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I'atten, Josepli H.
Oration. , .
Irovi dence, lbi;6.

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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

oiiiLTion

DELIVERED ON THE

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,

AT NEWPORT, R. I.

BY JOSEPH H. PATTEN.

-»•©•«••

llroiJilrtnct:
CARLILE & BROWN, PRINTERS.
1826.

CA>\^\. 5^-14

TO JOSEPH H. PATTEN, ESQ.
Deak Sih — At a meeting of the commiltee of arrangements of the town of
Newport, it was " Voted, that the thanks of the town be presented to Joseph H.
Patten, Esfi. for his eloquent and impressive Oration, delivered at their request,
on the 4th instant, in commemoration of the completion of the half century since
the Declaration of Independence." The undersigned being deputed by said com
mittee, have the pleasure to wait on you in behalf of the citizens at large, and
request you will furnish them with a copy for publication. JOHN P. MANN,
STEPHEN T. NORTHAM.
JVnoport, July Sth, 1826.

TO JOHN P. MANN, AND STEPHEN T. NORTHAM, ESQRS.
Gentlemen — In answer to your note of yesterday, allow me to say, through
you, to the gentlemen of the committee and to my fellow citizens, that I am
not' insensible to their praises, nor ungrateful for the honor they have done me, in
supposing my address to be worthy of publication. I feat it would be consiriered
but a false delicacy, were I to oppose my own wishes to that ofthe committee; but
while granting their request, Icannot but hope, the peculiar embarrassments under
which tbe Oration was written and delivered, will be considered as a slight extenua
tion of its imperfection. Gentlemen, With great respect.
Your obedient servant,
JOSEPH H. PATTEN.
JVeiDport, July Gih, 1826,

ORATION.
It is impossible for imagination to conceive a
spectacle more august or more imposing ! A
mighty, a free, a happy people, we have this day
assembled in the temple of our God, to celebrate
the jubilee of our National Independence. Our
prayers and solemn paeans have ascended to that
throne, round which are gathered listening, the
throng of martyrs and of patriots, who defended by
their valor and sealed with their blood, the cause
which we this day commemorate : while every heart
in this vast assembly throbs with exultation, and
every soul is kindled to enthusiasm, led by the hand
of the Divinity, we have this day attained an emi
nence, where, standing like Moses upon the top of
Pisgah, we can look back upon the past, and forward
to the future. In retrospection, the sufferings, the
toil, the wisdom, the perseverance, the valor and
the victory, come rushing, like a flood upon the

memory ; as Americans, proud of our happy desti
nies, we turn to the fields of Bunker — of Saratoga
— of Eutaw — and of Yorktown — for there the soil
is hallowed by the blood of our fathers ; for there
was achieved those deeds of everlasting glory that
secured to us our liberties, and that now call for
our gratitude. I see in this assembly some whose
bended forms, and venerable locks tell me they were
cotemporaneous with those events ; but alas, how
small is the remnant of that band of patriots ; they
are scattered throughout our land like the roses of
the desert ; but a few more years, and the last of
them shall slumber within the peaceful bosom of
the grave ; but half another jubilee shall have pas
sed, and not one of them shall be left to tell to us
the story. Yet how happy — how enviable, must be
their feeUngs — for within the span of their exis
tence they have seen established the principles for
which they fought — they have seen the mighty
march of this empire to dignity and power. —
Happy beyond the usual lot of mortals, they have
attained in this hfe the fruition of their hopes.
They must die ; but their memories shall live ; their
names are already enrolled on the records of his
tory ; their deeds we will hand down by tradition
to our latest posterity — revered shall be their reUcs ;
and when this time shall be antiquity, the nations
then in existence shall come upon pious pilgrima
ges to the green spots where lie buried their ashes.

But on this day, and on this occasion, what lan
guage is adequate to express the feelings of our
hearts for him, who under God, was the saviour
of this country — for him, whose perseverance in
difficulty — whose fortitude in disaster — whose pru
dence in triumph — whose wisdom in council —
and whose equanimity in every situation, render
him superior to all the heroes of history, to all the
sages of antiquity ; he stands alone in the world ; a
conqueror but not a tyrant — a patriot without am
bition — though a throne was offered him, he pre
ferred rather to reign in the hearts of his people,
than to be called the monarch of this mighty em
pire. What attribute that dignifies our natures —
what virtue that elevates or ennobles humanity, was
wanting to perfect him ? Venerated spirit of our
chieftain ; benefactor — friend — father — if, from thy
mansions of bliss thou art permitted to look down
upon this career of thy sublunary glory, surely it
must add to thy happiness ; for we thy children
have come up this day, with hearts filled with grati
tude, to call upon thy name and to dwell upon thy
virtues ; thou hast left us, but we are not unmind-
ful of thy counsel nor thy example ! True we have
erected over thy ashes no national monument ; thy
deeds of renown are blazoned upon no tablets of
brass — are sculptured upon no pillars of marble!
Brass itself shall become corrosion — marble itself,
shall become but dust, but thy name shall live co-

temporaneous with time, imperishable as liberty —
thy trophies are scattered throughout the broad.
surface of our land — thy memory is emblazoned in
the hearts of thy countrymen : to no individual, in
any age, or any country, has ever been offered the
spontaneous homage which this day we pay to
thee ! At this moment the aspirations of twelve
millions of people are ascending to thy praise — the
bosoms of twelve miUions of freemen are heaving
with grateful remembrances of thee !
It is hot from motives of national vanity, nor to
gratify an unbecoming spirit of exultation, nor is
it from a spirit of hostility towards any particular
nation, that we have this day come hither — but as
Americans, proud of our religious, our civil, and
political institutions, we assemble like a band of
brothers, to congratulate ourselves upon the suc
cess of their establishment, and to recall the events
which so happily led to them.
When fifty years ago, the same voice that we
but now heard, feeble with age, then in the vigor
of manhood and intellect,* declared that we were
free and independent, it was hardly more than
a mere assertion. We were then feeble in our
forces, exhausted of our funds, with our commerce
destroyed, with our agriculture neglected — igno
rant of the most important and necessary mechanic
urts, with an army at that moment famished and
* See appendix, Note A.

naked — without friends and without aUies — stig*
matized as rebels. We were in arms against the
mightiest kingdom in the world — it was at such a
moment that this declaration was made, and like
the passage of the Rubicon, it committed us too
far to recede ; we either were to attain our object,
or the axe and the halter were to be the reward of
our temerity; the eyes of all Europe, nay of the
world were turned towards us, and they beheld
with wonder our struggle for freedom with a nation
that claimed to be the only one free in the uni
verse ; that nation was then in the zenith of her
power and her glory. Her resources both physi
cal and intellectual were past all calculation — at
peace with all the earth, her armies had collected
and strengthened — her navy dictated her laws upon
every ocean, while not a wind of heaven could
blow that did not sweU the canvass that conveyed
to her shores the spices of the Indies, the diamonds
of Golconda, and the wealth of the world. Quiet
and powerful at home, feared and respected abroad,
the mightiest nation feared to encounter her. —
How then was it to be supposed that a nation
whose existence was scarcely known, could com
pete with her — a nation whose stature and whose
intellects were matters of speculation among phi
losophers — a nation whose character and whose
habits v/ere so little understood among the people
of enlightened Europe, that the first philosopher of

10
France* declared without contradiction, that the
American was but a degenerate species of man
kind, inhabiting a sterile soil, and an inhospitable
climate, he was behttled both in mind and body,
and was the mere connecting link between man and
the monkey : what then must have been their as
tonishment, when they beheld a nation so feeble,
nay, so contemptible, not only maintaining, but
maintaining triumphantly, principles, and a cause
which should one day rock from its base a throne
that had stood immovable for ages — principles,
which being once established, have created an era
in the history of government, and which has con
firmed as a truth (long doubted by sciolists and
statesmen,) that a representative government may
exist, and yet the people remain virtuous, respect
ed, and powerful. It was the fiat of Omnipotence
decreed its fulfilment ; the arm of man could not
reverse the decision.
The history of this country since the day the
barque of Columbus first touched the shores of this
continent, has been a fruitful source of interest and
instruction ; passing by the events immediately
subsequent to that period, as remotely connected
with this occasion, we naturaUy turn to the time
of the first settlement of this country ; for with the
pilgrim fathers who first landed upon the rock
of Plymouth, was brought the germ of that fair
^ BuffoTi.

11
tree of liberty, whose height has ascended to the
heavens ; under the shadow of its branches we
are now reposing; the fruit of it aU nations of the
earth shall gather. That rock which first received
the impress of their footsteps, ought to be trans
ported to the hall of our national capitol, and there,
placed under its vaulted dome, ought our Chief
Magistrate to swear upon it at his inauguration, to
preserve inviolate the principles, the simplicity,
and the virtues that first led the pilgrims to these
shores. Sceptics in the hierarchy of England, they
claimed the privilege of worshipping the Divinity
in the manner that seemed to them the most be
coming : denied this privilege, derided and oppress
ed, they without hesitation abandoned the tombs
of their fathers and the "patrimony of their sires,
and sought in this inhospitable and desolate re
gion, the enjoyment of their intuitive rights to civil
and religious freedom. While I am speaking, it
almost appears to me as if I had been a spectator
of the scene at their arrival — ^their barque shattered
by the winds and the waves, lay tossing at a dis
tance. Feeble and emaciated, with their wives and
their little ones, they had landed upon that snow-
covered rock ; an inclement sky was above them,
the ocean with hollow moaning was heaving at
their feet — the chilling blasts of December were
howling through the forest, but no home to cover
them ; no fire-side to cheer them ; no friends to

12
receive and welcome them — all around was ice
and desolation ; yet no murmur escaped from their
lips, no words of despondency burst from their
hearts; their eyes were turned in meek reliance
upon their God alone, and in their hour of tribula
tion he did not forsake them : firm in the belief of
the principles for which they had encountered so
many difiiculties, they established, and established
successfully, their religious and republican institu
tions ; their example created this land an asylum
for the oppressed of every nation, and when suc
cessive generations had populated the country,
THEIR principles imbued the whole, with that spirit
which eventually led to our emancipation.
In their descendants — the mind, that imraortal
emanation from the Divinity, freed from the vassal
age of hereditary opinion, thought and acted with
its inherent energy and perspicuity, uninfluenced by
imagination, and making it a point of religious
duty to put a restraint upon their passions, reason
was the sole director to their belief, and of their
actions : with naturally inquisitive minds, and gen
erally engaged in pursuits that gave them time for
reflection, their thoughts and their studies were
chiefly directed to religion and to politics. In the
first they were perhaps unjustly caUed bigots in their
creeds ; but by their researches in the latter, and
from their pecuhar situation, they discovered and
fidopted'the tfue principles for a free government ;

12
removed by successive generations from the hered
itary awe of monarchical government, and a titled
aristocracy, unaccustomed to the pomps and parade
of royalty ; unseduced by the glitter of diamonds
and coronets ; of blue ribbons and garters, a people
simple in their manners, and born each others
equals, could conceive no reason why the rights of
one man should be considered as divine, or why
one class of people should be considered as supe
rior to their fellows. Separated from their parent
country by an ocean of three thousand miles, her
laws and her government affected us but in a re
mote degree : considered of but little importance in
the train of her power, she granted her charters to
different sections, whenever religion, or avarice, or
speculation desired it ; and while she undoubtedly
considered the very request as the acknowledg
ment of her paramount authority, we being allow
ed to make our own laws — to choose our own
raagistrates, and to exercise all the privileges of an
independent people, considered it as a matter of
right, and our charters as an acknowledgment of it.
When, therefore, as a people, we acknowledged
her authority, it was a mere abstract admission —
for never did she exercise in this country that
unlimited authority, which gives one nation the
right to call itself the mistress of another — and
never were we dependant upon her for anything
except the articles of her manufacture — in equita-

14
ble exchange for our own productions — and never
did we submit to any law passed by her, that affect
ed our rights as freemen, or that restrained us
of our peculiar liberties. They were merely par
tial restraints upon our trade, and if they slightly
affected our interests, we submitted to them, as just
reciprocations for the benefits that resulted from
our commercial intercourse with her. Bat when,
after a lapse of a hundred and forty years — when
our strength had increased — when our wealth had
augmented — when our population was scattered
broad cast throughout the sea-board — when our
civil and religious liberties had taken too deep a
root to be eradicated — when this wayward chUd
had become a giant — then, for the first time did
England attempt to infringe upon our rights as
freemen, to impose upon us her authorities as vas
sals to her crown, and as tributaries to her gov
ernment. The consequence was, as we all know,
the successful assertion of our rights. The appeal
to arms upon our part was not to overturn the
throne of a despot ; it was not to exterminate a
tyrannical aristocracy — it was hot to establish any
new and unheard of principles of government — it
was not to subvert the authority established over
us — we fought merely in defence of that liberty
which we already possessed, which had been con
ceded and acknowledged to be our right, and was
the legacy of our fathers — it was the right of

15
taxing and governing ourselves. We have been
accustomed to call it a revolution, but if it was
so, it was unmarked by the characteristics of every
one that ever preceded or followed it ; for when
we had obtained every thing we fought for, there
was no radical change in the system of our sepa
rate governments ; there was not the shadow of a
change in the sentiments of the people, we were
always republicans.
Where — where I would ask, on earth, is there a
people who are under less restraint, who are more
virtuous, who are more happy, who are more free,
than the people of Rhode-Island ; and yet though
fifty years have rolled by since the glorious event
of our separation, we still hold the charter grant
ed us by the royal Charles. But will any one pre
tend to say that our liberties are dependant upon
that charter ; or that they were obtained by the
revolution ? There is no mystic virtue in the mate
rial of which it is composed ; there is no cabalis
tic power in the language inscribed upon it ; that
can make the freedom of this people dependant
upon its perservation ; nay, the people of England
themselves are not the less free, because their fa
mous magna charta, so boldly obtained by the
swords of their barons, was long since cut into
strips at the shop board of a tailor : No ! The fee-
simple of liberty never yet was decided by a king,
it never yet was dependant upon parchments and

16
seals and sign manuals ; it is to be found alone in
the sentiments of a people ; and is the unaliena
ble gift of God to man, though, it may be restrain
ed by a despot, though it may be overwhelmed
and pressed down to earth by ignorance and op
pression, yet will it rise like Antaeus with renova
ted vigor to the encounter. If, then, liberty is
the inherent right of man ; if, as a result from that
right, man embodied as a nation, establishes his
own method of govemment, with the power to
maintain it ; of what avail is the clmm of another
nation to interfere with that government, and if in
consequence of the struggle to resist that interfer
ence, a mere change should occur in the modifica
tion of that government how can it be called a
revolution, when there has been no revolution in
the principles, or in the sentiments of the people
who established it. And yet, but si.xty-five years
since the system of colonial subserviency and
dependence was so firmly established, that, in
our attempt to resist it, we were stigmatised as
rebels and traitors, and the legal liabiUty for the
defence of our opinion, was the gallows. The
change finaUy made by our country, has rightly
been caUed a revolution ; it was a revolution, but
it was in the sentiments of the people throughout
the whole civiUzed world ; nations whose liberties
had been alienated for ages, who had been taught
to believe that the little freedom they possessed

17
was the bountiful gift of their rulers, guided by
our opinions, because conscious of their rights,
and the consequences are, that the principles of
political liberty first established in America, will
descend to posterity as surely as the etherial spark
that was first implanted in the bosom of man by
the beneficence of his Creator. Though that un
fortunate nation, who first instigated by our ex
ample in attempting to follow our footsteps, did
but the firmer rivet her chains, yet the fire though
smothered, will burn ih spite of the combination of
Holy Alliances to extinguish it. And the land too
of song and of eloquence, they who once felt the
glow of liberty : though now broken and depressed,
yet again shall they enjoy their birth-right, though
all the aid that we can offer them is that of our ex
ample. Their cause is the cause of man, and in
such a cause, in no cause, wiU the crescent be suf
fered to triumph and trample upon the cross. But
to our brethren on this continent, they who have
so valiantly fought for and so successfully regained
their liberties, we will receive them to our bosoms
as brothers, and the name of their Bolivar we wiU
associate with that of our Washington. We feel
the more joy for them as the nation by whom they
were enthralled was the least worthy to restrain
the freedom of a high-minded people. In igno
rance, in superstition, in bigotry, Spain is the
same she was two hundred years ago, situated in

1»
the midst of civilized Europe, she has partaken but
in a slight degree of their advancement ; while
they have been carried along by the irresistable
tide of progressive improvement, she has lagged
upon its surface, grounding upon every shoal,
turned round by every eddy of its current. Go
visit that land, and ask for that inteUigence, for
those civil and religious establishments, which ren
der a nation respectable, go and seek with the
torch of Diogenes and see if you can find among
hfer princes a man. Go ask her prime minister
what claims his monarch has upon posterity for
remembrance ; ask what part he took in the battles
of his country ; ask what he has done to enlighten
and ameliorate the condition of his subjects ; ask
for his internal improvements, for his coUeges, his
schools ; ask for his treasures, his commerce, his
armadas, if none of them, ask then what has he
done. He wiU take you perhaps to a chapel in the
Escurial, and there he will show you the grandees
of the land, descendants of the conquerors of Gra
nada, attended by bishops vpith mitres and cros
iers, bowing with humble reverence before the
shrine of an image. Ask what means that unusual
solemnity, that singular devotion ; he wiU teU
you it is a figure of the holy virgin, clad in a robe
embroidered by the hands of their raighty sove
reign and this is all the inheritor of the throne
of Castile and Leon, the cotemporary of Na-

19
poleon and Alexander, has done to obtain an im
mortality ! He is contented with the title of Ferdi
nand the embroiderer, and this is the monarch
who claimed the right of supreme authority over
the fairest land of God's creation. But the spirit
that influenced that land, the fire that rises from
the summit of her Andes, is seen and felt across
the Atlantic, and he who stands in ihis place fifty
years from now, shall declare, that, tiarras and ty
rants have been humbled to the dust, not only in
that country but throughout the whole world.
In taking a rapid survey ofthe by-past fifty years,
the most conspicuous and interesting object to us,
is our country. We have stood calm and silent
spectators of the wars and desolation of Europe.
We have seen nations divided by the barriers of
nature, amalgamated and separated. We have
seen princes, and thrones, and dynasties, shiftii!g
from before us, like the scenery of a pantomime ;
while we, placed at the head of the representative
system of governments, have firmly adhered to the
principles upon which they were established ; while
nations have been battleing for systems of their
own^ — while the master spirits of the age have
been investigating the " nature of civU govern
ment, its ends and its uses," and have transferred
their contentions from the cabinet to the field, we
have been making sure, but rapid advances in im
provement ; consolidated and settled, the thirteen

20
feeble states of fifty years ago have now increased
to twenty-four; and while the separate interests
of each, constitute a repellent, their interests as a
whole, constitute an attractive force, which like
the centripetal and centrifugal powers, wUl keep
them revolving with the eternal harmony of the
spheres, without tides, and without eclipses.
The most distinguishing difference between fifty
years ago and now, next to the political rank
that we hold among the nations of the earth,
is in our commerce, our enterprize, and in our
internal improvements. The few ships then tra
ding only with the ports of Britain, are now an
immense fleet, convoyed by a gaUant navy, ex
ploring every recess of the ocean, and enabling
us to carry on our government almost without
taxation. By Our enterprize we have estab
lished every description of manufactures, opened
new sources for trade, and have developed new
means for our exigencies. But in internal im
provements what country has surpassed us ? Boun
tiful nature, when she created this land, seems to
have intended it for a band of brothers — she
bounded it on the one side by an ocean, friendly
to intercourse, and on the other by vast inland
seas, easy of access — she connected and fertilized
it by magnificent rivers, which like great arteries,
should carry life and vigor to its remotest extremi
ties. She gifted it with a cUmate benignant in aU

^1
its variety; she lavished upon it aU the magnificent
treasures of her animal, her vegetable, and her
mineral creation — the consequence is, that the
whole of it is capable of population ; the sea-board
have sent out from their numbers ; and where, fifty
years ago, was the forest uninhabited, save by the
wild cat and the Indian, have now risen cities and
states, vast in their population, their enterprize,
and their intelligence, that have changed the face
of untamed nature, into that of an old inhabi
ted country. But not content with the ligaments
with which nature has joined them, the whole
country have simultaneously drawn tighter their
bond of union in connecting themselves by canals
of unheard of magnitude and number. The three
million^ of fifty years ago, are now increased to
twelve miUions ; the wave of their population is
still heaving to the west, fraught with strength,
inteUigence and industry. It must flow on, until
it reach the shores of the Pacific ; there, alone
can be its limits, there alone can its proud course
be stayed. Accursed then, as now, be he, who
shall attempt to draw a line of separation between
us. In assigning reasons for the vast increase of
our population, and the extent of our resources,
we must look back upon the advancement made
in the mechanic arts, for their improvement most
particularly marks the last half century. A few
years previous to the revolution, the fortuitous

repairing of a useless engine, led to the successful
application of the gigantic power of steam ; and
but a [ew years after, the accidental overturning of
a spinning wheel in the presence of a clown,* led
to the discovery of the desideratum of -Franklin,
the spinning of two threads at once. These two
accidents, so trivial in themseb es, have wrought a
greater change in society than the aggregate of
all the inventions that ever preceded them. The
engine, but more especially the spindle, introduced
and improved upon in this country, has given the
spring to our agriculture, our commerce, and our
population ; and they daily administer to the indi
vidual necessities of every person in this nation.
But the volume it would take to describe their
effect upon society throughout the world,* cannot
be compressed into the few moments allotted me.
But while, as Americans, we are proud of our
country's government, of her rank among the
nations of the earth, of her wealth, and of her
intelligence, yet on this occasion it would be un
justifiable, did we not as Rhode-Islanders, indulge
in a laudable feeling of exultation.
Our fathers were among the first who stepped
forth in defence of the rights of their country.
Fifty years ago, and this place in commerce, in
wealth, in population, ranked the fourth in the
Union, whUe in poUshed manners, and in intel-
' See appendix. Note B.

lectual attainments then as now, were none her
superiors. When oppression and tyranny threat
ened this nation, despising our own individual in
terests, we were the first to resist. In no place
did the pure spark of patriotism burn with greater
fervor. We risked every thing in the encounter,
and when the train was first kindled at the battle
of Lexington, our soldiers leaving every thing that
is valuable to man, were among the first to mus
ter to the conflict. But when peace had calmed
the commotion, and they returned to the homes
they had left so prosperous, how altered was the
scene ! The foeman had been in their absence,
and commerce and wealth, and population had fled
withering at his approach — the stranger had in
habited their dwellings, and they found them spoU-
ed and deserted, their city left desolate, and this
Eden of America stripped of its fairest decora
tions. But while as individuals they mourned for
their irreparable losses, yet as Americans they
rejoiced, for they had manfully maintained, not
only the liberties of the country, but they had se
cured the proud privUeges of Rhode-Islanders.
The right that was first established in this state, of
unlimited liberty of conscience, and now when
fifty years has passed over us, the sufferings of
those times have ceased to be regretted, for the
enterprize of our citizens, the spindles and loom
of our manufactories, are sending our productions

24
to every quarter of the union, our merchants and
yeomen are characterized as industrious, wealthy
and intelligent, and though we still hold a royal
charter, yet no people on earth are more free, are
more simple, economical and effective in the form
and administration of their government. True, we
are not yet perfect ; but fifty years from now, will
find us with a more accurate system of representa
tion ; with an enlightened and independent judi
ciary ; and last, but far, far, from least impor
tance, it will find us with an extended, liberal sys
tem of free schools ; then shall we be the brightest
star in the ascendant of this horizon.
As a nation, where is the gifted seer that can
tell the prosperity that is in store for us at the end
of the century — by what rules of art can be calcu
lated our moral and political eminence ? True, we
may say that the three millions of fifty years ago,
wiU then be forty-eight millions ; we may say that
the wilderness between the Mississippi and the
setting sun, will be teeming with the same life and
intelligence — as now is, what was, the wilderness
of fifty years ago. But it is not in numerical pop
ulation, nor in the boundless extension of empire
that we are to look for the characteristics of that
age. — It wUl be the improvement that has taken
place in every department of human inteUigence —
and the consequent enlightened condition of man
kind throughout the whole world — the principles

upon which our government is established, will
then be the principles of mankind — like the fabled
chariot of the sun they have arisen in the east, and are
pursuing their refulgent course around the world —
diffusing life, vigor, and happiness to every nation ;
nor can ambition seize upon the reins to dash them
from their course. All the predictions of fifty years
ago have faUen short of the grandeur, the power,
and the happiness of this day ; what imagination,
then, is daring enough to anticipate our situation
even for fifty years hence ? We could only con
ceive of it by being allowed the happy privilege of
lifting the veil which conceals futurity. Our des
tiny is certain. Powerful at home, what have wc
to fear from aggression abroad ? Should hatred or
envy attempt to turn us from our path, the valor of
'76 is but slumbering in our bosoms.
* Citizen soldiers ! — You are the descendants of
the patriots. — To you is committed the defence of
our country. — Though your banners have never
waved victorious over fields of blood and carnage —
though your bosoms have not been gashed with
wounds, obtained in the battles for your country's
liberties — though the laurels of victory are not
entwining your brows — yet I know that as sol
diers, you" are panting for such distinction — ^but as
citizens, you cannot but rejoice that the flag of
* See appendix, Note f'.
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your country, which never waved but iu triumph,
should now be slumbering in all the pomp of
peace — I am sure it is your wish that long, long it
may be, ere the clarion of war shall awaken it.
But your estabUshment is neither useless nor un
necessary ; for though a nation may be powerful,
yet to be respected she must be prepared for re
sistance. In such. an hour you would not forget that
you are the fellow statesmen of Green, that you
are the fellow citizen of Perry.
Can I speak his name and yet not touch the
chord of sympathy that vibrates in your bosoms.''
Soon will you be called to perform over him the
last sad rites with which the soldier honours the
illustrious departed : the gratitude of his country
would not let him repose in the land of the
stranger : already is the barque upon her way,
that is to bear his relics to his own dear, native
land — you will perform the melancholy duty of
committing his body to its native dust — you shall
fire your voUies over him, but it wUl not awaken
his ashes — you will drop your tears upon his grave,
but they cannot bring him back to life. You may
erect over him a stately mausoleum, but nothino-
wUl he know of it. But while the hero of Erie
shaU sleep in the verdant land of his fathers, his
spirit shaU be with you, and never, never 'shall that
land need you for its defenders, and call upon you
in vain for protection.

APPENDIX.

Note A. The Declaration of Independence was read by
Maj. John Handy, from the Court House steps, the same place
from which he read it fifty years ago. He was placed beneath
a triumphal arch, decorated with ever-greens and lilies, upon
which was appropriately inscribed, "He stands in the cloud of
years — the memory of the past returns ;" around him were a
small number of the veterans who fifty years before had heard it.
At the foot of the steps were arranged twenty-four youth bearing
each a flag blazoned with the arms of each state ; back of them
stood the citizens, encircled by the military. Before commenc
ing, he made the following short address: " My respected fel
low citizens, at your united request, I appear before you in this
public station, at an age when it would seem most advisable that
I should remain a silent spectator of the performances of this day;
a day, which half a ceutury past, secured to us our independ
ence and prosperity — and no nation more prosperous ! My ovvn
feelings, on this occasion, I have sacrificed to gratify your wishes.
The recollection of the past scenes of the last fifty years rush
in succession on ray mind. With the hope and belief that the
mantle of charity will be spread over my imperfections, and un
der that impression I shall proceed to the performance of the
part required of me. " He then, with a distinct voice and an im
pressive raanner, read the Declaration. It was followed by an
ode adapted to the tune of Old Hundred, in which the whole
assembly joined. The ceremony was ended by repeated huzzas
and the firing of cannon in the same way it was done by the
REBELS fifty years ago.

Note B. The steam engine before the days of Watt wa.^*
a very imperfect and useless machine ; he was employed by a
college in Glasgow to repair a small model used in the lecture
room ; observing the vast waste of steam, he was led to investi
gate some peculiar properties belonging to it, aided by the illus -
trious Black, he made th? engine what it now is — the united
elForts of genius and art for sixty years have not been able mate
rially to improve upon it. The genius, however, of John Bab-
cock, a native of this town, has now invented a method of gen
erating steam, which will probably superscede every other. In
1767, Richard Hargreaves, an illiterate weaver of Lancasliire,
invented the spinning jenny, from the hint alluded to in the text.
Before that time, the threads for all the cloth used by mankind,
were spun separately by hand. Soon afterwards, the celebrated
Arkwright invented the water spinning frame. Both instru
ments combined constitute the mule. Gratitude to the man
who first introduced them into this State, will cause us, some
day, to erect a statue in perpetuation of his memory.
Note C. Custom has rendered it the common law of New
port, that the Independent Companies composing t^e, escort
should be specially addressed. The orator, though unwilling
to end with it, could introduce the address in no other place.

Errulum. —Ow'ing to the illegibility of tVie niEinUEcript, tl.e word oases, page S.
llth line froin the top, vvastnisprlntpd ro-iM.

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