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Historians in describing the manners and customs of nations, commence with her aborigines, coming down, giving every circumstance directly or indirectly connected with her subjects.
Biographers undertaking to delineate the characters of great men search diligently into the most obstruce turn of life, portraying in lucid colors, each and every incident compatible with nature, leaving nothing for the mind to conjecture.
But for me to attempt a retrospect of
She has with unremitted toil striven to subjugate the whole civilized globe, and
when the empire of
In vain did the high minded
Hand in hand did
And never did they intend to dispair until the last man of that glorious band
was made to measure his length on his mother earth. The conclusion is known by
all, especially when we can look up to the blue vault of heaven in sight of him
who reigns supreme and exclaim we live free. "We born to none but our
But we have yet to come to a time in our national career by far more sad and
appalling—a time when fanaticism and blind infatuation sit high on
their imperial thrones— a time when reason is foolish and conviction
humbug— a time, in short when social and religious duties are thrown
to the four winds of heaven, and the ballot box the great bulwark of civil
liberty is rendered profane and insecure by repeated instances of
I regret fellow members that I can present to your minds no fit offering for the
occasion. "Would that I had procured for your reception some casket of
precious gems—the rich jewels of history and learning
But fellow members, our theme is of a more exaulted bearing—and I
almost quail beneath the idea of its important consideration. I mean philanthropy.
That bane of all virtue which had been curdled in their breasts ever since the adoption of the constitution was waiting for a time when its vile mechanism against the prerogatives and rights of free born citizens, might burst forth, sweeping, dashing, and tearing down every thing in its course.
Led on by men who cared nought for the good of their country, animated by the
indomnible lust of personal aggrandizement
Endeavoring to prove to the enlightened
"Even the pulpits have been converted into so many batteries of fiery assaults." Yes that sacred place from which should ever issue words of peace, and good will towards man consecrated as it should be to the precepts of Universal love, has been defiled, disgraced, and prostituted to the wicked purposes of faction, and to the teachings of sectional business and social strife
Casting aside their ministerial garbs the pretended preachers of the Gospel
instead of expounding religious precepts, and inculcating benevolent aids, have
sought to instil in the youthful heart the poisonous ingredients of sectional
philanthropy and subvert maiden virtue by
hardened vice. Such and always will be the case until that manmouth monster, fanaticism, is quelled by wrenching asunder the two
great sections of this once glorious
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and which even licentious profligate
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That principle coeval with our nature and
acknowledged by all honest and honorable men should give birth to violence and
sedition, is easily accounted for. philanthropy.
Gentlemen it has been said that there is a point of endurance beyond which forbearance becomes cowardice, and submission crime. Has not that limit of endurance been passed over with impunity?
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Shall we
continue to retreat until the last entrenchments of liberty be our graves? No
fellow members let us rise from our lethargy — let us strengthen every
nerve, and raise the stalwart arm of justice against the damning sword of
I ask is there not some hidden thunder of heaven to crush such men? Is there not
some electric spark yet reserved in the reach of
Now that
Side by side the constitution and
We have learned by experience and repeated attempts that reconciliation with