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which did not dry up when it attempted to nourish him with the moisture of life!

I love thee, Europe's truest nation! as I love the freedom for which you fought so bravely! The God of liberty will never blot you out from his memory. Be blessed for evermore ! My principles were those of Washington, though my deeds were not those of William Tell! I wished for a free nation - free as God only can create man-and thou art dead, because thy winter has arrived; but this will not last so long as thy fellow-sufferer, languishing under the icy sky of Siberia. No, fifteen nations have dug thy grave, the thousands of the sixteenth will arrive to save thee! Be faithful as hitherto, keep to the holy sentences of the Bible, pray for thy liberation, and then chant thy national hymns when thy mountains re-echo the thunder of the cannons of thy liberators! God be with you, dear comrades and fellow-sufferers! The angels of God and of liberty be with you. You may still be proud, for the lion of Europe had to be aroused to conquer the rebels! The whole civilized world has admired you as heroes, and the cause of the heroic nations will be supported by the freest of the free nations on earth!

God be with thee, sacred soil! drenched with the blood of so many of thy noble sons! Preserve these sacred spots; that they may give evidence before the world for you, before the people, that will come to your succor! God be with thee, young King of the Magyars; forget not that thy nation has not elected thee! There lives in me still the hope that a day will come, on which you will see the confirmation of the word-if it even be on the ruins of Buda! The blessing of the Almighty, my dear nation, rest upon thee. Believe-Love-and Hope.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.-J. Q. Adams.

The Declaration of Independence! The interest which, in that paper, has survived the occasion upon which it was issued,the interest which is of every age and every clime, the interest which quickens with the lapse of years, spreads as it grows old, and brightens as it recedes,—is in the principles which it proclaims. It was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner-stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished, at a stroke, the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced, in practical form, to the world, the transcendent truth of the inalienable sovereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was no

figment of the imagination, but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration, the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. They were no longer children, appealing in vain to the sympathies of a heartless mother; no longer subjects, leaning upon the shattered columns of royal promises, and invoking the faith of parchment to secure their rights. They were a Nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day.

"How many ages hence Shall this, their lofty scene, be acted o'er,

In States unborn, and accents yet unknown?"

It will be acted o'er, fellow-citizens, but it can never be repeated. It stands, and must forever stand, alone; a beacon on the summit of the mountain, to which all the inhabitants of the earth may turn their eyes for a genial and saving light, till time shall be lost in eternity, and this globe itself dissolve, nor leave a wreck behind. It stands forever, a light of admonition to the rulers of men, a light of salvation and redemption to the oppressed. So long as this planet shall be inhabited by human beings, so long as man shall be of a social nature, so long as government shall be necessary to the great moral purposes of society, so long as it shall be abused to the purposes of oppression,-so long shall this declaration hold out, to the sovereign and to the subject, the extent and the boundaries of their respective rights and duties, founded in the laws of Nature and of Nature's God.

WASHINGTON.- -Joseph Savage.

THERE has been but one Washington, and God in His goodness gave him to us. Let us cherish his dust and revere his memory. Let us together own his mansion and tomb. Let the youth of our nation make pilgrimages to the sacred spot, and slake the thirst of unhallowed ambition at the well where Washington was wont to draw; and when patriotism declines let the vestals of liberty rekindle the flame at the fireside of the nation's sire. Thus, Sir, may we do much to keep alive through successive generations that patriotic fire which burns in the heart of every true American. Sir, no man can read the life of Washington without rising up from the task a better man; nor can a freeman step within the sacred precincts of Mount Vernon, and not feel the power of those associations which environ him. The troubled sea of passion in his soul subsides, and he seems to hear a voice

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whispering to his spirit, "Peace, be still, for Washington lies here." Who could visit the farm of Washington and not experience a new thrill of patriotism, or who, without a new incentive to love his country, could ramble through that garden; stand in the hall where heroes of the revolution were welcomed and refreshed; sit down in the library where Washington studied and meditated, and behold the chamber in which he slept and died?

It needs no prophet's eye to scan along the line of time the majestic outline of our nation's destiny, when the fruits of our free government shall be more and more developed, until this vast continent shall be peopled with freemen from sea to sea; when the fame of the nation shall reach the farthest islands and shores; when our star of empire, radiant with the beams of liberty, shall have grown to such magnitude as to attract the eyes and guide the steps of all nations; and when some queen of Sheba shall come over seas and continents to behold our greatness, and see the happy results of the wisdom of Washington-then, sir, will Mount Vernon be sought, and thousands, now unborn, will wish to kiss the earth which cradled, and now covers, the Father of his Country.

Sir, shall no spot be held sacred by Americans? Have we no reverence for the symbols of departed greatness? True, there are monuments at Bunker Hill and Baltimore-we have here and there a national memento. The curious can trace the crumbling ramparts, and the remains of hasty breastworks, behind which the stout hearts of our forefathers beat with patriotic zeal, and over which they dealt dismay and death to our enemies. But, sir, as we have been reminded by our governor, these memorials, like ourselves, are fast passing away. Let us, then, secure this honored patrimony. Let Mount Vernon be the perpetual memento of our country's great deliverance, and let the reverence with which it is regarded be the token of our gratitude. And when, in ages hence, the banks of the silvery Potomac shall resound, as now, with the passing vessel, uttering its tribute to the memory of Washington, and the flag at the masthead shall humbly droop, and the mariner stand uncovered, in honor of the sacred spot; let future generations learn the lesson of gratitude and patriotism which these tokens shall daily excite at Mount Vernon.

FREEDOM AND PROGRESS.-Charles G. Atherton.

Reverses may ensue in the cause of freedom; hope delayed may sicken the souls of patriots; the exertions of heroes and martyrs may be, for a while, in vain ; brave hearts may spill their

best blood on the points of mercenary bayonets, but the cause of human nature and of God must triumph! I say the cause of God; for the Almighty has not placed the longing after freedom, any more than the longing after immortality, in our bosoms that it should only forever be a source of disappointment and despair! Our history must inspire all. And it is curious to reflect that our forefathers, despised and insulted by the potentates of the old world, brought that here with them which shall react, nay, is reacting, on their persecutors with tremendous energy. They came here "to plant the tree of life, to plant fair freedom's tree," which has grown up so large and beautiful, and will overshadow all the earth, the tree which shall prove, to the free of all nations, a shelter and protection, but to tyrants and oppressors will be more deadly than the Upas, which blasts and withers all who approach it.

The only condition on which liberty is granted to man, is that of perpetual vigilance. This subtle spirit of oppression must be met in its first approaches, it must be guarded against with ever-anxious care. Man cannot procure anything of importance, unless by striving for it ; nor can he retain anything worth having, unless by guarding it. The husbandman, before he can expect the earth to yield its increase, must prepare it by his toil; and after his stores are gathered his care is still necessary to preserve them.

The accumulator of property, when he has amassed wealth, if he would not lose all the fruits of his labor and anxiety, must still be ever on the alert lest it vanish, and all his fond hopes be prostrated. No other blessing can we expect to enjoy long, without activity and care on our part; and why should we expect that liberty, the greatest of blessings, can be retained without either? Why should we imagine that because we now have liberty we must always possess it, however supine we may be? If freedom is worth fighting for, it is worth preserving. Let us never listen to the voice which would calm all our apprehensions, and lull us into slumbers of security; into a quiet which might be repose indeed, but would soon be the leaden sleep of despotism.

POWER OF THE PRESS.-H. L. Hosmer.

What is true of the influence of the Press upon the cause of good morals, is equally true of its influence upon politics. It makes and unmakes presidents and statesmen; yielding to no power as its superior-not even that which proceeds directly from

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the Senate House, or which is promulgated from the Stump. Like the constant droppings that wear the stone, so the emanations from the Press destroy the opinions which have been formed upon the false and chimerical data of the past. They light up, like so many constellations, the path into the future, and statesmen, no longer teachers, wonderingly follow them. Moral revolutions, which, two centuries ago, could not have been perfected without bloodshed, and which would have consumed whole eras, are now begun and completed in the briefest period. The Press announces an improvement to-day; it is re-echoed by ten thousand voices to-morrow, and the next day the work is practically done-awaiting only its moment of trial to illustrate its benefits, and to become installed among the achievements of the age. Political battles are more thoroughly, more peacefully fought by the presses of contending parties than they were by statesmen or factionists two hundred years ago. No such idea as that to deprive a man of power you must deprive him and his adherents of liberty or life is inculcated by the Press. What was accomplished by the axe, the fagot, and the scaffold, two centuries ago, is now accomplished by free discussion. The will of the people is propitiated, if the principle of its choice prevails. It seeks no greater triumph-asks no baptism of blood-at its inauguration. Hard names, vile imputations, degrading epithets, reckless charges, false assertions-these are the weapons too frequently employed by party presses; but, controlled as they are by the sober judgment of enlightened, dispassionate readers, the injury they inflict is abundantly counterpoised by the spirit and energy which they infuse into the laws and institutions of the government. Careless, negligent, corrupt, or cowardly officials, cannot long exist beneath the scathings of an independent Press. It renders them odious to the people, and directs their choice to capable successors. is more powerful to command obedience than were all the bloody engines of the Plantagenets and Stuarts.

It

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The same.

No fear of public opinion should control editorial liberty. That editor fails to appreciate the liberal spirit of investigation which characterizes the age, who permits policy or partisan zeal, or desire for preferment, to overshadow his judgment or darken his counsel. He mistakes the grand object of his profession, which is to disseminate truth and enlighten opinion. The boldest journalist who takes hold of the elements of society with a willthough often wrong, often opposed to his readers-never loses his friends or impairs his influence. He makes his mark, deep