much of their benignant influence.  Most of us have hitherto enjoyed many, very many of the dearest rights of freemen.  Our lives and personal liberties have been held as sacred and inviolable; the rights of property have been extended to us, in this land of freedom; our industry has been, and still is, liberally rewarded; and so long as we live under a free and happy government which denies us not the protection of its laws, why should we fret and vex ourselves because we have had no part in framing them, nor anything to do with their administration.  When the fruits of the earth are fully afforded us, we do not wantonly refuse them, nor ungratefully repine because we have done nothing towards the cultivation of the tree which produces them.  No, we accept them with lively gratitude; and their sweetness is not embittered by reflecting upon the manner in which they were obtained.  It is the dictate of sound wisdom, then, to enjoy without repining, the freedom, privileges, and immunities which wise and equal laws have awarded us—­nay, proudly to rejoice and glory in their production, and stand ready at all times to defend them at the hazard of our lives, and of all that is most dear to us.

But are we alone shut out and excluded from any share in the administration of government?  Are not the clergy, a class of men equally ineligible to office?  A class of men almost idolized by their countrymen, ineligible to office!  And are we alone excluded from what the world chooses to denominate polite society?  And are not a vast majority of the polar race excluded?  I know not why, but mankind of every age, nation, and complexion have had lower classes; and, as a distinction, they have chosen to arrange themselves in the grand spectacle of human life, like seats in a theater—­rank above rank, with intervals between them.  But if any suppose that happiness or contentment is confined to any single class, or that the high or more splendid order possesses any substantial advantage in those respects over their more lowly brethren, they must be wholly ignorant of all rational enjoyment.  For what though the more humble orders cannot mingle with the higher on terms of equality.  This, if rightly considered, is not a curse but a blessing.  Look around you, my friends:  what rational enjoyment is not within your reach?  Your homes are in the noblest country in the world, and all of that country which your real happiness requires, may at any time be yours.  Your industry can purchase it; and its righteous laws will secure you in its possession.  But, to what, my friends, do you owe all these blessings?  Let not the truth be concealed.  You owe them to that curse, that bitter scourge of Africa, whose partial abolishment you are this day convened to celebrate.  Slavery has been your curse, but it shall become your rejoicing.  Like the people of God in Egypt, you have been afflicted; but like them too, you have been redeemed.  You are henceforth free as the mountain