down to the present hour. On the points, where the system of communication is complete, the effect has been magical. The population of Cincinnati, by accurate estimate, has risen since 1825 from sixteen to twenty-five thousand; and, as I have been informed, on the best authority, an increase in the value of its real property has taken place, equal to the whole expense of the Miami canal. But no book can describe your State, farther down than to the moment when it is written. Its condition changes, while the geographer is casting up the figures that represent it. As well might you, by the theoretical rules of navigation, attempt to designate the position of a steamboat on the Ohio, when it is swollen by the floods of spring. While you are fixing your quadrant, the boat is swept downwards for miles on the bosom of the rushing stream.

These and similar facts, sir, would the less merit frequent repetition were the rapid progress of the country occasioned merely by the abundance of fertile land, operating as a temptation to the adventurer in search of fortune. But when we contrast the progress of the Western States of our Union, with that of the British possessions in their immediate neighborhood, we see that other causes have been at work, to produce this unparalleled state of things. It is well known, that the British Government has held out very strong temptations to persons disposed to emigrate to its North American possessions. The expense of crossing the ocean has been defrayed, grants of land have been made, freedom from taxes guarantied, and implements of husbandry furnished, (if we are not misinformed,) at the public expense. Some portion of the land itself, in those possessions, for natural fertility, climate, and geographical position is equal to any part of the Western States. But while some of those States have been adding to their numbers from thirty to one hundred thousand inhabitants yearly, it has been publicly stated, of late, by an inhabitant of Upper Canada, that the increase of that province, emigration included, has not for ten years exceeded four thousand five hundred per annum.

We learn, from this contrast, that the growth of your western. country is not merely the progress of its citizens in numerical multiplication. It is civilization personified and embodied, going forth to take possession of the land. It is the principle of our institutions, advancing not so much with the toilsome movement of human

agency, but rather like the grand operations of sovereign Providence. It seems urged along its stupendous course, as the earth itself is propelled in its orbit, silent and calm, like the moving planet, with a speed we cannot measure; yet not like that, without a monument to mark its way through the vacant regions of space, but scattering hamlets, and villages, and cities on its path,—the abodes of civilized and prosperous millions.

The ties of interest, which connect all the States of this Union, are innumerable; and those of mutual good will are destined, I trust, to add all their strength to the compact. It ought to be the desire and the effort of every true patriot, to merge, in one comprehensive feeling, all discordant sectional preferences. But the circumstances of first settlement and geographical proximity will produce associations, not inconsistent with the one great principle of union, and resting on a basis too natural to be discredited. It cannot be expected, that New-England and the Middle States. should not feel complacency, in reflecting, that the foundations of Ohio were laid by some of their citizens; that the germs of your growth were derived from our soil. Acknowledging the high traits of character, to be found in the various strongly marked sections of the country, we cannot be insensible to the prevailing affinity between your population and ours. In the leading characteristics of society here, we recognize the qualities to which we have been familiarized at home. While we witness your auspicious progress we take pride in reflecting, that it is the extension of our own immediate kindred; the ripening of a fruit, which our fathers planted.

Nor is this similarity confined to things of a superficial nature, belonging rather to the province of manners than institutions. In many concerns of highest moment, and particularly in the system. of public schools commenced in Ohio, we behold an assurance, that your vast community is destined to grow up into a still nearer resemblance of what we deem the best features of ours. Regarding the mind of the citizens as the most precious part of the public capital, we have felt, that an efficient plan of general education is one of the first elements of public wealth. The diffusion of intelligence has furnished us our best compensation for our narrow limits and moderately fertile soil; and the tax which has effected it, has

returned with the richest interest to the citizens. We rejoice to see you adopting the same policy, and providing for a posterity, instructed in the necessary branches of useful knowledge. Such a policy, besides all its other benefits, binds the different members of the body politic by the strongest ties. It lays the rich under contribution, for the education of the poor; and it places the strong watchman of public intelligence and order at the door of the rich. In the first adoption of such a system, difficulties are to be expected; it cannot go equally well into operation in every quarter; perhaps not perfectly in any quarter. But the man, or the body of men, that shall effectually introduce it, will perform a work of public utility, of which the blessing and the praise will never die.

It has been frequently remarked that our beloved country is set up by Providence, as a great exemplar to the world, from which the most enlightened and best governed of the ancient nations have much to learn. When we think how recently our continent itself was discovered, that almost ever since it has been subjected to foreign rule, and left unshielded, to receive every impression that could be stamped on it by foreign ascendency, we must feel that is extraordinary that we have been able to constitute ourselves an acknowledged subject of envy and imitation, to all the communities on earth. But when we of the old States turn our attention to the spectacle beneath our eyes at home, we are astonished to find, that our comparatively ancient commonwealths, monitors as we deemed them in the great school of improvement, are obliged to come in turn, and take a most important lesson from you. In your great works of internal improvement,-in the two canals, one of which you have completed and the other of which you are pushing to its completion, at large public expense and under circumstances requiring no ordinary measure of legislative courage,—you are setting an example to the oldest states of the confederacy. Forty years since, and the only white population, connected with Ohio, was on its way, in a single wagon, from Massachusetts to this place. You have now a

*The reference is to an incident, alluded to, in the following manner, in a speech of the author, at the celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of Salem, 18th September, 1828:

“But, sir, while on this happy occasion we contemplate, with mingled feelings of

system of artificial navigation of nearly four hundred miles rapidly advancing to its completion; while the Massachusetts rail road is still locked up in the port folio of the commissioners, who have surveyed the route. It is however, one of the happy effects of our separation into different States, that it gives scope for a generous emulation, in objects of public utility. It is hardly to be believed, that the ancient settlements on the coast will consent to be long behind the younger States of the West in the march of improvement; or fearful, with their abundant capital, to commence those great public enterprises, which have not been found beyond the reach of your infant resources. Happy the region where such are the objects of competition between neighboring States!

pride and joy, the lovely and august form of our America, rising as it were, from the waves of the ocean, with the grace of youth in all her steps, and the heaven of liberty in her eye, there is another aspect, under which we are led by natural association to regard her, as we consider the family of republics which have sprung into being beyond the mountains. The graceful and lovely daughter has become the mother of rising States. While our thoughts, on this day, are carried back to the tombs of our fathers beyond the sea, there are millions of kindred Americans beyond the rivers and mountains, whose hearts are fixed on the Atlantic coast, as the cradle of their political existence. If the States of the coast were struck from existence, they would already have performed their share of the great duty, as it has been called, of social transmission. A mighty wilderness has been colonized, almost within our own day, by the young men of the Atlantic coast; not driven by the arm of persecution from the land of their birth, but parting, with tearful eyes, from their pleasant homes, to follow the guiding hand of Providence to the Western realms of promise.

It is just forty years this summer, since a long, ark-like looking wagon was seen traversing the roads and winding through the villages of Essex and Middlesex, covered with black canvass, inscribed on the outside, in large letters, To Marietta on the Ohio.' That expedition under Dr Cutler of this neighborhood, was the first germ of the settlement of Ohio, which now contains near a million of inhabitants. Forty years have scarce passed by, since this great State, with all its settlements, improvements, its mighty canals and growing population, was covered up, (if I may so say,) under the canvass of Dr Cutler's wagon. Not a half century, and a State is in existence, (twice as large as our old Massachusetts,) to whom not Old England but New-England, is the land of ancestral recollection. Yes, sir, on richer soils and broader plains than ours, there is a large community of men, to whom our rocks and our sands will be forever dear. Ten years ago, there were thirteen or fourteen settlements west of the Alleghanies, bearing the name of Salem, the city of peace; one in Kentucky, one in Indiana, eight or nine in Ohio, all bearing the name of the spot, where we are now assembled,-where the fathers of Massachusetts first set foot, two hundred years ago."

Permit me in conclusion, gentlemen, to revert to the idea, with which I commenced, the astonishing and marvellous progress of the West. The settlement of Ohio and the other North-Western States, may be considered as dating from the Ordinance of 1787. The individual, who drew that ever memorable statute is still living, a most respected citizen and eminent jurist of Massachusetts, Nathan Dane. Of those also, who first emigrated to this region, and encountered the hardships of the wilderness, and the perils of the savage foe, all have not passed away. What events have been crowded into the lives of such men! It is only when we consider what they found the country, and what they handed it down to this generation, that we learn the efficacy of public and private virtue, -of wise counsel,-of simple manners,-a firm purpose, and an inborn love of liberty! But I forbear, sir, to enlarge on considerations so familiar to this respected company, and only ask permission to propose to its acceptance, the following sentiment:

THE STATE OF OHIO:-FOUNDED BY THE VIRTUES OF THE LAST GENERATION, SUSTAINED BY THE PUBLIC SPIRIT OF THIS, ITS PROSPERITY IS SURE.

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