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tion, and the negotiations for peace; in the convention that framed, 

 and in the State conventions that considered, the constitution of the 

 United States; in the first Congress; and in the negotiations at the 

 close of the war of 1S12, the fisheries occupy a prominent place, and 

 were often the hinge on which turned questions of vast importance. 



We have seen, that once, entire communities seemed to believe that 

 no way to wealth was so sure and so rapid as adventures for herrings 

 and codfish; and that men of the highest rank, and of the most shining 

 talents, accordingly, set their hopes and f )rtunes on the cast of the net 

 and the line. We have found that eminent writers on matters of com- 

 merce and navigation, and statesmen of world-wide fame, have de- 

 <dared that "the English navy became formidable alone by the dis- 

 covery of the inexpressibly rich fishing banks of Newfoundland ;" that 

 writers of acknowledged judgment have observed, that "by the cod- 

 fishery in America, the navy of France became formidable to all Eu- 

 rope;" that our own statesmen of the revolutionary era considered that 

 we also must look to our fishermen to man o?/rnavy; and that a French 

 minister of the present time expressed the opinion, in 1836, "that with- 

 out the resources which were found in the sailors engaged in the fish- 

 eries, the expedition to Algiers* could not have taken place." 



The grateful duty of speaking of the patriotism and public services 

 of American fishermen remains to be performed, and will now occupy 

 our attention. That, during the whole period of our colonial vassal- 

 age, they were ever among the foremost to en'er the ships and armies 

 furnished by the colonies to aid England in her struggles with France ; 

 that they were engaged in every strife in French America ; that they 

 lie buried on every battle-ground in Canada and Nova Scotia; and 

 that their remains were committed to every sea, are facts which have 

 already appeared.! I would not magnify their exploits in the war for 

 freedom; for, as we all know, "the mailed hand ol that war was 

 thrust into the casements of our fathers' houses, his blood-stained foot- 

 steps were in the streets, over the fields, upon the thresholds, and at 

 the hearths of our mothers ;" but I may still say, that the fishermen 

 were driven from their employment; that they were absent as soldiers 

 in the army, and as seamen on board of the public and private armed 

 ships commissioned by Congress ; that their vessels were stripped 

 naked to the masts, and rotted at the wharves and on the beaches; 

 and that their families, deprived of their usual means of support, were 

 reduced to despair. 



The people of Plymouth depended almost entirely for subsistence 



* Algiers was conquered by the Freuch in 1830, wlien Abd'el Kader, who, next to Mehemed 

 Ali, is '-the most remarkable individual in the existing Mohammedan world," commenced his 

 public career. 



t Fishermen fought the battles of their country in remote ages. Four hmidred years before 

 the Chiistian era, and in the time of Nieias, Plutarch relates, that in an engagement between 

 the Syracusans and Athenians, " Not only the men from the ships, but the very boys from the 

 fishing-boats and small barks, challenged the Athenians to come out, and oflered them every 

 kind of insult. One of these boys, named Heraclides, who was of one of the ))est families in 

 Syracuse, advancing too far, was pursued by an Athenian vessel, and came very near being 

 taken. His uncle, Pollichus, seeing his danger, made up with ten galleys which were imderhis 

 command; and others, in fear for Pollichus, advanced to support him. A sharp conflict en- 

 sued, in which the Syracusans were victorious, and Eurymedon and numbers were killed." 



