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friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable-and let it come ! I

repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace-but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale, that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

ORATION ON THE RE-INTERMENT OF WARREN.

PEREZ MORTON.

Boston, April 8, 1776.

ILLUSTRIOUS RELICS!-What tidings from the grave? why hast thou left the peaceful mansions of that tomb, to visit again this troubled earth! art thou the welcome messenger of peace! art thou risen again to exhibit thy glorious wounds, and through them proclaim salvation to thy country! or art thou come to demand the last debt of humanity to which your rank and merit have so justly entitled you—but which has been so long ungenerously withheld! and art thou angry at the barbarous usage? be appeased sweet ghost! for though thy body has long laid undistinguished among the vulgar dead, scarce privileged with earth enough to hide it from the birds of prey; though not a friendly sigh was uttered o'er thy grave; and though the execration of an impious foe, were all thy funeral knells; yet, matchless patriot! thy memory has been embalmed in the affections of thy grateful countrymen; who, in their breasts, have raised eternal monuments to thy bravery!

But let us leave the beloved remains, and contemplate for a moment those virtues of the man, the exercise of which have so deservedly endeared him to the honest among the great, and the good among the humble.

In the private walks of life, he was a pattern for mankind. The tears of her to whom the world is indebted for so much virtue, are silent heralds of his filial piety; while his tender offspring in lisping out their

father's care, proclaim his parental affection; and an Adams can witness with how much zeal he loved, where he had formed the sacred connexion of a friend; their kindred souls were so closely twined, that both felt one joy, both one affliction. In conversation he had the happy talent of addressing his subject both to the understanding and the passions; from the one he forced conviction, from the other he stole assent.

He was blessed with a complacency of disposition and equanimity of temper, which peculiarly endeared him to his friends, and which, added to the deportment of the gentleman, commanded reverence and esteem even from his enemies.

Such was the tender sensibility of his soul, that he need but see distress to feel it, and contribute to its relief. He was deaf to the calls of interest even in the course of his profession; and wherever he beheld an indigent object, which claimed his healing skill, he administered it, without even the hope of any other reward than that which resulted from the reflection of having so far promoted the happiness of his fellow-men.

In the social departments of life, practising upon the strength of that doctrine he used so earnestly to inculcate himself, that nothing so much conduced to enlighten mankind, and advance the great end of society at large, as the frequent interchange of sentiments, in friendly meeting; we find him constantly engaged in this eligible labor; but on none did he place so high a value, as on that most honorable of all detached societies, The Free and Accepted Masons: into this fraternity he was early initiated; and after having given repeated proofs of a rapid proficiency in the arts, and after evidencing by his life, the professions of his lips-finally, as the reward of his merit, he was commissioned The Most Worshipful Grand-Master of all the ancient Masons, through North America. And you, brethren, are living testimonies, with how much honor to himself, and benefit to the craft universal, he discharged the duties of his elevated trust; with what sweetened accents he courted your attention, while, with wisdom, strength, and beauty he instructed his lodges in the secret arts of Freemasonry; what perfect order and decorum he preserved in the government of them; and, in all his conduct, what a bright example he set us, to live within compass and act upon the square.

And

With what pleasure did he silence the wants of poor and pennyless brethren; yea, the necessitous everywhere, though ignorant of the mysteries of the craft, from his benefactions, felt the happy effects of that institution which is founded on faith, hope and charity. the world may cease to wonder, that he so readily offered up his life, on the altar of his country, when they are told that the main pillar of masonry is the love of mankind.

The fates, as though they would reveal, in the person of our Grand Master, those mysteries which have so long lain hid from the

world have suffered him, like the great master-builder in the temple of old, to fall by the hands of ruffians, and be again raised in honor and authority; we searched in the field for the murdered son of a widow, and we found him, by the turf and the twig, buried on the brow of a hill, though not in a decent grave. And though we must again commit his body to the tomb, yet our breasts shall be the burying spot of his masonic virtues, and there

"An adamantine monument we'll rear,

With this inscription," Masonry "lies here."

In public life the sole object of his ambition was, to acquire the con science of virtuous enterprises; amor patrie was the spring of his actions, and mens conscia recti was his guide. And on this security he was on every occasion ready to sacrifice his health, his interest, and his ease, to the sacred calls of his country. When the liberties of America were attacked, he appeared an early champion in the contest; and though his knowledge and abilities would have insured riches and preferment (could he have stooped to prostitution) yet he nobly withstood the fascinating charm, tossed fortune back her plume, and pursued the inflexible purpose of his soul in guiltless competence. He sought not the airy honors of a name, else many of those publications which, in the early period of our controversy, served to open the minds of the people, had not appeared anonymous. In every time of eminent danger, his fellow-citizens flew to him for advice; like the orator of Athens, he gave it and dispelled their fears-twice did they call him to the rostrum to commemorate the massacre of their brethren; and from that instance, in persuasive language he taught them, not only the dangerous tendency but the actual mischief, of stationing a military force in a free city, in a time of peace. They learnt the profitable lesson and penned it among their grievances.

But his abilities were too great, his deliberations too much wanted, to be confined to the limits of a single city, and at a time when our liberties were most critically in danger from the secret machinations and open assaults of our enemies, this town, to their lasting honor, elected him to take a part in the councils of the state. And with what fathfulness he discharged the important delegation, the neglect of his private concerns, and his unwearied attendance on that betrustment, will sufficiently testify; and the records of that virtuous assembly will remain the testimonials of his accomplishments as a statesman, and his integrity and services as a patriot through all posterity.

The Congress of our colony could not observe so much virtue and greatness without honoring it with the highest mark of their favor, and by the free suffrages of that uncorrupted body of freemen he was soon called to preside in the Senate-where, by his daily counsels and exertions, he was constantly promoting the great cause of general liberty.

But when he found the tools of oppression were obstinately bent on violence; when he found the vengeance of the British court must be glutted with blood; he determined that what he could not effect by his eloquence or his pen, he would bring to purpose by his sword. And on the memorable 19th of April, he appeared in the field under the united characters of the general, the soldier, and the physician. Here he was seen animating his countrymen to battle, and fighting by their side, and there he was found administering healing comforts to the wounded. And when he had repelled the unprovoked assaults of the enemy, and had driven them back into their strongholds, like the virtuous chief of Rome, he returned to the Senate, and presided again at the councils of the fathers.

When the vanquished foe had rallied their disordered army, and by the acquisition of fresh strength, again presumed to fight against freemen, our patriot, ever anxious to be where he could do the most good, again put off the Senator, and, in contempt of danger flew to the field of battle, where after a stern, and almost victorious resistance, ah! too soon for his country! he sealed his principles with his bloodthen

"Freedom wept that merit could not save,"

But Warren's manes "must enrich the grave."

Enriched indeed! and the heights of Charlestown shall be more memorable for thy fall, than the Plains of Abraham are for that of the hero of Britain. For while he died contending for a single country, you fell in the cause of virtue and mankind.

The greatness of his soul shone even in the moment of death; for, if fame speak true, in his last agonies he met the insults of his barbarous foe with his wonted magnanimity, and with the true spirit of a soldier, frowned at their impotence."

In fine, to complete the great character-like Harrington he wrotelike Cicero he spoke-like Hampden he lived-and like Wolfe he died.

And can we, my countrymen, with indifference behold so much valor laid prostrate by the hand of British tyranny! and can we ever grasp that hand in affection again? are we not yet convinced “that he who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian, is less a savage than the king of Britain!" have we not proofs, wrote in blood, that the corrupted nation, from whence we sprang (though there may be some traces of their ancient virtue left), are stubbornly fixed on our destruction! and shall we still court a dependence on such a state? still contend for a connexion with those who have forfeited not only every kindred claim, but even their title to humanity? forbid it the spirit of the brave Montgomery! forbid it the spirit of immortal Warren! forbid it the spirits of all our valiant countrymen! who fought bled, and died for far different purposes, and who would have thought the purchase dear indeed! to have paid their lives for the paltry boon

of displacing one set of villains in power, to make way for another. No. They contended for the establishment of peace, liberty, and safety to their country; and we are unworthy to be called their countrymen, if we stop at any acquisition short of this.

Now is the happy season, to seize again those rights, which, as men, we are by nature entitled to, and which, by contract, we never have and never could have surrendered:-but which have been repeatedly and violently attacked by the king, lords and commons of Britain. Ought we not then to disclaim forever, the forfeited affinity; and by a timely amputation of that rotten limb of the empire, prevent the mortification of the whole? ought we not to listen to the voice of our slaughtered brethren, who are now proclaiming aloud to their

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Go tell the king, and tell him from our spirits,
That you and Britons can be friends no more;
Tell him, to you all tyrants are the same;
Or if in bonds, the never conquer'd soul

Can feel a pang, more keen than slavery's self,
'Tis where the chains that crush you into dust,

Are forg'd by hands, from which you hop'd for freedom.

Yes, we ought, and will-we will assert the blood of our murdered hero against thy hostile oppressions. O shameless Britain! and when thy cloud-capped towers, thy gorgeous palaces" shall, by the teeth of pride and folly, be levelled with the dust-and when thy glory shall have faded like the western sunbeam-the name and the virtues of Warren shall remain immortal.

THE OCCUPATION OF DORCHESTER HEIGHTS.
EDWARD EVERETT.

Dorchester, Mass., July 4, 1855.

But there is another circumstance which must ever clothe the occupation of Dorchester Heights with an affecting interest. It was the first great military operation of Washington in the Revolutionary war; not a battle, indeed, but the preparation for a battle on the grandest scale, planned with such skill and executed with such vigor as at once to paralyze the army and navy of the enemy and force him, without striking a blow, to an ignominious retreat. Washington was com missioned as Commander in Chief of the American armies on the day the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. The siege of Boston had been already formed; and those noble lines of circumvallation, twelve miles in compass, of which some faint remains may still be traced had been drawn along the high grounds of Charlestown, Cambridge, Roxbury, and Dorchester. An adventurous expedition against

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