| 158 some scathing denunciations of mobs and lawless practices.
If it be granted that this speech is correctly reported by Hunt, the orator crossed the bounds of propriety and right
of our fathers, and from the lands of our nativity and former choice; and our association here as novel and as strange to ourselves as it could be to any portion of our fellow men; still we hail the return of the birthday of our liberties with no less feelings of joy and gratitude, nor no less desire for the prosperity and continuance of the fabric of our national government inspires our breasts this day, than when we met in the mixed assemblies of all religions, as in times past, in the lands of our nativity. Nor, indeed, could it otherwise be: from our infancy, we have been traditionated to believe ours to be the best government in the world. Our fathers, our neighbors, and our associates in life have extolled its excellence to the highest pinnacle of fame in our ears, even before we were capable of judging of its merits for ourselves, or were able to form an estimate of its worth. As we advanced in life we heard nothing else from our statesmen and heroes but the perfection and excellence of our public institutions, and the superiority of our government over all the governments of the world, whether they existed in former or latter times. It is the government under which we were born and educated, or else we exchanged another for it, with whose form we were satisfied, and in exchange gave this the preference, and sought, by removal, to enjoy its benefits. We have been taught from our cradles to reverence the Fathers of the Revolution, and venerate the very urns which contain the ashes of those who sleep; and every feeling of our hearts responds in perfect unison to their precept. Our country and its institutions are written on the tablet of our hearts, as with the blood of the heroes who offered their lives in sacrifice, to redeem us from oppression. On it towers the flag of freedom, and invites the oppressed to enter, and find an asylum; under the safeguard of its constitution the tyrant grasp is unfastened, and equal rights and privileges flow to every part of the grand whole. Protected by its laws, and defended by its powers the oppressed and persecuted saint can worship under his own vine and fig tree, and none can molest or make him afraid. We have always contemplated it, and do now, as the only true fabric of freedom and bulwark of our liberty in the world. Its very existence has taught the civilized world, far surpassing those of a Pitt, a Wilberforce, a Canning, or a Grey, and has cast all their efforts in the shade forever. It has stood, and now stands, as the arbiter of the world, the judge of the nations, and the rebuker of tyrants throughout the world: it is the standard of freedom, both civil and religious. By its existence, the fears of the superstitious have been removed, and the pretexts of tyrants have been swept away, as a refuge of lives [lies], and the rights of man have been restored, and freedom, both political and religious, have been made to triumph. Our government is known throughout the civilized world, as the standard of freedom, civil, religious, and political: By it are the acts of all nations tried; and it serves to expose the frauds, the deceptions, and crafts of the old world, in attempting to palm upon the people monarchy and aristocracy for republicanism and freedom. So powerful has been its influence that the hand of the oppressor, even in the old world, has been lightened-tyrants have been made to tremble, and oppressors of mankind have been filled with fear. Thrones, if they have not been cast down, have been stripped of their terror, and the oppressed subject has been measurably delivered from his bondage. Having been rocked in the cradle
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