Si" 



ADDRESS. 



THE war of the revolution left our fathers in pos- 

 session of little else, than unsullied national honor, 

 and political independence. Their energies and 

 resources, they had unsparingly expended in achiev- 

 ing their emancipation. Private fortunes, and per- 

 sonal services were alike, freely offered on the altar 

 of the common weal. Three millions of people, 

 sparsely scattered through thirteen states, sustained 

 with unbroken front, and unshrinking fortitude, for 

 seven long years, the accumulated horrors of "war, 

 pestilence, and famine." British power could not 

 subdue them ; British diplomacy could not ensnare 

 them. The arts of peace, during this conflict, 

 were necessarily neglected. The spirit of adven- 

 ture was shorn of its strength, and commercial 

 enterprise compelled to lie dormant. All national 

 and individual resources were engaged in one di- 

 rection, and made to concentrate on one grand ob- 

 ject, the attainment of national freedom. 



At the return of peace, they found themselves, 

 indeed, politically free, but exhausted by their pro- 

 tracted warfare, embarrassed by an imbecile gov- 

 ernment, loaded with debt, oppressed by poverty, 

 and distracted by domestic feuds. Who, that con- 

 templated the young republic, at that period, 

 struggling for existence, would have predicted her 



