Virginia Argus

Lee County, July 10th, 1807.

MR. PLEASANTS,

WE send you for publication in the Argus, an Oration delivered in the Philosophical School of this county, on the Anniversary of Independence. By inserting it in your paper you will oblige,

The PRESIDENT, and MEMBERS

Of the PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOL.

Mr. President,

WHEN nations who are under despotic controul, join in the celebration of the birth days of their despots, we cannot suppose that any of the genuine affections of the human heart can be interested on the occasion. The whole would rather sum the result of that state of abject dependence in which they are held; and to an impartial observer, can assume no other appearance, than the servile adulation, that the authority of a master can extort from a slave. Such an anniversary, although it is called in such governments an expression of loyalty, is nothing more than a declaration, of a nation's disgrace. It acknowledges the rights of tyrants to enslave the world, not for the good of nations, but for purposes of ambition and self aggrandizement: And as such acknowledgment is every way repugnant to human nature, it leaves the whole an idle farce, into which none of the generous feelings of our natures can enter, and consequently flows from servility and constraint. But when a nation, whose virtues have elevated her above this degrading state of things ; whose government has equal justice for its base; whose citizens are free and independent; whose laws are administered only for the public good; and whose sovereignty resides in the people, of which, each citizen possesses his proportional share; I say, sir, when such a people unites to celebrate the day which gave them national existence, all the most lively sensations of the soul, are called into exercise. In the mind of the susceptible citizen, such an occasion excites love of country, because by that country, his most valuable rights are protected and secured; it excites joy, on account of that freedom and independence which he feels he possesses; it excites sympathy, for thousands of his fellow creatures, who are yet manacled with the fetters of oppression; it excites gratitude, for the peculiar bounty of Heaven, to the nation of which he is a part; and it excites veneration, for those characters whose patriotism first conceived the mighty plan, and whose heroism pushed it into operation. Such, sir, have been the virtuous feelings of thousands of the American people, on the celebration of the anniversary of independence : and such, we hope, are the impressions of thousands of the free born sons of Columbia, who are this day assembled to celebrate this great national festival. Did we possess omnipresence, we should this day hear the names of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, &c. &c. resound from the tongues of a thousand orators; we should hear their virtues dressed in all the glowing colors of poetic fancy, held up as great examples to a rising generation; we should hear the genius of liberty, invoking the great controuler of human events for a continuation of the principles of '76; we should hear the great advantages, which this happy country possesses over the other nations of the earth, portrayed in the richest paintings of a vivid imagination ; and no doubt, but we should feel that honest triumph, so natural to a mind conscious of superior happiness. But, Mr. President, amidst all this national exultation, amidst all this honest pride for the boasted privileges of our country, the gloomy reflection will obtrude, that notwithstanding human happiness is in this country capable of arriving at its highest pinnacle, yet bands of traitors be concealed under the mask of patriotism, ready to arrange themselves under the first restless Demagogue, the first Aaron Burr, whose malignant soul can conceive, and whose unhallowed hand dares attempt the subversion of his country's rights. Wherever the orator raises his voice to day, he should warn his countrymen of such friends as these ; he should call upon them to watch their conduct with the eyes of eagles, and to repel their attack with the intrepidity of lyons-That jealousy so natural to republicanism should be awakened, and virtue and energy every where invited to form a combination for the common safety.

Virtue, sir, we may justly call the palladium of liberty-revelation informs us, that virtue will draw down the blessings of Heaven upon a nation, while vice will incur its wrath and indignation. Virtue no doubt, procured for these United States, a government which yet remains the envy of the world; so long as virtue continues to predominate in the community, so long we may expect this government to remain unimpaired; but as soon as vice gets the ascendancy, no longer can we, or ought we to expect it. From a vicious populace, will flow vicious rulers, and that government must cease to be the favorite of Heaven, when venality, debauchery and profanity, fills the seats of justice or administers the laws. If virtue is so essential to the happiness of a people, if it is the pivot upon which the blessings of good government must turn, how circumspect ought the people to be in the choice of public servants? How zealous ought they to be in disseminating virtuous principles? And yet how awfully negligent are they with respect to both? Indeed corruption seems to be so intimately acquainted, with all the avenues to the human heart, that man unless he possesses the eyes of Argus, can scarcely watch all the assailable parts of his nature. Sometimes she approaches us in the garb of favoritism ; sometimes she puts on the lure of flattery ; and at other times she attacks us on the side of interest ; and among us. it has become a melancholy truth, that the high road to office and importance, is to become a copious grog drinker, or an unprincipled debauchee. Does such things as these augur the perpetuity of our happy government? Is it for this, we celebrate the 4th of July ? Or was it by such principles, that our glorious revolution was achieved. --Before I dismiss this subject, permit me to remind this philosophical school of its obligations. We have voluntarily associated, for the purposes of fostering virtue and discountenancing vice ; and although the sphere in which we seem destined to act appears but humble, yet we ought not to be discouraged, nor become remiss: great revolutions have often sprung from small beginnings, and perhaps by steady application and unwearied diligence, we may rear up sages and legislators in this school, who like the son of Ausram, may turn away the wrath of Heaven from a guilty people & contribute their full share in transmitting the blessings of our free constitution, to generations who are yet remote in the womb of futurity. Wherever we see virtue conceived in the minds of any of the youth, who have put themselves under our instruction, let us cherish the embryos: let us advise, let us encourage, let us animate them to proper pursuits; for this is a cause which it is scarcely possible to be enthusiastic : it is a cause in which unborn millions are interested; for upon the virtue of the American people, depends not only the happiness of the present, but of ages yet to come.