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 MR. WEBSTER'S ADDRESS 
 
 i 
 
 ON THE COMPLETION OF 
 
 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 
 
 JUNE 17, 1843. 
 
ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 BUNKER HILL, JUNE 17, 1843, 
 
 COMPLETION OF THE MONUMENT. 
 
 BY DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 ~y 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
 1843. 
 

 Boston, June 29, 1843. 
 Hon. Daniel Webstbr, 
 
 Deak Sir, — As the official organ of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, the a^ceable 
 duty of transmitting to you the enclosed vote of the Committee of Arrangements, devolves 
 upon me — a duty which I perform with more than ordinary satisfaction, since it affords me 
 an opportunity of expressing, not only the gratification which that Committee feels, in 
 common with the mass of their fellow-citizens, for this new testimony of your undying faith- 
 fulness to the principles of rational and enlightened liberty, but to add the assurances of the 
 unvarying personal regard of 
 
 Yours, ever and truly, 
 
 JOS. T. BUCKINGHAM, 
 
 Pres. B. H. M. A. 
 
 Bunker Hill Monument Association, | 
 In Committee of Arrangements, June 29, 1843. ) 
 Voted, That this Committee, for themselves, and in the name and on behalf of their 
 associates, the Directors and Members of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, present 
 to the Hon. Daniel Webster their unfeigned thanks for his Address, delivered at Bunker 
 Hill on the 17th inst., — an Address replete with national feeling and patriotic sentiment. And 
 in order that it may be generally spread throughout the nation, and transmitted to those who 
 may come after us, in an improved and authentic form, it is further 
 
 Voted, That Mr. Webster be requested to prepare a copy of it for the press. 
 
 Joseph T. Buckingham, Es^. President of the SunJcer Hill Monument Association. 
 
 Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th of June, 
 transmitting a Resolution of the Committee of Arrangements for the late Celebration. 
 
 I cheerfully comply with the request of the Committee, and shall send you a copy of the 
 Address. 
 
 Yours, with much true regard, 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 Boston, July 3, 1843. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by T. R. Marvin, in the Clerk's 
 Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 A DUTY has been performed. A work of gratitude 
 and patriotism is completed. This structure, having 
 its foundations in soil which drank deep of early 
 revolutionary blood, has at length reached its des- 
 tined height, and now lifts its summit to the skies. 
 
 We have assembled to celebrate the accomplish- 
 ment of this undertaking, and to indulge, afresh, in 
 the recollection of the great event, which it is design- 
 ed to commemorate. Eighteen years, more than half 
 the ordinary duration of a generation of mankind, 
 have elapsed, since the Corner-stone of this Monu- 
 ment was laid. The hopes of its projectors rested 
 on voluntary contributions, private munificence, and 
 the general favor of the public. These hopes have 
 not been disappointed. Donations have been made 
 by individuals, in some cases of large amount, and 
 smaller sums have been contributed by thousands. 
 All who regard the object, itself as important, and 
 its accomplishment, therefore, as a good attained, 
 will entertain sincere respect and gratitude for the 
 unwearied efforts of the successive Presidents, Boards 
 of Directors, and Committees of the Association, 
 
which has had the general control of the work. 
 The Architect, equally entitled to our thanks and 
 commendation, will find other reward, also, for his 
 labor and skill, in the beauty and elegance of the 
 obelisk itself, and the distinction which, as a work 
 of art, it confers on him. 
 
 At a period when the prospects of further pro- 
 gress in the undertaking were gloomy and discourag- 
 ing, the Mechanic Association, by a most praise- 
 worthy and vigorous effort, raised new funds for 
 carrying it forward, and saw them applied with 
 fidelity, economy and skill. It is a grateful duty to 
 make public acknowledgments of such timely and 
 efficient aid. 
 
 The last effort, and the last contribution, were 
 from a different source. Garlands of grace and 
 elegance were destined to crown a work, which had 
 its commencement in manly patriotism. The win- 
 ning power of the sex addressed itself to the public, 
 and all that was needed to carry the monument to 
 its proposed height, and give to it its finish, was 
 promptly supplied. The mothers and the daughters 
 of the land contributed thus, most successfully, to 
 whatever of beauty is in the Monument itself, or 
 whatever of utility and public benefit and gratifica- 
 tion, in its completion. 
 
 Of those, with whom the plan of erecting, on this 
 spot, a monument, worthy of the event to be com- 
 memorated, originated, many are now present ; but 
 others, alas ! have themselves become subjects of 
 monumental inscription. William Tudor, an accom- 
 plished scholar, a distinguished writer, a most amia- 
 
ble man, allied, both by birth and sentiment, to the 
 patriots of the [Revolution, died, while on public 
 service abroad, and novi^ lies buried in a foreign 
 land. William Sullivan, a name fragrant of Revo- 
 lutionary merit, and of public service and public 
 virtue, who himself partook, in a high degree, of the 
 respect and confidence of the community, and yet 
 was always most loved where best known, has also 
 been gathered to his fathers. And last, George 
 Blake, a lawyer of learning and eloquence, a man of 
 wit and of talent, of social qualities the most agree- 
 able and fascinating, and of gifts which enabled him 
 to exercise large sway over public assemblies, has 
 closed his human career. I know that in the 
 crowds before me, there are those, from whose eyes 
 copious tears will flow, at the mention of these 
 names. But such mention is due to their general 
 character, their public and private virtues, and es- 
 pecially on this occasion, to the spirit and zeal, with 
 which they entered into the undertaking, which is 
 now completed. 
 
 I have spoken only of those who are no longer 
 numbered with the living. But a long life, now 
 drawing towards its close, always distinguished by 
 acts of public spirit, humanity, and charity, forming 
 a character, which has already become historical, 
 and sanctified by public regard, and the affection 
 of friends, may confer, even on the living, the pro- 
 per immunity of the dead, and be the fit subject of 
 honorable mention, and warm commendation. Of 
 the early projectors of the design of this monument, 
 one of the most prominent, the m.ost zealous, and 
 
6 
 
 the most efficient, is Thomas H. Perkins. It was 
 beneath his ever hospitable roof that those whom I 
 have mentioned, and others yet living and now 
 present, having assembled for the purpose, adopted 
 the first step towards erecting a Monument on Bun- 
 ker Hill. Long may he remain, with unimpaired 
 faculties, in the wide field of his usefulness. His 
 charities have distilled, like the dews of heaven ; he 
 has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked ; he has 
 given sight to the blind ; and for such virtues there 
 is a reward on high, of which all human memorials, 
 all language of brass and stone, are but humble 
 types and attempted imitations. 
 
 Time and nature have had their course, in dimin- 
 ishing the number of those whom we met here on 
 the 17th of June, 1825. Most of the Revolutionary 
 characters then present have since deceased ; and 
 Lafayette sleeps in his native land. Yet the name 
 and blood of Warren are with us ; the kindred of 
 Putman are also here ; and near me, universally 
 beloved for his character and his virtues, and now 
 venerable for his years, sits the son of the noble - 
 hearted and daring Prescott. Gideon Foster of 
 Danvers, Enos Reynolds of Boxford, Phineas John- 
 son, Robert Andrews, Elijah Dresser, Josiah Cleave- 
 land, Jesse Smith, Philip Bagley, Needham May- 
 nard, Roger Plaisted, Joseph Stephens, Nehemiah 
 Porter, and James Harvey, who bore arms for their 
 country, either at Concord and Lexington, on the 
 19th of April, or on Bunker Hill, all now far advan- 
 ced in age, have come here to-day, to look once 
 more on the field of the exercise of their valor, and 
 to receive a hearty outpouring of our respect. 
 
They have long outlived the troubles and dangers 
 of the Revolution ; they have outlived the evils 
 arising from the want of a united and efficient Gov- 
 ernment ; they have outlived the pendency of immi- 
 nent dangers to the public liberty ; they have outlived 
 nearly all their contemporaries ; but they have not 
 outlived — they cannot outlive — the affectionate grat- 
 itude of their countrv. Heaven has not allotted to 
 this generation an opportunity of rendering high 
 services, and manifesting strong personal devotion, 
 such as they rendered and manifested, and in such a 
 cause as that, which roused the patriotic fires of their 
 youthful breasts, and nerved the strength of their 
 arms. But we may praise what we cannot equal, 
 and celebrate actions which we were not born to 
 perform. Pulchrum est henefacere reipuhlicce, etiam 
 bene dicere hand ahsurdum est. 
 
 The Bunker Hill Monument is finished. Here it 
 stands. Fortunate in the high natural eminence on 
 which it is placed — higher, infinitely higher in its 
 objects and purpose, it rises over the land, and over 
 the sea, and visible, at their homes, to three hun- 
 dred thousand of the People of Massachusetts, — 
 it stands, a memorial of the last, and a monitor to 
 the present, and to all succeeding generations. I 
 have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If it 
 had been without any other design than the creation 
 of a work of art, the granite, of which it is com- 
 posed, would have slept in its native bed. It has a 
 purpose ; and that purpose gives it its character. 
 That purpose enrobes it with dignity and moral 
 grandeur. That well known purpose it is, which 
 causes us to look up to it with a feeling of awe. 
 
8 
 
 It is itself the orator of this occasion. It is not 
 from mj lips, it could not be from any human lips, 
 that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow, 
 most competent to move and excite the vast multi- 
 tudes around me. The powerful speaker stands 
 motionless before us. It is a plain shaft. It 
 bears no inscriptions, fronting to the rising sun, from 
 which the future antiquarian shall wipe the dust. 
 Nor does the rising sun cause tones of music to issue 
 from its summit. But at the rising of the sun, and 
 at the setting of the sun, in the blaze of noonday, 
 and beneath the milder effulgence of lunar light, it 
 looks, it speaks, it acts, to the full comprehension of 
 every American mind, and the awakening of glow- 
 ing enthusiasm in every American heart. Its silent, 
 but awful utterance ; its deep pathos, as it brings to 
 our contemplation the 17th of June, 1775, and the 
 consequences which have resulted to us, to our coun- 
 try, and to the world, from the events of that day, 
 and which we know must continue to rain influence 
 on the destinies of mankind, to the end of time ; the 
 elevation with which it raises us high above the 
 ordinary feelings of life, surpass all that the study of 
 the closet, or even the inspiration of genius can pro- 
 duce. To-day, it speaks to us. Its future audito- 
 ries will be the successive generations of men, as 
 they rise up before it, and gather around it. Its 
 speech will be of patriotism and courage ; of civil 
 and religious liberty ; of free government ; of the 
 moral improvement and elevation of mankind ; and 
 of the immortal memory of those who with heroic 
 devotion have sacrificed their lives for their country. 
 In the older world, numerous fabrics still exist. 
 
reared by human hands, but whose object has been 
 lost, in the darkness of ages. They are now monu- 
 ments of nothing, but the labor and skill, which 
 constructed them. 
 
 ( The mighty pyramid itself, half buried in the 
 sands of Africa, has nothing to bring down and re- 
 port to us, but the power of kings and the servitude 
 of the people. If it had any purpose beyond that of 
 a mausoleum, such purpose has perished from history, 
 and from tradition. If asked for its moral object, its 
 admonition, its sentiment, its instruction to mankind, 
 or any high end in its erection, it is silent — silent as 
 the millions which lie in the dust at its base, and in 
 the catacombs which surround it. Without a just 
 moral object, therefore, made known to man, though 
 raised against the skies, it excites only conviction of 
 power, mixed with strange wonder. But if the 
 civilization of the present race of men, founded as it 
 is, in solid science, the true knowledge of nature, and 
 vast discoveries in art, and which is stimulated and 
 purified by moral sentiment, and by the truths of 
 Christianity, be not destined to destruction, before 
 the final termination of human existence on earth, 
 the object and purpose of this edifice will be known, 
 till that hour shall come. And even if civilization 
 should be subverted, and the truths of the Christian 
 Religion obscured by a new deluge of barbarism, the 
 memory of Bunker Hill and the American Revolution 
 will still be elements and parts of the knowledge, 
 which shall be possessed by the last man, to whom 
 the light of civilization and Christianity shall be 
 extended. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 This celebration is honored by the presence of the 
 Chief Executive Magistrate of the Union. An oc- 
 casion so National in its object and character, and 
 so much connected with that Revolution, from which 
 the Government sprang, at the head of which he is 
 placed, may well receive from him this mark of at- 
 tention and respect. Well acquainted with York- 
 town, the scene of the last great military struggle of 
 the Revolution, his eye now surveys the field of 
 Bunker Hill, the theatre of the first of those impor- 
 tant conflicts. He sees where Warren fell, where 
 Putnam, and Prescott, and Stark, and Knowlton, 
 and Brooks, fought. He beholds the spot, where a 
 thousand trained soldiers of England were smitten 
 to the earth, in the first eifort of Revolutionary war, 
 by the arm of a bold and determined yeomanry, 
 contending for liberty and their country. And while 
 all assembled here entertain towards him sincere 
 personal good wishes, and the high respect due to his 
 elevated office and station, it is not to be doubted, 
 that he enters, with true American feeling, into the 
 patriotic enthusiasm, kindled by the occasion, which 
 animates the multitudes which surround him. 
 
 His Excellency, the Governor of the Common- 
 wealth, the Governor of Rhode Island, and the other 
 distinguished public men, whom we have the honor 
 to receive as visitors and guests, to-day, will cordially 
 unite in a celebration connected with the great event 
 of the Revolutionary war. 
 
 No name in the history of 1775 and 1776 is more 
 distinguished than that borne by an ex-president of 
 the United States, whom we expected to see here, 
 
11 
 
 but whose ill health prevents his attendance. When- 
 ever popular rights were to be asserted, an Adams 
 was present ; and when the time came, for the for- 
 mal Declaration of Independence, it was the voice 
 of an Adams, that shook the Halls of Congress. 
 We wish we could have welcomed to us, this day, 
 the inheritor of Revolutionary blood, and the just 
 and worthy Representative of high Revolutionary 
 names, merit and services. 
 
 Banners and badges, processions and flags, an- 
 nounce to us, that amidst this uncounted throng are 
 thousands of natives of New England, now resi- 
 dents in other States. Welcome, ye kindred names, 
 with kindred blood ! From the broad savannas of 
 the South, from the newer regions of the West, from 
 amidst the hundreds of thousands of men of Eastern 
 origin, who cultivate the rich valley of the Genesee, 
 or live along the chain of the Lakes, from the 
 mountains of Pennsylvania, and the thronged cities 
 of the coast, welcome, welcome ! Wherever else 
 you may be strangers, here you are all at home. 
 You assemble at this shrine of liberty, near the 
 family altars, at which your earliest devotions were 
 paid to Heaven ; near to the temples of worship, 
 first entered by you, and near to the schools and 
 colleges, in which your education was received. 
 You come hither with a glorious ancestry of liberty. 
 You bring names, which are on the rolls of Lexing- 
 ton, Concord and Bunker Hill. You come, some 
 of you, once more to be embraced by an aged Revo- 
 lutionary Father, or to receive another, perhaps, 
 a last blessing, bestowed in love and tears, by a 
 
12 
 
 mother, yet surviving to witness, and to enjoy, your 
 prosperity and happiness. 
 
 But if family associations and the recollections of 
 the past, bring you hither with greater alacrity, and 
 mingle with your greeting much of local attachment, 
 and private affection, greeting also be given, free 
 and hearty greeting, to every American citizen, who 
 treads this sacred soil, with patriotic feeling, and 
 respires with pleasure, in an atmosphere perfumed 
 with the recollections of 1775. This occasion is 
 respectable — nay, it is grand, it is sublime, by the 
 nationality of its sentiment. In the seventeen mil- 
 lions of happy people, who form the American com- 
 munity, there is not one who has not an interest in 
 this Monument, as there is not one, that has not a 
 deep and abiding interest in that which it com- 
 memorates. 
 
 Wo betide the man, who brings to this day's 
 worship feeling less than wholly American ! Wo 
 betide the man, who can stand here with the fires of 
 local resentments burning, or the purpose of foment- 
 ing local jealousies, and the strifes of local interests, 
 festering and rankling, in his heart. Union, estab- 
 lished in justice, in patriotism, and the most plain 
 and obvious common interest ; union, founded on 
 the same love of liberty, cemented by blood shed 
 in the same common cause ; union has been the 
 source of all our glory and greatness thus far, and 
 is the ground of all our highest hopes. This column 
 stands on Union. I know not that it might not 
 keep its position, if the American Union, in the 
 mad conflict of human passions, and in the strife 
 
13 
 
 of parties and factions, should be broken up and 
 destroyed. I know not that it would totter and fall 
 to the earth, and mingle its fragments with the frag- 
 ments of Liberty and the Constitution, when State 
 should be separated from State, and faction and dis- 
 memberment obliterate forever all the hopes of the 
 founders of our Republic, and the great inheritance 
 of their children. It might stand. But who, from 
 ben ea th he weight of mortification and shame, that 
 would oppress him, could look up to behold it ? Whose 
 eye-balls would not be seared, by such a spectacle ? 
 For my part, should I live to such a time, I shall 
 avert my eyes from it, forever. 
 
 It is not as a mere military encounter of hostile 
 armies, that the battle of Bunker Hill presents its 
 principal claim to attention. Yet, even as a mere 
 battle, there were circumstances attending it, extra- 
 ordinary in character, and entitling it to peculiar 
 distinction. It was fought on this eminence ; in the 
 neighborhood of yonder city ; in the presence of 
 more spectators than there were combatants in the 
 conflict. Men, women, and children, from every 
 commanding position, were gazing at the battle, and 
 looking for its result with all the eagerness natural 
 to those who knew that the issue was fraught with 
 the deepest consequences to themselves, personally, 
 as well as to their country. Yet, on the sixteenth 
 of June, 1775, there was nothing around this hill 
 but verdure and culture. There was, indeed, the 
 note of awful preparation in Boston. There was 
 ihe provincial army at Cambridge, with its right 
 flank resting on Dorchester, and its left on Chelsea. 
 
14 
 
 But here, all was peace. Tranquillity reigned 
 around. 
 
 On the seventeenth, every thing was changed. 
 On this height had arisen, in the night, a redoubt, 
 built by Prescott, and in which he held command. 
 Perceived by the enemy at dawn, it was immediately 
 cannonaded from the floating batteries in the river, 
 and from the opposite shore. And then ensued the 
 hurry of preparation in Boston, and soon the troops 
 of Britain embarked in the attempt to dislodge the 
 colonists. In an hour, every thing indicated an im- 
 mediate and bloody conflict. Love of liberty on 
 one side, proud defiance of rebellion on the other ; 
 hopes and fears, and courage and daring, on both 
 sides, animated the hearts of the combatants, as they 
 hung on the edge of battle. 
 
 I suppose it would be difficult in a military point 
 of view, to ascribe to the leaders on either side, any 
 just motive for the engagement which followed. On 
 the one hand, it could not have been very important to 
 the Americans to attempt to hem the British within 
 the town by advancing one single post a quarter of 
 a mile ; while on the other hand, if the British found 
 it essential to dislodge the American troops, they had 
 it in their power, at no expense of life. By moving 
 up their ships and batteries, they could have com- 
 pletely cut off all communication with the main land 
 over the neck, and the forces in the redoubt would 
 have been reduced to a state of famine in forty-eight 
 hours. 
 
 But that was not the day for any such considera- 
 tions, on either side ! Both parties were anxious to 
 
13 
 
 try the strength of their arms. The pride of Eng- 
 land would not permit the rebels, as she termed 
 them, to defy her to the teeth ; and without, for a 
 moment, calculating the cost, the British general 
 determined to destroy the fort immediately. On 
 the other side, Prescott and his gallant followers 
 longed and thirsted for a decisive trial of strength 
 and of courage. They wished a battle, and wished 
 it at once. And this is the true secret of the move- 
 ments on this hill. 
 
 I will not attempt to describe that battle. The 
 cannonading — the landing of the British — their ad- 
 vance—the coolness with which the charge was 
 met — the repulse — -the second attack — the second 
 repulse — the burning of Charlestown — and finally 
 the closing assault, and the slow retreat of the 
 Americans — the history of all these is familiar. 
 
 But the consequences of the battle of Bunker 
 Hill are greater than those of any ordinary conflict, 
 although between armies of far greater force, and 
 terminating with more immediate advantage, on the 
 one side, or the other. It was the first great battle of 
 the Revolution ; and not only the first blow, but the 
 blow which determined the contest. It did not, in- 
 deed, put an end to the war, but in the then exist- 
 ing hostile state of feeling, the difficulties could 
 only be referred to the arbitration of the sword. 
 And one thing is certain ; that after the New Eng- 
 land troops had shown themselves able to face and 
 repulse the regulars, it was decided that peace never 
 could be established, but upon the basis of the Inde- 
 pendence of the colonies. When the sun of that 
 
16 
 
 day went down, the event of Independence was 
 no longer doubtful. In a few days, Washington 
 heard of the battle, and he inquh'ed if the militia 
 had stood the fire of the regulars ? And when 
 told that they had not only stood that fire, but re- 
 served their own till the enemy was within eight 
 rods, and then poured it in with tremendous effect, 
 — " then," exclaimed he, " the liberties of the 
 country are safe !" 
 
 The consequences of this battle were just of the 
 same importance as the Revolution itself. 
 
 If there was nothing of value in the principles of 
 the American Revolution, then there is nothing valu- 
 able in the battle of Bunker Hill and its conse- 
 quences. But if the Revolution was an era in the 
 history of man, favorable to human happiness — if it 
 was an event which marked the progress of man, 
 all over the world, from despotism to liberty — then 
 this Monument is not raised without cause. Then, 
 the battle of Bunker Hill is not an event undeserving 
 celebrations, commemorations and rejoicings, now, 
 and in all coming times. 
 
 What then is the true and peculiar principle of 
 the American Revolution, and of the systems of 
 government which it has confirmed and established ? 
 The truth is, that the American Revolution was 
 not caused by the instantaneous discovery of prin- 
 ciples of government before unheard of, or the prac- 
 tical adoption of political ideas, such as had never 
 before entered into the minds of men. It was but 
 the full development of principles of government, 
 forms of society, and political sentiments, the origin 
 
17 
 
 of all which lay back two centuries in English and 
 American history. 
 
 The discovery of America, its colonization by the 
 nations of Europe, the history and progress of the 
 colonies, from their establishment, to the time when 
 the principal of them threw off their allegiance to 
 the respective States which had planted them, and 
 founded governments of their own, constitute one of 
 the most interesting trains of events in human 
 annals. These events occupied three hundred 
 j^ears ; during which period civilization and knowl- 
 edge made steady progress in the old world ; so that 
 Europe, at the commence uient of the nineteenth 
 century, had become greatly changed from that 
 Europe which began the colonization of America at 
 the close of the fifteenth, or the commencement of 
 the sixteenth. And what is most material to my 
 present purpose is, that in the progress of the first 
 of these centuries, that is to say, from the discovery 
 of America to the settlements of Virginia and Mas- 
 sachusetts, political and religious events took place, 
 which most materially affected the state of society, 
 and the sentiments of mankind, especially in Eng- 
 land, and in parts of Continental Europe. After a 
 few feeble and unsuccessful efforts by England, under 
 Henry the Seventh, to plant colonies in America, no 
 designs of that kind were prosecuted for a long 
 period, either by the English government, or any 
 of its subjects. Without inquiring into the causes 
 of this delay, its consequences are sufficiently 
 clear and striking. England in this lapse of a 
 century, unknown to herself, but under the provi- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 dence of God, and the influence of events, was 
 fitting herself for the work of colonizing North 
 America, on such principles, and by such men, as 
 should spread the English name and English blood, 
 in time, over a great portion of the Western hemis- 
 phere. The commercial spirit was greatly fostered 
 by several laws passed in Henry the Seventh's 
 reign ; and in the same reign encouragement was 
 given to arts and manufactures in the Eastern 
 counties, and some not unimportant modifications of 
 the feudal system took place, by allowing the 
 breaking of entails. These, and other measures, 
 and other occurrences, were making way for a new 
 class of society to emerge, and show itself, in a 
 military and feudal age ; a middle class, — between 
 the barons or great landholders, and the retainers 
 of the crown, on the one side ; and the tenants 
 of the crown and barons, and agricultural and 
 other laborers, on the other side. With the rise 
 and growth of this new class of society, not only 
 did commerce and the arts increase, but better 
 education, a greater degree of knowledge, juster 
 notions of the true ends of government, and senti- 
 ments favorable to civil liberty, began to spread 
 abroad, and become more and more common. But 
 the plants springing from these seeds, were of slow 
 growth. The character of English society had 
 indeed begun to undergo a change ; but changes of 
 national character are ordinarily the work of time. 
 Operative causes were, however, evidently in ex- 
 istence, and sure to produce, ultimately, their proper 
 effect. From the accession of Henry VH., to the 
 
19 
 
 breaking out of the civil wars, England enjoyed 
 much more exemption from war, foreign and do- 
 mestic, than for a long period before, and during 
 the controversy between the houses of York and 
 Lancaster. These years of peace were favorable 
 to commerce and the arts. Commerce and the 
 arts augmented general and individual knowledge ; 
 and knowledge is the only fountain, both of the 
 love, and the principles of human liberty. Other 
 powerful causes soon came into active play. The 
 reformation of Luther broke out, kindling up the 
 minds of men afresh, leading to new habits of 
 thought, and awakening in individuals energies 
 before unknown, even to themselves. The religious 
 controversies of this period changed society, as well 
 as religion ; indeed, it would be easy to prove, if 
 this occasion were proper for it, that they changed 
 society to a considerable extent, where they did not 
 change the religion of the state. They changed 
 man, himself, in his modes of thought, his conscious- 
 ness of his own powers, and his desire of intellectual 
 attainment. The spirit of commercial and foreign 
 adventure, therefore, on the one hand, which had 
 gained so much strength and influence, since the 
 time of the discovery of America, and, on the other, 
 the assertion and maintenance of religious liberty, 
 having their source indeed in the Reformation, but 
 continued, diversified, and continually strengthened 
 by the subsequent divisions of sentiment and opinion 
 among the reformers themselves, and this love of 
 religious liberty drawing after it, or bringing along 
 with it, as it always does, an ardent devotion to the 
 principle of civil liberty also, were the powerful 
 
20 
 
 influences, under which character was formed, and 
 men trained, for the great work of introducing 
 English civilization, English law, and what is more 
 than all, Anglo-Saxon blood, into the wilderness of 
 North America. Raleigh and his companions may 
 be considered as the creatures, principally, of the 
 first of these causes. High-spirited, full of the love 
 of personal adventure, excited too, in some degree, 
 by the hopes of sudden riches from the discovery of 
 mines of the precious metals, and not unwilling to 
 diversify the labors of settling a colony with occa- 
 sional cruising against the Spaniards in the West 
 Indian seas, they crossed and recrossed the ocean, 
 with a frequency which surprises us, when, we 
 consider the state of navigation, and which evinces 
 a most daring spirit. 
 
 The other cause peopled New England. The 
 May-flower sought our shores under no high 
 wrought spirit of commercial adventure, no love of 
 gold, no mixture of purpose, warlike or hostile, to 
 any human being. Like the dove from the ark, she 
 had put forth only to find rest. Solemn supplica- 
 tions on the shore of the sea in Holland, had invoked 
 for her, at her departure, the blessings of Providence. 
 The stars which guided her were the unobscured 
 constellations of civil and religious liberty. Her 
 deck was the altar of the living God. Fervent 
 prayers from bended knees, mingled, morning and 
 evening, with the voices of ocean, and the sighing 
 of the wind in her shrouds. Every prosperous 
 breeze, which, gently swelling her sails, helped the 
 Pilgrims onward in their course, awoke new anthems 
 of praise ; and when the elements were wrought 
 
21 
 
 into fury, neither the tempest, tossing their fragile 
 bark like a feather, nor the darkness and howling of 
 the midnight storm, ever disturbed, in man or 
 woman, the firm and settled purpose of their souls, 
 to undergo all, and to do all, that the meekest 
 patience, the boldest resolution, and the highest 
 trust in God, could enable human beings to suffer or 
 to perform. 
 
 Some differences may, doubtless, be traced at this 
 day, between the descendants of the early colonists 
 of Virginia and those of New England, owing to 
 the different influences and different circumstances 
 under which the respective settlements were made ; 
 but only enough to create a pleasing variety in the 
 midst of a general family resemblance. 
 
 « . facies, non omnibus una, 
 
 " Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sorores." 
 
 But the habits, sentiments, and objects of both, soon 
 became modified by local causes, growing out of 
 their condition in the New World ; and as this con- 
 dition was essentially alike in both, and as both at 
 once adopted the same general rules and principles 
 of English jurisprudence, and became accustomed to 
 the authority of representative bodies, these differ- 
 ences gradually diminished. They disappeared by 
 the progress of time, and the influence of intercourse. 
 The necessity of some degree of union and co-opera- 
 tion to defend themselves against the savage tribes, 
 tended to excite in them mutual respect and regard. 
 They fought together in the wars against France. 
 The great and common cause of the Revolution 
 
22 
 
 bound them to one another by new links of brother- 
 hood ; and finally, fortunately, happily and gloriously, 
 the present constitution of government united them 
 to form the Great Republic of the world, and bound 
 up their interest and fortunes, till the whole earth 
 sees that there is now for them, in present posses- 
 sion, as well as future hope, only " One Country, 
 One Constitution, and One Destiny." 
 
 The colonization of the tropical region, and the 
 whole of the southern parts of the continent, by 
 Spain and Portugal, was conducted on other princi- 
 ples, under the influence of other motives, and fol- 
 lowed by far different consequences. From the time 
 of its discovery, the Spanish Government pushed 
 forward its settlements in America, not only with 
 vigor, but with eagerness ; so that long before the 
 first permanent English settlement had been accom- 
 plished, in what is now the United States, Spain 
 had conquered Mexico, Peru, and Chili ; and stretch- 
 ed her power over nearly all the territory she ever 
 acquired in this continent. The rapidity of these 
 conquests is to be ascribed in a great degree, to the 
 eagerness, not to say the rapacity of those numerous 
 bands of adventurers, who were stimulated by indi- 
 vidual interests, and private hopes, to subdue im- 
 mense regions, and take possession of them in the 
 name of the crown of Spain. The mines of gold 
 and silver were the excitements to these efforts, and 
 accordingly settlements were generally made, and 
 Spanish authority established, on the immediate eve 
 of the subjugation of territory, that the native popu- 
 lation might be set to work by their new Spanish 
 
23 
 
 masters, in the mines. From these facts, the love 
 of gold — gold, not produced by industry, nor accu- 
 mulated by commerce, but gold, dug from its native 
 bed in the bowels of the earth, and that earth rav- 
 ished from its rightful possessors by every possible 
 degree of enormity, cruelty and crime, was long 
 the governing passion in Spanish wars, and Spanish 
 settlements in America. Even Columbus himself 
 did not wholly escape the influence of this base 
 motive. In his early voyages we find him passing 
 from island to island, inquiring everywhere for gold ; 
 as if God had opened the new world to the knowl- 
 edge of the old, only to gratify a passion equally 
 senseless and sordid ; and to offer up millions of an 
 unoffending race of men to the destruction of the 
 sword, sharpened both by cruelty and rapacity. 
 And yet Columbus was far above his age and 
 country. Enthusiastic, indeed, but sober, religious 
 and magnanimous ; born to great things and capa- 
 ble of high sentiments, as his noble discourse before 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as the whole history 
 of his life, shows. Probably he sacrificed much to 
 the known sentiments of others, and addressed to 
 his followers motives likely to influence them. At 
 the same time it is evident that he himself looked 
 upon the world which he discovered as a world of 
 wealth, all ready to be seized and enjoyed. 
 
 The conquerers and the European settlers of Span- 
 ish America w^ere mainly military commanders and 
 common soldiers. The monarchy of Spain was not 
 transferred to this hemisphere, but it acted in it, as 
 it acted at home, through its ordinary means, and its 
 
24 
 
 true representative, military force. The robbery 
 and destruction of the native race was the achieve- 
 ment of standing armies, in the right of the king, 
 and by his authority ; fighting in his name, for the 
 aggrandizement of his power, and the extension of 
 his prerogatives ; with military ideas under arbitra- 
 ry maxims, a portion of that dreadful instrumentality 
 by which a perfect despotism governs a people. As 
 there was no liberty in Spain, how could liberty be 
 transmitted to Spanish colonies? 
 
 The colonists of English America were of the 
 people, and a people already free. They were of 
 the middle, industrious, and already prosperous class, 
 the inhabitants of commercial and manufacturing 
 cities, among whom liberty first revived and respir- 
 ed, after a sleep of a thousand years, in the bosom 
 of the dark ages. Spain descended on the new 
 world in the armed and terrible image of her mon- 
 archy and her soldiery ; England approached it in 
 the winning and popular garb of personal rights, 
 public protection and civil freedom. England trans- 
 planted liberty to America ; Spain transplanted 
 power. England, through the agency of private 
 companies, and the efforts of individuals, colonized 
 this part of North America, by industrious indi- 
 viduals, making their own way in the wilderness, 
 defending themselves against the savages, recogniz- 
 ing their right to the soil, and with a general honest 
 purpose of introducing knowledge as well as Chris- 
 tianity among them. Spain stooped on South 
 America, like a falcon on its prey. Every thing 
 was force. Territories were acquired, by fire and 
 
25 
 
 sword. Cities were destroyed by fire and sword. 
 Hundreds of thousands of human beings fell by fire 
 and sword. Even conversion to Christianity was 
 attempted by fire and sword. 
 
 Behold, then, fellow-citizens, the difference result- 
 ing from the operation of the two principles ! Here, 
 to-day, on the summit of Bunker-Hill, and at the 
 foot of this Monument, behold the difference! I 
 would, that the fifty thousand voices present could 
 proclaim it, with a shout which should be heard over 
 the globe. Our inheritance was of liberty, secured 
 and regulated by law, and enlightened by religion 
 and knowledge ; that of South America was of 
 power, stern, unrelenting, tyrannical, military power. 
 And now look to the consequences of the two prin- 
 ciples, on the general and aggregate happiness of 
 the human race. Behold the results, in all the 
 regions conquered by Cortez and Pizarro, and the 
 contrasted results here. I suppose the territory of 
 the United States may amount to one eighth, or 
 one tenth, of that colonized by Spain on this con- 
 tinent ; and yet in all that vast region there are but 
 between one and two millions of people of Euro- 
 pean color and European blood ; while in the United 
 States there are fourteen millions who rejoice in 
 their descent from the people of the more northern 
 part of Europe. 
 
 But we may follow the difference, in the original 
 principle of colonization, and in its character and 
 objects, still further. We must look to moral and 
 intellectual results ; we must consider consequences, 
 not only as they show themselves in the greater or 
 4 
 
26 
 
 less multiplication of men, or the greater or less 
 supply of their physical wants — but in their civili- 
 zation, improvement and happiness. We must in- 
 quire what progress has been made in the true 
 science of liberty, in the knowledge of the great 
 principles of self-government, and in the progress of 
 man, as a social, moral, and religious being. 
 
 I would not willingly say any thing on this occa- 
 sion, discourteous to the new governments, founded 
 on the demolition of the power of the Spanish mon- 
 archy. They are yet on their trial, and I hope for a 
 favorable result. But truth, sacred truth, and fidelity 
 to the cause of civil liberty, compel me to say, that 
 hitherto they have discovered quite too much of the 
 spirit of that monarchy, from which they separated 
 themselves. Quite too frequent resort is made to 
 military force ; and quite too much of the substance 
 of the people consumed, in maintaining armies, not 
 for defence against foreign aggression, but for en- 
 forcing obedience to domestic authority. Standing 
 armies are the oppressive instruments for governing 
 the people, in the hands of hereditary and arbitrary 
 monarchs. A military republic, a government found- 
 ed on mock elections, and supported only by the 
 sword, is a movement indeed, but a retrograde and 
 disastrous movement, from the regular and old-fash- 
 ioned monarchical systems. If men would enjoy the 
 blessings of Republican government, they must 
 govern themselves by reason, by mutual counsel and 
 consultation, by a sense and feeling of general in- 
 terest, and by the acquiescence of the minority in 
 the will of the majority, properly expressed ; and 
 
27 
 
 above all, the military must be kept, according to 
 the language of our bill of rights, in strict subordi- 
 nation to the civil authority. Wherever this lesson 
 is not both learned and practised, there can be no 
 political freedom. Absurd, preposterous is it — a 
 scoff and a satire on free forms of constitutional 
 liberty, for frames of government to be prescribed 
 by military leaders, and the right of suffrage to be 
 exercised at the point of the sword. 
 
 Making all allowance for situation and climate, it 
 cannot be doubted by intelligent minds, that the 
 difference now existing between North and South 
 America is justly attributable, in a great degree, to 
 political institutions in the old world, and in the 
 new. And how broad that difference is ! Suppose 
 an assembly, in one of the valleys, or on the side 
 of one of the mountains of the southern half of the 
 hemisphere, to be held, this day, in the neighbor- 
 hood of a large city; — what would be the scene 
 presented ? Yonder is a volcano, flaming and smok- 
 ing, but shedding no light, moral or intellectual. At 
 its foot is the mine, yielding, perhaps, sometimes, 
 large gains to capital, but in which labor is destined 
 to eternal and unrequited toil, and followed only by 
 penury and beggary. The city is filled with armed 
 men ; not a free people, armed and coming forth 
 voluntarily to rejoice in a public festivity ; but hire- 
 ling troops, supported by forced loans, excessive im- 
 positions on commerce, or taxes wrung from a half 
 fed, and a half clothed population. For the great, 
 there are palaces covered with gold ; for the poor, 
 there are hovels of the meanest sort. There is an 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy, enjoying the wealth of 
 
28 
 
 princes ; but there are no means of education to the 
 people. Do public improvements favor intercourse 
 between place and place ? So far from this, the 
 traveller cannot pass from town to town, without 
 danger, every mile, of robbery and assassination. 
 I would not overcharge, or exaggerate this picture ; 
 but its principal sketches are all too true. 
 
 And how does it contrast with the scene now 
 actually before us ? Look round upon these fields ; 
 they are verdant and beautiful, well cultivated, and 
 at this moment loaded with the riches of the early 
 harvest. The hands which till them are free 
 owners of the soil, enjoying equal rights, and pro- 
 tected by law from oppression and tyranny. Look 
 to the thousand vessels in our sight, filling the har- 
 bor, or covering the neighboring sea. They are 
 the instruments of a profitable commerce, carried on 
 by men who know that the profits of their hardy 
 enterprise, when they make them, are their own ; 
 and this commerce is encouraged and regulated by 
 wise laws, and defended, when need be, by the 
 valor and patriotism of the country. Look to that 
 fair city, the abode of so much difiiised wealth, so 
 much general happiness and comfort, so much per- 
 sonal independence, and so much general knowl- 
 edge, and not undistinguished, I may be permitted 
 to add, for hospitality, and social refinement. She 
 fears no forced contributions, no siege or sacking 
 from military leaders of rival factions. The hundred 
 temples, in which her citizens worship God, are in 
 no danger of sacrilege. The regular administration 
 of the laws encounters no obstacle. The long pro- 
 cessions of children and youth, which you see this 
 
day, issuing by thousands from her free schools, 
 prove the care and anxiety, with which a popular 
 government provides for the education and morals 
 of the people. Every where there is order ; every 
 where there is security. Every where the law reaches 
 to the highest, and reaches to the lowest, to protect 
 all in their rights, and to restrain all from wrong ; 
 and over all hovers liberty, that liberty which our 
 fathers fought, and fell for, on this very spot, with 
 her eye ever watchful, and her eagle wing ever wide 
 out-spread. 
 
 The colonies of Spain, from their origin to their 
 end, were subject to the sovereign authority of the 
 kingdom. Their government, as well as their com- 
 merce, was a strict home monopoly. If we add to 
 this, the established usage of filling important posts 
 in the administration of the colonies, exclusively by 
 natives of old Spain, thus cutting off forever, all 
 hopes of honorable preferment from every man born 
 in the Western hemisphere, causes enough rise up 
 before us at once, to account fully for the subse- 
 quent history and character of these provinces. 
 The Viceroys and Provincial Governors of Spain 
 were never at home in their governments in Ameri- 
 ca. They did not feel that they were of the people, 
 whom they governed. Their official character and 
 employment have a good deal of resemblance to 
 those of the pro-consuls of Rome, in Asia, Sicily 
 and Gaul ; but obviously no resemblance to those of 
 Carver and Winthrop, and very little to those of the 
 Governors of Virginia after that colony had estab- 
 lished a popular house of Burgesses. 
 
30 
 
 The English Colonists in America, generally 
 speaking, were men who were seeking new homes 
 in a new world. They brought with them their 
 families and all that was most dear to them. This 
 was especially the case with the colonists of 
 Plymouth and Massachusetts. Many of them were 
 educated men, and all possessed their full share, 
 according to their social condition, of the knowledge 
 and attainments of that age. The distinctive 
 characteristic of their settlement, is the introduction 
 of the civilization of Europe into a wilderness, 
 without bringing with it the political institutions of 
 Europe. The arts, sciences and literature of 
 England came over with the settlers. That great 
 portion of the common law, which regulates the 
 social and personal relations and conduct of men, 
 came also. The jury came ; the habeas corpus 
 came ; the testamentary power came ; and the law 
 of inheritance and descent came also, except that 
 part of it which recognizes the rights of primogeni- 
 ture, which either did not come at all, or soon gave 
 way to the rule of equal partition of estates among 
 children. But the monarchy did not come, nor the 
 aristocracy, nor the church, as an estate of the 
 realm. Political institutions were to be framed 
 anew, such as should be adapted to the state of 
 things. But it could not be doubtful, what should 
 be the nature and character of these institutions. A 
 general social equality prevailed among the settlers, 
 and an equality of political rights seemed the natural, 
 if not the necessary consequence. After forty years 
 of revolution, violence and war, the people of France 
 
31 
 
 have placed at the head of the fundamental instru- 
 ment of their government, as the great boon obtained 
 by all their sufferings and sacrifices, the declaration, 
 that all Frenchmen are equal before the law. What 
 France has reached only by the expenditure of so 
 much blood and treasure, and the exhibition of so 
 much crime, the English colonists obtained, by 
 simply changing their place, carrying with them the 
 intellectual and moral culture of Europe, and the 
 personal and social relations to which they were 
 accustomed, but leaving behind their political in- 
 stitutions. It has been said with much vivacity, 
 that the felicity of the American colonists consisted 
 in their escape from the past. This is true, so far 
 as respects political establishments, but no further. 
 They brought with them a full portion of all the 
 riches of the past, in science, in art, in morals, 
 religion and literature. The Bible came with them. 
 And it is not to be doubted, that to the free and 
 universal reading of the Bible, in that age, men were 
 much indebted for right views of civil liberty. The 
 Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and 
 a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial 
 revelation from God ; but it is also a book, which 
 teaches man his own individual responsibility, his 
 own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man. 
 
 Bacon, and Locke, and Milton, and Shakspeare 
 also came with the colonists. These colonists came to 
 form new political systems, but all that belonged ta 
 cultivated man, to family, to neighborhood, to social 
 relations, accompanied them. In the Doric phrase 
 of one of our own historians, " they came to settle 
 
32 
 
 on bare creation ; " but their settlement in the 
 wilderness nevertheless, was not a lodgement of 
 nomade tribes, a mere resting place of roaming 
 savages. It was the beginning of a permanent 
 community, the fixed residence of cultivated men. 
 Not only was English literature read, but English, 
 good English, was spoken and written, before the 
 axe had made way to let in the sun, upon the 
 habitations and fields of Plymouth and Massachu- 
 setts. And whatever may be said to the contrary, 
 a correct use of the English language is, at this day, 
 more general throughout the United States, than it 
 is throughout England herself. 
 
 But another grand characteristic is, that in the 
 English colonies, political affairs were left to be 
 managed by the colonists themselves. This is 
 another fact wholly distinguishing them in character, 
 as it has distinguished them in fortune, from the 
 colonists of Spain. Here lies the foundation of that 
 experience in self-government, which has preserved 
 order, and security, and regularity, amidst the play 
 of popular institutions. Home government was the 
 secret of the prosperity of the North American 
 settlements. The more distinguished of the New 
 England colonists, with a most remarkable sagacity, 
 and a long sighted reach into futurity, refused to 
 come to America, unless they could bring with them 
 charters providing for the administration of their 
 affairs in this country. They saw from the first, the 
 evils of being governed in the new world, by 
 counsels held in the old. Acknowledging the 
 general superiority of the crown, they still insisted 
 
33 
 
 on the right of passing local laws, and of local 
 administration. And history teaches us the justice 
 and the value of this determination, in the example 
 of Virginia. The early attempts to settle that 
 colony failed, sometimes with the most melancholy 
 and fatal consequences, from want of knowledge, 
 care and attention on the part of those who had the 
 charge of their affairs in England ; and it was only 
 after the issuing of the third charter, that its pros- 
 perity fairly commenced. The cause was, that 
 by that third charter, the people of Virginia, (for 
 by this time they deserve to be so called,) were 
 allowed to constitute and establish the first popular 
 Representative Assembly, which ever convened on 
 this continent — the Virginia House of Burgesses. 
 
 The great elements, then, of the American sys- 
 tem of government, originally introduced by the 
 colonies, and which were early in operation, and 
 ready to be developed, more and more, as the pro- 
 gress of events should justify or demand, were ; 
 
 Escape from the existing political systems of 
 Europe, including its religious hierarchies ; but the 
 continued possession and enjoyment of its science 
 and arts, its literature, and its manners ; 
 
 Home Government, or the power of making 
 in the colony the municipal laws, which were to 
 govern it ; 
 
 Equality of Rights ; 
 
 Representative Assemblies, or forms of govern- 
 ment founded on popular elections. 
 
 Few topics are more inviting, or more fit for 
 5 
 
34 
 
 philosophical discussion, than the effect of institu- 
 tions, founded upon these principles, on the happi- 
 ness of mankind ; or, in other words, the influence 
 of the New World upon the Old. 
 
 Her obligations to Europe for science and art, 
 laws, literature and manners, America acknowledges 
 as she ought, with respect and gratitude. And the 
 people of the United States, descendants of the 
 English stock, grateful for the treasures of knowl- 
 edge derived from their English ancestors, admit 
 also, with thanks and filial regard, that among 
 those ancestors, under the culture of Hampden and 
 Sydney, and other assiduous friends, that seed of 
 popular liberty first germinated, which on our soil 
 has shot up to its full height, until its branches 
 overshadow all the land. 
 
 But America has not failed to make returns. If 
 she has not cancelled the obligation, or equalled it 
 by others of like weight, she has, at least, made 
 respectable advances towards equality. And she 
 admits, that standing in the midst of civilized na- 
 tions, and in a civilized age — a nation among nations 
 — there is a high part which she is expected to act, 
 for the general advancement of human interests and 
 human welfare. 
 
 American mines have filled the mints of Europe 
 with the precious metals. The productions of the 
 American soil and climate have poured out their 
 abundance of luxuries for the tables of the rich, and 
 of necessaries for the sustenance of the poor. Birds 
 and animals of beauty and value have been added to 
 the European stocks ; and transplantations from the 
 
35 
 
 transcendent and unequalled riches of our forests, 
 have mingled themselves profusely with the elms, 
 and ashes, and druidical oaks of England. 
 
 America has made contributions far more vast. 
 Who can estimate the amount, or the value, of the 
 augmentation of the commerce of the world, that 
 has resulted from America ? Who can imagine to 
 himself, what would now be the shock to the Eastern 
 continent, if the Atlantic were no longer travers- 
 able, or if there were no longer American produc- 
 tions, or American markets ? 
 
 But America exercises influences, or holds out 
 examples, for the consideration of the Old world, of 
 a much higher, because they are of a moral and 
 political character. 
 
 America has furnished to Europe proof of the 
 fact, that popular institutions, founded on equality and 
 the principle of representation, are capable of main- 
 taining governments — able to secure the rights of 
 person, property and reputation. 
 
 America has proved that it is practicable to ele- 
 vate the mass of mankind — that portion which in 
 Europe is called the laboring, or lower class — to 
 raise them to self-respect, to make them competent 
 to act a part in the great right, and great duty, of 
 self-government ; and this she has proved may be 
 done by education and the diifusion of knowledge. 
 She holds out an example, a thousand times more 
 enchanting than ever was presented before, to those 
 nine-tenths of the human race who are born without 
 hereditary fortune or hereditary rank. 
 
 America has furnished to the world the character 
 
36 
 
 of Washington ! And if our American institutions 
 had done nothing else, that alone would have en- 
 titled them to the respect of mankind. 
 
 Washington ! " First in war, first in peace, and 
 first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Washington 
 is all our own ! The enthusiastic veneration and 
 regard in which the people of the United States 
 hold him, prove them to be worthy of such a country- 
 man; while his reputation abroad reflects the highest 
 honor on his country and its institutions. I would 
 cheerfully put the question to-day to the intelligence 
 of Europe and the world, what character of the 
 century, upon the whole, stands out in the relief of 
 history, most pure, most respectable, most sublime ; 
 and I doubt not, that by a suffrage approaching to 
 unanimity, the answer would be Washington ! 
 
 The structure, now standing before us, by its up- 
 rightness, its solidity, its durability, is no unlit 
 emblem of his character. His public virtues and 
 public principles were as firm as the earth on which 
 it stands ; his personal motives, as pure as the se- 
 rene heaven in which its summit is lost. But, 
 indeed, though a fit, it is an inadequate emblem. 
 Towering high above the column which our hands 
 have builded, beheld, not by the inhabitants of a 
 single city or a single State — but by all the families 
 of man, ascends the colossal grandeur of the charac- 
 ter and life of Washington. In all the constituents 
 of the one — in all the acts of the other — in all its 
 titles to immortal love, admiration and renown — it 
 is an American production. It is the embodiment 
 and vindication of our transatlantic liberty. Born 
 
31 
 
 upon our soil — of parents also born upon it — never 
 for a moment having had sight of the old world — 
 instructed, according to the modes of his time, only 
 in the spare, plain, but wholesome elementary 
 knowledge which our institutions provide for the 
 children of the people — growing up beneath and 
 penetrated by the genuine influences of American 
 society — living from infancy to manhood, and age, 
 amidst our expanding, but not luxurious, civiliza- 
 tion — partaking in our great destiny of labor, our 
 long contest with unreclaimed nature and uncivil- 
 ized man — our agony of glory, the war of Indepen- 
 dence — our great victory of peace, the formation of 
 the Union, and the establishment of the Constitu- 
 tion — he is all — all our own! Washington is ours. 
 That crowded and glorious life — 
 
 " Where multitudes of virtues passed along, 
 Each pressing foremost, in the mighty throng 
 Ambitious to be seen, then making room 
 For greater multitudes that were to come ; — '" 
 
 that life, was the life of an American citizen. 
 
 I claim him for America. In all the perils, in 
 every darkened moment of the state, in the midst of 
 the reproaches of enemies and the misgiving of 
 friends — I turn to that transcendent name for cour- 
 age, and for consolation. To him who denies, or 
 doubts whether our fervid liberty can be combined 
 with law, with order, with the security of property, 
 with the pursuits and advancement of happiness — 
 to him who denies that our institutions are capable 
 of producing exaltation of soul, and the passion of 
 
38 
 
 true glory — to him who denies that we have con- 
 tributed any thing to the stock of great lessons and 
 great examples — to all these I reply, by jjointing to 
 Washington ! 
 
 And now, friends and fellow-citizens, it is time to 
 bring this discourse to a close. 
 
 We have indulged in gratifying recollections of 
 the past, in the prosperity and pleasures of the pres- 
 ent, and in high hopes of the future. But let us re- 
 member that we have duties and obligations to per- 
 form, corresponding to the blessings which we 
 enjoy. Let us remember the trust, the sacred trust, 
 attaching to the rich inheritance which we have 
 received from our fathers. Let us feel our personal 
 responsibility, to the full extent of our power and 
 influence, for the preservation of our institutions of 
 civil and religious liberty. And let us remember 
 that it is only religion, and morals, and knowledge, 
 that can make men respectable and happy, under 
 any form of government. Let us hold fast the 
 great truth, that communities are responsible, as 
 well as individuals ; that no government is respecta- 
 ble, which is not just; that without unspotted puri- 
 ty of public faith, without sacred public principle, 
 fidelity and honor — no mere forms of government, no 
 machinery of laws, can give dignity to political so- 
 ciety. In our day and generation let us seek to raise 
 and improve the moral sentiment, so that we may 
 look, not for a degraded, but for an elevated and 
 improved future. And when we, and our children, 
 shall all have been consigned to the house appoint- 
 
39 
 
 ed for all living, may love of country — and pride of 
 country — glow with equal fervor among those to 
 whom our names and our blood shall have descend- 
 ed ! And then, when honored and decrepid age 
 shall lean against the base of this Monument, and 
 troops of ingenuous youth shall be gathered round 
 it, and when the one shall speak to the other of its 
 objects, the purposes of its construction, and the 
 great and glorious events with which it is connected 
 — there shall rise, from every youthful breast, the 
 ejaculation — "thank God, I — I also — am an Ameri- 
 can." 
 
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