CHARACTER

OF REV. JOSEPH

EMERSON. 337

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redeeming influence in the church and in the world influence which lives and acts while he sleeps ence which is no small item in that great amount of influence, which is, under God, to renovate the world. Already does it clearly appear, that wise was that providence, in the failure of his health, which drove him from the ministry to the employment of a teacher of the young.

It was rational to expect, that such a man would have a calm and peaceful death. His was indeed of this character. Persuaded, months before his exit, that the time of his departure drew near, he set his house in order and prepared for the last. Uniformly was he composed. Uniformly did. he abound in counsel, admonition, and conversation fitted to his dying condition., In much that he said, his heart was full, his language strong, and his very countenance expressive. He said to myself, "I have always in my life had fears of death and a dread of the grave, but both are now gone." To the remark, “God renders your passage to the grave pleasant," he replied, "I fear too pleasant; there is nothing but pleasantness in it." To two brethren in the ministry, he said: "The ministry never appeared to me before so important and glorious. Be faithful, brethren, in your great work. I trust I am going upward; in a little while one of you will be called upward; and the other, not long after. The reward is glorious." To the inquiry, "How do you feel to-day, Sir?" he replied, "I feel as though I had been in heaven for two days." When told he had been enabled to do much for Christ, he answered, "That is too strong; compared with those who have done nothing, I have done a good deal." He spoke with rapture of the certainty and glory of the millennium, and rejoiced in view of the advance of Christ's kingdom, since he came upon the stage. In a word, the Rev. Joseph Emerson was in life a rare instance of one, who in the view of observers did no evil, and great good with all his might. His end was full of heaven and immortality. Though dead, he yet speaketh.

THE HEROES OF THE REVOLUTION.

SUGGESTED BY THE DEATH OF GEN. PIERCE.

BY MRS. EUNICE

T.

DANIELS.

A NOBLE race they were, the tried
And true of olden time;

Our glorious sires who bled and died
For this our own free clime;

Oh! hallowed be each sacred name,
That fearless to the conflict came,

And freely on the battle plain

Poured out their blood like drops of rain.

Few are the sculptured gifts of art,

A nation's love to tell;

And many a brave and gallant heart
Hath mouldered where it fell;
The spiry maize luxuriant waves
Its long green leaves o'er heroes' graves,
And thoughtless swains the harvest reap
Where our stern fathers' ashes sleep!

But after years the tale shall tell,
In words of light revealed,
Who bravely fought, who nobly fell;
And many a well-fought field,
Outspread beneath this western sun,
Shall live with ancient Marathon;
And Bunker Hill and Trenton's name
Be linked with old Platea's fame!

But the surviving few, who stand
A remnant weak and old;
Sole relics of that glorious band

Whose hearts were hearts of gold;
Oh! honored be each silvery hair,
Each furrow trenched by toil and care;
And sacred each old bending form

That braved oppression's battle-storm!

THE FOUNDERS OF OUR GOVERNMENT.

BY WILLIAM M. RICHARDSON, LL. D.

THE love of liberty has always been the ruling passion of our nation. It was mixed at first with "the purple tide" of the founders' lives, and circulating with that tide through all their veins, has descended down through every generation of their posterity, marking every feature of our country's glorious story. May it continue thus to circulate and descend to the remotest period of time.

Oppressed and persecuted in their native country, the high indignant spirit of our fathers formed the bold design of leaving a land where minds as well as bodies were chained, for regions where Freedom might be found to dwell, though her dwelling should prove to be amid wilds and wolves, or savages less hospitable than wilds and wolves! An ocean three thousand miles wide, with its winds and its waves, rolled in vain between them and liberty. They performed the grand enterprise, and landed on this then uncultivated shore. Here, on their first arrival, they found

The wilderness "all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

Their courage and industry soon surmounted all the difficulties incident to a new settlement. The savages retired, the forests were exchanged for fields waving with richest harvests, and the dreary haunts of wild beasts for the cheerful abodes of civilized man. Increasing in wealth and population with a rapidity which excited the astonishment of the old world, our nation flourished about a century and a half, when England, pressed down with the enormous weight

of accumulating debts, and considering the inhabitants of these states as slaves, who owed their existence and preservation to her care and protection, now began to form the unjust, tyrannical and impolitic plan of taxing this country without its consent. The right of taxation, however, not being relinquished, but the same principle under a different shape being pursued, the AWFUl genius of freedom arose, not with the ungovernable ferocity of the tiger to tear and devour, but with the cool, determined, persevering courage of the lion, who, disdaining to be a slave, resists the chain. As liberty was the object of contest, that being secured, the offer of peace was joyfully accepted; and peace was restored to free, united, independent Columbia !

But the arduous labors of the sons of liberty found not here an end. They had torn the branch from the parent trunk, but to make it flourish independent of that trunk, and relying only on its own strength for the collection of sap and nurture, was still a task of much difficulty.

The confederation then existing between the states, formed in times of tumult and disorder, and deeply tainted with the times in which it was formed, was incomplete, void in a great measure of system, and without energy. Its attractive powers not being sufficient to keep the several states, impelled different ways by jarring interests, in the orbits, where general harmony would require them to move, they were continually deviating from their true paths, continually impinging upon one another. Thus confusion seemed to have universally seized the affairs of our nation; and our country, still oppressed with the burdensome effects of a war, which had to a great degree exhausted its infant strength, without funds, without credit, exhibited scenes of irregularity and disorder, which the honest patriot will ever pray may never be repeated.

In this perplexed state of our public affairs the sages of our country convened; and with WASHINGTON at their head, formed and recommended to the people of the United States, our present excellent constitution, which was soon

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after deliberately adopted by the several states of the union, This constitution, marking out the path of duty to all the states, fixing the boundary between the rights retained and the rights surrendered by the people, and containing in itself a just balance of all its powers, has displayed in operation a general harmony, not unaptly compared to the harmony which philosophy has discovered to exist among the spheres. Though Europe, with which we have been extensively connected in commerce, has been shaken to its centre with eruptions more horrid than those of Etna or Vesuvius; though war has deluged its territories with seas of blood, and peace has not found where to place the sole of her foot, not even on the top of the Alps, without dipping it in gore; though the clouds, with aspect black and threatening, have twice gathered in our horizon, and the lightning has streamed, the thunder has roared, and the hail has pattered amidst our commerce on our own shores; still our nation has not only been preserved from the ravages and distresses of war, but has in the space of twelve years experienced a greater increase of wealth, strength, and all other national blessings, than other countries have done in as many centuries.

Immortal wreaths are due to the heroes who fought our revolutionary battles. May the sun of glory ever blaze in unclouded day upon their tombs; while laurels, green as our fields, luxuriant as the growth of our vales, and umbrageous as the oaks of our mountains, spring around to deck the spot where their honored bones may rest; yet, great as is the desert of our warriors, wreaths as green and as large and as rich are due to the authors of our excellent frame of government. If those separated us from a foreign government, these have taught us to govern ourselves. If those freed us from tyranny abroad, these have secured us from tyranny at home. If our nation, in following our warriors, proved itself brave in the glorious cause of freedom, in adopting the constitution framed by our sages, it has proved itself wise, virtuous, and worthy to be free. If our WASHINGTON,