PERMIT me, my fellow citizens, to congratulate you on the return of our national fes­tival. We are now met to commemorate an aera, that will ever live in our recollection; to celebrate the four and twentieth anniversary of that auspicious day, that witnessed the sanction of the solemn and sublime act, which severed us forever from the British empire; and which, in its eventual success, exalted us from a state of colonial degradation, to that of a great, free, and independent people. May its annual return ever inspire our hearts with hilarity and joy. May we delight to cherish a remembrance of our fathers' deeds, through whose instrumental­ity we inherit our present national blessings; to record their achievements, and perpetuate their virtues.

TO resist the encroachments of arbitrary power, however concealed in its advances, or masked un­der specious pretexts, was worthy the descendants of those venerable heroes, who had endured every toil, and encountered every danger, that they might protect from violation the sacred rights of con­science, [Page 4] and transmit to posterity an unsullied free­dom. Long had an intercourse of friendship sub­sisted between these Colonies and their parent State. Americans, viewing Great Britain as the land of their fathers, felt for it all that partial affection, which filial reverence could inspire. They saw their commerce loaded with restrictions, and saw it with­out complaint. They beheld with a degree of sat­isfaction their riches poured into the lap of their pa­rent. They exulted in the fame of her wide spread­ing glory. They had often fought by the side of Englishmen, as brothers in the same cause, and had mingled their best blood with theirs. But when they, boasting of liberty, which to preserve to them­selves they had often encountered the horrors of civil war, could be so far unmindful of what they owed us as fellow citizens, as to become the willing tools of an infatuated ministry, to wrest from us our dearest privileges, the ties, which bound us to them, became as flax that is burnt. America, friendless and alone, destitute of resources, but collected with­in herself, bid defiance to the English nation in the zenith of her power, and elated with a recent tri­umph over the arms of France. In the ardor of her zeal, her own weakness and the strength of her antagonist were alike forgotten. In contemplating the respect she owed herself, she was elevated above a sense of danger. Her sons, having had free access to the tree of liberty, having ate its invigorating fruit, drank its exhilarating juice, and been sheltered beneath the foliage of its branches, were determined to preserve it for their children in all its freshness and vigor. Considering freedom as their rightful inheritance, as a sacred deposit they had received in trust for posterity, they were resolutely bent on transmitting it pure and unadulterated; on living free, or perishing in the attempt.

[Page 5]TO relieve the mother country, groaning under a massive weight of debt, a revenue from the Colo­nies had long been a favorite ministerial measure. It had been several times attempted, and as often repelled with that indignation which became an in­jured people. The paltry sum to be assessed was not the object of contention, nor resistance; but an acknowledgment or rejection of the theoretic prin­ciple, which enlightened Americans saw, if once acquiesced in, would lay an ax at the root of their liberties, and reduce them eventually to a state of abject vassalage. The right of taxing they held to be inseparable from that of representation. And for Great Britain to assume the one, while she re­fused the other, they contended was a departure from her own principles, a treacherous inversion of her own maxims. To part with the smallest por­tion of property, without their own consent, they saw annihilated the tenure by which they held the whole; was transferring a right to their own ac­quisitions, from themselves to a foreign legislature, to be taken at such times, and in such sums, as should best suit their conveniency. They rejected with unanimity and spirit the degrading idea; and nobly preferred encrimsoning those fields with their blood, which their fathers had toiled to subdue.

THE feelings and pride of the mother country had been severely wounded, by what she termed the refractory spirit of her Colonies. She had, from time to time, abandoned the darling object of her wishes, but still insisted on her right. For our laud­able resistance to unprovoked usurpation, she stig­matized us, as rebellious subjects and ungrateful children. To repel her taunts, she was reminded, that having forgotten the protection she owed, she had justly forfeited the allegiance, otherwise due; [Page 6] that having our rights and privileges under her safe keeping, as their most proper guardian, she had acted the part of a cruel and unnatural parent, and, like the intriguing and insidious patriarch, had en­deavored to deprive us of our birthright.

THUS did altercation for a long time agitate both countries. It drew forth the most copious streams of eloquence on either side. It stimulated the en­lightened patriots of America to severe investiga­tion of the wicked policy of the British cabinet. The energetic language of freemen rose superior to reasoning enfeebled by a bad cause. Lofty crested Britain was reduced to the humiliating situation of appearing, in the face of Europe, fairly foiled in the field of argument. She did not, however, relinquish the object of her prey, as would have best comported with her interest and her reputation. In­toxicated with her own imaginary greatness, and the fancied omnipotence of her power, she en­deavored to compel that submission, she had in vain looked for from the tameness of the American spir­it; and to obtain by the force of arms, what her refuted logic had failed to accomplish.

THE history of those times presents our country in a dignified and interesting attitude. In one hand extending the olive branch, as ready to accommo­date on honorable terms, with the other putting on her buckler, determined to repel every aggression. In the inequality of the contest, she resembles the stripling in the Jewish annals, challenging the haugh­ty giant to the combat. For, in the means and re­sources of the combatants, there was the same dis­parity, as between the shepherd's sling and his an­tagonist's spear. But, like the young hero, relying on the justice of our cause and the smiles of approv­ing Heaven, we resisted, we fought, we conquered. [Page 7] The American leader, more favored than the Jewish lawgiver, entered with his people, whom he con­ducted in triumph into the promised land of lib­erty and independence. May the energy, which effected our revolution, be still an existing trait in the character of Columbia. May the high toned spirit of our fathers animate their children; and the flame of liberty, which burst forth in '75, burn, like the sacred fire of the vestals, forever in their bosoms. To those heroes, who sealed their patriot­ism with their blood, and whose deeds are enrolled in the archives of their admiring country, may we be ever ready to pay the tribute of heartfelt grat­itude. Peace to their spirits, and let their fame be immortal. May it brighten in its progress through time, and the sun of glory shine forever on their tombs.

GREAT had been our anticipations from the attain­ment of peace. We looked forward with eager expectation to that happy moment, when our coun­try should be no longer frightened with the din of arms, and the alarm of war should cease. The treaty, which secured us the object, exceeded the hopes of the most sanguine calculators. And we verily expected a second edition of the golden age of the poets. This delusion lasted not long. Re­lieved from the pressure of a common danger, we found ourselves without a bond of union. The old system of Confederation became of as little conse­quence, as the parchment on which it was inscribed, and soon crumbled to pieces like Nebuchadnezzar's image. The moral sense of the people had become relaxed, by those licentious practices inseparable from a state of revolution. A fluctuating paper me­dium had given birth to fraud and imposition. The States, no longer linked by the menace of an ex­ternal [Page 8] foe, commenced commercial rivals of each other; set up and advocated opposite and clashing interests. The memorable tender laws, passed at that time, are a sufficient evidence of the wretched state of things. Confidence, public and private, was nearly at an end, and credit just breathing her last. At this alarming crisis, the wise policy of our country dictated the only alternative, that could have snatched us from destruction. A number of our wisest sages and civilians met, and formed our pres­ent Federal Constitution: that happy combination of liberty and law, so admirably adjusted in its various parts, and with such internal checks and balances, as to forbid every rational fear of its pow­ers being abused. It was the result of mature de­liberation, candid inquiry, mutual concession, and patient investigation. Its formation is a glorious epoch in the annals of our history. Its adoption was our political salvation.

IT has been asserted by a celebrated philosopher, ^* "that the dignity of man was degraded by the re­straints and shackles of society;" "that he enjoyed more true liberty, and appeared at his highest point of elevation, in a state of nature." But how im­perfect and precarious must that liberty be, which, in a state of nature, is liable to perpetual invasion; and which a stronger may at any time take away. To live under a system of well adapted laws, orig­inating from himself, is, undoubtedly, the highest state of civil privilege, alloted to man in this sublu­nary sphere.

THE organization of our General Government had an immediate renovating effect on the aspect of public affairs. To give form, substance, and con­sistency, [Page 9] to the new order of things, imposed im­mense labors on those, who were first elected to its administration. They succeeded by toil and per­severance. Order and harmony arose out of chaos. Public confidence was restored, and credit revived. Commerce, which was before nearly annihilated, soon covered the ocean with its ships, and afforded a revenue sufficient to meet every public expendi­ture. Under the auspices of a fostering government, the commercial enterprize of Americans has affect­ed the first maritime powers with jealousy and aston­ishment. Not a port of traffic, however remote, but displays the stars and stripes floating in the wind. And it has continued to increase to the present time in defiance of every depredation. Be­hold it, on its canvass wings, returning to our ports, laden with the riches of every clime. And see, in the elegant language of Columbia's favorite bard,

NATURE has prescribed certain limits to all her works. Empires have their rise, their progress, and their decay. Those of Asia, which successively sat as mistresses of the world, have been swept away, and left not a trace behind. Those of Europe have reached their acme, and are evidently on the decline. To this Western Hemisphere, which is rapidly ad­vancing, we may look, hereafter, for a superiority among the nations, and rationally predict the future exaltation of our country. Situated at a distance from those blood stained scenes, which are desolat­ing the Old World, and which are the fruits of mad ambition and a lust of power, we enjoy comparative quiet in a happy land, and " our lines have fallen to [Page 10] us in pleasant places." With a territory extending nineteen degrees of latitude, fertility of soil, variety of climate; with treasures of wealth yet unexplored, rich in resources, and governed by mild and whole­some laws; to what heights of grandeur and mag­nificence, if our country is wise, may she not aspire?

BUT do Americans rightly appreciate the peculiar advantages they enjoy? Do they sufficiently ven­erate a government, the work of their own hands? Do they guard with enthusiasm that independence, which we this day celebrate, and which is the price and pledge of all their other blessings? To these questions the infant history of our country presents a mortifying negative. Its annals are already stained with two insurrections of the people against consti­tuted authorities; against a government of their own choice, and administered by patriots whose characters transcend all praise—a government, which has hitherto, under Heaven, secured the peace, hap­piness, and prosperity of these United States, and scattered blessings with a liberal hand—a govern­ment, whose bitterest enemies cannot with truth ac­cuse of one intentional error, or a single act of in­justice or oppression. Those acts, which have been the most loudly condemned by the thoughtless and designing, as usurpating and tyrannical, breathe the ardent spirit of genuine liberty—are barriers erected to defend the rights of the citizens, against the de­structive machinations of domestic cabal and foreign renegadoes.

OUR continent, more particularly the southern part, is infested with hordes of profligate foreigners; who, having fled from justice in their own country, and found an asylum in ours, ungratefully repay her the shelter afforded them, by plotting against her peace and welfare. With unwearied effort they are [Page 11] disseminating the seeds of civil discord; endeavor­ing to sever the people from their government, and industriously inculcating the doctrine of "holy in­surrection." Misrepresentation and the most vil­ifying abuse are the base arts they make use of. The fairest characters are the marks, at which these vile archers aim the shafts of their calumny. In a late periodical publication, issued in Virginia by one of these exotic, malignant slanderers, our illustrious President, whose character is like "pure gold, when tried in the furnace," has been represented to the people the worst of parricides; as guilty of almost every enormity; capable of assassinating the honor of his country; of subverting her best interests, and exulting over her ruin. And, strange to tell! there is found on the part of the people a listening ear, and a disposition to believe defamation, how­ever virulent and outrageous.

IS it not strangely inconsistent, that those virtues and talents, which recommend their possessors to of­fice, should fail to secure to them the confidence and affection of their constituents, in the exercise of their delegated power? Is it not truly surprising, that the worn out arts of hypocritical pretenders to a more exalted love of freedom and their country should prevail? That the stale cry of "liberty is in dan­ger," which has been made use of by every canting, whining seeker of popular favor, ever since the ex­istence of democratic government, should be prac­tised on enlightened Americans with success? That the people should be so easily detached and estranged from a good government, by the base arts of design­ing demagogues, who, under the specious garb of patriotism, conceal a gigantic ambition; and who wish, by their loud and wheedling pretensions to a veneration of the people and their cause, to gull [Page 12] them into a subserviency to their own schemes of self aggrandizement?

IT is too greatly to be feared, that intriguing foreigners, confederated with the misled, the factious, and malevolent among ourselves, will gradually sap the foundation of our republic. For a government like ours, which depends alone for support on the good opinion and affections of the people, when these are withdrawn, must inevitably fall. And will high spirited Americans, the sons of renowned sires, suffer themselves to be thus ignobly plundered of their government and their dearest rights, by in­solent foreigners, leagued with degenerate citizens? Men, whose inordinate appetites and intemperate passions will not brook the restraints of laws and or­der; and who, therefore, wish to subvert every in­stitution, civil and religious: Will they tamely suf­fer themselves to be deprived, by such vagrants, of those privileges for which they have fought and bled? for which they have encountered the disasters of a seven years war, and the hazards of an unequal contest, and a "tented field?" Shall we keep this day, which has hitherto been our pride and boast, as an unmeaning and useless festivity, without its bringing to our recollection those principles, reno­vating that temper, and awakening those energies, which gave our independence birth? May Heaven avert from the American mind such a state of callous insensibility. May the present generation, like the former, swear to part with life sooner than liberty; and think no sacrifice too great, to preserve honor unstained, and freedom unsullied.

UNHEARD of commotions have for ten years past convulsed Europe. The groans of oppression have been wafted to our ears on every eastern gale. France, in whom this overwhelming calamity began, [Page 13] was our national friend. May the phantom, na­tional friendship, which deluded the youthful fancy of our country, and which she thought possible to exist, be, henceforward, forever expunged from her catalogue of virtues. It is a principle too pure and exalted to influence the gross interests of bodies politic. It can exist only in the sympathy of refined individuals. Were I to pursue a developement of the causes of contention and animosity between the two countries; to enumerate the aggressions of the "terrible republic," and display her insults; even if I were equal to the task, it would last till your ears were dull with hearing, and the narration be scarcely begun. This magnanimous friend has accused us of ingratitude! Whether gratitude were her due, I shall not now inquire; nor whether, if it were, her haughty and imperious demands upon us, to fulfil its duties, did not cancel them. For the nature of gratitude excludes the idea of being claimed. It is the proper fruit only of services rendered without the hope and expectation of reward, springing up spontaneously in the minds of the benefited. Claim­ing counter services on the score of gratitude is among the modern inventions of that sagacious republic. Demanding compensation changes the ground entirely; converts it into a compact of in­terest and barter, where both parties are at liberty to make the best of their bargain. Yet there are some among us, who would despoil us of the honors of this day; who, notwithstanding France assisted us from motives of self gratification, and to curtail the power of her rival, would have us cast our inde­pendence, and the fruits of all our fathers' labors at her feet, to be trampled upon by that domineer­ing government. Could we be thus degenerate and base, might not our fathers' shades reproach us with pusillanimity; and the ghosts of those heroes, who [Page 14] fell in our cause, point indignantly at their wounds? But I shall admit at this time, without discussion, her pretensions to our gratitude; and repel her op­probrious charge, by appealing to the years of ninety-one and two. Let the proceedings of those times witness for us the general enthusiasm enkindled in her favor; and the nauseating draughts, that were drained to her success. If we have since ceased to wish it, the change is not in us, it is in herself. It is owing to her departure from those sacred principles, which ought to have guided her in her emancipa­tion; to the horrid carnage and devastation of her conduct. All we wish her is, to repent of her fol­lies, and be healed of her madness. We are now making another attempt to negotiate; and it will exist as a lasting monument of the enlightened pol­icy and pacific views of our illustrious President. May France no longer abuse the liberal spirit of our government. May the present Envoys not find themselves, like the former, under the disagreeable necessity of unfolding scenes of corruption, which have fixed an indelible stigma on the French coun­sels. May Buonaparte prove less rapacious than his predecessors. And ex-bishop Talleyrand, laying aside his duplicity and finesse, meet them on the ground of fair and honorable discussion. May the sanguinary deeds, which have marked the progress of their unparalleled revolution, perpetrated in the sacred name of liberty, and associating horror with the word, be no more repeated to disgust her sincere votaries, and pierce with anguish even the most ob­durate heart.

SINCE the last celebration of this festive day, we have to deplore a great national calamity. The Sun, which illumined with his beams our political hori­zon, has set. The best cement of our union is dis­solved. The noblest pillar in the fair fabric of free­dom [Page 15] has crumbled into dust. WASHINGTON is no more. The friend, the father of his country, the benefactor of mankind, and the ornament of human nature, now swells the triumphs of the destroying angel. Well may I exclaim in the language of the poet, "O, what a loss was there, my countrymen!" His name alone was a rampart and a defence. Our foreign enemies stood appalled at his greatness; and the stormy sea of domestic faction broke its billows harmless at his feet. May we wear his counsels deep engraven on our hearts, embalm his memory with our tears, and in our lives copy his bright ex­ample. May his mantle, and a double portion of his spirit, rest on his successor. And although we may conclude that he is nearly ripe for glory, O may he yet be spared to his country. May he still go forward in the path of inflexible virtue. No un­timely frost nip the "blushing honors," which cluster on his brow. May his fame continue spotless as it is pure, till he shall join his elder brother and kindred spirit in those mansions above, there to receive the approving sentence, " Well done, good and faithful servant."

IF we would preserve and maintain our liberty, and transmit it immaculate to posterity, we must cherish the institutions of our fathers in all their pris­tine vigor. Diffuse wide the means of information. An enlightened people will never be slaves. May no son of Columbia ever fear a demand for tribute from any power on earth, without feeling electrified with the spirit of opposition, and determined to live free; if times or exigencies should ever require it, may every arm be raised to protect our government and defend our country.

LET us felicitate ourselves on the wise and for­bearing policy of our Executive, which has hitherto preserved us from being entangled in the mad career [Page 16] of European politics; that we are now sitting under our own vines and fig trees, partaking the bounties of peace. While in France the altars of religion are thrown down, and her sacred rights are profaned, our temples are standing, and invite us to enter. Among other inestimable favors, we enjoy the in­structions of an enlightened and patriotic clergy, whose labors have been uniformly devoted to their GOD and their country. May the reigning public quiet be perpetuated, nor prove to be the awful stillness of the elements, which precedes the tornado.

IF we would secure Heaven on our side, we must make religion our peculiar care. Imitate the bright pattern of the Christian faith, and transplant his vir­tues, one by one, into our lives. May our churches be filled with votaries, and our altars protected from the violation of sacrilegious hands. May justice be the pole star to guide and direct us in all our trans­actions, public and private. Its principles are eter­nal, and will prevail. May the pestilential doctrines of modern philosophy come not nigh our dwellings; nor the baleful contagion of infidelity poison the sweets of our domestic felicity. "To your own­selves be true; and it shall follow as the night the day, you cannot then be false to any man." ^* If in this way we pursue our happiness, and study in the day thereof the things which make for our peace, we shall certainly arrive at the mark of true glory, and thou, my country, favorite of Heaven, be pros­perous, happy, and free.