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1867-8.] • CITY DOCUMENT 
 
 [No. 10. 
 
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 ORATION, 
 
 DKI.IVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 CITY AUTHORIXrES AND CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 .f r L r 4ti,, 1807. 
 
 BY R K V . HENRY W . R U G G 
 
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 PKOVIDENCK : 
 
 KNOWLES, ANTHONY & CO., PRINTERS. 
 
 1867. 
 
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1867-8.] CITY DOCUMENT. [No. 10. 
 
 Mt (i^mtxMim$ t^t im (BmlmA U ^mtxim. 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 CITY AUTHOEITIES AlOD CITIZENS OP PROVIDENCE, 
 
 JTTI, T 4th, 1867 . 
 
 BY REV. HENRY W. RUGG, 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 KNOWLES, ANTHONY & CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 1867. 
 
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RESOLUTIONS OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE 
 CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 [Approved July 10, 1867] 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be hereby tendered to Eev • 
 Henry W. Rugg for the able and eloquent Oration delivered by him at the late 
 municipal celebration of American Independence. 
 
 Resolved, That the Committee of Arrangements for the Fourth of July cele- 
 bration be hereby authorized to wait upon Mr. Rugg and request a copy of the 
 oration delivered by him on that day ; and that such number of copied of the 
 same be published in such manner, by the Standing Committee on Printing, as 
 they may deem expedient, for the use of the City Council. 
 A true copy: witness 
 
 SAMUEL W. BKOWN, City Clerk. 
 
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEW ENGLAND 
 
 AMERICAN GEEATNESS. 
 
 It is pleasant to review the past. It is profitable 
 that history, tradition and memory should often repro- 
 duce the events and movements of former times, and 
 spread them before the mind like landscape views ; thus 
 connecting the years that have gone with the vigorous 
 and actual present. Standing upon the highest mound 
 that time has yet thrown up, it is well to let the vision 
 turn backwards, and frOm such survey obtain a light 
 and a wisdom to aid in shaping the things of present 
 thought and action. There stand the landmarks of 
 history ! Great events and movements interwoven* 
 with the progress of civilization and religion ; enter- 
 prises inaugurated in the interests of humanity, the 
 prosecution of which has evoked the noblest qualities 
 of manhood. These monuments which the past has 
 builded, deserve to be kept steadily in view, for from 
 their shining summits there comes an inspiration that 
 the world can illy afford to spare! 
 
 The year has its memorial days appropriate to this 
 work of retrospection. Among every civilized people 
 there are days set apart and kept sacred because of 
 something of by-gone action or achievement deemed 
 
worthy of commemoration. These periods are made 
 the gala days of a community or nation — festal occa- 
 sions when the voice of jubilee rings out, and the glad 
 tones of a people's rejoicing sound through all the land. 
 
 Such an occasion is the day observed in memory of 
 the beginning of our national life — the day which the 
 American people hallow and keep in remembrance of 
 the passage and proclamation of that " most important 
 document ever issued by uninspired men," the patriotic 
 signers of which, so solemnly pledged their lives, their 
 fortunes and their sacred honor to the maintenance of 
 the principles and purposes therein declared. 
 
 The recurrence of this national birthday revives in 
 our thought the terrible ordeal of sacrifice, privation 
 and blood, through which the fathers passed, before 
 they gained the world's acknowledgment of their right 
 to self government. The battle fields, from Lexington 
 to Yorktown, where the argument for American Inde- 
 pendence was spoken from the cannon's mouth, where 
 Liberty received its baptism in martyr blood, rise before 
 the vision. We seem to see the patriot hosts who 
 gathered and fought for freedom, the commanders who 
 led them to victory, whose deeds have made our revo- 
 lutionary history glorious. Oh ! surely to-day we will 
 wipe off' the dust which may have fallen on the memory 
 of these heroes, and in reverent love we will make a 
 pilgrimage to their resting places, once again to drop 
 the tear of grateful remembrance over their ashes. 
 
 It also accords with the genius of this day that we 
 contemplate the wonderful progress of the Republic 
 since first its life began. 
 
 Not in the spirit of vain-glorying, yet with an excus- 
 able pride of nationality, we draw the lines of contrast 
 
between our former and present greatness. Ninety-one 
 years ago the people of the thirteen colonies numbered 
 less than three millions, now, our country has a popula- 
 tion of more than thirty millions. Then, the area of 
 territory over which the government claimed to exer- 
 cise authority was only a fraction of what it now is, 
 when territorial expansion has moved our national 
 boundary lines to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande 
 in the South, to the Pacific ocean in the West, and 
 Northward, at last, to a region where impenetrable snow 
 and ice form a barrier to any further extension in that 
 direction. The dream of the poet bids fair to have a 
 literal fulfilment : — 
 
 " No pent up Utica contracts our powers 
 For the whole, boundless continent is ours." 
 
 There is likewise the reckoning of gain in material 
 resources and possessions, advances of productive in- 
 dustry, of commerce and trade, of literature and science 
 — progress material, social and political. The facts 
 which attest this growth and development crowd upon 
 the mind, and, often as the story is rehearsed, it does 
 not lose its power to charm the attention. Especially 
 is it the subject of contemplation on Independence Day 
 when the humblest of American orators has free license, 
 to magnify the glory of the Republic. 
 
 The theme to which I invite attention may seem of 
 somewhat narrower dimensions, although I design to 
 give it an application broad enough to be in keeping 
 with the memories and suggestions of the day we cele- 
 brate. My subject is : 
 
 The Contributions of New England to American 
 Greatness. 
 
 From the very first period of her history. New Eng- 
 
8 
 
 land has been in the vanguard of all real progress. 
 She has led the march of civilization on this continent, 
 and set an example to other States and communities, 
 which vital interest, contrary to their feelings and im- 
 pulses often, has bid them follow. Principles and 
 Institutions which have now a nationalized character, 
 have been the gift of New England in ' the past ; and 
 while from her mountains pour down no streams spark- 
 ling with the shining ore, while her ledges and rocks 
 contain but little that will repay the miner's toil, while 
 her skies are cold and her valleys not over rich with the 
 products of an exuberant soil, her's is still the guiding 
 hand pointing ever onward, as she mounts the car of 
 progress, and heralds the shining way. 
 
 In the large sense of the word. New England has 
 always been radical in ideas and in action. Ideas lead 
 to action. They are a fire in the bones until they are 
 developed into something that is tangible and real. 
 We may therefore give our first attention to the char- 
 acter and expansion of some of these ideas peculiar to 
 New England. 
 
 It was a controlling sentiment in the minds of the 
 fathers who settled in this section that the whole people 
 should he educated. 
 
 Knowledge of right belongs to all. The intelligence 
 of a people is the best safe guard against dangers to So- 
 ciety and the State. Believing thus, the Puritans build- 
 ed the school-house and provided as widely as possible 
 the means for general education. As early as 1636 the 
 Colonial Legislature of Massachusetts made avowal that 
 the property of the State should educate the intellect 
 of the State. At that early period laws were passed 
 which gave to every child, from the yery highest to the 
 
9 
 
 very humblest, a right to public instruction ; nay, more, 
 by arbitrary enactment, parents and guardians were 
 compelled to attend to the culture of the rising race. 
 In the opinion of Judge Story, it was " this early legis- 
 lation which contributed, more than any other circum- 
 stance to give that peculiar character to the inhabitants 
 and institutions of Massachusetts, for which, she, in 
 common with all the New England States, indulges an 
 honest and not unreasonable pride." 
 
 Practically this was a new idea, although the princi- 
 ple had been given a name to live by in some forms of 
 the old time civilization, and is still mentioned in con- 
 nection" .with the ancient glory of Sparta and Athens ; 
 but as a sentiment fully brought out and really acted 
 upon, it was peculiar to New England. Daniel Webster 
 once said : " Where else has it ever been held that it 
 is the bounden duty of Governments to lay the founda- 
 tions of the happiness and respectability of society in 
 universal education. If you can tell me of such a 
 country out of New England, I shall be glad to hear of 
 it. I know of none. I have read of none." 
 
 The Puritan idea of making education free and 
 general as possible pervaded all sections of New England. 
 The Colonists who made the first settlements upon the 
 banks of the Connecticut river were swayed by its 
 influence, the hardy pioneers who pushed their way 
 Northward to the hills of New Hampshire, established 
 a system of public instruction, and Roger Williams, who 
 came to Rhode Island as an exile, here to place the 
 ibundajtions of a better Democracy than elsewhere had 
 been conceived, held fast to this doctrine of the Puritans, 
 that the strength of a state depends upon the intelli- 
 gence of its people, 
 
10 
 
 This idea was not a controlling- principle of action 
 with the other American colonies. The Dutch settlers 
 of New Amsterdam, mainly controlled by motives of 
 personal gain in the establishftient of a. colony on 
 Manhattan ishmd, were not imbued with this principle 
 to any large extent. The cavaliers of the South — the 
 adventurous colonists who boasted ot their Norman 
 descent, and who meant to be lords and owners in the 
 New Woilil, utterly ignored the Puritan plan of a wide 
 diffusion of knowdedge. Fifty years after the settlement 
 at Jamestown, Sir William Berkely, then Governor of 
 the Colony of Virginia, said : "l thank God that we 
 have no free schools nor printing, and 1 hope we shall 
 not have them these hundred vears ! for learninu; has 
 brought heresies, and sects, and disobedience into the 
 world : and printing has divulged them and libels 
 against the best government. God keep us from both !" 
 The words of this old Governor only express what, with 
 some exceptions, was the sentiment of the ruling minds 
 of the South ; that it was better to keep the masses in 
 ignorance, and not multiply the facilities for communi- 
 cating knowledge. The Puritan idea of general educa- 
 tion was not acceptable to Virginia and the South. In 
 this, as in many other things the two civiliaztions clash- 
 ed and could not be united. 
 
 The respectability/ of honest industry was another 
 radical idea of New England. The old Puritan held to 
 a literal rendering of the declaration, " in the sweat of 
 thy face shalt thou eat bread." The men who settled 
 New England were not adventurers nor speculators ; 
 for the most part they were farmers belonging to the 
 lower rank, who, even during their twelve years resi- 
 dence in Holland, among a commercial and trading 
 
11 
 
 people, had resolutely withstood the temptation to en- 
 gage in more lucrative or easier pursuits, and had con- 
 tinued in agricultural employments. There were no 
 idlers among them. They came to the New World to be 
 actual workers themselves, and to train up their chil- 
 dren to habits of industry. In their view, labor was re- 
 garded as honorable. The worker held a place of dig- 
 nity and respect while to be a " gentleman at ease," was 
 counted both a sin and a disgrace. 
 
 The dignity of labor was not recognized by the Colo- 
 nists of Virginia and the Caroliuas. They were 
 hampered by ideas which were dominant in the ages of 
 feudal barbarism, when the only laborers were slaves 
 and labor was therefore regarded as a degradation. It 
 was the prevailing sentiment in the minds of those who 
 shaped the social and political system of the South, that 
 the hard handed day Liboier and sturdy mechanic were 
 infinitely removed from the level of gentlemen of leisure 
 — the born aristocrats of the world. They were an 
 ignoble class, demeaned by their toil to a rank with 
 the beasts of burden. The beast and the laborer were 
 necessary^ indeed, for the use of the higher orders of 
 men, and were entitled to much the same treatment 
 and regard. This being the prevailing notion respecting 
 labor and the laborer, it is not surprising to hear one of 
 South Carolina's ablest sons, at a later period, charac- 
 terize the working men of the land as the " mudsills of 
 society." 
 
 The establishment and rapid increase of African 
 slavery in the South, gave tone and strength to this 
 feeling, for it must be remembered that it was not alone 
 the black slave who was borne down by this degrading 
 system, but the white man also who was forced by his 
 
12 
 
 poverty to labor with his hands to get bread for himself 
 and his family. 
 
 iJere^ again, the antagonism of the two civilizations is 
 manifested. New England was radical in her ideas con- 
 cerning the nobility of honest toil ; Virginia and the 
 whole South conservative, according to the spirit of 
 ancient aristocracy. 
 
 Next we may notice. 
 
 The New England idea of human rights and equality. 
 
 The Puritan Fathers at least set the argument in 
 clearer light than others, that liberty, under the just 
 restraints of law, is the right of all men — a right in- 
 volved in the very creation of humanity. God himself 
 gave the entire race a cajmcdy for freedom, and through 
 this capacity men derive their primal claim, their first 
 and best title to liberty. This recognition of the 
 brotherhood of hnmanity, on which is based the doctrine 
 of equal rights for all men, permeated the general faith 
 of New England all through her colonial life ; but 
 sometimes it was poorly actualized in the Puritan 
 legislation and practice. Here in Rhode Island, how- 
 ever, the light shone more clearly, for Roger Williams 
 and his early associates were determined to found a 
 commonwealth on the principles of true democracy. 
 It was the leading sentiment in all their action that the 
 rights of each citizen should be held sacred as tending 
 to the largest liberty and happiness. They sought to 
 regulate social intercourse and public policy by the 
 spirit of the Gospel statement that " if one member 
 sufler, all the members sufler with it ; or if one member 
 be honored, all the members rejoice with it." 
 
 We do not forget that the institution of slavery had 
 a nominal existence in New England for a long time. 
 
13 
 
 But it never flourished in this section of the country. 
 The soil was not favorable to its growth. It never had 
 more than a sickly, hot house sort of life. It never 
 succeeded in building up an aristocracy to despise labor, 
 and to rejoice in the limitation of human rights. At 
 no time did it possess sufficient power to blind the faith 
 of the fathers, that in liberty and equality rest the 
 vital forces of national prosperity. Slavery became the 
 pivotal idea on which the whole economy of the South 
 turned. It was strengthened by compacts and legisla^ 
 lative provisions ; it became an institution rooted in the 
 ground work of Southern society and politics ; it grew 
 in respectability and eminence, until it was judged the 
 greatest of blessings — a sort of divine institution, and so, 
 at last became firmly seated on its throne of dominion ; 
 but there was never a time when the moral sense of 
 the descendants of the pilgrims was not ready to pro- 
 nounce the system of slavery an evil, it was regarded 
 as an abnormal and transitory institution. It was 
 looked upon as a monster which had been embraced in 
 an unguarded moment, and which must be got rid of 
 at the first opportunity. 
 
 The religious element, which entered into and so 
 largely controlled New England civilization, deserves 
 special mention. In the original incentives of action 
 which impelled the various immigrations to America, 
 religion was not often a leading motive. Material 
 objects were the spur to enterprise with the colonists 
 of Jamestown and the men who settled upon the South- 
 ern Atlantic coast. It was desire for gain, the looking 
 to material advantages and profit that caused the Dutch 
 settlers of New York to found trading settlements on 
 Manhatten and further northward on the banks of the 
 
14 
 
 Hudson ; but it was purely a religious motive which 
 allured the Puritans to Plymouth. They left their 
 homes, not in search for wealth, or power, or ease, but 
 that they might enjoy religion and find a free soil in 
 which to plant the seeds of Christian faith and service. 
 A religious idea being the moving power which led to 
 the settlement of New England, we might expect to 
 find the influence of moral conviction and practical piety 
 controlling the policy and politics of the colonies thus 
 established. 
 
 No people, since the days when the Hebrews dwelt 
 so near to Jehovah, have possessed a more complete 
 faith in God than our Puritan ancestors. No people 
 ever sought more anxiously to know and obey the Di- 
 vine requirements; none have manifested a larger 
 degree of reverence for the Bible and the Christian 
 Sabbath. In the Puritan mind, the moulding of societ}', 
 the fixing of laws and institutions, the building of the 
 political structure, involved questions which were to be 
 tested by a moral standard, while the whole work 
 needed to be interfused with a religious spirit That 
 this was so, is the crowning glory of the Puritan char- 
 acter. 
 
 Let us now give a passing glance to the 
 
 Growth and expansion of these ideas. 
 
 The migrcdory character of the j^eople of New England 
 has been a potent agency in the dissemination of these 
 principles throughout the land. The members of the 
 Plymouth Colony had scarce made a clearing in the 
 wilderness before they started the first wave of emigra- 
 tion westward. " The west" at that time, however, only 
 meaning the banks of the Connecticut river. Since that 
 day the current has never ceased to flow. The voice 
 
15 
 
 sounding in the ears of the young men of New England 
 has been the utterance of that guiding genius which 
 we are told whispered continually in the ear of Colum- 
 bus on tlie gray waste of waters, " ever westward, to 
 the west." Obedient to the call, the hardy sons of 
 New England pushed Westward to the AUeghanies 
 and the Great Lakes, to the plains and forests bordered 
 by the Mississippi and its tributaries. They invaded 
 the hunting-grounds of the Indians in far off territories, 
 and paused not, until at last, their feet pressed the sand 
 of the Pacific shore. 
 
 These pioneers and emigrants never forgot the civi- 
 lization in Avhich they had been trained. Blended with 
 their sweet memories of hills, valleys and streams, the 
 peaceful village and the old homestead, was the re- 
 membrance of principles which had been instilled into 
 their minds by the fathers and mothers they had left 
 behind. Wherever they wandered, the force of this 
 training was manifest both in their words and their 
 actions. As they cleared the forest, tilled the fertile 
 prairies, caused villages and towns to spring up in the 
 depths of the wilderness, and organized the social and* 
 political structure of new communities, they were moved 
 by a desire to be faithful to the doctrines of their New 
 England training. The School-house, the printing-press 
 and the Church were considered as imperative needs to 
 their new life. The traditions of the fathers, command- 
 ing respect for manhood and reverence toward God, 
 were a power of good to fix personal faith and regulate 
 public policy. 
 
 Thus the tide of New England ideas flowed forth 
 over the West through emigration. Migration and 
 colonization have always been the great agents to edu- 
 
16 
 
 cate and civilize the world. More than three thous- 
 and years ago, little bands of colonies from Egypt and 
 Phoenicia an(f Asia Minor came to Attica and Argos and 
 there planted the seeds from which spring Greek culture 
 and civilization. Then forth from Greece as the radi- 
 ating point, the light flashed, linigration carried the 
 torch of learning to Kome, thence to the countries of 
 Northern Europe, and thus the treasures of philosophy 
 and science were scattered broad-cast over a continent. 
 In like manner, by the same means, the wealth of 
 New England ideas was diffused to the Western borders 
 of America. Southward, the expansion of Puritan influ- 
 ence was checked by the worse than Chinese wall which 
 the system of slavery had builded, but the ideas of New 
 England were received into the mighty heart of the 
 Young Giant of the West, and given therefrom a new 
 enunciation with the largest and noblest results. 
 
 Passing from the ideal to the actual, the statement 
 can truthfully be made that New England has led the 
 country in udion as tvell a^ in ideas. She has been tlie 
 pioneer in all practical movements and reforms, when 
 free thought, and a free press and a free conscience 
 have been felt to be of primal value to mankind. Loyal 
 to great ideas, she has been faithful in working out 
 those ideas to logical and practical conclusions. If by 
 her radical principles she has taken an advanced posi- 
 tion, not less has she always stood in the front in times 
 of public danger and need. 
 
 New England led the march of the thirteen Cohnies 
 toward Indejocndence. 
 
 It is a matter of historic record, that as early as 1743 
 there was an active sentiment of Unionism pervading 
 many of the leading minds of New England. These 
 
17 
 
 men were wise and far-seeing enough to discover that 
 if the colonies would grow and prosper, they must com- 
 bine their strength, forget their jealousies, and enter 
 into the bonds of a closer. fellowship. Great Britain 
 wanted no such effective combination ; and it was only 
 under a war pressure, when the French joined with the 
 Indians to wrest from England her colonial possessions 
 in the New World, that the mother country consented 
 to the compact of alliance agreed upon by the delegates 
 from eleven colonies who met in Albany in 1754. It 
 was the influence of New England that led to that 
 meeting " where the germ of the future Congress was 
 planted, where the idea of union was ripened, and a 
 plan developed which seems to have furnished the idea 
 and outline of the present Constitution of the United 
 States." 
 
 After the close of the French war in 1763, a war de- 
 manding so much of the Northern colonies, and return- 
 ing to them few benefits, — a war, however, in which 
 their enterprise and patriotism were so conspicuous, as 
 to win this high compliment from Lord Chatham in the 
 British Parliament: "I remember, my lords, when New 
 England raised four regiments on her own bottom, and 
 took Louisburg from the veteran troops of France," — 
 after this war ended the feeling of unionism grew 
 stronger ; the fires of liberty began to glow with a fer- 
 vent heat ; the exactions of the mother country were 
 no longer accepted with tame submission ; the voice of 
 protest and indignation was heard, and the watchword 
 of the hour rang out : "Resistance to tyrants is obedi- 
 ence to God." 
 
 New England led in these things. She was ready for 
 separation long before the 4th of July, 1776. That pro- 
 
18 
 
 tracted and weary debate in Independence Hall before 
 the grand decision was reached, and the State-House 
 bell rang out its peals in accordance with the inscription 
 it bore : " Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all 
 the inhabitants thereof," was not made necessary by 
 the backwardness of the Eastern colonies. The patriots 
 of this section were determined to resist even if they 
 had to stand alone. Their armies weie already enrolled 
 and equipped; irregular acts of warflire had been com- 
 mitted ; down in yonder bay an English war vessel had 
 been destroyed by a body of brave men, who never 
 could be found when a royal commisfcion was at work 
 to bring them to condign punishment; but the survivors 
 of the expedition answered readily to the call when 
 you assigned them places of honor in your civic pro- 
 cession forty-one years ago to-day. In 1775 New 
 En Inland was musterino; her 'forces for a conflict that 
 she felt was near at hand. Almost a year and a half 
 before the declaration of independence the Colonial 
 Assembly of Rhode Island provided for the raising of 
 an '•• army of observation" of fifteen hundred men. This 
 army was not designed for mere home occupation and 
 use, for the act creating it expressl}^ recites that when- 
 ever it shall be necessary lor the safety and preservation 
 of any of the colonies, these troops shall join and co- 
 operate with the forces of the neighboring colonies. 
 The form of the oath of enlistment also shows how 
 broad was the spirit of Rhode Island patriotism in those 
 days. The oath of the soldier bound him to a work "for 
 the preservation of the liberties of America." 
 
 Then succeeded that long and terrible struggle in the 
 successful issue of which nationality and freedom were 
 won. All sections of the country stood to the work, 
 
19 
 
 making their willing sacrifices, and contributing of 
 treasure and of blood from first to the last ; but it is a 
 matter of historic record that of all the soldiers, regular 
 and militia, who served in the war of the Revolution, 
 Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode 
 Island, these four states, furnished considerably more 
 than one half of the number. 
 
 Of the leaders in that war, wise counsellors in legisla- 
 tion, and able generals in the field. New England con- 
 tributed her full share. Virginia's noble son was made 
 General-in-Chief of the American armies. No other 
 man deserved the high position while he was living ; 
 but next to Washington, the judgment of a grateful 
 people writes the name of a New England man — Gen, 
 Nathaniel Greene — a worthy son of Rhode Island. The 
 military skill, courage, patriotism and long-time services 
 of this distinguished leader have made his name glori- 
 ous in history and in remembrance ; and no hostile 
 criticism, originating in however high a source, can de- 
 pose him from the place of honor which he holds in the 
 estimation of the American people. The nearly eighty 
 years of eventful national life that followed the close of 
 the revolutionary period, I do not propose to review. 
 Let us pass at a bound the history they have made, — 
 some of it so wonderfully grand and glorious, — some of 
 it marked by ignoble compromises and surrenders of 
 principle, against which the unavailing protest of New 
 England was often spoken — and come at once to that 
 day, which seems but yesterday, when the two civiliza- 
 tions planted upon this continent met in conflict, and the 
 whole world was aroused by their fearful clashing. 
 
 Where was New England then ? 
 
 The people of the North did not anticipate the coming 
 
20 
 
 of civil war. The war cloud of 1860 seemed no larger 
 to the ijeneral vision than a man's hand ; but it rolled 
 up its black masses with a terrible rapidity, and broke 
 in fury upon the land ere a twelve month had passed. 
 There were not many men even in this section who 
 foresaw the cominer struii:<i;le ; but to a few minds the 
 gift of prophesy and foresight seems to have been given. 
 The other day, at Boston, Mr. Seward told the people 
 that more than twenty years ago, a Massachusetts 
 statesman had informed him that in the defence of 
 human rights a terrible civil war was impending which 
 would imperil the existence of the American Union. 
 John Quincy Adams was the statesman who had such 
 keen discernment of the signs of the times. 
 
 There was a New England Governor, too, who, believ- 
 ing that a mighty struggle between the North and the 
 South was near at hand, acted in his official capacity 
 with direct reference to such an event. This man, Gov. 
 Banks of Massachusetts, organized and made efficient 
 the militia of his State, and revived to a considerable 
 degree, the military ardor of her citizens. What he 
 did, stimulated like action on the part of the authorities 
 of other Northern States, and even the little of warlike 
 preparation that resulted therefrom, was worth more 
 than words can tell in those April days of '61, fraught 
 with such extreme dangers to the Republic. 
 
 At last tlie lingering hour came nigh, when the great 
 conspiracy was disclosed in its formidable proportions. 
 The rebel leaders openly declared their purpose to get 
 rid of Yankee ideas and influences; to terminate the 
 history of the Puritans, of the Republic, of popular gov- 
 ernment, of freedom ; to uproot the work of the fathers, 
 and to build upon the ruins of the American Union a 
 
21 
 
 Confederacy, the corner stone of which should be 
 slavery. Yet, as these avowals were unbliishingly 
 made, while State after State passed acts of secession 
 and prepared for actual war upon the National Govern- 
 ment, the North continued apathetic and unbelieving. 
 It slumbered, until one day the lightning flashed through 
 all the land its mournful burden of intelligence that a 
 national fortress had been sunendered to armed traitors 
 — that the flag of the Republic had been pulled down 
 at the mandate of South Carolina Rebels. Then it 
 awoke. The latent patriotism of the North leaped 
 forth into vigorous life, and all the world might see 
 that there was to be a struggle before treason would 
 be allowed to pluck the fruit of its iniquitous plans. 
 
 NeA'' England was no laggard in those dark days. To 
 the appeal of the government for aid, she gave prompt 
 responses. On the third day after Sumter's fall, a 
 Massachusetts regiment was on the way to Washington ; 
 a body of brave men who gave the first baptism of blood 
 to the work of beating back the hosts of rebellion, be- 
 fore they had reached the National Capital. It was not 
 many hours later that a regiment of Rhode Island in- 
 fantry, and battery of artillery, f idly equipped, embarked 
 for the seat of war, the regiment under command of 
 that man who, when he was asked how soon he could 
 arrange his business to lead the volunteers of this State 
 to the field, gave answer in two short words, " at once." 
 
 The events which followed need not be recalled. 
 The story of the three thousand skirmishes and battles 
 has been written with the pen of history. Great were 
 the toils and sacrifices demanded of the whole loyal 
 people, and these were freely rendered. It would be 
 most unbecoming to make invidious comparisons con- 
 
22 
 
 cerning the contributions of different sections of the 
 loyal land in this mighty struggle. I have no disposi- 
 tion for such work, nor would I claim superiority for 
 New England over any other portion of the country. 
 All that need be said of her is that she stood in the 
 front rank in the beginning of the strife, and never 
 turned backward till the end was reached. In the 
 darkest hours of the struggle she never thought of 
 compromise with those who would destroy the nation 
 and crusii liberty. She gave without stint her means 
 and her influence, and the lives of the best beloved of 
 her sons. On all the great battle-fields the descendants 
 of the Pilgrims stood shoulder to shoulder with the 
 brave men of the West and those of the Middle States, 
 and to-day they are sleeping in unshrouded graves 
 beneath the rank mosses of the Peninsula, or the grass- 
 covered mounds of the wilderness, or where the sigh- 
 ing pines of the Carolinas sing their requiem, or, more 
 fittingly does their dust repose in the quiet of those 
 great cemeteries which the nation has consecrated and 
 adorned as the place of sepulchre for her martyred 
 children. 
 
 The day of victory came. The symbol of the nation 
 floated on every fort and arsenal and public building 
 through all the land. There was but one flag, but one 
 government for the American people. Territorial in- 
 tegrity had been preserved, and the disseverment of 
 the union not accomplished ; but greater issues than 
 these had been decided, for the victory won was the tri- 
 umph of huma)uty, of freedom and of religion. 
 
 There was a time when the contest between the 
 North ami the South was too much regarded as a mere 
 struggle for power. For nearly two years the war was 
 
23 
 
 conducted on a superficial and infidel basis. The effort 
 was made to blink out of sight the great ideas of civili- 
 zation and human rights which had led to the conflict ; 
 to turn aside from the clear, shining light of justice 
 which pointed steadily in one direction. 
 
 As late as the summer of 1862, President Lincoln 
 declared to Mr. Greeley that the question of slavery 
 was a secondary matter in the conduct of the war, so 
 far as the purposes of the government were concerned. 
 If he could save the union by the preservation of the 
 foul institution he would do so; but gradually it came 
 to be seen that the claims of God and humanity could 
 not be thrust aside in the prosecution of the war ; that 
 just so long as the nation closed its ears to the cries of 
 the bondmen, so long would it wait in vain for any 
 large successes. It was New Engkmd influence, to a 
 very considerable degree, that led to this advanced 
 sentiment ; which prepared the way for the emancipa- 
 tion proclamation ; made acknowledgment of the 
 manhood of the black race, and welcomed the African 
 to the side of the white man in the struggle against a 
 common enemy. These steps of progress once taken, 
 the light dawned : the beginning of the end was already 
 at hand, when a glorions victory should be achieved in 
 the sacred name of liberty. 
 
 The war decided that secession was treason. It 
 killed the hydra-headed monster which South Carolina 
 had petted from the ratification of the Federal Consti- 
 tution, and which had grown strong on the food which 
 the teachings of Calhoun supplied. It decided that 
 henceforth there should be a nation and not a Confeder- 
 acy ; that for the American people there could be but 
 one government and one destiny. It decided, more- 
 
24 
 over, the question of vicarious labor. The South went 
 into the war to strengthen the defences of that " peculiar 
 institution ;" the war ended, and there was no slave in 
 all the land. The South took up arms to resist the 
 on-sweeping march of Yankee ideas and institutions ; 
 it laid down the sword when Richmond fell and Lee 
 sorrendered, making confession that Puritan civilization 
 had won the day ; that the ideas of the Puritan — free- 
 dom, manhood, intelligence — had proven stronger than 
 the sentiments of the cavalier, based upon aristocracy, 
 ignorance and servile labor. 
 
 T/iis jjivotal period past, tohat is now demanded? 
 
 The answer has been more than suggested already. 
 The vital ideas of Northern civilization must control 
 the social and public policy of the whole nation. To 
 save the country from dangers that still threaten ; to 
 resolve the problems of the hour in such a way as to 
 establish the greatness of the Republic on sure founda- 
 tions, we must go back to first principles, and in this 
 time of golden opportunity build afresh upon the ideas 
 and maxims of the fathers. 
 
 Freedom and equality must be recognized as the birth- 
 right of all men. The Declaration of Independence 
 must not be looked upon as a " mass of glittering 
 generalities." It must be given a literal rendering and 
 enforcement. It must be made to mean equal and 
 exact justice for all men; universal freedom restrained 
 only by impartial laws in the framing of which the 
 whole people shall have a voice. The theories concerning 
 master races and slave races may be put aside with the 
 old lumber of the past, as not suited to the reconstruc- 
 tion of our national edifice. In fact, as well in name, 
 let us now have a free nation. Let there be no com- 
 promises made concerning the vexed questions growing 
 
25 
 
 out of the war, so far as thej affect the rights and lib- 
 erties of men. Settle them once for all on the broad 
 basis of human brotherhood and Christianity, thus sav- 
 ing posterity from the discipline of another fiery ordeal 
 like that through which this generation has been forced 
 to pass This work can be thoroughly done in the ex- 
 ercise of a just magnanimity to the conquered, and 
 without the display of a vindictive spirit toward any 
 class of people, or against any section of our common 
 country. Confiscation, severe penalties affecting life 
 or property, will not help forward the great result. 
 The work can best be carried on in the catholic spirit 
 which finds expression in the closing words of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln's second inaugral ; " With malice toward 
 none, with charity for all, with firmness to the right as 
 God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the 
 work ; to bind up the nation's wounds, and to do all 
 which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
 among ourselves and with all nations." 
 
 Another demand of the times is that 
 
 The Puritan idea of education for the whole people 
 should he acted upon. 
 
 The proposition only needs to be stated, that it is 
 ignorance which leads to social and national 'degrada- 
 tion ; to weakness and ruin. It is when a people are 
 incapacitated to think for themselves, and to understand 
 questions of vital interest concerning the general wel. 
 fare, that ambitious aspirants rise on their shoulders to 
 places of power. It is when a few persons do pretty 
 much all the thinking that political demagogues take 
 advantage of the simple minded people, and with smil- 
 ing faces and oily tongues, glide up to high positions 
 where they can legislate and rule for their own selfish 
 
26 
 
 ends. A demagogue wants no better political capital 
 than the confidence of a community whose ideas run 
 in a nariow channel, in whose judgment the treasures 
 of wisdom are of little importance. 
 
 And not only is education a barrier against the arts 
 of the demagogue and a preservative principle of politi- 
 cal rights, but it is the real strength of a nation. Al- 
 most every page of history furnishes some illustration 
 of this truth. Fifty years ago Prussia was a foot ball 
 for the nations of Europe. Wise and far seeing men 
 instituted a system of common school education; semi- 
 naries were founded for the training of teachers at the 
 expense of the State ; laws were passed compelling, 
 under severe penalties, .the attendance of children upon 
 the schools ; restrictions were taken off from the press ; 
 the way of access to intelligence was opened to the 
 masses, and the result is that to day Napoleon bows at 
 the word of Prussia and her voice is omnipotent in 
 fixing the destiny of nations. Uniting all Germany 
 under one crown, Prussia bids fair to become before 
 many years the leading power of Europe. It is the 
 intelligence which pulsates through her national life 
 that gives her a mightier force than needle-guns and 
 bayonets. 
 
 Free schools, and other means for the general diffu- 
 sion of knowledge are wanted in the South. New 
 England is doing, and must continue to do, a good deal 
 of missionary work of this sort. She must contribute 
 the plans for general education developed from her own 
 experience ; must supply teachers, books and money 
 according to the large demands of the present time. 
 The means of education should be dispensed with liberal 
 hand to the Ireedmen, from whom the light of knowledge 
 
27 
 
 has so loTiiT been shut out ! the honor of the North is at 
 stake in this matter, and gratitude demands that we 
 should make this return for the services rendered by the 
 bondmen of the South during the war ; but beside this 
 motive, the sentiment of self interest should prompt 
 the most earnest endeavors to educate the freedmen, 
 for, if allowed to remain in a condition of ignorance and 
 debasement, they must become of necessity a danger- 
 ous element in our civilization. This last incentive 
 should also direct the effort to diffuse the blessings of 
 education among the whites as well as the bhicks. Such 
 labor should be reckoned a Avork of patriotism as much 
 as an enterprise of Christian charity. 
 
 Thanks to that large hearted philanthropist of New 
 England birth and training, whose munificent donation, 
 the like of which the world has never looked upon be- 
 fore, has so gr.andly opened the way to this work. The 
 day will surely come when the people and States of the 
 distant South will raise a monument, if not of sculptured 
 marble standing fair to the outward vision, at least of 
 grateful affection in the hearts of those who have re- 
 ceived the blessing, to perpetuate the memory of this 
 illustrious benefactor. 
 
 But the great need of the times is, that 
 The religious eletiitht should rule m our national life 
 even as it d'<d in. New England at the early period of her 
 history. 
 
 There are perils against which freedom herself can 
 put up no adequate safeguards ; dangers that cannot be 
 provided against by any amount of mere intellectual 
 culture. Infidelity and corruption fastened upon the, 
 vitals of a nation will surely eat out its life. In proof 
 of this any school boy will recite the lessons of antiquity. 
 
28 
 
 Rome did not lose her prestige and renown and great- 
 ness by the force and skill of barbaric arms, for against 
 these in an earlier day she had won a complete victory. 
 She did not go down under the onslaught of foreign 
 powers, superior in numbers or military resources to 
 the Roman legions. Even the hosts of Hannibal, when 
 they sought to strike could not reach the national heart 
 and were driven back in sore defeat. The decline of 
 the Roman Empire was first moral and then material. 
 In the language of the historian her star went down 
 to its sad setting, " when rapacity became the pre- 
 vailing vice of the great, and licentiousness of the 
 multitude." The Roman Senate, grown corrupt, legis- 
 lated like a band of robbers demanding the money or 
 the life of its victims. The claims of justice and morali- 
 ty were derided by those who held the reins of authority, 
 and who ruled in their day of infamy with an utter 
 disregard of both human and divine law. The example 
 ot those in high places found its way down to the masses, 
 and in due time the moral degeneracy of rulers and 
 people touched with a fatal blight her farthest borders. 
 
 The result cannot be otherwise with any nation that 
 follows in the same course. Let the leaders of a people, 
 the lawgivers and rulers, cease to care for the require- 
 ments of righteousness, let public sentiment become de- 
 moralized, let honesty of political action be laughed out 
 of sight, let the vices of sensualism attain a respectabil- 
 ity of position in the social life of a people, free license 
 being grante.d to their indulgence, and the power which 
 binds a people firmly together is lost, — the day of disrup- 
 tion and ruin may be counted upon as near approaching. 
 
 In this line of thought what patriot is there who 
 does not discover the chief peril of our own nation ? 
 
29 
 
 The corruption of American politics is fearful to con- 
 template. It pervades all sections of the country, is 
 chargeable on all parties, and sends forth its offensive 
 stench from the very highest places of the land. It 
 leaves its foul trail in caucuses and conventions where 
 money buys nominations to office ; it winds its sinuous 
 path among the people at large where the votes of free 
 electors are often bought and sold like articles of mer- 
 chandise ; it settles like a deadly miasma on the halls 
 of legislation, where corrupt lobbyists often carry 
 through the most corrupt schemes by actual bribery of 
 the servants of the people, enough of whom can always 
 be found ready to sacrifice principle on the altar of 
 piolitical knavery if the price bid be but commensurate 
 with their desires. Now connect with these corrupt 
 practices, this debasement of politics which no man can 
 deny, the two great vices of the American people, licen- 
 tiousness and intemperance, together with that practical 
 infi.delity of the times which would put God into the 
 background, and it is easy to tell in what consists our 
 national peril, and what the end must be if there is not 
 a reformation. ^ 
 
 I speak, not merely in the way of my profession, but 
 as a man and a patriot, when I say that, above every, 
 thing else, the nation needs a re-baptism of the old pu- 
 ritan faith in God and loyalty to the Bible, — a renewal 
 of the spirit which in olden time pervaded New England, 
 and whicli caused the fathers to lay the foundations of 
 both social and political life on what they believed to be 
 the basis of rectitude and truth. Let their faith and 
 piety be ours, — ours to improve upon, if possible, with 
 the aids of new light and progress, — ours to spread 
 abroad over the whole land as the best contributions of 
 
30 
 
 New England to American greatness, — ours to transmit 
 to posterity as the most precious legacy of Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 Walking in the beauty of the fathers' faith and obe- 
 dience ; imitating their rigid adherence to justice and 
 their loyalty to the Bible ; imbibing their martyr spirit, 
 their reverence for the law of God, their unflinching 
 fortitude, we shall fix our national life and prosperity 
 on a solid foundation. Then shall we be made a pecu- 
 liar people, called of the Lord "to illumine and guide all 
 the nations of the earth to freedom, to knowledge and 
 to peace." Then the flag of the Republic, with its broad 
 stripes and bright stars, wherever its folds are flung out 
 upon the breeze, shall symbolize power, liberty, justice, 
 intelligence and Christianity. Then shall be realized 
 the prophetic words of that noble Quaker statesman of 
 England, spoken in the darkest hours of the recent war : 
 " I cannot believe that civilization in its journey with 
 the sun, will sink into endless night to gratify the am- 
 bition of the leaders of a great revolt, who seek to 
 
 ' Wade through slaughter to a throne, 
 And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.' 
 
 But I have a far other and brighter vision before my 
 gaze. I see one vast confederation, stretching from the 
 frozen north in one unbroken line to the glowing south, 
 and from the wild billows of the Atlantic westward to 
 the calmer waters of the Pacific ; and I see one people, 
 and one law, and one language, and one faith, and over 
 all that vast continent, the home of freedom and refuge 
 for the oppressed of every race and every clime." 
 
 Be this our vision ; and be our sight so quickened 
 by the genius of Christian hope, that we shall behold not 
 alone the better thin;^s coming to our country, but to the 
 whole world : 
 
31 
 
 " For truth still lives, and so shall dawn for man 
 
 A better day ! for freedom battles still 
 
 With tyrannous wrong — and so shall dawn for man 
 
 A better day ! For God is over all, 
 
 From discords shaping harmonies divine, 
 
 Making all things subservient to his will ; 
 
 And so shall dawn for man a better day i 
 
 A day when liberty shall reign supreme, 
 
 And knowledge clasp the hand of liberty : 
 
 A day when virtue shall in every heart 
 
 Find a pure home, and fill it with light 
 
 And warmth of Heaven. Then war shall stride no more 
 
 With clanging arms and garnients rolled in blood, 
 
 But the far continents be joined in one 
 
 By solemn sacrament, whose ritual, 
 
 Flashed through sunless depths, is Glory to Qod 
 
 In the highest ! Peace on Earth ! Good will to men /" 
 
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