Republican gazette — Concord, N.H., 1801-04-02 00:00:00, page 1

|(fr In Philadelphia, on the 4th of March,
the mofl numerous proceffon almoji ever
witnessed in America, was formed at the
fate house, and marchad to the German
Reformed Church, where John Beck#
ley, Esq. delivered the following
Gratton.
Friends and Fellow Citizens,
ASSEMBLED inthis holy temple, ded
icated to the feivice of our God, let us
fervently invoke his prescient spirit, so to
consecrate this day, that the glad effu#
fion of a nation's joy may afeend in
grateful orisons to the throne of heaven,
and receive the approbation and blessing
of the supreme ruler of the universe.
Jffimbhd Citizm,
It is no common occasion that has
convened us—centuries pass and ages
roll away, while, nor the page of hiftory,
nor the records of time, exhibit to our
view, a fpe&acle like the present—Ame
rica, rising with gigantic strength, as Her
cules from his cradle, and presenting to
an astonished world the energies, wif~
dom and power of a great and establish
ed empire—Hail ! genius of liberty, es.
fence of power divine! thy holy inspi
rations have produced the feene, and
spoke an empire into being.
Man, placed by the hands of his Cre
ator in the firi order of beings, was def>
tined to be free. The organization of
his body,the faculties of his mind and the
energies of his will proclaim the great
decree, whilst the influences of reason
and conscience, fubferve the purposes of
his destiny. In the dark ages of the
world, when the human mind was held
in thraldom by ignorance, superstition,
and bigotry, artifice and cunning fuper#
ceded the power of reason, and man be
came but as the slave of man.
As the spark of reason progressed, the
mist of ignorance was dispelled, and a=
wakened conscience burst asunder the
fetters of foperftition and bigotry. A
spirit of enquiry succeeded, and the ra
pid improvements in arts and sciences,
followed by the important difeoveries of
the arts of printing and the use of the
needle, opened to human investigation
a range, co#extenfive with creation and
the works of nature.
Such fellow citizens, was the state of
society in the old world, but particular
ly of modern Europe, at the commence
ment of that epoch when the immortal
Columbus unfolded the grandest pro
jeft that human genius ever formed ; the
dilcovery of ourweftern world ; poffeff#
ing the firm heart of a hero, with the
enlightened mind and persevering spirit
of a philosopher, that illustrious advent
turer, added by his difeoveries, but un#
til then unknown half to the globe. Suc
cessive adventurers followed in the hith
erto trackless path of the great Column
bus, and in less than a century the north
and fouth continents of America, with
all their contiguous islands were colo
nized and fettled by European emi
grants. Americus Vefpucius, whose
name has been unjustly given to the dis-
„ Elijah Russell- C ONCORD, [fflWWstle] THURSDAY, April 2, 1801—No. 9 — Vol. I.
poUtical fflisefflanp.
REPUBLICAN GAZETTE.
coveries of Columbus, Magillian, deGa:
ma, de Gabral, Raleigh, Smith, Gilbert,
Cabot, and Drake, were among the most
distinguished navigators that led the way
to those establishments on the part of the
European nations, of which England,
Spain and Portugal were the firft to avail
themselves. The produ&ions and trea
fares of the new ^orld were speedily
laid open to th% Avaricious grasp of
needy adventurers from the old, but
while the benevolent mind views with
horror and difgufl those feenes of rapine
and cruelty which marked the conquest
of South America, and the firft Euro
pean settlements in the East and Weft
Indies, it turns with pleasure and delight
to that period, in the hiftory of this more
favored part of the New World, when
a great friend and benefactor of the hu
man race, appeared in the character and
person of William fcenn, the founder,
planter, and legiflatqr of Pennsylvania;
with a heart and mic|l bearing benevo
lence, and comprehensively embracing
the combined views of the philosopher,
legislator and statesman, it was the part
of Penn, to exhibit to the world the firft
instructive lesson of treaties of amity,
peace and union with thb uncivilized and
untutored aborigines ts America, (the
wild and savage Indians) founded on
that basis of equal right fid mutual jus
tice which they were ften to refpeCt.—
Purfoing the fame emitted policy, our
American Solon devised a code of laws
wifely calculated to protect the' proper
ty and interests of the settlers, and to se
cure the full and peaceful emjoyment of
their civil and religious liberties. Aus
picious systems! which gave to Penn
sylvania, as an asylum to the oppressed
and persecuted of European nations,
early and large emigrations of ufeful ci
tizens, whose defeendants now form a
great proportion of its population, and
by their habits of industry, integrity, and
intelligence, adorn the national charac:
ter of our state, and conduce to its im
portance in the scale of Union.
But here fellow citizens, let us pause ;
and whilst we solemnly reflect on, ad
mire and reverence the mysterious ways
of heaven to fubferve the purposes of
future good to the Tons of men. Behold
then an infatuated monarch, James 11.
of England, who by the intollerant fpi#
rit of bigotry, loft his crown and king
doms, in the religious persecution of his
fubje&s. Behold this monarch granting
to our illustrious Penn, a deed confirm
ing the firft and original charter of Penn
sylvania, granted by his brother Charles
11. in the year 1681 ; that charter which
among other things contained the prin#
ciple of a free and universal torleration
in matters of religion. It was the germ
of this principle thus obtained planted
by the beneficent hand of Penn, in the
then wilds of America, and foftered by
the wife policy of his systems, that has
grown and progressed in the strength &
majesty of truth, until it has illuminated
our weftern world, and reflexed back to
Europe a portion of its original influ
ence.
LIBERTY AND THE CONSTITUTION.
Light, life, truth and liberty, burst up
on the world through the glorious event
of the American revolution, and it was
referred for the youngest people upon
earth, to teach the great elementary
principles of human freedom and human
happiness, to the firft and proudest na
tions of the old world. The causes and
effeds of that revolution so far as refpe&
the establishment of American liberty
and independence are too well known
and understood to be here enlarged on.
Coeval with that liberty was the eilab
lifhment of the principle of " reprefent^
ative democratic government, emanate
ing from the people, the only legitimate
source of all power,' ' a principle hither#
to unknown and unpra&ifed upon by
any people.
It is to the operation of that principle,
combined with the influence of the A#
merican revolution, that the struggles of
revolutionary France may be ascribed ;
struggles that now agitate the whole civ
ilzed world, and over the mournful ex
cesses of which we may be permitted to
drop a tear, in the cheering hope that
regenerated France will in the establish
ment of the principle in question, shortly
reach that goal of human freedom and
human happiness for themselves, and the
surrounding nations whose fetters they
have broken, which more fortunate
America now possesses in peace and
fafety.
But where is the American heart that
does not dilate with joy at the retrofped
of the glorious epoch of the 4th of July
1776 ? When an illustrious band of
heroes and of patriots proclaimed to the
world their country's Independence,
boldly asserting the rights of man, and
nobly dared to vindicate the destiny of
his nature —In arts, in arms, in science
and in goverment the American charac
ter emblazoned the world, and stamped
Civil and religious liberty have, thro'
all ages, flood too intimately connected,
to admit the existence of the one without
that of the other—they must flourifh or
perish together. Thus, when the spirit
of commercial monopoly, succeeded to
the rage of colonization and conquest
among the nations of Europe, it was a
leading feature in the systems of oppres
sion devised by the mother country a:
gainft their colonial dependencies, to rec
strain alike the rights of conscience and
the freedom of the press. Dark and
grievous is the catalogue of ills engen#
dered by the spirit of commercial mono
poly. Human nature has been no less
afflicted by its baneful effeds in every
quarter of the globe, than it therefore
was under the reign of ignorance, super
stition and bigotry, and hopeless indeed
would be the condition of man, if the
discovery of our weftern world, had on
ly conduced to the change of one system
of oppression for another. But through
the influence of the causes that have
been traced, the wisdom of Providence
was displayed in the manifeftation of the
supreme decree ''that man placed by
the hand of his Creator was destined to
be free."
Fellow Citizenj,