An address delivered before the Halifax Mechanics’ Institute on the 5th November, 1834 by Joseph Howe

“Far be it from me to wish, on this occasion, to draw national distinctions. I desire rather to show you how the certainty that your descendants will be one race, having a common attachment to Nova Scotia, and knowing no higher obligation than to love and honor her, ought to draw you closer to each other in friendly union, and make you solicitous to give that direction to their minds which shall best secure their happiness, and promote the welfare of their common country.”

“…from Virginia, with her 66,000 square miles, covered with flourishing towns and more than a million population – from New York, with her magnificent rivers, princely cities, and two millions of people – from Massachusetts, with her extensive border crowded with activity and intelligence – from the Canadas, with their national dimensions, great natural resources, and rapidly increasing population – to our own little province, hemmed in by the Atlantic and its bays, and presenting an outline as comparatively insignificant as her numbers, we may be pardoned if, at times, the desire to elevate and adorn our native land, is borne down by a sense of the competition we must encounter, and the apparent hopelessness of the task.”

Howe, Joseph, 1804-1873. An Address Delivered Before the Halifax Mechanics’ Institute On the 5th November, 1834. Halifax, N.S.: [s.n.], 1834. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t9d51gg7j