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fortified, or the latter be safely and more advantageously promoted.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, in humble supplication, that since he has been pleased to favour the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this government must depend.

Section X.

SELECT PARAGRAPHS.........FROM WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, 1796.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your pros perity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial,

habitual and immoveable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest.-Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

The north in an unrestrained intercourse with the south, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter, great additional resources of maratime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The south in the same intercourse, benefitting by the agency of the north, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the north, it finds its particular navigation invigorated: and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase

the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The east, in a like intercourse with the west, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home.—The west derives from the east, supplies requisite to its growth and comfort-and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the union, directed by an indissoluble community of interests as one nation. Any other tenure by which the west can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While then every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resources, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighbouring countries, not tied together by the same government; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues would stimulate and embitter.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as a matter of a serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations; northern and southern-atlantic and western ;whence designing men may endeavour to excite a be

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lief that there is a real difference cf local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to ac-. quire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from these. misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations, and associations under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, controul, counteract, or awe the regular deliberations and actions of the constituted authorities, are destructive of the fundamental principles of our govern-. ment, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put it in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprizing minority of the community; and according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the illconcerted and incongruous projects of fashion, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common councils, and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men, will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reigns of government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles that have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

THE ORATOR.

Part III.

PIECES IN POETRY.

RULES FOR READING POETRY.

Rule I. As the exact tone of the passion, emotion, or sentiment which verse excites, is not, at the commencement of a piece with which we are not acquainted, easy to hit, it will be proper to begin a poem in a simple and almost prosaic stile, and so proceed till we are warmed by the subject, and feel the passion or emotion we wish to express.

Rule II. Pronounce poetry with that measured, harmonious flow, which distinguishes it from prose. Avoid, in humouring the smoothness and melody of verse, all monotony sing song, and bombastic cant, which too often usurp the place of graceful and harmonious reading.

Rule III. In verse, every syllable must have the same accent, and every word the same emphasis as in prose. If by observing this rule, some poetry should be reduced to prose, the fault must rest with the poet, not with the reader.

In the first example which follows, the word as should have no accent, because it is a light syllable in both lines the word excellent in the second, and eloquence in the third example, must have the accent upon the first syllables, and not upon the last as the verse requires :

Ff

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