us indulge the cheering hope and belief, that our country and her people have been selected as instruments for preparing and maturing much of the good yet in reserve for the welfare and happiness of the human race.  Much good has already been effected by the solemn proclamation of our principles, much more by the illustration of our example.  The tempest which threatens desolation, may be destined only to purify the atmosphere.  It is not in tranquil ease and enjoyment that the active energies of mankind are displayed.  Toils and dangers are the trials of the soul.  Doomed to the first by his sentence at the fall, man, by his submission, converts them into pleasures.  The last are since the fall the condition of his existence.  To see them in advance, to guard against them by all the suggestions of prudence, to meet them with the composure of unyielding resistance, and to abide with firm resignation the final dispensation of Him who rules the ball,—­these are the dictates of philosophy—­these are the precepts of religion—­these are the principles and consolations of patriotism; these remain when all is lost—­and of these is composed the spirit of independence—­the spirit embodied in that beautiful personification of the poet, which may each of you, my countrymen, to the last hour of his life, apply to himself:—­

     “Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
       Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye! 
     Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare,
       Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.”

In the course of nature, the voice which now addresses you must soon cease to be heard upon earth.  Life and all which it inherits, lose of their value as it draws toward its close.  But for most of you, my friends and neighbors, long and many years of futurity are yet in store.  May they be years of freedom—­years of prosperity—­years of happiness, ripening for immortality!  But, were the breath which now gives utterance to my feelings, the last vital air I should draw, my expiring words to you and your children should be, INDEPENDENCE AND UNION FOREVER!

SARAH FLOWER ADAMS

(1805—­1848)

This English poet, whose hymn, ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee,’ is known wherever the English language is spoken, was born at Great Harlow, Essex, England, in 1805.  She was the daughter of Benjamin Flower, who in 1799 was prosecuted for plain speaking in his paper, the Cambridge Intelligencer.  From the outcome of his trial is to be dated the liberty of political discussion in England.  Her mother was Eliza Gould, who first met her future husband in jail, whither she had gone on a visit to assure him of her sympathy.  She also had suffered for liberal opinions.  From their parents two daughters inherited a distinguished nobility and purity of character.  Eliza excelled in the composition of music for congregational worship, and arranged a musical service for the Unitarian South Place Chapel, London.  Sarah contributed first to the Monthly Repository, conducted by W.J.  Fox, her Unitarian pastor, in whose family she lived after her father’s death.  In 1834 she married William Bridges Adams.  Her delicate health gave way under the shock of her sister’s death in 1846, and she died of decline in 1848.