cultivation. To eradicate this great motive of exertion would be impossible were it attempted, and injurious were it possible. But it is the part of true wisdom to circumscribe the sphere of its operation, and to guide and control its application, that it may furnish a moral stimulus in the performance of the duties of life, and not an intoxicating draught, paralyzing the faculties, or presenting but one object for their contemplation. "The powers which Providence has given have been wisely given for action and enjoyment. Judgment, taste, genius, imagination, these endowments were bestowed that they might be employed, cultivated, and improved. They are among the purest elements of human happiness, and the pleasures they bring are rational, innocent, and enduring. They quicken and invigorate that sensibility which is one of the best safeguards of virtue; which adds to the power of conscience and the fear of responsibility, the restraining dread of self-abasement." Omitting no topic which naturally came within the proposed. scope of this intellectual effort, he expresses the opinion that this country has little to fear from overgrown fortunes and general luxury; and that we may look, without apprehension, to the progress and cultivation of every branch of literature and all the departments of the arts. His own language is preferable. "The state of society in our own country, as well as some of the fundamental principles of our political institutions, is happily opposed to this, the last and worst calamity of decrepit nations. Distinctions of rank are unknown among us, and the distinctions of wealth, where wealth confers them, are soon scattered to the winds by that tendency to distribution which is one of the original laws impressed upon our system. No legal barriers are erected, behind which imbecility and profligacy can secure themselves from the just consequences of their improvidence. Estates are left to be preserved or lost, as those who possess them may be prudent or profligate. Our statutes of conveyance, and of inheritance, and distribution, are some of the peculiar characteristics of our condition, which promise permanence and stability to our government and institutions. They are not indeed among the declarations of natural rights and political principles which our fathers, in the hour of trial and danger, committed, with their own lives and fortunes, to the course of events, and which have since been engrafted into our own written constitutions; but among all these splendid truths, there is, perhaps, not one destined to produce a more permanent effect upon the character and prospects of our country and countrymen, than the regulations which govern the conveyance and descent of property. Wise in their principles, and more salutary in their operation, than the septennial reversion of the Jews, or the agrarian law of Rome, they leave to individuals proper motives for exertion, and the just rewards of their industry and enterprise in the accumulation of wealth; while, in the freedom from all restraint, except the will of the owner, they ensure its distribution among the community in good time and without violence. The innumerable streams of private wealth, as they pass along to fertilize the land, successively increase, and diminish, and disappear, leaving new fountains to spring up and new channels to be opened." And as he draws this profound and beautifully written address to its close, he proceeds to say: "The works of genius, the noble inheritance which antiquity has bequeathed to us, furnish objects of study and models of thought for our youth. Long may they continue to appreciate their value; to draw intellectual wealth from these rich treasures of taste and learning. There is a period in human life when the memory is plastic and the judgment weak; when facts can be collected and deposited in the great mental store-house, to be examined, and selected, and combined, after the other faculties have gained strength and maturity. This is the time for the acquisition of the ancient languages-time which may be profitably devoted to these and kindred pursuits, without any sacrifice of those other great objects of education which require the cooperation of the higher powers of the understanding. "The philosophy of speech is itself one of the most interesting objects of human contemplation, and the structure of languages is intimately connected with the character and condition of the people by whom they are spoken. Greece and Rome have left in the modern tongues many witnesses of their own, and it will not be denied, that a full knowledge of the English language can not be obtained without a general acquaintance with these ancient languages. Their artificial and transpositive arrangement, rendering many inflections necessary to their comprehension, and sacrificing simplicity to euphony, is a curious subject of speculation, and exhibits one of the most striking characteristic differences between ancient and modern nations. These views are sufficient to redeem our schools from the imputation of an unprofitable application of their time to barren and useless pursuits. But their justification, if justification be necessary, rests upon other and higher considerations. The learning of the ancient world, its sentiments, experience, and feelings, are embodied in those imperishable productions of Grecian and Italian genius which have come down to us as fresh and green as when they first excited the admiration of mankind. Those fortunate and favored regions, kindred indeed in the bounties which nature has given them, but rivals in arts, in arms, and in fame, were the repositories of much that was valuable in human life, and the theater of almost all that was splendid in human action. They are yet the high places of the earth, where pilgrims from every land go up to survey the dilapidated memorials of taste and genius which adorn their solitary spots, and to meditate upon the instability of human power where the foundations of power were the deepest and strongest. "But there are monuments of Grecian and Roman power which no barbarism can overthrow, and where no tainted breeze can carry desolation. These are the trophies of peace and not of war: the triumphs of opinion and not of force. To us and to our youth, who inhabit a land beyond the world of Strabo and Ptolemy, these memorials of departed greatness and knowledge are the more precious because they furnish the only bond of connection between this western hemisphere and the early abodes of science and freedom. We can not survey the plains of Marathon, and strengthen our patriotism by its glorious recollections. Nor can we view the scenes of ancient martyrdom, and there find our piety elevated by the contemplation of the faith and courage which sent many of the early Christians through tortures to death, and through death to their reward. These associations are wisely given, and where they may, let them be profitably employed. But we can recall the events which laid those lovely regions desolate, and can bless God the more fervently for the country, and government, and religion He has given us. We can draw lessons of wisdom from the past, and if the future is beyond our view, we may still learn to indulge in useful anticipations. "As time passes over us, it will consecrate the scenes of our own memorable events, where courage, and constancy, and patriotism devoted themselves nobly and generously to the cause of their country, in the days of her trial and danger. Your State contains its full share of these sacred spots, and not the least interesting is in your own vicinity. The stream which gives beauty to the landscape around, and which now flows through a peaceful and prosperous region, once saw the advance of a Christian banner, surrounded by civilized and savage forces, prepared to do those deeds of horror which, we may trust, will never again desolate our frontiers. The great lakes which stretch along your borders have been the scenes of desperate conflicts; and even now, as the traveler proceeds up Lake Erie, he points to its western islands as the Greek patriot points to the Gulf of Salamis; to the place where the lamented Perry gained his victory with Spartan courage and made his report with Spartan brevity. There no monument can be erected, in its freshness to gratify our pride, nor in its decay to hallow our recollections. The waves roll, and will roll, over it; but whoever passes by with no kindling emotion, no desire to recall the glorious story, nor to associate its incidents with the islands and shores around him, no determination to follow the bright example of those who there triumphed in life and death, let him distrust his own heart, and let his country distrust him." The attendance of the Alumni of Hamilton College on this occasion was numerous; and in the evening, Gerrit Smith, president, in the chair, they unanimously passed the following resolutions: "Resolved, That the thanks of the Association be presented to His Excellency Governor Cass, for the able and eloquent address this day delivered by him. "Resolved, That Governor Cass be requested to furnish a copy of the address for publication. "Resolved, That Theodore S. Gold, Charles P. Kirkland, and Samuel D. Darkin, be a committee to communicate the preceding resolutions to Governor Cass." As a further token of respect, he subsequently received from Hamilton College the honorary degree of LL.D. CHAPTER XV. General Cass resigns the Office of Governor-President Jackson invites General Cass to the Head of the War Department-His Acceptance-Public Demonstration at Detroit-Address of Major Biddle in behalf of People of Michigan-The Reply-The Congratulations. - In July, 1831, General Cass resigned his office as Governor of Michigan. He had administered the government for a period of nearly eighteen years, with signal ability. He had been appointed six times, — running through the presidency of Mr. Madison, Mr. Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, — without a single representation against him from the people in all that time, or a single vote against him in the Senate. Our territorial history contains no similar mark of confidence. As his first appointment in 1813 was wholly unexpected, so was each renewal entirely unsolicited. In fact, his administration was conducted with so much wisdom, and gave such universal satisfaction to the people, that they regarded his continuance as a matter of course. He had faithfully discharged the duties of his Indian Superintendency, of a wider circuit of country than any man before or since has had under his direction, commencing with over forty thousand Indians, and quite nine thousand warriors. He had concluded nineteen treaties with the Indians, and acquired large cessions in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to an amount equal, perhaps, to one-fourth part of the area of those States, and each productive of important results to the government. In all their villages, his name was familiar; and, in all his transactions with this wandering, peculiar race of people, he acted with a just and enlightened regard for their interests, and took good care that they should not suffer wrong. No treaty negotiated by him was ever rejected by the Senate, nor was a representation ever made against one of them by the Indians—a rare occurrence, and one which is no doubt owing to the great fairness and justice of the proceeding. He was often pained to listen to their tales of suffering, resulting from the avarice of the trader, and frequently interposed the executive arm, to shield them from |