THE honour you have done me, by appoint­ing me your Orator on this day, very sensibly affects me: this is not the first instance of your friendship.—I only feel unhappy that I cannot do more justice to your intentions.—Excuse me, if I ask you to take into consideration the short period of time I have had to prepare for an occasion so im­portant. The errors of the performance I know you will pardon of course.

[Page 4] WERE I to draw positions of argument or reasoning from a text of sacred history, they would be from that positive saying—a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand; but, my friends, a larger text in this particular year of the christian era opens to our view; it is a text "big with the fate" of you and your posterity. The political situation of this country, affords a text, from which, if arguments were drawn by modern political reasoning, it would undeniedly appear, that its fate and happiness are now at hazard. In this assembly we are both young and old; but few of us so young or so old, who do not feel the loss of a friend, a relation, or an acquaintance during the American revolution.

I MUST ask you for a moment to revert to periods which are past. In the despotic and monarchical nations of Eu­rope and the world, government became art; that art, science; and power, the supreme law. Passive obedience was a decree enforced by the executive authority of each country; and non­resistance became the religious order of the day: when sen­timents drawn from such data were full in their bloom, the principle of colonization was first adopted. Europe, Asia [Page 5] and Africa of ancient date, tinged by their religious creeds, governed their respective kingdoms, states and empires by rules founded on the superstition and fears of mankind. Authority to govern, was then, and perhaps ever will be, a centre from which the radii of legislation were drawn. Look­ing into their history, in periods that are past and long since revolved, we find this philosophical position, that, according to the quantity of power, which each individual nation possess­ed, extension of territory became an object which bore an exact proportion. I shall pass over every applicable lesson I could draw from the Persian, Grecian, Roman and Cartha­genian princes, and concentrate the attention of the present moment to the situation of our own country; but stop, I wish to rescue the character of Cyrus from the least imputation of fault.

THAT kingdom, which styled herself our mother, at an early period attempted the right of control over the rights of the citizens of this country; this for a century or more she successfully practised. We must now recollect, that it was in that period in which her established religious creed pre­sumed to dictate the consciences of men that the first Eng­lish [Page 6] settlers of America were allowed to abscond the kingdom.—Their object was liberty of sentiment: denied that liberty in Europe, they sought it on the shores of America; shores unknown and hostile, but shores not tinged with that spirit of persecution, which raged on those they left. Our forefathers braved the dangers of the seas, the hazards of the climate and the fierceness of a savage foe; but liberty of sentiment I say was their object, and the clams of Plymouth were "sweet to their taste." The same spirit and principle induced others to emigrate. The increasing population in America, the spirit of enterprize in the transatlantic states, and the idea that this was a land of liberty, soon rendered the British colonies in America, an object of consideration in the eyes of Europe. As we increased in population so much the more we became objects of attention. Our first claim to the rights of men, and to the internal right of legislation, became offensive to the old monarchy, and subjected us to their censure.

THE government of many of the colonies was formed upon principles of viceroyalty; but that kind of government, and the assumed right of taxation, immediately brought forward the original spirit, and the determined principles of those who [Page 7] first settled this country.—The descendants of our ancestors frowned with contempt on the foreign, usurped claim of con­trol: that claim they considered as infringing on their rights as men; and the mode to render that claim of any effect, as an insidious imposition. That claim they resisted, whether successful or unsuccessful, in every form in which an impos­ing government pleased to place it.

So firm was the opposition to the land bank scheme, and the stamp act, that the views of the British government were defeated; so inimical were the views of that foreign power to our rights as freemen; so imposing and insulting was their claim to the right of taxation over the colonies, that the love of country, and the dignified personal spirit of its inhabitants, produced the important era which we now commemorate.—The fourth of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six, was a day that astonished the world: what else? It was a day that made us Freemen. The Genius of America plac­ed a wreath on the brows of the Aurora of that morning, which will always be in bloom—her smiles were friendship, and her dimples good will towards men. The label of her chap­let was peace, though the spirit of her eyes spoke the language [Page 8] of defence: if their nuptials were consummated on the even­ing of that day, I should say, on such a night, the moon lost its consciousness;—we view the offspring;—it is the LIBERTY of our COUNTRY.

THE day, which we now commemorate, is the national one of America; it is that day, which both young and old ought to celebrate; it is that day, which constituted our existence as a nation; on this day children will recollect, that their fa­thers once entered into a bond, hazardous and dangerous; a bond sealed with the blood of thousands: young men, rec­ollect this day, for old men will not forget.

A SHORT, cursory view of past American defence may not be improper. If there be any officer or soldier now present, who entered the armies of his country, was dictated by his love to it, and fought for its defence, under the late glorious commander in chief, let me tell him, that WASHINGTON is an honourable man. Although the battles of America were fought under many disadvantages, yet we can never find greener laurels around the heads of ancient heroes, than those, which now hang on the brows of the war worn soldier of [Page 9] America. Should I bring into view the conduct of the armies of our country; although I shall glance over Bunker hill, where lie the remains of a father and an officer, I say—that if any of you were present on the nineteenth of September, and the seventh of October, and fought with good will to your country—you are all honourable men. The officer or soldier, at any period of the war—if he fought for the free­dom of himself and his posterity, and from principles of pat­riotism, whether on the plains of Monmouth, on a scout, or at the siege of Yorktown—is also an honourable man. Were the ghosts of your departed companions, who bled and died by your side, now to arise at this moment of danger, they would speak to you through a trumpet as sonorous as that of the archangel—No Iscariot in your councils; no Arnold in the field.

WHAT was the principle that led to the opposition of a foreign power? It was, that neither foreign power or foreign influence should ever interfere with the internal concerns of our country. Liberty of opinion is desirable, but liberty of action, within the rules which God and nature have pointed out, much more so. Is not then the liberty of our country, [Page 10] which secures both, an object of such magnitude as to require the united exertion of our citizens to prepare for its defence? We have read of the hewers of wood, and the drawers of wa­ter of old times; we know that the slavery of the Afric exists among us; we know that our own citizens have been captives at Algiers: are either of these kinds of slavery accordant to the feelings of freemen? No; the attempt to impose foreign task masters, or to make us the white slaves of France, or of any other foreign power within our own country, would cause the sword of every independent American to leap from its scabbard.

IN our political concerns with the powers of Europe, dip­lomacy effected a negociation for our late disputes with Eng­land: yet "another foreign nation, with whom we were more particularly connected," now appears to interest herself very officiously in the internal, as well as external manage­ment of our affairs. French political embrace, according to the custom of the present ruling powers of France, would not be congenial to that spirit of freedom which pervades our own country: if the modern hug of fraternity is to interfere with the domestic arrangement of the United States; from an [Page 11] embrace of the French nation, may our union and the God of armies deliver us; it is an embrace which approaches rather too nigh the delicacy of American independence.

FELLOW CITIZENS, who are now under arms, attention is most deservedly due you; the defence of our country is im­mediately devolving on you; the love of country will make you soldiers; but to make you soldiers of that force and ef­fect, which should characterize a free and independent nation, you must be united.

AND what shall I say of union? Should I draw an idea of disunion from sacred documents, I should say, that all the evil and distress, incident to kingdoms and nations, originated from that same principle which made the rebels of paradise: the sword which Michael wielded—tempered and burnished in the laboratory of God—was a sword of union; it drove the traitors from the pavement of heaven. But that same spirit of discord, founded on its original principle, power by assump­tion, now constitutes the whole disunion and war of the world; though it has been said by a very high authority that a proph­et has no honour in his own country, yet I will hazard the [Page 12] opinion, that there now exists a spirit in foreign nations, which will shake every monarchy on earth to its centre.

I HAVE here drawn a picture of disunion, from which we can judge of its opposite.—Union brings with it the mildness of peace and the dignity of defence, attaches itself to internal regulation and rejects foreign interference.

FRANCE, rejecting every honourable mode of accommoda­tion for wrongs, of which she was the aggressor, tells you not only in words, but in action, that she is a dangerous and an in­sidious enemy, and that her power is a formidable object; 'tis true, 'tis barely possible we may be crushed by the armies of France; but I shall never believe that men, born under our own vines and our own figtrees, will ever be disunited, and be tamely dictated by the power of France; but, should the navy of England be destroyed, recollect this, that some of us must part to regions where French influence has no superiority. There­fore—Friends and Soldiers, let union be our morning and e­vening prayer; let union be the magnet, by which we form our political compass; the stripes of America are the only colours that ought ever to wave on our standard.

[Page 13] THE energy of the administration of the Governor of the state of New Hampshire is the best comment on his patriot­ism.—The unanimity, which supports him, will freshen by age—his conduct has placed a laurel on his brow that never can wither.

ON the character of the President of the United States I shall only speak this eulogy; his diplomatic conduct at the Hague; his firmness in concluding the definitive treaty of peace; the uprightness of his private character, and his pres­ent patriotic exertions, constitute the four corners of that temple, which no confusion of language can ever tumble in­to ruins.

FRIENDS, CITIZENS and SOLDIERS, I shall now close with one short observation from the address of the Legisla­ture of New Hampshire to the President of the United States, "By Union, our independence can be maintained, by Division, it is lost forever."