people who, for the very purpose of enslaving them- are we in the frequent change of our soldiery." selves, choose to consider them rather as councils This seems to be the best antidote against such an which they may accept or refuse, than as precepts evil. It prevents that lethargy which would be a which they are bound to obey?* with such a people symptom of death in the citizen at home; and checks they must ever want a sanction and be contemned. that immoderation in the soldier which is apt to -†Virtue and long life seem to be as intimately mislead his virtues in the field. By this exchange allied in the political as in the moral world: she is of their qualities they mutually warrant happiness the guard which providence has set at the gate of to each other, and freedom to their country. freedom. America once guarded against herself, what has True it is, when the nature and principles of a she to fear? her natural situation may well inspire government are pure, we have a right to suppose her with confidence. Her rocks and her mountains it at the farthest possible distance from falling. are the chosen temples of liberty. The extent of But when we consider that those countriest in her climate, and the variety of its produce, throw which the wisest institutions of republican govern the means of her greatness into her own hands, ments have been established, now exhibit the and insure her the traffic of the world. Navies strongest instances of apostacy, we cannot but see shall launch from her forests, and her bosom be the necessity of vigilance. Commerce, which makes found stored with the most precious treasures of perhaps, the greatest distinction between the old nature. May the industry of her people be a still world and the modern, having raised new objects surer pledge of her wealth.-The union of her for our curiosity, habitual indulgence hath at length states too is founded upon the most durable prinmade them necessary to our infirmities. Thus ciples: the similarity of the manners, religion, and effeminated, can we hope to exceed the rigor of laws of their inhabitants, must ever support the their principles, who even forbade the mentioning measure which their common injuries originated. of a foreign custom, and whose sumptuary laws are Her government, while it is restrained from violat. held up in our age as objects of astonishment? Such ing the rights of the subject, is not disarmed against nations have mouldered away, an uncontrovertable the public foe. proof, that the best constructed human govern. Could Junius Brutus, and his colleagues, have ments, like the human body, tend to corruption; beheld her republic erecting itself on this disjointbut as with that too, there are not wanting remedies ed neck of tyranny, how would they have wreathed to procrastinate their final decay. a laurel for her temples as eternal as their own memories! America! fairest copy of such great originals! be virtuous, and thy reign shall be as happy as durable, and as durable as the pillars of the world you have enfranchised. Among the causes of their fall there are none more common or less natural than that of their own strength. Continual wars making a military force necessary, the habit of conquest once acquired and other objects being wanting, history is not without instances of its turning itself inwards, and knawing as it were, upon its own bowels. Happy A conscience more scrupulous, than it is probable Sylla ever had, would be apt to imagine this general disposition of the people wiped away the guilt of enslaving them from any band that effected it. If in any case, 'tis in this that we may apply the maxim volenti non fit injuria. Virtue, in a republic, is a most simple thing, it is a love for the republic; it is a sensation, and not a consequence of acquired knowledge: a sensation. that may be felt by the meanest as well as by the highest person in the state. Spirit of laws, book 5th, chap. 2d. The politic Greeks who lived under a popular government, who knew no other support but virtue. The modern inhabitants of that country are entirely taken up with manufactures, commerce, finances, riches, and luxury. Spirit of laws, book 3d. chap. 3d. For a complete collection of these, I beg leave to refer to the 3d book of the political disquisitions. ORATION DELIvered at bosTON, MARCH 5, 1783, Virgil Eneid, Lib. 2. Lin. 521. Friends and fellow-citizens—Invited to this place by your choice, and recollecting your well known indulgence, I feel myself already possessed of your candor, while I "impress upon your minds, the ruinous tendency of standing armies being placed in free and populous cities in a time of peace." A field here presents, annually traversed by those who, by their sagacity have discovered, and by *The design of society being to protect the weak against the more powerful, whatever tends to taking away the distinction between them, and to be consonant to its first principles. This was an putting all its members upon the same level, must object with the old republics; Rome obliged her citizens to serve in the field ten years, between the age of sixteen years and forty-seven.tons on the rise and fall of the Rím. Emp. c. 10 last - Vid. Reflec note. their voices declared, in strains of manly elo- who had served abroad, yet the veterans were quence, the source from whence those fatal streams routed by the apprentices. originate, which, like the destroying pestilence, Rome advanced on the zenith of glory and greathave depopulated kingdoms and laid waste theness, and conquered all nations in the times of the fairest empires. republic, while her army was an unpaid militia. -an In prosecution of the subject, I presume I shall not offend a respectable part of my audience, I mean the gentlemen of the American patriot army* army whose glory al virtues have been long since recorded in the temple of fame-her trumpet has sounded their praises to distant nations-her wing shall bear them to latest ages. The Grecians carried on their wars against Persia by means of their militia; and at last beat the numerous mercenary armies, and subdued the vast empire of Persia. The deeds of valor performed by my own coun. trymen, and in our day, are numerous and recent, and point out, as with a sun-beam, that the militia You will now permit me to consider the condition When the daring spirit of ambition, or the bound-is to a free country a lasting security. less lust of domination, has prompted men to invade thef natural peaceful state of society, it is among and consequences of a standing army. the first emotions of the heart, to repel the bold invader. Men, assembled from such motives, hav. ing expelled the enemy from their borders, reassuming the pruning hook and the spade, for themanded, excites an idea of servitude and dependsword and the spear, have, in all ages, been called the saviours of their country. A militia is the most natural defence of a free state, from invasion and tyranny: they who compose the militia, are the proprietors of the soil; and who are so likely to defend it, as they who have receiv. ed it from their ancestors-acquired it by their labor-or obtained it by their valor? every free man has within his breast the great essentials of a soldier, and having made the use of arms familiar, is ever ready for the field. And where is the tyrant who has not reason to dread an army of freemen? In the battle of Naseby, in the days of Cromwell, the number of forces was equal on both sides; and all circumstances equal. In the parliament's army only nine officers had ever seen actual service and most of the soldiers were London apprentices, drawn out of the city two months before. In the king's army there were about a thousand officers I should not have neglected so favorable an opening to have shewn my poor respects to the character of the commander in chief of the American army, but from a consciousness of inability to add to a name, more durable than marble, which will outlive the assaults of envy and the ravages of time. The natural state of nations with respect to each other, is certainly that of society and peace. Such is the natural and primitive state of one man with respect to another; and whatever alteration man kind may have made in regard to their original state, they cannot, without violating their duty, break in upon that state of peace and society, in which nature has placed them, and which, by her laws, she has strongly recommended to their observance. Purlamaqui, Part 4. Chap. 1. Sec. 4. #Vid. political disquisitions. Men who enlist themselves for life soon lose the feelings of citizens. To command and be com ence, which degrades the mind, and in a social view, destroys the character of a free agent.* They who follow the profession of arms conceive themselves exempted from the useful occupations of life, and thence contract a habit of dissipation; soldiers inured to exercise and labor in their duty, at leisure to roam, will not be wholly inactive in a city, where the means of gratification abound; Pursuing the objects of pleasure, with the same zeal with which they engaged in the toils and enterprises of the field, whole armies have too late, found themselves destroyed by the dissolving power of luxury. We have a remarkable instance of this, my fel low-citizens, in the army of Hannibal, which, having withstood the greatest hardships, and which the most dreadful dangers had never been able to discourage, in winter quarters, at Capua, was entirely conquered by plenty and pleasures.† The effects of luxury, though productive of the greatest misfortunes to an army stationed in a city, are by no means confined to that class of men. *Moore, in his view of society and manners in Europe, observes-"As to the common soldiers, in many respects, to the nature of machines; that the leading idea of the discipline is, to reduce them they may have no volition of their own, but be actuated solely by that of their officers; that they may have such a superlative dread of their officers, as annihilates all fear of the enemy; that they may move forward when ordered, without deeper reasoning or more concern than the firelocks they carry along with them." +Vid. Livy's Roman history for an account of the battles, sufferings, and almost incredible march and destruction of the renowned Carthagenian general and his army. The great body of the people, smote by the charms their country, at the sight of one hundred and fifty and blandishments of a life of ease and pleasure, lictors, or peace officers, as a guard of the decemviri fall easy victims to its fascinations. The city, reared by the forming hand of industry, soon feels the symptoms of dissolution-the busy merchant now no more extends his commerce; the mechanic throws aside his chissel; the voice of riot succeeds to the sound of the hammer, and the midnight revel to the vigils of labor. --Such an army was dangerous, they said, to liberty. These politic people knew the prevailing propensity in all mankind to power. The history of later times has abundantly justified the wisdom of their jealousies. All parts of Europe which have been enslaved, have been enslaved by armies. No nation can be said to enjoy internal liberty which admits them in a time of peace. When a mand, it is easy to form pretensions for the distribution of them, so as to effect their own purposes; when a favorite point is to be carried, a thousand soldiers may convey irresistible argument, and compel men to act against their feelings, interest, and country. When a large respectable standing army has been stationed in a city, commanded by officers of government has a body of standing troops at comknown patriotism, who have taught those under their orders to interchange the kind and friendly offices of life; citizens, conceiving themselves secured from domestic broils and the danger of invasion from abroad, imperceptibly relax in their attention to military exercises, and may thus be exposed as a tempting bait to an aspiring despot; besides, a people who have made themselves respectable by their personal attention to' their own defence, neglecting their militia, may be insulted by those neighbors who had formerly been accustomed to revere their power. When communities have so far mistaken their interest as to commit the defence of every thing valuable in life to a standing army, the love of ease will scarcely permit them to re-assume the unpleasing task of defending themselves. At the conclusion of a long and bloody war, the liberties of a people are in real danger from the admission of troops into a free city. When an army has suffered every hardship to which the life of a soldier is peculiarly incident, and has returned crowned with the well-earned laurels of the field, they justly expect to be received into the open arms, and with the applauses of those for whom they have fought, and in whose cause they have bled; in a situation like this, whole communities, in transport of gratitude, have weakly sacrificed at the shrine of a deliverer, every thing for which their armies have fought, or their heroes bled. Nations, the most renowned among the ancients for their wisdom and their policy, have viewed the army with an eye of attentive jealousy; the Romans, characterised for personal bravery, trembled for Such were the arguments employed by Philip the second, of Spain, to persuade the inhabitants of the Netherlands to relinquish their liberties, their property, and their religion; the progress of these dreadful measures produced scenes of massacre and devastation, the recital of which must excite exquisite horror in the most savage breast.. One of the commanders of the army under the duke of Alva, demanding a pass through the city of Rotterdam, was at first refused, but assuring the magistrates that he meant only to lead his troops through the town, and not to lodge them in it, they consented to suffer the companies to pass through one by one: no sooner had the first com. pany entered the city, than the officer, without regard to his engagements, ordered them to keep the gates open until the other companies should arrive: one of the citizens, endeavoring to shut the gate, was killed by his own hand; his troops, eager to follow his example, drew their swords, and, giving a-loose to their fury, spread themselves over the town, and butchered more than three hundred of the inhabitants. This was among the first events of that war which rendered the Netherlands a scene of horror and devastation for more than thirty years; but which, whilst it proved the source, on many oc casions, of extreme distress to the people, called forth an exertion of virtue, spirit, and intrepidity, which seldom occurs in the annals of history.Never was there a more unequal contest, than be. tween the inhabitants of the Low Countries and the Spanish monarch; and never was the issue of In the battles fought in our age, every single soldier has very little security and confidence except in the multitude; but among the Romans, every individual, more robust and of greater ex perience in war, as well as more inured to the fatigues of it, than the enemy, relied upon himself only. He was naturally endued with courage, or *The whole affair is related at length in Watin other words, with that virtue which a sensibility son's hist. of the Low Countries, to which the reader of our own strength inspires. Montesquieu. is referred. any dispute more contrary to what the parties had similar considerations, even wise politicians have reason to expect. defended the propriety of the establishment; but let their motives be ever so pure the ambitious and the aspiring have views extensive and ruinous; they have felt the charms and experienced the utility of this engine, and are not wanting in their exertions to support its existence. Our fortunate alliances in Europe have secured as from any danger of invasion from thence; this security is derived from considerations of the best policy and true interest of the allied powers. Under similar circumstances, my fellow-citizens, a standing army was introduced and stationed in this city; which produced the scene we now commemorate, and which I know you cannot all remember; but let the stranger hear and let the listening youth be told-that on the evening of the fifth of March, seventeen hundred and seventy, under the orders of a mercenary officer, murder, with her polluted weapons, stood trampling in the blood of our slaughtered countrymen; imagination cannot well conceive what mingling passions then convulsed the soul and agonized the heart!-those pangs were sharp indeed, which ushered into life a nation!-dom, so nearly resemble our own,* affords a happy like Hercules she rose brawny from the cradle, the snakes of Britain yet hung hissing round her horrible, and fell!-at her infant voice they hasted-at the dread of her rising arm they fled away. America, separated from the nations of Europe by the mighty ocean, and from Britain by the mightier band of heaven, is acknowledged an independent nation; she has now to maintain her dignity and importance among the kingdoms of the earth. May she never be seduced from her true interest, by subtle intrigue, mistaken policy, or misguided ambition! but, considering her own condition, may she follow the maxims of wisdom, which are better than the weapons of war! a The new and glorious treaty concluded, since the last anniversary, with the states of Holland, whose manners, laws, religion, and bloody contest for free *If there was ever among nations a natural alliance, one may be formed between the two republics. The first planters of the four northern states found in this country an asylum from persecution, and resided here from the year one thousand six hundred and eight, to the year one thousand six hundred and twenty, twelve years preced ing their migration. They ever entertained and have transmitted to posterity, a grateful remembrance of that protection and hospitality, and especially of that religious liberty they found here, having sought it in vain in England. "The first inhabitants of two other states, New. from this nation, and have transmitted their religion, York and New-Jersey, were immediate emigrants language, customs, manners and character: and America in general, until her connexions with the house of Bourbon, has ever considered this nation as her first friend in Europe, whose history, and of peace, as well as achievements of war by sea the great character it exhibits, in the various arts and land, have been particularly studied, admired, and imitated in every state. It has become fashionable in Europe, to keep large standing army in times of peace. The people of Great Britain have professed their aversion to the establishment, yet have suffered it to gain deemed so essential in this as in former ages, to "A similitude of religion, although it is not ground, upon the idea of preserving the balance of the alliance of nations, is still as it ever will be power. This custom is so deeply rooted and so thought, a desirable circumstance. Now it may firmly established, that nothing short of annihila-be said with truth, that there are no two nations, whose worship, doctrine and discipline, are more tion of the governments where they have been so alike than those of the two republics. In this long tolerated can abolish the institution. From the situation and vicinity of the nations of Europe with respect to each other, the different extent of territory rendering it more difficult to repel an invasion from some countries than others, for the celerity of defence and the more complete security of extensive countries; from these and particular, therefore, as far as it is of weight, an alliance would be perfectly natural. "A similarity in the forms of government, is renders alliances natural; and although the conusually considered as another circumstance which stitutions of the two republics are not perfectly alike, there is yet analogy enough between them to make a connexion easy in this respect. "The originals of the two republics are so much alike, that the history of one seeins but a transcript from that of the other: so that every Dutchman, *Hercules is represented, when very young, instructed in the subject, must pronounce the Ameengaged in the most courageous and dangerous rican revolution just and necessary, or pass a cenenterprizes-such as encountering lions, squeezing sure upon the greatest actions of his immortal anthem to death against his own breast, or tearing cestors: actions which have been approved and their jaws asunder; sometimes, when an infant, applauded by mankind, and justified by the decision grasping serpents with a little smile upon his of heaven. check, as if he was pleased with their fine colors and their motions, and killing them by his strong gripe with so much ease, that he scarce deigns to lock upon them. "If therefore an analogy of religion, government, original manners, and the most extensive and last ing commercial interests, can form a ground and an invitation to political connexions, the subscriber presage of lasting security. We may add, the embraces of her pretended parent, and has set up situation of our country, with respect to other her own name among the empires. The assertions dominions, is so secured by nature, that no one can of so young a country, were at first beheld with feign pretensions sufficiently plausible to convince dubious expectation; and the world were ready to the people of America, of the propriety of support-stamp the name of rashness or enterprize according a standing army in a time of peace; whilst ing to the event. memory retains the exploits of our brave citizens But a manly and fortunate beginning, soon ensurin the field, who have joined the standard of free-ed the most generous assistance. The renowned dom, and successfully defended her injured altars and the ancient Gauls came early to the combatand her devoted rites. The community will be wise in council-mighty in battle! then with new assured that, upon the basis of a well-regulated fury raged the storm of war! the seas were crimsonmilitia, an army may be raised upon all future oc-ed with the richest blood of nations! America's casions sufficient to oppose the most formidable chosen legions waded to freedom through rivers, invaders. died with the mingled blood of her enemies and her citizens; through fields of carnage, and the gates of death! Here, were it pertinent, I would express a confidence, that when the army shall be disbanded, justice, with impartial scale, will distribute due rewards to those who have jeoparded their lives in the high places of the field. At length independence is ours-the halcyon day appears! lo from the east I see the harbinger, and from the train, 'tis peace herself; and as attendants, Every American is conscious of the effects pro-all the gentle arts of life: commerce displays her duced by the knowledge of the people in the use snow-white navies fraught with the wealth of kingof arms, and from that experience need not be doms; plenty from her copious horn, pours forth Exhorted to an attention to their militia. her richest gifts. Heaven commands! the east and the west give up, and the north keeps not back! all nations meet! and beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and resolve to learn war no more.-Henceforth shall the American wilderness blossom as the rose, and every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none shall make him afraid. When we consider our own prosperous condition, and view the state of that nation, of which we were once a part, we even weep over our enemy, when we reflect that she was once great; that her navies rode formidable upon the ocean; that her commerce was extended to every harbor of the globe; that her name was revered wherever it was known; that the wealth of nations was deposited in her island; and that America was her friend, but by DELIVERED AT THE King's-chapel in Boston, april means of her standing armies, an immense con tinent is separated from her kingdom,* and that once-mighty empire, ready to fall an untimely victim, to her own mad policy. Near eight full years have now rolled away, since America has been cast off from the bosom and AN ORATION, 8, 1776, ON THE RE-INTERMENT OF THE REMAINS JOSEPH WARREN, ESQUIRE, PRESIDENT OF flatters himself, that in all these particulars, the union is so obviously natural, that there has seldom BY PEREZ MORTON, M. M. been a more distinct designation of Providence to Illustrious relicks!-What tidings from the grave? any two distant nations to unite themselves toge- why hast thou left the peaceful mansions of the Extracts from the memorial to their high mighti-tomb, to visit again this troubled earth! art thou nesses, the states general of the United Provinces the welcome messenger of peace! art thou risen of the Low-Countries, by that great statesman and ther." patriot, his excellency JOHN ADAMS, esq. minister again to exhibit thy glorious wounds, and through plenipotentiary at the Hague, dated Leyden, April them proclaim salvation to thy country! or art thou 19, 1781. come to demand that last debt of humanity, to A doubt may be entertained of the truth of this which your rank and merit have so justly entitled assertion; but we can hardly believe that it would have entered into the head of a minister or parlia-you-but which has been so long ungenerously ment, to collect a militia in Great Britain to enforce withheld! and art thou angry at the barbarous their acts in America; so that in our view, had the usage? be appeased, sweet ghost! for though thy army been disbanded at the end of the last war, America and Britain at this moment would have body has long laid undistinguished among the been parts of the same kingdom. vulgar dead, scarce privileged with earth enough |