ing the guilty secret. The commercial character, the moral character, of our City and of our Commonwealth should be vindicated on such an occasion, as they were just two hundred years ago, when one Thomas Keyser and one James Smith, (the latter a member of the church of Boston,) first involved these colonies in the iniquity of participating in the slave trade; and when, under the lead of Richard Saltonstall, (the ancestor of the late honored and lamented Leverett Saltonstall,) a cry was raised against them as malefactors and murderers; - a cry which could not be hushed, until the culprits had been "laid hold on," and their wretched victims wrested from their clutches and remitted to their native shore. I charge you, young men, to commit yourselves early to this cause, and to make it a principle of your association, not merely that you will never participate directly or indirectly in such an ignominious traffic, but that you will omit no opportunity which either any effort or any accident in after life may afford you, of exposing any one who may be concerned in it, to the public scorn and legal chastisement which he so richly merits.

--

Mr. President and Gentlemen, I may detain you and this distinguished audience no longer. I have endeavored to say something which should impress you with a deeper sense of the dignity of the profession which you have chosen, and of the duties and responsibilities which belong to it. I have desired, also, to suggest some views which should impress upon the community a just sense of the value of your institution, and of the importance of sustaining and encouraging it. May your brightest prospects be realized, and your best hopes fulfilled. May the liberality of your patrons and friends soon supply you with a Hall of your own, arranged with every reasonable reference to your accommodation in pursuing the preparation for which you are associated. Let it be supplied with a Library, which shall leave you nothing to desire in the way of useful knowledge or profitable entertainment. Let it be adorned, from time to time, with the portraits of those whose examples are worthy of your imitation; the Merchant-Patriots, who have written their own names upon the title-deeds of our Liberty;

and the Merchant-Philanthropists, whose names have been inscribed, by a grateful community, on the institutions by which that liberty is best supported and most worthily illustrated. Let it be dedicated to the cause of Freedom, Civilization, and Peace. But let each one who enjoys its opportunities and privileges remember, that halls, and libraries, and decorations, and dedications, are no substitute for his own individual efforts. Let him remember, that he has chosen a vocation which, in its highest branches, is a Science, with principles worthy of the deepest and most devoted study; and which, in all its branches, will reward the best preparation both of the intellect and of the heart. And may you all be inspired with the ambition, of securing for our own country and for our own city, so far as in you lies, some share in that noble tribute which was paid by the celebrated Montesquieu, a century ago, to the land of our Fathers: :"They know (said he, speaking of the people of England) better than any other people upon earth, how to value, at the same time, these three great advantages, RELIGION, COMMERCE, and LIBERTY!"

NATIONAL MONUMENT TO WASHINGTON.

AN ORATION DELIVERED AT THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, ON THE OCCASION OF LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO WASHINGTON, JULY 4, 1848.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES,

WE are assembled to take the first step towards the fulfilment of a long-deferred obligation. In this eight-and-fortieth year since his death, we have come together to lay the corner-stone of a National Monument to WASHINGTON.

Other monuments to this illustrious person have long ago been erected. By not a few of the great States of our Union, by not a few of the great cities of our States, the chiselled statue or the lofty column has been set up in his honor. The highest art of the Old World,- of France, of Italy, and of England, successively, has been put in requisition for the purpose. Houdon for Virginia, Canova for North Carolina, Sir Francis Chantrey for Massachusetts, have severally signalized their genius by portraying and perpetuating the form and features of the Father of his Country.

Nor has the Congress of the nation altogether failed of its duty in this respect. The massive and majestic figure which presides over the precincts of the Capitol, and which seems almost in the act of challenging a new vow of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union from every one who approaches it, is a visible testimony, and one not the less grateful to an American eye, as being the masterly production of a native artist, *—that

* Horatio Greenough.

the government of the country has not been unmindful of what it owes to WASHINGTON.

One tribute to his memory is left to be rendered. One monument remains to be reared. A monument which shall bespeak the gratitude, not of States, or of cities, or of governments; not of separate communities, or of official bodies; but of the people, the whole people of the nation; -a National Monument, erected by the citizens of the United States of America. Of such a monument we have come to lay the corner-stone here and now. On this day, on this spot, in this presence, and at this precise epoch in the history of our country and of the world, we are about to commence this crowning work of commemoration.

The day, the place, the witnesses, the period in the world's history and in our own history — all, all are most appropriate to the occasion.

The day is appropriate. On this 4th day of July — emphatically the people's day—we come most fitly to acknowledge the people's debt to their first and greatest benefactor.

WASHINGTON, indeed, had no immediate connection with the immortal act of the 4th of July, 1776. His signature did not attest the Declaration of Independence. But the sword by which that independence was to be achieved, was already at his side, and already had he struck the blow which rendered that declaration inevitable.

"Hostibus primo fugatis, Bostonium recuperatum," is the inscription on the medal which commemorates Washington's earliest triumph. And when the British forces were compelled to evacuate Boston, on the 17th day of March, 1776, bloodless though the victory was, the question was irrevocably settled, that Independence, and not the mere redress of grievances, was to be the momentous stake of our colonial struggle.

Without the event of the 4th of July, it is true, Washington would have found no adequate opening for that full career of military and civil glory which has rendered him illustrious forever. But it is equally true, that without Washington, this day could never have acquired that renown in the history of human liberty, which now, above all other days, it enjoys. We may

not

say that the man made the day, or the day the man; but we may say that, by the blessing of God, they were made for each other, and both for the highest and most enduring good of America and of the world.

On

The place is appropriate. We are on the banks of his own beloved and beautiful Potomac. On one side of us, within a few hours' sail, are the hallowed scenes amid which Washington spent all of his mature life, which was not devoted to the public service of the country, and where still repose, in their original resting-place, all that remained of him when life was over. the other side, and within our more immediate view, is the Capitol of the Republic, standing on the site selected by himself, and within whose walls the rights which he vindicated, the principles which he established, the institutions which he founded, have been, and are still to be, maintained, developed, and advanced.

The witnesses are appropriate, and such as eminently befit the

occasion.

The President of the United States is here; and feels, I am persuaded, that the official distinction which he lends to the scene has no higher personal charm, if any higher public dignity, than that which it derives from its associations with his earliest and most illustrious predecessor. "I hold the place which Washington held," must be a reflection capable of sustaining a Chief Magistrate under any and every weight of responsibility and care, and of elevating him to the pursuit of the purest and loftiest ends.

Representatives of foreign nations are here; ready to bear witness to the priceless example which America has given to the world, in the character of him, whose fame has long since ceased to be the property of any country or of any age.

The Vice-President and Senate; the Heads of Departments; the Judiciary; the Authorities of the City and District; the officers of the army and navy and marines, from many a field and many a flood of earlier and of later fame; veterans of the line and volunteers, fresh from the scenes of trial and of triumph, with swords already wreathed with myrtles, which every patriot prays may prove as unfading as the laurels with which their