It?
Whole JVb. 855.
Tarhnrough, (Edgecombe County, JV. C.J Saturday, July 23, 1843.
VoLXrill JVo 29.
i Tic Tarhorough Press,
BY GEORGE HOWARD,
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'
FOR THE TARIIORO PRESS.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Tarboro July Slh, 1S42.
(William F. Dancv, Eq.
Sir: The Committee of Correspondence,
jn accordance with the wishes of the citi
zens generally, make known to yon the
pleasure they received from hearing your
excellent and appropriate Oration, deliver
ed on the 4th, and respectfully request a
copy for publication in the larboro' Press.
With great esteem, yours, &c.
J. D Howe I L .
IV. G. Thomas, ( Commit-
c tr. Hunter, t tee.
Tarboro July 11M, IS 12.
Gentlemen: I am in receipt of yours
of the 8th instant, and the pleasing assu
rances you convey, of the general approba
tion with which my Oration was received,
has filled me with a degree of gratitude I
cannot find words to express. The Ora
tion is long, and would fill more space in
the "Press" than could be conveniently
appropriated to its publication. 1 shall
therefore strike out the most unimportant
portions of it. With
ihio im.lorcf in Jinn
it is placed at your disposal.
Very truly, your fellow citizen,
W. F. DANCY.
To J. D. Howell and others, Committee
of Correspondence.
ORATION.
Delivered before the Citizens of Tarbo
rough, in commemoru I ion oj the sixty-sixth
Anniversary of American
Independence, by W. F. Dancy.
Ladies and Gentlemen: 'Tis not the
language of mere idle declamation, when I
declare to you the unaffected diffidence
with which I appear before you. How
ever much I might have desired that your
choice had fallen on some individual,
whose age and experience better fitted him j
to instruct you in the lessons of the past, !pot. I here some proud and haughty con
and impart to you useful admoniiions forjqueror, whose political appetite is not yet
the future: yet 1 did not Icel myselt at lib
erty to decline an invitation, coming with
such pressing solicitude from so intelligent
a portion of my fellow citizens a people
justly esteemed for some of the rarest vir
tues that dignify and ennoble human kind,
yea, even from the heart of this proud and
time-honored old county.
It has been a custom among nations,
from time immemorial, to celebrate by ap
propriate rites and ceremonies important
events in their national existence. Histo
ry is replete with examples illustrative of
the fact. The untutored savage, destitute
of the lights which civilization and religion
have shed upon the world, & having every
faculty of his soul locked up by the ponder
ous bolts of superstition and bigotry, con
ceives an appropriate idea of this usige,
and records his simple yet affecting attesta
tion in its favor. The more enlightened
man, in the full fruition of th se advanta
ges denied to the simple child of nature,
borrows the idea and presents it to us,
decked in all the gorgeous drapery of mod
ern refinement. The one is the original of
which the other is the overwrought copy,
the one is the voluntary offering of the
heart's homage at the shrine of affection,
the other is but too often a bitter mockery
of reality.
There is perhaps no principle in the
whole catalogue of domestic affections,
more deeply implanted in the human
breast than a love of country. It animates
alike the citizen and the statesman, the
peasant and the philosopher. It forms a
link in the social condition of man, is inti
mately interwoven with every fibre of his
heart, and nerves his arm "for the most da
ring and adventurous enterprizes. No
people, either -' ' Tiodern, ever cul-
tivated this principle in a more remarkable
degree, than the ancient Spartans. Such
was the great sensibility to sham?, inculca
ted by that brave and warlike people, tha'
the Spartan matron, while hanging with
parental devotion over her son departing
for the wars, at the same time she imprint
ed the maternal kiss on his cheek, whis
pered the patriotic injunction to "conquer
or die." Such too was the feeling which
prompted the, wounded Arrive, when dy
ing in a foreign land, to desire a last long
look on his "beloved Argos," ere the
scenes of lime and mortality should ( lose
on his view forever! Surely then we, who
are bound to the land of our birth by ties
still more dear, bv the hallowed recollec
tions of a common suffering ami a common
triumph, by this bright and happy land
which treedom has chosen for her sanctua
ry, and where the sun ot liberty shin-s
with undimmed and unclouded lustre; by
the free principles we enjoy, and by that
glorious Constitution which stands like a
"mental pyramid in the solitude of time,"
the wonder and admiration of the world
surely we shall not be censured for setting
apart this day, consecrated to the memory
apart this da)
ojr those wh
'while valor i:
otism is regai
hose deeds will be cherished,
is esteemed a virtue, and patri-
rded as worthy of praise and
remembrance.
The civil revolution which severed the
ties that bound us to the parent country, is
justly regarded as the most remarkable
event in the annals of modern times. That
a number of independent communities,
banded together by no common principle
of union, with a spare and heterogeneous
population, differing in sentiment, man
ners and religion, and destitute of every
essential element of national character,
should rise in arms to assert those rights
which God and nature had given them,
was an enterprise for which the world was
not then prepared. The political powers
of Europe, always accustomed to the lan
guage of servility and adoration, regarded
the mass of mankind as but little clcva'cd
above the other animals of creation; differ
ing perhaps in nothing, save in "form and
gesture;" as ignorant and depraved, inca
pable of attaining any degree of moral ex
cellence, and consequently as fit instru
ments for the exercise of tyranny and op
pression. They had not then learned the
sublime lesson in political ethics, which
was afterwards taught them by bitter ex
perience, that we are all by nature "free
and equal " that man, in a state of nature,
uncorrupted by the debasing influence in
cident to bad education and government, is
susceptible of a degree of moral and intel
lectual culture, which advances his condi
tion to a participation with the divine ori
ginal, who "breathed into his nostrils the
breith of life."
The history of the world, from the earli
est dawn of authentic, down to the middle
of the lSlh century, though here and there
relieved by some bright spots, on which
the eye of the moralist and philanthropist
may rest with pleasure, is little else than a
record of human calamity, wretchedness
and crime. Here some ambitious dema
gogue, elevated to the throne of popular
supremacy by flattering the worst passions
of the people, rules for a while with wis
dom, moderation, and justice; but finally
sinks into the stem and incorrigible des
satiated with the blood and carnage of his
fellow citizens, marches his embattled le
gions over dissolved empires and subvert
ed republics, and contributes his share to
swell the bloody tide of human misery and
woe. But happMy for man, a spirit was
aroused in the ISth century, which level
led with the dust this political fabric, rear
ed amid the gloom of feudal barbarity, and
erected in its stead the capacious temple of
popular liberty. True, it is, that some of
the governments of antiquity afforded faint
glimmerings of light amidst the general
darkness which overshadowed the world.
True, it is, that the records of English his
tory afforded frequent evidence of an ap
proach to liberal principles; but like the
electric fire, which flashes amidst the dark
ness of the storm, 'twas but the presage of
a deeper and more sombre gloom. And
still more true, is it, that the Barons at
Runny mede extorted from King John, of
Magna Charta memory, certain half-defined
principles of liberty and right, which con
tinued to be alternately conceded and de
nied bv his successors, as justice or tyran
ny was the animating principle of the ru
ling prince. But yet it was reserved for
this country, for the free Anglo Saxons ol
America, to give birth to that great princi
ple of popular liberty the right of he
people to govern now regarded as the
fundamental, maxim of all free govern
ments. The history - of mankind affords
no conclusive evidence, that this great truth
was ever before permanently recognised
either in theory or in practice. Previous
to the establishment of this government,
the condition of the subject was a state ol
absolute dependence on the will of the
sovereign; and his life, liberty, and prop
erty, were held at the pleasure of the
crown. The doctrine inculcated was, that
In "king could do no wrong;" and acqui
escence on the part of the subject was de
clared to be in accordance with the will of
heaven. 'Tis impossible to imagine a more
abject state of servitude, nor one better cal
culated to repress the noble energies of our
nature, and disqualify us for the high pur
poses of our creation.
Here the Orator entered into an enu
meration of the principal causes of the Re
volution, among which the character and
operation of the "tea tax, stamp duties,"
&c. &c. were mentioned after which he
proceeded.
These details, though comparatively dry
and uninteresting, yet serve to show in a
remarkable degree, the gradual progress,
growth, and ultimate maturity, of those
free principles we now enjoy. The time
had at length arrived, when it was necessa
ry for man to vindicate his just claims to
that freedom of thought and action, which
had been for ages withheld from him; or
fall forever from his high destiny, and re
in dn the willing and abject slave of power.
Anrl (J! if there be a spectacle in the migh
ty and complicated range of human affiirs,
for which he may claim the peculiar pro
tection and providence of the Deity, it is
that of a brave and gallant people, writh-
jing beneath the scourge of hereditary des
potism, animated by one grand and uni
versal impulse, spurning the false and ex
ploded theories of their rulers, determined
to be free! Nor were the people of the
colonies long in making a choice of alter
natives. The cloud of war, which had
been long gathering in the horizon, now
burst with all its fury on the country.
Kings and potentates trembled for their
thrones, the corrupt foundations of civil
society vvere broken up, the thunders of
popular indignation were heard in loud
and reverberated peals echoing through
the world, and the political firmament
gave signs that the hopes of despotism
were about to be crushed forever.
Long and doubtful was the conflict.
The nations of the earth gazed anxiously
on the scene, each agitated by emotions
corresponding to their political condition,
and respective sympathies for the bellige
rent parties, until justice wearied with hav
oc and bloodshed, decided the contest in
our favor. So true was it, in the eloquent
language of Burke, that "so paltry a sum
as three pence in the eyes of a financier,
so insignificant an article as tea in the eyes
of a philosopher had shaken the pillars of a
commercial empire that encircled the
globe."
Amid the crowd of patriots, who like
the stalwart champions of Roderick Dhu,
"from copse and heath arose" at the first
clangor of arms, there was one who stood
proudly among the proud, and lofty among
the loftiest. Nature, as if ashamed of eve
ry model that had yet existed, seemed to
exert herself for the production of one
against which the breath of scandal should
be neer breathed, or the voice of slander
never heard; and most nobly did she exe
cute the task. He was the man and the
only man suited to the temper of the
times. Prudence, like a faithful Mentor,
was ever at his side; wisdom and justice
sat at the council-board of his decisions;
while Christianity loaned its soft and mel
low ray to gild and beautify the purity of
his character. Cool, collected and saga
cious, he added to a profound penetration of
judgment, that colossal grandeur of soul,
which made him at once the wonder and
admiration of mankind. Go search the
annals of history, roll back the countless
ages which the world has measured in its
progress, and where will you find a more
illustrious monument of human greatness.
Caesar was a usurper, Alexander the mise
rable slave of passion and caprice, Buona
parte a tyrant yet it was reserved for
Washington to blend in one harmonious
whole, the perfection of every principle,
and the personification of every virtue.
Where may the wearied eye repose,
When gazing on the great;
Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state!
Yes! one the first the last the best
The Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom envy dared not hate,
Bequeathed the name of Washington,
To make man blush there W3S but onet
'Twas manifest to the fathers of the Re
volution, on the breaking out of the war,
that unityr and concert of action were ne
cessary to secure to themselves the bless
ings for which they had taken up arms.
They accordingly lost no time in address
ing themselves to the task, and this grand
result was mainly brought about by the
assembling of the 1st Continental Con
gress, on the 5th Sept. 1774. In whatever
aspect we view this assemblage, whether
we look to the important causes which
brought them together, or the still more
remote consequences of their ultimate ac
tion, it must be regarded as the most sub
lime spectacle the world ever beheld. His
tory has exhausted panegyric philosophy
has paid the tribute of its homage and
romance has added the charms of its ima
gery, in acknowledging the praises of this
wonderful assemblage. Nor will my au
dience wonder when I inform them, that it
was the first body of freemen that ever as
sembled in the world! They had met in
obedience to the mandates of a mighty but
oppressed people, to deliberate on ha. be-t
means of securing to themselves the bless
ings of liberty and peace, and most nobly
did they execute the grave and important
charge. The vital air of liberty we breathe,
our inimitable and yet unimitated form of
government, our glorious Constitution, and
last though not least the privilege we
now exercise of assembling in this lemplt
of the living God, are all all owing to this
first great step in the cause of oppressed
humanity.
No doubt now existed in th? minds of
the colonists, as to the designs of the mo
ther country; and Congress, on the subse
quent 4th July, 1776, solemnly published
and declared (in the language of the elo
quent instrument you have just heard read)
tha, "these United Colonies are. and ol
right ought to be, free and independent
States." Mankind, long taught to regard
with reverence and awe the presumptive
claim of the "divine right of kings, and to
bow submissively to the pomp and pagean
try of royalty, now burst asunder the
shackles which a long dark night of tyran
ny had thrown around them, and proclaim
ed to the nations of the earth a determina
tion to resist the onward march of arbitra
ry power. Man now for the first time
felt the prompting of that "divinity which
stirs within us" which impelled him to
look around and examine for himself, the
claims of despotism over his personal
righis and privileges, which the teachings
of a false philosophy had given in.
To North Carolinians, it should be a
source of honest exultation and pride, thit
her sons were the first tor.i?e the standard
of revolt, and hurl hack defiance to the
haughty mandates of an imperious and
overbearing mother. On her shores, in
15S4, under the auspices of the leirned
and gallant Raleigh, the flag of England
was first unfurled; and she claims likewise
the high and distinguished honor of being
the first of the original thirteen, to declaie
herself "dissolved from all allegiance to
the British crown." The Mecklenburg
Declaration (a document which has exci
ted no little attention among the historians
of the day, as well on account of the bold
ness of its principles and the energy of its
language as the recency of its discovery.)
has withstood the shafts of criticism and
the railings of impotent malice, and will re
main a monument of the valor and patriot
ism of her citizens, more lasting than mar
ble and more durable than brass. The
first legislative recommtndation of a Na
tional Declaration also came from the Pro
vincial Congress at Halifax, more than two
months before it was agitated in any other
State. These two points in her history, if
other evidence were wanting, are sufficient
to attest the bravery and energy of her peo
ple, and constitute the brightest gem in
the chaplct that adorns her brow.
Nor was any county in the State more
fixed or forward than Edgecombe, in that
dark hour wrfn thf "summer soldier and
sunshine patriot" shrunk from the servire
of their country. Though not the scene of
any action, yet she was frequently the se it of
active military operations. Her citizens wee
among the most energetic & public spirited,
the first to "snuff the very' approach of ty
ranny in the tainted breeze," and the first to
lay down thetr lives in defence of their al
tars & their firesides. The names of Johnson,
Irwin, Toole and Sessums, are intimately
associated and blended with her hisiorv;
and their names will live in the memory of
their posterity, while liberty has a votary
and chivalrous action continues to receive
the plaudits of the wise and good.
1 trust I shall be pardoned for offering
here a brief pissing tribute to the memory
of the gallant but unfortunate Col. Irwin.
He was long a merchant and a resident of
this pl;ce, and at an early period of our
difficulties became deeply imbued in the
principles of the Revolution. A writer
lias remarked, that gteat events give birth
to great men; and never was any truth
more fully exemplified than this, during
the war of Independence. Patriots, like
the fabled heroes of Cadmus, sprung as by
enchantment from the soil, fully armed
and equipped, ready to crusade for free
dom in freedom's holy land." Col. Irwin
was one of those men whom the times pro
duced. Long ere 'grim-visaged war had
raised her horrid front" amongst us, and
even before the Declaration of Indepen
dence, perceiving that an outbreak was in
evitable, he had obtained a Lieutenant Col
onel's commission in the regular army, and
buckled on his armor for the approaching
conflict. The quiet and repose of domes
tic life had no chirms for him, when the
interests of his country were al stake.
His was emphatically the "will to do and
h'e soul to dare." Morally and constitu
tionally brave, resolute to accomplish and
decisive in action, he was one not likely to
remain quiet amidst the raging elements of
'ontending factions. He was entrusted
vvith the execution of many and important
Iduties, and the honorable mention of him
by the Provincial Congress at Halifax, is
sufficient evidence of the esteem in which
he was held by the members of that en
lightened and natriotic body. But he was
not content with the limited sphere of ac
tion in which he moved. His patriotic
soul struggled for a more ample and enlar
ged theatre, and when the shrill clarion of
war rung its first peal in the ears- of the
Colonists, "he bade adieu," says the histo
rian, "to his family of infant children and
his ease, and joined the army alas to return
no more! He fell at the battle of German
town, Penn. bravely fighting in the cause
of his country. As the enemy ultimately
kept possesion of the field, his body was
never recovered that it might receive the
honor due to h!s merits." Such, my
friends, is the testimony of impartial histo
ry to the merits of one of our most brave
and pdriotic citizens. Although no storied
urn is left to tell the history of his deeds,
and no monumental marble marks the spot
of his repose, yet
Iti memory's silent register he'll live,
Nor ask the vain memorial art can givei
But scarcely had the States succeeded in
repelling a common enemy without, when
they were torn by factions within, which
threatened to sever the feeble bands that
bound them together, and cast them again
on the broad and tempestuous ocean of ci
vil strife. The elements of discord which
had been hushed into silence by a sense of
common danger and suffering, burst forth
with increased violence on the renewal of
peace. The imbecility of the Articles of
Confederation which had borne us trium
phantly through the war, now displayed
itself with alarming rapidity. Adopted at
a most important crisis of our political af
fairs, as a measure dictated by necessity
and the principles of self-preservation, they
wanted that thorough scrutiny into the na
ture of compacts and co-ordinate distribu
tion of powers, which more calm and tran
quil deliberation would have given them.
The federative principle was too weak,
and the States jealous of a sovereign pow
er over them, imposed checks on its au
thority incompatible with a proper exer
cise of its functions. Resembling, as it
did, the Iegues of independent States
which had existed in other ages, it con
tained all the beauties of those structures,1
with some of their most ungainly propor
tions. There was symmetry and order
about the building, but a want of strength
and proper arrangement of its parts. In
addition to the entire absence of any control
ling power over ihe States, the powers of
Congress proceeded from and acted upon
the States as political communities. Con
giess being thus deprived of all power to
execute its laws, and the States refusing to
comply with the requisitionsof the Central
Covernment, "the frail and tottering edi
fice was ready to fall upon our heads and
crush us beneath its ruins."
This was a crisis, the most solemn ' and
momentous in our history. To what pur
pose was it, that the fathers of the Repub
lic had bared their breast to the fury of the
s;orm, and dashed the poisoned chalice of
European servitude from their lips, if all
the fruits of the Revolution were to be sac
rificed to political dissentions and an un
principled struggle for power? Why ex
change the restraints of monarchy abroad,
for the disorganizing principles of anarchy
at home? These were questions solemn
and momentous, and vitally affecting our
political existence. All the toils of a sev
en years war, the privations and sacrifices
of those indomitable patriots, who had laid"
the foundation of our glory and greatness,
were staked on the hazard of a die. Fortu
nately for the cause of free government
and the progress of social improvement
throughout the world, the electric spark of
liberty which had lain dormant amidst the'
internal commotion of the States, burst
forth with new and increased splendor,
and extinguished forever the hopes of des
potism. Amidst this scene of strife and con
fusion, there was one State which quail
ed not before the blast, which stood unsha
ken amidst the storms of political adversi
ty that Stale was Virginia. First and
earliest to succor the throes of patriotism,
she was the last to desert the infant god
dess of liberty after its birth. She direct
ed its tottering footsteps, sustained its fee
ble efforts, and sheltered it from the rude
blasts of arbitrary authority. No State, at
this day, wields more moral force in the
Confederacy. Her power and influence
are felt and acknowledged in the most re
mote borders of the Republic. For fifty
years has she continued to pronounce the
ameundtered and unalterable decree, in
favor of her -immortal doctrine of State
Rights. Despising the low ambition and
miserable intrigues of parly and party men,
she has attained a rank in the scale of
States which others have in vain endeavor
ed to reach. Looking to the Constitution
as the grand charter of our rights, and the
source of our highest interest and concern,
when confined within the sphere of its enu
merated powers, upward and onward she
moves, protected by the impenetrable aegis
of her principles as pure as the mountain
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