Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1862-07-31
1flisfellal,p.
GRAFTON
DELIVERED AT NIAGARA FALLS,
July 18th, 1862.
BY THE
HON. GEORGE W. CLINTON,


... OF BUFFALO.
Fellow CITIZENS believing that my newt
able duties disabled me from preparing formal
grafton, fit to be delivered by me on this most
solemn anniversary, have declined two invita-
tons to appear this day, an orator, before other
portions Of my countrymen. Then came your
aatterng request that l should participate in
your festivities and make PLAIN and short ad-
dress and could not resist it. Very many of
you are my old and valued friends. With you
am home. You know me and will not look for
moving oratory. know you, and am sensible
that can teach you nothing, and that no elo-
quence is needed to exalt your souls to the high
est pitch of patriotism. l feel honored by your
kind remembrance. am very glad to be with
you on this occasion. But Death has been busy
since met you last, and my happiness is some
what clouded by the absence of familiar faces
and especially Of the face of one venerable man
whom, 1 doubt not, you all esteemed, and whom
looked upon with great regard. ....
am very glad to see around me so many Of
our Canadian neighbors. 1t is a pleasing proof
of the fact that. despite all differences Of opin-
ion. we are friends indeed. Cowper was wrong
when he wrote: n@s s4t
Lands intersected by narrow firth
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed
MAKE enemies Oh n0tl0nS, winch nau else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.
We are one in blood, in language, and in re-
spect for law and order. Our institutions are
very similar. The great Lakes and mighty Riv
ers which divide our lands cannot sunder our
friendship and make us enemies. Our neighbors
may rely upon it, that while we have no desire
that our territories, like kindred drops, should
mingle into one, we do desire that our amity
should be perpetual, and that our governments
should vie with each other in removing all IN
necessary shackles upon intercourse and trade,
and in uniting US more closely in interest and in
RECIPROCITY ofbeneft. They are most welcome.
Fellow Citizens, we are in the midst of the
most tremendous struggle the world has ever
seen one on whose issue the fate humanity it.
self depends. Far be dependency from US =
Let us initiate the conduct of our sires in their
gloomiest times, and trust in the Lord, and "put
a cheerful courage on"
The squirrels throw down the acorns of the
forest in rafting shower, and the grunting
swine gather beneath and eat them, and don't
look upward, nor consider how these good things
came to them, We are not like unto the swine.
How can we forget God, here ?-here, where He
pours the waters from the hollow Of His hand,
and nitches His centuries on the solid rock
here, where, day after day, His bows of promise
hang athwart the foods, and even the silver
moon, by night renews them. David and his
countrymen called thunder the Lords voice
Far more emblematic of that voice is the grand,
earth-shaking voice Of the unceasing cataract
And we may well think that here especially, He
speaks to us, reminding us Of gratitude and hope
Let us give thanks to Him for the upprecedent-
ed blessings He has conferred upon onr country
Let US bear in mind that if God keen not the
city, the watchman must watch in vain-and