less medicinal to a nation infected by the breath of foreign pollution, engrossed by the pursuit of illicit gain, immersed in the filth of immoral traffic, or unnerved by the excess of selfish enjoyment. It draws more close the bond of national sentiment, corrects degrading propensities, and invigorates the nobler feelings of our na ture. I add, gentlemen, with the pleasure and the pride which swell your bosoms, that America has shown examples of heroic ardour not excelled by Rome, in her brightest day of glory, and blended with milder virtue than Romans ever knew. These examples will be handed down, by your care, for the instruction and imitation of our children's children: make them acquainted with their fathers; and grant, Oh God! that a long and late posterity, enjoying freedom in the bosom of peace, may look, with grateful exultation, at the daydawn of our empire. GENTLEMEN, By the occasion which called us together, we are reminded that Hudson discovered, in 1609, the river which bears his name. Imagine his amazement, had some prophetic spirit revealed that this island would, in two centuries from the first European settlement, embrace a population of twice fifty thousand souls. Europe witnessed, in eight years, four events which had great influence on the condition of mankind. The race of English monarchs expired with Elizabeth in 1603. Henry the Fourth of France was assassinated in 1610. In the same year the Moors were expelled from Spain. And, in the next, Gustavus Adolphus became king of Sweden. These events excited, as they ought, much attention. But the discovery of Hudson's River, within the same period, was of such trivial estimation as to occupy no space in public annals. Oh man! how short thy sight. To pierce the cloud which overhangs futurity, how feeble. But why be surprised that European statesmen, two centuries ago, were indifferent to what passed on the savage coast of n. America; when, at the same time, the existence of Russia is unnoticed and almost unknown? Little more than a century has elapsed since the decisive victory of Pultowa introduced the empire of the Czars to the society of European nations; an empire which, stretched out from Germany to Kamschatska, from the Black Sea to the Frozen Ocean, contains a greater extent than was ever traversed by the Roman eagle in its boldest flight. That vast empire, so lately known, and so little understood, resisted, unshaken, the shock of embattled Europe,-poured the rapid current of conquest back from the ruins of Moscow to the walls. of Paris, and stands a proud arbiter of human destiny. A mission of no common sort was lately about to proceed from the New World to the Old. From that which in 1600 was a dreary wilderness, to that which in 1700 was a cold morass. It was contemplated that a vessel of novel invention, leaving this harbour, should display American genius and hardihood in the port of St. Petersburgh. If this expedition be suspended or laid aside, it is not from any doubt as to its practicability. There are persons of some eminence, in Europe, who look contemptuously at our country, in the persuasion that all creatures, not excepting man, degenerate here. They triumphatly call on us to exhibit a list of our scholars, poets, heroes, and statesmen. Be this the care of posterity. But admitting we had no proud names to show, is it reasonable to make such heavy demand on so recent a people? Could the culture of science be expected from those who, in cultivating the earth, were obliged, while they held the plough in one hand, to grasp a sword in the other? Let those who depreciate their brethren of the West, remember that our forests, though widely spread, gave no academic shade. In the century succeeding Hudson's voyage, the great poets of England flourished, while we were compelled to earn our daily bread by our daily labour. The ground, therefore, was occupied before we had leisure to make our approach. The various chords of our mother tongue have, long since, been touched to all their tones by minstrels, beneath whose master-hand it has resounded every sound, from the roar of thunder, rolling along the Vault of Heaven, to the "lascivious pleasings of a lute." British genius and taste have, already, given to all "the ideal forms that imagination can body forth," a "local habitation and a name." Nothing then remains, for the present age, but to repeat their just thoughts in their pure style. Those who, on either side of the Atlantic, are too proud to perform this plagiary task, must convey false thoughts, in the old classic diction, or clothe in frippery phrase the correct conceptions of their predecessors. Poetry is the splendid effect of genius moulding into language a barbarous dialect. When the great bards have written, the language is formed; and by those who succeed it is disfigured. The reason is evident. New authors would write something new, when there is nothing new. which they can do, therefore, is to fill new moulds with old metal, and exhibit novelty of expression, since they cannot produce novelty of thought. But these novel expressions must vary from that elegance and force in which the power and harmony of language have been already displayed. All Let us not, then, attempt to marshal, against each other, infernal and celestial spirits, to describe the various seasons, to condense divine and moral truth in mellifluent verse, or to imitate, in our native speech, the melody of ancient song. Other paths remain to be trodden, other fields to be cultivated, other regions to be explored. The fertile earth is not yet wholly peopled. The raging ocean is not yet quite subdued. If the learned leisure of European wealth can gain applause or emolument for meting out, by syllables reluctantly drawn together, unharmonious hexameters, far be it from us to rival the manufacture. Be it ours to boast that the first vessel successfully propelled by steam was launched on the bosom of Hudson's River. It was here that American genius, seizing the arm of European science, bent to the purpose of our favourite parent art the wildest and most devouring element. The patron, the inventor,-are no more. But the names of Livingston and of Fulton, dear to fame, shall be engraven on a monument sacred to the benefactors of mankind. There generations yet unborn shall read, Godfrey taught seamen to interrogate, Franklin, dread thunder-bolts, with daring hand, In triumph proud thro' the loud sounding surge. This invention is spreading fast in the civilized world; and though excluded as yet from Russia, will, ere long, be extended to that vast empire. A bird hatched on the Hudson will soon people the floods of the Wolga, and cygnets descended from an American swan glide along the surface of the Caspian Sea. Then the hoary genius of Asia, high throned on the peaks of Caucasus, his moist eye glistening while it glances over the ruins of Babylon, Persepolis, Jerusalem, and Palmyra, shall bow with grateful reverence to the inventive spirit of this western world. Hail Columbia! child of science,, parent of useful arts; dear country, hail! Be it thine to meliorate the condition of man. Too many thrones have been reared by arms, cemented by blood, and reduced again to dust, by the sanguinary conflict of arms. Let mankind enjoy at last the consolatory spectacle of thy throne, built by industry on the basis of peace and sheltered under the wings of justice. May it be secured by a pious obedience to that divine will, which prescribes the moral orbit of empire with the same precision that his wisdom and power have displayed, in whirling millions of planets round millions of suns through the vastness of infinite space. ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 7, 1818. BY GULIAN C. VERPLANCK, ESQ, “Omnibus his nives cinguntur tempora vittâ."--Virgil. “Heureux qui est digne de peindre la vertu. Je n'espère point l'embellir; elle est trop audessus des ornamens frivoles de l'esprit―mais je lui rendrai homage. Je la presentervi dans sa majesteuse simplicité."-Thomas. Eloge de D'Aguesscam. 6 |