"He is a freeman, whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves, beside." * In the blessed words of the divine and holy Saviour, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth; and the truth shall make you free." "Winds blow, and waters roll, X. CIVIL GOVERNMENT A SACRED TRUST FROM GOD. * THE ORATION BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY STATE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. It was the height of plowing.+ Upon a farm of scarce four acres, across the Tiber, just opposite to where the navy-yard was afterwards, a man was at his work. In his shirt-sleeves,§ his long, crisp hair, upon * July 4th, A. D. 1845. Dedicated to "the Hon. Garret D. Wall, the friend of my Father, and my own friend; a kind parishioner, a wise and faithful counsellor; with true affection and sincere respect. t "Medium erat tempus forte sementis, quum patricium virum innixum aratro suo, lictor in ipso opere deprehendit."-L. ANNEI FLORI, i. 11. "Spes unica imperii populi Romani L. Quintius trans Tiberim, contra eum ipsum locum, ubi nunc navalia sunt, quatuor jugerum colebat agrum.—T. LIVII, iii. 26. "He was a frugal man, and did not care to be rich; and his land was on the other side of the Tiber, a plot of four jugera, where he dwelt with his wife Racilia, and busied himself in the tilling of his ground.-ARNOLD, History of Rome, i. 204. "The deputies went over the river, and came to his house, and found him in his field, at work, without his toga or cloak."—Arnold, i. 204. "The tunica," Becker says, "was worn under the toga, and was a sort of shirt."-Gallus, 342. Before receiving the message of the Senate, he sent to his cottage for his toga, or outer garment. Togam propere tugurio proferre uxorem Raciliam jubet." -LIVII, iii. 26. Hence his name of Cincinnatus; as if it were curly-headed Lucius Quinctius. "This Lucius Quinctius let his hair grow, and tended it carefully; and was so famous for his curled and crisped locks, that men called him Cincinnatus, or the crisp-haired."-ARNOLD, i. 204. his shoulders, covered with sweat and dust,* he was bending at the plow ;† when deputies approached him, before sun-rise, from the Roman Senate, to apprize him, that the Consul, with his army, was surrounded, in the country of the Equi; and that he, chosen Dictator, must march at once, with all the force that could be levied, to their rescue. Before the sun went down that day, his line of march was taken up. And the slant rays of the next sunset gilded the banners with which he entered Rome, in triumph.§ Prevailing plowman, as the Roman annalist well calls him. The campaign ended, he went back to his oxen. And with such rapidity, by all the gods, that one might say, he hastened home, to get his plowing done! Such was the man-of such simplicity, of such alacrity, of such integrity, modest in peace, as he was masterly in warwhom those, whose sweat and blood achieved the independence of this nation, held so high in honour, as to resolve to follow his example, and adopt his name. T * "Qua simul," (sc. toga) "absterso pulvere ac sudore, velatus processit."— LIVII, iii. 26. "Ille dictator ab aratro."-FLORI, i. 11. See also above. Livy, however, hesitates between digging and plowing. "Seu fossam fodiens palæ innisus, seu quum araret; operi certe, id quod constat, agresti intentus."-iii. 26. "Here Cincinnatus passed, his plough the while Left in the furrow."-ROGERS, Italy, 142. "So, in the morning early, the Senate sent deputies to Lucius."-Dr. ARNOLD, i. 204. "All was done so quickly, that he went out on one evening, and came home the next day at evening, victorious and triumphant.”—i. 208. "Sic expeditione finita, rediit ad boves rursus, triumphalis agricola. Fidem numinum! Qua velocitate!" "Prorsus ut festinasse Dictator ad relictum opus videretur."-FLORI, i. 11. ¶ The following minute is the best and most authentic statement of the origin and principles of the Society of the Cincinnati: "Tuesday, May 13, 1783. "The representatives of the American Army being assembled, agreeably to If there be human Such was Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus. nobler name, for peace or war, than his, on any record, purer in patriotism, steadier in disasters, cooler in trials, calmer in conquest, is it not the Cincinnatus of our commonwealth? Is it not GEORGE WASHINGTON? MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CINCINNATI: -I took no second thought as to my duty in regard to your appointment for this day. I felt no right to do adjournment, the plan for establishing a society, whereof the officers of the American Army are to be members, is accepted, and is as follows, viz.: "It having pleased the Supreme Governor of the Universe, in the disposition of human affairs, to cause the separation of the colonies of North America from the domination of Great Britain, and, after a bloody conflict of eight years, to establish them Free, Independent, and Sovereign States, connected, by alliances founded on reciprocal advantage, with some of the great princes and powers of the earth. "To perpetuate, therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast event, as the mutual friendships which have been formed under the pressure of common danger, and, in many instances, cemented by the blood of the parties, the officers of the American Army do, hereby, in the most solemn manner, associate, constitute and combine themselves into one Society of Friends, to endure as long as they shall endure, or any of their eldest male posterity, and, in failure thereof, the collateral branches who may be judged worthy of becoming its supporters and members. "The officers of the American Army having generally been taken from the citizens of America, possess high veneration for the character of that illustrious Roman, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, and being resolved to follow his example, by returning to their citizenship, they think they may with propriety denominate themselves the SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. "The following principles shall be immutable, and form the basis of the Society of the Cincinnati. An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liberties of human nature for which they have fought and bled, and without which the high rank of a rational being is a curse instead of a blessing. "An unalterable determination to promote and cherish, between the respective States, that union and national honour, so essentially necessary to their happiness, and the future dignity of the American empire. "To render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the officers; this spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, and particularly extend to the most substantial acts of beneficence, according to the ability of the Society towards those officers and their families, who unfortunately may be under the necessity of receiving it." so. There is a growing tendency to separate between things sacred and things secular, in point of obligation; to run out, on the field of human life, a line of higher, and a line of lower duties; to adopt a sort of "sliding scale" in morals. It is according to this fashion, that religion should become a thing of Sundays, and of sermons, and of sacraments, alone; and not of every day's concern, and of our universal life. Man seems a creature of two atmospheres: the higher, for his soul to float in, towards God; the lower, where his body is to labour, among men. Religious men are only for the other world: the men of this world, by an inference most natural, without the slightest need to be religious! Civil government confined to this life, and for men; a thing apart from God! God's ministers, disfranchized, but for heaven; scarcely so much as citizens of earth! I stand against all this, as false in principle, and dangerous in practice. We are brethren all, the children of one Father. One common life, the breathing and the blessing of His love. One common home, the earth which He hath made, and garnished for our use. One common rule, His pure and perfect law of righteousness and peace. One common end, His glory in the mutual good of all our kind. One common, blessed hope, to be with Him forever, as we are like Him now. It follows, by a necessary consequence, that we are intercorporated with each other, in inseparable union. What the Apostle teaches of the Church, holds of our human kind, "we are members one of another."* The heathen knew it, when he * Romans xii. 4. |