IN firm reliance on your candor, and, in compli­ance with the polite request of numbers now present, I have, with diffidence, accepted the invitation to appear as your speaker, on this important and joyful occa­sion, before this crouded and respectable auditory.

ACCEPT, my fellow-citizens, in this public manner, the tribute of my gratitude, a tribute the more sincere, because it is accompanied with this reflection, that, although a stran­ger among you, your partiality hath induced you to place me in this honorable station.

ASSEMBLED for the purpose of celebrating the natal day of American Independence, and commemorating those events, which led to our present exalted station among the nations of the earth, let us, for a moment, retrace those many steps by which we have ascended to our present Prosperity, Independ­ence, and Wealth.

[Page 6] OUR fathers, nobly disdaining to wear the yoke of servi­tude, and beholding the European world bending beneath the iron yoke of civil and religious tyranny, nobly determined to bid adieu to their native land, enjoy their freedom, or per­ish in the attempt—"Approving heaven behold the favor­ite ark, dancing o'er the billows of the raging ocean, and graciously preserved it, until the chosen families were bro't in safely to these western regions.

OUR fathers, having become the honest proprietors of these western shores—having struggled through difficulties well nigh insurmountable—having made the wilderness to blossom like the rose, and become vocal with the praises of their God, sat down, each under his own vine and fig-tree, firm in the hope and belief, that they should transmit to their posterity the fair inheritance of freedom.

The crimson veil of war was soon permitted to encloud these beauteous prospects.—The savage Indians—the still more savage French, and the merciless haughty parent from whom we descended, successively attempted to deprive us of our lives, our liberty and our property.

CHERISH in your minds, this day, my friends, the re­membrance of that period, when the British lion, unchained from his den, rushed impetuous upon defenceless men, women and children—when the affectionate wife beheld her murder­ed, gasping husband, agonizing in the pangs of death—her little infant, sweet cherub! weltering in its father's blood!—Enough!

THIS tragedy need not be heightened—nature reluctant shrinks already from the view, and the chilled blood rolls slowly backward to its fountain!

THE various measures taken by the British administra­tion, to bring us into unconditional submission, to their will; the inhuman and murderous plans they concerted and exe­cuted, for the attainment of their object—the savage barbar­ity with which they burned our towns, ransacked our villa­ges, and murdered, in cold blood, young men and maidens, old men and babes, are well impressed on your minds.

[Page 8] MANY of you have been engaged in the defence of your country; and some, now present, can exhibit those wounds, received in the day of battle, and suspend the stump of an arm as a monument of glory.—The horrors of war are still fresh in our memories—The heights of Rhode-Island remain as monuments of those days of sorrow, when you rolling stream groaned beneath the thunder of British vengeance, awakened all your fears, and held your lives in jeopardy.

UNDER all disadvantages, this northern continent, tho' different in its government, manners and customs, as though inspired by one soul, greatly rose in arms. The genius of America roused, by reiterated and atrocious acts of tyranny and oppression, called forth the generous efforts of her sons to oppose the destructive system—yea to resist unto blood, ra­ther than part with their freedom. Liberty, fair daughter of heaven, inspired every soul with a sacred flame, and glowed in every breast.

WE fought not for fame or glory, nor for an extension of empire; but for freedom—and divine Providence, the God of armies, gave us the victory, and crowned our exertions with independence and peace.

THOSE steps which led to, and the circumstances atten­dant have been such and so combined as to convince us, that no human skill or power could have directed them.

THE variety of scenes which have checkered the rise, progress and issue of the contest between Great Britain and America—the many and surprising interpositions of divine Providence, with their various windings and happy consequen­ces, will swell the historic page, and, rolling down the tide of time, fill the reader with wonder and astonishment.

[Page 9] LET the fourth of July, 1776, be a memorial unto you forever—Let it be distinguished among the days of the year, as the commencement of the important AEra of our glorious independence.—This is the day—the ever memorable day, in which the full blaze of liberty shown forth refulgent on Co­lumbia's sons.

LET our bosoms, awake to the calls of gratitude, be im­pressed with this truth, that had not the Lord been on our side—had not that God, by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice, erected his standard in the front of our battles, we should have in vain contended against a numerous and powerful army, inured to the hardships of war, and accustom­ed to victory.

AMERICA gradually unfolded her character, until the boldness of that Congress, which first asserted our independ­ence, astonished the world.

EUROPE beheld us as a certain victim to English power, until, by our successive arms, and the surrender of Burgoyne's army, the French thought it good policy to attempt, by assisting us, to humble that power, the encrease of which they had so much reason to fear. As soon as it was made certain, that we should persist in the maintenance of our inde­pendence, and not before, France stepped in to our assistance.

THE politician could easily foresee, that America was calculated, from local situation, and extent of territory, as well as by the manners and genius of her sons, to become in some future day, a great, powerful and wealthy nation.

HAVING, amidst all the horrors of a bloody and fero­cious war, expelled the enemy from our country, and defeat­ed, by our councils, the base attempts of a foreign power to prescribe ignoble conditions of peace, under the mask of friend­ship, [Page 10] we turned our attention to the regulation of our own government, which had been preserved, during the war, more by the virtue of the people, than the energy of law.

THE road to empire has usually been slow and difficult—As order progressively rose out of chaos, by the forming hand of the great architect of nature, so must a well ordered gov­ernment be collected and formed from the scattered materials and wild mixture of a chaotic people.

THE American nation, soon after the war, feeling the imbecility of their government, formed a convention of A­merican geniuses, for the purpose of devising some plan of government, calculated to combine the several states, in one interest, and thus render them formidable in power, and hap­py in peace,

TO BALANCE the different interests of the states, so that each might give up its proportion of local advantages, for the good of the whole—to procure a model of government, which should so accord with the genius of a large, extensive and free people, of different education, manners and employ­ments, which should meet the consenting voice of even nine, among thirteen independent republics. To effect all this, was a task, to which nothing was equal, short of that assemblage of wisdom and philanthropy, which appeared in the conven­tion.

YES, my fellow-citizens, this is an aera reserved for the commencement of this western empire. The United States exhibit to the world, the noble image of a community, which, founded in equality and justice, secures to the indi­vidual every enjoyment, which can be derived from human institutions.

[Page 11] THE fields and fruits are your own—the regulations un­der which you live are your's—you are the proprietors and lords of the soil, and jointly constitute the sovereignty of your country—you are under a government of laws, and not of men.

OUR excellent constitution, under whose benign and ge­nial influence, our infant nation hath encreased in wealth and population, without a parallel, is so well guarded by checks, between executive and legislative duties, that it must long—very long remain as the palladium of our rights—the boast and admiration of unborn millions, unless some sacrilegious hand shall succeed in undermining it, and again plunge this country into all the horrors of another revolution.

WITH what rapid strides and improvement hath this our native country, progressed onwards, to its political acme, since the adoption of the Federal Constitution.

OUR enterprizing sailors have unfurled the bald eagle of Columbia, and triumphantly displayed our political Con­stellation in the most distant quarters of the globe.

WE have the dainties of the farther and the nether In­dies; the furs of Kamschatka are brought to our doors, and the riches of Ethiopia's sands are seen in our cities.

OUR enterprising farmers, educated in habits of indus­try, have explored the wilderness; and cities now appear, where, but a few years since, was nought to be seen, but the curling smoke of an Indian fire, and nought to be heard, but the dreadful yells of merciless savages.

OUR manufactures have flourished, in a rapid degree, considering the extent of our territory, which, while it re­mains unimproved, will render the labor of the manufacturer [Page 12] too high, to enable him to afford his merchandize as low as it can be imported.

THE arts and sciences have flourished, without a paral­lel, under the nurturing hand of the genius of America—We can now boast of warriors, statesmen, philosophers, poets, his­torians and divines, who would do honor to any nation on earth!—What are all your heroes of antiquity—your Alex­anders, your Pompeys, and your Caesars, when compared to the God-like immortal Washington—the glorious luminary of the present day—before the bright effulgence of whose virtues all heroes, ancient and modern, dwindle into comparative insig­nificance! His name, while it is the terror of our enemies, is a constant theme of admiration in the minds of all good men, throughout the universe.

WHEN we consider him as uniting the character of the hero, the statesman, the philosopher, the farmer, and the chris­tian, in one beautiful assemblage, it must excite sensations of admiration, which will embalm the remembrance of his vir­tues, in our affections, and in those of unborn millions yet to arise, and hail him blessed!

TIME will not admit of my particularizing the resplend­ent virtues of an ADAMS, who presides, with unshaken firm­ness, and unparalleled wisdom, at the head of our federal ad­ministration—of a FRANKLIN, who wrested the scepter from the tyrant, and the thunderbolt from heaven—of a RITTEN­HOUSE, who calculated with astonishing precision, the revo­lution of the heavenly bodies—and a long list of the worthies, who sleep, in awful silence, in the mouldering caverns of the dead!—Peace to their ashes, and happiness to their souls.

METHINKS I behold the genius of America, this mo­ment, hovering around us, and in mournful accents, bewail­ing the apostacy of some of her sons—for whose liberties the [Page 13] blood of their fathers once encrimsoned the soil they now im­prove! With a monitory voice she calls us to awake from our lethargy, and to baffle those fatal snares which are laid for our political destruction.

AMERICANS, be not deceived—Throw off the veil, which some artful demagogues have been, for a long time, endeavoring to impose upon you.

SHALL independent Americans, urged on by a few hot headed jacobins, those reptiles of their country, surrender their liberties to any nation on earth, without first appealing to the God of justice, and brandishing those glittering swords which have been once encrimsoned in the blood of their ene­mies?— No!

WE are brought, my beloved countrymen, to an eventful crisis—Our liberties are in jeopardy, and that very nation, which hath boasted of being our friends and magnanimous ally, has already attempted, under the mask of friendship, to reduce us to the most humiliating subjection.

I HOPE you will excuse me, if, on this important occa­sion, I briefly retrace the conduct of the French towards this country, for nearly half the century past.

BY habit, an intriguing, perfidious, faithless nation, they have ever looked with a jealous eye, on the prosperity of the British nation.—About the year 1759, in violation of the most solemn treaties, they endeavored to excite the fury of the merciless savages against us, and to possess themselves, by force of arms, of this then flourishing part of the English go­vernment.—Kind heaven, who has ever preserved America as in the hollow of his hand, interposed in our behalf, and, by a dreadful storm, destroyed nearly the whole of the French fleet, on its passage to this country, laden with soldiers and the im­plements of death—The valour of a WOLFE finally put the [Page 14] remnant of their armies to an ignominious flight, and the Plains of Abraham can now witness, by its bleached skulls, the horrid carnage of that day.—They were not only defeat­ed, in all their attempts, but driven from this country with shame and disgrace, having left all their possessions in North America.

LIKE an evil demon, France sat brooding in sullen silence, o'er her complicated misfortunes, meditating revenge, until the bloody war commenced between Great-Britaia and America.

OUR ministers, knowing their hatred to England—inde­fatigable at that court of intrigue and perfidy, could not ob­tain any encouragement of assistance, except from a few gene­rous individuals—such as the Marquis La Fayette, that tried friend of America, that magnanimous apostle of liberty, over whose misfortunes humanity must stop, and pay the tribute of a tear.

THE French were deaf to our sufferings—or, at least, in­active in the alleviation of them, until it was fully apparent, that we were determined to maintain our independence, or perish in the attempt.

ACTUATED by revenge against Britain, and, by a hope of diminishing her power, as well as enriching herself, on her spoils, and reaping profit from the enterprise, she engaged, in the American war—not, as some have ridiculously asserted, from motives of philanthropy—for there is no such thing as national affection or gratitude—but, from mercenary motives, as before observed.

WE acknowledge she spilt her blood in our cause—she fought valiantly in our service, and, by her means, the day of peace was accelerated; but we despise the base and sordid assertion, of this self-applauding nation, that we owe our li­berties [Page 15] to her. We owe them neither gratitude nor pence, & no­thing, under heaven, but that vengeance, which, like the li­quid lava of Mount Vesuvius, will ere long be poured down upon them, for their base atttempts to deprive us of our liberty—to separate the people from their government—the best go­vernment under heaven—and again involve us in all the hor­rors of another revolution.

WHEN the French first threw off the iron yoke of ty­ranny, under which they had so long groaned, every Ameri­can heart, from Georgia's sands to the province of Main, beat in unison, with their success.

STRONGLY prepossessed in their favor, and viewing them as an oppressed people, we beheld their struggles for liberty, with fervent prayers to the God of heaven for their success, almost to an open declaration in their favor.

TAKING the advantages of our wishes, for their pros­perity, in the establishment of order and good government, they sent to this country; that vile miscreant wretch, Genet, for the express purpose, as is now clearly evident, of involving us, if possible, in the European war, although declaring to our government, that they did not wish us to step aside from our neutrality.

HIS jacobin designs were soon unmasked, and he dismis­sed with shame and disgrace.

BEHOLD in France, my fellow countrymen, a blood­thirsty, perfidious and intriguing nation, who have murdered their king, without a legal right,—whether guilty or not, we pre­tend not to say—who have sworn avowedly to maintain on one day what they have violated the very next—who have filled vessels with men, women, and children—innocent as the dew-drops of the morning, and sunk them in the river Seine— who have tied young men and women naked together, and plunging them into a watry grave, sportively called it republi­can [Page 16] marriage—who have massacred prisoners by thousands—overflowed its gutters with the blood of the slaughtered—suspended, by the hair of the head, the gasping remnant of some beauteous damsel, smiling in the very agonies of death—shifting her guillotine several times in a day, choaked with blood—and, Good God! how shall I relate it?—riping open mothers with child, and before their very faces, dashing out the brains of the quivering infant against the posts of the doors, and spreading desolation, carnage and death, in one wide promiscuous ruin all around them!—Ye who have eyes to weep and hearts to feel, unstop the fountain of your tears, and ease your agonizing souls.

IN future ages, when men shall read the black historic page, which will record these events, they will be inclined to discredit the probity of the historian—they will scarcely be­lieve, that human nature could have been so depraved, so des­perately wicked.

UNDER the guidance of a Marat and Robespierre, they have denied the Christian religion, and the immortality of the soul—butchered those professors who would not abjure it—pillaged the sacred utensils of the church, and tying them, with the Cross of Christ, on an ass, have burnt them, amidst the shouts of the surrounding populace, with all the parade of impious mockery, and, in defiance to the God of heaven, and the sentiments of man. Such is the situation of religion and morality in France; and this picture, horrid as it is, & as well attested as is the affection, that yonder sun rolls in the firma­ment of heaven—some wish us to copy. From such a gov­ernment—from such "liberty," Good Lord deliver us.

IT has been the undeviating policy of the French to di­vide and conquer. In pursuance of this system, they have endeavored to revolutionize the world—to persuade the peo­ple, that they had a different interest from those who admin­ister the government, and that they only were the champions [Page 17] of true liberty—fighting in the cause of heaven, actuated by disinterested motives of philanthropy.

BY valor in the field, and intrigue in the cabinet, the victories of France excite our astonishment. Her armies have fought with a courage deserving a better cause, than that which now appears to be their object,— universal dominion.

REGARDLESS of the most sacred ties, she immolates, at the shrine of her ambition, as well those, with whom she is at peace, as those with whom she is at war.

THE republic of Holland received them into her bosom as friends; and what a contemptible appearance does that deluded nation now make in Europe, compared with her for­mer splendor! Her trade destroyed—her ships burnt and sunk—her money fraternized away, by intrigue and force, and her liberties buried in a French coffin: She now exhibits to the world, the sad spectacle of a degraded nation, ignomini­ously surrendering up their liberties to the greatest tyranny on earth.

FRANCE, disregarding every moral, as well as political obligation, sacrificed the republic of Venice to her ambition, and sold the inhabitants without any ceremony.—That repub­lic, which hath made so conspicuous a figure among the na­tions of the earth for more than ten centuries, is now annihi­lated.

THE contributions exacted from those countries with which the French have been at peace, as well as of those with which they have been at war, [...] been collected with mili­tary force, and savage barbarity.

THE tranquility of Europe and the world hath been dis­turbed by the noise of war—France has laid aside the object, for which she at first contended—the establishment of national [Page 18] liberty, founded on the basis of justice and equal rights, and it is now plainly apparent that nothing but universal dominion will satisfy her inordinate ambition.

SEPARATED from Europe, by the vast Atlantic, it was to be hoped that America would be preserved from her broils and contentions—but alas! my fellow-citizens, although we have adhered to the punctilios of neutrality, and studiously avoided every just cause of offence—yet have we been viewed as one of her enemies, because we would not involve ourselves in her bloody quarrels.

HER ministers, who came to this country with assuran­ces that France did not wish us to engage in her quarrels, have since discovered, that they were instructed to involve us, if possible.

GENET was the first mover of our jacobin clubs, those hot-beds of sedition—by the instrumentality of which he in­tended to have brought us into their much loved fraternal embrace; but in this he has been disappointed.

FRANCE, still believing that we are a divided people, and relying on the strength of that party, which she boasts of hav­ing, in the very bosom of our country, hath viewed us, for some time past, as a certain victim to her power.

BY taking the vessels of her enemies, in our very harbors, she first infringed the laws of neutrality, and then made our treaty with Great Britain a cause of complaint, alledging that it was conducted in secrecy, and inimical to their interest—the last of which it as unfounded, as the other was true and ne­cessary, as they were thereby prevented from making any successful attempts to defeat it.

WHETHER the British treaty, about which there has been so much noise, is exceptionable or not, we pretend not to [Page 19] say; but this we fully believe, that it was the height of policy to obtain it, and that it was the best possible negociation, which could have taken place at that time.

FRANCE has eagerly laid hold of every circumstance, to foment insurrection in our country; to alienate the affections of the people from the government, and involve us in all the horrors of a civil war: Her agents have swarmed in this land of freedom: Our presses have groaned with their productions and calumnies, against our government: They have been en­couraged by designing demagogues; who, destitute of merit, and disappointed in projects of ambition, would sell their country or their God, to procure the favor of France.

EVERY prudent measure, calculated to heal existing dif­ferences, with that haughty nation, hath been pursued by our illustrious President, who presides at the head of government like an atlas— firm as the everlasting hills.

OUR ambassadors have been treated with scorn and con­tempt—not even noticed as the ministers of an independent republic—abused in the gazettes, and hooted at in the streets.

UNITING republican moderation and firmness, they have waited, in patience, for an acknowledgment by the Di­rectory; but in this they have been disappointed.

THE American government, sedulously desirous of har­mony with France, instructed their ministers to enter into ne­gociation, and to conclude on any treaty not inconsistent with the dignity and happiness of our country.

TO render the embassy more respectable, three distin­guished citizens have been sent to wait on the Directory of France, and confer with them on our complaints—The treat­ment they have received is scandalous without a parallel, among civilized nations. Although they have not been ac­knowledged, [Page 20] yet, thro' the agents of Talleyrand, the prime minister of the nation, they have heard with astonishment the demands of the Directory.

WE must disavow our approbation of Washington's fare­well legacy, upon his vacating the Presidency of the United States—that legacy which we so justly admired, and which, for sublimity of sentiment and political wisdom, deserves to be written in letters of gold—We must disapprove the speech of the President at the opening of Congress—We must pay Talleyrand, for his pocket expences, fifty thousand pounds ster­ling, and give and loan the Directory a million of money, and then perhaps they will condescend— a very pretty condescension! to hear your ministers, and to think on your grievances!—Unless you will do this, they will detain the millions of your property now in their hands—they will ravage your sea coasts—burn and destroy your cities, and, if possible, carry your wives and your children away in slavery.—Arouse then Americans, from your stupid lethargy!—Be prepared for re­sistance—open your eyes—let the evidence of your senses speak—quickly dissipate those clouds which are ready to break in one wide desolating storm, over your devoted and deluded heads.

YOUR ministers have returned and are returning from France—War appears inevitable or the surrender of our lib­erties: Already do their ships of war indiscriminately plun­der our merchantmen, in our very harbors,—and will inde­pendent Americans permit any nation on earth, English or French, thus insolently to deprive us of our liberties and our property?—No—By the God, who preserved our fathers in the bloody contest for freedom, we will sooner make a ram­part of our bodies, with which to defend our country, when millions of avenging swords shall leap from their scabbards, before we will bow the knee to any nation under the canopy of heaven.—We had better die all freemen than live all slaves.

[Page 21] LET us rally round the government of our country—the best government on earth, and convince that blood thirsty nation, that we are not, as they boast, a divided people—that although we have in the bosom of our country some Arnolds and Randolphs, who would sell their country and their souls for pence—that although they have been too successful in ex­citing divisions among the people, by bribery and corruption; yet, that we will never suffer the reproach of our father's ghosts, that we have basely surrendered this soil which they defended with their richest blood, to any nation on earth.

THE genius of America looks down, with pity, on her degenerate sons, who are leading away from their country's cause, some honest, well designing, deluded men, and bribing the unprincipled to thrust a dagger into the very vitals of their parent. Beware of these characters, who are plotting your ruin—Their conduct is gradually unfolding—every day discovers some new intrigue; and, ere long, the vengeance of an incensed republic will overwhelm them with its mighty flood.

Friends and Fellow-Soldiers,

YOU are this day in arms, by your country's call—To you, brave men, we look, as to the defenders of our liberties: Should any enemy invade us, we place the most perfect reli­ance on your well known valor, and, in the justice of our cause, permit me to observe, that courage is an essential pre­requisite in the character of a soldier—not a savage ferocious violence—not a fool hardy insensibility of danger, or head­strong rashness to run into it—not the fury of inflamed pas­sions, let loose from the government of reason—but a calm, deliberate, rational courage; a steady, judicious, manly for­titude; the courage of a man and not of a tyger: This is the courage essential to victory, and this courage we doubt not you possess.

[Page 22] A MILITIA is the most natural defence of a free govern­ment from invasion and tyranny. They who compose it are the proprietors of the soil; and who are so likely to defend it, as they who have received it from their ancestors—acquir­ed it by their labor, or obtained it by their valor?—Every freeman has within his breast the great essentials of a soldier; and, having made the use of arms familiar, is ever ready for the field.

LET your bosoms, on this day, glow with the sacred fire of patriotism—Cast your eyes around you, ye defenders of your country, on this brilliant assembly—Behold your wives—your children and your little ones looking up to you for protection—and can you— will you surrender them to any nation on earth, while your hearts vibrate with the pulse of life? I know you will not.

YOU may soon be called on to defend, not only them, but all that is dear and valuable in life, and had I the trump of an arch-angel, and the eloquence of a Cicero, I would make all America resound, with the necessity of UNION and FORM­NESS.