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Corporation. Digital file copyright
by Cornell University Library 1993.AN
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED BEFORE
THE
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
BY THE
HONOURABLE GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,
(president,)
4th SEPTEMBER, 1816;
THE -206th ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
DISCOVERY OF NEW-YORK,
BY HUDSON.
NEW-YORK:
Printed and Published by T. &. W. Mercein.
1816.NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to
the Honourable Gouverneur Morris, for the Inaugur
Discourse, delivered by him this day ; and that Doctor David
Hosack, Samuel Boyd, Esq. and Mr. John Pintard, be a
Committee, to communicate this Resolution, and to request a
copy of the Address for publication*
BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the nineteenth day of September, in the for-
tieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, T. h W. Mer-
cein, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the
right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
ee An Inaugural Discourse, delivered before the New-York Historical Society,
tl by the Honourable Gouverneur Morris, President, 4th September, 1816; the
“206th Anniversary of the Discovery of New-York, by Hudson.
In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled u An act
“ for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts,
i( and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times
il therein mentioned and also to an act, entitled “ An act supplementary to
11 an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the
u copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such
“ copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits
“ thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other
u prints/’
September 4th, 1816.
Extract from the Minutes*
JOHN PINTARD,
Recording Secretary,
) \

DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, ss.
THERQN RUDD,
Clerk of the District of New-York.DISCOURSE, &c.
Gentlemen,
The place your partial kindness has called me to
occupy seems to require, and I hope, therefore, will
excuse an attempt to point out some benefits which
may be derived from this Institution. Something more
to repay the munificence of our State Legislature
than the grateful sentiment which it has inspired.
Let me, however, before I enter on the subject,
express our thanks to the honourable Corporation of
New-York for the convenience we derive from their
goodness. The intelligent liberality which devoted
a spacious building to Science and the Arts, not only
reflects honour on them, but sheds lustre on this
great commercial emporium of the United States.
Let the sordid collect and the riotous squander
hoards of useless or pernicious treasure; be it
yours, municipal fathers, to expend the fruit of honest
industry on objects which embellish your city, and
spread the influence of learning, genius, and taste
over the hearts and minds of its numerous inhabi-
tants. Your conduct has proved your conviction,
that, in order to promote virtue and multiply the4
sources of social bliss, wise magistrates will direct
the people to laudable pursuits, and impressing on
them a just contempt for sensual gratification, raise
and adorn the moral dignity of man.
We live in a period so enlightened, that to dis-
play the use of History would be superfluous labour.
It would be the mere repetition of what has already
been expressed, by eminent authors, on various oc-
casions. They have told us that History is the science
of human nature; philosophy teaching by example;
the school of princes.
Dazzled by the splendour of such brilliant eulogy,
the mind’s eye is bereft of distinct vision. But
reason, pausing and collecting her powers, raises
a great preliminary question :	What is History ?
Is it the eloquence of Livy, the shrewdness of
Tacitus, or the profound sense of Polybius ?
Not only those who have participated in the con-
duct of national affairs, but those also, whose atten-
tion has been engrossed by personal concerns, can-
not have failed to observe, that facts, as well as mo-
tives, are frequently misrepresented. That events
are attributed to causes which never existed, while
the real causes remain concealed. Presumptuous
writers affecting knowledge they do not possess, un-
dertake to instruct mankind by specious stories
founded on idle rumour and vague conjecture. Those
who are well informed smile at the folly. Greatminds disdain to tell their own good deeds: it seems,
moreover, to those who have managed public busi-
ness, almost impossible that the tittle tattle of igno-
rance should meet with belief. Nevertheless, such
writings, though sheltered by contempt, from con-
temporaneous contradiction, are raked out, in a suc-
ceeding age, from the ashes of oblivion, and relied
on as authority. History, compiled from such ma-
terials, can hardly teach us the science of human
nature. It is, at best, an entertaining novel with
the ornament of real names. Philosophy, indeed,
at a later day, may bring her balance of probability,
put the evidence of opposed facts in different scales,
and deduce fair-seeming conclusions from an as-
sumed principle that man is a rational creature. But
is that assumption just ? or, rather, does not History
show, and experience prove, that he is swayed from
the course which reason indicates, by passion, by
indolence, and even by caprice ? When the founda-
tion is false, the superstructure must fall. Such
writings, therefore, however illumined by the rays
of genius, or adorned by the charms of style, instead
of showing man a just image of what he is, will fre
quently exhibit the delusive semblance of what he
is not.
When we consider History, in the second point
of view, as teaching morality by example, it seems
evident that examples, if not drawn from real life,6
instead of informing, may mislead the mind, and in-
stead of purifying, corrupt the heart. Neither is
it certain that wholesome nourishment will always
be extracted even from truth. Like other food, it may
be so mixed and manipulated as to nauseate, or so
seasoned as to give false appetite, stimulate morbid
sensibility, and excite spasmodic action. A facetious
writer who, in a rapid view of centuries, ridicules
the misery of injured virtue, displays the glory of
successful vice, laughs at the restraint of moral
principle, and chuckles at the commission of crimes,
may (if he please) call his work philosophy teaching
by example; but example so selected and genius so
employed, are more likely to accomplish a scoundrel
than to form an useful member of society.
Again, if History be taken as the school in which
statesmen are to be taught, there can be little hope
that politics—that sublime science to make a na-
tion great and happy—will be acquired by reading
the relation of mutilated events, attributed to false
causes. Such compilations tend to inculcate erro-
neous notions; and these, where the fate of millions
is concerned, can never be indifferent. If measures
pregnant with misery are considered as sources of
prosperity, the best intentions may produce the
worst effects.
Mature reflection, therefore, will diminish our
surprise that many, skilled in History, are ignorant7
of the world. Long is the list of learned men who
know not how to manage the common concerns of
life, and not a few are rendered, by the violence
of untamed passion, incapable of controling them-
selves, much less of governing their fellow-creatures.
Perhaps it is not rash to suppose that more accu-
rate, more extensive, more useful knowledge of our
nature may be derived from the intuitive perception
and personificating power of Shakespeare, than from
the laborious research and acute discussion of Hume.
Many important events.are on record, and how-
ever dark and doubtful the testimony of ancient
chronicles, there exists a great number of authenti-
cated facts. These, when collected, may be called
the Skeleton of History. But how much must de-
pend on judgment and skill in putting the scattered
materials together: and, again, the solid bones
duly placed and connected, those muscles must be
added which give symmetry, strength, and grace. At
last the goodly form, complete in all its fair propor-
tion, when language spreads a finish over the pro-
moethian frame, how must its appearance be affected
by the colouring it receives? The same event,
treated by different historians, comes white from one
hand, tinged with a rosy blush from another, and
from another black.
The reflection and experience of many years have
led me to consider the holy writings, not only asa
most authentic and instructive in themselves, but as
the clue to all other history. They tell us what man
is, and they, alone, tell us why he is what he is: a
contradictory creature that, seeing and approving
what is good, pursues and performs what is evil.
All of private and of public life is there displayed.
Effects are traced, with unerring accuracy, each to
the real cause. We see, in the beautiful story of
Joseph, how envy, destroying the peace of fami-
lies, leads to cruelty and to crime. How a dig-
nified condition is degraded by lust. How the
wrath of despised wantonness stimulates a woman
to deadly revenge. How the heart-burnings in a
shepherd’s family drove a minister of state to the
foot of Pharaoh’s throne. And how, for purposes
still more important, a shepherd-boy was enabled
to govern a mighty kingdom.
From the same pure Fountain of Wisdom we learn
that vice destroys freedom; that arbitrary power
is founded on public immorality, and that misconduct
in those who rule a republic, necessary consequence
of general licentiousness, so disgusts and degrades
the nation, that, dead to generous sentiment, they
become willing slaves. We read that, in the latter
days of Samuel, the judges “ turned aside after lucre,
and took bribes, and perverted judgment.” A more
miserable state of society can hardly be conceived.
Then laws to protect the weak against the strong,9
the innocent against the wicked, become instruments
of oppression and torture. Then order is lost, confu-
sion rules, and, to borrow expressions from the
favourite bard of nature,
cc Wrong becomes right, or rather, right and wrong,
“ Between whose endless jar justice resides,
“ Have lost their names; and so has justice too.”
Reduced to this forlorn condition, the more se-
date and respectable members of the communi-
ty, seeing no security for property or for life,
seek shelter under the wings of absolute power.
44 The elders said make us a king to judge us like all
the nationsSamuel, his aged bosom still warm
with patriotic sentiment, endeavoured to preserve
the old form of equal right. To this end, he assem-
bled the people, and displayed a highly wrought, but
faithful, picture of evils which would grow out of
despotism. In vain. Men sore with present suffering
have not temper to reflect on remote consequence.
In the maddening moment, they are deaf even to the
voice of a prophet. 44 The people said, we will have a
king over us, that we may be like all the nations,
that he may judge us, and go out before us, and
fight our battles.”	Here is a profound lesson of
political wisdom, given long before Aristotle’s Ethics,
very long before Machiavel’s Discourses on the first
Decade of Livy, and still longer before Montesquieu’s
£JO
Spirit of Laws. When the last of these authors, in
sprightly repetition of his predecessors, tells us
that virtue is the principle of republics, he offers hu-
man testimony to confirm divine authority. That
form of government which God himself had establish-
ed, that code of laws which God himself had pro-
mulgated, those institutions which infinite wisdom
had provided, in special relation to the climate, soil,
and situation of the country, to the genius, temper,
and character of the people, became intolerable
from the prevalence of vice and impiety. It is a trite
maxim, that man is governed by hope and fear. The
desire of pleasure, wealth, and power, the appre-
hension of poverty, pain, and death, prompt generous
reward, speedy severe punishment, are the human
means to invigorate duty, stimulate zeal, correct
perversity, and restrain guilt. But experience teaches
that profligates may gain all the enticements of life,
and criminals escape punishment, by the perpetra-
tion of new and more atrocious crimes. Something*
more, then, is required to encourage virtue, suppress
vice, preserve public peace, and secure national in-
dependence. There must be something more to
hope than pleasure, wealth, and power. Something
more to fear than poverty and pain. Something af-
ter death more terrible than death. There must be
religion. When that ligament is torn, society is
disjointed? and its members perish. The nation is11
exposed to foreign violence and domestic convul-
sion. Vicious rulers, chosen by a vicious people,
turn back the current of corruption to its source.
Placed in a situation where they can exercise autho-
rity for their own emolument, they betray their trust.
They take bribes. They sell statutes and decrees.
They sell honour and office. They sell their con-
science. They sell their country. By this vile
traffic, they become odious and contemptible. The
people, compelled to gulp down the poison they had
mingled, feel their vitals twinge, and in anguish ex-
claim, Away with these pretended patriots. Begone,
hypocrites. Begone. Let a single man be invested with
executive and judicial authority. Master and owner
of the state, he will, for his own sake, protect it
against foreign foes, and provide for an impartial ad-
ministration of justice; that his subjects, secured
and enriched, may multiply and thus increase his
wealth and power. In the simple language of Holy
W rit they say, “ He will judge us, and go out before us,
and fight our battles.” Two centuries have not yet
passed away since Europe saw a similar effect from
a similar cause. The Danes, writhing under op-
pressions of their nobility, conferred absolute power
on their king, by general suffrage.
We find in Sacred History another important poli-
tical lesson: that the possession of sovereign power
corrupts the best heart. The second Jewish king,12
a man peculiarly favoured by the King of kings, af-
ter leading an exemplary private life, no sooner as-
cends a throne, than, a prey to unbridled desire, he
becomes first vicious, then criminal. If, as the ad-
vocates of infidelity have gratuitously supposed, that
book had been written by bigoted priests, they
would have concealed the guilt of their pious pro-
tector. They would have held him out, an impec-
cant example, for admiration and imitation. They
would have covered, with bright varnish, the hi-
deous traits of adultery and assassination. But
truth, telling what he was, gives a lesson awfully in-
structive. It teaches the frailty of our nature, and
the danger of trusting too much power even to the
purest hands.
Another sublime lesson follows, in the succeeding
reign. The widest scope of genius, the completest
acquirement of science, the maturest strength of in-
tellect, are combined in one man; and that man
wears a crown. By his wisdom he accumulates the
world’s wealth in one of its narrowest districts. He
rears a stupendous monument of pious magnificence.
It is consecrated to the living God. And, then, the
royal architect commits follies that would almost
disgrace an idiot. In the prostration of manly
strength, he seeks pleasures that elude his grasp;
leaving, in a bosom chilled by age, the dulness of
satiety, and the loathings of disgust. Happy had13
the wise man’s weakness been restrained, even in
that excess. But, alas ! his bright intellect is so ob-
scured, by the apathy of exhausted desire, that he
worships sticks and stones, in pitiful condescension
to the consorts of his lust. If this part of the story
were tested, by fashionable rules of evidence, we
should perhaps be told that, as superlative wisdom
cannot be combined with excessive weakness, the
tale of his debauchery must be an interpolation, by *
some foe to his fame, or the account of his talents,
an invention to gratify national pride. Thus Solo-
mon’s character might come, from the philosophic
crucible, all gold or all dross. But experience
avouches the historic truth. We have known, in
English annals, a man whose capacious mind em-
braced all science. With a rare power of intuition,
he not only pointed out the means by which know-
ledge might be enlarged, but seems to have per-
ceived the remote bound to which it could extend.
And yet that wonderful man sullied his soul, by ac-
cepting a bribe. The character a great English
poet gave to Chancellor Bacon, is not wholly inap-
plicable to the Jewish king: “ The greatest, wisest,
meanest of mankind.”
But the most important of all lessons is, the denun-
ciation of ruin to every state that rejects the precepts
of religion. Those nations are doomed to death who
bury, in the corruption of criminal desire, the awful14
sense of an existing God, cast off the consoling hope
of immortality, and seek refuge from despair in the
dreariness of annihilation. Terrible, irrevocable
doom! loudly pronounced, frequently repeated,
strongly exemplified in the sacred writings, and
fully confirmed by the long record of time. It is the
clue which leads through the intricacies of universal
history. It is the principle of all sound political
science.
The la^se of ages, and the change of manners, of
religion, of government, of customs, and of charac-
ter, frequently render examples of one age and coun-
try inapplicable to the circumstances of other coun-
tries and of other times. The ferocity of barba-
rians, and the perfidy of courtiers, become, indeed,
more striking by satiric contrast; but rude hospi-
tality cannot be made a model for polite conviviality;
neither can the charms of refined conversation cor-
rect, by example, the coarseness of rustic mirth. As
little can the stern severity of Roman virtue, though
it swell the youthful bosom with enthusiastic admira-
tion, teach the conduct which befits a Christian peo-
ple. Hearts chastened by the religion of love
would recoil from the Brutus who beheads his son,
and the Brutus who plants a dagger in the breast of
his friend, but for the lavish encomium of orators,
poets, and historians. Those celebrated names are
embalmed by the incense of eighteen centuries, and15
our sight grows dizzy as we snuff the deleterious
fragrance of flowers strewed on their tombs by
lengthened generations. But when the gloomy
Philip consigns Don Carlos to an early grave; when
the amorous Henry sends Biron to the scaffold, we
cannot but pity such interesting victims, though their
lives may have been justly forfeited to the law*
Whence this difference of sentiment ? It may, per-
haps, be found in that difference of manners which
makes us view with horror the Roman practice of
sending their superannuated slaves to perish on an
island on the Tiber, and fills us with astonishment
that the African Scipio should be celebrated for chas-
tity, because he did not violate a distinguished fe-
male prisoner. The laws and manners of every na-
tion, taken in the mass, have, generally speaking,
a due relation and proportion. They so influence
and correct each other, that the business of life goes
smoothly on. The social harmony is full. There
is no jar. And, though some features may be too
salient, there is no deformity. Yet particular insti-
tutions may be selected, which, submitted to foreign
judgment, will be pronounced monstrous or ridicu-
lous. Travellers, who view what they see through
the medium of preconceived notions, measure what
they meet with by the standard of early education,
and weighing the conduct of others in the scale of
their own opinion, find that, wherever they go, there16
is much to blame and much to reform. But when
strangers, blinded by prejudice, are raised to power,
they multiply proofs, already too numerous, that re-
gulations uncongenial to national feeling are incon-
venient, if not injurious, and that rash reformation
leads to ruin. From the same cause it happens that
institutions which have been fruitful of good, in one
age or nation, may be as fruitful of evil in another
nation, or another age.
Every man, therefore, will find the history of his
own country the most interesting and the most instruc-
tive. Moreover, as the state of society is changed,
by time and chance, the laws, too, must change.
New disorders require new corrections, and when
the reason of ancient ordinances no longer exists,
they fall into oblivion. History and law, therefore,
are sister sciences. They support and enlighten
each other. But the history of one country can
have little connection with the laws of another, and
still less can the native code be modified by exotic
manners.
Permit me then, gentlemen, to offer my cordial con-
gratulations to you, and, through you, to our fellow-
citizens, that this Institution is rapidly collecting and
accumulating materials for a history of our own
country. Materials which, establishing facts by in-
disputable authority, will enable the future historian17
accurately to deduce effects from the true cause*
correctly to portray characters taken from real life,
and justly assign to each his actual agency. Let us,
humble as we are, and humble we ought to be com-
paring ourselves with the Eastern hemisphere, let
us proudly aver, that if, in modern history, the
period, when barbarous hordes broke the vast orb of
Roman empire, be one great epoch, the discovery
which immortalized Columbus, presents another not
less worthy of attention. If that era, when Europe
poured her crusading population on the southern
shores of the Mediterranean Sea, mark the lowest
depression of human character, its greatest elevation
will be found in the present age. Our struggle,
to defend and secure the rights of our fathers,
tore away that veil which had long concealed
the mysteries of government. Here, on this far
western coast of the broad Atlantic Ocean; here,
by the feeble hand of infant unconnected colo-
nies, was raised a beacon to rouse and to alarm
a slumbering world. It awoke, and was convulsed.
What tremendous scenes it has exhibited! The
history of our day is, indeed, a school for princes;
and, therefore, the proper school for American ci-
tizens. Exercising, by their delegates, the sovereign
power, it is meet they know how to assert and how
to preserve their freedom. Let them learn the mis-
chief that follows in the train of folly. Let them
clearn the misery that results from immorality. Let
them learn the crush of impiety. Let them learn,
also, for such we trust will be the final event, that
when the altars of idolatrous lust had been overturn-
ed, and those of Jehovah restored; when nations
severely scourged had sincerely repented, they were
favoured with as much civil liberty, and as much
social enjoyment, as consist with their absolute and
relative condition. Permit me, also, to cherish a
belief that the partial distress and general inconve-
nience produced among us, by late events, will have a
salutary influence on public manners. War, fruitful
as it is of misery and wo, is nevertheless medicinal to
a nation infected by the breath of foreign pollution,
engrossed by the pursuit of illicit gain, immersed in
the filth of immoral traffic, or unnerved by the ex-
cess of selfish enjoyment. It draws more close
the bond of national sentiment, corrects degrading
propensities, and invigorates the nobler feelings of
our nature.
I add, gentlemen, with the pleasure and the pride
which swell your bosoms, that America has shown
examples of heroic ardour not excelled by Rome, in
her brightest day of glory, and blended with milder
virtue than Romans ever knew. These exam-
ples will be handed down, by your care, for the in-
struction and imitation of our children’s children;
make them acquainted with their fathers; and
grant, Oh God! that a long and late posterity, en-19
joying freedom in the bosom of peace, may iook?
with grateful exultation, at the day-dawn of our
empire.
Gentlemen,
By the occasion which called us together, we are
reminded that Hudson discovered, in 1609, the river
which bears his name. Imagine his amazement, had
some prophetic spirit revealed that this island would,
in two centuries from the first European settlement,
embrace a population of twice fifty thousand souls.
Europe witnessed, in eight years, four events
which had great influence on the condition of man-
kind. The race of English monarchs expired with
Elizabeth in 1603. Henry the Fourth of France was
assassinated in 1610. In the same year the Moors
were expelled from Spain. And, in the next, Gus-
tavus Adolphus became king of Sweden, These
events excited, as they ought, much attention. But
the discovery of Hudson’s River, within the same pe-
riod, was of such trivial estimation as to occupy no
space in public annals.
Oh man! how short thy sight. To pierce the
cloud which overhangs futurity, how feeble. But
why be surprised that European statesmen, two cen-
turies ago, were indifferent to what passed on the
savage coast of America; when, at the same time,20
the existence of Russia was unnoticed and almost un-
known.
Little more than a century has elapsed since the
decisive victory of Pultowa introduced the empire
of the Czars to the society of European nations; an
empire which stretched out from Germany to Kams-
chatska, from the Black Sea to the Frozen Ocean,
contains a greater extent than was ever traversed by
the Roman eagle in his boldest flight. That vast
empire, so lately known, and so little understood,
resisted, unshaken, the shock of embattled Europe,
poured the rapid current of conquest back from the
ruins of Moscow to the walls of Paris, and stands a
proud arbiter of human destiny.
A mission of no common sort was lately about to
proceed from the New World to the Old. From that
which in 1600 was a dreary wilderness, to that
which in 1700 was a cold morass. It was contem-
plated that a vessel of novel invention, leaving this
harbour, should display American genius and hardi-
hood in the port of St. Petersburgh. If this expedi-
tion be suspended or laid aside, it is not from any
doubt as to its practicability.
There are persons of some eminence, in Europe,
wrho look contemptuously at our country, in the per-
suasion that all creatures, not excepting man, dege-
nerate here. They triumphantly call on us to ex-
hibit a list of our scholars, poets, heroes, and states-21
men. Be this the care of posterity. But admitting
we had no proud names to show, is it reasonable to
make such heavy demand, on so recent a people.
Could the culture of science be expected from those
who, in cultivating the earth, were obliged, while
they held a plough in one hand, to grasp a sword in
the other ? Let those who depreciate their brethren
of the West, remember that our forests, though
widely spread, gave no academic shade.
In the century succeeding Hudson’s voyage, the
great poets of England flourished, while we were
compelled to earn our daily bread by our daily
labour. The ground, therefore, was occupied be-
fore we had leisure to make our approach. The va-
rious chords of our mother tongue have, long since,
been touched to all their tones by minstrels, beneath
whose master-hand it has resounded every sound,
from the roar of thunder, rolling along the Vault
of Heaven, to the “ lascivious pleasings of a lute.”
British genius and taste have, already, given
to all “ the ideal forms that imagination can body
forth,” a “localhabitation and a name.” Nothing then
remains, for the present age, but to repeat their just
thoughts in their pure style. Those who, on either
side of the Atlantic, are too proud to perform this
plagiary task, must convey false thoughts, in the old
classic diction, or clothe in frippery phrase the cor-
rect conceptions of their predecessors. Poetry is thesplendid effect of genius moulding into language a
barbarous dialect. When the great bards have writ-
ten, the language is formed ; and by those who suc-
ceed it is disfigured. The reason is evident. New
authors would write something new, when there is
nothing new. All which they can do, therefore, is
to fill new moulds with old metal, and exhibit novelty
of expressions, since they cannot produce novelty
of thought. But these novel expressions must vary
from that elegance and force in which the power and
harmony of language have been already displayed.
Let us not, then, attempt to marshal, against each
other, infernal and celestial spirits, to describe the
various seasons, to condense divine and moral truth
in mellifluent verse, or to imitate, in ournative speech,
the melody of ancient song. Other paths remain to
be trodden, other fields to be cultivated, other regions
to be explored. The fertile earth is not yet wholly
peopled. The raging ocean is not yet quite subdued*
If the learned leisure of European wealth can gain
applause or emolument for meting out, by syllables
reluctantly drawn together, unharmonious hexam-
eters, far be it from us to rival the manufacture. Be
it ours to boast that the first vessel successfully
propelled by steam was launched on the bosom' of
Hudson’s River. It was here that American genius
seizing the arm of European science, bent to the pur-23
pose of our favourite parent art the wildest and most
devouring element.
The patron—the inventor are no more. But the
names of Livingston and of Fulton, dear to fame,
shall be engraven on a monument sacred to the bene-
factors of mankind. There generations yet unborn
shall read,
Godfrey taught seamen to interrogate,
With steady gaze, tho’ tempest-tost, the sun,
And from his beam true oracle obtain.
Franklin, dread thunder-bolts, with daring hand,
Seized, and averted their destructive stroke
From the protected dwellings of mankind.
Fulton by flame compell’d the angry sea,
To vapour rarified, his bark to drive
In triumph proud thro’ the loud sounding surge,
This invention is spreading fast in the civilized
world; and though excluded as yet from Russia, will,
ere long, be extended to that vast empire. A bird
hatched on the Hudson will soon people the floods of
the Wolga, and cygnets descended from an Ameri-
can swan glide along the surface of the Caspian Sea.
Then the hoary genius of Asia, high throned on the
peaks of Caucasus, his moist eye glistening while it
glances over the ruins of Babylon, Persepolis, Jerusa-
lem, and Palmyra, shall bow with grateful reverence
to the inventive spirit of this western world.
Hail Columbia! child of science, parent of use-
ful arts: dear country, hail! Be it thine to meliorate24
the condition of man. Too many thrones have teen
reared by arms, cemented by blood, and reduced
again to dust by the sanguinary conflict of arms.
Let mankind enjoy at last the consolatory spectacle
of thy throne, built by industry on the basis of peace
and sheltered under the wings of justice. May it
be secured by a pious obedience to that divine will,
which prescribes the moral orbit of empire with the
same precision that his wisdom and power have dis-
played, in whirling millions of planets round millions
of suns through the vastness of infinite space.
FINIS.