WE are assembled to commemorate an event, which gave freedom and hap­piness to our country.—An event which emancipated three millions of people from a cruel bondage; and advanced them, from an unnatural and degraded state of colonial subjuga­tion, to complete national Independency. The same unconquerable spirit of freedom, which impelled our ancestors to fly from their country▪ and relinquish every charm and comfort of civi­lized society,—that spirit which made them wil­ling, and even solicitous, to brave every difficulty and encounter every danger, to escape from op­pression,—animated their posterity, when they rose up with bold strength and invigorated effort, to resist the false, haughty and arrogant preten­sions of Britain.—The people of this country had ever regarded Liberty, as their chief good and highest blessing, as their undoubted birth­right and most valuable inheritance.—As an in­heritance too, not to be idly wasted or neglected, but to be enlarged and improved.

[Page 6]THE great and fundamental principles of all free governments,—That the people are the only legitimate source of all power.—That rulers are accountable to them for the abuse of their dele­gated trust; and that they, the people, have a right to resume that trust, when either neglected or abused, were truths so early taught, so fully understood, so universally diffused, that when our ancestors examined their own bosoms, they could hardly discern whether these principles were implanted by nature, or impressed by edu­cation.—They rather thought them the inherent dictates, and unerring sensations of nature, as truths written by the finger of GOD on the fleshy tablets of the Heart. The people of this country felt the benefit, and acknowledged the existence, of a sort of implied, but never accu­rately defined compact: by which Great-Britain possessed the exclusive monopoly and enjoyment, of our external commerce, as a fair price for her protection against foreign hostilities, and as a reasonable recognition of her parental and super­intending authority. For this protection ^* they were willing to continue the nerve of her strength, the fountain of her wealth, the nursery and basis of her naval power. But they knew and under­stood the difference between external duties for the regulation of trade, and internal taxes for the purpose of exacting Revenue. And when that Parliament, in which there was no member to speak with their voice, to represent their griev­ances, to protect or promote their interests, to [Page 7] compassionate or relieve their sufferings, contrary to the principles of their own boasted Constitu­tion; relying on the meek affection, and unsus­pecting confidence of the Colonies, dared to im­pose a Stamp-Act; the people vigorously resisted its authority, and with a foreseeing spirit, a cool and philosophic calculation, anticipated the unjust and enormous usurpations, to which an acquies­cence, in such a measure would have subjected them. To the various, unjust and before unthought of usurpations of England; they, for a time, op­posed cool but intrepid wisdom, moderate, but dignified discussion—To obstinate assertion and unaccommodating sternness they opposed a stea­dy perseverance, a sober and enlightened care.— They explained their rights, detailed their griev­ances, they thronged round the throne, the mi­nister, the parliament, with petitions, with me­morials and remonstrances, with offers of consti­tutional submission, and of immediate obedience to their rightful authority. They asked for the old principles of connection, the old habits of their former harmonious intercourse. The uniform answer was the haughty assertion, that parliament had a right to bind this country in all cases whatever; and that the only method to obtain mercy and forgiveness, was unconditional submission.—That mercy and forgiveness the vir­tuous and well-instructed people of this country disdained and rejected. Their short-sighted oppo­nents did not know the character of the people with whom they were treating. The oppressions of Britain roused and embodied the inhabitants of this [Page 8] extensive continent, collected and concentered their widely-dispersed forces, and soon enabled them to exhibit the formidable aspect of an armed and disciplined nation. It was not 'till they were dispoiled of every right, 'till neglect, insult, inso­lence and contempt, were added to reiterated in­jury and unremitted oppression, that our coun­trymen could expel from their bosoms, their old attachments, their honest and hereditary preju­dices. It was not 'till their towns were burnt, 'till their country was ravaged and desolated.—It was not 'till Britain had vilely condescended to associate to her arms, the mercenary aid of German plunderers and assassins; and had goaded the Sa­vages of our frontiers to wage their barbarous and merciless warfare, that the Congress of 1776, appealing to Heaven for the rectitude of their intentions, declared these States free, sovereign, and Independent; and for the maintenance of that Independence so declared, pledged to each other their lives, their properties, and sacred honours. In the full enjoyment of peaceful prosperity and political harmony, the fruits of their determined efforts, and inflexible patriotism, we can at this day form but a faint conception of the bold vigour and sublime energy of character, necessary to ef­fect that glorious and important event, which fixed the fate and fortune of America. It pro­ceeded from a conviction that such violations of the laws of nature and of nations, such gross out­rages on humanity, such a total dereliction of all the principles of honour and virtue: legalized re­sistance, justified and rendered meritorious bold [Page 9] enterprize and dangerous experiment. It proceed­ed from a calm confidence, from an inspiring hope, that Heaven would smile upon their efforts, and that its vindictive justice would be directed against their impious and infatuated foes. Independence was declared when our dangers were imminent, and our destruction seemed almost inevitable.— Clouds and darkness rested upon the political horizon, and the tempest of civil war, threatened us with wreck and annihilation. But the people of this country, and their Representatives in Con­gress, the organs of their will, and the express image of their feelings, were neither alarmed or intimidated. They bore up with undaunted fortitude; their efforts encreased with their diffi­culties; and, like a well-constructed arch▪ the greater the burdens which pressed upon them▪ the greater their massy strength, and immoveable solidity.—Independence was declared, when our temporary resources were expended, and the hasty levies of our troops daily dispersing, when we were driven to the last extremity, and all prospect of success was removed at an immea­surable distance. But the spirit of freedom cheer­ed and sustained our countrymen, in this awful crisis of danger and calamity. They disdained to purchase a delusive quiet, and deceitful secu­rity, by any base submission, or dastardly com­promise. They disdained the acquisition of an imperfect and conceded freedom. They disdain­ed its being bestowed as a favour, and claimed as a right; as a right inalienable and imprescrip­tible, which GOD and nature gave, and which [Page 10] man could not give away. They soared above that narrow and pernicious policy, which, con­tented with the acquisition of temporary relief, exposes the dearest interests of society; and abandons, in hasty desperation, all those grand and animating objects, which it is the duty, and should be the effort of freemen, to preserve and protect. Our country at this moment, presented the most awful and magnificent scene, which ever arrested the attention, alarmed or interested the hopes and fears of mankind. The voice of free­dom rousing her sons to combat, and to glory, was heard across the Atlantic. The nations of Europe looked with horrour and astonishment at a great people, who themselves boasted the inva­luable possession of a free Constitution, struggling with mighty strength, and impious effort, to rivet the chains of slavery on their own Colonies, but lately connected with them by every tie of honour and affection; and who were now spilling their blood in defence of inherited freedom, and in conformity to principles of resistance learned from the history of their Mother Country.— They regarded with eyes of hope and tenderness the exertions of a young and virtuous nation de­termined to be free, and who risqued every thing in the contest. But they supposed their hopes and their fears to be equally unavailing. They could form no conception of the incalculable force of a people, impelled by the spirit of free­dom, and driving at the completion of a distant, doubtful, and animating object. It surprized the timid and cautious statesmen of Europe, out­ran [Page 11] the speculations of their boldest philosophers, and surpassed the warmest wishes of our most sanguine admirers. This spirit, directed by the wisdom and integrity of Congress; by the pru­dent intrepidity of Washington; the bold mili­tary genius of Greene; the honest enthusiasm of La Fayettee; and, aided by the seasonable Alli­ance of France, crowned our efforts with success. —And England, after having sacrificed an hun­dred thousand lives in the contest, and added an hundred and thirty-four millions sterling to her national debt, was reluctantly obliged by the Treaty of 1783, to acknowledge and confirm our Independence.

SUCH, Fellow-Citizens, is a rapid, concise, but imperfect sketch, of the manners, the principles, the feelings, and passions, which originated, which at­tended in its progress, and which finally effected the Revolution, and consummated our Independ­ence. They were the manners of "social equali­ty," and stern integrity, the principles of incorrup­tible virtue, and inflexible patriotism, the feelings of men keenly attached to the freedom of their country, and determined at whatever hazard to preserve, protect, adorn, strengthen, and secure it. The passions of noble and generous minds, in­flamed and almost maddened by the insults, in­juries and oppressions, inflicted on their country. —Manners, I hope, still retained in their native purity, in the bosoms of our families; principles, which our country still calls upon us to preserve inviolate; feelings such as on this day especially, fill [Page 12] and occupy every bosom; passions, from which for­tunately our situation exempts us; but which have since convulsed, purified, and regenerated France, and promise the overthrow of despotism, and the establishment of a free Republic, in the midst of Europe.—Now occurs a serious and im­portant question, How has this inestimable ac­quisition been used, and improved? Has it been perverted to base and dishonourable purposes? Have we neglected the enviable opportunity of establishing a government uniting liberty with order? Have we failed in contributing our im­portant part, to the general felicity of the human race? The answer to these serious and solemn questions, is the highest eulogium which can be pronounced on the political character of Ameri­ca. These are questions which her sons, glow­ing with virtuous national pride, exult to an­swer.

HOWEVER we may regret, it would be false and deceptive to deny, that our radiant course to glory, was darkened and delayed. Too true it is, that after the Peace of 1783, these States exhibited a mournful picture of depression and distress; of disgraceful disorder, and humiliating imbecility. Our Friends eyed our progress with alarmed fears, and painful solicitude. Our enemies, with hasty and malicious assertion, declared, we were verifying their predictions; and that already factious, jarring, unsettled, and unbalanced Republics, we should, in the vio­lence of conflict and collision, dash each other [Page 13] to pieces. They declared, but too truly, that we were discontented at home, disrespected abroad, that our frontiers were unprotected, and our cre­dit unsupported. But we are never to despair of a free, and consequently of a moral and en­lightened nation. Deeply impressed, but not dejected, at the prospect of impending ruin, the people of this country, with a firm, erect, and manly spirit; with a perseverance which no dan­gers could subdue; with a serene dignity, and ceaseless activity of inquiry, which no misfor­tunes could disturb or impede, applied themselves to investigate the cause, and the cure of these calamities. A stable, efficient national govern­ment was soon asked for, from one end of the continent to the other. We discovered that the merely advisory system of our old confederation was insufficient and injurious, ill-suited to the quiet and ordinary state of society, when we were no longer animated and united by the same common object, when advice was no longer Law ▪ and when State Legislatures, instead of anticipat­ing federal requisition, fruitlessly discussed, or designedly delayed them; and too frequently, from the mean motives of local interest, or par­ty prejudice, destroyed the noblest plans, which genius or virtue could frame, for the security or prosperity of the Union.

TO form a free government for any people, however thin their population or confined their territory, though their habits are uniform and their feelings congenial; to temper together the [Page 14] opposite elements of liberty and restraint, fitly to combine in one consistent work, the seemingly contradictory principles of the right to resist, and the obligation to obey, requires the highest exer­tions of the human faculties; requires minds enlightened and enriched by all that antient wis­dom, or modern ingenuity has suggested, on the science of government. But to form a free, federal Constitution, for a vast continent; to bind and strongly cement together, fifteen different States; to remove their ill-grounded prejudices; to reconcile their discordant opinions; to assimi­late their various local interests; not only requir­ed minds, rarely gifted, and richly endowed, but a prudence, a forbearance, a discretion, too seldom bestowed on Mortals.—It almost requir­ed men to be like the God of the Stoics, all In­tellect, and no Passion.

HAPPY is it for us, that the Members of the Convention, of 1787, were impressed with the difficulty, the danger, the magnitude, and necessity of the task. Happy is it for us, that they were men, of enlarged and liberalized ideas, of minds elevated to the height of their momentous duty. Happy is it for us, that, "a luminous spirit of wisdom, disembroiled their embarrassments; that a spirit of conciliation compromised all in­terests and opinions." The result of their collect­ed and deliberative wisdom is our present federal Constitution.—Which has been pronounced by impartial European statesmen, to be a fabric of government, the most simple, solid, and sublime, [Page 15] ever erected by human ingenuity, on the broad basis of freedom and equal rights. It is not propped up by the gothic pillar of church esta­blishments; it is not encumbered with the bril­liant burden of a Crown; it boasts not what Mr. Burke, in the delirium of his eloquence, has styled, Nobility; the corinthian capital of polish­ed society. The framers of this Constitution rather thought, with Mr. Burke's ablest^* oppo­nent, "That such gothic ornaments deform and encumber the fabric of society: That the massy doric, which sustains it, is labour; and the splen­did varieties of arts and talents, which solace and embellish life, form the decorations of its corinthian and ionic capitals."

THE principles of our Constitution are truly and severely republican. That the people are the fountain of all power is its vital and seminal prin­ciple. This great truth which by pretended phi­losophers has been declared to be a notion merely specious, or entirely delusive, which they have asserted, shines fairly on the smooth page of uto­pean system, but which shrinks from practice and eludes the grasp of experiment, is in our country in daily, actual, practical existence—It blends with all the operations of our government▪ it harmonizes with all its movements, it superin­tends all its minute and diversified arrangements.

THE powers granted by our Constitution are by an admirable system of check and controul guard­ed [Page 16] from neglect, abuse, or violation. Little room is left for the exercise of a dangerous discretion­ary authority, and the absurd and blasphemous idea of the omnipotence of Legislatures is entire­ly abrogated. Every thing is defined, every thing is limited. The House of Representatives elect­ed by the free and uncorrupted suffrages of the people at large, are intimately acquainted with their rights; connected and identified with their interests. The Senate, appointed by the State Legislatures, represent and guard the State Sove­reignties, and being men of maturer years and more experienced wisdom, are a body well suited to correct the errours, check the passions or enthu­siasm, or resist any unconstitutional assumption of power, into which the other House might be mis­lead or betrayed. The President himself by a mode of appointment, singular, original, and altogether unexampled, in the history of any age or nation, is elected by, and from the People, without any of the evils of a popular election. It is a mode which forbids faction, expels intrigue, and ex­cludes corruption. He is not like the Kings of Europe, seated in sullen grandeur on a solitary eminence of power. He is connected with the People, and elevated by them to the highest point of Authority in the State, only that he may have a more commanding view of his duty. He is placed on the highest watch tower, that he may the earlier descry the dangers which threaten to impede our prosperity or invade our liberties, and be himself the first to sound the alarum bell throughout the nation.

[Page 17]SUCH is a rapid enumeration of the origin, the principles, and powers, of the Federal Constitu­tion. The ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERN­MENT formed under it, is such as must necessa­rily result from the unrestrained operation of such a Constitution.

HOWEVER close may be our investigation, or however severe our scrutiny, of its various de­partments.—Whether of judicial or financial sys­tem; of foreign intercourse, or military arrange­ments; we shall find it uniformly to have been conducted with prudence, dignity and effect.— The Administration of Justice is that part of Government by which the People most generally form their opinion. It diffuses more perceptibly the blessings of order and domestic quiet.—It brings the benefits of government more directly home to the feelings and bosoms of every man. The Federal Courts have given us security under the law. Foreigners resort to them with confi­dence, and there have been pacifically discussed and legally determined by them, claims, invol­ving the Sovereignties of States, which in other countries could only have been settled by the Sword. They have engendered a reasonable hope that the period is not far distant, when by gradual alteration and silent improvement, we may form an independent system of jurisprudence, or at least one entirely disencumbered of the feudal absurdi­ties, the disgraceful subtleties, the quibbling chi­caneries, which too much deform and deface the otherwise beautiful system of Common Law we [Page 18] have wisely adopted from England. It is to be hoped, that under their influence, a larger portion of good American Common Sense will be infused into it, and that it will be thereby rendered,^* more just and simple in its principles; less intricate, dubious and dilatory, in its proceedings; more mild and equitable in its sanctions; more easy and more certain in its execution. Then indeed we may be allowed to exclaim with the pious and judicious Hooker,—That of LAW no less can be acknowledged, than that her seat is the Bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world, all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.

A REVIEW of the history of our finances would afford a continued panegyric on that great and celebrated character, who first raised them from their chaos, settled them into system, and combined them into order. It would afford a continued display of the vast and accumulated opulence of that mind, which by undivided attention, and in­defatigable research, has possessed itself of all the various financial systems, and by its own native resources and energies, has improved and perfected all. The late Secretary of the Treasury at his very outset grounded himself on the solid principles of strict attention to public credit, and undeviating adherence to our pledged faith and avowed en­gagements. He insisted on the observance of [Page 19] good faith, as the basis of credit, as a measure he commended by the strongest inducements of po­litical expediency, and as enforced by considera­tions of still greater authority.^† "There are argu­ments for it, he says, which rest on the immutable precepts of moral obligation. And in proportion as the mind is disposed to contemplate, in the order of Providence, an intimate connection between public virtue and public happiness, will be its re­pugnancy to a violation of those principles."

WITHOUT derogating from the merit of the other great characters of our country, we may fairly say, that it is in a great measure to his plans we may attribute it, that so suddenly after the adoption of the New Constitution, Credit was established, Industry inspirited, Commerce invi­gorated, and Agriculture encouraged. To his plans it may be attributed, that the immense mass of wealth which this country already possess­ed, but which till this period, had lain dormant and unprofitable, was quickened into life and productiveness; and that our gigantic, but hi­therto untried strength, was brought out into un­restrained exercise and action. To his plans we may attribute it, that a rapid, steady, and ferti­lizing stream of wealth, was circulated through­out the continent, which again turned round the wheel of commerce, and set to work its various and complicated machinery. We owe it, in a great measure, to him, perhaps, that enterprize has [Page 20] enlarged its sphere, and explored new regions of profit, that our country, every where presents the charms of creative cultivation and diffusive opu­lence. He has insisted on the true principle of all good finance^*, that the creation of debt should be always accompanied with the means of its ex­tinguishment. A principle awfully enforced by the present situation of European Nations, who multiply their expences while their resources are diminishing, and who seem to act in the full per­suasion of the truth of the principle, that they ac­quire new strength and elasticity, in proportion as new burdens are imposed. Engaged in the tu­mults of wars, elevated or depressed by alternate triumph or defeat, amused by adventurous project and magnificent enterprize, delighted and deluded by the glare and splendour of present prosperity, they cannot with a steady and undazzled eye look the dangers which threaten them, full in the face. They attempt no desperate effort to escape from ruin. They seem willing to fall down, crushed by the load of debt, the devoted and unthinking victims of their fate. They remind one of the Elder Pliny, who with careless indifference, and crimi­nal security, took notes from Livy, and pursued his classical amusements, while the earth shook under him, and Vesuvius thundered in his ears.

THE commotions of Europe have of late ren­dered our intercourse with foreign Powers, a de­licate, dangerous, and interesting concern. It [Page 21] seems to have engaged and engrossed all our at­tention. The ridiculously inhuman attempt of England to starve twenty-five millions of people possessed of the most fertile soil and genial climate of Europe, has lead her into designed violations of the laws of nations, and aggravated spoliations on our commerce. And even the impe [...]ous ne­cessities of the French Republic, during the dis­tresses of her revolutionary conflicts, have driven her to acts defensible only by those necessities. In such a situation our government has acted▪ with that cautious wisdom and foresight, with that dignified forbearance and wise neutrality, as to have secured to us the blessings of Peace; without wounding that quick sense of honour, or impairing that virtuous resentment against unprovoked injury, which are the characteristics of generous and high-minded Americans.— Our intrepid moderation, and calm resolute­ness of conduct, have added to the respecta­bility of our national character—and statesmen begin to find, they must no longer confine their calculations to the balance of Power in Europe; but take into their estimation, the balance of Power in the World.

THE military arrangements of the United States are those only which are suited, to the genius and temper of a republican government. They consist of a well-regulated militia▪ and of independent companies, voluntarily associated, and legally incorporated. In spite of the spe­cious reasonings of Turgot, and the ingenious [Page 22] calculations of Adam Smith, Americans are not yet convinced of the propriety of raising one class of men above society; and separating them from it, by the force of peculiar habits, by prin­ciples of false honour, and the cruelty of a de­grading and brutalizing discipline.—

BROTHER-SOLDIERS—Of the military system of the United States, we form a part. It ought to be impressed upon us, that we also are parties in the great order and arrangements of government; and although but individual companies, of an in­dividual State, we too have duties to perform, and efforts to contribute, essential to the general secu­rity and happiness of our country. We are mi­nute links of that connected chain, which binds into strength and unity, our Federal Govern­ment. Our institution owes its origin, and its continuance, to that unalterable, and incontro­vertible principle of all free governments, that as it is the right, so it is the duty of every man to bear arms in defence of his country. And we believe it repugnant to the spirit of that principle, that any official dignity, any petty, paltry, pro­fessional immunities, should exempt any man from the highest, and most sacred duty he owes his country.

WE hope our institution affords a practical exemplification of this principle.—We hope and trust that it has renovated the military spirit, in­fused fresh life and vigour, and afforded youthful patriotism, a mean to render itself useful. We [Page 23] rejoice in an institution, in which, without losing the rights, or forgetting the duties of citizens, we acquire the skill and discipline of soldiers. We rejoice in an institution, which inseparably connects us, not by the force of a rigid despotic discipline, but by principles of honourable attach­ment, and the ties of private and endeared friend­ship. We rejoice in an institution, founded on broad and liberal principles, and which in its operation, actually displays the image of our Constitution. Our officers are elected by our­selves. We arm them with Power, because we think them worthy of it. We choose those men, whom we would obey, because we respect them; and whom we would follow, wherever they might lead us, from friendship. We do not aspire to the character of upright, moving machines, the definition of a Soldier, as given by the last De­spot of Prussia. We do not pretend, as the poet has expressed it, to the pride, the pomp, and cir­cumstance of glorious war. We hope that, in the hour of contest, and crisis of danger, we would not shrink—we hope we would possess a bravery which the spirit of freedom engenders and supports. That we would stand a phalanx of patriots, and a band of brothers, never to lay down our arms, but with our lives.

[Page 24]TO suppress insurrections, and repel inva­sions, are the duties, which by the meaning of our Charters, and the express words of the Con­stitution, we are obligated to fulfil. That insur­rections should ever exist, in a free country, where the constitution is the work of the peo­ple themselves, and the rulers who administer the government, men of their uninfluenced choice, seems a solecism in terms, and is an irre­concileable paradox in politicks. It is not to be accounted for, unless we refer it to the wild, absurd and lawless eccentricities of the human mind, which at particular periods, breaks through all the restraints it has in its happier moments, imposed upon itself, and is fatally and irresistibly impelled to the violation of moral order, and the overthrow of political justice. Even in our country, it may be, that insurrections will happen, like the great calamaties of nature, an earthquake, an hurricane, or a pestilence, once during the course of centuries. If such a disaster should fall on our times: If a wicked, deluded, and desperate Minority, should so far forget, what they owe to themselves, and their country, as to appeal to arms; and rashly endeavour to force their measures and opinions on a fair and undis­puted Majority, however odious or melancholy the task, it would be our duty, Brother-Soldiers, when called upon, to resist their claims with the points of our bayonets.—We must gather round the Constitution of our country, and guard it as the palladium of freedom, and the sanctuary of the rights of men. But why should I for a mo­ment [Page 25] dwell, on such an idea. The late unhappy attempt of the Insurgents of Pennsylvania, will remain a deep and impressive lesson for ages to come. There was a time, says one of the most eloquent men of our own country, "When that insurrection was truly formidable, it rose like a waterspout, threatening to annihilate gravity, and throw the ocean to the heavens; but as that, by the force of the general principle of attraction, returns again to its former level, and mixes with the surrounding waters, so this civil tumult has been overcome by the energy of the Laws."^*— Foreign war, although not an evil so dreadful, we hope is one equally distant. It is fortunate indeed for us, that separated from Europe, we cannot be drawn into the rapid vortex of her tu­multuous politicks. Peace is the maxim of our government, a rule of its administration. But if we must be driven to hostilities, ours would not be a war of timid operation, or protracted effort,— By the justice of our cause, we should take care to deserve, and by measures, rapid, vigorous, and decisive, take care to ensure success.

IN either of these great emergencies, we should be associated, with that illustrious body of heroes and patriots, who have already fought the battles, and are already crowned with the honours of their country. Who can doubt that at such times, the respectable Society of the Cincinnati^† would suffer themselves any longer to recline on the [Page 26] bosom of that dignified retirement they have chosen. Would not their former sentiments be revived, their former emotions be awakened? Would they not offer themselves to curb our fu­rious rashness, to guide and temper our inexpe­rienced valour? Should such a crisis arise near the present period, we can easily foresee an emulous conflict between the old and the young patriots. The old determined to prove that time, has not abated their energy, or chilled their feel­ings. The young while they imitated, endea­vouring to surpass them. We hope that such united and virtuous exertions, aided by the spirit and the patriotism of the citizens at large, would preserve our country free from foreign subjuga­tion, and shield our Constitution from the attacks of domestick faction and usurpation.

FELLOW-CITIZENS—It was said by Lord Chatham, in the midst of a venal Assembly who were dismayed by the vehement boldness of the expression, that "he rejoiced America had resisted." Reviewing our past history, con­templating our present glory and prosperity, may we not with philosophic propriety declare, that we rejoice Great-Britain did oppress.— For had she not roused us to cut asunder the bands which connected us, we must have been at this day but a splendid appendage of her monarchy, the prop of her old age, the support of her declining glory, and a source to supply her spendthrift extravagance. We must have been [Page 27] obliged to have been actors in all her follies, and in all her crimes.

OUGHT we, Fellow-Citizens, in this day, the sabbath of freedom, and the festival of reason, selfishly to confine our contemplations, exclu­sively to the benefits we ourselves have derived from our revolution. Ought we to forget that it was from us, France first caught the hope of freedom—that soon after our success she started up, after the repose of ages, from the tomb of despotism, and with the strength of a giant re­freshed after that repose, "broke her chains on the heads of her oppressors."—Ought we not on this day to rejoice that she is emerging from that bloody state of commotion, calamity, and car­nage, into which she was plunged by the infernal confederacy of Kings; a confederacy which steel­ed the heart, and maddened the brain, of all France; and drove her in her desperate frenzy to the commission of deeds disgraceful to Free­dom, and destructive to herself.—Ought we not to rejoice that this confederacy has met with disappointment, defeat and ruin—a ruin which our countrymen, enlightened by ex­perience, long ago foretold. They knew it was an impossible attempt to extinguish thought, imprison feeling, or massacre opinion. They knew that when once Freedom is kindled in the "bosom of man, it remains an imperishable flame, which though time may smother, eternity cannot extinguish.^*"

[Page 28]OUGHT we not to mingle with our con­gratulations some emotions of compassion and regret for the present disasterous state of Po­land. That country which but a few months ago was alive with the joyful acclamations of freedom, and which was thronged with millions of contented and emancipated people; now pre­sents one wide-spread scene of undistinguished devastation. Crushed by the iron hand of military despotism, there reigns throughout that country, the silence of night—the solitude of death.— Ought we to forget that Kousiasko once fought our battles, and endured for us toil, danger, and distress. For that very cause, his attachment to Liberty, which embalms him in our memories, and endears him in our affections, he is now lan­guishing amid the damps and darkness of a Prussian dungeon—deprived of the last consola­lation of noble minds—that of being permitted, to die on the bosom of his country, or to perish in battle fighting for her Liberties!

FELLOW-CITIZENS, it is indeed a consola­tory truth, that if we remain true to ouselves, no foreign foe can wrest from us our Liberties. And as for the idea that we shall ever be allured, tamely to surrender them to a domestic usurper, it would be an indignity to the good sense of my countrymen to suppose it. Before that can happen, we must be degraded and debased, to the lowest point of corruption—degeneracy, and servility.—We must be driven to the com­mission of political Suicide.

[Page 29]IT affords too a subject of high congratulation, that our unrivalled prosperity still continues to be, as it has been, uninteruptedly progressive. A prosperity which exceeds all hope, and mocks all calculation.—A prosperity which goes on like the unceasing power of vernal vegetation, whose silent but rapid progress, no eye can distinctly trace, nor any human powers arrest; but which proceeds onward by the eternal, and invariable laws of na­ture, to spread the earth with verdure and fertility. Let then the nations of Europe try all their arts of mean exclusion and jealous monopoly—let them endeavour by undeserved and aggravated injuries, to precipitate us into wars, and by spe­cious pretentions of insidious friendship, to entan­gle us with Treaties—all their efforts will be im­potent, as they are malicious, at once detected and resisted, by a sagacious, reflecting, forbear­ing, but high-spirited people, possessed of untried resources, and of a country as yet, of unexplored extent. A people who do not mean to endanger their national felicity and union, by unnecessary contests; who do not mean to reject the fair friendship of any nation; but who can exist great and glorious, in spite of the enmity, and in­dependent of the friendship of any nation.

FELLOW-CITIZENS, let the conviction of these great political truths mingle with, and add new charms to our private enjoyments—let them refine and spiritualize the pleasures of this day— let them "diffuse a gaity over the severe brow of moral Freedom."—Our pleasures to day, are those [Page 30] which expand the heart, and enlarge the mind —pleasures permitted by reason, and enobled by sentiment.