Republican gazette — Concord, N.H., 1801-09-03 00:00:00, page 1

political ffl fyeeUanp.
£ ORATION,
At Morristown, the 4th of July.-C&A&.
THE decay of learning—the loss of a spirit of lit
erathre, and the prevalence of ignorance among
our people at large,' combining with bad morals
and poverty, will probably accellerata our down
fay. Millions of men untaught, unenlightened,
incapable of judging of their own rights, as men,
and of their own duties, as citizens, are easily
made the formidable engine of ambition, by some
aspiring chief, who can work upon the patrons of
the multitude—who rides in the whirlwind, and
direas the storm. Happy for the most enlight
ened nations, can they elude the vast aspiring
grasp of usurpation!
Is the prevalence of knowledge nmong men fa
vorable to freedom ? Is a good education condu
cive to human happioefs ? Why, then, are the
ordinary means of inftruftion, io this state, and
federal others, fuffered to rest on such precarious
foundations ? Or rather on no foundation at all !
The dissolution of the union of these States,
and the fettiog up of independant governments,
will probably lead on to our downfall, or Will be
among the iaft convulsions of expiring empire,
whenever that eventual! happen. When Athens
and Lacedemon began to grow formidable among
the States of Greece ; when they began to make
infraaions on the Amphyaionic confederation,
a war of 40 years raged over all Greece ;— Forty
years, do I fay ! Almost incessant wars, for centu
ries of years, depopulated those States, till Alex
ander, king of Macedon, was able to bury the
'people of one great city alive, in one common
grave,& crulh all the rest beneath his iron fceptre.
Could Alexander have done that in the days of
Leonidas, when 400 warriours dared resist a mil
lion, or at the memorable day of Marathon, when
10,000 Grecian patriots defeated twenty times
that number of Persians ?
What is a Swedish army now, in comparison
with the army of Gustavus Adolphus? Which
made all Europe tremble, and, ihook the greatest
empires. I adduce these fads, as evidences that
a nation may lose its energy of charader.
Bodies of rapid growth, are fubjed to rapid de
cays. It is, this day, one fourth of % century,
since we became an independent nation ;—and,
during that ihort period, we have increased in
numbers and resources— have done, in arts and
arms, what employed other infant nations several
centuries: But the time may be near, when men
of a far different charader may come upon the
stage : A nation may be born ftranger^to the
strong and mighty genius of our fathers : Weak
and volatile spirits may fill our feats of govern
ment, where our fathers fat in stern simplicity,
like gilded infers, fluttering about the tomb of
Washington : Incapable of grafpiog an objed so
foblime as the good of a nation, they will /port
with power, and trifle with justice—Our Union,
as yet, flourishing like the palm-tree, and lofty as
the cedar of Lebanon, (hall then wither away,
and difeord will come in its stead ; Our govern
ment split in pieces—our countrymen fevered in
to parties—the banks of the Hudson, Patomac,
or Delaware, will become the edge of war. And
judge for yourselves, whether men's paffioos are
more mild, or wars lets cruel and exterminating
now, than in former times.
In a word, the want of a due attention in the
people, to their unalienable rights, will open the
way for the aggre flions of aspiring men, and these
evils redressed by unconstitutional means—by the
uufkilful application of remedies, worse than the
disease, will make things worse; and still worse
will it be, when we are so forgetful of a sense of
duty; so diftraaed, as to take different sides in
foreign politics, & dispute about things of which
we know little, and have still less concern. And
too much of this has been already done ; so much
that we have to all appearance, narrowly escaped
being drawn into the confirming vortex of Euro
pean war.
No, fellow citizens, may we, like a nation on
a lofty eminence, at a diftauce from the dreadful
scenes of war, stand firm ; sagacious in discerning
the approach ; as aaive in checking the progress
of the most distant evils, and equally wife in the
application of remedies to these already begun.
- But principally let union and brother
ly love be the order of this day : Let us
CONCORD, [s.h.] September 3, 1801.—I— 3 1 -O' 4" Gazette cb^fc^tyi^
REPUBLICAN GAZETTE.
LIBERTY AND THE CONSTITUTION. ~
labour to chexifhmff ry heart, th^ fu-)
bite and &ty&^ of lovUr
our country—io airour fellow citizens
—to our enemies—to the whole human
race.
Let it be remembered, that we are not alone.
On this auspicious hour, while I speak, thousands
of Orators are illustrating the sweets of rational
liberty ; and many myriads of people, while they
taste her bounties, feel this moment the divine
warmth of her celtffial flame.
Let us join with them, in frames of mind fer
vently grateful and purely benevolent. And, firft
of all, let us cherifh,an&@refs the highest gra
titude to the Almighty Ruler of the Uaiverfe.—
To Him, my countrymen, to Hi m we owe all the
rich blessings we possess ; all that vast amount of
good, which leads us to the fiys and felicitations
of this day.
Let us cordially and joyfolly letdown, under
the fhadowirig branches of the administration of
that great man, wrob is the man of the people's
choice ; whose voice we have already heard in the
Declaration of Independence ; words more sol
emn, and more awful to tyrants, than successive
peals of thunder ; more delightful to every true
American, than the noblest strains of earthly me
lody ; and whose Inaugural Address, justly ad-'
mired for its masterly form, but more for its no
ble sentiments, is to follow, words fitly fpcken,
like apples of gold, in pi&ures of silver.
To do suitable honors to this anniversary, we
ffiould indulge no sentiment ioconfiftent with
, pure friendship & rational felicity : There Ihould
be no excels or intemperance ; nothing tending
to obfeenily ; nothing but what is calculated to
inspire the minds of youth with the liveliest sense.
of honor ; the most refined sentiments of huma
nity ; the most elevated public spirit.
I could with that our public table could be
Spread in a hall hung with the portraits of our de
parted heroes ; at the head of which the awful
Washington might be seen, as he was on that day
when he accepted the command of the American
armies : That from him bur young men might
take lessons of diligence, temperance, public spir
it, dignity, honor humanity.
Let us, in no moment of relaxation, so far
drown the powers of reason in unintelligent mirth
as to forget the fublibe objeas we commemorate.
The indeferibable difficulties through which we
waded to independence and honor, have taught
us to prize that* independence ; have enabled us
to estimate the blessings of peace, and should
make us forget ; yea, buty our aninfofities in e
ternal oblivion.I
May it ever be remembered that the tree of li
berty, which now shades this happy land, was
planted under the can non', mouth; was watered
by our fathers' and brothers' blood ! But now it
is cherished by the most copious fhowersof heav
enly Blessings.
Let this theme dwell on every American tongue
—Let it be the schoolboy's firft lesson ; let the
sweet echos of the folitar, grove cath the found,
from the songs of poets and the tales of shepherds.
Let the pens of writers, and the tonguefyofzgt
tors, never cease to proclaim its glaLd
And O may every returning
our union fiim ; our improver,
our plantations enriched ; our J
ed ; our cities aggrandized,
widened ; till the vast foreftararaffimraF
Georgia to Canada, shall diffoliCTß^gilCT^fe
lands be covered with flouriffung villages and op
pulent cities; till the river Miffifippi and her
tributary streams, (hall be filled with merchant
vessels, wafting incalculable wealth to the Chores
of distant nations.
We shall never fee all these events, but future
generations may ; for them we are a&ing, and
much depends on our condua. Every man has
it in his power to influence the fortune of his pos
terity. Consequences truly vast flow from hu
man adions. Let me then draw a veil over this
grand and delightful profpe&; left examining
it by the lights of experience, we should find it
covered with gloomy doubts, and melancholy ap
; prehenfions. finis.
< O Readers #&u> +tajra bavegot t&tbqradof this
Oration, tah the last uwEs Gazotto tajour bond,
asd attentive/, read it over egain ;——Tben fay, if
it contains an, thing like diferganizatien, an, tbingja
cebinicai agaty the government, or an, thing lib #-
^if, or lib Jbe t Morfean Illuminati ; or a Jingle .
^bifar against Region RQ it ^itb f<rutini%.
ing etemeta ; for this ii frwa a Republican orator.
ORATION,
By j. Beckley, Esq.—At Philadelphia, July 4,
(continued.)
In this eloquent sentence, fellow citi
zens, is to be found another cause of our
original revolution, and of the happy fe^
condary revolution, which has taken,
place in our public affairs. A long and
patient fufferance of abuse was constru
ed into an approbation by the people ;
and a disposition to fuff'er while evils
were fufferable, had been taken as an
evidence of popular indifference, bafe>
nefs or tameuefs, which would fuffer any
schemes, however atrocious, any meafi
ures however wicked.
But the authors of evils at home, like
the parents of oppression abroad, had
mistaken the American people, who tak^
ing as we do this day thi&important dec*
laration and test of American virtue in
their hands, were astonished to find that
out of twenty seven charges of griev
ance and oppression against the British
tyrant, set up as the foundations of com
plaint and the juftification of resistance
—no less than fifteen may be diredly'
or indiredly proved against those whom
we appointed to administer the public
affairs of our young and regenerated gov
ernment.
Here then is a criterion of public
moderation united with firmnefs and
consistency unexampled in the annals
of the world ; here we can account for
the present change ofthe public opinion ;
but causes are not confined to these a
lone. Abuses of which we could not
impeach the British government have
been committed by men employed to
difeharge the great trusts of out own.
We mall in the firft instance touch
upon the parallel grievances enumera±
ted in the Declaration of Independence.
In that great instrument it is declared
that " the hiftory of the present king of
Great Britian, is a hiftory of repeated
injury and Ufurpation.'
1. " He endeavored to prevent the
population of these states 1 for that pur
^^^bftru&ing the laws for naturaliza
■^oreigners, refufing to pass others
■rage their migration hither, and
conditions of new appropria
^lands.
2. " He has obftru&ed the adminif*
tration of justice by refuting his assent to
laws, for establishing judiciary powers.
3. '• He has made judges dependant
on his will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of
their salaries.
4. " He has ere&ed a multitude of
new offices, and sent hither swarms of of
ficers to harrafs our people, and eat up
our substance.
5. " He has kept among us in time of
peace, standing armies without the con^
sent of our legislatures.
6. "He has affeaed to render the
military independent and superior to ci
vil power.
7. “He has combined with others ts.