Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-08-19
MR.. EvERETT'S SPEECH.


We make the following extract from the elo-
auent speech delivered by Mr.. Everett at the
recent public dinner in Salem (Mass.) The
whole speech is admirable, and the subjoined
quotation particularly struck US as opposite
and forcible:
That we have touched a critical period, in
the state of public affairs, is too apparent to
need to be formally stated. Did not place
unbounded reliance on the stability and good
sense of the mass of the People;-did not
know that the pilgrim stock is not run ont, that
the blood of our fathers still beats warm and
undepenerate in the bosoms of their children;
did | not above all, feel and see that the
Wing spirit-that spirit of tbs aroused and
abroad in the land, fshould be almost ready,
confess, to begin to despair of the republic.
And when say, despair of the republic, speak
TO the substance and spirit of the proposition.
mean that there is reason for alarm, as to the
continued operation and sway Of the principles
of republican government and liberty protect
ed as well as regulated, by law, which were
embodied by our fathers in the Constitution.
do not mean that, in my opinion, there is any
danger that the Forms of the Constitution will
be subverted / presume that, let what will be-
tide, we shall nominally have President elect
ed every four years; Secretaries theoretically
amenable to Congress, although holding their
official stations at the breath of the Presidents
mouth; and Senate and House of Represeh-
tatives to go through the forms oil legislation
long after the familiar use of the Veto shall
have reduced their action, on all important
questions, to mere form.
This is the lesson of history. The forms Of
the Commonwealth in Rome We're many of them
kept up from the first to the last OF the Cesars.-
The despots, who trampled her proud liberties
into the dust did II under the venerated name
and ancient dignity Of the Republic The En-
peror who caused his horse 10 be raised 70 the
highest honors of the state, dared not discard
the title of the magstracy, as 1t was administer
ed by the Catos and the Scipios. He gave his
horse an Office, but il was republican office.
Rome could not be deprived OF her ConSuls,
although the consuls might be occasionally pro-
vided with an extra pair OF legs. There are
impressions made in the infancy of states as
of men, which never wear out take il the time
will never come, when the general frame work
and official nomenclature of our Constitution
will be abandoned. Even Napoleon after he
had in fact, though not in name, made himself
the Dictator of France, thought il eXpedient to
have il put to vote, whether he should be consul
for life and carried ii, by q majority of more
than three million and half against hand
fill, of whom our own Lafayette was the only
man of note. i happen to have in my pocket
something like an ocular illustration OF those
principles Some body Ga tory no doubt) has
palmed off upon my wing simplicity this We
ry day, for d quarter of dollar, French
franc piece not certainly worth more than nine
teen cents at best, and good deal the worse for
wear. What do We behold upon it! On one
side. the oaken garland, emblem of the civic
triumphs of regenerated France, surrounded
with the suspicious legend Republique Fran
cQise. And whose image and superscrption,
think you, on the other2 Perhaps the emblem
attic form Of the goddess of liberty, as we see her
on our own coins. Perhaps, Gen. Bonaparte;-
the Ratchet face of the youthful hero, fresh from
the battle of Montemotte, Millesimo, and Lodi
Alas, no sir, a far different visage; your lean
Cassius grown into your plump Augustus! the
well known round and autocratic features Of a
later date, surrounded with the lofty inscription
Napoleon Empereur
They, therefore, of all the deluded, are the
most wofully deceived VINO slumber on, in con-
fiding apathy and think the republic is safe, be-
cause its organic forms are not In appearance
subverted. Itell you, sir, that II Napoleon HIM
self could burst the rock OF st. Helena, where ne
lies walled and clamped down fathoms deep, in
the everlasting granite: and it, with him. could
burst into life the CHASTITY millions, that fell upon
all his battle fields from the frozen clods of Rus
STA to the baked mud of the Nile, and land in
one resistless host upon our continent and sub.
due IT, he would leave you the forms of the Con.
stitution; he would graciousy allow you to be
the agents of your own subsection and shame;
and when he bad desolated your cities, wasted
your fair fields, plundered your substance, torn
yonr sons from your arms, and drenched your
hearths in blood, he would tell you he came for
your good that he came to rescue you from arls-
tocrats and monopolists, and to bring you hap
pness and gloryH
IE,t Heather Sonth-The printers down east