Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-06-14

YOU had been indebted for your release
from the prisons of Olmutz. And
you were the first to suggest those
means Of safety, which were provided
| in time, and which, had it not been for
strange infatuation on his part, and
for shameful treachery on that of false
friends, would have preserved him from
the fate which at last awaited him.
When the free suffrages Of your fell
low-citizens again called you on the
public scene, no one doubted the part
YOU would act. Vulgar minds alone
could have recollected former persecu-
ton, or even neglect; whilst your heart
beat in your bosom, you could not APP
pear otherwise than as the defender OF
the rights of the people. Yet age
might have cooled your ardor; disap-
pointment might have damped your
primitive hopes. But when the veter-
an of the cause of liberty, in both hem
ispheres, again came forth in the de-
fence of that cause, for which he had
fought and bled, for which he had suf-
fered chains and prescription, it was
with renovated vigor, with all the ener-
gy-all the purity-all the freshness OF
youth.
Such is the faint outline of life ex-
clusively devoted 10 the cause OF man,
of an active life of fifty years, unstained
10y vice, and which has not been dis
figured by single act of Inconsistency.
Your career has been no less arduous
than brilliant. But after so many tolls,
severe trials,-unjust prosecutions, and
domestic affections, it has pleased Di-
vine Providence 10 grant to the even
ing Of your days the reward most graf
flying to your mind.
You left, sir, infant America still
bleeding from the wounds of her Revo-
lutionary contest, without commerce,
without wealth, without credit, with
out an efficient general government
After an absence of forty years, you
have been. permitted TO revisit her
shores, and You find her already in the
strength Of manhood, sustaining dis
tinguished rank amongst the nations Of
the earth; the asylum Of the oppressed
and of the unfortunate of every nation
and of every description, having OBJ
tanned height ofprosperity, unequal
led, within so short period, in the
annals of mankind. Her villages are
now populous cities: her ships cover
the ocean: new states have, as by ma
gic, arisen out Of the wilderness: her
progress in manufactures, in arts, in
internal Improvements, latterly in SCI
ence and literature, has kept pace with
that Of her wealth and Of her trebled
population. We had been threatened
with an infallible dissolution of our u
Mon; and thirteen independent States
were seen, voluntarily relinquishing
portion oftheir sovereignty and vesting
a general government with all the pow
ers necessary for the common defence:
an act of wisdom and patriotism of
which, extraordinary as it may appear,
history had not yet afforded an exam
pie.
The prosperity, the long peace they
have enjoyed, has not enervated the
Americans. The present generation
have proved worthy Of their fathers
your companions in arms. You go
hence to erect Monument on Bun
ker's Hill, on the spot where the Brit
ish first learned what resistance they
had TO expect from people who had
willed to be free. And you arrive here
from New Orleans, the scene of an ex-
plot not surpassed in this age Of mill
tacy wonders; of an exit aordinary and
complete victory, gained over veteran
troops superior in Numbers, by band
OF citizen soldiers, led by self-taught
Hero, one Of themselves, enc Of the
people. At the same time, Pennsyl-
vania farmer, in series Of well-fought
actions, was sustaining the honor of the
American arms on our Northern from
tier. And, with a still greater dispa-
rity of forces, our intrepid Navy were
showing the world that, even on her
own element, the ocean queen was not
invincible. This magnificent specta-
Gle affords the highest reward to your
labors-above all, because that pros
perity, those blessings which we are
permitted to enjoy, are the result of
our free institutions. These institu-
tons, Withdrawing from the control
of government the imprescriptible
rights of men in their individual capa-
cities, have left to each the liberty of
conscience-the liberty of expressing
and publishing his opinions-the free
exercise Of his faculties-the unres-
trained expansion ofhis intellect-con-
fining the operation Of government 70
its legitimate objects, the protection
of individuals against the cupidity and
the passions of others-that Of the
community against foreign aggression
those institutions have vested all the
powers necessary for those purposes,
in government emphatically of laws,
in pure representative governments Of
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