Daily American telegraph., 1852-07-14
Centreville, Indiana.
AN GRAFTON


AN GRAFTON
DELIVERED BY T. w. TIPToN, OF OHIO,
Before an audience Of ladies and gentlemen celebra-
ting the 4th Of July in connerion acith the Sabbath
School Of McKendree Chapel, Washington, d. c.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Passing by the ordi-
nary topics Of 4th Of July eulogy, desire to call
your attention to some of the leading doctrines
of Washingtons Farewell Address And this |
do more especially on account of the numerous
heresies that abound, which are Of the birth of
yesterday and the disgrace of to-day. This days
celebration is associated with scenes that have
furnished topics for the historian, the orator. and
poet. And when eloquence and poesy have fallen
beneath the dignity of the theme, sculpture and
painting have exhausted their designs in ilustra-
ting incompatible originals. Language may fail
genius be confounded; but q Washington shall
only be given to man and humanity when the fiat
shall have issued from the council Of Divinity.
After spending forty-fve years in the cause of
his country, as soldier and statesman, the hour
had come in which his public career was to close
forever. The frosts of age were upon him, and
the grave was opening before him.
The controlling desire Of his heart was for
that country, and those felow-citizens, for which
and for whom he had sacrificed ease and periled
life on many field Of blood.
The millions of his countrymen had been ac-
customed to look TO him as children to q parent;
and hence he could only repay their confding
affection by leaving them q legacy OF his expe-
rience and parental admonition.
The Union was yet an experiment, while the
history of empires and republics was success
sion of failures.
There stood the genius of History, pointing to
the dim and shadowy outlines oflong-lost empires,
ruined cities and world of mourning inhabitants,
ipaffanfpol offnrta for, pot tiopo1
existence
There was the weeping genius of Liberty, an
exile and wanderer in every land and every age,
worshpped to-day and betrayed to.morrow-her
path illuminated with prosecutions fires, and her
footsteps red with the blood Of her martyrs.
In the voice Of the past we're sepulchral tones
and words of ominous import, and in the twilight
of the past fitting spectres.
At such an hour of gloom, the Union was the
bow of promise that spanned the lowering sky,
and evoked from the patriotic heart of Washing
ton the withering exclamation, "Frown indig
nantly upon the first dawning of every attempt
to ALLEVIATE any portion Of our country from the
rest"
Hope babe him feel confident that when the
popular tempest should arise, and dash the ship
of state upon uncertain seas, in the Union should
be found the anchor of safety; that when other
words had ceased to charm, and other events
been forgotten the Union, uttered in the ear Of
faction, should seal its lips in silence-emblazone
on the national banner, should carry the doubtful
onset or, whispered in the ear of the fanting
soldier, receive the dying response, "Heaven
bless the Union!"
In his presence by Imagination, stood the
sectional demon of Party-in the North, as frown-
ing and repulsive as the icy cliffs Of the mountain
gorge-in the South, as hot and blasting as the
sirocco Of the desert-in the East, as terrific as
ocean tempest-tossed-and in the West as unre-
strained and impetuous as a mountain tornado.
Beneath the shock of contending parties went
down the sacred symbols of liberty, while the
yictors roted in the desecrated temple.
The tocsin of alarm was sounded, and l am
here to prolong the echo: "Let me warn you, in
the most solemn manner, against the baneful
effects of the spirit of party"
Having the utmost admiration for the early
progress of the Christian religion, which, unaided
by power, had struck the flag of thousand hea-
then temples to the Banner of the Cross, and
nerved its votaries to triumph amidst dungeons,
stakes, and fames-refuting the philosophy of the
schools, and giving to poetry soul of immortal
ity and boundless future in which to reyel;
and, from the settlement at jamestown and land
ing of the Mayhower, having beheld it pitching
its tent with the emigrants train, and every
where admonishing man TO his duty as an ac-
countable being and Christian citizen-while in
the first hour of the Revolution it had proclaimed
the inalienabe rights of man, and amidst the
tempest of war pointed the expiring soldier to
an imperishable crown as the reward of a daunt-
less effort in holy cause,-he exolaims, "Of all
the dispositions and habits which lead to political
prosperity, religion and morality are indispensa-
BILE supports"
If the fabric Of our government is bnsed upon
the aggregate wisdom of ages and if the laws are
to be considered an exponent of the public will
and intelligence, hence the propriety of the ad-
monition: promote, then, as an object OF
primary importance, institutions for the general
diffusion of knowledge" firm believer in an
overruling Providence, the Father of his Country
beheld in the inscriptions on national tombs his
torica evidence of chastisements for national sins.
He saw it in the haggard ghost of famine, when
earth refused her verual bloom and heaven her
genial showers. He saw it also in the track OF
the pestilence, when mans only occupation was
the burial of his brother, and woman's care for
the sick and the dying Expelling the shadows
from his brow and the pain from his heart, before
him stood the celestial genius of Virtue and Truth,
while waving her omnipotent wand, vegetation
springs to life, drinking the showers Of morn and
dews of even, as the sound of the funeral knell
expires upon the pure clear air. "and earth
awakes to melody"
The scene was convincing and the conclusion
inevitable: "Can it be that Providence has not
connected the permanent felicity Of nation
with its virtue p
Contrasting the governments Of Europe with
that of his own country--there he beheld the toll
of the masses expended in sustaining bloated
aristocracy and bankrupt treasures; here, as the
mists 90 up from the ocean and return by the
rills, and rivulets, and rivers, so went up from
tba cnfFara hf labor tho frpe gifts Of the pponle