AN ORATION.

THE citizens of America celebrate that day which gave birth to their liberties. The recollection of this event, replete with consequences so beneficial to mankind, swells every heart with joy, and fills every tongue with praise. We celebrate not the sanguinary exploits of a tyrant to subjugate and enslave millions of his fellow-creatures; we celebrate neither the birth nor the coronation of that phantom styled a king ;—but the resurrection of liberty, the emancipation of mankind, the regeneration of the world. These are the sources of our joy, these the causes of our triumph. We pay no homage at the tomb of kings, to sublime our feelings-we trace no line of illustrious ancestors, to support our dignity-we recur to no usages sanctioned by the authority of the great to protect our rejoicings ;-no, we love liberty, we glory in the rights of men, we glory in independence. On whatever part of God's creation a human form pines under chains, there Americans drop their tears.

A dark cloud once shaded this beautiful quarter of the globe Consternation for a while agitated the hearts of the inhabitants. War desolated our fields, and buried our vales in blood. But the day-spring from on high soon opened upon us its glittering portals. The Angel of Liberty descending, dropped on WASHINGTON'S brow the wreath of victory, and stamped on American freedom the seal of omnipotence. The darkness is past, and the

true light now shines, to enliven and rejoice mankind. We tread a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness; and view a new heaven, flaming with inextinguishable stars. Our feet will no more descend into the vale of oppressions. Our shoulders will no more bend under the weight of a foreign domination, as cruel as it was unjust. Well may we rejoice at the return of this glorious anniversary; a day dear to every American-a day to be had in everlasting remembrance-a day whose light circulates joy through the hearts of all republicans, and terror through the hearts of all tyrants.

Liberty is the birthright of man. It is coeval with his existence. It is a privilege wrought into his constitution, accommodated to his situation, and proclaimed his own by the concurrent voice of nature and reason. Who shall rob man of this privilege? It was given him by the Almighty. Man, though made free, was made to be governed by laws. These however cannot be obligatory, unless founded in reason and justice. Liberty consists not in exemption from the control of laws, but in acting according to laws; laws just and equal, established by the unanimous consent of the community.

While uncivilized man roams through the wilderness, he enjoys the liberty of nature. His bed is the earth, his canopy the sky. Uncontrolled by the force of human institutions, and unacquainted with those delicate obligations which render men slaves in the social state, he acknowledges no power but that of his own arm, and submits to no decision but that of his own will. But no sooner does the necessity of mutual relief and protection involve him in the relations of civil society, than his liberty assumes a new form; better accommodated to his capacity, because more limited; more useful, because subjected to the laws of order. This new situation of man originates a multiplicity of rights, obligations and duties. To secure him in the peaceful and inviolate enjoyment of the first, to stimulate and compel him to the punctual and invariable performance of the last, these are the highest objects of civil government. That system of administration under whose operation these objects are most expeditiously obtained, and most permanently secured must be deemed the most perfect. The more effectually the

persons of men are guarded from injury, and their property from unjust spoliation, the less will they be liable to contention, more happy at home, more happy abroad; more humane, just and benevolent; more industrious, wealthy, virtuous and enlightened. What then must be our opinion of that system of politics adopted and pursued by the founders of all despotic monarchies? What incomparable lessons of wisdom would they inculcate upon us? They teach us, by their doctrine and practice, that millions are created for the use and pleasure of an individual, who is amenable to no human tribunal; who can infringe the rights, dispose of the property and destroy the lives of his subjects. Sentiments these, which sap the foundation of that great political maxim, that the safety and happiness of the community are the highest ends of civil government. Had mankind known, that there was but one being in the universe of sufficient wisdom and goodness to be invested with unlimited power, they never would have submitted to dominion founded in usurpation, supported by cruelty, and administered by injustice. The first object of men in the career of ambition, is to render themselves independent; the second to subject and oppress others. Monarchical governments, however limited, have never secured to the people the enjoyment of their rights. A crown, it has been said, is too splendid a price to be conferred on merit. If so, surely it is too splendid a price to glitter on the head of arrogance, or hereditary folly. The ambition of kings has never known any limits. Dazzled by the splendor of crowns, and infatuated by the possession of supreme power; flattered on every side by the servile compliance of courtiers, and deluded into a belief that the determinations of their own wills ought to be inviolable laws of conduct for their subjects, they have fancied themselves the vicegerents of God, born and designed for no end but the exercise of unbounded authority. Rapacious of wealth, and ambitious of power, they have never failed to encroach on those intermediate authorities constituted by the people, and designed by them as an impregnable barrier against regal invasion.

Aristocratical governments, though they may be more favorable than monarchical to the peace and security of the people,

yet they do not secure those important objects which ought ever to be kept in view in all systems of civil policy. When the supreme power is vested in a number, the chance for wisdom, virtue, and impartial administration of justice, is greater than when the supreme power is vested in an individual. This may be expected to be the case, when the members succeed to their places by some possessions, qualifications or inheritance. But the advantages accruing to government from that wisdom and experience which are to be expected in a permanent council, will be counterbalanced by the evils of dissension unavoidable among men invested with equal power; men whose privileges. will render them oppressive, and whose ambition, unawed by a superior, will hurry on their passions to the most desperate extremes. Deplorable indeed must be the situation of a people, whose rights are perpetually exposed to the capricious insolence of combined aristocratical power. Prudence would dictate the sufferance of one, rather than a thousand tyrants; but reason and common sense forbid the sufferance of any.

If we would secure the interest and tranquility of a community, we must have recourse to some form of government, where the supreme power is collected, lodged and preserved by the voluntary choice of the people. When this is the case, civil liberty, secure from the grasp of a despotic tyrant, and the ambitious pretensions of a haughty nobility, will exist in the greatest perfection, and diffuse its salutary influence through the whole circle of society. Man, in a state of improvement, subjected to the regulations of political administration, must relinquish so much of his natural liberty as is inconsistent with the good of the community. He must not consult and gratify private inclination at the expense of the public. He must not indulge a haughty spirit of self-direction and independency, but cheerfully submit to the control of just and equal laws. In doing this, he secures and enjoys the only liberty desirable in any state but that of solitude. Did all the members of society indulge their own dispositions, aim at their own objects, and gratify their own passions, without any regard to the consistency of their conduct with the general interest, they would be involved in so many difficulties, from a mutual interference of private

pursuits, that they would enjoy but a small share of that liberty and happiness which are secured by submission to good government. The condition of men, their connexions and dependencies in civil society, are such, that all laws ought to be deemed salutary and just, which restrain the will and curtail the liberty of each individual, whenever the indulgence of that will and the enjoyment of that liberty, would contravene the operation of those means instituted for the security of public happiness. Union of men in society, of necessity diminishes their natural liberty. But each one ought to consider, that he gains vastly more by the diminution of other men's liberty, than he loses by the diminution of his own. In every species of civil government, there exists a supreme power, from which there is no appeal. The rights of the people will be most effectually secured, where this power is deposited and restricted in such a manner, as to afford no prospect of success to ambitious, designing men. This end is obtained with greater ease and certainty in a republic than in any other government. The first principle of genuine republicanism is, that all men, as to rights, are equal. From this plain undeniable position it follows, that all power not originating in the consent of the people; all power not exercised according to their direction, and subjected to their control, is usurpation, injustice and tyranny. If an enlightened nation cannot enjoy happiness under a government formed and administered by her own consent, she never can under any. If under a monarchy men are liable to oppression, exaction, and military domination; if they are liable at all times to be involved in unnecessary wars, to gratify the caprice of the reigning prince, or a favorite minister; if they are constantly liable to insecurity of their persons and property, through the instability or deficiency of salutary regulations; if under an aristocracy men are liable to suffer the pernicious effects of combined ambition, or the horrors of dissension, among the rulers clothed with equal authority; if men are liable to these things, it is because they are deprived of their rights by privileged orders, and subjected to the control of laws enacted and enforced without their consent. All the inconveniences resulting from arbitrary power lodged in the hands of an individual, or of a number, are obviated by the