have been strange had a people so formed, I war is general slaughter; whose trophies are been tainted with national prejudice. Far from torn bleeding from the skulls of women and it. We are, if I may be allowed to say so, born | children, and who gluts his ferocity by the torcosmopolite; and possess, without effort, what ture of helpless prisoners. The civilized man others can with difficulty acquire by much will perceive, also, if history has occupied his travel and great expense. But as no earthly attention, by comparing the laws of ancient and good is pure, so this equal respect and regard modern war, the influence, and, in that influfor strangers diminishes the preference to na-ence, the truth of our holy religion. If it be tives, on occasions where natives ought to be true that one great end of history is to compreferred; and impairs the activity, if not the municate a knowledge of mankind, and, by strength, while it removes the blindness of making man acquainted with his species, facilipatriotic sentiment. In like manner, it may be tate the acquisition of that most important numbered among the advantages of commerce, science, the knowledge of himself; we may be that a liberality which extends to foreign cor- permitted to believe that a faithful narrative respondents, the gentle appellation of friend, of deeds done by our fathers will eminently encourages the growth of general benevolence. merit a studious regard. The comparison which It is at the same time to be lamented, that with will, obtrusively, present itself between the this amiable sentiment is connected, a fondness aboriginal tribes, the various colonists, the emifor the fashions and productions of foreign grants from Europe, and the troops of difcountries which is injurious to the simplicity ferent nations, will display a more perfect picof ancient manners. But, from the combined ture of our species than can easily be delineated operation of these causes, the emigrant from on any other historical canvas. Neither will every nation finds himself here at home. Na- the strong lineaments of character be wanting. tives of the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Apen- Those arduous circumstances which marked our nines, the highlands of Scotland, and the moun- origin, and impeded our growth; those ravages tains of Wales, as well as those who inhabit to which we were exposed, not only until the the banks of the Shannon, the Thames, the treaty of Utrecht, but in the war from 1744 Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube, meeting to 1748, terminated by the treaty of Aix-lahere, see in each other the faces of fellow-Chapelle; in that which began in 1755 and countrymen. It results, from our mixed popu- ended in 1760 by the conquest of Canada, and lation, that he who wishes to become acquaint-in our war with Great Britain, from April, ed with the various languages and manners of mankind, need not ramble into distant regions. He, also, who would trace up society to its origin, can here behold it in the rudest condition. He can safely shut the volumes of philosophic dreaming, and look into the book of nature which lies open before him. Ethical reasoning may here be raised on the foundation of fact. If it be admitted, as a principle in the natural history of animals, that the state in which a particular species of them is most powerful and abundant, is the best suited to its nature, and therefore its natural state, it may be concluded that the natural state of man is that in which they have the most activity, strength, and beauty. If this conclusion be just, we need but open our eyes on our savage brethren to be convinced, by a comparison of them with civilized man, that in so far as regards our own species, the state of nature and of society are one and the same. The half-naked Indian, who now sits shivering on the banks of Niagara, while he views that stupendous cataract, may view also the ships, the houses, the clothing and arms of his civilized fellow-creatures, and hear the thunders of their cannon roar louder than the torrent. If he compares his feeble means and wretched condition with their power and wealth, he cannot but be sensible of his great inferiority. And much more will civilized man, who, daring death at the call of duty, not only spares an unresisting foe, but soothes his distress, relieves his wants, and heals his wounds-much more will he feel superiority over the savage hunter of men, whose rule of 1775, to November, 1783; above all, the persevering efforts to defend our country, in that long period of near one hundred and seventy years from the first settlement by the Dutch in 1614, to the time when this city was evacuated by the British in the close of 1783, during which there was little repose (except in a space of thirty years which elapsed between the peace of Utrecht and the war of 1744) brought forth men worthy of respectful imitation, and formed the mass of our citizens to the hardihood of military life; notwithstanding a soil and climate which, teeming with abundance, tempt to the enjoyment of ease and luxury. May we not be permitted, also, to believe that they are by nature brave? Pardon, gentlemen, a digression which, though it should conclude nothing, may furnish amusementperhaps reflection. He who visits the nations which Tacitus and Cæsar have described, will be struck with a resemblance between those who now inhabit particular districts, and those who dwelt there so many centuries ago. Notwithstanding the wars and conquests which have laid waste, depopulated, and repeopled Europe; notwithstanding the changes of gov ernment, and those which have been wrought by the decline and by the advance of society and the arts; notwithstanding the differences of religion, and the difference of manners resulting from all other circumstances; still the same distinctive traits of character appear. Similar bodies are animated by similar souls. We find, also, extending our view a little further east, and taking in a larger surface of the globe, man, born on the banks of the Mohawk, their left hand clenched in each other's hair, the right grasping, in a gripe of death, the knife plunged in each other's bosom. Thus they lay frowning. Africa presents a number of nations, like those of America, uncivilized. But how different! I will not say inferior, for they also have excellence peculiar to themselves. They are not, indeed, either painters or builders; but nowhere, not even in Italy, is the taste for music more universal. that peculiarities in civil establishment and | lection, that bloody field in which Herkimer political organization, corresponding with the fell. There was found the Indian and the white peculiarities of national character, have, from the earliest ages, distinguished those regions. We find that the attempt of tyrants to establish despotism, in some countries, was frequently baffled; while the endeavor of patriots to secure freedom, in others, was equally fruitless. He who considers the changes wrought by the tide of time on the face of our globe, this solid earth itself alternately raised above the ocean or plunged beneath its waves, and perceives those peculiarities of form and mind, which remain unchanged through such a long succession of generations, must be struck with the idea of the simple Indian, who, pressed to sell the possession of his tribe, replied, "We grew out of this ground. In its bosom our fathers repose. What! Shall we call upon their bones? Shall we bid them arise and go with us to a strange land?" If we believe, with Frederick the Great, that reason and experience are the crutches on which men halt along in the pursuit of truth, it may not be amiss to ask the aid of what is known about the Indian character and history, in order to draw the horoscope of our country. What is the statesman's business? If futurity were known, the simplest which can be imagined. For, as in reading Virgil we find the verse so smooth that every scholar thinks he could easily make as good; so, in glancing his eye along the page of history, an indolent reader figures to himself that he too could be a prince of Orange, a Walsingham, a Richelieu. And so, indeed, he might, by the aid of selfcommand, common prudence, and common sense, could he see into futurity, and penetrate the thoughts of those with whom he is to act. But there lies the difficulty. We, gentlemen, grew out of this same ground with our Indian predecessors. Have we not some traits to mark our common origin? This question will be answered with more precision, when, after the lapse of centuries, the blood of our progenitors, operating with less force, the changes produced, not only in man, but in other animals, by that unknown cause which exhibits a peculiar race in each particular country, shall be more fully displayed. Let us, however, collect the facts which now present themselves. Among the curiosities of newly-discovered Let us see, then, whether some other characAmerica was the Indian canoe. Its slender and teristic of the aborigines may not open to us a elegant form, its rapid movement, its capacity to view of ourselves, and the perspective of our bear burdens and resist the rage of billows and country. It has already been noticed that the torrents, excited no small degree of admiration Dutch, on their arrival, found the Indian tribes for the skill by which it was constructed. free. They were subject neither to princes nor After the lapse of two centuries, the ships of to nobles. The Mohawks had not, like the America were equally admired in the ports of Romans, naturalized those whom they subdued. great naval powers, for their lightness, their It was a federal nation, a federal government, beauty, the velocity with which they sail, the a people as free as the air they breathed; acute, facility with which they are managed. Nauti- dexterous, eloquent, subtle, brave. They had cal architecture may be considered as one of more of the Grecian than of the Roman charthe most important branches of mechanic acter. The most strongly marked, perhaps, of knowledge. The higher order of mathematic their moral features, was a high sense of perscience has been called into act for its advance-sonal independence. Is it not likely that this ment. And certainly a line of battle ship is may be the character of our children's children? one of the most powerful engines that was ever May we not hope that the liberty to which we framed. In comparison with it, the ancient in- were bred, will be enjoyed and preserved by ventions, for defence or destruction, dwindle them? It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that almost to insignificance. And yet our untu- an extent so vast as that of the United States is tored ship builders have, by the mere force of less favorable to freedom than a more confined genius, excelled their European brethren in this domain, and gives reason to apprehend the difficult, complex art. So great is the differ-establishment of monarchy. Moreover, the ence, that children distinguish, at first sight, anxious patriot may well tremble at the prevathe American ship ascending the Elbe to Ham-lence of faction, at the attempts to prostrate burgh, a city of considerable trade long before law, and at those absurd principles of mob Columbus was born. Again: We find among power, as wildly preached by some as they are our savage tribes the commemoration of events wickedly practised by others. Still there is by painting; rude, indeed, but more distinct ground of hope. Still it is permitted to believe, than in other barbarous nations. May I not that those who pursue despotic power, along remark that an American is at the head of that the beaten path of democracy, and expect to art in England, and that many others, who establish their dominion over the people, by excel in it, drew their first breath on our shores. flattering the populace, will be sorely disapAgain: Let me recall, gentlemen, to your recol-pointed. The soul of this nation cannot be sub Jersey, had, in 1810, more than two million and a half of white inhabitants; wherefore we may reasonably conclude, that in half a century they will contain eight millions; for in 1790 their number was short of one million and a half, and in 1800 was near two; having increased about one third in each term of ten years, but more than three fourths in the whole term of twenty years, viz. from 1,476,631 to 2,597,634. Though not distinguished as a manufacturing people, yet, judging by those fruits which the inventive genius of our fellow citizens has produced, we may reasonably foster, even in that respect, exulting expectations. Numerous on land, we are not strangers at sea. Our country abounds in iron, and the use of it is not unknown to her children. I shall not be surprised that ideas of this sort are treated as visionary speculations. When the great Chathamn, in January, 1775, having moved an address for recalling the British troops from Boston, said, in a speech which will ever do honor both to his eloquence and discernment, "America, insulted with an armed force, irritated with a hostile army before her eyes, her concessions, if you could force them, would be suspicious and insecure. But it is more than evident that you cannot force them to your unworthy terms of submission. It is impossible. We ourselves shall be forced ultimately to retract. Let us retract while we can; not when we must. I repeat it, my lords, we shall one day be forced to undo these vio- | lent, oppressive acts. They must be repealed. You will repeal them. I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken | for an idiot if they are not repealed." When the venerable statesman thus poured forth prophetic eloquence, the wise ones of that day, exulting in "a little brief authority," shrugged up their shoulders, and said, with a sneer of affected commiseration, poor old peer! he has outlived his understanding. In fancy, to be sure, he is young and wild, but reason is gone; he dotes. So, too, in the height of Gallic frenzy, there was a cry raised to hunt down those who, reasoning and reflecting, foresaw and foretold a military despotism as the natural, the necessary result of such unexampled atrocities. It became a fashion to speak of those who warned their country against the contam-fly inating touch, the infectious breath of licentious pollution, as enemies of liberty, as mad with aristocratic notions, as whimsical and fantastic. But now the predictions of Chatham and of Burke are verified. And it may now be asked, where are the men who called those eloquent sages fools? They are precisely where Chatham, who knew mankind, would have predicted. They are in authority, and enjoy the blind confidence of disciples, who, when their masters shall have blundered on ninety and nine times more, will most faithfully adhere to them in their hundredth blunder. If, then, monarchy and aristocracy establish themselves in other portions of America; if the variously-colored population of States in which domestic slavery prevails, should be condemned to civil and political slavery; if they should be subjected to haughty caciques, let us hope that here we may be led by the council of our sachems. Let it not, however, be supposed, that a breach of the federal compact is intended: for, setting aside all attachment to national union, so essential to public tranquillity, if a separation of the States were contemplated, the Delaware would not be chosen as their boundary. But when the great extent of our country; when the violence of rash men; when the dangerous inequality of civil condition; when the contempt which some express for others, alarm those whose lives have been devoted to liberty, it is natural to look about and inquire, if there be no asylum to which freedom may when driven from her present abode. In such moments of anxious solicitude, it is no small consolation to believe, that here, whatever may be her fate elsewhere-here, gentlemen, her temple will stand on a foundation immovable. Here we have, at this moment, more free citizens than the whole union could boast of in 1775. And here, I fondly hope-here, I firmly believe, the spirit of 1775 still glows in the bosoms of the brave. It is among the circumstances which ought not to be overlooked, in this general view of our history, that the practice of law has been strictly modelled on that which prevails in Returning from this digression, I take leave to what we formerly called our mother country; observe that our State will support a population that land of good nature and good sense from of four millions. Already it exceeds nine hundred which we learned the most useful lessons of thousand white inhabitants, although twenty our lives: our liberty, our laws, and our religion. years ago it was but little more than three hun- Wits may scoff at the pedantry of special pleaddred thousand. When, therefore, the salubrity ing, the barbarous phraseology of lawyers, and of our climate, the fertility of our soil, the con- stern severity of judges, who, trampling on the venient situations for manufacturing establish- flowers of eloquence, check babbling, and conments, and our advantageous position for trade, fine the bar within the bounds of striet logie; are considered, there is reason to believe the but those who think, will perceive, that inasperiod not distant when we shall count four much as things are expressed by words, precise million inhabitants: and, certainly, our wealth, expressions can only be effected by words of esif we are blest by a good government, must tablished signification; and since the rule of keep pace with our population. New-York, conduct cannot be applied until the fact be es connected with her eastern brethren and New-tablished, it is a prerequisite that such precise might he not, at length, be exposed, from indulging the habit of loose thinking, to the danger of loose acting? It requires accuracy of investigation and clearness of perception to distinguish right from wrong, when, in doubtful circumstances, self interest is concerned. A man, therefore, may easily be induced to do wrong, in compliance with what he feels to be his interest, when he thinks it may be right; especially, when he thinks that those who are to judge may be prevailed on to decide in his favor. Is there not, on the other hand, reason to suppose, that he whose course of life has led him to scenes of sharp inquiry; who has listened to arguments of precise logic; who has par not reason to believe, that this man will use a diction more concise, possess a judgment more acute, and observe a more correct line of conduct? assertion be made by the one party, and such precise negation by the other, as distinctly to state the facts to be ascertained. The judges of fact can then accurately determine on its existence; and, that done, the judges of law can apply the rule. Every case, so adjudged, will serve as a rule for cases which may afterward arise; and thus the general principles of natural justice, the maxims of ancient usage, and the positive injunctions or inhibitions of legislative providence, are extended to the infinite variety of human actions and relations; so that liberty and property are secured. Nor is it, as many have hastily supposed, an evil, that law is es pensive to suitors: for, as far as the suitor himself is concerned, by deterring him from litiga-ticipated in decisions of legal strictness; is there tion, it strengthens, if his cause be good, the sentiment of benevolence, and enforces, if bad, the duty of justice. By lessening the number of suits, it diminishes the causes of discord. Trifling injuries, which, if unnoticed, would These probable, or, at least, possible effects soon be forgotten, may, by a vindictive spirit, of forensic accuracy, may be increased, or dibe made the subject of controversy, and sepa-minished, or destroyed, by the ever-varying rate families for more than one generation. circumstances of our civil and social condition. Moreover, this great expense of law is a great Nay, their very existence may be questioned, public economy: for when cheap lawyers, mul- or attributed to other causes. Talents and tiplying trivial causes, crowd tribunals with a habits of observation must be exercised to host of jurors, parties, witnesses, and their need- make the due investigation. But there is one ful attendants, many fields lie uncultivated, important consequence which cannot easily be many workshops are neglected, and habits of overlooked or assigned to any other cause: I idleness and dissipation are acquired, to the allude to the value of property in this State; manifest injury and impoverishment of the re- and merely mention it, because detailed obserpublic. vations would be tedious-perhaps invidious. Permit me, however, to notice the more prominent reasons why it must produce that effect. in the political associations of mankind. It is evident, at the first blush, that a purchaser of land will give more for a good than for a doubtful title; and it is equally evident that titles must be less secure where scope is given to declamation, than where strict practice and close logic are required. If we look a little nearer, we shall perceive a more extensive consequence. The creditor who is certain of getting speedily what is due to him, provided the debtor possess sufficient property, will be more liberal of credit than where the recovery of debts is tedious and uncertain. But credit is equivalent to money, and, like money, not only enhances the price of property, but, obviating the want of money, becomes, to the nation in which it prevails, a substitute for that intrinsic value, part of their capital stock, which would, otherwise, be sent abroad to procure the precious metals. Is it a suggestion of fancy: or am I warranted in supposing that rigid practice of law may give somewhat of precision to general modes of thinking; that it may even render conversation less diffusive, and therefore more instructive; that the accuracy of forensic argument may communicate vigor to parliamentary debate; that the deep sense and grave deportment of the bench and bar may have imparted to our character more of solidity than it would otherwise have possessed? This city was long the head quarters of a British army; and familiar intercourse with officers, many of whom were men of family and fashion, while it gave, perhaps, a little of that lustre and polish which distinguish the higher ranks of society, could not but dispose young people to levity and mirth, more than is suited to the condition of those who must earn their living by their industry. Man is an imitative animal. Not only his deportment, his language, and his manners, but even his morals depend, in a great degree, on his companions. Let us suppose two individuals, of twin resemblance as to intellectual disposition and power, one of them frequently attending on courts of strict practice, the other on those where lengthened declamation wears out tedious days on questions of trifling import: would not the latter slide into a loose mode both of thinking and speaking; might he not conceive that to talk long is to talk well; might he not attend too much to the melody of periods, too little to the precision of thought; Indulgê me, gentlemen, while on this subject, in another observation. The more strict and regular is the practice of law, the greater is our certainty that the guilty will be punished; and, of necessary consequence, that the innocent will be protected. The law, when it is a terror to evil doers, is the safeguard not only of property but of life, and of that which wise and virtuous citizens value more than life-it is the protector of liberty. Where the law is supreme, every one may do what it permits without fear; and from this happy condition arises that habit | called Quakers, and their equality of civil conof order which secures the public peace. But dition, with what they supposed to be the luxwhen any man, or association of men, can ex-ury and aristocracy of men to whom manors ercise discretionary power over others, there is an end of that liberty which our fathers enjoyed, and for which their sons bled. Whenever such an association, assuming to be the people, undertake to govern according to their will and pleasure, the republic which submits; nay, the republic which does not immediately subdue and destroy them, is in the steep downhill road to despotism. I cannot here, gentlemen, help congratulating you on the high standing of our city during late events, and adding my feeble approbation to the full applause so justly bestowed on its magistrates. To say more might look like adulation. To say less would be a want of gratitude. had been granted, and who were the masters of slaves. The citizens of New York, however, believed that the comparative prosperity of Pennsylvania might more naturally be attributed to circumstances more evident, and of less doubtful operation. Without acknowledging either a moral or civil superiority, they believed that nature had given them as good a climate, a better soil, and a more favorable situation; but their country had been from the beginning, a theatre of war, and stood in the fore front of the battle. New York was, like Joseph, a victim of parental kindness. Not, indeed, that her brethren, like his, were disposed to sell or kill the favorite child; but that their enemy endeavored to subdue her, as the means more effectually to annoy them. The only accurate solution of such questions is made by time. For as experience is the ground-work, so is time the test of political reasoning. At the end of seven years from the period when the estimate mentioned was made, by the first Congress, another severe hurricane of war had blown over our State, and laid it in ruins. Our frontier settlements had been broken up, and a part of our capital reduced to ashes. Our citizens were banished or beggared, and our commerce annihilated. Whatever doubts, therefore, may have been entertained as to the accuracy of proportions taken in 1775, there was no doubt left in 1783, but that we were below the ratio assumed when the war begun. In 83 less than eight-and-twenty years, from that time, the census was taken on which the representation in Congress is apportioned. And according to the ratio thereby established, Among the singularities of our history, is the slow progress of population, previous to the year 1783, compared with that of other States. Jamestown, in Virginia, was founded in 1607, Quebec in 1608, New York in 1615, New Plymouth in 1620. Thus, in the short space of fourteen years, these different plantations of mankind were made. The settlement of Pennsylvania was undertaken full sixty years later: and yet at the commencement of the war for defence of our rights, one hundred and fiftyfive years after the first settlement of New Plymouth, and only ninety-four years after the first settlement of Pennsylvania, the population, according to the congressional estimate, was, of The Eastern States, exclusive of Vermont, nearly as 70 32 64 Together, 200 Moreover, according to that estimate, the proportion of the States of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, was, If this be compared with the first proportion, viz., that made by estimate in 1775, we shall find that the Eastern States have decreased 19, Vermont and New Jersey, have increased 25, Virginia and Maryland 9, while this State, with Pennsylvania and Delaware 3. Or taking the relation between Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, which was, |