IN performing an office so honourable and pleasing as that of addressing this respectable audience, on an occasion so happy, the Speaker's heart must be cold indeed not to be animated—but it must be a bold one not to palpitate with the tremblings of respect.

IT is presumed that no parade of apology will be necessary to secure the candour and indulgence of the assembly: However capable that may be of the se­verity of criticism, and however his weakness and in­experience may open a field for its exercise; he flat­ters himself the sentiments naturally inspired by the occasion will alone prove his sufficient protection and security.

ON the memorable day of which this is the twenti­eth anniversary, the name of America was enrolled on the list of empires; a day, the remembrance of which must ever dwell sweetly on the minds of free­men, as having emancipated a numerous and a vir­tuous people from a foreign yoke of colonial subjec­tion, and raised them to the blessed enjoyment of lib­erty, of internal sovereignty, and independence. To commemorate that important event are we now assem­bled; and to that end I have the honour to stand in this place. I know not how better to recommend myself to your candid attention and sympathy, than by offering a few simple reflections upon the happiness and respectability of the American Empire, consider­ed as well in a natural, social, and domestic view, as on a national scale; and the importance to the cause and interest of republican systems, and political liber­ty [Page 6] in general, which is probably attached to the suc­cessful support, and final establishment, or the failure and dereliction of the Constitution of the United States.

IT is happy for the Speaker, inexperienced as he is in the employment, that the task to which he is call­ed, and the topic which he is at liberty to assume, preclude the necessity of argumentative persuasion, foreign illustration, or scientific research. As well might we resort to the problems of Euclid, to demon­strate that the radii of a circle are in every part equal, as, in speaking of the felicity of our country, to offer a syllogism. Like the light of Heaven, it bursts ir­resistably upon the senses; we meet an attesting wit­ness at every step, and a shining illustration in almost every object around us. It is a theme which demands so little from the invention and ingenuity of the Speaker, that the school-boy who lashes his top in the street, might be eloquent upon it; and the lisping infant venture to declaim. It is a theme which re­quires but to be mentioned to interest the hearer; and on which, so familiar are the subjects of its ef­fects, suggestion is argument, and the pointing of a finger, demonstration.

WHILE we leave to the legislator and the statesman to trace the annals of past ages, to review the once great, flourishing and happy—but now long lost and extinct, republics of Greece and Rome; to compare former systems with our own, and availing themselves of the event of past experiments, to point out those measures the pursuit of which would lead us to a sim­ilar fate, and to deduce lessons of wisdom and policy calculated to guide us in the paths of happiness and glory—it is ours, my friends, to reflect—and never should the reflection be long absent from the minds of any of us—what a glorious and all important expe­riment now rests its issue on the American character [Page 7] —an experiment which, whatever be the specific systems of policy which we adopt, must inevitably de­rive the fairest portion of its success from the existence and exercise of those virtues which form the individ­ual character, and which are equally essential to the christian and the man, as to the citizen.

TO the extent which happiness can be constituted and insured by the provisions of nature, perhaps no country on the face of the earth is happier, or under superior obligations of gratitude in that respect. Not that the gales are loaded with perfume from our aro­matic groves, as the Asiatic can boast. Not that our gardens and our fields are crowned with the luscious fragrance of the orange, the burgamot, the pine-ap­ple, and the grape, with all the luxuriance of an Italian vale. Not that our hills and our streams em­bosom treasures of silver, gold and gems, like the mountains of Potosi and Chili, the rivers of Africa, and the mines of Golconda. If blessings like these are not the boast, so are they neither, I trust, the envy of Americans. None of the laws of nature seem to be more certain and invariable in their operation, than that which limits happiness to exertion, and renders it incompatible with habits of inertion and torpitude. With an oeconomy which we see imitated in the rev­enue policy of some wise nations, she seems to have ordained that it shall never be imported in a finished state, but that man himself shall contribute to the production of the happiness which he feels.

LET Europe exult in her luxuries and her pa­geants, Asia in her spices and her gems, and Africa in her golden sands: In a happy retirement from them all, from the corruptions, the follies, and the tumults of one, and the vices, the ignorance, and barbarities of the others, America, collected within herself, sits smiling in the bosom of peace, of securi­ty. Amply possessed of the bullion, the unwrought [Page 8] materials of wealth and felicity, and conscious of the means, which as amply reside within herself, of coining and manufacturing them, she covets not the enjoy­ment of their luxuries, at the expence of participating their vices and their miseries.

OURS are the rational, sentimental, and manly en­joyments which result from the union of natural ad­vantages with temperance, industry and oeconomy. With that happy temperament of climate which, equally removed from torrid and frigid extremes, is propitious to the health and vigour of both body and mind, as well to the growth of all the variety of ani­mal, vegetable, and mineral productions which either the necessities or conveniences of mankind require— with an immeasurable expanse of country in our rear, fertile to a degree almost to exceed credibility, and for the most part generous and easy of cultivation, skirted and interspersed with lakes and rivers which pre­sent commerce with a source of inland navigation ca­pable of being improved by locks and canals to a de­gree of facility, expedition and safety to transporta­tion little short of the ocean; and with these advan­tages promising to become a fund of national afflu­ence, beyond the reach of calculation, and scarcely to be exhausted in the lapse of ages—with an extent of sea-coast of more than a thousand miles, beautifully indented with bays and harbours; intersected at con­venient intervals by rivers which open an easy naviga­tion to the fruitful and pleasant interior country; and even that immense stretch of coast-navigation so situa­ted as to receive the least possible injury or inconven­ience from those winds which are usually most incle­ment and disastrous in their effects—with a spirit of enterprize and exertion completely adequate to the most beneficial improvement of these blessings, and to which no human undertaking is unequal, regulated [...] habits of virtue—what, I ask, have Americans to [Page 9] wish from the bounty of Heaven, which is not alrea­dy placed within their reach; or which, if obtained, would not be productive of effeminacy, vice and mis­ery, rather than of substantial enjoyment?

ALTHOUGH it is yet to be decided, not only in experiment but argument, as well whether the ex­pansive and dispersed situation of the United States be capable of supporting a republican form of government for any considerable period of time, as whether that dispersion be not a circumstance favourable to its suc­cess; I feel not the smallest hesitation in ranking it among the subjects of gratitude and felicitation to Americans, that it precludes from us at present one formidable source of partial influence, of faction, and tergiversation to which we should be exposed by such an enormous conflux of population as constitutes a London or a Paris. It is a notorious fact, that much of the eccentricity, distraction, injustice and cruelty which have marked certain stages of the revolution in France, has originated in that unhappy mass of influ­ence possessed by the city of Paris, and the direction given to that influence by the wild, vicious, licen­tious, and disorganizing dispositions and manners common to such immense congregations of people. Whether we have any thing to fear for American pos­terity from the future growth and accumulation of the projected metropolis of the United States, I will not hazard a conjecture.

THE present state of society in America seems to be a fair medium between the rudeness of aboriginal simplicity, and the effeminacy and luxury which al­ways mark the advanced stages of civil refinement. It is that state in which the virtues of hospitality, tem­perance, industry and oeconomy delight to dwell, and which, from its characteristic spirit of enterprize, ex­ertion and vigour, is most favourable to the cultiva­tion [Page 10] of the useful arts and sciences. Agriculture▪ notwithstanding the discouragements of emigration to the western country, and the scarcity of labour, is rising in improvement, and favoured by that state of the markets produced by the situation of Europe, is adding to our wealth in a manner almost unparalleled. Manufactures, aided by the invention of machines for the abridgment of manual labour—inventions which, as well for the importance of their effects, as for their number and ingenuity, have never, perhaps, in a similar period of time, been equalled in any oth­er country—are making a rapid progress, and strength­ening in one very important part our independence. Navigation and commerce, under all the formidable embarrassments to which they are subjected by the capricious and ungenerous systems of the conflicting European powers, are still sufficiently beneficial and productive to the American adventurer to call forth exertions, and to excite improvements which at some future day may place the naval strength of America in a situation less liable to receive laws at their hands.

BUT I should do injustice to my country, if, in enumerating the existing circumstances which consti­tute its happiness and its honor, I were to omit cred­iting the account with a fair portion of even the po­lite and elegant refinements. The Muses have not disdained to visit the sequestered shade of an Ameri­can vale, and to listen with the kindest indulgence to the invocation of many a timeful bard. The canvas is learning to breathe with artificial life; the pencil is wresting from the hand of death a portion of his awful oblivion; and many of the deceased fathers of our country still seem to live upon our walls. Polite liter­ature is making a progress in improvement which must afford the most pleasing satisfaction to every lov­er of the mental accomplishments. While our schools and our colleges, with increasing effect, are [Page 11] rearing the tender youth to future usefulness and glo­ry, our presses are labouring with the noble produc­tions of maturer genius and science, and our legisla­tive councils are resounding with the thunder of patri­otic eloquence.

TO the many blessings enjoyed by Americans which have already been mentioned, there is yet another to be added, without which the rest could be but half enjoyed. We have a Constitution to preserve and to defend—a Constitution justly the admiration of the world, and in the preservation and defence of which, no exertions, no sacrifices, could be illy bestowed.— When I recollect the hazardous scene of probation through which that Constitution has so lately passed, and the noble and magnanimous support which it has received at a time when all the formidable batteries of faction and intrigue were opened against it, shall I not be pardoned in bestowing a few reflections and obser­vations upon the subject from which that scene deri­ved its origin?

I MOST cordially congratulate this assembly, and my country in general, on the happy result of the late critical and alarming situation of America respecting the consummation of her Treaty with Great-Britain. It would be arrogance in the Speaker to attempt with confidence to appreciate the merits or demerits of the Treaty itself: Such are the variety, extent, and in­tricate combination of objects embraced by a Treaty of commerce and navigation, that to judge with accu­racy of the wisdom and eligibility of its arrangements, requires an acquaintance with the relations, interests, laws, usages, finances, strength and dispositions of na­tions, which the reading or other means of informa­tion of comparitively few enable them to acquire.— The merits of a treaty of intercourse between independ­ent nations, rest on principles essentially different from those by which we are to judge of the merits of a [Page 12] constitution of internal government. The former are not to be measured by the partial advantages which are secured to any one nation or empire; but a trea­ty, being for the most part a convention, compromise, or adjustment of opposing interests and views, con­templates a reciprocity of benefits, regulated by, and adapted to, all the variety of circumstances which may either enforce, or weaken the respective claims of the contracting parties.

COULD America prevail with the nations of Eu­rope with whom her interest may induce her to wish to preserve an amicable and commercial intercourse, to submit exclusively to her legislature the power of forming treaties of amity and commerce, by which they would consent to hold themselves bound, we might then hope to see provisional stipulations for the interest of our country more consonant to the ideas & demands of a certain class of our citizens. We might then hope to see Europe obsequiously throwing open her ports to receive us on our own terms, and consent­ing to take from us, at her own doors, not only the productions of this country, but those of any others of which we might choose to be the carriers. But it will probably be long before we may expect to meet such a convenient measure of courtesy and acquies­cence in the nations with whom we may have to ne­gociate.

AMIDST the clamor and virulence of objection which has heaped in the way of the Treaty in question, and that in many instances from the tongues and pens of persons who, we might suppose, possessed the means of information to render them competent to a fair decision, what shall be the criterion by which to measure our approbation, and establish its character and value in the popular estimation? With those who can conceive that the Treaty may possess merits which to every capacity may not be obvious, it is [Page 13] some commendation that it is ostensibly founded in a system of pacification and neutrality—that it was negociated by a person well acquainted with, and ca­pable of understanding the true interests of his coun­try; one whose patriotism and integrity were tried and approved, bearing a special commission from, and acting under the immediate direction and instructions of, a Washington. In their estimation the effect of the cavilling, rant, and declamation of the cham­pions of opposition, is in some measure balanced by the consideration that on a lengthy, cool, deliberate investigation of its merits in the Senate of the United States—a select council of the wise men of the nation, composed of an equal representation of all the States in the union—it was found deserving of the qualified advisory approbation and consent of two thirds of that venerable constitutional body, and comes to us at length with the signature and ultimate approbation and responsibility of that man who has more than once arrested the tottering fortunes of his country, and conducted them to safety, happiness and glory.

WHEN the climax of American happiness is crown­ed with the name of WASHINGTON, the imagina­tion has spent its flight. It is the key-stone which binds and sustains the mighty ark. It was he found us divided, weak, dependent, oppressed colonies, prostrate at the footstool of a despotic jurisdiction, se­parated from us by a thousand leagues of ocean, obe­dient and tumbling at the missive mandate; and who, after the hasty lapse of twenty years, has seen us united, powerful, happy, and taking an honourable rank among the nations of the earth.—Has seen us, did I say?—next to the protection and guidance of Heaven, it is the praise of Washington to have led us by the hand to that glorious station—with the wis­dom of the sage, to have pointed the arduous ascent, and with the fortitude of the hero, to have led the [Page 14] dubious way. In every emergency, one has been our hope, and one our resort. When the burthen of foreign oppression became too heavy to be borne, and called loudly to resistance, did we want a General to lead forth our undisciplined yeomanry to the field?— A Washington! was the exulting cry—and lo! as if enchantment and magic awaited his call, that undis­ciplined and unarmed band became an army formida­ble even to veterans! When conquest and glory had crowned our exertions in the field, and the fate of America trembled between the Scylla of foreign despo­tism, and the Charybdis of internal anarchy—when it became necessary, by an efficient constitution of gov­ernment, to substantiate the blessings of freedom and independence, which our arms had acquired— Washington was unanimously called to preside at the council; and the result has proved itself worthy of its origin, by an eight years experience. Did we want a Supreme Executive Magistrate, in whom we might hope to find concentrated the confidence of electors thus widely dispersed, and various in their manners, views and interests, to stand at the helm of that con­stitution, and guide it through the tempests of fac­tion?—With an unanimity which never, under simi­lar circumstances, before was known, Washington was again summoned, reluctant and diffident, from his beloved scenes of philosophic retirement, and to complete the immortal glory of his character, has given lessons of wisdom in administration to the aston­ished world.

IT is the praise of Washington alone, that the pa­negyric which suppresses a single trait in his character, subtracts from the fullness of his fame. We have heard of an Alexander, a Caesar, and a Charles; but the panegyrist who would secure our admiration and esteem for their characters, like one who exhibits figures on a wall from a magic lantern, must shew [Page 15] them only in a single light; and by an artful use of veils and disguises, screen them from too severe a scrutiny.—Naked and unveiled, it is the native man —the entire and undisguised character—which we admire. Do we view him in the domestic circle, in the senate, in the field, or at the levee; the scene, indeed, is changed, but the man is still the same.— Is he formidable as an enemy?—he is faithful and af­fectionate as a friend. Is he illustrious as a statesman and a magistrate?—he is amiable as a citizen. Is he great as a hero?—he is good as a christian and a man. Such is the man to whom America is thus indebted: but—I blush for my country to add—such is the character which the breath of malevolence, even in America, has basely assailed.—Would to Heaven that his country were as unstained with disgrace for its ingratitude, as his peaceful, philosophie soul is in­vulnerable to the vile abuse!—But never yet was complete justice rendered to the fame of living merit▪ posterity shall more justly appreciate the character and the services of the Saviour of their country; and "The sons shall blush, whose fathers were his foes."

THE period of each revolving year, while it disclo­ses the hidden rocks and shoals which that adminis­tration whose wisdom and firmness it is our pride to boast, could alone enable us to shun; is continually adding bright features of dignity, importance, and respectability to the American name and empire. Since the day on which we were last assembled to cele­brate the event which we are now commemorating, Treaties have been concluded, ratified, and legisla­tively provided for, with Great-Britain, Spain, Al­giers, and the hostile tribes of Indians northwest of the Ohio; from which we may hope and expect a termination of the long, expensive, and distressing war with those savages—a suspension of the ruinous de­predations upon our maritime property by that pirati­cal [Page 16] African power, and the restoration of our unfor­tunate fellow-citizens from a grievous captivity among them—the establishment and security of very essential interests of the United States, in their commercial relations with Spain; while at the same time a foun­dation is laid of lasting harmony and friendship with that respectable nation—and an amicable and concil­latory adjustment, removal, and redress of subsisting differences, complaints, and wrongs between the United States and Great-Britain▪ In a review of the progress of which, it is not, perhaps, the least deserv­ing subject of congratulation and joy, that our inesti­mable Constitution has stood the test of an experi­ment the most critical and alarming with which, pos­sibly, it may ever have to encounter; and has prov­ed itself capable of sustaining a shock, to which alone the soundness and solidity of its materials, and the wisdom of its construction, could have been found equal.

TO every scene of experimental probation, calcula­ted to try the principles of republican oeconomy, through which the American Constitution is called to pass, is probably attached a weight of importance, in­terest and concern bounded by no limits but those which circumscribe the love of freedom, and the abodes of hope. To that adventurous country which has dared to set a bold example to the world, by erect­ing the standard of liberty and independence in the face of menacing despotism, are the wondering eyes, and anxious hopes, of many a transatlantic disciple of liberty directed. If ever the injured cause of freedom and the rights of man is to be sustained against the lawless encroachments of tyranny, on the one hand, or licentiousness and anarchy, on the other, perhaps a fairer field for the experiment may never be offered, or, indeed, could be wished, than is presented in the United States of America. When we contemplate [Page 17] the local situation of the country; the manner of its original settlement and population; the native ge­nius of its inhabitants; their manners, habits, and modes of education; the sources and vehicles of in­formation which they possess; and the previous sys­tems of policy to which they have been accustomed; we may fancy to ourselves that we behold the oppress­ed of the earth committing to the event of American exertions their ultimate hopes—that we hear them imploring the blessings of Heaven upon those exer­tions, and in the ardour of their wishes and their ex­pectations, addressing the American people in these impassioned strains: "Favoured of Heaven! how happy is your lot! It is you whom the guardian ge­nius of liberty, of humanity, and innocence, has cho­sen to reach forth her celestial charter to the groaning children of oppression and sorrow. Every advantage, and every blessing necessary to ensure success to the cause are liberally planted in your land; you have riches—you have strength—you have knowledge— you have virtue—O remember that it is not for your­selves alone that you possess them; Europe, Asia, and Africa have an interest in the result of your meas­ures!—Where, alas! shall freedom dwell with man, if America afford her not an asylum?—Remember that it is not the happiness of yourselves, your wives, and your children alone for which you are providing; continue to be free, and hope is ours; the ruin of your cause is to us the messenger of despair!"