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toward others, but in a spirit of candor and patriotism, to repel the sinister intimation, that a fatal degeneracy is stealing over the country; and to show that the eighty-fourth anniversary finds the United States in the fulfilment of the glowing anticipations, with which, in the self-same instrument, their INDEPENDENCE was inaugurated, and their UNION first proclaimed. No formal act had as yet bound them together; no plan of confederation had even been proposed. A common allegiance embraced them, as parts of one metropolitan empire; but when that tie was sundered, they became a group of insulated and feeble communities, not politically connected with each other, nor known as yet in the family of nations. Driven by a common necessity, yearning toward each other with a common sympathy of trial and of danger, piercing with wise and patriotic foresight into the depths of ages yet to come,-led by a Divine Counsel,-they clung together with more than elective affinity, and declared the independence of the UNITED STATES. North and South, great and small, Massachusetts and Virginia, the oldest and then the largest; New York and Pennsylvania, unconscious as yet of their destined preponderance, but already holding the central balance; Rhode Island and Delaware, raised by the Union to a political equality with their powerful neighbors, joined with their sister republics in the august Declaration, for themselves and for the rapidly multiplying family of

circled the globe. Nor let us fear that its force is exhausted, for its principles are as broad as humanity, as eternal as truth. And if the visions of patriotic seers are destined to be fulfilled; if it is the will of Providence that the lands which now sit in darkness shall see the day; that the south and east of Europe and the west of Asia shall be regenerated; and the ancient and mysterious regions of the East, the cradle of mankind, shall receive back in these latter days from the West the rich repayment of the early debt of civilization, and rejoice in the cheerful light of constitutional freedom,— that light will go forth from Independence Hall in Philadelphia; that lesson of constitutional freedom they will learn from this day's Declaration.

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WHEN the Congress of the United States, on the 4th of July, 1776, issued the ever memorable Declaration which we commemorate to-day, they deemed that a decent respect for the opinions of mankind required a formal statement of the causes which impelled them to the all-important measure. The eighty-fifth anniversary of the great Declaration finds the loyal people of the Union engaged in a tremendous conflict, to maintain and defend the grand nationality, which was asserted by our Fathers, and to prevent their fair Creation from crumbling into dishonorable Chaos. A great People, gallantly struggling to keep a noble framework of government from falling into wretched fragments, needs no justification at the tribunal of the public opinion of mankind. But while our patriotic fellowcitizens, who have rallied to the defence of the Union, marshalled by the ablest of living chieftains, are risking their lives in the field; while the blood of your youthful heroes and ours is poured out together in defence of this precious legacy of constitutional freedom, you will not think it a misappropriation of the hour, if I employ it in showing the justice of the cause in which we are engaged, and the fallacy of the arguments employed by the South, in vindication of the war, alike murderous and suicidal, which she is waging against the Constitution and the Union.

PROSPEROUS STATE OF THE COUNTRY LAST YEAR.

A twelvemonth ago, nay, six or seven months ago, our country was regarded and spoken of by the rest of the civilized world, as among the most prosperous in the family of nations. It was classed with England, France, and Russia, as one of the four leading powers of the age. Remote as we were from the complications of foreign politics, the extent of our commerce and the efficiency of our navy won for us the respectful consideration of Europe. The United States were particularly referred to, on all occasions and in all countries, as an illustration of the mighty influence of free governments in promoting the prosperity of States. In England, notwithstanding some diplomatic collisions on boundary questions and occasional hostile reminiscences of the past, there has hardly been a debate for thirty years in parliament on any topic, in reference to which this country in the

* Delivered, by request, at the Academy of Music, New York, July 4, 1861. Large portions of this address were, on account of its length, necessarily omitted in the delivery. + The Edinburgh Review for April, 1861, p. 555.

States, which they beheld in prophetic vision. This great charter of independence was the life of the Revolution; the sword of attack, the panoply of defence. Under the consummate guidance of Washington, it sustained our fathers under defeat, and guided them to victory. It gave us the alliance with France, and her auxiliary armies and navies. It gave us the Confederation and the Constitution. With successive strides of progress, it has crossed the Alleghanies, the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri; has stretched its living arms almost from the Arctic circle to the tepid waters of the Gulf; has belted the continent with rising States; has unlocked the rich treasuries of the Sierra Madre; and flung out the banners of the Republic to the gentle breezes of the Peaceful Sea. Not confined to the continent, the power of the Union has convoyed our commerce over the broadest oceans to the furthest isles; has opened the gates of the Morning to our friendly intercourse ; and-sight unseen before in human history history — has, from that legendary Cipango, the original object of the expedition of Columbus, but which his eyes never beheld nor his keels ever touched, brought their swarthy princes on friendly embassage, to the western shores of the world-dividing Deep.

Meantime, the gallant Frenchmen, who fought the battles of liberty on this continent, carried back the generous contagion to their own fair land. Would

that they could have carried with it the moderation and the wisdom that tempered our Revolution! The great idea of constitutional reform in England, a brighter jewel in her crown than that of which our fathers bereft it, is coeval with the successful issue of the American struggle. The first appeal of revolutionary Greece, an appeal not made in vain, was for American sympathy and aid. The golden vice-royalties of Spain on this continent asserted their independence in imitation of our example, though sadly wanting our previous training in the school of regulated liberty; and now, at length, the fair "Niobe of Nations,” accepting a constitutional monarchy as an instalment of the long-deferred debt of Freedom, sighs through all her liberated States for a representative confederation, and claims the title of the Italian Washington for her heroic Garibaldi.

Here then, fellow-citizens, I close where I began; the noble prediction of Adams is fulfilled. The question decided eighty-four years ago in Philadelphia was the greatest question ever decided in America; and the event has shown that greater, perhaps, never was nor ever will be decided among men. The great Declaration, with its life-giving principles, has, within that interval, extending its influence from the central plains of America to the eternal snows of the Cordilleras, from the western shores of the Atlantic to the furthest East, crossed the land and the sea, and

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