Part 19 (2/2)
Jefferson The country, iteither to approve, or to reprobate, indiscriate, all the measures of either, or of any, administration The dictate of reason and of justice is, that, holding each one his own sentireat men themselves in the forbearance and moderation which they have cherished, and in the mutual respect and kindness which they have been so much inclined to feel and to reciprocate
No men, fellow-citizens, ever served their country with more entire exemption from every imputation of selfish andthese proofs of respect A suspicion of any disposition to enrich themselves, or to profit by their public employments, never rested on either No sordid motive approached them The inheritance which they have left to their children is of their character and their faer by this faint and feeble tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead Even in other hands, adequate justice could not be done to thehest, their best praise, is your deep conviction of their ratitude for their labors and their services It is not my voice, it is this cessation of ordinary pursuits, this arresting of all attention, these soley Their fame, indeed, is safe
That is now treasured up beyond the reach of accident Although no sculptured raved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their re as the land they honored Marble columns may, indeed, moulder into dust, ti stone, but their fame remains; for with AMERICAN LIBERTY it rose, and with AMERICAN LIBERTY ONLY Can it perish It was the last swelling peal of yonder choir, ”THEIR BODIES ARE BURIED IN PEACE, BUT THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE” I catch that sole, I echo that lofty strain of funeral triumph, ”THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE”
Of the illustrious signers of the Declaration of Independence there now re alone on the plain, which tier after all its contemporaries have been levelled with the dust Venerable object! we delight to gather round its trunk, while yet it stands, and to dwell beneath its shadow Sole survivor of an assereat men as the world has witnessed, in a transaction one of the hts, what interesting reflections, must fill his elevated and devout soul! If he dwell on the past, how touching its recollections; if he survey the present, how happy, how joyous, how full of the fruition of that hope, which his ardent patriotislance at the future, how does the prospect of his country's advancement aluished patriot! Interesting relic of the past! Let hiet the living; and that there is not a heart here which does not fervently pray, that Heaven may keep him yet back from the society of his companions
And now, fellow-citizens, let us not retire from this occasion without a deep and solemn conviction of the duties which have devolved upon us
This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transenerations to come hold us responsible for this sacred trust Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices; posterity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes; all, all conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relation which we sustain We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us; but by virtue, by ood principle and every good habit, we h our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children Let us feel deeply how much of e are and of e possess e to this liberty, and to these institutions of governiven us a soil which yields bounteously to the hand of industry, the hty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor But what are lands, and seas, and skies, to civilized e, without ious culture; and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us, there is not one of us here present, who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience, in his own condition, and in the condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty and these institutions Let us then acknowledge the blessing, let us feel it deeply and powerfully, let us cherish a strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and perpetuate it The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain; the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted
The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the world around us, a topic to which, I fear, I advert too often, and dwell on too long, cannot be altogether omitted here Neither individuals nor nations can perform their part well, until they understand and feel its importance, and co to it
It is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell a light and ee justly of our situation, and of our own duties, that I earnestly urge upon you this consideration of our position and our character a the nations of the earth It cannot be denied, but by those ould dispute against the sun, that with America, and in America, a new era couished by free representative governious liberty, by improved systems of national intercourse, by a neakened and an unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge through the coether unknown and unheard of America, America, our country, fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably connected, fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with these great interests If they fall, we fall with them; if they stand, it will be because we have maintained them Let us contemplate, then, this connection, which binds the prosperity of others to our own; and let us e all the duties which it imposes If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and human happiness Auspicious omens cheer us Great exahtly upon our path WAshi+NGTON is in the clear, upper sky
These other stars have now joined the American constellation; they circle round their centre, and the heavens beaht
Beneath this illumination let us walk the course of life, and at its close devoutly commend our beloved country, the conity
FOOTNOTES
[67] A Discourse in Commemoration of the Lives and Services of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, on the 2d of August, 1826
[68] Hon Josiah Quincy
[69] Extract of a letter written by John Adams to Nathan Webb, dated at Worcester, Massachusetts, October 12, 1755
”Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into this New World, for conscience' sake Perhaps this apparently trivial incident reat seat of empire into America It looks likely to me; for, if we can re to the exactest computations, will, in another century, becoland itself
Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy to obtain a mastery of the seas; and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us The only way to keep us fro up for ourselves is to disunite us
”Be not surprised that I am turned politician This whole town is immersed in politics The interests of nations, and all the dira of war, make the subject of every conversation I sit and hear, and after having been led through athings together, for to myself The produce of one of these reveries you have read above”
[70] Nearly all that was known of this celebrated argument, at the time the present Discourse was delivered, was derived from the recollections of John Adams, as preserved in Minot's History of Massachusetts, Vol II p 91 See Life and Works of John Adams, Vol II p 124, published in the course of the past year (1850), in the Appendix to which, p 521, will be found a paper hitherto unpublished, containing notes of the argument of Otis, ”which seem to be the foundation of the sketch published by Minot” Tudor's Life of James Otis, p 61
[71] See Life and Works of John Adams, Vol II p 150, Vol III p
447, and North American Review, Vol LXXI p 430