Ohio History Journal

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260 Ohio Arch

260        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

DISCOURSES OF REV. RHEES.

Through the courtesy of Mr. George A. Katzenberger, president

of the Greenville (Ohio) Historical Society, we have received duplicate

copies of two discourses by Rev. Morgan John Rhys, delivered at Green-

ville on July 4 and 5 respectively in the year 1795, before the officers

and army of Major General Anthony Wayne.

Rev. Morgan John Rhys, or, as it is also printed, Rhees, was born

in Graddfa, Llanfabon, Glamorganshire, South Wales, December 8th,

1760. When he delivered the addresses in Greenville, he was less than

thirty-five years of age. The pamphlet containing his address and calling

him "The Welsh-Baptist hero of civil and religious liberty of the eight-

eenth century," was compiled by John T. Griffith, a Baptist pastor, in

Pennsylvania. The pamphlet contains excerpts from his diary, and the

part of particular interest to us is the following:

"After having spent about two months in Georgia and

South Carolina, he came to Kentucky and then crossed the

Ohio River to East Greenville, where he addressed the United

States Army and about six or seven hundred Indians, on July

4th and 5th, 1795 (see Oration and Altar of Peace). He left

East Greenville about July 10th on his return tour and came

via Kentucky and Virginia back to the northern states. He

gives a graphic description of his journey on his mare Prim-

rose, as he called her, and preached at many places along this

route."

 

AN ORATION.

Delivered at Greenville, Headquarters of the Western Army, North-

west of the Ohio July 4th, 1795, by the Rev. Morgan J. Rhees.

Illustrious Americans! Noble Patriots! You commemorate a glor-

ious day-the Birthday of Freedom in the New World! Yes, Columbia,

thou art free. The twentieth year of thy independence commences this

day. Thou hast taken the lead in regenerating the world. Look back,

look forward; think of the past, anticipate the future and behold with

astonishment the transaction of the present time! The globe revolves on

the axis of Liberty; the new world has put the old in motion; the light

of truth, running rapid like lightning, flashes convictions in the heart of

every civilized nation. Yes the splendor of American remonstrance has

fallen so heavy on the head of the tyrant that other nations, encouraged

by her example, will extirpate all despots from the earth.

0, France, although I do not justify thy excesses, I venerate thy

magnanimity. If the sun of thy liberty has been eclipsed by a blood-

thirsty, Marat and a saturnine Robespierre, if their accomplices, the sons

of faction, will darken thy horizon, the energy of the nation, the un-