The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1851-11-13
FATHER MAffHEEiw's FAREWELL ADDRESS.
70 the Citizens Of the United States:

To the Citizens Of the United States:
DEARLY BELOVED FRIENDS My mission
amongst you closes to-day. / cannot take my
final departure from the shores of your great and
prosperous country, without publicly recording
my deep and grateful appreciation of the gener-
Gus sympathy, the delicate attention, and the
unremitting kindness which have experienced
in every section of this vast Union. The noble
reception which you have spontaneously rendered
to a stranger, known merely as an humble mis-
sionary in the cause of moral REFORM proves the
devotion of your people to the interests of hu-
manity, however feebly championed, and has en-
deared America and her people to me by
thousand ties too sacred for utterance. Though
the renewed attacks of painful and insiduous
malady, have rendered it impossible that could
without imminent danger to my life) make those
public exertions which were never spared by me
in the days Of health and vigor, 1 yet thank
heaven, have been instrumental in adding to the
ranks of temperance 60O, 900 disciples in
America. 1 have been much cheered during the
past week, by the receipt of letters from all parts
Of the States, bearing unimpeachabre testimony
to the strict fidelity with which this voluntary
obligation is observed.
need scarcely add, that virtue, and the duties
which religion inculeates, together with peace
plenty, domestic comfort, health, and happiness
have everywhere followed in its train. cannot
omit this opportunity of bearing my grateful
testimony to the generous and valuable co-opera-
ton which have received, in the prosecution Of
my mission from the public press Of America.
Whatever may be the party or sectional differ
ences that separate those influential expositors
Of public opinion, all recognized, in the simple
principle which / enuneiated, a common ground
Of paternal union; and acting IN that Christian
spirit have with scarcely exception, ever
freely rendered their valuable support and advo-
cacy to the cause of temperance, emphatically
the cause of virtue, patriotism and morality. If
hn tA av,Il = Ixa1 -1fxH L.
American people have at all times been generous
ly extended to me during my tour, how much
more intense has this noble feeling become as
the period approached for my departure2 How
can find language to thank the generous, the
high-souled, noble Henry Clay, my distinguished
advocate-my dearly cherished friend.
How can l express the measure of my obGga-
tion to the benevolent VIM. Corcoran, of Wash
ington? to the public spirited and philanthropic
Henry Grinnell to your merchant princes, E.
K. Collins and Robert Kermit? to the amiable
and gifted archbishop Of New York, whose deli
cate and unremitting attention will never be for
gotten by his honored guest to the host of kind
friends in this city, in Philadelphia, Boston,
Albany, New Orleans, st. Louis, Cincinnati, and
through the Union, who have responded to Mr..
Clay's appeal, and in their farewell present have
furnished memorial of gratitude and generosity
too highly appreciated by the object of their
sympathy and solcitude-too deeply engraven
phrases sanctioned by conventional usage.
There are emotions of gratitude too intense
for language to convey; were it otherwise, glad
ly would attempt TO give expression TO my pro-
found thanks to my gifted and amiable country
woman; Catherine Hayes. Never will forget the
sympathy felt by that noble minded lady, or the
spontaneous generosity $50 characteristic of her
Irish heart) which prompted her recent grateful
and substantial compliment. Never will this
noble act be forgotten by Father Mathew and
when his earthly pilgrimage is over, when his
stewardship ceases, and he is called to state of
future existence, where even the envenomed
shaft Of the slanderer cannot reach, long may
her honored name be pronounced with gratitude
and respect by the sons and daughters Of that
beauteous isle which she loves wen To my
own beloved countrymen most affectionately
tender few words of parting advice You have,
my dearly beloved friends, relinquished the land
Of your birth, endeared to you by a thousand
fond "reminiscences, to seek on these distant
shores that remuneration for industry and toll
too often denied you at home. You are pre-
sented here with boundless field Of profitable
employment, and every inducement held out to
persevering industry. You are received and
welcomed into the great American family with
feelings of sympathy, kindness and friendship.
After few years you become citizens of this
great republic, whose vast territorial extent
abounds in all the materials of mineral agricul-
ture and commercial wealth; the avenues TO
honor and fame are literally thrown open to you
and to your children, and no impediment (saye
of your own creation) exists to prevent your at
tanning the highest social and civic distinction,
~ M::Il you any longer permit those glorious
onDort,r;.;es to pass unimproved, or, rather,
viii Won not nv studying self-respect, and ac-
auiring habits suited u vocr new Posiuon' aspire
to reflect honor alike on tnS lanu oi your oir'n
and of your adoption?
I implore you, as / would with my u ing
breath, to discard forever those foolish divisions
those insensate quarrels-those factious broils
(too often, alas, the fruits of intemperance) in
order Of society violated, and the laws of heaven
trampied on and outraged. Oh how painful is
the contrast between the feelings which generate
those foolish local animosities amongst the COM
mon inhabitants of country, the entire area of
which would but form inconsiderable section
of some of the larger States of this Union, and
that broad and comprehensive spirit of patriotism
which makes every inhabitant of this mighty
republic-from the Atlantic to the Pacifc-from
Maine to California-glory in the title of an
American citizen.
Friends and fellow countrymen-I now bid
you reluctant final farewell. A few hours
moro will separate from tho hospitable shores
Of America forever l carry with me, to '-the
poor old country" feelings of respect and at
tachment for its people, that neither time nor
States-I fervently pray that the Almighty Dis
penser Of human events, in whose hands are the
destnies of nations, may continue those blessings
and favors which You have SO long joyed-that
your progress in every private and public virtue
may keep pace with your unexampled prosperity
that you and your children's children may be
ever true to the great destiny that awaits you,