ed up the pathway of the virtuously brave-that braced and cheered the hearts of the Sons of Liberty in midst of the melting scenes of unparalleled horror.

Through that vista of glory beamed the beacon-star of republican brilliancy. The lofty light set upon an hill, Heaven's guide to the benighted nations of earth-the lofty full blazing fire of an imperishable and everlasting patriotism, planted, full waving upon the high dome of the Grand Temple of Liberty, whose immoveable basis eternal, was the immutable Throne of the Most High God.

Although at first the colonies were for a redress of grievances by petitioning the king of Great Britain.— They with a becoming humility sent petition after petition until hope sickened and turned aside to weep at the ingratitude and inhumanity of man-until peace within the colonies was sacrificed upon the infernal altars of injustice, which had been reared by the persecuting oppressors of the innocent for her desecration and destruction. Had the things petitioned for by the colonists been granted to them, they would have then returned, as they had all along determined to do, to their first love-they would have possessed that strong attachment to the person of the king, which they had so repeatedly manifested, and their allegiance would not have been less, than they had always paid to him, as their acknowledged sovereign. Still their petitions having been set at nought, they were now prepared to seek a redress of all their endured wrongs by a spirited, determined and noble appeal to arms. Fear in the bosoms of many of the patriotically brave provincials became dethroned. War's loud clarion had already taken her stand upon the high summit of the mountain of wounded honor, and loud had she blown the bold notes of freedom, and the issues of war had no terrors for them. Already had the Goddess of Liberty commanded the tocksin to sound to arms, to arms, your country calls. Already had the bright and swift angelic heralds of true liberty began to descend from the immaculate Throne of Jehovah, chaunting Co

lumbia's mighty pæans until the heavens resounded aloud' and the echo thereof had become lost in illimitable fields of that Jehovah's eternity of space. Already had the angelic heralds of freedom taken their stand, ready to burst forth from the throne of glory in heaven, to descend to earth, to sing in lofty and sweetest strains, the grand jubilee of Columbian Freedom. On every hill could be heard the spirit-stirring fife and drum, playing and beating an appeal to arms.

Many of the colonists done early homage to the immaculate God of the illustrious republican city of true liberty, set upon a lofty eminence, and began to speak aloud what before had been breathed in the secret chambers of republicanism's earliest dawn. They began to speak forth boldly their (then) speculative views upon the propriety and practicability of establishing an independent government upon the principles of self-government-a government whose basis should be, an equal and just representation in its administration within the colonies."

Hanna's Glory of Columbia.

"Now, now the dangerous storm is rolling,
Which treacherous kings confederate raise;
The dogs of war, let loose, are howling,
And lo! our fields and cities blaze.
And shall we basely view the ruin,

While lawless force with guilty stride,

Spreads desolation far and wide,

With crimes and blood his hands imbruing.

To Arms! To Arms! ye brave!

Th' avenging sword unsheath:

March on, March on, all hearts resolv'd
On victory or death."

"Patrick Henry, deservedly styled the 'Demosthenes of America,' a patriot of the most sterling worth, became the advocate for resistance to the arbitrary enactments of the parliament and king of Great Britain. In every popular assembly he harangued the people on the propriety and justice of their resisting with arms in hand. This will be seen by the following extract."

[An extract from Patrick Henry's speech in the convention of the Delegates of Virginia, March 1775, upon a resolution for organizing the militia.] "And it may be observed here, that Patrick Henry would have made the Hall of Independence in Philadelphia ring with the same strain of bold and native eloquence in the Congress of 1776, had he not been elected Governor of Virginia."

MR. PRESIDENT,-The gentlemen who are opposed to our resisting with arms the aggressions of Great Britain, tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But sir, when shall we be stronger? will it be the next week, or the next year? will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction: shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those. means which the God of nature has placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the

contest.

There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! our chains are forged! their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! the war is inevitable; and let ́it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! it is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace; but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! the next gale that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! our brethren are al

ready in the field! why stand we here idle? what is it that gentlemen wish? what would they have? is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? forbid it heaven! I know not what course others may take: but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

"True, with many the language of the scriptures seemed literally verified, "men's hearts failing them with fear." Those that possessed noble daring had more to fear from the pusillanimous-the disaffected-from the tories, than they had to fear from their enemies. Tories, who aided and abetted the royalists in every possible shape, and in nothing did they betray a more reckless or hellish spirit than in their being the conductors of the British in their midnight descents upon the unsuspecting whig inhabitants, and upon a sleeping soldiery. These were the enemies they stood in most danger of, for they were their most implacable foes.

In this alarming state of affairs within the colonies, the provincial army, although headed by men of the most exalted bravery and acknowledged worth, was without a proper commanding head to superintend its operations.

The mighty men of valor, members of Columbia's galaxy of superior talent assembled in Congress at Philadelphia, turned them about to look for one of noble daring, who might possess the qualifications necessary to lead the armies of America. A number of men of undaunted bravery and tried skill in the field, was spoken of in Congress and out of it, but no determined action was had upon the subject-because, no doubt the time of a superintending Providence had not yet arrived.

There was one, however, in whom many of the people of the colonies had the fullest confidence-one schooled in the army of his country-one well acquainted with arts of war, and the manner of traversing the wilderness wilds of America-one who afterwards proved that declaration to be altogether a true one, that, declared that he possessed not only in an eminent degree the necessary requisites for a general, but every qualification of

mind, heart and soul to enable him to take charge (as an instrument in the hands of the Great Supreme) of the future destiny of his country, and lead her by a succession of brilliant triumphs to the port of confederacy of states and to that of a republican empire. This great unknown, was none other than the heaven gifted, gallant, brave and virtuous Colonel George Washington of Virginia, then a delegate and member of the continental Congress

Colonel George Washington, in whose hearing was read (a number of years previous to the war) from a London newspaper, in a coffee house, in the city of New York, a paragraph predicting that if hostilities should break out between the mother country and the colonies, Colonel George Washington of Virginia would be chosen commander-in-chief of the armies of the colonies. This was the man and none other, that was designed as the leader, saviour and first Father of his country. A group of collossal figures occupied the front ground of the choice of many, but in the back ground-the ground of retiring modesty, there stood the lofty, beautiful and most stately tree of vernal bloom, within the wilderness of a nation's greatest and most painful perplexities. There stood the gallant, accomplished and experienced Washington.

Colonel George Washington was at length proposed in Congress, he was nominated by Mr. John Adams and seconded by his cousin Mr. Samuel Adams, the proscribed patriot friend of his country. Colonel Washington being fairly before that body his pre-eminent and superi or qualifications and claims were pressed upon it with patriotic ardor, and chasteness, and richness of language by a number of the most gifted members of the different colonies. Among them, however, none occupied a loftier ground, or delivered his sentiments with more ardent zeal, strength, eloquence and beauty of language than did that sterling patriot Mr. John Adams. The patriotic John Adams, who made the Hall of Independence in the Statehouse at Philadelphia, ring with the eloquence of his appeals, as well upon this as upon a