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day; and having early read the "RIGHTS OF MAN," by the IMMORTAL PAINE, I learned to consider it my duty and my privilege to embrace the truth wherever my reason found it, and fearlessly proclaim it, whether it was in harmony with, or in opposition to, orthodoxy.

Let us ever cherish the generous spirit that inspired our Great Champion of Human Rights, whose very soul could not be confined to a single state or country, but leaped over oceans to find new fields for its philanthropic emotions. Let us ever prove faithful to the trust, secured to our possession by his untiring zeal in the cause of our own glorious country, that the "CRISIS" that once tried men's souls may never again recur.

May the Sun of Liberty, whose dawn was heralded in the morn of the American Revolution by THOMAS PAINE, continue its onward march, until it shall arrive at a fixed and eternal meridian !

MUSIC.-NATIONAL AIRS, BY THE BAND.

ORATΙΟΝ.

BY T. L. NICHOLS, M.D.

MR. PRESIDENT-LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-I have accepted with pleasure and with pride, the honorable position your committee has assigned me. It might have been entrusted to one better able to do justice to the demands of this occasion; but the honor could not have been conferred upon any one who would appreciate it more highly, or who could feel more anxiety to perform worthily the sacred duty of rescuing from the darkness of ignorance, the blight of bigotry, and the calumnies of creed-bound sectarians, the fame of a man, who has done more than to "fill the measure of his country's glory;" one who has been a hero and a martyr in the cause of civil and religious liberty throughout the world.

I respond cordially, therefore, to the summons to address you on this occasion, and to the sentiments expressed in the preamble and resolutions, inviting you to join in this celebration; and I, a stranger here, congratulate you upon the liberality, freedom, and justice, which have prompted your noble response to that invitation.

I congratulate Cincinnati, Queen City of the West, that she has the mind and heart, the manly courage and nobility of soul, to render this tribute of justice to one of the great unappreciated heroes of humanity. I congratulate the Great West upon the spirit of freedom that breathes over her prairies, and flows onward with her rivers. I congratulate the country that embosoms this glorious home of plenty and of liberty. I congratulate the universal humanity that there is an America, and a Great West, and a queenly city here, and a people, so free, so intelligent, so generous and heroic, as thus to celebrate this anniversary, to vindicate the truth of history, and help to right the wrongs of half a century.

It is right, that the examples of courage, genius and philanthropy in the past, should be held in remembrance for the emulation and gratitude of the present and the future.

It is true, and it is a part of my duty to make it manifest to all who hear me, that the life and writings of THOMAS PAINE prove him to have been a hero, a philosopher, and a philanthropist, and worthy of our admiration and gratitude.

It is true, as will abundantly appear, that his eminent and unequaled services, in the cause of American Independence, and of Civil and Religious Liberty, entitle him especially to the honor and gratitude of every American; and it was, therefore, rightly and nobly resolved to celebrate, here and now, the 119th Anniversary of the Birth-day of the Author-Hero of the Revolution-the vindicator of the rights of man, and the champion of Civil and Religious Liberty, THOMAS PAINE; whose COMMON SENSE awoke the American people to the Declaration of Independence; whose CRISIS, in the times that tried men's souls, gave vigor to our arms; who asserted and defended the Principles of Republican Liberty in both hemispheres; who was the uncompromising foe of all despotisms, and the unwavering friend of Freedom and Humanity.

Most heartily do I respond to this appeal; most cheerfully will I present to you all that is needed to sustain it-the simple facts of the Life of that HONEST MAN, whose birth upon our planet was a blessing to humanity, and rendered illustrious and memorable THE

DAY WE CELEBRATE.

THOMAS PAINE, son of an English Quaker, was born at Thetford, England, January 29, 1737. A man of the people, he received only the common rudiments of an English education, and at the age of thirteen was taken from school to assist his father, in his trade of staymaker.

A desire for a more active and adventurous life led him, shortly after, to ship on board a British privateer, the celebrated ship "The Terrible," commanded by Captain Death. But his father, fearing to lose his son, and being opposed to wars, as a part of his religious faith, made such an appeal to his youthful feelings, as induced him to return home, and lay aside, for a time, his warlike and adventurous projects.

But his monotonous and distasteful labor was so ill-suited to his active spirit, that he subsequently joined the privateer, King of Prussia, and made a cruise; of the incidents of which he has left no record.

Of the heart-life of this man we have no history. There are, however, a few facts which open that life to the imagination of the sympathetic reader. He was married in 1759, at the age of 22 years, and settled at Sandwich, pursuing his trade. His wife died at the end of the first year of their marriage. In this love and this loss, we have the key to much of his later life. It was a shock from which he seems never to have recovered. If in his later years he seemed a cynic, those who have so loved and suffered, know how to forgive.

At the age of twenty-four he was appointed to a place in the excise, which he held for thirteen years. During this time he married again; but it was an unhappy marriage of convenience; or rather of duty and gratitude. He married the daughter of a deceased friend, and took charge of his family and business. This uncongenial and fruitless bond was, after a few years, severed by mutual consent. So far as is known, Paine lived through his life, like so many other human benefactors-loveless and childless. Severed from ties of family, they adopt the race, and give to humanity those talents and exertions which else might have been, more happily perhaps, but less usefully, expended in the narrow circle of a home. The ages of the past have been ages of sacrifice, and the world's saviors have borne their crosses, and their crowns have been crowns of thorns.

In 1774, at the age of 37, flying from the scene of so much unhappiness, Paine went to London. Here he turned his attention rivers. I congratulate the country that embosoms this glorious home of plenty and of liberty. I congratulate the universal humanity that there is an America, and a Great West, and a queenly city here, and a people, so free, so intelligent, so generous and heroic, as thus to celebrate this anniversary, to vindicate the truth of history, and help to right the wrongs of half a century.

It is right, that the examples of courage, genius and philanthropy in the past, should be held in remembrance for the emulation and gratitude of the present and the future.

It is true, and it is a part of my duty to make it manifest to all who hear me, that the life and writings of THOMAS PAINE prove him to have been a hero, a philosopher, and a philanthropist, and worthy of our admiration and gratitude.

It is true, as will abundantly appear, that his eminent and unequaled services, in the cause of American Independence, and of Civil and Religious Liberty, entitle him especially to the honor and gratitude of every American; and it was, therefore, rightly and nobly resolved to celebrate, here and now, the 119th Anniversary of the Birth-day of the Author-Hero of the Revolution-the vindicator of the rights of man, and the champion of Civil and Religious Liberty, THOMAS PAINE; whose COMMON SENSE awoke the American people to the Declaration of Independence; whose CRISIS, in the times that tried men's souls, gave vigor to our arms; who asserted and defended the Principles of Republican Liberty in both hemispheres; who was the uncompromising foe of all despotisms, and the unwavering friend of Freedom and Humanity.

Most heartily do I respond to this appeal; most cheerfully will I present to you all that is needed to sustain it-the simple facts of the Life of that HONEST MAN, whose birth upon our planet was a blessing to humanity, and rendered illustrious and memorable THE

DAY WE CELEBRATE.

THOMAS PAINE, son of an English Quaker, was born at Thetford, England, January 29, 1737. A man of the people, he received only the common rudiments of an English education, and at the age of thirteen was taken from school to assist his father, in his trade

maker.

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