An address delivered in Zion church at Easton, on the 4th of July, 1835

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AN ADDRESS

DELITERED

IN ZION CHURCH AT EASTON,

ON THE 4TH OF JULY, 1835.

AT THE REaUEST OF THE

WASHINGTON AND FRANKLIN LITERARY SOCIETIES

LJi PAYETTE COLLEGE.

BY GEORGE MIFFLIN DALLAS, ESQ.

PUBZ.ZSHSD BIT THE SOOZBTZ

BS.

PHILADELPHIA :
WILLIAM BROWN, PRINTER.

1835'.

r

^.A'

Lafayette College East on, July 4, 1835.

Respected Sir,

Authorised by the respective Societies we represent, we

hereby tender you their unfeigned thanks for your able, eloquent,

and highly interesting oration, and earnestly solicit a copy thereof

for publication.

With sentiments of sincere respect and esteem, sir, your obedient

servants.

J, E. BONHAM, ) Committee of the

J. W. WOOD, } Franklin Uterary

J. MONAGHAN, Jr. ) Society.

WM. RIDDLE, ) Committee of the

BARNABAS COLLINS, V Washington Lite-
H. S. RODENBOUGH, ) rary Society.

Honourable G. M. Dallas.

GENTLEMElsr,

Undeserving as I think it of the complimentary language
you are kind enough to use, the address delivered by me this morn-
ing at your invitation, is entirely at your disposal.

I am very respectfully.

Your friend and SCTVant,

To Messrs.

G. M. DALLAS.

4 July, 1835.

J. E. BONHAM,

J. W. WOOD,

J. MONAGHAN, Jr.

WM. RIDDLE,

BARNABAS COLLINS,

H. S. RODENBOUGH,

' Committieu.

ADDREISS.

We must all derive gratification when noticing a tenden-
cy in the literary associations of our country to combine
with their public exercises the sentiments and epochs of
patriotism. The two societies, at whose call I venture for
a while to claim your attention, have significantly selected
for periodical exhibition a day of national commemoration :
a day on which it is scarcely possible for an American citi-
zen to think of any thing but the glories of the land in which
he lives, the exploits and the wisdom of its founders, the
freedom and excellence of its institutions, the brightness and
the beauty of its future ! In this selection is conveyed a si-
lent, but acknowledged instruction to their present represen-
tative : directing his efforts to harmonize with the pervading
feeling, to swell the - general anthem of exultation, and to
contribute what he can to invigorate the loftiest of human
virtues. I proceed to execute this commission in the spirit
■with which it has been flatteringly confided, and to tender
for your indulgent acceptance some observations and recol-
lections congenial to the occasion.

Since the Declaration of Independence, issued fifty-nine
years ago, the achievements and merits of those who made
of sustained it, have been annually and most justly the theme

6

of grateful eulogy. In every district of our immense terri-
tory, the voice of an emancipated and happy people has untir-
ingly preserved the high renown and affirmed the unsurpas-
sed vi^isdom of these public benefactors. It is a subject v^^hich
for centuries to come will be proudly resumed by each suc-
ceeding generation on this continent : whose strength, inter-
est and fulness cannot be exhausted : and which will awaken
generous and salutary emotions as long as posterity are able
or worthy to appreciate the brightest models and purest actions
of heroism. The vast and wonderful results, too, which have
flowed and must continue to flow from the hardy and un-
compromising promulgations of our great charter, present a
boundless range for philosophic and impressive eloquence.
At each recurring anniversary fresh events are recorded il-
lustrative of its renovating progress among the governments,
and for the happiness, of men: the resistless advances of its
spirit noted in the fall of feudal dynasties, the overthrow of
inveterate abuses, the abandonment of prejudices, the en-
lightenment of the common mind, the equalization of rights,
the prolongation of peace, and the cheering re-estabhshment
of social, intellectual, and religious liberty. These are inci-
dents and topics appropriate to the Fourth of July, and to
the descendants of those who have given it an immortal pre-
eminence on the calendar. At this hour, they are engaging
the memories, kindling the affections, and ennobling the pa-
triotism of millions who surround us.

But it is not my purpose to enter so wide and diversified
a field. 1 would fain attain my object by another more
contracted though equally direct pathway. Where am I ?
at the confluence of the Delaware and the Lehigh : in one of
the most populous and cultivated of the interior regions of

my native state, and in the presence of an assemblage of fel-
low-citizens whose vigorous minds and generous hearts ex-
pand with the sympathies of the day. Of what shall I
speak 1 of what can I speak, to you, in unison with the time 1
Let it be of our immediate home : of that Commonwealth in
whose fame and prosperity we are all deeply and lastingly,
concerned — whose moral and mental contributions towards
universal good can neither be disputed nor overshadowed :
let it be of peerless Pennsylvania ! Unused to boast for in-
vidious contrasts, we may yet be permitted to bear to the
national jubilee the sense of her excellence, and in the gen-
eral chorus keep at least one note of grateful triumph exclu-
sively for her !

Conformably to the census of 1830, and the ratio of in-
crease deduced from those of 1810 and 1820, our popula-
tion now exceeds one million five hundred thousand. It is
scarcely a century and a half since the memorable landing
of the founder ; prior to which period, not a germ of civiliza-
tion had here taken root : all was huge forest, rude plain,
barren mountain, or wasted valley : the " untutored Indian"
chased his hardly less savage prey along the margins of
these noble rivers, launched his scooped canoe timidly upon
their surface, or with his bow and arrows steahhily tracked
the entangled recesses of the interminable woods. On the
very beach, emerging from his dense and dark covert, the
wild warrior Tamanend gazed, with no prophetic forecast,
upon the groupe of placid strangers, veho, quitting the deck
of the " good ship Welcome," stepped upon the sand, with
William Penn at their head, claiming the unknown region
as their allotted province. How short a space of time's
ceaseless current between that small beginning and the pre-

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sent great consummation ! How swift and mighty have
been the causes which, in the ordinary length of two lives,
dispelled the wilderness, banished the barbarian, burnished
the neglected face of nature, and poured life, light, gladness
and Christianity into every corner of Pennsylvania !

The rapidity of this physical and moral redemption must
be ascribed to peculiar and honourable characteristics. It
derived no impetus from contiguous pressure, overflowing
and spreading beyond an ideal or arbitrary boundary : its
original fountain was three thousand miles distant : and the
fertilizing fluid rushed not at first like a steady stream, but
fell as it were, in detached and gentle drops upon the soil.
Nor was it at any period urged forward by the quick hand
or peremptory tone of violence : conquest and usurpation are
alien to our annals. Nor did there exist within our limits
any meretricious attractions to cupidity or credulity : the
glittering and delusive mines of gold or silver, and the fa-
bled waters of immortahty, were stationed farther south.
No ! the progress of Penn's settlement, from 1682 to 1835,
its expansion, its prosperity, its abounding wealth, and its
exalted reputation, as a colony or as a Commonwealth, are
far otherwise, and more satisfactorily explained by a few
striking features of its history, legislation, and manners.

The destiny of Pennsylvania, can be said to have been
foreshadowed in the character of William Penn. More than
the Athenian or the Spartan lawgiver, this extraordinary
man gave to the community he established the impress of
his own mind, and the stimulus of his own virtues. He was
calm, sagacious, practical, and persevering : peaceful alike
in temper and on principle : patient amid obstacles and pro-
found in judgment ; with an understanding at once powerful

and refined, and a heart deeply and delicately alive to the
promptings of benevolence. About him there was neither
bustle, nor pretension, nor display: too mild for miUtary
pomp, too upright for rhetorical art, too bold and manly for
imposition, his force was in his truth, his attraction in his
simplicity, and his persuasion in his meekness. With clear-
er conceptions than others possessed of the condition, cli-
mate, and resources of this land, he courted the spirit of
gain, or of discontent, or of enterprize, or of ambition, by
no flattering promises of sudden acquisition or of indolent
repose, and no gaudy pictures of adventure or of sway.
His candor, cheered it is true, and justly cheered, by a ra-
tional foresight, yet told of toils to be endured, of perils to
be braved, of hard privations, of prolonged industry, and of
stern equahty. Such were the rough but unyielding mate-
rials with which he chose to cement his foundation. Hav-
ing, in a letter of the 5th of January 1681, mentioned the
chartered confirmation of this territory, which he then term-
ed his " country^'' with a resolution to have " a care to the
government that it be well laid at first,'' his earliest prepara-
tory proceedings, " the Great Law,'* and the "■ Conditions
and Concessions" to purchasers, abound with wisdom and
precautionary policy, while the pure morality and unbroken
faith of his council under the Elm, and his treaty with the
guileless and confiding Lene Lenappe, have been and ever
must be held unmatched by precedent and beyond all praise.
From grafting by such a hand, and under the genial sun-
shine of such sentiments and acts, the fragrant blossom was
sure, the rich fruit inevitable. It was impossible for the
companions of Penn, or their immediate posterity, not to
catch and transmit the admirable qualities of their chief, to

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cany his precepts and his practices into all their conduct,
and to preserve in their entire social system, as it expand-
ed and towered, a moral resemblance to a model so firmly
approved.

During that portion of our history which preceded the con-
federacy of the colonies and the revolutionary struggle, em-
bracing an effective period of seventy years, a broad
basis was gradually moulded for a superstructure of vigorous
republicanism. No part of this continent was better prepar-
ed for the transition of 1776. Although it be true that our
Proprietaries and Lieutenant-Governors successfully man-
aged to avert from the people the severity of many vexa-
tious inflictions of the mother-country, and thus kept alive
hei'e a stronger attachment to the transatlantic empire than
was felt elsewhere : yet had we by plain and frank manners,
by the consistent inculcation and enforcement of equality,
and by a sturdy course of self-government, become ripe and
ready to glide, without the slightest shock to order, or to es-
tablished habits of thinking, into an avowed as well as actual
democracy.

The early character of the social intercourse of Pennsyl-
vania may yet be remembered by a few of its inhabitants. It
is glowingly pourtrayed by a living sage as having exempli-
fied in real life, the simplicity, innocence, and happiness of
the Arcadia of ancient poets. Far removed from the cum-
bersome forms and constraints of European courts : utterly
disdaining the frivohties and caprices of fashion : aflfecting
no titles, knowing no ranks, and coveting no honours : seek-
ing competence only by useful industry, and content only
by practical virtue : our ancestors formed a society where
age was never without reverence and youth never without

11

friendship, where genius was too much cherished to be en-
vied, love too pure to be false, and misfortune too sacred to
be traduced. It was, indeed, as perfect a state of domestic
and almost fraternal concord as human frailties will suffer
to exist. Although natives of various climes, and using va-
rious tongues, the German, the Swede, the Hollander, the
Frenchman, the Dane, the Welshman, the Scot — thronged
through the portal which Penn had opened, and eagerly
sought within his asylum repose and happiness, according
to their pecuhar tastes, yet did each contribute some distinc-
tive portion to the common stock of moral value, while the
presiding genius of the place, extinguishing all rivalry save
that for the general benefit, actuated and harmonized the
whole. In one trait it was natural that the settlers should
agree : an abiding aversion to the artificial distinctions and
morose intolerance which had impelled a flight from their
comparatively luxurious homes : and from this sentiment
alone would result an ever-active tendency to illustrate their
social and political relations by conventional plainness, cha-
ritable forbearance, and direct truth.

To the annals of this community, animated in its primi-
tive formation as I have thus faintly sketched, belong a se-
ries of movements in the cause of freedom and beneficence,
more striking, more efficient, more uniform, and more lasting,
than can be justly claimed by any other people. I speak
with no intention to exaggerate. Pennsylvania has crowd-
ed within the short term of her existence, achievements of
polity of which the oldest nations might be proud, and which
all must acknowledge. It befits us occasionally, however
briefly, to revert to them. Amid the general proneness to
extol surrounding or distant states, let us at least hint

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among ourselves that, in certain matters, interresting to all
humanity and glorious to our predecessors, this beloved
Commonwealth still enjoys an- unrivalled ascendancy of
merit.

One hundred and thirty years have elapsed since the leg-
islative body of the province in " the law concerning; liberty
of conscience,"" declared " Almighty God its only Lord !^^
and thenceforward to the present hour, that declaration has
been maintained, theoretically and practically inviolate. It
emanated from, and was addressed to, those who felt and
knew its unchangeable truth : its vitality spread through all
their habits, reflections and language: their descendants
caught it among the earliest rudiments of moral or intellec-
tual culture : it has become as native here, and as insepara-
ble from our being, as the atmosphere we breathe. Remark,
that Pennsylvania, with no subservient imitativeness, incul-
cated mere toleration : the philosophy of that is as old and
as rational as paganism : but she proclaimed the simple and
sacred principle, afterwards embodied in both her contitu-
tions of 1776 and 1789, of '' a natural and indefeasible right
to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of con-
science."

It is sometimes difficult to I'ealize the belief that what we
have peacefully and uninterruptedly exercised as an abso-
lute and unalienable right — what we should deem it prepos-
terous and vain for any human power to attempt controling
or abridging — was long, very long, fruitlessly craved by our
ancestors from the splendid tyrannies of the eastern hemis-
phere, and was denied to them because dangerous to their
social tranquillity and their immortal destinies ! Nor can we
truly appreciate the legislative enunciation to which I have

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referred without recollecting that conscience, everywhere un-
til then, and even now throughout the far greater portion of
the world, was and is subjected to governmental rules of
coercion and test. Pennsylvania, in this — in severing radi-
cally and forever all connection between municipal power
and spiritual homage — has marched ahead of mankind at
large. Her experience too triumphantly vindicates the safe-
ty as well as justice of .the policy. Countless as are the
modifications of doctrine and the peculiarities of worship
within our Umits, no bigotry or fanaticism ever invaded
their seperate independence. Religion here has never been
the fountain of bitterness and blood. She stalks not among
men as a relentless avenger, exacting repentance on the
rack, or conversion at the stake. Her crusades, inquisitions,
chains and tortures are unknown. With us, her pathway,
illuminated by the effulgence of perfect freedom, is profusely
strewed with blessings : while her gentle voice, with healing
on its wings, whispers pleasantness and peace.

Kindred in its excellence, and of almost equal merit, is
the formal and impressive denunciation of domestic slavery.
The injured and degraded African, fettered by the cupidity
and stunned by the blow-s of polished Europe, was first
cheered by the sound of emancipation in the sequestered
wilds of America. During the two centuries which pre-
ceded the landing of William Penn, from the fatal period of
the Portuguese invasion of the Gold Coast, an entire race
of human beings had been doomed the victims of avarice,
.cruelty, and oppression. The accursed traffic rioted in the
sanction of Spanish imperial letters patent, had been con-
nived at by the Virgin Queen of England, and was openly
encouraged by a monarch of France, falsely as foolishly sur-

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named the Just. An unchristian poHcy leagued with an in-
satiate and remorseless spirit of gain, annually loaded thou-
sands of our fellow creatures with chains, tore them vio-
lently from their country, and consigned them in untried
climates, beneath the rods of unknown masters, to unlimited
and unsparing servitude. At the height of this inhuman
atrocity, whose cancerous roots were transplanted hither by
British traders from the West Indies, there was heard, in
1683, from the bosom of a secluded German settlement in
Pennsylvania, a calm protest and an earnest appeal. It
was the impulse of nature, and the lament of humanity: the
air in which it was breathed proved congenial, and bore it
in time to distant nations, and to the hearts of all. From
that moment, may be dated the commencement of African
redemption: it slowly and steadily advanced, our noble com-
monwealth by her celebrated statute "for the gradual
abolition of slavery" perseveringly in front of the move-
ment— until now, throughout Christendom, and with the po-
tential anathema of every government, the Slave Trade
ranks among the worst, the vilest, and the meanest of
crimes.

The pride of ardent and unvarying action on this interest-
ing subject has been accompanied, throughout a series of years
with characteristic prudence, and has ended in complete
success. The fire of enthusiasm, even in so righteous a
cause, was controuled and directed by a deep and abiding
sense of relative justice. We have encouraged, we can en-
courage, no visionary projects of abrupt reform : nor can
we presume, in the slightest degree, to shake the constitu-
tions, or to affect the legal enactments, of other communi-
ties, except by the power of a wise and triumphant example.

15

Our career, calm and continuous, is on the eve of consum-
mation. We have, at last, without violent and dangerous
empyricism, expelled the disease which the vices of others
introduced among us. An erroneous nomenclature and ill
directed enquiries led, it is true, to an injurious and mistaken
result in the census of 1830 — imputing to this Common-
wealth the possession of an increasing number of slaves :
but the ascertained fact is that we have nearly purged our
soil of every vestige of this pestilent opprobrium, and that,
at this moment, of the one million and a half of our people,
not twenty are subjected to involuntary servitude, even un-
der ameHorated rules and circumstances.

Liberty, indeed, well-poised and deep-seated liberty, in all
its spheres and applications, has early and late and ever
been the object of fond and foremost pursuit. In the disen-
thralment of the conscience and extinguishment of domestic
slavery, vast and vital ends were accomplished, vindicating
fundamental principles, giving security to the pursuits of in-
dividual happiness, and eradicating the most fruitful sources
of conflict and disorder. But, the bondage of the mind —
that, too, was to be relieved : the shackles of ignorance,
which clogged the understandings aijd degraded the senti-
ments of the mass of mankind, keeping them the passive
victims of oppression, or the wretched dupes of prejudice,
these also were to be broken asunder, or to be dissolved
under the irradiating influence of instruction. Our fore-
fathers had voluntarily quitted communities whose inexora-
ble systems perpetuated with the few a monopoly of all the
means and all the opportunities of intellectual advancement :
they appreciated the immense power conferred by education,
and they resolved that it should be equally attainable by

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all. In the consciousness that no good social structure could
endure unless maintained by a succession of intelligent and
upright citizens, our founder himself, in his " preface to the
frame of government," inculcated and exacted the erection
of public schools. Without such an expedient, he foresaw
the abortive end of all his exertions and hopes ; his super-
structure, hovv^ever promising and attractive, soon undermin-
ed, and a degenerate race accelerating its ruin.

Intellect, progressive and energetic intellect is the life-
blood of freedom. The mind instinctively hungers after
knowledge : give it the aliment, and it collects strength,
elasticity, and force ; keep the food away, and withering in
debility, it shrinks back upon itself, incapable of effort, in-
sensible to wrong, and indifferent to virtue. Mutual assis-
tance in its cultivation is the primary duty of civilized men ;
which being neglected, a relapse into barbarism cannot long
be postponed, or what is worse, a hurried and headlong fall
into the gloom and the bitterness and the baseness of despot-
ism. William Penn sought to make his sanctuary for hu-
man liberty and happiness perennial and indestructible : he
sought to fix within it a self-motive and renovating power :
and he carved upon ^ts corner-stones, and he wrote upon
its walls, and he instilled into its inhabitants the necessity
of education. Nor did he do so in vain. His exhortation
was prolonged as a living sound through each following ge-
neration, and has never been unheeded. From the act in-
corporating " the overseers of the schools" in 1697, through
both our republican constitutions, down to the establishment
of this college in 1826, and to the present hour, almost every
year has been signalized by legislation directly or indirect-
ly fostering and promoting this great purpose. The public

17

lands, the public purse, the public enthusiasm, and even the
public errors on other subjects have been made its tributa-
ries. It never has been, it never should be forgotten. Not less
than tvi^o hundred and forty-five statutes, an immense but
no unmerited proportion of our entire body of laws, have
been exclusively devoted to it. Superadded to innumerable
minor schools prescribed in grants of corporate privileges
for charitable, religious, or other objects, — and apart from
the recent attempt to carry out the injunction of the organic
charter by lighting the lamp of tuition at the door of
every citizen — we have established two universities, nine
colleges, and fifty-eight academies. I touch on this am-
ple illustration of her unchanged conviction and unrelaxed
zeal, only to exhibit the position of Pennsylvania as to this
pre-eminent interest. Her honour lies in its perfection : her
salvation rests on its perpeti^ty. Much as she has accom-
pHshed, all is not yet attained : but enough already appears
to justify the proud belief that her people, tranquil and unos-
tentatious, are still as a body unsurpassed in the attributes
and means to push free principles and free institutions to
their widest, loftiest and best results.

However hastily obliged to weave this chaplet, I cannot
wholly omit some of the brightest and most fragrant of its
ornaments. Not, indeed, such as glow amid the laurel
wreaths of martial nations : not such as befit the victorious
garlands of Macedon or Rome : nor such as bloom along
the ruthless ranging of the lion or the leopard. But flowers
whose fadeless verdure triumphs over time, and whose
perfume spreading throughout all space, rises as a grateful
incense to the skies. Where, let me ask, where is the re-
cognized and favourite abode of benevolence 1 On what

18

spot of this torn and turbulent earth has the spirit of divine
charity fixed her home? Amid what people are to be found
the noblest demonstrations of an enlarged, unceasing, and
pious philanthropy? Turn to the annals of Pennsylvania,
and there read the answer: let her unobtrusive but indefati-
gable " Society of Friends," from Penn to Benezet, and
from Benezet to Vaux, be followed through their countless
achievements of beneficence: let the pervading and unvary-
ing impulse of her entire -population, as attested by its re-
presentative assembly, be traced: and let the eye glance ra-
pidly over her numerous temples dedicated to the " holy ex-
periment of alleviating the miseries of humanity, protect-
ing its weakness, solacing its decline, ministering to its
wants, healing its infirmities, surmounting its incurable de-
privations, or securing even to its vices the priceless hope
that springs from penitence !

The world has so long been deluded by the glaring and
dramatic qualities of men : their boldness in battle, their cun-
ning in council, and their eloquence in debate : and the
pages of history have so exclusively nourished a taste for
daring or dexterous exploit : that the gentle works of sys-
tematic, disinterested, and devoted goodness fail to attract
the admiration to which they are certainly and pre-eminent-
ly entitled. Nations, ever rivals for renown, are rarely
competitors in the spheres and operations of benevolence.
Our ancestry started with purer aims : and spreading forth
the chart of practical virtue, resolved steadily to steer
through all its passages. They pursued no phantom of de-
coying glory, and sought no bullying trophy of greatness :
they looked not for compensation, though there was some-
thing within their bosoms constantly impelling, and as con-

19

stantly repaying, their labours : and they felt no desire for
fame, though they have gradually reared its imperishable
monument !

From the multiplied departments of this admirable ac-
tion, let me select but one on which to concentrate your
notice : it exemplifies them all : and is universally conceded
to be, in its progress and perfection, eminently our own.

The corrupt and unchecked passions and propensities of
human nature force upon every community, in despite of
the wisest rules and precautions, a class of criminals whom
society, actuated by the resistless motive of self-preserva-
tion, must deprive of liberty and must subject to punish-
ment more or less exemplary. The treatment of fellow-
beings thus situated : of convicts, who have forfeited rights
which they abused and privileges which they perverted :
the manner of their seclusion and penalty, reconciling the
social purpose wiih tbe inextinguishable claims of a common
humanity: this is the problem w-hich, having painfully and
fruitlessly perplexed sages and statesmen of every age and
every land, has been solved by the mild spirit, unshaken
constancy, and unremitted care of Pennsylvania. I will not
indulge in details however striking in character: the occa-
sion forbids my doing so : but let us remember that by the
principles, organization, and discipline of our penitentiaries
we have nearly superseded a necessity, in any case, for the
summary process of taking life : that our legal vengeance is
tempered by the design and the practicability of moral re-
form : and that in the silence and s(jlitude of protracted im-
prisonment, ' the world forgetting, by the world forgot,' the
suffering victims of their own vices are, in mind, and feel-
ing, and habit, slowly but surely rescued and regenerated.

20

And how was this? By whatHghts of collegiate philosophy,
by what aids of power, with what incentives of ambition,
and with what allurements of reward, was this scheme of
beneficence projected and perseveringly accomplished 1 By
none of these : they had, in fact, long proved inadequate, if
not injurious. Europe, with all her learning, and all her
honours, and all her wealth, recoiled from even the limited
progress of her own Howard. Her numberless prisons con-
tinued the shelters of unseemly and infamous brutality, the
theatres of riotous profligacy, the charnel-houses of every
moral and religious sentiment or hjpe — scarcely, if at all,
preferable to a hasty and undiscriminating appeal to the
guillotine or sword. If you wish to comprehend and truly
appreciate whence we derive this inestimable feature of our
policy, follow a meek disciple of Christianity — one of those
who have unconsciously embalmed their memories in the
gratitude of posterity — follow him into the receptacle of the
outlawed and denounced : see him enter amid jeers of scorn,
imprecations of profanity, and threats of desperation: mark
how, from month to month, and year after year, his time,
his compassion, his fortitude, and his health are expended in
voluntarily associating with the vilest and the worst: how
he notes their peculiarities, their modes of thought, the ef-
fects of their fellowship, and the real tendency of their va-
rious inflictions : accompany him to the gloomy dungeon
of the homicide, and observe how steadily he communes
with the agonies of remorse, the fitful relapses of rage, or
the hardened inveteracy of malice : how he measures the
moral effects of physical causes, and how, in fine, he scans,
and explores, and treasures up in recollection, every avenue
by which to invade the temper, the conscience, or the soul

21

of the convict ! Go with him, then, to his confidential
friends, and hear the disclosures of his long continued and
still unwearied experience : with what humility he invites
them to share his toils, and how diffidently he hopes, as the
consequence of their united vigils and labours, that some
relief may be furnished to the undeserving, and some good
be done even to the wicked. And behold here, and in his
course, the model and the practice, the simple origin and
the pious progress of the purest and most perfect institution
of modern philanthropy !

Having glanced at some of the services by which our
Society of Friends elevated and enriched Pennsylva-
nia, I may be excused for adverting to a well authenticated
incident of the revolutionary contest, shewing how, consist-
ently with their peculiar opinions, they proved themselves
efficient champions of the nation. That we contribut-
ed our quota of wisdom and valour towards indepen-
dence is readily felt, as the names of Franklin, Dickinson,
M'Kean, Mifflin, and Rush, are recalled: but it was perhaps
singularly characteristic that another of our citizens, without
whose fertility of genius, unbounded credit, and untiring ex-
ertions the movements of our armies must have been palsied,
if not fatally defeated, often and at times of fiercest trial
derived from the sympathy and confidence of the non-com-
batant class of our people the essential resources and sinews
of war. It was in the winter of 1776 : while Washington
and Liberty lingered in solicitous suspense on the neighbour-
ing site of New-Hope, while a total destitution of means
threatened to verify the gloomiest foreboding, and when
even the unrivalled vigour and felicity of finance which
coped with every crisis, yielded to exhaustion and despon-

22

cy: that Robert Morris, slowly and sorrowfully retiring
from scenes of disappointed effort into solitude, encountered,
as if by accident, a now unknown and unnamed ''friend."
With the impetuous energy of despair, he depicted the emer-
gency and the wants of his country, and implored relief for
the endangered cause of America. " Thou sha^t have
IT !" was the prompt, laconic, and resolute reply : and it
forthwith came, to reanimate the drooping forces of our
immortal chief and to impel them onward, through the
snows and ice and tempests of the dreariest season, to bat-
tle with hireling Hessians and to achieve the victory of
Trenton! Strange but admirable union of private senti-
ment and social duty: harmonizing the utmost humility of
pretension with the loftiest aims of patriotism, and signally
illustrating, at the most eventful period, both the morals and
the politics of our founder !

Equally with the topics 1 have already discussed, the ac-
tual condition and the obviously awaiting futurity of this
state are fitted to confirm a just pride and an ardent attach-
ment. Let me, though cursorily, present them to your con-
sideration.

On an area of forty-seven thousand square miles and more
than thirty millions of acres — with a soil at once generous
and hardy, a climate equable and salubrious, and expan-
sive streams penetrating into every section — our population
is naturally and essentially agricultural. Their luxuriant
valleys, rich meadows, teeming fields, and laden orchards,
dressed by the hand of industry and echoing with the sounds
of life, attest an abundance that cannot be measured, and a
happiness that has long been undisturbed. Time, which
elsewhere drained and desolated with moral and physical

J

23

convulsions, has tranquilly stored the farms of Pennsylvania
with the best materials of power and prosperiry. It is there,
that labour, spontaneous, free, and productive labour, cJieers
the heart, invigorates the frame, and exalts the virtues of
men. It is there, mid a smiling plenty, unvexed by the crosses
of commercial hazard, that the delights and consolations of
domestic endearment fix their deepest roots : And it is there,
according to all experience and all just reasoning, that the
high and habitual sense of personal mdependence becomes
the firmest foundation for those bold and disinterested quali-
ties which are the only safe-guards of republican instituti-
ons. Although the Commonwealth embrace within her
limits, at least two of the most flourishing of American cities,
in whose science, trade, arts, manufactures, and wealth, she
exults, and numerous towns and boroughs hourly augment-
ing in resources and importance, yet must her farmers, with
their skill, their toil, their overflowing granaries, their steady
habits, and their fearless spirits, constitute for many years,
if not forever, her primary interest and her especial bul-
wark. Such a basis cannot but impart confidence and hope
to any community. It is, to the social barque, a well ad-
justed and ponderous ballast : keeping her poised amid
every agitation, and enabling her to move directly onward
to her destination.

A recent trial, fresh in the memories of those who note
the incidents of great ajras, established the title of this class
of our people to controuling weight and to entire confidence.
Who, indeed, can forget their prompt sacrifices and patri-
otic energy in the war of 1812? How, far in advance of the
general government, they almost insisted upon contributing,
without delay and without stint, men and means to vindi-

24

cate the national fame and maintain the national rights ?
How, profuse with the hoards of their industry and heedless
of their accustomed repose, they demanded taxation and
tendei ed enlistment ? How, with ardent acclamation and
invariable suffrage, they stimulated and extolled the prowess
of their Bainbridge, their Decatur, their Porter, and their
Biddle 1 Nor turned a single glance, nor breathed a single
longing wish, towards their rural happiness and pursuits,
until victories, glowing and ample and substantial as their
own harvests, closed a successful struggle with an honour-
able peace. It is in the indestructible and inestimable value
of a vast mass of constituency like this that Pennsylvania
glories : here are the fountains of her moral and political
power : these are the jewels by which, in the circle of her
sister states, she is alike distinguished and adorned !

In close alliance with those for whom they were chiefly
designed, our immense works of artificial improvement may
appropriately be mentioned. The civilizing effects of a safe
and expeditious intercourse — the aggregate comfort, co-ope-
ration, and affluence to which it inevitably leads — dictated
that allowance in the proprietary conveyances of our land
which dedicated to general convenience, originally ten, and
subsequently six acres, with each hundred. Every owner
of the soil was thus, by the muniments of his estate, ap-
prized of a wisely adopted policy and pledged to aid its ex-
ecution. The first turnpike ever constructed on the western
continent was constructed here : and the most adventurous
or firm set bridges spanned or withstood our floods. For a
long succession of years, broad and paved highways were
extended in every direction designated by the wants of set-
tlement or the eagerness of enterprize : threading interve-
ning forests, skirting or climbing mountains, and crossing

25

unchecked the chafed torrent or the wide river. These, for
their time, and in the comparative infancy of the subsidiary
arts, were undertakings of great magnitude and expense.
They rapidly, however, repaid a hundred fold, and gradu-
ally gave to Pennsylvania a commodious arrangement and
a facility of transportation which encouraged the solid
though scattered pursuits of husbandry, diffused capital, and
drew into active usefulness its remotest parts. Within a
short period, the maturity of mechanical science has driven
us onward in this career with redoubled speed. By chain-
ing the Ohio and the prolific regions of western growth, fast
to the Susquehanna and the Delaware ; by penetrating
through every obstacle to the recesses of our boundless
mineral wealth ; and by levelling every impediment before
the rolling car of agricultural abundance ; our canals, with
their adjuncts of locks, basins, aqueducts, and tunnels, and
our rail-roads, with their accessaries of inclined plains, loco-
comotive engines, portages and stations — whether the crea-
tions of public poUcy of private speculation — have outstrip-
ped all rivalry, and secured to our cherished home the
utmost solidity, duration, and variety of resource. These
magnificent embellishments, in extent already unitedly more
than eleven hundred miles, and by their utility swelling in
vast disproportion the value of the domain they adorn, when
regarded in connection with the body of citizens whom I
have just described, and as instruments, avenues, and outlets
for their incessant interchanges and their unlimited products,
give to the future prospects of our Commonwealth a cer-
tainty and a grandeur worthy of her history.

The destinies of states may sometimes be accurately fore-
told : the mysterious events of their coming, time taking

26

form and hue measurably from their past. In the yet on-
ward progress of this community, her virtuous impulses un-
abated, and her strength and intelligence advancing with
sure footing and unfaltering fleetness, what may she not ra-
tionally hope to attain and achieve in after ages ? In less
than a century from this date, her population, augmenting
even with diminished rate, will exceed fifteen millions — the
last ascertained number of England, to whom she bears,
indeed, a strict resemblance in the quantity of her soil, the
nature of her products, and the character of her climate.
At that epoch, science, literature, and art, in whose records
must still and forever shine the names of our Franklin and
Rittenhouse, of our Brown and Dennie, of our West and
Sully, and of our great original projectors, Fitch, Evans,
and Fulton — will have found votaries without number, and
altars every where : and then, her eastern and her western
metropolis, with a limitless range of navigation, oceanic and
inland — her northren, central, and southern cities, rich
marts of manufactures and agricultural supplies — her rural
districts studded with thriving and joyous villages — and her
copious rivers, with their bustling banks and their crowded
channels — will present an aspect of combined happiness,
power, and beauty which, under the brightening influence
of wholesome morals, just laws, and universal freedom, will
be. unsurpassed in the realities of social existence !

Let us, in remembrance of the day, superadd to these
elating and incentive reflections, that Pennsylvania is an in-
tegral and distinguished part of a national union, whose
constitution, liberty, fame, and might, are alike a glory and
a guaranty : giving to the present the utmost exultation and
to the future the utmost security.

27

Cherishing so invaluable a pohtical relation, in naany re-
spects distinct from our social attitude, we may claim to
celebrate this great anniversary with peculiar ardour. The
Fourth of July was consecrated in our capital : the Decla-
ration of Independence, matured by illustrious patriots and
sages was first greeted by shouts of acclamation from an
assemblage of Pennsylvanians : And, as the crowning trait
of her excellence, let us never forget that, in trials of pro-
tracted war, or of distracting peace, our Commonwealth with
still " unbroken faith" has steadily redeemed her high
and solemn pledge of " life, fortune, and sacred honour"
in the attainment of its aims, and in the maintenance of its
principles !

CjJSl

tit i »

]\OTE.

A LETTER FROM MR. JEFFERSON.

Th : Jefferson returns his thanks to the Board of Directors of
the Society for the commemoration of the landing of William Penn
on the American shore. He learns with sincere pleasure that a day-
will at length be annually set apart for rendering the honours so
justly due to the greatest lawgiver the world has produced ; the first
in either ancient or modern times who has laid the foundations of
government in the pure and unadulterated principles of peace, of rea-
son, and of right ; and in parallelism with whose institutions to
name the dreams of a Minos, or Solon, or the military and monkish
establishments of a Lycurgus, is truly an abandonment of all regard
to the only object of government, the happiness of man.

Monticello, Nov. 16th, 1825.

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