Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/38

THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS er, in the strife for your country. Behold, how altered! The same heavens are indeed over your heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else, how changed! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon ; you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charles- town. The ground strewed with the dead and the dying; the impetuous charge; the steady and successful repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the summoning of all that is manly to re- peated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death — all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights of yonder metrop- olis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw filled with wives and children and country- men in distress and terror, and looking with un- utterable emotions for the issue of the qombat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole, happy population, come out to wel- come and greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means of distinction and defense. All is peace; and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber in the grave. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils; and 28