of the material creation,―of the invisible world of the imagination, and of the mysterious and complicated passions of the human breast,-alike presenting you with combina tions more countless than the sands of the sea, and all of them ministering to the developement of the genious of man.

Still there is one occasion more than all others propitious to the display of preeminent qualities of mind. It is when the stirring impulses of revolution pass through a refined and populous people; and a great nation is struggling to be free. A poor and savage country produces no exhibition of talent, but cunning, stratagem, and courage, in hunting or in war; or the rude effusions of bards and minstrels, mingling their irregular strains with the scene of barbarous manners around them, like the beautiful wild flower springing up with its gay and brilliant foliage in the midst of the desert. The Indian of South America, or the Asiatic Tartar, as he flies across the boundless savannas of his country, on steeds fleet as the viewless winds, devoted only to the pleasures of the chase, and moved to greater exertion in the tumult of warfare alone, has comparatively little to evoke his intellectual powers. But among a people who have attained the blessings of civilization, the various inducements, which awaken our dormant powers, are multiplied beyond all conception, and act with redoubled force in stimulating our thoughts and passions.~ There, the soul soars on the wings of glory, to the etherial regions of fancy. There, luxury and opulence spread a thousand temptations before the eye of taste and invention, and tax the resources of genius to the utmost, for the supply of innumerable complicated wants, unknown to a rugged untaught nation. There, when the foundations of society are unsettled by some mighty popular commotion, or the passions of men are acted upon in the mass by overpowering causes of excitement, and above all, if the conjuncture be one of those revolutionary movements, which occasionally agitate empires, then is the moment for the children of genius to rise, like a second earthborn progeny, to astonish the world by

their seemingly instantaneous growth, and by the stupendous effects of their intellect. Witness the constellation of talents, which on every such emergency, has poured a tide of glory, in reckless prodigality of profusion, over lands, that dared to claim and exercise the inalienable right of men, the right to be free. Witness the illustrious names, which, crowned with splendor in the conflicts of ancient Greece, have rested, in all succeeding times, upon every lip from lisping infancy to faltering old age. Witness the citizens of the noble democracies of modern Italy, who, less known to us because their history is not associated with the acquisition of a classical language, yet emulated the magnanimity of their Athenian models, and ought to be equally the study of statesmen in every republican country. Witness the transient brightness of the commonwealth of England, when Hampden and Cromwell, Milton and Vane, the companions and friends of our pilgrim fathers, trod the path of honor, and attained an eminence, which we, at least the heirs of their political and religious principles, should appreciate and applaud. And to abstain from examination of later events,-of the progress of the revolutionary spirit in Europe and in Spanish America,→ witness the heroic and patriotic men, who shot upward in our sky, like a meteor, but not like a meteor to dazzle and expire,-called into life, as it were, by the all-creative energies of the war of our Independence. Such were the men, of whom the congress of seventy six was composed, and such the occasion, which elicited the masterly efforts of their gen. ius.

Of the various measures of that body for the protection of the country, and for its preparation to enter upon a protracted contest, this is not the place to speak, nor would time admit of doing justice to the subject. Posterity will chiefly look to the first scene in the grand drama, the intrepid resolution, which committed the colonies forever, by declaring that they were, and of right ought to be, free and independent states,' and thus hurling the gauntlet of defiance at the metropolis.

It was on this occasion that Adams and Jefferson assumed and exercised the authority, which, in a popular assembly, is spontaneously deferred to intrepidity of character and commanding talents. They rose to distinction, not among small minds, but among the greatest, and-primi inter pares-none surpassing themselves in greatness. Adams carried into this more than Roman senate a perfect mastery over all the points in dispute between us and the mother country. He was one of those brave hearts, who had long been accustomed to 'snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.' He thought with Quincy, that life had no charms for him who lived not free; and was ready to exclaim that 'wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die freemen.' He felt with Warren, that one hour of glorious resistance to tyranny, though it ended in death, was sweeter than years sighed away in hopeless slavery. He blieved with Henry, that however weak we might be, and however mighty the power we were challenging to battle, still three millions of people, armed in the sacred cause of freedom, and in such a country as we possessed, were invincible by any power which our enemy could send against us; and that we should not fight our battles alone, because there was a righteous God, who presided over the destinies of nations, and who would raise up friends to fight with us in the cause of humanity.' He was an apt exemplification of the character of the New England men of his day, ardent in season and out of season, zealous for liberty, but for a regula ted liberty. His was the quick invention to devise, and the eloquent tongue to advocate, the measures necessary to se cure Independence. When the Declaration was proposed to congress, the wise hesitated, the timid shrunk back, the bold. est paused. Doubt and apprehension filled all hearts, until Adams, who, although well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure,' which it would cost to maintain it, yet, in his own expressive language, through all the gloom could discern the rays of light and glory,—until Adams rose, and by the magic

of his eloquence dispelled every fear, inspired every bosom with a courage and determination as manful as his own, and carried the daring resolution by a unanimity, that frowned opposition dumb. We have the testimony of Jefferson to the fact, that he was the pillar of its support on the floor of congress.' And although Jefferson was destitute of talents for public speaking, yet he was not the less profoundly versed in the rights of the colonies, nor less determined to do all and dare all for the salvation of his country. His reputation as a writer was unrivalled; in consultation, he was 'prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive ;' and in him Adams found an able, equal and worthy coadjutor. And to them, under heaven, and their compeers in the field and the senate, are we indebted for all the blessings of peace and prosperity we enjoy, for the expanding resources and ascending destinies of America.

Sublime assembly! Admirable men! But one alone of that band of choice spirits now survives, the modest and venerable Carroll, like a spared monument of other ages and long may he live to enjoy the esteem of his country, as the last of its immortal fathers! Under the inspiring auspices of patriotic hope they nerved themselves to honorable achievement. In these pacific times, nay, in any times, few are they, who are called upon to dare the terrors of death in the pitched combat, where carnage walks at noon-day, and destruction is the ruling planet of the hour. And fewer still are they, to whose lot it falls, in the walks of civil life, to pass the trying crisis of fortitude in deliberating upon a resolution so fraught with interest, so big with impending consequences as the Declaration of Independence. In the councils of peace, they were encountering the hazards of war. Although seated in the temple of Janus, beside them they beheld the statue of Bellona. The senator, who spoke for that immortal convention, might, like the Roman, and with more of truth and just pride, have said to the British monarch-I bear in the ample folds of my robe both peace and war; choose ye which ye will take. Their shield was the enthusiasm of honor true to its temper as thrice proved steel; their motto,

6

In native swords, and native ranks,

The only hope of courage dwells.

And although they themselves should fall in the coming struggle, they had confidence to believe that their children and their children's children to the latest generation would enjoy that promised land, of which they might only gain the distant prospect.

They knew themselves to be merely the pioneers of the great work of civil improvement. Theirs would be the task to strike out a rude and simple path in the newly discovered clime, to set up and establish the great land-marks of right, and to leave to those, who should follow after them, to gather the rich fruits and lovely flowers of freedom, which would spring from the prolific soil. Just as the first hunters, who penetrated into the western wilderness, did but make an imperfect opening into that unrifled garden of primitive luxuriance, while succeeding generations alone were enabled to reach in tranquillity and plenty, the secure fruition of its bounties. It was their fortune to pass anxious days and sleepless nights in camp or council, ours to reap the benefit of their vigils; theirs to wrestle, to suffer, to bleed in battle, ours to wear the silken vestments of peace; theirs to peril themselves, their present safety and their future fame, upon the hazardous cast of revolution, ours to possess the magnificent prize they won.

The desperate contest, in which they were about to embark, was a contest of principle. Their claim was a claim of right; and it was so urged and argued by them, and so considered and rejected by the metropolis. They could recognize no bond of subjection to that country: and no bond of union, other than entire equality of political condition. When our forefathers fled before the face of royal and ecclesiastical tyranny, they did not bring along with them the iron fetters, which had been eating into their frames in the mother land. Free, as the winds, which swelled their canvass to waft them over the ocean-free as the wild waves, on whose bo