WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.

XLII. VIOLATION OF ENGLISH PROMISES.

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My lord, the Irish Catholics never, never broke their faith; they never violated their plighted promise to the English. I appeal to history for the truth of my assertion. My lord, the English never, never observed their faith with us- they never performed their plighted promise; the history of the last six hundred years proves the accuracy of my assertion. I will leave the older periods, and fix myself at the revolution. More than a hundred and twenty years have elapsed since the treaty of Limerick. That treaty has been honorably and faithfully performed by the Irish Catholics; it has been foully, disgracefully, and directly violated by the English. English oaths and solemn engagements bound them to its performance: it remains still of force and unperformed; and the ruffian yell of English treachery, which accompanied its first violation, has, it seems, been repeated even in the senate-house at the last repetition of the violation of that treaty. They rejoiced and they shouted at the perjuries of their ancestors; at their own want of good faith or

common sense.

Nay, are there not men present, who can tell us, of their own knowledge, of another instance of English treachery? Was not the assent of many of the Catholics to the fatal - O! the fatal measure of the union! — purchased by the express and written promise of Catholic emancipation, made from authority by Lord Cornwallis, and confirmed by the prime minister, Mr. Pitt? And has that promise been performed? Or, has Irish credulity afforded only another instance of English faithlessness?

Now, my lord, I ask this assembly whether they can confide in English promises? I say nothing of the solemn pledges of individuals. Can you confide in the more than punic faith of your hereditary taskmasters? Or shall we be accused of overscrupulous jealousy, when we reject, with indignation, the contamination of English control over our church? O'CONNELL.

XLIII.

- WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.

SUCH, sir, as were the sentiments of Washington in regard to the Union of these States, such should be the sentiments of Americans, through all time. Consider his words in the memorable, the immortal Farewell Address! Mark the spirit of patriotism -burning, ardent patriotism-breathing in every page and every line! Read his words upon the vital importance of maintaining the Union!

"It is of infinite moment," he says, "that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union, to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

"All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real character to direct, control, counteract, or awe, the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency."

These were his words: "It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union," and Washington was no user of exaggerated expressions. Let us heed his words, my countrymen! Let us ever press up among the people in support of the grand and beautiful harmony of our fraternal political system; and, taking counsel from the immortal hero, whose language I have quoted, let us rally in support of the constitution at whose creation he presided, which was his great love and affection; and let us resolve to leave the glorious Union which he made, unprofaned and undismembered, to our posterity.

RUFUS CHOATE.

XLIV. FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

I.

From "an Oration delivered at the State-house in Philadelphia, to a very numerous audience, on Thursday, the 1st of August, 1776, by Samuel Adams,* member of the General Congress, &c."

THIS day, my countrymen, this day, I trust, the reign of political protestantism will commence. We have explored the temple

*Samuel Adams, born in Boston, Sept. 27th, 1722, was a member of the first Congress under the Confederation, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The oration from which we quote was delivered only twenty-seven days after the memorable 4th of July, 1776. We believe that attention is now called to this address for the first time since the Revolution. The copy we have in hand is supposed to be the only one extant. It is a London edition, bearing the date of 1776. In the impassioned eloquence, political sagacity,

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of royalty, and found that the idol we bowed down to has eyes which see not, ears which hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven, and with propitious eye beholds His subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed upon them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom

come!

Political right and public happiness, my countrymen, are different words for the same idea. Those who wander into metaphysical labyrinths, or have recourse to original contracts, to determine the rights of men, either impose on themselves or mean to delude others. Public utility is the only certain criterion.

Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives, and religion, of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty parchments - who would send us to antiquated charters of uncertain and contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are not bound to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism tell us whether our pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the miserable privilege of having the rewards of our honest industry, the fruits of those fields which they purchased and bled for, wrested from us at the will of men over whom we have no check? Did they contract for us, that, with folded arms, we should expect from brutal and inflamed invaders that justice and mercy which had been denied to our supplications at the foot of the throne? Were we to hear with indifference our character as a people ridiculed? Did they promise for us that our meekness and patience should be insulted, that our coasts should be hăr assed, our towns demolished and plundered, our wives and offspring exposed to destitution, hunger, and death, without our feeling the resentment of men without our exerting those powers of self-preservation which God has given us?

No man had once a greater veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear to me as branches of the same parental trunk, as partakers of the same religion and laws. I still view with respect the remains of the British constitution,

and fervid patriotism, of which these extracts give token, they will compare with the celebrated ante-Revolutionary harangues of Patrick Henry. Of the eloquence of Samuel Adams, John Adams has left the following record:

Upon great occasions, when his deepest feelings were excited, he erected himself, or rather nature seemed to erect him, without the smallest symptom of affectation, into an upright dignity of figure and gesture, and gave a harmony to his voice, which made a strong impression on spectators and auditors, the more lasting for the purity, correctness, and nervous elegance, of his style."

even as I would a lifeless body which had once been animated by a great and heroic soul. But when I am roused by the din of arms, when I behold legions of foreign assassins paid by Englishmen to imbrue their hands in our blood, when I tread over the uncoffined bones of my countrymen, neighbors, and friends, when I see the locks of a venerable father torn by savage hands, and a feeble mother clasping her infants to her bosom, and on her knees imploring their lives from her own slaves whom Englishmen have lured to treachery and murder, when I behold my country, once the seat of industry, peace, and plenty, changed by Englishmen to a theater of blood and misery,- Heaven forgive me if I can not root out those passions which it has implanted in my bosom! Heaven forgive me if, with too resentful and impetuous a scorn, I detest submission to a people who have either ceased to be human, or have not virtue enough to feel their own servitude and abasement!

II.

WE are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls, united in one common cause. We have large armies, well disciplined and appointed, with commanders. inferior to none in military skill, and superior to most in activity and zeal. We are furnished with arsenals and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign nations are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. These are instances of an almost astonishing Providence in our favor. Our success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels; so that we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us.

The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be perhaps humble instruments and means in the great providential dispensation which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom. Let us not look back, lest we perish, and become a monument of infamy and derision to the world. For can we ever expect more unanimity, and a better preparation for defence; more infatuation of counsel among our enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force and resistance which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will secure us a glorious independence will support us in the dignity of free, imperial States.

My countrymen, from the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and America, on any other terms than as Independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country. A

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politic minister will study to lull us into security by granting us the full extent of our petitions. The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war, and the noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible. When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will but accelerate our ruin, and render us the easier victims to tyranny.

Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry,-if peradventure any should remain among us!- remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered among the dead! Con-template the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say what should be the reward of such sacrifices! Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plow and sow and reap to glut the avarice, of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war, to riot in our blood, and hunt us from the face of the earth! If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom,

crouch

go from us in peace we ask not your counsels or your arms down and lick the hands which feed you! May your chains set light upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen !

III.

THIS day we are called on to give a glorious example of what the wisest and best of men were rejoiced to view only in speculation. This day presents the world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever unfolded: Millions of freemen deliberately and voluntarily forming themselves into a society for their common defence and common happiness!. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, and Sydney! Will it not add to your benevo lent joys to behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men, and evincing to the world the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual enjoyment of that equal liberty which you were happy when on earth in delineating and recommending to mankind?

Other nations have received their laws from conquerors some are indebted for a constitution to the sufferings of their ancestors through revolving centuries: the people of this country alone have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man proclaims his birth