quently expressed detestation of every form of human slavery, whether of opinion, or of that form of servitude which, in republican America, holds three millions of human beings in hereditary bondage, (of which his opinion in 1838 was the same as in 1852); everywhere, and at all times, he was found on the side of freedom. This position will be sustained in the following chapter. The present must close with the republication of several of his earlier productions.

I. An oration before the inhabitants of South Reading, on July 4, 1832. This first of his published addresses shows his familiar acquaintance with the history of our own country and Europe, and a just estimate of its facts, and their application to the political instruction of his auditors, gives it a permanent value which justifies its republication.

II. An oration delivered before the Gloucester Mechanic Association, on the 4th of July, 1833. It is here republished as Mr. Rantoul presented it to the Workingmen's Library, Vol. I. No. 5, entitled, "The Value of the Federal Union calculated." In commendation of the just thoughts, the historical knowledge, and the elegant reasoning of this address, Mr. Rantoul received from Mr. Marshall, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a letter, in which that eminent man expressed in strong terms his gratification in perusing it, and pronounced it the ablest view of the subject that had been given to the American public.

The following very just remarks on this address are from the Boston Atlas of July 27, 1833: "Mr. Rantoul shows, by an able analysis of European politics and history, that all the social grievances under which our European neighbors labor, owe their origin and support to war, and the liability to war, to which the European nations from the nature of their situation have always been exposed. War has been the origin of privileged classes, standing armies, strong governments, heavy taxes, overwhelming debts, and, worse than all, of the poverty, ignorance, and degradation of a large proportion of the population, which make reforms so dangerous, though not the less necessary and inevitable. War, and the liability to war, is the great enemy to liberty, introducing the necessity of intrusting great power in few hands, of degrading and impoverishing the people by heavy taxes, and

military service, and of conferring splendid rewards on warlike genius and success.

"Now a state of occasional warfare, and of constant liability to war, would be the inevitable and undeniable consequence of a dissolution of the American Union; and this new ingredient in our social relations would not fail to produce here the same. consequences it has produced in Europe.

"This liability to war, in case the Union should be shattered into a number of disconnected States, would on some accounts exist here, in a higher degree than it ever has in Europe; and Mr. Rantoul refers to the absence of all natural barriers and lines of demarcation, that facility of intercourse, so remarkable throughout our extensive territory, the existence of a common language, and of common and interwoven interests, all justly regarded as great blessings so long as the Union continues,as certain, in case of a separation, to multiply a thousand fold, the chances and the causes of war. That constant progressive march of settlements and increase of wealth and population, in which we now exult, should the Union be dissolved, would be turned into a curse, and by continually disturbing the balance of power, would introduce a new source of discord and war. The two opposite principles of a tendency to further subdivision, and the disposition of large States to swallow up or tyrannize over their weaker neighbors, would throw new ingredients into the caldron of discord and foreign intervention, with all its attending dangers and humiliations, would add, if possible, to the misery of a situation, of which arbitrary power, standing armies, oppressive taxes, public debts, a military nobility, and a crushed, degraded, wretched populace, would be the natural and unavoidable results.

"Any body who will read Mr. Rantoul's oration, will be satisfied that this terrible picture is not the creation of a heated and excited fancy, but is traced by the hand of philosophy, and shaded by the pencil of the historic muse."

III. An address to the Workingmen of the United States of America, as it was published in the Workingmen's Library, 1833.

If the incessant industry of an ever active mind, devoted to the acquisition and the beneficent use of knowledge can entitle

one to be considered a workingman, and can qualify him to speak wisely and effectively to his associates of all pursuits, favorable to human happiness, Mr. Rantoul certainly possessed the requisite qualifications. A lasting interest will always attach to the wise and philanthropic sentiments of this address.

IV. An oration at Scituate, on the Fourth of July, 1836. This oration is full of matter of permanent interest. It is marked by great care in the positions assumed, and by extensive research in sustaining them.

V. Extracts from an oration delivered at Lenox, before the citizens of Berkshire county, July 4, 1838, on the true basis of free governments.

ORATION AT SOUTH READING.*

It is a very common remark, and I do not care with whom it originated, it is none the less true because it is common, that the world is governed too much. Fifty-six years ago, on the day we are met to celebrate, three millions of people, of the freest and best governed among the inhabitants of the world, impressed notwithstanding, by their own experience, with the truth of this maxim, met together, by their delegates, whom they had authorized and empowered so to do, solemnly proclaimed to the world, that, for the future, they and their descendants would not be governed too much. Whether under all the circumstances this decision was wise, whether it can and will be carried successfully into effect, is for the present generation and for posterity to determine. The question is of universal interest, the experiment is a grand one; the eyes of all mankind are upon the actors, and anxiously awaiting the issue. If selfgovernment in this full and fair trial of its capacities be found to fail, the hope of liberty is gone forever. If, on the other hand, it should be found able to meet that absolute necessity out of which governments grew, if it should be found competent to fulfil all those high purposes for which governments are maintained, especially if it should be found to answer the ends for which men in society have mutually surrendered some portion of their natural freedom, with less encroachment on their natural rights, at a cheaper rate and in a more satisfactory manner, by a

* Delivered before the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity, on the Fourth of July, 1832.

shorter, simpler, surer, and more efficient process, it is not presumptuous to foretell, that sooner or later the example will be every where imitated, and that in the progress of time, as surely as ages roll on, the day will come when the light of liberty shall shine on all who now sit in darkness, when over all her wide spread continents and among all her widely differing races, the world shall no longer be governed too much. If this be so, my friends, if the future destinies of mankind no less than our own welfare do in a great measure hinge upon this question, it is imporant that we should discuss and understand it: and I do not know of any opportunity more fitting for the discussion than this anniversary, filled as it is with associations which awaken all our noblest sensibilities, and kindle into a lively ardor that affection for our common country which we all profess to feel.

All nations in all ages have set apart seasons of thanksgiving for great national blessings, and more especially days whereon patriotism might delight itself in the recollection of great national deliverances. The ancient people of God had their feast of tabernacles, their passover and their jubilee, and on those solemn occasions, when all the tribes of the land went up to pour forth their common gratitude in the temple of their common Father, grand and imposing indeed must have been the spectacle. An institution so beautiful could not fail to spring up spontaneously and under a great variety of forms, among the people of classic antiquity. The Greeks, our preceptors in matters of taste, the Romans, who, whatever we may lay to their charge in other respects, we may safely pronounce to have been models of patriotism, honored their heroes while living, and their memory when dead, and distinguished also the days and the places marked by their achievements, with triumphs, games, festivals, and other tokens of public regard and interest, which have so often been described that I will not trouble you with the repetition.

The custom is good: it is founded in natural feelings, and worthy to be perpetuated. And certainly, among the blessings which deserve thus to be commemorated, national independence ought to hold the first place, since without it no rational liberty can be enjoyed, and without liberty all other blessings are worthless. The Sabbath, which, with a slight departure from its original institution, all Christendom now holds as holy time, was ordained to be observed by the Hebrews through all their generations, as a memorial of their deliverance from slavery" for in that day the Lord brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage." The Catholic church, the universal church, as it is proud to call itself, has filled its calendar with days of observation. The birth of its saints, the sufferings of its martyrs-nothing that ought to

be remembered, is forgotten. It keeps high festival on every day marked by any extraordinary event in the history of its early progress. We moderns, and protestants, and on this side of the Atlantic, have but few such festivals, whether of religion or of patriotism, remaining; we should therefore be so much the more zealous to nourish and to keep alive the genuine spirit of the few that are yet left to us.

If then it be true, that the days when signal blessings have been bestowed, ought to be consecrated in after years; if it be undeniable, that of all national blessings independence is the greatest; it is manifest that beyond any event, that any nation was ever called upon to celebrate, these United States of America are emphatically called on to celebrate the birth day of their independence, since it has secured to them a greater amount of civil and political liberty than is enjoyed by any other nation on the face of the globe. The yeomanry of New England, who fought the battles of the first campaign, the people of Massachusetts, among whom the contest originated, may rightfully claim a large share of the glory, and therefore have peculiar reason to keep alive the remembrance of the struggle by which independence was secured. Least of all should we forget it, we, the men of Middlesex, to whom belongs so liberal a portion of the rich inheritance of our fathers' glory. The county of Middlesex is the classic ground of American history. Lexington, where was shed the blood of the first martyrs in the holy cause; Concord, where the first effectual resistance was offered; Bunker Hill, where the veterans of the mother country were first taught to suspect that skill and discipline and British valor, might buy their victories too dear; Charlestown, offered up as one great burnt sacrifice; Cambridge, the head-quarters of Washington while Boston was in the hands of the enemy; these, to enlarge no further, these with their thousand cherished traditions, are all our own. Well may we exult as we enumerate them: these were the scenes of the first act in the bloody drama, and it is an hereditary honor of which republicans may be proud, that our fathers were the actors, that here they got them a name and a praise among the nations. Lexington, Concord, Cambridge, and Bunker Hill! These magic names bring before us at once the whole array of patriots and sages, and recall all their eventful story, with its romantic reality. Imagination pictures the leaders, and marshals the ranks; we are hurried back to the times that tried men's souls, and our bosoms glow with corresponding emotions. The American Revolution deserves to be commemorated by you, men of Middlesex! on this republican jubilee. It presents itself in imposing aspects. It opens a field in which there is room to expatiate widely, and yet leave the subject unexhausted.. Spiritstirring reminiscences, told and written, sketches vividly portrayed and