CV. —THE DUTY OF AMERICAN CITIZENS.

EVERETT.

[The following extract is from the closing portion of an address before the Union Club, delivered at Boston, April 9, 1863.]

1. WAR is justly regarded as one of the greatest evils that can befall a nation, though it is not the greatest; and of this great evil, civil war is the most deplorable form. I want words to express the sorrow with which, from the first, I have contemplated', and unceasingly contemplate, the necessity laid upon us, to wage this war for the integrity of the nation.

2. Not without deep solicitude I saw the angry clouds gathering in the horizon, North and South; and I devoted the declining years of my life, with a kind of religious consecration, to the attempt to freshen the sacred memories that cluster around that dear and venerated name,* which I need not repeat, - memories which had survived the multiplying causes of alienation, and were so well calculated to strengthen the cords of the Union. To these humble efforts, and the time and labor expended upon them, truly a labor of love,-I would, as Heaven is my witness, have cheerfully added the sacrifice of my life, if by so doing I could have averted the catastrophe. For that cause, I should have thought a few care-worn and weary years cheaply laid on the altar of my country. But it could not be.

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3. A righteous Providence, in its wisdom, has laid upon even upon us - the performance of this great and solemn duty. It is now plain, to the dullest perception, that the hour of trial could not be much longer delayed. The leaders of the rebellion tell us themselves that they

* Referring to the author's Oration on Washington, delivered in aid of the Mount Vernon Association.

had plotted and planned it for an entire generation. It might have been postponed for four years, or for eight years, but it was sure, in no long time, to come; and if, by base compliance, we could have turned the blow from ourselves, it would have fallen, with redoubled violence, on our children.

4. Let us, then, meet it like men. It must needs be that offences shall come, but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh. Let us show ourselves equal to the duty imposed upon us, and faithful to the trust to which we are called. The cause in which we are engaged is the cause of the constitution and the law, of civilization and freedom, of man and of God. Let us engage in it with a steadiness and fortitude, a courage and a zeal, a patience and a resolution, a hope and a cheer, worthy of the fathers from whom we are descended, of the country we defend, and of the privileges we inherit.

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5. There is a call and a duty, a work and a place, for all; -for man and for woman, for rich and for poor, for old and for young, for the stout-hearted and strong-handed, for all who enjoy, and all who deserve to enjoy, the priceless blessings at stake. Let the venerable forms of the Pilgrim fathers, the majestic images of our revolutionary sires, and of the sages that gave us this glorious Union; let the anxious expectation of the friends of liberty abroad; let the hardships and perils of our brethren in the field, and the fresh-made graves of the dear ones who have fallen; let every memory of past, and every hope of the future; every thought and every feeling, that can nerve the arm, or fire the heart, or elevate and purify the soul of a patriot,rouse, and guide, and cheer, and inspire us to do, and, if need be, to die, for our country!

I CON-TEMPLATED. Attentively considered; thought upon.

2 CON-SE-CRA'TION. Dedication; a setting apart as sacred.

3 COM-PLIANCE. Yielding.

4 PRIV'I-LEGE. Private or peculiar right, peculiar advantage.

5 SA'HES. Wise men.

CVI. SUPPOSED SPEECH OF REGULUS TO THE

CARTHAGINIANS.

E. KELLOGG.

[Regulus was a Roman general, who, in the first Punic war, was taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, and after a captivity of several years, was sent by them to Rome, with an embassy to solicit peace, or, at least, an exchange of prisoners. But Regulus earnestly dissuaded his countrymen from both, and, resisting all the persuasions of his friends to remain in Rome, he returned to Carthage, where he is said to have been put to death, with the most cruel tortures.]

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1. THE beams of the rising sun had gilded the lofty domes of Carthage, and given, with its rich and mellow light, a tinge of beauty even to the frowning ramparts' of the outer harbor. Sheltered by the verdant shores, an hundred triremes were riding proudly at their anchors, their brazen beaks3 glittering in the sun, their streamers dancing in the morning breeze, while many a shattered plank and timber gave evidence of desperate conflict with the fleets of Rome.

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2. No murmur of business or of revelry arose from the city. The artisan had forsaken his shop, the judge his tribunal, the priest the sanctuary, and even the stern stoic had come forth from his retirement to mingle with the crowd that, anxious and agitated, were rushing toward the senate-house, startled by the report that Regulus had returned to Carthage.

3. Onward, still onward, trampling each other under foot, they rushed, furious with anger and eager for revenge. Fathers were there, whose sons were groaning in fetters; maidens, whose lovers, weak and wounded, were dying in the dungeons of Rome, and gray-haired men and matrons, whom the Roman sword had left childless.

4. But when the stern features of Regulus were seen, and his colossal' form towering above the ambassadors who had returned with him from Rome; when the news

passed from lip to lip that the dreaded warrior, so far from advising the Roman senate to consent to an exchange of prisoners, had urged them to pursue, with exterminating vengeance, Carthage and Carthaginians, the multitude swayed to and fro like a forest beneath a tempest, and the rage and hate of that tumultuous throng vented itself in groans, and curses, and yells of vengeance. But calm, cold, and immovable as the marble walls around him, stood the Roman; and he stretched out his hand over that frenzied crowd, with gesture as proudly commanding as though he still stood at the head of the gleaming cohorts of Rome.

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5. The tumult ceased; the curse, half muttered, died upon the lip; and so intense was the silence, that the clanking of the brazen manacles upon the wrists of the captive fell sharp and full upon every ear in that vast assembly, as he thus addressed them:

6. "Ye doubtless thought-for ye judge of Roman virtue by your own - that I would break my plighted oath, rather than, returning, brook your vengeance. I might give reasons for this, in Punic comprehension, most foolish act of mine. I might speak of those eternal principles which make death for one's country a pleasure, not a pain. But, by great Jupiter! methinks I should debase myself to talk of such high things to you; to you, expert in womanly inventions; to you, well-skilled to drive a treacherous trade with simple Africans for ivory and gold! If the bright blood that fills my veins, transmitted free from godlike ancestry, were like that slimy ooze which stagnates in your arteries, I had remained at home, and broke my plighted oath to save my life.

7. "I am a Roman citizen; therefore have I returned, that ye might work your will upon this mass of flesh and bones, that I esteem no higher than the rags that cover them. Here, in your capital, do I defy you. Have I not

conquered your armies, fired your towns, and dragged your generals at my chariot wheels, since first my youthful arms could wield a spear? And do you think to see me crouch and cower before a tamed and shattered senate? The tearing of flesh and rending of sinews is but pastime compared with the mental agony that heaves my frame.

8. The moon has scarce yet waned since the proudest of Rome's proud matrons, the mother upon whose breast I slept, and whose fair brow so oft had bent over me before the noise of battle had stirred my blood, or the fierce toil of war nerved my sinews, did with fondest memory of bygone hours entreat me to remain. I have seen her, who, when my country called me to the field, did buckle on my harness with trembling hands, while the tears fell thick and fast down the hard corselet scales, I have seen her tear her gray locks and beat her aged breast, as on her knees she begged me not to return to Carthage; and all the assembled senate of Rome, grave and reverend men, proffered the same request. The puny torments which ye have in store to welcome me withal, shall be, to what I have endured, even as the murmur of a summer's brook to the fierce roar of angry surges on a rocky beach.

9. Last night, as I lay fettered in my dungeon, I heard a strange, ominous sound: it seemed like the distant march of some vast army, their harness clanging as they marched, when suddenly there stood by me Xanthippus, the Spartan general, by whose aid you conquered me, and, with a voice low as when the solemn wind moans through the leafless forest, he thus addressed me: "Roman, I come to bid thee curse, with thy dying breath, this fated city; know that in an evil moment, the Carthaginian generals, furious with rage that I had conquered thee, their conqueror, did basely murder me. And then they thought to stain my brightest honor. But, for this foul deed, the wrath of Jove shall rest upon them here and hereafter." And then he vanished.