ered by him in reply to the question, "What have you, therefore, now to say why judgment of death and execution should not be awarded against you, according to law?" He was executed on the gallows, September 20, 1803. The eloquence and pathos evinced by his speech, as well as the courage with which he met his fate, won general admiration.] 1. MY LORDS: What have I to say, why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me, according to law? I have nothing to say that can alter your predetermination, or that it would become me to say, with any view to the mitigation' of that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and which I must abide. But I have much to say which interests me more than that life which you have labored to destroy. I have much to say, why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusation and calumny which has been heaped upon it. 2. Were I only to suffer death, after being adjudged guilty by your tribunal, I should bow in silence and meet the fate that awaits me, without a murmur. But the sentence of the law which delivers my body to the executioner, will, through the ministry of that law, labor in its own vindication to consign my character to obloquy 3, 3 for there must be guilt somewhere; whether in the sentence of the court or in the catastrophe, posterity must determine. 3. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port; when my shade shall have joined the bands of those martyred heroes who have shed their blood on the scaffold and in the field, in defence of their country and virtue,this is my hope: I wish that my memory and name may animate those who survive me, while I look down with complacency on the destruction of that perfidious government, which upholds its domination by blasphemy of the Most High. 4. My lord, shall a dying man be denied the legal priv ilege of exculpating himself, in the eyes of the commu nity, from an undeserved reproach thrown upon him during his trial, by charging him with ambition, and attempting to cast away, for a paltry consideration, the liberties of his country? Why, then, insult me? or, rather, why insult justice, in demanding of me why sentence of death should not be pronounced? 5 5. I am charged with being an emissary of France! An emissary of France! And for what end? It is alleged that I wished to sell the independence of my country! And for what end? Was this the object of my ambition? and is this the mode by which a tribunal of justice reconciles contradictions? No, I am no emissary; and my ambition was to hold a place among the deliverers of my country; not in power, nor in profit, but in the glory of the achievement! 6. Sell my country's independence to France! And for what? Was it for a change of masters? No, but for ambition! O my country, was it personal ambition that could influence me? Had it been the soul of my actions, could I not by my education and fortune, by the rank and consideration of my family, have placed myself among the proudest of my oppressors? My country was my idol; to it I sacrificed every selfish, every endearing sentiment; and for it I now offer up my life. 7. No, my lord; I acted as an Irishman, determined on delivering my country from the yoke of a foreign and un、 relenting tyranny; and from the more galling yoke of a domestic faction, which is its joint partner and perpetrator in the parricide, whose reward is the ignominy of existing with an exterior of splendor and a consciousness of depravity. It was the wish of my heart to extricate my country from this doubly-riveted despotism; I wished to place her independence beyond the reach of any power on earth; I wished to exalt her to that proud station in the world. 8. Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonor; let no man attaint' my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence; or that I could have become the pliant minion of power in the oppression or the miseries of my countrymen. 9. I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor, for the same reason that I would resist the domestic tyrant in the dignity of freedom, I would have fought upon the threshold of my country, and her enemy should enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse. Am I, who lived but for my country, and who have subjected myself to the vengeance of the jealous and watchful oppressor, and now to the bondage of the grave, only to give my countrymen their rights, am I to be loaded with calumny, and not to be suffered to resent or repel it? No: God forbid! 10. If the spirits of the illustrious dead participate in the concerns and cares of those who are dear to them in this transitory life, O, ever dear and venerated shade of my departed father! look down with scrutiny on the conduct of your suffering son, and see if I have even for a moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which it was your care to instil into my youthful mind, and for an adherence to which I am now to offer up my life! 11. My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice. The blood which you seek is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim; it circulates warmly and unruffled, through the channels which God created for noble purposes, but which you are bent to destroy for purposes so grievous that they cry to Heaven! Be yet patient! I have but a few words more to say. I am going to my silent grave; my lamp of life is nearly extinguished; my race is run; the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom. 12. I have but one request to ask, at my departure from this world; it is the charity of its silence. Let no man 10 9 write my epitaph; for, as no one who knows my motives dares now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character. When my country shall take her place among the nations of the earth, — then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written! 1 MIT-I-GÃ'TION. Abatement of any 6 PĂR'RI-CĪDE. The murder or the murderer of a parent. thing painful or severe; a rendering less severe. 2 TRI-BŪNAL. Judgment-seat; court of justice. 7 AT-TAINT'. Cloud with infamy; stain; disgrace. 8 MIN'ION. A favorite in an ill sense; a low, base dependant. 9 PRĚJ'U-DICE. A leaning in favor of one side of a cause, for some reason other than its justice; previous bias or judgment. 10 AS-PËRSE'. Slander; defame. LXVI. - NATIONAL HYMN. REV. S. F. SMITH, D. D. [Rev. Samuel F. Smith, D. D., is a native of Boston, and a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1829. He is a clergyman of the Baptist denomination, and the editor of the publications of the American Baptist Missionary Union.] 1. My country, 'tis of thee, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, 2. My native country, thee— Thy name-I love; I love thy rocks and rills, 3. Let music swell the breeze, Let mortal tongues awake; Let rocks their silence break- 4. Our fathers' God, to thee, Author of liberty, To thee we sing : Long may our land be bright LXVII. LIMIT TO HUMAN DOMINION. SWAIN. [The following extract is a portion of a sermon of striking eloquence and beauty, by the Rev. Leonard Swain, of Providence, Rhode Island, published in the "Bibliotheca Sacra."] 1. MAN's dominion is the solid land. If the Old World speaks of man, to tell where he has been, so the New World seems to speak of him, and to tell where he shall be. In the forests of the Mississippi, a thousand miles |