Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cutivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlight ened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence Who can doubt, that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experi

ment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto narked the destiny of empires. But if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur, to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the im postures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for that solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and the world. To myself the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least BELIEVED myself to be guided by them.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that 1 may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert and mitigate

the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this, as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government,—the ever favourite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours, and dangers. United States, September 17th, 1796.

Speech over the Grave of Black Buffaloe, Chief of the Teton Tribe of Indians.-BIG ELK MAHA CHIEF.

Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best men. Death will come, and always comes out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What has passed, and cannot be prevented, should not be grieved for. Be not discouraged or displeased, then, that, in visiting your father here, you have lost your chief. A misfortune of this kind may never again befall you; but this would have attended you, perhaps, at your own village. Five times have I visited this land, and never returned with sorrow or pain. Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our path. They grow every where. What a misfortune for me, that I could not have died this day, instead of the chief that lies before us! The trifling loss my nation would have sustained in my death, would have been doubly paid for by the honours of my burial. They would have wiped off every thing like regret. Instead of being covered with a cloud of sorrow, my warriors would have felt the sunshine

of joy in their hearts. To me it would have been a most glorious occurrence. Hereafter, when I die at home, instead of a noble grave and a grand procession-the rolling music and the thundering cannon-with a flag waving at my head, I shall be wrapt in a robe-an old robe perhaps and hoisted on a slender scaffold to the whistling winds, soon to be blown to the earth-my flesh to be devoured by the wolves, and my bones rattled on the plain by the wild beasts.

Chief of the soldiers*-your labours have not been in vain. Your attention shall not be forgotten. My nation shall know the respect that is paid over the dead. When I return I will echo the sound of your guns.

Speech of Ho-NA-YU-WUS, or FARMER'S BROTHER.

THE Sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Seneca nation to the sachems and chiefs assembled about the great council-fire of the state of New York.

Brothers-As you are once more assembled in council for the purpose of doing honour to yourselves and justice to your country, we, your brothers, the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Seneca nation, request you to open your ears, and give attention to our voice and wishes.

This

Brothers-You will recollect the late contest between you and your father, the great king of England. contest threw the inhabitants of this whole island into a great tumult and commotion, like a raging whirlwind, which tears up the trees, and tosses to and fro the leaves, so that no one knows from whence they come, or when they will fall.

Brothers-This whirlwind was so directed by the Great Spirit above, as to throw into our arms two of your infant children, Jasper Parrish and Horatio Jones. We adopted them into our families, and made them our children. We loved them and nourished them. They lived with us many years. At length the Great Spirit spoke to the

• Colonel Miller.

whirlwind-and it was still." A clear and uninterrupted sky appeared. The path of peace was opened, and the chain of friendship was once more made bright. Then these, our adopted children, left us to seek their relations. We wished them to remain among us, and promised, if they would return and live in our country, to give each of them a seat of land for them and their children to sit down upon.

Brothers-They have returned, and have for several years past been serviceable to us as interpreters. We still feel our hearts beat with affection for them, and now wish to fulfil the promise we made them, and to reward them for their services. We have therefore made up our minds to give them a seat of two square miles of land lying on the outlet of Lake Erie, about three miles below Black Rock.

Brothers-We have now made known to you our minds. We expect and earnestly request, that you will permit our friends to receive this our gift, and will make the same good to them, according to the laws and customs of your nation.

Brothers-Why should you hesitate to make our minds easy with regard to this our request? To you it is but a ittle thing; and have you not complied with the request, and confirmed the gift, of our brothers the Oneidas, the Onondagas, and Cayugas, to their interpreters? and shall we ask, and not be heard?

Brothers-We send you this our speech, to which we expect your answer before the breaking up of your great council-fire.

Abdication of Napoleon, and Retirement of Lafayette — TICKNOR.

Ar last, on the 21st of June, Bonaparte arrived from Waterloo, a defeated and a desperate man. He was already determined to dissolve the representative body, and, assuming the whole dictatorship of the country, play at least one deep and bloody game for power and success. Some of his council, and among the rest Regnault de St

* God said, Let there be light; and there was light.

Jean d'Angely, who were opposed to this violent measure, informed Lafayette that it would be taken instantly, and that in two hours the chamber of representatives would cease to exist. There was, of course, not a moment left for consultation or advice; the emperor or the chamber must fall that morning. As soon, therefore, as the session was opened, Lafayette, with the same clear courage, and in the same spirit of self-devotion, with which he had stood at the bar of the national assembly in 1792, mmediately ascended the tribune, for the first time for twenty years, and said these few words; which, assuredly, would have been his death warrant, if he had not been supported in them by the assembly he addressed:

"When, after an interval of many years, I raise a voice, which the friends of free institutions will still recognise, I feel myself called upon to speak to you only of the dangers of the country, which you alone have now the power to save. Sinister intimations have been heard; they are unfortunately confirmed. This, therefore, is the momen for us to gather round the ancient tri-coloured standard; the standard of '89; the standard of freedom, of equal rights, and of public order. Permit, then, gentlemen, a veteran in this sacred cause, one who has always been a stranger to the spirit of faction, to offer you a few preparatory resolutions, whose absolute necessity, I trust, you feel as I do."

These resolutions declared the chamber to be in permanent session, and all attempts to dissolve it, high treason; and they also called for the four principal ministers to come to the chamber and explain the state of affairs. Bonaparte is said to have been much agitated when word was brought him simply that Lafayette was in the tribune; and his fears were certainly not ill founded; for these resolutions, which were at once adopted, both by the representativer and the peers, substantially divested him of his power, an left him merely a factious and dangerous individual in th midst of a distracted state.

He hesitated during the whole day as to the course h should pursue; but, at last, hoping that the eloquence of Lucien, which had saved him on the 18th Brumaire, might be found no less effectual now, he sent him, with three other