shire, wherever they may be scattered, has not known something of the parliamentary and forensic achievements of her most distinguished son, whose life has recently closed, and whose name has already passed into history. That was a great light which was not confined to a single State, nor even to the nation which it illuminated, but reached to other lands. I was in Europe at the time he was called out of the world; and from beyond the waves of the Atlantic, many Americans and many Europeans saw the splendor of his setting sun go down; and not without tears. Permit me to say, gentlemen, that I love our State, and that I love her people. There is strength in her rocks; there is inspiration in her mountains. It is in such a rugged surface as that of New Hampshire, hard and inflexible, and therefore uninviting to weakness of purpose and indolence of habits, but diversified with every form of grandeur and sublimity, that the mind harmonizes with nature in developing noble thoughts and energetic purposes. Those rugged rocks and lofty mountains have a power over the heart as well as over the intellect, a power of association and attraction little known to those who have not felt it. And hence it is, that her sons, scattered abroad in different and distant places, always go back to her rivers and mountains, and take a last look of them before they die. In common with many others, I felt my heart moved within me, when I have seen from year to year the great departed orator to whom I have referred, bend away his step that shook the capitol, and plant his foot upon his native hills. He loved to stand by the side of those rivers; he loved to breathe that native air; and from the height of the mountains which he had gazed upon and traversed in his youth, he seemed to look abroad with a greater distinctness, and embrace, with a clearer and wider vision, the present and future destiny of men and nations. I believe, therefore, that in the mountains of New Hampshire is to be found in part the secret of her strength. They are originators of thought, and nurseries of the imagination. They give strength and development to the religious sentiment. And the time may yet come, when they will be found to be the strong-holds of freedom. To Messrs. WILDER, GREENE, and others. THOMAS C. UPHAM. Gentlemen: [From Hon. N. GILMAN.] EXETER, N. H., October 29th, 1853. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to the Festival of the 2d of November, of the Sons of New Hampshire. I greatly regret that a business engagement to a distant city will deprive me of the pleasure of participating in the festivities of that highly interesting occasion. Absence from home must be my apology for this late answer to your polite invitation. I am, with great respect, Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER, and others, Committee, Boston. Your ob't servant, N. GILMAN. [From Rev. RALPH EMERSON, D. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary.] Gentlemen: ANDOVER, October 29, 1853. A recent mail has brought me your kind invitation to the adjourned Festival of the Sons of New Hampshire. You will please to accept my thanks for this honor, and be assured of the pleasure it will afford me to be present on that occasion, unless prevented by some unforeseen occurrence. With great respect, TO MARSHALL P. WILDER, RALPH EMERSON. and others of the Committee of Invitation. P. S. Allow me to send, in honor of my birthplace, the following sentiment, to be presented at the Festival, if thought expedient, provided I shall not be present: The pleasant town of Hollis! Distinguished as having educated for the Christian ministry a larger portion of her sons than any other town in New England, except Southampton, Mass. R. E. Dear Sir: [From Rev. BROWN EMERSON, D. D.] SALEM, October 28, 1853. I would tender through you my grateful acknowledgments for the honor of an invitation to the Festival of the Sons of New Hampshire, in Boston, on the second day of the ensuing November, and only regret that my engagements are such as to prevent my attendance on the interesting occasion. With due respect, Gentlemen: [From Rev. ABIEL ABBOT, D. D.] BROWN EMERSON. PETERBOROUGH, October 24, 1853. I thank you for the honor of an invitation to the Festival of the Sons of New Hampshire, to be held on the second of November. The infirmities of four score and eight years forbid my compliance with the invitation. It affords me great pleasure to know that the sons of New Hampshire who emigrate, do not forget the homes of their boyhood, and do so much honor to their native State and service to our country. Although unable to attend the Festival in body, I shall in mind be present. Permit me to express this ardent wish of my heart, sons of New Hampshire, continue to honor your fathers, and acquire noble honors for your sons. Your servant, ABIEL ABBOT. TO MARSHALL P. WILDER, DANIEL TAYLOR, FLETCHER WEBSTER, and others, Committee of Invitation. [From Rev. J. G. ADAMS, Worcester.] WORCESTER, Ms., October 31, 1853. Gentlemen: I have to regret that other engagements will not permit me to be present at the second Festival of the Sons of New Hampshire, as I was at the first. For your kind invitation to this banquet, accept my warmest thanks. And since I shall be with you only in spirit, permit me to offer my fraternal congratulations to those who may on that occasion meet face to face, and also to say, that much as I love Massachusetts, and happy as I have found my home in it for the last fifteen years, still I have not lived here long enough to outgrow my first love for my native New Hampshire. Next to my bible and other religious guide-books in my study, I keep sacred the volumes reminding me of my primal home, the "Annals of Portsmouth," my native town, the "New Hampshire Historical Collections," the "New Hampshire Book," and others which I need not name. These are among my heart-treasures, and will be while I have any such treasures on this broad earth. New Hampshire's rural homes, its rivers, lakes and mountain ranges, are still bright pictures in memory, and whenever I come near the northern line of the old Bay State, a sight of the blue summits beyond it is as cheering to me as Sir WALTER SCOTT assures us the sight of "the heather" was to him. I thank one of our own New Hampshire poets of the present time for words to which my own soul and that of every son of that “land of the mountain dominion" can respond: "We ask for no hearts that are truer, No spirits more gifted than thine, Than dawn on the hemlock and pine. Ever pure are the breezes that herald thee forth, Green land of my fathers, thou rock of the North." I send you this sentiment: The sons of New Hampshire! At home or abroad, in their own and in the world's future history, may their advocacy and defence of human freedom and progress be as proverbial for endurance as the granite hills of the State that gave them birth. To Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER, and others, Committee, etc. Respectfully yours, J. G. ADAMS. [From Hon. EDMUND BURKE, late Commissioner of Patents at Washington.] NEWPORT, N. H., October 29, 1853. Gentlemen: Unavoidable professional engagements will deprive me of the pleasure of accepting your invitation to attend the Festival of the Sons of New Hampshire, to be held in the city of Boston on the second of November next. It is a source of pride and gratification to every New Hampshire man to see so many of the virtuous and worthy sons of that State filling high and respectable positions in the learned professions, and in all the departments of business in the great city of their adopted State—a city whose population, wealth, and enterprise, justly entitle it to be regarded as the metropolis of New England. But, while New Hampshire has given many of her precious jewels to adorn the brow of their adopted mother, we are conscious that they blend their lustre with native jewels equally as precious and brilliant, forming together a coronet of glittering gems such as no other State can boast. Nor are we who remain at home unmindful of the fact that Massachusetts first gave to New Hampshire many of the sires and mothers of the sons who have returned to adorn and honor their fatherland. We, therefore, of both States, can take a just pride in this beautiful spectacle of a reünion of kindred blood upon the soil of our forefathers—a soil whose history is illustrated by the sublime courage of the Pilgrim who dared the perils of the stormy ocean and the inhospitable wilderness, for "freedom to worship God;" by the first blood spilt on this continent in resistance to tyranny; and by the grandest and noblest monuments of industry, guided by intellect and genius to its high achievements. I am, gentlemen, with great respect, Your obedient servant, EDMUND BURKE. To the Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER, and others, Committee. [From Hon. ISAAC MCCONIHE.] TROY, N. Y., October 29, 1853. Gentlemen: On the receipt of your kind invitation to the Festival of the Sons of New Hampshire, at Boston, on the 2d proximo, I answered that I would attend unless, by some cause unforeseen, I should be prevented. I regret that public duties will compel me to forego the pleasure which I anticipated enjoying in meeting many valued friends on that occasion whom I had not seen for many years. I am gratified and thank you for the opportunity thus afforded me of expressing my affection for my fatherland, and of calling up reminiscences of my youthful days, and of traditionary tales of the first settlement and first settlers (my father being a direct descendant of one of the first settlers, and an original proprietor of Lon |