The shrieks and agonies, the rage and hatred, the wounds and curses of the battle-fieid, and the storm and the sack, had scattered in vain their terrible warnings throughout all lands. In vain had the insolent Lysander destroyed the walls and burnt the fleets of Athens, to the music of her own female flute-players. In vain had Scipio, amid the ruins of Carthage, in the spirit of a gloomy seer, applied to Rome herself the prophecy of Agamem non "The day shall come, the great avenging day, Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay; GRIMER NEW ENGLAND AND THE UNION GLORIOUS New England! thou art still true to thy ancient fame, and worthy of thy ancestral honors. On thy pleasant valleys rest, like sweet dews of morning, the gentle recollections of our early life; around thy hills and mountains cling, like gathering mists, the mighty memories of the revolution; and far away in the horizon of thy past, gleam, like thy own bright northern lights, the awful virtues of our Pilgrim sires! But while we devote this day to the remembrance of our native land, we forget not that in which our happy lot is cast. We exult in the reflection, that though we count by thousands the miles which separate us from our birthplace, still our country is the same. We are no exiles meeting upon the banks of a foreign river, to swell its waters with our homesick tears. Here floats the same banner which rustled above our boyish heads, except that its mighty folds are wider, and its glittering stars increased in number. The sons of New England are found in every State of the broad republic! In the East, the South, and the unbounded West, their blood mingles freely with every kindred current. We have but changed our chamber in the paternal mansion; in all its rooms we are at home, and all who inhabit it are our brothers. To us the Union has but one domestic hearth; its household gods are all the same. Upon us, then, peculiarly devolves the duty of feeding the fires upon that kindly hearth; of guarding with pious care those sacred household gods. We cannot do with less than the whole Union; to us it admits of no division. In the veins of our children flows Northern and Southern blood how shall it be separated? who shall put asunder the best affections of the heart, the noblest instincts of our nature? We love the land of our adoption; so do we that of our birth. Let us ever be true to both; and always exert ourselves in maintaining the unity of our country, the integrity of the republic. Accursed, then, be the hand put forth to loosen the golden cord of union! thrice accursed the traitorous lips which shall propose its severance ! S. S. PRENTISS. CHRISTIANITY THE BASIS OF LIBERTY. TWICE, in France, the physical power has gained the acendancy over law; and by the last victory, the discovery has been made, that to patriots, cities are fortresses, and pavements, munitions. This is one of the most glorious and dreadful discoveries of modern days — glorious in its ultimate results, in the emancipation of the world, but dreadful in those intervening revolutions which power may achieve in the conquest of liberty, without corresponding intelligence and virtue for its permanent preservation. The conquest of liberty is not difficult - the question is, where to put it with whom to intrust it. If to the multitude who achieved it, it be committed, it will perish by anarchy. If national guards are employed for its defense, the bayonets which protect it, are at any moment able to destroy it for a military despotism. If to a republican king it be intrusted, it will have to be regulated by state policy, and fed on bread and water, until the action of her heart, and the movement of her tongue, and the power of her arm, as under the deadly incubus, shal cease. T'here is not in this wide world a safe deposit for liberty, but the hearts of patriots, so enlightened, as to be able to judge of correct legislation, and so patient and disinterested, as to practice self-denial, and self-government, for the public good. up But can such a state of society be founded and maintained without the Bible, and the institutions of Christianity? Did a condition of unperverted liberty, uninspired by Christianity, ever bless the world through any considerable period of duration? The power of a favoring clime, and the force of genius, did thrust froir the dead level of monotonous despotism, the republics of Greece to a temporary liberty: but it was a patent model only, compared with such a nation as this; and it was partial, and capricious, and of short duration, and rendered illustrious rather by the darkness which preceded and followed, than by the benign influence of its own beams. BEECHER. PHILLIPS ON WASHINGTON Sucu, sir, is the natural progress of human operations, and such the unsubstantial mockery of human pride. But I should, perhaps, apologize for this digression. The tombs are at best a sad, although an instructive subject. At all events, they are ill suited to such an hour as this. I shall endeavor to atone for it, by turning to a theme, which tombs cannot inurn, or revolution alter. It is the custom of your board, and a noble one it is, to deck the cup of the gay with the garland of the great and surely, even in the eyes of its deity, his grape is not the less lovely when glowing beneath the foliage of the palm tree and the myrtle. Allow me to add one flower to the chaplet, which, though it sprung in America, is no exotic. Virtue planted it, and it is naturalized everywhere. I see you anticipate me - I see you concur with me, that it matters very little what immediate spot may be the birthplace of such a man as WASHINGTON. No peo ple can claim, no country can appropriate him; the boon of Provi dence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residenc creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared; how bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet which it revealed to us! In the production of Washington it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances no doubt there were splendid exemplifications of some single qualification: Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and like the lovely chef d'œuvre of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. As a general, he marshaled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the character of the sage A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might have doubted Thou more than soldier and just less than sage; Such, sir, is the testimony of one not to be accused of partiality in his estimate of America. Happy, proud America! the lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism! ROLLA TO THE PERUVIANS. My brave associates -partners of my toil, my feelings, and my fame!can Rolla's words add vigor to the virtuous energies which inspire your hearts?—No! You have judged as I have, the foulness of the crafty plea, by which these bold invaders would delude you. Your generous spirit has compared, as mine has, the motives which, in a war like this, can animate their minds and ours. They, by a strange frenzy driven, fight for power, for plunder, and extended rule; we, for our country, our altars, and our homes. They follow an adventurer whom they fear, and obey a power which they hate; we serve a monarch whom we love-a God whom we adore. Where'er they move in anger, desolation tracks their progress Where'er they pause in amity, affliction mourns their friendship. They boast they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error! -Yes they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. They offer us their protection! Yes, such protection as vultures give to lambscovering and devouring them! They call on us to barter all the good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate chance of something better, which they promise. Be our plain answer this: · --- - The throne we honor is the people's choice- the laws we reveren are our brave fathers' legacy- the faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hops of bliss beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this, and tell them, too, we seek no change; and least of all, such thay as they would bring us. SHERIDAN. SPEECH OF BELIAL, DISSUADING WAR. WHEREFORE cease ye then? Say they, who counsel war "We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe: Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, Ages of hopeless end! this would be worse War, therefore, open and concealed, alike My voice dissuades. MILTON |