Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-07-12
Everstt,s Grafton at Dorchester.

i
production but not equal to one or two whicl
he produced thirty years ago on similar occa
sions 1t cannot be said of him as was sait
of BURKE, that his imagination was the las
of his faculties to ripen. BURKE in his you'll
, discussed the sublime and beautiful with tn
frigid accuracy of a mathematician, and in hi
old age he wrote of political revolutions anC
the philosophy of government with all the
gorgeous embellishments of an oriental bower
Not so with EVERETT. The present address
is subdued in its tone and coloring. The pre-
liminary sketch of the progress of free opinion
is good, and reminds the reader of BANCROFT
Then follows an elaborate account of the
settlement and history of Dorchester, inter-
spersed with several eloquent PASSAGES. We
select one OIL the difficulties encountered by
settlers:
Few, | fear, even in this intelligent audi
ence, have formed an adequate notion of the
hard, rough nature that confronted our faith
ers two centuries and quarter ago on these
now delightful spots The nature which we
here and there with picturesque cottages,
hung with festoons of prairie-rose and honey
suckle-of shady walks, winding through
groves carefully cleared of the thorns and
brambles that weave its matted underbrush
into an impentrable thicket-of grand sea-
views from the cool porticOs of marine villas
of glimpses of babbling streams as they
sparkle through meade VS., vocal with lowing
I L.
ture, and so it is; but it is nature brought into
loving union with the skillful hand and taste
full eye of man, the great minister and in
terpreter of nature" Great heavens! how
different the nature which frowned upon the
fathers and mothers of New England; harsh,
austere, wearisome, often terrific. On the
sea-board, broad marshes cut up with deep
oozy creeks and unfordable tide water rivers
no dykes-no bridges-no roads-no works
of friendly communication of any kind--in
short no traces of humanity in the kindly
structures for travel, shelter neighborhood,
or defense, which raise the homes of man
above the lairs of wild beasts. In fact the
aboriginal tribes in this respect, hardly went
as far as the beavers, who in their small way
were very tolerable engineers for wet meadows.
Cheers. Such was the coast; you re-
treated from it, you entered the terrific will
derness, which stretched from ocean to ocean,
the abode of the savage and the wild beasts
gloomy, awful. No civilized foot had pene-
trated its depths-no surveyors chain had
measured its boundaries-no Christian eve
had searched its dismal shades. Imagina-
ton added fictitious to real terrors. Unearthly
cries were sometimes heard in the cracking
woods; glimpses were caught at dusk of ami
mails, for which there were no names; and
strange foot marks which men did not like
to talk about [Cheersl were seen upon the
new-fallen snow [Applausel Even amid
the multiplying settlements, the hill-sidcs
were alive with rattle-snakes, reptile un-
known in Europe; and the bear and the wolf
were heard by night around the farm-yard.
Humanity lost the kindly links of Ineligible
language; and was seen only under the aspect
of strange race, whose numbers and strength
were unknown, and whose disposition toward
the new corners remained to be learned from
experience. But these liardships and terrors
yielded to the courage and perseverance of
our fathers, and the all subduing power of
time. Dorchester, with the usual vicissitudes
of new country, prospered.
This apology for New England intolerance
is rather curious and not very logical
But while their lofty faith gave a high
tone to their characters, its influence was not
in all respects favorable to the happiness of
their lives, the wisdom of their counsels, or
the charity Of their opinions. Our poor ma
lures are not strong enough to bear direct
personal union with the Infinite. We are too
prone to do wrong, to be trusted with the
consciousness Of infallibility; too ignorant, to
be safely animated with the conviction that
we have grasped the whole truth. /
The Grafton closes with graphic account
of the occupation of the flights of Dorches-
ter by WAsHINaToN, and touching allusion
to our national blessings and the declining
years of the Speaker.
Retired from public life, without the ex-
pectaton or the wish to return to it, but the
contrary--grateful for the generous marks of
public confidence which have received, and
which feel to be beyond my merits-respect-
ing the convictions of those from whom have
at any time differed, and asking the same
Justice for my own own, fellow citizens,
that few things would better please me than
to find quiet retreat In my native town, where
l might pass the rest of my humble career in
beft the decline of life, till the same old bell,
whose voice is never hushed, though Time
silences first the fathers and then the children,
shall announce for me also that the chequered
scene is over, and the weary is at rest"
The only alluson which Mr.. EVERETT
made to prevailing political questions, was
an indirect one, towards the close of his adj
dress. He said,
There is another momentous question
which is left undecided in the great declara
ton; and that is whether all the inhabitants
of British America in their united capacity,
and in that alone formed the cone People"
which asserted their Independence (Which
was perhaps the opinion generally entertain
ed by the Statesmen of l776) whether the
inhabitants of the several colonies were each
people who, if it had pleased them, could
each have declared its separate independence
Gas some appear afterwards to have held and
to hold); this was a question not discussed
this day 70 years ago. That was period of
high patriotic excitement,-of fervid senti-
ment-of impulsive effort against an imper-
ding danger. The metaphysics of State are
an after-thought of prosperous and specula-
tive times. But, however, these questions
may be decided, ,0hate0er foundation there
may be for the opinion, that the inhabitants of
each State an the Union are entitled to the name
and the rights of an independent people; ii may
be safely affirmed that they cannot q: one and the
same time be the people of too different States or
Territories although the contrary doctrine
seems to prevail to some extent, trust not
widely, in the West and it has lately been
maintained by the sharp logic of the revolver
and the Bowie knife, that the people of Mis-
somi are the people of Kansas"
Sup endant of tn Asylum for tn Q
Blind.
The Know Nothings, in accordance with
previous threats and their we'll known secret
policy, continue their efforts against the Su-
perintendant of the Institute for the Blind
A.