468 be called upon to exercise, since it could devolve upon me only through national calamity. Upon you, gentlemen, and not upon any branch of the executive department, rests the good or evil destiny of the Republic. ~Iine is a station of honor-yours of action and responsibility. Yon have been conYoked for high and sol~mn purposes, with duties to perform, and obligations to discharge, involving the most sacred principles of Lib- erty and the deepest interest of humanity. A brave and virtuous people struggling for freedom and independence, have made you the depository of their highest gift, and the permanent weal or woe of our Country, depend~ upon the fidelity or selfishness with which you shall execute the trusts reposed. -If, discarding all tlic meaner propensities of fallible nature, you shall approach the task assigned you, with reason for your guide, rectitude your policy and the public good your only end and aim, I doubt not that you will under the auspices of Divine Providence be able to pass such laws, and adopt such a system of measures, as will result, not only in honor to yourselves, but in great glory and happiness to your Country. You have it now in your power to open a fountain of legislation, which though a little stream at present fertilizing as it flows, will continue enlarging with the lapse of time as a rivulet of water widens as -it wends its way to the ocean. But if you should prove recreant to the trust confided-if listening to the whisperings of ambition and cupidity, you should depose the authority of conscience and yield yourselves up to the -dominion of selfish passions, making the d'emons of gold and glory the Gods of your idolatry, it will be impossible to estimate the extent of mischief which must inevitably flow not only to the living, but to many a coming gen- eration. 'rhe evils may be boundless and irremediable; and at a crisis like the present, when the hopes of your own countrymen, and tlie eyes of all civilized nations are turned upon you, any dereliction of duty; any sad betrayal of confidence, could not fail to draw down upon yourselves the scorn of earth, and npon our country, the w1·ath of Heaven. If ever there was a ti.me when all selfishness s11ould be sacrificed upon the holy altar of patriotism, now is that time. \Ve are in the midst of a revolution,-struggling for a separate national existence -labouring under many serious and alarming disadvanta~es-almost destitute of civil government-trembling as it were upon the verge of anarchy-with too little credit abroad, and too much of the fiery ele- ments of discord at home. To extricate ourselves from this fearful condition, will require not only all our mental energies, but an exer- tion of the very highest order of moral worth. The least deviation from the direct path of wisdom and of virtne, may bring woes innumerable upon our country and lose to us forever, all those blessings which we hope to g-ain by the restoration of peace and the erection of a free and independent goverumcnt. Hence, Gentlemen, those venial indulgences and selfish motives of legislation, which under ordinni·y circumstances might be productive of temporary mischief only and passed by with- out punishment, would under the existing condition of things-in our present attitude to the world-be in us, turpitude of the dccpci,t dye, m.criting the chnstismcnt of universal execration. I hope that we nrc fully impressed with the truth of this obligntion. I flatter myself that
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