Excerpt from An Oration, Delivered in Newburyport, on the Forty-Fifth Anniversary of American Independence, July 4, 1821 It has been customary, on this occasion, to discuss the political principles and display the superiority of our government, or to speak of the blessings which we enjoy in our common country, whose national birth the solemnities of the day are designed to commemorate. To depart from a course, which uninterrupted usage has now sanctioned, would savor of a presumption alike foreign to my feelings and unworthy of the audience that honors me with its presence. And the usage is built upon the soundest reasons. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.