154 AMERICAN SELECTION. 139 An ORATION, delivered at the North Church in Hartford, at the meeting of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, July 4, 1787, in commemoration of the Independence of the United States. By JOEL BARLOW, Efq. Published by defire of faid Society. Mr. Prefident, Gentlemen of the Society, and Fellow Citizens. I. the anniverfary of fo great an event as the birth of the empire in which we live, none will queion the propriety of palling a few moments in contemplating the va rious objects fuggefted to the mind by the important occafion. 2. But at the prefent period, while the bleffings claimed by the fword of victory, and promised in the voice of peace, remain to be comfirmed by our future exertions; while the nour ishment, the growth, and even the existence of our empire, depend upon the united efforts of an extenfive and divided people; the duties of this day afcend from amusement and congratulation, to a ferious patriotic employment. 3. We are affembled my friends, not to boat, but to realize ; not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of past achievements in the council or in the field; but from a mod◄ eft retrofpect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen, from an accurate view of our prefent fituation, and from an anticipation of the fcenes that remain to be un folded; to difcern and familiarize the duties that fill await us as citizens, as foldiers, and as men. 4. Revolutions in other countries have been effected by ac cident. The faculties of human reason, and the rights of hu man nature, have been the sport of chance and the prey of am bition, And when indignation has burft the bands of flavery, to the deftru&tion of one tyrant, it was only to impofe the manacles of another. 5. This arofe from the imperfection of that early stage of fociety, which neceffarily occafioned the foundation of em pires, on the eastern continent, to be laid in ignorance, and which induced a total inability of forefeeing the improvements of civilization, or of adapting the government to a state of fo cial refinement, 6. I fhall but repeat a common obfervation, when I remark that on the western continent the scene was entirely different, and a new tak, totally unknown to the legiflators of other nations, was impofed upon the fathers of the American empire. 7. Here was a people, thinly fcattered over an extenlive territory, lords of the foil on which they trod, commanding a prodigious length of coaft, and an equal breadth of frontier; a people habituated to liberty, profeffing a mild and benevo lent religion, and highly advanced in fcience and civilization. To conduct fuch a people in a revolution, the address must be made to reafon as well as to the paffions. And to reafon, to the clear understanding of thefe variously affected colonies, the solemn addrefs was made. 8. A people thus enlightened and capable of difcerning the connection of causes with their remotelt effects, waited not the experience of oppreffion in their own perfons; which they well knew would render them lefs able to conduct a reg. ular oppofition. .9 But in the moment of their greateft profperity, when every heart expanded with the increafing opulence of the British American dominions, and every tongue united in the praises of the parent ftate and her patriotic king, when many circumftances concurred which would have rendered an igno rant people fecure and inattentive to their future interefts; at this moment the eyes of the American Argus were opened to the first and most plausible invasion of the colonial rights. 10. In vain were we told, and perhaps with the greatest truth and fincerity, that the monies levied in America were all to be expended within the country, and for our benefit :Equally idle was the policy of Great Britain in commencing her pew fyftem by a fmall and almost imperceptible duty, and that upon a very few articles. 11. It was not the quantity of the tax, it was not the mede of appropriation, but it was the right of the demand, which was called in queftion. Upon this the people deliberated; this they difcuffed in a cool and difpaffionate manner and this they oppofed in every fhape that an artful and fyfte matic miniftry could devife, for more than ten years, before they affumed the sword. 12. This fingle circumftance, afide from the magnitude of the object, or the event of the conteft, will stamp a peculiar glory on the American revolution, and mark it as a diftin guifhed era in the hiftory of mankind: that fober reason and reflection have done the work of enthufiafm, and performed the miracles of gods. 13. In what other age or nation, has a laborious and agri. cultural people, at cafe upon their own farms, fecure and diftant from the approach of fleets and armies, tide waiters and famp mafters, reafoned before they had felt, and from the dictates of duty and confcience, encountered dangers, distress and poverty, for the fake of fecuring to pofterity, a govern. ment of independence and peace? 14. The toils of ages, and the fate of millions, were to be fuftained by a few hands. The voice of unborn nations called upon them for fafety; but it was a till, fmall voice, the voice of rational reflection. Here was no Croinwell to enflame the people with bigotry and zeal, no Cæfar to reward his followers with the fpolls of vanquished foes, and no territory to be ac quired by conqueft. 15. Ambition, fuperftition and avarice, thefe univerfal torch. es of war, never illumined an American field of battle. But the permanent principles of fober policy fpread through the colonies, roufed the people to affert their rights, and conduct ed the revolution. 16. Whatever praife is due for the talk already performed, it is certain that much remains to be done. The revolution is but half completed. Independence and government were the two objects contended for: and but one is yet obtained. To the glory of the prefent age, and the admiration of the future, our feverence from the British empire was conducted upon principles as noble as they were new and unprecedented in the hiftory of human actions. 17. Could the fame generous principles, the fame wildom and unanimity be exerted in effecting the establishment of a permanent federal fyftem, what an additional luftre would it pour upon the prefent age! a luftre hitherto unequalled; a display of magnanimity for which mankind may never behold another op portunity. 18. The prefent is juftly confidered an alarming crifis; per haps the molt alarming that America ever faw. We have con⚫ tended with the molt powerful nation, and fubdued the bravet and best appointed armies: but now we have to contend with ourselves and encounter paffions and prejudices more powerful than armies, and more dangerous to our peace. It is not for glory, it is for existence, that we contend. 19. The first great object is to convince the people of the importance of their prefent fituation; for the majority of a great people, on a fubject which they understand, will never at wrong. If ever there was a time in any age or nation, when the fate of millions depended on the voice of one, it is the prefent period in thefe ftates. Every free citizen of the American empire ought now to confider himself as the legislator of half mankind. 20. When he views the amazing extent of territory, fettled and to be fettled under the operation of his laws; when, like a wife politician, he contemplates the population of future ages; the changes to be wrought by the poffible progrefs of arts, in agriculture, commerce and manufactures; the increafing connex ion and intercourfe of nations, and the effect of one rational political fyftem upon the general happiness of mankind, his mind, dilated with the great idea, will realize a liberality of feel. ing which leads to a restitude of conduct. 21. He will fee that the fyftem to be established by his fuf frage is calculated for the great benevolent purposes of exten ding peace, happiness, and progreflive improvement to a large proportion of his fellow creatures. As there is a probability that the fyftem to be propofed by the convention may answer this defeription, there is every reafon to hope it will be viewed by the people with that candour and difpaffionate refpe&t which is due to the importance of the subject. 22. While the anxiety of the feeling heart is breathing the perpetual figh for the attainment of fo great an object, it be comes the ftrongeft duty of the focial connexion, to enlighten and harmonize the minds of our fellow citizens, and point them to a knowledge of their interefts, and an extenfive federal peo ple, and fathers of increafing nations. 23 The price put into their hands is great beyond all com pariton; and as they improve it, they will entail happiness or mifery upon a larger proportion of human beings, than could be effected by the conduct of all the nations of Europe united. 24. Thofe who are poffeffed of abilities or information in any degree above the common rank of their fellow citizens, are called upon by every principle of humanity, to diffuse a spirit of candor, and rational inquiry, upon thefe important fubjects. 25. The prefent is an age of philofophy and America the empire of reafon. Here, neither the pageastry, of courts, nor the glooms of fuperftition, have dazzled or beclouded the mind. Our duty calls us to act worthy of the age and the country that gave us birth. Though inexperience may have betrayed us into errors; yet thefe have not been fatal; and our own dif. cernment will point us to their proper remedy, 26. However defective the prefent contederated fyftem may appear, yet a due confideration of the circumftances under which it was framed, will teach us rather to andmire its wisdom, 159 AMERICAN SELECTION. 143 han to murmur at its faults. The fame political abilities which were displayed in that inftitution, united with the exerience we have had of its operation, will doubtless produce fyftem, which will stand the teft of ages in forming a powerul and happy people. 27. Elevated with this extenfive profpect, we may confider prefent inconveniencies as unworthy of regret. At the close of the war, an uncommon plenty of circulating fpecie, and an univerfal passion for trade, tempted many individuals to involve themselves in ruin, and injure the credit of their country. But these are evils which work their own remedy. 28. The paroxifm is already over. Induftry is increafing fafter than ever it declined; and (with fome exceptions, where legislative authority has fanctioned fraud) the people are ho neftly discharging their private debts, and increafing the refources of their wealth, 29. Every poffible encouragement for great and generous exertions, is now prefented before us. Under the idea of a permanent and happy government, every point of view in which the future fituation of America can be placed, fills the mind with a peculiar dignity, and opens an unbounded field of thought, 30. The natural refources of the country are inconceivably various and great. The enterprifing genius of the people promifes a mott rapid improvement in all the arts that empel.. lif human nature. The bleffings of a rational government will invite emigrations from the reft of the world, and fill the empire with the worthieft and happiest of mankind; while the example of political wifdom and felicity here to be dif played, will excite emulation through the kingdoms of the earth, and meliorate the condition of the human race. A DECLARATION by the REPRESENTATIVES of the Uni ted Colonies of North-America, fetting forth the caufes and ne ceffity of their taking up arms, July 6, 1775. I F it were poffible for men, who exercife their reason, to believe, that the divine author of our exiftence intended a part of the human race to hold an abfolute property, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite goodnefs and wifdom, as the objects of a legal domination, never rightly refiftable, however severe and oppreffive, the inha bitants of thofe colonies might at leaft require from the parlia |