Excerpt from An Oration, Delivered by Richard Rush, on the 4th of July, 1812, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, at the Capitol, Washington: Delivered at the Request of the Committee of Arrangement for the Celebration of That Day, And, at Their Request Published Man. In his individual nature, becomes vir tuous by constant struggles against his own im perfections. His intellectual eminence, which puts him at the head of created beings, is attain ed also, by. Long toil, and painful self denials, bringing with them, but too often, despondence to his infindfind hazards to his frame. It would seem to be a law of his existence, that great enjoyment is only to be obtajned, as the reward of great exertion. She shall go to a wealthy place, but her way shall be through fire and through water. It seems the irreversible lot of nations, that their permanent well being is to be achieved also through severe probations. Their origin is often in agony and blood, and their safety to be maintained only by constant vigi lance, by arduous eff )rts, by a. Willingness to encounter danger and by actually and frequently braving it. Their prosperity, their rights, their liberties, are, alas, scarcely otherwise to beplaced upon a secure and durable basis! It is in vain that the precepts of the moralist, or the maxims of a sublimated reason, are levelled at the inutility, if not the criminality of wars; in vain that eloquence pourtrays, that humanity deplores the misery they in ict If the wishes of the philanthropist could be realised, then, ins deed, happily for us, happily for the whole hu. 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."