Fourth of July Oration Celebrates American Exceptionalism; Condemns Slavery

"how is its light dimmed by the existence among us of a race whose condition is at war with our institutions & a libel on the principles that we profess to have adopted that all men are born free."

These two manuscripts represent two speeches commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of American independence, or more likely, two drafts of the same speech, though in different hands, given their similarity in language and content. They were written for delivery in New England, probably in Connecticut, and probably on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

After reviewing some aspects of American history, the orator condemns slavery as contrary to "the principles that we profess to have adopted that all men are born free." He warns his fellow New Englanders not to dismiss thoughts of slavery because it was in another section, for "we are one nation our political destinies are embarked together & together must survive or perish."

That same day, July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration and third President of the United States, died at his home in Monticello, Virginia. Several hours later and nearly five hundred miles to the northeast, John Adams, a signer of the Declaration and second President of the United States, died in Quincy, Massachusetts.

[ORATIONS; DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.] Two orations delivered on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, [Connecticut?] 27 pp., 6.5" x 8". Stitched on left margin; some soiling and toning; very good. 40 pp., 7.5" x 9.5". Pinned at left margin; final four pages larger; edge tears and chipping; considerable damage to bottom and right edges of final four pages with some loss; general soiling and toning.

Excerpts
[First speech:]
"We have come here, not to be entertained with glowing eulogies of liberty & independence, not to spend an hour in thoughtless glee; but as descendants of the common fathers of America, to record our attachment to the principles which they encountered the storms of a Revolution to establish, to record our sympathy in their sufferings, our gratitude for their services, our regard for their virtues & our veneration for their piety; to remind us that we duly estimate the privileges we possess and of our obligations to leave them unimpaired to the generations who may come after us." (p1)

"our population rolling Westward, must soon reach the shores of the Pacific that this vast territory, which has been till lately the abode of savage man, shall soon be animated by the employments and business of civilised life & filled with its hundred cities bound together with the ties of the same common descent...." (p5)

"The experiment of a government purely elective in all its branches has never yet been fairly tried." (p6)

"Here then is the question to be tested that men may be governed & yet be free." (p7)

"To us it is no small felicity, that our fathers were the offspring of British Ancestors, that they brought with them the habits of cultivated education, more correct notions of liberty & self government & adopted in their practice the principles of the British law. It is to these causes that we owe our distinction from the colonies of France, Spain & Portugal." (p10-11)

"Notwithstanding the inimitable defence of the immortal Pitt taxes were imposed a spirit of resistance became general & afterwards resulted in open war at Lexington. Our houses were burned, our villages destroyed, our inhabitants murdered. With little experience or discipline, without much hope of remuneration, exposed to famine & disease, our brave yeomanry encountered the hosts of England, trained to the service of camps & all the pomp & circumstance of war." (p17)

"Whatever opinions may exist as to the particular measures of our government, all must concur that it has been eminently productive of public & private happiness." (p19)

"We have spoken of our country as the great political example, for the imitation of other nations, but how is its light dimmed by the existence among us of a race whose condition is at war with our institutions & a libel on the principles that we profess to have adopted that all men are born free. We of N England may say that we do not participate in this evil that it exists in another section of our Union, that our habits and our condition are uncongenial to its existence; but we are men & partake of the feelings of humanity we are one nation our political destinies are embarked together & together must survive or perish.... Its tendency is to annihilate an independent peasantry, for wherever slavery exists disgrace & servility are attached to manual labor. This species of population in our country amounts to more than two millions & according to the present ratio of increase unless its progress be checked, in a few years one black wave will inundate the whole southern section of our Country. Public sentiment has become awakened to this subject." (p24-25)

"What nobler spectacle can present itself than the germ of a great nation of liberated captives planted on the shores of a vast continent by the voluntary contributions of a nation of freemen?" (p27)

[Second speech:]
"We have come here from every variety of pursuit, to enjoy a short cessation from the cares of life and indulge in the festivities of the present occasion—not to be entertained with glowing eulogies of liberty and independence, not to spend an hour in thoughtless glee and merriment, but as descendants of the common fathers of America to record our attachment to the principles which they encountered the storms of a revolution to establish, our symphathy in their sufferings – our gratitude for their services – our regard for their virtue, and our veneration for their piety; – to remind us that we duly estimate the privileges of which we are the subjects – of our obligations to leave them unimpaired and untainted to the successive generations who shall come after us through the long lapse of ages. This day commences the first half century since the promulgation of that instrument whose declaration we now commemorate." (p1)

"Here then the great political problem remains to be solved – that a government may exist and still be free. That a man becomes degraded as he loses the right of self government is a truth abundantly taught us by every page of past experience." (p7)

"were we to go into our courts of justice, with the mere statutes of the U. States, not a step could be taken, not even a contempt could be punished. Those statu[t]es prescribe no forms of pleadings, they contain no principles of evidence, they furnish no rule of property. If the common law does not exist in most cases there is no law but the will of the judge. It is the very cradle of the rights and liberties which we now enjoy." (p14)

"1675 commenced in New England the first memorable war with the Indians.... That spirit so generous in friendship became equally savage in war. There was under the guidance of King Philip a general rising of the indians throughout New England whose sudden incursions no efforts of the colonists could prevent and whose indiscriminate massacre it were almost impossible to avoid. This contest however favorable its termination to the colonists was on their part marked with a degree of atrocity ferociousness and barbarism which no resentment should provoke and no retaliation could justify. Who can reflect but for a moment on the unmerciful treatment of the Narraganasests upon the conflagration of their six hundred wigwams tenanted by old men women and children and not lament for the weakness of our sires...without one look of regret or tear of sympathy." (p14-15)

"Little did she think that this people whom she so lately instructed in the arts of war [in the French and Indian War] would one day exert that skill and that science in the protection of their own rights against the encroachments of their unnatural mother, that this people whom she had just defended from the attacks of her enemies would become her second and ere long her rival in commerce and in wealth; that here that spirit should emanate which should establish an independent nation and that she herself would acknowledge and embrace her as a sister." (p21)

"While we are grateful for our own happiness and the progress of our country we cannot but reflect with pleasure on the dissemination of free principles abroad. The age seems peculiarly marked for great events and great achievements. An Emancipating spirit has gone forth and by its effective energy has persuaded the people that they were not born the slaves of imperious lords, the servants of arbitrary task masters; but freemen able to resist the encroachments of usurped power and to vindicate the rights of oppressed humanity." (p32)

"We are not merely New Englanders we are not mere[l]y men of the North we are Americans let us glory in the name." (p40)

Historical Background
From the 1790s to the late nineteenth century, it was common in towns across the United States, and especially in New England, for citizens to ask a local orator to give a Fourth of July speech in a church or hall. Among the recurring themes of these speeches were the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers, the passing of the Revolutionary generation, American exceptionalism, civic virtue, education, religion, temperance, Native Americans, westward expansion, slavery, and the Civil War and Reconstruction.

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