They knew that under any lead in which we have confidence, political and personal, we are willing, at all times, to unite with our brethren of the south, the Middle States, and the west, to enforce the main articles of the Jeffersonian faith in the administration of our government. We deem it the only granite foundation for our Union; and, though differences of opinion must and will exist on some subjects, yet it was as much as erring humanity permitted, that those who acted together in a free government should agree in essentials. A union with our brethren, founded on these principles in their great essentials, and fairly and equally carried into the administration of this. government, he would always advocate in behalf of his friends in the east; and would vouch for them that, like Hannibal at the altar, they were ready to swear to abandon that Unionnever-never ·never!

Mr. WOODBURY afterwards said:

Considering the peculiar character of this festival, he hoped the company would pardon him if he repeated the last democratic sentiment Mr. Jefferson ever sent out to the world. It was contained in á reply, only ten days before his death, to an invitation here to the celebration on that very fourth of July on which his spirit took its upward flight, and which day his pen and his patriotism had contributed so much to immortalize. Half a century before, a like sentiment, on the equality of mankind, had been incorporated by his own hand into the Declaration of Independence; and he would now give it in the last. impressive words of the great author of that declaration: "The palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God."

RETURN FROM WASHINGTON.*

MY FELLOW-TOWNSMEN AND NEIGHBORS:

You will hardly need any assurance that I feel great happiness in meeting you again, after so long an absence. This happiness is increased by finding that health and prosperity have in many respects blessed all around and among you. However strong is my gratification at this on your account alone, it may be mingled with some considerations not entirely disinterested; as my intention always has been to spend the remainder of my life amidst your community, and to share intimately in its weal or woe, till our spirits ascend to the beneficent source of all we have had, possess, or hope for.

If, under such circumstances, my sensibilities were not deeply excited by this flattering reception, I should be more or less than human. To be thus welcomed home revives the remembrance of many favors in days gone by, from yourselves, and some who, I regret, as your chairman feelingly remarked, have since passed away and live no more to greet me, and whose departure, like that which has just clothed the nation in mourning, shows what shadows we are and what shadows we pursue.

The generation succeeding them will no doubt act worthy of their sires; and most warmly do I reciprocate to the whole of you all your kind wishes and heartfelt congratulations.

On such an occasion as this, I would not, if I could, check the overflow of friendly feeling, by many words. But you will pardon me for attempting to do plain justice, in a few particulars, to yourselves and the other citizens of that Spartan State which gave birth to most of us.

Amidst the scenes of high responsibility it has been my lot to pass through since our separation, and which you have been pleased to mention in so complimentary a manner, it has always been an abiding consolation, that the people of such a State, who knew me best, have confided in me most, and that their trust, under the severest assaults, has never faltered.

untravelled should con

Is it strange, then, that my heart stantly have turned to these Pilgrim shores? or that my mind, though beneath new skies in the service of New Hampshire and her sister States, should have remained unchanged, and my devotion to your democratic principles have grown, like your iron-bound coast, only firmer by repeated shocks?

*On his return (April, 1841) from Washington, Mr. Woodbury was met by a large number of his political friends, and escorted into Portsmouth. He was addressed by Mr. Abner Greenleaf, chairman of the committee of arrangements for the occasion, and the above speech was made in reply.

I rejoice, with you, that here, above all other places, the vestal fire of those principles has been kept alive and bright. It has proved a proud beacon to light the steps of your absent children, and, flashing higher and wider, as in the last contest, after some despondency elsewhere, it is an omen auspicious for the whole Union.

Real ignorance, or malignity under defeat, has at times attributed the political course of this State to something less enlightened in her condition than in other places. But, in vindication of her, under such aspersions, it gives me pleasure to repeat on her own soil, where a response to its truth must gratefully beat in every heart, that no people are believed to possess higher advantages for obtaining a fund of useful information and practical wisdom. This the hardy yeomanry of her mountains have shown by undeniable results. As an evidence how well they have learned their true interests, no less than their true rights, they have exercised an industry, an enterprise and prudence, which have kept themselves and their State unencumbered by burthensome debt,-have secured beside, though amidst ice and granite, all the comforts of life, and have crowned the whole by liberally sparing more money for free education, religious and literary, than the proudest regions from which they have been assailed.

In truth, the sun does not shine on a land where, in a like extent of population, the spires of the village church more frequently point the path to heaven, or the district school-house and academy oftener open their intellectual treasures to the young and aspiring. These are some of her loftiest monuments, and for these a grateful posterity will admire her more than they would for bronze or marble.

But turning a moment more particularly to this portion of the State, and the political friends who now so cordially welcome my return, I know that some differences concerning public measures must exist among your community, or it would cease to be free. But the political integrity of those here with whom I agree on public matters, and to which you refer in your address, can nowhere be more commendable, or zealous, or firm, though at times struggling under what has seemed fearful odds. I trust, also, experience will show that you are right in the hope that your confidence has not been misplaced, in looking to me, among others in our national councils, to defend the principles of democracy. But, on this joyful occasion of reünion of neighbors long separated, all of you, as well as myself, are doubtless willing to do justice to those with whom we disagree. Firm and ardent as we are in our political convictions, we can still cheerfully recognize many bonds of union between persons possessing a common home, pursuits in several respects common, a similar religious faith, a literature, government, and, I may add, almost every hope of happiness here or hereafter, founded on some common basis. I rejoice, therefore, that the harmony of personal intercourse among us has generally never been interrupted by mere differences of opinion. Between myself and your community as a whole, however divided politically,

there has long existed a mutual and generous personal confidence; and I have not and cannot hesitate to trust to its friendly protection my hearth, altar, and character everything held dear.

But should the storm of faction, of any kind, hereafter beat upon me from any quarter, and few places or parties are long exempt from them, they can have no terrors for one surrounded, as I am now, by the lion hearts that have dared to be tolerant and just, in the

worst of times.

In no place do I believe that the lives, principles, and professions, of its inhabitants generally, are more coincident, or more honest and true. Fortune may have showered her golden favors elsewhere in greater profusion, but nowhere, in the hour of public peril, have the generations, whether present or past, ever displayed prompter patriotism, and, at their country's call, gone forth with more chivalry, to bleed gallantly on every ocean and every field of danger. How, then, will it be possible for men of such a stock, though differing some in the application of facts and principles, ever to differ much and long concerning their essence or tendency? Can any of them, for instance, look with tameness on the surrender of national rights, by any administration whatever? On the contrary, I am confident that most of them would denounce it in all shapes and to all extents; whether the proposition originated in menaces from abroad, accompanied by the gasconade of fleets and armies, or in derogatory combinations at home; and whether it should abridge our territorial limits, or shackle those principles of free trade, and those privileges of navigation and the fisheries, in every sea our enterprise can reach, which have aided so largely to enrich the whole north, and make the Union itself secondary in its commerce to only one government in the world.

Wasteful extravagance, also, or the removal of those securities which experience has devised to guard the public treasure, or contributions forced in any form from the hard earnings of the thrifty for the benefit of speculators, spendthrifts, and bankrupts, can never be believed to occur, and at the same time be long tolerated by men who, like you, obtain their money through honest industry, and who know well that the people at large, in some shape or other, are taxed to furnish all public means. In a government which freemen have helped to create for the equal protection of all, how can many of them be expected to countenance, in those dressed in a little brief authority, partial legislation, for building up favorite interests or favorite sections of country? The question, as one of principle, is too plain for argument; nor will they befriend, on any subject, what they may be convinced is a system of monopolies, a system hostile alike to the durable interests of the seaman, laborer, mechanic, merchant, and last, but not least, the farmer, aristocratic in tendency, and likely to become more powerful and overshadowing than the government itself; for this would be to befriend or submit to a species of slavery, and one the more ignominious, as being usually to money alone, rather than to superior

intellect, goodness, or knowledge. Still more vain would it be to hope that such a race will ever long bear to be insulted by duplicity or broken pledges of any kind from those in power, and, on their own soils and freeholds, in sight of their fathers' graves, the descendants of the Langdons, the Halls, the Gardners, and the Mannings, endure to be proscribed or persecuted like conquered helots.

But I forbear, lest these remarks should insensibly glide into what is susceptible of perversion. This much, however, can be added with justice, and I trust without offence, that, come when, where, or how, danger may, a people like those before me will always scent tyranny in the breeze, and, knowing their rights, as free, equal, and independent citizens of the freest republic on the globe, they will, without regard to sects and schisms, always be ready to maintain those rights.

If attempts be made to cajole you as to the true extent or character of them, tell the offenders from this hall, dedicated to one of the great apostles of liberty, that they are the rights explained by him in the immortal Declaration of Independence, and which our ancestors, after a painful succession of sufferings, sought to guarantee by their wise constitution and just laws, as well as by the republican virtues they inculcated on their posterity.

Without those rights, whatever name is given to ourselves or our institutions, our condition must become one of base servitude; and in times past all has been often risked in their defence, and all will be again, because, whether we come off victors or martyrs, nothing can be clearer than that our duties, no less than inclination and honor, equally forbid us either to live or die slaves.

I cannot misunderstand the ardent eyes which meet mine in every direction; and I know that your pulses must beat warm with the conviction that these are opinions and resolves which the great mass of you hold in common, and which you will never part with, whether here, at the altar or the domestic fireside, whether in public or private trust, and whether as citizens of New Hampshire or the Union.

Regardless, then, of misconstruction or calumny, I have taken the liberty to express my belief that thus we mutually think, and, by God's blessing, thus will do.

After this response, and a personal exchange of salutations between Mr. Woodbury and his fellow-citizens at large, who came forward to welcome him with the most unfeigned cordiality, the committee of arrangements, with the board of selectmen, accompanied him to his lodgings at the Rockingham House, where he had taken rooms for himself and family, until his effects should arrive from Washington, and his house be prepared for his reception.