[ YALE, 1783,]

[S.T.D., UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH ]

At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Washington Benevolent Society at Cambridge, July 5, 1813:--

Voted---That Messrs. Josiah Moore, William Hilliard, and Jonas Wyeth jun. Be a committee to wait on the Rev. Dr. Holmes, to express the thanks of the Society for his patriotic Address, delivered before them this day, and to request a copy thereof for the press.

Attest, William Hilliard, Sect’y

Cambridge, 7 July, 1813.

Gentlemen,

If the Address, which I had the honor to deliver before the Washington Benevolent Society, s o far corresponded with their own patriotic principles and objects, as to receive their approbation, my highest wish is attained; yet, in compliance with the Vote of the Society, which you have so obligingly expressed, I send you a copy of the Address, and am,

Gentlemen,

With much regard,

Your friend and humble servant,

A Holmes

Messrs. Josiah Moore,

William Hilliard, Committee

Jonas Wyeth, jun.

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ADDRESS

Twice in this temple, Fellow Citizens, have we testified our respect to the man, whose name you bear. On receiving the tidings of his death, we here mingled our tears, and sought guidance and solace from the divine being, who had taken away from us "the mighty man, and the man of war, the prudent and the ancient, the honorable man, and the counsellor. On the recommendation of Congress, we soon after assembled here, "to testify our grief for his death," and on that occasion his councel was fervently recommended. Twelve years have since elapsed; during which period, so great have been the changes, and so interesting the events, as to render a recurrence to the same character and councel useful, if not necessary. Whatever objections I may have felt and offered to a renewed discussion of either topic in this place; when it was considered, that it is highly useful to have the examples of the great and the good often exhibited, and the councels of the wise and the prudent often inculcated; when, too, it was recollected, that many have descended to the grave since the former solemnities, that we have since received a large and respectable accession of citizens, and that a new generation has risen up, which knew not WASHINGTON; it was believed to be but thepart of a good citizen, to attempt the service, which you have been pleased to assign me.

Close is the connexion between our civil and religious interests; and the same means are adapted to the defence and promotion of both. On the government of a country, whatever may e its form, these interests are, under God, essentially suspended. "Under a free, elective government, like our own, which derives its chief support from the public opinion and sentiment, it is of vital importance to have that opinion founded on intelligence, and that sentiment animated by public virtue. It is therefore," as your own Constitution declares, "the duty of every citizen to use his utmost ability to enlighten the understandings and elevate the patriotism of his countrymen."

Are the ministers of religion exempt from this duty? Are they not men, and citizens? Ought they not to take as lively an interest in the virtue and order, the peace and prosperity, of their country, as other men?

Will not their children, and their children’s children, be as deeply affected by the preservation, or the loss, of the public morals, as any other? Have they any interest, separate from that of their people? Any thing to lose, if their country be kept free, and prosperous, and happy? Any thing to gain, if it becomes enslaved, impoverished, and ruined? Are there no occasions, on which they "also" may "show their opinion," respecting what is conducive to the welfare of that community, of which they are members, whose privileges they share with others, and with whose destinies their own are intimately and inseparably united? Nothing, but Ignorance, could have been made to believe, that they alone, of all the freeborn citizens in a free and enlightened Republic, have nothing to do with their country. Nothing but Faction, could have rendered suspicious their best endeavors to promote the common interest, or have denounced those acts, which, had they been but performed on her own sinister side, she would have loudly applauded. Such ignorance, adverse alike to true religion and rational liberty, it is an object of your association to enlighten; such faction, dangerous alike to your altars and your firesides, it will be your aim to ally. Who need despair of success in so good a cause, if he make a fair use of the example and the counsel of WASHINGTON?

Let me, then, on this great National Anniversary, present to your view his example for imitation, his counsel for observation.

You have declared, that "as a citizen, magistrate, and statesman," you "believe him to be a model for his countrymen. In him," you have justly remarked, "the republican virtues seem to have been embodied. Him, therefore," you "propose as" your "safe point of union, and the brightest example of political rectitude."

His virtues, as a citizen, might first be distinctly presented to your view, were they not intimately blended with those of the hero and the statesman. Early called into the public service of his country, and devoted to it during a great proportion of his life, he can scarcely be characterized as a private man. Born, not for himself, but for the world, he was seldom seen, but on that great theatre, where it was the will of Heaven that his talents and his virtues should be at once disclosed and employed. His portraiture must exhibit him, either in the habiliments of war, or in the robes of office. But in whatever character, or attitude, or drapery, he be exhibited, the distinctive lines of the original may be traced. Neither the man, nor the citizen, is lost in the soldier, or the statesman. Wherever, then, we find exemplified in him those virtues, which become the citizen, let us seize them for imitation.

I, first, invite your attention to his activity and diligence. These virtues---for such they are, when rightly directed---were observed in the youth; how eminently did they distinguish the man ! "His youth was employed in useful industry." Had not the habit of diligent application been thus early formed, it were impossible, that he should have made those acquisitions of useful knowledge, which prepared him for public life; or, that he should have been able, or willing, to submit to those services, which required the most persevering and unwearied diligence.

The activity of his mind was an early and indelible feature of it. The promptitude with which he undertook any important duty or service, and the lively, vigorous, interesting manner in which he always pursued it, if practicable, to its entire completion, prove, that he was peculiarly formed for action. It was by the union of activity with diligence, that he performed so much for the benefit of the present, and for the admiration of every future age.

Let me, next, ask your attention to his regularity and exactness. He lived by rule; he acted on system; Not such rule, as an eccentric mind would devise; not such system, as a visionary theorist would project. Both were the dictates of intelligence, guided by principle. He was regular in his manner of living, regular in the management of his own affairs, regular in the transaction of public business. By a judicious distribution of his time, by an assignment of the proper duties to each division of it, and by a seasonable attention to whatever was appropriate to each, he was enabled to accomplish what otherwise had been totally impracticable. The happy influence of this regularity was visible in every thing. He was temperate in his diet, and preserved a sound mind in a sound body. In private life, within, he presented the delightful picture of a well regulated family; without, a fine example of a well cultivated plantation. In public life, he was punctual to his appointments, and exact to his engagements. Instead of that perturbation and confusion, which, in difficult and complex labours and duties, are perpetually betrayed by the immethodical and desultory, he was calm and collected, equable and composed. Under his direction, every person was kept in his proper sphere, everything, in its proper place. All was order, perspicuity, and precision.

His fortitude and prudence, next, demand your attention. The greatness of his mind was never shown more strikingly, than by the firmness with which he endured calamities, or encountered dangers. In the various instances of privation or distress, in which he suffered, either personally, or in the deep sympathy with a broken soldiery or an afflicted country, how unbroken was his resolution, how erect his spirits ! The most adverse event shook not at his constancy; the most calamitous, drove him not to despair. What image can illustrate the majesty of his unconquerable mind ? The rock in the ocean, beaten by the surging waves, yet lifting above them its majestic head, and remaining immovable.

The same fortitude, which was so admirably exemplified in the endurance of suffering, was not less shown in encountering danger. WASHINGTON was a stranger to fear. In the juvenile enterprise to the Ohio, through a trackless desert, to remonstrate against the French encroachments; in the repeated actions in which he was engaged during the succeeding war, especially at the memorable defeat of Braddock; and in his numerous exposures in the revolutionary war, particularly at Long Island, New York, White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, he gave ample proofs of his active courage, and invincible fortitude. If his general policy was to weaken and exhaust the enemy by delay; it was a policy that originated, not from timidity, but from a clear discernment of what was most conducive to the public safety. "He has been termed the American Fabius; but ," his biographer remarks, "those who compare his actions with his means, will perceive at least as much of Marcellus, as of Fabius, in his character."

His resemblance, however, to this last named Roman general, reminds us of his prudence. For this most useful and necessary virtue he was not less distinguished, than for his valor. It was this, which at once regulated and tempered his courage, and prevented those rash acts, or desperate measures, which would equally have endangered himself and his country. Had he aimed at personal glory, he would have attempted more, and performed less. In the hands of a proud or impetuous warrior, his sword, which vindicated our liberties, might have destroyed them. In the hands of an ambitious or unprincipled ruler, his power, which guarded our freedom, and promoted our prosperity, might have encroached on our rights, involved us in domestic or foreign wars, and reduced us to poverty and slavery. It was his prudence---that practical wisdom which alone deserves the name---prudence, nicely adjusting the means to the end, and that end the welfare of his country, which preeminently qualified him to command our armies, and to preside our nation. It was by this he conducted the one to victory, and the other to prosperity and glory.

His integrity and equity next ask your attention. His views appear to have been uniformly directed to worthy objects, and his motives to have been upright. Alike superior to the passion for gain and for honour, he was equally incapable of bribery, and unsusceptible of flattery. Integrity preserved him from those unhallowed influences, which, in the general of the army, or in the ruler of a nation, are often fatal. "No man," says his biographer, "has ever appeared upon the theatre of public action, whose integrity was more incorruptible, or whose principles were more perfectly free from the contamination of those selfish and unworthy passions, which find their nourishment in the conflicts of party. Having no views which required concealment, his real and avowed motives were the same; and his whole correspondence does not furnish a single case from which even an enemy would infer that he was capable, under any circumstances, of stooping to the employment of duplicity. His ends were always upright, and his means always pure. He exhibits the rare example of a politician, to whom wiles were absolutely unknown, and whose professions to foreign governments and to his own countrymen were always sincere. In him was fully exemplified the real distinction which forever exists between wisdom and cunning, and the importance as well as truth of the maxim, that honesty is the best policy." When solicited by a friend to accept the presidency, in what clear and forcible language did he express his inflexible resolution, in case of its acceptance, to hold fast to his integrity ! "Though I prize as I ought the good opinion of my fellow citizens, yet, if I know myself, I would not seek or retain popularity at the expense of one social duty, or moral virtue. While dong what my conscience informed me was right, as it respected my God, my country, and myself, I could despise all the party clamour and unjust censure which must be expected." How similar his language, after his conclusion to accept the presidency! "I am sensible that I am embarking the voice of the people and a good name of my own on this voyage; but what returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell…Integrity and firmness are all I can promise; these, be the voyage long or short, shall never forsake me, although I may be deserted by all men; for of the consolations which are derived from these, under any circumstances, the world cannot deprive me."

With such consummate integrity must have been closely connected a high sense of the obligations of justice, and a profound regard to the rules of equity. Rarely is that sacred precept of our holy religion, Render to all their due, so fully exemplified, as it was in the private life and public administrations of WASHINGTON. We witnessed its observance in his equitable treatment of the soldiers, while in the army, and of the citizens, while in the presidency. His justice precluded that partiality and favoritism, which are at once injurious to merit, and discouraging to effort; and which, by repressing emulation, and exciting envy, are of the most baneful tendency in a republic. His appointments to places of public trust were regulated by a regard to capacity, integrity, and services actually rendered to the country. Instead of making them merely auxiliary to his personal interest, or to the purposes of a party, he felt his responsibility, in the exercise of so high a prerogative, and consulted the interests of the people, from whom he derived it. In his treatment of foreign nations, his rectitude was visible in his impartiality. Predilection for one nation, and antipathy for another, had no influence on measures, which had for their object the welfare of his own. Such biases he spurned, as unworthy of a public ruler, and not less degrading than dangerous to an independent people. Benefits, occasionally received from one nation, he would never allow, when the debt was cancelled, to demand, in the guise of gratitude, such returns as could not be made without the surrender of public liberty; injuries, occasionally inflicted by another, he would never consider as unpardonable, after reparation. He held all nations, as our own Declaration of Independence teaches us to hold them, ""enemies in war; in peace, friends." Hence, he hesitated not to form a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, though lately an enemy; nor gird on his sword for an expected war with France, though lately a friend and ally. It was this profound regard to justice, united with his most exemplary candour and fairness, moderation and magnanimity, that, dispelling passion and prejudice, influenced him to a course of political conduct, which all potentates must admire, but which few, alas, will ever imitate. This is the Sublime of Virtue, which is sometimes delineated y the moral painter, but in him was seen in real life.

We ask your farther attention o his patriotism and his piety. The one appeared in his numerous and disinterested services to his country; the other, in his uniform respect to the providence and government, to the worship and laws of God.

Of his patriotism we derive not the evidence from words, but from things,; not from promise, but from performance. It was most remote from that spurious virtue, which assumes the garb, and uses the language, of the fair original, for selfish or sinister purposes. How many pretended patriots were boisterously declaiming about liberty, while he was fighting for it ! How many obtruded themselves upon public notice, by calling themselves the friends of the people, while he, without assuming the title, was proving himself in the highest degree worthy of it, by his most laborious, and perilous services for their prosperity and happiness ! How many of these friends of the people, by awakening their jealousies, and imposing on their credulity, were aiming to shake their confidence in the Father of his country, to render suspicious his paternal administration, to produce changes in the government favourable to their own views, and to obtain those lucrative offices, to which they had no claim by merit; while he was devoting all his energies to the common good, without desiring, without accepting, compensation! While these patriots flattered the people, but to betray them, he was resolutely pursuing measures for their benefit, at the risk of their displeasure. "If," said he, speaking of his expected entrance on the presidency, "If I know my own heart, nothing short of a conviction of duty, will induce me again to take a part in public affairs: and in that case, if I can form a plan for my own conduct, my endeavors shall be unremittingly exerted (even at the hazard of former fame, or present popularity) to extricate my country from the embarrasments in which it is entangled through want of credit; and to establish a general system of policy, which, if pursued, will ensure permanent felicity to the commonwealth." That pledge was given in a letter to a private friend, with all the delicacy and modesty which belonged to his character; but it was redeemed in the face of the world. The appointment of an envoy extraordinary to the court of London, was unquestionably made in the full perception of that censure, which it brought on his administration; for it was in opposition to opinions openly and ardently avowed, and with the knowledge of "the extremity to which the passions and contests of the moment had carried, not only the great mass, but even men who possessed great talents and influence. But," as his biographer justly observes on this occasion, "it is the province of real patriotism to consult the utility more than the popularity of a measure; and not to shrink from the path of duty, because it is becoming rugged." Time has proved, not his patriotism merely, but his wisdom in resolutely putting his signature to a treaty, which, though at first pronounced "pregnant with evil," was eventually productive of our national opulence and prosperity. His policy was purely American; neither influenced by any party at home, nor controuled by any power abroad. What he was once compelled to say in his own defence, every page of his history proves to have been true, "That he was no party man himself, and that the first wish of his heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them." All he desired was, that his country might be free, virtuous and happy. To the promotion of her best interests the greatest and best part of his life was devoted; and what the historian has said of the purity of his virtue, may be as justly said of his patriotism, "that it was not only untainted, but unsuspected."

His numerous and distinguished virtues were dignified and adorned by piety. The being and perfections, the providence and government of God, he most firmly believed, and most devoutly acknowledged. How uniformly did he implore the divine guidance and blessing, in all his important labours and enterprises of his country ! How invariably did he ascribe the success of his arms, and the prosperous issue of his councels and measures to the Almighty ! How unequivocally did he bear his testimony to the divine origin and propitious influence of Christianity; and with what solemnity and pathos did he urge the observance of its duties, from a regard to the example of Jesus Christ, its divine Author ! I cannot suppress one example of his prayers---a happy specimen of his piety and patriotism, and a striking proof that both were founded on the basis of the Gospel. It closes his admirable address to the Governors of several States, at the conclusion of the Revolutionary war: "I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the state over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field; and finally, that he would be most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, [ Micah 6: v. 8 ] and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nations." [ Bold face added, Ed. ] That Christian morality, which he so fervently implored for others, he himself exemplified. Its basis was piety. Of his regular attendance on the public worship of God, when the duties of his military station admitted, some of my present hearers were witnesses. In this very temple, in that very seat, you have seen him, with the solemn air and reverent deportment, which become the devout worshipper, uniting in the devotions, and listening to the instructions, of this house of prayer. While he was careful to render to all men their due; he was careful " to render unto God the things which are God’s."[ Bold face added, Ed.]

Such was WASHINGTON ! Well might his successor in the presidency say, on the melancholy occasion of his death: "His example is now complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only as long as our history shall be read."

To you, Fellow Citizens, this example is now respectfully presented. It is the model of your own selection. Copy it; and you will become formed to good magistrates, good citizens, and good men. The virtues of WASHINGTON WERE OF THAT GENERAL CHARACTER, THAT READILY ADMIT INDIVIDUAL IMITATION. [Uppercase Italics added, Ed. ] Had they been peculiar to the soldier, or the statesman, you might have had no occasion for them; had they been exclusively vast and majestic, you might have admired without daring to imitate them.

It is as men and citizens, that you are invited to follow the example of the man, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow citizens." In urging this imitation, we are virtually complying with his own injunction. "Let an attention," said he, "to cheerful performance of their proper business as individuals, and as members of society, be earnestly inculcated on the citizens of America." By the authority of WASHINGTON, therefore, we inculcate on you, Fellow Citizens, activity and diligence, in your proper business; regularity and exactness; fortitude and prudence; patriotism and piety. These were the virtues, which inspired the confidence of a nation in him, both in the field [ in battle, Ed. ] and in the cabinet; which qualified him to render the most important services to his country, and to mankind; which procured for him the gratitude and affection of his own countrymen, and the respect and admiration of the world. Thses were the virtues, which, above all, imparted to him peace in life, hope in death, and, we trust, prepared him, after the fleeting honours of time, for, "a crown of glory that fadeth not away." While then the name of WASHINGTON, and the advocates for his policy. It is needful only to exhort you to be true to your principles, and to exert yourselves with a steady, enlightened, and not intolerant zeal, to diffuse their influence. It was the remembrance of the prosperity and happiness, enjoyed under the administration of the first President, that induced you to revive its spirit, and to recur to its principles. The propitious effects of his administration cannot be better expressed than in you own words: "our foreign relations, under his auspices, were managed with firmness, impartiality, and spirit; and at the same time with a temper so conciliatory, peaceful, and just, that foreign nations were so deprived of all complaint, reproach, or contempt. The domestic policy of his administration afforded equal protection and freedom of enterprise to all sections of the country, and all classes of citizens. The result was, national prosperity, national honour, and national happiness."

Exactly the reverse of this pleasing but just picture, is the present condition of our country; and it is for the people to inquire into its cause. The right of such inquiry is essential to a republican government. Its exercise ought, indeed, to be regulated by due respect to the constituted authorities, and never to trespass the bounds of constitutional liberty. Accordingly as it is legitimately used, or wantonly abused, it is a fire, that either tries as an ordeal, or wastes as a conflagration. The right itself, and the expediency of using it, are well stated in your Constitution. "Freely to examine and discuss the principles of our government and the public conduct of our magistrates is right, as well as expedient; right, as tending to produce just notions of measures and men; and expedient, as affording a most salutary check and restraint on any pernicious course of policy, projected or adopted."

A magnanimous example of such inquiry has been recently presented to you in an official communication of the Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth; --a man, whose private virtues, and political integrity, have raised him, like WASHINGTON, not above reproach merely, but above suspicion. What respect is due to the example, what deference to the opinions, of a ruler, eminent for a discriminating judgement and a dispassionate temper; for incomparable moderation and inflexible firmness; for disinterested patriotism and exemplary piety ! He has deliberately, and under the solemnity of an oath, given you, from facts clearly stated and submitted to the understanding of every member of the community, such a view of the grounds and origin of the present war, as may constrain you to question its necessity, its policy, and even its equity.

The mere Declaration of War affects neither the right, nor the duty, to inquire into the origin of it, when, especially, its justice is seriously doubted by very many of the people, whose blood and treasure are to support it, and as seriously denied by very many of the wisest and best statesmen and rulers in the nation. If we will not inquire, we may not only be accessory to our own misery and ruin, but to the wanton effusion of human blood---blood, that may cry to heaven from the ground for vengeance. If, on due inquiry, you are convinced that it is a just and necessary war, prove your patriotism by giving it your voluntary support; if not convinced, either of its necessity or justice, you will by no means voluntarily encourage it, but use all constitutional means to bring it to a speedy conclusion.

That most wars are unnecessary, and therefore unjustifiable, the history of the world plainly shows us. The inspired volume ascribes their origin to the unhallowed lusts and passions of men. Republics, no less than despotic governments, have been addicted to war, from the lust of of gain, a passion for glory, or some unhallowed motives, equally hostile to their prosperity, and dangerous to their liberties. "The constitution of Sparta was excellently framed for promoting peace, virtue, and concord; but when the people began to aim at conquest, and to extend their dominions by force of arms, contrary to the intentions of Lycurgus, who thought such acquisitions of no importance to a state, the consequence was disgrace and ruin." How many free states have been ruined by the same means !

Aware of this very danger to our republic, WASHINGTON has admonished us, "That the government," under such constitutions as ours, "sometimes participates in the national propensity " to war, "and adopts through passion what reason would reject;" that "at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives;" and that "the peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim." Whether he would ever have sacrificed our peace, or hazard our liberties, from any considerations, not far more imperious than those alleged as the ground of the present war, you may conclude, with moral certainty, from his avowed principles, and his pacific administration. His early Proclamation of Neutrality was the first instrument and harbinger of the continuance of our peace and prosperity. An impartial maintenance of a neutral position long preserved us from a participation in those wars, which were deluging Europe with blood; and gave us all the advantages of a neutral and commercial nation. Of what incalculable value was that neutrality to a people, that had just been struggling for liberty and independence! It replenished the national treasury; furnished means for reducing or extinguishing the heavy debt, contracted by a long and expensive war; established public credit; procured respect from abroad; and gave security, prosperity, and contentment at home.

Whence the stupendous change in our condition? "Why," to use the language of WASHINGTON, did we "forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour, or caprice?" Is it not, alas, too evident, that the neutral balance has long been broken ? Have not "antipathy against one nation," and "sympathy for the favorite nation," been systematically cherished ? and have not precisely the evils, which WASHINGTON predicted, and against which he faithfully forewarned us, ensued ? Does not the almost miraculous interposition of Divine Providence, in the deliverance of Russia { from Napoleon, Ed. ] and the reduction of an enormous military power, which threatened the liberties of the whole world, seem alone to have protracted the destinies of "the two Americas?"

The European war, now assumed a new and more auspicious aspect, which gives the people of the United States a favorable moment to inquire into the origin of their own. The independent legislators of Massachusetts have made their inquiry, and bourne their testimony against it in a Remonstrance, which breathes the genuine spirit of the fathers of New England. The friends of liberty in the national legislature are drawing aside the vail, which has so long concealed from the people the mysteries of foreign diplomacy. Should those mysteries be disclosed to them, they will learn, whether we have placed the effect before the cause, how to put the cause before the effect; they will learn, whether we repealed our nonintercourse law in favour of France, because France had repealed her edicts, or, whether those edicts were repealed, because we had endeavored at least to "cause our maritime rights to be respected." Then, too, they may think it proper to inquire, whether an invisible decree, locked up in the bureau of a French or of an American minister, or wherever concealed, had full force and authority, a year before its disclosure, or, whether the Berlin and Milan decrees, which that was to repeal, were all the while in force, and, as their imperial author declared, "the fundamental law of his empire;" whether, if the British orders in council were, as our government alleged, the principal cause of the war, the revocation of those orders, exactly at the time, and on the condition, that had been uniformly promised, that is, whenever the French decrees should be repealed, affected not the question of the necessity, or justice, of the continuance of the war; whether it was either a prudent or a consistent scheme, systematically to reduce our commercial claims; to adopt first a Chinese policy, and next, when, under its restrictive influence, the nation had become drained of its spirit, and "settled on its lees," to issue a Declaration of War, instantly exposing our whole maritime frontier, from the St. Croix to the St. Mary’s, to the depredations of a most formidable navy, and our whole inland frontier, from Michigan to New Orleans, to the incursions of the savages of the wilderness; whether, be our commercial claims what they may, it was wise to assert and vindicate them by force, in the infancy of our republic, with such immense disparity of naval means, compared with those of our adversary, and at the hazard of an ultimate abridgement of the very rights in question, or, whether it had been wiser to follow the example of WASHINGTON, whose "predominant motive," in maintaining a peaceful neutrality, was "to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speakingly, the command of its own fortunes; whether, if there were sufficient cause of war with the two great belligerent nations, we selected, for our enemy, the one, which was first in violating our neutral rights, or the one, which had done us the most atrocious injuries, with the additional provocation of insolence and contempt, or the one, whose injuries were less flagrant, and the most serious of which were disavowed and repaired by its government; the one, which has treated our complaints either with sullen and indignant silence, or with open and imperious distain, or the one, which has been uniformly decorous in expressing regrets for the necessity imposed on it of infringing our neutral rights, and a disposition for an amicable adjustment of all differences; whether there was good and sufficient reason for maintaining amity with that offending nation, which is most alien from us, in origin, language, religion, government, laws, habits, manners, every thing, and for waging war with the one, which has the most natural affinities with us, is most congenial in character and feeling, most assimilated to us in whatever can be called national, whose interests are most conformable with our own, and in whose keeping are the sepuchres of our fathers; whether it became us to bind more closely our ties to the nation, which has scarcely emerged from atheism, whose government, within our fresh remembrance, decreed, "That there is no God, and that death is an eternal sleep," and violently to sever all connexion with the one, which is the palladium of our holy religion against atheism and infidelity, and which is at this moment, with a zeal that would have done honour to the apostolic age, sending the Bible to the remotest nations; whether the people are called upon to expend their lives and fortunes, and to pledge their sacred honour, in defence of their most important rights, or in a war of aggression, either to enlarge their own territories, or to obtain a peace offering for a sovereign, who "wants" a colony that was wrested from the Bourbons, "and must have it;" whether, in one word, by asserting our rights with firmness and seeking peace with sincerity, it were possible to have established our just claims by the sword, with a solemn appeal to the Arbiter and Judge of the world, was absolutely inevitable.

In the mean time, and in any event, let every citizen do his duty. In this perilous and eventful crisis, when, not the subject of war merely, but many questions of high and fearful import are agitated, and the rights of the commercial states, if not the union of the whole, are endangered, let those men be entrusted with the conduct of affairs in the State and in the Nation, who are entitled to so high a confidence. Let the eyes of the people be "on the faithful of the land." If an abandonment of the Washington policy be the cause of our present calamities; in the name of Humanity, Patriotism, and all that is dear to us, let it be resumed. The friends of that policy are the real friends of the People. Already have they done much to guard their liberties from encroachment, and to them, under God, we owe our present security. Our rulers, of the Washington school, by refusing to surrender a right, which the Constitution of the Commonwealth secures to the citizens, and which has never been transferred or alienated, have proved that we yet have a substantial portion of that Independence, which we this day celebrate. The citizens, by choosing, "in the independent exercise of the elective franchise," those very rulers, have at once proved themselves worthy of that Independence, and given an august example of what can be effected by the majesty of the people. May their future efforts be crowned with equal success. SONS OF WASHINGTON ! Do your duty, and we may yet be free, prosperous, and happy. Never despair of the Commonwealth. Do your duty, and God will save it.

May you, Fellow Citizens, who here first hailed WASHINGTON as the military Chief, be the last to forget him as the Father of his country. May you, who here witnessed and shared the first fruits of his valor, be the last to forget the councels of his wisdom. May you, who here had the opportunity of observing him as the man and the citizen, never lose the influence of his example. May this Town, which had the honour of being his first head quarters in the war for Independence, have the greater honour of being the permanent abode of his principles. May this first repository of his arms, be the perpetual residence of his virtues. May the children, who shall be born here, to the latest generation, be roused to freedom, and animated to virtue, when pointed to yonder spot, and told, THERE DWELT WASHINGTON.