liberties, resist every attempt to fetter your consciences, or smother your

public schools, or extinguish your system of public instruction.

 

I call upon you, mothers, by that which never fails in woman, the love of your

offspring; teach them, as they climb your knees, or lean on your bosoms, the

blessings of liberty. Swear them at the altar, as with their baptismal vows, to

be true to their country, and never to forget or forsake her.

 

I call upon you, young men, to remember whose sons you are; whose inheritance

you possess. Life can never be too short, which brings nothing but disgrace and

oppression. Death never comes too soon, if necessary in defence of the liberties

of your country.

 

I call upon you, old men, for your counsels, and your prayers, and your

benedictions. May not your gray hairs go down in sorrow to the grave, with the

recollection that you have lived in vain. May not your last sun sink in the west

upon a nation of slaves.

 

No; I read in the destiny of my country far better hopes, far brighter visions.

We, who are now assembled here, must soon be gathered to the congregation of

other days. The time of our departure is at hand, to make way for our children

upon the theatre of life. May God speed them and theirs. May he who, at the

distance of another century, shall stand here to celebrate this day, still look

round upon a free, happy, and virtuous people. May he have reason to exult as we

do. May he, with all the enthusiasm of truth as well as of poetry, exclaim, that