what seems now the comparatively short term of twenty years.-But it seems a much longer time to look forward. When twenty years more have expired, where shall we be? Solemn and impressive thought! Many of us, no doubt, will be in the world of spirits. Upwards of three hundred of our society have departed during the last twenty years; an equal if not greater number must leave us before the expiration of a similar period.-And who of us will remain? It is known only to Him to whom the book of life is always open. By the preacher, this extension of life is not expected. By many of you, who are his seniors, it surely cannot be calculated upon; and to you who are now in the bloom of life, it is very uncertain whether it will be granted. O that we were wise, that we understood this, that we considered our latter end. Solemn and affecting are the monitions which we continually receive of our frailty. Let us prepare to meet our God. With some of us the day is far spent and the night is at hand. Let us do with all our might whatsoever our hands find to do, that when the Master shall call for us, we may be ready to meet him, and enter with him to his glory.

315

ADDRESS,

ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE.

We have this day arrived, fellow citizens, at a most interesting period in the history of our country. We have reached an elevation, from which we can look, both backwards and forwards, with admiring gratitude and exulting hope.

Half a century has rolled away, since thirteen feeble colonies of Great Britain declared themselves FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES. The circumstances, under which this successful declaration was made, cannot too frequently be brought to your recollection. It was not an ebullition of party strife, that separated the colonies from the mother country. It was not an aversion to the land of their birth and of their fathers' sepulchres,

that prompted them to renounce their allegiance to the British government. It was not a vain desire of national consequence, that induced them to throw off the colonial yoke, and assume the attitude of an independent power.

When the spirit of a high minded people was first roused by the attempt to secure a revenue from the colonies without their consent, nothing was, probably, further from their intentions than to attempt their independence. Their only object was to resist oppression. This they unhesitatingly manifested in their opposition to that odious act of the British parliament, which only tended to stamp its authors and abettors with disgrace. Had the British ministry learnt wisdom by the unsuccessful attempt to enforce the stamp act, the revolution might, at that period, have been, probably, arrested in its progress, and the provinces of America, though destined to be a free and great people, might have remained, a little longer, in quiet subjection to the empire of Britain.

The infatuation of the British ministry, in prosecuting the hateful system of taxation, in defiance of the urgent and respectful remonstrances of the aggrieved colonies, and in opposition to the warm and powerful eloquence of

such men as Chatham and Burke, can only be accounted for from its connection with a chain of causes, which, under the all-wise superintendence of the great Ruler of the universe, was leading on to an issue of such vast importance to the destinies of the world.-Lord North and his associates, with their high ideas of parliamentary supremacy, and their fastidious and jealous notions of royal prerogative, accelerated a crisis, which, though it could not have been eventually prevented, might have been long delayed by a more prudent and accommodating administration. The fate of the first attempt to tax the colonies without their consent did not open the eyes of the British ministry. They continued to persevere in a system, to which they had become inordinately attached, and which they were too proud

to retract.

The same principle, which rendered the stamp act so obnoxious, was adhered to, in an act of parliament for granting duties in the British colonies, on glass, paper, painting colors, and tea. These duties, although trifling in themselves, were intended to establish the great principle at issue in the two hemispheres, and were, of course, immediately and resolutely resisted. The general and powerful excitement which these arbitrary

measures produced in all the colonies, and the resolutions and addresses occasioned by them, together with a universal agreement not to import British goods, induced the parliament to relax in their arbitrary measures, and to repeal all the duties they had imposed, excepting a trifling tax on tea. It was evident to the discerning minds of the colonists, who were now wide awake to the designs of the British ministry, that this was only a pitiful attempt to evade a difficulty, and that they still adhered to the principle of unrepresented taxation.

The difficulties might even here have subsided, -for the patriotic spirit, that then prevailed, had prohibited the use of the taxed commodity. But a combination between the British parliament and the East India company to enforce upon the colonies the use of tea, led to a train of consequences, which terminated in the declaration of that important event which we this day celebrate.

Our time will scarcely permit us to give even a brief summary of the events of the revolution. They ought to be familiar to every individual of this crowded house-to every individual of this extended empire. Hoary heads should teach them to lisping infancy, and generation to gen