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We take this occasion to express our deep sense and conviction of the value and importance of those sentiments in the last Governor's Message, which prize the purity of the elective franchise, and invoke, for the prosperity of institutions of this kind, a degree of honor, wisdom and magnanimity that party differences should never disturb.

And I am allowed especially to congratulate you on your auspicious relations to that cause of all parties, -- that cause which you Gentlemen of the Senate have so nobly announced, owned, declared and vindicated -- the holy, heaven-born cause of temperance!

"I will in naught extenuate, and set
Down naught in malice;

but you will hear me when I say that it would seem that the Governor of the world had made our own country the object on of his peculiar care and gracious benediction. His compassionate regard was manifested in enabling our venerated fathers to break the of rod of oppression and to plant the tree of political liberty in our own land. By His continued blessing, the achievement which thus challenges our admiration and gratitude, is acquiring fresh brilliancy from the benevolent action of the age. Learning from the history of by-gone times, that the duration of a republican government depends upon the virtue and intelligence of its citizens, our countrymen have adopted bold measures to promote the one, and disseminate the other. You are all familiar with the associations which have been formed and sustained by the combined energies of American enterprise, philanthropy, and patriotism. Among these, Senators, gentlemen of the assembly, and fellow citizens, none are more sanctioned by the general principles of humanity; none are more congenial with ardent love of country; none are more conducive to man's happiness; none are more connected with the prosperity of our dear-bought and free institutions; and none are more entitled to universal support, than all well-judged agencies and societies for the promotion of temperance.

All classes of society have experienced the ravages of the fell destroyer, whose influence you have thus endeavored more effectually to control. Distinction has not forbidden his approach, nor obscurity retarded his advancement. Wealth has not guarded its possessors, nor poverty protected its comfortless objects from the inroads of the monster. The man of splendid talents has not found security in his extraordinary powers, nor has he escaped whose faculties could excite no emotion of envy. Youth has not caused the sword of death to be sheathed, nor has age stayed the march of desolation. Intemperance, like the melody of the sirens has allured, and ruined for time and eternity those who have listened to its delusive lays!

Rome, while influenced by virtuous sentiment, was styled the mistress of the world. But she whose triumphs were graced by the rains of princes, and whose ensigns waved in the walk of conquered kingdoms, was intoxicated with success, and prostrated luxury. Thebes, animated by the example of her Epaminondas, rose to greatness, and was blessed with liberty. But on his demise, her virtue became impaired, and she sunk into original obscurity. Athens, the pride of literature and the arts, could heal freedom as well as the attainments of poets, historians, philosophers, and orators. Sparta, too, claimed as much, and great indeed were her provisions in behalf of liberty. But corruption undermined their bulwarks, and they fell to rise no more! In later times, France also aspired to republicanism, but it is certain, that in her first effort after urging her way through seas of blood, instead of attaining her object she became the land of despotism!

It remains to be seen, whether America will add one more to the list of fallen republics, or whether she will be preserved from the ravages of vice, and the corrupt ebullitions of popular feeling. The establishment of her government was viewed with zealous admiration, and its advance to distinction among the nations of the earth, is unparalleled in history. Foreign invasion will never present an obstruction to her rising greatness, if the people are persevering and virtuous. A vast ocean separates her from Europe, and as vast dangers forbid the approach of hostile fleets. Her greatest danger is to be apprehended; not from the sword of her enemies, but from the lions of vice; not from foes without, but from corruption within her own domain.

From drunkenness she has much to fear; more than from war, or pestilence, or famine. By it, above fifty thousand of her citizens are annually slain. By it, more than five hundred thousand are kept in readiness for any enterprise however base. By it, burdens are imposed upon the rich, and the poor made still more needy. By it, our almshouses are filled with paupers, our prisons with felons, our hospitals with lunatics. By it, the United States are supposed to be taxed for the cost of liquor consumed, the value of time wasted, and the cost of the pauperism and crime it occasions, more than one hundred and fifty millions of dollars.