arrangements, and the spot for breaking ground was precisely denoted.

At that moment the sun shone out from behind a cloud, giving an appearance
of the highest animation to the scene. Amidst an intense silence, the
Mayor of Georgetown handed to Gen. Mercer, the President of the Canal
Company, the consecrated instrument; which, having received, he stepped
forward from the resting column, and addressed as follows the listening
multitude:--

"Fellow-citizens: There are moments in the progress of time which are the
counters of whole ages. There are events, the monuments of which,
surviving every other memorial of human existence, eternize the nation to
whose history they belong, after all other vestiges of its glory have
disappeared from the globe. At such a moment have we now arrived. Such a
monument we are now to found."

Turning towards the President of the United States, who stood near him,
Mr. M. proceeded:--

"Mr. President: On a day hallowed by the fondest recollections, beneath
this cheering (may we not humbly trust auspicious) sky, surrounded by the
many thousand spectators who look on us with joyous anticipation; in the
presence of the representatives of the most polished nations of the old
and new worlds; on a spot where little more than a century ago the painted
savage held his nightly orgies; at the request of the three cities of the
District of Columbia, I present to the Chief Magistrate of the most
powerful Republic on earth, for the most noble purpose that was ever
conceived by man, this humble instrument of rural labor, a symbol of the
favorite occupation of our countrymen. May the use to which it is about to
be devoted prove the precursor, to our beloved country, of improved
agriculture, of multiplied and diversified arts, of extended commerce and
navigation. Combining its social and moral influence with the principles
of that happy constitution under which you have been called to preside
over the American people, may it become a safeguard of their liberty and
independence, and a bond of perpetual union!

"To the ardent wishes of this vast assembly I unite my fervent prayer to
that infinite and awful Being without whose favor all human power is but
vanity, that he will crown your labor with his blessing, and our work with
immortality."

As soon as he had ended, the President of the United States, to whom Gen.
Mercer had presented the spade, stepped forward, and, with an animation of
manner and coun