THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS 27 every reason to believe that Heaven will crown with success so just a cause. The enemy will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance; but remember that they have been repulsed on various occasions by a few brave Americans. Their cause is bad—their men are conscious of it. If they are opposed with firmness and coolness on their first onset, with our advantage of works and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most assuredly ours. THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS JONATHAN MAXCY The First Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. The Rev. Jonathan Maxcy, D.D., (1768–1820), was a Baptist minister and college president. He delivered many occasional addresses and orations. A volume of his Literary Remains" was published in 1844. 66 What men, what patriots, what independent, heroic spirits!-chosen by the unbiased voice of the people; chosen, as all public servants ought to be, without favor and without fear. What an august assembly of sages! Rome, in the height of her glory, fades before it. There never was, in any age or nation, a body of men who, for general information, for the judicious use of the results of civil and political history, for eloquence and virtue, for true dignity, elevation and grandeur of soul, could stand a comparison with the first American Congress. See what the people will do when left to themselves; to their unbiased good sense, and to their true interests! The ferocious Gaul would have dropped his sword at the hall-door, and have fled thunderstruck as from an assembly of gods! Whom do I behold? A Hancock, a Jefferson, an Adams, a Henry, a Lee, a Rutledge!-Glory to their immortal spirits! On you depend the destinies of your country, the fate of three millions of men and of the countless millions of their posterity! Shall these be slaves, or will you make a noble stand for liberty, against a power whose triumphs are already coextensive with the earth; whose legions trample on thrones and sceptres; whose thunders bellow on every ocean? How tremendous the occasion! How vast the responsibility! The President and all the members of this august assembly take their seats. Every countenance tells the mighty struggle within. Every tongue is silent. It is a pause in nature, that solemn, awful stillness which precedes the earthquake and tornado! At length Demosthenes arises; he alone is adequate to the great occasion, the Virginian Demosthenes, the mighty Henry! What dignity! What majesty! Every eye fastens upon him. Firm, erect, undaunted, he rolls on the mighty torrent of his eloquence. What a picture does he draw of the horrors of servitude, and the charms of freedom! At once he gives the full rein to all his gigantic powers, and pours his own heroic spirit into the minds of his auditors; they become as one man, actuated by one soul: and the universal shout is, "Liberty or Death!" THE WORLD-WIDE FAME OF WASHINGTON 29 THE WORLD-WIDE FAME OF WASHINGTON ASHUR ROBBINS Ashur Robbins was United States Senator from Rhode Island from 1825 to 1839. He was noted as an accomplished scholar and orator. He published a number of orations and addresses. Of these, perhaps the most famous is his oration on Washington, from which the following extract is taken. It is the peculiar good fortune of this country to have given birth to a citizen, whose name everywhere produces a sentiment of regard for his country itself. In other countries, whenever and wherever this is spoken of to be praised, and with the highest praise, it is called the country of Washington. I believe there is no people, civilized or savage, in any place, however remote, where the name of Washington has not been heard, and where it is not respected with the fondest admiration. We are told that the Arab of the desert talks of Washington in his tent, and that his name is familiar to the wandering Scythian. He seems, indeed, to be the delight of human kind, as their beau-ideal of human nature. There is no American, in any part of the world, but has found the regard for himself increased by his connection with Washington, as his fellow-countryman. And who has not felt a pride, and had occasion to exult, in the fortunate connection? Half a century and more has now passed away since he came upon the stage, and his fame first broke upon the world; for it broke like the blaze of day same freshness of History will keep from the rising sun-almost as sudden, and seemingly as universal. The eventful period since that era has teemed with great men, who have crossed the scene and passed off. Still Washington retains his preëminent place in the minds of men. Still his peerless name is cherished by them in the delight as in the morn of its glory. her record of his fame; but history is not necessary to perpetuate it. In regions where history is not read, where letters are unknown, it lives, and will go down from age to age, in all future time, in their traditionary lore. Who would exchange this fame, the common inheritance of our country, for the fame of any individual, which any country of any time can boast? THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION JARED SPARKS An extract from "Remarks on American History," first published in 1837. The American Revolution was not a war of pride and ambition between monarchs, in which an island or a province might be the award of success; it was a contest for personal liberty and civil rights, coming down in its principles to the very sanctuary of home and the fireside, and determining for every man the measure of responsibility he should hold over his own condition, possessions, and happiness. The spectacle was grand and new, and may well be cited as the most glowing page in the annals of progressive man. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 31 The instructive lesson of history, teaching by example, can nowhere be studied with more profit, or with a better promise, than in this Revolutionary period of America; and especially by us, who sit under the tree our fathers have planted, enjoy its shade, and are nourished by its fruits. But little is our merit, or gain, that we applaud their deeds, unless we emulate their virtues. Love of country was in them an absorbing principle, an undivided feeling; not of a fragment, a section, but of the whole country. Union was the arch on which they raised the strong tower of a nation's independence. Let the arm be palsied that would loosen one stone in the basis of this fair structure or mar its beauty; the tongue mute that would dishonor their names by calculating the value of that which they deemed without price. They have left us an example already inscribed in the world's memory; an example portentous to the aims of tyranny in every land; an example that will console in all ages the drooping aspirations of oppressed humanity. They have left us a written charter as a legacy, and as a guide to our course. But every day convinces us that a written charter may become powerless. Ignorance may misinterpret it; ambition may assail, and faction destroy its vital parts; and aspiring knavery may at last sing its requiem on the tomb of departed liberty. It is the spirit which lives; in this is our safety and our hope; and while this dwells deeply in our remembrance, and its flame is cherished, ever burning, ever pure, on the altar of our hearts, while it incites us to think as they |