IT is so much a rule of modern declamation to make the exordium to consist of personal apology, that any departure from it might, I fear, be deemed a violation of that respect which is held to be due from a speaker to an audience; and indeed if there ever was pro­priety in the rule itself, or justice in the po­pular construction of its omission, I feel it to be at this very moment, when I have so much occasion to entreat, and you so much room to extend your indulgence, and when not to express would be in some degree not to feel that deference which the presence of such an assembly can never fail to inspire.

Sensible then, as I am, of the difficulty of the task which your partiality has commanded me to perform, and conscious of my inequality to discharge it as I ought, I am left without an alternative but to make choice of a sub­ject, which from the relation it bears to the purposes of your institution as well as the oc­casion [Page 10] we are now convened to commemorate, will in some degree ensure to me that candor and attention which, were I to rest on any ab­stracted efforts of my own, must necessarily be withheld.

This subject, Gentlemen, you will at once anticipate, in reflecting on the advantages which have resulted to mankind from the Independence of America. A summary re­cital of those advantages will constitute the principal object of my present enquiry and discussion.

Our petitions and remonstrances having been rejected, and insult being added to in­jury, it became at once essential to our safety and freedom to burst the bonds of dependence and shake off the yoke of foreign legislation. It was this bold but necessary measure which gave us rank among nations.—It was this that emancipated us from military law, and rescued us from all the horrors of slavery.—Had not this act and the events which it drew after it taken place, how very different at present would have been our situation.—In place of contemplating the majesty of a free people, convened in awful simplicity to consult their safety and promote their happi­ness, we should have beheld the pomp and extravagance of royal governors trampling [Page 11] upon the sacred rights of the people, and treating them in all their acts of power as if they were created only to minister to their pride or ambition.—The property of our mer­chant would have been held by a precarious tenure—our country would no longer have been cultivated by the proprietors and sove­reigns of the soil—a farmer and a slave would have been synonimous terms.—If then, such would have been our situation in a state of subjugation to Great-Britain, how much have we gained by a separation from her.—Wel­come then the glorious Anniversary of Ame­rican Independence—forever welcome be the return of that day which made us citizens of a republic, and gave us a rank in the scale of being—high—above the subjects of a mo­narchy.—To comprehend the dignity of a re­publican, turn to the page of history and contemplate the different characters of the freemen of Greece and Rome, and the slaves of the Egyptian and Persian empires—or compare the speeches of a Cicero and a Cato with the servile addresses of the parasites who surrounded the thrones of the Roman empe­rors.—But why should we travel back to an­tiquity for examples of the dignity of conduct and sentiment inspired by a republican form of government—we have beheld the citizens of the United States raised by their personal in­terest in the government of their country to a [Page 12] pitch of glory which has excited the admira­tion of half the globe.—It was the spirit of republican liberty that animated the patriot in the cabinet, and supported the American soldier under all his sufferings in the field, during a long and arduous war.—It is the same patriotic spirit which has convened the members of our Foederal Convention, at the expence of private ease and fortune, to sup­ply the defects of our confederation—to prop the tottering fabric of our union, and to lay the foundations of national safety and happi­ness—Illustrious Senate, to you your country looks with anxious expectation—on your de­cisions she rests—convinced that men who cut the cords of foreign legislation are competent to framing a system of government which will embrace all interests, call forth our resources, and establish our credit:—But in every plan for improvement or reformation, may an at­tachment to the principles of our present government be the characteristic of an Ame­rican, and may every proposition to add king­ly power to our foederal system be regarded as treason to the liberties of our country.

Another advantage derived from our Inde­pendence consists in the expansion it has given the human mind, and the new fields it has opened for enquiry, especially on the interest­ing subjects of government.—While only a [Page 13] third part of legislation was in our hands, it is not a subject of wonder that we were deficient in many of its principles; but since all the pow­ers of government have devolved upon us, how many proofs of knowledge have been given in this science—witness the wisdom and energy of many of our constitutions, and witness the literary productions of those illus­trious civilians, Jefferson and Adams, whose works are not only calculated to instruct their countrymen, but to enlighten Europe and pos­terity in the great science of social and politi­cal happiness;—nor have our studies and en­quiries since the Declaration of Independence been confined to government, science has flourished in all its branches—the American historian records the events of our revolution with classical elegance, and her poets celebrate in all the harmony of verse the glorious at­chievements of her sons.

By a separation from Britain we have en­creased our resources for knowledge:—Wit­ness the numerous colleges, academies and literary societies that have been established since the peace throughout the Union.—These institutions, so fruitful of public and private happiness, have arisen entirely from a convic­tion that knowledge is essential to the preser­vation of a republican form of government.

[Page 14] Our separation from Great-Britain has ex­tended the empire of humanity—no longer shall the wretched African be torn from his peaceful habitation, to fertilize with his tears the soil of a people professing themselves ad­vocates for universal freedom—the time is not far distant when our sister States, in imi­tation of our example, shall change their vas­sals into subjects.

Our national Independence has opened the avenues of commerce with every part of the world, and thereby not only lessened the price of our imports, but added to the value of our products.—Nor is this the only advantage we have derived from the extension of our trade: It was not less the policy than the interest of Britain to instil into our minds national pre­judices, and to teach us to regard all man­kind, except Englishmen, as our enemies; but happily this prejudice is removed, and we now view the whole human race as members of one great and extensive family, however much they may be distinguished from us by the circumstances of distance, colour, or re­ligion. The Frenchman and the American (till lately considered hereditary enemies) now embrace each other as children of the same father—the European Catholic and the American Protestant review with equal horror the times when their ancestors embrued their [Page 15] hands in each others blood, and now join to cancel the remembrance of them in mutual acts of charity and benevolence.—Nor has this intercourse been restricted to Europe, the inhabitants of China, Bengal, and the United States, have met together on the sands of India; and by the influence of commerce have added the ties of interest to the obliga­tions of universal benevolence.

Another, and a principal advantage of our Independence, results from the material change it has wrought on the opinions, con­duct and government of the European na­tions: It was by contemplating our Indepen­dence that France has become the land of free enquiry and general toleration; Ger­many, from the same cause, has shaken off an immense load of religious prejudice and bigottry; Spain has caught our spirit of en­terprise and innovation; and even Britain herself has been taught, by our successful struggle to relax in her system of general sub­jugation; hence Ireland enjoys what she had long demanded in vain; an exercise of her na­tural rights to commerce, liberty and inde­pendence. Propitious aera! happy event! which has softened the rigours of tyranny, and taught even Kings to revere the great laws of justice and equity.

[Page 16] Thus have I endeavoured to point out some of the principal benefits of American Inde­pendence: But methinks, I am ask'd, Why do we hear of such universal discontents throughout the Continent? Why does the farmer languish beneath the weight of taxes, and the merchant complain of the decay of trade? Why are the bands of our Foederal Government so weak, and our credit and cha­racter the sport of foreign nations? These things, however true, do not militate with any proposition I have advanced: Where is the nation that ever became suddenly wise, great and respectable? History answers, none. Greece boasted her Amphyction, her Solon and Lycurgus, and yet we find her approaches to order less rapid than ours. Rome had a Romulus to frame her constitution, and yet while she conquered the world, there subsisted within her walls a civil war; the seditions of the Gracchi were more sanguinary and not less threatening than any we have felt; view Caesar first defending and then endeavouring to sub­vert the constitution of his country; exult that the LEADER of our legions had nobler objects in view than a scepter or a diadem. Though Russia is now a great and happy na­tion, though she holds in one hand the scourge of the Turk, and the balance of Europe in the other, yet the banks of the Neister and the Larga will witness that her road to empire [Page 17] and order has been slow and difficult. Hol­land did not, until after forty years struggle, attain to independence, and frequent dis­orders since have taught her that national sta­bility is of slow growth: And how often has the British throne shook to its centre before she arrived at her present situation; her his­tory is chequered from the conquest by Caesar to the present day; one King exiled, another beheaded, now a republic and then a monar­chy, this reign drained of men and treasure by an ambitious Prince smitten with a rage for foreign conquest, the next streaming with the blood of her sons, probed in every vein by the dagger of domestic faction; the fields of Hastings and of Bosworth lay on the road to her present order; rebellion has more than once stalked at large through the land, their government has been insulted by a Monmouth and trampled on by a Cromwell; and shall we who have but just become a nation expect to meet with nothing but tranquility and order? To establish a new form of government, to eradicate ancient prejudices, to remove the effects of a war, began with the sanctions of authority, and conducted chiefly by voluntary association, and to unite opinions and habits with new situations, must be the work of time. Our constitutions were made upon the spur of the occasion, with a bayonet at our breasts, and in the infancy of our knowledge [Page 18] of government and its principles; it is not therefore matter of surprise that they are not more perfect, or more generally accommo­dated to the temper of our citizens. The distresses, of which we complain, are wholly ar­tificial; an anti-republican passion for foreign luxuries has exhausted our country of its gold and silver, a rage for paper money has checked credit, locked up the remains of our specie, substituted speculation for labour, and taught us to prey upon one another. The seed of independence, like many other seeds, may for a while disappear; but it will yet spring and flourish with strength and beauty, like the venerable oak, it may probably require centu­ries to grow, in order to be centuries in flourishing and centuries in decaying. How fallen would be the character we have acquired in the establishment of our liberties, if we dis­cover inability to form a suitable government to preserve them? Is the science of govern­ment so difficult, that we have not men among us capable of unfolding its mysteries and bind­ing our States together by mutual interests and obligations? Or is knowledge in legislation confined to Kings and their Ministers? There was a time when these questions would have kindled rage and resentment in every Ameri­can bosom.

[Page 19] Let us for a moment compare the present situation of America with what it was in 1775: She was then without force, without union, without an ally, and Great-Britain was her enemy; and yet, under all these disadvantages, she rose to glory and Independence. At present she is at peace with the whole world; France, the most powerful nation in Europe, is her faithful ally; she is in possession of eleven years experience in government; she is united in her objects, has, almost, no army to main­tain, no enemy to oppose; who then, but a willing infidel, can doubt her future greatness? But our present situation is still more strongly contrasted by the gloom of 1779: Distracted in our Councils, our money hastening to ex­tinction, our army on the eve of dissolution, and a powerful enemy in the bowels of our country; yet we surmounted these difficulties, and triumphed in the peace of 1783. There are clouds and storms in the political as well as the natural hemisphere; to weak and timid minds only are they big with terror; the true politician views them as the means of purify­ing the political atmosphere, and promoting the growth and stability of government. These, Gentlemen of the Society, are, I am sure, your sentiments. It was to perpetuate the remembrance of events immediately con­nected with the day, of which this is the anni­versary, that we united; it is to transmit to [Page 20] posterity the principles of that day we con­tinue our association; and although we have sheathed our swords, and gone back to the pursuits of private life, it remains for us to remember, that the same exertions may be necessary to defend and preserve, which were so successfully employed in establishing our Independence and peace; and that as soldiers of a republic our work is incomplete while national dangers exist on any quarter. In casting my eye back upon the scenes of dan­ger and distress out of which our Society grew, I am insensibly led to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of such as sealed their attachment to the liberties of our country with their lives: Though scattered from the plains of Abraham to the sands of Georgia, no monument be raised to point their reliques to the passing stranger, yet laurels shall bloom around their graves, and while gratitude or justice shall rule the remembrance of human action, the brilliant story of their fame will retain its lustre, and pass to posterity in the full splendor of glory.

To detail their several merits would exhaust eulogium, and far transcends my powers of panegyric. It will not, however, be deemed a tresspass on your indulgence should I offer the tribute of acknowledgment to an indivi­dual, whose worth will forever endear his [Page 21] memory to our country. This is not the par­tial praise of professional predilection; it is a sentiment to which, I am persuaded, my audience will grant a grateful assent, when informed that it refers to that distinguished citizen and soldier, GENERAL GREENE.

Great in the beneficent arts of peace, he was the hope of his country, and unsurpassed in the active operations of war, he has been justly styled "her sword, and the keen aven­ger of her wrongs." With a mind to counsel, and an arm to execute the greatest purposes of public determination, he united a heart, honest in all its intentions, and firmly pre­pared to sustain the rudest reverse of fortune.

When disciplined valour had defeated our troops, and desolation marched in the train of war; when the sword had thinned our broken ranks, and dismay distracted the civil authority; when conquest and confidence were opposed to defeat and despondency; in this dark crisis of southern disaster, was he cal­led on to stem the torrent of victory and avert the horrors of impending subjugation.

With prompt obedience to the orders of his ILLUSTRIOUS CHIEF, he hastens to execute the duties of his appointment, and at the head of an enfeebled though gallant army, he displays a [Page 22] conduct consummate in all its objects; sup­ported by a courage ardent as the sword he drew, removing alarm and restoring confi­dence, he grafts an emboldened militia on the stump of that war-wasted corps, whose bravery, under every pressure of adverse fortune, had firmly upheld the standard of freedom; with these he advances to meet an enemy elate with conquest, and assured of success.

Discipline having resumed its station in our ranks, the astonished Briton is taught to respect the foe he so lately despised, and his predatory bands, restrained to operations of collective force, no longer desolate our guard­ed fields.

The exiled inhabitants return to their de­serted dwellings, and separated kindred again enjoy the blissful society of domestic peace. The anxious father revisits his distressed family, and permitted in quiet to make provi­sion for their support, he returns with zeal and ardour to the service of his country; private happiness is improved into general welfare; the husbandman, assured of the advantages which must result from the guidance of such a LEADER, mingles with alacrity in the ranks of war, and braves with ardour every danger of the field; vigilance increases to enterprise, [Page 23] and resistance is roused to retaliation, inva­sion is changed in its course, and rushes with impetuous recoil in an opposite direction; de­tachments captured and garrisons reduced, announce its rapid approach, and urge retreat to the Briton, as the last refuge from its fury; impressed with the conviction of Eutaw, he seeks shelter within his entrenchments, nor longer dares an opposition in the field. Alike attentive to the duties of citizenship, as ar­dent in the accomplishment of his military pursuits, the gallant GREENE devotes his ta­lents and his leisure to the restoration of tran­quility, and the maintenance of civil pri­vilege; his conquering troops indulge not in excess, nor riot in the peasant's toil; con­tented to share with their CHIEF in the scanty allowance of the camp, victory brings no other benefit to them than the reflection, that they had done their duty. Such, my fellow­citizens, was the [...], whose actions will be admired while [...] and military worth preserve their [...] in human estimation, and whose service entitle him to the eternal gra­titude of America. If such was the Chief appointed to conduct the momentous duties of that dangerous department, how much to be admired is that wisdom, whose early penetra­tion directed to the choice, and whose friend­ship maintained, through every change of fortune, an unshaken affection and esteem: [Page 24] The presence of that GREAT CHARACTER for­bids encomium, and the remembrance of his merit is too deeply engraven ever to be effaced.

Placing, then, a proper value on the blessings which the efforts of such illustrious citizens have procured, our counsellors have not planned the happiness of their country with­out effect, nor have the martyrs of freedom bled in vain. No, my fellow-citizens, from their ashes, enriched by their blood, the tree of liberty shall yet grow and flourish among us: Methinks I already see the stately fabric of a free and vigorous government rising out of the wisdom of the FOEDERAL CONVENTION; I behold order and contentment pervading every part of the United States; our forests falling before the hand of labour; our fields doubling their encrease, from the effects of well-directed industry; our villages enlivened by useful manufactures, and our cities thriv­ing under foreign and [...] commerce: I behold millions of [...] covering the shores of our rivers and [...] all the arts and enjoyments of civilized life, [...] the Anniversary of this Day, 1887, shouting forth the praises of the HEROES and PATRIOTS, who, in 1776, secured and extended to them all their HAPPINESS.