Orations delivered at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, to commemorate the evening of the fifth of March, 1770; when a number of citizens were killed by a party of British troops, quartered among them, in a time of peace.

Orations delivered at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, to commemorate the evening of the fifth of March, 1770; when a number of citizens were killed by a party of British troops, quartered among them, in a time of peace.

Table of contents

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Title page

TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, APRIL 2, 1771.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1772.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1773.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1774.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1775.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT WATERTOWN , MARCH 5, 1776.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1777,

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1778.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1779.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1780.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1781.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1782.

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1783.

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Title page

AN ORATION.

A POEM, &c.

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BOSTON ORATIONS.

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ORATIONS DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON, TO COMMEMORATE THE EVENING OF THE FIFTH OF MARCH, 1770; WHEN A NUMBER OF CITIZENS WERE KILLED BY A PARTY OF BRITISH TROOPS, QUARTERED AMONG THEM, IN A TIME OF PEACE.

BOSTON, PRINTED BY PETER EDES, IN STATE-STREET.

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TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.

I Hope my collecting in one volume, the following Orations, which were first severally printed at your request, but many of which have been long since not to be purchased, will be considered in the mild light of an attempt to please the Public.

Americans have been reprehended for not preserving, with sufficient care, the various pamphlets and political tracts which this country has afforded during the late war.

Many of those productions which appear trite to us who live on the spet where they grew, may, however, be considered as sources of curiosity to strangers. Many of these Orations have been considered as the sentiments of this metropolis, from time to time, touching the revolution, [Page]and as our earliest public invectives against oppression.

As the institution of an Oration upon the Eifth of March is now superseded by the celebration of the anniversary of Independence upon the Fourth of July, I have given to this volume a general title, which will apply to both institutions: so that if hereafter there shall be a like volume, containing the Orations of that anniversary, this may be considered the first and that the second volume of Boston Orations.

I am, with the greatest respect, your obedient humble servant, PETER EDES.

Boston, January, 1785.

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ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, APRIL 2, 1771.

By JAMES LOVELL, A. M.

Omnes homines naturá Libertati student, et CONDITIONEM Ser vitutis oderunt.

CAES.

— Nunc ea petit, quae dare nullo modo possumus, nisi priùs volumus nos bello victos confiteri.

CIC.

YOUR design in the appointment of this ceremony, my Friends and Fellow-Townsmen, cannot fail to be examined in quite different lights at this season of political dissention. From the principles I profess, and in the exercise of my common right to judge with others, I conclude it was decent, wise, and honorable.

THE certainty of being favoured with your kindest partiality and candor, in a poor attempt to execute the part to which you have invited me, has overcome the objection of my inability to perform it in a proper manner; and I now beg the favour of your animating countenance.

THE horrid bloody scene we here commemorate, whatever were the causes which concurred to bring it on that dreadful night, must lead the pious and humane, of every order, to some suitable reflections. The pious will adore [Page]the conduct of that BEING who is unsearchable in all his ways, and without whose knowledge not a single sparrow falls, in permitting an immortal soul to be [...]rried by the flying ball, the messenger of death, in the twinkling of an eye, to meet the awful Judge of all its secret actions. The humane, from having often thought, with pleasing rapture, on the endearing scenes of social life, in all its amiable relations, will lament, with heart-felt pangs, their sudden dissolution, by indiscretion, rage and vengeance.

BUT let us leave that shocking close of one continued course of rancor and dispute, from the first moment that the troops arrived in town: that course will now be represented by your own reflections to much more solid, useful purpose, than by any artful language. I hope, however, that heaven has yet in store such happiness for this afflicted town and province, as will in time wear out the memory of all your former troubles.

I sincerely rejoice with you in the happy event of your steady and united effort to prevent a second tragedy.

OUR fathers left their native land, risqued all the dangers of the sea, and came to this then-savage desart, with that true undaunted courage which is excited by a confidence in GOD. They came that they might here enjoy themselves, and leave to their posterity the best of earthly portions, full English Liberty. You showed upon the alarming cause for tryal, that their brave spirit still exists in vigor, though their legacy of right is much impaired. The sympathy and active friendship of some neighbouring towns, upon that sad occasion, commands the highest gratitude of this.

WE have seen and felt the ill effects of placing standing forces in the midst of populous communities; but those are only what individuals suffer. Your vote directs me to [Page]point out the fatal tendency of placing such an order in free cities—fatal indeed! Athens once was free; a citizen, a favorite of the people, by an artful story, gained a trifling guard of fifty men; ambition taught him ways to enlarge that number; he destroyed the commonwealth and made himself the tyrant of the Athenians. Caesar, by the length of his command in Gaul, got the affections of his army, marched to Rome, overthrew the state, and made himself perpetual dictator. By the same instruments, many less republics have been made to fall a prey to the devouring jaws of tyrants.—But this is a subject which should never be disguised with figures; it chuses the plain stile of dissertation.

THE true strength and safety of every commonwealth or limited monarchy, is the bravery of its freeholders, its militia. By brave militias they rise to grandeur, and they come to ruin by a mercenary army. This is founded on historical facts, and the same causes will, in similar circumstances, forever produce the same effects. Justice Blackstone, in his inimitably clear commentaries, tells us, that "it is extremely dangerous in a land of liberty, to make a distinct order of the profession of arms; that such an order is an object of jealousy; and that the lows and constitution of England are strangers to it." One article of the Bill of Rights is, that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in a time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law. The present army, therefore, though called the peace establishment, is kept up by one act, and governed by another; both of which expire annually. This circumstance is valued as a sufficient check upon the army. A less body of troops than is now maintained has, on a time, destroyed a King, and fought under a parliament with great success and glory; but, upon a motion to disband them, they turned their masters out of doors, and fixed others in their stead. Such wild things are not again to happen, [Page]because the parliament have power to stop payment once a year: but arma tenenti quis neget? which may be easily interpreted, "who will bind Sampson with his locks on *?"

THE bill which regulates the army, the same fine author I have mentioned, says, "is, in many respects, hastily penned, and reduces the soldier to a state of slavery in the midst of a free nation. This is impolitic: for slaves envy the freedom of others, and take a malicious pleasure in contributing to destroy it."

BY this scandalous bill a justice of peace is empowered to grant, without a previous oath from the military officer, a warrant to break open any (freeman's) house, upon pretence of searching for deserters.

I MUST not omit to mention one more bad tendency: 'tis this,—a standing force leads to a total neglect of militias, or tends greatly to discourage them.

YOU see the danger of a standing army to the cause of freedom. If the Br [...]tish parliament consents from year to year to be exposed, it doubtless has good reasons. But when did our assembly pass an act to hazard all the property, the liberty and lives of their constituents? what check have we upon a British army? can we disband it? can we stop its pay?

OUR own assemblies in America can raise an army; and our Monarch, George the 3d, by our constitution, take [...] immediate command. This army can consent to leav [...] their native provinces. Will the royal chief commande [...] send them to find barracks at Brunswick or Lunenburg, at Hanover, or the commodious hall of Westminster? suppose the last—suppose this army was informed [...] [Page]nay thought the parliament in actual rebellion, or only on the eve of one, against their King, or against those who paid and cloathed them—for there it pinches.—we are rebels against parliament;—we adore the King.

WHERE, in the case I have stated, would be the value of the boasted English constitution?

WHO are a free people? not those who do not suffer actual oppression; but those who have a constitutional check upon the power to oppress.

WE are slaves or freemen: if, as we are called, the last, where is our check upon the following powers, France, Spain, the States of Holland, or the British Parliaments? now if any one of these (and it is quite immaterial which) has right to make the two acts in question operate within this province, they have right to give us up to an unlimited army, under the sole direction of one Saracen commander.

THUS I have led your thoughts to that upon which I formed my conclusion, that the design of this ceremony was decent, wise and honorable. Make the bloody 5th of March the Aera of the resurrection of your birthrights, which have been murdered by the very strength that nursed them in their infancy. I had an eye solely to parliamentary supremacy; and I hope you will think every other view beneath your notice, in our present most alarming situation.

Chatham, Camden, and others, Gods among men, and the Farmer, whom you have addres [...]ed as the friend of mankind; all these have owned that England has right to exercise every power over us, but that of taking money [Page]out of our pockets, without our consent *. Though it seems almost too bold therefore in us to say "we doubt in every single instance her legal right over this province †", yet we must assert it. Those I have named are mighty characters, but they wanted one advantage Providence has given us. The beam is carried off from our eyes, by the flowing blood of our fellow-citizens, and now we may be allowed to attempt to remove the mote from the eyes of our exalted patrons. That mote, we think, is nothing but our obligation to England first, and afterwards Great-Britain, for constant kind protection of our lives and birthrights against foreign danger. We all acknowledge that protection.

LET us once more look into the early history of this province. We find that our English ancestors, disg [...]sted in their native country at a Legislation, which they saw was sacrificing all their rights, left its Jurisdiction ‡, and sought, like wandering birds of passage, some happier climate. Here at length they settled down. The King of England was said to be the royal ‖ landford of this territory; with HIM they entered into mutual, sacred compect, [Page]by which the price of tenure, and the rules of management, were fairly stated. It is in this compact that we find OUR ONLY TRUE LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY.

I MIGHT here enlarge upon the character of those first settlers, men of whom the world was little worthy; who, for a long course of years, assisted by no earthly power, defended their liberty, their religion, and their lives, against the greatest inland danger of the savage natives: but this falls not within my present purpose. They were secure by sea.

IN our infancy, when not an over-tempting jewel for the Bourbon Crown, the very name of England saved us; afterwards her fleets and armies. We wish not to depreciate the worth of that protection. Of our gold, yea of our most fine gold, we will freely give a part. Our fathers would have done the same. But must we fall down and cry "let not a stranger rob and kill me, O my father! let me rather die by the hand of my brother, and let him ravish all my portion *!"

IT is said that disunited from Britain "we should bleed at every vein." I cannot see the consequence. The States of Holland do not suffer thus. But grant it true, SENECA, would prefer the LAUNCETS of France, Spain, or any other power, to the Bow-STRING, though applied by the fair hand of Britannia.

THE declarative vote of the British Parliament is the death-warrant of our birthrights, and wants only a Czarish King to put it into execution. Here then a door of salvation is open. Great-Britain may raise her fleets and [Page]armies, but it is only our own King that can direct their fire down upon our heads. He is gracious, but not omniscient. He is ready to hear our APPEALS in their proper course; and knowing himself, though the most powerful prince on earth, yet, a subject under a divine constitution of LAW; that law he will ask and receive from the twelve Judges of England. These will prove that the claim of the British Parliament over us is not only ILLEGAL IN ITSELF, but A DOWN-RIGHT USURPATION OF HIS PREROGATIVE as King of America.

A BRAVE nation is always generous. Let us appeal, therefore, at the same time, to the generosity of the PEOPLE of Great-Britain, before the tribunal * of Europe, not to envy us the full enjoyment of the RIGHTS OF BRETHREN.

AND now, my Friends and Fellow-Townsmen, having declared myself an American Son of Liberty of true charter principles: having shewn the critical and dangerous situation of our birthrights, and the true course for speedy redress; I shall take the freedom to recommend, with boldness, one previous step.—Let us show we understand the true value of what we are claiming.

THE patriotic Farmer tells us, "the cause of Liberty is a cause of too much dignity to be sullied by turbulence and tumult.—Anger produces anger; and differences, that might be accommodated by kind and respectful behaviour, may, by imprudence, be enlarged to an incurable rage. In quarrels—risen to a certain height, the first cause of dissention is no longer remembered, the minds [Page]of the parties being wholly engaged in recollecting and resenting the mutual expressions of their dislike. When feuds have reached that fatal point, considerations of reason and equity vanish; and a blind fury governs, or rather confounds all things. A people no longer regard their interest, but a gratification of their wrath."

WE know ourselves subjects of common LAW: to that and the worthy executors of it, let us pay a steady and conscientious regard. Past errors in this point have been written with gall, by the pen of MALICE. May our future conduct be such as to make even that vile IMP lay her pe [...] aside.

THE Right which imposes duties upon us, is in dispute: but whether they are managed by a Surveyor-General, a Board of Commissioners, Turkish Janizaries, or Russian Cossacks, let them enjoy, during our time of fair tryal, the common personal protection of the laws of our constitution. Let us shut our eyes, for the present, to their being executors of claims subversive of our rights.

WATCHFUL, hawk-eyed JEALOUSY, ever guards the portal of the temple of the GODDESS LIBERTY. This is known to those who frequent her altars. Our whole conduct therefore, I am sure, will meet with the utmost candor of her VOTARIES: but I am wishing we may be able to convert even her basest APOSTATES.

WE are SLAVES until we obtain such redress, through the justice of our King, as our happy constitution leads us to expect. In that condition, let us behave with the propriety and dignity of FREEMEN; and thus exhibit to the world, a new character of a people, which no history describes.

[Page] MAY the allwise and beneficient RULER OF THE UNIVERSE preserve our lives and health, and prosper all our lawful endeavours in the glorious cause of FREEDOM.

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ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1772.

By DR. JOSEPH WARREN.

Quis talia fando,

Myrmidonum, Dolopumve, aut duri miles Ulyssei,

Temperet a lacrymis.

VIRGIL.

WHEN we turn over the historic page, and trace the rise and fall of states and empires; the mighty revolutions which have so often varied the face of the world strike our minds with solemn surprize, and we are naturally led to endeavour to search out the causes of such astonishing changes.

THAT man is formed for social life, is an observation which, upon our first enquiry, presents itself immediately to our view, and our reason approves that wise and generous principle which actuated the first founders of civil government; an institution which hath its origin in the weakness of individuals, and hath for its end, the strength and security of all: and so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly known, and religiously attended to, government is one of the richest blessings to mankind, and ought to be held in the highest veneration.

IN young and new-formed communities, the grand design of this institution, is most generally understood, and [Page]most strictly regarded; the motives which urged to the social compact, cannot be at once forgotten, and that equality which is remembered to have subsisted so lately among them, prevents those who are cloathed with authority from attempting to invade the freedom of their brethren; or if such an attempt is made, it prevents the community from suffering the offender to go unpunished: every member feels it to be his interest, and knows it to be his duty, to preserve inviolate the constitution on which the public safety depends *, and is equally ready to assist the Magistrate in the execution of the laws, and the subject in defence of his right; and so long as this noble attachment to a constitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, exists in full vigor, in any state, that state must be flourishing and happy.

IT was this noble attachment to a free constitution, which raised ancient Rome from the smallest beginnings, to that bright summit of happiness and glory to which she arrived; and it was the loss of this which plunged her from that summit, into the black gulph of infamy and slavery. It was this attachment which inspired her senators with wisdom; it was this which glowed in the breasts of her heroes; it was this which guarded her liberties, and extended her dominions, gave peace at home, and commanded respect abroad: and when this decayed, her magistrates lost their reverence for justice and the laws, and degenerated into tyrants and oppressors—her senators, forgetful of their dignity, and seduced by base corruption, betrayed their country—her soldiers, regardless of their relation to the community, and urged only by the hopes of plunder and rapine, unfeelingly committed the most flagrant enormities; and hired to the trade of death, with relentless fury they perpetrated the most cruel murders, [Page]whereby the streets of imperial Rome were drenched with her noblest blood. Thus this empress of the world lost her dominions abroad, and her inhabitants, dissolute in their manners, at length became contented slaves; and she stands to this day, the scorn and derision of nations, and a monument of this eternal truth, that PUBLIC HAPPINESS DEPENDS ON A VIRTUOUS AND UNSHAKEN ATTACHMENT TO A FREE CONSTITUTION.

IT was this attachment to a constitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, which inspired the first settlers of this country:—they saw with grief the daring outrages committed on the free constitution of their native land—they knew that nothing but a civil war could at that time restore its pristine purity. So hard was it to resolve to embrue their hands in the blood of their brethren, that they chose rather to quit their fair possessions, and seek another habitation in a distant clime. When they came to this new world, which they fairly purchased of the Indian natives, the only rightful proprietors, they cultivated the then barren soil, by their incessant labour, and defended their dear-bought possessions with the fortitude of the christian, and the bravery of the hero.

AFTER various struggles, which, during the tyrannic reigns of the house of STUART, were constantly kept up between right and wrong, between liberty and slavery, the connection between Great-Britain and this Colony, was settled in the reign of King William and Queen Mary, by a compact, the conditions of which were expressed in a Charter; by which all the liberties and immunities of British Subjects, were confined to this province, as fully and as absolutely as they possibly could be by any human instrument which can be devised. And it is undeniably true, that the greatest and most important right of a British subject is, that he shall be governed by no laws but those to which he either in person or by his representative [Page]hath given his consent: and this I will venture to assert, is the grand basis of British freedom; it is interwoven with the constitution; and whenever this is lost, the constitution must be destroyed.

THE British constitution (of which ours is a copy) is a happy compound of the three forms (under some of which all governments may be ranged) viz. monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy: of these three the British Legislature is composed, and without the consent of each branch, nothing can carry with it the force of a law; but when a law is to be passed for rasing a tax, that law can originate only in the democratic branch, which is the House of Commons in Britain, and the House of Representatives here—The reason is obvious: they and their constituants are to pay much the largest part of it; but as the aristrocratic branch, which in Britain, is the house of lords, and in this province, the council, are also to pay some part, THEIR consent is necessary; and as the monarchic branch, which in Britain is the King, and with us, either the King in person, or the Governor whom he shall be pleased to appoint to act in his stead, is supposed to have a just sense of his own interest, which is that of all the subjects in general, HIS consent is also necessary, and when the consent of these three branches is obtained, the taxation is most certainly legal.

LET us now allow ourselves a few moments to examine the late acts of the British parliament for taxing America— Let us with candor judge whether they are constitutionally binding upon us:—if they are, IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE let us submit to them, without one murmuring word.

FIRST, I would ask whether the members of the British House of Commons are the democracy of this province? if they are, they are either the people of this province, [Page]or are elected by the people of this province, to represent them, and have therefore a constitutional right to originate a bill for taxing them: it is most certain they are neither; and therefore nothing done by them can be said to be done by the democratic branch of our constitution. I would next ask, whether the Lords, who compose the aristocratic branch of the legislature, are Peers of America? I never heard it was (even in these extraordinary times) so much as pretended, and if they are not, certainly no act of theirs can be said to be the act of the aristocratic branch of our constitution. The power of the monarchic branch we with pleasure acknowledge, resides in the King, who may act either in person or by his representative; and I freely confess that I can see no reason why a PROCLAMATION for raising money in America, issued by the King's sole authority, would not be equally consistent with our own constitution, and therefore equally binding upon us with the late acts of the British parliament for taxing us; for it is plain, that if there is any validity in those acts, it must arise altogether from the monarchical branch of the legislature: and I further think that it would be at least as equitable; for I do not conceive it to be of the least importance to us by whom our property is taken away, so long as it is taken without our consent; and I am very much at a loss to know by what figure of rhetoric, the inhabitants of this province can be called FREE SUBJECTS, when they are obliged to obey implicitly, such laws as are made for them by men three thousand miles off, whom they know not, and whom they never have empowered to act for them; or how they can be said to have PROPERTY, when a body of men, over whom they have not the least controul, and who are not in any way accountable to them, shall oblige them to deliver up any part, or the whole of their substance, without even asking their consent: and yet, whoever pretends that the late acts of the British parliament for taxing America ought to be deemed binding upon us, must admit at once that [Page]we are absolute SLAVES, and have no property of our own; or else that we may be FREEMEN, and at the same time under a necessity of obeying the arbitrary commands of those over whom we have no controul or influence; and that we may HAVE PROPERTY OF OUR OWN, which is entirely at the disposal of another. Such gross absurdities, I believe will not be relished in this enlightened age: and it can be no matter of wonder that the people quickly perceived, and seriously complained of the inroads which these acts must unavoidably make upon their liberty, and of the hazard to which their whole property is by them exposed; for, if they may be taxed without their consent, even in the smallest trifle, they may also, without their consent, be deprived of every thing they possess, although never so valuable, never so dear. Certainly it never entered the hearts of our ancestors, that after so many dangers in this then desolate wilderness, their hard-earned property should be at the disposal of the British parliament; and as it was soon foun [...] [...]at this taxation could not be supported by reason and argument, it seemed necessary that one act of oppression should be enforced by another, and therefore, contrary to our just rights as possessing, or at least having a just title to possess, all the liberties and IMMUNITIES of British subjects, a standing army was established among us in a time of peace; and evidently for the purpose of effecting that, which it was one principal design of the founders of the constitution to prevent (when they declared a standing army in a time of peace to be AGAINST LAW) namely, for the enforcement of obedience to acts which, upon fair examination, appeared to be unjust and unconstitutional.

THE ruinous consequences of standing armies to free communities, may be seen in the histories of SYRACUSE, ROME, and many other once flourishing STATES; some of which have now scarce a name! their baneful influence is most suddenly felt, when they are placed in populous [Page]for, by a corruption of morals, the public happiness is immediately affected? and that this is one of the effects of quartering troops in a populous city, is a truth, to which many a mourning parent, many a lost, despairing child in this metropolis, must bear a very melancholy testimony.—Soldiers are also taught to consider arms as the only arbiters by which every dispute is to be decided between contending states;—they are instructed implicitly to obey their commanders, without enquiring into the justice of the cause they are engaged to support: hence it is, that they are ever to be dreaded as the ready engines of tyranny and oppression.—And it is too observable that they are prone to introduce the same mode of decision in the disputes of individuals, and from thence have often arisen great animosities between them and the inhabitants, who, whilst in a naked defenceless state, are frequently insulted and abused by an armed soldiery. And this will be more especially the cas [...] when the troops are informed that the intention of the [...]ing stationed in any city, is to OVERAWE THE INHABITANTS. That this was the avowed design of stationing an armed force in this town, is sufficiently known; and we, my fellow-citizens, have seen, WE have felt the tragical effects!—THE FATAL FIFTH OF MARCH, 1770, CAN NEVER BE FORGOTTEN—The horrors of THAT DREADFUL NIGHT are but too deeply impressed on our hearts— Language is too feeble to paint the emotions of our souls, when our streets were stained with the BLOOD OF OUR BRETHREN,—when our ears were wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented with the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead.—When our alarmed imagination presented to our view our houses wrapt in flames,—our children subjected to the barbarous caprice of the raging soldiery,—our beauteous virgins exposed to all the insolence of unbridled passion,—our virtuous wives, endeared to us by every tender tie, falling a sacrifice to worse than brutal violence, and perhaps, like the famed [Page]LUCRETIA, distracted with anguish and despait, ending their wretched lives by their own fair hands.—When we beheld the authors of our distress parading in our streets, or drawn up in a regular battalia, as though in a hostile city, our hearts beat to arms; we snatched our weapons, almost resolved, by one decisive stroke, to avenge the death of our SLAUGHTERED BRETHREN, and to secure from future danger, all that we held most dear: but propitious heaven forbad the bloody carnage, and saved the threatned victims of our too keen resentment, not by their discipline, not by their regular array,—no, it was royal GEORGE's livery that proved their shield—it was that which turned the pointed engines of destruction from, their breasts *. The thoughts of vengeance were soon buried in our inbred affection to Great-Britain, and calm reason dictated a method of removing the troops more mild than an immediate recourse to the sword. With united efforts you urged the immediate departure of the troops from the town—you urged [...] with a resolution which ensured success—you obtained your wishes, and the removal of the troops was effected, without one drop of their blood being shed by the inhabitants.

THE immediate actors in the tragedy of THAT NIGHT were surrendered to justice.—It is not mine to say how far they were guilty! they have been tried by the country and ACQUITTED of murder! and they are not to be again arraigned at an earthly bar: but, surely the men who have promiscuously scattered death amidst the innocent inhabitants of a populous city, ought to see well [Page]to it, that they be prepared to stand at the bar of an omniscient Judge! and all who contrived or encouraged the stationing troops in this place, have reasons of eternal importance, to reflect with deep contrition, on their base designs, and humbly to repent of their impious machinations.

THE infatuation which hath seemed, for a number of years, to prevail in the British councils, with regard to us, is truly astonishing! what can be proposed by the repeated attacks made upon our freedom, I really cannot surmise; even leaving justice and humanity out of the question, I do not know one single advantage which can arise to the British nation, from our being enslaved:—I know not of any gains, which can be wrung from us by oppression, which they may not obtain from us by our own consent, in the smooth channel of [...]merce: we wish the wealth and prosperity of Britain; we contribute largely to both. Doth what we contribute lose all its value, because it is done voluntarily? the amazing increase of riches to Britain, the great rise of the value of her lands the flourishing state of her navy are striking proofs of the advantages derived to her from her commerce with the colonies; and it is our earnest desire that she may still continue to enjoy the same emoluments, until her streets are paved with AMERICAN GOLD; only, let us have the pleasure of calling it our own, whilst it is in our hands; but this it seems is too great a favor—we are to governed by the absolute commands of others; our property is to be take [...] away without our consent—if we complain, our complaints are treated with contempt; if we assert our rights, that assertion is deemed insolence; if we humbly offer to submit the matter to the impartial decision of reason, the SWORD is judged the most proper argument to silence our murmurs! but this cannot long be the case—surely the British nation will not suffer the reputation of their justice and their honor, to be thus sported away by a capricious [Page]ministry; no, they will in a short time open their eyes to their true interest: they nourish in their own breasts, a noble love of liberty; they hold her dear, and they know that all who have once possessed her charms, had rather die than suffer her to be torn from their embraces—they are also sensible that Britain is so deeply interested in the prosperity of the colonies, that she must eventually feel every wound given to their freedom; they cannot be ignorant that more dependence may be placed on the affections of a brother, than on the forced service of a slave; they must approve your efforts for the preservation of your rights; from a sympathy of soul they must pray for your success: and I doubt not but they will, e'er long, exert themselves effectually, to redress your grievances. Even in the dissolute reign of King CHARLES II. when the House of Commons impeached the earl of Clarendon of high treason, the first article on which they founded their accusation was, tha [...] [...] he had designed a standing army to be raised, and to g [...] the kingdom thereby." And the eighth article was, that "he had introduced an arbitrary government into his majesty's plantation." A terrifying example to those who are now forging chains for this COUNTRY.

YOU have, my friends and countrymen, frustrated the designs of your enemies, by your unanimity and fortitude: it was your union and determined spirit which expelled those troops, who polluted your streets with INNOCENT BLOOD. You have appointed this anniversay as a standing memorial of the BLOODY CONSEQUENCES OF PLACING AN ARMED FORCE IN A POPULOUS CITY, and of your deliverance from the dangers which then seemed to hang over your heads; and I am confident that you never will betray the least want of spirit when called upon to guard your freedom.—None but they who set a just value upon the blessings of Liberty are worthy to enjoy her—your illustrious fathers were her zealous votaries—when [Page]the blasting frowns of tyranny drove her from public view, they clasped her in their arms, they cherished her in their generous bosoms, they brought her safe over the rough ocean, and fixed her seat in this then dreary wilderness; they nursed her infant age with the most tender care; for her sake, they patiently bore the severest hardships; for her support, they underwent the most rugged toils: in her defence, they boldly encountered the most alarming dangers; neither the ravenous beasts that ranged the woods for prey, nor the more furious savages of the wilderness, could damp their ardor!—Whilst with one hand they broke the stubborn glebe, with the other they grasped their weapons, ever ready to protect her from danger.—No sacrifice, not even their own blood, was esteemed too rich a libation for her altar! GOD prospered their valor; they preserved her brilliancy unsullied; they enjoyed her whilst they lived, and dying, bequeathed the dear inheritance to your care. And as they left you this glorious legacy, they have undoubtedly transmitted to you some portion of their noble spirit, to inspire you with virtue to merit her, and courage to preserve her: you surely cannot, with such examples before your eyes, as every page of the history of this country affords *, suffer your liberties to be ravished from you by lawless force, or cajoled away by flattery and fraud.

THE voice of your fathers blood cries to you from the ground; MY SONS SCORN TO BE SLAVES! in vain we met the frowns of tyrants—in vain, we crossed the boisterous ocean, found a new world, and prepared it for the happy residence of LIBERTY—in vain, we toiled— in vain, we fought—we bled in vain, if you, our offspring want valor to repel the assaults of her invaders!— Stain not the glory of your worthy ancestors, but like [Page]them resolve, never to part with your birth-right; be wise in your deliberations, and determined in your exertions for the preservation of your liberties.—Follow not the dictates of passion, but enlist yourselves under the sacred banner of reason; use every method in your power to secure your rights; at least prevent the curses of posterity from being heaped upon your memories.

IF you, with united zeal and fortitude, oppose the torrent of oppression; if you feel the true fire of patriotism burning in your breasts; if you, from your souls, despise the most gaudy dress that slavery can wear; if you really prefer the lonely cottage (whilst blest with liberty) to gilded palaces, surrounded with the ensigns of slavery, you may have the fullest assurance that tyranny, with her whole accursed train, will hide their hideous heads in confusion, shame and despair—if you perform your part, you must have the strongest confidence, that THE SAME ALMIGHTY BEING who protected your pious and venerable forefathers—who enabled them to turn a barren wilderness into a fruitful field, who so often made bare his arm for their salvation, will still be mindful of you their offspring.

MAY THIS ALMIGHTY BEING graciously preside in all our councils.—May he direct us to such measures as he himself shall approve, and be pleased to bless.—May we ever be a people favored of GOD.— May our land be a land of Liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and a praise in the whole [...]th, until the last shock of time shall bury the empires of the world in one common undistinguished ruin!

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1773.

By DR. BENJAMIN CHURCH.

Impius hac culta novalia miles habebit?

Barbarus has segetes? en quo discordia cives

perduxit miseros? en queis consevimus agros?

VIRGIL, Ecl. 1.

O SOCII

O passi gr [...]iora, dabit Deus his quoque finem:

—r [...]ocate animos, maestumque timorem

mi [...]ti [...]e, forsan et haec clim meminisse juvabit.

VIRGIL, Aene. 1.

FROM a consciousness of inability, MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, I have repeatedly declined the duties of this anniversary. Nothing but a firm attachment to the tottering liberties of America *, added to the irresistable importunity of some valued friends, could have induced me (especially with a very short notice) so far to mistake my abilities, as to render the utmost extent of your candor truly indispensable.

WHEN man was unconnected by social obligations; abhorrent to every idea of dependence; actuated by a savage [Page]ferocity of mind, displayed in the brutality of his manners, the necessary exigences of each individual, naturally impelled him to acts of treachery, violence and murder.

THE miseries of mankind thus proclaiming eternal war with their species, led them, probably, to consult certain measures to arrest the current of such outrageous enormities.

A SENSE of their wants and weakness, in a state of nature, doubtless inclined them to such reciprocal aids and support, as eventually established society.

MEN then began to incorporate; subordination succeeded to independence; order to anarchy; and passions were disarmed by civilization: society lent its aid to secure the weak from oppression, who wisely took shelter within the sanctuary of law.

ENCREASING society afterwards exacted, that the tacit contract made with her by each individual, at the time of his being incorporated, should receive a more solemn form to become authentic and irrefragable; the main object being to add force to the laws, proportionate to the power and extent of the body corporate, whose energy they were to direct.

THEN society availed herself of the sacrifice of that liberty and that natural equality of which we are all conscious: superiors and magistrates were appointed, and mankind submitted to a civil and political subordination. This is truly a glorious inspiration of reason, by whose influence, notwithstanding the inclination we have for independence, we accept controul, for the establishment of order.

[Page] ALTHOUGH unrestrained power in one person, may have been the first and most natural recourse of mankind, from rapine and disorder; yet all restrictions of power, made by laws, or participation of sovereignty, are apparent improvements upon what began in unlimited power.

IT would shock humanity, should I attempt to describe those barbarous and tragic scenes, which crimson the historic page of this wretched and detestable constitution, where absolute dominion is lodged in one person: where one makes the whole, and the whole is nothing. What motives, what events, could have been able to subdue men, endowed with reason, to render themselves the mute instruments, and passive objects of the caprice of an individual.

MANKIND apprized of their privileges, in being rational and free, in prescribing civil laws to themselves, had surely no intention of being enchained by any of their equals; and although they submitted voluntary adherents to certain laws, for the sake of mutual security and happiness, they, no doubt, intended by the original compact, a permanent exemption of the subject body from any claims, which were not expresly surrendered, for the parpose of obtaining the security and defence of the whole. Can it possibly be conceived, that they would voluntarily be enslaved by a power of their own creation?

THE constitution of a magistrate, does not therefore take away that lawful defence against force and injury, allowed by the law of nature; we are not to obey a prince, ruling above the limits of the power entrusted to him; for the commonwealth, by constituting a head, does not deprive itself of the power of its own preservation *. [Page] Government and magistracy, whether supreme or subordinate, is a mere human ordinance, and the laws of every nation are the measure of magistratical power: and kings, the servants of the state, when they degenerate into tyrants, forfeit their right to government.

BREACH of trust in a governor *, or attempting to enlarge a limited power, effectually absolves subjects from every bond of covenant and peace; the crimes acted by a king against the people, are the highest treason against the highest law among men †.

"IF the king (says Grotius) hath one part of the supreme power, and the other part is in the senate or people, when such a king shall invade that part which doth not belong to him, it shall be lawful to oppose a just force to him, because his power doth not extend so far."

THE question in short turns upon this single point, respecting the power of the civil magistrate: is it the end of that office that one particular person may do what he will without restraint? or rather that society should be made happy and secure? the answer is very obvious— And it is my firm opinion that the equal justice of GOD, and the natural freedom of mankind, must stand or fall together.

WHEN rulers become tyrants, they cease to be kings: they can no longer be respected as GOD's vicegerents, who violate the laws they were sworn to protect. The preacher may tell us of passive obedience, that tyrants are scourges in the hands of a righteous GOD to chastise a sinful nation, and are to be submitted to like plagues, famine [Page]and such like judgments: such doctrine may serve to mislead ill-judging princes into a false security; but men are not be harrangued out of their senses; human nature and self-preservation will eternally arm the brave and vigilant, against slavery and oppression.

As a despotic government * is evidently productive of the most shocking calamities, whatever tends to restrain such inordinate power, though in itself a severe evil, is extremely beneficial to society; for where a degrading servitude is the detestable alternative, who can shudder at the reluctant ponyard of a Brutus, the crimsoned axe of a Cromwell, or the reeking dagger of a Ravilla [...]?

To enjoy life as becomes rational creatures, to possess our souls with pleasure and satisfaction, we must be careful to maintain that inestimable blessing, liberty. By liberty I would be understood, the happiness of living under laws of our own making, by our personal consent, or that of our representatives †.

[Page] WITHOUT this, the distinctions among mankind are but different degrees of misery; for as the true estimate of a man's life consists in conducting it according to his own just sentiment and innocent inclinations, his being is degraded below that of a free agent, which heaven has made him, when his affections and passions are no longer governed by the dictates of his own mind, and the interests of human society, but by the arbitrary, unrestrained will of another.

I THANK GOD we live in an age of rational inquisition, when the unfettered mind dares to expatiate freely on every object worthy its attention, when the privileges of mankind are thoroughly comprehended, and the rights of distinct societies are objects of liberal enquiry. The rod of the tyrant no longer excites our apprehensions, and to the frown of the DESPOT, which made the darker ages tremble *, we dare oppose demands of right, and appeal to that constitution, which holds even kings in fetters.

IT is easy to project the subversion of a people, when men behold them, the ignorant or indolent victims of power; but it is difficult to effect their ruin, when they are apprized of their just claims, and are sensibly and seasonably affected with thoughts for their preservation. GOD be thanked, the alarm is gone forth †, the people are universally [Page]informed of their CHARTER RIGHTS; they esteem them to be the ark of GOD to NEW-ENGLAND, and like that of old, may it deal destruction to the profane hand that shall dare to touch it.

IN every state or society of men, personal liberty and security must depend upon the collective power of the whole, acting for the general interest *. If this collective power is not of the whole, the freedom and interest of the whole is not secured: If this confluent power acts by a partial delegation, or for a partial intered, its operation is surely determinable, where its delegation ends.

THE constitution of England, I revere to a degree of idolatry; but my attachment is to the commonweal: The magistrate will ever command my respect, by the integrity and wisdom of his administrations.

[Page] JUNIUS well observes; when the constitution is openly invaded, when the first original right of the people, from which all laws derive their authority, is directly attacked, inferior grievances naturally lose their force, and are suffered to pass by without punishment or observation.

NUMBERLESS have been the attacks made upon our free constitution; numberless the grievances we now resent: but the Hydra mischief, is the violation of my right, as a BRITISH AMERICAN freeholder, in not being consulted in framing those statutes I am required to obey.

THE authority of the BRITISH monarch over this colony was established, and his power derived from the province CHARTER; by that we are entitled to a distinct legislation. As in every government there must exist a power superior to the laws, viz. the power that makes those laws, and from which they derive their authority *: therefore the liberty of the people is exactly proportioned to the share the body of the people have in the legislature; and the check placed in the constitution, on the executive power. That state only is free, where the people are governed by laws which they have a share in making; and that country is totally enslaved, where one single law can be made or repealed, without the interposition or consent of the people.

[Page] THAT the members of the British parliament are the representatives of the whole British empire, expresly militates with their avowed principles: property and residence within the island, alone constituting the right of election; and surely he is not my delegate in whose nomination or appointment I have no choice: but however the futile and absurd claim of a virtual representation, may comport with the idea of a political visionary; he must (if possible) heighten the indignation, or excite the ridicule of a freeborn American, who by such a fallacious pretext would despoil him of his property.

AN American freeholder, according to the just and judicious conduct of the present ministry, has no possible right to be consulted, in the disposal of his property: when a lordly, though unlettered British elector, possessed of a turnip garden, with great propriety may appoint a legislature, to assess the ample domains of the most sensible, opulent American planter.

BUT remember, my brethren, when a people have once sold their liberties, it is no act of extraordinary generosity, to throw their lives and properties into the bargain, for they are poor indeed when enjoyed at the mercy of a master.

THE late conduct of Great-Britain, so inconsistent with the practice of former times, so subversive of the first principles of government, is sufficient to excite the discontent of the subject: the Americans justly and decently urged an exclusive right of taxing themselves; was it indulgent, conciliating, or parental conduct in that state, to exaggerate such a claim, as a concerted plan of rebellion in the wanton Americans? and by a rigorous and cruel exercise of power to enforce submission, excite such animosities, as at some future period, may produce a bitter repentance?

[Page] CAN such be called a legal tax or free gift? it is rather levying contributions on grudging enslaved Americans, by virtue of an act framed and enforced, not only without, but against their consent; thereby rendering the provincial assemblies a useless part of the constitution.

WHERE laws are framed and assessments laid without a legal representation, and obedience to such acts urged by force, the despairing people robbed of every constitutional means of redress, and that people, brave and virtuous, must become the admiration of ages, should they not appeal to those powers, which the immutable laws of nature have lent to all mankind. Fear is a slender tie of subjection; we detest those whom we fear, and wish destruction to those we detest; but humanity, uprightness, and good faith, with an apparant watchfulness for the welfare of the people, constitute the permanency, and are the firmest support of the sovereign's authority; for when violence is opposed to reason and justice, courage never wants an arm for its defence.

WHAT dignity, what respect, what authority, can Britain derive from her obstinate adherence to error? she stands convicted of violating her own principles, but persoeveres with unrelenting severity; we implore for rights as a grace, she aggravates our distress, by lopping away another and another darling privilege; we ask for freedom and she sends the sword!

To the wisdom, to the justice, to the piety of his most sacred Majesty, I unite in my appeal with this unbounded Empire; GOD grant he may attend to the reiterated prayer, instea [...] of the marmur of discontent, and the frown of louring disaffection; we would universally hail him with those effasions of germine joy, and duteous veneration, which the proudest DESPOT will vainly look for, from forced respect or ceremon [...] [...].

[Page] PARTIES and factions, since the days of the detested Andross, have been strangers to this land; no distinctions of heart-felt animosity, disturbed the peace and order of society till the malignant folly of a * late rancorous commander in chief conjured them from the dead: when shall this unhappy clime be purged of its numerous plagues? when will our troubles, our feuds, our struggles cease? when will the locusts leave the land? then, and not till then, peace and plenty shall smile around us; the husbandman will labour with pleasure; and honest industry reap the reward of its toil.

BUT let us not forget the distressing occasion of this anniversary: the sullen ghosts of murdered fellow-citizens, haunt my imagination "and harrow up my soul;" methinks the tainted air is hung with the dews of death, while Atê hot from hell, cries havock, and lets slip the dogs of war. Hark! the van tenants of the grave still shriek for vengeance on their remorseless butchers: forgive us heaven! should we mingle involuntary execrations, while hovering in idea over the guiltless dead. Where is the amiable, the graceful Maverick? the opening blossom is now withered in his cheek, the sprightly fire that once lightened in his eye is quenched in death †; the savage hands of brutal ruffians, have crushed the unsuspecting victim [...] and in an evil hour snatched away his gentle soul.

WHERE is the friendly, the industrious Caldwell? he paced innoxious through the theatre of death, inconscious of design or danger; when the winged fate gored his bosom, and stript his startled soul for the world of spirits. Where are the residue of active citizens that were wont to [Page]tread these sacred floors? fallen by the hands of the vindictive assassins, they swell the horrors of the sanguinary scene. Loyalty stands on tiptoe at the shocking recollection, while justice, virtue, honor, patriotism become suppliants for immoderate vengeance: the whole soul clamours for arms, and is on fire to attack the brutal banditti; we fly agonizing to the horrid aceldama; we gaze on the mangled corses of our brethren, and grinning furies glotting o'er their carnage; the hostile attitude of the miscreant murderers, redoubles our resentment, and makes revenge a virtue.

BY heaven they die! thus nature spoke, and the swoln heart leap'd to execute the dreadful purpose; dire was the interval of rage, fierce was the conflict of the soul. In that important hour, did not the stalking ghosts of our stern forefathers, point us to bloody deeds of vengeance! did not the consideration of our expiring LIBERTIES, impel us to remorseless havoc? but hark! the guardian GOD of New-England issues his awful mandate, "PEACE, BE STILL;" hursh'd was the bursting war, the louring tempest frowned its rage away. Confidence in that GOD, beneath whose wing we shelter all our cares, that blessed confidence released the dastard, the cowering prey: with haughty [...]rn we refused to become their executioners, and nobly gave them to the wrath of heaven: but words can poorly paint the horrid scene *—Defenceless, prostrate, bleeding countrymen—the piercing, agonizing groans— the mingled moan of weeping relatives and friends:— These best can speak; to rouse the luke-warm into noble zeal; to fire the zealous into manly rage, against the soul oppression, of quartering troops, in populous cities, in times of peace.

[Page]

THOU who yon bloody walk shalt traverse, there

Where troops of Britain's king, on Britain's sons,

Discharg'd the leaden vengeance; pass not on

E'er thou hast blest their memory, and paid

Those hallowed tears, which sooth the virtuous dead:

O s [...]ranger! stay thee, and the scene around

Contemplate well; and if perchance thy home

Salute thee with a father's honor'd name,

Go call thy sons—instruct them what a debt

They owe their ancestors, and make them swear

To pay it, by transmitting down entire

Those sacred rights, to which themselves were born.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1774.

BY THE HON. JOHN HANCOCK, ESQ.

Vendidit hic auro patriam, dominumque potentem

Imposuit: fixit leges pretio atque refixit.

Non, mihi si linguae centum sint, oraque centum,

Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas,

—possim.

VIRG.

MEN, BRETHREN, FATHERS AND FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN!

THE attentive gravity; the venerable appearance of this crouded audience; the dignity which I behold in the countenances of so many in this great assembly; the solemnity of the occasion upon which we have met together, joined to a consideration of the part I am to take in the important business of this day, fill me with an awe hitherto unknown; and heighten the sense which I have ever had, of my unworthiness to fill this sacred desk; but, allured by the call of some of my respected fellow-citizens, with whose request it is always my greatest pleasure to comply, I almost forgot my want of ability to perform what they required. In this situation I find my only support, in assuring myself that a generous people will not severely censure what they know was well intended, though its want of merit, should prevent their [Page]being able to applaud it. And I pray, that my sincere attachment to the interest of my country, and hearty detestation of every design formed against her liberties, may be admitted as some apology for my appearance in this place.

I HAVE always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the felicity of my fellow-men; and have ever considered it as the indispensable duty of every member of society to promote, as far as in him lies, the prosperity of every individual, but more especially of the community to which he belongs; and also, as a faithful subject of the state, to use his utmost endeavours to detect, and having detected, strenuously to oppose every traitorous plot which its enemies may devise for its destruction. Security to the persons and properties of the governed, is so obviously the design and end of civil government, that to attempt a logical proof of it, would be like burning tapers at noon-day, to assist the sun in enlightening the world; and it cannot be either virtuous or honorable, to attempt to support a government, of which this is not the great and principal basis; and it is to the last degree vicious and infamous to attempt to support a government, which manifestly tends to render the persons and properties of the governed insecure. Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. Is the present system which the British administration have adopted for the government of the colonies, a righteous government? or is it tyranny?—Here suffer me to ask (and would to heaven there could be an answer) what tenderness, what regard, respect or consideration has Great-Britain shewn, in their late transactions, for the security of the persons or properties of the inhabitants of the colonies? or rather, what have they omitted doing to destroy that security? they have dec [...]ared that they have, ever had, and of right ought ever [Page]to have, full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind the colonies in all cases whatever: they have exercised this pretended right by imposing a tax upon us without our consent; and lest we should shew some reluctance at parting with our property, her fleets and armies are sent to enforce their mad pretensions. The town of Boston, ever faithful to the British crown, has been invested by a British fleet: the troops of George the III. have cross'd the wide atlantick, not to engage an enemy, but to assist a band of TRAITORS in trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal subjects in America,—those rights and liberties which, as a father, he ought ever to regard, and as a king, he is bound, in honor, to defend from violations, even at the risque of his own life.

LET not the history of the illustrious house of Brunswick inform posterity, that a king, descended from that glorious monarch George the II. once sent his British subjects to conquer and enslave his subjects in America; but be perpetual infamy entail'd upon that villain who dared to advise his master to such execrable measures; for it was easy to foresee the consequences which so naturally followed upon sending troops into America, to enforce obedience to acts of the British parliament, which neither GOD nor man ever empowered them to make. It was reasonable to expect that troops, who knew the errand they were sent upon, would treat the people whom they were to subjugate, with a cruelty and haughtiness, which too often buries the honorable character of a soldier, in the disgraceful name of an unfeeling ruffian. The troops, upon their first arrival, took possession of our senate-house, and pointed their cannon against the judgment-hall, and even continued them there whilst the supreme court of judicature for this province was actually sitting to decide upon the lives and fortunes of the king's subjects. Our streets nightly refounded with the noise of riot and debauchery; our peaceful citizens were hourly exposed to shameful insults, [Page]and often felt the effects of their violence and outrage.— But this was not all: as though they thought it not enough to violate our civil rights, they endeavoured to deprive us of the enjoyment of our religious privileges; to viciate our morals, and thereby render us deserving of destruction. Hence the rude din of arms which broke in upon your solemn devotions in your temples, on that day hallowed by heaven, and set apart by GOD himself for his peculiar worship. Hence, impious oaths and blasphemies so often tortur'd your unaccustomed ear. Hence, all the arts which idleness and luxury could invent, were used, to betray our youth of one sex into extravagance and effeminacy, and of the other to infamy and ruin; and did they not succeed but too well? did not a reverence for religion sensibly decay? did not our infants almost learn to lisp out curses before they knew their horrid import? did not our youth forget they were Americans, and regardless of the admonitions of the wise and aged, servilely copy from their tyrants those vices which finally must overthrow the empire of Great-Britain? and must I be compelled to acknowledge, that even the noblest, fairest part of all the lower creation did not entirely escape the cursed snare? when virtue has once erected her throne within the female breast, it is upon so solid a basis that nothing is able to expel the heavenly inhabitant. But have there not been some, [...]w indeed, I hope, whose youth and inexperience have [...]nder'd them a prey to wretches, whom, upon the least reflection, they would have despised and hated as foes to GOD and their country? I fear there have been some such unhappy instances; or why have I seen an honest father cloathed with shame; or why a virtuous mother drowned in tears?

BUT I forbear, and come reluctantly to the transactions of that dismal night, when in such quick succession we felt the extremes of grief, astonishment and rage; when heaven in anger, for a dreadful moment, suffer'd hell to take the [Page]reins; when satan with his chosen band open'd the sluices of New-England's blood, and sacrilegiously polluted our land with the dead bodies of her guiltless sons. Let this sad tale of death never be told without a tear: let not the heaving bosom cease to burn with a manly indignation at the barbarous story, through the long tracts of future time: let every parent tell the shameful story to his listening children 'til tears of pity glisten in their eyes, and boiling passion shakes their tender frames; and whilst the anniversary of that ill-fated night is kept a jubilee in the grim court of pandaemonium, let all America join in one common prayer to heaven, that the inhuman, unprovoked murders of the fifth of March, 1770, planned by Hillsborough, and a knot of treacherous knaves in Boston, and executed by the cruel hand of Preston and his sanguinary coadjutors, may ever stand on history without a parallel. But what, my countrymen, witheld the ready arm of vengeance from executing instant justice on the vile assassins? perhaps you fear'd promiscuous carnage might ensue, and that the innocent might share the fate of those who had performed the infernal deed. But were not all guilty? were you not too tender of the lives of those who came to fix a yoke on your necks? but I must not too severely blame a fault, which great souls only can commit. May that magnificence of spirit which scorns the low pursuits of malice; may that generous compassion which often preserves from ruin, even a guilty villian, forever actuate the noble bosoms of Americans!—But let not the miscreant host vainly imagine that we fear'd their arms. No; them we despis'd; we dread nothing but slavery. Death is the creature of a poltroon's brains; 'tis immortality to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of our country. We fear not death. That gloomy night, the pale-faced moon, and the affrighted stars that hurried through the sky, can witness that we fear not death. Our hearts, which at the recollection, glow with a rage that four revolving years have scarcely taught us to restrain, can witness that we fear not [Page]death; and happy 'tis for those who dared to insult us, that their naked bones are not now piled up an everlasting monument of Massachuset [...]s' bravery. But they retir'd, they fled, and in that flight they found their only safety. We then expected that the hand of public justice would soon inflict that punishment upon the murderers, which, by the laws of GOD and man, they had incurred. But let the unbiass'd pen of a Robertson, or perhaps of some equally fam'd American, conduct this trial before the great tribunal of succeeding generations. And though the murderers may escape the just resentment of an enraged people; though drowsy justice, intoxicated by the poisonous draught prepared for her cup, still nods upon her rotten seat, yet be assured, such complicated crimes will meet their due reward. Tell me, ye bloody butchers! ye villains high and low! ye wretches who contrived, as well as you who executed the inhuman deed! do you not feel the goads and stings of conscious guilt pierce through your savage bosoms? though some of you may think yourselves exalted to a height that bids defiance to the arms of human justice, and others shroud yourselves beneath the mask of hypocracy, and build your hopes of safety on the low arts of cunning, chicanery and falshood; yet, do you not sometimes feel the knawings of that worm which never dies? do not the injured shades of Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, Attucks and Carr, attend you in your solitary walks, arrest you even in the midst of your debaucheries, and fill even your dreams with terror? but if the unappeased manes of the dead should not disturb their murderers, yet surely even your obdurate hearts must shrink, and your guilty blood must chill within your rigid veins, when you behold the miserable Monk, the wretched victim of your savage cruelty. Observe his tottering knees which scarce sustain his wasted body; look on his hagga [...]d eyes; mark well the death-like paleness on his fallen cheek, and tell me, does not the sight plant daggers in your souls? [Page]unhappy Monk! cut off in the gay morn of manhood, from all the joys which sweeten life, doom'd to drag on a pitiful existence, without even a hope to taste the pleasures of returning health! yet Monk, thou livest not in vain; thou livest a warning to thy country, which sympathizes with thee in thy sufferings; thou livest an affecting, an alarming instance of the unbounded violence which lust of power, assisted by a standing army, can lead a traitor to commit.

FOR us he bled, and now languishes. The wounds by which he is tortur'd to a lingering death, were aimed at our country! surely the meek-eyed charity can never behold such sufferings with indifference. Nor can her lenient hand forbear to pour oil and wine into these wounds; and to assuage at least, what it cannot heal.

PATRIOTISM is ever united with humanity and compassion. This noble affection which impels us to sacrifice every thing dear, even life itself, to our country, involves in it a common sympathy and tenderness for every citizen, and must ever have a particular feeling for one who suffers in a public cause. Thoroughly persuaded of this, I need not add a word to engage your compassion and bounty towards a fellow-citizen, who, with long protracted anguish, falls a victim to the relentless rage of our common enemies.

YE dark designing knaves, ye murderers, par [...]icides! how dare you tread upon the earth, which has drank in the blood of slaughtered innocents shed by your wicked hands? how dare you breathe that air which wafted to the ear of heaven, the groa [...]s of those who fell [...] sacrifice to your accur [...]ed ambition? but if the labouring earth doth not expand her jaws; if the air you breathe is not commissioned to be the minister of death; yet, hear it, and tremble! the eye of heaven penetrates the darkest chambers of the [Page]soul, traces the leading clue through all the labyrinths which your industrious felly has devised; and you, however you may have screen [...]d yourselves from human eyes, must be arraigned, must lift your hands, red with the blood of those whose death you have procur'd, at the tremendous bar of GOD.

BUT I gladly quit the gloomy theme of death, and leave you to improve the thought of that important day, when our naked souls must stand before that Being, from whom nothing can be hid. I would not dwell too long upon the horrid effects which have already followed from quartering reg [...]ar troops in this town: let our misfortunes teach posterity to guard against such evils for the future. Standing armies are sometimes (I would by no means say generally, much less universally) composed of persons who have rendered themselves unfit to live in civil society; who have no other motives of conduct than those which a desire of the present gratification of their passions suggests; who have no property in any country; men who have lost or given up their own liberties, and envy those who enjoy liberty; who are equally indifferent to the glory of a George or a Lewis; who for the addition of one penny a day to their wages, would desert from the christian cross, and fight under the crescent of the Turkish Sultan; from such men as these, what has not a state to fear? with such as these, usurping Caesar passed the Rubicon; with such as these he humbled mighty Rome, and forced the mistress of the world to own a master in a traitor. These are the men whom sceptered robbers now employ to frustrate the designs of GOD, and render vain the bounties which his gracious hand pours indiscriminately upon his creatures. By these the miserable slaves in Turkey, Persia, and many other extensive countries, are rendered truly wretched, though their air is salubrious, and their soil l [...]riously fertile. By these France and Spain, though blessed by nature with all that administers [Page]to the convenience of life, have been reduced to that contemptible state in which they now appear; and by these Britain — but if I was possessed of the gift of prophecy, I dare not, except by divine command, unfold the leaves on which the destiny of that once powerful kingdom is inscribed.

BUT since standing armies are so hurtful to a state, perhaps, my countrymen may demand some substitute, some other means of rendering us secure against the incursions of a foreign enemy. But can you be one moment at a loss? will not a well disciplined militia afford you ample security against foreign soes? we want not courage; it is discipline alone in which we are exceeded by the most formidable troops that ever trod the earth. Surely our hearts flutter no more at the sound of war, than did those of the immortal band of Persia, the Macedonian phalanx, the invincible Roman legions, the Turkish Jamssaries, the Gens des Armes of France, or the well known Gre [...]adiers of Britain. A well disciplined mil [...]tia is a safe, an honorable guard to a community like this, whose inhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that freedom in which they were born. From a well regulated militia we have nothing to fear; their interest is the same with that of the state. When a country is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in its defence; they march into the field with that sortitude which a consciousness of the justice of their cause inspires; they do not jeopard their lives for a master who considers them only as the instruments of his ambition, and whom they regard [...] as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of [...] water. No, they fight for their houses, their [...] their wives, the [...] [...]ldren, for all who [...] est names, and a [...] [...] dearest in their heart, they [...]ght proaris & focis, for their liberty, and for themselves, [...] for their GOD. And let it not off [...]nd, if I say, that [...] litia ever appear'd in more flourishing condition, [...] [Page]that of this province now doth; and pardon me if I say,— of this town in particular.—I mean not to boast; I would not excite envy, but manly emulation. We have all one common cause; let it therefore be our only contest, who shall most contribute to the security of the liberties of America. And may the same kind providence which has watched over this country from her infant state, still enable us to defeat our enemies. I cannot here forbear noticing the signal manner in which the designs of those who wish not well to us have been discovered. The dark deeds of a treacherous cabal, have been brought to public view. You now know the serpents who, whilst cherished in your bosoms, were darting their invenom'd stings into the vitals of the constitution. But the representatives of the people have fixed a mark on those ungrateful monsters, which, though it may not make them so secure as Cain of old, yet renders them at least as infamous. Indeed it would be affrontive to the tutelar deity of this country even to despair of saving it from all the snares which human policy can lay.

TRUE it is, that the British ministry have annexed a salary to the office of the governor of this province, to be paid out of a revenue, raised in America, without our consent. They have attempted to render our courts of justice the instruments of extending the authority of acts of the British parliament over this colony, by making the judges dependent on the British administration, for their support. But this people will never be enslaved with their eyes open. The moment they knew that the governor was not such a governor as the charter of the province points out, he lost his power of hurting them. They were al [...]rmed; they suspected him, have guarded against him, and he has found that a wife and a brave people, when they know their danger, are fruitful in expedients to escape it.

[Page] THE courts of judicature also so far lost their dignity, by being supposed to be under an undue influence, that our representatives thought it absolutely necessary to resolve that they were bound to declare that they would not receive any other salary besides that which the general court should grant them; and if they did not make this declaration, that it would be the duty of the house to impeach them.

GREAT expectations were also formed from the artful scheme of allowing the East-India company to export tea to America, upon their own account. This certainly, had it succeeded, would have effected the purpose of the contrivers, and gratified the most sanguine wishes of our adversaries. We soon should have found our trade in the hands of foreigners, and taxes imposed on every thing which we consumed; nor would it have been strange, if, in a few years, a company in London should have purchased an exclusive right of trading to America.—But their plot was soon discovered. The people soon were aware of the poison which with so much craft and subtility had been concealed: loss and disgrace ensued: and, perhaps, this long-concerted master-piece of policy, may issue in the toral disuse of tea, in this country, which will eventually be the saving of the lives and the estates of thousands— yet while we rejoice that the adversary has not hitherto prevailed against us, let us by no means put off the harness. Restless malice, and disappointed ambition, will still suggest new measures to our inveterate enemies. Therefore let us also be ready to take the field whenever danger calls; let us be united and strengthen the hands of each other, by promoting a general union among us. Much has been done by the committees of correspondence for this and the other towns of this province, towards uniting the inhabitants; let them still go on and prosper. Much has been done by the committees of correspondence, for the houses of assembly: in this and our sister colonies, for [Page]uniting the inhabitants of the whole continent, for the security of their common interest. May success ever attend their generous endeavours. But permit me here to suggest a general congress of deputies, from the several houses of assembly, on the continent, as the most effectual prethod of establishing such an union, as the present posture of our affairs requires. At such a congress, a firm foundation may be laid for the security of our rights and liberties; a system may be formed for our common safety, by a strict adherence to which, we shall be able to frustrate any attempts to overthrow our constitution; restore peace and harmony to America, and secure honor and wealth to Great-Britain, even against the inclinations of her ministers, whose duty it is to study her welfare; and we shall also free ourselves from those unmannerly pillagers who impudently tell us, that they are licenced by an act of the British parliament, to thrust their dirty hands into the pockets of every American. But, I trust, the happy time will come, when, with the besom of destruction, those noxious vermin will be swept forever from the streets of Boston.

SURELY you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of thieves. Remember, my friends, from whom you sprang —Let not a meanness of spirit, unknown to those whom you boast of as your fathers, excite a thought to the dishonor of your mothers. I conjure you by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye pray, but that you act; that, if necessary, ye fight, and even die, for the prosperity of our Jerusalem. Break in sunder, with noble disdain, the bonds with which the Philistines have bound you. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed by the soft arts of luxury and offeminacy, into the pit digged for your destruction. Despise the glare of wealth. That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain, than to an honest upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly shew that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue.

[Page] BUT I thank GOD, that America abounds in men who are superior to all temptation, whom nothing can divert from a steady pursuit of the interest of their country; who are at once its ornament and safe-guard. And sure I am, I should not incur your displeasure, if I paid a respect so justly due to their much-honoured characters, in this place; but when I name an ADAMS, such a numerous host of fellow-patriots rush upon my mind, that I fear it would take up too much of your time, should I attempt to call over the illustrious roll: but your grateful hearts will point you to the men; and their revered names, in all succeeding times, shall grace the annals of America.— From them, let us, my friends, take example; from them let us catch the divine enthusiasm; and feel, each for himself, the GOD-like pleasure of diffusing happiness on all around us; of delivering the oppressed from the iron grasp of tyranny; of changing the hoarse complaints and bitter moans of wretched slaves, into those cheerful songs, which freedom and contentment must inspire. There is a heart-felt satisfaction in reflecting on our exertions for the public weal, which all the sufferings an enraged tyrant can inflict, will never take away; which the ingratitude and reproaches of those whom we have saved from ruin, cannot rob us of. The virtuous assertor of the rights of mankind, merits a reward, which even a want of success in his endeavours to save his country, the heaviest misfortune which can befal a genuine patriot, cannot entirely prevent him from receiving.

I HAVE the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty, will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play the man for our GOD, and for the cities of our GOD; while we are using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great LORD of the universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity.—And having secured the approbation of our hearts, by a faithful and unwearied discharge of [Page]our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave her important concerns in the hands of HIM who raiseth up and putteth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as HE pleases; and with cheerful submission to HIS sovereign will, devoutly say,

"Although the fig-tree shall not blessom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet we will rejoice in the LORD, we will joy in the GOD of our salvation."

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1775.

By DR. JOSEPH WARREN.

Tantae molis erat, Romanam condere gentem.

VIRGIL's AEN.

Qbi, metuens, vivit, liber mihi non crit unquam.

HOR. EPIS.

MY EVER-HONORED FELLOW-CITIZENS,

IT is not without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability that I now appear before you: but the sense I have of the obligation I am under to obey the calls of my country at all times, together with an animating recollection of your indulgence, exhibited upon so many occasions, has induced me, once more, undeserving as I am, to throw myself upon that candor which looks with kindness on the feeblest efforts of an honest mind.

YOU will not now expect the elegance, the learning, the fire, the enrapturing strains of eloquence which charmed you when a LOVELL, a CHURCH, or a HANCOCK spake; but you will permit me to say that with a sincerity, equal to theirs, I mourn over my bleeding country: With them I weep at her distress, and with them deeply resent the many injuries she has received from the hands of cruel and unreasonable men.

[Page] THAT personal freedom is the natural right of every man; and that property, or an exclusive right to dispose of what he has honestly acquired by his own labour, necessarily arises therefrom, are truths which common sense has placed beyond the reach of contradiction. And no man, or body of men, can, without being guilty of flagrant injustice, claim a right to dispose of the persons of acquisitions of any other man or body of men, unless it can be proved that such a right has arisen from some compact between the parties in which it has been explicitly and freely granted.

IF I may be indulged in taking a retrospective view of the first settlement of our country, it will be easy to determine with what degree of justice the late parliament of Great-Britain have assumed the power of giving away that property which the Americans have earned by their labour.

OUR fathers having nobly resolved never to wear the yoke of despotism, and seeing the European world, at that time, through indolence and cowardice, falling a prey to tyranny, bravely threw themselves upon the bosom of the ocean; determined to find a place in which they might enjoy their freedom, or perish in the glorious attempt. Approving heaven beheld the favourite ark dancing upon the waves, and graciously preserved it until the chosen families were brought in safety to these western regions. They found the land swarming with savages, who threatened death with every kind of torture. But savages, and death with torture, were far less terrible than slavery: nothing was so much the object of their abhorrence as a tyrant's power: they knew that it was more safe to dwell with man in his most unpolished state, than in a country where arbitrary power prevails. Even anarchy itself, that bugbear held up by the tools of power (though truly to be deprecated) is infinitely less dangerous to mankind than arbitrary government. Anarchy can be but of short duration; [Page]for when men are at liberty to pursue that course which is most conducive to their own happiness, they will soon come into i [...], and from the rudest state of nature, order and good government must soon arise. But tyranny, when once established, entails its curses on a nation to the latest period of time; unless some daring genius, inspired by heaven, shall, unappalled by danger, bravely form and execute the arduous design of restoring liberty and life to his enslaved, murdered country.

THE tools of power, in every age, have racked their inventions to justify the few in sporting with the happiness of the many; and, having found their sophistry too weak to hold mankind in bondage, have impiously dared to force religion, the daughter of the king of heaven, to become a prostitute in the service of hell. They taught that princes, honored with the name of christian, might bid defiance to the founder of their faith, might pillage Pagan countries and deluge them with blood, only because they boasted themselves to be the disciples of that teacher who strictly charged his followers to do to others as they would that others should do unto them.

THIS country, having been discovered by an English subject, in the year 1630, was (according to the system which the blind superstition of those time supported) deemed the property of the crown of England. Our ancestors, when they resolved to quit their native soil, obtained from King James, a grant of certain lands in North-America. This they probably did to silence the cavils of their enemies, for it cannot be doubted, but they despised the pretended right which he claimed thereto. Certain it is, that he might, with equal propriety and justice, have made them a grant of the pran [...]t Jupiter. And their subsequent conduct plainly shew that they were two well acquainted with humanity, and the principles of natural equity, to suppose that the grant gave them any right to take p [...]esession; [Page]they therefore entered into a treaty with the natives, and bought from them the lands: nor have I ever yet obtained any information that our ancestors ever pleaded, or that the natives ever regarded the grant from the English crown: the business was transacted by the [...]ties in the same independent manner that it would have been, had neither of them ever known or heard of the island of Great-Britain.

HAVING become the honest proprietors of the soil, they immediately applied themselves to the cultivation of it; and they soon beheld the virgin earth teeming with richest fruits, a grateful recompence for their unwearied toil. The fields began to wave with repining harvests, and the late barren wilderness was seen to blossom like the rose. The savage natives saw with wonder the delightful change, and quickly formed a scheme to obtain that by fraud or force, which nature meant as the reward of industry alone. But the illustrious emigrants soon convinced the rude invaders, that they were not less ready to take the field for battle than for labor; and the insidious foe was driven from their borders as often as he ventured to disturb them. The crown of England looked with indifference on the contest; our ancestors were left alone to combat with the natives. Nor is there any reason to believe, that it ever was intended by the one party, or expected by the other, that the grantor should defend and maintain the grantees in the peaceable possession of the lands named in the patents. And it appears plainly, from the history of those times, that neither the prince, nor the people of England, thought themselves much interested in the matter. They had not then any idea of a thousandth part of those advantages which they since have, and we are most heartily willing they should still continue to reap from us.

BUT when, at an infinite expence of toil and blood, this widely extended continent had been cultivated and defended: [Page] when the hardy adventurers justly expected that they and their descendants should peaceably have enjoyed the harvest of those fields which they had sown, and the fruit of those vineyards which they had planted; this country was then thought worthy the attention of the British ministry; and the only justifiable and only successful means of rendering the colonies serviceable to Britain were adopted. By an intercourse of friendly offices, the two countries became so united in affection, that they thought not of any distinct or separate interests, they found both countries flourishing and happy. Britain saw her commerce extended, and her wealth increased; her lands raised to an immense value; her fleets riding triumphant on the ocean; the terror of her arms spreading to every quarter of the globe. The colonist found himself free, and thought himself secure: he dwelt under his own vine, and under his own figtree, and had none to make him afraid: he knew indeed that by purchasing the manufactures of Great-Britain, he contributed to its greatness: he knew that all the wealth that his labor produced centered in Great-Britain: But that, far from exciting his envy, filled him with the highest pleasure; that thought supported him in all his toils.— When the business of the day was past, he solaced himself with the contemplation, or perhaps entertained his listening family with the recital of some great, some glorious transaction which shines conspicuous in the history of Britain: or, perhaps, his elevated fancy led him to foretel, with a kind of enthusiastic confidence, the glory, power, and duration of an empire which should extend from one end of the earth to the other: he saw, or thought he saw, the British nation risen to a pitch of grandeur which cast a veil over the Roman glory, and, ravished with the praeview, boasted a race of British kings, whose names should echo through those realms where Cyras, Alexander, and the Caesars were unknown; princes for whom millions of grateful subjects redeemed from slavery and Pagan ignorance, should, with thankful tongues, offer up their prayers and [Page]praises to that transcendently great and beneficent being, by whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice.

THESE pleasing connections might have continued; these delightsome prospects might have been every day extended; and even the reveries of the most warm imagination might have been realized; but unhappily for us, unhappily for Britain, the madness of an avaricious minister of state, has drawn a sable curtain over the charming scene, and in its stead has brought upon the stage, discord, envy, hatred, and revenge, with civil war close in their rear.

SOME demon, in an evil hour, suggested to a short-sighted financier, the hateful project of transfering the whole property of the King's subjects in America, to his subjects in Britain. The claim of the British parliament to tax the colonies, can never be supported but by such a TRANSFER; for the right of the house of commons of Great-Britain, to originate any tax, or grant money, is altogether derived from their being elected by the people of Great-Britain to act for them; and the people of Great-Britain cannot confer on their representatives a right to give or grant any thing which they themselves have not a right to give or grant personally. Therefore it follows, that if the members chosen by the people of Great-Britain, to represent them in parliament, have, by virtue of their being so chosen, any right to give or grant American property, or to lay any tax upon the lands or persons of the colonists, it is because the lands and people in the colonies are bona fide, owned by, and justly belonging to the people of Great-Britain. But (as has been before observed) every man has a right to personal freedom, consequently a right to enjoy what is acquired by his own labor. And as it is evident that the property in this country has been acquired by our own labor; it is the duty of the people of Great-Britain, to produce some compact in which we have explicitly given up to them a right to dispose of our persons or property.— [Page]Until this is done, every attempt of theirs, or of those whom they have deputed to act for them, to give or grant any part of our property, is directly repugnant to every principle of reason and natural justice. But I may boldly say, that such a compact never existed, no, not even in imagination. Nevertheless, the representatives of a nation, long famed for justice and the exercise of every noble virtue, have been prevailed on to adopt the fatal scheme; and although the dreadful consequences of this wicked policy have already shaken the empire to its centre; yet still it is persisted in. Regardless of the voice of reason— deaf to the prayers and supplications—and unaffected with the flowing tears of suffering millions, the British ministry still hug the darling idol; and every rolling year affords fresh instances of the absurd devotion with which they worship it. Alas! how has the folly, the distraction of the British councils, blasted our swelling hopes, and spread a gloom over this western hemisphere.

THE hearts of Britons and Americans, which lately felt the generous glow of mutual confidence and love, now burn with jealously and rage. Though, but of yesterday, I recollect (deeply affected at the ill-boding change) the happy hours that past whilst Britain and America rejoiced in the prosperity and greatness of each other (heaven grant those halcyon days may soon return.) But now the Briton too often looks on the American with an envious eye, taught to consider his just plea for the enjoyment of his earnings, as the effect of pride and stubborn opposition to the parent country. Whilst the American beholds the Briton as the ruffian, ready first to take away his property, and next, what is still dearer to every virtuous man, the liberty of his country.

WHEN the measures of administration had disgusted the colonies to the highest degree, and the people of Great Britain had, by artifice and falshood, been irritated against [Page]America, an army was sent over to enforce submission to certain acts of the British parliament, which reason scorned to countenance, and which placemen and pensioners were found unable to support.

MARTIAL law and the government of a well regulated city, are so entirely different, that it has always been considered as improper to quarter troops in populous cities; frequent disputes must necessarily arise between the citizen and the soldier, even if no previous animosities subsist. And it is further certain, from a consideration of the nature of mankind, as well as from constant experience, that standing armies always endanger the liberty of the subject. But when the people on the one part, considered the army as sent to enslave them, and the army on the other, were taught to look on the people as in a state of rebellion, it was but just to fear the most disagreeable consequences. Our fears, we have seen, were but too well grounded.

THE many injuries offered to the town I pass over in silence. I cannot now mark out the path which led to that unequalled scene of horror, the sad rememberance of which, takes the full possession of my soul. The sanguinary theatre again opens itself to view. The baleful images of terror croud around me—and discontented ghosts, with hollow groans, appear to solemnize the anniversary of the FIFTH of MARCH.

APPROACH we then the melancholy walk of death. Hither let me call the gay companion; here let him drop a farewel tear upon that body which so late he saw vigorous and warm with social mirth—hither let me lead the tender mother to weep over her beloved son—come widowed mourner, here satiate thy grief; behold thy murdered husband gasping on the ground, and to complete the pompous show of wretchedness, bring in each hand thy infant [Page]children to bewail their father's fate—take heed, ye orphan babes, lest, whilst your streaming eyes are fixed upon the ghastly corpse, your feet slide on the stones bespattered with your father's brains *. Enough! this tragedy need not be heightened by an infant weltering in the blood of him that gave it birth. Nature, reluctant, shrinks already from the view, and the chilled blood rolls slowly backward to its fountain. We wildly stare about, and with amazement, ask, who spread this ruin round us? what wretch has dared deface the image of his GOD? has haughty France, or cruel Spain, sent forth her myrmidons? has the grim savage rushed again from the far distant wilderness? or does some fiend, fierce from the depth of hell, with all the rancorous malice, which the apostate damned can feel, twang her destructive bow, and hurl her deadly arrows at our breast? no; none of these—but, how astonishing! it is the hand of Britain that inflicts the wound. The arms of George, our rightful king, have been employed to shed that blood, when justice, or the honor of his crown, had called his subjects to the field.

BUT pity, grief, astonishment, with all the softer movements of the soul, must now give way to stronger passions. Say, fellow-citizens, what dreadful thought now swells your heaving bosoms—you fly to arms—sharp indignation flashes from each eye—revenge gnashes her iron teeth—death grins an hideous smile, secure to drench his greedy jaws in human gore—whilst hovering furies darken all the air.

BUT stop, my bold adventurous countrymen, stain not your weapons with the blood of Britons. Attend to reason's voice—humanity puts in her claim—and sues to be again [Page]admitted to her wonted seat, the bosom of the brave. Revenge is far beneath the noble mind. Many perhaps, compelled to rank among the vile assassins, do, from their in most souls, detest the barbarous action. The winged death, shot from your arms, may chance to pierce some breast that bleeds already for your injured country.

THE storm subsides—a solemn pause ensues—you spare, upon condition they depart. They go—they quit your city—they no more shall give offence.—Thus closes the important drama.

And could it have been conceived that we again should have seen a British army in our land, sent to enforce obedience to acts of parliament destructive of our liberty. But the royal ear, far distant from this western world, has been assaulted by the tongue of slander; and villains, traitorous alike to king and country, have prevail'd upon a gracious prince to cloath his countenance with wrath, and to erect the hostile banner against a people ever affectionate and loyal to him and his illustrious predecessors of the house of Hanover. Our streets are again filled with armed men: our harbour is crouded with ships of war; but these cannot intimidate us; our liberty must be preserved; it is far dearer than life, we hold it even dear as our allegiance; we must defend it against the attacks of friends as well as enemies; we cannot suffer even BRITONS to ravish it from us.

No longer could we reflect, with generous pride, on the heroic actions of our American fore fathers,—no longer boast our origin from that far-famed island, whose warlike sons have so often drawn their well-tried swords to save her from the ravages of tyranny; could we, but for a moment, entertain the thought of giving up our liberty. The man who meanly will submit to wear a shackle, contemns the noblest gift of heaven, and impiously affronts the GOD that made him free.

[Page] IT was a maxim of the Roman people, which eminently conduced to the greatness of that state, never to despair of the commonwealth. The maxim may prove as salutary to us now, as it did to them. Short-sighted mortals see not the numerous links of small and great events, which form the chain on which the fate of kings and nations is suspended. Ease and prosperity (tho' pleasing for a day) have often sunk a people into effeminacy and sloth. Hardships and dangers (tho' we forever strive to shun them) have frequently called forth such virtues, as have commanded the applause and reverence of an admiring world. Our country loudly calls you to be circumspect, vigilant, active and brave. Perhaps (all gracious Heaven avert it) perhaps, the power of Britain, a nation great in war, by some malignant influence, may be employed to enslave you: but let not even this discourage you. Her arms, 'tis true, have fill'd the world with terror: her troops have reap'd the laurels of the field: her fleets have rode triumphant on the sea,—and when, or where, did you, my countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of fight *? you too can shew the trophies of your forefather's victories and your own; can name the fortresses and battles you have won; and many of you count the honorable scars of wounds received, whilst fighting for your king and country.

WHERE justice is the standard, heaven is the warrior's [Page]shield: but conscious guilt unnerves the arm that lifts the sword against the innocent. Britain, united with these colonies, by commerce and affection, by interest and blood, may mock the threats of France and Spain: may be the seat of universal empire. But should America, either by force, or those more dangerous engines, luxury and corruption, ever be brought into a state of vassalage, Britain must lose her freedom also. No longer shall she sit the empress of the sea: her ships no more shall waft her thunders over the wide ocean: the wreath shall wither on her temples: her weakened arm shall be unable to defend her coasts: and she, at last, must bow her venerable head to some proud foreigner's despotic rule.

BUT if, from past events, we may venture to form a judgment of the future, we justly may expect that the devices of our enemies will but increase the triumphs of our country. I must indulge a hope that Britain's liberty, as well as ours, will eventually be preserved by the virtue of America.

THE attempt of the British parliament to raise a revenue from America, and our denial of their right to do it, have excited an almost universal inquiry into the rights of mankind in general, and of British subjects in particular; the necessary result of which must be such a liberality of sentiment, and such a jealousy of those in power, as will, [Page]better than an adamantine wall, secure us against the future approaches of despotism.

THE malice of the Boston port-bill has been defeated in a very considerable degree, by giving you an opportunity of deserving, and our brethren in this and our sister-colonies an opportunity of bestowing, those benefactions which have delighted your friends and astonished your enemies, not only in America, but in Europe also. And what is more valuable still, the sympathetic feelings for a brother in distress, and the grateful emotions excited in the breast of him who finds relief, must forever endear each to the other, and form those indissoluble bonds of friendship and affection, on which the preservation of our rights so evidently depend.

THE mutilation of our charter, has made every other colony jealous for its own; for this, if once submitted to by us, would set on float the property and government of every British settlement upon the continent. If charters are not deemed sacred, how miserably precarious is every thing founded upon them.

EVEN the sending troops to put these acts in execution, is not without advantages to us. The exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire our youth with ardor in the pursuit of military knowledge. Charles the invincible, taught Peter the great, the art of war. The battle of Pultowa convinced Charles of the proficiency Peter had made.

OUR country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful—but we have many friends, determining to BE FREE, and heaven and earth will aid the RESOLUTION. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions [Page]yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves. The faltering tongue of hoary age calls on you to support your country. The lisping infant raises its suppliant hands, imploring defence against the monster slavery. Your fathers look from their celestial seats with smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand forth in the cause of virtue; but sternly frown upon the inhuman miscreant, who, to secure the loaves and fishes to himself, would breed a serpent to destroy his children.

BUT, pardon me, my fellow-citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You will maintain your rights or perish in the generous struggle. However difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. An independence on Great-Britain is not our aim. No, our wish is, that Britain and the colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and increase in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making one part of the empire slaves to the other, is persisted in; the interest and safety of Britain, as well as the colonies, require that the wise measures, recommended by the honourable the continental congress, be steadily pursued; whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honoured, and a child beloved, may probably be brought to such an issue, as that the peace and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if these pacific measures are ineffectual, and it appears that the only way to safety, is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from your foes, but will, undauntedly, press forward, until tyranny is trodden under foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess LIBERTY, fast by a BRUNSWICK's side, on the Amerirican throne.

YOU then, who nobly have espoused your country's cause, who generously have sacrificed wealth and ease—who have despised the pomp and shew of tinseled greatness—refused the summons to the festive board—been deaf to the alluring [Page]calls of luxury and mirth—who have forsaken the downy pillow, to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp, for the salvation of your invaded country, that you might break the fowler's snare, and disappoint the vulture of his prey; you then will reap that harvest of renown which you so justly have deserved. Your country shall pay her grateful tribute of applause. Even the children of your most inveterate enemies, ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they, in secret, curse their stupid, cruel parents, shall join the general voice of gratitude to those who broke the fetters which their father's forged.

HAVING redeemed your country, and secured the blessing to future generations, who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues, and learn from you the heavenly art of making millions happy; with heart-felt joy—with transports all your own, YOU CRY, the GLORIOUS WORK IS DONE. Then drop the mantle to some young ELISHA, and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT WATERTOWN *, MARCH 5, 1776.

BY PETER THACHER, M. A.

Asellum in prato timidus pascebat senex

Is, hostium clamore subito territus,

Suadebat afino fugere, ne possent capi.

At ille lentus: quaeso, num binas mihi,

Clitellas impositurum victorem putas?

Senex negavit. Ergo quid refert mea,

Cui serviam? Clitellas dum portem meas.

PHAEDRUS.

MY FRIENDS,

WHEN the ambition of princes induces them to break over the sacred barriers of social compact, and to violate those rights, which it is their duty to defend, they will leave no methods unessayed to bring the people to acquiesce in their unjustifiable encroachments.

IN this cause, the pens of venal authors have, in every age, been drawn: with Machiavelian subtilty, they have laboured to persuade mankind, that their public happiness consisted in being subject to uncontrouled power; that they were incapable of judging concerning the mysteries of government; and that it was their interest to deliver their estates, their liberties, and their lives, into the hands of an absolute monarch.

[Page] MITRED hypocrites, and cringing, base-fouled priests, have impiously dared to enlist the oracles of GOD into the service of despotism; to assert that, by the command of the supreme law-giver, we are bound to surrender our rights into the hands of the first bold tyrant who dares to seize them; and that when they are so seized, it is rebellion against GOD, and treason against the prince, for us to attempt to resume them.

DEPRAVED as is the human understanding, it hath yet strength enough to discern the ridiculous fallacy of these assertions: the votaries of ignorance and superstition may, indeed, be imposed upon by them. When we place unlimited confidence in our civil or spiritual fathers, we can swallow, with ease, the most improbable dogmas: but there are feelings in the human heart, which compel men to recognize their own rights—to venerate the majesty of the people—and to despise the insult which is offered to their understandings, by these doating absurdities. Had princes no other methods to accomplish their purposes, could they not establish their usurpation, without convincing mens judgments of their utility? they would be more harmless to mankind than they have ever yet been. They might be surrounded with the fascinating gewgaws of regal pomp; a few parasites might bow the knee before these idols of their own creating; the weak and the wicked might obey their mandates; but the baneful influence which they now have upon the interests of individuals, and of society, would come to a period: they would not revel in the spoils of nations, nor trample upon the ruins of public liberty.

CONSCIOUS of this, they have used arguments, and pursued methods, entirely different from these, to effect their designs; instead of convincing the understandings, they have addressed themselves to the passions of men: the arts of bribery and corruption have been tried with a fatal [Page]success: men, we know, have sold their children, their country, and their GOD, for a small quantity of painted dirt, which will perish with the using.

EXTENSIVE as are the revenues of princes, they are still inadequate to the purpose of bribing large communities to submit to their pleasure; corrupting therefore a few, they have overawed the rest; from small beginnings, and under specious pretenses, they will raise a standing military force, the most successful engine ever yet weilded by the hand of lawless domination.

WITH such a force, it is easy for an ambitious prince, possessed by nature of very slender abilities, to subvert every principle of liberty in the constitution of his government, and to render his people the most abject of slaves: if any individual feels the injury done to his country, and wishes to restore it to a state of happiness, with a bayonet at his breast, a dragoon will compel him to silence: if the people, awakened to see their interest and their duty, assemble for the same purpose, a military force is at hand to subdue them, and by leaden arguments, to convince them of their error.

AN easy task would it be to enlarge upon the fatal consequences of keeping up such a standing army in time of peace, and of quartering a lawless body of men, who despise the just restraints of civil authority, in free and populous cities: that no vestige of freedom can remain in a state where such a force existed: that the morals of the people will be gradually corrupted: that they will contract such an habit of tame submission, as to become an easy prey to the brutal tyrant who rules them, hath been heretofore largely and plainly demonstrated, by persons so much more capable of doing it, than he who is speaking, that it would be presumption in him to attempt it now.

[Page] THERE is no need of recurring to the ancient histories of Greece and Rome, for instances of these truths. The British nation, once famous for its attachment to freedom, and enthusiastically jealous of its rights, is now become a great tame beast, which fetches and carries for any minister who pleases to employ it.

ENGLISHMEN have been wont to boast of the excellence of their constitution; to boast that it contained whatever was excellent in every form of government hitherto, by the wit of man, devised: in their king, whose power was limited, they have asserted that they enjoyed the advantages of monarchy, without fear of its evils: while their house of commons, chosen by the suffrages of the people, and dependant upon them, represented a republic, their house of peers, forming a balance of power between the king and the people, gave them the benefit of an aristocracy. In theory, the British constitution is, on many accounts, excellent; but when we observe it reduced to practice, when we observe the British government, as it has been, for a long course of years, administered, we must be convinced that its boasted advantages are not real: the management of the public revenue, the appointment of civil and military officers, are vested in the king: improving these advantages which these powers give him, he hath found means to corrupt the other branches of the legislature; Britons please themselves with the thought of being free; their tyrant suffers them to enjoy the shadow, whilst he himself grasps the substance of power. Impossible would it have been for the kings of England to have acquired such an exorbitant power, had they not had a standing army under their command: with the officers of this army, they have bribed men to sacrifice the rights of their country: having artfully got their arms out of the hands of the people, with their mercenary forces they have awed them into submission. When they have appeared, at any time, disposed to assert their freedom, these troops have been ready [Page]to obey the mandates of their sovereign, to imbrue their hands in the blood of their brethren.

HAVING found the efficacy of this method to quell a spirit of liberty in the people of Great-Britain, the righteous administration of the righteous king George the third, determined to try the experiment upon the people of America. To fright us into submission to their unjustifiable claims, they sent a military force to the town of Boston. This day leads us to reflect upon the fatal effects of the measure! by their intercourse with troops, made up in general of the most abandoned of men, the morals of our youth were corrupted: the temples and the day of our GOD were scandalously prophaned: we experienced the most provoking insults; and at length saw the streets of Boston strewed with the corpses of five of its inhabitants, murdered in cool blood, by the British mercenaries.

THE indignant rage which swelled your bosoms upon this occasion—the fortitude and humanity which you discovered—the anguish of the friends and relatives of the dead and wounded, with all the horrors of that memorable night, have been painted in vivid colours by an HANCOCK and a WARREN: they have shewn the necessity of those exertions made by the town, which defeated, at that time, the designs of the enemies to American liberty, and preserved us, for the present, from the calamities of war.

BUT the past year hath presented us with a tragedy more striking, because more extensive, than this: a tragedy, which more plainly proves the fatal effects of keeping up standing armies in time of peace, than any arguments whatsoever: we have seen the ground crimsoned with the gore of hundreds of our fellow-citizens;—we have seen the first city in America, for wealth and extent, depopulated— [Page]—we have seen others destroyed, and heard our savage enemies breathing out thirstings for our blood.

FINDING their arts insufficient to flatter, or their treasures to bribe, the people of America out of their freedom, the British government determined, by force, to subjugate them to their arbitrary will; in consequence of this determination, a large party of their troops marched from Boston, on the morning of the ever-memorable nineteenth of April last: flushed with the hopes of certain victory, and defying the armies of the living GOD, they broke through every divine and political obligation; they wantoned in cruelty; they shed again American blood.

AROUSED by the unprovoked injury, like a lion awaking from his slumber, we sprang to arms! we felt ourselves inspired with the spirit of our ancestors; we heard our brethren's blood crying to us for vengeance; we rushed into the midst of battle: we compelled our enemies to betake themselves to disgraceful flight; we pursued them with avidity, and desisted not till they took refuge in that city, of which, by fraud and treachery, they had possessed themselves.

TRUSTING to the divine protection, from that hour we determined never to sheathe the sword, till we had reparation for our injuries; till we had secured our own freedom and the freedom of our posterity: from that hour the den of enemies hath been surrounded by an American army, brave and determined: although they had before boasted of their superiority to all the troops in the world, they have scarcely dared to set their feet out of their strong holds since that time; and instead of ravaging the American continent in a single compaign, with a single regiment, they have proceeded—one mile and an half in the conquest of it.

THE heights of Charlestown witnessed to the world, that Americans, fighting in the cause of freedom, were a [Page]formidable foe: although they were surrounded by troops hitherto deemed invincible; although they saw the habitations of their countrymen inveloped with flames; although cannon roared on every quarter, and they beheld scenes of desolation and bloodshed, to which they were entirely unused, yet they retired not till they had compelled their enemy twice to retreat, and had expended the whole of their ammunition: the British forces gained the ground, but they lost the flower of their army.

FROM one end of the continent to the other, a series of successes hath attended the American arms; instead of having troops of savages poured down to our frontiers (which the murderous policy of the tyrant of Britain induced him to attempt) we have, through the favour of heaven, carried our victorious arms into the very bowels of Canada; instead of having our stores and provisions cut off by the enemy, we have made important captures from them: success hath crowned our enterprizes, while disappointment hath followed those who oppose us.

THAT elation of spirit, which is excited by our victories, is damped by our feeling the calamities of war. To hear the expiring groans of our beloved countrymen; to behold the flames of our habitations, once the abodes of peace and plenty, ascending to heaven; to see ruin and desolation spread over our fruitful villages, must occasion sensations in the high [...] [...]egree painful.

THIS [...]ay, upon which the gloomy scene was first opened, calls upon us to mourn for the heroes who have already died in the bed of honour, fighting for GOD and their country. Especially, does it lead us to recollect the name and the virtues of General WARREN! the kind, the humane, the benevolent friend, in the private walks of life; the inflexible patriot, the undaunted commander in his public sphere, deserves to be recollected with gratitude [Page]and esteem! this audience, acquainted, in the most intimate manner, with his numberless virtues, must feel his loss, and bemoan their beloved, their entrusted fellowcitizen! ah! my countrymen, what tender, what excrutiating sensations rush at once upon our burdened minds, when we recall his lov'd idea! when we reflect upon the manner of his death; when we fancy that we see his favage enemies exulting o'er his corps, beautiful even in death; when we remember that, destitute of the rites of sepulture, he was cast into the ground, without the distinction due to his rank and merit; we cannot restrain the starting tear, we cannot repress the bursting sigh! we mourn thine exit, illustrious shade, with undissembled grief; we venerate thine exalted character; we will erect a monument to thy memory in each of our grateful breasts, and to the latest ages, will teach our tender infants to lisp the name of WARREN, with veneration and applause!

WHEN we traverse the Canadian wilds, and come to the plains of Abraham, where WOLFE once fell, we are there again compelled to pay a tribute to exalted merit, and to lament the fall of the great MONTGOMERY! warmed with a spirit of patriotism, too little felt by his venal countrymen, he espoused the cause of American freedom: he left domestic ease and affluence: he girded on the sword which he had long laid aside, and jeoparded his life in the high places of the field: victory followed his standard; she hovered over his head, and crowned it with the laurel wreath: she was just ready to hail him the conqueror of Canada, when the fatal sisters snapped, in a moment, the thread of life, and seized, from his eager grasp, the untasted conquest! Americans, bear witness to his humanity and his valour, for he died fighting in your cause, and the cause of mankind! let his memory live in your breasts; let it be handed down to your posterity, that millions yet unborn may rise up and call him blessed!

[Page] THE tender feelings of the human heart are deeply affected with the fate of these and the other heroes who have bled and died, that their country may be free: but at the same time, sensations of indignant wrath, are excited in the breast of every friend to freedom: he will listen to the voice of their blood, which cries aloud to heaven, and to him for vengeance! he will feel himself animated with new vigor in the glorious cause: nothing daunted by their untimely fate, he will rush into the midst of danger, that he may share their glory, and avenge their death! every idea which can warm and animate him to glorious deeds, will rush at once upon his mind; and, when engaged in the warmest battle, he will hear them, from their heaven, urging him to action; he will feel their spirits transfused into his breast; he will sacrifice whole hecatombs of their murderers to their illustrious manes!

INDEED, my countrymen, the people of America have every thing to animate and encourage them in the present contest. Formidable as was once the power of the British lion, he hath now lost his teeth; universal dissipation hath taken place of that simplicity of manners, and hardiness of integrity, for which the nation was once remarkable: the officers of the British army, instead of inuring themselves to discipline, and [...]eking for glory in the bloodstained field, wish alone to captivate the softer sex, and triumph over their virtue. The legislature of Great-Britain is totally corrupt; her administration is arbitrary and tyrannical; the people have lost their spirit of resentment; and, like the most contemptible of animals, how the shoulder to bear and become servants unto tribute. The national resources are cut off; she is loaded with an intolerable public dept; she is become the scorn of those foreigners, to whom she was once terrible; and it is easy to see that her glory is in the wane.

How different from this is the present state of our [Page]country; descended from a race of hardy ancestors, who loved their freedom better than they loved their lives; the Americans are jealous of the least infringement of their rights; strangers to that luxury, which effeminates the mind and body, they are capable of enduring incredible hardships; with eagerness they rush into the field of battle, and brave, with coolness, every danger: they possess a rich and a fruitful country, sufficient to supply them with every necessary and convenience of life; they have inexhaustible resources for carrying on war, and bid fair soon to be courted for their alliance, by the proudest monarchs of the earth. Their statesmen are equal to the task of forming and defending a free and extensive empire: their generals are brave and humane, intrepid and prudent. When I name a WASHINGTON, my audience will feel the justice of the remark, and acquit me of the charge of flattery.

POSSESSED of these advantages, we should be inexcusable to GOD, to our posterity, to the whole world, if we hefitated, a single moment, in asserting our rights and repelling the attacks of lawless power. Freedom is offered to us; she invites us to accept her blessings; driven from the other regions of the globe, she wishes to find an asylum in the wilds of America; with open arms let us receive the persecuted fair; let us imitate the example of our venerable ancestors, who loved and courted her into these desert climes. With determined bravery, let us resist the attacks of her impudent ravishers; by resolution and firmness we may defend her from their power, and transmit her blessings to millions upon millions of our posterity. Let us then arouse to arms; for, upon our exertions, under GOD, depends their freedom; upon our exertions depends the important question, whether the rising empire of America, shall be an empire of slaves or of freemen.

ANIMATED by these considerations, my friends and fellow-citizens, let us strain every nerve in the service of [Page]our country! what are our lives, when viewed in competition with the happiness of such an empire! what is our private interest when opposed to that of three millions of men! let our bosoms glow with the warmth of patriotism; let us sacrifice our ease, our fortunes, and our lives, that we may save our country.

THAT a spirit of public virtue may transcend every private consideration, you, the respected inhabitants of the town of Boston, have plainly manifested: with pleasure you have sacrificed what selfish men hold most dear, to save this oppressed land! with firmness you have resisted every attack of arbitrary power! like the sturdy oak, you have stood unmoved, and to you, under GOD, will be owing the salvation of this extensive continent.

WE feel, my beloved friends, our obligations to you! our hearts confess them; we cordially wish it were in our power to reward you for your patriotism; to restore you to that ease and affluence, of which, for our sakes, you have deprived yourselves; it is not. But our morning and evening petitions to the guardian GOD of America shall be, that he will bless and reward you.

WITH transport, my countrymen, let us look forward to the bright day, which shall hail us a free and independent state. With earnestness let us implore the forgiveness and the patronage of the Being of all beings, who holds the fate of empires in his hands! with zeal let us exert ourselves in the service of our country, in life: and when the earthly scene shall be closing with us, let us expire with this prayer upon our quivering lips, O GOD LET AMERICA BE FREE!

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1777,

BY BENJAMIN HICHBORN, ESQ.

—Tum vos, O Tyrii, stirpem et genus omne futurum

Exercete odiis; cinerique haec mittite nostro

Mumera: nullus amor populis, nec faedera sunto.

VIRGIL.

FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN!

LEAVING apologies for my inability to act the part I am to take, in this day's solemnity, to those who might have remedied the evil, by a more suitable appointment, I shall offer my sentiments upon the subject with the same freedom that I conceived them.

THE advantages of social life, are the result of such evident necessity, so extensively diffusive and universally felt, that all mankind will readily acknowledge their existence without the aid of metaphysics or history.

THE right that every individual has to reason freely upon the nature of that government he is called to submit to, having nature for its source, is no less obvious and perceptable—and hence, as a necessary foundation for the exercise of this right, I define civil liberty to be, not "a government by laws," made agreeable to charters, bills of rights or compacts, but a power existing in the people at [Page]large, at any time, for any cause, or for no cause, but their own sovereign pleasure, to alter or annihilate both the mode and essence of any sormer government, and adopt a new one in its stead.

PLACING ourselves then upon this broad basis of civil liberty, founded on natural right, we will, unawed by the standing armies of any tyrant's tools *, or monarchs, deliberate freely upon the nature of their institutions, and their dangerous tendency to the rights of man.

EVERY military force must necessarily imply a right of exercising an arbitrary power, so far as respects the objects against which it is to be directed; and what will be the objects, against which it will be in constant exercise, in proportion to its extent, we may collect from the experience of ages, and the well-known [...]arce of human actions.

THE page of history seldom groans with the calamities of mankind; but we may trace the source of their unhappiness to this engine of oppression.

PROJECTED in the blackest principles of the human mind, and supported by ambition and a lust of unbounded sway, this armed monster hath spread havoc and misery throughout the world. We find the bloody traces of its footsteps through all the ruins of greatness and freedom, either in antient or modern times: the most free and op [...] lent cities of the world, by conniving at its birth, have, at last, fallen a prey to its relentless f [...]ry †.

[Page] WHILE we are ravished with the politeness, wisdom, and greatness of the Grecian states, we can scarce believe that the productions of such art, refinement, and learning, should ever be subdued by a power that never could have crept into life, but through the channel of their indulgence.

BUT alas! their fate remains a standing MONUMENT of this truth, that freedom, at fufference, is a sol [...]cism in politi [...]s.

To avoid the pain that humanity must suffer, upon finding so few instances of virtue that have been proof against the temptations to prostitute a delegated power, I am ininclined to think, that the great FOUNDER of societies has caused the CURSE of infatuating ambition, and relentless cruelty to be entailed on those whose vanity may lead them to assume his prerogative among any of his people as they are cantoned about in the world, and to prevent mankind from paying that adoration and respect to the most dignified mortal, which is due only to infinite wisdom and goodness in the direction of almighty power, and therefore that he alone is fit to be a MONARCH.

WERE we to traverse the whole field of human transactions, and expect any where to find an exemption from this general charge, we should most naturally fix our eyes upon the Romans—but how mortified do we find ourselves by the survey?

AT the very time this people were most famed for their virtue and greatness,—while they were regaling themselves with luxurious case in the lap of freedom—the provinces they obtained by fraud and violence, were suffering under every species of the vilest survitude, and made [...]o contribute to that very [...] and lunury at the discretion of the most merciless unfeeling task-masters.

[Page] BUT they themselves, by the same tools they had armed to execute their bloody purposes, in their turn, because the subjects of the same kind of oppression they so liberally dealt out to others, and stand recorded in history equal monuments of the greatness and depravity of human nature.

TAUGHT by the experience of former ages, that a general, at the head of an armed force, would ever make himself superior to the laws. E [...]pe, for several centuries, raised effectual barriers against the danger (and, I may say, the possibility) of their usurpations; for the tenure * of their lands, though they acknowledge a superior lord, was upon conditions so abhorrent to the idea of standing armies, that it offered at once, both a promise and a pledge against them.

BUT to convince us that no human institutions can insure permanent felicity to mankind,—security, the offspring of ease and freedom, opened the door for one enterprising usurper after another †, till the inhabitants of the whole eastern world had but little left of the property of their species but what they possessed in their shape.

STRANGE metamorphosis! but is it not much stranger still, to see these pitiable wretches stript of every enjoyment that can render life a blessing, meanly courting favour and protection from the tyrants who enslaved them, and easily mistaking the chains of servitude for the garb of nature?

THE formalities of a free, and the ends of a despotic state (says a modern writer) have often subsisted together. Britain furnishes a most unhappy example of this shocking truth: as if the relish of liberty was pampered to make [Page]slavery itself more intolerably loathsome, they feel all the mortifying consequences of the basest servitude, and are left to console themselves with this consideration, that the weight of their grievances can never be encreased, while they are complimented, or rather tantalized with the name of freemen. These are some of the glorious effects of standing armies among foreign nations. Let us now consider their consequences in that part of the world, in whose affairs we take a more interesting part.

IT is easy to conceive that those men who would not scruple to make use of every artifice and violence to reduce the very people to whose generosity they were indebted for their splendor, wealth, and greatness, to a state of vassalage, would never hesitate to make their conquests as extensive as their power;—they can feel the influence of no law but that of the sword, and therefore (whatever may be their pretensions) you will, in every case, find them ultimately make an appeal to its decisions.

IF such are the governors, what must the people be? having been robbed of liberty themselves, without the faintest struggle in its defence *, they are just fit to be made the instruments of wresting it from others.

How can we expect that they who know nothing of the happiness of freedom themselves, should feel any reluctance at reducing all mankind to their own disgraceful situation? indeed the reverse is true, for we generally find them taking an unnatural pleasure, in stripping others of the noblest ornaments and gifts of nature, to countenance their own deformity and wretchedness.

[Page] A TRIFLING farce, therefore, upon the question of right in parliament, was all the previous parade that was thought necessary to the introduction of a standing army, with all the ensigns of war, into the bowels of our country.

IT is needless to recount the various preludes to hostilities, the fatal day we now commemorate, opened a scene that filled every honest mind with indignation, and every tender heart with distress *.—It is impossible for any who were not witnesses of that shocking event, to conceive the terrors of that dreadful night, and they who were must have images of horror upon the mind they never can communicate.

THE variety of contending passions that once fall upon and distract the mind, upon the arrival of such an important crisis, can never be realized but once.

To see the peaceful inhabitants of a city, deliberately murdered by the very men, who, in pretence, were supported for their protection—to hear the piercing groans— to see the mangled bodies and ghastly visages of the dying and the dead—to hear the shrieks and cries of the timid, with the promiscuous, mingling horrid sound of arms, execrations, and vengeance, produced a scence of confusion and wretchedness, so complicated and complete, that the power of the richest language must ever fail in describing it †.

THE eye of pity is yet called to drop a tear at the sufferings, and patriotism to pour the balm of charity over the wounds of half-murdered citizens, draging out a miserable [Page]life, and fresh bleeding with the blows aimed at our country.

WE could dwell, with a melancholy pleasure, on this sad catastrophe, did not a more ample field of violence, bloodshed, and cruelty, demand our attention.

THE palpable absurdity of making use of the name of a king, to give a sanction to those very operations which were carrying on against him, has been so sensibly felt, through all ranks of men, that we have not yet altogether got rid of its disagreeable effects.

AND I must confess I should blush at the ludicrous figure in which this part of our history must exhibit to view, in future time, were we not countenanced by the same, or more striking inconsistencies which are to be found attendant (and perhaps necessarily so) upon all important revolutions.

WE can easily conceive a mixture of prejudice and fear, that will excite such awful ideas of the person, to whom we have been taught from our cradles, to annex the properties of a most gracious sovereign, most sacred majesty, and a train of such GOD-like attributes, as would make us feel conscious of a degree of impiety, in calling a villain by his proper name, while shrouded under this garb of sanctity.

BUT it is exeedingly diverting to view the influence of this chimerical divinity in those who are made the immediate tools of supporting it—they will tell you it is a task most ungrateful to men of their sensibility and refinement, to be made the instruments of sending fire and death indiscriminately among the innocent, the helpless, and the fair—but they have sworn to be faithful to their sovereign, and were they ordered to scale the walls of the new Jerusa [...]em, they should not dare to decline the impious attempt.

[Page] WERE it not for this ridiculous faith in the omnipotence of the tyrant whom they serve, we must suppose them fools or madmen:—Indeed that very faith would justify the charge of extreme madness and folly against all mankind, who had not been nurtured in this cradle of infatuation.

WERE it not for the indulgence that a generous mind will always shew to the weakness and prejudices of the worst of men, many whom the chance of war has thrown into our hands, must have felt the severity and contempt of a justly enraged people, while they, with all their vanity and ostentation, remain the unhurt objects of our pity.

IT is surely rather a subject of merry ridicule, than deserving of serious resentment, to see many of this kind of gentry affecting to deny the character of prisoners, and attributing that indulgence which is the effect of unparalleled generosity, to the mean motive of fear; but we will let them know, that they cannot provoke us even to justice in the line of punishment, and we leav [...] them to their own consciences and the impartial censures of surrounding nations, to make some returns for the unexampled cruelties that many of our friends have suffered from their barbarous hands *; in lieu of that severity, which, however [Page]just, humanity shudders to inflict. But we cannot think it strange to find people in the subordinate departments of life, influenced by such ridiculous notions, while their haughty masters seem to labour under the misfortune of the same infatuation.

SLAVES always rate the consequence of those they serve, by the treatment they receive from them, and wonder that others do not feel the weight of the same importance.

To call men of distinguished rank, in any government, knaves, fools, and scoundrels, however they may deserve it, is esteemed neither polite or decent: I am therefore, at a loss for names while I am describing the oppressors of my country. Who, without deserving these reproachful appellations, could have conceived the horrid wish of decking his crown, with the idle plume of foreign empire, at the expence of the peace, wealth, and very being of a nation? and who but a pompous blockhead, in the execution of this impious design, could expect to conquer a hardy, virtuous set of men, by ineffectual threats and empty promises, contained in a set of proclamations, he wanted either courage or power to disperse among the people they were designed to subdue †?

POSSIBLY they may conceive the length of their master's purse, at the rate of thirty crowns a man, to be equal to all the armed force of Europe, and therefore they should be able ultimately to effect that by the point of the bayonet, which they rather wished, than expected, to obtain on any other terms.

HERE let us pause, and for the honour of our species, give a moment to reflection upon this shocking idea! is [Page]it possible that any of the race of man, should be so lost to a sense of the rights of nature, and the dignity of their rank in the chain of beings, as to suffer themselves (like the horses which they ride) to be tutored to the field of war, to have a price set upon their lives, which their masters will receive, and then be sold into the service of lust, ambition and avarice, and become the tools of eternal war against the lives, the properties, and freedom of the rest of mankind.

BUT thanks to heaven! this black combination of passions, supported by the unmasked tyrant of Britain, with all the mercenary forces of his powerful and extensive allies, have hitherto proved unsuccessful (and I trust in GOD they ever will) in every effort to contaminate the only column of free air in both hemispheres; however, one advantage we derive from their open attempts, which is to expect no security for ourselves, but in their ruin; deliberate murders, indiscriminate plunder, and the most barbarous violence upon the delicacy and virtue of the fair, have marked the few paces of imaginary conquest they have trod *.

METHINKS I see the tender parent, frantic with rage, defying hosts of ruffians armed, and courting death in every dismal form, rather than live the witness of his daughter's shame;—ah! hear the shrieks of virgin innocence calling in vain for succour from that arm which oft defended her! but see the helpless victim of their brutish lust, in wild despair, wringing her guiltless hands, with looks to heaven, as if, without a crime, she had lost her only title to those pure abodes! where is the coward heart that does not beat to arms, and glow with unusual ardour for revenge?

WHERE are friends to reconciliation, with these so [...]s to virtue? they will tell us their power is formidable, and it [Page]is wise to accommodate ourselves to the requisitions of superior force—as soon I'd tamper with the power of hell I for

—"'Tis the worst of slavery

"Tamely to bend our necks beneath the yoke

"And suffer fraud to talk us out of freedom."

THEY wish to sooth but to destroy us; and if this stale artifice of tyrants should succeed, we well deserve the ruin it ensures:—they never ask for what they can demand, and impotence alone prevents a general carnage.

DOES courage want a stimulus in the defence of virtue? let us cast our eyes on the example of our illustrious general; equally beyond the reach of calumny and encomium, the tongue of slander has never dared to attack him, while the ablest panegyrist must blush when he is attempting to give him half the eulogiums which are his due.

THE generous sacrifice he has made of private interest, domestic felicity, and all the consequent refined enjoyments of social life, to the exigencies of his country in the field of war:—the cheerfulness with which he has sustained all the hardships, anxieties, and disappointments of two important campaigns, against a formidable body of well-disciplined veterans, with an army composed of men different in their manners, and unused to the discipline of a camp, without exciting the smallest jealousies in the CIVIL POWER on the one hand, or giving occasion for the faintest murmurs among his soldiers, on the other.—And finally, when his enemies were at the zenith of their glory, and in imagination, already in possession of a conquered world;— with the remnant of his expiring army, to resume the field, and with this handful of his chosen followers, disperse, destory, or captivate whole hosts of foes, must excite sentiments of affection, gratitude, and esteem, that border upon adoration.

[Page] DID not a life of the most disinterested patriotism and unremitted ardour in the cause of virtue and of mankind, point him out as an exception to the charge we have so fully supported against all who lived before him? I should dread more from the virtues of this great man, than from all the standing armies in the world.

BUT so full a confidence do I possess in his inviolable attachment to the rights of humanity and the cause of freedom, that in some future emergencies of the state (preduced perhaps by the shifting fortune of war) to his instinctive goodness and excentric operations, I would most cheerfully commit supreme command.

I WILL explain my sentiments upon this subject, by those of a friend, in his own words.

"'Tis best that reason govern man,

'Tis calm, deliberate, wise,

Yet passions were not given in vain,

Here then the difference lies.

Reason, tho' sure, too slow is found

In great emergencies,

While passion instant feels the wound,

As quick the cure applies.

Yet that must not due bounds transgress,

But move at reason's nod,

Submit at last to her decrees

And own her for the GOD.

'Twas thus the synod of our land,

The reasoning power of state,

Gave WASHINGTON supreme command

And made his orders fate.

Yet as necessity impelled

The step—when that is past

The senate shall resume the field

And reign supreme at last."

[Page] IN support of such a cause, directed by such a leader, who would think his life too dear a sacrifice?—let the mean, base, grovling soul, that wishes for security on any terms, through fear sorget he is a man, cringe to the creature he despises, smile on the man he hates, alternately shake hands with vice and virtue, and court protection from the power he wishes to destroy!—let us, my friends, determined to maintain our sacred rights, or perish in the attempt *, with vigour urge the war, frown on our soes wherever we meet them, despise their mercy when we feel their power, and from this moment hold ourselves beyond the reach of pardon.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1778.

By JONATHAN W. AUSTIN, Esq.

— Multâque rubentia Caede

Lubrica Saxa madent, nulli sua profuit Aetas.

LUCAN, Lib. 2.

— Hic ubi barbarus hostis,

Ut fera plus valeant legibus arma facit.

OVID DE PONTO.

Quis claden, [...]llius noctis, quis funera fando

Explicet? aut possit Lacrymis aequare labores?

Plurima perque vias sternuntur inertia passim

Corpora.

VIRGIL 2d AENEID.

MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

TO weep over the tomb of the patriot—to drop a tear to the memory of those unfortunate citizens, who fell the first sacrifices to tyranny and usurpation, is noble, generous, and humane. Such are the sentiments that influence you, my countrymen, or why, through successive periods, with heart-felt sensations, have you attended this solemn anniversary, and paid this sad tribute to the memory of your slaughtered brethren. Nor is the circle contracted—the most amiable part of the creation share the grief, and, soft pity beaming in their countenances, like the daughters of Israel, annually lament the fate of others, [Page]and weep over the miseries of their country *. Come then, my friends, let us enter the solitary courts of death, and, perhaps, an hour spent in such reflection, may afford as solid improvement as nature in her gayest scenes.

To commemorate the deaths of those men who fell unhappy victims to brutal violence—to show the dangerous tendency of standing armies in populous cities in time of peace, the origin of this fatal catastrophe—to trace its connexion and effects, as they have been, and are now displayed, in different parts of America, I take to be the design of this day's solemnity.

IT appears to me needless to enter into the nature and ends of civil government, and to evince that standing armies are a solecism in such a constitution. Such sentiments are founded in nature, and have, for ages, under different forms, and different meridians, been sully display'd by men who knew the rights of nature and mankind. The names of LO [...]K, SYDN [...]Y, and HAM [...]DEN, have l [...]ng been illustrious, and my country men are too well acquainted with their writings, not to venerate their memories. Nor can I forget the same sentiments which have charmed you from the lips of men, who have spoke before me, on the same occasion, whose charact [...]rs will be ever dear, and the exertions of whose patriotism and virtue, exhibited, in the most critical situations, posterity will ever wonder at and revere.

IN short, to confirm this point by logical conclusions, must be an useless mispense of time. Even a crown lawyer, whose sentiments are not always friendly to the rights of mankind, will tell us, "in a land of liberty, it is extremely dangerous to make a distinct order of the profession of arms. In absolute mon [...]chies this is indeed necessary [Page]for the safety of the prince, and arises from the main principle of their constitution, which is governing by fear: but in free states, the profession of a soldier, taken singly and merely as a profession, is justly an object of jealousy. The laws, therefore, and constitution of these kingdoms, know no such thing as a perpetual, standing soldier *."

ARGUMENTS existing in theory, however the mind may be captivated, do not always convince; and consequences, traced from the same source, are seldom interesting. But when we find the apprehensions of the greatest and best of mankind, who actuated by a principle of benevolence, felt for the common interests, fully displayed in awful and tremendous effects, we then start from our lethargy, and like the sensitive plant, shrink from approaching danger! such is the case with respect to the subject before us. Philosophers and statesmen have shewn how dangerous standing armies must be in a free state, and every page in the volume of mankind consirms the melancholy account.

SPECULATIVE writers may indeed tell us, that the seeds of dissolution evist in every body politic—that like the body natural, it must decay and di [...]—and that the same causes which brought the empires of R [...]us and Cyrus to destruction, will sap every other government on earth †. For my own part, I am no fatalist, and nil desp [...]randum [...] republica, is to me a much pr [...]able, and m [...]re generous motto. And instead of enumerating their many vices and corruptions, as the original cause, I think a little acquaintance with history will insorm us, that they are not merely the original cause, but [...] resulting from the satal measure we are considering. In absolure monarchies, [Page]where the military is the principal engine of government, we are not to look for a confirmation of this argument. But in republics; 'till the introduction of a soldiery, distinct from the citizens, we find them as remote from corruption, luxury, and the other black catalogue of vices as any human system can attain to: but when standing troops were introduced, they immediately followed. Depravity of manners—a dislike to virtue and manly sentiment—effeminacy, and those grosser vices, too indelicate to be mentioned in this place, stalk'd like daemons through their cities. Witness, ye republics, that were once great and illustrious, but are now no more! witness, O Boston! for ye were too well acquainted with the melancholy truth!

WE will now confirm the sentiment by a brief inspection into some parts of history.

THE Gree [...], were a republic, that, in a short flight of years, exhibited the most glorious spectacle that ever appeared to mankind; and, as one observes, the age they lived in, seemed to be the golden period of human nature *. In every branch of war or peace, in every species of science they excelled, and were at once feared, admired, and venerated by the other nations of the world: yet this heroic confederacy was originally reduced from this glorious superiority, by the arts of one man † under the idea of a guard, from an inconsiderable number of attendants, he increased to that stretch of power as proved the fatal stab to the vitals of his country. The bank thus broken down, the tide swelled too rapid to be stemm'd, and virtue, freedom and the laws, all fell a sacrifice.

SIMILAR was the situation of the Romans. Although not so universally distinguished as the Gree [...]s, yet from the expulsion of their kings, to the time of Marius, they evinced [Page]to what a prodigious greatness mankind may arrive when actuated by the principles of liberty, virtue and honor. Influenced by such motives, no wonder their actions were conformable; and while the most rigid inflexibility presided at home, the Roman eagle flew to the remotest corner of the globe.

CAN we then suppose, when we view the characters which appeared on the stage at this period—when we consider how remote they were from those vices which have been prevalent in powerful monarchies, and how carefully they watch'd the sacred alter of freedom, that they themselves must remain a standing monument of the consequences of this fatal measure. Such is the case. Marius, in new modelling the legions, and replacing the citizens who served in them with foreign mercenaries, laid the horrid foundation.—The door was now open for one too powerful citizen after another, until Caesar, losing every check, and laughing at the impotent anathemas of the senate, with the distant legious march'd to Rome, and formed a new aera in their history. From this period we are charmed no more with illustrious actions, and the last remains of dignity, sunk in the Roman world. So true is it, that when a people lose their liberty, they at once become fit subjects of every thing base and infamous.

WE have thus far produced instances of the fatal effects of armies thus kept up, which have ended in the utter subversion of the laws and government of two of the most memorable republics in antient story. We will now shift the scene, and while we show their dangerous tendency in states of a more modern date, we will exhibit an illustrious example through what scenes of danger, hardships and blood, the determined spirit of honor, and attachment to freedom, will carry a people.

PREVIOUS to mentioning the situation of the United [Page]Provintes, I must remark how very similar their circumstances were to our's. We shall ever find it an unalterable maxim of princes, who in time of peace kept up a standing force, however they may call them the protectors of law, the end is to subvert those laws and render the constitution useless. Such was the mode of conduct of Philip the second, of Spain, to the low countries, and such the procedure of a similar character, George the third, of Britain, influenced by as despicable a ministry. The former, as sir William Temple observes, "thinking it not agreeing with his greatness," (an army being now in the bowels of their country) "to consider their discontents, or be limited by their antient forms of government," proceeds to despise the one and overturn the other. New courts judicatory were appointed, new offices established, depending absolutely on the king. *

WHAT was the consequence?—could it be supposed a generous people would sit down tamely, and kiss the rod that lash'd them? a different mode of conduct ensued.— The duke of Alva was sent with a powerful army, the very forcible plea of tyrants, and the most shocking cruelties were committed. Here let humanity spread her veil, nor let the tender breast heave with anguish at such scenes. But shocking as they are, they flow as naturally from this cursed engine of oppression, as beams of light from the sun. For as the same sensible writer observes, "So great antipathy ever appears between citizens and soldiers; while one pretends to be safe under law, which the other pretends shall be subject to his sword and his will."

But terrible as the many executions of their most illustrious patriots appeared to them, while the land was dreached in its richest blood—however affecting the sight of confiscations, [Page]imprisonments, and the numberless cruelties that attended them, they were not daunted. That GOD who hateth oppression, and delighteth in the happiness of his creation, inspired them with sentiments, that carried them through innumerable hardships, 'till after having expended immense treasures and blood for better than threescore years, they laid the foundation of a rich, free, and flourishing people: Providence hereby giving an instructive lesson to posterity in every age, who are contending for all that is dear and sacred, to pursue the glorious object undaunted; knowing that, as liberty is a plant transplanted from the gardens of heavens, its divine parent will still cherish it, and, in spite of opposition, it will flourish, it will live forever.

SUCH, my friends, have been the methods used by enterprising men, in former ages, to carry into effect their ambitious designs, and found their greatness on the ruins of their country. But in our day, these measures have become systematical. They are in fact part of the constitution. To take a view of the different powers in Europe, and compare them with the state of antient republics, under great and wise legislators, who seem'd to be raised up for the benefit of the age they lived in, and the admiration of posterity, we must drop the tear of sensibility at the contrast. Where is the kingdom that does not groan under the calamities of military tyranny? let us pause a while on the most eminent of them.

IN the large empire of Russia, the effects are glaring. Even the shadow of liberty has vanished. Of so great imp [...]rtance is the military, that a recruiting officer can go through their villages, and pitch upon the ablest of the inhabitants, as he would chuse his cattle. And eve [...] a father has been imprisoned in his own house, for the escape [Page]of a child, while by order of the officer, his own sons have been his goalers *.

PERHAPS there is no nation in any part of the world, more happy than France, in every luxury of life. But amid this profusion of plenty, the farmer exhibits the most wretched spectacle in nature. Supported by the gleanings of the field, the fruits of his labor go to the subsistance of the soldiery. Thus dispirited and depressed, he contents himself with the refuge of his ground, while, after his greatest exertions, another will reap the fruits of his honest industry. The most obdurate breast must melt at such scenes, and execrate the effects of standing armies.

LOOK into the fituation of Poland. Under the direction of that great man †, famous for his victories against the Turks; they were brave and virtuous, and proved the bulwark of Christendom. But under the Saxon line, this spirit not suiting their plan of government, was awed by Electoral troops, and totally decayed. The consequences are now severely experienced by them; and while in this depressed state they are an object of desire to Turks and Russians, their country is a scene of bloodshed and misery.

IT is needless to mention England, or the idle farce of an annual act of parliament, for the support of standing troops, which is nothing but an insult on the sense of that nation. The more virtuous among them, if the flame of liberty has not entirely expired, easily see through the guise, and in the death of Allen and others, wantonly butchered by a mercenary soldiery, can too clearly read the fate of themselves and posterity.

THE melancholy part of this subject must give pain to every [...]mane breast. This is natural. But these scenes [Page]more directly affect other nations; and however we may pity the unhappy sufferer, there is a kind of pleasure we feel that we ourselves are not immediately interested. And would to GOD, it had ever remained so. O my country! with what heart-felt satisfaction, should I rejoice, if oppression had never stretched her baleful wings to this once happy clime! that that liberty which an illustrious set of men, of whom the world was not worthy, purchased at so dear a rate, might have descended unimpaired to latest posterity. But is this the case? has this scourge of mankind, standing armies, never interrupted our prosperity? if so, why is this desk hung with the sable covering of death! why am I surrounded by so many of my fellow-citizens, who listen to the tale of woe! yes, my countrymen, we ourselves are deeply interested; and this same engine of oppression, which has thrown mighty republics from their foundations, has attempted and still continues to spread the same horrid consequences in America: and in its usual mode of conduct, has been attended with every species of cruelty, some of them unheard of before; but which your firmness, under GOD, has hitherto, and I pray ever may, surmount.

THE shocking scene of that dreadful night, the fatal effects of which we are now still weeping over, is beyond description. No one, perhaps, if it is taken in every view, that was not a spectator, can conceive it. When I consider the many insults, abuses and violences, this unhappy town was exposed to for months previous to this melancholy tragedy, and when the tumult of contrary passions was thus naturally excited, to see a brutal soldiery, scattering promiscuous death through a defenceless, unarmed multitude, till yonder street was crimsoned with the blood of its citizens, while a tender mother, frantic with grief, pours forth the anguish of her heart over a beloved son, now incapable of any returns of gratitude; all this exhibits a scene which the distressed heart may painfully feel, but [Page]which the tongue cannot express. Let the breast, then, still continue to beat. These, my friends, are virtuous, generous feelings, and do honor to humanity. May we ever retain them. May this institution, sacred to the memory of our murdered brethren, be ever carefully preserved. Yes, ye injured shades! we will still weep over you, and if any thing can be more soothing, WE WILL REVENGE YOU.

THIS glaring specimen of cruelty roused the citizens, and in convincing colors displayed the effects of standing armies in time of peace. But however our exertions were then successful, however the storm subsided, it was but temporary. While the scales of justice were held in palsied hands, and the most shocking barbarities were the highest merit, an additional force only was necessary. That arriving, the mask was thrown off, and a still greater scene of carnage and destruction, opened in our adjacent villages.

BUT such proceedings, however alarming at that period, were soon lost in more dreadful and distressing operations. The heights of Charlestown too awfully convinced us of the melancholy truth, and posterity, while with tears of compassion, they ponder the transactions of that day, must execrate the causes which produced them. In any situation, the relics of slaughtered citizens are objects of pity, and the sympathizing spectator will ever drop a tear over them. But there may be instances, when the lesser streams of affection are abforbed in a still greater sea of woe. Such are the sentiments that must strike every breast, when we reflect, illustrious WARREN! on thy death—a death, which whole hecatombs of slaughtered enemies, strowed around thy corpse, can never repay. Here, ye minions of power! ye who are dead to the calls of honor and public virtue, are willing to wade to station, through the blood of your brethren, here behold a spectacle that must harrow your inmost soul. You, my countrymen, with the most pleasing sensations, have attentively listened, while, like us, [Page]he was weeping over the unhappy fate of others. You have kindled into rage, while he has set before you the dangerous nature and consequences of standing armies, and prophetically pointed out to you still greater events. How affecting! that he who could lament the fate of others, must be himself deplored; and that he who could so feelingly paint the effects of this horrid measure, must himself fall one of the first sacrifices to it.

BUT it is not sufficient to drop a transient tear to the memory of departed heroes, or to pay an eulogy to their characters. The happiness of such men, who, after having expired in the arms of liberty and virtue, are now sharing the highest degree of felicity, cannot be increased by our praises: no, my friends, the best way to express our affection for such great and good men, is to rouse and revenge them. To hurl still fiercer bolts of vengeance on an inhuman soldiery, who, instead of affording the last honors, sacred to the dead, and which a generous enemy will ever regard.—after grinning with heilish pleasure on the mangled corpse, which alive could strike terror into their bo [...]dest heart, lodged it in a promiscuous grave; that since they could not prevent his name and reputation being immortal, his remains might be hid forever.—O Britain! thou hast, and shall still weep tears of blood for this!

ARE not such instances, my countrymen, very convincing proofs of the fatal effects of standing armies, in time of peace. In such a period they originated, and from the fifth of March 1770, through every degree of violence and barbarity, to the present day, it is but one connected scene.

AFTER such exhibitions of cruelty and carnage, what can we suppose too brutal, too infamous for such an army? can we wonder to see our houses in flames? our altars rased to the ground, or converted to a much more horrid use, [Page]than the Jewish temple? if possible they have even exceeded; and the armies of Britain seem to be held up as a standing evidence, how far the spirit of tyranny and oppression can operate.

WE shudder when the faithful page of history opens to our view the conduct of armies, flushed with victory, sacking towns, burning villages, and perpetrating murders, with all the other dreadful concomitants. But if we look into the conduct of the British army in the Jersies, and some part of the state of New-York, we shall find instances of all these crimes, and, perhaps, in some places, instances beyond them. To see the third city in a neighbouring state, wantonly consumed by an enemy, who not having spirit or ability, to meet us in the field, descend to these little mean methods of exciting terror—to see the ravages in the Jersies, and the garden of America thus wantonly defaced—does not the blood beat high!—do we not press forward to exterminate such barbarians from the face of the earth! but to mention still greater scenes of cruelty—does not the ear tingle when it hears the shrieks of helpless virgins, dreadful victims to lust and barbarity; while the grey hairs and expressive groans of an aged parent, witness to his daughter's shame, plead in vain. Can any thing swell this complicated scene of woe? it can receive addition. These monsters exceed even the most barbarous nations. With them the ashes of the dead have ever been sacred. But under the patronage of a British tyrant and his general, snussing the tainted gale, they have ransacked the silent repositories, and the remains of one that was once amiable and captivating, flung about as food for the birds of the air *. O GOD, where is thy vengeance! O virtue, honor, religion, humanity, where, where are ye fled!

THESE, my countrymen, are not the flights of fancy, not the dictates of imagination: they are solid, though [Page]very affecting realities. Can we then wish a re-union with such a people? can we ever familiarly shake hands with a nation, who, leaping every barrier, are thus wantonly sporting with our distresses, and bathing themselves in the blood of our countrymen? may America never retain such mean, dastardly sentiments! for my own part, if I may be indulged, I would entreat, I would conjure every one, who as a parent feels for the welfare of his posterity, to imitate the example of the renowned Carthagenian *. Lead your sons, ye fathers, not to the altar of Paganism, and under the tutelage of some unknown deity, but to the sacred altar of freedom; and while the guardian GOD of America is witness to the solemn obligation, MAKE THEM SWEAR that they never will be friends to a power, who are thus sacrificing their dearest privileges. Ring in their young ears the dreadful tale of murders, rapes, and massacres. Paint to them the conduct of Britain, as displayed in her arms in different parts of America, till their young breasts glow with ardor, and thus early catching the flame of patriotism, they may, through life, pursue undaunted so glorious an object. Pleased with such an invocation, the shades of our fathers will rejoice over their posterity, and the angels of love and purity will look down delighted.

No one, I think, can suppose these thoughts proceed from rage or passion. They are the cool dictates of my heart. I love my country; her distresses affect me; nor, from this moment, do I ever wish a reconciliation with a [Page]power, whose prosperity must be founded on my utter destruction.

I HAVE now, my countrymen, endeavored to exhibit the fatal effects of standing armies in time of peace; not from abstract reasoning, but as they exist in fact, and now prevail in our distressed land. Here I would remark, that it is standing armies in time of peace, and the consequences thence resulting, that we are now deprecating. Armies, in defence of our country, unjustly invaded, are necessary, and in the highest sense justifiable. We, my friends, attacked by an arbitrary tyrant, under the sanction of a force, the effects of which, we have attempted to illustrate, have been obliged to make the last solemn appeal. And I cannot but feel a pleasing kind of transport, when I see America, undaunted by the many trying scenes that have attended her, still baffling the efforts of the most formidable power in Europe, and exhibiting an instance, unknown in history. To see an army of veterans, who had fought and conquered in different quarters of the globe—headed by a general tutored in the field of war, illustrious by former victories, and flushed with repeated successes, threatning, with all the pomp of expression, to spread havock, desolation, and ruin around him; to see such a soldiery and such a general, yielding to an hardy race of men, new to the field of war; while on the one hand it exalts the character of the latter, convincingly proves the folly of those, who, under pretence of having a body of troops, bred to war, and ever ready for action, adopt this dangerous system, in subversion of every principle of lawful government. Here, if after having depictured scenes of so distressing a nature, it may not appear too descending, I could not forbear smiling at the British general and his troops, who not willing to reflect on their present humiliating condition, affect the air of arrogant superiority. But Americans have learnt them, that men, fighting on the principles of freedom and honor, despise the examples that have been set [Page]them by an enemy; and though, in the field, they can brave every danger in defence of those principles, to a vanquished enemy they know how to be generous; but that this is a generosity not weak and unmeaning, but founded on just sentiments, and if wantonly presumed upon, will never interfere with that national justice, which ever ought, and lately has been properly exerted.

BUT while, with the warmest gratitude to heaven, we view our late successes, and are at a loss to express our acknowledgment to the illustrious hero, who was the instument, and whose name, to remotest ages, will be ever dear to these New-England states, let us not forget our situation. There is an army, and a very powerful one, still existing in the heart of America. Methinks the reputation of past successes should animate every inhabitant of America to fly to arms; and by one general exertion utterly expel this last, this only remaining power of Great-Britain on the continent. Ye, to whom the sacred, the important system of government is committed—ye men of sense and virtue—ye patriots, who feel an affection for your country and posterity, let me conjure you to seize the present opportunity, happier than we could ever have expected, and which once omitted may never be again in our power.

I WOULD not pretend to insinuate, that this is the only point which ought to be under immediate consideration, by a wise people or their delegates. But this I will venture to affirm, that unless this is the governing sentiment, in every deliberation, every other thing is superfluous. Let us then rise superior to every private local attachment. As we are embarked on one broad bottom of universal freedom, let us attend to this most pressing occasion; an occasion providentially offered for future security and happiness. If a royal army, tho' weak in its number, can thus insult us unpunished, the most slender imagination can easily foresee what must be the effects of a still greater force. I wish that [Page]the present generation, I wish that posterity may not feelingly reproach our inactivity.

SHALL the frequent calls of our EXALTED GENERAL, who seems to have been raised up by heaven, to show to what an height humanity may soar; who generously sacrificing affluence and domestic ease, wishes to share with you in every danger and distress, shall his frequent calls be in vain? remember, my countrymen, the eyes of the good and great, in every clime, are upon the present contest. Liberty, disgusted at scenes of cruelty and oppression, has left her ancient altars, and is now hovering to fix her last residence in America. Our exertions have hitherto been great and successful. Let not the ashes of WARREN, MONTGOMERY, and the illustrious roll of heroes, who died for freedom, reproach our inactivity and want of spirit, in not compleating this grand superstructure; the pillars of which have been cemented with the richest blood of America. May that same ardor, which has rendered America famous, still continue, and looking forward to those happy days of liberty and peace, which our posterity shall enjoy, let us exalt at the thought, that future generations, while they reap the glorious fruits of our struggles, will rise up and call us blessed.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1779.

BY WILLIAM TUDOR, ESQ.

—Sed et illa propago

Contemptrix superum saevaeque avidissima caedis

Et violenta fuit.

OV. M. L. I. F. 5.

Whatever secondary props may rise

From politics, to build the public peace,

The bafis is, the manners of the land.

YOUNG.

FATHERS, COUNTRYMEN, FRIENDS,

"THAT man was born to delude and be deluded; to believe whatever is taught, and bear whatsoever is imposed;" are political dogmas which have long afforded matter for exultation and security to dignified villains, from the sceptered tyrant, to the meanest minion of power. But however confirmed they may have been, by the passive conduct of the greatest part of mankind, you, my fellow-citizens, thank GOD, you are an exception to their truth. The numerous, the respectable assembly which now croud this hallowed temple, are an exalted exception to maxims as disgraceful as they are general. Ever vigilantly attentive to the sacred, unalienable rights of man; equally studious in the glorious principles of liberty as intrepidly determined to preserve inviolate [Page]the inestimable previleges she bestows; you are now convened, not merely to commemorate this anniverversary, but solemnly to renew the resolves, which freedom, wisdom, virtue, honor inspire: and not barely to resolve, but I trust, steadily to pursue the execution of resolutions which have resulted from deliberate investigation and full conviction.

To so intelligent, so well informed an auditory, it must be unnecessary to deduce the origin of civil society, which founded in reciprocal advantage, and springing from social virtue, on the combined necessities and assistance of individuals built the general happiness—a happiness thus instituted, nothing but public spirit, and a union of force and of council can preserve: I must therefore request your indulgence whilst I rather point out those evils which the concurrent experience of ages and nations prove to be subversive of every good proposed from civil compact. Little solicitous of rhetorical applause, I shall offer you my sentiments as they arise warm from a heart devoted to the interests of this my parent country, in language that becomes a freeman to use when addressing a free assembly.

SIMILAR causes will forever operate like effects in the political, moral, and physical world: those vices which ruined the illustrious republics of Greece, and the mighty commonwealth of Rome, and which are now ruining Great-Britain, so late the first kingdom of Europe, must eventually overturn every State, where their deleterious influence is suffered to prevail. Need I add that luxury, corruption, and standing armies are those destructive efficients?

LUXURY, no sooner finds admittance into a state than she becomes the parent of innumerable evils, public and domestic; her contagious influence is soon felt in society, and her baneful effects discovered by a general dissipation of manners and a declension of private virtue, which begets [Page]effeminate habits, and by a natural gradation a base pliability of spirit.

LUXURY is ever the foe of independence, for at the same time that it creates artificial wants it precludes the means of satisfying them. It first makes men necessitous, and then dependant. It first unfits men for patriotic energies, and soon teaches them to consider public virtue as a public jest.

AT such a period, corruption finds an easy access to mens' hearts. To the promotion of interested pursuits, and the gratification of voluptuous wishes, a ready sacrifice is made of the general good at the shrine of power. Then slumbers that virtuous jealousy of public men and public measures, which was wont to scrutinize not only actions but motives: then nods that active zeal, which, with eagle eye watched, and with nervous arm defended the constitution. Every day new inroads are made upon public liberty, while encroachments, like temptations, grow more frequent and more dangerous in proportion as the power of resistance decreases. Thus before a nation is completely deprived of freedom, she must be fitted for slavery by her vices.

GENERALLY, but not always, for we have known a people ruled by a despot, who, from a private station, rose to uncontroled dominion, at a time when they were sternly virtuous. And this mode of introducing bondage is ever to be apprehended at the close of a successful struggle for liberty, when a triumphant army, elated with victories, and headed by a popular General, may become more formidable than the tyrant that has been expelled. Witness the last century in the English history! witness the aspiring CROMWELL!

THIS audacious citizen, intrusted by his country with [Page]the command of her armies, to chastize the man whom previous folly * had enthroned, and who soon presumed to treat his subject, as all kings are wont to do, with contempt and injury, had no sooner dispatched the foolish, imperious monarch, than he attempted to succeed him: with a little management, he soon found his army as disposed to regisy him, as they had been to depose Charles. With these mercenary associates at his heels, he appeared in the synod of the State, and dared with force displace the most glorious band of patriots that ever led a tyrant from his throne to a scaffold. Not content with this enormous outrage upon the constitution, this annihilating stroke upon the tottering liberties of his country, for a time, to keep up the form of a popular government and to bring parliament into contempt, he convened an house of commons, constituted entirely of his own creatures. They met, and in a few months discovered that they were utterly unequal to the posts they were raised to, they therefore petitioned their master to dissolve them. Cromwell granted their request, and became sole tyrant of three kingdoms. Tyrant —for of what consequence is it by what style or under what modification despotism operates to the public wrong— dictator, king, protector, it is not the appellation we reprobate, though even that we should guard against, but the thing. Who but must own that Cromwell, under the name of protector, was as absolute a despot as he could have been with any other title?

THE first Caesar affords us another instance among the [Page]thousands which history holds up to our view, to teach us what bold and unprincipled spirits have effected by the aid of armies. This ambitious subject having been for several years engaged in the humane, the soldierly employment of slaughtering his fellow men, and in extending his conquests over countries which he had not even a pretence to invade; this Caesar, who boasted that he had slain a million of men *, was at length ordered home by the senate to answer to some charges against his conduct. He knew that at such an interview his sword would be his ablest advocate. He therefore led his veteran legions, "nothing loth," against his country; passed the rubicon; fought his way to Rome; plunged a dagger in her vitals; impiously trampled on her dearest rights; and seized on empire crimsoned, execrable paricide! crimsoned with the richest blood of Rome's best citizens!

Too late the patriot poniard reach'd the [...]itor's heart: Caesar fell—alas! the republic had fallen before. Rome changed her governors, but the tyranny remained. The same army that had enabled Julius to triumph over the liberties of his country, led the cars of OCTAVIUS, ANTHONY and LEPIDUS, through se [...] of Roman blood, and bad the cursed triumvirate divide an enslaved world!

IF Rome could have been saved, BRUTUS and his virtuous associates would have saved her; but a standing army, and a perpetual dictator, were, and ever will, prove too hard for the patriotic few. Learn hence, my countrymen, that a state may sink so low in slavery that even virtue itself cannot retrieve her. From these examples, prudence dictates—resist [...]eginnings. A free and wise people will never suffer any citizen to become too popular—much [Page]less too powerful. A man may be formidable to the constitution even by his virtues.

BUT why do I keep your attention fixed on remote transactions? our own times furnish additional and convincing proofs of the destructive consequences of political corruption and mercenary armies.

SWEDEN, the bravest, hardiest, freest nation of the north—Sweden, in one hour, was plunged from the distinguished heights of liberty into abject vassalage. What ties can bind a king? scarce had GUSTAVUS the third ascended the throne of limited monarchy; scarce had the roofs of the senate house ceased to reverberate the insidious accents of his inauguration speech *, whilst yet venerable representatives of their country were fondly anticipating the [Page]blessings that would arise from the reign of so wise, so gracious a king—The unblushing parricide surrounded, with an armed host, the temple in which the senate was assembled, planted his cannon against the gates, and with the swords of his guards at the throats of the senators, demanded immediate absolution from his coronation oath, by which he had most sacredly bound himself to preserve inviolate the [Page]laws and liberties of the Swedes! astonishing that a strippling, whose language breathed the glowing sentiments of enthusiastic generosity, so natural to youth, could, with such facility, set at defiance all that is held sacred, honorable, and obligatory among men! but the lust of domination, so natural to human nature, will ever prove too hard for the checks of conscience and the dictates of right, when a favorable opportunity presents to gratify it. Gustavus, knowing that the army were ready to assist his iniquitous designs (as all standing armies are to promote despotism, because under such a system of rule, soldiers must be necessary and consequently favored) the barriers raised by justice and his plighted faith to Sweden, became slight indeed. Force backed inclination, and Gustavus changed circumscribed authority, for unconfined sovereignty *.

LET us now turn our eyes to that nation whom we once did love, and with whom we had yet been friends had not an unparalleled series of folly and cruelty compelled us to renounce the pleasing relationship. A short retrospect of whose public conduct, subsequent to the last war, will afford many and important instructions.

IN 1763 peace was restored after a war of seven years, successfully waged in every quarter of the globe. At that period what an unrivalled figure did Great-Britain stand amongst the nations! great beyond all former example, in arms, in commerce and in wealth. Not a corner of the earth but had witnessed her atchievements. Wheresoever she directed her armies, victory and conquest attended; whilst her irresistable navy, thundering over every ocean, not only subdued, but annihilated the fleets of her enemies.

[Page] TRIUMPHANT in war, nor less distinguished in peace. In many of the polite, in most of the useful arts and sciences, superior to her neighbours. In commerce unequalled; no [...] a sea but bore, not a wind but wasted her countless ships, laden with the riches of the earth, and made her crouded ports the marts of the world. Late glorious nation, how are thou fallen, how lost! from so envied, so stupendous an height, by the perverted will of thy infatuated monarch, and the pernicious counsels of his nefarious ministers. Driven to the fearful edge of ruin, we now behold thee tottering o'er the gulph of annihilation, whilst France and her allies urge thee over the irremeable steep!

WHEN we consider the capital desects in the English constitution—the character of her present weak and ambitious monarch—the luxury, dissipation and venality of her influential men, we shall cease to wonder at her declension and present circumstances.

IN a limited monarchy, where the prince as supreme executive magistrate, and first branch of the legislature, is invested with the important prerogative of making peace and war; is constituted the sole fountain of honor, and becomes the exclusive disposer of every lucrative and honorable appointment, civil, ecclesiastic, and military; his influence becomes too enormous to be compatible with the public liberty: but if to such extravagant powers (by a fatal error in the constitution, placed in the hands of the prince) he should superadd a detestable system of corruption to bribe the representatives of the people (a system which, during the reign of his present Britannic majesty, hath been urged to its utmost possible extent) the worst species of vassalage must ensue. That equipoise between the respective branches of the legislature (in which the seeming, the theoretic excellence of the English constitution consists) will be totally destroyed; the executive will involve the powers of the legislative, and whilst the letter and formalities [Page]of the constitution are retained, its spirit and intendment will be totally lost. An absolutely arbitrary, with the forms of a free government (that worst and surest of all tyrannies) will gradually succeed and be finally established, unless a total revolution is happily effected by the timely exertions of the people, before the despot has strengthened himself with a mercenary army, and forever closed their chains.

BUT this tyranny is already established in Great-Britain, for what hopes can Britons entertain of effecting a revolution, whilst the crown, by the multiplicity of gifts in its power, can maintain an infamous majority in each house of parliament, to legalize, and a standing army to enforce its projects, however imperious, inhuman or unjust. In vain, a few wise and virtuous men see and lament their dishonorable situation—an army of forty thousand soldiers, in time of peace, and a still more numerous band of placemen and pensioners, properly disposed throughout the kingdom, effectually stifle in their birth every effort of patriotism to restore the constitution to its primaeval principles.

SUCH is the boasted constitution, such the prince, and such the present condition of the people of Britain. Unhappy nation, thus constitutionally enslaved—thus legally und [...]e! unworthy descendants of illustrious ancestors— thus to suffer your most essential rights to be bartered away, your government not only corrupted, but perverted to purposes diametrically opposite to its original intention. An house of commons at first constituted to watch over and preserve your rights and immunities from the enchroaching steps of ambitious princes, you have permitted to become an engine in the hands of royalty, the more effectually to abridge or nullify those rights. A parliament constituted the stewards of your property, who, instead of guarding it from the insatiable grasp of royal avidity, you patiently see lavishingly indulging the utmost extravagance of regal [Page]profusion; granting enormous sums for effecting the most pernicious purposes; traitorously leaguing with the servants of the crown in loading you with intolerable taxes, and, sharers in the spoil, prodigally complying with the most unbounded demands of ministerial rapacity, while they, at the same time, treacherously unite to screen the most infamous defaulters of the public money. Instead of bravely drawing your swords in defence of your freedom and national honor, you first tamely acquiesced in an insidious and ignominious * law, by which you were basely disarmed like slaves, and then, from necessity, submitted to keeping on foot, in time of peace, a standing army, that, in time of war, had been raised professedly for the defence of the national territories from foreign attacks—an army which you now behold, without shame and without regret, spreading devastation and horror over a late peaceful and happy country; and having at length dismembered the empire, are now attempting to reduce us to the most infamous and most miserable of all conditions, that of being the conquered vassals of your weak, vindictive, despotic monarch.

DEGENERATE sons of mighty fathers! how poor is the consolation for the loss of essential rights, that you still retain the empty privilege of pasquinading your king and his ministers, whilst you are destitute of that public spirit and solid virtue which should purge your corrupted government and reform your wretched constitution!

FROM subjection to a government, thus defective and corrupt, and thus vilely administered, what freeman would not struggle for an emancipation? but if there is an American present who can yet secretly wish for a reunion with this nation, and a share in her ideal privileges, let [Page]him for a moment consider the innumerable indignities, which, for fifteen years back, have been offered us by this haughty power, added to the savage barbarities which they have exercised in every part of America where their army have made any progress, and he must blush at the spiritless, the ignoble sentiment.

IN 1764 the plan for raising a revenue from this country was resolved on by the British ministry, and THEIR obsequious parliament were instructed to pass an act for that purpose. Not content with having for a century directed the entire commerce of America, and centered its profits in their own island; thereby deriving from the colonies every substantial advantage which the situation and transmarine distance of the country could afford them: not content with appointing the principal officers in the different governments, while the king had a negative upon every law that was enacted: not content with our supporting the whole charge of our municipal establishments, although their own creatures held the chief posts therein: not content with laying external duties upon our mutilated and shackled commerce, they, by this statute, attempted to rob us of even the curtailed property, the hard-earned peculium which still remained to us—to create a revenue for the support of a fleet and army, in reality to overawe and secure our subjection, not (as they insidiously pretended) to protect our trade, or defend our frontiers; the first of which they annoyed, and the latter deserted.

AFTER repealing this imperious edict, not because it was unjust in principle, but inexpedient in exercise, they proceeded to declare, by a public act of the whole legislature, that we had no property but what was at their disposal, and that Americans, in future, were to hold their privileges and lives solely on the tenure of the good will and pleasure of a British parliament. Acts soon followed correspondent to this righteous determination, which, not [Page]quadrating with American ideas of right, justice and reason, a fleet and army were sent to give them that force, which laws receive when promulgated from the mouths of cannon, or at the points of bayonets.

WE then first saw our harbour crowded with hostile ships, our streets with soldiers—soldiers accustomed to consider military prowess as the standard of excellence, and vain of the splended pomp attendant on regular armies, they contemptuously looked down on our peaceful orders of citizens. Conceiving themselves more powerful, they assumed a superiority which they did not feel; and whom they could not but envy, they effected to despise. Perhaps, knowing they were sent, and believing they were able to subdue us, they thought it was not longer necessary to observe any measures with [...]aves—hence [...] that arrogance in the carriage of the officers—hence that licentiousness and brutality in the common soldiers, which at length broke out with insufferable violence, and proceeding to personal insults and outragious assa [...]ts on the inhabitants, soon roused them to resentment, and produced the catastrophe which we now commemorate. The immediate horrors of that distressful night * have been so often and so strikingly painted, that I shall not again wring your feeling bosoms with the affecting recital: to the faithful pen of history I leave them to be represented as the horrid prelude to those more extensive tragedies, which, under the direction of a most obdurate and sanguinary prince, have since been acted in every corner of America where his armies have been able to penetrate.

[Page] OUR citizens who fell on that memorable night, falling bequeathed us this salutary lesson, written indeliably with their blood. Confusion, murders, and misery must ever be the consequence of mercenary standing armies cantoned in free cities. §.

MY contrymen, suffer not the slaughtered brethren we now lament to have bled in vain; let us forever retain the important lesson, and they will not have ineffectually fallen. Security shall spring from their tombs, and their deaths preserve the lives of citizens yet unborn. Succeeding generations shall celebrate the aera of this anniversary as the epoch of American triumph, not as a day of sadness; and future patriots nobly envy the death of those, who dying taught their countrymen experimental wisdom.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1780.

BY MR. JONATHAN MASON, JUN.

"Devotion to the public. Glorious flame!

"Celestial ardor! in what unknown worlds,

"Hast thou been blessing myriads, since in Rome,

"Old virtuous Rome, so many deathless names

"From thee their lustre drew? since taught by thee

"Their poverty put splendor to the blush,

"Pain grew luxu [...], and even death delight.

THOMSON, vol. 1. p. 336.

"Unblesi by VI [...]UE, government, and league

"Becomes a ci [...]ing junto of the great

"To rob by law.—

"What are without IT senates, save a face

"Of consultation deep and reason free,

"While the determin'd voice and heart are sold?

"What boasted freedom save a sounding name?

"And what election, but a market vile

"Of slaves self-barter'd?

ID. p. 3.

MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

THAT the greatness and prosperity of a people depend upon the proportion of public spirit and the love of virtue, which is found to exist among them, seems to be a maxim established [...] the universal consent, and I may say, experience of all ages.

[Page] MAN is formed with a constitution wonderfully adapted for social converse and connection. Scarcely ushered into the world, but his wants teach him his inability, of himself, to provide for them. Wrapt in astonishment, with an anxiety inexpressible, the solitary existant looks around for the aid of some friendly neighbour, and should he perchance meet the desired object; should he find one, endowed with intellectual faculties, beset with the same wants and weaknesses, and in all respects the very image of himself; should he find him with a heart open to mutual kind offices, and a hand stretched out to bestow a proportion of his labor, with a bosom glowing with gratitude, his soul is on the wing to express the sense he entertains of the generous obligation.

A CONFIDENCE is established between him and his benefactor, they fwear perpetual friendship, and a compact for mutual protection and assistance becomes imperceptably consented to. Thus doubly armed, together they pursue their morning route to satisfy those demands only which nature reminds them of, and while the ingenuity of the one is exercised to ensnare, the strength of the other is, perhaps, employed to subdue their vigorous opponent.

THEIR little family soon encreases, and as their social ring becomes gradually enlarged, their obligations to each other are equally circular. Honest industry early teaches them that a part only is sufficient to provide for the whole, and that a portion of their time may be spared to cull the conveniences as well as appease the wants of nature. Property and personal security appear to be among the first objects of their attention, and acknowledged merit receives the unanimous suffrage to preside guardian over the rights and privileges of their infant society. The advantages derived are in a moment experienced. Their little policy, erected upon the broad basis of equality, they know of no superiority but that which virtue and the love of the whole [Page]demands; and while, with chearfulness, they entrust to his care a certain part of their natural rights, to secure the remainder, the agreement is mutual, and the obligation upon his part equally solemn and binding to resign them back, either at the instance and request of their sovereign pleasure, or whensoever the end should be perverted for which he received them.

INTEGRITY of heart, benevolence of disposition, the love of freedom and public spirit, are conspicuous excellencies in this select neighbourhood. Lawless ambition is without a friend, and the insinuating professional pleas of tyrants, ever accompanied by the magnificence and splendor of luxury *, are unheard of among them; but simple in their manners, and honest in their intentions, their regulations are but few and those expressive, and without the aid of extreme refinement †, by a universal adherance to the spirit of their constitution, and to those glorious principles from which that spirit originated, we find them attaining real glory— we find them crowned with every blessing that human nature hath ever known of—we find them in the possession of that summit of solid happiness that universal depravity will admit of.

[Page] PATRIOTISM is essential to the preservation and well-being of every free government. To love one's country * has ever been esteemed honorable; and under the influence of this noble passion, every social virtue is cultivated, freedom prevails through the whole, and the public good is the object of every one's concern. A constitution built upon such principles, and put in execution by men possessed with the love of virtue and their fellow-men, must always ensure happiness to its members. The industry of the citizen will receive encouragement and magnanimity; heroism and benevolence will be esteemed the admired qualifications of the age. Every the least invasion on the public liberty, is considered as an infringement on that of the subject; and feeling himself roused at the appearance of oppression, with a divine enthusiasm he flies to obey the summons of his country, and does she but request, with zeal he resigns the life of the individual for the perservation of the whole.

WITHOUT some portion of this generous principle, anarchy and confusion would immediately ensue, the jarring interests of individuals, regarding themselves only, and indifferent to the welfare of others, would still further heighten the distressing scene, and with the assistance of the selfish passions, it would end in the ruin and subversion of the state. But where patriotism is the leading principle, unanimity is conspicuous in public and private councils. The constitution receives for its stability the united efforts of every individual, and revered for its justice, admired for its principle, and formidable for its strength, its fame reaches to the skies.

[Page] SHOULD we look into the history of the antient republics, we shall find them a striking example of what I have asserted, and in no part of their progress to greatness, producing so many illustrious actions, and advancing so rap [...]dly in the road to glory, as when actuated by public spirit and the love of their country. The Greeks in particular ever held such sentiments as these in the highest veneration, and with such sentiments as these alone they established their freedom, and finally conquered the innumerable armies of the east.

WHEN Xerxes *, the ambitious prince of Persia, vainly thinking that nature and the very elements were subject to his controul, inflamed with the thoughts of conquest, threatning the seas, should they resist, with his displeasure, and the mountains, should they oppose his progress: when, after having collected the armies of the then known world under his banners, he entered the bowels of Greece, leading forth his millions, resolutely bent upon the destruction and extirpation of this small hut free people; what do we perceive to be their conduct upon so alarming an occasion? do they tamely submit without a struggle? do they abandon their property, their liberties, and their country, to the sury of these merciless invaders? do they meanly supplicate the favour, or intreat the humanity of this haughty prince? no! sensible of the justice of their cause, and that valor is oftentimes superior to numbers; undaunted by the appearance of this innumerable host, and fired with the glorious zeal, they, with one voice, resolve to establish their liberties, or perish in the attempt.

VIEW them at the moment when the armies of their enemies, like an inundation, over-spread their whole Greecian territory; when oppression seemed as though collecting its mighty force, and liberty lay fettered at the [Page]shrine of ambition; then shone forth the heavenly principle, then slamed the spirit of the patriot, and laying aside all sentiments of jealously, as though favored with the prophetic wisdom of heaven, with brav [...]ry unexampled, they charge their foe, and fighting in defence of their country, success crowns the virtuous attempt. With three hundred Lacedimonians *, one only of whom was left to tell the fate of these intrepid men to their weeping country, they conquered the combined force of the whole eastern world.

THE privileges and immunities of the States of Holland †, after a contest of forty year [...], in which they withstood the exertions of their powerful neighbours, being established by the force of this single principle, which appears to prevail both in the senate and the field, might also be adduced in support of what I have advanced, but, my fellow-countrymen, we cannot want additional proofs; the living history of our own times, will carry conviction to the latest posterity, that no state, that no community, I may say that no family, nay even that no individual can possibly flourish and be happy, without some portion of this sacred fire. It was this that raised America from being the haunt of the savage, and the dwelling-place of the beast, to her present state of civilization and opulence: it was this that hath supported her under the severest tryals: it was this that [Page]taught her sons to fight, to conquer and to die in support of freedom and its blessings; and what is it, but this ardent love of liberty, that has induced you, my fellowcitizens, to attend on this solemn occasion, again to encourage the streams of sensibility, and to listen with so much attention and candor to one of the youngest of your fellow-citizens, whose youth and inability plead powerfully against him, while the annual tribute is paid to the memory of those departed citizens, who fell the first sacrifices to arbitrary power. Check not such generous feelings. They are the fruits of virtue and humanity, and while the obligations you remain under to those unhappy men, lead you to shed the sympathetic tear, to dwell with pleasure upon their memories, and execrate the causes of their death, remember that you can never repay them. Ever bear it in your minds, that so implicit was the confidence you willingly placed in that country, that owed to you her affection, that notwithstanding the introduction of that inhuman weapon of tyrants into the very heart of your peaceful villages, you still would fain rely on their deceitful assertions, and paint the deformed monster to your imaginations as the minister of peace and protection. Men born in the bosom of liberty, living in the exercise of the social affections in their full vigor, having once fixed them upon particular objects, they are not hastily eradicated. Unaccustomed to sport with, and wantonly sacrifice these sensible overflowings of the heart, to run the career of passion and blinded lust, to be familiar with vice, and sneer at virtue; to surprise innocence by deceitful cunning, and assume the shade of friendship to conceal the greater enmity, you could not at once realize the fixed, the deliberate intention of those from whom you expected freedom, to load you with slavery and chains, and not till insult repeated upon insult: not till oppression stalked at noon-day through every avenue in your cities: nay, not till the blood of your peaceful brethren flowed through your streets, was the invenvomed serpent to be discovered in the bushes: not [Page]till a general trespass had been made upon the keenest feelings of human nature, and the widowed mother was summoned to entomb the cold remains of her affectionate son; the virtuous bosom to resign its tender partner, and social circles their nearest friends; could you possibly convince yourselves that you and Britain were to be friends no more. Thrice happy day! the consequences of which have taught the sons of America that a proper exercise of public spirit and the love of virtue hath been able to surprise and baffle the most formidable and most powerful tyranny on earth.

PATRIOTISM is a virtue which will ever be universally admired, even by those incapable of possessing it. Its happy effects are equally visible in individuals as in states, and if we bestow a moment's reflection upon the heroes of antiquity, who have been deservedly celebrated by succeeding generations, both for their abilities and conduct, we shall find that the true source of their greatness was this spirit of freedom, and their inviolable attachment to the interest of their country.

WITH an attentive silence we listen to the historian while he relates to us the integrity of conduct, the invincible courage, the earnest glow of soul, and the ardent love of liberty which was exhibited in the lives of those illustrious men, and so great were their virtues that we are scarce able to credit them, but as the dreams of fancy, or the fictions of the ingenious.

IT is recorded of the celebrated Timoleon *, general of Corinth, that notwithstanding he was blest with a temper singularly humane, and with feelings that were ever roused at the miseries of his fellow-men, he loved his country so passionately, that after making use of every argument [Page]in his power to convince an elder brother of his error, for attempting to become the tyrant of it, he devoted him to death; a brother on whom he had previously placed his affection, and whose life being exposed to the fire of an enemy in a severe battle, he had before saved at the great risque of his own. Even in old age, after a period of rigid retirement for twenty years, we are attracted by the disinterested conduct of this exalted patriot.

WHEN the Syracusians, groaning under every species of cruelty, which lust, avarice and ambition could inflict, supplicated their generous neighbours for assistance, to alleviate those miseries they themselves had been exposed to. Timoleon, urged to accept the command of the Corinthian auxiliaries, at first hesitated, his age, his manners, his private happiness and the endearments of his family forbid it; but sensible that he was but a member of the community, and stung by the cries of innocence, his inclinations were but of trivial moment in competition with his duty.

VIEW him at the head of his chosen army, assembled to plead the cause of suffering virtue. In possession of arms and of power, if inclined to pervert them, are his principles changed with his station? are his thoughts bept on conquest or on death? or does he entertain a secret wish to seize the moment of confidence, and build his greatness upon the ruin of the distressed, to remove one tyrant to reinstate another? no, but fired with a generous glow of foul, fired with the manly sentiments of freedom, with an implacable hatred to oppression of all kinds, he marches his troops to the deliverance of his afflicted people, and with a firmness becoming soldiers, fighting under the standard of liberty, after a series of fatigue and toil, harrassing marches and fierce conflicts, he dethrones the tyrant, and is proclaimed the deliverer of Syracuse.—Having restored tranquility to this unhappy country, repeopled their [Page]cities, revived their laws, and dispensed justice to all ranks and classes, he resigned his command, and retreated once again to the private walks of life, accompanied with the grateful acknowledgments of millions as the patron of their liberty and the saviour of their country.—Happy man! endowed with such a noble soul, prone to feel for the misfortunes, and rejoice in the happiness of his fellow-creatures.

BUT why need we resort to distant ages to furnish us with istances of the effects of patriotism upon individuals? will not the present day afford at least one illustrious example to our purpose? yes, my fellow-countrymen, AMERICA, young AMERICA too, can boast her patriots and heroes, men who have saved their country by their virtues, whose characters posterity will admire, and with a pleased attention, listen on tiptoe to the story of their glorious exertions. Let us pause a moment only upon the select catalogue, and take the first upon the list.—

VIEW him in his private station, and here, as though Providence, for his excellencies, had selected him for her own; from the extensive circle of humanity, we perceive him enjoying her richest dispensations. By an affluent fortune, placed beyond the reach of poverty or dependance, bless'd with the social circle of friends, and happily connected by yet more endearing ties; peaceful reflections are his companions through the day, and the soothing slumbers of innocence hover over his couch: charity presides steward of his houshold, and the distressed are ever sure to receive from his bosom that sigh which never fails to console, and from his cheek the alleviating tear of sympathy. Having reached the summit of human felicity, beyond even the picture of his most sanguine expectations, it is indifferent to him, as an individual, whether prince or people rule the state, but nurtured in the bosom of freedom, endowed with a greatness of soul, swallowed up with public spirit and the love of mankind, does oppression [Page]scatter her baleful prejudices, does ambition rear its guilty crest, friends *, relations and fortune are like the dust of the balance. The pleas of nature give way to those of his country, and urged on by heavenly motives, he flies instantly to her relief. See him while grief distracts his bosom, at the effusion of human blood, gras [...] the sword of justice and buckle on the harness of the warrior. [...]e him, with fortitude unparalleled, with perseverance indefatigable, deaf to pleasure and despising corruption, chearfully encountering the severest tasks of duty, and the hardiest toils of a military life. Modest in prosperity, and shining like a meteor in adversity, we behold this patriotic hero, with a small army of determined freemen, attacking, fighting and conquering an army composed of the bravest veteran troops of Britain.

AND shall we, my countrymen, stop the current of gratitude? and can we forbear testifying our joy upon the success of such singular exertions? shall we seal his death before we thank him for his services? by no means.—Our acknowledgement will irresistably flow from us to this deserved object of admiration, and his very actions will sting the soul of the ungrateful wretch, until he is forced to admire their lustre, and confess his inability to equal them.

SOME there are, who, Roman-like, would banish him for his good conduct; but while we copy the spirit of this great people, let us not be as diligent to catch their vices. Such conduct is inconsistent with the sentiments of freemen, and surely we cannot forget that he has saved our country.

[Page] REWARDS * and punishments are in the hands of the public, and it is equally consistent with generosity and humanity, to bestow the one, as inflict the other. We cannot be too cautious in the objects of our gratitude; let merit, conspicious merit, be the standard to which our praises shall resort, and it will excite a noble emulation in others, and let us rather forbear that respect, which is too often found attendant upon the rich, though their wealth has been amassed with the ruin of their country.

BUT the praises of us are not the patriot's only reward; with an approving conscience, sweetning the declivity of life, his invitation is to the skies, there to receive a far more precious reward, for the establishment of that principle to which, since the orign of mankind, heaven hath paid an immediate attention.

"WHERE the brave youth with love of glory fired,

"Who greatly in his country's cause expired,

"Shall know he conquered. The firm patriot there,

"Who made the welfare of mankind his care,

"Though still by faction, vice, and fortune crost

"Shall find his generous labour was not lost †."

SUCH is the progress of public spirit and the love of virtue, and it is the only pillar, upon which can safely be erected the happiness of mankind. Without some play of the locial affections in every society, without some barrier to oppose the stormy passions of individuals, without some [Page]general attachment to the public welfare, a door is open to ambition and political corruption, * luxury and selfishness become fashionable vices, and the spirit of the government is perverted; the public good is neglected, the riches of the state insecure, the liberty of the subject slighted, and the attempts of the tyrant made successful by the follies of the people.

WHAT but the want of patriotism that hath buried in ruins the mighty empires of Greece and Rome; that standing armies, the scourge of the innocent, prevail throughout all Europe; that the pages of history present to our view so melancholly a picture of the human species, and that America and Britain are not at this day, running the road to greatness and glory in concert; and what is it but the want of patriotism that could induce this haughty nation, divested of every public virtue, of every bosom feeling, of every pretension to humanity, without apology or pretext to usher a standing army, composed of vagrants, criminals, and mercenaries, into our peaceful country.

O MY countrymen, it is the want of patriotism, that we are at this time called to weep over the wanton massacre of innocent men; that this is not the only house of mourning; that the fields of America have become devoted to war, and scenes of slaughter familiar to her sons; that our oppressors yet persist in their destructive system of tyranny, and if their power was equal to their thirst of blood, with the spirit of ambition, by which they are now directed, would lead them to destroy and extirpate the wh [...] human race. But thanks be to heaven, that by the fo [...]e of those [Page]virtues which they have discarded, we have nobly resisted the attempts of these cruel men, and the miseries they have so profusely dealt out to us, are returning, with additional vengeance, upon their own heads. The danger of the issue is now past, and if we but retain the same patriotic ardor, with which we first defended our rights from the grasp of our enemies, they are every day in our power. We have every thing to hope; they on the other hand have every thing to fear. Youth, vigor, and the invincible arm of justice, are on our side:—The genius of liberty also is our advocate, who, though persecuted, hath never been conquered.

IN our day we are called to see a happy country laid waste at the shrine of ambition; to experience those seenes of distress which history is filled with, but experience rivets its lessons upon the mind, and if we resolve with deliberation, and execute with vigor, we may yet be a free and flourishing people. Repine not too much at the ravages of war, nor murmur at the dispensations of Providence. We oftentimes rate our blessings in proportion to the difficulty of attaining them, and if, without a struggle, we had secured our liberties, perhaps we should have been less sensible of their value. Chastisements in youth are not without their advantages; blessings most commonly spring from them in old age. They lead us to reflect seriously in the hour of retirement, and to cherish those qualifications, which are frequently lost in [...]he glare of prosperity.

THE important prophecy is nearly accomplished. The rising glory of this western hemisphere is already announced, and she is summoned to her seat among the nations. We have publicly declared ourselves convinced of the destructive tendency of standing armies: we have acknowledged the necessity of public spirit and the love of virtue, to the happiness of any people, and we profess to be semible of the great blessings that slow from them. Let us not [Page]then act unworthy of the reputable character we now sustain: like the nation we have abandoned, be content with freedom in form and tyranny in substance, profess virtue and practice vice, and convince an attentive world that in this glorious struggle for our lives and properties, the only men capable of prizing such exalted privileges, were an illustrious set of heroes, who have seal'd their principles with their blood. Dwell, my fellow-citizens, upon the present situation of your country. Remember that though our enemies have dispensed with the hopes of conquering, our land is not entirely freed of them, and should our resistance prove unsuccessful by our own inattention and inactivity, death will be far preferable to the voke of bondage.

LET us therefore be still vigilant [...]ver our enemies.— instil into our armies the righteous cause they protect and support, and let not the soldier and citizen be distinct characters among us. By our conduct let us convince them *, that it is for the preservation of themselves and their country, they are now sighting; that they, equally with us, are interested in the event, and abandon them not to the insatiable rapacity of the greedy extortioner.

As a reward for our exertions in the great cause of freedom, we are now in the possession of those rights and privileges attendant upon the original state of nature, with the opportunity of establishing a government † for ourselves, [Page]independent upon any nation or people upon earth. We have the experience of ages to copy from, advantages that have been denied to any who have gone before us. Let us then, my fellow-citizens, learn to value the blessing. Let integrity of heart, the spirit of freedom and rigid virtue be seen to actuate every member of the commonwealth. Let not party rage, private animosities, or self interested motives, succeed that religious attachment to the public weal which has brought us successfully thus far; for vain are all the boasted charms of liberty if her greatest votaries are guided by such base passions. The tryal of our patriotism is yet before us, and we have reason to thank heaven, that its principles are so well known and diffused. Exercise towards each other the benevolent feelings of friendship, and let that unity of sentiment, which has shone in the field, be equally animating in our councils.

REMEMBER that prosperity is dangerous; that though successful, we are not infallible, [...]at like the rest of mankind we are capable of erring. The line of our happiness may be traced with exactness, and still there may be a difficulty in persuing it. Let us not forget that our enemies have other arts in store for our destruction; that they are tempting us into those snares, which, after successful struggles, proved the ruin of the empires of the East, and let this sacred maxim receive the deepest impression upon our minds, that if avarice, if extortion, if luxury and political corruption, are suffered to become popular among us, civil discord and the ruin of our country will be the speedy consequence of such fatal vices; but while patriotism is the leading principle, and our laws are contrived with wisdom, and executed with vigor, while industry, frugality and temperance, are held in estimation, and we depend upon public spirit and the love of virtue for our social happiness, peace and affluence will throw their smiles upon the brow of the individual, our commonwealth will flourish, our land become the land of liberty, and AMERICA an asylum for the oppressed.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1781.

BY THOMAS DAWES, JUN.

‘"Patria cara—carior Libertas!"’

FATHERS, FRIENDS, AND CITIZENS,

AVOIDING apology, even at a time when uncommon propriety might justify it; and trusting rather to a continuance of the same liberality which has ever noted my countrymen, I attempt the duties of this solemn anniversary.

AND it is conceived that we shall, in some measure, perform those duties, if we sketch out some general traits of liberty, and mark the lines of her progress in particular nations; if we paint the wounds she has suffered from corruption and despotic force, and from the whole educe such sentiments as become a brave and free, though injured people.

NUMEROUS as the descriptions are of primeval man, the reflective eye is not yet weary. We still feel an interest in that archadian state which so well imitated the world we are looking for. And we shall continue to feel it so long as nature is pleasing and the heart retains a [Page]feature of innocence. Like the gods *, our first fathers had but few desires, and those to be satisfied by the works of virtue. Their passions were as the gales of their own Eden—enough to give a spring to good actions—to keep the waters of life in motion without inducing storm and whirlwind †. Conversing with divinities, Liberty, sent from above, was their peculiar inmate: that Liberty, whose spirit, mingling with the nature of man at his formation, taught him, unlike the other animals, to look upward and hope for a throne above the stars ‡: that Liberty who taught him to pluck, with confidence, the fruits of nature; to pursue the direction of reason upon his heart, and, under tha [...] direction, to acquire, secure, and enjoy all possible happiness, not impeding, but assisting others in the same privilege §. When families, and consequently human wants were afterward multiplied, it was this same Liberty who, joined with Justice, led the patriarchs to some aged oak. There, in the copious shade, misunderstandings were explained, and charity and peace embraced each other.— Such was the morning of man!

BUT misunderstandings are quarrels in embrio. Satisfaction of one want originated another. Depravity grew enraptured with strife. The wind was up. Passion rage [...] [Page]Brother's blood then smoaked from the ground and cried for vengeance. Nimrod commenced his prelude to tyranny, and Fame was clamorous with the deeds of death.— Liberty heared and trembled—considered herself an outcast, and has, on many times since, travelled up and down the world, forlorn, forsaken, majesty in rags. Nor will she, perhaps, until the millenium comes, if America does not now retain her, ever command that complete and permanent homage which is suitable to her nature. The old republics may have been the most perfect seats of her residence while they lasted, and are often mustered up from the tomb of empire to witness the adoration which they paid her. But even there she received so frequent violence that the continuance of her reign was for the most part precarious; and when even at the summit of her glory, she was only elevated that her fall might be more astonishing. Having passed all the degrees of fortune, thank GOD she has found her way to these remote shores: and, if from effects we may judge, she is well pleased with her new abode. O cherish the divine inhabitant! O let her not return to the courts above with a story that shall fire the heavens against us—that she had blessings for us, but that we were not prepared to receive them—that she could find among us no lasting habitation; but that, like the dove after the deluge, she was scarce favoured with the top of some friendly mountain for a melancholy moment.

LIBERTY, my friends, is a palladium to the place of her dwelling, a rock and a sure defence. Wherever she is, every man has something to protect. He knows what are his riches, and that while he liveth himself shall gather them. He views, with conscious joy, his circumstances. His social affections shoot out and flourish. Even his prejudices are a source of satisfaction, and among them local attachment, a fault which leads to the side of patriotism.

SUPPORTED by and tenacious of these fruits of liberty, [Page]some little free states, which the geographer in his map had otherways never noticed, have long stood uninjured by change, and some of them inaccessible by the greatest efforts of power. There is now, in a distant quarter of the globe, a living illustration of this remark. Situate upon a venerable pile of rocks, in Italy, stands the commonwealth of St. Marino. It was founded by a holy man whose name it bears, and who fled to this romantic fairyland to enjoy religion and free air, unpursued by power and the restless spirit of the world. His example was followed by the pious, the humane, and the lovers of freedom. And these, a favourite few, who were before scattered up and down through other parts of Italy; who had lived all their days under arbitrary rule, and whom nature had secretly taught that there was somewhere a happier institution for man—these hurried away to the snowy top of St. Marino: and having there first tasted those rights which come down from GOD, made it their life's labor to support and hand them down in purity. There every man finds his prosperity in submitting to those laws which diffuse equality. There every man fee [...]s himself happily liable to be called to the senate or the field: every man divides his day between alternate labor and the use of arms —on tip-toe, ready to start for the prize, the mark of universal emulation—the commonweal; officious to promote that interest which is at once the public's and his own. So stands a constitution informed with the very essence of liberty. It has so stood, while other neighbouring states have been blackened and defaced with frequent revolution. And we prophesy that 'till the approach of some unforeseen vice—till some degeneracy unknown to the fires creep upon the sons, St. Marino must stand admired: as, [...] present circumstance, no prince or potentate, after [...]ing down and counting the cost, will ever attempt the impenetrable union of much so prudence and virtue *.

[Page] THE name of Venice now occurs to memory as another modern example of genuine greatness. The ascendency gained by that single city over the whole Ottoman power— the universal panic that struck and pervaded all orders of the Turks when routed at Dardanelles, and the reasonable fear of approaching dissolution that reached even to the throne and blasted the [...]eart and withered the nerves of a despot [...] these, amazing [...]t first, nevertheless appear, when their springs are laid open, the natural issues of a contest between free agents and slaves *.

A MORE ancient and perhaps still more brilliant proof of the proportionate powers of different degrees of liberty, may be gathered from the annals of the city of Tyre. The Lybian madman † who thought he had conquered all and wept that he had no more to conquer ‡—the invincible son of Jove, before whom principalities and powers had bowed down their heads as a bulrush—behold him, with his phalanx, puzzled and confounded at the walls of Tyre. To over-run Asia cost him less labor, enterprize and valor, than the reduction of this one favorite haunt of liberty §. And perhaps he had never reduced her but for her own falling off from her pristine wisdom. Her liberty was not in first full vigor, but had received a shock from corruption introduced with riches. Bribery, pride, and oppression followed close behind. She was then cast out as prophane from the mountain of GOD ‖. Tyre is beome like the top of a rock—a place to spread nets upon.

[Page] LET us consider the story of Tyre as a monument which upon one side shews the force of excellence, and upon the other the baneful influence of vice; [...] memento that every state below the sun has, like Achilles of old, some vulnerable part. A [...] not a nation is exempted; and left, in a fond prejudice, we might exclude our own America, and so induce a fatal security, even America has received a caveat from heaven, and in her youthful purity has been tempted by her enemies. With what sort of success tempted we need but remember the machinations and slight of the most infamous Arnold, and the affecting, though just separation of the unfortunate Andrè.

HAPPY the nation that, apprized of the whole truth, impartially weighs it's own alloy, and bars, with tenfold adamant, it's gate of danger. But to return,

I HAD cherished some aversion to names grown trite by repetition, and had, on that account, evaded the antient republics. But I find the observation just, that "half our learning is their epitaph." I conceive that the "mossgrown" columns and broken arches of those once-renowned empires are full with instruction as were the groves of Lyceum or the school of Plato. Let Greece then be the subject of a moment's reflection. When liberty fled from the gloom of Egypt, she sought out and settled at infant Greece—there disseminated the seeds of greatness—there laid the ground-work of republican glory. Simplicity of manners, piety to the gods, generosity and courage were her earliest character. "Human nature shot wild and free *." Penetrated with a spirit of industry, her sons scarcely knew of relaxation: even their sports were heroic. Hence that elevated, independent soul, that contempt of danger, that laudable by [...]s [...] to their country and its manners. Upon the ba [...]ks of Eurota flourished her principal [Page]state. Frugality of living and an avarice of time were of the riches of Lacedaemon. Her maxims were drawn from nature, and one was "that nothing which bore the name of Greek was born for slavery." From this idea flowed an assistance to her sister states. From a like idea in her sister states that friendship was returned in grateful measure. This, had it continued, would have formed the link of empire, the charm that would have united and made Greece invulnerable. While it lasted, the joint efforts of her states rendered her a name and a praise through the whole earth. And here, was it not for the sake of a lesson to my country, I would not only drop my elogium of Greece, but draw an impervious veil over her remaining history. Her tenfold lustre might at this day have blazed to heaven, had the union * of her states been held more sacred. But that union of her states, that [Page]cement of her existence once impared—hear the consequence! the fury of civil-war blows her accursed clarion. The banners late of conquering freedom now adorn the triumphs of oppression. Those states which lately stood in mighty concert, invincible, now breathe mutual jealousy and fall piece-meal a prey to the common enemy. Attic wisdom, Theban hardihood, Spartan valor, would not combine to save her. That very army, which Greece had bred and nourished to reduce the oriental pride, is turned vulture upon her own vitals—a damnable parricide, the faction of a tyrant. Behold the great and GOD-like Greece, with all her battlements and towers about her, borne headlong from her giddy height—the shame, the pity of the world.

HAVING attempted some general sketches of liberty, from the dawn of social life to the fall of national glory, I would be somewhat more particular upon those qualities to which her triumphs are chiefly indebted.

IN the vile oeconomy of depraved man, there appears an inclination to bestow upon one part power and affluence, and to impose upon the other debility and woe. When that inclination is gratified, the majority being slaves, the remains of freedom are shared among the great; like the triumphal bridge at the Archipelago, so strangely dignified, that, by a decree of senate, none of the vulgar were suffered to enjoy it. When that inclination is counterbalanced by the laws; when the true interests of both those parts are reconciled; when society is considered as "a public combination for private protection *,"—and the governed find their happiness in their submission— there is the essence of all-powerful liberty. Not to wire-draw a sentiment already graven upon the hearts of this audience, it is such a liberty, as that every man who has once tasted it, becomes a temporary soldier, [Page]as soon as it is invaded and resents any violence offered it, as an attack upon his life—hence it is that, in free states, as such, there is no such thing as a perpetual standing army. For the whole body of the people, ever ready, flock to the general standard upon emergency, and so preclude the use of that infernal engine. I say infernal engine, for the tongue "labors, and is at a loss to express," the hideous and frightful consequences that flow wherever the powers of hell have procured its introduction. Turkey and Algiers are the delight of its vengeance. Denmark, once over-swarmed with the brave inhabitants of the north, has suffered depopulation, poverty, and the heaviest bondage, from the quartering troops amongst their peasants in time of peace: if it can be called peace, when robbery, conflagration, and murder are let loose upon the sons of men. Indeed, it is said that no nation ever kept up an army in time of peace that did not lose its liberties. I believe it. Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, and Greece in general were all overturned by that tremendous power: and the same power has been long operating with other causes to humble the crest of Britain. Let us hear a passage from Davenant! "If (says he, speaking of standing armies) if they who believed this eagle in the air frighted all motions towards liberty; if they who heretofore thought armies in time of peace, and our freedom inconsistent; if the same men should throw off a whig principle so fundamental, and thus come to clothe themselves with the detested garments of the tories, and if all that has been here discoursed on should happen, then will the constitution of this country be utterly subverted *." It would exceed the limits of the present occasion to expatiate upon all the instances wherein the liberties of Britain have in fact suffered according to the views of Davenant. Suffice it to say that [Page]a standing army has been, long since, virtually engrafted a limb upon her constitution, has frequently over-awed her parliaments, sometimes her elections *, and has carried distraction and massacre † into different parts of her empire.

THAT standing mercenary troops must sooner or later entail servitude and misery upon their employers, is an eternal truth that appears from the nature of things. On the one hand behold an inspired yeomanry, all sinew and soul, having step'd out and defended their ancient altars, their wives and children, returning in peace to till those fields which their own arms have rescued. Such are the troops of every free people ‡. Such were the troops who, led on by the patriot Warren, gave the first home-blow to our oppressors. Such were the troops who, fired by Gates in the northern woods, almost decided the fate of nations. Such were the troops who, under the great and amiable Lincoln, sustained a siege in circumstances that rank him and them with the captains and soldiers of antiquity. Such, we trust, are the troops, who, inferior number, though headed indeed by the gallant and judicious Morgan, lately vanquished a chosen veteran band long dedicated to Mars and disciplined in blood. And such, we doubt not, are [Page]the troops who beat the British legions from the Jersies, and have ever since preserved their country, under the conduct of that superior man who combines in quality the unshaken constancy of Cato, the triumphant delay of Fabius, and, upon proper occasions, the enterprising spirit of Hannibal.

MAY the name of WASHINGTON continue steel'd, as it ever has been, to the dark slandrous arrow that flies in secret. As it ever has been! for who have offered to eclipse his glory, but have afterward sunk away diminished, and "shorn of their own beams."

JUSTICE to other characters forbids our stopping to gaze at this constellation of heroes, and would fain draw forth an eulogium upon all who have gathered true laurels from the fields of America.

"Thousands,—the tribute of our praise

"Demand; but who can count the stars of heaven?

"Who speak their influence on this lower world *."

WHITHER has our gratitude borne us? let us behold a contrast—the army of an absolute prince—a profession distinct from the citizen and in a different interest—a haughty phalanx, whose object of warfare is pay, and who, the battle over, and if perchance they conquer, return to slaughter the sons of peace. This is a hard saying. But does not all history press forward to assert its justice? do not the praetorian bands of tottering Rome now croud upon the affrighted memory? do not the embodied guards from Petersburgh and Constantinople stalk horrid the tools of revolution and murder? to come nearer home for an example, do we not see the darkened spring of 1770, like the moon in a thick atmosphere, rising in blood and ushered in by [Page]the figure of Britain plunging her ponyard in the young bosom of America? Oh, our bleeding country! was it for this our hoary fires sought thee through all the elements *, and having found thee sheltering away from the western wave, disconsolate, cheered thy sad face, and decked thee out like the garden of GOD? time was when we could all affirm to this gloomy question—when we were ready to cry out that our fathers had done a vain thing.—I mean upon that unnatural right which we now commemorate; when the fire of Brutus was on many a heart—when the strain of Gracchus was on many a tongue. "Wretch that I am, whither shall I retreat? whither shall I turn me? to the capitol? the capitol swims in my brother's blood. To my family? there must I see a wretched, a mournful and afflicted mother †?"—Misery loves to brood over its own woes: and so peculiar were the woes of that night, so expressive the pictures of despair, so various the face of death ‡, that not all the grand tragedies which have been since acted, can croud from our minds that aera of the human passions, that preface to the general conflict that now rages. May we never forget to offer a sacrifice to the manes of our brethren who bled so early at the foot of liberty. Hitherto we have nobly avenged their fall: but as ages cannot expunge the debt, their melancholy ghosts still rise at a stated season, and will forever wander in the night of this noted anniversary. Let us then be frequent pilgrims at their tombs—there let us profit of all our feelings; and, while the senses are "struck deep with woe," give wing to the imagination. Hark! even now in the hollow wind I hear the voice of the departed. O ye, who listen to wisdom and aspire to immortality, as ye have avenged our blood, thrice blessed! as ye still war against the mighty hunters of the earth, your names are recorded in heaven!

[Page] SUCH are the suggestions of fancy: and having given them their due scope; having described the memorable Fifth of March as a season of disaster, it would be an impiety not to consider it in its other relation. For the rising honors of these states are distant issues, as it were, from the intricate * though all-wise Divinity which presided upon that night. Strike that night out of time, and we quench the first ardor of a resentment which has been ever since increasing, and now accelerates the fall of tyranny. The provocations of that night must be numbered among the master-springs which gave the first motion to a vast machinery, a noble and comprehensive system of national independence. "The independence of America," says the writer under the signature of common sense, "should have been considered as dating its aera from the first musquet that was fired against her." Be it so! but Massachusetts may certainly date many of its blessings from the Boston massacre—a dark hour in itself, but from which a marvellous light has arisen. From that night revolution became inevitable, and the occasion commenced of the present most beautiful form of government. We often read of the original contract, and of mankind, in the early ages, passing from a state of nature to immediate civilization. But what eye could penetrate through gothic night and barbarous fable to that remote period. Such an eye, perhaps, was present, when the Deity conceived the universe and fixed his compass upon the great deep †.

[Page] AND yet the people of Massachusetts have reduced to practice the wonderful theory. A numerous people have convened in a state of nature, and, like our ideas of the patriarchs, have deputed a few fathers of the land to draw up for them a glorious covenant. It has been drawn. The people have signed it with rapture, and have, thereby, battered, among themselves, an easy degree of obedience for the highest possible civil happiness. To render that covenant eternal, patriotism and political virtue must forever blaze— must blaze at the present day with superlative lustre; being watched, from different motives, by the eyes of all mankind. Nor must that patriotism be contracted to a single commonwealth. A combination of the states is requisite to support them individually. "Unite or die" is our indispensable motto. Every step from it is a step nearer to the region of death. This idea was never more occasional than at the present crisis—a crisis pregnant with fate and ready to burst with calamity. I allude to that languor which, like a low hung cloud, overshadows a great part of the thirteen states. That the young, enterprising America, who stepped out in the cause of humankind, and, no other arm daring, lopped the branches of wide despotic empire—that the same America should now suffer a few insolent bands to ravage her borders with impunity—that her now tardy hand should suspend the finishing stroke of resentment, and leave to her generous allies a labor which her own vigor ought to effect; this must disturb those, illestrious, who sell in her infant exertions; this must stab the peace of the dead, however it may affect the hearts of the living. Oh could I bear a part among the means of awakening virtue—oh could I call strength to these feeble lungs and borrow that note which shook the throne of Julius! vain wish! if the silent suggestions of truth—if the secret whispers of reason are not sufficient—the efforts of human eloquence might be futile, her loudest bolt might roll unhee led!

[Page] THIS is not intended to inspire gloom; but only to persuade to those exertions which are necessary to life and independence. Let justice then be done to our country— let justice be done to our great Leader; and, the only means under heaven of our salvation, let his army be replenished. That grand duty over, we will once more adopt an enthusiasm sublime in itself, but still more so as coming from the lips of a first patriot—the chief magistrate of this commonwealth. "I have, said he, a most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America." Aspiring to such a confidence,

I see the expressive leaves of fate thrown wide;

Of future times I see the mighty tide,

And, borne triumphant on its buoyant wave,

A god-like number of the great and brave.

The bright, wide ranks of martyrs—here they rise—

Heroes and patriots move before my eyes:

These crown'd with olive, those with laurel come,

Like the first fathers of immortal Rome.

Fly time! oh lash thy fiery steeds away—

Roll rapid wheels and bring the smiling day *,

When these blest states, another promis'd land,

Chosen out and foster'd by the Almighty hand,

Supreme shall rise—their crouded shores shall be

The fix'd abodes of empire and of liberty.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1782.

BY GEORGE RICHARDS MINOT.

Quid tantum insano juvat indulgere dolori?

— non haec sine numine divum

VIRG. AEN. 2d. 776.

Eveniunt.—

Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque latorum;

E [...] documenta damus, qua [...]mus origine nati.

OVID METAM. lib. 1. 414.

FATHERS, FRIENDS, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

WHEN I consider the important occasion from which this anniversary derives its origin, and the respectable characters that have exerted themselves to perpetuate its history, I confess there is an unusual security in my feelings; since no mistaken effort of mine can injure an institution, founded on so memorable an event, and supported by names so justly claiming the applause of posterity.

WHILE I rely, then, upon that honesty of intention, which is itself the best apology for its errors, permit me to employ the present hour, which your united voices have annually made sacred to the commemoration of our country's wrong, in recapitulating the most injurious of her [Page]sufferings, among which that on the tragical fifth of March is by no means the least, and in recounting the blessings which have followed from measures as really disgraceful to those who adopted them, as they were intentionally destructive to those against whom they were levelled.

A NATION falling from those great principles of justice and virtue which had made her respectable; subverting the boasted improvements of her arts to the savage purposes of revenge; with venality and corruption entrenched on her cabinet, affords a spectacle too serious for the amusement of the beholder. He turns for relief to the annals of those people whose masculine virtues have obstinately, will he not say wifely, resisted the refinement of a civilized world. But from the misfortunes of such a nation, much is to be learned. As she is hurried onwards by the vortex of that immeasurable gulph, in which empires sink to rise no more, let her serve us as a signal to avoid the first impulse of its resistless tide.

TO trace Great-Britain through the whole progress of her ambition in this country, would be to step back to a very early period: for, long before she avowed her system of colonial slavery in the stamp-act, the liberties of our ancestors had endured the most alarming innovations from her throne. Without cause, and without notice, she had invalidated their charters; laid impositions upon their trade; attempted a most dangerous influence over their internal government, by endeavouring to make it independent of the people;—and all this with the same confidence, as though her policy and foresight, and not her persecutions, had settled them on this side the atlantic.

BUT the full display of her despotic policy was reserved to add accumulated disgrace to the inglorious reign of the third George. Then, intoxicated with America, she slumbered upon the tottering pillars of her own constitution; [Page]the hand of slavery rocked her as she lay on the giddy height; falshood gilded her visions and bound her senses with the enchantment of success; while her blind ambition alone remained awake, to misdirect the ordinary assistance of fortune, and to make her fall equally certain and complete.

THE genius of Britain once interred, the first spectre which shot from its tomb was the stamp-act. This promulgation of a scheme so repugnant to the fundamental principles of the late English constitution, announced the fall, but did not obliterate the memory of that much respected system, in this country. America saw that the act bore not a single feature of its reputed parent, and having detected its illegitimacy, effectually resisted its operation. But, as though conviction must ever be productive of obstinacy, Britain desisted not to rend in pieces the charters of her colonies, which served to remind her of the violence she committed on her own. Her administration affecting to realize the fables * of its minions, whose very fears were as subservient to its purposes, as their hopes were dependant on its venality, and making pretence of trespasses, which, if real, the laws were open to punish, unmasked its true designs, by quartering an armed force in this metropolis in a time of peace.

WHERE was the citizen whose indignation did not flash at this undisguised attack on his liberties? the soldiers pride too grew sanguinary at the idea of contempt from the people he himself had been taught to despise; and, as though heaven designed to effect its greatest purposes by the sacrifice of what men conceive to be the dearest objects [Page]of its guardianship, the lives and rights of citizens were delivered over to the scourge of military rancour.

* VENERABLE patrons of freedom, wherever your country may lie! boast not that the reason and speculative truths of this our common cause, armed an extensive world in support of its justice. Turn to the tragedy we commemorate as imprinted by the bloody hand of the tyrant, and view the highest outrage his power could commit, or the forbearance of humanity sustain. There hecatombs of slaughtered citizens were offered at the shrine of cursed ambition.—What can we add to their memories through whose wounds their country bled; whose names are handed round the globe with the great occasion on which they fell; and whose tomb shall ever stand a basis to the stateliest pillar in the temple of freedom? heaven has avenged their fall by realizing the prophecy of the indignant American, as he vented his anguish over their rankling blood. "These are indeed my country's wounds, † but oh! said he, the deep and tremendous restitutions are at hand; I see them with a prophetic eye this moment before me. Horrors shall be repaid with accumulation of horror. The wounds in America shall be succeeded by deep-mouth'd gashes in the heart of Britain! the chain of solemn consequences is now advancing. Yet, yet my friends, a little while, and the poor, forlorn one, who has fought and fallen at the gate of her proper habitation, for freedom, for the common privileges of life, for all the sweet and binding principles in humanity, for father, son, and brother, for the cradled infant, the wailing widow, and the weeping maid; yet, yet a little while and she shall find an avenger. Indignant nations shall arm in her defence. Thrones and principalities shall make her cause their own, and the fountains of blood that have run [Page]from her exhausted veins shall be answered by a yet fuller measure of the horrible effusion—blood for blood; and desolation for desolation; O my injured country! my massacred America!"

MELANCHOLLY scene! the fatal, but we trust the last effect in our country of a standing army quartered in populous cities in a time of peace.

BRITAIN having thus violated the greatest law nations or individuals can be held by, to use the language of the ancients, threw a veil over the alters of her gods whom she was too haughty to appease. Would to heaven, for her sake, we too had a veil to hide from the eye of justice, the ashes of our desolated towns, and the tracts which her ravages have imprinted through every quarter of our once peaceful land.

IF † "every act of authority of one person over another, for which there is not an absolute necessity, is tyrannical," and if tyranny justifies resistance, to have remained inactive, under these injures, had been a kind of political stoicism, equally inconsistent with the laws of nature and of society. On such principles arose the memorable declaration of July 1776.—A declaration which at once gave life and freedom to a nation; dissolved a monopoly unnatural as unjust; and extended the embraces of our country to the universe.—A declaration which heaven has since ratified by the successful event of her arms. For, when we consider the number of her victories; the disadvantages under which they were obtained; with the chain of important consequences which depended upon the very moment of their decision, who but must acknowledge, after allowing to our military actors every thing heroism can claim, that there appeared peculiar marks of more than human assistance? the surrender of entire armies to a power which they affected to look upon [Page]on rather as an object of their chains than of their swords, was a degree of glory which no enemy that ever passed the Roman yoke afforded to that republic. Hapless Britain! for even those whom you injure must pity you, how has fortune added acrimony to her sickleness, in chusing for a scene of your disgrace that climate where, in a late war, she so loudly vaunted the invincibility of your arms!

AMERICA once unfettered, nobly relied upon the uprightness of her cause and the bravery of her sons. But, as though the virtues of one crown were to apologize for the merciless cruelty of another, a monarch, equally wise in council as brilliant and powerful in arms, met her in an alliance which must ever enliven her gratitude; exalt the honor of France; and, we trust too, promote the interest of both.

AMONG the advantages which have arisen from these great events to the people of Massachusetts, that of securing their lives, their liberties, and property, the great object of all civil government, by a constitution of their own framing, is not to be accounted the least. Dismembered from a government, which had long stood by the exactest balance of its powers, even against the corruption of its ministers, they found themselves accustomed to principles, which age had stamped with authority, and patriots sealed with their blood. The cause of their separation had taught them the avenues through which despotism insinuates itself into the community, and pointed out the means of excluding it. Under these circumstances they produced a system which, we trust, experience will evince to be an improvement * upon the best mankind have hitherto admired. The quick return of all delegated power to the people from whom it is made to spring, and the check which each [Page]part of the government has upon the excesses of the other, seem to warrant us in placing on it all the confidence human laws can deserve. But,

LET us not trust to laws: an uncorrupted people can exist without them; a corrupted people cannot long exist with them, or any other human assistance. They are remedies which at best always disclose and confess our evils. The body politic, once distempered, they may indeed be used as a crutch to support it a-while, but they can never heal it. Rome, when her bravery conquered the neighbouring nations, and united them to her own empire, was free from all danger within, because her armies, being urged on by a love for their country, would as readily suppress an internal as an external enemy. In those times she made no scruple to throw out her kings who had abused their power. But when her subjects fought not for the advantage of the commonwealth; when they thronged to the Asiatic wars for the spoils they produced, and preferred prostituting the rights of citizenship upon any barbarian that demanded them, to meeting him in the field for their support; then Rome grew too modest to accept from the hands of a dictator those rights, which she ought to have impaled him for daring to invade. No alteration in her laws merely, could have effected this. Had she remained virtuous, she might as well have expelled her dictators as her kings. But what laws can save a people who, for the very purpose of enslaving themselves, chuse to consider them rather as councils which they may accept or refuse, than as precepts which they are bound to obey? * with such a people they [Page]must ever want a sanction and be contemned.— * Virtue and long life seem to be as intimately allied in the political as in the moral world: she is the guard which providence has set at the gate of freedom.

TRUE it is, when the nature and principles of a government are pure, we have a right to suppose it at the farthest possible distance from falling. But when we confider that those countries ‡ in which the wisest institutions of republican governments have been established, now exhibit the strongest instances of apostacy, we cannot but see the necessity of vigilance. Commerce, which makes perhaps, the greatest distinction betwen the old world and the modern, having raised new objects for our curiosity, habitual indulgence hath at length made them necessary to our infirmities. Thus effeminated, can we hope to exceed the rigour of their principles, who even forbad the mentioning of a foreign custom, and whose sumptuary laws are held up in our age as objects of astonishment? Such nations have mouldered away, an uncontrovertable proof, that the best constructed human governments, like the human body, tend to corruption; but as with that too, there are not wanting remedies to procrastinate their final decay.

AMONG the causes of their fall there are none more common or less natural than that of their own strength. Continual wars making a military force necessary, the habit [Page]of conquest once acquired and other objects being wanting, history is not without * instances of its turning itself inwards, and knowing as it were, upon its own bowels. Happy are we in the frequent change of our soldiery †. This seems to be the best antidote against such an evil. I [...] prevents that lethargy which would be a symptom of dea [...] in the citizen at home; and checks that immoderation in the soldier which is apt to mislead his virtues in the field. By this exchange of their qualities they mutually warrant happiness to each other, and freedom to their country.

AMERICA once guarded against herself, what has she to fear? her natural situation may well inspire her with confidence. Her rocks and her mountains are the chosen temples of liberty. The extent of her climate, and the variety of its produce, throw the means of her greatness into her own hands, and insure her the traffic of the world. Navies shall launch from her forests, and her bosom be found stored with the most precious treasures of nature. May the industry of her people be a still surer pledge of her wealth.—The union of her states too is founded upon the most durable principles: the similarity of the manners, religion, and laws of their inhabitants, must ever support the measure which their common injuries originated. Her government, while it is restrained from violating the rights of the subject, is not disarmed against the public foe.

[Page] COULD Junius Brutus, and his colleagues, have beheld her republic erecting itself on the disjointed neck of tyranny, how would they have wreathed a laurel for her temples as eternal as their own memories! America! fairest copy of such great originals! be virtuous, and thy reign shall be as happy as durable, and as durable as the pillars of the world you have enfranchised.

[Page]

ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1783.

BY DR. THOMAS WELSH.

Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis

Tempus eget:

VIRG. Aeneid, Lib. 2. Lin. 521.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

INVITED to this place by your choice, and recollecting your well-known [...]ndulgence, I feel myself already possessed of your candor, while I "impress upon your minds, the ruinous tendency of standing armies being placed in free and populous cities in a time of peace."

A FIELD here presents annually traversed by those, who, by their sagacity, have discovered, and by their voices declared, in strains of manly eloquence, the source from whence those fatal streams originate, which, like the destroying pestilence, have depopulated kingdoms and laid waste the fairest empires.

IN prosecution of the subject, I presume I shall not offend a respectable part of my audience, I mean the gentlemen of the American patriot army *,—An army whose [Page]glory and virtues have been long since recorded in the temple of fame—her trumpet has sounded their praises to distant nations—her wing shall bear them to latest ages.

WHEN the daring spirit of ambition, or the boundless lust of domination, has prompted men to invade the * natural peaceful state of society, it is among the first emotions of the heart, to repel the bold invader. Men, assembled from such motives, having expelled the enemy from their borders, re-assuming the pruning-hook and the spade, for the sword and the spear, have, in all ages, been called the saviours of their country.

A MILITIA is the most natural defence of a free state, from invasion and tyranny: they who compose the militia, are the proprietors of the soil; and who are so likely to defend it, as they who have received it from their ancestors—acquired it by their labor—or obtained it by their valor? every free man has within his breast the great essentials of a soldier, and having made the use of arms familiar, is ever ready for the field. And where is the tyrant who has not reason to dread an army of freemen?

IN the battle of Naseby †, in the days of Cromwell, the number of forces was equal on both sides; and all circumstances [Page]equal. In the parliament's army only nine officers had ever seen actual service, and most of the soldiers were London apprentices, drawn out of the city two months before. In the king's army there were about a thousand officers who had served abroad, yet the veterans were routed by the apprentices.

ROME advanced on the zenith of glory and greatness, and conquered all nations in the times of the republic, while her army was an unpaid militia.

THE Greecians carried on their wars against Persia by means of their militia; and at last beat the numerous mercenary armies, and subdued the vast empire of Persia.

THE deeds of valor performed by my own countrymen, and in our day, are numerous and recent, and point out, as with a sun-beam, that the militia is to a free country a lasting security.

YOU will now permit me to consider the condition and consequences of a standing army.

MEN who inlist themselves for life soon lose the feelings of citizens. To command and be commanded, excites an idea of servitude and dependance, which degrades the mind, and in a social view destroys the character of a free agent *.

[Page] THEY who follow the profession of arms conceive themselves exempted from the useful occupations of life, and thence contract a habit of dissipation; soldiers inured to exercise and labor in their duty, at leisure to roam, will not be wholly inactive in a city, where the means of gratification abound; pursuing the objects of pleasure, with the same zeal with which they engaged in the toils and enterprises of the field, whole armies have, too late, found themselves destroyed by the dissolving power of luxury.

WE have a remarkable instance of this, my fellow-citizens, in the army of Hanibal, which, having withstood the greatest hardships, and which the most dreadful dangers had never been able to discourage, in winter quarters, at Capua, was entirely conquered by plenty and pleasures *.

THE effects of luxury, though productive of the greatest misfortunes to an army stationed in a city, are by no means confined to that class of men. The great body of the people, smote by the charms and blandishments of a life of ease and pleasure, fall easy victims to its fascinations. The city, reared by the forming hand of industry, soon feels the symptons of dissolutions—the busy merchant now no more extends his commerce! the mechanic throws aside his chissel; the voice of riot succeeds to the sound of the hammer, and the midnight revel to the vigils of labour.

WHEN a large respectable standing army has been stationed in a city, commanded by officers of known patriotism, who have taught those under their orders, to interchange the kind and friendly offices of life; citizens, conceiving themselves secured from domestic broils and the danger of invasion from abroad, imperceptibly relax in their attention to mi [...]itary exercises, and may thus be exposed [Page]as a tempting bait to an aspiring despot; besides, a people who have made themselves respectable by their personal attention to their own defence, neglecting their militia, may be insulted by those neighbours who had formerly been accustomed to revere their power.

WHEN communities have so far mistaken their interest as to commit the defence of every thing valuable in life to a standing army, the love of ease will scarcely permit them to re-assume the unpleasing task of defending themselves.

AT the conclusion of a long and bloody war, the liberberties of a people are in real danger from the admission of troops into a free city. When an army has suffered every hardship to which the life of a soldier is peculiarly incident, and has returned crowned with the well-carned laurels of the field, they justly expect to be received into the open arms, and with the applauses of those for whom they have fought, and in whose cause they have bled; in a situation like this, whole communities, in transport of gratitude, have weakly sacrificed at the shrine of a deliverer, every thing for which their armies have fought, or their heroes of bled.

NATIONS the most renowned among the ancients for their wisdom and their policy, have viewed the army with an eye of attentive jealousy; the Romans characterized for personal bravery *, trembled for their country, at the sight of one hundred and fifty lictors or peace-officers, [Page] [...]s a guard of the decemviri—Such an army was dangerous, they said, to liberty. These politic people knew the prevailing propeusity in all mankind to power. The history of later times has abundantly justified the wisdom of their jealousies. All parts of Europe which have been enslaved, have been enslaved by armies. No nation can be said to enjoy internal liberty which admits them in a time of peace. When a government has a body of standing troops at command, it is easy to form pretensions for the distribution of them, so as to effect their own purposes; when a favourite point is to be carried, a thousand soldiers may convey irresistable argument, and compel men to act against their feelings, interest, and country.

SUCH were the arguments employed by Philip the second, of Spain, to persuade the inhabitants of the Netherlands to relinquish their liberties, their property, and their religion; the progress of these dreadful measures produced scenes of massacre and devastation, the recital of which must excite exquisite horror in the most savage breast.

ONE of the commanders of the army under the duke of Alva, demanding a pass a pass through the city of Rotterdam *, was at first refused, but assuring the magistrates that he meant only to lead his troops through the town, and not to lodge them in it, they consented to suffer the companies to pass through one by one: no sooner had the first company entered the city, than the officer, without regard to his engagements, ordered them to keep the gates open until the other companies should arrive: one of the citizens, endeavouring to shut the gate, was killed by his own hand; his troops, eager to follow his example, drew their swords, and, giving a loose to their fury, spread themselves over the town, and butchered more than three hundred of the inhabitants.

[Page] THIS was among the first events of that war which rendered the Netherlands a scene of horror and devastation for more than thirty years; but which, whilst it proved the source, on many occasions, of extreme distress to the people, called forth an exertion of virtue, spirit, and intrepidity, which seldom occurs in the annals of history. Never was there a more unequal contest than between the inhabitants of the Low-Countries and the Spanish m [...] narch; and never was the issue of any dispute more contrary to what the parties had reason to expect.

UNDER similar circumstances, my fellow-citizens, a standing army was introduced and stationed in this city; which produced the scene we now commemorate; and which I know you cannot all remember; but let the stranger hear and let the listening youth be told,—that on the evening of the fifth of March, seventeen hundred and seventy, under the orders of a mercenary officer, murder, with her polluted weapons, stood trampling in the blood of our slaughtered countrymen; imagination cannot well conceive what mingling passions then convulsed the soul and agonized the heart!—those pangs were sharp indeed which ushered into life, a naetion!—like Hercules * she rose brawny from the cradle, the snakes of Britain yet hung hissing round her horrible, and fell!—at her infant voice they hasted—at the dread of her rising arm they fled away.

AMERICA separated from the nations of Europe by the mighty ocean, and from Britain by the mightier hand of heaven, is acknowledged an independent nation; she has [Page]now to maintain her dignity and importance among the kingdoms of the earth. May she never be seduced from her true interest, by sub [...]le intrigue, mistaken policy, or misguided ambition! but, considering her own condition, may she follow the maxims of wisdom, which are better than the weapons of war!

IT has become fashionable in Europe, to keep a large standing army in times of peace. The people of Great-Britain have professed their aversion to the establishment, yet have suffered it to gain ground upon the idea of preserving the balance of power. This custom is so deeply rooted and so firmly established, that nothing short of annihilation of the governments where they have been so long tolerated can abolish the institution.

FROM the situation and vicinity of the nations of Europe with respect to each other, the different extent of territory rendering it more difficult to repel an invasion from some countries than others, for the celerity of defence and the more compleat security of extensive countries; from these and similar considerations, even wise politicians have defended the propriety of the establishment; but let their motives be ever so pure, the ambitious and the aspiring have views extensive and ruinous; they have felt the charms and experienced the utility of this engine, and are not wanting in their exertions to support its existence.

OUR fortunate alliances in Europe have secured us from any danger of invasion from thence; this security is der [...]ved from considerations of the best policy and true intered of the allied powers.

THE new and glorious treaty, concluded, since the last anniversary, with the States of Holland, whose manners, laws religion, and bloody contes [...] for freedom, so nearly resemble our [Page]own *, affords a happy presage of lasting security. We may add, the situation of our country, with respect to other dominions, is so secured by nature, that no one can feign pretensions sufficiently plausible to convince the people of America, of the propriety of supporting a standing army in a time of peace; whilst memory retains the exploits of our brave citizens in the field who have joined the standard of freedom, and successfully defended her injured altars and her devoted rites. The community will be assured, that upon the basis of a well-regulated militia, an army may be raised upon all future occasions sufficient to oppose the most formidable invaders.

[Page] HERE, were it pertinent, I would express a confidence; that when the army shall be disbanded, justice, with impartial scale, will distribute due rewards to those who have jeoparded their lives in the high places of the field.

EVERY American is conscious of the effects produced by the knowledge of the people in the use of arms, and from that experience need not be exhorted to an attention to their militia.

[Page] WHEN we consider our own prosperous condition, and view of the state of that nation, of which we were once a part, we even weep over our enemy, when we reflect that she was once great; that her navies rode formidable upon the ocean; that her commerce was extended to every harbour of the globe; that her name was revered wherever it was known; that the wealth of nations was deposited in her island; and that America was her friend, but by means of her standing armies, an immense continent is separated from her kingdom *, and that once-mighty empire, ready to fall an untimely victim, to her own mad policy.

NEAR eight full years have now rolled away, since America has been cast off from the bosom and embraces of her pretended parent, and has set up her own name among the empires. The assertions of so young a country, were at first beheld with dubious expectation; and the world were ready to stamp the name of rashness or enterprize according to the event.

BUT a manly and fortunate beginning, soon ensured the most generous assistance. The renowned and the ancient Gauls came early to the combat—wise in council—mighty in battle! then with new fury raged the storm of war! the seas were crimsoned with the richest blood of nations! America's chosen legions waded to freedom through rivers dyed with the mingled blood of her enemies and her citizens; through fields of carnage, and the gates of death!

[Page] AT length independence is ours—the halcyon day appears! [...]o from the east I see the harbinger, and from the train, 'tis peace herself; and as attendants, all the gentle arts of life: commerce displays her snow-white navies fraught with the wealth of kingdom [...]; plenty from her copious horn, pours forth her richest gifts. Heaven commands! the east and the west give up, and the north keeps not back! all nations meet! and beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and resolve to learn war no more.—Henceforth shall the American wilderness blossom as the rose, and every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none shall make him afraid.

FINIS.

Notes

*

Trenchard.

↵

*

Taxation and representation are inseparable.

Chath. Cambd.

From what in our constitution is representation not inseparable [...] —multa a CRASSO divin [...]us dicta esserebantur, cùm sibi illum consu [...]m esse negaret cui senator ipse non esset.

CIC.

↵

†

I confine mys [...]lf to this province, partly from ignorance of other charters; but more from a desire even to ve [...] some abler pen to purs [...]e the idea of CHLCK; which an unchartered FREEMAN may do, as well as any other in America.

↵

‡

[...]ec sunt enim sundamenta firmissima no [...] libertatis, sui quemque juris et retinendi et dimittendi esse dominum.

CIC.

↵

‖

I chuse to bury a fruitful subject for any satyrical genius of the family of PENN.

↵

*

— [...]a vitam corpusque servato, ita fortunas, ita rem famil arem, ut haec posteriora [...]ertati ducas,—nec pro his libertatem, sed pr [...] libertati haec projicias, tanquam pignora injuriae.

↵

*

I do not think the QUO WARRANTO against our first charter, was tried in a proper court.

↵

*

Omnes ordines ad conservamdam rempublicam, mente, voluntate, studio, virtute, voce, consentiunt.

↵

*

I have the strongest reason to believe that I have mentioned the only circumstance which saved the troops from destruction. It was then, and now is, the opinion of those who were best acquainted with the state of affairs at that time, that had thrice that number of troops, belonging to any power at open war with us, been in this town, in the same exposed condition, scarce a man would have lived to have seen the morning light.

↵

*

At simul heroum laudes, et facta parentis

Jam legere, et quae sit poteris cognoscere virtus.

VIRG.

↵

*

Periculosae plenum opus al [...]

Tractas, incedis per ignes

Supposites cineri doloso.

MORACE.

↵

*

The celebrated Mrs. Macaulay.

↵

*

Mrs. Macaulay.

↵

†

Salus populi suprema lex este.

↵

*

The ingratitude and corruption of Rome, is perhaps, in no instance, more strongly marked than in her treatment of her colonies; by their labours, toils, and arms, she had reached to that summit of glorious exaltation, as to be like Britain, the wonder and dread of the world; but by fatal experience, those runied colonies incalcate this serious lesson, the ambition of a DESPOT is boundless; his rapine is insatiable; the accomplishment of his conquests over his enemies, is but the introduction of slavery, with her concomitant plagues, to his friends.

↵

†

The very idea of representative, deputy or trustee, includes that of a constituent, whose interest they are ordained and appointed to promote and secure; my unappointed, self-constituted agent in the British parliament, has fraudently and arbitrarily surrendered my best interest, without my privity or consent; I do therefore hereby protest against all such powers as he shall claim in my behalf, and most solemnly discard him my service forever. See Lock civil government.

Risum teneatis amici [...]

↵

*

Caelum non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt. The citizens of Rome, Sparta, or Lacedemon, at those blessed periods when they were most eminent for their attachment to liberty and virtue, could never exhibit brighter examples of patriotic zeal, than are to be found at this day in America; I will not presume to say that the original British spirit has improved by tranplanting; but this I [...] affirm, that should Britons stoop to oppression, the struggles of their American brethren, will be their eternal reproach.

↵

†

The instituting a committee of grievances and correspondence, by the town of Boston, has served this valuable purpose: The general infraction of the rights of all the colonies, must finally reduce the discordant provinces, to a necessary combination for their mutual interest and defence: Some future Congress will be the glorious source of the salvation of America: The Amphictiones of Greece, who formed the diet or great council of the states, exhibit an excellent model for the rising Americans.

↵

*

Lord chief justice Coke observes "when any new device is moved in the king's behalf, for aid or the like, the commons may answer, they dare not agree without conference with their counties." The novel device of fleecing the colonies, was introduced in a way the constitution knows not of, and crammed down their throats, by measures equally iniquitous.

I will not alarm the sticklers for the present measures, by confronting them with more stole authorities, if they will permit me the following▪ short but express declaration of Sidney, which they may [...] at le [...]sure. NO MAN CAN GIVE THAT WHICH IS WOTHER'S.

↵

*

Nothing, continued the corporal, can be so sweet,

An please your honor, as liberty;

Nothing Trim, said my uncle Toby, musing—

Whilst a man is free—cried the corporal, giving a flourish with b [...] stick thus:

TRISTRAM SHANDY.

↵

*

The Nettleham Baronet.

↵

†

—Hic ubi barbarus hostis,

Ut sera plus valeant legibus arma sacit.

OVID de Ponto.

↵

*

—Multaque rubentia coede

Lubrica saxa madent, nulli sua prosuit aetas.

LUCAN, Lib. 24

↵

*

After Mr. Gray had been shot through the body, and had fallen dead on the ground, a bayonet was pushed through his skull; part of the bone being broken, his brains fell out upon the pavement.

↵

*

The patience with which this people have borne the repeated injuries which have been heaped upon them, and their unwillingness to take any sanguinary measures, has, very injudiciously, been ascribed to cowardice, by persons both here and in Great-Britain. I most heartily wish, that an opinion, so erroneous in itself, and so fatal in its consequences, might be utterly removed before it be too late: and I think nothing further necessary to convince every intelligent man, that the conduct of this people is owing to the tender regard which they have for their fellow-men, and an utter abhorrence to the shedding of human blood, than a little attention to their general temper and disposition, discovered when they cannot be supposed to be under any apprehension of danger to themselves.— I will only mention the universal detestation which they shew to every act of cruelty, by whom and upon whomsoever committed; the mild spirit of their laws; the very sew crimes to which capital penalties are annexed; and the very great backwardness which both courts and juries discover, in condemning persons charged with capital crimes.— But if any should think this observation not to the purpose, I readily appeal to those gentlemen of the army who have been in the camp, or in the field, with the Americans.

↵

*

Boston was at this time garrisoned by the British troops, and the inhabitants were in the country; which occasioned this oration to be delivered at Watertown.

↵

*

The petty states and princes who have raised their armies as a peasant would his game cocks, and sent them to market for a price, are in the most infamous sense of the word, tools.

↵

†

Pisistratus of Athens, Dyonisius of Syracuse, and Caesar of Rome, furnish a few among numberless examples, that history affords.

↵

*

The feudal tenure.

↵

†

Charles VII. Lewis XI. of France, having set the example, all the [...]r [...]wned heads in Eu [...]ope soon followed it.

↵

*

The murder of two or three people in St. George's fields, seems to be all the ceremony attending the death and burial of British li [...]erty.

↵

*

—Quis talia fando,

Myrmidonum, dol [...]pumve, aut duri miles ulyssei,

Temperet a lackrymis.

VIRGIL.

↵

†

Non mihi si lingu [...]e centum sint, oraque centu [...],

Eerrea vox, omnes scelerum comprende [...]e formas

—poss [...]m.

VIRGIL.

↵

*

Capt. Johnson and his crew, the prisoners in general at New-York and Halifax, Mr. Lovell and many others in Boston, are instances sufficient to destroy the little credit they ever had for humanity; and the sufferings of some to which I have myself been a witness, exposed to all the inconveniences and hazards of a languishing disease in confinement on ship-board, in view of the persons and habitations of their nearest friends, and a sympathizing parent turned over the side, with reproaches for attempting to speak to his sick, suffering, dying child, must give the characters of the polite, sensible, humane Admiral Graves, and his nephew Sam, a stamp of infamy, which the power of time can never wi [...]e away.

↵

†

The Generals Gage and Howe, have been playing this warlike game ever since they have been in the country.

↵

*

See accounts of their proceedings in the Jersies, and general order [...] in the orderly book taken at Trenton.

↵

*

Justum et tenacem, propositi virum,

Non civium ardor, prava jubentium

Non vulius instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solida:—

↵

*

Judges xi. 39, 40.

↵

*

Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. 1. page 407.

↵

†

See Bellizarus by M. Marmontell.

↵

*

Harris Hermes.

↵

†

Pisistratus.

↵

*

Sir William Temple's observations on the United Provinces, Page 21, 23.

↵

*

Vid Guth [...]ie's Grammar.

↵

†

John Subjeski [...]

↵

*

Delauncy's farm.

↵

*

As Hannibal, then about nine years old, was soothing with childish caresses his father Hamilear, to take him along with him to Spain, whither, after finishing the war in Africa, he was now about to transport his troops, and was sacrificing for success in that expedition, he was led by his father to the altar, and with his hand on the victim, was bound by this solemn oath, "that as soon as he should have it in his power he would declare himself an enemy to the Roman people."

Livey, b. 21, ch. 1.

↵

*

If a man in private life, finds his oldest son an ideot or a rascal, he may dispose of his estate among his other children: but if the heir apparent (in hereditary monarchies) to a crown, an inheritance in which millions are interested, turns out to be a blockhead or a villain, still [...]e must be the king, because such is the line of succession established by law.—Hence the few prince; who have not been either the scourge or disgrace of the kingdoms they have ruled.

↵

*

Plutarch says that Casur could boast, that he had slain a million of men, gave a million their liberty, and made a million prisoners.

Vid. Plut. in vit. Caes.

↵

*

This speech is inserted at large, not only because it is fraught with excellent advice, but also to shew how little reliance ought to be placed on coronation speeches.

The king of Sweden's speech to the States on the 1st of June, 1772.

You are this day assembled, in order to confirm in the manner of your ancestors, the band of union which ties you to me, and me to you, and both to the whole commonwealth; we must therefore remember, with the most sensible gratitude, the benevolence of the Almighty, who has ordered things so, that this very ancient kingdom of the Swedes and Goths is still existing, after so many foreign, as well as national shocks, and that I, in the throne of my ancestors, can yet address free and independent States.

Assured of your hearts, most sincerely proposing to merit them, and to six my throne upon your love and felicity, the public engagement which you are going to enter into, would, in my opinion, be needless, if ancient custom and the law of Sweden did not require it of you. Unhappy the king who wants the tie of oaths to secure himself on the throne, and who, not assured of the hearts of his subjects, is constrained to reign only by the force of laws, when he cannot by the love of his subjects!

I need not put you in mind of the weightiness of the engagement you are going to take; the States of Sweden know best the extent of their duty to themselves and the commonwealth; may concord and harmony ever unite your hearts; may foreign views and private gain ever be sacrificed to public interest; may this alone be a perpetual bond of union amongst you; and may the ambition of any part of you, never raise any such disturbances as may endanger the freedom and independency of the whole commonwealth!

Gentlemen of the house of nobles,

Preserve always the honor and intrepidity of your ancestors; be an example to your fellow-citizens; and, as you are the first order of the kingdom, be also the first in virtue and love of your country.

Good men of the reverend order of clergy,

May mutual friendship and peace, obedience to the laws, reverence to God and the king, bear witness to me and the country, of your zeal in the execution of the sacred office with which you are intrusted!

Good men of the respectable order of burghers,

Strive always with your fellow-subjects who shall contribute the most to the public good; may the fruits of the extensive share which belongs to you, be general credit and confidence, useful institutions, frugal living, and moderate gain, which lead to sure and certain wealth.

Good men of the worthy order of peasants,

May piety, diligence, temperance, and old Swedish faith and modesty, be the strongest confirmation of the honor always [...]ue to that order which gives subsistance to all the others; an honor which the Swedish peasants have at all times attained.

This is all I ask of you, when you observe this, you perform in the best manner, that duty to me, and your country, which, according to the Swedish laws, I now call upon you to confirm by oath.

For an historical account of this revolution, vid. gentleman's magazine for 1772, page 397, &c. For the Swedish constitution, vid. the abbot Vertot.

↵

*

For a complete system of despotism, see the lex regia of Denmark, constituted by Frederick 3d, in 1665, and published by Christian 5th, in 1683.

↵

*

Vid. Statutes at large—Particularly 2 Geo. 3d. ch. 29, and 10th Geo. 3d. ch. 19. and Black. Com. B. 2. ch. 27.— For the game and forest laws.

↵

*

—Hecaten vocat alte [...]a, saevam

Altera Tisiphonen serpentes, atque videres

Infernas errare Canes; Lunamque rubentem,

Ne foret his Testis post magna latere sepulchra.

Hor. L. 1. S. [...].

↵

§

—Et altis Urbibus ultim [...]

Stetere Causae cur perirent

Funditùs imprimeretque Muris

Hostile Aratrum Exercitus insolens.

Hor. Lib. 1. Car. 16.

↵

*

A mode of living above a man's annual income, weakens the state, by reducing to poverty not only the squanderers themselves, but many innocent and industrious persons connected with them. Luxury is above all pernicious in a commercial state. Shall profits satisfy the frugal and industrious, but the luxurious despise almost every branch of trade but what returns great profits.

Home's hist, of man, p. 113. vol. 2.

In the savage state man is almost all body with a very small proportion of mind. In the maturity of civil society, he is complete both in mind and body. In a state of degeneracy by luxury and voluptuousness, he has neither mind nor body.

Id. 114.

↵

†

There are very few laws which are not good while the state retains its principles.

Montesq. 6.8.6.12.

↵

*

The amor patriae or patriotism stands at the head of social affections, and so high in our esteem, that no actions but what proceed from it, are termined grand or heroic. It triumphs over every selfish motive, is a firm support to every virtue, and wherever it prevails the morals of the people are found to be pure and correct.

Elements of Criticism.

↵

*

Herod. C. J. C. 56, 99. and Rollin An. His.

↵

*

These brave Lacedimonians thought it become them who were the choicest soldiers of the chief people of Greece, to devote themselves to certain death, in order to make the Persians sensible how difficul [...] it is to reduce freemen to slavery, and to teach the rest of Greece, by their example, either to vanquish or to perish. A monument was afterwards erected to the memory of Leonidas and those who fell with him at Thermopylae; upon which was this inscription:

Dic. hospes, Spartae nes te hic vidisse jacentes

Duen, sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur.

ROLLIN.

↵

†

Temple's observation.

↵

*

Rollin.

↵

*

Carinfunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares, sed omnes omnium caritates patriae uxa complexa est, pro qua quis bonus dubitet murtem oppetere?

C [...]es.

↵

*

One method of preventing crimes is to reward virtue. If the rewards for the discovering of useful truths have increased our knowledge, and multiplied good books, is it not probable that [...] wards, distributed by the beneficent hand of a sovereign, would also [...] virtuous actions. The coin of honor is inexhausible, and i [...] [...]ndantly fruitful in the hands of a prince who disiributes i [...] wisely.

MARQ. of BECOA.

↵

†

Cato

↵

*

The Assyrian, the Persian and Craesian, the three first universal monarchies, finally sunk under luxury and corruption; and it is well known that the Romans did not preserve their liberties for half a century after being debauched by the luxury of Asia, but fell a prey to its vices, and was at length divided by the Goths and Vandals.

↵

*

It has ever been thought inconsistent with good policy and even common sense to commit the defence of a country to men who have no interest in its preservation.

Diod. Lib. 1. p. 67.

↵

†

The true definition of a free state is where the legislative adberes strictly to the laws of nature, and calculates every one of its regulations for improving society and for promoting industry and [...]onesty among the people.

↵

*

It was represented of Marcus Aurelius, that in imitating the gods his study was to have as few wants as possible.

VID SPECTATOR No. 634.

↵

†

The passions of every kind, under proper restraints, are the gentle breezes which keep life from stagnation; but, let loose, they are the storms and whirbwinds which tear up all before them.

Mrs. BROOKE.

↵

‡

Rronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, caelumque tueri Jussit.

OVID. MET.

↵

§

No man's social liberty is lessened by another's enjoying the same.

BOLLAN

↵

*

Many of the facts here mentioned of St. Marino may be seen in Addison's more complete account of that republic.

↵

*

This alludes only to a particular aera in the Venetian history.

↵

†

And the born'd head bely'd the Lybian god.

POPE.

↵

‡

Alexander after all his conquests, complained that he had no more worlds to subdue.

SENECA of a happy life.

↵

§

For an illustration of this see Ancient Universal History, vol. ii. page 75 and on; also—that part of Newton on the prophesies which relates to Tyre, vol. i.

↵

‖

Ezekiel xxxiii. 16.

↵

*

From Dr. Blair's differtation upon the works of Ossian.

↵

*

Accuracy has been offended that this example is employed for the American States—which resemble each other in constitution and are united in their last resort; whereas the Greecian were unlike among themselves and professedly separate. But attention to the history of Greece will discover in the causes of her fall a lesson sufficiently apposite to our purpose. The anonimous translator of Tourreil writes as follows: "when Persia, so often vanquished by the Greecians, despaired of subduing them, her last shift was to divide them; to which their prosperity opened her a means. Spirits naturally quick and too licentious, blown up with their frequent victories, could not contain themselves or govern their good fortune; they abandoned themselves to jealousies and ambition.—These divisions ended, at last, in a general slavery."—

Thomson most beautifully speaks the truth upon the same occasion,

When Greece with Greece

Embroil'd with foul contention, fought no more

For common glory and for common weal:

But, false to freedom, sought to quell the free;

Broke the firm hand of [...], and sacred love,

That lent the whole irrefragable force;

And, as around the partial trophy blush'd,

Prepar'd the way for total overthrow.

↵

*

Earlo Abingdon.

↵

*

For the whole passage, which was too lengthy for our purposes vid. the works of Dr. Davenant, corrected by Whitworth, vol. ii. p. 333. Edition 1771.

↵

*

The election of the Scotch Peers in the year 1735, and the misconduct of Blackerby and others at the election of the Westminster members in the year 1741, are instances well known. Vid. Burgh's politic disq. 2d vol. p. 444 & 473.

↵

†

The affair of Capt. Porteus at Edinburgh (vid. London Magazine for 1737, in a variety of pages) and of Capt. Preston, at Boston, are of themselves sufficient examples.

↵

‡

"That the yeomanry are the bulwark of a free people"—was, if memory serves, in a celebrated extempore speech of the honorable Samuel Adams, made in the year 1773. The steadiness of that great Republican to his political creed, evinces that sentiments grounded upon just data will not easily bend to a partial interest, or accommodate to the changes of popular opinion.

↵

*

Thomson.

↵

*

— elementa per omina quaerunt

JUY.

↵

†

Guthrie's Cicero de Oratore.

↵

‡

"Plurima Mortis Imago."

↵

*

"The ways of heaven are dark and intricate."

ADDISON'S CATO.

↵

†

Not that we can believe, with some theoretical writers, that individuals met together in a large plain, entered into an original contract, &c.

But though Society had not its formal beginning from any convention of individuals, &c.—

And this is what we mean by the original contract of society; which, though perhaps, in no instance it has been formally expressed, at the first institution of a state, yet, &c.—

1st Blackstone's Com. p. 47. vid. the whole passage.

↵

*

Sun gallop down the western skies,

Gang soon to bed and quickly rise;

O lash your steeds, post time away,

And haste about the bleezing day.

ALLAN RAMSAY.

↵

*

For some of these fanciful misrepresentations see a vindication of the town of Boston, from many false and malicious aspersions contained in certain letters written by governor Bernard and others, published by order of the town, 1769.

↵

*

See Abbe Raynal's list. American revolution p. 65.

↵

†

Anorimous.

↵

†

Becaetia on crimes and punishments, p. 10.

↵

*

Is it not so in the equality of representation and mode of election?

↵

*

A conscience more scrupulous than it is probable Sylla ever had would be apt to imagine this general disposition of the people wiped away the guilt of enslaving them from any hand that effected it. If in any case, 'tis in this that we may apply the maxim volen [...] mon fit injuria.

↵

*

Virtue, in a republic, is a most simple thing; it is a [...]ve for the republic; it is a sensation, and not a consequence of acquired knowledge: a sens [...]tion that may be felt by the meanest as well as by the highest person in the state.

Spirit of laws, book 5th. chap. 2d.

↵

‡

The politic Greeks who lived under a popular government, who knew no other support but virtue. The modern inhabitants of that country are intirely taken up with manufactures, commerce, finances, riches, and luxury.

Spirit of laws, book 3d. chap. 3d.

↵

*

For a complete collection of these, I beg leave to refer to the 3d book of the political disquisitions.

↵

†

The design of society being to protect the weak against the more powerful, whatever tends to taking away the distinction between them, and to putting all its members upon the same level, must be consonant to its first principles. This was an object with the old republics; Rome obliged her citizens to serve in the field ten years, between the age of sixteen years and forty-seven.

Vid. Reflections on the rise and fall of [...] Rom. Emp. c. 10 last note. [...].

↵

*

I should not have neglected so favourable an opening to have shewn my poor [...]pects to the character of the Commander in Chief of the American army, but from a conciousness of inability to add to a name, more durable than marble, which will outlive the assaults of envy and the ravages of time.

↵

*

The natural state of nations with respect to each other, is certainly that of society and peace. Such is the natural and primitive state of one man with respect to another; and whatever alteration mankind may have made in regard to their original state, they cannot, without violating their duty, break in upon that state of peace and society, in which nature has placed them, and which, by her laws, she has strongly recommended to their observance.

PURLAMAQUI, Part 4. Chap. 1. Sect. 4.

↵

†

Vict. Political Disquisitions.

↵

*

Moore in his view of society and manners in Europe, observes —"As to the common soldiers, the leading idea of the discipline is, to reduce them, in many respects, to the nature of machines; that they may have no volition of their own, but be actuated solely by that of their officers; that they may have such a superlative dread of their officers, as annihilates all fear of the enemy; that they may move forward when ordered, without deeper reasoning or more concern than the firelocks they carry along with them."

↵

*

Vid. Livy's Roman history for an account of the battles, susserings, and almost incredible march and destruction of the renowned Carthaginian general and his army.

↵

*

In the battles fought in our age, every single soldier has very little security and confidence except in the multitude; but among the Romans, every individual, more robust and of greater experience in war, as well as more inured to the fatigues of it, than the enemy, relied upon himself only. He was naturally endued with courage, or in other words, with that virtue which a sensibility of our own strength inspires.

MONTESQUIZU.

↵

*

The whole affair is related at length [...] Watson's hist, of the Low Countries, to which the reader is referred.

↵

*

Hercules is represented when very young, engaged in the most courageous and [...]angerous enterprizes—such as encountering lions, squeezing them to death against his own breast, or tearing their jaws asunder; sometimes when an infant, grasping serpents with a little smile upon his cheek, as if he was pleased with their fine colours and their motions, and killing them by his strong gripe with so much case that he scarce deigns to look upon them.

↵

*

If there was ever among nations a natural alliance, one may be formed between the two republics. The first planters of the four northern states found in this country an a [...]ylum from persecution, and resided here from the year one thousand six hundred and eight, to the year one thousand six hundred and twent [...], twelve years preceeding their migration. They ever entertained and have transmitted to posterity, a grateful remembrance of that protection and hospitality, and especially of that religious liberty they found here, having sought it in vain in England.

"The first inhabitants of two other states, New-York and New-Jersey, were immediate emigrants from this nation, and have transmitted their religion, language, customs, manners and character: and America in general, until her connexions with the house of Bourbon, has [...] considered this nation as her first [...]end in Europe, whose [...]y, and the great characters it exhibits, in the various arts [...]ace, as well as atchievements of war by sea a [...]d land, have [...]en particularly, studied, admired, and imita [...] in every state.

"A similitude of religion, although it i [...] not deemed so essential in this as in former ages, to the alliance of [...], is still, as it over will be thought, a desirable circumstance. Now it may be said with truth, that there are no two [...], whose worship, [...] trine and d [...]scipline, are more alike than those of the two republics. In this particular therefore, as far as it is of weight, an alliance would be perfectly natural.

"A similarity in the forms of government, is usually considered as another circumstance which renders alliances natural: and although the constitutions of the two republics are not perfectly alike, there is yet analogy enough between them, to make a connexion easy in this respect.

"The originals of the two republics are so much alike, that the history of one seems but a transcript from that of the other: so that every Dutchman instructed in the subject, must pronounce the American revolution just and necessary, or pass a censure upon the greatest actions of his immortal ancestors: actions which have been approved and applauded by mankind, and justified by the decision of heaven.

"If therefore an analogy of religion, government, original manners, and the most extensive and lasting commercial interests, can form a ground and an invitation to political connexions, the subscriber flatters himself, that in all these particulars, the union is so obviously natural, that there has seldom been a more distinct designation of Providence to any two distant nations to unite themselves together."

Extracts from the memorial to their High Mightinesses, the States General of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, by that great statesman and patriot, his Excellency JOHN ADAMS, Esq Minister Plenipotentiary at the Hague, dated Leyden, April 19, 1781.

↵

*

A doubt may be entertained of the truth of this assertion; but we can hardly believe that it would have entered into the head of a minister or parliament, to collect a militia in Great-Britain to enforce their acts in America; so that in our view, had the army been disbanded at the end of the last war, America and Britain a [...] this moment would have been parts of the same kingdom.

↵

§

§

§

[Page]

AN ORATION, DELIVERED AT THE KING'S-CHAPEL IN BOSTON, APRIL 8, 1776, ON THE RE-INTERMENT OF THE REMAINS OF THE LATE MOST WORSHIPFUL GRAND-MASTER JOSEPH WARREN, ESQUIRE; PRESIDENT OF THE LATE CONGRESS OF THIS COLONY, AND MAJOR-GENERAL OF THE MASSACHUSETTS FORCES WHO WAS SLAIN IN THE BATTLE OF BUNKER'S-HILL, JUNE 17, 1775.

BY PEREZ MORTON, M. M.

BOSTON, PRINTED BY PETER EDES, IN STATE-STREET. M,DDC,LXXXV.

[Page]

AN ORATION.

ILLUSTRIOUS RELICKS!

WHAT tidings from the grave? why hast thou left the peaceful mansions of the tomb, to visit again this troubled earth! art thou the welcome messenger of peace! art thou risen again to exhibit thy glorious wounds, and thro' them proclaim salvation to thy country! or art thou come to demand that last debt of humanity, to which your rank and merit have so justly entitled you—but which has been so long ungenerously withheld! and art thou angry at the barbarous usage? be appeased, sweet ghost! for though thy body has long laid undistinguished among the vulgar dead, scarce privileged with earth enough to hide it from the birds of prey; though not a kindred tear was dropt, though not a friendly sigh was uttered, o'er thy grave; and though the execration of an impious foe, were all thy funeral knells; yet matchless patriot! thy memory has been embalmed in the affections of thy grateful countrymen; who, in their breast, have raised eternal monuments to thy bravery!

BUT let us leave the beloved remains, and contemplate for a moment, those virtues of the man, the exercise of which have so deservedly endeared him to the honest among the great, and the good among the humble.

[Page] IN the private walks of life, he was a pattern for mankind.—The tears of her, to whom the world is indebted for so much virtue, are silent heralds of his filial piety; while his tender offspring, in lisping out their father's care, proclaim his parential affection: and an ADAMS can witness with how much zeal he loved where he had formed the sacred connexion of a friend:—their kindred souls were so closely twined, that both felt one joy, both one affliction. In conversation he had the happy talent of addressing his subject both to the understanding and the passions; from the one he forced conviction, from t [...] other he stole assent.

HE was blessed with a complacency of disposition, and equanimity of temper, which peculiarly endeared him to his friends; and which, added to the deportment of the gentleman, commanded reverence and esteem even from his enemies.

SUCH was the tender sensibility of his soul, that he need but see distress to feel it, and contribute to its relief. He was deaf to the calls of interest even in the course of his profession: and wherever he beheld an indigent object, which claimed his healing skill, he administered it, without even the hope of any other reward than that which resulted from the reflection of having so far promoted the happiness of his fellow-men.

IN the social departments of life, practising upon the strength of that doctrine, he used so earnestly to inculcate himself, that nothing so much conduced to enlighten mankind, and advance the great end of society at large, as the frequent interchange of sentiments, in friendly meetings; we find him constantly engaged in this eligible labor; but on none did he place so high a value, as on that most honorable of all detached societies, THE FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS: into this fraternity he was early initiated; and after having given repeated proofs of a rapid [Page]proficiency in the arts, and after evidencing by his life, the professions of his lips—finally, as the reward of his merit, he was commissioned the most worshipful GRANDMASTER of all the antient Masons, through North-America.—And you brethren, are living testimonies, with how much honor to himself, and benefit to the craft universal, he discharged the duties of his elevated trust; with what sweetened accents he courted your attention, while, with wisdom, strength, and beauty, he instructed his lodges in the secret arts of Freemasonry; what perfect order and decorum he preserved in the government of them; and in all his conduct, what a bright example he set us, to live within compass, and act upon the square.

WITH what pleasure did he silence the wants of poor and pennyless brethren; yea, the necessitous every where, though ignorant of the mysteries of the craft, from his benefactions, felt the happy effects of that institution which is founded on faith, hope, and charity. And the world may cease to wonder, that he so readily offered up his life, on the altar of his country, when they are told, that the main pillar of masonry, is the LOVE OF MANKIND.

THE fates, as though they would reveal, in the person of our GRAND-MASTER, those mysteries, which have so long lain hid from the world, have suffered him, like the great master-builder in the temple of old, to fall by the hands of Ruffians, and be again raised in honor and authority: we searched in the field for the murdered son of a widow, and we four him, by the turf and the twig, buried on the brow of a hill, though not in a decent grave.—And tho' we must again commit his body to the tomb, yet out breasts shall be the burying spot of his masonic virtues, and there—

"An adamantine monument we'll rear,"

"With this inscription," Masonry "lies here."—

[Page] IN public life, the sole object of his ambition was, to acquire the conscience of virtuous enterprizes; amor patriae was the spring of his actions, and mens conscia recti was his guide.—And on this security he was, on every occasion, ready to sacrifice his health, his interest, and his ease, to the sacred calls of his country. When the liberties of America were attacked, he appeared an early champion in the contest; and though his knowledge and abilities would have insured riches and preferment (could he have stoop'd to prostitution) yet he nobly withstood the fascinating charm, tossed Fortune back her plume, and pursued the inflexible purpose of his soul, in guiltless competence.

HE sought not the airy honors of a name, else, many of those publications, which in the early period of our controversy served to open the minds of the people, had not appeared anonymous. In every time of eminent danger, his fellow-citizens flew to him for advice; like the orator of Athens, he gave it, and dispelled their fears:—twice did they call him to the rostrum, to commemorate the massacre of their brethren; and from that instance, in persuasive language, he taught them, not only the dangerous tendency, but the actual mischief, of stationing a military force, in a free city, in a time of peace.—They learnt the profitable lesson, and pen'd it among their grievances.

BUT his abilities were too great, his deliberations too much wanted, to be confined to the limits of a single city, and at a time when our liberties were most critically in danger from the secret machinations and open assaults of our enemies, this town, to their lasting honor, elected him to take a part in the councils of the state.—And with what faithfulness he discharged the important delegation, the neglect of his private concerns, and his unwearied attendance on that [...]etrustment, will sufficiently testify: and the records of that virtuous assembly will remain the testimonials [Page]of his accomplishments as a statesman, and his integrity and services as a patriot, through all posterity.

THE Congress of our colony could not observe so much virtue and greatness without honoring it with the highest mark of their favor; and by the free suffrages of that uncorrupted body of freemen, he was soon called to preside in the senate—where by his daily counsels and exertions, he was constantly promoting the great cause of general liberty.

BUT when he found the tools of oppression were obstinately bent on violence; when he found the vengeance of the British court must be glutted with blood; he determined, that what he could not effect by his eloquence or his pen, he would bring to purpose by his sword. And on the memorable 19th of April, he appeared in the field, under the united characters of the general, the soldier, and the physician. Here he was seen animating his countrymen to battle, and fighting by their side, and there he was found administering healing comforts to the wounded. And when he had repelled the unprovoked assaults of the enemy, and had driven them back into their strong-holds, like the virtuous chief of Rome, he returned to the senate, and presided again at the councils of the fathers.

WHEN the vanquished foe had rallied their disordered army, and by the acquisition of fresh strength, again presumed to fight against freemen: our patriot, ever anxious to be where he could do the most good, again put off the senator, and, in contempt of danger, flew to the field of battle, where, after a stern, and almost victorious resistance, ah! too soon for his country! he sealed his principles with his blood—then—

"Freedom wept, that MERIT could not save,"

But WARREN's manes "must enrich the grave."

[Page]Enrished indeed! and the heights of Charlestown shall be more memorable for thy fall, than the Plains of Abraham are for that of the hero of Britain. For while he died contending for a single country, you fell in the cause of virtue and mankind.

THE greatness of his soul shone even in the moment of death; for, if fame speaks true, in his last agonies he met the insults of his barbarous foe with his wonted magninimity, and with the true spirit of a soldier, frowned at their impotence.

IN fine, to complete the great character—like HARRINGTON he wrote—like CICERO he spoke—like HAMPDEN he lived—and like WOLFE he died.

AND can we, my countrymen, with indifference behold so much valour laid prostrate by the hand of British tyranny! and can we ever grasp that hand in affection again? are we not yet convinced "that he who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored indian, is less a savage than the king of Britain"! have we not proofs, wrote in blood, that the corrupted nation, from whence we sprang, (though there may be some traces of their ancient virtue left) are stubbornly fixed on our destruction! and shall we still court a dependance on such a state? still contend for a connexion with those who have forfeited not only every kindred claim, but even their title to humanity! forbid it the spirit of the brave MONTGOMERY! forbid it the spirit of immortal WARREN! forbid it the spirits of all our valiant countrymen! who fought, bled, and died for far different purposes: and who would have thought the purchase dear indeed! to have paid their lives for the paltry boon of displacing one set of villains in power, to make way for another. No. They contended for the establishment of peace, liberty, and safety to their country; and we are unworthy to be called their countrymen, if we stop at any acquisition short of this.

[Page] Now is the happy season, to seize again those rights, which, as men, we are by nature entitled to, and which, by contract, we never have and never could have surrendered:— but which have been repeatedly and violently attacked by the king, lords and commons of Britain. Ought we not then to disclaim forever, the forfeited affinity; and by a timely amputation of that rotten limb of the empire, prevent the mortification of the whole? ought we not to listen to the voice of our slaughtered brethren, who are now proclaiming aloud to their country—

Go tell the king, and tell him from our spirits,

That you and Britons can be friends no more;

Tell him to you all tyrants are the same:

Or if in bonds, the never conquer'd soul

Can feel a pang, more keen than slavery's self,

'Tis where the chains that crush you into dust,

Are forg'd by hands, from which you hop'd for freedom.

YES, we ought, and will,—we will assert the blood of our murdered hero against thy hostile oppressions, O shameless Britain! and when "thy cloud-cap'd towers, thy gorgeous palaces" shall by the teeth of pride and folly, be levelled with the dust— [...]d when thy glory shall have faded like the western sunbeam—the name and the virtues of WARREN shall remain immortal.

[Page]

A POEM, &c.

THE following masterly piece of original composition is from the pen of JAMES ALLEN, of Boston, in the state of Massachusetts, Esq and was writen when his feelings, like those of every other free-born American, were all alive at the inhuman murders of our countrymen, in the streets of that town, on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770, and which gave birth to several of the preceeding orations, in which that act of British violence and brutality is, in strong colours▪ depicted. Although this poem is now re-published without the previous knowledge or consent of the author, the printer hopes he shall not incur the author's displeasure hereby, especially when it is made known to him, that the present re-publication is at the request of several of the printer's customers, who are desirous to convince the British that true classical English poetry, may be produced in other parts of the world, as well as in their own little island.

FROM realms of bondage and a tyrant's reign,

Our GOD-like father's bore no slavish chain,

To Pharaoh's face th' inspired Patriarchs stood,

To seal their virtue, with a martyr's blood:

But lives so precious, such a sacred seed,

The source of empires, heav'n's high will decreed;

He snatch'd the SAIN [...] from Pharaoh's impious hand,

[Page] And bade his chosen seek this distant land:

Then to these climes th' illustrious exiles sped,

'Twas freedom prompted, and the Godhead led.

Eternal woods the virgin soil defac'd,

A dreary desart, and an howling waste;

The haunt of tribes no pity taught to spare,

And they oppos'd them with remorseless war,

But heav'n's right arm led forth the faithful train,

The guardian Godhead swept the insidious plain,

'Till the scour'd thicket amicable stood,

Nor dastard ambush, trench'd the dusky wood:

Our sires then earn'd no more, precarious bread,

Nor midst alarms their frugal meals were spread,

Fair boding hopes inur'd their hands to toil,

And patriot virtue nurs'd the thriving soil,

Nor scarce two ages have their periods run,

Since o'er their culture smil'd the genial sun;

And now what states extend their fair domains,

O'er fleecy mountains and luxuriant plains;

Where happy millions their own fields possess,

No tyrant awes them, and no lords oppress;

The hand of rule divine discretion guides,

And white-rob'd virtue o'er her paths presides,

Each polic'd order venerates the laws,

And each ingenuous speaks in freedom's cause;

The Spartan spirit, nor the Roman name,

The patriot's pride, shall rival these in same;

Here all the sweets that social life can know,

From the full font of civil sapience flow;

Here golden Ceres cloaths th' autumual plain,

And art's fair Empress holds her new domain;

Here angel Science spreads her lucid wing,

And hark, how sweet the new-born Muses sing;

Here generous Commerce spreads her liberal hand,

And scatters foreign blessings tound the land.

Shall meagre Mammon, or proud lust of sway,

Reverse these scenes—will heav'n permit the day:

[Page] Shall in this aera all our hopes expire,

And weeping freedom from her fanes retire?

Here shall the tyrant still our peace pursue,

From the pain'd eye-brow drink the vital dew;

Not nature's barrier wards our FATHER's foe,

Seas roll in vain, and boundless oceans flow.—

STAY, Pharaoh *, that impious hand forbear,

Nor tempt the genius of our souls too far;

How oft, ungracious! in thy thankless stead,

'Mid scenes of death our generous youth have bled;

When the proud Gaul thy mightiest powers repell'd,

And drove your legions trembling from the field,

We rent the laurel from the victor's brow,

And round your temples taught the wreath to glow †,

Say, when thy slaughter'd bands the desert dy'd,

Where the lone Ohio rolls her gloomy tide,

Whose dreary banks their wasting bones enshrine,

What arm aveng'd them?—thankless! was it thine ‡?

But gen'rous valour scorns a boasting word,

And conscious virtue reaps her own reward,

Yet conscious virtue bids thee now to speak,

Though guilty blushes kindle o'er your cheek:

If wasting war, and painful toils at length,

Had drain'd our veins, and wither'd all our strength,

How could'st thou, cruel, form the vile design,

And round our necks the wreath of bondage twine!

And if some ling'ring spirit rouz'd to strife,

[Page] Bid ruffian murder drink the dregs of life:

Shall future ages e'er forget the deed?

And shan't for this imperious Britain bleed?

When comes the period heaven predestines must,

When Europe's glories shall be whelm'd in dust,

When our proud fleets the naval wreath shall wear,

And o'er her empires hurl the bolts of war,

Unnerv'd by fate, the boldest heart shall fail,

And 'mid their guards auxiliar kings grow pale;

In vain shall Britain lift her suppliant eye,

An alien'd offspring feels no filial tie,

Her tears in vain shall bathe the soldier's feet,

Remember, ingrate, Boston's crimson'd street *;

Whole hecatombs of lives the deed shall pay,

And purge the murders of that guilty day †.

BUT why to future periods look so far,

What force e'er fac'd us, that we fear'd to dare;

Then, can'st thou think, e'en on this early day,

Proud force shall bend us to a tyrant's sway;

A foreign foe oppos'd our sword in vain ‡,

And thine own troops we've rallied on the plain §.

If then our lives your lawless sword invade,

Think'st thou, enslav'd, we'll kiss the pointed blade?

Nay let experience speak—be this the test,

'Tis from experience that we reason best.—

When first thy mandate shew'd the shameless plan,

To rank our race beneath the class of man,

Low as the brute to sink the human line,

[Page] Our toil our portion, and the harvest thine,

Modest but firm, we plead the sacred cause,

On nature bas'd and sanction'd by the laws?

But your deaf ear the conscious plea deny'd,

Some daemon counsel'd—and the sword reply'd;

Your navy then our haven cover'd o'er,

And arm'd battalions trespass'd on our shore,

Thro' the prime streets, they march'd in war's array,

At noon's full blaze, and in the face of day:

With dumb contempt we pass'd the servile show,

While scorn's proud spirit scoul'd on every brow;

Day after day successive wrongs we bore,

'Till patience wearied could support no more,

'Till slaughter'd lives our native streets prophan'd,

And thy slave's hand our hallow'd crimson stain'd,

No sudden rage the ruffian soldier tore,

Or swam the pavements with his vital gore,

Delib'rate thought did all our souls compose,

'Till veil'd in glooms the low'ry morning rose;

No mob then furious urg'd th' impassion'd fray,

Nor clam rous tumult din'd the solemn day,

In full convene the * city-senate sat,

Our FATHER's spirit rul'd the firm debate;

The freeborn soul no reptile tyrant checks,

'Tis heav'n who dictates when the people speaks;

Loud from their tongues the awful mandate broke,

And thus inspir'd the sacred senate spoke;

Ye miscreant troops be gone! our presence fly,

Stay, if ye dare, but if ye dare, ye die!

Ah! too severe, the faithful Chief † replies,

Permit one half—the other instant flies—

No pale, avaunt, or by our FATHER's shades,

Your recking lives shall glut our vengeful blades,

E'er morning's light begone,—or else we swear,

[Page] Each slaughter'd corse shall feed the birds of air!

E'er morning's light had streak'd the skies with red,

The Chieftain yielded, and the soldier fled,

'Tis thus experience speaks—the test forbear,

Nor shews these states your feeble front of war,

But still your navies lord it o'er the main,

Their keels [...]re natives of our oaken plain;

E'en the proud mast that bears your flag on high,

Grew on our soil, and ripen'd in our sky:

"Know then thyself, presume not us to scan,"

Your pow'r precarious and your isle a span.—

Yet could our wrongs in just oblivion sleep,

And on each neck reviv'd affection weep,

The brave are generous, and the good forgive,

Then say you've wrong'd as, and our parent live *;

But face not fate, oppose not heav'n's decree,

Let not that curse, our MOTHER, light on thee.

Notes

*

The king of Great-Britain.

↵

†

The taking of Louisbourg in 1745, by General PEPPERELL.

↵

‡

The same year the king's troops were surprised near the banks of the Ohio; when our illustrious General WASHINGTON covered the retreat, and saved the destruction of the whole army. A body of French were repulsed at an assault of the Provincial lines, at the westward, their General taken prisoner, and their whole army compelled to fly back to Canada.

↵

*

The massacre of the 5th of March, 1770.

↵

†

The poet seems to have been very prophetic in this beautiful passage.

↵

‡

Th [...] extirpation of the Neutrals from Nova-Scotia.

↵

§

The Provincials covered the retreat from the French lines, at Ticonderoga, when the British General, Abererombie, was then defeated by the Marquis Montcalm, in 1758.

↵

*

The town-meeting at Faneuil-hall.

↵

†

The infamous Governor Hutchinson.

↵

*

Her tyrants were too self-conceited, and too obstinate to take the advice of men of the best sense and understanding.—The consequence has been the establishment of liberty and universal commerce in America.

↵

Information about this book

Title statement

Orations delivered at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, to commemorate the evening of the fifth of March, 1770; when a number of citizens were killed by a party of British troops, quartered among them, in a time of peace.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2011-05.

ID [DLPS]

N14974

ID [TCP]

N14974

ID [STC]

Evans 18997

ID [STC]

Evans 18899

ID [STC]

Evans 18955

ID [NOTIS]

APX4795

ID [IMAGE-SET]

18997

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99021574

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 18997.Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 18899.Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 18955.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N14974)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 18997)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 18997; 18899; 18955)

Source

— Orations delivered at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, to commemorate the evening of the fifth of March, 1770; when a number of citizens were killed by a party of British troops, quartered among them, in a time of peace., Edes, Peter, 1756-1840, comp., Allen, James, 1739-1808., Morton, Perez, 1751-1837. Oration, delivered at the King's-Chapel in Boston, April 8, 1776..

Extent

200 p. ; 17 cm. (12mo)

Printed by Peter Edes, in State-Street.,. Boston, :: [1785]. (Contains orations delivered from 1771 through 1783.) (Half-title: Boston orations.) (Preface signed: Peter Edes. Boston. January, 1785.) (Two states noted. The first is complete in 182, [2] p.; the second has additional material on p. [185]-200.) (Benjamin Church's oration is recorded separately by Evans (entry 18955).) ("An oration, delivered at the King's-Chapel in Boston, April 8, 1776, on the re-interment of the remains of the late most worshipful Grand-Master Joseph Warren ... By Perez Morton ..."--p. [185]-193, with separate title page.) ("A poem. The following masterly piece of original compostion is from the pen of James Allen, of Boston ..."--p. 195-200 (Evans 18899).)

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Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.