By many a hard and timely blow;
But after wounds came healing balm,
And after winds and waves a calm.
The record of some noble deed.

Illumines every page we read.

Sometimes we start in glad surprise, Sometimes are mute with wondering eyes; How manifold her blessings grown!

No other land is like our own.

Turn quick the pages darkly red
With brother's blood, so madly shed;
To-day we pass them softly by,
Without a tear; without a sigh ;
Not all in vain the lesson sent,
And blood and treasure freely spent,—
The foulest stain our banner bore,
Thank God, will never shame us more,
While North and South more wise
appear,
For these few leaves which cost so dear:
We put them by like troubled dreams,-
The present page with glory beams.

We hear the wide Atlantic's roar,
Or walk the far Pacific shore,
Stand awed amid the northern snows,
Or languid where the orange blows,
Alaska's icy valley's thread,

The arid plains of Utah tread,
Or seek the western wilds so still,
And drink of nature's cup our fill;

Kind, friendly hands our own will grasp,
Our country holds us in her clasp,
Extending far, from zone to zone,
From sea to sea is all our own.

Here, mid our grand New England hills;

Where beauty like the dew distills,

From every cloud that floats between

Her mountain tops, from every green
Encircled lake, whose smiling face
Wears year by year an added grace ;
Where every stream is clear and bright,
And wood and wave both charm the sight;
Our country's record grows more dear,
With every swift, succeeding year.
Her welfare nearer to the heart,
Her honor of our life a part.

How cool the Merrimack flows on!
It seems to take a softened tone
Beside the green and honored grave
Of Stark, the patriot, true and brave.
His fame is ours-his deeds shall tell
How long our heroes fought, how well
New Hampshire's sons, with noble grace,
In history hold an honored place.
Her soldiers were a faithful band,
Her statesmen with the foremost stand;
And are at least, had fame world-wide-
We point to Websters; name with pride.
Our future who but God can know,
Yet all our skies with promise glow.
"Our bulwarks are the hearts of men,"
And strong and true they beat as when,
A hundred years ago, their sires
Built up ths sacred altar fires.
May wisdom be their future guide,

With truth and love on either side,

With them what glorious things are wrought:
Without them labor brings us nought.
May God uphold with mighty hand,
And bless indeed this happy land.

THE NATIONAL UTTERANCES AND ACHIEVE

MENTS OF OUR FIRST CENTURY.

AN ORATION BY PROF. JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, L.L.D.

DELIVERED AT PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, JULY 4TH, 1876.

MR. PRESIDENT OF THE BANNEKER LYCEUM AND FELLOW-CITIZENS : I congratulate you upon the name which your association bears. In giving title to your association you honor one who largely unaided, by his own efforts distinguished himself as a scholar, while he made himself in no insignificant sense conspicuous as a philanthropist; certainly so far as a free and bold advocacy of freedom for his own race discovered his love for mankind.

Benjamin Banneker cultivated in his studies those matters of science which pertain to astronomical calculations; and so thorough and exact were his calculations, as they respected the different aspects of the planets, the motions of the sun and moon, their risings and settings, and the courses of the bodies of planetary systems, as to excite and command the commendation of Pitt, Fox, Wilberforce, and other eminent men of his time.

In 1791 Banneker sent to Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, a manuscript copy of his first almanac, enclosing it in a letter, in the closing portions of which he uses the following words: "Suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms of the British crown were exerted, with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude; look back, I entreat you, on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that period in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation; you cannot but acknowledge that the present freedom and tranquillity which you enjoy

you have mercifully received, and that it is the peculiar blessing of heaven. This, sir, was a time when you clearly saw into the injustice of a state of slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was then that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly help forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'

"Here was a time in which your tender feelings for yourselves had engaged you thus to declare; you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great violation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings, to which you were entitled by nature; but, sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of His equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges which He hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract His mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence, so numerous a party of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves."

In a very few days after receiving this letter the President made the following reply: "Sir, I thank you sincerely for your letter, and the almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men; and that the appearance of a want of them, is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that nobody wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising their condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected we'll admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Sec

retary of the Acrdemy of Science at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it as a document to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them."

I make no apology for making this allusion, in this connection, to the man whose memory you honor in the phraseology "Banneker Lyceum ;" nor for referring to his eminence as a scholar, and his bold advocacy in addressing even the author of the Declaration of American Independence, then President of the United States, in such words as to provoke the earnest and manly reply just presented. Let the colored American contemplate with pride this brief but interesting chapter which brings the name of the scholarly negro Banneker, in such juxtaposition to that of the eminent American statesman, Thomas Jefferson.

I also congratulate you upon this vast assembly, brought together under those instincts and promptings of patriotism, admiration and gratitude, with which from one end to the other of our country, from sea to sea, our fellow-countrymen meet this day, in hall, in church, like ourselves beneath the green foliage of God's own temple, to call to mind and note the magnificent utterances, the splendid achievements and marvelous progress of our nation made within the first hundred years of its existence.

On this occasion, I may not tarry to dwell upon the utterances of individuals, however eminent and distinguished. It is only of those great national utterances, those judgments of the nation itself, so expressed in that majestic and thrilling voice of a great people, that its echoes never die, that I may speak on this interesting and memorable day; and of these in the briefest

manner.

On the 4th day of July 1776, one hundred years ago, thirteer colonies with an insignificant population boldly made declaration of their independence of the British crown and their sovereignty as a free and independent nation, and to the maintenance of this declaration and their independence, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. The annals of one hun