WITH the cheerful light of this day, the twenty third anniversary of American independence revolves up­on us. Various are the scenes, which have been unfolded to our view, since we celebrated this jubilee, the last year, in this place.

THE glorious declaration of independence, announced to an admiring world, on this memorable day; the encomiums bestowed on that illustrious band of senators, who pronounced the solemn transaction; the enthusiastic praises lavished on liberty and free­dom, have been the themes of almost every speaker, on this day, [Page 4] since the epoch of our national birth. Leaving then this beaten path, so minutely explored by my predecessors, you will permit me to call your attention to scenes, perhaps as important as those we have just mentioned. Those events which led to the declara­tion of independence, and the various struggles for securing that important object, are so recent in your mind, that a recapitulation of them would be useless.

SCARCELY was the hostile sword unsheathed, scarcely had we reposed ourselves under the peaceful shade, after a long and cruel war, when another encroaching enemy arose. France, involved in endless revolutions, and tossed by the tempest of parties, wished to draw these United States into her political vortex. To accom­plish this purpose, and control the councils of this country, have, for several years past, been her favourite object. To effect this, she has, like a deceitful courtezan, used every artifice, by flatter­ing, soothing, threatening, and appealing to the generous feelings of our countrymen. While she was struggling for her natural rights, we were her advocates. But when she laid aside the mask, when we saw her hands stained with the blood of her innocent [Page 5] victims, when "with gigantic strides" she trampled on the dearest rights of society, when rapine and disorganization marked her ev­ery step, we fled from her embraces. From her treatment to other republics we were taught our destiny, should we listen to her syren song. With the prostituted sounds of liberty and equality, she has already enslaved the one half of Europe. Under the specious names of reason and philosophy, she has prostrated all order, and introduc­ed that anarchy and confusion which would have abashed the sav­age Goths and Vandals.

THE United Netherlands were the first who drank of her poisonous cup. That enterprizing nation, from small beginnings, had risen to opulence and glory. After having expelled the ocean from a considerable part of their country, they had extended their colonies to the East and the West Indies. Their De Wits and other heroes had nobly defended their flag, and they had become the second maritime power in Europe. Agriculture, commerce, and manufactories, flourished under the fostering hand of their government. The industrious and frugal inhabitants were secure in their persons and property. They enjoyed as much freedom as [Page 6] was consistent with the state of society in that country. Happy nation, had they known their true interest!

THUS happily situated, many of those restless beings, who call themselves true patriots, wished to change their national govern­ment. The party adhering to these demagogues of sedition was considerable. Not finding that support in their own country, which they had anticipated, they extended their imploring hands to their loving sister, France. She, ever ready to promote such patriotic efforts, granted them her aid, and Holland was completely revolutionized. From that fatal day, she has been sunk in the depths of ruin and wretchedness, and now exhibits to these United States a lively picture of French perfidy and rapacity. Her ships, which whitened the ocean with their sails, and transported her wealth from every part of the globe, are now no more. Her com­merce is annihilated, her numerous manufactories abandoned, her resources exhausted, and her wretched inhabitants stript of every rational enjoyment.

ALL these accumulated evils, my countrymen, have been in­flicted [Page 7] by that nation who call themselves the friends of the poor, and the defenders of the rights of man.

BUT to fill up the black catalogue of her crimes, to exhibit to the universe the perfection of depravity, she has laid her re­lentless hand on the innocent, the happy, and the virtuous can­tons of Switzerland. Before this her crimes exceeded belief; they now exceed comprehension. At this consummation of vice and cruelty, angels must weep. The Swiss were, undoubtedly, the most harmless, industrious, free, and moral nation in Europe. Their minds, manners, and diversions, were pure as the limpid rivulets, which rolled down from the Alps they inhabited. France had early cast her basilisk eye on that happy country. She had determined to subjugate the brave and hardy Swiss. To accom­plish her nefarious purpose, she had blinded them with her preten­sions of friendship, and constantly kept a minister at their councils. By thus lulling them into a fatal security, she gained an opportun­ity of disseminating her baneful influence among them. The Swiss councils were divided into factions. Many, whose minds had been corrupted by French principles, used every artifice to retard [Page 8] all measures of defence. They succeeded in persuading their coun­try to negotiate. France seized this favourable moment. While the deluded Swiss were thus indecisive, reposing confidence in a na­tion calling herself their ally, they were almost imperceptibly over-powered by a numerous army. Though cajoled by an insidious foe, they resolved to make one glorious struggle for all that was dear to them. Thousands perished in the noble attempt. From that unpropitious day, this once free and happy country has experi­enced those scenes of horrour and cruelty, which it will be impossi­ble for me to paint. Figure to yourselves an army of undisciplined inhabitants, suddenly called together, disdaining to survive the freedom of their country, and slaughtered to a man. View the columns of smoke, arising from their villages on fire. View the wretched maids and matrons flying to the inaccessible cliffs of the mountains for shelter from a foe, whose "tender mer­cies are cruel." View the venerable gray headed father, cheer­fully yielding his bosom to the merciless stroke of a savage enemy, and beholding his brave and innocent sons butchered before his eyes. He who submits, and he who resists, equally falls a prey to an unfeeling assailant. At a sight of cruelty like this [Page 9] every human heart must bleed, and even the unrelenting Jacobin be constrained to say, "Alas, it was a piteous deed!" These, these, my countrymen, are the blessings of French fra­ternity; these are not the airy fictions of the speaker, but the so­ber truths of history.

COMPARE our situation with Switzerland. France did not at­tack that brave nation with an armed force, till she had matured the seeds of discord which had been sown in her councils. She then advanced with the sword in one hand, and her professions of friendship in the other. To us she is now acting the same treach­erous part. While her privateers are committing universal depre­dations on our commerce; while she is imprisoning, robbing, plundering, and maltreating our countrymen; while she is exert­ing herself by every artifice to control our councils, and extort contributions from us, she has the consummate impudence to feign a wish to negotiate. Americans, beware of the traitoress. Swit­zerland had her exclusive patriots, who opposed all measures of de­fence, as useless and expensive. With regret we mention it, we [Page 10] have a Giles, a Livingstone, a Gallatin, and others, who are now acting the same part in this country. "The French nation will never attack us," say they. "They are our best friends." "Let us appease their resentment by contributions, rather than break friendship with them." Can this be the language of freemen? No. He must be a "servant of servants" who can submit to such an indignity. Can an American be so fallen, so depraved? Many are. Such was the language of those perfidious Swiss patriots.

TRUE it is, our citizens, who have been advocates for France, have uniformly made high professions of love to their country. They are generally false. Can that child, who unbars his father's doors to the midnight assassin, who can coolly and deliberately see his father butchered, the chastity of his mother and sisters violated, their peaceable habitation devoted to ruin and devastation; can that child have the effrontery to plead his attachment to his father's family, and that this was done merely because he was displeased with some domestic regulation? Humanity shudders at the thought. To suppose our constitution, or its administration perfect, would [Page 11] be the height of presumption. But reform is not the wish of those exclusive patriots. Nothing short of a total subversion of all or­der can satisfy their refined ideas▪

THE opposition to our federal government and its measures, has mostly arisen in the southern and middle states. The antifed­eralists have always pretended, that our constitution was too aristo­cratic, both in its form, and operation. But their opposition has generally arisen from another source, and they have used this merely as a plausible and popular pretext. The fact is, it is too democratic for many of those states. In Virginia, and some oth­ers of the southern states, a few wealthy planters have the entire control of the counties in which they reside. The distinction be­tween these planters and the common labourer is as great, as in Great Britain, between the nobility and the same class of people. By the laws and usages of Virginia, no person's real estate can be attached for the payment of his debts. Under this pernicious law, which would disgrace the divan of Constantinople, those rich planters can practise every species of knavery. By the influence of this law, and the effects of slavery, this state, and some others, [Page 12] are as complete aristocracies as Venice, or Genoa ever were. The federal constitution makes all kinds of property attachable— It likewise imposes a heavy tax on those southern Nabobs, who, in their luxurious way of living, consume large quantities of import­ed articles, on which a duty is paid. As the constitution gains en­ergy, it lessens the influence of those overgrown planters. Per­ceiving their importance on the decline, they feel resentment, and immediately raise the cry of liberty and freedom. But can we be­lieve that man a friend to freedom, who holds numbers of his fellow mortals in the most abject state of slavery? who treats all, whom he supposes beneath his rank, with insolence and contempt? who wishes to rise in his importance, by stripping one part of society of every privilege? Such are most of our southern patriots, and such, I affirm, are the sources of their opposition to our federal government.

FROM the fate of those European republics, now groaning un­der the oppression and avarice of an unrelenting foe, let us learn wisdom. Holland, Venice, Genoa, Geneva, and Switzerland, no longer exist. Over their ruins humanity drops the "fast falling tear," and exclaims,

THEY afford us "precept upon precept," and our blindness must be inexcusable, should we fall into the same snare. We are not beyond danger, and should we fall under the iron hand of the terrible republic, our situation will not be more favourable than that of other subjugated nations.

WITH the olive branch of peace in one hand, and our weapons of defence in the other, let us ever be ready for war or peace. As our preparations for defence advance, France lowers her threaten­ing tone. She knows the Americans to be brave, hardy, and pa­tient; invincible in their attachment to their country, and their natural rights. She remembers that we have a WASHINGTON, to nerve every arm which her poison has not paralized. She has beheld our forests, almost in a moment, transformed into ships of war, our commerce extended, and her plundering marauders swept from the face of the ocean. With such resources as our country affords, we have nothing to fear, but discord and supineness. Let that unconquerable love of freedom, which glowed in the bosoms [Page 14] of our venerable ancestors, warm and animate every breast. Let us exhibit to the universe that their descendants have not degener­ated. Let us rally round our excellent constitution, and devoutly protest "to Him that liveth forever and ever," that "while time with us shall last," we will never yield to any foreign influence.