Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1825-08-09
DOMESTIC.
(F'rom .As Boston Courie,

"e oocaon mas produced Tor twenty years the
city Of Boston, can compare viii, it, for manly and vigorou
conception for richue aud beauty of metaphor aud ru
tiou.
AN GRAFTON, delivered on Monday, 4th Of
July, 1925, in commemoration of American In
dependence, before the Supreme Executive o.
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and tn.
City Council and inhabitants Of the city of Bos
ton-By CHARLES SPRAcUE.
WIN, on this day, fingers along these sacred
walls. the spirit-kindlng anthem? Why, on the.
day, waits the herald of God at the altar, TO utte
forth his holy prayer! Why, on this day
congregate here the wise, and the good ant
the beautiful of the land FEATHERS Friends! it il
the SABBATH DAY OF FREEDOM The race
OF the ransomed with grateful hearts and exul,inl
voices, have again come up, in the sunlight o.
peace, to the Jubilee OF their Independence!
The story Of our country's suflerings, our coun-
tn triumphs, though often and eloquen,ly tod is
still story that cannot tire, and must not be for
gotten. You will listen its recital howey er un-
adorned; and shall not fear, therefore, even from
the place where your chosen ones have so long
stood. to delgh, and enligh,en. shall not fear
10 address YOU Though l tell you no new
thing, speak OF that which can never fall coidiy
ON your ears. You will listen, for you are the
sons and daughters of the heroic men, who lighted
the beacon of rebellion and unfured, by its
blaze, the triumphant banner of liberty; your own
blood will speak for me. \ feeble few of that in
trepid band are now among you, yet spared by the
grave for your veneration they will speak for me.
Their sinking forms, their bleached locks their no.
norable scars; these will, indeed, speak for me.
Uniaunted menl how must their dim eyes bright
en-, and their old hearts grow young with rapture,
as they look round on the happiness Of their own
creation. Long may they remain, our glad and
grateful gaze, to teach ALL that we may treasure
all, OF the hour of doubt and danger and when
their God shall summon them 10 glorious rest,
may they bear to their departed comrades the
brmaion OF their country's renown, and their chill
dren's felicity.
Wemeet TO indulge in pleasing "reminiscences
One happy household we have come round the la
bic OF memory, to banquet on the good deeds of
others, and to grow good ourselves, by that on
which we feed. Our hope for remembrance, our
desire to remember friends and benefactors are "a
mong the warmest and purest sentiments of our ma
ture. To the former cling stronger as life it.
self grows weaker. We know that we shall for
get, but the thought of being forgotten, is the
death-knell to The spirit. Though our bodies moul-
der, we would have our memories live When we
are gone, we shall not hear the murmurng voice OF
affection, the grateful tribute of praise; still, we
love 10 believe that voice will be raised and that
tribute paid. Few humble, that they sink below,
none so exalted, that they rise above, this common
feeling of humanity. The shipwrccked sailor,
thrown ON shore where human eye never light
ened before he scoops lii the burning sand his last,
sad resting place, scratches on fragment of his
shattered bark the record OF his fate in the meian-
choly hope that II 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
tro,lden on crowns, whose hands have divided en-
pires, when he sinks on victory's red field, and
flies hunted from each quivering vein, turns his last
mortal thought on that life 10 como, his country's
brightest page.
The remembrance we so srdently desire we rem
der unto others. To those who are dear, we pay
our dearest tribute. IL is exhibited in the most
simple, In thu most sublime forms. We behold it
in the child, digging little grave for il, dead favor
itc, and marking the spot with I willow twg and
tear. We behold it in the congegated nation,
setting up on high its monumental pile 10 the NIGH
ty.-We beheld it, lately, that green plain, dy-
ed with freedoms first biood on that proud hill
ennobled freedoms first fortress; when the
tongues Of the Eloquent, touched with creative iii
seemed 10 bid The dust beneath them live, and the
long-buried come forth. We behold it now, here
in this consecrated temple, where we have assem-
bed to pay annual debt OF gratitude, to talk oil
the bold deeds OF our ancestors, from the day oil
peril, when they wresiled with the savage for his
bifthrgh,, 10 the day of glory, when they proclaim
I'd new charter TO man, and gave new nation to
the world.
Roll back the tide OF time; how powerfully to
US applies the promise: 81 | will give thee the
heather for an inheritance Not many genera.
tions ago, where you now sit, crced with all that
exalts and embeishes civilized llc the rank thstl,
nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his mol,
unsecured. Here lived and loved another race o
beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over YOU
heads, the Indian hunter pursued the painting deer
gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, III,
Indian lover wooed his dusky mate. Here TIN
wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless
the council fire gared the wise aud daring. Now
| they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes
and now they padded the light canoe along you
rocky shores. Here they warred; the echoin,
whoop, the blsody graPple, the defying death song
all were here; and when the tiger strife was over
here curcd the smoke of peace. Here, too, the,
worshipped; and from many dark bosom went vi
pure prayer TO the Great Spirit He had no
written His laws for them ON tables OF stone, bu
He had traced them on the tables of their hearts
| Tile poor child of nature knew not the God of re
veatIon, but the God Of the Universe he acknow
ledged in every thing around. He beheld him il
the star that sunk in beauty behind his lonely dwell.
ling, in the sacred orb that famed on him from hi
iHd-day throne; in the flower that snapped in th,
morning breeze, in the lofty pine, that defed
thousand whirlwinds; in the timid warbler, tha
never left its native grove, in the fearless eagle
whose untired pinon was wet in clouds; in III,
worm that crawied at his foot, and in his owr
inatchless FORM glowing with spark of that light
10 whose mysterious source, lac bent, in humble
though blind alteration.
| And all this has passed away. Across the O.
cean came pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds o
life and death. The former were sown for you, the
latter sprang up in the path Of the simple native
Two hundred years have changed the character o.
great continent, and blotted forever from its face
whole, peculiar people. Art has usurped tn,
bowers ofnature,and the anonted children Of educa
ton have been too powerful for the tribes Of the
Ignorant. Here and there, stricken few remain
but how unlike their bold, untained, untameabl,
rronenIinrsl IA Ll1dio11 nf falcn, ola..cn