my native land, lo ask, to beg of you, in the name of the highest authority of human law- charily, humanity, justice and right. -In the name of every tie which binds blood to blood. for means of prosecuting out war of Liberty, against a tyranny as despotic as the worst of human passions can engender. Will it be denied? have you not precedents enough? Timoleon, in succouring the Syracusions: the Stadtholder of Holland, in opposing the oppressions of his own subjects, by James II. and another, of which Americans need not be reminded. Another, which it were base ingratitude to forget- I mean, national existence,- then, my countrymen, in the name of every think noble and magnanimous in the bosoms of men; in the name of every thing generous and high minded in the practice of nations; are we, the children of your loins, to be turned from your doors as rebels and agitators, for not bowing with meekness to oppression, unsuited to any, but the Semi-Barbarians who seek to inflict them upon us? Great God forbid! Shall this people, whose Congress but a few years since, with an unanimity unknown in the whole history of Legislation, extended the hand of nationality to the far distant and unknown people of Columbia, Guatamela, Peru and Chili, now refuse to cheer and assist their friends, their brothers, and their children, - the children who were lured from their mother's folcl by a trP.acherous Government, under flattering promises of Liberty and law, that they might render it fit for cultivation, a country which, their bravery, industry, and enterprise, had failed to accomplish? It would be too tedious for the present to enter into a minute history of our settlement and wrongs. Let it suffice, for this occasion, that your kinspeople and children, as 1 have said, under slTong assurances of protection, from illegal agression, did through mych want and privation, danger and bloodshed, settle and bring into enviable notice, the then unknown, but fairest portion of heaven's works. That these trials of difficulty and danger (consequent upon the settlement of a wilderness) were scarcely complied with on their part, before the footsteps of the tyrant was, upon his promises; his equal laws and christian protection, forgotten in the gratification of his avarice and ambition. Our most intelligent citizens, whose greatest offence was intelligence, abused and imprisoned, our women insulted and driven to menial service our prisoners of war cruelly massacred. Yes! Let it be remembered and told to the yet unborn, that in this age, in this century, there lives a tyrant whose brutality disregards the pains and helplessness of the sick cough- who answers the wants of sickness and disease with the bayonet!! Ought I, shall I tell the rest? their bodies were burned to ashes, with savage delight, in the presence of wives, mothers, and daughters!!
328
Powered by FlippingBook