AN

ORATION,

WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE YOUNG MEN OF BOSTON,

AND DELIVERED, JULY 17, 1799,

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE

DISSOLUTION OF

THE TREATIES AND CONSULAR CONVENTION,

BETWEEN FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES

OF AMERICA.

ORATION.

THE HE struggle between Liberty and Despotism, Government and Anarchy, Religion and Atheism, has been gloriously decided. It has proved the victory of principle, the triumph of virtue. France has been foiled, and America is free. The elastick veil of Gallick perfidy has been rent; the mystick charm of diplomatick policy has been dissolved; the severing blow has been struck; and the exulting Ocean, now rolls between our shores, an eternal monument of our separation.

We are convened, my young friends and fellow citizens, to commemorate, at a disjunct period, the first glorious anniversary of that eventful day,* when our national Senate and House of Representatives declared the Treaties and Consular Convention, which had hitherto subsisted between the United States and France, should be no longer obligatory on the Government and People of America. It is a day, which will for

The law of the United States, dissolving the Treaties and Consular Convention with France, was approved by the President on the 7th of July, 1798. From the vicinity of this day to our National Anniversary, and other causes, this event was celebrated on the 17th. This anachronism is not only venial in itself, but is also sanctioned by undeniable precedent.

ever be illustrious in our annals. It is the completion of our Liberties, the acme of our Independence. The FOURTH OF JULY will be celebrated by our latest posterity, as the splendid æra of our national glory; but the SEVENTH Will be venerated, as the dignified epoch of our national character. The one, annihilated our colonial submission to a powerful, avowed and determined foe. The other, emancipated us from the oppressive friendship of an ambitious, malignant, treacherous ally. The former asserted our political supremacy, which preserved to us our country from subjection, our liberties from encroachment, and our government from foreign control: the latter united to the same momentous object a declaration of our moral sovreignty, which rescued our principles from subjugation, as well as our persons from slavery; which secured our cities from massacre, as well as their inhabitants from debasement; which preserved our fair ones from violation, as well as our religion from bondage. In fine, the declaration of Independence, which dissolved our connexion with Great Britain, may be correctly denominated the Birth day of our nation, when, as its infant genius was ushered into political existence, a lambent flame of glory played around its brows, in presage of its future greatness. But the period, which sundered our alliance with France, may be pronounced the day of our nation's manhood, when this genius had become an Hercules, who, no longer amused with the coral and bells of "liberty and equality;" no longer

"Pleased with the rattles, tickled with the straws,"