ison, if we except the rise of Christianity, with the times of these great men? What a catalogue of wondrous deeds would be unfolded, were there to be spread before us, not a full record of its strange events, but of those transactions only, in which they bore a conspicuous part? They had seen their own generations pass away, and a new race of men raised to fill the places of their fathers. They had seen most of the civilized world transformed by revolution. In their day many of the monuments of the bigotry and tyranny of former times had crumbled to the dust. A world they had seen on the march of improvement. What period can exhibit such advances in science, arts, and useful inventions, in a development of the true principles of civil and religious liberty, in exertions for the spread of Christian truth, and in every thing that tends to meliorate, refine, and exalt the condition of mankind? The human mind is to feeble in its powers, too narrow in its compass, to form a just, a comprehensive view of this stupendous age. And is it too much to say that the fathers of American liberty have held the foremost place in these great transactions? Are we transported beyond the bounds of probability, when we say that our own revolution was made the moving cause in this amazing series? That the illustrious men of whom we are now speaking were important agents in the design of Providence, compared with the Napoleons, Alexanders, and Wellingtons, who have followed them on this vast theatre ? Was not our revolution the shock which first roused the slumbering nations, taught them they had rights, and urged them to assert them? Of one thing we are certain: it has presented the first form, the first successful experiment of a well balanced Republic; the fairest page in the history of government.

So peculiar is the condition of our country compared with any state which ever rose beyond the ocean, that it was doubtless designed to present to the world's admiring view,the first model of a great and pure Republic. It was destined to begin the work of political regeneration. And let us, let every

generation which shall follow us, be induced to carry forward the good work, not only by what we owe to the memory of our fathers and the claims of posterity, but by the animating thought, that, so long as our free institutions shall remain, a standing monitor will be before the nations of the earth, to warn them of the evils of arbitrary power, and to teach them the lesson of republican happiness. To us is assigned the van. in the march of free institutions; and these venerable men, whose memories we this day cherish with grateful hearts, together with their illustrious compatriots, have prepared the

way.

Hail happy period! when civil liberty joined with Christian faith, shall emancipate the world from the fetters of despotism and the galling chains of sin. Freedom must rest on the basis of public information and public virtue. This proposition, though often repeated, is no oftener advanced than its obvious importance requires. And what so efficacious as the sanctions of eternal truth, as that light from above, which gilds alike the lowly roof and vaulted dome, to animate, to cheer, to purify, and guide us in the way of virtue, peace and equal rights? The politician may rear his well proportioned fabric, but unless the light of Christianity be there, unless its purifying spirit shed around its holy power, degeneracy and corruption will sap the foundation. Not that it interferes with forms of government, for its kingdom is not of this world. Its powerful influence is a moral influence. It designs no reforms but those of personal character. It exalts a people, only by its power on the hearts of those who compose it. In proportion as pure Christianity prevails-I mean the religion taught by Christ, not that which has falsely assumed its name, not that which has been made "a pick-lock to a place," not that which, in unholy league with civil powers, has tyrannized over both the body and the soul-in proportion as divine philosophy prevails, man will respect the rights of his brother man, and be ready to obey the easy rule of liberty. The Christain raises in his mind no structure of the future happi

ness and glory of the world, without resting it on the firm and broad foundation of gospel truth. He who is the servant of sin cannot be the Lord's freeman; and he is as little qualified to be a good citizen of a free Republic. A corrupt community must ere long be an enslaved community.

To form a correct estimate of the value of those services which Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson rendered to their country, look back to the circumstances under which they asserted its independence. The story of the unarmed and defenceless state of our fathers, and of the formidable power of their oppressor, has been again and again repeated. Destitute were they of a treasury, navy, well appointed army, and foreign allies; destitute of every munition of war which the gigantic power of Britain made necessary for the struggle. At such a period, with a disaffected minority in the middle colonies, these men resolved to lead the way in declaring their country free. They did not wait to follow in the track of others. They were governed by no time-serving policy, but stood forth in the foremost rank, to encourage the faint hearted and uphold the weak. They were no needy adventurers who had nothing to hazard; they were not men of ruined fortunes seeking to repair their loss by the chances of civil war-they were not desperate spirits embarking in a desperate enterprize, because no change could make their condition worse. They had both honorably entered on their professional course. The road to wealth and distinction was already opened before them, and the favor of a monarchy ready to visit them with its dazzling honors. Had they consulted fear instead of duty, the love of ease in preference to love of country, their names would never have adorned the charter of our rights. Indeed had the influence of but a few such men been thrown into the opposite scale, the insidious encroachments of ministerial policy would have gone too far for successful resistance. But they chose to meet oppression at the threshold, and hazard all for liberty. They were ready to brave suffering and death

in every form that tyrannic power contrives for those who despise its sway. They trusted, that, whatever might be their own lot, Heaven was just, and would one day establish the liberties of that people who dared to assert and defend them. One of these patriots thus writes on the [B.] 5th of July, '76. “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States; yet through all the gloom I can see a ray of light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means: and that posterity will triumph." Yes, fellow citizens, it is owing to the wisdom and firmness of men like these, that "reason, faith, and conscience are all our own," that our country is the strong hold of freedom, and the hope of the world.

In shewing our respect for the memory of these benefactors, it is not necessary to exhibit them as faultless: for they were subject to like passions with ourselves. But although they may have had their faults, both as men and politicians, what does not our country owe to the founders of its liberties? What American heart will not warm at the name of men who embarked all in the cause of American freedom? And whatever may be thought of some few measures of their respective administrations, while they were at the head of our government; what country, during those twelve years, was so well governed, what land was so prosperous and happy as ours? When we have allowed all that principle, or even prejudice, can suggest; how grateful to the heart of an American, is the history of that period, compared with the corruptions, oppressions, burthensome exactions, and absurd wars of hereditary governments? Let it also be borne in mind that our constitution was then in its infancy. It had been but eight years in operation when Mr. Adams succeeded to the presidency. And surely it was no easy task to satisfy public expectation, when following that man who was "first in war, first in peace," first in every thing which makes man good

and great. It ought likewise to be observed, that, during the administration of Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, the wars of Europe gave the world a different aspect from what it ever had before, from what it may be expected ever to present again. Many of you heard the distant roar of that political tornado which shook the old world to its centre, and scarcely spared the new. We have lived to see the storm dispersed; and though we cannot say that no cloud now dims the horizon of the world, we can rejoice that the cheering beams of independence, peace, and equal rights, shed their full radiance on the favored shores and plains of America. Encouraged by the example of those men whose memories we honor, nearly a whole continent has risen to the rank of freemen: and the work, though discouraged and opposed by the potentates of the old world, is every where proceeding with silent but resistless energy. Nations have been born in a day; and if we reflect how slow is the work of reform, every reasonable wish of the philanthropist must be realized, should it require even centuries to bring other countries to a condition like

ours.

How can we show our respect for the memory of the illustrious dead, so well, as by remaining firm to the principles which guided them? They acted on the belief that Americans are able to govern themselves; that the people are the fountain of power; that hereditary rank, and entailed or exclusive privileges, are inconsistent with the rights of man; that government is designed for the benefit of the governed, not that posts of honor and trust are established to gratify the ambition and pride of those who seek to hold them. What then can be said of factions formed to raise or depress individuals, without regard to our country's interest, what of opposition to wholesome measures merely because they proceed from a certain source, what of combinations formed without regard to principles, only for the purpose of perpetuating power in certain hands? What can be said of designs like these, but that