man here, who would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you, that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces, raised, or to be raised, for the defence of American liberty, may my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I hesitate or waver, in the support I give him. The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And, if the war must go on, why put off longer the declaration of independence? That measure will strengthen us: it will give us character abroad. The nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves subjects, in arms against our sovereign. Nay, I maintain that England, herself, will sooner treat for peace with us on the footing of independence, than consent, by repealing her acts, to acknowledge, that her whole conduct towards us has been a course of injustice and oppression. Her pride will be less wounded, by submitting to that course of things which now predestinates our independence, than by yielding the points in controversy to her rebellious subjects. The former she would regard as the result of fortune; the latter she would feel as her own deep disgrace. Why then, why then, sir, do we not, as soon as possible, change this from a civil to a national war? And since we must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory? If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the people of these colonies, and I know, that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honour. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunkerhill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord,-and the very walls will cry out in its support. Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs; but I see, I see clearly through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time, when this declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. But, whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honour it. They will celebrate it, with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I begun, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the bles sing of God it shall be my dving sentiment 1 THE ACADEMICAL SPEAKER. 139 COUNSEL OF AHITHOPHEL TO ABSALOM.-Hillhouse. to-day, MY LORD, You know them not-you wear, Or blast, like Him who rent the waters, clave While David's locks are naked to the night dew? COUNSEL OF HUSHAI.-Hillhouse. I LISTEN to my lord Ahithophel, But what he urges much alarms my fears. Old in the field, hardened to danger, skilled More welcome than the day. Each mountain path Will be his bed to-night. No hunter knows Like him, the caverns, cliffs, and treacherous passes; As' twixt the Court and Tabernacle! What! Rising against the strong? Beware of him by night, Surprisal. While we talk, they lurk in ambush, And those blood-thirsty Gittites crouch around him, And they, the mighty three, who broke the host Whose bloody weapons never struck but triumphed. Go not to-night, but summon, with the dawn, And go, their strength, their glory, and their king, Can then resist thee? Light upon this handful, Croly. Or all the sights that nature offers to the eye and mind of man, mountains have always stirred my strongest feelings. I have seen the Ocean, when it was turned up from sands uttering cries of horrour and paralysed by fear, have contemplated the sandy pillars, coming like the advance of some gigantic city of conflagration flying across the wilderness, every column glowing with intense fire, and every blast death; the sky vaulted with gloom, the earth a furnace. But with me, the mountain-in tempest or in calm, the throne of the thunder, or with the evening sun painting its dells and declivities in colours dipt in heaven-has been the source of the most absorbing sensations.-There stands magnitude, giving the instant impression of a power above man-grandeur, that defies decay-antiquity, that tells of ages unnumbered-beauty, that the touch of time makes only more beautiful-use, exhaustless for the service of man -strength, imperishable as the globe;—the monument of eternity, the truest earthly emblem of that ever-living, unchangeable, irresistible Majesty, by whom and for whom all things were made! SPEECH OF RAAB KIUPRILI.-Coleridge. HEAR me, Assembled lords and warriors of Illyria, Or one false whisper in his sovereign's ear? A bought-bribed wretch, who, being called my son, And to the common father of his country A recreant ingrate! What means this clamour? Are these madmen's voices? Or is some knot of riotous slanderers leagued To infamize the name of the king's brother |