V. , - >< -^, , 1\^' 1^ 
 
 AN ORATION 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE OF 
 
 Col. Philemon Hawkins, Senior, 
 Deceased, 
 
 Born on the 28th of September, 1717, 
 
 AND WHICH 
 
 Was Delivered on the 28th Day of September, 1829, 
 
 At his Late Residence in the County of Warren 
 North Carolina, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN D. HAWKINS, Esq. 
 
 RALEIGH : 
 
 Printed by Lawrence & Lemay 
 
 Printers to the State 
 
 1829. 
 
 Reprinted at Raleigh : 
 
 Presses of Weaver & Houseman, 
 
 1906. 
 
FOKEWOKD TO SECON'D EDITION. 
 
 This address was delivered by mv late father, Colonel 
 John D. Hawkins, in 1829, and was first published in that 
 year. Very few copies of the original pamphlet are now 
 kno"\vn to be in existence. Believing that its re-publication 
 will be of interest to the numerous descendants of its subject, 
 Colonel Philemon Hawkins, St., I have decided to issue this 
 second edition for private circulation. 
 
 A. B. Hawkins, M. D. 
 
 Raleigh, K C, February 22, 1906. ■ 
 
AN OEATION. 
 
 Colonel Philemon Hawkins, of Pleasant Hill, Warren county, North 
 Caroiina, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, having for many 
 years entertained the desire to call together his descendants and con- 
 nexions, as we'l as those of his late father, Ool. Philemon Hawkins, 
 senior, deceased, at his late residence in Warren county, with the 
 view, thus assembled, to unite in bearing testimony to his worth and 
 to his memory, and to cement together more closely the whole family 
 union, did, on the 2Sth day of September, 1829, thus assemble them, 
 as well as health and ciicumstanoes permitted; and he invited 
 many respectable friends to associate upon the occasion, having pre- 
 viously caused the old family Mansitm House of the deceased to be 
 fitted up. When thus assembled, he called upon his grandson, 
 Leonidas Polk, and great grandson of the deceased, to offer up to the 
 Throne of Grace a prayer upon the occasion, who delivered an ele- 
 gant and a very appropriate prayer. And he called upon his son, 
 John D. Hawkins, and grandson of the deceased, to deliver an oration 
 commemorative of his history, and his virtue; when he delivered 
 the following: 
 
 My relatives and respected hearer's: 
 
 I am called upon by Col. Philemon Hawkins, now the 
 elder, to fulfil a trust, which his great desire to greet his rela- 
 tives and friends, intiuenced at the same time by the most 
 profound filial veneration, has induced him to impose. It is 
 for me to attempt on this day to do justice to the character 
 and memory of Col. Philemon Hawkins, senior, deceased. 
 The task is a novel one, and the theme requires abler efforts 
 than, I fear, I can bring to the discharge of it. It is there- 
 fore with gTeat distrust I attempt to approach it. An assem- 
 blage of this sort, and upon such an occasion, is not only new, 
 but unprecedented in our section of country. But, notwith- 
 standing its novelty, what can be more justifiable, or more 
 interesting than to witness a large assemblage of relatives and 
 friends, called, together by the venerable head of his family 
 association, to pay homage to the great worth of a departed 
 ancestor, who, when living, stood pre-eminently at its head? 
 It is an effort, although a feeble one, to arrest from oblivion 
 
the recollection of one, whose memory is fast fading away, 
 and ere long will be forgotten, because all who knew him will 
 soon have passed by and be forgotten also. 
 
 To hold up to view the successful enterprise, the patriotism 
 and the virtues of the departed dead, is the province of biog- 
 raphy, which acts as a mirror to reflect upon the living, ex- 
 amples of wisdom and of worth, from whence may be derived 
 the most salutary lessons. If biography in general produces 
 these conceded results, its benign influence will operate in an 
 increased ratio upon relatives, when contemplating the en- 
 viable character of a departed and beloved ancestor. 
 
 Col. Philemon Hawkins, senior, deceased, was born on the 
 28th of September, 1717, on Chickahominy river, near Todd's 
 bridge in Charles City county and State of Virginia, this 
 day 112 years ago. He was the oldest child of his parents, 
 Philemon and Ann, and his father died when he was of 
 tender years, leaving three children, Philemon, John and 
 Ann. Although Philemon the elder died, leaving to his 
 children a scanty patrimony, he seemed, to have entertained 
 peculiar notions of predilection in regard to them. He felt 
 towards them an unsual confidence ; for, by his will, he de- 
 sired that they should come to the control of their patrimony 
 at the age of 18 years; and this confidence, as regarded the 
 subject of this memoir, was not misplaced. 
 
 The widowed mother Ann afterwards intermarried with 
 a native of Ireland ; and by the time her son Philemon had 
 reached the appointed age of 18, his celebrity for industry 
 and manly deportment excelled all his associates, even those 
 of riper years, and was of extensive circulation, a sure prog- 
 nostic that he would rise above his then condition. Col. 
 Lightfoot, of Williamsburg, a gentleman of great wealth and 
 discernment, had three plantations in Charles City county 
 and the fame of our then youthful ancestor had reached him 
 though he lived 60 miles distant, and had deeply impressed 
 him with a desire to place these three estates under his 
 youthful control. He sent for him to come to Williamsburg, 
 
and on getting there, thej made a contract, the stipulations 
 of which showed at once the confidence of the employer and 
 the gTeat reputation for good management and great ability 
 in the employed. But his mother was unhappily married. 
 It was her misfortune not to find in her husband that con- 
 jugal tenderness, affection and forbearance, which the wedded 
 estate should assure to those who enter into it. The ill 
 treatment of her husband had rendered the protection of her 
 son Philemon necessary to her safety. And her husband's 
 embarrassments and difiiculties had fixed in him a deter- 
 mined resolution to remove to North Carolina. This was a 
 trying time for the mother. To accompany her husband she 
 was compelled to do ; but to leave her son would bereave her 
 of that protection which had not only stayed the arm of 
 cruelty, but was further necessary to aid her with the neces- 
 saries of life, and to dispel the sad gloom of a cheerless fire- 
 side. She entreated her son to accompany her, and he 
 pleaded his engagement, and the necessity he was under hon- 
 orably to fulfil it. Under these distressing and conflicting 
 embarrassments, the unhappy mother repaired to Williams- 
 burg to entreat Col. Lightfoot to let her son off from his 
 bargain, that he might accompany her to ISTorth Carolina. 
 When she named the subject to him, he peremptorily refused 
 to let him off, saying, although he was but a boy, he had long- 
 desired his services and the pay he was to give him was 
 ample; and that he should not only injure himself, but her 
 son, by letting him off from the contract. With this morti- 
 fying and most distressing rebuff the distracted mother 
 retired to a neighboring place to spend the night, having 
 been unwilling to expose to Col. Lightfoot' s views the secret 
 motives which so much prompted her to desire the company 
 of her son. There melancholy, with all its occompaniments 
 of distress, harrowed up her soul, and she resolved to try Col. 
 Lightfoot once more, though mortifying, to tell him the cause 
 of her importunities. She gained his presence the next 
 morning, and found upon his brow that peculiar look, which 
 
indicated imwillingness to hear any more from her upon the 
 subject of her errand. But she entreated him to listen to her 
 motives, and unfolded to him her situation; that although 
 her son was but a boy, he was her gallant protector and de- 
 fender. This changed the scene. Col. Lightfoot, as a man 
 of chivalry, could not permit his interest to weigh against a 
 woman's safety and a mother's safety too, when that was to 
 be secured by the presence of her son. He instantly said, "Go 
 madam, and take your son. His great worth had caused me 
 to desire much his management of my business ; but your 
 need is entitled to the preference; and those rare qualities 
 and powers, which he possesses, and which had gained him 
 my confidence and esteem, will ensure your protection." 
 
 ■ Philemon, together with his brother John and his sister 
 Ann, accompanied his mother and her husband to North 
 Carolina, and they settled upon Six Pound creek, then Edge- 
 combe, now Warren county. Nearly the whole country was 
 then a wilderness inhabited by Indians and the wild beasts 
 of the forest. This country was then called a frontier, where 
 civilization had shed abroad but little of its influence, and 
 where the first settlers had to share, in a great degree, the 
 privations which attended the first settlers of these United 
 States. Persecution conduced to the first settlements of 
 America, and that though of a different sort, fixed the destiny 
 of this branch of the Hawkins family in this country. 
 
 There were other branches from the Charles City stock, 
 which migrated to other parts of the Union ; one went to the 
 State of Kentucky, which produced Joseph Hawkins formerly 
 a member of Congress from Kentucky, and who afterwards 
 died in New Orleans. That gentleman traced his connexion 
 with our family in a conversation with our distinguished and 
 venerable fellow citizen Nathaniel Macon, Esq., who now 
 contributes by his presence to commemorate this occasion," and 
 this day. 
 
 This branch of the family came here headed by Philemon, 
 who was but a youth a little turned 18 years of age, poor in 
 
purse, but rich in spirit. By the sweat of his brow he sus- 
 tained his mother, his sister and his brother with all the 
 comforts tlieir wants required. He cheered the drooping 
 spirits of his mother, and, by every effort in his power, con- 
 tributed to her wants and her wishes. His filial affection is 
 recounted the more willingly, because it is a virtue he not 
 only practiced, but because his course was such as to inspire 
 his descendants with his kindred spirit; and it is that spirit 
 which gave rise to this assemblage, and it is one of the mani- 
 fold evidences of its analogy to the parental stock which gave 
 it birth. May its influence descend to the remotest family 
 generation in parallel with this laudable example ! 
 
 In the year 1743, he intermarried with Delia Martin, the 
 daughter of Zachariah Martin, Esq., who lived in an upper 
 county of Virginia. But she lived with her brother, Capt. 
 John Martin, on Sandy Creek, then Edgecombe, now Frank- 
 lin county. They were married in Virginia at a church in 
 the county of Brunswick, by Parson Betty. By her he had 
 Fannie, who intermarried with Maj. Leonard Bullock, Col. 
 John" Hawkins, Col. Philemon Hawkins, Col. Benjamin 
 Hawkins, late Superintendent of Indian affairs. Col. Joseph 
 Hawkins of the Continental army, and Ann, who intermarried 
 with Micajah Thomas, Esq. All of whom have long since 
 passed to the tomb, except our venerable host Col. Philemon 
 Hawkins who is also the only survivor of the signers of the 
 Constitution of I^orth Carolina ratified in the year 1776 ; 
 and whose laudable desire to see altogether the descendants 
 of his worthy father, as well as his collateral kindred, has 
 invited us here this day that his history may be told over, to 
 excite us to inculcate his virtues, and to profit by his exam- 
 ples, at the same time we attempt to do honor to his memory. 
 
 Our worthy ancestors lived at the mouth of Six Pound 
 creek on Eoanoke river, about ten years. They then removed 
 to this tract of land, and not many years afterwards to this 
 'place, which was then in the county of Edgecombe. The prov- 
 ince of jSTorth Carolina was divided at an early period of our 
 
8 
 
 history as suited the then Lords Proprietors, and their gov- 
 ernment, into eight precincts, as they were called, to-wit: 
 Beaufort, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Hyde, Per- 
 quimons and Pasquotank, to which Bertie precinct was after- 
 wards added, by a division of Chowan. These precincts em- 
 braced the whole province and were afterwards called coun- 
 ties, and were divided and sub-divided and other counties 
 erected as the population extended and the reasons and neces- 
 sities of the province developed themselves. The first settle- 
 ments were made upon the seashore and they extended west- 
 wardly, as they increased. The metes and bounds of these 
 counties or precincts were but little known, and, owing to the 
 savage inhabitants of the country, their geography could not 
 be better ascertained at that time. Legislative acts were fre- 
 quently resorted to, to settle occurring disputes about boundary 
 and to form new counties, where the interests of the inhabi- 
 tants required them. This section of country, as well as I can 
 now ascertain it, was comprehended within Beaufort precinct, 
 and Edgecombe county spread largely within its limits. Prom 
 Edgecombe the county of Granville was taken in the year 
 1758, and the dividing line began at the mouth of Stone 
 House creek, on Roanoke river. Thence to the mouth of 
 Cypress swamp, on Tar river and from thence across the 
 river in a direct course to the middle ground between Tar 
 river and J^euse river, being the dividing line between Edge- 
 combe and Craven counties. The uncertainty of this latter 
 line now forms the subject matter of an unsettled dispute as 
 to boundary between the counties of Wake and Franklin. 
 In 1764, the county of Bute was taken from the county of 
 Granville ; and in 1779 the county of Bute was divided into 
 the counties of Warren and Franklin. 
 
 I have been thus circumstantial in the detail of the change 
 and formation of counties, because our ancestor figured in 
 many of them, living the greater part of the time at the same 
 place. In the year 1757 he was elected High Sheriff of Gran- 
 ville county, which then consisted of what Granville now is. 
 
9 
 
 added to all Franklin, and all that part of Warren lying to 
 the south of Koanoke river. In this extensive country, where 
 civilization was far from being complete, and where the arm 
 of the law was weakened by an habitual insubordination, 
 gTeat energy of mind as well as personal bravery was required 
 to perform the duties of sheriff. These qualities he possessed 
 in an eminent degree ; and when his deputies were overpow- 
 ered, as was sometimes the case, by those who threw off the 
 restraints of the law, he repaired at once to the scene of ac- 
 tion, and, even when threatened to be mobbed would person- 
 ally attack the leader, having the address at the same time 
 to win over his followers to a more correct course. This once 
 occurred in the Little river settlement now in the county of 
 Franklin, where one Bud Kade headed a mob to avoid pay- 
 ing taxes. And in the year 1759 when Robin Jones was 
 considered the most eminent lawyer in this country, many of 
 the suitors in Granville court, whose misfortune it was not to 
 get him on their side, lost their causes, as they supposed, by 
 his superior knowledge, and they fixed the determination t: 
 drive him by violence from the court. A threat to this effect, 
 it was hoped, would deter him from attending the court ; but 
 Mr. Jones was not thus to be alarmed. He felt that he was 
 shielded by his duty to his clients and the laws of the country ; 
 and that if the deputies could not enforce subordination, he 
 relied upon the High Sheriff. To that end, he privately ad- 
 vised the High Sheriff of the machinations planning, and so- 
 licited his personal attention early at court, prepared for 
 events, and to keep order. Accordingly the High Sheriff at- 
 tended court at an early hour, armed to meet any occurrence. 
 Robin Jones informed the court of the danger which threat- 
 ened him, urging at the same time that he was an ofiicer of the 
 court, and entitled to its protection. The court ordered the 
 sheriff to keep out of the court house all persons disposed to 
 produce a riot. Thus protected by the constituted authorities, 
 and firmly supported by his own inclination, he met at the 
 court house door the ring leaders, and some of them were bold 
 
10 
 
 and conspicuous characters ; for among them was Col. Benton, 
 the grandfather of Col. Thomas H. Benton, the present Sen- 
 ator from Missouri, who felt himself aggTieved and justified 
 in the course he took. The threatening rioters assembled at 
 the court house door, armed and made a show to enter; but 
 were prevented by the determined spirit of the High Sheriff 
 whose look, with arms in his hands, was too convincing that 
 the entrance would be too costly ; and, therefore, they de- 
 sisted from their purpose and dispersed. 
 
 The construction of the government which existed at this 
 period of our history was one of such discordance between the 
 governors and the governed, that that moral force which is 
 essential to its well being, and to the cementing together of 
 all its parts, did not exist. The idea of subjection to a for- 
 eign yoke, of a tributary obligation, even of the mildest form, 
 is repugnant to the choice ; and although the idea might not 
 at that time have been entertained to throw it off, yet a rest- 
 lessness and a dissatisfaction prevailed and a slight matter 
 was calculated to produce a popular ferment. We can trace 
 this jealous discontented spirit through our history for a long 
 time before it broke out in the Revolution which cured us of 
 that grievous disquietude. It was that disquietude, but more 
 systematically kept up, which had increased to an unprece- 
 dented height, and caused the Regulators to assemble in the 
 year 1771 and which ended in the battle of the Alemance on 
 the 16th day of May of that year. Gov. Tryon, the then 
 Governor of the colony of North Carolina, resided at jSTew 
 Bern and finding that the Regulators were trampling down 
 everything like government, and, if not resisted, would throw 
 the whole country into anarchy and misrule, and being by 
 education a military man, and of great personal bravery, he 
 resolved to march against them, and called to his assistance 
 a considerable military force. He at the same time called to 
 his assistance as many of the most respectable citizens of the 
 colony as he could, thereby calculating to add to his military 
 the moral force of the country. His assemblage on this occa- 
 
11 
 
 sion was large. It contained many of the first characters of 
 the colony and it had, as was expected, the calculated impos- 
 ing effect. The number on the side of the Regulators was the 
 largest ; but they lacked discipline or unity of action. Upon 
 this occasion his Excellency selected our venerated ancestor 
 as his chief Aid-de-Camp and assigned to him the hazardous 
 duty to read to the Regulators his Proclamation, which he 
 did promptly. And after the battle commenced, he was the 
 bearer of the Governor's commands throughout the whole 
 action. This so exposed him to the fire of the enemy, that 
 his hat was pierced by two balls, various balls passed through 
 his clothes, and one bullet and two buck shot lodged in the 
 breach of his gun, which he carried and used during the 
 action. But he had the good fortune not to be wounded. 
 After the battle was over, he was complimented by the Gov- 
 ernor for the very efficient aid he gave him, and for the brav- 
 ery and ability he displayed during the engagement. 
 
 This spirit of dissatisfaction, which had so often mani- 
 fested itself, although apparently quieted for the time, con- 
 tinued to increase until it burst in open opposition to the 
 British Government, about four years after the battle of 
 Alemance, and terminated in the establishment of the inde- 
 pendence of the United States. It is a little remarkable that 
 during this arduous struggle for our independence, those who 
 had been found, during minor conflicts, arrayed against the 
 government and laws, were never found acting conspicuously 
 in support of it. On the contrary, many of them were tories ; 
 and those who fought bravely under the banners of George 
 III, against the Regulators, were, during that great struggle, 
 the true whigs of the country. The reason for this difference 
 seems to have arisen from the circumstance that many of the 
 Regulators were enemies to good order and to government 
 generally, and for these causes were unwilling to unite in any 
 systematic efforts to shake off the British yoke. 
 
 During this great struggle for American liberty, our an- 
 cestor being three score years old, did not render himsjelf 
 
12 
 
 conspicuous in a military point of view, except by pushing 
 forward his sons in aid of the good cause, by supplying them 
 with all the money and other means which they required for 
 that purpose. But he was offered the command of a Briga- 
 dier General, which he declined, preferring to act in a civil 
 capacity. Although he was thus old, he had the industry, 
 activity and enterprise of a younger man, and preferred that 
 his sons should go forth in personal defence of the country, 
 while he stayed at home and made and supplied them with 
 the necessary funds; and this he did largely, as occasions 
 required them, feeling and acting for the good cause more 
 efficiently than he could have done in the field. But after 
 the adoption of the Constitution in 1776, and upon the elec- 
 tion of Richard Caswell, who M'as the first Governor of the 
 State of l^orth Carolina, he was elected by the General As- 
 sembly one of the Counsel of State ; which station he filled 
 •for some time, not only with Governor Caswell, but subse- 
 quently with Governor Alexander Martin. 
 
 Col. Philemon Hawkins, our ancestor, was a man about 
 five feet nine inches high, very compactly built, and, when 
 in vigorous health, weighed about one hundred and fifty-eight 
 pounds. He possessed uncommon muscular powers and 
 bodily activity, and a strength of constitution, which enabled 
 him to bear fatigue and fitted him for hardships. His early 
 education had been scanty, owing to his poverty and the loss 
 of his father ; but his natural mind was vigorous and compre- 
 hensive, well fitting and qualifying him for correct judgment, 
 for which he was conspicuous. This made him seem to be 
 correct by intuition; although he would make very .logical 
 deductions, showing at the same time the possession of strong 
 reasoning powers. His buoyant and enterprising spirit al- 
 ways kept him one of the first men of his time.. This, added 
 to his extensive business, gave him the great knowledge of 
 men and things, which he so eminently possessed, and were 
 the great sources of his general intelligence. Not having had 
 the benefit of a more early and liberal education, and feeling 
 
13 
 
 great need of it, and particularly for its concomitants, good 
 language and the free use of words, he resolved at a very early 
 period to acquire the means, and to give his sons good educa- 
 tions. He soon obtained by his assiduity the money, but the 
 patrons of literature were so few, and seminaries of learning 
 so scarce, that there was not a classical school in all this 
 country to which he could send his two first sons. Col. John 
 and Col. Philemon Hawkins. Under such circumstances, he 
 concluded to send them to Scotland, under the protection of a 
 friend; but Col. John Hawkins was so nearly grown, and 
 unwilling to go, that the idea was abandoned. When Col. 
 Benjamin and Col. Joseph Hawkins arrived at the proper 
 ages, he sent them to Princeton College, which seminary was 
 at that time, owing to the great want of intercourse, such as 
 is now in use, by stages and steamboats, almost as difficult of 
 access as many of the European Colleges. They continued at 
 Princeton, progressing regularly in their collegiate course, 
 and were only prevented from receiving the honors of the 
 College by the war of the Eevolution, which waxed warm at 
 Princeton, and in the Jerseys, and suspended the business of 
 that institution. 
 
 From the end of the Revolutionary war to the time of his 
 death, our venerated ancestor gave his attention mainly to 
 the pursuits of private life. He was a Justice of the Peace 
 from an early period, as long as he lived, and was a valuable 
 member of the Court of his county. His favorite pursuits 
 from early life, were raising stock, cropping, and the pur- 
 suit of some regular profitable business; and, by a steady 
 application to them all, he acquired great wealth. At the 
 opening of the land office under the present government, hav- 
 ing the ability, he became largely interested in taking up 
 and acquiring lands, as well as all other property ; he became 
 entangled in many legal difficulties growing out of the state 
 of the country and the speculations consequent upon a change 
 of its policy. This new business, calling into action his su- 
 perior judgment, showed him to possess an adaptation for it ; 
 
14 
 
 for he uniformly prevailed. This latter business, and his 
 often seeking distant markets for what he had to sell, added 
 to his previous very extensive acquaintance, rendered him 
 one of the most noted men in this country; and, what was 
 calculated to keep up his notoriety, his was a house of un- 
 bounded hospitality. It was always open to administer to 
 the comforts of all. And here I may be permitted to say, 
 that no man ever had a helpmate, whose general good sense, 
 good management, and superior domestic economy, exceeded 
 that of Mrs. Delia Hawkins, the wife of Col. Philem-^n Haw- 
 kins, sen'r, deceased. They were both poor originally, and 
 had to resort to all the drudgery of labor attending that con- 
 dition in life. But, by their good conduct and superior good 
 sense, the scene was soon changed, and as they travelled on 
 through life, increasing in wealth, they also increased in 
 respectability and refinement, till at length their house — this 
 house — was the resort of the fashionable and the gay, the 
 man of business and the literati of the country. All found 
 here a plentiful, an elegant, and a sumptuous repast. Al- 
 though Col. Philemon Hawkins was not himself a man of 
 science, his sons Benjamin and Joseph were, and they lived 
 here with their parents, and added a zest to all that was agree- 
 able. The style and fashion of the place was noted and 
 exemplary, and the resort to it from many parts of the world 
 considerable. During the French revolution in 1792, there 
 were many men of note from France, who resorted here to 
 enjoy the great pleasure of conversing in their own language, 
 which Col. Benjamin Hawkins, from his classical knowledge 
 of it, was enabled to afford them. 
 
 Col. Philemon Hawkins, sen'r, deceased, lived up to the 
 maxim, that extended hospitality, properly conducted, did 
 not conflict hurtf ully with the true rule of domestic economy ; 
 that the additional supply to be laid in for that object, only 
 required an additional effort to procure it, which the com- 
 pany of friends always doubly paid him for. So that he set 
 down these few additional efforts as better and more agree- 
 
15 
 
 ably requited than those bestowed for the sake of money alone. 
 And as the human character seems generally to he better 
 satisfied, and more regaled by variety, it might be permitted 
 to weigh this maxim and see if its analysis proves it correct- 
 ness. He pursued the rule of being generally employed in 
 some useful business, or to some useful purpose, and by way 
 of innovating upon its monotony, he would put forth his 
 additional efforts to the cause of hospitality, by way of 
 change, and agreeable relaxation in the same pursuit. By 
 this means, though the pursuit be the same, the object aimed 
 at was different, and that constituted the pleasurable variety. 
 For the variety sought for, is to the sense, and if the same 
 pursuit produces it, which in every other respect is useful, 
 it is more than safe to rely upon this maxim. If this, then, 
 is a logical deduction, in a money making sense, and so it 
 may be by keeping off worse pursuits^ it surely should not be 
 departed from. And to the pleasure and reciprocal advan- 
 tage afforded by the practice of hospitality, is to be added 
 the sum of advantage to those upon whom it is bestowed. 
 
 This house, once animated by the presence of our venerated 
 ancestors, anft once the seat of pleasure, of gradeur and of 
 science, has undergone by the work of time a great change; 
 and what is there upon which time will not leave its stamp ? 
 For many years it has been almost deserted, and for a long 
 time in a state of dilapidation; and could the spirit of the 
 dead look back upon that earthly tabernacle which was occu- 
 pied in life, surely the spectacle to our ancestors must have 
 presented a sad contrast. But the day of resurrection for 
 this spacious old mansion is at hand. Our venerable host has 
 decreed it to be so. Ere long the extensive repairs already 
 begun, and which are far advanced, will be completed, when 
 it will present again its ancient appearance, somewhat modi- 
 fied, and somewhat improved. And , one great incentive to 
 this work arises from the holy feeling of reverential regard 
 for its ancient owners; and that appearances should be re- 
 vived here as a tribute to their memory. The example thus 
 
16 
 
 set of reverence to parents, if followed, will never fail to en- 
 kindle and to keep alive those finer feelings of thp soul, which 
 ennoble our character and our nature, and have been valued 
 in all ages as virtuous testimony of grateful benevolence. 
 History records it as great virtue in Epaminondas, that it 
 the celebrated Battle of Leuctra, where he gained unfading 
 laurels as a General, upon being felicitated for the reno^^^l 
 he had won, he showed his greatest pleasure consisted in 
 the pleasure his parents would enjoy at his victory. 
 
 This day one hundred and twelve years ago. Col. Philemon 
 Hawkins, sen., deceased, was born, and he died on the 10th 
 day of September, 1801, having lived nearly eighty four 
 years. He has now been dead upwards of twenty-eight years, 
 and notwithstanding the long time which has rolled on since 
 his death, his appearance is still fresh in the recollection of 
 many of us; and his manly perseverance, his steady habits 
 of useful industry, his systematic arrangement of his busi- 
 ness and his time, his contempt for idleness and dissipation, 
 will, it is earnestly hoped, never be forgotten by us. He was 
 a great friend to schools. Not having had himself the benefits 
 of a liberal, scientific education, but possessing in an emi- 
 nent degree all that practical good sense which could estimate 
 the worth of it, he was their liberal patron. He was a strong 
 advocate for internal improvements. His comprehensive 
 mind pioneered him through the ways which are now fol- 
 lowed, though slowly, to advance the best interests of the 
 country in the way of its improvement. He had himself 
 struggled through the wilderness, had seen the face of the 
 country gradually improve, and he regretted much that all 
 his influence could achieve was to open new roads, from 
 whence great benefit was derived. 
 
 When we take a review of his rise and progress in life, and 
 contrast them with the idleness and dissipation of the present 
 day, we are ready to exclaim, that degeneracy is surely among 
 us. He lived within his income, and caused it continually to 
 increase ; by which he was not only increasing his ability to 
 
17 
 
 live, but to increase his fortune, and to add to his power to be 
 useful. Accustomed to labor in early life, laudable industry 
 was viewed by him as a great virtue, and as the road to honor 
 and usefulness ; and he who practiced it, was much exalted 
 in his estimation. He always looked back to the days of his 
 early life with pleasing reminiscences, and the most grateful 
 feelings to the giver of all good for having inspired him with 
 the resolution, and given him the ability and the aptitude for 
 labor and industrious enterprise, by which he had been able 
 to throw off the shackles of poverty, and to acquire an ample 
 fortune to raise and to sustain his family and himself in his 
 old age. If a similar course was now pursued, much happier 
 indeed would be the condition of this country. Let us then 
 emulate his virtues, and inculcate his habits, and instill into 
 the minds of our children the examples of his prosperous and 
 useful life ; and wdien each rolling year shall bring around 
 the day of his birth, let us hail it as his natal day, and en- 
 deavor to imprint it deejier and deeper in their hearts.