TO mark with accuracy and precision, the principles from which the great and important transactions on the theatre of the political world originate, is an indespensable duty, not only of legislators, but of every subject of a free State; fraught with the most instructive lessons on the passions that actuate the human breast, the inquiry is amply adapted to the purpose of regulating the social concerns of life.

THE laws and penalties by which subjects are compelled to promote the general interests of a community, should ever be instituted with a special reference to these principles, and the greatest perfection of human government consists in the judicious­ness of this application.

[Page 6]THE constitution or frame of government in a republican State, is circumscribed by Barriers, which the ambitious or designing cannot easily remove, without giving the alarm to those whose priviledges might be infringed by the innovation; but that the principle of administration may be grossly corrupted, that the people may be abused, and enslaved under the best of constitutions, is a truth to which the annals of the world may be adduced to bear a melancholy attestation.

So silently have the advances of arbitary power been made. that a community has often been upon the verge of misery and servitude, whilst all was calm and tranquil in the State.

To revert to first principles is so essentially requsite to public happiness and safety, that Polybius has laid it down as an incontrovertible axiom, that every State must decline more or less rapidly, in proportion as she recedes from the principles on which she was founded. ^*

THAT virtue is the true principle of republican governments ^† has been sufficiently proved by the ablest writers on the subject, and, that whereas other forms of government may be supported without her, yet that in this she is absolutely necessary to their existence.

[Page 7]A GENERAL prevalence of that love for our country which teaches us to esteem it glorious to die in her defence, is the only means of perpetuating the enjoyment of that liberty and security, for the support of which all government was originally intended.

LAWS and punishments are but the ensigns of human depra­vity, to render them as few as the public safety will admit, is the study of every wise, humane legislature. ^* The happy influences of this noble passion, by precluding the necessity of a multiplicity of Laws will free a People from those spectacles of misery and horror, which the penalties annexed to the breach of them must inevitably create.

THE contempt of dangers, and of death, when liberty was the purchase, has been the means of elevating to the highest pitch of glory, those famed Republics of antiquity, which later ages have considered as the models of political perfection; instructed from early infancy to deem themselves the property of the State, they were ever ready to sacrifice their concerns to her interests; "dear to us (says the eloquent Cicero) dear to us are our Parents, dear are our Children, our Neighbours and Associates, but above all things, dear is our Country ^†;" the Injuries that are done to an individual are limited, those to a community may involve millions in destruction.

[Page 8] "IT is impossible not to love a patriot, it is only loving him who loves us, ^* —it is impossible not to be charmed with the influences of those divine sentiments, which induced the brave Decii to devote themselves to certain Death, that they might ensure the Roman armies victory and glory.

THE celebrated story of the two Carthaginian brethren, who consented to be buried alive, to increase the boundaries of their Country, shews us to what an enthusiastic height this virtue may be carried.

AMONGST the Spartans, to return from the field of battle with or upon their shields, was equally glorious, and subject of joy and acclamation; to escape without them, an indelible mark of infamy and disgrace.

FROM public spirit proceeds almost every other virtue. The man who willingly would die to save his Country, would surely sacrifice his fortune and possessions, to secure her peace and happiness. The noble examples of frugality which were exhibited in the conduct of the Spartan governors, who began the reformation of the state, by delivering up their own private property, to convince the citizens that their intentions were sincere, is a proof how much it may be made to triumph over avarice and selfishness.

[Page 9]THE Thebans, under the matchless Epaminondas, when they were deserted by their allies, and reduced to the greatest extre­mities, were by the wise example of their general, and frequent skirmishes with the enemy, inspired with a spirit of enterprize and bravery, which at length enabled them to vanquish thrice their number of Lacedemonian troops, and having slain their general, to march in hostile array to the very gates of Sparta.

THESE are the principles which have more or less animated the subjects of every state, that has arrived to any considerable degree of opulence and grandeur, and it is of the greatest use to observe how others have gradually crept into governments, and suppressed, or eradicated the public virtue of a people.

ALAS! to what amounts the summit of all human greatness! Sparta, the nurse of heroes and legislators, Athens, the seat of arts and sciences, Carthage the mart of all the trading nations, and even Rome, the haughty mistress of the world, have all long since been level'd with the dust! of all the states and cities of the globe that have experienced the like catastrophe, scarce can we mention one that has not met her ruin, in a forgetfulness of those fundamental principles on which her happiness depended.

So nearly is the most prosperous condition of a people, allied to decay and ruin, that even this flattering appearance [Page 10] conceals the seeds, that finally must produce her destruction. ^*

THE object of public virtue, is to secure the liberties of the community, a security of liberty admits of every man's pursuing, without molestation, the measures most likely to increase his ease, and to place him in a state of independent affluence, nothing is more conducive to these ends than a free and unlimited com­merce, the encouragement of which is undoubtedly the duty of the Commonwealth, and the feelings of humanity are, in a general sense, highly interested in the prosecution of it.

COMMERCIAL intercourse and connection have perhaps contributed more towards checking the effusion of blood, than all the obligations of morality and religion, in their usual state of debility, could ever have effected. ^† The ideas of conquest and destruction amongst the ancients, were commonly compre­hended under the same term, and torrents of human blood have been shed to gratify a spirit of revenge; in latter times the views of almost every powerful nation with whom civilization has been the effect of trade, have been directed to the support of that political balance, upon which this intercourse depends.

[Page 11]IN the quarrel between the Swedes and Danes, a short time previous to the restoration of Charles the second of England, and again in the reign of William the third, the Dutch and the English sent their fleets into the Baltic, to prevent those incon­veniencies that would have resulted to the commerce of the maritime powers, had either of those kingdoms been destroyed, and the same thing has taken place in the general wars against France. ^*

CONSIDERED then as an instrument for lessening the calami­ties of war, humanity must ever exult in the countenance given to trade; the immediate effect of it, when extensive, is usually an augmentation of wealth, but as it is generally impossible for every subject to acquire a great degree of opulence, the riches of the state become accumulated in the coffers of a few; ^† the passions of the great almost invariably extend to the body of the people, who to gratify an abounded thirst for gain, are ready to sacrifice every other blessing to that, which in any degree, furnishes them with the means of imitating their superiors; bribery and venality, the grand engines of slavery, have been called in to the assistance of the aspiring nobles, who, in this case, never fail to make the deluded people pay them the full price of their prostitution.

[Page 12]THIS accession of power, acquired by the consent of the people themselves, enables their governors to assume the reins of absolute controul, to burst all the bonds of social obligation, and finally to extort by violence, what formerly they were obliged to purchase; accustomed to a habit of sloth and idleness, the subjects are rendered too effeminate to apply themselves to labor and fatigue, or if they do it, are soon discouraged by the rapaciousness of their rulers, a spirit of faction and uneasiness becomes generally prevalent; impressed with that awful respect with which the trappings of wealth universally inspire a people that have been accustomed to view it as the measure of human felicity, they are too pusillanimous to relieve themselves from their burden by an united effort of the whole, ^* and the only object of intestine commotion, is the plunder of the rich, that they may sell the acquisition to the highest bidder; insurrections of this kind are most commonly easily suppressed, and farther impositions are forever the consequence.

THE extortion exercised on the earnings of the labourer is an effectual check upon the pursuit of agriculture; ^† Population, universally in a great measure proportionable thereto, being by this means limited, and discouraged, the number of subjects, [Page 13] the real source of strength and support, daily diminishes, 'till at length they fall an easy prey to the first Despot, whether foreign or domestic, who offers them the yoke;—Such is the fatal operation of luxury, almost invariably the consequence of unbounded wealth. ^*

THE Carthaginians, says Montague, ^† stand single upon the records of history, the only people in the universe upon whom immense wealth has never been able to work its usual effects; but even in this instance it may perhaps reasonably be questioned, whether the factions that prevented the illustrious Hannibal from entering the gates of Rome, whilst he had filled that city with terror and dismay, were not the effect of opulence, and loss of public virtue. The introduction of wealth in the Roman republic, is dated at the conquest of Antiochus the great, and the aera of corruption from the same memorable period; what sluices of depravity and misery did they not open in the state! That senate which once resembled an assembly of Kings, whose rigid faith had rendered them the objects of univer­sal veneration whilst frugality and patriotism were held in estima­tion, can now meanly stoop to avail themselves of a quibble in the terms of a treaty, to destroy a City they had pledged their [Page 14] honour to preserve; that senate from which a single deputy had once caused a mighty monarch to tremble and obey, and bare­ly by the motion of his cane, obliged him, at the head of a victorious army, to resign his conquest, can now condescend to flatter the vilest passions, and bear to be insulted with the most humili­ating usage without daring to murmur or complain.

THE unparalled usurpations of Sylla, Marius, and Caesar are but variegated forms, in which are exhibited, the baneful effects of that adulatory submission, with which a base, degenerate, and corrupted people have become the instruments of tyranny and murder; the bloody proscriptions and licensed executions of those pests of the human race, which have disgraced the Roman name, were generally accompanied with the thanks of the Senate. Jugurtha, that infamous Numidian Prince, who ungratefully murdered the children of his benafactor, in this corrupted age of the Republic, secures himself from the punishment due to his crimes by bribing his Judges, and by the same means enables himself to enter the Roman camp, and make that army whose force he once had dreaded, submit to pass the yoke, the most ignominious punishment that could have been inflicted.

THE Roman Provinces would never so generally have submitted to the impositions of their rapacious governors, had not the minds of the people been prepared for them by their participa­tion in the manners of the citizens.

[Page 15]WHEN once a State has arrived to this extreme degree of corruption, nothing short of a miracle can wrest it from destruc­tion; luxury and venality become a branch of education, and as nothing can operate so strongly on the minds of youth, as examples set by parental authority, ^* the evil becomes ingraffed into the opinions of the people; whilst the Spartan Republic retained her virtue, she was free and invincible, she made the mighty army of the Persian monarch flee before her, and with three hundred soldiers stopped the march of more than three millions of men, with the exception only of a single man they died in the contest, with their arms in their hands, and a magnificent monument was erected to their memory, with an inscription that comprehends the finest eulogium, "Go traveller and tell at Lacedemon, that we died here in defence of her sacred laws." —Philopaemen, the general of the Achaeans, was so fully persuaded that the only means of reducing this brave people to subjection and dependence, was to eradicate the principle of public virtue, that he attempted it, by endeavouring to change the manner of their education. ^† A change was afterwards effected, a taste for luxury inculcated, Athens subjected to her arms, her spoils and riches seized with greediness, corruption ensued, and ruin closed the drama.

[Page 16]WE are charmed with the noble exertions of the United Provinces in their opposition to despotic government, yet how soon are we astonished to see that brave people in the greatest danger of a total subjection from that passion for commerce, which by attracting their whole attention, and confining their views to the objects of gain, induced them, that they might not be interrupted in their favorite pursuits, to confide in foreign mercenaries for their defence and protection; ^* such was the general depravity of morals at one unhappy period of the Republic, that their excellent Stadtholder, the Prince of Orange and Nassau, exhibited the most brilliant virtues, to little other purpose than to convince himself and the world, that loss of public virtue is an infalliable mark of real, or approach­ing declension. ^†

THE Republic of Venice, which for twelve centuries has maintained her freedom and independence, and which has been independently a match for the whole Ottoman Power, has preserved herself solely by her wise maxims of Legislation, founded on the first principles of her government.

THE thirteen independent cantons of Switzerland, preserv­ed from slavery by resistance to tyranny, retain the same [Page 17] unchangeable character for simplicity, honesty, frugality, and modesty, with which they first set out ^*. It would be endless to enumerate all the instances that might be offered, of the mi­series and wretchedness that have been heaped upon mankind, by a general adoption of the contrary qualities, we need but advert to the history of that nation, whose extreme degeneracy, has induced them to acquiesce in those enormous impositions, which a braver people have resisted, at the hazard of their lives and fortunes, and even to become the willing tools for enforcing a servile subjection, upon those, whom they were bound by ties of blood, to love and succour.

THAT we may learn wisdom by the misfortunes of others, that by tracing the operation of those causes which have proved ruinous to so many states and kingdoms, we may escape the rocks and quicksands on which they have been shipwreck'd, it may be useful to take a cursory retrospect of the motives and opinions, which have effected the dismemberment of a very large and valuable part of the British dominions, and thereby deprived them of a principal source of strength and greatness; under a [Page 18] constitution which has ever been the boast of Englishmen, we have seen a most shameful prostitution of wealth to the purposes of bribery and corruption, with a view still farther to augment that opulence of individuals, which when exorbitant, must always be injurious to the common interest ^*.

WE have seen the members of a House of Commons, which was once the bulwark of the nation, and the palladium of Li­berty, availing themselves of the meanest artifices for securing a seat, because it enabled them to gratify their favorite passions; and shame to human nature! We have seen a people, once famed for honesty and temperance, intoxicated at the gambols of an election, and stupidly selling their suffrages for representatives in Parliament!

THE whole business of government had become an affair of trade and calculation, the representative who expended his property for the purchase of a vote, was sure to make his profits, by the sale of his influence for the support of ministerial prodigality, or absolute domination; and to extend the security with which the members might plunder the people and trample on their rights, the prolongation of their parliaments to a term of [Page 19] time sufficient to inveterate their power, was at length adopted, for the purpose of riveting those chains which an undue influ­ence in elections had previously forged ^*.

RELIGIOUS tyranny had forced from the unnatural bosom of a parent, a race of hardy sons, who chose rather to dwell in the deserts of America with the savage natives, than in the splendid habitations of more savage men.

SCARCELY had these persecuted fugitives breathed from the fatigues of a dangerous voyage, when behold the cruel hand of power stretched over the atlantic to distress them in their new possessions! Having found a rude uncultivated soil, inadequate to the supply of the conveniences of life, they attempted those arts of which they stood immediately in need ^†; a prohibition of the manufactures necessary to cloath them in these then in­hospitable wilds was early threatned, and though they were afterwards permitted, yet it was under the most humiliating restrictions ^‡.

[Page 20]FROM a principle of avarice and the most unjustifiable partiality in prejudice of these infant settlements, all commercial commu­nication between them was forbidden, the importation of mercantile articles was laid under the heaviest restraints, none were to be freighted, not even the produce of foreign countries, from any other than British ports, and all exportations were finally to terminate in Britain.

THE manifest object of these measures, was to enrich some crouching favorites at home, 'till at length, plunged into debt, even in the midst of success and conquest, by the rapaciousness of an insatiable ministry, and a general corruption of manners, every sinew was strained amongst their domestic subjects for the acquisition of a large revenue, but this resource having been found insufficient for the purpose, the expences of the war, out of which they had just emerged, were made the pretext for levying taxes on the unrepresented subjects of America; the first requi­sition for the supply of an army was too readily submited to, and the subsequent acts, which have led to that war, in which these states have been called upon to contend for every thing dear in life, are too recent to be yet forgotten by you my fellow citizens, on whom the vengeance they were designed to execute has so largely fallen.

THE mild voice of supplication and petition had in vain assailed the royal ear, the blood of your fellow-countrymen [Page 21] was wantonly shed on the memorable plains of Lexington, you flew to arms and made your last appeal to Heaven.

NEVER did an enthusiastic ardor in the cause of an injured country blaze forth with such resistless fury, never did patriotic virtue shine out with such transcendent lustre, as on that solemn day! scarcely was there to be seen a peasant through the land "whose bosom beat not in his country's cause." Angels must have delighted in the sight! A wide extended country, roused into action at the first flash of arms, and pouring forth her thousands of virtuous yeomen to avenge the blood of their slaughtered bretheren on the unprincipled aggressors! Quickly they fled from merited destruction, and fleeing, shed their blood, an immolation to the beloved manes of those who fell the early martyrs to this glorious cause; you then convinced deluded Britons, that bravery was not the growth of any one peculiar spot or soil ^*.

THE enterprise 'tis true was bold and daring! The nations of the world stood still, astonished at the desperate blow! The brave alone are capable of noble actions; Defenceless, and un­furnished with the means of war, you placed your confidence in that God of armies who approves the struggles of the oppressed, [Page 22] and relying on the honest feelings of the heart for your success, you ventured to contend with veteran armies, and to defy the formidable power of a nation accustomed to success and con­quest.

YOUR Guardian Genius patronized your cause, presided in your counsels, inspired you with intrepidity and wisdom, and mysteriously infatuated the British chiefs; protected in the days of weakness and of danger, by the concealment of your real wants, the boasted wisdom of your crafty foe was baffled and confounded.

THROUGH all the various fortunes of the field, you persevered with an undaunted front, and whilst your coasts were swarming with fleets, full freighted with the choicest legions of the enemy, a force that would have stiffened with dispair a less determined people, you dared to pass the irrevocable decree, that forever cut asunder the ties that bound you to a cruel parent, assumed your rank amongst the nations of the world, and instituted a new Epoch in the annals of your country; with solemn oaths, you pledged your sacred honor, to die united in defence of your much injured rights, or live in virtuous possession of peace, of liberty and safety. —The generations yet unborn shall read with rapture that distinguished page, whereon in capitals shall stand recorded, the important transaction of that day, and celebrate [Page 23] to the latest ages of this republic, the anniversary of that resolu­tion of the American Congress, which gave the rights of sover­eignty and independence to these United States.

LONG may they retain that spirit of union which has ena­bled them to withstand the mighty force of Britain, and never be persuaded, through the artifice of their enemies, to violate the articles of that confederation to which they owe their liber­ty; should ever the constitutional authority of the legal repre­sentative body of the nation be annihilated, the bond of union will be dissolved, and we shall be reduced to the greatest hazard of misery and subjection ^*.

BY means of their union, the states, alone and unassisted, have vanquished a numerous army of brave and veteran troops, and led their chief a captive to your capital.—As long as time shall last the noble example you have set the world shall be produced, to shew what wonders may be done by men united, and determined to be free ^†.

[Page 24]YOUR virtue has supplied the place of wealth in the prosecu­tion of the war; the taxes that have been levied, have generally been submitted to with cheerfulness, and in a free state, where the people themselves are the assessors, so far were they from being considered as a grievance, that you wisely esteemed them as the symptoms of virtue, because they ever evince that the safety of the public is the supreme object of attention. ^*

NOR shall the powerful aids of a magnanimous Ally be suffer­ed here to pass unnoticed; the generous terms on which assist­ance and support were granted, shall leave impressions of esteem and friendship which time and age shall not be able to efface ^†. Under the conduct of One ^‡ illustrious General, the brave allied [Page 25] armies have together contended for the rights of human nature, have mingled blood, conquered a formidable host of chosen troops, and laid the British Standard at your feet ^*.

AT length, ye favoured Sons of freedom, THE GLORIOUS WORK IS DONE ^†! Heralds of Peace proclaim the joyful tidings! Let the remotest corners of the globe resound with accla­mations of applause, 'till even the inanimate creation shall join the concert, and dance to more sublime than Orphean strains! Genius of liberty rejoice, for Heaven has opened a new asylum to your long persecuted sons! Rejoice ye inhabitants of this chosen land! Let songs of joy dwell long upon your thank­ful tongues, and notes of gratitude to Heaven be raised on ten thousand strings, 'till angels catch the sound, and echo back, Peace and good will to men! Had I a thousand tongues, and all the eloquence of Cicero or Demosthenes, too feeble were my accents, too small my energy for this transporting theme!

WHAT miseries and tortures have we not escaped! Go search the the records of tyranny and usurpation, and learn [Page 26] the insolence forever consequent on the suppression of insur­rections in the behalf of violated rights! Agis, the brave reformer of the Spartan manners, was condemned by the tyrant who owed his life to him, to die an ignominious death for an unsuc­cessful opposition to the torrent of vice which had overwhelmed that republic; a fond and anxious mother presented at the door of his prison, a petition, that her son might be indulged with a hearing before the people; the unfeeling minister of cruelty had already perpetrated the execrable deed, and sneeringly replied, no farther injury should be done him; he then intro­duced her to the apartment where laid the body of her murder­ed son, with that of her aged mother who had attended her; sensible that his misfortunes were the consequence of lenity car­ried to a degree that rendered it impolicy, she could not forbear kissing the bloody corpse, and uttering aloud the sentiments of her soul; in the midst of this affecting scene, that would have extorted pity from a savage breast, the ruffian, exasperated at these effusions of grief, as expressing her justification of his con­duct, rushed on the distracted mother, and plunged his dagger in her breast!

THE history of that brave ^* and honest nation, whose spirited exertions have lately extricated them from that subjection and [Page 27] dependance, to which the arms and artifice of a neighbouring kingdom had reduced them, sufficiently evinces, that resistance to arbitrary power, needs but the name of rebellion, to furnish out a pretext for every form of violence and cruelty; often have the scaffolds smoked with gore pour'd from the veins of patriots and of heroes, and the destroying sword of despotism been drunk with the richest blood of a community!

HAD conquest crowned the efforts of our enemies▪ numbers of our worthy patriots, had now been bleeding under the vindictive hand of a successful foe, and we perhaps in mine [...] or dungeons, been dragging out a life of wretchedness, and weeping in silence, over the memory of those, to whom were justly due, the applause and gratitude of every friend to liberty and virtue.

WHAT a contrast to this frightful picture does the joyfulness of the occasion which has this day assembled us together, exhibit [Page 28] to our view! Many of these illustrious freemen now meet us here, and mingle tears of joy and gratitude with ours!

THOUSANDS of brave, deserving members of society, have fal­len an untimely prey to the poisonous exhalations of a prison, and filthy guardships, have been the charnel houses of our bre­thren; confined within those dreadful regions of horror and dis­pair, where no refreshing breezes ever entered, the tainted ele­ment itself was charged with pestilence and death! You who have seen the helpless victim of a merciless disease, groaning under the agonies of a relentless fever, can tell what epithets to use in the description of the tortures they endured; their tongues were parched with raging heat! Their boiling blood scalded the very veins in which it circulated—and did ye then, ye ministers of wrath, supply a single cup of water to refresh their thirsty souls? Verily, ye unworthy offspring of a christian land, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these, ye did it not to him who shortly will avenge the cause of innocence.

BUT smiling peace returns, and death and carnage shall prevail no more to swell the number of the slain; we wish not Britons, too severely to upbraid you, we only mean to hold you up as an example to the world, from which the best of lessons may be learnt.

[Page 29]—LET us however contemplate those unfictitious scenes of misery and distress, which an arduous struggle for our liberties have cost us; let us remember the principles that produced the op­position, as well as those that gave occasion for it, and then if we can tamely bear to see our liberties destroyed, let us flee, quickly flee, from these yet hallowed shores, nor dare pollute the land which holds our fathers tombs ^*.

A TIME of tranquility and peace is often a season of the great­est danger ^†, because it is too apt to involve a general opinion of perfect security. The Roman state, whilst Carthage stood her rival, retained her virtue, Carthage was destroyed, and Rome be­came corrupt ^‡; unless we are properly apprized of, and duly armed against this evil, the United States will one day experience a similar fate.

[Page 30]TRANSPORTED from a distant clime, less friendly to its nurture, you have planted here the stately Tree of Liberty, and live to see it flourish! But whilst you pluck the fruit from the bending branches, remember that its roots were watered with your blood! Remember the price at which you purchased it, "nor barter liberty for gold."

GO search the vaults, where lay enshrined the relicks of your martyred fellow-citizens, and from their dust receive a lesson on the value of your freedom! When virtue fails, when luxury and corruption shall undermine the pillars of the state, and threaten a total loss of liberty and patriotism, then solemnly repair to those sacred repositories of the dead, and if you can, return and spo [...] away your rights.

WHEN you forget the value of your freedom, read over the history that recounts the wounds from which your country bled peruse the picture which brings back to your imaginations, i [...] the lively colours of undisguised truth, the wild, distracted feeling of your hearts!—But if your happy lot has been not to have felt the pangs of a convulsive separation from friend or kindred, lear [...] them of those that have.—

BEHOLD the hoary head of age, descending to the grave with sorrow and despair; pleased with enchanting prospects, in a so [...] with whom his very soul was bound together, a son who promised [Page 31] to have been the stay and staff of his defenceless years, the [...]od old man insensibly declined along the path of life, and scarcely felt the weight of three score years and ten—the dead­ly shaft pierced through the bosom of his hopes, and doomed him to breathe out the residue of life in solitude and wretched­ness.—

OBSERVE the Youth whose parent, guardian, and protector, just at the time when the faculties of reason were beginning to put forth their buds, and court the fostering hand of culture, snatched from their dutiful embraces, and all the endearing ties of life.—

BUT, if suspicions of a counterfeited grief, you seek an instance where sorrow cannot be feigned, go follow her whose [...]reaming eyes, distracted mein, and bursting heart, announce the pangs that nature feels, in the sudden and violent dissoluti­on of the nearest and most dear connection—

I might proceed—but permit me here to draw the sable veil, and leave to your imaginations to suggest the rest— but stay—forbear, nor longer mourn for those who have no cause for tears.—

[Page 32]IF to latest ages we retain the spirit which gave our INDE­PENDENCE birth; if taught by the fatal evils that have subverted so many mighty states, we learn to sacrifice our dearest interests in our country's cause, enjoin upon our children a solemn veneration for her laws, as next to adoration of their God, the great con­cern of man, and seal the precept with our last expiring breath, these STARS, that even now enlighten half the world, shall shine a glorious constellation in this western hemisphere, 'till stars and suns shall shine no more, and all the kingdoms of this globe shall vanish like a scroll.