ducted by men like Washington and his patriotic associates, whose prudence, patriotism, probity, and disinterestedness conducted our Revolution to an auspicious and honorable result!

But it is, of course, at home that we must look for an adequate appreciation of our Washington's services and worth. He is the friend of the liberties of other countries; he is the father of his own. I own, Mr. Mayor, that it has been to me a source of inexpressible satisfaction to find, amidst all the bitter dissensions of the day, that this one grand sentiment, veneration for the name of Washington, is buried -no, planted-down in the very depths of the American heart. It has been my privilege, within the last two years, to hold it up to the reverent contemplation of my countrymen, from the banks of the Penobscot to the banks of the Savannah, from New York to St. Louis, from Chesapeake Bay to Lake Michigan; and the same sentiments, expressed in the same words, have everywhere touched a sympathetic chord in the American heart.

To that central attraction I have been delighted to find that the thoughts, the affections, the memories of the people, in whatever part of the country, from the ocean to the prairies of the West, from the land of granite and ice to the land of the palmetto and the magnolia, instinctively turn. They have their sectional loves and hatreds, but before the dear name of Washington they are all absorbed and forgotten. In whatever region of the country, the heart of patriotism warms to him; as in the starry heavens, with the circling of the seasons, the pointers go round the sphere, but their direction is ever toward the pole. They may point from the east, they may point from the west, but they will point to the northern star. It is not the brightest luminary in the heavens, as men account brightness, but it is always in its place. The meteor, kindled into momentary blaze from the rank vapors of the lower sky, is brighter. The comet is brighter that streams across the firmament,

"and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war."

But the meteor explodes; the comet rushes back to the depths of the heavens; while the load-star shines steady at the pole, alike in summer and in winter, in seed-time and in harvest, at the equinox and the solstice. It shone for Columbus at the discovery of America; it shone for the pioneers of settlement, the pilgrims of faith and hope, at Jamestown and Plymouth; it will shine for the mariner who shall enter your harbor to-night; it will shine for the navies which shall bear the sleeping thunders of your power, while the flag of the Union shall brave the battle and the breeze. So, too, the character, the counsels, the example of our Washington, of which you bid me speak; they guided our fathers through the storms of the Revolution; they will guide us through the doubts and difficulties that beset us; they will guide our children and our children's children in the paths of prosperity and peace, while America shall hold her place in the family

of nations.

THE FOURTH OF JULY.*

SIR,

I AM greatly indebted to you and the company for this most flattering reception. My attendance of late years has seldom been given on occasions of this kind, and could not with consistency have been given at this banquet, had not your obliging invitation contained the assurance, that you proposed to celebrate the Fourth of July "in a national spirit, excluding every thing of a political or partisan character." As long as I was in public life, I was a member, as you know, sir, of that old Whig party to which you have referred the national Whig party; a political association, I am sure you will grant, of which no one need be ashamed. The prostration of my health compelled me, four years ago, to resign the honorable post which I then filled in the public service. Since that period new parties have been formed; old ones have either retired for a while, at least, from the field, or have been forced in some degree on new issues; and if I felt the slightest inclination (which I do not), with the partial restoration of my health, to return to public life, I should be deterred from it by the fact, that, between the extremes of opinion which distract and threaten to convulse the country, I find no middle path of practical usefulness which a friend of moderate counsels is permitted to pursue. Statesmanship, as it was understood in my younger days, that is, the study of the foreign relations of the country, its defences, naval and

☛ A speech made in response to the toast "The day we celebrate," at a dinner given in Boston, by the Young Men's Democratic Club, on Monday, the 5th of July, 1858, William Williamson, Esq., in the chair.

military, its currency and finances, its internal improvements, its great industrial interests, and the relations of the government to the Indian tribes, has nearly become an obsolete idea, and our political life has assumed almost exclusively the form of sectional agitation. Into that dreary agitation, perilous to the country and profitless except for personal aggrandizement, I have no heart to enter.

Justified by the character of your celebration, I have yielded without scruple to the wish-rather I have found myself as little able as desirous to resist the all-powerful temptation of listening to the great living master of American oratory (I am glad on one account that he has retired from the table, as I can speak with greater freedom what I think and feel), on an occasion and upon a theme not unworthy the energies of his intellect nor below the flight of his eloquence. And, sir, I will say, if the pure and exalted principles of nationality which he has this day unfolded and illustrated, under your auspices, are a faithful exposition of democratic doctrine, then I must be permitted to share the satisfaction of the worthy gentleman in Molière's play, at finding greatly to his astonishment and delight that he had been speaking prose all his life. The great founder of the democratic party, Mr. Jefferson, in his inaugural address on the 4th of March, 1801, said, "we have called by different names brethren of one principle; we are all federalists, we are all republicans." If the orator of the day, to whom we have all listened with such admiration, has truly expounded the principles of your association and your party, I think we must say, with still stronger emphasis, “We have called by different names brethren of the same principle; we are all whigs, we are all democrats."

For myself, sir, standing aloof from public life and from all the existing party organizations, I can truly say that I have never listened to an exposition of political principle with higher satisfaction. I heard the late Mr. Samuel Rogers, the venerable banker poet of London, more than once relate that he was present on the 10th of December, 1790, when Sir Joshua Reynolds delivered the last of his discourses before

the Royal Academy of Art. Edmund Burke was also one. of the audience; and at the close of the lecture, Mr. Rogers saw him go up to Sir Joshua, and heard him say, in the fulness of his delight, in the words of Milton

"The angel ended, and in Adam's ear,

So charming left his voice, that he awhile.

Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear."

When our friend concluded his superb oration this morning, I was ready, like Mr. Cruger (who stood with Burke for the representation of Bristol), "to say ditto to Mr. Burke." I was unwilling to believe that the noble strain, by turns persuasive, melting, and sublime, had ended. The music of the voice still dwelt upon my ear; the lofty train of thought elevated and braced my understanding; the generous sentiments filled my bosom with delight, as the peal of a magnificent organ, touched by the master's hand, thrills the nerves with rapture and causes even the vaulted roof to vibrate in unison. The charmed silence seemed for a while to prolong the charming strain, and it was some moments before I was willing to admit that the stops were closed and the keys hushed.

You have done, sir, a real service to the community — to the whole country — by this day's work and in the measures taken by you to celebrate the day "in a national spirit, excluding every thing of a political or partisan tendency." Would to Heaven that we could all carry this spirit, not merely to the patriotic celebration of this day, but to the discharge of all our civil and public duties, and especially of the duties which pertain to the organization of the government and the political life and action of the State! Would that the spirit of a pure nationality, such as this day has been described to us, embracing the whole country in the arms of a living and loving patriotism, might take the place of the intense local feelings which so extensively prevail, and lead the citizens of the different sections of the country to regard each other with distrust, jealousy, and hatred!

These are the feelings against which we are so emphati