Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1836-08-18
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
MR. RoBBINs' ADDRESS.

D MR.. RoBBINs ADDRESS.
The regular toasts having been drank. ns
given in our last paper, the President Of the
Historical Society, joins IlowLASDr Esq.
proposed, as the first volnntcer---"IHe mem-
Jers ofMe Rhode Island delegation IN Com
gress."
Immediately following the last mentioned
toast, the Hon, Asher Robbins arose, and ad-
dressed the President us follows:
Mr.. Connections formed here
at an interesting period of my life, and while
| was one of your fellow-citizens, Uhough
many years have since gone by,) makes
Providence still appear to me US another
home, and has II corresponding hold on my
affections. Notwithstanding the astonishing
changes in her growth and appearance since
! first knew the place-(wha then knew rs
pasture grounds, und meadow grounds, and
corn fields, now see studded with houses,
and crowded with popuIationJ yet the strfk-
ing features of her topography, which cannot
be changed, make her always appear to me,
, on every return here, though different, still
the same; and these never fail TO recall the
many pleasing images of the long past. And
while | look around on these astonishing
changes, this rapid growth, aud to the causes
! which have produced shem, and the iney-
haustible nature of these causes, my imagi-
nation is no less pleased to indulge visions as
to the distant future, and to contrast what she
now is, with what she will then be-
! AS I have on another occasion made our
, beautiful Bay, on smaller scale. another E-
pean sea, with islands as beautiful, though
! not as celebrated-so in my anticipatlons OF
7 the future, have made Providence, now in
! embryo, another Constantinopfe standing al
its head. And in my waking moments, see
| nothing in the nature Of things to arrest her
progress to this splendid destination. Moth
/ ing, if no revolution interyene--no fatal poll
! cy is inserposed to enfeebie her growth and
! blast her prospects. The reign of order and
of liberty--the reign Of fhc constitution and
wise laws to preserve both, and to develope
the resources Of the country, will and mus,
insnve this result,
i There is something in the growth of pla'
ces,and in the laws which govern that growth
that seem not TO be well understood. and per
chaps. are not easy to be explained. Physlca
advantages of local situation, though import
ant, are NOT alone sufficient to account 70
that growth. The other causes, whateve
they may be, are still more important; for W
see that they are able to overcome even tn
want OF those advantagcs-not the entire
but the want TO some extent. What is ther
in the local advantages Of Nantucket, for in
stance, TO make her what she Is? it'll,
!, barren island IN the ocean, with an inconve
nient harbor-wtli not a tithc of the advan
tagcs of hundreds of ports on the coast
she sook the lead Of most of them. Though
she has jsbparted growsr frors her yfowth to
! other places-has thereby made New Bed
| fnrd haf chr 10 haan
! swarms from time to time to settle down else
| where, and to display, wherever that is, the
! prolific energy of their parent stock-yet
! with all these drains upon her, she still goes
| forward, and takes the lead of tho rivals she
has made for herself. At the time when
| Penn first landed on the banks Of the Della
ware-when that angle formed by che Schuyl
kill with the Delaware, (the present site OF
| Philadelphia) was wilderness;-at the same
| time, what is now the site of Perth Amboy,
was nlso wilderness. Both had great ply
sical local advantages for commerce, and so
! equally great that the most intelligent I.:en
were divided in opinion, as to which was due
/ the preference-some giving it 10 one, some
to the other. Philadelphia now is a great
city, the second in the Union, with boundess
! prospects of indefinite future increase; but
| Perth Amboy remains an obscure village TO
this day, scarcely known in the commercial
world TO exist.
! 1t is evident, therefore, that the gole cause
Of this growth is not to he found, as many
suppose, in the physica. local advantages Of
the site. There is, and there must be, still
! more powerful one. Many events appear to
be fortui,ous, which nevertheless are the ef-
! fccts o. laws fixed in the nature of things and
whose operations are uniform There is
something apparently accidental in the
growth of places, but doubtless it is so only
in appearance, and that it is the effect o.
! some uniform cause. think see that cause
e, in the peculiar character Of some OF the mer
; who happen to settle in the place. Men who
r give it its first impulse, and thus shape Its at.
/, ter fortunes;-men Of ardent enterprise and
bold adventures who conquer all diff
cnlties, because they believe them conquera-
bic, and act upon that beliefJ-mcn who in
fuse their own spirit into others, TIL il is dIi-
fused over the whole community in which
thew live. and make il become the character
or that conmunity-a character that propa-
> pates itself from generation 70 generation
n is remarkable that character once I'm.
pressed upon n community, how steadily u
maintains itself and dcscends with 1t to all AZ
ter times. and its effect, toe, Is remarkable
unon the growth Of that placc-always pro-
cressiye moro or less rapidly unlimited,and,
ss il would seem, il'imitablc. London was
ci,v in the time Of julius Cmsar, tsuch city
as barbarians could have) e)-it has been steadi-
IIly growing ever since-and vast as It now IS,
! i is said to be now growing more rapidly than
ever The original impulse is not yet spent,
and never will be, till that character is de-
stroyed by which that impulse is continued.
Y Rome, from little village on the banks OF
the Tiber, went on steadily increasing tor
seven hundred years, under the Republic,
aud then onward nndcr the Empire, I'LL lis