emies.

You have fled from the rude arm of violence, from the flames of
bigotry, from the rod of lawless power: and you shall find
refuge in the bosom of freedom, of peace, and of Americans.

You have left your native land, a country doubtless ever dear to
you--a country for whose improvement in virtue and knowledge you
have long disinterestedly laboured, for which its rewards are
ingratitude, injustice and banishment. A country although now
presenting a prospect frightful to the eyes of humanity, yet once
the nurse of science, of arts, of heroes, and of freeman--a
country which although at present apparently self devoted to
destruction, we fondly hope may yet tread back the steps of infamy
and ruin, and once more rise conspicuous among the free nations of
the earth. In this advanced period of your life, when nature
demands the sweets of tranquility, you have been constrained to
encounter the tempestous deep, to risk disappointed prospects in a
foreign land, to give up the satisfaction of domestic quiet, to
tear yourself from the friends of your youth, from a numerous
acquaintance who revere and love you, and will long deplore your
loss.

We enter, Sir, with emotion and sympathy into the numerous
sacrifices you must have made, to an undertaking which so
eminently exhibits our country as an asylum for the persecuted and
oppressed, and into those regretful sensibilities your heart
experienced when the shores of your native land were lessening to
your view.

Alive to the impressions of this occasion we give you a warm and
hearty welcome into these United States. We trust a country worthy
of you; where Providence has unfolded a scene as new as it is
august, as felicitating as it is unexampled. The enjoyment of
liberty with but one disgraceful exception, pervades every class
of citizens. A catholic and sincere spirit of toleration regulates
society which rises into zeal when the sacred rights of humanity
are invaded. And there exists a sentiment of free and candid
inquiry which disdains shackles of tradition, promising a rich
harvest of improvement and the glorious triumphs of truth. We
hope, Sir, that the Great Being whose laws and works you have
made the study of your life, will smile upon and bless
yo