The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1837-09-05
ELOQUENT EXTRACT.
From Mr. ADAMS Grafton, July a, 1887.

From Mr. ADAMS Grafton, July a, 1887. ~
Son the seventeenth of September next, fifty
years will have passed away since the Consttu-
ton of the United States was presented TO the
people for their acceptance. On that day the
twenty fifth biennial Congress, organized by This
Constitution, will be in session. And what
happy, what glorious career have the people
passed through in the half century of their and
your existence associated under it! When that
Constitution was adopted, the States of which
it was composed were thirteen in number,-ther
whole population not exceeding three millions
and half of souls ; the extent ofterritory with
in their boundary so large that it was believed
too unwieldy to be manageable, even under one
federative government, but less than one million
of square miles; without revenue /; encountered
with a burdensome revolutionary debt, without
means ofdscharging even the annual interest ac-
cruing upon it; with no manufactures; with
commerce scarcely less restricted than before
the revolutionary wer; denied by Spain the priv
ilege of descending the Mississippi; denied by
Great Britain the stipulated possession of line
of forts on the Canadian frontier; with disas-
trous Indian war at the west with n deep laid
Spanish intrigue with many of our own citizens
to dismember the Union, and subject to the do
mn,ion of Span the whole valley ofthe Missis-
sippi with Congress, imploring grant of new
powers to enable them TO redeenthe public iaith,
answered by fat refusal, evasive conditions,
or silent contempt; with popular insuTection
scarcely eXtinguished in this our own nnve
Commonwealth, and smoking into flame in sew
eral others of the States with an impotent and
despised government; a distressed, discontinued,
dscordant people, aud the fathers of the revolu-
ton burning with shame, and almost sinking IN
despair of ills issue. Fellow citizens of n later
generation You, whose lot it has been to have
been born in happier times; you, who even now
are smarting under transient cloud lnlcicepting
the dazzling sunshine of your prosperity -
think you that the pencil of fancy has been Dor.
rowed to deepen the shade of this dark and des-
slate picture? Ask of your surviving fathers, CO.
tcmporaries of him who now addresses you,-
ask of them whose hospit;ble mansions often
welcomed him TO their fresiles, when he came
in early youth to receive instruction from the gil
gantic intellect and profound learning of Par
sons,-ask of them, if there he any among you
that survive. and they will tell you, that, far from
being overcharged, the portraiture of that dismal
day is only deficient in the faintness of its color
ing and the lack of energy in the painters hand
Such was the condition of this beloved country
at the close of the revolutionary war, under the
blast of the desert i'll the form ofa contederacy;
when, waited as on the spicy gales of Araby the
hcst, your Constitution, with WAsHINGToS at
its head,
s' Came DER our like tho sweet south
That breathes upon bank ofvioels,
Stealing and giving odor.
And what, under that Constitution, still the SUI
prpnle law of the land, is the condition of your
country at this hour? Spare me the ,unwelcome
and painful task of adverting to that momentary
affliction, visiting you through tie errors of your
own servants, aud the Overlooking spring -ti'te :
| of your fortunes. Those Affections, though not
Joyous, but grevous are bnt for a moment, and
the remedy forthem is in your own hands,
But what is the condition of your colintry-rest-
ing upon foundations if you retain and transmit
to your postorty the spirit of your fathers, firm
as the everlasting hills0 What, looking beyond
a. Ak, >hnro
the wind, and which the breath Of ze-
phyr will dispe, what is the condition of
your country? Is a rapid and steady increase
of population an index to the welfare of a
nation? Your numbers are more than twice
doubled in the half century since the Constitu-
ton was adopted as your fundamental law
Would those of you whose theories cling more
closely to the federative element of yoiir govern
ment, prefer the multiplication of States, to that
of the People, the standard test of prosperous
fortunes! The number of your free end lnde-
pendent States has doubled in the same space OF
half a century, and your own soil is yet teening
with more. Is extent Of territory, and the en-
largement of borders blessing TO nations
And are you not surleited with tho aggrandzc-
lnent of your territory? Instead Of one million
of square miles have YOU not more than two !?
Are not Louisiana and both the Floridas yours
Instead of sharing with Spain and. Britain the
contested waters of the Mississippi, have you not
stretched them beyond westward, bestrided the
SUBMITS of the Rocky Mountains, and planted
your stripes and your stars on the shores of the
Pacific ocean? And, as if this were not enough
to fiji the measure of your greatness, is not half
Mexico painting for admission to your UNION?
Are not the islands of the Western Hemisphere
looking with wistfll eyes to participation OF
your happiness. and promise of your protec-
ton? Have not the holders of the lsthm'ls OF
Panama sent messengers of friendly greeting
and solicitation to be received as members o.
yo,lr confederation Is not the most imminent
of your dangers that of expanding beyond, the
possibility of cohesion, even under one fedora
tive government and of tanting your amos-
phere with the pestence of exotic slavery
8 Are the blessings of good government mani
rity of property, by the freedom of thought, OF
speech, of action, pervading every portion OF the
community ? Appeal to your own experience e
my fellow citizens, and after answering without,
r. '-ttt rysf-a- as s1 -zee s@rT|'s s't @T t4f So