ADDRESS. 









BELIEVING that it is the sacred duty of every member of society 

 to contribute, according to his possessions, to the general treasury 

 of knowledge, I have come, on this occasion, to cast in my mite ; 

 happy that I have something to offer, and humble that the offering 

 is of no greater value. 



At an early period of my life I imbibed a relish, perhaps acci- 

 dentally, for books of voyages and travels, when I had not as yet 

 seen the ocean. Though a dweller in the western forests, I could 

 reason from effects to causes, and needed only the roughly 

 sketched history of the early settlement of our country to convince 

 me, that the maritime enterprise of our ancestors was an important 

 element in the foundation of our subsequent power; and that 

 whatever tended to increase the stimulus to exertion, and extend 

 the field of commercial research, was to add more to our national 

 resources, than to discover mines of diamonds, or heap our trea- 

 suries with coined gold. The analogy of the sister branches, 

 agriculture and manufactures have come to our aid ; and if when 

 fields are run out, the farmer is obliged to till new ones ; and if 

 when markets fail, the ingenuity of the manufacturer is tasked to 

 find others, surely he who can indicate to our rapidly increasing 

 marine a new and untried sea, or an undiscovered island, where 

 enterprise may be enriched, and the country acquire a footing, 

 deserves well of his fellow-men. 



