classic mythology; and the Christian virtues, more lovely than the muses of Grecian song, would adorn each heart, beautify each face, beam out from each eye; Paradise would almost be restored to earth, and God would again come down in the cool of the day to walk with redeemed and sanctified men. THE FIRST GUN OF FREEDOM.-EVERETT. On the 19th of April the all-important blow was struck-the blow which severed the fated chain whose every link was bolted by an act of parliament, whose every rivet was closed up by an order in council, which bound to the wake of Europe, the brave bark of our youthful fortune, destined henceforth and for ever to ride the waves alone-the blow which severed the fated chain was struck. The blow was struck which will be felt in its consequence to ourselves and the family of nations till the seventh seal is broken upon the apocalyptic volume of the history of empires. The consummation of four centuries was completed. The life-long hopes and heart-sick visions of Columbus, poorly fulfilled in the subjugation of the plumed tribes of a few tropical islands and the distant glimpse of a continent, cruelly mocked by the fetters placed upon his noble limbs by his own menial, and which he carried with him into his grave, are at length more than fulfilled, when the new world of his discovery put on the sovereign robes of her separate national existence, and joined the great Panathenaic procession of the nations. The wrongs of generations were redressed. The cup of humiliation drained to the dregs by the old Puritan confessors and non-conformist victims of oppression; loathsome prisons; blasted fortune; lips forbidden to open in prayer; earth and water denied in their pleasant native land; the separations and sorrow of exile; the sounding perils of the ocean; the scented hedgerows and vocal thickets of the “old countrie" exchanged for the pathless wilderness ringing with the war-whoop and gleaming with the scalping-knife; the secular insolence of colonial rule, checked by no periodical recurrence to the public will; governors appointed on the other side of the globe that knew not Joseph; the patronizing disdain of undelegated power; the legal contumely of foreign law, wanting the first element of obligations, the consent of the governed expressed by his authorized representative; and at length the last unutterable and burning affront and shame, a mercenary soldiery encamped upon the fair eminences of our cities; ships of war with springs on their cables moored in front of our crowded quays; artillery planted open-mouthed in our principal streets, at the doors of our Houses of Assembly, their morning and evening salvos proclaiming to the rising and setting sun that we are the subjects and they the lords,—all these phantoms of the long colonial night swept off by the first sharp volley on Lexington green. WASHINGTON-CHARLES PHILLIPS. It is the custom of your board, and a noble one it is, to deck the cup of the gay with the garland of the great; and surely, even in the eyes of its deity, his grape is not the less lovely when glowing beneath the foliage of the palm-tree and the myrtle. Allow me to add one flower to the chaplet, which, though it sprang in America, is no exotic. Virtue planted it, and it is naturalized everywhere. I see you anticipate me—I see you concur with me, that it matters very little what immediate spot may be the birth place of such a man as WASHINGTON. No people can claim, no country can appropriate him; the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared; how bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet which it revealed to us ! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances no doubt there were; splendid exemplifications of some single qualification. Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely chef d'œuvre of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. As a general, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman he almost added the character of the sage! a conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might have doubted what station to assign him, whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land he might be almost said to have created? "How shall we rank thee upon glory's page, Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage; Far less than all thou hast forborne to be!" Such, sir, is the testimony of one not to be accused of partiality in his estimate of America. Happy, proud America! the lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism! THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON.-CHOATE. THE birthday of the "Father of his Country!" May it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts. May it ever reawaken in them a filial veneration for his memory; ever rekindle the fires of patriotic regard to the country which he loved so well; to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy, during the perilous period of the early Indian warfare; to which he devoted his life, in the maturity of his powers, in the field; to which, again, he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his experience, as president of the convention that framed our constitution; which he guided and directed while in the chair of state, and for which the last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up, when it came the moment for him so well, and so grandly, and so calmly to die. He was the first man of the time in which he grew. His memory is first and most sacred in our love; and ever, hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and might. Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one vast felicity which no man can share with him. It was the daily beauty and towering and matchless glory of his life, which enabled him to create his country, and, at the same time, secure an undying love and regard from the whole American people. "The first in the hearts of his countrymen !" Yes, first! He has our first and most fervent love. Undoubtedly there were brave, and wise, and good men before his day in every colony. But the American nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774. And the first love of that young America was Washington. The first word she lisped was his name. Her earliest breath spoke it. It still is her proud ejaculation, and it will be the last gasp of her expiring life. Yes, others of our great men have been appreciated-many admired by all. But him we love. Him we all love. About and around him we call up no dissentient, and discordant, and dissatisfied elements-no sectional prejudice nor bias-no party, no creed, no dogma of politics. None of these shall assail him. Yes, when the storm of battle blows darkest and rages highest, the memory of Washington shall nerve every American arm, and cheer every American heart. It shall relume that Promethean fire, that sublime flame of patriotism, that devoted love of country, which his words have commended, which his example has consecrated. "Where may the wearied eye repose, When gazing on the great, Where neither guilty glory glows, Nor despicable state? Whom envy dared not hate, To make man blush there was but one." THE OBSTACLES TO CHRISTIANITY.-COLWell. We believe that the outward manifestations of Christianity do not keep up with the circumstances of the age in which we live, nor with its intelligence; and, above all, they do not correspond to the opportunities and privileges of the land in which we live. In every age since the Christian era, and in every country, there have been circumstances, external or internal, in the condition of the people, which have prevented the free expansion and proper growth of Christianity. Sometimes it has been a defective ecclesiastical system, sometimes the repressive character of the temporal governments and the superstition or improper education of the people; but now, at this day and in this country, the Christian-whether statesman, man of science, or philosopher-may look in what direction and pursue what line of inquiry, religious or social, he pleases, when he is considering how he can most promote the interests of Christianity and the temporal well-being of his fellow-men. |