“In these mournful memorials of their fate, we may behold the sure, too sure prognostication of our own, from the hour when force shall be substituted for deliberation, in the settlement of our constitutional questions.  This is the deplorable alternative—­the extirpation of the seceding member, or the never-ceasing struggle of two rival confederacies, ultimately bending the neck of both under the yoke of foreign domination, or the despotic sovereignty of a conqueror at home.  May heaven avert the omen!  The destinies, not only of our posterity, but of the human race, are at stake.

“Let no such melancholy forebodings intrude upon the festivities of this anniversary.  Serene skies and balmy breezes are not congenial to the climate of freedom.  Progressive improvement in the condition of man, is apparently the purpose of a superintending Providence.  That purpose will not be disappointed.  In no delusion of national vanity, but with a feeling of profound gratitude to the God of our fathers, let us indulge in the cheering hope and belief, that our country and her people have been selected as instruments for preparing and maturing much of the good yet in reserve for the welfare and happiness of the human race.  Much good has already been effected by the solemn proclamation of our principles—­much more by the illustration of our example.  The tempest which threatens desolation may be destined only to purify the atmosphere.  It is not in tranquil ease and enjoyment that the active energies of mankind are displayed.  Toils and dangers are trials of the soul.  Doomed to the first by his sentence at the fall, man by submission converts them into pleasures.  The last are, since the fall, the conditions of his existence.  To see them in advance, to guard against them by all the suggestions of prudence, to meet them with the composure of unyielding resistance, and to abide with firm resignation the final dispensation of Him who rules the ball—­these are the dictates of philosophy—­these are the precepts of religion—­these are the principles and consolations of patriotism:—­these remain when all is lost—­and of these is composed the spirit of independence—­the spirit embodied in that beautiful personification of the poet, which may each of you, my countrymen, to the last hour of his life, apply to himself,—­

  ’Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
     Lord of the lion heart, and eagle eye! 
   Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare,
     Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.’

“In the course of nature, the voice which now addresses you must soon cease to be heard upon earth.  Life and all which it inherits lose their value as it draws towards its close.  But for most of you, my friends and neighbors, long and many years of futurity are yet in store.  May they be years of freedom—­years of prosperity—­years of happiness, ripening for immortality!  But, were the breath which now gives utterance to my feelings the last vital air I should draw, my expiring words to you and your children should be, Independence and Union forever!”