principles. Is national peace a distinguished blessing? She pursues not schemes of conquest or aggrandizement, those sources of long and bloody wars and national misery, but with the integrity, firmness, and impartial policy of an honest individual, deals justly, openly, and equally with all. In a word, liberty unites and consolidates the whole powers, moral and physical, of society, by making the public will and the public good the great rule of her conduct, and the object of all her proceedings. Such, gentlemen, is the nature and value of liberty. May its benevolent principles animate every bosom. May its friends, wherever situated, be for ever victorious. May its enemies in every country be effectually converted, or covered with everlasting shame and confusion; and soon may that great millennium arrive when the mighty genius of liberty, standing on the earth and ocean of this vast globe, the abode of such innumerable millions, shall breathe out the solemn and determined vow of the whole human race, that tyranny shall be no longer. To promote this great event, which, according to the whole tenor of sacred prophecy, and, indeed, from present appearances, seems fast approaching, you, gentlemen, and your fellow-citizens, as freemen, and as Americans, are to be no unconcerned spectators. Hitherto you have acted a most distinguished part in this grand effort of mankind to rescue themselves from tyranny. First in the glorious career of nations you have shown what liberty can do. Your example and your unparalleled prosperity has aroused and animated distant nations. On you, and on this your great fabric of liberty, are the eyes of every people on earth directed. On your success in this grand experiment of representative government-on your established greatness and rising glory, the destinies of mankind-the liberties of the world are suspended. You have acquired, it is now your great business to preserve and perpetuate to posterity this invaluable treasure. What would you think of that farmer who should bestow the greatest labour in cultivating his fields, and yet pay no regard to his fences-take no pains to prevent the inroads and destruction made among his harvests? what would you think of the inhabitants of that city, who, though in continual danger of being attacked by a cruel enemy, should yet let their gates stand open, and their walls go to ruin? Liberty is this strong fence, that protects and secures to you the fruits of your labour. Liberty is that wall, those gates and ramparts, that surround and defend you from the merciless fury of tyranny, who for ever raves around them, bellowing for entrance, and thirsting for blood. It is, therefore, your deepest interest, as well as duty, to be vigilant and watchful of the motions and designs of this prowling enemy of your peace, your prosperity, religion, and happiness. Acquaint yourselves minutely with the true principles of liberty, on which the different state governments, and your great federal compact is founded. Read books of authentic history and travels. They will inform you of the fatal consequences of the loss of liberty to the different nations of the world. Contrast the want and wretchedness experienced by your fellow creatures in other countries, with the peace, plenty and felicity you enjoy in this. Remember, that for all these, under Providence, you are indebted to liberty. Infuse these ideas into your children. Cultivate their minds, and enlarge their understandings by education and reading. Set before them, in your own persons, examples of firm patriotism and genuine piety. Inure them to habits of industry, economy and virtue, love of country, and gratitude to the Great Giver of all good. Then may the storms of aristocracy roar, and the fury of foreign or domestic enemies swell and rage around you. Your liberty, founded on this immoveable rock, its structure adorned, and its energy directed by that incorruptible republican, who, on this ever-memorable day, has ascended into the chair of state, shall roll back all their meditated mischief on their own heads, and your country rise in strength, grandeur, and prosperity-the seat of learning and of arts-the abode of plenty and of peace-the asylum of the persecuted, and the pride and glory of the world. Is this hope great and elevating? Who, then, that so lately beheld the surrounding glooms of aristocracy descending in dismal darkness, and threatening to blast and bury for ever from our view this glorious prospect what republican, I say, who eyed with a throbbing and indignant heart, the evil genius of despotism breaking into this our western paradise, to plunge us into a world of woe, who feels not now a flood of joy swell his overflowing heart on this triumphant day, at the defeat and expulsion of this arch-fiend, and the universal overthrow of his fallen associates. The majesty of the people arose, and their enemies were hurled to the regions of despair and ignominy. The clouds are now dispersing-the prospect brightens with more splendour than ever, and every patriotic heart welcomes this happy era. THE following Letters of Wilson have been here printed, as the first attempt to collect his epistolary writings, and in hopes of being the means of causing some future editor to gather together his now scattered productions of this description, and give to the world a complete edition of his highly interesting and valuable epistles. If his whole correspondence and Journals were published, they would show a volume of Letters, equal in merit to any work of the same kind, and would greatly enrich that peculiar class of English literature; and at the same time, rear a classic monument of literary compositions second to his great work-the American Ornithology-and thereby considerably increase his fame. They present the best and most faithful pictures of the mind and career of their gifted author, told in his own poetic language, sometimes beautiful and sublime, and may be considered as his own biography, written in the most powerful and graphic manner conceivable. TO MR. DAVID BRODIE.a Edinburgh, Nov. 10, 1789. DEAR SIR,-Among the many and dismal ingredients that embitter the cup of life, none affect the feelings or distress the spirit, so deeply as despondence. She is the daughter of disappointed hope, and the mother of gloomy despair, the source of every misery, and the channel to eternal ruin. Happy, thrice happy the man, whose breast is fortified against her insinuations, and towers above her tyranny. But, alas! what heart has not sunk beneath her melancholy frowns. To be snatched from the yawning jaws of ruin, raised on the wings of hope to the delightful fields of bliss and felicity-to have the enchanting prospect before us, or within our grasp, and in these flattering circumstances to be cruelly insulted, and unmercifully precipitated down the unfathomable gulf, is what would bring a sigh from the most insensible and hardened wretch in the uni This confidential friend, it appears, had encouraged Wilson in his earliest poetical efforts. O verse. How much more then must it agonize that 66 |