ought to know where we are. We should conform in all respects to our Christian duties, and enjoy our privileges thankfully and cheerfully, resolving to perform our duty as men, as Christians, and as patriots. We 9. Gentlemen, I must say to you, every true American heart feels that it has a country, not only in Boston, not only in Massachusetts, not only in New England, but formed by that great union of these States called the United States of North America. rejoice in that. Who wishes to cut off, right and left, any part of this great brotherhood? We see here to-day delegate members from one of the greatest Christian denominations in the United States, coming from the North, probably-certainly from the South and West. And who is not glad to see them? They come as friends. And who would wish to see them in any other capacity? And as for myself, gentlemen, I bid you welcome-[the members of the Methodist Conference now rose in a body]-I bid you welcome to Faneuil Hall, the birth-place of American liberty. Welcome to Boston, the seat of commerce, enterprise, and literature. Welcome to Massachusetts, the home of public education. We welcome you for your many Christian virtues, and for the good have you plished in this country and abroad. In the course of my life, I have not been an unattentive spectator of your history. I know something of Charles Wesley, dying at a great age, shortly after our independence was secured; these were his last words :- "The workmen die, but the work goes on." The workmen who framed the institutions and the Constitution of our accom country, have passed away; but their work lives after them. Those same institutions, and that same Constitution, have been upheld by us, and I trust will be sustained by our children for ever. I have read, many years since, the biography of John Wesley, an extraordinary person, who died in 1791, at the advanced age of 83 years; his last words were:-"The best of all is, that God is with us,”-sentiments that have been wonderfully illustrated in the subsequent history of Methodism, of which Southey said so beautifully, "That it is religion in earnest." Now, gentlemen, we must not hold too long a talk here with the citizens of Boston. My friend, Mr. Hilliard, has lately told me of an extract from a poet who may properly serve me as a guide on the present occasion: Ye solid men of Boston, make no long orations. I take that to myself. And then he adds a sentiment which will undoubtedly meet with the approbation of the majority of those present: Ye solid men of Boston, drink no strong potations. So that we will pay all respect to these two quotations: Ye solid men of Boston, make no long orations. But now, gentlemen, allow me to speak cautiously and coolly of the future, to these sanguine temperaments. What is before us? What is come of all this? We are here in the midst of a religious, enter EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT PIERCE'S INAUGURAL. 353 prising, commercial, manufacturing, rich metropolis, carrying, as you say, all before it. What is to be the result? That will depend upon the character of those who shall come after us, under the superintendence and protection of Divine Providence. What are our hopes then? What anticipations do we entertain? For myself, gentlemen, I must say that it becomes us today, in the enjoyment of the privileges we possess here amidst the scenes of early sacrifices for American liberty amidst the scenes which characterized Massachusetts as a great leader and martyr in the revolu tionary contest-it becomes us to say that we entertain high hopes, exalted hopes, humbly and meekly before God, but fearlessly and dauntlessly before men, that this, the prosperity, and this the renown, which we Americans of this generation enjoy, shall accompany our country to her latest posterity, with ten thousand times the brilliancy of yonder setting sun. 10. EXTRACT OF PRESIDENT PIERCE'S INAUGURAL, March 4th, 1853. With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined. Without it, what are we, individually or collectively?—what becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind ? From that radiant constellation, which both illumines our own way and points out to struggling nations their course, let but a single star be lost, and, if there be not utter darkness, the lustre of the whole is dimmed. Do my countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not to overtake them while I possess the power to stay it? It is with me an earnest and vital belief, that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our children. The field of calm and free discussion in our country is open, and will always be so; but it never has been and never can be traversed for good in a spirit of sectionalism and uncharitableness. The founders of the republic dealt with things as they were presented to them, in a spirit of self-sacrificing patriotism, and, as time has proved, with a comprehensive wisdom which it will always be safe for us to consult. *** But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom. It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no place in the public deliberations. It will not be sufficient that the rash counsels of human passion are rejected. It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and his overruling providence. We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an couragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts, that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever re-unite its broken fragments. Standing, as I do, almost within view of the green slopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me, like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from Heaven, I can express no better hope for my country, than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited. LESSON XLIX. 1. FROM CICERO'S ORATION AGAINST VERRES. Will you I ask now, Verres, what have you to advance against this charge? Will you pretend to deny it? Will pretend that any thing false, that even any thing aggravated is alleged against you? Had any prince, or any state, committed the same outrage against the privilege of Roman citizens, should we not think we had sufficient reason for declaring immediate war against them? What punishment ought then to be inflicted on a tyrannical and wicked prætor, who dared, at no greater distance than Sicily, within sight of the Italian coast, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cosanus, only for his having asserted his privilege of citizenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the justice of his country against a cruel oppressor, who had unjustly confined him in prison at Syracuse, whence he |