United States; less than one hundred and eighty, since the first settlement was made, in New-England, and less than one hundred and seventy, since the first settlement was made, in Connecticut. The place where we are now assembled, was then, a wild waste. Instead of cultivated fields, dens and caves. Instead of a flourishing city, huts and wigwams. Instead of polite, benevolent, and learned citizens, a horde of savages. Instead of a seat of science, full of young men, qualifying to adorn and bless their country, here was only taught the art of tormenting ingeniously, and here were only heard the groans of the dying.
What is here said of New-Haven, may, with little variation, be said of all New-England, and of many other parts of the United States.
We have now, upwards of four millions of inhabitants, cultivating a fertile country, and engaged in a commerce, with 876,000 tons of shipping, and second only, to that of Great Britain.
How has this mighty change been effected?—Was it by magic? By supernatural aid? or was it by ingenious theories in morals, economics and government? My Fellow-Citizens, it was accomplished by the industry, the labour, the perseverance, the sufferings and virtues, of those men, from whom we glory in being descended.[1]
These venerable men spent no time in extracting sun-beams from cucumbers—in writing letters to Mazzei, or perplexing the world with the jargon of the perfectability of human nature.
They and their illustrious descendants pursued directly, and by those means which always will suc-
- ↑ See Trumbull's history of Connecticut---a book which ought to be in every family.
