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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

ORATION,

DELIVEKED ON THE

FOURTH DAY OF JULY, 1839,

THE CITIZENS OF NASHUA,

WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF PAETY.

By SAMUEL O.SGOOD.

rCELISHED BY REQUEST.

NASHUA:
PUBLISHED BY ALBIN BEARD.
1839.

Note. — It may perhaps he well to state, that this oration is pub
lished, as prepared for the occasion. Several passages, omitted in
the delivery for want of time, are here inserted.

CAMBRIDGE PRESS :
METCALF, TORBY, AND BALLOU.

MECHANICS AND MANUFACTURERS OP NASHUA
THIS ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT THEIK INVITATION,
AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,
Ks IResfectfuUs KnscrfiieJr.

ORATION.

I FEEL myself most happy. Fellow Citizens, to
stand among you at this time on the broad ground
of American Citizenship, and by your invitation to
speak of those principles, that have made this festi
val so sacred to patriotism and humanity. We owe
the day to our country ; to our country let us give
it, and own no narrower interest. No party pas
sions, no social jealousies, no sectional or sectarian
prejudices shall mar our harmony or chill our en
thusiasm. This sixty-third anniversary of our na
tional independence finds us an united, happy
Republic. United, happy, all Republicans, let us
hail the return of this day with joy, and turn our
thoughts to those principles, that have made us as
a people what we are, and whose continuance is
our only national hope.
What, Fellow Citizens, is the nature of the oc
casion which we commemorate ? We meet not
to commemorate the shedding of human blood, nor
to give vent to hatred of any past or present ene
mies. The great festal day of our nation does not
fall upon the anniversary of some trying battle, or

even glorious victory. It is not the early struggles
at Lexington and Concord, not the brilliant victo
ries of Saratoga and Yorktown, that we now cele
brate. It is a calm and determined declaration of
principles, that has made this day sacred in our
annals. We do not assemble to declare our hatred
against any men or nation, or to revive old animos
ities. We are at peace with the world, we would
be at peace with all men. George the Third has
long been in his grave, and a fourth George and a
fourth William have followed him. Peace to their
ashes. We will not disturb them. Peace and a
happy and righteous reign to the young queen now
on their throne. The struggle with foreign ene
mies is over, and with the struggle let aU enmities
be gone. But although the wars for our hberties
are over, and the anniversaries of battles are falling
into neglect, the interest of this day passes not
away, but must increase, as fleeting time reveals to
us the value of the rights, of whose declaration this
is the anniversary. The discussion of those rights
is every day becoming more and more important,
now that dangers from abroad no longer unite us
in defending them against a common foe, and tlie
time has come for vindicating by civic wisdom and
virtue against internal dangers the hberties, that tlie
invader sought in vain to destroy. Instead of seek
ing some new theme, that might gratify curiosity,
let us. Fellow Citizens, give our minds to the old
subject of American Freedom ; let us trace its
origin, consider its vital principles and its perpetuity.

Truth C9,n never be dull and hackneyed to them,
that are of the Truth. Surely we must all feel to
day, that the rights guarantied by our Constitution
are of the truths, that cannot lose their interest,
any more than their being.
" Truths, which wake — to perish never,
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor,
Can utterly destroy."
And while we speak of the rights, declared by the
sages, authors of that instrument, and vindicated
by years of fearful struggle, we shall not suffer our
enthusiasm to evaporate in noisy hurrahs, but shall
be wiUing to reflect solemnly upon the duties, which
rights never fail to bring with them.
Notwithstanding so much has been said of our
glorious Independence, it is not common to appre
ciate it at its fufl value, or acknowledge the long
train of causes, that prepared its way. It is too
common to suppose, that our independence origi
nated with the Congress, that framed the Declara
tion, and to attribute to a few men the origin of
those principles, which the Colonies had always in
some degree maintained, and for which the people
were already prepared.
Whence came the freedom, that we enjoy, the
independence, that we now celebrate ? Not from
any one man, or set of men. The illustrious
Jeflferson might indeed have framed the Declaration,
the illustrious Adams might have supported it in
debate, the sages and patriots of Congress might

have unanimously signed it ; but had not the people
been ready for it, had not the principles found a
mighty response in their hearts, the Declaration
would have come to nought ; the parchment, how
ever written, and however signed, would have been
added to the host of documents, that the dust cov
ers and the worm gnaws. But the people did re
spond. Deep answered unto deep. The Declara
tion, that asserted their rights, proved by the uni
versal sympathy it excited, that those rights had
long been felt and cherished.
To trace the hneage of American freedom is a
noble task, as noble a task, as the historian can
pursue. We are not accustomed to do honor
enough to our national birthright, and rightly to
value the long line of ancestry from whom we have
received our liberties. For centuries the work had
been going on, that led to our freedom. The great
glory of the Declaration of Independence is not
that it was the first statement of the rights of man,
for these have been felt in some degree in all ages,
but that it was the first national declaration of those
rights. For ages and ages, liberty had its champi
ons, and its champions had become its martyrs.
But the time was to come for brighter triumplis even
than the martyr's robe of flame. As the night of
the dark ages was passing away, a general awalcen-
ing throughout Europe appeared. Genius first to
hail the brightening morn boldly investigated nature,
and by signal inventions and discoveries in ail and
science put into the hands of the people the instru-

ments of their emancipation. For the last three
centuries especially, the cause of freedom has made
steady advances. The invention of printing led
men to read and to think, and reading and thinking
led them to doubt the infallibility of their rulers, and
to question the sovereignty of king and priest.
The use of the mariner's compass opened the seas
and the broad ocean to the enterprising sailor, and
those, " Whose path was o'er the mountain wave.
Whose home was on the deep,"
bore to their native shores a spirit, that could not
brook tyranny, and a wealth that won the respect
even of prince and noble. America was dis
covered, and this greatest event in modern history
woke the old world from her apathy, and prepared
for her freer spirits a home in a new world. The
century after the discovery of America was a pe
riod of singular commotion throughout Europe.
The tendency was general towards revolution both
in government and rehgion. But it was not in
Europe, that these tendencies were as yet to reach
their happy results. For many centuries, the lib
erties even of England were to be kept down, or
rising were only to fall again. King and priest
were too strong against human right. But just at
the time when liberal opinions were to break forth
in our mother country, only to be crushed, our fore
fathers crossed the ocean, and planted the seeds of
freedom here. For two centuries, that seed has
2

10
been putting forth its stalk and leaves, and on July
Fourth, 1776, it bore its fair and perfect flower.
Our fathers brought with them from the old world
the elements of our present national character and
institutions. They did not come, like the Spaniards,
to seek for mines of gold, and to murder all, who
stood in the way of their rapacity ; nor were they,
like too many emigrants, restless adventurers, with
whom any change of situation could not but be an
improvement upon present want and discontent.
They sought a refuge from oppression, and brought
with them a strong sense of the rights, that had
been trampled upon. Whether we consider the
Puritans of New England, the oppressed Cathohcs
of Maryland, or the defeated loyaHsts, who colo
nized Virginia, we find the same determination to
insist upon their rights, and never acquiesce in the
demands of a government, in which they had no
share. So long ago as 1619, a representative as
sembly convened at Jamestown, in Virginia, and
was the prelude to that system of popular govern
ment, that has finally swallowed up every other.
All the principal colonies were founded by men
of virtue and piety : hence the element of morahty
and religion, which is so incorporated with our civil
ization. Their founders were of various religions,
and had suffered persecution ; and hence in spite of
early intolerance, the need of that perfect tolera
tion, which we now enjoy. They were men of in
teUigence; hence the care for general education,
which our country has ever shown. In short, no

11
matter what part of our free institutions we con
sider, we shall find, that it had its origin in the
character and institutions which our fathers brouo-ht
with them, and estabhshed on these shores. We
ought to glory. Fellow Citizens, in taking this view
of our liberties, to glory in beheving that our free
dom was not the creature of yesterday, or even of
sixty-three years, but that it has been growing for
centuries. When men talk timidly about the ex
periment of a repubhc, let it be felt, that it is no
experiment, but that for more than two hundred
years, a government essentially democratic has ex
isted in our land. Our institutions are not the crea
tures of mere theory. They grew out of the char
acter and history of the people, and in this they are
distinguished from the many modern constitutions,
which theorists, like the French and South Ameri
can legislators, have sought to impose upon nations,
and which, not being the native product of the na
tions, have had no more success, than the attempt
to make grapes grow upon a pear tree, or pears
upon a grape vine.
All circumstances of position tended to increase
the democratic spirit of the colonies, to unite them
together, and to prepare them for final union and
independence. Their hardy and daring life, their
struggle with the difliculties of an unexplored coun
try and a savage foe, nerved their energies, and
provoked in them a spirit, that could not brook
thraldom. The colonial wars with the Indians and the

12
French, were the school in which the soldiers of
the revolution learned to meet the foe, and in which
the whole people were taught to sympathize with
each other, and unite for the defence of aU the
colonies. And when finally the tyrannical blow
was struck, and Great Britain showed her fixed
determination to deprive the colonists of their birth
right, and to tax them without their consent, they rose
at once, a united nation. The Congress of 1774
proved their union, the blood spilt at Lexington and
Concord, and on the heights of Charlestown, was as
the blood of brethren crying from the ground, and
the declaration of independence, when it came,
was what aU felt and wished, though none had said
or could say it with the fire of the youthful Jeffer
son. His burning words were but as the signal
flame, that kindled the beacon fires, already pre
pared on a thousand heights.
This declaration is by far the noblest political
document the world can show. It is a national de
claration of human rights and human brotherhood.
The voice of him, who stood on Mars HOI, and
proclaimed to corrupt Athens, that God had made
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell to
gether on the face of the earth, found its mightiest
echo in a world unknown to the Athenian, and be
came the rallying cry of a mighty people. The
doctrines, so eloquently stated in the Declajation of
Independence, animated the temporary government
under the Articles of Confederation, and were vir
tually incorporated into the Constitution, which was

13
adopted thirteen years later, and are the life-blood
of our political system. Times have changed and
men have changed, but those principles have not
changed. Our country has gone through the hard
ordeal of adversity, and the equaUy hard ordeal of
prosperity. But war has not robbed her of her
freedom, nor peace and plenty stolen away her en
ergies. The governments of the old world, that
boast so much of their strength and permanence,
have been shaken to their centres. Ours has stood
firm. The patriots and sages, who in a trying hour
gave their names to the Declaration, and pledged
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to
maintain its principles, have aU been swept away.
But their spirit has not died with them. A nation
does them reverence. The star-spangled banner
that floats from a thousand hill tops is waved by the
breezes, that sweep over a mighty empire, and bear
from state to state the glad shouts of miUions of
happy, and industrious freemen. At this very hour
millions are listening with joy to the very words,
which they signed in an hour of trial and anguish.
I said the signers of the Declaration were all dead.
But not so. There were those, who signed that
document not with pen, and in quiet hall of legisla
tion, but with a sterner instrument, and amid more
fearful scenes. These grey-haired men, to whom
you have given the most honored places in this as
sembly, were such signers. When the Declaration
reached them in their vUlage homes, they said amen
to its principles ; their response was shown, as they

14
marched to the war of liberty ; it w^as echoed on
the battle fields of the revolution, and now, that
the agony has long been over, and peace and plenty
smile throughout our land, these grey-haired men
have come here to join in our festival, and here with
us to repeat their response to the charter of our free
dom. We aU join with them. Let aU the people
say, amen.
But, Fellow Citizens, on this Jubilee ofour inde
pendence, a solemn duty is ever binding upon us.
It is our duty to examine seriously into the vital
principle of our government, and consider the true
means of preserving it.
What is the vital principle of our repubhc ? Up
on what is our government based ? Let us con
sider this question warily, for it is often answered
unworthily. It is not unusual for it to be said, that
the great charter of our hberties lies in the absolute
sovereignty of the people. But such is not the
doctrine of the Declaration of Independence. That
declaration does not base the right of fi-eedom, or
any of the rights of man, upon the power of tlie
people, or any other human power, whether of
priest, king, noble, or legislature. It regards the
rights of man as not given by any charter or any
grant, but as natural, divine, and unalienable. Jus
tice, eternal justice is the great charter of human
freedom. The people themselves hold their liber
ties on this basis. Their power is not justly abso
lute; their wiU, although the highest human au
thority, is not sovereign. Whenever any human

15
power arrogates to itself absolute sovereignty, it be
comes a tyranny, no matter what its name, whether
monarchy, aristocracy, or republic. What gratitude
do we owe our fathers, that in the very time when
it was most needful to magnify the powers of the
people, they stiU owned a power above the people,
not the power of king, or priest, but the majesty of
right and the God of right. Right, that is the high
est power acknowledged by our government. The
most important rights are placed by our Constitution
entirely beyond the power of legislation. And those
rights, which are subject to legal regulation, are
made so upon principles of justice, that are equally
applicable to aU. Noble doctrine, righteous prin
ciple, supremacy of equal justice. I am proud,
Fellow Citizens, standing before you on this day,
that celebrates the freedom and power of the peo
ple, to renew the solemn declaration of our fathers,
that there is a power above you, and you are not
absolute sovereigns. Your votes cannot make
wrong to be right ; and should the time ever be,
when the majority of this people should vote to de
prive the humblest citizen of his equal rights, they
would strike a blow at the very charter of their own
rights, and commit high treason against their blood-
bought liberties, and against the majesty of justice.
Now at this Jubilee of her glory, nobly may our
country bow to the power above her. Instead of
saying, like the Assyrian king, " By the strength of
my hand I have done it," let her bend reverently to
justice, which is the charter of her liberties, and to

16
the God in whose bosom justice has her eternal
throne. The sovereignty of the people is indeed the prin
ciple of our republic ; but their sovereignty is but
relative — they are above aU other pohtical power,
but are bound to exert their power only in a hmited
way, and always in subordination to justice. The
people are our rulers, but only because they are the
power, through whom eternal justice on the whole
best rules. The great conservative principle of our
republic is the very principle that timid minds have
regarded with so much alarm. If the doctrine of
our republic be, that every citizen has rights, and is
entitled to political equality, it follows of course,
that tyranny, whether of ruler or people, is at an end
in our land, so long as we are true to our govern
ment, since not even the largest majority is privi
leged to take from the minority its equal rights. If
trouble does ever darken our liberties, and the sa
cred rights of hfe, liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness are taken from even the smaU minority, it
wiU not be because we live under a government,
that has generously given equal rights to every citi
zen, but because the sanctity of those equal rights
has been sacrilegiously violated.
We declare therefore, that the true democratic
principle of the equal rights of every citizen is no
destructive principle, as so many in tlie old world,
and not a few croakers in tlie new world declai'e,
but it is the true conservative principle. It is the
principle to which our government has been tend-

17
ing for more than two hundred years — it is the only
principle that can guard liberty effectually against
the tyranny of rulers, and rulers against the ven
geance of an insulted people — the only principle,
that can protect all men. This very doctrine of
equal rights, that some have thought so very dan
gerous to property, is the only principle that can
preserve the right of property inviolate. It pro
tects the poor man in the use of his earnings, and
the rich man in the enjoyment of his lawful wealth.
The broad Mgis of the constitution is over all.
Rich and poor, learned and unlearned, clergy and
laity, merchant, mechanic, farmer, manufacturer,
may there find equal protection. It requires no
great wisdom to see, that the least act, whether of
legislation or violence, that infringes on the right of
the poorest citizen, endangers the estate of the
wealthiest ; and on the other hand, whatever takes
a doUar wrongly from the coffers of justly earned
affluence, destroys also the security ofthe great ma
jority in the enjoyment of their earnings, and does
not leave a cent safe in the pocket of the laborer.
A great hue and cry has been raised in the Tory
journals of the old world about the dangerous lev
elling spirit prevalent in the United States, and this
hue and cry has sometimes found an echo in our
own land. A great deal has been said about Agra-
rianism, as if our people were likely to seize the
property of the more favored, and divide it among
the masses. But if there is a country in the wOrld,
where Agrarianism is unpopular, it is in these United
3

States. Even the party, whose democratic tenden
cies claim to be the strongest, despise the doctrine ;
and any party, that adopts it for its motto, pro
nounces its own doom. They may talk of Agra
rianism with some show of danger among the igno
rant and wretched masses of the old world, who
are made to support from their own earnings the
extravagance of a pampered few, who eat the bread
they never earned, but which they stole from others.
But never insult the mass of people in this country
by trying to raise the agrarian panic. The great
majority in this country are industrious working-
men, who earn an honorable living for themselves
and their families. Thus the great middling-interest
— the greatest poioer of our nation, is interested in
preserving the great principle of our repubUc.
What foUy in any one to suppose, that they would
favor such an arbitrary division of property as must
make the lazy equaUy weU off" with the industrious.
I ask you mechanics, for there have been those
who have coupled mechanics and agrarians to
gether, whether you are in any danger of advocat
ing doctrines that must destroy the sacred right of
property, and share your industrious earnings wdth
the loafer and the drunkard ? No ; tlie w'orking
classes are the true conservatives of our country.
AU they ask is for legislation, that shall bear equaUy
upon aU. Equal laws, a free field, and fair play,
and the best prizes to him, that can fairly Avin them.
There is indeed much disposition in our country
to level away the artificial distinctions of society.

19
And this is well, so long as rights are not interfered
with. It is very weU that the day has come, in
which men meet each other as men, and pay less
deference to . the trappings of rank and fortune.
But so far as there is a disposition to level down
true excellence to the standard of mediocrity, the
disposition is bad, and should be execrated. But
surely the wish to improve the common mind, and
to raise aU to a high standard is a noble wish. And
when we hear that our people are leveUers, let us
remember and rejoice, that their great aim has al
ways been for universal education, that shall raise
aU to respectability. God grant, that such leveUing
may prevail. For instead of reducing society to a
duU plain or barren waste, it will best preserve every
natural elevation, and develop every natural va
riety. American society ought to be the most fresh and
various in the world, for here every talent has fuU
opportunity to expand. The same doctrine of
equal right, that has guarded our liberties, shaU also
ensure the free development of every talent. With
us every art and science shall ffourish. Let it be
part of our national pride to wish success to every
worthy calling, and let every man respect his own
and his neighbor's vocation. Farmer and mechanic,
merchant and manufacturer, respect your occupa
tions ; you are all useful, and aU are of use to each
other, and depend upon each other. Thank God
and your country for hberty to pursue your own
business, and to gain an honorable and honored

20
livelihood. Lawyer, clergyman, physician, respect
your calhng, but do not think that your occupation
wiU hold you up ; you must hold it up, and by your
own usefulness keep your place among the true
working-men of the land. American mechanics !
the occasion, that brings you here, shows your own
self-respect. Cherish the feehng, — you cannot have
too much of it. To you, this day means something.
The principles, which hallow it, have raised the me
chanic arts from the low place which they hold
under aristocratic governments, have given dignity
to labor, and have made the worthy mechanic as
honorable as any in the land. Respect the charter
of your rights, and respecting that, you wiU respect
yourselves and aU men.
You have been accused of lack of respect for
other men, especially of other professions. The
aristocrats of the old world, and some in the new,
dehght to dweU upon the disposition of mechanics,
to sneer at those, who in learning, or in other
respect, are superior to them. They talk about
Jack Cade, as having many followers among us,
who would like to shut up our colleges, put down
aU distinguished learning, if not hang every man,
that can read and write weU. This is vile calumny ;
and the few in this country, who by their sneers at
learning and the liberal arts have given any occa
sion for such calumny, deserve the same execration
as the despots, who rejoice in such calumny. The
mechanics are the staunch friends of learning, and
have always been the great champions of popular

21
education. They are friends to the learned pro
fessions, and will honor them in their due place,
although perhaps they may have the independence
not to bow down to the professions merely as such,
and honor a driveUer merely because he has a
parcliment, that certifies he is a professional man.
They respect colleges and aU the higher seminaries
of learning, and many a father has given to his
sons a coUegiate education, from the proceeds of
his hard earnings in the workshop. But still, they
are not disposed to honor every booby that has
passed through coUege, without gaining any more
good than the horse, that went in at one door and
out at the other. They are ready to honor learning
and wisdom wherever they find it, whether in a
coUege-bred man, or in one who has been obliged
to educate himself. Let it always be so. On this
day, when we have listened to the Declaration of
Independence, that bears the signatures of Frank-
Un, the printer, and Sherman, the shoemaker, let
the mechanics do honor to worth and talent
wherever found ; and while they cheer the names
of this printer and this shoemaker, let them also re
joice in the names of an Adams and Jefferson, who,
if not mechanics, were yet first-rate workmen, and
have built an edifice, that sixty-three years of storm
have not shaken. Whenever from your own ranks
talent shaU arise, and any of your companions in
the workshop shall be raised to posts of pubhc
honor, you will give them God speed, and disdain
aU envy, and ever hail an honest man as alike " the

22
noblest work of God," whether he stands by you at
the loom, or bench, or sits in the chair of state.
Be this our doctrine, alike in its application to po
litical privileges, and to our business and profes
sions ; equal rights to aU. Let aU trades and pro
fessions live. Let all honorable talent thrive, and
whenever one man can distinguish himself above
others, be it in farming or mechanics, in letters or
eloquence, in the useful or the fine arts, let us aU,
instead of trying to pull him down, cry, " God speed
him." This is repubhcanism.
It is glorious to believe, that in this free land, aU
those arts and sciences that refine and elevate the
soul, will have the same success as has attended
those arts and sciences, that relate more immedi
ately to the animal wants. Here poetry and elo
quence, history and philosophy shaU flourish, freed
from the shackles, that cramp their development in
the old world. Here poetry shall speak and sing
no laureate lay to the vanities of courts, but strains,
that the soul of Man shall echo. Here the histo
rian shaU record the lessons of experience, not such
a record of foUy as history usuaUy is, a chronicle of
court-gossip, or battle statistics, telling nothing of
what took place in the homes of the people, or
what was the relation of their wages to tlieir wants,
or what their opinions and feehngs, but a true rec
ord of man as he has been in past time, and in tlie
several stages of his education until the present era.
Here the orator shall speak, and shall have the peo
ple for his audience ; and he shall speak no set form

23
of words, carefully addressed to cold and fastidious
ears, but burning words to souls, that true elo
quence from the heart and to the heart, wiU always
inspire and inflame. Even within a few years
American literature has taken a new start, and,
more true than of old to American principle, it bids
fair to equal, by its own independent course, that
European literature, which it could only caricature
by servile imitation. Already we have poets, ora
tors, historians, who are proud of the American
name, and of whom the American, name is proud.
Even from the workshops, where the mechanic arts
are followed, many distinguished artists have risen,
and promise to do something towards giving our
country the name, claimed by republics of old, of the
home of the beautiful arts.
Little more than two years since, I visited the
shop of a stone-cutter in a Western city, where
I understood a workman of rare genius was em
ployed. I found him at his task, chiselling some
cherubs' heads on a grave stone. Ranged on the
side of the shop, on a rough bench, were four or
five heads of diflferent citizens, that he had sculp
tured, and aU of singular accuracy. Two years
passed, and his genius rose from his obscurity, and
now he is taking the busts of the distinguished men
of our country, and is soon to sail for Italy, and
finish in that land of the beautiful arts, the educa
tion begun in cutting grave stones. Should his
name be ever enroUed among the renowned ar
tists, that have given almost a soul to the hfeless

24
marble, he wiU doubtless fondly remember the little
shop, where once, in paper cap and leather apron,
he worked with his companions. Should they meet
him in his prosperous days, they wiU doubtless give
him joy in his successes, and he will give them as
hearty a hand, as when aU toiled side by side at the
chisel. Equal rights we trust shaU make all arts flourish,
and each to aid and favor the other Even now
the masses with us enjoy privileges, that are con
fined to the favored few in the old world, and many
an American mechanic has time and means not on
ly to gain his daily bread, and provide against future
want, but also to cultivate literature and refine his
tastes. Even the beautiful arts are now brought
within reach of the great majority, and for a com
parative trifle, the working-man may adorn his par
lor with the choice productions of the engraver's
skill, and thereby of the painter's genius. Highly
favored indeed is the New England mechanic.
One of the noblest exhibitions of art the world has
ever witnessed came from the work of his hand,
and is soon to be renewed in the neighboring me
tropolis. We trust the mechanics of tliis town wiU
be as proudly remembered there as before. Some
of the most illustrious inventions bear the mechan
ic's name to immortality. The institutions of edu
cation and rehgion number him among their best
benefactors. May it ever be thus, and New Eng
land be ever proud of her mechanics, and her
mechanics proud of her. Walking a few weeks

25
since with a gentleman of a distant state in the
cemetery, that so adorns our town, we saw a specta
cle, whicli struck his attention at once, and led him
to contrast the favored lot of New England with
other lands. " What a commentary on New Eng
land ! " said he. " In many places mechanics are
so ground down, as to think only of daily bread.
But there, you teU me, is a blacksmith erecting a
handsome enclosure around the grave of his daugh
ter in that consecrated grove, and by that work of
his own hands, he shows that taste, parental affec
tion, and religious faith dweU in his soul, and that
labor need not cramp or materialize the spirit."
Foreign lands own the skiU of the American me
chanic. Every steam-vessel honors the name of
Fulton : farthest India in her demand for American
cottons celebrates the name of Whitney, and praises
also the American operative. The best ships in
the world bear to remotest lands the glory of the
American ship-builder. The Sultan of Turkey
cares more for Mr. Rhodes, the Yankee in charge
of his ship-yard, than for his grand vizier and a
dozen pachas into the bargain.
But we wander from our subject. Speaking of
the equal rights of aU, as being at the basis of our
government, and the principle that is to protect
property, encourage industry, and inspire competi
tion in every useful, as well as elegant art, I have
been so engrossed by the topic, that I must turn
somewhat abruptly to another train of remark, and
4

26
consider, in the last place, the prospect of the con
tinuance of our present institutions.
WiU our free institutions, that have been growing
for more than two centuries, and have existed more
than half a century in their present form, which are
founded on the unalienable rights of man, and the
sovereignty of the people, in subordination to those
rights, which give equal protection to every citizen,
and equal encouragement to every trade, profession,
art, and science, wiU these free institutions continue ?
Or shaU we beheve those would-be prophets, who
predict the speedy ruin of our republic ? Tliis is
the most interesting question that an American can
ask. It is the most interesting question to the Euro
pean, whether to him, who is looking for the eman
cipation of his own country, or to him, who seeks to
strengthen the bands, which bind the people to their
lords. If our republic succeeds, then freedom in
the old world can raise her head with joy ; if our
republic fails, then the cause of free institutions in
the old world receives a fatal blow, and tj'rants will
rejoice in the fulfilment of their wishes and predic
tions. Already free principles are advancing with
mighty pace throughout the governments of the old
world, and far more surely from their silent niai'ch,
than in the shock of reckless revolution. The
creed of despots has changed. No longer profess
ing to rule the state for their own selfish passions,
they profess to have the good of tlie people at heart,
and proclaim as their creed " everything for the
people — nothing by the people." How soon tlie

27
people are to enjoy their rights by a surer safeguard
than the monarch's wiU, depends in no smaU degree
on the next half century of our experience.
Dangers without number have been pointed out
as threatening our stability, and often with some
candor and wisdom, although generally with great
spite and ignorance. While but a single mind, hke
De Tocqueville, has given a fair view of our repub
lic, its excellences and dangers, there have been
hosts of Halls, Hamiltons, Fidlers, and TroUopes to
belie the institutions, which they could never under
stand. Some have .predicted, that party spirit would be
our ruin, and a war of rival factions would give
the command to some military leader, whose tri
umph would change democracy into despotism, and
make America realize the fate of France. But no
such wars have broken out. Rival parties merely
vent their animosities through the newspapers, and
the frequent recurrence of elections will not allow
party spirit to be very desperate. Parties have
proved often a salutary watch upon each other, and
as they are doubtless the offspring of freedom, they
ought to prove its safeguard. In this town, al
though elections have been vehemently contested,
there has been very little personal rancor among
partisans. It is the duty of us all to seek to pro
mote peace and good neighborhood yet more. And,
Fellow Citizens of the ArtiUery, let me teU you, that
your cannon at sunrise this morning had a far bet
ter sound than often they have had. Let us hope

28
you will keep them for occasions of pubhc rejoic
ing, and not again allow rival parties to fire them
in triumph over each other at every changing elec
tion in this or other states. We ought to deprecate
the violence of party spirit, and to remember that
our Washington has called it the "worst enemy" of
a popular government, and " that the effort ought
to be by the force of pubhc opinion to mitigate and
assuage it." What better time, brethren, than the
present to resolve, that, so far as in you hes, you
wiU soothe the violence of party strife, and, wliile
you express your own opinions manfuUy, give the
same right to others, and give even your bitterest
opponent his due. This done, and the worst foe of
our country wiU become a blessing, and party spirit
instead of a destructive will be a truly conservative
principle. This done, and the two great tendencies
that are the cause of the party diflTerences upon
almost all subjects — the tendency to keep things as
they are, and the tendency to change, shaU prove
mutually beneficial tendencies. They, who are for
keeping things as they are, shall serve to check tlie
haste of the movement party, and the movement
party shall spur up the sluggishness of the station
ary party ; and between the two, right measures
shaU be adopted, and soon aU factious virulence
shaU disappear, and the great body of the people
avoiding both extremes shaU be eager to preserve
what is valuable in old institutions, and at the same
time to adopt every worthy reform. No pai-ty is
always right, none always wrong. Both the old

29
Federalist and Democratic parties, which are now
so mixed up, were a great blessing to our country
and to each other. Each has advocated measures,
whose adoption has been universaUy allowed to pro
mote the national good. Whatever may have been
the correctness or error of the old Federal party,
it is not the place now to discuss, but surely aU
must allow in the language of a great foreign jurist,
that " their early predominance at least allowed the
new republic time to become quiet and settled, and
permitted it to bear subsequently without incon
venience the rapid development of doctrines, which
they had before opposed. A great number of their
principles were finally introduced into the creed of
their opponents, and the Federal Constitution,
which survives to our time, is a durable monument
of their patriotism and their wisdom." The oppo
site or Democratic party, it must be granted even
by their opponents, has originated and carried
through many measures, that had else been lost to
the public good. There wiU be in all countries
two parties, that wiU represent pretty nearly the
same principles. It is well that it is so ; weU for
both sides of the truth ; weU for true reform and
careful movement. Let them argue on, then ; but
let them never fight.
It is said that sectional jealousies, as weU as party
spirit, threaten the stability of our goverment, and
that already animosities have broken forth, that
herald the doom of our Union. No more violent
sectional prejudice can spring up, than that which

30
divides North and South. Yet there is not near the
danger there has been of a separation of the Union
on this account. The panic of NuUification has
already passed away, and even the exciting subject
of Abolition does not appear to threaten to destroy
our harmony with the South so much, as some tune
since. So long as the North confines its political
action on the subject of slavery to proper constitu
tional limits, there is little fear, that our southern
countrymen wiU so far sink their interests in their
passions, as to break that union, which is as impor
tant to their safety and prosperity, as it is haUowed
by the patriotism of their fathers. Let it be re
membered, moreover, what is too often forgotten,
that the continuance of the Union is one thing, and
the success of repubhcan institutions another thing.
Should our country so increase in population, or be
so divided in its interests, as to render a division
necessary, which Heaven avert, let us not fear that
freedom will perish by such division, or that kindly
feeling will die out among the sister states of our
confederacy. The United States have tasted too
much of liberty to exchange it for servitude. The
states wiU be free at any rate. The distinguished
Frenchman, M. de TocqueviUe, has said, tliat the
union of our states is becoming stronger, wliile the
Federal government is becoming weaker. But
however this may be, the repubhcan cause need not
fear. Time would fail me to speak of the other dan
gers in detail, which are spoken of as threatening

31
our institutions. I might speak of the reckless am
bition of politicians, the rage for office, the fear of
losing the balance between the three great branches
of our government, the legislative, executive, and
judicial, the love of money, the growth of luxury,
the danger of great wealth in the few leading to
the dependance and servility of the many, or on the
other hand provoking the many to tumult and ra
pine, the inffux of immigrants, bringing with them
the feehngs and the vices of the old world. That
our country has great dangers, we must allow, for
nothing is perfect or free from prospect of evil.
But we will not give the hours of this Jubilee to
dark omens of iU, but rather dwell upon those aus
picious signs, which alike kindle hope and inspire
activity. Even while we think of the wrongs of
the African and the Indian, we will hope for their
regeneration, and pray for the day when the chains
of the one shall be broken, and the sorrows of the
other shaU cease, and the black man and the red
man, although their destiny is so veiled in doubt,
shall find in the white man a brother, and shaU be
blessed by an undisturbed home.
The great preservative principle of our repubhc
must be sought in the wisdom and virtue of her
citizens. If, as that political sage, Montesquieu,
said, the fundamental principle of a monarchy is
honor, and the basis of a despotism is fear, but the
only foundation of a republic is virtue, it behoves
our people to improve every means of cherishing
the manly virtues, as alike the safeguard of private

32
happiness and national security. Our government
is not a machine by which the people are governed,
but it is an expression of what the people are, and
must take its character from them ; and of course,
when freedom and virtue die out of their hearts,
our free government becomes a mere name. That
freedom and virtue shall not die, many causes now
in activity fuUy promise.
Light is shining abroad over our land. Educa
tion is an almost universal blessing ; and unless the
people are singularly dead to the truth now laid be
fore them, ere long a sufficient education wiU be
within reach of every citizen, even in our remotest
borders ; and the child of the laborer shall have
better opportunities of knowledge, than were en
joyed of old by the most favored. The press in
America, while it is freer, is more active, than any
in the world. There are more daily journals in the
United States, than in the world beside. The most
important public documents make their way into
every cottage in our land. Light is shining, and
shining with more and more brightness. There
are indeed many, who are afraid of the light, and
who seem to think that free inquiry is going to de
stroy everything valuable in old opinions and insti
tutions. Poor creatures these ! Timid champions
of truth ! Bats, disturbed in their caves by the
torch-flame, and beating their brains out against
their den. The republican hails tlie hght. His cry,
like that of the Grecian hero, is, —
" Give but to see, and Ajax asks no more."

33
He is a champion of education, — the education
of the whole people, in knowledge and virtue. The
croaking Tory of the old world may mourn over
the spread of light among the people ; he may say,
like a late writer in the London Quarterly, that
China has had schools in abundance for more than
a thousand years, and still is the most stupid of na
tions. But the republican does not join in such
strains. The Chinese, he knows, learns ignorance
at school, learns to give up his own power of
thought, and to cramp his mind with the forms, and
creeds of an abject despotism. The republican
vindicates education, as expanding the mind, and
giving it the full exercise of its natural powers.
The more of this in our country the better. To
distrust in light vtould be to distrust truth, and to
distrust truth is treason against God and our souls.
Nobly has one'of our own poets, whose heart is his
country's as well as his name, said ; —
" Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers,
But error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies amid her worshippers."
Liberty is sister of Light, and with her a pre
servative principle of our repubhc. Liberty is the
great soother of aU animosities. A free press gives
vent to every opinion and passion, tliat might else
lead to destructive revolts. The privilege enjoyed
by every man, to follow his own wiU, so long as he
does not interfere with another's rights, quiets the
discontents, that, in older countries, break forth in
6

34
revolutions. The apparently discordant elements,
that immigration brings to our shores from the old
world, are harmonized by the power of our free in
stitutions, and the stranger even from monarchical
countries is soon made a warm republican. Law,
moreover, is implied in the very being of Liberty.
Without law, there is no liberty, and the truth, which
our people are more and more feehng, taught as
they have been by the sad example of mob violence,
the truth of the identity of liberty and law, is now
throughout our land, even in its most wild and law
less borders, hailed as the guardian principle of our
government. Liberty and Law ! Liberty, speak
ing through the harmony of Law ! Law, the voice
of Liberty, uttering the Truths of Eternal Justice !
Liberty and Law ! What God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder. If there be a baseness
more degrading in a citizen, than any other, it is
the baseness of the mobocrat ; him, who is wUhng
to enjoy all the advantages of our government, and
yet, as soon as any law provokes his passions or
takes from him a dollar, is ready to commit high
treason against his country, violate the majesty of
justice, and insult the tribunal, which is the enthron
ed majesty of the people, and which the people
have sworn to protect. May you, citizen soldiers,
who now join in this festival, show, if need shall
ever be, that you regard law and liberty as one, and
as you value liberty, you wiU defend tlie laws,
against civil violence, even if it be at the bayonet's
point and the cannon's mouth. I can urge this

35
duty on you by mentioning a single name, more
potent, than any harangue of mine. Washington,
the citizen-soldier, the citizen-soldier's glory and his
pattern ! First in war, first in peace ; glorious at
the head of his army, — glorious in his calmness
as of an angel, in the cannon storm, and iron rain
of the battle-field ; but more glorious, w^hen the
wars were over, his country's liberties achieved,
and the hero laid aside the sword of the soldier,
and, like the humblest citizen, bowed to the majes
ty ofthe law. His example is the noblest heritage
our history affords. Best exemplar of repubhcan
virtue, sternest rebuke of republican vices, his name
has found no higher praise, than from the pen of a
noble of the nation, which sought to crush him.
" This," says Lord Brougham, " is the consummate
glory of the great American ; a triumphant warrior,
where the most sanguine had a right to despair ;
a successful ruler in all the difficulties of a course
whoUy untried ; but a warrior, whose sword only
left its sheath when the first law of our nature com
manded it to be drawn ; and a ruler, who, having
tasted of supreme power, gently and unostenta
tiously desired, that the cup might pass from him,
nor would suffer more to wet his lips than the most
solemn and sacred duty to his country and his God
required !
" To his latest breath did this great patriot main
tain the noble character of a captain, the patron of
peace, and a statesman, the friend of justice. Dy
ing, he bequeathed to his heirs the sword, which he

36
had worn in the war for liberty, charging them
never to take it from the scabbard but in self de
fence, or in defence of their country and her free
dom ; and commanding them, that when it should
thus be drawn, they should never sheathe it nor
ever give it up, but prefer falhng with it in their
hands to the relinquishment thereof, — words, the
majesty and simple eloquence of which are not
surpassed in the oratory of Athens and Rome. It
wiU be the duty of the historian and the sage in aU
ages to omit no occcasion of commemorating this
illustrious man ; and until time shaU be no more,
wiU a test of the progress, which our race has made
in civihzation and virtue, be derived from the ven
eration paid to the immortal name of Washington."
We might be proud of this tribute to the memo
ry of the Father of our Country from the pen of a
British Peer, if any praise of genius or eloquence
could add to our pride in Washington.
I would gladly leave speaking with the name of
Washington on my lips and his memory in our
hearts, and trust his name to finish this humble plea
in freedom's behalf. But one topic more must be pre
sented to you. Light and liberty have been spoken
of as preservative principles of our institutions. But
light and hberty without love, without a kindly af
fection between citizen and citizen, will avail little.
There is alas far too little good feehng among feUow
republicans, not only too much party and sectarian
animosity, but far more social jealousy. There is far
too much merely negative republicanism, the re-

37
publicanism that hates tyrants and scorns restraint,
without respecting the fellow-citizen, or honoring
the law. There is so much vile political abuse, that
a writer in a late German paper has said, that judg
ing from our journals, one would think the two rival
candidates for the presidency of the Union were
the two ^i"eatest scoundrels in the country. Men
do not meet each other courteously as men. There
is too much arrogance — far too much envy. Envy
is truly called the great vice of republics ; for,
where all are politically equal, the distinctions of
wealth and talent are jealously watched. Let us
declare war against this envy, this arrogance, this
jealousy. Let us strive to have the spirit and the
manners, that become republicans. Let our bearing
be such as to show, not so much that we think our
selves as good as others, but that we think others as
good as we are. Then society wiU be newly mod
elled among us. A government truly fraternal shall
prevaU, and shall be as strong as the patriarchal gov
ernments, that have passed away. There wiU be less
arrogance among those whom fortune has most fa
vored. There will be far less of that contemptible
envy, that is so often seen among the less favored in
fortune — that envy, which pays the vilest homage to
the fancied superiority it affects to despise. We
shaU meet as feUow citizens, as human brethren,
and whether in the street, in the civU assembly, or
by the altars of God, we shaU have that courteous
dignity which becomes a free people ; nay more,
that brotherly kindness which becomes Christian

38
men. Our social principle shaU be, " courteous to
aU, cringing to none, tramphng upon none, civil
ever, servUe never : to light and liberty we wiU ever
add love." In politics, society, rehgion, our motto
shaU be — Light, Liberty, Love.
Fellow Citizens ! my task is done. I have sought
to lay before you the origin and principles of our
government, and the means of its perpetuity. The
past is fixed, and its blessings cannot be destroyed.
The future is uncertain. But the AU-seeing One,
who alone foreknows the future, has given to us
rules of guidance, which, if followed, wiU always
lead to good. It is a time of hope. Fancy cannot
in her visions of the future anticipate greater
changes than the last half century has shown in na
tion and in village. Since the adoption of the
present Constitution, the thirteen states have be
come twenty-six, and the three millions more than
sixteen millions. In fifty years more, at the same
rate of increase, our population will be fifty mUlions,
and in an hundred years two hundred millions.
Sixty-three years ago, and an old man now present
passed through this town, then a wilderness, and
found not a single habitation on the site of this
flourishing village. And now what a change ! An
industrious population of six thousand is ours.
Eight churches prove that religion is not a creation
of the despot, but best thrives in free hearts, and its
altars most abound in free lands. Their ministers
do not, as in some places, need a missionaiy to be

39
sent among them to teach good feehng and decent
conduct. Though differing in faith, sociaUy they
are brethren. The temple, in which we meet to
keep this festival, and which has rung with the glad
hymn of freedom, is a witness of the union of lib
erty and rehgion. Mechanics and manufactures
thrive ; and they, through you. Fellow Citizens,
speak their debt to our country. An industrious
farming population brings to us the produce of the
adjoining country, whicli has been transformed from
a wild forest to fruitful fields. An iron road bears
us in two hours to the ocean. In a single fortnight,
fire and water, obeying the mechanic's control, can
place us in our mother country across the Atlantic.
Two well contiucted presses scatter two able weekly
papers through the State. Free schools thrive and
open their doors to the chUdren of the poorest.
Even now our Sabbath school children celebrate
this day in yonder grove, and a thousand voices
there praise the God of nations. What a change !
How fuU of hope of more glorious change. Ere
long we shaU be gathered to our fathers, and the
sun that ushered in, this morn, the JubUee of our
independence, shall shine upon our graves. Let us
believe that it shaU even then, and through years
unnumbered, dawn on a free and happy country ;
let us believe that it shaU stUl shine on our country's
banner, and shaU show new stars upon its honored
folds. Let us believe, let us more than believe, let
us trust, that a nation, such as the world has not
known, mighty in numbers, mighty in industry and

40
virtue, strong against despotism, strong against an
archy, shaU rejoice in the return of this anniversary,
and celebrate it as the Jubilee not only of Country,
but of Man.

il