tiers; the first of which they annoyed, and the latter and misery must ever be the consequence of mercenary deserted. standing armies cantoned in free cities.* My countrymen, suffer not the slaughtered brethren we now lament to have bled in vain; let After repealing this imperious edict, not because it was unjust in principle, but inexpedient in exer. cise, they proceeded to declare, by a public act of us forever retain the important lesson, and they the whole legislature, that we had no property but will not have ineffectually fallen. Security shal what was at their disposal, and that Americans, in spring from their tombs, and their deaths preserve future, were to hold their privileges and lives the lives of citizens yet unborn. Succeeding solely on the tenure of the good will and pleasure generations shall celebrate the era of this anniof a British parliament. Acts soon followed cor-versary as the epoch of American triumph, not as respondent to this righteous determination, which, a day of sadness; and future patriots nobly envy the death of those, who dying taught their counnot quadrating with American ideas of right, jus tice and reason, a fleet and army were sent to give trymen experimental wisdom. them that force which laws receive when promulgated from the mouths of cannon, or at the points of bayonets. We then first saw our harbor crowded with hostile ships, our streets with soldiers soldiers accustomed to consider military prowess as the standard of excellence, and vain of the splendid pomp attendant on regular armies, they contemp. tuously looked down on our peaceful orders of citizens. Conceiving themselves more powerful, they assumed a superiority which they did not feel; and whom they could not but envy, they af-| fected to despise. Perhaps, knowing they were sent, and believing they were able to subdue us, they thought it was not longer necessary to observe any measures with slaves--hence that arrogance in the carriage of the officers--hence that licentious-I ness and brutality in the common soldiers, which at length broke out with insufferable violence, and proceeding to personal insults and outrageous assaults on the inhabitants, soon roused them to resentment, and produced the catastrophe which we now commemorate. The immediate horrors of that distressful night have been so often and so strikingly painted, that I shall not again wring your feeling bosoms with the affecting recital: to the faithful pen of history I leave them to be represented as the horrid prelude to those more extensive tragedies which, under the direction of a most obdurate and sanguinary prince, have since been acted in every corner of America where his armies have been able to penetrate. Our citizens who fell on that memorable night, falling bequeathed us this salutary lesson, written indeliably with their blood. Confusion, murders, -Hecaten vorat altera, sævam ORATION DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1780, "What are without it senates, save a face "While the determin'd voice and heart are sold? My friends and fellow-citizens—That the great- Man is formed with a constitution wonderfully A confidence is established between him and his comes imperceptibly consented to. Thus doubly (adherence to the spirit of their constitution, and armed, together they pursue their morning route to those glorious principles from which that spirit to satisfy those demands only which nature reminds originated, we find them attaining real glory-we them of, and while the ingenuity of the one is find them crowned with every blessing that human exercised to ensnare, the strength of the other is, nature hath ever known of-we find them in the perhaps, employed to subdue their vigorous op- possession of that summit of solid happiness that ponent. universal depravity will admit of. Patriotism is essential to the preservation and Their little family soon increases; and as their social ring becomes gradually enlarged, their well being of every free government. To love obligations to each other are equally circular. one's country has ever been esteemed honorable; Honest industry early teaches them, that a part and under the influence of this noble passion, every only is sufficient to provide for the whole, and that social virtue is cultivated, freedom prevails through a portion of their time may be spared to cull the the whole, and the public good is the object of conveniences as well as appease the wants of nature. every one's concern. A constitution, built upon Property and personal security appear to be among such principles, and put in execution by men the first objects of their attention, and acknow- possessed with the love of virtue and their fellow. ledged merit receives the unanimous suffrage to men, must always insure happiness to its members. preside guardian over the rights and privileges of The industry of the citizen will receive encouragetheir infant society. The advantages derived are ment and magnanimity; heroism and benevolence in a moment experienced. Their little policy, will be esteemed the admired qualifications of the erected upon the broad basis of equality, they age. Every, the least invasion on the public liberty, know of no superiority but that which virtue and is considered as an infringement on that of the sub. the love of the whole demands; and while, with ject; and feeling himself roused at the appearance cheerfulness, they entrust to his care a certain part of oppression, with a divine enthusiasm, he flies to of their natural rights, to secure the remainder, obey the summons of his country, and does she the agreement is mutual, and the obligation upon but request, with zeal he resigns the life of the his part equally solemn and binding to resign them individual for the preservation of the whole. back, either at the instance and request of their sovereign pleasure, or whensoever the end should be perverted for which he received them. Without some portion of this generous principle, anarchy and confusion would immediately ensue, the jarring interests of individuals, regard. Integrity of heart, benevolence of disposition, the ing themselves only, and indifferent to the welfare love of freedom and public spirit, are conspicuous of others, would still further heighten the disexcellencies in this select neighborhood. Lawless tressing scene, and with the assistance of the ambition is without a friend, and the insinuating selfish passions, it would end in the ruin and professional pleas of tyrants, ever accompanied by subversion of the state. But where patriotism is the magnificence and splendor of luxury, are the leading principle, unanimity is conspicuous in unheard of among them; but simple in their man. public and private councils. ners, and honest in their intentions, their regula. receives for its stability the united efforts of every tions are but few and those expressive, and with individual, and revered for its justice, admired for out the aid of extreme refinement,† by a universal its principle, and formidable for its strength, its A mode of living above a man's annual income weakens the state, by reducing to poverty not only! fame reaches to the skies. The constitution Should we look into the history of the ancient the squanderers themselves, but many innocent and republics, we shall find them a striking example industrious persons connected with them. Luxury of what I have asserted, and in no part of their is above all pernicious in a commercial state, Shall profits satisfy the frugal and industrious, but the progress to greatness, producing so many illustri. luxurious despise almost every branch of trade but ous actions, and advancing so rapidly in the road what returns great profits. to glory, as when actuated by public spirit and the Home's hist. of man, p. 113, vol. 2. In the savage state man is almost all body with love of their country. The Greeks in particular a very small proportion of mind. In the maturity of civil society, he is complete both in mind and head of social affections, and so high in our esteem, The amor patriæ, or patriotis, stands at the body. In a state of degeneracy by luxury and that no actions, but what proceed from it, are voluptuousness, he has neither mind nor body. termed grand or heroic. It triumphs over every Jd. 114. selfish motive, is a firm support to every virtue, and wherever it prevails the morals of the people are found to be pure and correct. There are very few laws which are not good while the state retains its principles. Montesq. 6. 8. 6. 12. Elements of Criticism. ever held such sentiments as these in the highest Holland, after a contest of forty years, in which veneration, and with such sentiments as these alone they established their freedom, and finally conquered the innumerable armies of the east. they withstood the exertions of their powerful neighbors, being established by the force of this single principle, which appears to prevail both in the senate and the field, might also be adduced in When Xerxes, the ambitious prince of Persia, support of what I have advanced; but, my fellow. vainly thinking that nature and the very elements countrymen, we cannot want additional proofs; the were subject to his control, inflamed with the living history of our own times, will carry conviothoughts of conquest, threatning the seas, should tion to the latest posterity, that no state, that no they resist, with his displeasure, and the moun- community, I may say that no family, nay even that tain, should they oppose his progress: when, after no individual can possibly flourish and be happy, having collected the armies of the then known without some portion of this sacred fire. It was world under his banners, he entered the bowels of this that raised America from being the haunt of Greece, leading forth his millions, resolutely bent the savage, and the dwelling-place of the beast, upon the destruction and extirpation of this small to her present state of civilization and opulence: but free people, what do we perceive to be their it was this that hath supported her under the conduct upon so alarming an occasion? do they severest trials: it was this that taught her sons to tamely submit without a struggle? do they abandon their property, their liberties, and their country, to the fury of these merciless invaders? do they meanly supplicate the favor, or intreat the humanity of this haughty prince? no! sensible of the justice of their cause, and that valor is oftentimes superior to numbers; undaunted by the appearance of this innumerable host, and fired with the glorious zeal, they, with one voice, resolve to establish their liberties, or perish in the attempt. View them at the moment when the armies of their enemies, like an inundation, over spread their whole Grecian territory; when oppression seemed as though collecting its mighty force, and liberty lay fettered at the shrine of ambition; then shone forth the heavenly principle, then flamed the spirit of the patriot, and laying aside all sentiments of jealousy, as though favored with the prophetic wisdom of heaven, with bravery unexampled, they charge their foe, and fighting in defence of their country, success crowns the virtuous attempt. With three hundred Lacedemonians,† one only of whom was left to tell the fate of these intrepid men to their weeping country, they conquered the combined force of the whole eastern world. fight, to conquer and to die in support of freedom and is blessings; and what is it, but this ardent love of liberty, that has induced you my, fellowcitizens, to attend on this solemn occasion, again to encourage the streams of sensibility, and to listen with so much attention and candor to one of the youngest of your fellow-citizens, whose youth and inability plead powerfully against him, while the annual tribute is paid to the memory of those departed citizens, who fell the first sacrifices to arbitrary power. Check not such generous feelings. They are the fruits of virtue and humanity, and while the obligations you remain under to those unhappy men, lead you to shed the sympathetic tear, to dwell with pleasure upon their memories, and execrate the causes of their death, remember that you can never repay them. Ever bear it in your minds, that so implicit was the confidence you willingly placed in that country, that owed to you her affection, that, notwithstanding the introduction of that inhuman weapon of tyrants into the very heart of your peaceful villages, you still would fain rely on their deceitful assertions, and paint the deformed monster to your imaginations as the minister of peace and protec tion. Men, born in the bosom of liberty, living in The privileges and immunities of the states of the exercise of the social affections in their full vigor, having once fixed them upon particular ob. *Herod, C. F. C. 55, 99. and Rollin An. His. Unac†These brave Lacedemonians thought it become jects, they are not hastily eradicated. them who were the choicest soldiers of the chief customed to sport with, and wantonly sacrifice people of Greece, to devote themselves to certain these sensible overflowings of the heart, to run the death, in order to make the Persians sensible how difficult it is to reduce freemen to slavery, and to teach the rest of Greece, by their example, either to vanquish or to perish. A monument was after wards erected to the memory of Leonidas and those who fell with him at Thermopyla; upon which was this inscription: Dic hospes, Sparta nes te hic vidisse jacentes career of passion and blinded lust, to be familiar with vice, and sneer at virtue; to surprise innocence by deceitful cunning and assume the shade of friendship to conceal the greater enmity, you could not at once realize the fixed the deliberate inten. Temple's observation. tion of those from whom you expected freedom, When the Syracusians, groaning under every to load you with slavery and chains, and not till species of cruelty, which lust, avarice and ambition insult repeated upon insult; not till oppression could inflict, supplicated their generous neighbors stalked at noon-day through every avenue in your for assistance, to alleviate those miseries they 'cities: nay, not till the blood of your peaceful themselves had been exposed to, Timoleon, urged brethren flowed through your streets, was the to accept the command of the Corinthian auxiliaries, invenomed serpent to be discovered in the bushes: at first hesitated, his age, bis manners, his private not till a general trespass had been made upon the happiness and the endearments of his family forkeenest feelings of human nature, and the widowed bade it; but sensible that he was but a member of mother was summoned to entomb the cold remains the community, and stung by the cries of inno. of her affectionate son; the virtuous bosom to cence, his inclinations were but of trivial moment resign its tender partner, and social circles their in competition with his duty. nearest friends; could you possibly convince your. selves that you and Britain were to be friends no Thrice happy day! the consequences of which have taught the sons of America, that a proper exercise of public spirit and the love of virtue hath been able to surprise and baffle the most formidable and most powerful tyranny on earth. more. View him at the head of his chosen army, assembled to plead the cause of suffering virtue. In possession of arms and of power, if inclined to pervert them, are his principles changed with his station? are his thoughts bent on conquest or on death? or does be entertain a secret wish to seize the moment of confidence, and build his greatness upon the ruin of the distressed, to remove one tyrant to reinstate another? no! but fired with a generous glow of soul, fired with the manly sentiments of freedom, with an implacable hatred to oppression of all kinds, he marches his troops to Patriotism is a virtue which will ever be universally admired, even by those incapable of possessing it. Its happy effects are equally visible in individuals as in states, and if we bestow a mo. ment's reflection upon the heroes of antiquity, who have been deservedly celebrated by succeeding the deliverance of his afflicted people, and with a generations, both for their abilities and conduct, firmness becoming soldiers fighting under the we shall find that the true source of their great-standard of liberty, after a series of fatigue and ness was this spirit of freedom, and their inviolable toil, harassing marches and fierce conflicts, be attachment to the interest of their country. dethrones the tyrant, and is proclaimed the deWith an attentive silence we listen to the liverer of Syracuse. Having restored tranquility historian while he relates to us the integrity of to this unhappy country, repeopled their cities, conduct, the invincible courage, the earnest glow revived their laws, and dispensed justice to all of soul, and the ardent love of liberty which was ranks and classes, he resigned his command, and exhibited in the lives of those illustrious men, and retreated once again to the private walks of life, so great were their virtues that we are scarce able accompanied with the grateful acknowledgments to credit them, but as the dreams of fancy, or the of millions, as the patron of their liberty and the saviour of their country.fictions of the ingenious. -Happy man! endowed with such a noble soul, prone to feel for the misfortunes, and rejoice in the happiness of his fellow It is recorded of the celebrated Timoleon,* ge. neral of Corinth, that notwithstanding he was blest with a temper singularly humane, and with feel. Ings that were ever roused at the miseries of his creatures. But why need we resort to distant ages to furnish fellow-men, he loved his country so passionately, us with instances of the effects of patriotism upon that after making use of every argument in his individuals? will not the present day afford at least power to convince an elder brother of his error, one illustrious example to our purpose? yes, my for attempting to become the tyrant of it, he fellow.countrymen, AMERICA, young AMERICA too, devoted him to death; a brother on whom he had can boast her patriots and heroes, men who have previously placed his affection, and whose life saved their country by their virtues, whose chabeing exposed to the fire of an enemy in a severe racters posterity will admire, and with a pleased battle, he had before saved at the great risque of attention, listen on tiptoe to the story of their his own, Even in old age, after a period of rigid glorious exertions. Let us pause a moment only retirement for twenty years, we are attracted by upon the select catalogue, and take the first upon the disinterested conduct of this exalted patriot. the list. *Rollin. View him in his private station, and here, as though Providence, for his excellencies, had select-spirit of this great people, let us not be as diligent ed him for her own from the extensive circle of to catch their vices. Such conduct is inconsistent humanity, we perceive him enjoying her richest with the sentiments of freemen, and surely we can. dispensations. By an affluent fortune, placed be-not forget that he has saved our country. yond the reach of proverty or dependence, blessed with the social circle of friends, and happily connected by yet more endearing ties, peaceful reflections are his companions through the day, and the soothing slumbers of innocence hover over his couch: charity presides steward of his household, Rewards and punishments are in the hands of the public, and it is equally consistent with gene. rosity and humanity to bestow the one, as inflict the other. We cannot be too cautious in the ohbe the standard to which our praises shall resort, jects of our gratitude; let merit, conspicious merit, and it will excite a noble emulation in others, and let us rather forbear that respect, which is too often found attendant upon the rich, though their wealth has been amassed with the ruin of their country. mediate attention. and the distressed are ever sure to receive from his bosom that sigh which never fails to console, and from his cheek the alleviating tear of sympathy. Having reached the summit of human felicity, beyond even the picture of his most sanguine ex pectations, it is indifferent to him, as an individual, But the praises of us are not the patriot's only whether prince or people rule the state, but nurtur. ed in the bosom of freedom, endowed with a great reward; with an approving conscience sweetning ness of soul, swallowed up with public spirit and the declivity of life, his invitation is to the skies, the love of mankind, does oppression scatter her there to receive a far more precious reward, for baleful prejudices, does ambition rear its guilty the establishment of that principle to which, since crest, friends, relations and fortune are like the the orign of mankind, heaven hath paid an imdust of the balance. The pleas of nature give way] 10 those of his country, and urged on by heavenly "Where the brave youth with love of glory fired, "Who greatly in his country's cause expired, motives, he flies instantly to her relief. See him, "Shall know he conquered. The firm patriot there, "Who roade the welfare of mankind his care, while grief distracts his bosom at the effusion of "Though still by faction, vice, and fortune crost, "Shall find his generous labor was not lost."4 human blood, grasp the sword of justice and Such is the progress of public spirit and the love buckle on the harness of the warrior. See him, of virtue, and it is the only pillar upon which can with fortitude unparalleled, with perseverance safely be erected the happiness of mankind. Withindefatigable, deaf to pleasure and despising corout some play of the social affections in every ruption, cheerfully encountering the severestitasks society, without some barrier to oppose the stormy of duty, and the hardiest toils of a military life. passions of individuals, without some general atModest in prosperity, and shining like a meteor tachment to the public welfare, a door is open to in adversity, we behold this patriotic hero, with a ambition and political corruption;t luxury and small army of determined freemen, attacking, selfishness become fashionable vices, and the spirit fighting and conquering an army composed of the of the government is perverted; the public good bravest veteran troops of Britain. is neglected, the riches of the state insecure, the liberty of the subject slighted, and the attempts of the tyrant made successful by the follies of the And shall we, my countrymen, stop the current of gratitude? and can we forbear testifying our joy upon the success of such singular exertions? shall people. we seal his death before we thank him for his *One method of preventing crimes is to reward services? by no means.-Our acknowledgments will virtue. If the rewards for the discovering of useful irresistibly flow from us to this deserved object of admiration, and his very actions will sting the soul of the ungrateful wretch, until he is forced to admire their lustre, and confess his inability to equal them. Some there are who, Roman-like, would banish him for his good conduct; but while we copy the truths have increased our knowledge and multiplied good books, is it not probable that rewards, distributed by the beneficent hand of a sovereign, would also multiply virtuous actions? The coin of in the hands of a prince who distributes it wisely. honor is inexhaustible, and is abundantly fruitfal Marq. of Becoa. †Cato. The Assyrian, the Persian and Cræsian, the three first universal monarchies, finally sunk under luxury and corruption; and it is well known that Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, the Romans did not preserve their liberties for amiliares, sed omnes omnium caritates patriæ uxa half a century after being debauched by the luxury complexa est, pro qua quis bonus dubitet mortem of Asia, but fell a prey to its vices; and was at oppetere? length divided by the Goths and Vandals. Coes. |