The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 8.

The Congress of the United States, the Assembly and Council of the State of Pennsylvania, and a number of principal gentlemen of various orders, having been invited by the Minister of France, to be present at the praises offered to Heaven in the Catholic church, upon occasion of the late glorious success of the allied arms; the Abbe Bandole, Almoner to the Embassy of His Most Christian Majesty, ascended the pulpit, and addressed to this august Assembly the following discourse; after which a Te Deum set to music was sung.

The occasion was in this hemisphere singular and affecting: And the discourse itself is so elegant and animated in the French, so warm with those sentiments of piety and gratitude to our divine Benefactor in which good men of all countries accord, and so evidently dictated by the spirit of that new friendship and alliance from which such important advantages have been derived to the rights of America, as must give pleasure to every serious and candid friend to our glorious cause.

Gentlemen,

Numerous people assembled to render thanks to the Almighty for his mercies, is one of the most affecting spectacles, and worthy the attention of the Supreme Being. While camps resound with triumphal acclamations, while nations rejoice in victory and glory, the most honorable office a minister of the altars can fill, is to be the organ by which public gratitude is conveyed to the Omnipotent.

Those miracles which he once wrought for his chosen people, are renewed in our favour; and it would be equally ungrateful and impious not to acknowledge, that the event which lately confounded our enemies and frustrated their designs, was the wonderful work of that God who guards your liberties.

And who but he could so combine the circumstances which led to success? We have seen our enemies push forward amid perils almost innumerable, amid obstacles almost insurmountable, to the post which was destined to witness their disgrace; yet they eagerly sought it, as their theatre of triumph!

Blind as they were, they bore hunger, thirst and inclement skies, poured their blood in battle against brave republicans, and crossed immense regions to confine themselves in another Jericho, whose walls were fated to fall before another Joshua: It is he whose voice commands the winds, the seas, and the seasons, who formed a junction on the same day in the same hour, between a formidable fleet from the south, and an army rushing from the north, like an impetuous torrent. Who but he, in whose hands are the hearts of men, could inspire the allied troops with the friendship, the confidence, the tenderness of brothers? How is it that two nations once divided, jealous, inimical, and nursed in reciprocal prejudices, are now become so closely united, as to form but one? Worldlings would say, it is the wisdom, the virtue, and moderation of their chiefs, it is a great national interest which has performed this prodigy. They will say, that to the skill of the generals, to the courage of their troops, to the activity of the whole army, we must attribute this splendid success: Ah! they are ignorant, that the combining of so many fortunate circumstances, is an emanation from the all perfect mind; that courage, that skill, that activity, bear the sacred impression of him who is divine.

For how many favours have we not to thank him during the course of the present year? Your union, which was at first supported by justice alone, has been consolidated by your courage, and the knot which ties you together, is become indissoluble, by the accession of all the States and the unanimous voice of all the confederates. You present to the universe the noble sight of a society, which, founded in equality and justice, secure to the individuals who compose it, the utmost happiness which can be derived from human institutions. - This advantage, which so many other nations have been unable to procure, even after ages of efforts and misery, is granted by divine providence to the United States: & his adorable decrees have marked the present moment for the completion of that memorable happy revolution, which has taken place in this extensive Continent. While your councils were thus acquiring energy: rapid multiplied successes have crowned your arms in the southern States.

We have seen the unfortunate citizens of these States forced from their peaceful abodes; after a long and cruel captivity, old men, women and children thrown, without mercy, into a foreign country. Master of their lands and their slaves, amid his temporary affluence, a superb victor rejoiced in their distresses. But Philadelphia has witnessed their patience and fortitude; they have found here another home. & tho' driven from their soil, they have blessed God that has delivered them from the presence of their enemy, and conducted them to a country where every just and feeling man has stretched out the helping hand of benevolence. Heaven rewards their virtues, Three large states are at once wrested from the foe. The rapacious soldier has been compelled to take refuge behind his ramparts, and oppression has vanished like those phantoms which are dissipated by the morning ray.

On this solemn occasion we might renew our thanks to the God of battles, for the successes he has granted to the arms of your allies and your friends by land and sea, thro' the other parts of the globe. But let us not recall those events which too clearly prove how much the hearts of our enemies have been obdurated. Let us prostrate ourselves at the altar, and implore the God of mercy to suspend his vengeance, to spare them in his wrath, to inspire them with sentiments of justice and moderation, to terminate their obstinacy and error, and to ordain that your victories be followed by peace and tranquility. Let us beseech him to continue to shed on the councils of the King your ally, that spirit of wisdom, of justice, and of courage which has rendered his reign so glorious.-

Let us intreat him to maintain in each of the States, that intelligence by which the United States are inspired. Let us return him thanks that a faction, whose rebellion he has corrected, now deprived of support, is annihilated. Let us offer him pure hearts, unsoiled by private hatred or public dissensions and let us with one will and one voice, pour forth to the Lord that hymn of praise, by which christians celebrate their gratitude and his glory.