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ruptedness of their morals, be guarded by more severe sanctions. But if it be your pleasure that this institution should be altered; if you wish to have the Cornelian law concerning bribery, extended to all ranks, then let us join, not in violating the law, but in proposing to have this alteration made by a new law.

7. My client, Cluentius, will be foremost in this measure, who now, while the old law subsists, rejected its defence, and required his cause to be pleaded, as if he had been bound by it. But though he would not avail himself of the law, you are bound in justice, not to stretch it beyond its proper limits.

In the ancient republics, especially in Rome, during the days of Cicero, "the laws ruled men, and not men the laws." It ought to be so in modern republics. Obedience to the laws of the land, is the first, second, and last quality of a good citizen, Patriotism consists chiefly in upholding and sustaining at all times, and under all circumstances, "the supremacy of the laws." If we trample them in the dust, we strike away all the pledges of our common safety. Cicero's speech inculcates sound doctrine in favor of obeying laws. It requires considerable energy in its elocution,

EXTRACT FROM A FOURTH OF JULY ADDRESS, BY JUDGE CONKLING.

1. It is delightful, indeed, to linger over these pages of our early annals. It is grateful to ancestral pride, and eminently fitted to purify and elevate the soul: for it is here that our ancestors stand forth as the bright examples of all that is pure and exalted in motive, and all that is great and glorious in action. But the occasion compels us to cut short the narrative. It is well known that actual hostilities had commenced between the two countries, long before the declaration of Independence. But it was not until a few months before its promulgation, that a final separation from Great Britain was seriously contemplated by the Colonists. They most anxiously desired a reconciliation. Their own undoubting convictions of the soundness of the principle upon which they were acting, rendered

them slow to believe that Great Britain would much longer persist in her bloody efforts to reduce them to subjection. They knew that they still had many friends in England, and they fondly cherished the hope that justice would ere long prevail in her councils. Nor had they yet lost all confidence in the king, or ceased to entertain towards him some portion of that sentiment of loyalty which had hitherto animated their bosoms. In the proclamation of a Fast by Congress, so late as June, 1775, one of the motives for recommending it was, to beseech the Almighty "to bless our rightful sovereign King George, and inspire him with wisdom."

2. But the last lingering hope was at length extinguished. Then it was that the colonists first fully realized the fearful responsibility of the position into which their adherence to principle had brought them. Two, and only two alternatives remained; and these now stood in appalling distinctness before their eyes. They were to choose between unconditional submission on the one hand, and open, determined, unrelenting war with the most powerful nation of the earth, upon the other. The crisis was too awful for the sway of passion. If the blind impulses of resentment had hitherto mingled to some extent with their motives of action, our ancestors stood calm and collected now. They felt that reason and conscience, alone, were worthy to have a voice in this high arbitrament—and to those they appealed.

3. Upon no probable calculation of chances were they likely, personally, to be gainers by persisting in the contest. All the horrors of protracted war, they knew must be en. countered by doing so. Should they fail of success, the gibbet would claim its victims, among the most conspicuous of those whom the sword had spared, and chains would be the common and inevitable portion of the rest. I have called the actors in these thrilling scenes, our ancestors. Time, in its ceaseless and rapid flow, has invested them with this character. But they, too, boasted an American ancestry-their own illustrious pilgrim fathers. To their high example they turned their eyes. It was an example adapted to their circumstances and worthy of their imita

tion. It was one of self-sacrificing devotion to principle of noble daring, and heroic constancy. It taught them to regard themselves as but a link in the chain of human existence, connecting the future with the past, and deriving its chief importance from the influence for good or evil, which it was to exert upon the destinies of posterity.

4. Their decision was worthy of themselves; and this is the highest eulogium it can receive. It was embodied and sent forth to the world, in the imperishable Declaration to which we have listened this day. The deliberate choice of a great present evil for the sake of a greater distant good, while it constitutes one of the distinguishing characteristics, is also one of the most difficult achievements of the human mind. Considering the appalling uncertainty that hung over the prospects of our revolutionary fathers, and that the good they sought, was less for themselves, than for those who were to come after them, their decision must forever continue to be regarded as the most illustrious exemplification of this truth, to be met with in the annals of recorded time.

5. With what undying ardor-by what costly sacrifices that decision was maintained, I need not remind you. But thanks to the valor and virtue of our noble sires, and the favoring smiles of heaven, it was maintained. Our nataional independence was thus established; and this event constitutes the first grand epoch in our national history. The adoption of the federal constitution forms the second. The invention of steam navigation and the conquest over nature, by the vigorous application of our energies, on an extended scale, to the levelling and perforating of moun tains and the filling of vallies, in the construction of canals and railways, may justly be regarded the third. The next lies buried in the womb of the future. But this we know: that its character and complexion are probably to be deter. mined, in no inconsiderable degree, by us,-by the impulses and influences which we are to communicate.

6. My friends, let us ponder upon this solemn truth. Far be from me the wish to cloud the joy so appropriate to this occasion. But even on this auspicious day, I would not

have you forget your high responsibilities, nor be insensible to the dangers that beset our path. We have but to look around us, to see how momentous a part we are enacting in the drama of human existence. The new world, with its lofty ranges of mountains, its inland seas, its mighty rivers, its fertile plains, and its inexhaustible mines-is our magnificent theatre of action. Our course is onward, rapid and decisive.

We have a noble inheritance to guard! Let us take care to transmit it unimpaired to our descendants. We have the glories of an illustrious ancestry to uphold! Let us beware how we suffer them to grow dim in our hands. The great cause of civil and religious freedom is committed to our guardianship! Let us be faithful to the sacred trust. The eye of the philanthropist in every clime, is fixed with intense anxiety upon our career! Let us beware how we jeopard his hopes. The spirits of the mighty dead look down upon us! Let us emulate the bright example they have left us. Then, and then only, shall

"The star-spangled banner continue to wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

The foregoing extract forms the concluding part of an unpublished Address, delivered by Judge Conkling, at Auburn, on the 4th of July, 1838. Judge Conkling, at my request, kindly favored me with its perusal, and permitted the above extract to be made. It appeals strongly to the patriotism of American citizens, and calls upon us to unite, at all times, in the efficient support of the great principles which are calculated to perfect the social union of freemen, "establish juctice, secure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence and general welfare," and deliver unimpaired to posterity the rights which have descended upon us from our sainted Fathers.

SPEECH TO THE LADIES.

1. Ladies: I am very sure I owe the pleasure I now enjoy, to your kind disposition, which has given me the opportunity to present my thanks and my respects to you,

thus collectively, for the unbounded hospitality I have received in this city. It is registered, I assure you, on a grateful heart in characters of an enduring nature. The rough contests of the political world are not suited to the dignity and to the delicacy of your sex. It is by the promulgation of sound morals, in the community, and more especially by the training and instruction of the young, that woman performs her part toward the preservation of a free government.

2. It is now generally admitted that public liberty, the perpetuity of a free constitution, rests on the virtue and intelligence of the community which enjoys it. How is that virtue to be inspired? and how is that intelligence to be communicated? Bonaparte once asked Madame De Stael in what manner he could most promote the happiness of France. Her reply is full of political wisdom. She said, "instruct the mothers of the French people." Because the mothers are the affectionate and the effective teachers of the human race.

3. The mother begins this process of training, with the infant in her arms. It is she who directs, so to speak, its first mental and spiritual pulsations. She conducts it along the impressible years of childhood and of youth; and hopes to deliver it to the rough contests and tumultous scenes of life, armed by those good principles which her child has first received from maternal care and love.

4. If we draw within the circle of our contemplation, the mothers of a civilized nation, what do we see ? We behold so many artificers working, not on frail and perishable matter, but on the immortal mind, moulding and fashioning beings who are to exist forever. We applaud the artist whose skill and genius present the mimic man upon the canvass we admire and celebrate the sculptor who works out that same image in enduring marble; but how insignificant are these achievments, though the highest and the fairest in all the departments of art, in comparison of the great vocation of human mothers! They work not upon the canvass that shall fail, or the marble that shall crumble into dust, but upon mind, upon spirit, which is to last forever, and which is to bear, for good or

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