be the guide of senates; Livingston, the head of the tribunals of his great State,-joint negotiator of the treaty which added half the North American continent, under the name of Louisiana, to the Union; the confidential friend and partner of Fulton in the creation of steam navigation.

And then the grandeur of the event itself; the stupendous magnitude of the political system then inaugurated. Oh that with a comprehensive grasp of the plan of Providence, with a patient foresight of the impending future, we could reverently ascend the Mount of Vision, and behold in the kindling promise of the dawn, the brightness of the coming glories! The meridian splendors of that coming day I attempt not to sketch; but let us endeavor at least to form some conception of the country, to which this morning's sun proclaimed a patriotic holiday; so vast, so widely though so recently settled-east, west, north, and south; the differences of local position, maritime and inland, alluvial plain, hills propped with eternal buttresses of iron and granite, central prairie with its inexhaustible depths of vegetable mould,— lakes that rival oceans, rivers that stretch from the polar circle to the tropics,-every growth that clothes the soil, every metal concealed in its bosom, -the endless variety of occupation and pursuit clustering round so many centres of local power, recognized and organized by the curious adjustments of our political system, — but throughout this vast extent and above the attractions and repulsions, the affinities and antagonisms of the land, this morning's sun proclaimed a holiday of peace and love. And as the local memories this. day revive throughout the Union, let the all-absorbing interest of the great Declaration mould them into patriotic unity; so that all the cherished traditions of every part of the country may be woven and twisted into a bright cord of mutual goodwill, to which every honored name, and every sacred spot, and every memorable deed shall add its golden and silver thread; and Jamestown and Plymouth, and Bunker Hill and King's Mountain, and Warren and Washington, with all the other precious memories of ancient and modern

times, and all of either sex who have meekly suffered or bravely dared, in whatever part of our common country, shall this day be gratefully enshrined in the American heart of hearts.

Sir, I have lately seen much of this noble country, and I have learned, as I have seen it more, to love it better; the enterprising, ingenious, and indomitable North; the substantial and magnificent Central States, the great balance-wheel of the system; the youthful, rapidly expanding, and almost boundless West; the ardent, genial, and hospitable South, I have traversed them all. I leave to others, at home or abroad, to vilify them in whole or in part; I shall not follow the example. They have all their faults, for they are inhabited not by angels, but by human beings; but it would be well, in the language of President Kirkland, for those "who rebuke their brethren for the faults of men, not to display themselves the passions of demons." For myself, I have found in every part of the country generous traits of character, vast and well-understood capacities of progress, and hopeful auguries of good; and taken in the aggregate, it is the abode of a population as intelligent, as prosperous, as moral and as religious as any to be found on the surface of the globe. There is one little corner of each which I should like to annihilate; if I could wield a magician's wand, I would sink it to the centre. Its name is Buncombe; not the respectable county of that name in North Carolina, against which I have nothing to say, but a pestilent little political electioneering Buncombe in every State and every district, which is the prolific source of most of our troubles. If we could get rid, sir, of Buncombe, and if we could bring back the harmony which reigned on the day which we celebrate and the days which preceded and followed it, when Massachusetts summoned Washington to lead the armies of New England; when Virginia and Carolina sent their supplies of corn and of rice to feed their famished brethren in Boston; when Jefferson and Adams joined hands to draft the great Declaration - if I could live to see that happy day, I would upon

my honor, go to my grave as cheerfully as the tired and. contented laborer goes to his nightly rest. I shall, in the course of nature, go to it before long, at any rate, and I wish no other epitaph to be placed upon it than this: "Through evil report and through good report, he loved his whole country."

[NOTE.-In referring to the Index, the convenience of the reader will be facili-
tated by noting that in many of the larger Biographical and Historical articles (see
WASHINGTON, George; Webster, Daniel; Africa; Europe), the arrange-
ment is chronological. In cases where the article has been treated at considerable
length and with minuteness (see America; France; Great Britain; Greece; Rome;
United States), a Subordinate Index has been adopted.]