PRESIDENT POLK.* MR. PRESIDENT:- Allow me, in behalf of my fellow-citizens of the ancient town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to welcome you to their hospitalities. Interchanges of personal civility between a people and their chief magistrate are usually attended by the happiest influences. We know and are known better by being face to face, and heart to heart; and it rejoices us thus to enjoy an opportunity to draw closer the cords which kindly bind together the true source of all political power, and those deemed worthy to administer it. We greet you, therefore, sir, to our hearths and altars, as the highest administrator of that power for more than twenty millions of free and prosperous people. It is this which makes our hearts overflow with gladness to see you tread our granite soil; for we do not presume to boast of its great fertility in any crops, unless it be in crops of men,-high-minded men, "who know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain." It is this that makes us exult to have you gaze on our mountains, and not that they are the abodes of wealth and grandeur; but, on the contrary, the faithful nurses of our share we hope our full share of hardy industry, of well-tried bravery, both in "flood and field," of enlightened liberty, of sterling patriotism, and all the republican virtues. Indeed, sir, you see here one of those prolific northern hives, which yearly sends off its swarms over the western continent, to gather, and, it is trusted, diffuse, much that is useful, wherever they wander. Liberty and law, order and industry, are inscribed on the banners under which they march and conquer. In this immediate neighborhood, sir, we invite you to examine the scenes of the earliest settlement of our State the noble river, on whose banks stands its venerable commercial capital, whither our fathers came for a freer trade, as well as freer worship of their God; the beautiful navy-yard near us, in whose environs was built the first ship-of-the-line since our independence, and, it is believed, the first frigate in America; and lastly, to inspect the gallant fort, which opens its cannon on the ocean at the mouth of our harbor, to aid in our protection, under any unhallowed invasion of our soil. We look anxiously towards the means of public usefulness increased here by the dry dock, which has been happily authorized under your administration, cherishing, as we do, a strong conviction that such expenditures tend to render imperishable that great principle, now embodied into the American code of public law,-"Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute." Every Every war steamer,--and we * An address made to President Polk, on the occasion of his visit to Portsmouth, 1846. hope to see many grow up from this cradle of our navy,—every shipof-war of any kind that shall float from our harbor, under a system like this, will be a monument to the world of that great principle, as striking as if all her flags and canvas were emblazoned over with it in letters of gold. you In conclusion, Mr. President, permit me to add, that but one pulse beats in every heart in this vast multitude around me,-from smiling youth to decrepit age, and that is, with the earnest wish that may possess leisure to see everything here of public interest, may meet with no accident to mar the enjoyments of your northern tour, and, above all, may carry back with you the discovery of new cements of the common brotherhood between us and the giant west and highprincipled south,-new attractions to bind us all closer and firmer forever in one sacred and harmonious union. 46* |