RETURN OF BRITISH FUGITIVES ADVOCATED.

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To whom then rather than to yourselves, who are called to the guardianship and sovereignty of your country, can these considerations be addressed? Joint laborers, as we are, in the work of independence, duty impels us to admonish you of the crisis. We possess no funds which do not originate with you. We can command no levies which are not raised under your acts. How shall we acquit ourselves to the world, should peace, towards the acquisition of which so illustrious a point hath been gained, now escape our embraces, by the inadequacy of our army, or our treasure? An appeal to this exposition of our affairs will demonstrate our watchfulness of your happiness.

We conjure you to remember what confidence we shall establish in the breast of that great monarch who has become a party in our political welfare, by a bold, energetic display of our ability.

We, therefore, trust in your attention and zeal to avail yourselves, at this important crisis, of the glorious advantages lately obtained, by a full compliance with these requisitions of men and money which we have made to you, and the necessity of which hath been pointed out to us by the maturest consideration on the present circumstances of these United States.

Ex. LXXVIII.—RETURN OF BRITISH FUGITIVES ADVOCATED.

Speech in Congress, 1782.

PATRICK HENRY.

I VENTURE to prophesy that there are now those living who will see this favored land amongst the most powerful on earth―able, Sir, to take care of herself, without resorting to that policy, which is always so dangerous, though sometimes unavoidable, of calling in foreign aid. Yes, Sir, they will see her great in arts and arms-her golden harvests waving over fields of immeasurable extent, her commerce penetrating the most distant seas, and her cannon silencing the vain boasts of those who now proudly affect to rule the waves. But, Sir, you must have men-you can not get along without them. Those heavy forests of valuable timber, under which your lands are groaning, must be cleared away.

Those vast riches which cover the face of your soil, as well as those that lie hid in its bosom, are to be developed and gathered only by the skill and enterprise of men. Your timber, Sir, must be worked up into ships, to transport the productions of the soil from which it has been cleared. Then, you must have commercial men and commercial capital, to take off your productions, and find the best markets for them abroad. Your great want, Sir, is the want of men; and these you must have, and will have speedily, if you are wise.

Do you ask how you are to get them? Open your doors, Sir, and they will come in!, The population of the Old World is full to overflowing. That population is ground, too, by the oppressions of the governments under which they live. Sir, they are already standing on tip-toe on their native shores, and looking to your coasts with a wistful and longing eye. They see here a land blessed with natural and political advantages, which are not equalled by those of any other country upon earth; a land on which a gracious Providence hath emptied the horn of abundance-a land over which Peace hath now stretched forth her white wings, and where Content and Plenty lie down at every door.

Sir, they see something still more attractive than all this. They see a land in which Liberty hath taken up her abodethat Liberty whom they had considered as a fabled goddess, existing only in the fancies of poets. They see her here a real divinity-her altars rising on every hand, throughout these happy States; her glories chanted by three millions of tongues, and the whole region smiling under her blessed influence. Sir, let but this, our celestial goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair hand toward the people of the Oid World-tell them to come, and bid them welcome and you will see them pouring in from the North, from the South, from the East, and from the West. Your wildernesses will be cleared and settled, your deserts will smile, your ranks will be filled, and you will soon be in a condition to defy the power of any adversary.

But gentlemen object to any accession from Great Britain, and particularly to the return of the British refugees. Sir, I feel no objection to the return of these deluded people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own interests most wofully; and most wofully have they suffered the punishment due to their offences. But the relations which we bear to them, and to their native country, are now changed. Their

King hath acknowledged our independence; the quarrel is over, peace hath returned and found us a free people. Let us have the magnanimity, Sir, to lay aside our antipathies and prejudices, and consider the subject in a political light.

Those are an enterprising, moneyed people. They will be serviceable in taking off the surplus produce of our lands, and supplying us with necessaries, during the infant state of our manufactures. Even if they be inimical, in point of feeling and principle, I can see no objection, in a political view, in making them tributary to our advantage. And, as I have no prejudices to prevent my making this use of them, so, Sir, I have no fear of any mischief that they can do us. Afraid of them! What, Sir, shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, now be afraid of his whelps?

Ex. LXXIX.-ELECTION SERMON.

Delivered before the Connecticut Legislature, May, 1783.

DR. STILES.

WHILE we render our supreme honors to the Most High, the God of armies, let us recollect, with affectionate honor, the bold and brave sons of freedom, who willingly offered themselves, and bled in the defence of their country. Our fellow-citizens, the officers and soldiers of the patriot army, who, with other gallant commanders and brave seamen of the American navy, have heroically fought by sea and by land, merit of their once bleeding but now triumphant country, laurels, crowns, rewards, and the highest honors. Never was the profession of arms used with more glory, or in a better cause, since the days of Joshua the son of Nun.

O Washington! how do I love thy name! how often have I adored and blessed thy God, for creating and forming thee, the great ornament of human kind! Upheld and protected by the Omnipotent, by the Lord of Hosts, thou hast been sustained and carried through one of the most arduous and important wars in all history. The world and posterity will, with admiration, contemplate thy deliberate, cool, and stable judgment, thy virtues, thy valor and heroic achievements, as far surpassing those of Cyrus, whom the world * President of Yale College.

loved and adored. The sound of thy fame shall go out into all the earth, and extend to distant ages. Thou hast convinced the world of the beauty of virtue-for in thee this beauty shines with distinguished lustre. There is a glory in thy disinterested benevolence, which the greatest characters would purchase, if possible, at the expense of worlds, and which may indeed excite their emulation, but can not be felt by the venal great-those who think everything, even virtue and true glory, may be bought and sold, and trace our every action to motives terminating in self

"Find Virtue local, all relation scorn,

See all in self, and but for self be born."

But thou, O Washington! forgottest thyself when thou lovedst thy bleeding country. Not all the gold of Ophir, nor a world filled with rubies and diamonds, could affect or purchase the sublime and noble feelings of thy heart in that single self-moved act, when thou didst deliberately cast the die for the dubious, the very dubious alternative of a gibbet or a triumphal arch! But, beloved, enshielded and blessed by the great Melchisedec, the king of righteousness as well as peace, thou hast triumphed gloriously. Such has been thy military wisdom in the struggles of this arduous conflict, such the noble rectitude of thy character; something is there so singularly glorious and venerable thrown by Heaven about thee, that not only does thy country love thee, but our very enemies stop the madness of their fire in full volley, stop the illiberality of their slander, at thy name, as if rebuked from Heaven with "Touch not mine anointed, and do my HERO no harm." Thy fame is of sweeter perfume than Arabian spices in the gardens of Persia. A Baron de Steuben shall waft its fragrance to the monarch of Prussiaa Marquis de La Fayette shall bear it to a much greater monarch, and diffuse thy renown throughout Europe. Listening angels shall catch the odor, waft it to heaven, and perfume the universe.

ADDRESS.

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Ex. LXXX.-ADDRESS

To the Officers of the Army on an insidious attempt to seduce them from their allegiance to their country, in 1783.

GENTLEMEN: If my conduct heretofore has not evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time would be equally unavailing and improper. But as I was among the first who embarked in the cause of our common country, as I have never left your side for one moment but when called from you on public duty; as I have been the constant companion and witness of your distresses, and not among the last to feel and acknowledge your merits; as I have ever considered my own military reputation as inseparably connected with that of the army, and my heart has ever expanded with joy when I heard its praises, and my indignation has arisen when the mouth of detraction has been opened against it, it can scarcely be supposed, at this last stage of the war, that I am indifferent to its interests.

With respect to the advice given by the author, to suspect the man who shall recommend longer moderation and forbearance, I spurn it, as every man, who regards that liberty, and reveres that justice for which we contend, undoubtedly must; for if a man is to be precluded from offering his sentiments on a matter which may involve the destiny of our country, reason is of no use to us. I cannot, in justice to my own belief, conclude this address without giving it as

*Towards the close of the war, great dissatisfaction arose among the offi cers of the army on the subject of their pay, and these discontents being artfully inflamed by interested persons, a meeting was called to consider their grievances, which might have resulted in open mutiny had not Washington's wise and conciliatory measures prevented. He denounced the anonymous call for a meeting as irregular, but appointed a meeting himself, for an earlier day, at which the matter should be considered. The officers being assembled at this time, he entered the room, with the above address in his hand, prepared to read to them. As he looked around upon his companions in arms, his feelings overcame him, his eyes grew dim, and he could not see to read his notes. Recovering himself, he took his glasses from his pocket, and said quietly, "I have grown gray in your service, and now I am growing blind, but I never doubted the justice of my country, or its gratitude." He then read his address; no reply was made to it, but, after he had left the room, resolutions were passed which entirely counteracted the effect of the mutinous conspiracy, and shortly afterward the news of a glorious peace set the matter permanently at rest.