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A GRATULATORY ADDRESS, DELIVERED JULY 5th, 1790, BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI, OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

PUBLISHED BY THEIR ORDER.

PRINTED IN BOSTON, BY BENJAMIN RUSSELL, NEAR THE STATE-HOUSE. M, DCC, XC.

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THIS Address was calculated only for the minute. The idea of publication was not admitted by the author at the time of composing it. But an injunction which was not to be resisted, controuled a different resolution. A vivid expression was sought for to conceal its defects, and to agree with the fes­tivity of the Season. As great candour as was dis­covered at the delivery will be indispensable to make it sufferable in the closet.

W. TUDOR.
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AN ADDRESS, &c.

IN the complete possession of PEACE, LI­BERTY and SAFETY, we are now assembled, my beloved Countrymen, to celebrate the Birth-day of our Nation.—A Day sacred to Freedom and tri­umphant Patriotism! A Day, which sixteen years since, the boldest heart and most illumined mind had not anticipated.

AMERICANS! YE are now convened, not, in adulatory strains, to hail the nativity of a vic­torious master, but to commemorate the glorious Epoch that gave ye a Government of Laws and not of Men; and while your souls dilate at the joyful festival, ye will recollect those ties which bind ye to your Country; and, with sincerity, re­iterate [Page 4] those virtuous resolutions, that strengthen, while they brighten the chain of union that has now ranked us with the Nations of the earth.

TO ascertain the precise time, under the ad­ministration of a CECIL or a CHATHAM, when Bri­tain and her Colonies must have separated, might afford amusement to a speculative inquirer, but can be of no utility now.—That the crisis was precipitated is conceded—But it was not the des­potic statutes of England—It was not the haughty and fastidious manners of her officers, civil or military, which compelled the mighty Revolution which severed her Empire. These did rouse, but they could not create that unconquerable spirit which stimulated America to vindicate, and irre­vocably to fix those rights, which distance, and o­ther causes, might, for ages, have kept indefinite, dependent and precarious.—No—it was that native servid sense of Freedom which our enlightened an­cestors brought with them and fostered in the fo­rests of America; and which, with pious care, they taught their offspring never to forego. Although the present age cannot forget, and posterity shall learn to remember those violences which impelled [Page 5] their country to war, yet it must be admitted that the period of parting had arrived. British influence, and foreign arts, might have corrupted, silenced, or destroyed that spirit, which, thus early outraged, became invincible, gave birth to the immortal Edict, and all those glorious circumstances in which we this day rejoice.

WHOLE Oceans rolled between, yet the Colo­nies retained a strong attachment to their parent state. The numerous memorials transmitted from every Province to that infatuated Country, remain the evidence of their patience and affection:—But deaf to the voice of supplication, and aloof to in­treaty, she added indignity to wrong, until "hu­mility was tort [...]red into rage." —Oppression crowd­ed upon oppression, until submission was criminal and resistance became an obligation. On this aus­picious day, and through every revolving year, the magnanimity exhibited by our country at that all-interesting and momentous crisis, shall cheer the patriot mind, and raise a glow of honest pride. She neither hesitated nor halted, but sacrificing her attachments at the shrine of duty—appealed GOD and to her sword, for justice and success;— [Page 6] Heaven approbated the appeal—invigorated her councils, and pointed the road to victory—That sword which she drew by compulsion, she wore with honour, and, her enemies have confessed, that she sheathed it without revenge.

IN this eventful struggle, many sacrifices were to be made that came near the heart; and if, to day, your affections are called out, for the loss of Fathers, Friends, and Brothers, check not the tear, for it is the tear of virtue. Your consolation is, that thus falling, they greatly discharged the se­verest duty of men and citizens. I mean not here to traverse with you the plains of death, nor to resuscitate the sorrows of the tomb. The altars of Liberty require many victims.—Those patriot soldiers devoted their lives to our safety; their deaths extended the publick fame; and may the gratitude of their country be immortal.

THE talents and integrity of those Statesmen who conceived and directed the measures which broke the yoke of foreign sway, cannot be con­templated without admiration. The thunders of Albion in vain poured forth their terrors: The [Page 7] collected vengeance of Britain menaced but to in­spire. Depravity could find no lurking place, and venality dared not approach the steeled breasts of men who sought a hallowed fame in the rescue of millions from distant tyranny. Posterity must often recall the names of those deliverers, and in copying their bright examples pursue the surest road to substantial glory.*

IT is not enough, my Countrymen, that the decisive fiat we this day consecrate, became a record in Heaven; It is not enough, that victory and peace secured and confirmed our rights: It is not enough, that the United States embrace a ter­ritory equal in extent to the Roman World: It is not enough, that in our Federal and State Constitu­tions, [Page 8] we boast the freest Governments on earth:— It yet remains to perfect and establish the true principles of social Life, Laws, Agriculture, Sci­ence, with all the Arts that ameliorate and multi­ply the human species.

DURING the arduous contest, the arms of A­merica were borne by men who had a country to love, a property to defend, and a share in e­nacting laws which it was their interest as well as duty to maintain. Tranquility restored, with joy her soldiers became retired citizens. War is the disgrace and calamity of human nature: And for­ever distant be the day in this country, when it shall be encouraged as an art, and be debased into a trade.

AND here, My dear Associates! Permit an Ad­dress which may be construed as an apology that your Institution most assuredly does not want.— The society hath been faulted by those who never saw its rules, or knowing have misconstrued them. Canons which inculcate "the duty of laying down in Peace arms assumed for the publick defence." But

"Perish the narrow Thought, the sland'rous Tongue,
"Where the Heart's right, the Action can't be wrong."

[Page 9]TO the generous sense of a grateful Country, your APPEAL has been made: And do I mistake? Or do I hear that Country exclaim—By the Toils which cemented your Friendships—by the dangers encountered in the fair Fields of Fight—by the Blood of our slaughtered, faithful Sons, who so greatly thought, and nobly dared—by the merits of our WASHING­TON—we swear! that ye have not offended.

MOST honourable would be the retrospect, and pleasant the employment, to retrace our infant Country through the scenes of warfare, and to mark her conduct under alternate Victory and Retreat, did not such a task more properly become the Historian, than comport with this occasion. It is enough to say, she sustained misfortune with con­stancy—collected, she met Independence and So­vereignty—She triumphed, but she did not insult.

THE five succeeding years of Peace, important as they were, passed neglected; and, flying, left an unfortunate blank in her annals. National wisdom in most countries hath been slow, in all progressive. America, springing from the cradle of Empire, had much to learn; and every thing, in national legis­lative [Page 10] politicks, to experiment. Those jealousies which had been so long encouraged as political wisdom;—the recent escape from the abuses of monarchical establishments; and a too fond adher­ence to local rule; all combined to retard that efficient and united policy, which alone could have exalted our nation, while it would have equally dis­seminated all the blessings of the social compact. The humiliating situation was at length surmounted, and we now enjoy a system of confederated, or rather CONSOLIDATED* government, which honestly [Page 11] conducted, must command respect abroad, and ought to produce contentment at home.

OUR public officers are the accountable ministers of the laws—our legislative servants return and mingle, at short periods, with their fellow-citizens. With caution elect, but the delegation once com­mitted, let us not with-hold a generous confidence in our Rulers. With candour pass upon their deliberations, and with manly patience await the [Page 12] beneficial consequences, presumed to flow from their public acts. Many discordant interests, are to be accommodated.—Character, attachment, the desire of securing future honours, all the views that stimulate the human heart, press upon the public servants to a faithful discharge of their national duties. The present ought, therefore, to be the period of trust, not of suspicion, still less of aspersion. AMERICANS! Ye have fought the battles of mankind—ye have here enkindled that sacred flame of Freedom, which is now expand­ing its warmth, and dispersing its beams, through­out a great part of Europe:—Do not then suf­fer precipitation and intemperance to defeat the just expectations of the wise and the good, who have so often, although so vainly, in most coun­tries, dared to advocate the rights of man. But may your conduct and your history demonstrate, that a government, free as your own, may be maintained without turbulence, administered with energy and dignity, and while it advances the happiness of all its subjects, can extend the glory of their Empire.

[Page 13]OUR great transmarine distance from EUROPE, and all her ambitious, jarring, and rival interests, justifies the expectation of long Peace. The valu­able and various natural riches of the Southern— the climate, population, and manufactures of the Central—joined to the hardihood and enterprize of the Eastern States, form a mass of resource and strength unexampled in the history of any country, equally young.

WHAT shore have your Ships not coasted?*— And where swells the wave, on which your Flag has not been displayed? From the wilds of Califor­nia, to the extreme domains of Asia—in Arctic Seas, and Solstitical Climes—your seamen have dared the [Page 14] tempest, and provoked the storm. The islands of either India, and of every ocean, have been but stages to refresh the dauntless navigators of your country.

LOOK throughout your NOW united Dominions, Count the variety of her important and capital staples—See labour daily becoming more pro­ductive—Manufactures multiplying*—the Me­chanick Arts improving:—What then remains but to assume a national tone.—To feel ouerselves AMERICANS, and to continue, as brethren of the same mighty family, to love each other, to reverence the laws, and to be the happiest nation below the stars.

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