and of what has been done for you. Learn to walk humbly, and to think meekly of yourselves. Cultivate habits of self-sacrifice and of devotion to duty. May our words be always in your minds, never aim at aught which is not RIGHT, persuaded that without this, every possession and all knowledge will become an evil and a shame. Strive to increase the inheritance which we have bequeathed; know, that, if we excel you in virtue, such a victory will be to us a mortification, while defeat will bring happiness. It is in this way, that you may conquer us. Nothing is more shameful for a man, than to found his title to esteem, not on his own merits, but on the fame of his ancestors. The Glory of the Fathers is doubtless to their children a most precious treasure; but to enjoy it without transmitting it to the next generation, and without adding to it yourselves, this is the height of imbecility. Following these counsels, when your days shall be finished on earth, you will come to join us, and we shall receive you as friends receive friends; but if you neglect our words, expect no happy greeting then from us.”*

Honor to the memory of our Fathers! May the turf lie gently on their sacred graves! But not in words only, but in deeds also, let us testify our reverence for their name. Let us imitate what in them was lofty, pure and good; let us from them learn to bear hardship and privation. Let us, who now reap in strength what they sowed in weakness, study to enhance the

*The chief of this is borrowed almost literally from the words attributed by Plato to the Fathers of Athens, in the beautiful funeral discourse of the Menexenus.

inheritance we have received. To do this, we must not fold our hands in slumber, nor abide content with the Past. To each generation is committed its peculiar task; nor does the heart, which responds to the call of duty, find rest except in the world to come.

Be ours, then, the task which, in the order of Providence, has been cast upon us! And what is this task ? How shall we best perform our appointed part? What can we do to make our coming welcome to our Fathers in the skies, and to draw to our memory hereafter the homage of a grateful posterity? How may we add to the inheritance we have received? The answer to these questions cannot fail to interest all minds, particularly on this festival of the Nativity of the Republic. In truth, it well becomes the patriot citizen, on this anniversary, to meditate on the national character, and the way in which it may be advanced

as the good man dedicates his birth-day to meditation on his life, and to aspirations for its improvement. Avoiding, then, all customary exultation in the abounding prosperity of the land, and in that Freedom, whose influence is widening to the uttermost circles of the earth, let us turn our thoughts on the character of our country, and humbly endeavor to learn what it belongs to us to do, to the end that the Republic may best secure the rights and happiness of the people committed to its care that it may perform its great part in the World's History that it may fulfill the aspirations of generous hearts and, practising that righteousness which exalteth a Nation, thus attain to the Christian heights of True Grandeur.

With this aim, and, believing that I can in no other

WHAT IS

way so fitly fulfill the trust reposed in me, when I was selected as the voice of the City of Boston, on this welcome Anniversary, I propose to consider what, in our age, are the true objects of National Ambition — what is truly National Honor — National Glory THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. I hope to contribute something to rescue these terms, so powerful over the minds of men, from the mistaken objects to which they are applied, from deeds of War, and the extension of empire, that henceforward they may be attached only to works of JUSTICE and BENEFICENCE.

The subject may be novel, particularly on an occasion like the present; but it is comprehensive and transcendent in importance. It raises us to the contemplation of things that are not temporary or local in their character; but which belong to all ages and all countries; which are as lofty as Truth, as universal as Humanity. Nay more; it practically concerns the general welfare, not only of our own cherished Republic, but of the whole Federation of Nations. Besides, at this moment, it derives a peculiar and urgent interest from transactions in which we are unhappily involved. On the one side, by an act of unjust legislation, extending our power over Texas, we have endangered Peace with Mexico; while on the other, by a presumptuous assertion of a disputed claim to a worthless territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, we have kindled anew on the hearth of our Mother Country, the smothered fires of hostile strife. Mexico and England both aver the determination to vindicate what is called the National Honor; and our Government now calmly contemplates the dread Arbitrament of

War, provided it cannot obtain what is called an honorable Peace.*

Far be from our country and our age the sin and shame of contests hateful in the sight of God and all good men, having their origin in no righteous though mistaken sentiment, in no true love of country, in no generous thirst for fame, that last infirmity of noble minds, but springing in both cases from an ignorant and ignoble passion for new territories; strengthened, in one case, by an unnatural desire, in this land of boasted freedom, to fasten by new links the chains which promise soon to fall from the limbs of the unhappy slave! In such contests, God has no attribute which can join with us. Who believes that the National Honor will be promoted by a war with Mexico or with England? What just man would sacrifice a single human life, to bring under our rule both Texas and Oregon ? An ancient Roman, a stranger to Christian truth, touched only by the relations of fellowcountrymen, and not of fellow-man, said, as he turned aside from a career of Asiatic conquest, that he would rather save the life of a single citizen than become master of all the dominions of Mithridates.

A war with Mexico would be mean and cowardly; with England it would be bold at least, though parricidal. The heart sickens at the murderous attack upon an enemy, distracted by civil feuds, weak at home, impotent abroad; but it recoils in horror from the

*The official paper at Washington has said, "We presume the negotiation is really resumed, and will be prosecuted in this city, and not in London, to some definite conclusion - peaceably we should hope — but we wish for no peace but an honorable peace."

deadly shock between children of a common ancestry, speaking the same language, soothed in infancy by the same words of love and tenderness, and hardened into vigorous manhood under the bracing influence of institutions drawn from the same ancient founts of freedom. Curam acuebat, quod adversus Latinos bellandum erat, linguâ, moribus, armorum genere, institutis ante omnia militaribus, congruentes; milites militibus, centurionibus centuriones, tribuni tribunis compares, collegæque, iisdem præsidiis, sæpe iisdem manipulis permixti fuerant.*

IN OUR AGE THERE CAN BE NO PEACE THAT IS NOT HONORABLE; THERE CAN BE NO WAR THAT IS NOT DISHONORABLE. The True Honor of a Nation is to bé found only in deeds of Justice and Beneficence, securing the happiness of its people, all of which are inconsistent with War. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its victories; infamous are its spoils. He is the true benefactor and alone worthy of Honor, who brings comfort where before was wretchedness; who dries the tear of sorrow; who pours oil into the wounds of the unfortunate; who feeds the hungry. and clothes the naked; who unlooses the fetter of the slave; who does justice; who enlightens the ignorant; who, by his virtuous genius, in art, in literature, in science, enlivens and exalts the hours of life; who, by words or actions, inspires a love for God and for man. This is the Christian hero, this is the man of Honor in a Christian land. He is no benefactor, nor deserving of Honor, whatever his worldly renown, whose life is passed in acts of brute force; who

*Liv. VIII. c. 6.