Joseph Hopkinson (1770 - 1842) (11) Manuscript speeches, in makeshift pamphlet bindings, presented by Hopkinson at The Mercantile Library Philadelphia 1829 and again in 1836. The series is directed toward an unnamed "Society" but presumably the members of The Mercantile Library as the shifted from a subscription library to issuing stock in 1826. The speeches are "A Course of Lectures on Commerical Law". The first speech leans heavily on the importance of education, ambition, and American ingenuity. Each of the 11 speeches average around 30 pages, filled with corrections and notes. The first ends as follows: "You are merchants - but remember that your are something more than this - you do not live in a land of nobles and priviledged classes, who might hold you in a subordinate station - you are Citizens of the United States; members of a great and growing republick, where there are none greater than you, but as their talents, their knowledge, their virtues, their industry, their usefullness, may make them so - the whole field of human honour and distinction is spread before you - Be prepared to enter upon it; be ready and anle to sustain the duties your Country may impose on you in any department of service - you are American Gentlemen, and should be wanting in none of the accomplishments which belong to that exalted character - Let me earnestly entreat you, especially my young fellow Citizens, to feel it, deeply to feel it to be your highest temporal duty to emblazed the fame of your Country, to encrease her stock of intelligence and moral worth, and to make her the chosen land of Virture, Knowledge and Independence." Sanderson, in his "Life of the Signers," referring to the impeachment proceedings against Judge Samuel Chase, said : "The speech of Mr. Hopkinson, then a very young man, has not been exceeded as a specimen of powerful and brilliant eloquence, in the forensic oratory of the country." From the Francis Hopkinson Family Archives