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Address to Collegiates of the University of N.C.: The Stream of Liberty and Science
Electronic Edition.

Horton, George Moses, 1798?-ca. 1880.

Source Description:
George Moses Horton’s “Address to Collegiates of the University of N.C.:
The Stream of Liberty and Science” (1859).

Transcribed, edited, and annotated by Constance Chia, 2016.

North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Languages Used:

• English

LC Subject Headings:

• African Americans -- North Carolina -- Poetry.
• North Carolina -- Poetry.
• Slavery -- North Carolina -- Poetry.
• Slavery -- United States -- Poetry.
• Slaves -- North Carolina -- Poetry.
• Slaves' writings, American -- North Carolina.

Gentlemen
Actuated by innocent motives. I appear
before you, as a public orator. in the cause of liberty
and science; but with a degree of diffidence lest I
fail to accomplish a task which I feel it my duty
to discharge. Your unworthy speaker is far from flatt-
ering himself with the vain idea of being endowed
etent abilities to counsel a concourse on so lofty a
where superior liberties afford them so many
tionate advantages. Yet while you laugh to
his ignorance, he still is constrained from
e impulse of illiterate genius to expose his jargon
to the criticism of the world, it is obvious that we
occupy an age of the world. which calls aloud for
literary improvement from every quarter and the
scientific culture of faculties rational, nay as well
from the rustic swain in the lonely valley, as the
epicure on luxuriant streams, is it not aspired to
in the present age, for impartial genius seems to
have looked with an indiscriminate eye as touching
nations and color and directed her headlong torrents
which have swept in their course the wandering
novice, who could scarcely distinguish a letter from a
figure. We see many possessed with superior advantages
which they cast off as nonsense, whilst others far
less promoted are gleaning¹ up the. scattered fragments
with avidity and have thus augmented a wonderful
store of intellectual matter. compiled, and original and
contributed to the scenes of public admiration, to
ascend the glorious summit of mental improvement
is first to arouse your minds from every degree
of lethargy to an active application of close study and
s reflection

Page 2

not that I would reccomend any manner of surly
melancholy, since one may be surly melancholy
necessarily assiduous and no less cheerful; for in fact
the most diligent are often the most cheerful
and yet may indulge a requisite sedateness
in their frequent calls to retirement, and
the moral duties of human life looking forward
with an eye of pleasing anticipation, beyond
the gloom of promiscuous erudition unto
the joyful termination of a waste and tedious
progress, for an unintermated² resolution in the
forenoon of life, collects to a focus the rays of hope
even after a distant digression from the rudimental
ground of a literary course. She compels of the juvenile
mind inflated by the winds of folly, that they recover
their course and land the trembling unfortunate
mariner (if the time may be allowed) to the haven of
incontrovertable independence. Vagrant youth, is
not this a sufficient incentive, to renounce the
dying vanities and fond overtures of insubstantial
pleasures; shall the syren³ of danger lurking beneath
wave that conceals her form allure you by the
sound of her lute and drag you into the
vortex of ruin or attract the young mind
through liberty from a scientific course, no⁴ let
the bitter result which arises from the discarded
youth avert the sad perpetrations or desires
to infringe on laws that circumscribe the garden
of your safety adverting gentlemen to the life of
folly: notwithstanding my assumption on the dificult
task allready to the view of my listening audience in
my limited address absorbed in the splendor of superior
orators, allready is it blown away like feathers before
a driving storm. But whilst the polished Sons

Page 3

of Apollo⁵ light their ethereal tapers⁶ at the Scientifical
furnace. lifted like planets washed in oceans of light.
and of inconceivable magnitude. your humble Babbler. from
his rural hills. is constrained to pause for the language of
th true certainty to address you. in this honorable hall
of decomm⁷.      Gentlemen: I humbly trust that your
feeling regard. for the resolution of naked genius, in
such an exertim extensive field of intellectual mat-
ter. will excite you to pity his inevitable defects. which
otherwise may sully the stream of address.. either by tautological
constipation. or seraphic⁸ flights. from the topic of my homespun ora-
tion. whilst on the silent ear of incipient progeny. I pour
the thunders of artless declamation. instead of a baust (burst) of
irrision⁹. I trust rather to arouse a pledge of pity +
respect. for the pain of the task effused from a plough
broken receptacle, which after having received cannot retain
three cassified¹⁰ rills. let loose from the floods of antiquity.
But since strength. may proceed from weakness. I may not
hesitate to say that those advantages with which you
are now blessed will soon lift, if rightly raised,
to your enraptured view. the inestimable profit which can
not fail like spring to the dig’gn to rise up and meet
God you at the close of your collegiate life. from which
you will be immediately iniuated initiated into
professional fields to pass secure without a retrospect-
ing glance. like In Israel through the wilderness of Arabia¹¹,
to the promised emoluments resend¹² to reward the
task of the faithful proficient. true to the trust reposed
in his hands, whatever may be his department, the hour¹³ of
whose welcomed evening in declining years, may the
vestage¹⁴ of industrious deeds: whose regreted departure from
triumphant usefullness and virtue, may set the
seal of never fading memory to their pillars. and bid them live
forever. When subsequent proluity¹⁵ shall have been long

Page 4

last in the gloom of passed years. and their titles erased from the reco-
rds of time. Have your any regard for public distinction? If you
have: you must early study to fan + kindle with the lesson of
moral abstinance the blaze of renown closing the sensual eye ag-
ainst every gratification yet leads without regard to the
transient gleam of juvenile pleasures and imagination
by which means many have been forced to reflect
at a period far too late to repeal the wilful miscarriages
or brighten a name once deeply tarnished by habitual
atrocities which so easily cleave to the soft and vagrant
mind of youth. Feeling parents mark with tears the
presage of early apostacy so frequently discovered in
the conduct of a stripling who becomes so easily
allured with so much fond resignation to the smiles
of Venus¹⁶ and the wild banquets of the night
by which he is soon fascinated at the shrine
of tottering Bacchus¹⁷. Gentlemen I hope that
your patience will my simple address and
my lecture on the abuse of early life, which I
should not have adopted had I not seen the
deplorable catastrophe spreading its veil over the
blushing brow of discarded youth and the stern
frowns of disgusted parents. who were constrained, though
with reluctance to give their voices against the eminent
gloom of public disgrace arising from an act of
and a mind alienated from the
sphere of order and duty by sporting on the current
of levity and sinking at the favourite period
which calls aloud on the young mind to soar,
Alas! the final expulsion of some truly respectable
gentlemen on the highest circle of dignity. with
whom I was intimately acquainted and who
started well from an academical accomplishment
to make their way through ambiguous mean-
ders of this exalted institution. They have

Page 5

gone astray like Ephraim¹⁸ to his idols or the
rebelious Israelites¹⁹, and thereby incured incured the
displeasure of their best friends, their patrons and
their parents who dare not speak a word in their
favour . nay whom at reflecting intervals, I have
entered into the vale of simpathy and sighed over
the gloom of their fate, Alas what a spectacle
does it exhibit to see a favourite son sent home
from college to the farm without one bloom
of diplomatic grace and haveing forfeited his
seat in the bibliothecal hall. His fate resembles
a star fallen from the orb of its glory
divested of its beams setting with the frowns of
contempt behind a sable cloud over mantling its flight
and instead of light, reflecting gloom over the plains
of a deserted hemisphere. Ye belaying constellations
in the expanse of science, conspire to wail over the
shrine of unfortunate liberty, though your
lustre be too feeble to penetrate their regretted
abscence and the gloom which must envelope the
morning light of literary prospects. Ye blooming
daughters of beauty condole yourselve with the reprehen
ding frowns of offended friendship over the ruins of
departed fame. Nay while contemplating the
divesture of collegiate pomp, I am brought to
deplore my own unfortunate condition
that those important advantages have never
fallen in my way, otherwise perverts into
spurious drop, that their academical flowers had
never been scattered along my path, which witherd
so early on the scholastic bosom of youth and
liberty. An intended Washington²⁰ an expectant Napoleon²¹
and others disigned to vie with the orators of
Greece Athens or Rome and finally to eclipse the minor
torches of a Phillips²² a Pratt²³ a Wallpole²⁴ a Sheridan²⁵ and

Page 6

a Randolph²⁶ a Clay²⁷ and a host of others, as well as
gliding on the stream from the spring of Parnas²⁸. But alas
they have shed their premature blooms of eloquence and
flayed their heads to the ground with nothing but a
store of enervescent²⁹ tears Nay I deplore that ever my lot
had been cast in the rude theatre of illiterate ____
or the fields of unintermited labor rather
than in a repository of Belle Letters³⁰ with others who
thirst for liberal instruction. But the interogative
follows with regard to the misfortune of naked
genius. Why was he in a shell of bastardy deposited
by an itinerant muse at the foot of a mountain, which
deserted at the close of her incubation and left him
without the plumage of literary defence waiting
in vain for her return with a morsel to
sustain the infancy of genius. Alas! exposed
to the merciless grasp of the predacious eagle
Did Clio³¹ scorn the hue of her products or
did Crato³² pluck a string from her lyre
and leave it floating on the stream of
chance like the Hebrew foundling in the
rash ark³³ or why is he thus unfortunate
To this query some will reply. Beware of
irregularity of conduct and an intemperate
disposition, But to this he exclaims, this report
was first to justify the omission of public assis
tance, from an exorbitant demand of his liberty
but mostly proceeded from the lips of pen
urious agents. hence the bird of exaggeration
was sent on swift wings in every direction
calculated to demolish the most noble
progress or to retard the wheels of its execution
Though he frankly recognises his natural
weakness and juvenile errors, nor does he
fly to the conduct of others to justify his

Page 7

own failures since every tub has to stand on its
own bottom and not on that of an other³⁴.
Notwithstanding the thousands of congenial
advocates for intemperance and yet abounding
with exalted faculties they afford me no
just apology whatever. Thus your blundering
orator has been impeached with faculties
as false as night compared with day light
And know well Gentlemen that it is
often the case with the world of mankind
that they are more fond of listening to
what abuses recognized genius or a superi-
ority of mental eminence particularly
in one of low birth and rude raising
than to expand the narrow circle in
which he stands. Gentlemen I venture
to assert, that the most of you are too
well acquainted with mental conflicts
not to adopt those measures as truth
That they seldom exert themselves in
the ______ of such a one untill they imagine
the best of their lives too far spent to discolse³⁵ an
extensive matter to the aspiring world
. But had the most been like mindful
with the great and eminent Dr Caldwell³⁶ who
now lies mouldering in yon mouldering
dormitory, whose stately monument
stands erected to the memory of his fame
bidding those who succeed to bow to the
shrine of superiority, my peal of praise for his
honor and humanity his being in time and
pursued with a concert of hopes, his flight
into eternity, with no less favour burns
the blaze of unexstinguished gratitude in
my heart for the signal favours confered

Page 8

on me from the liberal hand of the celebrated
Mrs Caroline Lee Hentz³⁷. But my theme of gratitude
stops not here, The honorable and much distinguished
Gov. Owen³⁸ now deceased developed a stream of surpassing
humanity, far from the infromation³⁹ of
the much esteemed D^r James Henderson⁴⁰ of
Waynesboro, he descended like a dove to my
assistance and exerted himself for my
extrication from the destracting yoke of
bondage. He cast a smile of unusual com-
passion on my condition which I never shall
forget. While I have the power of memory.
He made an extraordinary proposition which
was refused with a frown of disdain. The
proposition was to pay $100⁴¹, more than any
person of sound judgment should say that I
was worth. To this my master⁴² would not
acceed, such was the miscarriage of
the proposition from the feeling Govoner
to a man who had no regard for
liberty science or Genius, not even a spark
of generosity then pervaded his iron heart
A smile of generosity from a few individ-
uals seldom prevails, amidst the envious
frowns of thousands who point at
the slightest faults in genius as an
enormous crime, Gentlemen I trust
that your patience will hold out a little
farther and pardon the irresistible
circumstances which had unexpectedly
fallen in my way so let me terminate this
part of my topic with an encomium
proceeding the next, A good name is better
than precious ointment and the day of
death than the day of ones birth⁴³

Page 9

Mid' this precarious world,
In him the Great and small reposed a trust:
Still envio⁴⁴ King dismised his Soul + hurld
His fabric to the dust.

Beyond the reach of time,
The palm of Virtue still its glory yields:
And lifts its branches into worlds sublime.
The bright Elysian fields⁴⁵.

Ye Bards: the weight endear.
Who, died + left behind a worthy name.
Sing of his wonders with a smile + tear
And toll the Knell of Fame⁴⁶.

I now solicit your kind attention to the gen-
eral head. from a reflection in the preceding part of
my discourse. you will mark well, the enobling pur-
port. for which in former language, you are here mat-
riculated, and the primary design for which this public rep-
ository has been established. But not for the temporary
exel exhibition of classical brilliancy. which like
a momentary spark. or sudden flash, is gone at once
never to be seen or heard of more. But you are called
both by private + public interest. and duty. to yourselves:
you benefactors. your faculty. + your creator, to adorn
the honorable department of the skillfull advocate d
at the critical bar. the popular statesman. + the scrutiniz-
ing Judge. on the lofty seat of final descision. you
are also: caled to the task of administering remedies for
the relief of deceased + decaying humanity which has
called upon him for physical relief useful Physicians
while you have the charge of dubious patients committed

Page 10

into your hands. you are in as much called to the
preparatory seminary to adorn the consecrated desk of
holy evangelism; not merely demanded in the United
States. but to bear the orthodox tenets of christianity into
distant lands. overshadowed by clouds. of gothic confu-
sion. and thus: exert you Theological powers. and disseminate
the showers of free grace.. This is certainly the liberty which heaven
has granted on earth. and should be promoted and carried
on in Scientifical order. Hence it certainly is. + should
be your chief interest to study minutely the end of a lit-
erary course under a free + republican government. through
which Streams of Science are rolling like rivers from various
various branches in every direction. which. I. tust trust.
will nevery⁴⁷ be exhausted. nor run dry. till the last gen-
eration in time, though it be carried through some divergent channel
it will still flow onward unobstructed, to its native
Ocean. which never can admit a shore to bound its
pleasures. It is a public duty from the well known
necessity for civil mileoration⁴⁸ among the heathen
tribes. now sinking deeper into brutality. nist instead
of emerging out of its gloom. yet in admitting All
of the cruel manus⁴⁹ of savage anarchy. and their
th ignorance of liberal education: it is the public int-
erest of every intelligent individual. in a gospel land.
where divine revelation. has difused its copius blaze.
while others are groping. in darkness + gloom. Wicked-
ness + vice. without it. It is apriva a private duty
which you owe to yourselves. from the private pleasures
you must inevitably experience. From an independence
to other nations. sensible of your well formed system.
founded as it is. on the extensive laws of moral. + national
philosophy. and a private interest which every man must
feel alone. Who has any true regard for himself. his present.
future. + eternal hapiness, But does it stop here?

Page 11

no! It kindles from a spark in its private recess to a
tremendous flame. in universal estimation. It expands
your narrow avenue through an obstructed maze. and
affords you a flight into the theater of true distinc-
tion. where you may open a joyfull scene. to the envious
view of your former associates, your benefactors, parents,
and finally, to your creator. To this we may subjoin,
it is a private stream that leads into the great ocean of
dead lingo where you have the pleasure privately to converse
with the genius. of Antiquity. and become familiar with
ancient laws. Rules + Customs, also: you are
called to the maritime task of Hydropathy:⁵⁰ to explore
the deep with the scaly + to spread your sails
to the storm. and dart recklessly along the measuring
tide. to become commodores to fleets and safely guard
your native shores against the hostile attacks of for-
eign foes. make discoveries. extend. scientific. explo-
rations. all of which will distinguish you. and
promote you serial branches of Intellectual. + scien-
tifical investigations. in the liberty of an indep-
endent nation. resembling the immortal Genoa⁵¹ who made
the first discovery of this continent and may I not
say. that you are called to polish a genius in
in the tactics to nerve the grasp of early chivalry
and culture by science its original bloom
yes. by the hand of science which facilitates
the most arduous enterprise, such is
your republican liberty to the Enclypodias⁵² of
both ancient and modern ages. To this
you have a free toleration, the controlling compass
of intellect whose well directing index point
to the guardian star by which you stear through
life to the port of eternal competence. But notwith-
standing the scientifical powers and exhibitions
of manual dexterity, it is not to spread the

Page 12

wings of crimson like a martial Napoleon or an
Alexander⁵³ darting with an asatiate⁵⁴ thirst for
human blood through the world, refusing to be
appeased after the cruel defeat of so many
innocent nations and was finally captured
and arrested by the world whom he struggled
to conquer alas! he expired hopeless on a mamoth⁵⁵
rock heaving back his departing groans, min-
gling his departing groans with the breezes
of the Ocean; Dead beneath the privation of
monarchical usurpation in the sordid act of
ascending above the world. Heedless to the true
economy of science in battle. He fell beneath
the sword of his own ambition. But let me
not injure my subject by a train of needless
repetition still it may not be more than
essential to inculcate that, the stream
of science cannot be to minutely inves-
tigated nor too strictly urged upon the rising
age. In a figure, it is the Baloon⁵⁶ of the
young mind elevated by the gas of
practical study above the twilight gleams
of a boyhood from one degree to another
on a regular climax into an etherial
sublimity where polished manhood
is distinguished by its eminence
revolving in the wide and exulted
sphere of legitimate liberty, and suffer
me to add that to comfort with the
burning language of divine inspiration
“Ye are the light of the world. as a city set on a hill that cannot
be hidden”⁵⁷ such is the light of science to an intell
igent nation. as a planetary crown of other. the
glory of heaven over the earth. A nation
by whose agency in suffrage the base of

Page 13

of your govorment is sustained in a land
of independant and republican liberty
it is your interest to promote your
country’s cause and your present liberties
Not as patriots under the banner of
country’s love and yet recoiling from
hostile actions, no but the deep
and thorough faith to your nation
and your country propels you to the
reception of a full panoply⁵⁸ of the adroit
General in the field or subaltern leader
in battle, the resolute soldier ready and
willing to die in the sanguinary
plains at the demands of his mater
nal country to maintain and revive the
drooping laurel of liberty. for which our
worthy ancestors fought, bled and died, nay your
sons of freedom breathing the spirit of heroism
already equiped for action in the perilous
hour of a disciplined combat, ready to heave
your last dying groans at the shrine of
your country’s fate, skilled in science
a cultivated genius and a heart resolved to
conquer or die. Then let your love for the pleas
ures of national liberty and your utter de-
testation to a monarchical alligiance
inspire political studies and an unintimidated
resolution to crush underfoot the despotic
yoke with which you are so often threatened
Notwithstanding the trust reposed in a brave
and celebrated Harrison⁵⁹ and the lamented
decease of an oratorical Clay pronounced
as one of the strongest pillars of the gov
ernment, with the flight of a distinguished
Polk⁶⁰ and a Jackson⁶¹ with others who

Page 14

have retired to the sanctuary of their mother
dust and bid farewell to the wild theatre
of political life though lifted on high
by the universal swell of popular
adoration have left behind them the
gloomy of a breach of goverment overma
_ntling the eye of a free nation together with
the stagnation of a pecuniary currency
and the dissolution of national union. You should
endeavour more faithfully to enlarge the
base of the pyramid of your independent
republic which has stood the test of almost
a century now tottering beneath the
burden on the treacherous pillars of chance
overshadowed with clouds of apprehension
on the dreary verge of destruction, Though
her productions has long been dwindling
at the shrine of depreciation and exhausted
commerce, Though her public theorists had
lost the tapers which led them from the
bright fountain of the Union. while they
went groping their hopeless passage through
the dark vale of the insolvent bankrupt
Whilst peace sunk into the confusion of
parties and the roaring of commotion in
circular directions was heard like the
collission of mountains contending for
the rights of liberty and Laws and yet
lost in the mystery of a policy which
set the Union in the fire of faction
which still appears cannot be extinguished
but with blood which must proceed
from the hand of national havoc
The ravage of whose possession has
been threatened from afar with the

Page 15

sword of carnage brandished against her. But
all this does not exclude her merritorious esti-
mation; classical studies and sciences have
contributed to the just pride and boast of
the United States. and which are still
arising from the scenes of general imp
rovement, Though the depth of Gold and
copper in many parts has exceedeed the inge-
nuity of miners the skiful⁶² hand of navigation
has opened the eye of wonder and respect
on our once impracticalle streams. removed
the vast distractions, sounded them to
v their bottoms and now bids the planter glide
softly up and down with his produce, much
indebted to the stock of science by which he is
safely conducted from his domestic springs to
the port of public commerce. Hence science
and skill have opened a communication between the
marine and mediterraneous⁶³ population and form
ed a union between creeks and rivers: Your
Railroad engineers may sound a hoop⁶⁴ of
defiance to the travelers of Europe, and
bear with speed of sharks their passengers
from city to city. From scientific economy
your favourite soil has not merely yielded
her plentiful vintages in Autumn
but you have been enabled thence to
nurse and foster the silk fly the princy
of insects, now spinning and winding her
invaluble threads for the garments that
occupy the shelves of the merchants and
that adorn the ladies of state, from those
peculiar branches science even the female pen
has been strictly employed by which the genius
of that sex has been well cultivated in

Page 16

America as well as in other quarters of the
globe. Mrs Caroline Lee Hentz has well nigh
kept pace with the great Hannah Moore⁶⁵
and spread the wings of fame over
her sex on her native continent. Thus with
regard to american litirature it was
well observed by an orator of very great
understanding. “Like “Hercules in his cradle
she has manifested a gigantic grasp
and disclosed to the world that she will
be great”⁶⁶ . . While he was tracing the vein of
female genius he droped the following lines:
“See Burny⁶⁷, wave with her creative wand,
And bind her passions with her silken band.
Draw Evalina. from her native shade.
In artless innocence. + love arrayed
Bid us to follow all her devious way:
To own and feel the impulse of her sway:
While nature howls, and mirths gay whispers die
Her eye on fire: her soul in ecstacy.”⁶⁸
Alas! And shall uncultivated genius, in the wilds of the
Southern continent, still sleep inactive in her sable shell.
beneath the genial beams of a vertical sun? or: has the ex-
tremity of its fervour addle the darling egg deposited in the
soul of that savage tribe? Shall we pass by. regardless of the
unpolished diamond buried but shallow in her native
Soil. never uncovered by the hands of Literature and Scie-
nce? Shall the planet of national intellect. fail to drive
and dispel the gloom of Superstition and Idolatry from
that uncultured hemisphere? No! methinks. I see the naked
group, bursting from the shades of Heathenism, and as a
young bird. expand the callow wing, impatient to arise and
trace as with an inpent⁶⁹ smile, the stream of entightening⁷⁰
fancy rolling across the atlantic ocean, methinks. I see

Page 17

the sooty tribes of the outland population ascending from
the torrid deserts of the South, adorned in bleachen lin-
en. + dance like tops in christian triumph. to the melody
of departed Paganism: While Spain. + Portugal. let fall
the cruel chain of the Inquisition⁷¹. and Brahma⁷² + Hindro⁷³
turn their backs, and scorn any longer to see the smoke ascen-
ding from the victims of their funeral piles: and while thy they
are thus sweetly agitated. a majority of the nations on the
earth mingle in song with the Holy Catholic Church, and
flow together as a conflux of torrents, or the union of many
mighty streams, and Ethiopia reaches forth her hand to
her maker⁷⁴ We learn from the language of inspiration
that the twelve portals of heaven an the four
cardinal points⁷⁵ are almost in the act of
of opening for the ingethiring⁷⁶ of all nations
when the truth of catholic union will be
realized and which should claim the
chief study of every institution. When the
star of the east on the brow of Aurora⁷⁷ shall
escort his thousands to the banner of universal
amity with the never ceasing concert of liberty
When the fur clad native in the frozen
bogs of fruitless Lapland⁷⁸, shall rush with
a joyful salutation to the luke warm, stan
dard of entire peace. when the sundyed
families under the equatorial line or the
burning zone shall rush forth and accord
in the general descant while the Vesperian⁷⁹
troops of India shall scorn to be reckless of the same
Then let perfidious Mary queen of scotts⁸⁰ an the
daughter of heresay still sleep passive with her
incarcerated volumes of infidelity and
the victors of Emanuel⁸¹ triumph over his
tomb and the phoenix⁸² of millenial glory
break from the ashes of martyrdom

Page 18

Methinks I see the deserted heath and the unfre
quented vallies blooming as the garden of resort
and hear the once desolate, breaking forth
in songs and the discordant shades of popular
confusion retire like night from the birth
of morning. The paramount hill is leveled
with the vale of innocence, the lion embra
ces the lamb and the fascinating basalisk
makes peace with his inveterate⁸³ foe. But
what manner of changes must pervade
the world of an intelligent people previous
to this millenial era you have on divine
record predicted from the lips of the great
est prophets that ever existed even the
redeemer of mankind⁸⁴ foretold the
desolation which was to transpire in the
world in the latter clause of time. He also
prognosticated the calamity of jerusalem
and the eruption of the temple⁸⁵ together with
the gloom of calumny in the apostolic
age all the prophecies was fulfilled to a
jot and tittle.⁸⁶ He predicted of popular discord
of disagreements between vicinities and districts
states and kingdoms together with wonderous
preasages⁸⁷ and phenominal in earth and heaven
From the crash of earthquakes, extraordinary
meteors, the unexposited changes in the sun,
stern comets, and falling cliffs from the upper
elements or distant and unknown globes with
war, famine, and pestilence.⁸⁸ All is now fullfill
ing to the eye of the present age. The heavens
shall desolve in streams and the swelling oceans
shrink from their expanded shores, nay rocks
shall fall to dust, and mountains melt
away before on particle of this prediction

Page 19

shall fail, you resplendent luminary of nature
shall grow dim refusing to give light, and the
planetary concourse tremble into their centre
with an awful rupture falling to nothing
and this our terraquious⁸⁹ globe hasten into
nonentity, whilst the truth of this prophecy
shall retain its native brightness and
stand immovable during boundless eternity
Hence this modern population a credulous
people should take the funeral alarm and
start a peaceful march from the tenets
of infidelity and stear⁹⁰ as an army in
the night by the torch of science whilst
the liberal institutions open their doors
for the welcome reception of illiterate
strangers travelling through a land of
liberty. The true science of christianity
is well calculated to awaken from the
cells of skepticism, since the fabric of your
institution is founded on a clerical base
a base which supports mystic and the church
militant sustained by a rock against which
the adamantine gates of hell never shall prevail
untill enclosed in the triumphant city
A base which has long since made a sacrafice
of mahomitan⁹¹ criterian⁹² and converted to the
tenets of christianity the nuns and friars of
deserted monastaries. A base whose permanent
purity desolves the temples of Jupiter⁹³ as the
splendor of the mid days sun extinguishes
the glimmering lustre of inferior bodies,
Assisted by the seniels⁹⁴ of science, you may ascend
the towers of divinity and with the trumpet
of the watchman, sound the alarm through
the mountains of infidelity and make

Page 20

the slumbering inhabitants tremble, I am
constrained again to repeat that the streams
of liberty and science are too highly important
not to be strictly noted from the beginning to
the end, You may justly ascribe the origin
of the most early academical streams to their
mother, Liberty, the day spring of the minor
and more lofty institutions which they preceeded
with a true system of mathematics and all
the sister branches of study that crown the
accomplished graduate, your inquisitive
minds are stored with the streams of both
ancient and modern history together with
all the geographical exhibitions which
afford you the power with facility to draw
a complete landscape of the earth,
you are in as much frought⁹⁵ with a cultivated
information with regard to the substance
of natural bodies and also to analyze the
compound of a mountain into its original prin-
ciples. By science you have hurried your feeble
sight by optical powers through an astronom
ical tube⁹⁶ beyond the circumambient atmos
phere into the stupenduous worlds of Ethes⁹⁷
and span their magnitude with the chain
of logic, by the same aid, you have in a
manner imitated an august Franklin⁹⁸ by
restraining the force of electricity and collecting
the lightning in vials, it was republican and
christian liberty that uncovered and opened the
cabinet of hidden languages which had long
lain dormant in their classic shades, but has
now become the ornamental drapery of naked
faculties which otherwise never would have
been cultivated. O there ye adverting tyro⁹⁹. To the

Page 21

blundering address of your sable orator, applaud
the memorable deeds of your dead forefathers, who
have so faithfully beaten down the iron bar which ~
oppresive monarchy raised to impede the blaze of
science in its progress to your western shores. A
blaze which returned the expiring taper of early
hopes in the commencement of the hostile revolution
A blaze which illumined the vista of divine
administration and finally dissolved the fetter
in which the suspended arm of sacred clergy
was bound, when the banner of sacrilege over
hung the land and the sabbath¹⁰⁰ was a day
of sport, solemn worship was looked upon
with contempt whilst the streams of morals
was perverted into public abomination,
But now the smiles of liberty are chasing
away the gloom of declension. Whose language
is rail rail ye legatees of truth from this, into
lands overshadowed by clouds of japanic¹⁰¹ diversion
such are the happy effects of liberty a toleration
to moral investigation in all the nations of
the earth, in the melody of Soloman¹⁰². “it is
she that looketh forth as the morning, fair
as the moon, and as clear as the sun and
terrible as an army with banners”¹⁰³ Liberty with
her exalted train of sciences, which converts fools into
sages. the heathen into christians and men into angels
Alas! but mark the natural tenor of the world
the time has been not very long since that a gene
ral information, was hailed by the advocates of
christianity, likely to pervade your classical halls,
when the contagious breezes as it were was rolling
away the stench, when gloomy pestilence hung
emminent. Whetting and brandishing his terrific
sword over the head of shuddering mortals

Page 22

But alas! the resolution fled with the departure of
present danger. Hence with regard to the lamentable retro-
cepion, we may demand in the language of one to a prime
sentence “watchman what of the night”¹⁰⁴. who might justly
reply. The morning cometh and also the night.¹⁰⁵ The morning
of reformation was bright but was soon overtaken by the
evening gloom of declension for all relapsed into the former
disease of sin and iniquity. A similar evening often over
takes the brightest prospects of mortal happiness as well as
the morning attempts of the reformation of life. Hence
we may ever make and are continually making
this acquisition, even of the gazettes¹⁰⁶ of the times and
get but an ambiguous reply, you may make this
inquiry of the popular, the learned and the witty
and their best reply will abound with intricacy
The morning of recent events is always at hand
as there is ever a morning of some part of the
revolving globe but in coincidence to the
watchman’s reply an evening or night is in
swift pursuit. Hence it is your interest
to keep pace with the morning and leave
the gloom of vanity and transient pleasures
behind, if you must enquire, make good your
way from the gloomy night with all its
beating storms behind you
Let no time pass idly by
With no needful service done.
Sieze the moments as they fly
And count them up as clearly won¹⁰⁷
To you young gentlemen of the Freshman class
I would tender the following remarks under
the semblance of a critical boat. which when
pushed from the strand, is impelled to many
fluctuating rounds before she can take the
direct course and afterwards like the silly

Page 23

with childish reluctance you are retrospecting on
the servile pleasures of when you have formed a
preparatory course you have just crossed over. or through
the Red Sea. into the complex wilderness of your consu-
mation. But why should one assume the recreant
notion that he can not travel through? notwithst
anding the which may accost your last en-
deavours, you have no need to recoil with with all¹⁰⁸

with childish reluctance you are retrospecting
on the servile pleasures of when you have just cro-
ssed over. or through the Red Sea¹⁰⁹. into the complex
wilderness of your consumation. But why should
one assume the recreant notion that he cannot
travel through? notwithstanding the howling wolves
which may accost your last endeavours. you have
no need to recoil with all the protecting implements
of a Literary soldier. bent on your honor your diplo-
matic prize. Then improve the time which your liberty
affords you. to the true cultivation of your golden talents
with which your poor orator, has never been assisted
but confined to a horse and tottering plough, even
without the liberty to acquire a nonentical lesson
who has sweated his meagre visage away over the fire
at night and almost destroyed his sight in the faithful
attempt of arriving to the simple pleasure of reading¹¹⁰
and who now in the declining sun of life, is
resolved to foment¹¹¹ an enterprizing spirit in a
literary view is some respect or other so long permited
on earth to live, to fill the sphere to which he is
called, But to draw in the main stream of
the important subject, I will give you the full answer
of the watchman, Come from the dusky bogs of an
inactive life, it is your liberty to examine the
literary funds which contribute to the benefit
of mankind. come to the liberal stores of gen
erosity and confer your bounty on a fertile soil
which lies without enclosure and needs but
the cultivation of liberal hands to yield a
wonderful stock which may contribute to
the benefit of thousands more. Though you
may consider that you have gone far enough
for your own pleasure yes. pleasure but
as temporary as an hour of the evening sun

Page 24

Turn and come with constant and scientifical inves
tigations, minutely incorporated with christian
fear and piety, The only means to calm the
storms of mortal care, The only comfort to a
troubled mind and finally a cure for every
intrinsic disease of the soul, We see a great
part of mankind stroking to probe into the
deepest matters by a variety of means, some
by exploring the untried regions of the earth.
others by traversing the trackless bosom of
the great deep in quest of pleasure and dis-
covery. But gentlemen remember it is
not he who wanders over the world mearly
to please himself derives the most pleasure
but rather he who makes it his buisness
to travel for the good and comforts of others
as well as himself, This is what elevates
the mind above the narrow circle of life,
and renders the mass of true accomplishments
qualified to rest beneath the storms by night
and the pestilence by day¹¹², and above the
narrow scope of human wisdom and the
insatiate whims of politics. for the exposition
of which many have been in eager pursuit
but have been sadly defeated. Not all the infor
mation which you may derive from authentical
and public journals is calculated for a true
conciliation of mind unless in an exterior point of
view, provided those true phylanthropic deeds
are neglected, particularly in one who gives fair
play to his own conscience neither can their be
any genuine peace. Nay without which the world
is in constant uproar, and yet the simple
disquisitions¹¹³ made to know the primary cause
of so much faction, Light your scientifical

Page 25

lamps and thus disclose the cause, a with a
sanctimonious resolution make your examination that thus
is so little peace in the world. The neglect of this fact
is the foundation of the loud clash of politics, which
keeps the general goverment on a waver. People often fall
short of perfect information with regard to the gloomy
condition of time and still with the best information
from categorical facts. They dwindle back by folly
into the vanity of childhood, and leave undone the weight-
iest matters, and cry peace when in reality there
is no peace¹¹⁴, and this is the primary cause
for which the critical problem has never
been solved and which has been on the
table for discussion during the 18^th
century. The lack of science applied to
christianity which opens wide the doors of
liberty to the universal harmony of all nations
nevertheless stand firm to your own, your independent
republic endeavouring to disseminate civiliz-
ing services from deeds of christian humanity
throughout the world, which well conducted
sciences will enable all to do, But to treat
of the last rupture of the country during
the long night of apprehension perhaps
from 1804 to 1810, Whilst the British fleets were
struggling to undermine the american forts and
to lay waste the Union at large¹¹⁵, applications were
made to the sentinels and the registers of the gloomy
crisis, with but little satisfactory replication
At length a temporary peace arose, on the laughing
eye of a glad nation, The blaze of enthusiasm
was kindled into poetical strains
But alas the winter sun arose in
hustle and set almost as soon too much
so to dissolve the national congelation

Page 26

which had so long fettered the streams of hope
in every republican heart. Thus was the deep
wound of the nation healed by a preposterous
alarm sounding peace, peace when there was no
peace, Such are the effects of party spirit like
the transient intermission of light + gloom from a
terrific cloud: a flood of gloom succeeds to a blaze
and a blaze as soon to the flood of gloom in
alternate succession under the wayward condition
of heavy weather and we can obtain no cer-
tificate with regard to consequence, Such is the
complication of Legislation + political borders, and the
Laws which produces the effects is the general oposi-
tion of opinion. Hence, every pacific morning ter-
minates in a noontide squale¹¹⁶, and night comes
on at noon¹¹⁷: “The morning cometh: and also the
night, if ye will¹¹⁸
The morning ray dispeld the night,
At once the busy tumult fled:
The gloomy shores were filled with light
And peace throughout the nations spread.
Again the thunder roars aloud,
The evening bids the Storm to rise:¹¹⁹
After the rain, returnes the cloud:
And gloom envelopes all the skies.
It bids the sound of mirth to cease
Columbia!¹²⁰ Guard thy native shore:
For lo! The morning dew of peace,
Upon her is heard no more.

Page 27

But this was a treacherous capitulation, at
which period the egg of a destroying nature was
deposited in a secret corner, or chamber, whose
young was soon hatched and on the wing dis-
gorging storms from its beak¹²¹ against the columb-
ian eagle of peace, and threatening to crush the
cradle bough of Liberty which sustained her nest.
and shielded her country from the brands of
hostility. The plenipotentiary opened the record
seal, and the organ was attuned to a hostile
air. and the the bar of division reared between
nation + nation: and upon the whole. the Union
itself was divided with a diversity of parties.
running in direct opposition to each other. contend-
ing for the right of politics. But ah! pecuniary
has been the suicide of nations. as well as men. cl-
andestine inciendiaries. were thus bribed to confla-
grate the of the metropolis. when the majesty
of the presidency was impeld to fly for refuge. to
shun the alarming storm. which arose from a
dark colission between the enemy and one who
should have been but was not a friend to his
country. but who deserted it for the of a
little gold: and like a self murderer. he strove
against himself. such is the treachery of a man
when probed to his bottom. from the above sta-
ted principles you may form a joint conclusion
that a captious native under the present queri-
lous condition will rarely, if ever, be brought to
a true, or permanent compromise: short of a
superlative. or predominant. influence. particular-
ly, when divided against itself. Beware that when
poup popular goverment. lies under such gene-
ral confusion it is allways liable to suicide

Page 28

for illustration, when a man becomes a maniac
or runs mad merely from the confusion of his own mind.
he is ever liable to fall on the point of his own sword
void of reason or self government . he has no power nor
care he of himself. Hence¹²² is ruin is sealed. unless restr-
ained by some guardian friend over whom neither liberty
nor science has any influence. When there is so much
repeated complaint against government a city of
battle is enclosed with dark self commissioned
officers. Strictly watch. Captain Treason opens the
gate in Bolts Major with General at his
back Govoner is thrown out of his pallace
and the President Hear all deserts the chair.
Away flies peace, with national union, down
falls the fabric of popular policy + the temple
of monarchy is erected on her ruins. If not so:
King Anarchy, bears the rule over the world with
an imperial dagger in the heart of every man
great and small and lo! the nation falls
dead from her own fatal Blow , Gentlemen
I do not assume the enthusiasm of declaiming
on politics but still as a man I have the faculty
of choice and my preferance was always, a
republican government, through which the streams
of liberty and science flow freely for every man
I was ever opposed to a tributary obligation from
any nation who merrited the right of liberty and
a vote in the election of her rulers. I was opposed
to the annual revenue to a crown or Royal¹²³
Standard. for I know that liberty is undoubtedly
the birth uright which heaven has confered
upon the world of mankind and consequently
her should not be impeded by the cheroxdefrise¹²⁴
of oppression. Take into contemplation the result
provided you are deprived of your golden right..

Page 29

The privation of liberty brutalizes human intellect
dulls the enterprizing spirit into timidity and
confusion it is a death blow to the pleasures
of human life. Beware for liberty and science
are favourite sisters that carry with them
the keys of happiness and unlock the doors of heaven
to the faithful lovers Nay they recruit the gospel
furnace, augment the blaze of christianity, foster the
infant spirit of genius and open an avenue into
the temple of fame, whilst a song with a shout
is heard in the tent of Philanthropy
O liberty thou dove of peace:
We must aspire to thee
Whose wings thy prisoners must release
And fan Columbia free

The torpid reptile in the dust
Moves active from thy glee:
And owns the declamation just
That nations should be free

Ye distant isles, expose the theme.
Far far beyond the sea.
The sun declares in every beam.
All nations should be free.

Hence, let Brittania, boast no more.
Distressing vapors flee.
And bears the news from shore to shore
Columbia still is free¹²⁵

Notes