The New Hampshire Gazette

COLUMBUS.

Extract from an Oration delivered at Kennebunk, at the late anniversary of Independence, by STEPHEN THACHER.

" It has often been remarked that Mr. Gallatin came to this country, when he was but a youth. He was indeed a citizen at the adoption of the constitution, and as such eligible, even to the high office of President of the United States. It should be remembered that foreigners, both in ancient and modern times, have often proved eminent blessings to the countries in which they lived. Joseph was a foreigner in Egypt. He came there in circumstances of great poverty, and was barbarously traduced ; but the king justified himself in appointing him to the first office in the treasury department by saying, Who is like him ? Mordecai, first minister to Ahasuerus, who proved such an universal blessing to the people of Persia, was also a foreigner. He had, it is true, like all good men in all ages, some very bitter enemies ; particularly another foreigner whose character was impure, as his was spotless, and who was his unworthy predecessor in office, and who conspired with all his partizans to destroy him. This wicked, unprincipled Haman* pretended to dislike Mordecai, because he was a Jew ; his own foreign nativity he did not hold to be a crime. The prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel & Daniel, beside others, were also foreigners. Daniel was a foreigner from his youth. His appointment to the office of first minister in the Persian empire, procured him also the most inveterate enemies, who profaned religion, by endeavouring to convert it into an engine for his destruction. Their signal ruin, and the manner in which they miserably perished in the very pit they had digged for him, ought to be a warning to those wretched politicians, who, in all ages have regarded religion, only as capable of being converted into an instrument of wickedness.

" Numa. the best king of the Romans ; Constantine, the first christian emperor ; prince Eugene, one of the bravest generals which ever led the Austrian armies ; William the 3d, the memorable prince of Orange, with a multitude of others, too numerous to be mentioned, who have proved distinguished blessings to the countries which they have severally adopted, have also been foreigners. The immortal Count Rumford, the celebrated Mr. West, the famous astronomer, Herchel, are also foreigners. Mr. Herchel is a German, and the pride of G. Britain. Count Rumford and Mr. West are Americans. The most distinguished honors are heaped on them in the countries in which they live, countries which have too much good sense, or too little of the madness of party spirit, to entertain the narrow ungenerous prejudice against them, at this time, in question. Even Bonaparte himself, the distributer of the fates of modern Europe, is a foreigner in France. Nor should it be forgotten, as has often been repeated, that Mr. Gallatin is not the first foreigner, who has been appointed to the office which he now holds ; that Mr. Jefferson has only followed the venerable example of Washington. Those who framed the constitution, did not think on this point, as some of those do, who profess to hold it in the greatest admiration. If all foreigners must be excluded, how many, of the most distinguished ornaments of the nation must be proscribed ! Who,

* There is sometimes a strange and un. accountable coincidence between names and circumstances.

§ " Mr. Hamilton was born at St. Croix in the West Indies, and came to the United States at the age of eighteen Mr. Gallatin was born at Geneva, and came to the U. States at the age of nineteen. They both performed personal ser. vices in the revolutionary war. They were both citizens at the adoption of the federal constitution. Mr. Hamilton had been in the United States from about the year 1771, to 1788, seventeen years; when appointed Secretary. Mr. Gallatin had been in the United States from the year 1780, to 1801, twenty-one years, when appointed to the same office."

indeed, is there of us all who is not of foreign extraction ? Few can claim the honor of aboriginal citizenship. Such a man as Mr. Gallatin would do honor to any country under heaven. And Shall we be deprived of his wonderful talents, merely on account of the geography of his birth? how unexceptionable must be that man's character, when no imputation can attach to him but the crime of foreign nativity !"