DR. SPOFFORD's address. 1$ 



'Tis true your lands are not annually enriched by the alluvion 

 of rivers three thousand miles long : nor are your fences and 

 cattle and buildings swept away by the overflow of such rivers. 

 Yet no part of the country is more finely diversified with rivers 

 and streams of water, than Massachusetts — than your own coun- 

 ty of Essex. Almost every farm is supplied by its running 

 brook — mill-streams and rivers of manageable magnitude are 

 found in almost every town : and the majestic Hudson rolls not 

 a more beautiful sheet of water, nor presents banks more luxu- 

 riantly fringed with shrubbery, or exhibits finer river scenery, 

 than your own Merrimack. With strict truth we may here 

 apply the lines of the poet of the Connecticut : 



" No Avatery gleams through happier villas shine, 

 "Nor driiilis the sea a lovelier wave than thine." 



From what has been said and from many other considerations, 

 I conclude that the sons of New England should value their 

 birthright, and wherever their enterprise may lead them in pur- 

 suit of wealth or honor, that they have cause to prize the land 

 of their nativity — the land of constant industry and steady 

 habits — the land of" bibles and of sabbaths" — the land of " red 

 schoolhouses and white churches" — the land where slavery is 

 unknown. 



" My own green land forever. 



"O! never may a son of thine, 

 " Where e'er his wandering steps incline, 

 " Forget the sky which bent above 

 " His childhood, like a dream of love." 



Although the sceptre of political power may have departed 

 from the " cradle of liberty,'' and even the seat of empire be 

 already loosening from its foundations for its removal from the 

 Atlantic States ; yet the time-honored history of the past — the 

 happy institutions and habits of the present day — and the enter- 

 prise which is inherent in the sons of the pilgrims — will ever 

 secure New England an honorable place in her country's annals, 

 and as the Jews from every nation under heaven, look towards 

 Jerusalem, as the land of hope and of promise ; — so the distant 



