136. EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 1. During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect, which might impose on strangers, unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. 2. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that, though the will of the majority is, in all cases, to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which, would be oppression. Let us then, fellowcitizens, unite with one heart and one mind. 3. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; and let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. 4. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world; during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, his long lost liberty; it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others; and should divide opinions, as to measures of safety. 5. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names, brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans; we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. 6. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a repub, lican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not; I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. 7. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said, that man cannot be trusted with the gov. ernment of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? or have we found angels in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer the question. 8. Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated, by nature and a wide ocean, from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisition of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions, and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknow.. ledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his great r happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? 9. Still one thing more, fellow citizens; a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another; shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement; and shall not take from the mouth of labor, the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. 137. EXTRACT FROM DEMOSTHENES' ORATION ON THE CROWN. 1. But since Eschines hath insisted so much upon the event, I shall hazard a bold assertion. But, in the name of heaven, let it not be deemed extravagant; let it be weighed with candor. I say, then, that had we all known what fortune was to attend our efforts; had we all foreseen the final issue; had you foretold it, Eschines, you whose voice was never heard, yet even in such a case, must this city have pursued the very same conduct, if she had retained a thought of glory, of her ancestors, or of future times. For thus, she could only have been deemed unfortunate in her attempts; and misfortunes are the lot of all men, whenever it may please heaven to inflict them. 2. But if that state, which once claimed the first rank in Greece, had resigned this rank, in time of danger, she had incurred the censure of betraying the whole nation to the enemy. If we had indeed given up those points without one blow, for which our fathers encountered every peril, who would not have spurned you with scorn? You, the author of such conduct, not the state or me? In the name of heaven, say with what face could we have met those foreigners who sometimes visit us, if such scandalous supineness on our part had brought affairs to their present situation? 3. If Philip had been chosen general of the Grecian army, and some other state had drawn the sword against this insid ious nomination, and fought the battle, unassisted by the Athenians, that people, who, in ancient times, never preferred inglorious security to honorable dans er? What part of Greece, what part of the barbarian wo d, has not heard, that the Thebans, in their period of succes; that the Lacedemonians, whose power was older and more extensive; that the king of Persia, would have cheerfully and joyfully consented, that this state should enjoy her own dominions, together with an accession of territory ample as her wishes, upon this condition, that she should receive law, and suffer another state to preside in Greece? 4. But, to Athenians, this was a condition unbecoming their descent, intolerable to their spirit, repugnant to their nature. Athens was never once known to live in a slavish, though a secure obedience to unjust and arbitrary power. No! our whole history is one series of noble contests for preeminence; the whole period of our existence hath been spent in braving dangers, for the sake of glory and renown. And so highly do you esteem such conduct, so consonant to the Athenian character, that those of your ancestors, who were most distinguished in the pursuit of it, are ever the most favorite objects of your praise. 5. And with reason. For who can reflect without astonishment upon the magnanimity of those men, who resigned their lands, gave up their city, and embarked in their ships, to avoid the odious state of subjection? Who chose Themistocles, the adviser of this conduct, to command their forces; and when Crysilus proposed that they should yield to the terms prescribed, stoned him to death? Nay, the public indignation was not yet allayed. Your very wives inflicted the same vengeance on his wife. 6. For the Athenians of that day looked out for no speaker, no general to procure them a state of prosperous slavery. They had the spirit to reject even life, unless they were allowed to enjoy that life in freedom. For it was a principle fixed deeply in every breast, that man was not born to his parents only, but to his country. And mark the distinction. He who regards himself as born only to his parents, waits in passive submission, for the hour of his natural dissolution. He who considers that he is the child of his country also, is prepared to meet his fate freely, rather than behold that country reduced to vassalage; and thinks those insults and disgraces, which he must meet, in a state enslaved, much more terrible than death. 7. Should I then attempt to assert, that it was I who inspired you with sentiments worthy of your ancestors, I should meet the just resentment of every hearer. No;-it is my point to shew, that such sentiments are properly your own; that they were the sentiments of my country long before my days. I claim but my share of merit in having acted on such principles, in every part of my administration. He, then, who condemns every part of my administration; he who directs you to treat me with severity, as one who hath involved the state in terrors and dangers, while he labors to deprive me of present honor, robs you of the applause of all posterity. 8. For if you now pronounce, that as my public conduct hath not been right, Ctesiphon must stand condemned, it must be thought that you yourselves have acted wrong, not that you owe your present state to the caprice of fortune. But it cannot be! No! my countrymen! it cannot be that you have acted wrong in encountering danger bravely, for the liberty and safety of all Greece. 9. No, by those generous souls of ancient times, who were exposed at Marathon! By those who stood arrayed at Platæa! By those who encountered the Persian fleet, at Salamis, who fought at Artemisium! By all those illustrious sons of Athens, whose remains lie deposited in the public monuments! all of whom received the same honorable interment from their country; not those only who prevailed, not those only who were victorious. And with reason. What was the part of gallant men they all performed! Their success was such as the Supreme Director of the world dispensed to each. The oration of Demosthenes on the crown, from which the above extract is taken, is a master piece of Grecian eloquence. Eschines accused Demosthenes of being the cause of all the evils which befel Athens. The extract contains the orator's answer. It is a fine specimen of manly, argumentative, and impassioned eloquence. The position which he labors to establish, is, that success is not always the result even of well directed efforts, but the gift of heaven. And who does not admire the consummate skill with which he argues the point? May we not imagine that his elocution on that occasion, somewhat resembled Homer's description of lightning 'By turns one flash succeeds, as one expires, The most glorious era in the history of eloquence is marked by the name of Demosthenes. He wrote sixty-one orations. That monotony which prevails so generally among modern speakers, might be in some measure remedied, by studying and declaiming them. 138. EXTRACT FROM CICERO'S SPEECHI FOR CLUENTIUS. 1. You, T. Attius, I know, had every where given it out, 'that I was to defend my client, not from facts, not upon the footing of innocence, but by taking advantage merely of the law in his behalf. Have I done so? I appeal to yourself. Have I sought to cover him behind a legal defence only? On the contray, have I not pleaded his cause as if he had |