some breast that bleeds already for your injured you. Her arms, 'tis true, have filled the world country. The storm subsides-a solemn pause ensuesyou spare, upon condition they depart. They go -they quit your city-they no more shall give offence. Thus closes the important drama. And could it have been conceived that we again should have seen a British army in our land, sent to enforce obedience to acts of parliament destructive of our liberty, But the royal ear, far distant from this western world, has been assaulted by the tongue of slander; and villains, traitorous alike to king and country, have prevailed upon a gracious prince to cloath his countenance with wrath, and to erect the hostile banner against a people ever affectionate and loyal to him and his illustrious predecessors of the house of Hanover. Our streets are again filled with armed men: our harbor is crowded with ships of war; but these cannot intimidate us; our liberty must be perserved; it is far dearer than life, we hold it even dear as our allegiance; we must defend it against the attacks of friends as well as enemies; we cannot suffer even BRITONS to ravish it from us. No longer could we reflect with generous pride, on the heroic actions of our American forefathers, -no longer boast our origin from that far-famed ∙island, whose warlike sons have so often drawn their well tried swords to save her from the ravages of tyranny; could we, but for a moment, entertain the thought of giving up our liberty. The man 'who meanly will submit to wear a shackle, contemns the noblest gift of heaven, and impiously affronts the Gon that made him free. It was a maxim of the Roman people, which eminently conduced to the greatness of that state, never to despair of the commonwealth. The maxim may prove as salutary to us now, as it did to them. Short-sighted mortals see not the numerous links of small and great events, which form the chain on which the fate of kings and nations is suspended. Ease and prosperity (though pleasing for a day) have often sunk a people into effeminacy and sloth. Hardships and dangers (tho' we forever strive to shun them) have frequently called forth such virtues, as have commanded the applause and reverence of an admiring world. Our country loudly calls you to be circumspect, vigilant, active and brave. Perhaps, (all gracious heaven avert it) perhaps, the power of Britain, a nation great in war, by some malignant influence, may be employ ed to enslave you; but let not even this discourage with terror: her troops have reaped the laurels of the field: her fleets have road triumphant on the sea and when, or where, did you, my countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of fight?* you too can shew the trophies of your forefather's victories and your own; can name the fortresses and battles you have won; and many of you count the honorable scars of wounds received, whilst fighting for your king and country. Where justice is the standard, heaven is the warrior's shield: but conscious guilt unnerves the arm that lifts the sword against the innocent. Britain, united with these colonies, by commerce and affection, by interest and blood, may mock the threats of France and Spain: may be the seat of universal empire. But should America, either by force, or those more dangerous engines, luxury and corruption, ever be brought into a state of vassalage, Britain must lose her freedom also. No longer shall she sit the empress of the sea: her ships no more shall waft her thunders over the wide ocean: the wreath shall wither on her temples: her weakened arm shall be unable to defend her coasts: and she, at last, must bow her venerable head to some proud foreigner's despotic rule. But if, from past events, we may venture to form a judgment of the future, we justly may expect that the devices of our enemies will but increase he triumphs of our country. I must indulge a hope that Britain's liberty, as well as ours, will eventually be preserved by the virtue of America. The attempt of the British parliament to raise a The patience with which this people have borne the repeated injuries which have been heaped upon them, and their unwillingness to take any sanguinary measures, has, very injudiciously, been ascribed to cowardice, by persons both here and in Great Britain. I most heartily wish, that an opinion, so erroneous in itself, and so fatal in its consequences, might he utterly removed before it be too late: and I think nothing farther necessary to convince every intelligent man, that the conduct of this people is owing to the tender regard which they have for their fellow-men and an utter abhorrence to the shedding of human blood, than a little attention to their general temper and disposition, discovered when they cannot be supposed to be under any apprehension of danger to them. selves. I will only mention the universal detestation which they shew to every act of cruelty, by whom, and upon whomsoever committed; the mild spirit of their laws; the very few crimes to which capital penalties are annexed; and the very great backwardness which both courts and juries discover, in condemning persons charged with capital crimes.-But if any should think this observation not to the purpose, I readily appeal to those gentlemen of the army who have been in the camp, or in the field, with the Americans. ren. revenue from America, and our denial of their himself, would breed a serpent to destroy his child. right to do it, have excited an almost universal. enquiry into the right of mankind in general, and of British subjects in particular; the necessary result of which must be such a liberality of senti ment, and such a jealousy of those in power, as will, better than an adamantine wall, secure us against the future approaches of despotism. 1 The malice of the Boston port-bill has been defeated in a very considerable degree, by giving you an opportunity of deserving, and our brethren in this and our sister-colonies an opportunity of bestowing, those benefactions which have delighted your friends and astonished your enemies, not only in America, but in Europe also. And what is more valuable still, the sympathetic feelings for a brother in distress, and the grateful emotions excited in the breast of him who finds relief, must forever endear each to the other, and form those indissolu ble bonds of friendship and affection, on which the preservation of our rights so evidently depend. The mutilation of our charter, has made every other colony jealous for its own; for this, if once submitted to by us, would set on float the property and government of every British settlement upon the continent. If charters are not deemed sacred, how miserably precarious is every thing founded upon them. But, pardon me, my fellow-citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You will maintain your rights or perish in the generous struggle. However difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. An independence of Great Britain is not our aim. No, our wish is, that Britain and the colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and increase in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making one part of the empire slaves to the other is persisted in, the interest and safety of Britain, as well as the colonies, require that the wise measures, recommended by the honorable the continental congress, be steadily pursued; whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honored, and a child beloved, may probably be brought to such an issue, as that the peace and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if these pacific measures are ineffectual, and it appears that the only way to safety, is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from your foes, but will, undauntedly, press forward, until tranny is trod. den under foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess LIBERTY, fast by a BRUNSWICK's side, on the American throne. You then, who nobly have espoused your country's cause, who generously have sacrificed wealth Even the sending troops to put these acts in and ease--who have despised the pomp and shew execution, is not without advantages to us. The of tinseled greatness-refused the summons to the exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire festive board-been deaf to the alluring calls of our youth with ardor in the pursuit of military luxury and mirth-who have forsaken the downy knowledge. Charles the invincible, taught Peter pillow, to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp, the great, the art of war. The battle of Pultowa for the salvation of your invaded country, that you convinced Charles of the proficiency Peter had might break the fowler's snare, and disappoint the made. vulture of his prey; you then will reap that harvest of renown which you so justly have deserved. Your country shall pay her grateful tribute of applause. Even the children of your most inveterate enemies, ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they, in secret, curse their stupid, cruel parents, shall join the general voice of gratitude to those who broke the fetters which their father's forged. Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful-but we have many friends, determining to BE FREE, and Heaven and earth will aid the RESOLUTION. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves. The faltering tongue of hoary age calls on you to support your country. The lisping infant raises its suppliant hands, imploring defence against the monster slavery. Your fathers look from their celestial seats with smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand forth in the cause of virtue; but sternly frown upon the inhuman miscreant, who, to secure the loaves and fishes to Having redeemed your country, and secured the blessing to future generations, who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues, and learn from you the heavenly art of making millions happy: with heart-felt joy--with transports all your own, YOU CRY, the GLORIOUS WORK IS DONE. Then drep the mantle to some young ELISHA, and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies. ORATION DELIVERED AT WATERTOWN," MARCH 5, 1776, mandates; but the baneful influence which they BY PETER THACHER M. A. Asellum in prato timidus pascebat senex Is, hostinm clamore subito territus, Cui serviam? Clitellas dum portem meat.-Phædrus. My friends-When the ambition of princes in now have upon the interests of individuals, and of society, would come to a period: they would not revel in the spoils of nations, nor trample upon the ruins of public liberty. Conscious of this, they have used arguments, and pursued methods, entirely different from these, duces them to break over the sacred barriers of to effect their designs; instead of convincing the social compact, and to violate those rights, which understandings, they have addressed themselves it is their duty to defend, they will leave no methods unessayed to bring the people to acquiesce in their unjustifiable encroachments. In this cause, the pens of venal authors have, in every age, been drawn: with Machiavilian subtilty, they have labored to persuade mankind, that their public happiness consisted in being subject to uncontroled power; that they were incapable of judging concerning the mysteries of government; and that it was their interest to deliver their estates, their liberties, and their lives, into the hands of an absolute monarch. Mitred hypocrites, and cringing, base souled priests, have impiously dared to enlist the oracles of God into the service of despotism; to assert that, by the command of the supreme law-giver, we are bound to surrender our rights into the hands of the first bold tyrant who dares to seize them; and that when they are so seized, it is rebellion against Gon, and treason against the prince, for us to attempt to resume them. Depraved as is the human understanding, it hath yet strength enough to discern the ridiculous fallacy of these assertions: the votaries of ignorance and superstition may, indeed, be imposed upon by them. When we place unlimited confidence in our civil or spiritual fathers, we can swallow, with ease, the most improbable dogmas: but there are feelings in the human heart, which compel men to recognize their own rights-to venerate the ma jesty of the people-and to despise the insult which is offered to their understandings by these doating absurdities. Had princes no other methods to accomplish their purposes, could they not establish their usurpation, without convincing men's judgments of their utility? they would be more barmless to mankind than they have ever yet been. They might be surrounded with the fascinating gewgaws of regal pomp; a few parasites might bow the knee before these idols of their own creating; the weak and the wicked might obey their Boston was at this time garrisoned by the British troops, and the inhabitants were in the country; which occasioned this oration to be delivered at Watertown. to the passions of men: the arts of bribery and corruption have been tried with a fatal successa men, we know, have sold their children, their coun try, and their Gon, for a small quantity of painted dirt, which will perish with the using. Extensive as are the revenues of princes, they are still inadequate to the purpose of bribing large communities to submit to their pleasure; corrupting therefore a few, they have overawed the resta from small beginnings, and under specious pretenses, they will raise a standing military force, the most successful engine ever yet wielded by the hand of lawless domination. With such a force, it is easy for an ambitious prince, possessed by nature of very slender abilities, to subvert every principle of liberty in the constitution of his government, and to render his people the most abject of slaves: if any individual feels the injury done to his country, and wishes to restore it to a state of happiness, with a bayonet at his breast, a dragoon will compel him to silence; if the people, awakened to see their interest and their duty, assemble for the same purpose, a military force is at hand to subdue them, and by leaden arguments, to convince them of their error. An easy task would it be to enlarge upon the fatal consequences of keeping up such a standing army in time of peace, and of quartering a lawless body of men, who despise the just restraints of civil authority, in free and populous cities: that no vestige of freedom can remain in a state where such a force exists: that the morals of the people will be gradually corrupted: that they will con. tract such an habit of tame submission, as to become an easy prey to the brutal tyrant who rules them, hath been heretofore largely and plainly demonstrated, by persons so much more capable of doing it, than he who is speaking, that it would be presumption in him to attempt it now. There is no need of recurring to the ancient histories of Greece and Rome, for instances of these truths. The British nation, once famous for its attachment to freedom, and enthusiastically jealous of its rights, is now become a great tame beast, which fetches and carries for any minister wit': the corpses of five of its inhabitants, murdered who pleases to employ it. in cool blood, by the British mercenaries. The indignant rage which swelled your bosoms upon this occasion- the fortitude and humanity which you discovered--the anguish of the friends and relatives of the dead and wounded, with all calamities of war. Englishmen have been wont to boast of the excellence of their constitution; to boast that it contained whatever was excellent in every form devised: of government hitherto, by the wit of man, in their king, whose power was limited, they have the horrors of that memorable night, have been asserted that they enjoyed the advantages of painted in vivid colors by an HANCOCK and a monarchy, without fear of its evils: while their WARREN; they have shewn the necessity of those house of commons, chosen by the suffrages of the exertions made by the town, which defeated, at that time, the designs of the enemies to American people, and dependent upon them, represented a republic, their house of peers, forming a balance liberty, and preserved us, for the present, from the of power between the king and the people, gave them the benefit of an aristocracy. In theory, the But the past, year hath presented us with a British constitution is, on many accounts, excel- tragedy more striking, because more extensive, lent; but when we observe it reduced to practice, than this: a tragedy, which more plainly proves the when we observe the British government, as it has fatal effects of keeping up standing armies in time been, for a long course of years administered, we of peace, than any arguments whatsoever. we have must be convinced that its boasted advantages are seen the ground crimsoned with the gore of hunnot real: the management of the public revenue, dreds of our fellow citizens; we have seen the first the appointment of civil and military officers, are city in America, for wealth and extent, depopulated vested in the king: improving these advantages we have seen others destroyed, and heard our which these powers give him, he hath found means savage enemies breathing out thirstings for our to corrupt the other branches of the legislature; blood. -- Britons please themselves with the thought of Finding their arts insufficient to flatter, or their being free; their tyrant suffers them to enjoy the treasures to bribe, the people of America out of shadow, whilst he himself grasps the substance of their freedom, the British government determined, power. Impossible would it have been for the kings by force, to subjugate them to their arbitrary will; of England to have acquired such an exorbitant in consequence of this determination, a large party power, had they not had a standing army under of their troops marched from Boston, on the morntheir command: with the officers of this army, they ing of the ever memorable nineteenth of April last: have bribed men to sacrifice the rights of their flushed with the hopes of certain victory, and country: having artfully got their arms out of the defying the armies of the living Gon, they broke hands of the people, with their mercenary forces through every divine and political obligation; they they have awed them into submission. When they wantoned in cruelty; they shed again American have appeared, at any time, disposed to assert their blood. freedom, these troops have been ready to obey the mandates of their sovereign, to imbrue their hands in the blood of their brethren. Aroused by the unprovoked injury, like a lion awaking from his slumber, we sprang to arms! we felt ourselves inspired with the spirit of our ancestors; we heard our brethren's blood crying to us for vengeance; we rushed into the midst of battle: we compelled our enemies to betake themselves to disgraceful flight; we pursued them with avidity, and desisted not till they took refuge in that city, of which, by fraud and treachery, they Having found the efficacy of this method to quell a spirit of liberty in the people of Great Britain, the righteous administration of the righteous king George the third, determined to try the ex periment upon the people of America. To fright us into submission to their unjustifiable claims, they sent a military force to the town of Boston. had possessed themselves. This day leads us to reflect upon the fatal effects Trusting to the divine protection, from that of the measure! by their intercourse with troops, hour we determined never to sheathe the sword, made up in general of the most abandoned of men, till we had reparation for our injuries; till we had the morals of our youth were corrupted: the temples secured our own freedom and the freedom of our and the day of our God were scandalously profa posterity: from that hour the den of enemies hath ned: we experienced the most provoking insults; been surrounded by an American army, brave and and at length saw the streets of Boston strewed determined: although they had before boasted of their superiority to all the troops in the world, upon our burdened minds, when we recall his they have scarcely dared to set their feet out of loved idea! when we reflect upon the manner of their strong holds since that time; and instead of his death; when we fancy that we see his savage ravaging the American continent in a single cam- enemies exulting o'er his corpse, beautiful even in paign, with a single regiment, they have proceed-death, when we remember that, destitute of the ed-- -one mile and an half in the conquest of it. rites of sepulture, he was cast into the ground, The heights of Charlestown witnessed to the without the distinction due to his rank and merit; world, that Americans, fighting in the cause of we cannot restrain the starting tear, we cannot freedom, were a formidable foe: although they repress the bursting sigh! we mourn thine exit, illustrious shade, with undissembled grief; we were surrounded by troops hitherto deemed invincible; although they saw the habitations of their venerate thine exalted character; we will erect a monument to thy memory in each of our greateful Countrymen inveloped with flames; although cannon breasts, and to the latest ages, will teach our roared on every quarter, and they beheld scenes tender infants to lisp the name of WARREN, with of desolation and bloodshed, to which they were veneration and applause! entirely unused, yet they retired not till they had compelled their enemy twice to retreat, and had expended the whole of their ammunition: the Bri. tish forces gained the ground, but they lost the flower of their ariny. From one end of the continent to the other, a series of successes hath attended the American arms; instead of having troops of savages poured down to our frontiers (which the murderous policy of the tyrant of Britain induced him to attempt)| we have, through the favor of heaven, carried our victorious arms into the very bowels of Canada; instead of having our stores and provisions cut off by the enemy, we have made important captures from them: success hath crowned our enterprizes, while disappointment hath followed those who oppose us. When we traverse the Canadian wilds, and come to the plains of Abraham, where WOLFE once fell, we are there again compelled to pay a tribute to exalted merit, and to lament the fall of the great MONTGOMERY! warmed with a spirit of Patriotism, too little felt by his venal countrymen, he espoused the cause of American freedom: he left domestic ease and affluence: he girded on the sword which he had long laid aside, and jeoparded his life in the high places of the field: victory followed his standard; she hovered over his head, and crowned it with the laurel wreath; she was just ready to hail him the conqueror of Canada, when the fatal sisters snapped, in a moment, the thread of life, and seized, from his eager grasp, the untast. ed conquest! Americans, bear witness to his hu manity and his valor, for he died fighting in your That elation of spirit, which is excited by our cause, and the cause of mankind! let his memory victories, is damped by our feeling the calamities live in your breasts; let it be handed down to your of war. To hear the expiring groans of our beloved posterity, that millions yet unborn may rise up and countrymen; to behold the flames of our habita- call him blessed! tions, once the abodes of peace and plenty, ascending to Heaven; to see ruin and desolation spread over our fruitful villages, must occasion sensations in the highest degree painful. The tender feelings of the human heart are deeply affected with the fate of these and the other heroes who have bled and died, that their country may be free: but at the same time, sensations of indignant This day, upon which the gloomy scene was first wrath, are excited in the breast of every friend opened, calls upon us to mourn for the heroes who to freedom: he will listen to the voice of their have already died in the bed of honor, fighting for blood, which cries aloud to heaven and to him, for GoD and their country. Especially, does it lead us vengeance! he will feel himself animated with new to recollect the name and the virtues of general vigor in the glorious cause: nothing daunted by WARREN! the kind, the humane, the benevolent their untimely fate, he will rush into the midst of friend, in the private walks of life; the inflexible danger, that he may share their glory and avenge patriot, the undaunted commander in his public their death! every idea which can warm and animate sphere, deserves to be recollected with gratitude him to glorious deeds, will rush at once upon his and esteem! this audience, acquainted, in the most mind; and, when engaged in the warmest battle, intimate manner, with his numberless virtues, must he will hear them, from their heaven, urging him feel his loss, and bemoan their beloved, their to action: he will feel their spirits transfused into entrusted fellow-citizen! ah! my countrymen, what his breast; he will sacrifice whole hecatombs of tender, what excrutiating sensations rush at once their murderers to their illustrious manes! |