the nations. What but the want of patriotism, that hath buried them in old age. They lead us to reflect seriously in ruins the mighty empires of Greece and Rome, in the hour of retirement, and to cherish those that standing armies, the scourge of the innocent, qualifications which are frequently lost in the glare prevail throughout all Europe, that the pages of of prosperity. history present to our view so melancholy a The important prophecy is nearly accomplished. picture of the human species, and that America The rising glory of this western hemisphere is aland Britain are not at this day running the road ready announced, and she is summoned to her seat to greatness and glory in concert; and what is it among We have publicly declared but the want of patriotism that could induce that ourselves convinced of the destructive tendency haughty nation, divested of every public virtue, of of standing armies: we have acknowledged the every bosom feeling, of every pretension to bu-necessity of public spirit and the love of virtue to manity, without apology or pretext, to ushera stand-the happiness of any people, and we profess to be ing army, composed of vagrants, criminals, and sensible of the great blessings that flow from them. mercenaries, into our peaceful country. Let us not then act unworthy of the reputable character we now sustain: like the nation we have abandoned, be content with freedom in form and O my countrymen, it is the want of patriotism that we are at this time called to weep over the wanton massacre of innocent men; that this is notyranny in substance, profess virtue and practice the only house of mourning; that the fields of Amevice, and convince an attentive world that in this glorious struggle for our lives and properties, the only men capable of prizing such exalted privileges, were an illustrious set of heroes, who have sealed their principles with their blood. Dwell, my fellow-citizens, upon the present situation of your country. Remember that though our enemies have dispensed with the hopes of conquering, our land is not entirely freed of them, and should our resistance prove unsuccessful by our own inattention and inactivity, death will be far preferable to the yoke of bondage. rica have become devoted to war, and scenes of slaughter familiar to her sons; that our oppressors yet persist in their destructive system of tyranny, and if their power was equal to their thirst of blood, with the spirit of ambition by which they are now directed, would lead them to destroy and But thanks be extirpate the whole human race. to heaven, that by the force of those virtues which they have discarded, we have nobly resisted the attempts of these cruel men, and the miseries they have so profusely dealt out to us, are returning, with additional vengeance, upon their own heads. The danger of the issue is now past, and if we but retain the same patriotic ardor, with which we first defended our rights from the grasp of our enemies, they are every day in our power. We have every thing to hope; they on the other hand have every thing to fear. Youth, vigor, and the invincible they are now fighting; that they, equally with us, arm of justice, are on our side:-The genius of liare interested in the event, and abandon them not berty also is our advocate, who, though persecuted, to the insatiable rapacity of the greedy extortioner. bath never been conquered. Let us therefore be still vigilant over our enemies-instil into our armies the righteous cause they protect and support, and let not the soldier and citizen be distinct characters among us. By our conduct let us convince them, that it is for the preservation of themselves and their country experience of ages to copy from, advantages that As a reward for our exertions in the great cause of freedom, we are now in the possession of those In our day we are called to see a happy country Jaid waste at the shrine of ambition; to experience rights and privileges attendant upon the original state of nature, with the opportunity of establishthose scenes of distress which history is filled with: but experience rivets its lessons upon the mind, ing a government for ourselves, independent upon and if we resolve with deliberation, and execute any nation or people upon earth. We have the with vigor, we may yet be a free and flourishing people. Repine not too much at the ravages of war, nor murmur at the dispensations of Providence. We oftentimes rate our blessings in proportion to the difficulty of attaining them, and if, without a struggle, we had secured our liberties, perhaps we should have been less sensible of their value. Chastisements in youth are not without their adFantages; blessings most commonly spring from *It has ever been thought inconsistent with good policy and even common sense to commit the de. fence of a country to men who have no interest in its preservation. Diod. Lib. 1. p. 67. †The true definition of a free state is where the legislative adheres strictly to the laws of nature, and calculates every one of its regulations for im proving society and for promoting industry and honesty among the people. Ilome's hist. vol. 2. p. 132. bave been denied to any who have gone before us. progress in particular nations, if we paint the Let us then, my fellow-citizens, learn to value the wounds she has suffered from corruption and blessing. Let integrity of heart, the spirit of despotic force, and from the whole deduce such freedom and rigid virtue be seen to actuate every sentiments as become a brave and free, though inmember of the commonwealth. Let not party rage, jured people. private animosities, or self interested motives, Numerous as the descriptions are of primeval succeed that religious attachment to the public man, the reflective eye is not yet weary. We still weal which has brought us successfully thus far; feel an interest in that Arcadian state which so for vain are all the boasted charms of liberty if well imitated the world we are looking for. And her greatest votaries are guided by such base we shall continue to feel it so long as nature is passions. The trial of our patriotism is yet bepleasing and the heart retains a feature of inno fore us, and we have reason to thank heaven that cence. Like the gods,* our first fathers had but its principles are so well known and diffused. Ex-few desires, and those to be satisfied by the works ercise towards each other the benevolent feelings of virtue. Their passions were as the gales of their of friendship, and let that unity of sentiment, which own Eden-enough to give a spring to good actions has shone in the field, be equally animating in our-to keep the waters of life in motion without councils. inducing storm and whirl-wind.† Conversing with Remember that prosperity is dangerous: that divinities, liberty, sent from above, was their though successful, we are not infallible; that like peculiar inmate: that liberty, whose spirit, mingling the rest of mankind we are capable of erring. The with the nature of man at his formation, taught line of our happiness may be traced with exactness, him, unlike the other animals, to look upward and and still there may be a difficulty in pursuing it. hope for a throne above the stars: that liberty who Let us not forget that our enemies have other arts taught him to pluck, with confidence, the fruits in store for our destruction; that they are tempting of nature; to pursue the direction of reason upon us into those snares which, after successful strug his heart, and, under that direction, to acquire, gles, proved the ruin of the empires of the east; secure, and enjoy all possible happiness, not imand let this sacred maxim receive the deepest peding, but assisting others in the same privilege.§ impression upon our minds, that if avarice, if When families, and consequently human wants extortion, if luxury and political corruption, are were afterward multiplied, it was this same liberty suffered to become popular among us, civil discord who, joined with justice, led the patriarchs to and the ruin of our country will be the speedy con- some aged oak. There, in the copious shade, missequence of such fatal vices; but while patriotism understandings were explained, and charity and is the leading principle, and our laws are contrived peace embraced each other.-Such was the mornwith wisdom, and executed with vigor, while in- ing of man! dustry, frugality and temperance, are held in But misunderstandings are quarrels in embrio. estimation, and we depend upon public spirit and Satisfaction of one want originated another. Dethe love of virtue for our social happiness, peace pravity grew enraptured with strife. The wind and affluence will throw their smiles upon the was up. Passion raged. Brother's blood then brow of the individual, our commonwealth will smoaked from the ground and cried for vengeance. flourish, our land become the land of liberty, and AMERICA an asylum for the oppressed. ORATION DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1781, Fathers, friends and citizens—Avoiding apology, even at a time when uncommon propriety might justify it, and trusting rather to a continuance of the same liberality which has ever noted my countrymen, I attempt the duties of this solemn anniver Nimrod commenced his prelude to tyranny, and *It was represented of Marcus Aurelius, that in imitating the gods, his study was to have as few Vid. Spectator No. 634. wants as possible. The passions of every kind, under proper restraints, are the gentle breezes which keep life from stagnation; but, let loose, they are the storms and whirlwinds which tear up all before them. Mrs. Brooke. #Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram, And it is conceived that we shall, in some mea. Os homini sublime dedit, cælumque tueri Jussit. Ovid. M. t. sure, perform those duties, if we sketch out some No man's social liberty is lessened by another's general traits of liberty, and mark the lines of her 'enjoying the same, Bollan. sary. up and down the world forlorn, forsaken, majesty, there was somewhere a happier institution for man in rags. Nor will she, perhaps, until the millenium-these hurried away to the snowy top of St. comes, if America does not now retain her, ever Marino: and having there first tasted those rights command that complete and permanent homage which come down from Gon, made it their life's which is suitable to her nature. The old repub-labor to support and hand them down in purity. lics may have been the most perfect seats of her There every man finds his prosperity in submitting residence while they lasted, and are often mustered to those laws which diffuse equality. There every up from the tomb of empire to witness the adoration man feels himself happily liable to be called to which they paid her. But even there she received the senate or the field: every man divides his day so frequent violence that the continuance of her between alternate labor and the use of arms—on reign was for the most part precarious; and when tip-toe, ready to start for the prize, the mark of even at the summit of her glory, she was only universal emulation--the commonweal; officious elevated that her fall might be more astonishing. to promote that interest which is at once the pubHaving passed all the degrees of fortune, thank lic's and his own. So stands a constitution informed God she has found her way to these remote shores: with the very essence of liberty. It has so stood, and, if from effects we may judge, she is well while other neighboring states have been blackened pleased with her new abode. O cherish the divine and defaced with frequent revolution. inhabitant! O let her not return to the courts prophesy that 'till the approach of some unforeseen above with a story that shall fire the heavens vice-till some degeneracy unknown to the sires against us—that she had blessings for us, but that creep upon the sons, St. Marino must stand admirwe were not prepared to receive them-that sheed: as, in its present circumstance, no prince or could find among us no lasting habitation; but that, potentate, after sitting down and counting the cost, Like the dove after the deluge, she was scarce will ever attempt the impenetrable union of so favored with the top of some friendly mountain much prudence and virtue.* for a melancholy moment. Liberty, my friends, is a palladium to the place of her dwelling, a rock and a sure defence. Wherever she is, every man has something to protect. He knows what are his riches, and that while he liveth himself shall gather them. He views, with conscious joy, his circumstances. His social affec tions shoot out and flourish. Even his prejudices are a source of satisfaction, and among them local attachment, a fault which leads to the side of patriotism. Supported by, and tenacious of these fruits of liberty, some little free states, which the geogra pher in his map had otherways never noticed, have long stood uninjured by change, and some of them inaccessible by the greatest efforts of power.There is now, in a distant quarter of the globe, a living illustration of this remark. And we The name of Venice now occurs to memory as another modern example of genuine greatness. The ascendency gained by that single city over the whole Ottoman power-the universal panic that struck and pervaded all orders of the Turks when routed at Dardanelles, and the reasonable fear of approaching dissolution that reached even to the throne and blasted the heart and withered the nerves of a despot: these, amazing at first, nevertheless appear, when their springs are laid open, the natural issues of a contest between free agents and slaves.t A more ancient and perhaps still more brilliant proof of the proportionate powers of different degrees of liberty, may be gathered from the annals of the city of Tyre. The Lybian madman‡ who thought he had conquered all and wept that Situate upon he had no more to conquers-the invincible son of a venerable pile of rocks, in Italy, stands the comJove, before whom principalities and powers had monwealth of St. Marino. It was founded by a bowed down their heads as a bulrush-behold him, holy man whose name it bears, and who fled to with his phalanx, puzzled and confounded at the this romantic fairy-land to enjoy religion and free air, unpursued by power and the restless spirit of the world. His example was followed by the pious, the humane, and the lovers of freedom. And these, a favourite few, who were before scattered up and down through other parts of Italy; who had lived all their days under arbitrary rule, and whom nature had secretly taught that' *Many of the facts here mentioned of St. Marino may be seen in Addison's more complete accounts of that republic. æra in the This alludes only to a particular a Seneca on a happy life. Walls of Tyre. To over-run Asia cost him less their country and its manners. Upon the banks of labor, enterprize and valor, than the reduction of Eurota flourished her principal state. Frugality this one favorite haunt of liberty. And perhaps of living and an avarice of time were of the riches he had never reduced her but for her own falling of Lacedæmon. Her maxims were drawn from off from her pristine wisdom. Her liberty was nature, and one was "that nothing which bore the not in first fuil vigor, but had received a shock name of Greek was born for slavery From this from corruption introduced with riches. Bribery, idea flowed an assistance to her sister states. From pride, and oppression followed close behind. She a like idea in her sister states that friendship was was then cast out as prophane from the mountain returned in grateful measure. This, had it conof Gont Tyre is become like the top of a rock -a place to spread nets upon. tinued, would have formed the link of empire, the charm that would have united and made Greece Let us consider the story of Tyre as a monument invulnerable. While it lasted, the joint efforts of her states rendered her a name and a praise through which upon one side shews the force of excellence, and upon the other the baneful influence of vice; the whole earth. And here, was it not for the a memento that every state below the sun has, like sake of a lesson to my country, I would not only Achilles of old, some vulnerable part. As not a drop my eulogium of Greece, but draw an impervious nation is exempted; and lest, in a fond prejudice, veil over her remaining history. Her tenfold lustre we might exclude our own America, and so induce might at this day have blazed to heaven, had the a fatal security, even America has received a caveat union* of her states been held more sacred. But from heaven, and in her youthful purity has been that union of her states, that cement of her existtempted by her enemies. With what sort of successence once impared-hear the consequence! the tempted we need but remember the machinations fury of civil-war blows her accursed clarion. The and flight of the most infamous Arnold, and the banners late of conquering freedom now adorn the affecting, though just separation of the unfortunate Andre. triumphs of oppression. Those states which lately stood in mighty concert, invincible, now breathe mutual jealousy and fall piece meal a prey to the Happy the nation that, apprised of the whole truth, impartially weighs its own alloy, and bars, common enemy. Attic wisdom, Theban hardihood, with tenfold adamant, its gate of danger.- -But to return, I had cherished some aversion to names grown trite by repetition, and had, on that account, evaded the ancient republics. But I find the observation just, that "half our learning is their epitaph." I conceive that the "moss-grown" columns and broken arches of those once-renowned empires are full with instruction as were the groves of Lyceum or the school of Plato. Let Greece then be the subject of a moment's reflection. When liberty fled from the gloom of Egypt, she sought out and settled at infant Greece-there disseminated the seeds of greatness--there laid the ground-work of republican glory. Simplicity of manners, piety to the gods, generosity and courage were her earliest character. "Human nature shot wild and free." Penetrated with a spirit of industry, her sons scarcely knew of relaxation: even their sports were heroic. Hense that elevated, independent soul, that contempt of danger, that laudable bias to *For an illustration of this see ancient universal history, vol. ii. page 75 and on; also-that part of Newton on the prophecies which relates to Tyre, vol. i. Spartan valor, would not combine to save her. That very army, which Greece had bred and nourished to reduce the oriental pride, is turned vulture upon her own vitals-a damnable parricide, the faction of a tyrant. Behold the great and GoDlike Greece, with all her battlements and towers about her, borne head-long from her giddy height --the shame, the pity of the world. *Accuracy has been offended that this example is employed for the American states-which resem bie each other in constitution and are united in their last resort; whereas the Grecian were unlike among themselves and professedly separate. But attention to the history of Greece will discover in the causes of her fall a lesson sufficiently apposite to our purpose. The anonymous translator of Tourreil writes as follows: "when Persia, so often vanquished by the Grecians, despaired of subduing them, her last shift was to divide them; to which their prosperity opened her a means. Spirits na turally quick and too licentious, blown up with their frequent victories, could not contain them. selves or govern their good fortune; they abandoned themselves to jealousies and ambition.-These divisions ended, at last, in a general slavery."— Thomson most beautifully speaks the truth upon the same occasion When Greece with Greece, Having attempted some general sketches of li- the same men should throw off a whig principle berty, from the dawn of social life to the fall of na- so fundamental, and thus come to clothe themtional glory, I would be somewhat more particular selves with the detested garments of the tories, upon those qualities to which her triumphs are and if all that has been here discoursed on should happen, then will the constitution of this country chiefly indebted. be utterly subverted."* It would exceed the In the vile economy of depraved man, there ap limits of the present occasion to expatiate upon all pears an inclination to bestow upon one part power the instances wherein the liberties of Britain have and affluence, and to impose upon the other in fact suffered according to the views of Davenant. debility and woe. When that inclination is gratified, Suffice it to say that a standing army has been, the majority being slaves, the remains of freedom long since, virtually engrafted a limb upon her are shared among the great; like the triumphal constitution, has frequently over-awed her parliabridge at the Archipelago, so strangely dignified, ments, sometimes her elections,† and has carried that, by a decree of the senate, none of the vulgar distraction and massacre into different parts of were suffered to enjoy it. When that inclination her empire. That standing mercenary troops must sooner or later entail servitude and misery upon their em. is counter-balanced by the laws; when the true interests of both those parts are reconciled; when society is considered as "a public combination for private protection,”—and the governed find ployers, is an eternal truth that appears from the their happiness in their submission—there is the nature of things. On the one hand behold an essence of all powerful liberty. Not to wire-draw inspired yeomanry, all sinew and soul, having a sentiment already graven upon the hearts of this stepped out and defended their ancient altars, their wives and children, returning in peace to till those audience, it is such a liberty, as that every man who has once tasted it, becomes a temporary soldier fields which their own arms have rescued. Such are the troops of every free people. Such were as soon as it is invaded and resents any violence offered it, as an attack upon his lif-hence it is the troops who, led on by the patriot Warren, gave the first home blow to our oppressors. Such were that, in free states, as such, there is no such thing the troops who, fired by Gates in the northern as a perpetual standing army. For the whole body woods, almost decided the fate of nations. Such of the people, ever ready, flock to the general were the troops who, under the great and amiable standard upon emergency, and so preclude the use Lincoln, sustained a siege in circumstances that of that infernal engine. I say infernal engine, for rank him and them with the captains and soldiers the tongue "labors, and is at a loss to express," the of antiquity. Such, we trust, are the troops who, hideous and frightful consequences that flow whereinferior in number, though headed indeed by the ever the powers of hell have procured its introduction. Turkey and Algiers are the delight of its gallant and judicious Morgan, lately vanquished a chosen veteran band long dedicated to Mars and vengeance. Denmark, once over-swarmed with the brave inhabitants of the north, has suffered disciplined in blood. And such, we doubt not, are the troops who beat the British legions from the depopulation, poverty, and the heaviest bondage Jersies, and have ever since preserved their counfrom the quartering troops amongst their peasants in time of peace: if it can be called peace, when robbery, conflagration and murder are let loose upon the sons of men. Indeed, it is said that no nation ever kept up an army in time of peace that did not lose its liberties. I believe it. Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, and Greece in general were all overturned by that tremendous power: and the same power has been long operating with other causes to humble the crest of Britain. Let us hear a passage from Davenant! "If (says he, speak"That the yeomanry are the bulwark of a free ing of standing armies) if they who believed this people"-was, if memory serves, in a celebrated eagle in the air frighted all motions towards li-extempore speech of the honorable Samuel Adams, made in the year 1773. The steadiness of that berty; if they who heretofore thought armies in great republican to his political creed, evinces that time of peace, and our freedom inconsistent; if sentiments grounded upon just data will not easily bend to a partial interest, or accommodate to the *Earl of Abingdon. changes of popular opinion. For the whole passage, which was too lengthy for our purpose, vid. the works of Dr. Davenant, corrected by Whitworth, vol. ii. p. 333.-Edition 1771. †The election of the Scotch Peers in the year 1735, and the misconduct of Blackerby and others, at the election of the Westminster members in the year 1741, are instances well known.-Vid. Burgh's politic disq. 2d vcl. p. 444 and 473. The affair of capt. Porteus at Edinburgh (vid. London Magazine for 1737, in a variety of pages) and of capt. Preston, at Boston, are of themselves sufficient examples. |
