independence had been won, the illustrious Turgot wrote of us these prophetic words:

"It is impossible not to offer vows that this people may arrive at all the prosperity of which it is susceptible. It is the hope of the human race. It can become its model. It must give the example of political liberty, of religious liberty, of commercial and industrial liberty. The asylum which it opens to the oppressed of all nations must console the earth. The facility which it affords for escape from a bad government, will force the European governments to be just and enlightened."

Surely the aspirations of that prophetic soul have been completely answered. I have tried to show that they have been answered as respects our own people and country; it remains to point out how this prophecy has been fulfilled as respects other nations. And here, I will yield to the impulse which always moves a New Yorker to speak of, and for the whole country. That our example has acted powerfully upon Europe no one denies. I do not refer alone to the French revolution, but to events which have been more peaceful in operation, and, perhaps, more permanent in results.

We have shown the world, that there is no occasion for war on religious grounds, and that a government may safely tolerate all religions. We have shown that race and language do not create insurmountable barriers between men. That the Celt and the Teuton have inherited no cause for quarrel. We have shown that the education of all the people does not cause discontent and disorder, but that it is a source of wealth and a strong defence to the State. We have shown that a press absolutely free from censorship and control, is not a source of danger, but that by giving opportunity to display the truth and to expose the wrong, it becomes a conservative influence upon society. We have shown the world the advantages of free trade between communities widely separated and

whose industries greatly differ-albeit, our conduct, as respects foreign nations, belies both our practice and precept at home.

We have also shown the value of national unity. Taught by our example, Italy and Germany, both for centuries divided into a number of petty sovereignties, have been transformed into States of the first rank as respects strength and power.

These results give promise of a greater future and of an influence upon mankind even more valuable. If the States of America find it to their advantage to meet in annual Congress, why may not the States of Europe do the same? Indeed, when important occasions arise, they do so now. Whatever cavil there may be over its results, the fact that the question of war and peace in Europe was presented to the Congress of Berlin is full of hope for the future. An English gentleman, the Governor of an English Colony, said to me lately that he looked forward to some future association of all the English speaking peoples, but when this generous thought is suggested to an American, he remembers that the ancestors of his countrymen are not all English, and he widens the aspiration into the hope that, in the near future, all the nations will be accustomed to meet from time to time in Congress, for the adjustment of their differences.

My fellow citizens you are descended from all the great and heroic races. Heirs of a glorious past, to you and to your children belong the opportunities of the future. Your duty is plain. It will be your part to preserve the institutions you have inherited, and to widen and complete them. Do you begin to feel the evils which disturb older communities? Do you find that property gathers in the hands of the few? That classes separated by barriers difficult to surmount grow up amongst you? That business associations acquire a power inconsistent with the general welfare? You will know how to deal with

these dangers, for you will remember how your fathers dealt with the perils of their day. You will resort to methods which are consistent with peace and liberty. You will apply the solvents of universal education, of free discussion, and of untrammelled political action.

It needs no prophetic vision to tell something of the future. If peace be preserved, those who meet here to celebrate the second centennial of the conquest of the Six Nations, will be citizens of a State containing twenty million people. We may be certain, that during the century which now begins, achievements will be made as great and as difficult as the achievements of the last century. The orator of that day may speak in a strain even more triumphant than mine. He will be able to describe a civilization more refined than ours; wealth more evenly distributed; knowledge more general; society reposing 'under a safer guardianship; and our country, with its liberties assured, still showing to the nations of the earth the way to peace and freedom.

During the delivery of MR. DORSHEIMER'S oration, the storm threatened during the forenoon, set in from the south-east accompanied with heavy rain, which continued to pour down for several hours and until the conclusion of the exercises at the grand stand. While this had the effect to greatly thin out the crowd assembled about the stand, to listen to the speaker, yet many remained to the close, so great was their interest in the exercises of the day.

The historian, REV. DAVID CRAFT, was next introduced by the President of the day, and delivered the historical address prepared by him for the occasion. Mr. Craft, at

the request of the Library and Historical Society, has kindly re-written and extended his address, so as to form, as now published, a full and complete history of the entire Sullivan Campaign of 1779, compiled and prepared from official records.

. MR. PRESIDENT:

In the current of human history, there arise great events which materially modify the structure of society, turn the stream of national life into new channels, give a new coloring to national character, and secure development of new resources. They are the events which designate historical epochs, and become focal dates to mark the progress of civilization, and trace the development of social and national life.

Such an event, to this country, was the Sullivan Expedition. It marks the beginning of a new era in the history of this Empire State. It determined, at a single blow, whether white men or red men should hold domination over these fertile vales and along these streams, and over these lakes and mountains. At a single stroke it solved the question, whether the American Indian, with his deeply rooted prejudices, with his unconquerable aversion to civilization, with his undisguised hatred for the religion and the culture of the European, was longer to stand in the way of human progress; whether he was longer to maintain a barrier, as immovable as his own nature, to the advancement of the institutions and the ideas of the white man, or whether he must go down before the antagonism of another race, which was every day gathering new strength and preparing itself for a fresh onset.

To whichever party our sympathy may cling, in whatever speculations the philanthropist may indulge, whatever charges of cruelty, of greed, of rapacity, may be made against the white man, we shudder to think what might

have been the fate of free institutions on this western continent, had the wager of battle between the races, at that awful crisis, given victory to the vanquished.

When this country was first known to the whites, the territory bounded on the north by the St. Lawrence, on the east by the Hudson and Delaware, on the south by the Potomac, and on the west by the great lakes, was inhabited by nations, which from their language, general customs and traditions, seemed to be more closely related to each other, than to the nations which surrounded them. The confederated Five Nations, or as they are commonly called, the Iroquois, occupied the north-east portion of this territory, having the Eries and Hurons on the west, and on the south the Andastes, tribes living along the Susquehanna. These powerful neighbors had greatly diminished the strength of the Iroquois, and wellnigh reduced them to a condition of vassalage, and more than once had even driven them from their ancestral seats.

For mutual protection the Five Nations of Central New York, viz: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, entered into a confederation, and in a rude way, anticipated the great Federal Republic which is to-day exercising such controlling power over the affairs of this continent, and such mighty influence over the nations of the earth. By means of the mutual aid they were thus able to give each other, and of the rifle, which traders sold to the Mohawks prior to 1620, the Iroquois soon began to assert their independence, then to make war upon their neighbors, and in a few years, instead of being vassals, they became masters, and either exterminated or brought into subjugation, not only their former conquerors, but carried their conquests to the Mississippi on the west and to the Gulf on the south.

When the English assumed control of New York, they