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"Remember the name of Pennsylvania-think of

ANECDOTE.

4500 of the militia of the province, to join the militia of the neighboring colonies, to form a camp for your ancestors and posterity." our immediate protection. We presume only to recommend what we have formed to you; trusting that, in such a case of consequence, your love of virtue and zeal for liberty, will supply the want of authority delegated to us expressly for that pur-N―. (lady of R. N.)) of S―, being in opulent circumstances, invited a party of her female ac

pose.

"During the first struggles of the revolution, it was recommended in that part of Virginia that no more tea should be drank or used. A Mrs.

"We need not remind you, that you are now fur-quaintances, to spend an evening with her in a nished with new motives to animate and support private room up stairs, and regale themselves with your courage. You are not about to contend against a dish of forbidden tea. But, as good luck would power, in order to displace one set of villains to have it, Mr. N. who guessed what was going on, make room for another; your arms will not be stole unperceived up stairs, and slipped a piece of enervated in the day of battle with the reflection, tobacco into the tea-kettie. The consequence was, that you are to risk your lives, or shed your blood, that the ladies went home sick, some vomitting, for a British tyrant; or that your posterity will have &c. whilst the old gentleman enjoyed himself hearyour work to do over again..... You are tily at their expense." about to contend for permanent freedom, to be supported by a government, which will be derived from yourselves, and which will have for its object not the emolument of one man, or one class of men, but the safety, liberty, and happiness of every individual in the community.

GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE.

While his countrymen on the sea-board were contending with the British regulars, col. George Rogers Clarke was the efficient protector of the people of the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsyl vania from the in-roads of the savage allies of the "defender of the faith." The history of his exexploits would fill a volume-and for hair breadth 'scapes and hardy enterprize, would hardly have a parallel. The character of this veteran is well developed in the following extract, recently published in the (Philadelphia) "National Gazette,” from "the note of an old officer."

"We call upon you, therefore, by the respect and obedience which is due to the United Colonies, to Concur in this important measure. The present campaign will probably decide the fate of America. It is now in your power to immortalize your names, by mingling your achievments with the events of the year 1776-a year which, we hope, will be sa cred in the annals of history, to the end of time, for establishing upon a lasting foundation, the li-ington in the most friendly manner, except the berties of one quarter of the globe.

"The Indians came into the treaty at Fort Wash

Shawahnees-the most conceited and most warlike of the aborigines; the first in at a battle-the last at a treaty. Three hundred of their finest warinto the council house. Their number and deriors, set off in all their paint and feathers, filed

"Remember the honor of our colony is at stake. Should you desert the common cause at the present juncture, the glory you have acquired by your former exertions of strength and virtue will be tar nished; and our friends and brethren, who are now meanor, so unusual at an occasion of this sort, was acquiring laurels in the most remote parts of Ame-altogether unexpected and suspicious. The United

rica, will reproach us, and blush to own themselves natives or inhabitants of Pennsylvania.

States stockade mustered seventy men.

"In the centre of the hall, at a little table, sat the commissary general Clarke, the indefatigable "But there are other motives before you-your scourge of these very marauders, general Richard houses—your fields—the legacies of your ances- Butler, and the hon. Mr. Parsons-there was pretors, or the dear bought fruits of your own indus-sent, also, a captain Denfry, who I believe is still try, and your liberty, now urge you to the field: these cannot plead with you in vain, or we might point out to you further, your wives, your children, your aged fathers and mothers, who now look up to you for protection, and hope for salvation, in this day of calamity, from the instrumentality of your swords.

alive, and can attest this story. On the part of the Indians an old council sachem and a warrior chief took the lead: the latter, a tall, raw boned fellow, with an impudent and villanous look, made a bois. terous and threatning speech, which operated ef fectually on the passions of the Indians, who set up a prodigious whoop at every pause. He concluded

Your

by presenting a black and white wampum, to signi-have already commenced the horrid war. fy they were prepared for either event, peace or houses are already devoted to the flames; your war. Clarke exhibited the same unaltered and wives have been driven with the flocks and herds careless countenance he had shown during the to their ships. To the Hessian, and the still more whole scene, his head leaning on his left hand and barbarous Highlander, let them now offer up their his elbow resting on the table: he raised his little cane and pushed the sacred wampum off the table, with very little ceremony-every Indian at the same moment started from his seat with one of those sudden, simultaneous and peculiarly savage sounds which startle and disconcert the stoutest heart, and can neither be described nor forgotten.

prayers for mercy. But what mercy are they to hope from those whose avowed design is conquest, ruin, and misery! Indignation usurps the place of reflection. Indignation should hurry us to action, should fire our souls with the noble emulatian, who first should have the immortal glory of plunging his dagger in the breast of such an enemy.

"Parsons, more civil than military in his habits, Fortunately for us, we have men to command, was poorly fitted for an emergency that probably beloved, respected, and admired for their intrepi embarrassed even the hero of Saratoga-the brodity, activity, and good conduct; men, who, if supther and father of soldiers. At this juncture Clarke ported by their fellow citizens, will soon baffle the rose—the scrutinizing eye cowered at his glance; designs of our enemy; will soon rescue this country he stamped his foot on the prostrate and insulted from the disgrace of being plundered and ravaged symbol and ordered them to leave the hall-they by a merciless banditti. Virginia stands foremost did so apparently involuntarily. for public spirit. Her sons have now the most glo"They were heard all that night debating in the rious opportunity of gaining immortal fame. They

bushes near the fort. The raw-boned chief was for war, the old sachem for peace: the latter prevailed, and next morning they came back and sued for peace."

VIRGINIA-CALLED TO ARMS. The following address was issued to the people of Virginia, at the time when the governor, Patrick Henry, issued his proclamation on the 14th of May, 1779, announcing the arrival of a British fleet in the Chesapeake, and noticing some of the ravages they had committed.

have a commander to lead them to the field, whose experience and bravery will ensure them victory. They may now have the satisfaction, not only of saving their country but of revenge-of revenge for attempts, which, if carried into execution, will entail shame and ruin upon us to the latest ages.

The

Activity, vigor, a determination to conquer or to die, will soon expel those invaders of our rights; torpor and inactivity will confirm them in their conquest. Example will create heroes. The body of the people must be put in motion by the influ. ence of those whom they respect and esteem. Friends and countrymen.-When our country is Foliow then the conduct of our brave brethren to invaded by the avowed enemies to the common the north, remember what gave a favorable cast to rights of mankind; when it is threatened with all the melancholy prospect they had before them. those calamities which barbarity and cruelty can Men of fortune and distinction were the first to inflict, it is no longer time to pause. We have not oppose the enemy. Success crowned their efforts, an enemy to oppose who can claim the common and patriotism received eternal honor. Similar pretension for war. We have to combat those who example here will ensure similar success. seek not for a retaliation of injuries done them, progress of the enemy in our country may carry but who would be our tyrants. Tyrants of the along with it the most dangerous consequences. blackest nature, who would rob us not only of What accessions will they not gain from those those privileges which are dearest to us, but would among us who feel every day the yoke of slavery! bring our grey hairs down with sorrow to the grave. We shall supply them with the certain means of To be the base slaves of arbitrary power, to be in- our own destruction, unless our activity and vigor sulted, trampled under foot by a soldiery, the out-arrest them in their progress. The possession of casts of jails, to be stripped of your property, to sufficient ground for their encampment is not only behold your wives and children the victims of brudisgraceful to us, but ruinous. It will be an asytal lust, or nobly to resist the torrent of despotism,lum for our slaves; they will flock to their standards, nobly to stand forth and to wreak your vengeance and form the flower of their army. They will riupon an enemy the most barbarous and cruel, is val the Hessian or Highlander, if possible, in cruthe only alternative which now awaits you. They elty and desolation. It is said that at present their

army does not consist of more than two thousand.or repeal laws, neither to advance no recede, but This circumstance, which may lull us into secu- to remain in total silence." His lordship, I hope, rity, seems big with the most fatal consequences, un-will excuse me, if I presume to look beyond the less we resolve to anticipate the evil. They doubt acknowledged indolence of his disposition, to exless expect reinforcements from our slaves; not to plain this stupor of a first minister, and the case is mention from tories and the disaffected. very obvious; for as soon as their five regiments should have completed the conquest of America, it In a word, the means of our salvation are diffi should lie with the lives and properties of its inhacult, but certain and glorious, if we will seize them bitants, at the mercy of the conqueror's sword. in time. Delay and inactivity will bring along with them infamy, disgrace, and certain perdition

The very names of assemblies, conventions, or charters, those odious appendages of democratical power, should be finished, and the tyrant's fat should henceforth become the law of the land, and hence sprung the torpedo that benumbed the ministers faculties.

TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF IRELAND. The misery and distress which your ill-fated country has been so frequently exposed to, and has so often experienced, by such a combination of rapine, treachery, and violence, as would have His lordship says, his proposition was misinterdisgraced the name of government, in the most ar- preted or misunderstood, and was rendered suspibitrary country in the world, has most sincerely af. cious by a supposition of a variety of cases; the fected your friends in America, and has engaged congress treated it as unreasonable and insidious, the most serious attention of congress; the ministry and rejected it. War began, and his intention was, of Britain have seen the extreme meanness and folly from the beginning, at the moment of victory, to of the attempt to establish a supreme authority in propose the same proposition in terms obviating parliament, as their venal scribblers had endeavor.all the misrepresentations and misunderstandings ed to define it, exempt from question and control, concerning it. Here it is confessed, that this wise appeal or restriction; but it is evident to all the and virtuous administration, at every hazard, and world, that such doctrine is incompatible with eve- at a certain expense, has almost annihilated public ry idea of a civil constitution, for all compacts, credit, have been looking for victory which has never bills of right, nay, the solemn obligation of their come, and I trust never will come; and which, if it did king to govern according to the statutes in parlia- come, must have been accomplished by the murment agreed on, and the laws and customs of the der of fellow citizens, sooner than clear their own same, would have been all nugatory trumpery, propositions of their ambiguity and suspicion. And were such a supremacy admitted; for this supreme what deprives them of the color of excuse, for the authority having no rule or law to direct its ope horrid barbarities of the war, the city of London, rations, or limit its power, it must necessarily be- in the most respectful language, petitioned the come arbitrary and absolute; for ceasing to be a go. throne to declare clearly and explicitly before the vernment by force, and it will appear fully evident war commenced, what they wished to have done that this unnatural war, in which we have been un-on the part of America; but all to no purpose; avoidably engaged, has been begun and supported they would not, they dare not declare their true for no other purpose than to establish this supreme object. The solemn appeal was made, and, for the or arbitrary power, for they are individually the honor of virtue, the comfort of human nature, and same; nor is it in the power of sophistry to draw the terror of oppression, it will be indelibly rea line of separation; the flimsy and contradictory corded in the historic page, that a few virtuous speech of lord North, introductory to his concilia- citizens could effectually resist the most vigor. tory motion, furnishes the fullest conviction on ous efforts of the most powerful tyranny, and this point. He says, "before the war broke out thereby establish the freedom of the western world he offered a conciliatory proposition. The ground forever. To arrive at power, Gustavus like, by a upon which he made it was, That it was just the bold effort of courage, proves at least the existence colonies should contribute to the support of go. of one virtue, at the same time we detest the vernment." And almost in the same breath he treachery; but to sacrifice the public treasure, to says "he thought necessary to shew the colonies we devote every effort of rapacious taxation, and the were not fighting for taxation, for he never thought fruits of an ever-growing excise, to this idol of taxation would be beneficial to us." He farther madness and folly, to establish a system of venality, says, "he never proposed any tax, his maxim was by which the price of every man's integrity and to say nothing about America, neither to propose abilities was to be determined, to stipulate the

precise condition for which he shall treacherously state of slavery, for an obligation to work for any betray the interest of his country, and violate every other purpose than one's own advantage, is truly

obligation of private friendship and public virtue, the condition of a slave, and every new tax adds a to beat down every fence to honor and principle, link to the chain. But even in this gloomy picture to destroy the very bond and frame of civil society, there is a dawn of hope; all bodies are capable of to make the pillage of property the means to ac refraction to a certain degree, beyond which it is complish the plunder of liberty, and to drive the impossible to expand them ever so little, without people into all the miseries of a civil war, in pur. absolute destruction. It is evident to all the world, suit of this dream of power, are instances of such that the nerves of public credit in England are on determined depravity as are not to be described the rack of extension, and the dreadful explosion even in the language of a country where new vil- must follow of course; and can it be supposed that lany adds to the catalogue of crimes almost every the system of weakness and folly, that has so long day. The perfect similarity of the declaratory act of supremacy, and that relating to your country, viz. That Ireland should be subordinate to and depend on the imperial crown of Great Britain is very obvious; but this declaration ex parte can avail nothing, at the same time that it furnishes the most incon

testible and decisive proofs, that no such subordination or dependence was ever understood before, or there would have been no necessity for such an act.

usurped the name of constitution, can survive the shock; and their people may yet hope to see a vigorous young one grow out of the ruins of the old.

I have it in my commission to repeat to you, my good friends, the cordial concern that congress takes in every thing that relates to the happiness of Ireland; they are sensibly affected by the load of oppressive pensions on your establishment, the arbitrary and illegal exactions of public money by The navigation act, which had been framed for king's letters; the profuse dissipation, by sinecure the sole purpose of securing to the British sub- appointments with large salaries, and the very arbijects, all the advantages to be derived from the trary and impolitic restrictions on your trade and commerce of their own settlements, has, by sub- manufactures, which are beyond example in the sequent acts, been framed into the most odious and history of the world, and can only be equalled by impolitic monopoly that could be devised; creating that illiberal spirit which directs it, and which has local distinctions and commercial schisms, giving shewn itself so abundantly in petitions from all privilege to one set of subjects to the injury of parts of their islands, and in the debate in their others, and operating on all the indicted provinces house of commons, when you had been iately as an oppressive tax, comprehending all the taxes amused with the vain hope of an extension of your of Britain, however variously modified or com- trade, and which were conducted with such tempounded. And we wish to have it forever fixed per and language as might be supposed to suit on your minds, that by a monopoly of trade every their copper colored allies in America, but must pretence to internal taxation is given up; for were fix a stain on the character of a civilized nation you even without a constitution of your own, and forever. as dependant as usurpation has endeavored to make you, the monopoly of your trade is more than a full and equitable compensation for all other taxes, and it will not appear paradoxical to futurity, that the rise and fall of the British empire have been owing to this act; and the engine by which the wise politician, who framed it, designed to wind up and connect the British interest all over the world, we have seen employed as the wheel on which British liberty and grandeur have disgrace. fully expired.

When I had the pleasure of residing in your capital some years ago, it gave me pain to observe such a debility and morbid langour in every de. partment of your government, as would have disgraced anarchy itself; the laws are too weak to execute themselves, and vice and violence often reign with impunity; and even the military with you seem to claim an exemption from all civil restraint, or jurisdiction,and individuals are forced to trust to themselves for that security and protection which the government of the country can no longer afford The anticipation of public revenue has fixed the them. We congratulate you however, on the bright crisis of Britain, the labor of their people for all prospect which the western hemisphere has afford. succeeding generations being engaged to pay the interests of their public debts. I cannot suppose it an unfair deduction to say they are all born in a

ed to you, and the oppressed of every nation, and we trust that the liberation of your country has been effected in America, and that you never will

We are assembled, my friends, not to boast, but to realize-not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of past achievements in the council, or in the field; but, from a modest retrospect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen-from an accurate view of our present situation-and from an anticipation of the scenes that remain to be unfolded—to discern and

be called on for those painful, though necessary the sword of victory, and promised in the voice exertions, which the sacred love of liberty inspires, of peace, remain to be confirmed by our future and which have enabled us to establish our free- exertions-while the nourishment, the growth, dom forever. and even the existence of our empire depend upon the united efforts of an extensive and divided We hope the political Quixots of Great Britain people-the duties of this day ascend from amusewill no longer be able to disturb the peace and ment and congratulation to a serious patriotic emhappiness of mankind, and which Providence has ployment. permitted perhaps to shew the monstrous abuse of power; yet lost to all public virtue as they are, we wish they may turn from their wickedness and live; and we doubt not the noble efforts of America will meet the full approbation of every virtuous Briton, when they shall be able to distinguish between the mad pursuits of government and the true interest of their people. But as for you, our dear and good friends of Ireland, we must cordially recommend to you to continue peaceable and quiet in every possible situation of your affairs, and endeavor, by mutual good will, to supply the defects of administration. But if the government, whom you ed by accident. The faculties of human reason at this time acknowledge, does not, in conformity and the rights of human nature have been the to her own true interest, take off and remove every sport of chance and the prey of ambition. And restraint on your trade, commerce and manufac. when indignation has burst the bands of slavery, tures, I am charged to assure you, that means will to the destruction of one tyrant, it was only to be found to establish your freedom in this respect, impose the manacles of another. This arose from in the fullest and amplest manner. And as it is the imperfection of that early stage of society,

familiarize the duties that still await us, as citizens, as soldiers, and as men.

Revolutions in other countries have been effect.

the ardent wish of America to promote, as far as which necessarily occasioned the foundation of her other engagements will permit, a reciprocal empires on the eastern continent to be laid in commercial interest with you, I am to assure you, ignorance, and which induced a total inability of they will seek every means to establish and ex- foreseeing the improvements of civilization, or of tend it; and it has given the most sensible pleasure adapting the government to a state of social refineto have those instructions committed to my care,

ment.

as I have ever retained the most perfect good will| I shall but repeat a common observation, when and esteem for the people of Ireland. And am, I remark, that on the western continent, the scene with every sentiment of respect, their obedient was entirely different, and a new task, totally unand humble servant, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Versailes, October 4, 1778.

known to the legislators of other nations, was imposed upon the fathers of the American empire.

Here was a people thinly scattered over an

Mr. Barlow's Oration, July 4, 1787. extensive territory, lords of the soil on which they An oration, delivered at the North church in trode, commanding a prodigious length of coast and Hartford, at the meeting of the Connecticut an equal breadth of frontier- people habituated society of the Cincinnati, July the fourth, 1787, to liberty, professing a mild and benevolent re. in commemoration of the independence of the ligion, and highly advanced in science and civiliza. United States-by Joel Barlow, esq. and publish. tion. To conduct such a people in a revolution, ed by desire of said society.

Mr. President, gentlemen of the society,

and fellow-citizens,

the address must be made to reason, as well as to the passions. And to reason, to the clear understanding of these variously affected colonies, the solemn address was made.

On the anniversary of so great an event, as the birth of the empire in which we live, none will A people thus enlightened, and capable of disquestion the propriety of passing a few moments cerning the connexion of causes with their remotest in contemplating the various objects suggested to effects, waited not the experience of oppression is the mind by the important occasion. But, at the their own persons; which they weil knew would present period, while the blessings, claimed by render them less able to conduct a regular op

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