WE are convened, my Fellow Citizens, to consider the feelings, manners and princi­ples which led to our Independence—the effects which have flowed, and the consequences that will probably follow, from that great event.

In contemplating the principles which originated, let us not confound them with the occasions that only ripened, our Independence.

Those principles are both physical and moral. Of the physical, this is one, that GOD himself has placed Britain and America in separate hemispheres: and of the moral, this is not the least, that our liberties are founded on the broad basis of everlasting justice.

That the planters of America had a right to the soil, and consequently to make laws for its protection, is just as clear as that Abraham had a right to water, af­ter he had digged his well in the land of Abimelech.

A sense of this right it was that soon "opened Pa­radise in the wild," and evinced that "countries are [Page 6] cultivated not according to their fertility, but their liberty." But, as one half the world have always lived to maintain the other; and as the voluptuous never lose sight of the earnings of the industrious, a pretext was soon found for a foreign claim on part of our sub­stance; and Britain very gravely stated her demands upon us "because our great grandsires were formerly acquainted."*

When once a free government exercises its claims over its colonies, the latter are undone.

Of this position there is a plenitude of proof. We need not look back, through the dim shades of time, to the Commonwealth of Carthage, who was herself free, while her colonies were enslaved.

The colonies of an absolute Monarch may share equal blessings with the parent country: because there is no representative but him who represents, equally, all parts of the empire. But the provinces of a free nation, who are not represented at home, are like ille­gitimate children, ever at work for their brethren born in wedlock. The whole story of colonization will demonstrate this truth, from Verres, who rioted in the Roman provinces, to Hastings, who murdered thousands on the banks of the Ganges.

The British Senate now thunders with the recital of sons employed against their mothers, and of the sa­crifice [Page 7] of female dignity and distress to parricide and plunder. One of their own orators has recently said, "We are covering with misery upon misery a wretch­ed people, whom Providence has subjected to the do­minion of this country."†

If this picture is just—if these principles are true, we have no need to answer the question, whether we are now happier than perhaps we might have been as dependents on Britain? Is it not a matter of congra­tulation and joy, that we this day celebrate our eman­cipation? And is it not more a topick of wonder, that we ever leaned on any foreign authority than that we declared ourselves of age, and assumed the rights of manhood?

Whilst we were subjects of Britain, without a voice in her councils, the sublimity of her freedom was our aggravation. For while her own happy islanders en­joyed the mild rule of a mixed monarchy, we were subject to men who were not responsible to us, and whose constituents at home were alleviated by the im­position of burthens abroad. This had the same operation upon us as the severest of all aristocracies. It was a poor consolation that the source of oppression was a thousand leagues off, while its effects reached us with a momentum equal to the squares of the distance. ‡

The English Constitution was erected before Ame­rica was born, and its gates were not open to the [Page 8] younger offspring. Men of cold hearts could never embrace the sentiment of Sully, that "the best way for a great empire to tax its colonies is to confer be­nefits upon them." Let it be this day's joy, that such a maxim was not comprehended in Britain. If our ancient mother had been more kind, we, for a time, had been undone. But oppressors are often impelled to do some rash act, which may strike opposition out of despair. When the people's minds are once pre­pared, almost any accident, that can impress the senses, will accelerate a revolution.

In this light, it may be considered, that a single in­stance of family abuse drove Tarquin from his throne, and established the consulship on the ruins of royalty.

Animated at the sight of another act of insolence and cruelty, the Swiss Cantons broke the Austrian yoke, and rose to liberty.

A native of Uri was ordered, by a provincial go­vernour, to be hanged, unless he cleft an apple on his son's head, at a certain distance, with an arrow. The boy is brought on the plain. Numerous spectators croud the affecting scene. The father draws his bow—but Heaven directs the arrow's flight. The apple is cleft in twain, and the spectators rend the skies with their acclamations.—At this fortunate era, sup­ported by the countenances of a multitude who had [Page 9] long suffered, the father draws a second arrow from his belt. This arrow was intended for thy heart, O Ty­rant, if I had killed my son!—Such was the voice of fervid Freedom, who had been dumb 'till now. The bands of oppression were snapped in a moment, and the crisis arrived of Helvetic Liberty.

In the history of nations, we shall find revolutions matured by accidents, such as that we have just de­scribed, while the great leading principles lie unob­served. The impositions of the British Parliament, in certain well known instances, were among the occa­sional accidents which ripened, but could never origi­nate, the revolution of America. Without such acci­dents, Independence may have been retarded, but, sooner or later, must have adorned the annals of man­kind.

Our ancestors, soon after their migration, enacted certain laws, which inspired the whole body politick with the true spirit of republicanism. Among the most essential of these, are our laws of Distribution and of Education. The first operate on property, the other on knowledge.

One of the late aerostatick navigators has inti­mated, that, when sailing in his balloon, through the blue climes of air, over European territories, the eye was gratified in the accuracy with which the divi­sions were made between contiguous owners of the [Page 10] lands below—the circumstance suggested an idea of firm laws. § Had this philosopher made his aerial voyage over the fields of Massachusetts, he would have enjoyed an additional sentiment: an idea of equality would have been joined to that of certainty. The sen­timentalist would not only have discovered the just­ness of outlines in the bounds of property, but he would have observed the equality of portions of the respective owners: a species of equality how exalted above the condition of those countries where the pea­sant is alienated with the soil, and the price of acres is the number of slaves! Not indeed that perfect equality which deadens the motives of industry, and places De­merit on a footing with Virtue: but that happy me diocrity which soars above bondage, without aspiring to domination. Less favourable to liberty were those agrarian laws which lifted the ancient republicks into grandeur.

The other source of republicanism, which we sug­gested, is our laws of Education. No dragon guards this Hesperian tree. No cherub, with his flaming sword, denies access. The blooming fruit hangs tempting to all who would pluck and eat. Even the Harvard Education is within the reach of a majority of families: and this is made so by the annual bene­factions of the Legislature; the members of which, if there were no other reason, are entitled to the charac­ter of Fathers of their Country.

[Page 11] That Education is one of the deepest principles of Independence, need not be laboured in this assembly. In arbitrary governments, where the people neither make the law nor choose those who legislate, the more ignorance the more peace. But in a govern­ment where the people fill all the branches of the so­vereignty, Intelligence is the life of Liberty. An Ame­rican would resent his being denied the use of his mus­quet: but he would deprive himself of a stronger safe­guard, if he should want that learning which is neces­sary to a knowledge of his constitution.

It is easy to see that our agrarian law and the law of education were calculated to make republicans—to make men. Servitude could never long consist with the habits of such citizens. Enlightened minds and virtuous manners lead to the gates of glory. The sen­timent of Independence must have been connatural in the bosoms of Americans; and, sooner or later, must have blazed out into publick action. Independence fits the soul of her residence for every noble enterprize of humanity and greatness. Her radiant smile lights up coelestial ardour in poets and orators, who found her praise through all ages; in legislators and philoso­phers, who fabricate wise and happy governments as dedications to her fame—in patriots and heroes, who shed their lives in sacrifice to her divinity.

At this idea, do not our minds swell with the mem­ory [Page 12] of those whose godlike virtues have founded her most magnificent temple in America? It is easy for us to maintain her doctrines, at this late day, when there is but one party on the subject, an immense peo­ple. But what tribute shall we bestow, what sacred paean shall we raise over the tombs of those who dared, in the face of unrivalled power, and within the reach of Majesty, to blow the blast of freedom through a subject continent?

Nor did those brave countrymen of ours only express the emotions of glory: the nature of their principles inspired them with the power of practice, and they offered their bosoms to the shafts of bat­tle. Bunker's awful mount is the capacious urn of their ashes—but the flaming bounds ‖ ‖ of the universe could not limit the flight of their minds. They fled to the union of kindred souls; and those who fell at the streights of Thermopylae, and those who bled on the heights of Charlestown, now reap congenial joys in the fields of the blessed.

Whatever were the accidents that hastened the event we now celebrate, its causes are coeval with the settling of the country. And whatever degree of excellence marks the constitution of any particular state, the origin of that excellence may be traced back, through the manners of generations, up to the first principles of our ancestors. The members of that Convention, [Page 13] which planned the form of this Republick, owed all their genius, perhaps, for that great work, to principles left them in legacy by their forefathers.

The construction of the Massachusetts government is a fair experiment in politicks, to what ascendancy natural liberty can rise consistent with civil control.

But if our constitution is the perfect law of liberty, whence those mighty animosities which have so lately distracted the bosom of peace, and stained the first pages of our history with civil blood? "The fury of liti­gious war has blown her horn on our mountains." The western woods have again ecchoed with the tumult of arms, and desarts lost in snow have been the fields of Mars. Have the Britons again marched in war's proud pomp to the plains of Saratoga? Or have the Savages once more issued from Canadian wilds upon our unguarded frontiers? Have new tribes of Sara­cens and Vandals risen from beyond our Apalachian hills, ** like the ancient destroyers of Rome, again to abolish the arts, and to bury the hopes of ages in the tomb of nations? None of these: it is not the proud Briton or rough Savage, it is not the barbarous Goth or dark Vandal, that hath arisen to dispute the life of liberty and the laws. "We have lived to see the va­luable charter of our most sacred rights daringly invaded; but we will not live to see it destroyed. The wounds by which it falls shall first reach our [Page 14] hearts, and the rich torrents of our blood be shed as a libation on the pile of expiring freedom." ††

It seems incredible that men should be so lost to their own elevation above the animals of the forest, as, knowingly, to prefer a state of nature to political hap­piness. When rushing into the former, men may not consider, that, in the unlimited dominion of natural liberty, strength is a tyrant and weakness a slave: while the fruition of civil liberty is the patronage of united millions, purchased at the moderate price of rational obedience.

But whether want of light, or love of sedition, was the motive of disaffection, is a question that affords but little relief to that peace which has been violated. It is no satisfaction to the sufferers, whether the armed bands on Pelham heights considered themselves in the condition of those Romans who retired to the mons sacer from motives of liberty; or whether, like the le­gions of Catiline and Manlius, they premeditated malice against the laws. That they had any grounds of complaint against the constitution, can never be ad­mitted. Our sufferings have arisen from a deeper fountain than the deficiency of a single constitution. If our particular government were more perfect than it now is, and more exalted than the republick of Plato, we should still experience the mischiefs we have real­ized, should our National Independence remain depri­ved [Page 15] of its proper federal authority. Had Continental requisitions been answered chearfully, by all the states; or, in other words, if those consequences had followed which must forever flow from that great federal ability so soon to be annexed to our Independence, Com­merce, it is presumed, had long since whitened all our seas, and the flags of all nations had enlivened our ports. We have resources of wealth: but there must be national authority to call them forth, and apply them to the publick exigence. What nation, how­ever disposed, can treat with Congress, while a single state may determine, without appeal, the law of treaty? A single town might as well make a bye law repugnant to the general acts of the community.

If such absurdities remain, shall we not resemble the loose machinery of the German principalities be­fore the establishment of their Imperial chamber and their Aulic council. The bond of union, connecting those states into the Germanick body, was so feeble that publick order and private security were not main­tained: Trade declined—arts and manufactures fail­ed, and Germany resembled a country which an ene­my had laid desolate. ‡‡

There was a custom among the ancient Persians, upon the death of a king, to pass five days in anarchy, in order to be convinced of its calamities, and to learn a love of the laws. In America, we have refined upon [Page 16] this idea: for our States have existed years past with­out national connexion, and we have experience in proportion to our adversity.

Enemies of the Revolution have taken occasion from hence to ascribe to our Independence, to our respect­ive forms of government, to the natural and moral constitutions of our country, all our political evils. Alas! it is because we have not lived up to the first principles of our Independence, and completed its system with proper powers, that we have suffered at all. If the apparent consequences of the Revolution have gratified enemies and disappointed friends, it arises not from the parsimony of Nature to the physi­cal properties of our country. If we let our imagin­ations move from St. Croix to Savannah—from shores washed by the Atlantick sea to the wide confines of the Pacifick ocean, we shall not only contemplate, with sublime delight, the amplitude of America, but we shall liberally hope, that, in the vast interval stretched out between those extreme bounds, are re­gions of felicity fully equal to their corresponding lat­itudes in the other hemisphere. §§ We are not like that ancient Island, who has no new lands to im­prove, except a few parks and royal hunting grounds, which her conquerors made by pulling down whole villages, and planting oaks and elms in their place. ‖ ‖ ‖ For though the number of our inhabitants more than [Page 17] twice doubles in half a century, yet the territory ceded us by treaty will equal the demands of numerous ge­nerations.

Nor is the moral constitution of America against her. Ye, whose narrow minds and phlegmatick af­fections can embrace but one half of human kind, open the volume—point the page that shews so young a people who are so enlightened. It has indeed been the praise of our philosophy to be useful, ¶ rather than splendid; and defence, rather than conquest, has been the pride of our arms. We have deprived the light­ning of its rage, and the tyrant of his power. *** Our philosophers are not refuted—our warriors are not conquered.

Franklin, like his own Aurora Borealis, still illumes, with new streams of light, the sky of science.

Washington, who led a glorious train of heroes to deliver their country, now animates an illustrious band of patriots to repair the palace of liberty, and to six forever the sovereignty of the laws on the throne of the Union.

No. Poverty of genius is not our misfortune. The forms of free and justly balanced polities main­tain our title to legislative wisdom. Nor have we narrowed the gates of our religious institutions. Li­berality is not an exotick that dics in our soil. Inde­pendent [Page 18] ground is not watered with the blood of un­believers. We have not contracted the worship of the Deity to a single establishment: but we have opened an asylum to all people and kindred and tongues and nations.—No. Mediocrity is not the bane of independent minds. Nature has dealt with us not on the minute scale of economy, but the broader principles of bounty.

What remains, then, but that we improve the gra­tuities of Providence?—Roused by a sense of past suffering and the dignity of Freedom, we have once more called on venerable sages of our first Con­gress, on other immortal characters, to add new strength and beauty to the fair fabrick of Independ­ence.

A legislation common, in certain cases, to all the States, will make us a nation in reality, as well as in name. This will permit us to respect our own sta­tion, and to treat on equal grounds with other powers—will suffer us to be just at home and respectable abroad—will render property secure, and convince us that the payment of debts is our truest policy and highest honour. This will encourage husbandry and arts—will settle, with numerous and happy families, the banks of Ohio and the borders of Kennebeck. Huron's neglected waves, Superior's wilderness of waters, now forlorn and unemployed, shall bear the countless vessels of internal [Page 19] traffick. Niagara's foaming cataract, crowned with columns of vapour and refracted fires †††, shall not always bar the intercourse of mighty lakes. The me­chanick arts shall find a passage from Eric to Ontario, and Champlain shall be led in triumph to the bosom of the deep.

Hail, glorious age!—when the potent rays of per­fect liberty shall burst upon the now benighted desart:—when the tawny natives of America, and the descen­dants of those who fled hither from the old world, shall forget their animosities: ‡‡‡ when all parts of this immense continent shall be happy in ceaseless com­munications and the mutual exchange of benefits:—when the cornucopia of peace shall be prefered to the waste of war; as the genial gales of summer to the ruffian blasts of winter:—when nations, who now hold the same jealous relation to each other which in­dividuals held before society was formed, shall find some grand principle of combination, like that which rolls the heavenly bodies round a common center.

The distinct fires of American States, which are now just rising through broken clouds from the hori­zon, shall be soon blended into one bright blaze in the zenith—the glory of the universe.