Indiana Centinel, Volume 5, Number 18, Vincennes, Knox County, 1 September 1821 — Page 1

WTO mm AND PUBLBC VOL. -V. YINCbXES, IM.'IANA, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1821. NO 18. 2-26.

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BY NATHAN BLACK3IAN, intellect, bound and crippled as it was Fellow citizens, it was in the heat of the wrongs endured by your fathers, to Publisher of the ' Laws of the U. Stales, by the double cords of ecclesiastical im- this war of moral elements, which evoke from the supulchre of time, tho opposite the Baxk of Vincennes. posture and political oppression. To brought one Stuart to the block, and shades of departed tyranny, it is not to i ii ii " these powerful agents in the progres- hurled another from his throne, that our draw from their dread abode, the fraili 'Sf J TBTfi Te? s've mProvemen OI" our species, Britain forefathers sought refuge from its fury ties of an unfortunate monarch who noT7 can iay no claim. For them the chil- in the then wilderness of this western sleeps with his fathers, and the suffering Delivered at the request of a Committee oj dvQR of men are jnaebted to Italy, to world. of whose latter days may hare atoned at the CUizcrvs of Washington ; on the occa- Germany, to Portugal, and to Spain. They were willing exiles from a coun- the bar of Divine mercy for the sins sion of reading the Declaration of iade- these improvements, however, con- try dearer to them than life. But they which the accusing angel will read from pendencc, on the Fourtu of July, 1821, by s;sted in successful researches into the were the exiles of liberty and of con- this scroll to his charge ; it is not to exult Tohfl OlllllCV AxlclIllS ProPerties modifications of external science, dearer to them ercn than their in the great moral triumph, by which VtA1"1 J c nature. The Ueligious Reformation was country. They came too with chartrrs the Supreme Governor of the world an improvement in the science of mind ; from their kings; for, even in removing crowned the cause of your country with Fellow citizens Until within a an improvement in the intercourse of man to another hemisphere, they "cast longing, success. No ; the purpose for which you few days preceding that which we have with his Creator, and in his acquaintance lingering, looks behind," and were an- listen with renewed and never languishagain assembled to commemorate, our Tith himself. It was an advance in the liously desirous of retaining ties of con- ing delight to the reading of this paper i lathers, the people of this union, had knowledge of his duties and his right, nection with their country, which, in the of a purer and more exalted cast It i constituted a portion of the British na- It was a step in the progress of man in solemn compact of a charter, they hop- sullied with no vindictive recollection, tion; a nation renowned in arts and arms, comparr-ou with which the Magnet and ed by the corresponding links of aliegi- It is degraded by no rankling resentment, who, from a small island in the Atlantic Gunpowder, the wonders of either India, ance and protection to preserve. It is inflated with no vain and idle eu!tJoce in, had extended their dominion over nay, the Printing press itself, were but But, to their sense of right, the char- tion of victory. The declaration o-indc-co, eiderable parts of every quarter ot the paces of a pigmy to the stride cf a gi- ter was only the ligament between them, pendence, in its primary purport, was the globe Governed themselves by a aat. If to this step of human advance- their country, and their king. Tran- merely an occasional state paper. Itwa race of kings, whose title to sovereignty ment, Germany likewise lays claim in the sported to a new world, they had rcla- a solemn exposition to the world, of the? had originally been founded in conquest, person of Martin Luther, or in the car- tions with one another, and relations causes which had compelled the people of spell-bound for a succession of ages un-. Her but ineffectual martyrdom of John with the aboriginal inhabitants of the a small portion of the British empire to ler that portentous systcsn of despotism , fuss, England may point to her Wickliile country to which they came, for cast olf the allegiance, and renounce tha and of superstition which, in the name oi i as a yet more primitive vindicator of the which no royal charter could provide, protection of the British king; and to disthe meek and humble Jesus, had been j same righteous cause, and may insist on The first settlers of the Plymouth colony, soive their social connexion v, ith the Briepre id over the Christian world, the his-j the glory of having contributed her at the eve of landing from their ship, tish people In the annals of the human toryofthh nation had, for a period of j share to the improvement of the moral therefore, bound themselves together by race, the separation of one people into seven hundred years, from the days ot condition of man. a written,covcnant ; and, immediately at- two is an event of no uncommon occurthe conquest till our own, exhibited a The corruptions and usurpations of the ' tcr landing, purchased from the Indian rence. The successful resistance of a conflict almost continual, between the! church were the immediate objects of natives the right ofsettlement upon the soil, people against oppression, to the downf nil Ilia tiimi: nt"' il. . i" 1 . ..i L a X. IV . I I '. . fU . 1 a .1 a II ,'il a . n . . . . .

oppressions 01 powi mese rciormcrs ; out, ai ui iutuiuanu:i x nus was a social compact iormeu up- ian 01 me lyrant, and ot tyranny itself, is riirht In the theories ot the crown and Df all their exertions, there was a single, on the elementary principles of civil so- the lesson of manv an a"-e. and of al-

id servitude most every clime. It lives in the venerabrutal force ble records of holy writ. It beams in tho

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principle was entirely cast oil : all was voluntary: brightest nasres ot nrofane hitnrv Thn

gloom of thi intellectual darkness, and j which the sophistry and rapacity of the all was unbiassed consent ; all was the names of Pharaoh and 3foses, of Tarquin the deep degradation of this servitude, j church had obscured and obliterated, and agreement of soul with soul. and Junius Brutus, of Geisler and Tell the British nation had partially emerged. which the intestine divisions of the same Other colonies were successively foun- of Christiern and Gustavus Vasa. of Phi-

The martyrs ot religions ireuuunt uuu cnurcu itseir erst restorea. ir.e in- uea, ana otlier charters granted, until, in lip ot Austria and William of Orange

consumed to aslies at me siae . iuu umpn ot reason was tne result 01 inquiry me compass ot a century and a halt, stand in long array through the vista of

ch.minions of

cd tiieir heads

tpints ot many a Ulooay aay nau leii. iueir man uioou nave uoweu lor me imai es- can continent, with two mllions ot tree- each other, lrom the mouldering ;iges of earthly vesture upon the tield of battie, tablishment of this principle ; but it was men; possessing by their charters, the antiquity, to the recent memory of our and soared to plead the cause of liberty from the d irkness of tne cloister that the rights of British subjects, and nurtured, fathers, and from the burning plains of before the throne of Heaven. The peo- first sp.irK was cm tted, and from the ar- by their position and education, in the Palestine to the polar frost of Scandinaple of Britain, through long ages of civil cues of an university th.tt it first kindled more comprehensive and original doc- via. war, had extorted from their tyrants, not into d.iy. Fom the discussion of reii- trines of human rights. From their in- For the independence of North Amerlackaoiclcdgemcids but grants, of rights gin us rignis u.id duties, tne transition to fancy, they had been treated by the pa- ca, thf re were ample and sufficient caus-

YV ith this concession they had oeen con- tint 0i tue political ana civil relations ci rent stale with neglect, harshness, and m- es in the laws oi moral and physical patent to stori in the progress of human men with oae another, was natural and justice. Their charters had often been ture. The tie of colonial subjection in

the mitro, man had no rights. i either plain and almost self-evident principle ciet', in which conquest and the body nor the soui of the individual ; that man has a right to the exercise of had no part: The slough of br was his own. From U12 impenetrable his own reason, it was this principle was entire ly cast olT: all was v

temporal liberty had bow- and discussion. Centuries ot desolating tun tren distinct British provinces peopled time, like the Spirit of Evil and the Snir-

i upon the scallbld ; and the wars have succeeded, and oceans of hu- the Atlantic shores of the North Ameri- it of Good, in embattled opposition to

improvement. I hey recciveu tueir unavoidihif; in botn, tiie reiormers were disregarded and violated; their com- compatible with the essential purpose of freedom as a donation from tueir sover- met by the weapons of temporal power, meree restricted and shackled ; their in- civil goverment, only when the conditions: they appealed for their privilegesj At the same glance of re.ison, tiie tiara tcrests wantonly or spitefully sacrificed ; tion of the subordinate state is, from its

to a si-rii manual auu umu muv nc.Uj wouiu nave ianeu irom u.v ruw m pnusi-: so mat me nana oi me parent nau necn weakness, mco

their title to liberty, like tueir title to , hood

lands, for the bounty ot a man, and mhav

their moral and political chronology, the; but t

great charter of Bunny Mead was the beginning of the world. From the earliest ages of their recorded historv. the inhabitants of the Brit

ish Iskvufs lrava been distinguished for

ooJ, and the despotic sceptre would scarcely ever felt, but in the alternate ap- tion. Is the greatest ave departed from the hand of royalty,; plication of whips and scorpions. civil government the utfor the s. void by which they wcrej When, in spit." of all these persecu- justice? And, ifjusti

pressors of the church and state, was too

their intelligence and their spirit. How anp iliing tV the ior, or too comnro

much of these two qualities, the fountains hensive for ihc faculties of the reformers of all amelioration in the condition of men,; of the European continent. In Britain

was stilled by these two principles of sub-j aione, was it undertaken, and in Britain

a ti. .1 I ...i. : ,.u I : t . sv Un i: i ii a i i- At i , .i

proiecieu mat swuru wmu, imc uiu iions, iy me naiurai vior 01 me r con- ueunea the constant and perpetual w

naming sword oi me oicruoiui,turneue- stitution, they were just attaining the ma- ol securing to every one his rihf

ery way to debar access to the tree ol hie. turity ot political manhood, a British par- absurd and impracticable is that form

Ihe douoie comest against tue cp- Jiament, m contempt of the clearest max- polity in which the

but partial iv succeeded.

It was iu the midst of that fermentation ot the human intellect, which

brought right and power in direct and deadly conllict with each other, that the

rival crowns of tiie two portions of the British island were u ;ited on the same ne-ul It was tnea that, released from the manacles of ecclesiastical domination, the minds of men Leirui to investigate

the foundations of civil government liut

tiie mass of the nation surveyed the fabric

ot their institutions as it existed in tact

It had been mounded in conquest ; it i;a;

been cemented in servitude, and so bro

ken and mo aided had been the minds of

this brave and intol-igeut people to thru actual co. idition, that inst- ad of solving civ-

son in the human mind. The discovery t il society into ih hrt cements iu search of

of the Mariner's Compass was soon lot-1 their rights, t:.ey iooked back only lo con-

lowed by the extension ot intercourse questastne o ii,.o tneirnuert-,icciaimeu

between nations the most distant, anu . theirrighl but donations oi thci: kings.

tvhich. without that light beaming iu This faltering assertion of freedom is

darkness to guide the path of man over not chargeable indeed upon the whole na the bouudless waste of waters, could ne- tion There w ere spirits capable of tra

ver have been known to each other. Icing civil government to its foundation in

The invention of Printiug and the composition of Gunpowder, which revolutionized at once the art and science of War, and the relations of peace ; the revelation of InJia to Vasco de Gama, and the disclosure to Columbus of the Americ.iii Hemisphere, all resulted from trie incompressible cacrie3 of tbe buiaan

scrviency to ecclesiastical usurpation, and of holding rights as the donation or

kings, this is not the occasion to enquire. Of their tendency to palsy the vigor and enervate the faculties of man, all puioBophical reasoning, and ad actual experience, concur in testimony. These principles, however, were not peculiar to the people of Britain. They were the delusions of all Europe, still the most enlightened and most improved portion of the earth. The temporal chain was rivetted upon the peop.e of Britain by the Conquest. Their spiritual fetters were forged by subt'ety working upon superstition. Baneful as the effect of these principles was, they could not forever extinguish the light ofrea-

the. morai and physical nature of man ; but conquest and servitude were so mingled up in every partic e of the social existence of the nation, that they had be

come vitally necessary to them, as a por

tion ot ti.e Cuivl, itsett destructive of lib', is indispensably blended nitU UlC attnos pherc ia which wc lire. ,

mpetent to its own prote

moral purpose of administration of

f justice has been truly

ill

how

of

dispenser of vitir.rt

ims or natural equity, in dehance ol the is in one quarter ol the globe, and he to fundamental principle upon which British whom justice is to be dispensed is ia freedom itself had been cemented with another ; where " moons revolve and British blood ; on the naked unblushing oceans roll between the order and its allegation of absolute and uncontrollable execution where time and space must power, undertook, by their act, to levy, be annihilated to secure to cverv one without representation and without con- his right. The tie of colonial subjection sent, 1uve upon the people of America, may suit the relations between a great tor the benefit of the people of Britain naval power and the settlers of a small This enormous project of public robbe- and remote island in the incipient stages ry, was no sooner made known than it ex- of society : but was it possible lor British cited throughout the colonies one general intelligence to imagine, or British sense burst of indignant resistance. It was a- of justice to desire, that, through the bandoned, re-asserted and resumed, un- boundless ages of time, the swarming til llects and armies were transported, to myriads of freemen, who were to civilrecord, in the characters of fire, famine ize the wilderness, and fill w ith human and desolation, the trans-Atlantic wisdom life the solitudes of this immense contiot British legislation, and the tender mer- nent, should receive the mandate of their cies of British consanguinity. earthly destinies from a council chamber Fellow citizens, I am speaking of days at St. James's, or bow forever in sublong past. Ever faithful to the senti-: mission to the omnipotence of St. Sfement proclaimed in the paper which I phen's Chapel? Are the essential puram ;boutto present once more to your, poses of civil government to administer memory of the past, and to your forecast to the wants, and to fortify the infirmiof the future ; you will hold the people of ties of solitary man? To unite the sinBritain, as you hold the rest of mankind ews of numberless arms, and to combine) enemies in war, in peace friends. The the councils of multitudes of mind., ior conflict for independence is now itself but the promotion of the well being of all? a record of history. The resentments of The first moral element, then, of this that age may be buried in oblivion. The composition is sympathy between the stoutest hearts which then supported the members of which it consists; the second tug of war are cold under the clod of the is sympathy between the giver and the valley. My purpose is to re-kindle no receiver of the law. angry passions from its embers: but this The sympathies of men begin with th annual solemn perusal of' the instrument, affections of domestic life. They ara w hich proclaimed to the world the cau- rooted in the natural relations of husband s s of your existence as a nation, is not and wife, of parent and child, of brother without itsjust and useful purpose. and sister ; thence they spread through It is uot by the yearJ ceiteraiiaa c liiceowxl ana menu propinquities eitij?