ON an occasion like the present, and in all assemblage like that before which I now stand, I am conscious that great application to a subject is necessary, in order to instruct, and great ingenuity, in order to entertain. With respect to the first, that necessary proportion of at­tention due from the conductor of an extensive, and in the present crisis, by no means enviable public business, from the father of a large and in no wise opulent family, (lately berest of its best support, a remembrance of whose virtues calls the daily sigh, and forces the nightly tear from my widowed recollection) will pro­claim me not to have been capable of paying on the present occasion. Should [Page 4]I fail in the second respect, the shortness of my time for preparation, taken into view with my earnest and sincere wish to please, will make a large draught in my favor, on your well known and ofte [...] ex­perienced candor and generosity.

Impressed with these ideas, I shall pro­ceed, without further apology, to lay the thoughts and researches of a few leis­ure hours before you, hoping to afford in­struction to some, to give pleasure to others, and, if possible, to avoid offence to any.

A worthy young gentleman of this vi­cinity, when lately conducting a periodi­cal publication, in a neighboring slate, devoted one quarter of it to beautiful col­lections and original offays, calculated to raise the geni [...]s, and to mend the the heart; and adopted as it; motto, that beautiful and poetical sentiment, "I have here made a nosegay of culled flowers, and bring nothing of my own but the thread that ties them." Unhappily for him, his culled flowers, or their appendages, smelt too strongly like the cultivation of 1777 to suit the vicinity he had chosen for his residence. How it may fare with my [Page 5]present effay, is not a matter of very great anxiety to me, want of leisure having forced me to make very large, and even literal extracts, from various authors. If therefore, I can produce a fair claim to a handsome "string to tie them," the praise of having judiciously selected and arranged important political truths (in the opinion of the present company) my am­bition will be fully gratified.

An ingenious anonymous author, who wrote about the beginning of the present revolutionary war in Europe, remarks, "That the world has for ages been flooded by the blood of its inhabitants, thro' the caprices of tyrants, under the denomina­tion of Kings, Emperors, Popes, &c. and the misery of millions demands of wisdom, where is the power which establishes and connects all the orders of a community, and on which they all depend? Where is the centre to which every thing tends, the principle from which all is derived the sovereign that can do everything? Who can point out to us the form, the organi­zation of that moral person, a society or community, to which unity is necessary and of which liberty is the effect?"

[Page 6] These are indeed momentuous quest­ions: Satisfactory answers to them is not interesting to a bare neighborhood, to a state, or to a kingdom, but is of the most intimate concern to the world, and of the highest importance to the great family of man.

The sophistry of political writers has been exhausted [...]n the comparative mer­its of monarchies, [...], and de­mocracies, but [...] in the de­moc [...]ati [...] [...] of the United States, and [...] now spreading thro the [...] has been exhibited, [...] of a society, which may [...] and defend with its while force, the [...] and prop­erty of every one of its members, and in which each individual, by uniting himself to the whole, shall never theless be obedi­ent only to himself, and remain fully at liberty to every thing but injury.

If this desirable state of things can ex­ist under any possible form of govern­ment, it must certainly be under tha [...] which is the least complicate in its con­struction, and which most intimately co­incides with the views, and most critical [Page 7] [...]ards the rights of the individual: [...]or with confidence I can ask the quest­ion, "Is not the principle established in nature and in reason, that the supreme power is, and forever ought to be, in the hands of the body of the people? because that body can have no interest contrary to that of the individuals of which it is composed, and therefore stands not in need of a guarantee, to secure the good usage of the citizen: for it is equally impossible for a political as it is for a natural body, to have a disposition to hurt itself, or attempt, under the exer­cise of reason, to injure its members.

It is, perhaps, of as great importance to the existence and well being of repub­lican governments, as any one principle whatever, that the public voice should have a mode of expressing itself, and that such mode should form the basis of every political constitution: For the supreme power itself can never be deputed, the ac­tual sovereignty resides in the body of the people, and he who wishes to subvert it, is a traitor to the commonwealth of freedom.

Hence it results, that the act which [Page 8]constitutes the American government [...] act which constitutes a free government cannot possibly be a contract. There are no parties existent; it is the absolut [...] will of the sovereign people, constituting rulers and creating subordinate powers [...] and the depositories of its power, whethe [...] called kings, presidents or senates, a [...] not by such appointments constitute [...] masters; they are rightfully subject to their sovereign the people, are amenable to them for their conduct, and ought to be treated as traitors when they dare to exceed the limits assigned to them: in con­sonance with that eternal law of nature which subjects a part to the whole.

The necessity of government, in civil­ized society, has in all ages, and forever will, induce men to sorm social compacts, and depute certain powers to individuals or public bodies, constituted as actors in behalf of the sovereign people. But when the people have deputed they are not defunct; the sovereignty is not annihil­ated; and however constitutions may point out no way for the sovereign to make [...] will known, yet, the power ex­ists, its d [...]ed [...], votee is heard at solemn [Page 9]interval, and at its awful utterance ty­rants are wont to tremble.

It may perhaps be argued with pro­priety, from the preceding, that it would be the height of wisdom, were all consti­tutions so formed, as (without waiting for evils and mal-administrations to gain strength from the supineness of the peo­ple) to call its public functionaries stated­ly and regularly to an account for their administration, and to determine public­ly, whether they had confined themselves within the bounds prescribed them. The general will should flow from all to be agreeable to all, every one subjects himself thus to the conditions which he imposes on others: this is equitable be­cause common to all; useful because it can have no object but the general good, and durable because resting on the public [...]trength. The general will is always in [...]he right, and being thus clearly defined, [...]nd fully expressed, in an existing consti­tution, and its principles statedly recur­ed to in the examination of its administ­rators, would inform the public reason, by [...]e necessity of reflection on the events it [Page 10]produced; effects would thus become causes, and even errors instructions.

If we turn our thoughts on the occa­sions which have produced the over­throw of governments, and the gen­eral destruction of constitutions in the world, we shall trace them universally to the linking of the arbitrary power of usurpers, with the sacerdotal tyranny of excclesiasties. The present appears to be an age favourable to the investiga­tion of principles, and constitutions are arising which must apparently exclude the injury, by foreclosing the admission of the evil. In the demonstrative sciences truths not clearly admited are never en­forced: and truth is never opposed with passion and malignity, but when enjoined as matter of belief, without suitable de­monstration. And as it is with axioms o [...] science, so it would be with those of reli­gion, were that sacred business left by man as it is left by God: by that God wh [...] is the source of being, whose eye pervade [...] immensity, and of whose existence no ra­tional mind can doubt, without feeling itself involved in inextricable absurdities.

Happy are the American States, su­premely [Page 11]happy their national federation, in rejecting from their constitutions super­stitious establishments of every kind, and leaving to the individual the sacred right of worshiping Jehovah, in such way as the dictates of his conscience prescribes, secure from injury, and restrained alone from injuring his fellow men, his family, or himself, by his religious duties. This is truly a source of exultation to every un­biased mind, and seems to promise a sta­bility to our constitutions, that no other principle could have ensured.

Superstition has been involved in the constitutions, and predominated in the governments of the world universally; sometimes acting as an instrument, often­er as a director, and forever sheltered from the aproach of reason, by its assum­ed sanctity, and the supposed expediency of suporting the very constitutions, which it was ever secretly, and surreptitiously undermining.

The Romish imposture was perhaps the most remarkable in this respect of any upon record in the annals of modern history. It approached civil government in the garb of lowly meekness and disin­terested [Page 12]humility; it first sought tolera­tion, then protection, it afterwards gained alocal, and in the course of time a general dominion, until it nearly obained the wish of Caligula, for widcextend [...]d Christendom appeared to have but one neck, on which the pope sat down his consecrated foot, and established an absolute temporal and ecclesiastical supremacy over it.

But the world became alarmed, and na­tions revolted against the sacred imposi­tion; yet melancholly to relate, they preserved a sacerdotal egg, in every nest, which under one shape or other has pro­duced a ghostly monster, a little nicer but as satal quite to prey upon the vitals of liberty; until the establishment of e­qual governments in America, under con­stitutions which rejected priest-crast alto­gether, as a state engine, gave an exalted lesion to mankind, and leaves religion subject to the discernment of every mind, as the great parent of the world, and him who taught as never man before or since taught men, has lest that interesting facred business.

Whence then arises the discordant jar­gon of the present day, about prevailing [Page 13]atheism, and principles of licentiousness in America? about common sense declaring war with reason, and refined philosophy seeking to destroy the basis on which in­vestigation, its exclusive boast, must for­ever rest: From whom originates the senseless clamour about a union of church [...]nd state, and the necessity of guarding by [...]aw, the avenues through which Jehovah communicates impressions of his existence to the human soul? Is it not from the [...]r reverend stricklers for infallibility them­selves, who urge assertion for fact, and sophistry for demonstration: From the Monks, the Abbes, the Friars and the Bishops of humbled Rome, from interest­ed professors of the Scottish Kirk, from court parasites and pensioners in England, and from partially informed and imperti­nently assuming American striplings, just let loose from college, who in licentious declamation cast forth their little black­enings, to a [...]perse even the shade of a Franklin, and if possible to deregate from the merit of a Jefferson.

[Page 14] Have we excellent constitutions as in­dependent states? then let us preserved them in their simplicity, to ensure our in­dividual happiness.

Have we an excellent national consti­tution, then let us guard it with our lives, and denounce the traitor in his first essay to undermine it, in the least iota; lease light infringements grow to heavy inju­ries, and slavery creeps in through hole too large to stop, and rendered so by our supineness and inattention.

Let us spurn the idea in its every shape, that when the people are assembled they are omnipotent, but when they have ap­pointed their servants, they have transfer­red their omnipotence and sink to noth­ing.

The first paragraph of our glorious constitution, commencing with those im­portant words, to freedom sacred as to tyrants dreadful, "We the people," em­phatically proclaims that this power, and a warm sense of it, exists in the citizens of [...]; and that it is the deter­ [...] [...] will, that every [...] or birth, pos­ [...] [...] shall enjoy the great [Page 15]objects of society, liberty property and security.

These are not words of vague or indef­inite signification, their meaning is well understood, and even our lisping children can give a consistent idea of their appro­priate signification. Indulge me in gir­ing what to me appears as just and con­c [...]e a [...] of the te [...]ms as I recolle [...]t having [...] with in my reading.

Liberty, is the power obtitued for eve­ry citizent, [...] and engage­ments of [...] force, to act for his own happine [...]s without injuring oth­ers, and all beyond this [...].

The right of property [...] not relate merely to the tenement or land that forms may convey, but to the necessary justice that men of every condition should enjoy the advantages of their honest industry, and not be obliged to sacrifice them to the pride or pleasure of others.

And social security arises from the en­gagement of the whole community, to preserve the person, property and liberty of every individual, untouched while unof­fending:

Government has the power of munici­pal [Page 16]legislation, and its laws are obligatory upon all: but the nation when arranged, organized, and acting in their capacity as a sovereign, has authority over the gov­ernment itself; they have an indubitable right to disannul existing constitutions, and express its will in a new mode.

In consonance to this idea, says the de­claration of independence, written by the immortalized patriot Jefferson, against whom the malevolence of toryism has ev­er spent its shafts in vain. "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are en­dowed by their [...] with certain un­alienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de [...]iving their power from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and or­ganizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

[Page 17] Again says that incomparable instru­ment, "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them (the people under ab [...]olute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

To establish these sacred rights on a permanent basis, we resisted the arbitrary efforts of the British tyrant; for this our forefathers dared to cross the raging main, to this then savage wild, and for this their freeborn sons, on this auspicious day, a few years since, fought, bled, and conquer­ed, near the spot where we are now assem­bled, and left us free.

A mention of the event recals to mem­ory the scenes that introduced it. Again a view of 1775 returns—Let us indulge a retrospective glance, and adore the hand which guided us to victory: See the in­sidious foe is quitting Boston, under co­vert of the darksome night, to seize the [Page 18]provincial stores of Massachusetts deposit­ed at Concord: Hark! an agonizing groan swells in the air, and bears down full up­on us—the dreadful deed is done—the blood of freemen is shed by British hire­lings, and every band of union severed as in an instant. The plains of Lexington are stained with American blood, and see a band of heroes assemble to avenge their deaths: the British regular bands, panting high for havock, and bred to deeds of death; to murder, legalized by the tyranny of despots; are opposed by a scattering little body of determined freemen, urged on to war by imperious necessity only, but dreadful as the still messenger of fate. Their eyes flash fire, and their unerring aim selects the officers from among the insidious foe, and bids them fall to appease the manes of their departed friends, and set Columbia free. The Britons fly in wild disorder, death marks their progress, and dismay attends their steps in each di­rection.

Again our feelings are awakened; the work of death has recommenced; War­ren has greatly fallen! But said the ora­tor of Congress, in pronouncing an eulo­ium [Page 19]to his memory, "he is not dead, his virtuous citizen shall never die! His memory shall be forever present, and for­ever dear, to all good men, to all who [...]ove their country. In the short space [...]f life of but three and thirty years, he [...]ad displayed the talents of a statesman, the virtues of a senator, and the soul of a [...]ero!

"Approach all ye whom the same in­ [...]erest inspirits, approach your country­ [...]an's still bleeding body, wash with your [...]ears his honorable wounds; but hang not [...]o long over his inanimated corps, return [...]o your habitations, to fill them with detes­ [...]tion of the crimes of tyranny: Let your [...]orrible description of it make each [...]air to stand on end upon your children's [...]eads, inflame their eyes with noble rage, [...]amp menaces on their brows, and draw [...]y their mouths indignation from their [...]earts! Then, then, shall you give them [...]ms, and your last, your fondest wish [...]all be, that they may return victorious, [...] may die like Warren!"

This was the sentiment of 1777! It [...]read, swift as the electic flu [...]d! Our [...]tion fled to arms, and taught the aston­ished [Page 20]world the important lesson, that when a nation rises, tyrants sink; that when an empire struggles, mercenary bands are worsted; that the voice of th [...] people is the voice of God. We strug [...] gled through difficulties, the bare recol [...] lection of which almost appals the heart yet with a general tincture of succe [...] which like the pillow of cloud by day and shining light by night, kept con­stantly in view, sufficient to convince th [...] attentive observer, that virtue is the care of Heaven, and that our preserver could save by many or by sew.

Perhaps at no period of our revolution­ary struggle, was the political horizon o [...] America more thickly overcast, than [...] the important period which the presen [...] celebration was designed to commemo­rate.

The enemy elate with partial successe [...] and vain from superiority of number [...] rushed on from post to post. The arm [...] of Washington retreated from state [...] state, from Long-Island to Pennsylvania General Lee, to whom America th [...] looked up as second, perhaps, to Washing­ton alone, was in the hands of the enem [...] [Page 21]while in our northern quarter the foe concerted and soon after executed his [...] ­sign of forcing us to quit the important posts which guarded our frontiers, and were generally in flight before the haugh­ty Burgoyne, whose empty boast of quick­ly gaining elbow room enough in Amer­ica, appeared now in a likely way to be fulfilled.

But the tide had past the flood, the cur­rent turned—Washington checks the en­emy, and gains an important advantage, at Trenton. He arranges his little ar­my, recrosses the Delaware, again faces the foe, and baffles his expectations at Trenton, after which by a stroke of gen­eralship, which added new lustre to the records of warlike atchievments, he eva­cel the exulung, and vastly superior foe, [...] their rear guard at Princeton, and threw himself into a strong position where, covered by natural defiles, and passes easily defended, he fixed secure w [...]ter quarters for his army, even in the teeth of the enemy. While in this north­ern quarter, but a few months afterwards, our friend and townsman Col. Warner, [Page 22]aided by the intrepid Col. Francis, of New-Hampshire, gave a check to the Bri­tish at Hubbardton, and placed their names high on the lift of same. Who can revoke irrevocable sate? The gallant Francis, opposing mighty odds, and baf­fling every effort of mercenary skill, pour' forth the purple current of his heart, a rich libation at the shrine of freedom [...] on this affecting event transpiring, the brave Col. Warner, opprest by superior­ity of numbers, made a good retreat, be­ing preserved by munificent providence, to yield important aid, in a more brilliant scene, the battle of Bennington.

Do not our hearts once more respond the feelings they that day experienced. Methinks I see the fire once more enfla­ming every man, and glancing from each eye, while the gentle fair lift up a suppli­cating voice, and lisping infants join the prayer for victory. See the aged matron bids her husband and her sons adieu who fly to meet the foe. The tender sister, the betrothed maiden, cling to their broth­ers and expected husbands, then dropping from their arms resign them to their sate, and to the guard an care of an Almighty [Page 23]friend. The female groupe assemble! where to fly, or how to act, they anxious­ly enquire! Enquire, alas! in vain, for none can answer. Hark! the dreadful battle rages—thundering cannons roar, and to the affrighted tremblers seem to rend the vaulted sky. See the aged mat­ [...]on slowly moves, opprest alike with age and terror, to seek a place of safety! the tender mother clasps her trembling in­fants to her bosom, her weeping daugh­ters aid her, and divide her care; they fly [...]om place to place, dreading a savage [...]oe in every covert, and fainting at the [...]ustling of a leaf; they seek for comfort [...]n some calm placid countenance, some [...]ind sustaining look, but seek alasin vain; [...]he brave are all in the field, and the poor [...]embling innocents they quitted, are for­ [...]d to gather consolation from among themselves, and trull in [...]im on whom even [...]ate depends. How happy such reliance! [...]ow sure a refuge is the God of Justice! [...]ow brest the country that enjoys his miles, upon a righteous contest.

Never, O never can Vermont forget [...]er brave allies from Berkshire—Never [...]an the all darkening shades of time erase [Page 24]the memory of the gallant Stark, with his New-Hampshire heroes from our minds. They rushed with open bosoms to oppose the foe, to check his progress, or to share our sate: Heaven smiled upon their efforts, of them it scarce was flatte­ry to say,

The late of America at that time ap­peared suspended with an even beam, and this the pivot on which all must turn. The defeat of Baum, under providence, decided the fate o [...] Burgoyne, and the sur­render of Burgoyne the fate of America. Thus as Jonathan and his armor bearer, by divine assistance, smote a Philistine gar­rison, and changed the aspect of a bloody war, so the intrepid Stark, near this devo­ted village, discomfited an equally impi­ous host, and firmly held by the Almigh­ty hand, laid the fair corner stone of A­merican freedom, in Vermont.

Beneath the shadow of the tree of lib­erty we sought, we conquered, and beheld [...] free and equal government arising like a phenix from the ashes of sacrificed tyr­anny, and under the auspices of a Wash­ington, great in the council, glorious in [Page 25]the field, we established our inestimable federal constitution, the pride of America and the admiration of the world.

O let us watch our government with a careful but a scrutinizing eye. Wifely have we left a means, even in the consti­tution itself, to amend its errors, on dis­covery; let us touch it cautiously, but if occasion arises, let us do it resolutely.— The youth of nations, says a celebrated writer, is the age most favorable to their independence. It is the time of energy and vigor. Our souls are not yet sur­rounded by that apparatus of luxury, which serves as hostage to a tyrant.— God grant they never may be, but that we may cautiously guard against the en­croachments of the great, the solly of the weak, and the designs of the wicked; cor­recting their errors by the force of rea­son, and thus averting the dire necessity of an appeal to arms. But, if at any su­ture time, by the insidious wiles of wick­ed and designing men, our independence should be endangered, our property ren­dered insecure, and our substance lavished on courtiers, sycophants, and tools of tyr­anny, [Page 26]may the spirit of 1777 reanimate our zeal, may we seize the sword as the dernier resort, and live respected or ex­pire at freedom's shrine, establishing the doctrine with our blood, that an oppress­ed people have the right of resisting their oppressors; and that resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.