1-21 



The exhibition or use of militaiy force could not swerve them 

 from their purpose ; — thej held life cheap in comparison. They 

 Avere confident of the smiles of lieaven upon their efforts to 

 break the rod of their oppressors ; and their forbearance already 

 tasked to its uttermost, was now ready to give way to open re- 

 bellion if their manifold grievances were not speedily relieved. 

 But justice had fled from the councils of their rulers and op- 

 pression had usurped her place. The hearts of their British 

 task-masters, like the heart of Pharaoh of old, (and we trust 

 for the same wise and benificent purpose. ) were hopelessly har- 

 dened towards their brethren in the colonies. " Deaf to the 

 voice of justice and consanguinity," and blinded by an undue 

 estimate of their superior power, they persisted in pursuing 

 the same cruel course of policy in defiance of the spirit of de- 

 termined opposition exhibited by the people, until it brought 

 about the disastrous battle of Lexington, and the standaid of 

 revolt was finally raised throughout the land. Then the people 

 poured in like an avalanche to the rescue. ' The shepard tar- 

 ried no longer by his sheepfold, or the seedsman continued in 

 the ploughed field. The footmen came like the rushing of 

 winds, and the horsemen came up like the sound of many waters, 

 and the passages of the destroyers were stopped, and the face 

 of their men of battle were turned to flight. The banner of free- 

 dom was spread abroad upon the mountains ; — heaven was with 

 them and broke the bow of the mighty ! ' Finally, after a 

 struggle of upwards of seven long years, the government of 

 Great Britain was completely annihilated in the colonies, and 

 on its ruin was established the Indepe:%dexce of tuese 

 United States of America ! 



It is a grave and solemn reflection, that the busy throng 

 who filled our streets on this occasion, all bustling with life 

 and activity, and the bravo men who breasted the British 

 bayonets, in the battles of the Revolution which followed, have 

 nearly all disappeared from among us. They were a peculiar 

 people, purposely trained and disciplined, we believe, by an 

 overruling Providence to release our country from the aggra- 

 vated wrongs inflicted upon it by its oppressors. We confess 

 our admiration of these men rises the more we contemplate their 

 fearless, independent, daring natures. Down to the Eevolu- 

 tion, the colonists were loyal and dutiful subjects of Great 

 Britain ; and notwithstanding an ocean of three thousand miles 

 in width rolled between them and the parent country, they still 

 looked to England as their homes. Her glory, her honor, and 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. 16. 



