“There is one reflection painful to the feelings of every well-wisher of our land. It cannot be denied that party spirit has had a baneful influence upon national character. Long must the moralist deplore its effects on the manners and morals of the present age. Why has the hated demon been permitted to stalk through our land uncontrolled, embittering the cup of domestic happiness and poisoning the social intercourse of friends and neighbors? But thanks to the wisdom and enlightened policy of our late president, James Monroe, the administration was shown to be the representative of a nation and not the instrument of party feeling, and under him we have enjoyed a political calm that is both salutary and refreshing.”
JOSEPH BRANT—THAYENDANEGEA,
Born in 1742, Died in 1807.
From the Original Painted from Life in London in 1776.
From “The Old New York Frontier.” Courtesy of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
President Adams, having recommended what is known as the Panama Mission, the speaker remarked that for this he “had been denounced by the aristocratic slave-holders of the South and a few renegades from the cause of freedom and humanity in the North”, and then added the following words on slavery and disunion, subjects which even then had become portentous to men’s minds:
“These men style themselves patriots and republicans. Yet we have been told by the mouth of this faction (I mean the beardless man of Roanoke)[31] that our Constitution is a falsehood; that it carries a lie upon the face of it in asserting that men are born free and equal. Our legislative halls have been polluted by hints at the dissolution of the Union. May that tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth that dares to utter such a treacherous sentence, and may that arm be paralyzed that shall be raised to carry the unrighteous threat into execution.”
In concluding, a few words were addressed by the speaker “to the surviving patriots of the Revolution who this day honor us with their presence”:
“Ye war-worn remnant of that patriotic band who were the stay and defense of your country in the hour of danger, what cause have we not to venerate those silver locks, bleached in the service of your country, those war-worn features the consequence of many a painful campaign, and those scars received in defense of American liberty? They are the emblems of merit and the true badges of honor, serving as marks of distinction by which we are enabled to point you out from among your less fortunate citizens. They are far more honorable than those toys of knighthood so eagerly sought after by the sycophants of monarchical power.
“Long will your country respect that valor which shielded her liberty from the attacks of an infuriated foe. May your country still reward you for those services performed a half century ago. Although the liberal intentions of our chief magistrate have been frustrated toward you for the present by the illiberality of a faction, yet I trust that the day is not far distant when you will acknowledge that republics are not always ungrateful. May the evening of your days be as happy and serene as its meridian was glorious and honorable. Although time has greatly thinned your ranks and each succeeding year makes your number less, your fame will be as durable as the everlasting hills of your own dear country.”