An oration, delivered at Taunton, on the 4th of July, 1799. By Simeon Doggett, Jun. A.M. Preceptor of Bristol Academy. ; [Four lines from Virgil]

An oration, delivered at Taunton, on the 4th of July, 1799. By Simeon Doggett, Jun. A.M. Preceptor of Bristol Academy. ; [Four lines from Virgil]

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Title page

AN ORATION.

[Page]

AN ORATION.

RESPECTED AUDIENCE,

UNDER an all-supporting Providence, nothing but an undoubting reliance upon your candour, and the warmest cordiality in the sentiments this day embraces, could have given me assurance to accept the honour and enjoy the pleasure of addressing my Fellow Citizens upon an occasion so entirely interesting as the present: But thus supported, my diffident heart animates, with sympathetic ardour, to felici [...] you on the return of the illustrious aniversary of our nation's birth. On this auspicious day may the hallowed fires, which, through the United States glowed so ardently on the altars of FREEDOM and INDEPENDENCE, during a most distressing, but victorious war, again rekindle, blaze to the heavens, spread light and joy over the western hemisphere, and flash terror across the Atlantic.

[Page] THE day we now celebrate ever brings its subject with it, that of LIBERTY and our National INDEPENDENCE.

THE principles and facts these involve, having long occupied the minds and arrested the hearts of free-born Americans, having been often explained by our civilians, narrated by our historians, sung by our poets, and enforced by our orators, you will not, at this late day, expect any thing new on these important subjects. But so far from displeasing, this is the very circumstance which peculiarly interests the patriot. He loves to travel back the well fought ground; to review the principles that gave rise to this great day; to feast upon the dignified emotions and vast transactions, connected with it, and, from the grand drama, to sublime his heart, reanimate his patriotic resolutions, and transmit to posterity the magnanimous sentiments. This disposition let us now indulge.

RELIGIOUS liberty is a complete toleration to every citizen freely to form, and seriously to promulge his own creed; and, without molestation, to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience, provided he disturb not the good and wholesome laws of the community. That Religious Liberty, thus defined, is one of the natural rights of man, needs no arguments to prove, more than the definition itself. But notwithstanding this important doctrine is, to the [Page] unprejudiced mind, intuitive, yet it seems never to have been fully understood in the eastern world. The great whore of Babylon, the Romish Church, assuming the keys of heaven and the sceptre of empire, enforced her creeds forms by the curses of heaven and all the horrors of persecution. Thousands, yea millions of the human race, have been sacrificed upon the bloody altars of ecclesiastic infallibility. And tho' protestantism reformed many of the errors and corruptions of the Romish church, yet it seems never in Europe, and not until very lately in America, to have assumed just sentiments of Religious Liberty. The enlightened nation of England has ever been disgraced with ghostly tyrants; and, what is more strange, even a Calvin must persecute. Swayed by this unaccountable spirit, the government of England passed the Act of Conformity, that the Thirty Nine Articles of the Episcopal faith might bound the principles and mould the worship of the whole nation. Having thus erected the standard of infallibility, the iron rod of persecution is extended to scourge mankind under its sanguinary banner. Under this rod our pious ancestors long anxiously groaned. To escape from this, and enjoy that religious liberty, which, they were convinced, was the unalienable right of man, with hearts resting upon the Almighty, they tore themselves from their native country, and [Page] nobly adventured to this western world, then a dark, unbounded forest, teeming with bloody savages and beasts of prey. Their sufferings were unparalleled: but supported and animated by the power of religion, the principles of liberty, and the blessings of heaven, their resolutions were unconquerable, their perseverance unbroken, their success and rising glory miraculous.

CIVIL and Religious Liberty are nearly related, and generally disposed to walk hand in hand. "Civil liberty is the not being restrained by any law, but what conduces, in a greater degree, to the public welfare," and a security against all such restraint. This is very different from natural liberty, that is, for every man to do as he pleases; which can exist only in a state of solitude. As ever mankind begin to associate, they begin to find the necessity of restraint. Many of their natural rights, that are less important, must be given up to the restraints of general laws, formed to secure those which are more important. Hence, as a celebrated Author observes, "that people, government, and constitution is the freest, which makes the best provision for the enacting of expedient and salutary laws." No government among all the nations of the earth now existing, so fully answers, I concieve, this description, as that of the United States. The principles of this government were [Page] early imbibed by our patriotic Ancestors. As a grateful return to our parent country, the colonies were ever willing that she should regulate and command our external trade; but never would they consent that the right of internal legislation should, unrestrictedly, and without a representation, be rested in the British Parliament. On, this important hinge the great revolutionturned. The parliament declared that they had, and of right ever ought to have power to make laws binding the colonies in all cases whatever. This power they exercised in many acts inconsistent with British liberty, even to the taxing of us without ourconsent. And, at last, "to enforce their mad pretentions," and to humble and awe the Colonies into obedience, their fleets and armies were ordered across the Atlantic. The Colonies, truly loyal, address the throne in the respected language of petition and remonstrance. Treated with contempt, persuaded that humble submission to the arbitrary measures of Britain was slavery, with hearts burning with the vivid glow of liberty, and invoking heaven to witness the Justice of their cause, they grasp the sword, as the last resort, determined to live free, or die in the glorious contest. Standing on this firm and exalted ground, the United States, in their national Congress, ushered upon an admiring world this ILLUSTRIOUS DAY, which now reanimates our patriotism.

[Page] WHEN we look back upon the circumstances of this transaction, consider the vast resources of the British nation, the unequalled power of their navy, the distinguished discipline and heroism of their armies, and their determinations to humble us; the infancy of the United States, their inexperience in the art of war, the deranged state of their government, their destitution of the means of defence, and the entire exposure of their extensive coasts and frontiers; astonishment agitates the heart, at the imminent hazard, and a conscious dignity rests on the American character. GOD looked benignly on the amazing scene. Britain, expiating her crimes with her treasure and blood, is obliged to retract! America, covered with the scars of glory, is FREE and INDEPENDENT.

CIVIL and Religious Liberty, Independence and Country, to all nations objects the most dear, are remarkably so to Americans from peculiar considerations.

IN the first instance, we possess a country to which the GOD of nature hath been highly bountiful. As we are equalled by few nations in extent of territory, so also in the quantity, value and variety of productions. No country on earth, perhaps, is more richly supplied with the necessaries of life, and where comfortable living may, more certainly and easily, be obtained.

[Page] AN illustrious and pleasing proof of this, is the unexampled increase of population, which our country has for many years, experienced. The vast forests our boundaries enclose, are teeming with inhabitants; splendid cities rising where beasts and savages lately burrowed; and spacious colleges and holy temples reforming and humanizing man. And while our country seems a vast store-house of provisions, nurturing and encouraging population, our climate breathes salubrity, interweaving firmness and heroism into the habits of our robust sons, and painting the rose of health upon the cheek of our fair daughters. Commerce too, with all her blessings, smiles upon us. Our safe and numerous harbours are open to the four winds of heaven: our country perforated, in all directions, with large and beautiful rivers, and abounding in the most valuable materials for manufactory and trade. Hence the American flag is seen streaming on every sea: all nations courting her commerce, and, with a lavish hand, pouring upon us their productions.

WHILE our natural privileges are great, our moral are much greater. Our government, formed from the experience of all nations, is acknowledged the best in the world. Uniting freedom with energy, it is equally removed from the curies of despotism, and the disorganizing principles of French equality. Here can exist no haughty lord to oppress, nor factious [Page] demagogue to anatchize. With an established system of government of our own forming, regularly administered by men of ourown choosing, our liberties, civil and religious, lives and properties, are guarded, on the one hand, from the usurpations of the tyrant, and on the other, from the rapacious jaws of the leveller. With such natural and civil advantages, the Arts and Sciences find, in the United States, a congenial soil. Here have they, already, shot deep their roots, and are rapidly repullulating in all the beauties and excellencies of distinguished genius. And here, especially in New-England, education, governed by true republican principles, extends her all-forming hand to citizens of every class. While this, and this only, lays the foundation of permanent Democracy, it also happily prepares the way for rational religion. Hence the mild genius of christianity has spread her benign wings over this western world, and incense of pure devotion, from off a thousand altars, unrestrainedly ascends to the GOD of nations, and the blessed Emanuel.

THESE national blessings, which reflect distinguished glory on the United States, are peculiarly endeared by the expence at which they were purchased. For these, we have seen our illustrious ancestors making a sacrifice of those close attachments which endear a natal country; and, in want of all things, plunging into this then western forest, inhabited by [Page] beasts of prey, and men more savage than the beasts. For those distinguished national blessings, that we are now enjoying, great were their labours, great were their sufferings. For these also have the successive generations of their posterity, ever jealous of their rights, and appretiating their privileges, most zealously toiled, prayed, faught, and nobly bled. Especially, for these, have you, my countrymen, gloriously struggled: For these you exhausted your treasures, and undauntedly met the awful thunder of Britain; and many of our Fathers and Brethren, Sons and Husbands, freely bled away their lives on the field of battle. When we thus bring into view our high national privileges, and the enhanced price at which they were purchased: see our fields whitened with the bones of those who gloriously fell combating for their country, and consider our liberties as sealed to us by the choicest blood of our nation; who is not ready, with hearts flaming with holy ardor, to adopt the Apostle's style, let us stand fast in the liberties wherein GOD hath made us free. By the pious sufferings of our Ancestors; by the toils and blood of our friends; by the anxious counsels of our civilians, and the prayers of saints; by the cause of humanity and posterity, and by the voice of GOD, are we called to stand firm on the precious ground of LIBERTY and INDEPENDENCE; with united energy to support our excellent constitution and government, [Page] and to assume the character of an impartial, generous friend to every pacific nation, while we exhibit the strong arm of terror to the hostile and disorganizing. This exalted ground, I conceive, irresistibly invites the foot of every free born American, who is not deluded or corrupted with foreign politics. Standing here, we oppose not one nation in order to favour another; no, we glory in INDEPENDENCE on all; holding the olive branch in one hand, and the sword in the other.

THESE, Citizens, I firmly believe, are the principles that have ever actuated our Federal Government. On these principles have been predicated the important measures of Government, that respect the rival powers of Europe, which have been so unhappily viewed by many worthy citizens. With minds full of the principles of '76, and with a large view of the politics of Europe, Government have laid the whole train of their measures to form a powerful barrier of security against the hostile struggles of Europe, and especially against the unprincipled, all grasping jaws of France. These measures, important as our liberties, wise and firm as the mind of an ADAMS, and the patriotism of a WASHINGTON, demand the united and most powerful support of all the principles, passions, and exertions which confirmed the day we now celebrate. Is it possible that Americans, who glory in INDEPENDENCE, should oppose [Page] those measures, dictated by the highest wisdom of our nation! I will not say, that those, who continue to censure andreproach our government for their European measures, design to encourage the insults and depredations of France: but I must say, that they have done it. I will not say, that those who oppose these measures, wish to sacrifice the INDEPENDENCE of the United States to France: but I must say, that the measures, they oppose, are those which secure our INDEPENDENCE. This is evident from the causes that have given rise to those measures, and the effects they have produced. These causes are, principally, the politics of France. I will venture to say, the history of man does not furnish aninstance of such a total loss to every thing that is good, and such an entire corruption of manners, as the scene which France has exhibited. Many centuries had they waded down, loaded with systems of government, and religion perfectly despotic. These, unnatural and erroneous, continued to deprave and corrupt the public mind as long as they retained sufficient energy for their support. When this ceased to awe, and their tyranic forms yielded to revolution, the people, devoid of rational principles, and fascinated with false ideas of liberty and equality, rushed, like a bursting Ocean, into the most vile excesses, and awful enormities! Erasing from the mind every sacred idea of religion, and abolishing all its forms and ordinances, [Page] nothing remained to restrain the full operation of the worst and most corrupted passions of the human heart. With the most horrid convulsions and tremendous havock, revolution rapidly succeeds revolution. Having sacrificed more than three millions of their inhabitants, in the unexampled scene, the throne of the Directory rises upon their ruins, all covered with crimes and blood. By this all-grasping, unprincipled, godless monster, every resource of the nation is turned into the channel of war, and the people, charmed and duped with the sounds of LIBERTY and EQUALITY, are governed by the guilotine and thesword.

THIS horrid picture of Frenchmen, at home, is exceeded by nothing, except that which their conduct exhibits abroad. To support and pay their vast armies, and to satiate their own unbounded lusts, the Directory are driving their depredations and conquests to every point their mad hopes can carry them. They approach with the Siren voice of philanthrophy, announcing their designs to emancipate and regenerate: but their meaning is to divide and conquer; sacrifice and plunder! That these are their motives, Holland, Venice, with several other states of Italy, Genoa, and Switzerland, stand, this day, at once, sad monuments of testimony, and flaming beacons of admonition to an astonished world. In the fate of these nations, we read in letters of blood, the character and [Page] politics of France. Let us, in imagination, if imagination can sustain the scene, for a moment follow the French into Switzerland. In this garden of Eurupe, we see a people industrious, free, contented with their government, and nationally happy. We see the subtile emissaries of France enter this nation: we see them scatter jacobinic poison: we see the Helvetic body convulsed with revolutionary paroxisms: thus weakened to the awful crisis, we see the unprincipled Armies of the Directory, thirsting for conquest and plunder, rushing upon them: we see them an easy victim, robbed of their wealth, and their country ravaged; their innocent women falling a sacrifice, and the Alps reddening with human blood. We see Switzerland a subjected, tributary province of France, awed to obedience by a powerful army of Frenchmen in the heart of the country. Can a free-born American, who knows the value of LIBERTY and INDEPENDENCE, view a spectacle like this, and not feel his heart throb with a noble indignity: address the throne of heaven for suffering humanity; and go, and reexamine his trusty sword?

BUT if we come nearer home, we shall not only know, but realize the views of the Directory. Early in the European contest, did that great and prudent man, the immortal WASHINGTON, as Father of his country, assume for her a neutral position. To hold this position, was the policy and anxious study [Page] of our government. While this policy secured to us the peace and friendship of other nations, France is determined on evil. Our country swarmed with Frenchmen, practising their diabolic skill of disorganization; our seas are covered with their pickaroons, and commerce falls a sacrifice to their piracies. Government address the Directory by their ambassadors of peace; wish for a fair explanation of existing difficulties, and offer to throw into their power every advantage in our trade, which any other nation possessed; the negation of which, had been the pretext for their cruel depredations. Our ambassadors of peace are repeatedly rejected and insulted. Under these circumstances, what shall independent Americans do? Shall they turn Frenchmen, sacrifice their religion and government, and, in alliance with them, in opposition to heaven and earth, rush upon the wild ocean of revolution? Or, what is preferable, shall they become a humble tributary province? No, my Countrymen, we know too well our privileges and strength for humiliation like this. Shall we then call our shipping from the ocean, and lock them safe in our ports? Suppose it done, and view the consequence. We now see millions and millions of our hard-earnt wealth rotting upon our shores. Instead of ten-thousand joyous streamers ornamenting our coasts and rejoicing the heart of the mariner, our numerous harbours exhibit the dreary prospect of a desolated [Page] forest. We see our country deprived of many of the comforts of life; our numerous and flourishing cities at once begin to decay; thousands and thousands of citizens thrown out of business, and reduced to poverty; failures multiplying, and our revenues decreasing. Presented with this scene of distress, we have to consider, that the life and property of every citizen have an equal claim upon government for protection, and that the whole community is bound to defend every part and member of itself. Why then would we thus see our whole country vastly injured, and a large body of our worthy citizens plunged into the greatest distress? Why, simply, because we are afraid of Frenchmen! The honour and dignity of the United States will not be tarnished with injustice and cowardice like this.

Our government, actuated by sentiments of duty, and the true principles of LIBERTY and INDEPENDENCE, nothing doubting of the same principles, in the great body of the nation, adopt a system of measures for security and defence. French incendiaries are ordered from our country; seditious practices restrained; all intercourse with France suspended; a navy thrown upon our seas, and a provisional army put in a train. Illustrious measures! worthy of an ADAMS, becoming Americans, and terrible to Frenchmen. By these the dividers of our nation, and the infesters of our commerce escape from our coasts, and our commerce rises; the Directory lower their tone; the United States gain great honour abroad, and increasing union and advantage at home. Shall we censure our government for measures like these, with their importance and happy influence staring us in the face, and revolt at the necessary subsidy? [Page] Ye sacred principles of INDEPENDENCE forbid it! Forbid it humanity, virtue! Heaven forbid it! Instead of weakening the operation of these salutary measures, and encouraging the views of foreign enemies, who watch for our halting, by scandalizing our government and spreading dissatisfaction, we are, on this auspicious day, most powerfully admonished to come forward upon the ground of INDEPENDENCE and defence, heart and hand united. Divided we fall; but on this ground united, with an ADAMS in the Cabinet, and a WASHINGTON in the Field, we will, under the wing of Heaven, abide firm as the eternal rocks, biding defiance to all the storms and thunders of the eastern hemisphere.

WHEN we thus cast our eyes over the vast scene of our nation's history, nothing more entirely interests our hearts, and more powerfully addresses our patriotism, than the illustrious characters it has exhibited in every act. While gratitude embalms their memory in our hearts, be excited to imitate their shining virtues, and, like them, to step forward in the glorious cause of our Country, Independence, and Posterity. Among this countless band of patriots, who reflect high honour upon our country, and human nature, the character of a SUMNER arrests our hearts, while his recent death floods our eyes! While mildness and dignity rested upon his countenance, magnanimity and philanthropy reigned within, at once commanding our respect and our love. With a character unmaculated from earliest youth; an ardent lover and active promoter of order and literature; a friend to his country; a firm believer of christianity, and an ornament of the church, he early [Page] commended the notice and confidence of a grateful people. He reached the summit of honour, ere he reached the meridian of life. Formed to decide and to command, we hardly know which to venerate most, either Judge or Governor SUMNER. While cruel death has torn him from our embraces and the chair of state, our charity follows him to the skies, near the throne of GOD, reaping congenial joys with the christian patriots of his country, who have gone before him. Let his shining example touch our mourning hearts. Let us honour his memory by imitating his virtues.

WE live, my Friends, in an age of revolution and disorganization; not only in government, but in education, morality and religion. France, a restless fountain of all impurities, that the objects of her prey might become an easy sacrifice, is deluging the world, not only with revolutionary factions, but with licentious notions of Equality, destructive of all subordination, the foundation stone of education and, what is still more to be dreaded, with Deism and even Atheism. Not only their politics, but their equality and inequality, have crossed the Atlantic. These principles are not only alienatingour people from their [...]ment, but are secretly stealing into our ho [...] and our seminaries; engendering dissatisfaction and disorder: also depredating the holy Sabbath of [...] fathers, the grand bulwark of morality and religion, and unhinging the faith of many, and alienating their minds from their SAVIOUR and GOD. Such is the tendency of the boasted principles of the age of reason the French philosophy; infinitely more terrible and more to be guarded against than all the power of their arms. Shall those who [Page] are honoured with the holy style of christians, who glory in the piety of their Ancestors, and the high moral privileges of their country, view France with a careless eye? Shall they even give her the voice of [...], to the hazard, not of our government only, but of our holy religion? Do we revoit at those false ideas of liberty and equality, calculated to spread disorder through our houses, our schools, and our country? Do we shudder at infidelity, which erases from the heart every principle of virtue, opens every possible avenue to vice, and draws down the judgments of heaven upon a nation? then let us [...], zealously oppose [...] men and French philosophy; and rejoice at [...] [...]eration of the Alien Law, and the annihilati [...] [...] all intercourse and connection with France.

Do we love and honour [...] memory of our Forefathers: do we love order and [...] holy religion of [...]lested [...]: do [...] families, and anxiously pray for the prosp [...] [...] rising glory of succeeding ages of posterity? [...] let us rouse our every exertion to oppose the aw [...] torrent of licentiousness that is flowing acrose the Atlantic. To accommodate the Apostle's nerv [...] [...]yle, we have my Countrymen, to Wrestle not [...]inst flesh and blood, but against principalities [...] against powers, against the rulers of the dar [...] [...] this world, against spiritual wickedness. [...] [...]mined then by all that is good and great, [...] the whole armour of GOD that we may [...] to stand against the wiles of the Devil.

FINIS

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§

§

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AN ORATION, DELIVERED AT TAUNTON ON THE 4th of July, 1799

BY SIMEON DOGGETT, JUN.

—Facilis descensus Averni:

Noctes atque dies patet atri Janua Ditis:

Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad aurus,

Hoc opus, hic labor est.

VIRGIL.

NEW BEDFORD, (MASSACHUSETTS) PRINTED BY JOHN SPOONER.

1799.

Information about this book

Title statement

An oration, delivered at Taunton, on the 4th of July, 1799. By Simeon Doggett, Jun. A.M. Preceptor of Bristol Academy. ; [Four lines from Virgil]

Doggett, Simeon, 1765-1852.

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Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2006-06.

ID [DLPS]

N26633

ID [TCP]

N26633

ID [STC]

Evans 35418

ID [NOTIS]

APX4672

ID [IMAGE-SET]

35418

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99021451

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Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 35418.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N26633)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 35418)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 35418)

Source

— An oration, delivered at Taunton, on the 4th of July, 1799. By Simeon Doggett, Jun. A.M. Preceptor of Bristol Academy. ; [Four lines from Virgil], Doggett, Simeon, 1765-1852..

Extent

20 p. ; 23 cm. (8vo)

Printed by John Spooner.,. Newbedford (Massachusetts) :: 1799..

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