plunging too far to retreat, but with a cold and well-balanced selfishness, sustaining himself at the head of affairs, under each new phase of the revolution, by the compliances sufficient to satisfy its demands, he might have anticipated the career of Napoleon. At three different periods, he had it in his power, without usurpation, to take the government into his own hands. He was invited, urged to do so. Had he done it, and made use of the military means at his command to maintain and perpetuate his power, he would then, at the sacrifice of all his just claims to the name of great and good, have reached that which vulgar admiration alone worshipsthe greatness of high station and brilliant success.

But it belonged to the greatness of Lafayette that he looked down on greatness of the false kind. He learned his lesson in the school of Washington, and took his first practice in victories over himself. Let it be questioned by the venal apologists of time-honored abuses; let it be sneered at by national prejudice and party detraction; let it be denied by the admirers of war and conquest, by the idolaters of success; but let it be gratefully acknowledged by good by Americans by every man who has sense to distinguish character from events, who has a heart to beat in concert with the pure enthusiasm of virtue.

men

But it is more than time, fellow-citizens, that I commit the memory of this great and good man to your unprompted contemplation. On his arrival among you, ten years ago, when your civil fathers, your military, your children, your whole population poured itself out, in one throng, to salute him; when your cannons proclaimed his advent with joyous salvos, and your acclamations were answered, from steeple to steeple, by festal bells, with what delight did you not listen to his cordial and affectionate words "I beg of you all, beloved citizens of Boston, to accept the respectful and warm thanks of a heart which has for nearly half a century been devoted to your illustrious city!" That noble heart, -to which, if any object on earth was dear, that object was the country of his early choice, of his adoption, and his more than regal triumph, that noble heart will beat no

welfare.

more for your Cold and still, it is already mingling with the dust. While he lived, you thronged with delight to his presence; you gazed with admiration on his placid features and venerable form, not wholly unshaken by the rude storms of his career; and now that he is departed, you have assembled in this cradle of the liberties for which, with your fathers, he risked his life, to pay the last honors to his memory. You have thrown open these consecrated portals to admit the lengthened train, which has come to discharge. the last public offices of respect to his name. You have hung these venerable arches, for the second time since their erection, with the sable badges of sorrow. You have thus associated the memory of Lafayette in those distinguished honors, which but a few years since you paid to your Adams and Jefferson; and, could your wishes and mine have prevailed, my lips would this day have been mute, and the same illustrious voice which gave utterance to your filial emotions over their honored graves, would have spoken also, for you, over him who shared their earthly labors, enjoyed their friendship, and has now gone to share their last repose, and their imperishable remembrance.

There is not, throughout the world, a friend of liberty who has not dropped his head when he has heard that Lafayette is no more. Poland, Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland, the South American republics, every country where man is struggling to recover his birthright,—have lost a benefactor, a patron, in Lafayette. But you, young men, at whose command I speak, for you a bright and particular loadstar is henceforward fixed in the front of heaven. What young man that reflects on the history of Lafayette, that sees him in the morning of his days the associate of sages, the friend of Washington, but will start with new vigor on the path of duty and renown?

And what was it, fellow-citizens, which gave to our Lafayette his spotless fame? The love of liberty. What has consecrated his memory in the hearts of good men? The love of liberty. What nerved his youthful arm with strength, and inspired him, in the morning of his days, with sagacity

and counsel? The living love of liberty. To what did he sacrifice power, and rank, and country, and freedom itself? To the horror of licentiousness, to the sanctity of plighted faith, to the love of liberty protected by law. Thus the great principle of your revolutionary fathers, and of your Pilgrim sires, was the rule of his life-the love of liberty protected by law.

You have now assembled within these celebrated walls, to perform the last duties of respect and love, on the birthday of your benefactor. The spirit of the departed is in high communion with the spirit of the place the temple worthy of the new name which we now behold inscribed on its walls. Listen, Americans, to the lesson which seems borne to us on the very air we breathe, while we perform these dutiful rites! Ye winds, that wafted the Pilgrims to the land of promise, fan, in their children's hearts, the love of freedom! Blood, which our fathers shed, cry from the ground! Echoing arches of this renowned hall, whisper back the voices of other days! Glorious Washington, break the long silence of that votive canvas! Speak, speak, marble lips;* teach us THE LOVE OF LIBERTY PROTECTED

BY LAW!

The bust of Lafayette stood upon the platform.

NOTE.

SEE PAGE 519.

THE character and conduct of Lafayette, at the most critical period of his career, appear to me correctly appreciated and skilfully described by M. Thiers, in the following passage from his "History of the French Revolution:".

"Lafayette, born of an ancient family which had remained pure amidst the corruption of the great, endowed with a sound understanding and a resolute purpose, and a lover of true glory, had tired of the frivolities of the court and the pedantic discipline of our armies. His own country presenting him no worthy object of ambition, he decided for the most generous enterprise of the age, and started for America, at the moment that intelligence of its prostration was circulating in Europe. He there combated by the side of Washington, and through the French alliance decided the liberation of the new world. Returned home with a European reputation, and welcomed as a novelty at court, he there exhibited the simplicity and liberality of an American. When the time came that philosophy, which had been regarded by the idle nobility as a jeu d'esprit, began to demand sacrifices of their party, Lafayette almost alone persisted in his principles, demanded the States General, contributed powerfully to the union of the orders, and was named, in return, commander-in-chief of the National Guard. Lafayette wanted the passions and the genius which often lead to the abuse of power; but with an equal temper, a true spirit, and a system of disinterestedness from which he never swerved, he was especially fitted for the part which circumstances imposed upon him—that of causing the laws to be executed. Adored by his troops, without having fascinated them by victory, -calm and full of resource in the midst of the fury of the multitude, - he maintained order with indefatigable vigilance. The factions, which had found him incorruptible, impeached his ability, because they could not impeach his character. He was, however, mistaken neither as to events nor men. He appreciated the court and the partisan leaders at their true worth, protected them at the peril of his life, without confiding in them, and struggled often without hope against the factions, but with the constancy of a man who feels that he never ought to abandon the commonwealth, even when he can no longer hope to be useful to it.”. Histoire de la Révolution Française, par M. A. Thiers. Chap. III.

THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON.*

FELLOW-CITIZENS :

Ar the close of sixty years, we commemorate the eventful scenes of the opening revolution. We have come together to celebrate the affecting incidents which have placed the name of this beautiful village on the first page of the history of our independence. The citizens of a prosperous and powerful republic, we come to pay the last honors to the memory of those who offered themselves up, on this spot, the first costly sacrifice in the cause of American liberty. In the day of our peace and safety, in the enjoyment of the richest abundance of public and private blessings, we have met together to summon up, in grateful recollection, the images of that night of trial, of fearful anticipation, of stern resolve, and of that morning of blood, which, to the end of time, will render the name of Lexington sacred to the heart of the American freeman.

Sixty years have passed away, -two full returns of the period assigned by the common consent of mankind to one of our transitory generations. I behold around me a fewalas! how few!. - of those who heard the dismal voice of the alarm-bell, on the nineteenth of April, 1775, and the sharp, angry hiss of the death volleys from the hostile lines. Venerable men! we gaze upon you with respectful emotion. You have reached an age allotted to the smallest portion of our race, and your gray hairs, under any circumstances, would be entitled to our homage. As the survivors of the

* Oration delivered at Lexington, 19th (20th) April, 1835, by request of the citizens of that place.