Mr. Buckingham's Address. 



from thence through the Indian Archipelago, by Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Malacca, 

 to India ; traverse the Peninsula of Hindoostan, from the Ganges to the Indus, and re- 

 turn to Europe by the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. 



Throughout the whole of this long and varied route, there are a few prominent and 

 important objects, which, as they have been long favorite subjects of study, and have 

 engaged a large share of my attention in the past, I shall hope to keep steadily in view, 

 and do all within my power to advance in the future. It has long been my conviction, 

 that among the most prolific causes of vice and misery in the world, those of Intemper- 

 ance, Ignorance, Cruelly, and War, are productiveof the greatest evils; and that the best 

 service which man can render to his fellow-beings is therefore to promote, by every means 

 within his reach, the principles and practice of Temperance, Education, Benevolence, 

 and Peace. My behef is, that more of sympathy and cordiality in favor of these great 

 objects will be found in the United States of America, than in any other country on the 

 globe. Already, indeed, has she done more than any other country that can be named 

 for the advancement of Temperance, the spread of Education, the amelioration of the 

 Criminal code, the improvement of prisons and penitentiaries, and the practical illustra- 

 tions of the blessings of Peace. And placed as she now is,- between the two great Seas 

 that divide the old from the new world, and separate the ancient empires of the East 

 from the modern nations of the West, — so that with her face toward the regions of the 

 sun, she can stretch out her right hand to Asia and her left hand to Europe, and cause 

 her moral influence to be felt from Constantinople to Canton — she has the means with- 

 in her reach, as well as the disposition to use those means, for the still further propaga- 

 tion and promotion of her benevolent designs. It is this which encourages me to believe 

 that my ulterior projects and intentions, which I thus freely avow, will not lessen the 

 cordiality with which the first and more immediate object of my mission to your shores 

 will be received. The land now covered with the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, 

 and the offspring of those noble and unyielding spirits, who, fleeing to the uncleared 

 wilderness as a refuge from tyranny and persecution, found in its primeval forests the 

 liberty they in vain sought for in their native homes, and whose posterity, while filling 

 these forests with cities, and covering the wilds with civilization and religion, have ne- 

 ver forgotten those lessons of Freedom which their ancestors first taught by their prac- 

 tical privations and sufferings, and then sealed and cemented by their blood — such a 

 land is not likely to refuse its shelter to one whose past history may give him some claim 

 to the sympathy of its possessors, whose present labors may be productive of intellec- 

 tual ^ratification to themselves, and whose future undertakings, if blessed by Divine 

 Providence, may sow the seeds, at least, of benefit to other widely-scattered regions 

 of the earth. 



To you, then, the People of America, I frankly submit this appeal : and at your hands 

 I doubt not I shall experience that cordial and friendly reception which may smooth the 

 ruggedness of a Pilgrim's path, and sooth the pillow of an Exile's repose. 



J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 



