courts. He delivered an address for the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, in 1808. Mr. Paine was a young man of great powers of wit and force of character. Had he not died in early life, it is highly probable that he would have risen to eminence. He died in Boston, Feb. 15, 1810. WILLIAM EMERSON. JULY 4, 1802. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES. "THE dust of Zion," says Emerson, "was precious to the exiled Jew, and in her very stones and ruins he contemplated the resurrection of her walls, and the augmented magnificence of her towers. A new glory, too, shall yet overspread our beloved constitution. The guardian God of America - he who heard the groans of her oppression, and led her hosts to victory and peace - has still an ear for her complaints, and an arm for her salvation. That confidence in his care which consists in steadfastness to his eternal statutes will dispel the clouds which darken her hemisphere. "Ye, therefore, to whom the welfare of your country is dear, unite in the preservation of the Christian, scientific, political, and military institutions of your fathers. This high tribute is due to those venerable sages who established this Columbian festival, to the surviving officers and soldiers of that army which secured your rights with the sword, and to the memory of their departed brethren. You owe it to the ashes of him who, whether considered as a man among men, or an hero among heroes, will command the love and admiration of every future age. Yes, immortal Washington! amidst all the rancor of party and war of opinions, we will remember thy dying voice, which was raised against the madness of innovation: We will cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to our national union, accustoming ourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of our political safety and prosperity.' You owe it to his great successor, who has now carried into retirement the sublime and delightful consciousness of having been an everlasting benefactor to his country. Enjoy, illustrious man, both here and hereafter, the recompense of the wise and good! And may the principles of free government which you have developed, and the constitutions which you have defended, continue the pride of America, until the earth, palsied with age, shall shake the mountains from their bases, and empty her oceans into the immensity of space! You owe it to the civil fathers of this commonwealth, and in particular to him who, thrice raised to its highest dignity, watches over its immunities with painful diligence, and governs it with unrivalled wisdom, moderation, and clemency. You owe it, in fine, Americans, to yourselves, to your posterity and to mankind." William Emerson was son of Rev. William Emerson, of Concord, Mass., who left his church in 1776 to serve as chaplain in the army at Ticonderoga; and was born at Concord, May, 1769; graduated at Harvard College in 1789, when he engaged in a colloquy on the comparative value of riches, knowledge, and refinement of manners; was installed as pastor of the church in Harvard, 1792, and installed as pastor of the First Church in Boston, in 1799. He was Phi Beta Kappa orator in 1789. In 1805 he was elected the first vice-president of the Literary Anthology Club, and was editor of the Monthly Anthology. It was on his motion, seconded by William Smith Shaw, the vote to establish a library of periodical publications was adopted by the society; and this was the first step towards the establishment of the Boston Athenæum. Mr. Emerson prepared a history of the First Church in Boston, a work which will ever identify him with antiquarian research. He published several occasional discourses, and died May 11, 1811. He was a devoted student, and of chaste classical taste, both in composition and rhetoric, and was a graceful and dignified speaker. The sweetness of his demeanor, being attended with general courtesy, was a ready passport to the heart. Though he had not the fervor that rouses the many, or the originality to overpower the few, the elegance of his style, united to his natural equanimity and kindness of heart, gave him devoted admirers. He married Ruth Haskins, of Boston, Oct. 25, 1796. His son, Ralph Waldo Emerson, formerly pastor of the Second Church in Boston, is an ingenious writer, of peculiar fame. WILLIAM SULLIVAN. JULY 4, 1803. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES. "THE evils which are said to menace our happiness," remarks Sullivan, "are attributed to the monarchical and aristocratical tendencies of our government on the one part, and to its democratical preponderance on the other. We are told that there are men among us who covet distinctions incompatible with the general welfare,- distinctions which will require the radiance of monarchy and the force of obedient legions to cherish and support them. The throne, it is said, must first be established, because it is the fountain of honor, whence is to flow the stream which is to render its partakers illustrious and noble. A throne could be established only by the will of the people, or by military power. Who will be mad enough to expect such a will amongst people who possess the best information, and to whom death and dependence have equal terrors? And whence do the plottings of turpitude, or the dreams of imbecility, pretend to gather that force which is to vanquish a people who have arms in their hands, and whose hearts are the dwellings of valor? - "It is often repeated, that aristocrats will raise the storm of civil discord, and will direct its course to the accomplishment of their designs. Can it be seriously pretended that men, who must be allowed to have some understanding,- men who must know something of the history of their species,-men to whom are secured, by the admired results of legislation, their patrimonial possessions and their fruits of industry, men who enjoy all that life can give, will court the bloodiest conflicts, and hazard everything dear to them, to obtain an empty titular distinction? They who tell us that such distinctions are pursued seek to deceive us. They do not tell the truth. Well do they know that, with whatever materials and by whatever hands the fabric of nobility may be raised, it will rise only to fall, and to crush its short-sighted founders. The informed and the opulent ask only that their country may be saved from the horrors of democracy. They want no other nobility than that which springs from the union of wisdom with goodness; a nobility whose orders are registered in heaven; a nobility founded by the Author of the universe. "It is not from monarchy-it is not from aristocracy—that dangers threaten; but do they not threaten from democracy? In the affairs of men there is no test of truth but experience; and experience proves that, whenever free governments have been lost, their loss is dated from the innovations of those who pronounce themselves patriots and friends of the people. Our republic is said to resemble that of Carthage more than any other of ancient times. Like us, its citizens cultivated letters, arms, and commerce. It flourished in remarkable splendor during five hundred years, and was that power which opposed the most formidable resistance to the dominion of Rome. The evils which arose from popular turbulence at length enabled the Romans to enumerate among their triumphs the total destruction of the Carthaginian people. Such was the debasement which preceded their last days, that they were reproached with having wept for the loss of their jewels, while the loss of their honor and of their liberties could not command a sigh." William Sullivan was the second son of Gov. James Sullivan, whose father, John, came from Ireland in 1730, as passenger in a ship which was driven by stress of weather into a port on the coast of Maine, and settled at Berwick, then a town of Massachusetts. The subject of this sketch was born at Saco, in the District of Maine, Nov. 12, 1774; entered the Latin School in 1781, and was prepared for college under the instruction of Rev. Phillips Payson, D. D., of Chelsea, near Boston; and graduated at Harvard College in 1792, at which time he took part in a conference on law, physic, and divinity. He engaged in the study of law under the direction of his father, was admitted to the Suffolk bar at the July term of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1795, and married Sarah Webb, a daughter of Col. James Swan, of Dorchester, Mass., May, 1802. He soon became an eminent counsellor. At this period, it was his habit to rise at four o'clock in the morning, and closely engage in study. He thus acquired that taste for intense application which led him gradually into such sedentary practice that shortened his days. In the year 1803 he pronounced the oration on our national independence; and it is related that it effected such a strong impression, that it led to his election to the House of Representatives in 1804, and was afterwards elected to the Senate and Executive Council, until his withdrawal in 1830. In 1820 Mr. Sullivan was a delegate to the convention on the revision of the State constitution, and was appointed by the convention to draft an address to the people, which accompanied the amendments, and was published Jan. 9, 1821. He was major of the Independent Cadets, a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and brigadier-general of the Boston militia. In 1812 Mr. Sullivan pronounced the first oration for the Washington Benevolent Society; a zealous political effort, in which, remarking of Washington, he says: "If, from the abode which his virtues have acquired to him, he can behold the concerns of men,- if the hearts of this assembly are open to him, he sees that we have continued to deserve his praise and benedictions;" and, in 1814, he was elected president of this political institution, which was opposed to the war with Great Britain. In 1815 Gen. Sullivan, H. G. Otis, and Thomas H. Perkins, were appointed by the State Legislature as commissioners to the government at Washington, to present the resolves of the State in relation to the contest with Great Britain. Gen. Sullivan was one of the committee of the town of Boston who reported a city charter, and was the author of the sections on theatrical amusements, and of the bill providing for the establishment of a police court. He was elected to the city Council, on its institution, in 1822. He was president of the Social Law Library of Suffolk, originated by Hon. Judge Jackson; and in 1824 proposed the establishment of a Historical Law Library. When Lafayette dined with the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College, August, 1824, Gen. Sullivan gave the sentiment herewith: "Minerva, Apollo, and the Muses, who have done themselves so much honor this day in their homage to Mars." He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Gen. Sullivan was an elegant belles-lettres scholar, an accomplished gentleman, remarkable for bland and affable manners, and persuasive oratory. His eloquence at Faneuil Hall was truly captivating, but not of so masterly stamp as that of his compeer, Otis. Mr. Sullivan once said, "A man may be a profound lawyer, yet no advocate; but he cannot be an advocate without being a lawyer:" and it may be fairly said of him, that he united both qualities in himself; for his eloquence at the bar and in political assemblies, and his sagacity as counsel, embodied as much effective power as did his rhetoric. What Justice Story remarked, in allusion to Samuel Dexter, may be with great propriety applied to William Sullivan, that no man was ever more exempt from finesse or cunning, in addressing a jury. He disdained the little arts of sophistry or popular appeal. It was in his judgment something more degrading than the sight of Achilles playing with a lady's distaff. Mr. Sullivan was about six feet in height, and well formed. He was |