ADDEESS. 



BY LUTHER H. TUCKER, 



OF THE " COUNTRY GENTLEMAN," ALBANY, NEW YORK. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 



Ninety-five years ago to-day, (Sept. 30, 1768,) 

 British troops were landed in Boston Harbor, and a 

 regiment was quartered at Fanueil Hall. The oppres- 

 sion which had driven the Mayflower's passengers forth 

 from their homes, had now sought out their descendants. 

 Seventeen months later came the Boston massacre ; and, 

 ere long, the sparks thus kindled burst into that 

 glorious flame which still gleams, on every anniversary 

 of our Nation's birth, in the streets of every town, in 

 the heart of every patriot — the same flame, indeed, that 

 warmed those shivering seekers for religious liberty, on 

 the bleak exposure of Plymouth Bock, — that lit up 

 the darkest hours of our fathers' strife for political 

 liberty, — and that now, in defence of a Constitution 

 which is the guarantee of these liberties to ourselves 

 and to our children, has fired our zeal for new sacri- 

 fice and as stern a struggle. I have not come among 

 you to speak of war or politics, nor even to eulogize 

 New England, in that, having shown, unweakened and 

 unwasted, in 1776, the spirit bequeathed her by the 



