Washington telegraph., 1855-07-04
From the Philadelphia Inquirer, sth-
speeciles of Mayer Conrad and
Kenneth Eayner at the Ameri-
can Banquet,

can Banquet.
Yesterday afternoon and evening. large
number of delegates to the American Ma
,;onaI Convention, now in session in this city,
together with many of their friends, partook
Of sumptuous banquet in SAMSON Street
Hail
When the viands had been fully discuss
cd the Chairman, Mayor CONRAD. having
been loudly called for, rose and spoke as fol-
lows:
GENTLEMEN There is parsimony pc
culiar to affluence we have among US to-
dav such as wealth of eloquence and patri-
otism, that we are jealous of time itself in
our anxiety to enjoy it all. As. in the BAN
ouet that we have just shared, an epicure
might delight to linger over our every celica-
wet fear that each would deprive him of an
other, we of Philadelphia, in our anxiety to
greet every friend, and bask in the light of
each of the many minds gathered around
this fraternal Board. regard all that dimn-
ishes the privilege as wrong My duty.
therefore, is not to speak, but to strike the
roek. and invoke the fountains of eloquence
from others.
Yet higher law-would that all higher
laws we're as harmless, requires that, having
been honOred with the duties of guiding
the festivities of this occasion. 1 should oc-
eupy your attention at least long enough to
extend to the strangers-uo, they are not
straDgers-to the bTOfhers preseut-broth-
ers mot in the fashion which the world puts
on" but in the communion of patriotism,
brothers Of the heart. "a welcome true
asour cause and earnest as our devotion to it.
Pennsylvania-and Philadelphia answers,
throb for. thrub. to every pulSatiOn of
her loval heart Pennsylvania has never
known, in relation to her kindred commu-
mites. even mOmentary sentiment false to
the religions patriotism which links her to
item. All she has, and all she is, wheney-
erinvoked belongs to the Union. Her val
Isys are crowded with homes and hearts ev-
er open to the sons of her sisters and to
their friends; and her hills will ever pre-
sent the iron wealth, with sinewy arms to
WELD it, to their enemies To meet our
brothers of other States, upon any occasion.
is esteemed privilege; but to meet them
in such duty-vbeD, under the shadow
Of the Hall Of Independence. they are en-
gaced in the sacred labors that here en-
ployed their fathers in that era followed
to every American memory and every Am
erican hope-is something mOre-it is an
ezulting Joy that must seek expression, not
in words, but in the alacrity of our co-ope-
ration and in the fidelity that never has fall
tered and never Will.
Gentlemen. what legacy of inestimable
privileges. what trust of noble duties, what
destiny of glorious hopes, did those faith
ers beGneath US. For the protection, de-
velOpment and consummatiOn of all this,
nothing was needed but their virtues and
the favor of that Providence which smiles
upon virtue. IL was net necessary, it was
not well, that the thin and tainted blood of
decsyed communities should be poured into
the pure and vigorous current of our youth
and health
Enlarged population was and is here no
necessity. and ii of doubtful character, it is
a doubtful good. Even the 1.-THE, nay. the
tenth of tithe of years that ripened Rome,
vas certain to give US sufficient population
without external supplies population, too,
uBequaled in every moral trait-a popula-
ton drawn from founts lofty and pure as
the springs that 0urst from the bosom of
our Alleghanies- uDdefled children of
the cOmpatriots of Washington.
For protection, even against world in
arms. nature gave us defences sufficient :;
and virtue and valor made them im;regna-
be. What more was wanted Many a
people has achieved liberty, but what peo-
pie has retained it! There was an excep-
ton, here under such influences, with a peo-
PIE selfprotected, and protected by a re-
Eglon that acknowledges no Ficegerent of
Him who reigns alOne-a people incorrupt
and inaccessible to foreign cOrruption-here,
liberty would have been immortal-a glory
setting only with our last sun, not like that
sun, to set forever. but to rise again in the
Perfect freedom which is eternal When
OF where else had there, or has there, been
such people. such land, such govern
nent or such hope?
But even they, the sages and patriots of
mat lilustriOus era. as they gazed with pious
gratitude upon the destiny which opened be
lore their children, could not suppress the
doubt-"can such blessings be upon earth
and be lasting ?'' How full of those ming
ed feelings of prize and apprehension are
'ne'r inJunctions to posterity? And we
can compare the past with the present, and
under that earth's greatest and best, the
rGteT Pa,rie, uttered in regard to foreign
lalnence, his solemn BEWARE, or that
sGersCn ss : prophetic spirit prayed for sea
IRE between the old world and the new;
= .na' one and all, they. the lofty and de-
'Sed' the pure, the sags, and now the saint
-, eIplned us--(dO they not watch over
:. O'ess our efforts to obey that injunc.ion2 p
~ =" guard as the lIOness guards her Young.
n .nes',mable heritage of virtue, liberty and
sasPendence from the foreign chains
N01sand fold heavier and more CALLING than