many illustrations, add beauty, character, and dignity to the work.

ERRATUM. In the January number, on pages 39 and 41 the word "Gates"
should read "Gage."

* * * * *

AN

ORATION,

PRONOUNCED AT

HANOVER, NEW-HAMPSHIRE,

THE 4th DAY of JULY,

1800;

BEING THE TWENTY-FOURTH

ANNIVERSARY

OF

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

* * * * *

BY DANIEL WEBSTER,

_Member of the Junior Class_, DARTMOUTH UNIVERSITY.

* * * * *

"Do thou, great LIBERTY, inspire our souls,
And make our lives in thy possession happy,
Or our deaths glorious in thy just defence!"

ADDISON.

(PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SUBSCRIBERS.)

* * * * *

PRINTED AT HANOVER,

BY MOSES DAVIS.

1800.

AN _ORATION_.

COUNTRYMEN, BRETHREN, AND FATHERS,

We are now assembled to celebrate an anniversary, ever to be held in
dear remembrance by the sons of freedom. Nothing less than the birth of
a nation, nothing less than the emancipation of three millions of
people, from the degrading chains of foreign dominion, is the event we
commemorate.

Twenty four years have this day elapsed, since United Columbia first
raised the standard of Liberty, and echoed the shouts of Independence!

Those of you, who were then reaping the iron harvest of the martial
field, whose bosoms then palpitated for the honor of America, will, at
this time, experience a renewal of all that fervent patriotism, of all
those indescribable emotions, which then agitated your breasts. As for
us, who were either then unborn, or not far enough advanced beyond the
threshold of existence, to engage in the grand conflict for Liberty, we
now most cordially unite with you, to greet the return of this joyous
anniversary, to hail the day that gave us Freedom, and hail the rising
glories of our country!

On occasions like this, you have heretofore been addressed, from this
stage, on the nature, the origin, the expediency of civil
government.--The field of political speculation has here been explored,
by persons, possessing talents, to which the speaker of the day can have
no pretensions. Declining therefore a dissertation on the principles of
civil polity, you will indulge me in slightly sketching on those events,
which have originated, nurtured, and raised to its present grandeur the
empire of Columbia.

As no nation on the globe can rival