Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-08-02

mlnlscences. One happy household
we have come round the table ofmem-
DRY, to banquet on the good deeds of O.
theirs, and to grow good ourselves, by
that on which we feed. Our hope for
remembrance, our desire to remember
friends and beneiactors; are among the
warmest and purest sentiments of our
nature. To the former we cling strong
er, as life itself grows weaker. We
know that we shall forget, but the
thought ofbeing forgotten, is the death
knell to the spirit. Though our bo-
dies moulder, we would have our
memories live. When we are gone,
we shall not hear the murmuring voice
of affection, the grateful tribute of
praise; still, we love to believe that
voice will be raised, and that tribute
paid. Few so humble, that they sink
below, none SO exalted, that they rise
above, this common feeling Of hu-
mainly. The shipwrecked sailor,
thrown on a shore where human eye
never lightened, before he scoops in
the burning sand his last, sad resting
place, scratches on fragment of his
shattered bark the record of his fate,
in the melancholy hope that it may
some day be repeated to the dear ones,
who have long looked out in vain for
his coming. The laurelled warrior,
whose foot has trodden on crowns,
whose hand has divided empires, when
he sinks on victory's red field, and life
flies hunted from each quivering vein
turns his last mortal thought on that
life to come, his country's brightest
page.
Theremembrance we so ardently de-
sire we render unto others. To those
who are dear, we pay our dearest tri-
butte. II is exhibited in the most SIM
pie, in the most sublime forms.-We
behold it in the child, digging little
grave for its dead favourite, and mark
ing the spot with a willow twig and a
tear. We behold it in the congregat-
ed nation, setting up on high its mon
umentsl pile TO the mighty-We be-.
held it, lately, on that green plain, dyed
with freedoms first blood: on THAT
proud hill, ennobled as freedoms first
fortress; when the tongues Of the Elo-
quent, touched with creative fire, SEEM
ed to bid the dust beneath them live,
and the long-buried come forth-We
behold it now, here in this consecrat-
ed temple, where we have assembled
to pay our annual debt of gratitude, to
talk of the bold deeds ofour ancestors,
from the day of perl, when they wres-
tied with the savage for his birthright
TO the day Of glory, when they proclaim
ed a new charter to man, and gave a
new nation to the world.
Roll back the tide Of time: how pow
erfully to us applies the promise: 81
| will give thee the heather for All inner
itance." Not many generations ago
where you now sit, circled with all
that exal,s and embellishes civilized
life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind
and the wild fox dug his hole unsecured.
Here lived and loved another race OF
beings. Beneath the same sun that
rolls overyour heads, the Indian hun
! ter pursued the painting deer; gazing on
the same moon that smiles for you, the
Indian lover wooed his dusky mate
Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the
tender and helpless, the council fire
glared on the wise and daring. Now
| they dipped their noble limbs in your
sedgy lakes, and now they padded the
light canoe along your rocky shores
Here they warred; the echoing whoop
the bloody grapple, the defying death
song, all were here; and when the tiger
strife was over, here curled the smoke
of peace. Here, too, they worshipped
and from many dark bosom went up
a pure prayer to the Great Spirit. He
had not written His laws for them or
| tables of stone, but He had traced them
on the tables of their hearts. The poor
child of nature knew not the God Of re
violation, but the God of the universe
he acknowledged in every thing around
He behsld him in the star that sunk ii
beauty behind his lonely dwelling, IL
the sacred orb that famed on him from
his midday throne; in the flower tha
snapped in the morning breeze, in TIT
lofty pine, that deGed thousand whlrl
winds; in the timid warbler, that neve
left its native grove, in the fearless ca
gle, whose untired pinion was wet il
clouds; in the worm that crawled at nj
foot, and in his own matches form
glowing with spark of that light, t.
whose mysterious source ne bent, II
humble, thought blind alteration.
And all this has passed away. Across
the ocean came pilgrim bark, bearing
the seeds Of life and death. The Tor
mer were sown for you, the iattel
sprang up in the path OF the SIMPLE ma
tive. Two hundred years have chang
ed the character of a great continent
and blotted forever from its face who'll