had a hand. And, after all, how fitting does it
seem that the hall of the Carpenters' Company
should have been the scene of that event which
we have assembled to commemorate ! The men
Master Carpenters, who, at the time of their election, have been
actively engaged in businesb, and numbers now 90 members.

of the First Congress were architects themselves ;
the master-builders of a Republic founded on the
equality of man — the highest types of which, in
the two struggles through which it has had to
pass, have been Benjamin Franklin, the mechanic,
and the farmer's lad whose name was Abraham
Lincoln. They represented among themselves
every rank of life — the lawyer, the merchant, the
farmer, the mechanic — and they did more to
dignify Labor and advance the cause of Humanity
in the seven weeks during which they sat in this
place than all the parliaments of the world have
done in twice as many centuries. If there be
anything good, if there be anything noble, if there
be anything precious in the American Revolution,
it is just this — that it secured for every man an
equal chance. Far wiser than those who have
attempted a similar work beneath other skies, the
men who achieved that Revolution attacked no
vested rights, set up no false notions of equality,
nor the oppression of the many for the tyranny of
the few, nor did they break the chain that bound
them to an honorable past. They sought rather
to make Virtue and Intelligence the test of man
hood — to strike down Prerogative and Privilege
and open the gates of happiness to all alike. And
as I contemplate their glorious struggle at this
distance of time, and think of the national life
which it has blessed us with — a century of which

8
is surely a great achievement for any people* — I
cannot but think it to have been a happy omen
that it was inaugurated here. It is impossible, in
the time which I can allow myself, to attempt a
description of the causes of the Revolution. The
duty which I have to discharge is sufficiently
difficult. I shall tax your patience, at any rate, I
fear (for the trial is rather how little than how
much to say), but the story must needs be long,
and the occasion seems one of historic dignity.
It was only a month ago that the inhabitants of
a little island in the northern corner of the
* The historian Freeman, writing in 1862, says {Hist, of Fed.
Govt., vol. i. p. 112): "At all events, the American Union has
actually secured, for what is really a long period of time, a greater
amount of combined peace and freedom than was ever before
enjoyed by so large a portion of the earth's surface. There have
been, and still are, vaster despotic empires, but never before has
so large an inhabited territory remained for more than seventy
years in the enjoyment at once of internal freedom and of ex
emption from the scourge of internal war."
Prof. Hoppin, of Yale College, writes me of a conversation he had
some years ago with Prof. Karl von Raumer, of Berlin : "I asked
him what was his opinion as to the perpetuity of republican institu
tions. He said : Under certain conditions fulfilled, they would be
more permanent than any other form. 'But,' said he, starting up
from his chair with great energy, ' if they should fail, fifty years of
American freedom would be worth a thousand years of Siberian
despotism !' "
A similar thought is expressed by Freeman in page 52 of the
volume above quoted : " The one century of Athenian greatness,
from the expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants to the defeat of Aigospo-
tamos, is worth millenniums ofthe life of Egypt or Assyria."

Atlantic Ocean met on their Law Mount and
celebrated, with song and saga, their one thou
sandth anniversary. That hardy race, which
counts among its achievements the first discovery
of this continent, has witnessed many memorable
and strange events. Locked up in snow and ice,
protected by the warring elements, it has watched
the growth and decay of empires, the rise and fall
of nations, the most wonderful changes in every
quarter of the globe. But it has seen no spectacle
more extraordinary than that which we com
memorate to-day, and in all the sterile pages of
its thousand years of history it can point to no
such achievements as fill up the first century of
this younger nation.
The tendency of the American colonies toward
union had frequently shown itself before 1774.
There was, of course, little sympathy at the outset
between the Puritan of New England and the
Virginian cavalier, the Roman Catholic of Mary
land and the Pennsylvania Quaker. Each had,
in times past, suffered at the other's hands, and
the smart of their injuries was not soon forgotten.
But Time, that great healer, came after a while to
efface its sharpness, and when the third generation
had grown up little bitterness remained. For,
after all, there is no sympathy like that which is
begotten by common suffering. The trials of
these men had been much the same. The spirit

10
of persecution had driven forth all alike. Their
ideas of liberty — narrow as they were at first — did
not materially differ, and their devotion to them
had led all alike across the seas. They spoke the
same language, inherited the same traditions,
revered the same examples, worshipped the same
God. Nor had the obstacles which they had
overcome been different. Heat and cold, fire and
sword, hunger and thirst^they had all experi
enced these. The Frenchman on the North and
the Indian along the Western frontier had con
stantly threatened them with a common danger,
and when the news of Braddock's defeat came
down the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains it
sent a thrill through hearts in Georgia and New
Hampshire, as well as in Pennsylvania and Mary
land. As early as the year 1754 the Indian
troubles and the necessity for united action had
led to the assembling of a convention or council
at Albany, at which seven colonies were repre
sented. The scheme for a perpetual union which
the genius of Franklin had then devised was not
successful, it is true, but the meeting under such
circumstances awakened a strong desire for union
among his countrymen; and when, in 1765, the
times had changed, and the mother-country,
victorious over France, turned her hand against
her children, the sense of danger found expression
in the convention which the Stamp Act brought

II
together in New York. I pass without comment
over the years which intervened between 1765
and 1774. The Stamp Act had been repealed,
but a succession of severer measures had brought
things from bad to worse. Great Britain was in
the zenith of her power. The colonies were
thirteen in number, and contained about two
millions and a half of inhabitants.* Let us, then,
in the course of the hour which we are to spend
together here, endeavor to go back in imagination
to the summer of 1774.
Here in Philadelphia there have been feverish
days. The news of the determination of the
ministry to shut up the port of Boston, followed,
as it is soon after, by the attempt to do away with
the ancient charter of Massachusetts, and to re
move to Great Britain the trial of offences com
mitted in America, has aroused the patriotic
resistance of the whole country. In every town
and hamlet, from New Hampshire to the southern
boundary of Georgia, bold protests are recorded
by the people, and Boston is declared to be suffer
ing in the common cause. The first day of June,
when the Port Bill goes into effect, is everywhere
kept as a day of fasting and humiliation. Flags
are lowered to half-mast, shops shut up, and the
places of worship crowded with thoughtful men.
* Bancroft, Hist. U. S., vol. vii. page 128.

12
Nine-tenths of the houses in Philadelphia are
closed in mourning, and the famous bells of
Christ Church are mufHed in distress. Nor are
the fellow-countrymen of the Bostonians content
with this manifestation of their sympathy. From
every part of the colonies come contributions
for the suffering poor. Money, provisions, and
articles of clothing pour in from every side.
There is but one sentiment in the great majority
of the people — a determination to support the
men of Massachusetts to the end. They were
not unconscious of the dangers of such a course.
The disparity between the power of Great Britain
and their own was far more apparent to them than
it can ever be to us. They saw her the first
power of the age — fresh from the memorable
wars in which she had destroyed the naval and
colonial power of France. The air still rang with
the cheers with which they had greeted her suc
cessive triumphs, each of which they had come to
look upon as their own. Her armies had been
victorious in every land, her fleets triumphant on
the most distant seas, and whatever of spirit, of
courage, and of endurance they might believe
themselves to possess they had inherited from her.
"We have not fitmen for the times," wrote one
of the leading actors in the drama that was about
to begin ; " we are deficient in genius, in educa
tion, in travel, in fortune, in everything. I feel

13
unutterable anxiety."* But there is no thought
of yielding in anybody's breast. " God grant us
wisdom and fortitude," writes John Adams, in
June, and he speaks the universal sentiment of his
countrymen. " Should the opposition be sup
pressed, should this country submit, what infamy
and ruin ! God forbid ! Death in any form is
less terrible. "j" It was out of this consciousness
of weakness that the strength of the Revolution
grew. Had Massachusetts stood alone, had a
feeling of strength seduced the colonies to remain
divided, the end would have been far different.
Singly, they would have offered but a slight
resistance — together, they were invincible. And
the blind policy of the English king and ministry
steadily fostered this sentiment of union. The
closing of the port of Boston was intended by its
authors to punish Massachusetts alone, but the
merchant of Charleston or New York saw in the
act the attempt to exercise a power which might
one day be directed against him, and the Penn-
sylvanian could have little feeling of security in
submitting his valued institutions to the mercy of
those who sought, by an act of Parliament, to
sweep away the ancient charter of Massachusetts.
The cause of one colony became the cause of all.
* Works of John Adams, vol. ii. p. 338. f Idem.

The rights of Massachusetts were the rights of
America. All through the spring and summer there has
been earnest consultation. Couriers are riding
here and there with messages from the Com
mittees of Correspondence which, thanks to
Samuel Adams, have been established in every
village. A constant interchange of counsels has
soon begotten confidence ; with better under
standing has come a sense of strength. Each
colony seems ready for her share of the responsi
bility, and no town, however feeble, feels alone.
Boston is strengthened in her glorious martyrdom
as her sister towns reach forth to clasp her
shackled hands, and the cry goes forth, at last,
for the assembling of a Continental Congress.
"Permit me to suggest a general Congress of
deputies from the several Houses of Assembly on
the Continent,"* John Hancock says on the 4th
of March, " as the most effectual method of
establishing a union for the security of our rights
and liberties." "A Congress, and then an Assem
bly of States,"^ cries Samuel Adams, in April,
1773. Here is a call for a general Congress in
the newspaper which I hold in my hand — a
journal published in Philadelphia on the nth of
October, 1773. "A Congress," suggest the Sons
* Bancroft's llist. tf. S., vol. vi. p. 508.
t Ibid., p. 456.

^5
of Liberty of New York in the spring of the
following year, and in all parts of the country the
cry meets with a response. The first official call
comes from Virginia, dated May 28, 1774. On
the 20th of that month the Whigs of Philadelphia
have met, to the number of three hundred, in the
long room of the City Tavern on Second Street,
and, after consultation, unanimously resolved that
the Governor be asked at once to call a meeting
of the Assembly of this Province, and a Com
mittee of Correspondence be appointed to write
to the men of Boston " that we consider them as
suffering in the general cause ;" " that we truly
feel for their unhappy situation ;" " that we
recommend to them firmness, prudence, and
moderation ;" and that " we shall continue to
evince our firm adherence to the cause of Ameri
can liberty."*
The messenger who bears this letter finds the
country all alive. The Boston Committee sends
southward a calm statement of the situation, and
asks for general counsel and support. Rumor
* Pennsylvania Packet for June 6, 1774. The reply to the
Bostonians was written by the Rev. Dr. Wm. Smith, first Provost
of the University of Pennsylvania (who did service afterward as
one ofthe Provincial Convention of 1774). An interesting account
of this will be found on pages forty-one and forty-two ofthe valuable
Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D.; for a copy of which I
am indebted to its author, Charles J. Still^, Esq., LL.D., the pre
sent Provost of the University.

i6
follows rumor as the days go by, and presently a
courier comes riding down the dusty King's High
way from the North, and never draws rein till he
reaches the Merchants' Coffee House, where the
patriots are assembled in committee. The intelli
gence he brings is stirring, for men come forth
with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. And
soon it is on every lip. Behold, great news !
Bold Sam Adams has locked the Assembly door
on the king's officers at Salem, and the General
Court has named Philadelphia and the first of
September as the place and time for the assem
bling of a Congress of Deputies from all the
colonies. Twelve hundred miles of coast is soon
aflame. Nor is the enthusiasm confined to youth
alone. Hopkins and Hawley in New England,
and Gadsden in Carolina, are as full of fire as their
younger brethren, and far away, in a corner of the
British capital, a stout old gentleman in a suit of
gray cloth, with spectacles on his nose, and a
bright twinkle in his eye, is steadily preparing for
the struggle which he — wise, far-sighted, great-
souled Franklin — has long foreseen and hoped for.
One by one the colonies choose delegates. Con
necticut first, Massachusetts next, Maryland the
third. New Hampshire on the 21st of July, Penn
sylvania on the 22d, and so on until all but Georgia
have elected representatives. Yet still king and
Parliament are deaf and blind, royal governors are

17
writing : " Massachusetts stands alone ; there will
be no Congress of the other colonies." Boston
lies still, the shipping motionless in her harbor,
the merchandise rotting on her wharves ; and
elsewhere, as of old, the dull routine of provincial
life goes jogging on. The creaking stages lumber
to and fro. Ships sail slowly up to town, or swing
out into the stream waiting for a wind to take
them out to sea. Men rise and go to work, eat,
lie down and sleep. The sun looks down on hot,
deserted streets, and so the long days of summer
pass until September comes.
With the first days of the new month there is
excitement among the Philadelphia Whigs. All
through the week the delegates to Congress have
been arriving. Yesterday, Christopher Gadsden
and Thomas Lynch, Esquires, landed at the wharf,
having come by sea from Charleston, South Caro
lina ; to-day. Colonel Nathaniel Folsom and Major
John Sullivan, the delegates from New Hampshire,
ride into town.* The friends of liberty are busy.
The great coach-and-fourf of John Dickinson
rolls rapidly through the streets as he hastens to
greet the Virginian gentlemen who have just
arrived, and in the northern suburbs a company
* Pennsylvania Packet ior K\xg. 29, 1774.
f "Mr. Dickinson, the farmer of Pennsylvania, came in his
coach, with four beautiful horses, to Mr. Ward's lodgings to see
us." — -J. Adams' s Works, vol. ii. p. 360.
3

i8
of horsemen has galloped out the old King's Road
to welcome the delegates from Massachusetts,
who have arrived at Frankford, with Sam Adams
at their head.* With Saturday night they are all
here, save those from North Carolina, who were
not chosen till the 25th, but are on their way.
Sunday comes — the last Sabbath of the old pro
vincial days. The bells of Christ Church chime
sweetly in the morning air, and her aisles are
crowded beyond their wont ; but the solemn
service glides along, as in other days, with its
prayer for king and queen, so soon to be read for
the last time within those walls ; and the thought,
perhaps, never breaks the stillness of the Quakers'
meeting-house that a thing has come to pass that
will make their quiet town immortal. Then the
long afternoon fades away and the sun sinks down
yonder over Valley Forge.
The fifth day of September dawns at last. At
ten in the morning the delegates assemble at the
* J. Adams's Works, vol. ii. p. 357, "After dinner we stopped
at Frankford, about five miles out of town. A number of carri
ages and gentlemen came out of Philadelphia to meet us. . . .
We were introduced to all these gentlemen, and cordially wel
comed to Philadelphia. We then rode into the town, and, dirty,
dusty, and fatigued as we were, we could not resist the importunity
to go to the tavern, the most genteel one in America." The im
portant consequences of this meeting at Frankford are set forth in
a letter of Adams to T. Pickering in 1822, printed in a note on
page 512 of the same volume.— F;V<?, also, vol. i. p. 151.

^9
Merchants' Coffee House.* From that point they
march on foot along the street until they reach
the threshold of this hall. And what a memora
ble procession ! The young men cluster around
them as they pass, for these are their chosen leaders
in the struggle that has come. The women peep
at them, wonderingly, from the bowed windows
of their low-roofed houses, little dreaming, perhaps,
that these are the fathers of a republic for the sake
of which their hearts are soon to be wrung and
their homes made desolate. Here a royalist —
"Tory" he is soon to be called — turns out for
them to pass, scarcely attempting to hide the
sneer that trembles on his lips, or some stern-
browed Friend, a man of peace, his broad-
brimmed hat set firmly on his head, goes by,
with measured footsteps, on the other side.
Yonder urchin, playing by the roadside, turns his
head suddenly to stare at this stately company.
Does he dream of the wonders he shall live to
see? Men whose names his children shall revere
through all descending generations have brushed

* Then called the City Tavern. It stood on the west side of
Second Street, above Walnut, at the corner of Gold Street (or Bank
Alley), and had been recently opened by Daniel Smith. It was
already the rendezvous of the Whigs, as the I^ondon Coffee House
(still standing), at Front and Market, had long been of the Tory
party. — Vide Westcott's Hist, of Phila., Philadelphia Library
copy, vol. ii. p. 364.

20

by him while he played, ana yet he knows them
not. And so along the street, and down the nar
row court, and up the broad steps the Congress
takes its way.
The place of meeting has been well chosen.
Some of the Pennsylvanians would have preferred
the State House, but that is the seat of Govern
ment, and the Assembly, which has adjourned,
has made no provision for the meeting of Con
gress there. Here, too, have been held the town-
meetings at which the people have protested
against the acts of Parliament, and the Carpenters'
Company, which owns the hall, is made up of the
friends of liberty. It has offered its hall to the
delegates, and the place seems fit. It is " a spa
cious hall," says one of them,* and above there is
"a chamber, with an excellent library," "a con
venient chamber opposite to this, and a long entry
where gentlemen may walk." The question is
put whether the gentlemen are satisfied, and passed
in the affirmative ; the members are soon seated
and the doors are shut. The silence is first broken
by Mr. Lynch, of South Carolina. " There is a
gentleman present," he says, " who has presided
with great dignity over a very respectable society,
and greatly to the advantage of America ;" and he
* John Adams, from whose Journal or Correspondence I have
taken the personal descriptions in nearly every instance.

21
"moves that the Honorable Peyton Randolph,
Esquire, one of the delegates from Virginia, be
appointed chairman." He doubts not it will be
unanimous. It is so, and yonder,* " large, well-
looking man," carefully dressed, with well-pow
dered wig and scarlet coat, rises and takes the
chair. The commissions of the delegates are then
produced and read, after which Mr. Lynch
nominates as secretary Mr. Charles Thomson, "a
gentleman," he says, "of family, fortune, and
character." And thereupon, with that singular
wisdom which our early statesmen showed in
their selection of men for all posts of responsi
bility, the Congress calls into his country's service
that admirable man, " the Sam Adams of Phila
delphia and the life of the cause of liberty."-j-
* During the delivery of this address an original portrait of Mr.
Randolph hung above the chair in which he sat during the sessions
of Congress.
f The Hon. Eli K. Price has kindly sent me the following in
teresting account of the manner in which this was made known to
Mr. Thomson. The allusion in the address "reminded me,"
writes a lady of Mr. Price's family, Miss Rebecca Embree, "of
the great simplicity of that appointment, as I have heard it related
by Deborah Logan, wife of Dr. George Logan of Stenton, viz. :
' Charles Thomson had accompanied his wife on a bridal visit to
Deborah Logan's mother, Mary Parker Norris, who resided on
Chestnut Street above Fourth, where the Custom House now stands.
Whilst there a messenger arrived inquiring for Mr. Thomson, and
informed him that he was wanted at Carpenters' Hall. Being
introduced to the company there assembled, he was requested to
act as their secretary, which he accordingly did.' "

22
While the preliminaries are being despatched, let
us take a look at this company, for it is the most
extraordinary assemblage America has ever seen.
There are fifty delegates present, the representa
tives of eleven colonies. Georgia has had no
election, the North Carolinians have not yet
arrived, and John Dickinson, that "shadow,
slender as a reed, and pale as ashes," that Penn
sylvania farmer who has sown the seeds of empire,
is not a member yet.* Directly in front, in a seat
of prominence, sits Richard Henry Lee. His
brilliant eye and Roman profile would make him
a marked man in any company. One hand has
been injured, and is wrapped, as you see, in a
covering of black silk, but when he speaks his
movements are so graceful and his voice so sweet
* Justice is not done now-a-days to the patriotic labors of John
Dickinson. The effect of his Farmer' s Letters in preparing the
minds of his countrymen for resistance to Great Britain can hardly
be exaggerated, and to him they owed the phrase "No taxation
without representation." When the Congress of 1774 assembled
no man in the colonies was more prominent than the Farmer, and
his influence upon its deliberations was very great. On page 13 of
the valuable Early History of the Falls of Schttylkill, etc. etc., by
Charles V. Hagner, Esq., will be found an interesting account,
taken partly from the Pennsylvania Gazette of May 12, 1768, of
the presentation of a laudatory address to Mr. Dickinson by the
Society of Fort St. Davids. Other similar addresses were sent to
him from various parts of the colonies — one especially worthy of
note being signed by Dr. Benjamin Church, John Hancock, Samuel
Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, and John Rowe, and inclosing reso
lutions adopted at a town-meeting held in Boston.

23
that you forget the defect of gesture, for he is an
orator — the greatest in America, perhaps, save
only one. That tall man with the swarthy face
and black, unpowdered hair, is William Livingston
of New Jersey — -"no public speaker, but sensible'
and learned." Beside him, with his slender form
bent forward, and his face lit with enthusiasm, sits
his son-in-law, John Jay, soon to be famous. He
is the youngest of the delegates, and yonder sits
the oldest of them all. His form is bent, his thin
locks fringing a forehead bowed with age and
honorable service, and his hands shake tremulously
as he folds them in his lap. It is Stephen Hopkins,
once Chief Justice of Rhode Island. Close by
him is his colleague, Samuel Ward, and Sherman
of Connecticut — that strong man whose name is
to be made honorable by more than one genera
tion. Johnson of Maryland is here, " that clear,
cool head," and Paca, his colleague, " a wise
deliberator." Bland of Virginia is that learned-
looking, " bookish man" beside " zealous, hot
headed" Edward Rutledge. The Pennsylvanians
are grouped together at one side — Morton,
Humphreys, Mifflin, Rhoads, Biddle, Ross, and
Galloway, the Speaker of the Assembly. Bending
forward to whisper in the latter's ear is Duane of
New York — that sly-looking man, a little " squint-
eyed" (John Adams has already written of him),
"very sensible and very artful." That large-

24
featured man, with the broad, open countenance,
is William Hooper ; that other, with the Roman
nose, McKean of Delaware. Rodney, the latter's
colleague, sits beside him, " the oddest-looking
man in the world — tall, thin, pale, his face no
bigger than a large apple, yet beaming with sense,
and wit, and humor." Yonder is Christopher
Gadsden, who has been preaching independence
to South Carolina these ten years past. He it is
who, roused by the report that the regulars have
commenced to bombard Boston, proposes to
march northward and defeat Gage at once, before
his reinforcements can arrive ; and when some
one timidly says that in the event of war the
British will destroy the sea-port towns, turns on
the speaker, with this grand reply : " Our towns
are built of brick and wood ; if they are burned
down we can rebuild them ; but liberty once lost
is gone forever." In all this famous company
perhaps the men most noticed are the Massachu
setts members. That colony has thus far taken
the lead in the struggle with the mother-country.
A British army is encamped upon her soil ; the
gates of her chief town are shut ; against her
people the full force of the resentment of king
and Parliament is spent. Her sufferings called
this Congress into being, and now lend sad promi
nence to her ambassadors. And of them surely
Samuel Adams is the chief. What must be his

25
emotions as he sits here to-day — he who " eats
little, drinks little, and thinks much"* — that strong
man whose undaunted spirit has led his countrymen
up to the possibilities of this day ? It is his plan
of correspondence, adopted, after a hard struggle,
in November, 1772, that first made feasible a union
in the common defence. He called for union as
early as April, 1773. For that he had labored
without ceasing and without end, now arousing
the drooping spirits of less sanguine men, now
repressing the enthusiasm of rash hearts, which
threatened to bring on a crisis before the time
was ripe, and all the while thundering against
tyranny through the columns of the Boston
Gazette. As he was ten years ago he is to-day,
the master-spirit of the time — as cool, as watchful,
as steadfast, now that the hour of his triumph is
at hand, as when, in darker days, he took up the
burden James Otis could no longer bear. Beside
him sits his younger kinsman, John Adams, a man
after his own heart — bold, fertile, resolute, an
eloquent speaker, and a leader of men. But
whose is yo.ider tall and manly form .? It is that
of a man of forty years of age, in the prime of
vigorous manhood. He has not spoken, for he is
no orator, but there is a look of command in his
broad face and firm-set mouth that marks him
* Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and Progress of
the American Rebellion, by Joseph Galloway, London, 1780.
4

26
among men, and seems to justify the deference
with which his colleagues turn to speak with him.
He has taken a back seat, as becomes one of his
great modesty — for he is great even in that — but
he is still the foremost man in all this company.
This is he who has just made in the Virginia
Convention that speech which Lynch of Carolina
says is the most eloquent that ever was made: " I
will raise a thousand men, subsist them at my own
expense, and march with them at their head for
the relief of Boston." These were his words —
and his name is Washington. Such was the Con
tinental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
Its members were met by a serious difficulty at
the very outset. The question at once arose. How
should their votes be cast — by colonies, by interest,
or by the poll ? Some were for a vote by colonies ;
but the larger ones at once raised the important
objection that it would be unjust to allow to a
little colony the same weight as a large one. "A
small colony," was the reply of Major Sullivan of
New Hampshire, " has its all at stake, as well as a
large one." Virginia, responded the delegates from
the Old Dominion, will never consent to waive
her full representation ; and one of them went so
far as to intimate that if she were denied an influ
ence in proportion to her size and numbers, she
would never again be represented in such an
assembly. On the other hand, it was confessed

27
to be impossible to determine the relative weight
which should be assigned to each colony. There
were no tables of population, of products, or of
trade, nor had there been a common system in
the choice of delegates. Each province had sent
as many as it liked — Massachusetts four. South
Carolina five, Virginia seven, Pennsylvania eight.
In one case they had been chosen by a convention
of the people, in another by a general election, in
most by the Assembly of the province. There
was no rule by which the members could be
guided. Nor was this the only point of difference
among the delegates. On no one thing did they
seem at first sight to agree. Some were for rest
ing their rights on a historical basis — others upon
the law of nature. These acknowledged the
power of Great Britain to regulate trade — those
denied her right to legislate for America at all.
One would have omitted the Quebec bill from
the list of grievances — another held it to be of
them all the very worst. Some were for paying
an indemnity for the destruction of the tea —
others cried out that this were to yield the point
at once. One was defiant, a second conciliatory ;
Gadsden desired independence; Washington be
lieved that it was wished for by no thinking man.
It was with a full sense of the diversity of these
views, of the importance of a speedy decision, and

28
of the danger of dissension, that the Congress re
assembled the next morning.
When the doors had been closed, and the pre
liminaries gone through with, it is related that an
oppressive silence prevailed for a long time before
any man spoke. No one seemed willing to take
the lead. It was a season of great doubt and
greater danger. Now, for the first time perhaps,
when the excitement of the assembling had passed
away, and reflection had come to calm men's
minds, the members realized completely the im
portance of their acts. Their countrymen watched
and waited everywhere. In the most distant
hamlet beyond the mountains, in the lonely cabin
by the sea, eyes were turned to this place with
anxious longing, and yonder, in the North, the
brave town lay patient in her chains, resting her
hopes for deliverance upon them. And not Boston
only, nor Massachusetts, depended upon them.
The fate of humanity for generations was to be
affected by their acts. Perhaps in the stillness of
this morning hour there came to some of them
a vision of the time to come. Perhaps to him,
on whose great heart was destined so long to lie
the weight of all America, it was permitted to
look beyond the present hour, like that great
leader of an earlier race when he stood silent,
upon a peak in Moab, and overlooked the
Promised Land. Like him, he was to be the

29
chosen of his people. Like him, soldier, law
giver, statesman. Like him, he was destined to
lead his brethren through the wilderness; and,
happier than he, was to behold the fulfilment of
his labor. Perhaps, as he sat here in the solemn
stillness that fell upon this company, he may have
seen, in imagination, the wonders of the century
that is complete to-day. If he had spoken, might
he not have said : I see a winter of trouble and
distress, and then the smoke of cannon in the
North. I see long years of suffering to be borne,
our cities sacked, our fields laid waste, our hearths
made desolate ; men trudging heavily through
blood-stained snow, and wailing women refusing
to be comforted. I see a time of danger and
defeat, and then a day of victory. I see this
people, virtuous and free, founding a government
on the rights of man. I see that government
grown strong, that people prosperous, pushing its
way across a continent. I see these villages be
come wealthy cities, these colonies great States,
the Union we are about to found a power among
the nations, and I know that future generations
shall rise up and call us blessed.
Such might have been his thoughts as these
founders of an empire sat for a while silent, face
to face. It was the stillness of the last hour of
night before the morning breaks; it was the quiet
which precedes the storm.

30
Suddenly, in some part of this hall a man rose
up. His form was tall and angular, and his short
wig and coat of black gave him the appearance
of a clergyman. His complexion was swarthy,
his nose long and straight, his mouth large, but
with a firm expression on the thin lips, and his
forehead exceptionally high. The most remark
able feature of his face was a pair of deep-set eyes,
of piercing brilliancy, changing so constantly with
the emotions which they expressed that none
could tell the color of them. He began to speak
in a hesitating manner, faltering through the
opening sentences, as if fully convinced of the
inability, which he expressed, to do justice to his
theme. But presently, as he reviewed the wrongs
of the colonies through the past ten years, his
cheek glowed and his eye flashed fire and his voice
rang out rich and full, like a trumpet, through
this hall. He seemed not to speak like mortal
man, thought one who heard him ten years before
in the Virginia House of Burgesses ; and a recent
essayist in a leading English Review has spoken
of him as one of the greatest orators that ever
lived.* There was no report made of his speech
that day, but from the notes which John Adams
kept of the debate we may learn what line of
argument he took. He spoke of the attacks made
* Essays, by A. Hayward, Esq., Q. C, 3d series, p. 50.

upon America by the king and ministry of Great
Britain, counselled a union in the general defence,
and predicted that future generations would quote
the proceedings of this Congress with applause.
A step in advance of his time, as he had ever been,
he went far beyond the spirit of the other dele
gates, who, with the exception of the Adamses
and Gadsden, did not counsel or desire independ
ence. "An entire new government must be
founded," was his cry; "this is the first in a
never-ending succession of Congresses," his pro
phecy. And gathering up, as it was the gift of
his genius to do, the thought that was foremost
in every mind about him, he spoke it in a single
phrase: "British oppression has effaced the
boundaries of the several colonies ; I am not a
Virginian, but an American."
My countrymen, we cannot exaggerate the debt
we owe this man. The strength of his intellect,
the fervor of his eloquence^ the earnestness of his
patriotism, and the courage of his heart placed
him in the front rank of those early patriots, and
he stands among them the model of a more than
Roman virtue. His eloquence was one of the
chief forces of the American Revolution — as
necessary to that great cause as the intelligence of
Franklin, the will of Samuel Adams, the pen of
Thomas Jefferson, or the sword of Washington.
In such times of a nation's trial there is always

32
one voice which speaks for all. It echoes the
spirit of the age - — proud or defiant, glad or
mournful, now raised in triumph, now lifted up
in lamentation. Greece stood on the Bema with
Demosthenes ; indignant Rome thundered against
Catiline with the tongue of Cicero. The proud
eloquence of Chatham rang out the triumphs of
the English, name, and, France stood still to hear
her Mirabeau. Ireland herself pleaded for liberty
when Henry Grattan spoke, and the voice of
Patrick Henry was the voice of America, strug
gling to be free !
Rest in peace, pure and patriotic heart! Thy
work is finished and thy fame secure. Dead for
three-quarters of a century, thou art still speaking
to the sons of men. Through all, descending time
thy countrymen shall repeat thy glowing words,
and, as the pages of their greatest bard kept strong
the virtue of the Grecian youth, so from the grave
shalt thou, who "spoke as Homer wrote,"* inspire
in the hearts of men to be that love of liberty
which filled thine own !
Great as were at first the differences of interest
and opinion among the members of the Congress
of 1774, there were none which their patriotic
spirits could not reconcile. It was the salvation
of the Americans that , they had chosen for their
* Memoir of Thomas Jefferson, vol. i. p. 3.

33
counsellors men who believed, with Thomas
Jefferson, that "the whole art of government
consists in the art of being honest,"* and who
were enthusiastic lovers of their country. No
matter how strong had been their individual
opinions, or how dear the separate interests in
volved, there seemed to these men no sacrifice too
great to make for the common cause. As the
debates progressed different views were reconciled
and pet theories sacrificed to the general judgment.
Day after day they became more united and con
fidence increased. "This," wrote John Adams
on the 17th of September, "was one of the hap
piest days of my life. In Congress we had noble
sentiments and manly eloquence. This day con
vinced me that America will support the Massa
chusetts or perish with her."-{- After a full and
free discussion, in which the subject was considered
jn all its aspects, it was decided that each colony
was entitled to a single vote. By this means the
integrity of the provinces was preserved, and out
of it grew the theory, so familiar to us, of the
sovereignty of the State. It was next agreed upon
to rest the rights of the colonies on a historical
basis. By this wise determination the appearance
of a revolution was avoided, while the fact remained
the same. Nor was there a sudden break in the

* Memoir of Thomas Jefferson, vol. i. p. 115.
¦j" Journal of John Adams, vol. ii. p. 380.
5

34
long chain of the nation's history ; the change
was gradual, not abrupt. The common law of
England, under the benign influence of which the
young colonies had grown up, remained unchanged,
and when, in less than two years, the Declaration
of Independence created a new government, the
commonwealth quietly took the place of king.
The revolution was then complete; the struggle
which followed was merely to secure it ; and the
American grew strong with the belief that it was
his part to defend, not to attack — -to preserve, not
to destroy ; and that he was fighting over again
on his own soil the battle for civil liberty which
his forefathers had won in England more than a
century before. We cannot too highly prize the
wisdom which thus shaped the struggle.
Having decided these points, the Congress
agreed upon a declaration of rights. Firat, then,
they named as natural rights the enjoyment of
life, liberty, and fortune. They next claimed, as
British subjects, to be bound by no law to which
they had not consented by their chosen repre
sentatives (excepting such as might be mutually
agreed upon as necessary for the regulation of
trade). They denied to Parliament all power of
taxation, and vested the right of legislation in
their own Assemblies. The common law of
England they declared to be their birthright,
including the rights of a trial by a jury of the

35
vicinage, of public meetings, and petition. They
protested against the maintenance in the colonies
of standing armies without their full consent, and
against all legislation by councils depending on
the Crown. Having thus proclaimed their rights,
they calmly enumerated the various acts which
had been passed ih derogation of them. These
were eleven in number, passed in as many years —
the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, thoce
which provided for the quartering of the troops,
for the supersedure of the New York Legislature,
for the trial in Great Britain of offences committed
in America, for the regulation of the government
of Massachusetts, for the shutting of the port of
Boston, and the last straw, known as the Quebec
Bill. Their next care was to suggest the remedy. On
the i8th of October they adopted the articles of
American Association, the signing of which (on
the 20th) should be regarded as the commence
ment of the American Union. By its provisions,
to which they individually and as a body solemnly
agreed, they pledged the colonies to an entire
commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain,
Ireland, the West Indies, and such North Ameri
can provinces as did not join the Association, until
the acts of which America complained were all
repealed. In strong language they denounced the
slave-trade, and agreed to hold non-intercourse

36
with all who engaged therein. They urged upon
their fellow-countrymen the duties of economy,
frugality, and the development of their own re
sources ; directed the appointment of committees
in every town and village to detect and punish all
violators of the Association, and inform each other
from time to time of the condition of affairs ; and
bound themselves, finally, to carry out the pro
visions of the Association by the sacred ties of
"virtue, honor, and love of country."
Having thus declared their rights, and their
fixed determination to defend them, they sought
to conciliate their English brethren. In one of
the most remarkable state papers ever written, they
called upon the people of Great Britain, in a firm
but affectionate tone, to consider the cause for
which America was contending as one in which
the inhabitants of the whole empire were con
cerned, adroitly reminding them that the power
which threatened the liberties of" its American
might more easily destroy those of its English
subjects. They rehearsed the history of their
wrongs, and "demanded nothing but to be re
stored to the condition in which they were in
1763." Appealing at last to the justice of the
British nation for a Parliament which should
overthrow the " power of a wicked and corrupt
ministry," they used these bold and noble words :
" Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we

37
shall ever esteem a union with you to be our
greatest glory and our greatest happiness; we shall
ever be ready to contribute all in our power to the
welfare of the empire ; we shall consider your
enemies as our enemies, your interests as our own.
But if you are determined that your ministers
shall sport wantonly with the rights of mankind^ —
if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of the
law, the principles of the constitution, nor the
suggestions of humanity can restrain your hands
from shedding blood in such an impious cause —
we must then tell you that we will never submit
to be hewers of wood or drawers of water for any
ministry or nation in the world."
In an address to the people of Quebec they
described the despotic tendency of the late change
in their government effected by the Quebec Bill,
which threatened to deprive them of the blessings
to which they were entitled on becoming English
subjects, naming particularly the rights of repre
sentation, of trial by jury, of liberty of person and
habeas corpus, of the tenure of land by easy rents
instead of oppressive services, and especially that
right so essential *^ to the advancement of truth,
science, art, and morality," " to the diffusion of
liberal sentiments" and "the promotion of union''
— " the freedom of the press." " These are the
rights," said they, " without which a people can
not be free and happy," and " which we are, with

38
one mind, resolved never to resign but with our
lives." In conclusion, they urged the Canadians
to unite with their fellow-colonists below the St,
Lawrence in the measures recommended for the
common good. They also prepared letters to the
people of St. John's, Nova Scotia, Georgia, and
East and West Florida, who were not represented
in this Congress, asking for their co-operation and
support. Nor was anything omitted by these men which
could soften the hearts of their oppressors. De
clining to petition Parliament, they had addressed
themselves to the people, recognizing in them for
the first time the sovereign power. They now
decided to petition the king. In words both
humble and respectful, they renewed their alle
giance to his crown, detailed the injuries inflicted
on them by his ministers, and besought his inter
ference in their behalf. " We ask," they said,
" but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not
a diminution of the prerogative, nor do we solicit
the grant of any new right in our favor. Your
royal authority over us and our connection with
Great Britain we shall always carefully and
zealously endeavor to support and maintain,"
Solemnly professing that their " counsels were
influenced by no other motive than a dread of
impending destruction," they earnestly besought
their " Most Gracious Sovereign" " in the name of

39
his faithful people in America," "for the honor
of Almighty God," "for his own glory," "the
interest of his family," and the good and welfare
of his kingdom, to suffer not the most sacred
" ties to be further violated" in the vain hope " of
effects" which, even if secured, could " never
compensate for the calamities through which
they must be gained,"
There remained now for the Congress but one
thing to do — to render to its countrymen an
account of its stewardship. In a long letter to
their constituents, the delegates gave a summary
of their proceedings, of the difficulties they had
encountered, the opinions they had formed, the
policy they had agreed to recommend, and, with
a mournful prophecy of the trials that were at
hand, urged their fellow-countrymen " to be in
all respects prepared for every contingency."
Such were, in brief, the memorable state papers
issued by the First Continental Congress. And,
terrible as were the dangers which seemed to
threaten them from without, its members were to
be subjected to a trial from within. On the 28th
of September, Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania
submitted to the Congress his famous plan.* A
man of talent and address, at one time high in the

* Vide Tucker's Hist., vol. i. p. iii. Sabine's American
Loyalists, vol. i. p. 309. John Adams's Works, vol. ii. p. 389.

40
opinion and confidence of Franklin, he stood at
the head of the Pennsylvania delegation. The
Speaker of the House of Assembly, he had wielded
great influence in the policy of the province.
Cold, cautious, and at heart a thorough royalist,
he determined, if possible, to nip the patriotic
movement in the bud. Seconded by Duane of
New York, he moved that the Congress should
recommend the establishment of a British and
American government, to consist of a President-
General, appointed by the king, and a Grand
Council, to be chosen by the several Legislatures;
that the Council should have co-ordinate powers
with the British House of Commons, either body
to originate a law, but the consent of both to be
necessary to its passage ; the members of the
Council to be chosen for three years, the Presi
dent-General to hold office at the pleasure of the
king. Here, then, was an ingenious trap in the
very path of the infant nation. Some men, and
good ones, too, fell into it. The project was
earnestly supported by Duane. The younger
Rutledge thought it " almost perfect," and it rnet
with the warm approbation of the conservative
Jay. But wiser men prevailed. The Virginian
and Massachusetts members opposed it earnestly.
Samuel Adams saw in it the doom of all hope for
liberty, and Henry condemned in every aspect the
proposal to substitute for "a corrupt House of

41
Commons" a "corruptible" legislature, and intrust
the power of taxation to a body not elected directly
by the people. His views were those of the ma
jority, and the dangerous proposition met with a
prompt defeat. The Suffolk County resolutions, •
adopted on the 9th of September at Milton,
Massachusetts, had reached Philadelphia and the
Congress on the 17th, and awakened in every
breast the warmest admiration and sympathy.
Resolutions were unanimously adopted, expressing
these feelings in earnest language, recommending
to their brethren of Suffolk County "a perseverance
in the same firm and temperate conduct," and
urging upon the people of the other colonies the
duty of contributing freely to the necessities of
the Bostonians. There now came a still more
touching appeal from Massachusetts. "The gov
ernor," it said, " was suffering the soldiery to treat
both town and country as declared enemies ;" the
course of trade- was stopped ; the administration
of law obstructed ; a state of anarchy prevailed.
Filled with the spirit which, in olden times, had
led the Athenians to leave their city to the foe
and make their ships their country, this gallant
people promised to obey should the Congress
advise them to "quit their town;" but if it is
judged, they added, that "by maintaining their
ground they can better serve the public cause.

42
they will not shrink from hardship and danger."*
Such an appeal as this could not have waited long
for a worthy answer from the men of the First
American Congress. The letter was received
upon October 6th. Two days later the official
journal contains these words : " Upon motion it
was resolved that this Congress approve the
opposition of the inhabitants of the Massachusetts
Bay to the execution of the late acts of Parlia
ment; and if the same shall be attempted to be
carried into execution, all America ought to sup
port them in their opposition." " This," says the
historian, " is the measure which hardened George
the Third to listen to no terms."j" In vain con
ciliation and kind words ; in vain all assurances of
affection and of loyalty. The men of Massachu
setts are traitors to their king, and the Congress
of all the colonies upholds them in rebellion,
" Henceforth," says Bancroft, " conciliation be
came impossible."
* The spirit of this people is reflected in a letter from Boston
printed in the Pennsylvania Packet for Oct. lo, 1774, describing a
conversation which the Writer had with a fisherman. "I said:
' Don't you think it time to submit, pay for the tea, and get the
harbor opened?' 'Submit? No. It can never be time to be
come slaves. I have yet some pork and meal, and when they are
gone I will eat clams ; and after we have dug up all the clam-
banks, if the Congress will not let us fight, I will retreat to the
woods ; I am always sure of acorns !' "
f Bancroft's Hist, of the U. S., vol. vii. p. 145.

43
Having thus asserted their rights to the enjoy
ment of life, liberty, and fortune ; their resistance
to taxation without representation ; their purpose
to defend their ancient charters from assault ;
having denounced the slave trade in language
which startled the world, and recognized, for the
first time in history, the People as the source of
Authority ; having laid the firm foundations of a
Union based upon Freedom and Equality — the
First Congress passed out of existence on the 26th
of October, after a session of two and fifty days.
Haifa hundred men, born in a new country, bred
amid trials and privations, chosen from every rank
of life, untried in diplomacy, unskilled in letters,
untrained in statecraft, called suddenly together in
a troubled time to advise a hitherto divided people,
they had shown a tact, a judgment, a self-com
mand, and a sincere love of country hardly to be
found in the proudest annals of antiquity. And
their countrymen were worthy of them. If the
manner in which they had fulfilled their duties
had been extraordinary, the spirit with which
their counsels were received was still more re
markable. In every part of the country the
recommendations of the Congress were obeyed as
binding law. No despotic power in any period
of history exercised over the minds and hearts of
men a more complete control. The Articles of
Association were signed by tens of thousands, the

44
spirit of Union grew strong in every breast, and
the Americans steadily prepared to meet the worst.
The stirring influence of this example penetrated
to the most distant lands. "The Congress," wrote
Dr. Franklin from London in the following winter,
" is in high fayor here among the friends of
liberty."* " For a long time," cried the eloquent
Charles Botta, " no spectacle has been offered to
the attention of mankind of so powerful an interest
as this of the present American Congress. "j" " It
is impossible," says the Scotch writer, Grahame,
" to read of its transactions without the highest
admiration." J " There never was a body of dele
gates more faithful to the interests of their con
stituents," was the opinion of David Ramsay, the
historian, § " From the moment of their first
debates," De Tocqueville says, " Europe was
moved, "II The judgment of John Adams declared
them to be, " in point of abilities, virtues, and
fortunes, the greatest men upon the continent,"^
Charles Thomson, in the evening of his well-
* Letter to Charles Thomson, 5th Feb. 1775 ; Watson's Annals
of Philadelphia, vol. i. p. 421.
-j- Otis's Botta, vol. i. p. 128.
J Hist, of the U. S., by James Grahame, LL.D., vol. ii. p. 496.
§ Hist, of the American Revolution, by David Ramsay, M.D.,
vol. i. p. 174-
II La Di,mocratie en Amerique, by Alexis de Tocqueville, vol.
iii. p. 182.
\ John Adams' s Letters to his Wife, vol. i. p. 2i.

45
spent life, pronounced them the purest and ablest
patriots he had ever known ;* and, in the very
face of king and Parliament, the illustrious
Chatham spoke of them the well-known words:
" I must avow and declare that in all my reading
of history — and it has been my favorite study ; I
have read Thucydides and admired the master
states of the world — that for solidity of reasoning,
force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under
such a complication of circumstances, no nation
or body of men can stand in preference to the
General Congress assembled in Philadelphia."-]-
Long years have passed, and there have been
many changes in the governments of men. The
century which has elapsed has been crowded with
great events, but the calm judgment of posterity
has confirmed that opinion, and mankind has not
ceased to admire the spectacle which was once
enacted here. "But that you may be more
earnest in the defence of your country," cried the
great Roman orator, speaking in a vision with the
tongue of Scipio, " know from me that a certain
place in heaven is assigned to all who have pre
served, or assisted, or improved their country,
where they are to enjoy an endless duration of
* Field-Booji of the Revolution, by B. J. Lossing, vol. ii. p. 60,
note. ¦j- Speech in Favor of the Removal of Troops from Boston, Jan.
20, 1775.

46
happiness. For there is nothing which takes
place on earth more acceptable to the Supreme
Deity, who governs all this world, than those
councils and assemblies of men, bound together
by law, which are termed states ; the founders
and preservers of these corrie from heaven, and
thither do they return."* The founders and pre
servers of this Union have vanished from the
earth, those true lovers of their country have long
since been consigned into her keeping, but their
memory clings around this place, and hath hal
lowed it for evermore. Here shall men come as
to a sanctuary. Here shall they gather with each
returning anniversary, and as the story of these
lives falls from the lips of him who shall then
stand where I stand to-day, their souls shall be
stirred within them and their hearts be lifted up,
and none shall despair of the Republic while she
can find among her children the courage, the
wisdom, the eloquence, the self-sacrifice, the lofty
patriotism, and the spotless honor of those who
assembled in this hall an hundred years ago.
The conditions of life are always changing, and
the experience of the fathers is rarely the experi
ence of the sons. The temptations which are
trying us are not the temptations which beset
their footsteps, nor the dangers which threaten
* Cicero, De Re Pubtica, lib. vi. ; Somnium Scipionis, § iii.

47
our pathway the dangers which surrounded them.
These men were few in number, we are many.
They were poor, but we are rich. They were
weak, but we are strong. What is it, country
men, that we need to-day ? Wealth ? Behold it
in your hands. Power? God hath given it you.
Liberty? It is your birthright. Peace? It
dwells amongst you. You have a government
founded in the hearts of men, built by the people
for the common good. You have a land flowing
with milk and honey ; your homes are happy,
your workshops busy, your barns are full. The
school, the railway, the telegraph, the printing-
press have welded you together into one. De
scend those mines that honeycomb the hills !
Behold that commerce whitening every sea!
Stand by your gates and see that multitude pour
through them from the corners of the earth,
grafting the qualities of older stocks upon one
stem, mingling the blood of many races in a
common stream, and swelling the rich volume of
our English speech with varied music from an
hundred tongues. You have a long and glorious
history, a past glittering with heroic deeds, an
ancestry full bf lofty and imperishable examples.
You have passed through danger, endured priva
tion, been acquainted with sorrow, been tried by
suffering. You have journeyed in safety through
the wilderness and crossed in triumph the Red Sea

48
of civil strife, and the foot of Him who led you
hath not faltered nor the light of His countenance
been turned away ! It is a question for us now,
not of the founding of a new government, but of
the preservation of one already old ; not of the
formation of an independent power, but of the
purification of a nation's life ; not of the conquest
of a foreign foe, but of the subjection of our
selves. The capacity of man to rule himself is to
be proven in the days to come — not by the great
ness of his wealth, not by his valor in the field,
not by the extent of his dominion, not by the
splendor of his genius. The dangers of to-day
come from within. The worship of self, the love
of power, the lust for gold, the weakening of faith,
the decay of public virtue, the lack of private
worth — these are the perils which threaten our
future ; these are the enemies we have to fear ;
these are the traitors which infest the camp; and
the danger was far less when Catiline knocked
with his army at the gates of Rome than when he
sat smiling in the Senate House. We see them
daily face to face — in the walk of virtue, in the
road to wealth, in the path to honor, on the way
to happiness. There is no peace between them
and our safety. Nor can we avoid them and turn
back. It is not enough to rest upon the past.
No man or nation can stand still. We must
mount upward or go down. We must grow

49
worse or better. It is the Eternal Law — we
cannot change it. Nor are we only concerned
in what we do. This government, which our
ancestors have built, has been "a refuge for the
oppressed of every race and clime," where they
have gathered for a century. The fugitive of
earlier times knew no such shelter among the
homes of men. Cold, naked, bleeding, there was
no safety for him save at the altars of imagined
gods. I have seen one of the most famous of
those ancient sanctuaries. On a bright day in
spring-time I looked out over acres of ruin.
Beside me the blue sea plashed upon a beach
strewn with broken marble. That sacred floor,
polished with the penitential knees of centuries,
was half hidden with heaps of rubbish and giant
weeds. The fox had his den among the stones,
and the fowl of the air her nest upon the capitals.
No sound disturbed them in their solitude, save
sometimes the tread of an adventurous stranger,
or the stealthy footfall of the wild beasts and
wilder men that crept down out of the surround
ing hills under cover of the night. The god had
vanished, his seat was desolate, , the oracle was
dumb. Far different was the temple which our
fathers builded, and "builded better than they
knew." The blood of martyrs was spilled on its
foundations, and a suffering people raised its walls

50
with prayer. Temple and fortress, it still stands
secure, and the smile of Providence gilds plinth,
architrave, and column. Greed is alone the
Tarpeia that can betray it, and vice the only
Samson that can pull it down. It is the Home
of Liberty, as boundless as a continent, "as broad
and general as the casing air;" a "temple not
made with hands ;" a sanctuary that shall not fall,
but stand on forever, founded in eternal truth !
My countrymen : the moments are quickly
passing, and we stand like some traveller upon a
lofty crag that separates two boundless seas.
The century that is closing is complete. "The
past," said your great statesman, " is secure." It
is finished, and beyond our reach. The hand of
detraction cannot dim its glories nor the tears of
repentance wipe away its stains. Its good and
evil, its joy and sorrow, its truth and falsehood, its
honor and its shame, we cannot touch. Sigh for
them, blush for them, weep for them, if we will ;
we cannot change them now. We might have
done so once, but we cannot now. The old
century is dying, and they are to be buried with
him ; his history is finished, and they will stand
upon its roll forever.
The century that is opening is all our own.
The years that lie before us are a virgin page.
We can inscribe it as we will. The future of our

5t
country rests upon us — the happiness of posterity
depends on us. The fate of humanity may be in
our hands. That pleading voice, choked with
the sobs of ages, which has so often spoken unto
ears of stone, is lifted up to us. It asks us to be
brave, benevolent, consistent, true to the teachings
of our history — proving "divine descent by worth
divine." It asks us to be virtuous, building up
public virtue upon private worth ; seeking that
righteousness which exalteth nations. It asks us
to be patriotic — loving our country before all
other things ; her happiness our happiness, her
honor ours, her fame our own. It asks us in the
name of Justice, in the name of Charity, in the
name of Freedom, in the name of God !
My countrymen : this anniversary has gone by
forever, and my task is done. While I have
spoken the hour has passed from us ; the hand
has moved upon the dial, and the Old Century is
dead. The American Union hath endured an
hundred years! Here, on this threshold of the
future, the voice of Humanity shall not plead to
us in vain. There shall be darkness in the days
to come ; Danger for our Courage ; Temptation for
our Virtue; Doubt for our Faith; Suffering for our
Fortitude. A thousand shall fall before us and
tens of thousands at our right hand. The years
shall pass beneath our feet, and century follow

52
century in quick succession. The generations of
men shall come and go; the greatness of Yesterday
shall be forgotten To-day, and the glories of this
Noon shall vanish before To-morrow's sun ; but
America shall not perish, but endure, while the
spirit of our fathers animates their sons !

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