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DECEMBER 22, 1820. 
 
 Ktt eomwemotation of 
 
 THE FIRST 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF NEW-ENGLAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 D^JVIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 ^ ri iff ; . *' 
 
 100 J ■ . i 
 
 ./> BOSTON : 
 
 WEIiliS AND LILLY, COURT-STREET. 
 
 1821. 
 

 DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT: 
 
 District Cierfc's Office. 
 
 HE it i-emembei-ed, that on the twentieth day of December, A. D. 1821 , in the forty-sixth year 
 of the Independence of the United States of America, Wells & Lilly of the said District, 
 have deposited in this Office the title of a Book, the Right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in 
 the Words following, to wit .— 
 
 "A Discourse, delivered at Plymouth, December 28, 1820, In commeraoration of the First 
 Settlement of New-England. By Daniel Webster." 
 
 In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An Act for the 
 Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps. Charts, and Books, to the Au- 
 thors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the limes therein mentioned :'' and also to an Act 
 entitled, " An Act supplementarj' to an Act, entitled. An Act for the Emourageraent of 
 Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of 
 such Copies during the times tlierein mentioned : and extending the benefits theieof to the Art! 
 of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Historical and other Prints." 
 
 JNO. W. DAVIS, 
 
 Clerk of the District of MassachuKUf. 
 
 I 
 
 /^lOl 
 
/J/ 
 
 Plymouth, Dec. 23, 1820. 
 
 Hon. Daniel Webster, 
 
 SIR, 
 
 At a meeting of the Trustees of the PiLGRiM Society, present, 
 John fVatson, William Davis, James Sever, Alden Bradford, Barnabas 
 Hedge, Thomas Jackson, Jr. and Zabdiel Sampson, Esquires, Voted, 
 " That the thanks of the Trustees be presented to the Hon. Daniel 
 Webster, for his eloquent and interesting Discourse, delivered at 
 Plymouth, on the 22d instant, at their request, in commemoration of 
 the completion of the second century since the settlement of J^eiu Eng- 
 land — that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication — and that 
 the Corresponding Secretary communicate the preceding vote." 
 
 While in the performance of this duty, as honorable as it is pleasing, 
 I am directed to subjoin, that the Committee of the Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society, and of the American Antiquarian Society, who attended 
 on this occasion, by invitation, unite in the request. 
 
 With great esteem and regard, 
 I am. Sir, 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
 SAMUEL DAVIS, 
 
 Corresponding Secretary of the Pilgrim Society. 
 
Boston, Dec. 26, 1820. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 I HAVE received yours of the 23d, communicating the request of th« 
 Trustees of the Pilgrim Society, and of the Committee of the Historical 
 and Antiquarian Societies, that a copy of my Discourse may be furnish- 
 ed for the press. I shall chee«rfuny comply with this request; but at the 
 same time I must add, that such is the nature of my other engagements, 
 that I hope I may be pardoned if I should be compelled to postpone 
 this compliance to a more distant day than I could otherwise have 
 wished. 
 
 I am, Sir, with true regard, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 To Samtiel Davis, Esq. 
 Corresponding Secretary of the Pilgrim Society. 
 

 juET US rejoice that we behold this day. Let us 
 be thankful that we have lived to see the bright 
 and happy breaking of the auspicious morn, 
 which commences the third century of the his- 
 tory of New-England. Auspicious indeed ; 
 bringing a happiness beyond the common allot- 
 ment of Providence to men; full of present joy, 
 and gilding with bright beams the prospect of 
 futurity, is the dawn that awakens us to the 
 commemoration of the Landins; of the Pilgrims. 
 
 Living at an epoch which naturally marks the 
 progress of the history of our native land, we 
 have come hither to celebrate the great event 
 
 2 
 
 / 
 
with which that history commenced. Forever 
 honoured be this, the place of our father's re- 
 fuge ! Forever remembered the day which saw 
 them, v/eary and ^distressed, broken in every 
 thing but spirit, poor in all but faith and cou- 
 rage, at last secure from the dangers of wintry 
 f5eas, and impressing this shore Avith the first 
 footsteps of civilized man! 
 
 It is a noble faculty of our nature which ena- 
 bles us to connect our thoughts, our sympathies, 
 and our happiness, with what is distant, in place 
 or time ; and, looking before and after, to hold 
 communion at once with our ancestors and our 
 posterity. Human and mortal although we are, 
 we are nevertheless not mere insulated beings, 
 without relation to the past or the future. Nei- 
 ther the point of time, nor the spot of earth, in 
 which we physically live, bounds our rational 
 and intellectual enjoyments. We live in the 
 past by a knowledge of its history ; and in the 
 future by hope and anticipation. By ascend- 
 ing to an association with our ancestors ; by con- 
 templating their example and studying their 
 
character ; by partakinj^ their sentiments, and 
 imbibing their spirit ; by accompanying them in 
 their toils, by sympathising in their sulFerings, 
 and rejoicing in their successes and their tri- 
 umphs, we mingle our own existence with theirs, 
 and seem to belong to their age. We become 
 their contemporaries, live the lives which they 
 lived, endure what they endured, and partake in 
 the rewards which they enjoyed. And in like 
 manner, by running along the line of future time, 
 by contemplating the probable fortunes of those 
 who are coming after us; by attempting some- 
 thing which may promote their happiness, and 
 leave some not dishonourable memorial of our- 
 selves for their regard, when we shall sleep 
 with the fathers, we protract our own earthly 
 being, and seem to crowd whatever is future, as 
 well as all that is past, into the narrow compass 
 of our earthly existence. As it is not a vain and 
 false, but an exalted and religious imagination, 
 which leads us to raise our thous^hts from the 
 orb, which, amidst this universe of worlds, the 
 Creator has given us to inhabit, and to send 
 them with something: of the feelino; which na- 
 
tare prompts, and teaclies to be proper among 
 children of the same Eternal Parent, to the con- 
 templation of the myriads of fellow beings, with 
 which his goodness has peopled the infinite of 
 space ; — so neither is it false or vain to consider 
 ourselves as interested and connected with our 
 whole race, through all time ; allied to our an- 
 cestors ; allied to our posterity; closely compact- 
 ed on all sides with others; ourselves being but 
 links in the great chain of being, which begins 
 with the origin of our race, runs onward through 
 its successive generations, binding together the 
 past, the present, and the future, and terminating 
 at last, with the consummation of all things 
 earthly, at the throne of God. 
 
 There may be, and there often is, indeed, a re- 
 gard for ancestry, which nourishes only a weak 
 pride ; as there is also a care for posterity, which 
 only disguises an habitual avarice, or hides the 
 workings of a low and groveling vanity. But 
 there is also a moral and philosophical respect 
 for our ancestors, which elevates the character 
 and improves the heart. Next to the sense 
 
of religious duty and moral feeling, I hardly 
 know what should bear with stronger obligation 
 on a liberal and enlightened mind, than a con- 
 sciousness of alliance with excellence which is 
 departed ; and a consciousness, too, that in its 
 acts and conduct, and even in its sentiments and 
 thoughts, it may be actively operating on the 
 happiness of those who come after it. Poetry 
 is found to have few stronger conceptions, by 
 which it would affect or overwhelm the mind, 
 than those in which it presents the moving and 
 speaking image of the departed dead to the 
 senses of the living. This belongs to poetry, 
 only because it is congenial to our nature. Poetry 
 is, in this respect, but the hand-maid of true phi- 
 losophy and morality ; it deals with us as human 
 beings, naturally reverencing those whose visible 
 connexion with this state of existence is severed, 
 and who may yet exercise we know not what 
 sympathy with ourselves ; — and when it carries 
 us forward, also, and shows us the long continued 
 result of all the good we do, in the prosperity of 
 those who follow us, till it bears us from our- 
 selves, and absorbs us in an intense interest for 
 
10 
 
 what shall happen to the generations after us, 
 it speaks only in the language of our nature, and 
 affects us with sentiments which belong to us as 
 human beings. 
 
 Standing in this relation to our ancestors and 
 our posterity, we are assembled on this memora- 
 ble spot, to perform the duties which that re- 
 lation, and the present occasion, impose upon us. 
 We have come to this Rock, to record here our 
 homage for our Pilgrim Fathers ; our sympathy 
 in their sufferings ; our gratitude for their la- 
 bours ; our admiration of their virtues ; our ve- 
 neration for their piety ; and our attachment to 
 those principles of civil and religious liberty, 
 which they encountered the dangers of the 
 ocean, the storms of heaven, the violence of 
 savages, disease, exile, and famine, to enjoy and 
 to establish. — And we would leave here, also, for 
 the generations which are rising up rapidly to fill 
 our places, some proof, that we have endeavour- 
 ed to transmit the great inheritance unimpaired ; 
 that in our estimate of public principles, and pri- 
 vate virtue ; in our veneration of religion and 
 
11 
 
 piety; in our devotion to civil and religious lib- 
 erty ; in our regard to whatever advances hu- 
 man knowledge, or improves human happiness, 
 we are not altogether unworthy of our origin. 
 
 There is a local feeling, connected with this 
 occasion, too strong to be resisted ; a sort of 
 genius of the jjlace, which inspires and awes us. 
 We feel that we are on the spot, where the first 
 scene of our history was laid ; where the hearths 
 and altars of New-England were first placed ; 
 where Christianity, and civilization, and letters 
 made their first lodgment, in a vast extent of 
 country, covered with a wilderness, and peopled 
 by roving barbarians. We are here, at the 
 season of the year at which the event took place. 
 The imagination irresistibly and rapidly draws 
 around us the principal features, and the leading 
 characters in the original scene. We cast our 
 eyes abroad on the ocean, and we see where 
 the little barque, with the interesting group upon 
 its deck, made its slow progress to the shore. 
 We look around us, and behold the hills and pro- 
 montories, where the anxious eyes of our fathers 
 
12 
 
 first saw the places of habitation and of rest. 
 We feel the cold which benumbed, and listen to 
 the winds which pierced them. Beneath us is 
 the Rock, on which New-England received the 
 feet of the Pilgrims. We seem even to behold 
 them, as they struggle with the elements, and, 
 with toilsome efforts gain the shore. We listen 
 to the chiefs in council ; we see the unexampled 
 exhibition of female fortitude and resignation ; we 
 hear the whisperings of youthful impatience, and 
 Ave see, what a painter of our own has also 
 represented by his pencil, chilled and shivering 
 childhood, houseless, but for a mother's arms, 
 couchless, but for a mother's breast, till our own 
 blood almost freezes. The mild dignity of Carver 
 and of Bradford; the decisive and soldier-like 
 air and manner of Standish ; the devout Brew- 
 ster ; the enterprising Allerton ; the general 
 firmness and thoughtfulness of the whole band ; 
 their conscious joy for dangers escaped ; their 
 deep solicitude about dangers to come; their 
 trust in heaven ; their high religious faith, full of 
 confidence and anticipation : — all these seem to 
 belong to this place, and to be present upon this 
 occasion, to fill us with reverence and admiration. 
 
13 
 
 The settlement of New-England by the coh:)ny 
 which landed here on the twenty second of De- 
 cember, sixteen hundred and twenty, although 
 not the first European establishment in what 
 now constitutes the United States, was yet so 
 peculiar in its causes and character, and has 
 been followed, and must still be followed, by 
 such consequences, as to give it a high claim 
 to lasting commemoration. On these causes 
 and consequences, more than on its immedi- 
 ately attendant circumstances, its importance 
 as an historical event depends. Great actions 
 and striking occurrences, having excited a tem- 
 porary admiration, often pass away and are for- 
 gotten, because they leave no lasting results, af- 
 fecting the prosperity and happiness of commu- 
 nities. Such is frequently the fortune of the 
 most brilliant military achievements. Of the ten 
 thousand battles which have been fought ; of 
 all the fields fertilized with carnage ; of the 
 banners which have been bathed in blood; of 
 the warriors who have hoped that they had risen 
 from the field of conquest to a glory as bright 
 and as durable as the stars, how few that con- 
 
14 
 
 tinue long to interest mankind ! The victory of" 
 yesterday is reversed by the defeat of to-day ; 
 the star of mihtary glory, rising like a meteor, 
 like a meteor has fallen ; disgrace and disaster 
 hang on the heels of conquest and renown ; vic- 
 tor and vanquished presently pass away to oblivion, 
 and the world goes on in its course, with the 
 loss only of so many lives and so much treasure. 
 
 But if this be frequently, or generally, the for- 
 tune of military achievements, it is not always so. 
 There are enterprises, military as well as civil, 
 which sometimes check the current of events, 
 give a new turn to human aflfairs, and transmit 
 their consequences through ages. We see their 
 importance in their results, and call them great, 
 because great things follow. There have been 
 battles which have fixed the fate of nations. 
 These come down to us in history with a solid 
 and permanent interest, not created by a display 
 of glittering armour, the rush of adverse bat- 
 talions, the sinking and rising of pennons, the 
 flight, the pursuit, and the victory; but by their 
 effect in advancing or retarding human knowledge, 
 in overthrowing or establishing despotism, in ex- 
 
15 
 
 tending or destroying human happiness. Wiien 
 the traveller pauses on the plain of Marathon, 
 what are the emotions which most strongly agi- 
 tate his breast? What is that glorious recollec- 
 tion, which thrills through his frame, and suffuses 
 his eyes ? — Not, I imagine, that Grecian skill and 
 Grecian valour were here most signally dis- 
 played ; but that Greece herself was here saved. 
 It is, because to this spot, and to the event which, 
 has rendered it immortal, he refers all the suc- 
 ceeding glories of the republic. It is because 
 if that day had gone otherwise, Greece had per- 
 ished. It is because he perceives that her phi- 
 losophers, and orators, her poets and painters, her 
 sculptors and architects, her governments and 
 free institutions, point backward to Marathon, 
 and that their future existence seems to have 
 been suspended on the contingency, whether the 
 Persian or the Grecian banner should wave victo- 
 rious in the beams of that day's setting sun. And 
 as his imagination kindles at the retrospect, he 
 is transported back to the interesting moment, he 
 counts the fearful odds of the contending hosts, 
 his interest for the result overwhelms him ; he 
 
16 
 
 trembles, as if it were still uncertain, and seems 
 to doubt, whether he may consider Socrates and 
 Plato, Demosthenes, Sophocles and Phidias, as 
 secure, yet, to himself and to the world. 
 
 "If we conquer," said the Athenian commander 
 on the morning of that decisive day, — " If we 
 conquer, we shall make Athens the greatest city 
 of Greece." A prophecy, how well fulfilled ! — 
 " If God prosper us," might have been the more 
 appropriate language of our Fathers, when they 
 landed upon this Rock ; — " if God prosper us, 
 we shall here begin a work which shall last for 
 ages ; we shall plant here a new society, in the 
 principles of the fullest liberty, and the purest 
 religion : we shall subdue this wilderness which 
 is before us ; we shall fill this region of the great 
 continent, which stretches almost from pole to 
 pole, with civilization and Christianity ; the 
 temples of the true God shall rise, where now 
 ascends the smoke of idolatrous sacrifice ; fields 
 and gardens, the flow^ers of summer, and the wav- 
 ing and golden harvests of autumn, shall extend 
 over a thousand hills, and stretch along a thousand 
 
17 
 
 vallies, never yet, since the creation, reclaimed 
 to the use of clvlHzed man. We shall whiten this 
 coast with the canvass of a prosperous commerce ; 
 we shall stud the long and winding shore with an 
 hundred cities. That which we sow in weakness 
 shall be raised in strength. From our sincere 
 but houseless worship, there shall spring splendid 
 temples to record God's goodness ; from the sim- 
 plicity of our social union, there shall arise wise 
 and politic constitutions of government, full of the 
 liberty which we ourselves bring and breathe ; 
 from our zeal for learning, Institutions shall spring, 
 which shall scatter the light of knowledge 
 throughout the land, and, in time, paying back 
 where they have borrowed, shall contribute 
 their part to the great aggregate of human 
 knowledge ; and our descendants, through all 
 generations, shall look back to this spot, and to 
 this hour, with unabated affection and regard." 
 
 A brief remembrance of the causes which led 
 to the settlement of this place ; some account of 
 the peculiarities and characteristic qualities of 
 that settlement, as distinguished from other in- 
 
stances of colonization ; a short notice of the pro- 
 gress of New-England in the great interests of 
 Society, during the century Avhich is now elaps- 
 ed; with a few observations on the principles 
 upon which society and government are estab- 
 lished in this country ; — comprise all that can 
 be attempted, and much more than can be sa- 
 tisfactorily performed on the present occasion. 
 
 Of the motives which influenced the first set- 
 tlers to a voluntary exile, induced them to relin- 
 quish their native country, and to seek an asy- 
 lum in this then unexplored wilderness, the first 
 and principal, no doubt, were connected with 
 Religion. They sought to enjoy a higher de- 
 gree of Religious freedom, and what they es- 
 teemed a purer form of Religious Avorship, than 
 was allowed to their choice, or presented to their 
 imitation, in the old world. The love of Reli- 
 gious Liberty is a stronger sentiment, when fully 
 excited, than an attachment to civil or political 
 freedom. That freedom which the conscience 
 demands, and which men feel bound by their 
 hopes of salvation to contend for, can hardly 
 
19 
 
 fail to be attained. Conscience, in the cause of 
 Religion, and the worship of the Deity, pre- 
 pares the mind to act, and to suffer beyond 
 almost all other causes. It sometimes gives an 
 impulse so irresistible, that no fetters of power 
 or of opinion can withstand it. History instructs 
 us that this love of Religious liberty, a com- 
 pound sentiment in the breast of man, made up 
 of the clearest sense of right, and the highest 
 conviction of duty, is able to look the sternest 
 despotism in the face, and with means apparent- 
 ly most inadequate, to shake principalities and 
 powers. There is a boldness, a spirit of daring, 
 in Religious reformers, not to be measured by 
 the general rules which control men's purposes 
 and actions. If the hand of power be laid upon 
 it, this only seems to augment its force and 
 its elasticity, and to cause its action to be 
 more formidable and terrible. Human invention 
 has devised nothing, human power has compassed 
 nothing that can forcibly restrain it, when it 
 breaks forth. Nothing can stop it, but to give 
 way to it ; nothing can check it, but indul- 
 gence. It loses its power only when it has 
 
20 
 
 gained its object. The principle of toleration, 
 to which the world has come so slowlj, is at 
 once the most just and the most wise of all 
 principles. Even when religious feeling takes a 
 character of extravagance and enthusiasm, and 
 seems to threaten the order of society, and shake 
 the columns of the social edifice, its principal 
 danger is in its restraint. If it be allowed indul- 
 gence and expansion like the elemental fires it 
 only agitates and perhaps purifies the atmos- 
 phere, while its efforts to throw off restraint 
 would burst the world asunder. 
 
 It is certain, that although many of them were 
 Republicans in principle, we have no evidence 
 that our New-England ancestors would have emi- 
 grated, as they did, from their own native coun- 
 try, become wanderers in Europe, and finally un- 
 dertaken the establishment of a colony here, 
 merely from their dislike of the political systems 
 of Europe. They fled not so much from the 
 civil government, as from the Hierarchy, and the 
 laws which enforced conformity to the Church 
 Establishment. Mr. Robinson had left England 
 as early as sixteen hundred and eight, on account 
 
21 
 
 of the prosecutions for non-conformity, and had 
 retired to Holland. He left England, from no 
 disappointed ambition in affairs of state, from no 
 regrets at the want of preferment in the Church, 
 nor from any motive of distinction, or of gain. 
 Uniformity in matters of Religion was pressed 
 with such extreme rigour, that a voluntary exile 
 seemed the most eligible mode of escaping from 
 the penalties of non-compliance. The accession 
 of Elizabeth had, it is true, quenched the fires 
 of Smithfield, and put an end to the easy ac- 
 quisition of the crown of martyrdom. Her long 
 reign had established the Reformation, but tole- 
 ration was a virtue beyond her conception, and 
 beyond the age. She left no example of it to 
 her successor ; and he was not of a character 
 which rendered it probable that a sentiment 
 either so wise or so liberal should originate with 
 him. At the present period it seems incredible, 
 that the learned, accomplished, unassuming, and 
 inoffensive Robinson should neither be tolerated 
 in his own peaceable mode of Avorship, in his 
 own country, nor suffered quietly to depart from 
 it. Yet such was the fact. He left his country 
 
 4 
 
22 
 
 by stealth, that he might elsewhere enjoy those 
 rights which ought to belong to men in all coun- 
 tries. The embarkation of the Pilo-rims for 
 Holland is deeply interesting, from its circum- 
 stances, and also as it marks the character of 
 the times ; independently of its connexion with 
 names now incorporated with the history of 
 Empire. The embarcation was intended to be 
 in the night, that it might escape the notice 
 of the officers of government. Great pains had 
 been taken to secure boats, which should come 
 undiscovered to the shore, and receive the fugi- 
 tives ; and frequent disappointments had been 
 experienced in this respect. At length the 
 appointed time came, bringing with it unusual 
 severity of cold and rain. An unfrequented and 
 barren heath, on the shores of Lincolnshire, 
 w^as the selected spot, where the feet of the Pil- 
 grims were to tread, for the last time, the land 
 of their fathers. 
 
 The vessel which was to receive them, did not 
 come until the next day, and in the mean time 
 the little band was collected, and men and women 
 and children and baggage were crowded together. 
 
23 
 
 in melancholy and distressed confusion. The sea 
 was rough, and the women and children already 
 sick, from their passage down the river to the place 
 of embarcation. At lengfth the wished for boat 
 silently and fearfully approaches the shore, and 
 men and women and children, shaking with fear 
 and Avith cold, as many as the small vessel could 
 bear, venture off on a dangerous sea. Imme- 
 diately the advance of horses is heard from be- 
 hind, armed men appear, and those not yet em- 
 barked are seized, and taken into custody. In 
 the hurry of the moment, there had been no re- 
 gard to the keeping together of families, in the 
 first embarcation, and on account of the appear- 
 ance of the horsemen, the boat never returned 
 for the residue. Those who had got away, and 
 those who had not, were in equal distress. A 
 storm, of great violence, and long duration, arose 
 at sea, which not only protracted the voyage, ren- 
 dered distressing by the want of all those ac- 
 commodations which the interruption of the em- 
 barcation had occasioned, but also forced the 
 vessel out of her course, and menaced immediate 
 shipwreck ; while those on shore, when they 
 
24 
 
 were dismissed from the custody of the officers 
 of justice, having no longer homes or houses to 
 retire to, and their friends and protectors being 
 already gone, became objects of necessary charity, 
 as well as of deep commiseration. 
 
 As this scene passes before us, we can hardly 
 forbear asking, whether this be a band of male- 
 factors and felons flying from justice ? What are 
 their crimes, that they hide themselves in dark- 
 ness ? — To what punishment are they exposed, 
 that to avoid it, men, and women, and children, 
 thus encounter the surf of the North Sea, and the 
 terrors of a night storm? What induces this 
 armed pursuit, and this arrest of fugitives, of all 
 ages and both sexes ? — Truth does not allow us 
 to answer these inquiries, in a manner that does 
 credit to the wisdom or the justice of the times. 
 This was not the flight of guilt, but of virtue. 
 It was an humble and peaceable religion, flying 
 from causeless oppression. It was conscience, 
 attempting to escape from the arbitrary rule of 
 the Stuarts. It was Robinson, and Brewster, 
 leading off their little band from their native soil, 
 
2d 
 
 at first to find shelter on the shores of the neigh- 
 bouring continent, but ultimately to come hither ; 
 and having surmounted all difficulties, and braved 
 a thousand dangers, to find here a place of re- 
 fuge and of rest. Thanks be to God, that this 
 spot was honoured as the asylum of religious lib- 
 erty. May its standard, reared here, remain for- 
 ever ! — May it rise up as high as heaven, till its 
 banner shall fan the air of both continents, and 
 wave as a glorious ensign of peace and security 
 to the nations ! 
 
 The peculiar character, condition, and circum- 
 stances of the colonies which introduced civiliza- 
 tion and an English race into New-England, af- 
 ford a most interesting and extensive topic of 
 discussion. On these much of our subsequent 
 character and fortune has depended. Their in- 
 fluence has essentially affected our whole history, 
 through the two centuries which have elapsed; 
 and as they have become intimately connected 
 with government, laws, and property, as well as 
 with our opinions on the subjects of religion and 
 civil liberty, that influence is likely to continue 
 
26 
 
 to be felt through the centuries which shall suc- 
 ceed. Emigration from one region to another, 
 and the emission of colonies to people countries 
 more or less distant from the residence of the 
 parent stock, are common incidents in the history 
 of mankind ; but it has not often, perhaps never 
 happened, that the establishment of colonies 
 should be attempted, under circumstances, how- 
 ever beset with present difficulties and dan- 
 gers, yet so favourable to ultimate success, and 
 so conducive to magnificent results, as those 
 which attended the first settlements on this 
 part of the continent. In other instances, emi- 
 gration has proceeded from a less exalted pur- 
 pose, in a period of less general intelligence, or 
 more without plan and by accident ; or under cir- 
 cumstances, physical and moral, less favourable 
 to the expectation of laying a foundation for great 
 public prosperity and future empire. 
 
 A great resemblance exists, obviously, between 
 all the English colonies, established within the 
 present limits of the United States ; but the oc- 
 casion attracts our attention more immediately to 
 
27 
 
 those which took possession of New-England, and 
 the pecuHarities of these furnish a strong contrast 
 with most other instances of colonization. 
 
 Among the ancient nations, the Greeks, no 
 doubt, sent forth from their territories the great- 
 est number of colonies. So numerous indeed 
 were they, and so great the extent of space over 
 which they were spread, that the parent country 
 fondly and naturally persuaded herself, that by 
 means of them she had laid a sure foundation for 
 the universal civilization of the world. These 
 establishments, from obvious causes, were most 
 numerous in places most contiguous ; yet they 
 were found on the coasts of France, on the 
 shores of the Euxine sea, in Africa, and even, as is 
 
 alleged, on the borders of India. These emi- 
 grations appear to have been sometimes vo- 
 luntary and sometimes compulsory ; arising from 
 the spontaneous enterprise of individuals, or 
 the order and regulation of government. It 
 was a common opinion with ancient writers, that 
 they were undertaken in religious obedience 
 to the commands of oracles; and it is proba- 
 
28 
 
 ble that impressions of this sort might have 
 had more or less influence; but it is probable, 
 also, that on these occasions the oracles did not 
 speak a language dissonant from the views and 
 purposes of the state. 
 
 Political science among the Greeks seems never 
 to have extended to the comprehension of a sys- 
 tem, which should be adequate to the government 
 of a great nation upon principles of liberty. 
 They were accustomed only to the contemplation 
 of small republics, and were led to consider an 
 augmented population as incompatible with free 
 institutions. The desire of a remedy for this sup- 
 posed evil, and the wish to establish marts for 
 trade, led the governments often to undertake 
 the establishment of colonies as an affair of state 
 expediency. Colonization and commerce, indeed, 
 would naturally become objects of interest to an 
 ingenious and enterprising people, inhabiting a 
 territory closely circumscribed in its limits, and in 
 no small part mountainous and sterile ; while the 
 islands of the adjacent seas, and the promontories 
 and coasts of the neighbouring continents, by their 
 
29 
 
 mere proximity, strongly solicited the excited 
 spirit of emigration. Such Avas this proximity, 
 in many instances, that the new settlements ap- 
 peared rather to be the mere extension of popu- 
 lation over contiguous territory, than the estab- 
 lishment of distant colonies. In proportion as 
 they were near to the parent state, they would 
 be under its authority, and partake of its for- 
 tunes. The colony at Marseilles might perceive 
 lightly, or not at all, the sway of Phccis ; while 
 the islands in the Egean sea could hardly attam 
 to independence of their Athenian origin. Many 
 of these establishments took place at an early 
 age; and if there were defects in the governments 
 of the parent states, the colonists did not pos- 
 sess philosophy or experience sufficient to correct 
 such evils in their own institutions, even if they 
 had not been, by other causes, deprived of the 
 power. An immediate necessity, connected with 
 the support of life, was the main and direct in- 
 ducement to these undertakings, and there could 
 hardly exist more than the hope of a successful 
 imitation of institutions with which they were 
 already acquainted, and of holding an equality 
 
 5 
 
30 
 
 with their neighbours, in the course of improve- 
 ment. The laws and customs, both poHtical and 
 municipal, as well as the religious worship of the 
 parent city, were transferred to the colony ; and 
 the parent city herself, with all such of her colo- 
 nies as were not too far remote for frequent in- 
 tercourse, and common sentiments, would appear 
 like a family of cities, more or less dependent, 
 and more or less connected. We know how im- 
 perfect this system was, as a system of general 
 politics, and what scope it gave to those mutual 
 dissentions and conflicts which proved so fatal to 
 Greece. 
 
 But it is more pertinent to our present pur- 
 pose to observe, that nothing existed in the char- 
 acter of Grecian emigrations, or in the «pirit and 
 intelligence of the emigrants, likely to give a new 
 and important direction to human affairs, or a 
 new impulse to the human mind. Their mo- 
 tives were not high enough, their views were 
 not sufficiently large and prospective. They 
 went not forth, like our ancestors, to erect sys- 
 tems of more perfect civil liberty, or to enjoy a 
 higher degree of religious freedom. x\bove all, 
 
31 
 
 there was nothing in the rcho-ion and learnini]^ of 
 the age, that could either inspire high purposes, 
 or give the abihty to execute them. Whatever 
 restraints on civil hbertj, or whatever abuses in 
 reUgious worship, existed at the time of our fa- 
 thers' emigration, yet, even then, all was light 
 in the moral and mental world, in comparison with 
 its condition in most periods of the ancient states. 
 The settlement of a new continent, in an age of 
 progressive knowledge and improvement, could 
 not but do more than merely enlarge the natu- 
 ral boundaries of the habitable world. It could 
 not but do much more even than extend com- 
 merce and increase wealth among the human 
 race. We see how this event has acted, how it 
 must have acted, and wonder only why it did not 
 act sooner, in the production of moral effects, on 
 the state of human knowledge, the general tone 
 of human sentiments, and the prospects of 
 human happiness. It gave to civilized man not 
 only a new continent to be inhabited and cultivat- 
 ed, and new seas to be explored ; but it gave him 
 also a new range for his thoughts, new objects 
 for curiosity, and new excitements to knowledge 
 and improvement. 
 
32 
 
 Roman colonization resembled, far less than 
 that of the Greeks, the original settlements of this 
 country. Power and dominion were the objects 
 of Rome, even in her colonial establishments. 
 Her whole exterior aspect was for centuries hos- 
 tile and terrific. She grasped at dominion, from 
 India to Britain, and her measures of coloniza- 
 tion partook of the character of her general 
 syetem. Her policy was military, because her 
 objects were power, ascendancy, and subjugation. 
 Detachments of emigrants from Rome incorporat- 
 ed themselves with, and governed, the original in- 
 habitants of conquered countries. She sent citi- 
 zens where she had first sent soldiers ; her law 
 followed her sword. Her colonies were a sort of 
 military establishment ; so many advanced posts 
 in the career of her dominion. A governor from 
 Rome ruled the new colony with absolute sway, 
 and often Avith unbounded rapacity. In Sicily, 
 in Gaul, in Spain, and in Asia, the power of Rome 
 prevailed, not nominally only, but really and ef- 
 fectually. Those who immediately exercised it 
 were Roman ; the tone and tendency of its admin- 
 istration, Roman. Rome herself contmued to be 
 
33 
 
 the heart and centre of the great system which 
 she had established. Extortion and rapacity, find- 
 ing a wide and often rich field of action in the 
 provinces, looked nevertheless to the banks of 
 the Tiber, as the scene in which their ill-gotten 
 treasures should be displayed ; or if a spirit of 
 more honest acquisition prevailed, the object, 
 nevertheless, was ultimate enjoyment in Rome 
 itself. If our own history, and our own times | 
 did not sufficiently expose the inherent and incur- \ 
 
 able evils of provincial government, we might see \ 
 
 I 
 them portrayed, to our amazement, in the deso- i 
 
 lated and ruined provinces of the Roman empire. I 
 
 We might hear them, in a voice that terrifies us, | 
 
 in those strains of complaint and accusation, which \ 
 
 the advocates of the provinces poured forth in \ 
 
 the Roman Forum. — " Quas res luxuries in fiagi- | 
 
 tiis, crudelitas in suppliciis, avaritia in rapinis, I 
 
 superbia in contumeliis, efflcere potuisset, eas omneis 
 
 sese pertulisse.''^ 
 
 As was to be expected, the Roman Provinces 
 partook of the fortunes as well as of the senti- 
 ments and general character of the seat of em- 
 
34 
 
 pire. They lived together with her, they flourish- 
 ed with her, and fell with her. The branches 
 were lopped away even before the vast and vene- 
 rable trunk itself fell prostrate to the earth. Noth- 
 ing had proceeded from her, which could support 
 itself, and bear up the name of its origin, when her 
 own sustaining arm should be enfeebled or with- 
 drawn. It was not given to Rome to see, either 
 at her zenith, or in her decline, a child of her 
 own, distant indeed, and independent of her con- 
 trol, yet speaking her language and inheriting 
 her blood, springing forward to a competition with 
 her own power, and a comparison with her own 
 great renown. She saw not a vast region of the 
 earth, peopled from her stock, full of states and 
 political communities, improving upon the models 
 of her institutions, and breathing in fuller measure 
 the spirit which she had breathed in the best 
 periods of her existence ; enjoying and extending 
 her arts and her literature ; rising rapidly from 
 political childhood to manly strength and inde- 
 pendence ; her offspring, yet now her equal ; 
 unconnected with the causes ^which might affect 
 the duration of her own power and greatness ; of 
 
35 
 
 common origin, but not linked to a common fate ; 
 giving ample pledge, that her name should not 
 be forgotten, that her language should not cease 
 to be used among men ; that whatsoever she had 
 done for human knowledge and human happi- 
 ness, should be treasured up and preserved ; that 
 the record of her existence, and her achievements, 
 should not be obscured although, in the inscruta- 
 ble purposes of Providence, it might be her desti- 
 ny to fall from opulence and splendour ; although 
 the time might come, when darkness should 
 settle on all her hills; when foreign or domes- 
 tic violence should overturn her altars and her 
 temples; when ignorance and despotism should 
 fill the places where Laws, and Arts, and Lib- 
 erty had flourished ; when the feet of barbarism 
 should trample on the tombs of her consuls, 
 and the walls of her senate house and forum 
 echo only to the voice of savage triumph. She 
 saw not this glorious vision, to inspire and fortify 
 her against the possible decay or downfal of her 
 power. Happy are they, who in our day may 
 behold it, if they shall contemplate it with the 
 sentiments which it ought to inspire ! 
 
36 
 
 The New-England colonies differ quite as wide- 
 ly from the Asiatic establishments of the modern 
 European Nations, as from the models of the 
 Ancient Stales. The sole object of those estab- 
 lishments Avas originally trade ; although Ave 
 have seen, in one of them, the anomaly of a 
 mere trading company attaining a political char- 
 acter, disbursing revenues, and maintaining ar- 
 mies and fortresses, until it has extended its 
 control over seventy millions of people. Dif- 
 fering from these, and still differing more from 
 the New-England and North American Colonies, 
 are the European settlements in the West India 
 Islands. It is not strange, that when men's minds 
 were turned to the settlement of America, dif- 
 ferent objects should be proposed by those who 
 emigrated to the different regions of so vast a 
 country. Climate, soil, and condition were not 
 all equally favourable to all pursuits. In the 
 West Indies, the purpose of those who went 
 thither, was to engage in that species of agricul- 
 ture, suited to the soil and climate, which seems 
 to bear more resemblance to commerce, than to 
 the hard and plain tillage of New England. The 
 
37 
 
 great staples of these countries, being partly an 
 agricultural and partly a manufactured product, 
 and not being of the necessaries of life, become 
 the object of calculation, with respect to a profi- 
 table investment of capital, like any other enter- 
 prise of trade or manufacture. The more espe- 
 cially, as they require, by necessity or habit, 
 slave labour for their production, the capital 
 necessary to carry on the work of this produc- 
 tion is more considerable. The West Indies 
 are resorted to, therefore, rather for the invest- 
 ment of capital, than for the purpose of sustain- 
 ing life by personal labour. Such as possess a 
 considerable amount of capital, or sucli as choose 
 to adventure in commercial speculations with- 
 out capital, can alone be fitted to be emigrants to 
 the islands. The agriculture of these regions, 
 as before observed, is a sort of commerce ; and 
 it is a species of employment, in which labour 
 seems to form an inconsiderable ingredient in the 
 productive causes ; since the portion of white 
 labour is exceedingly small, and slave labour is 
 rather more like profit on stock, or capital, than 
 labour properly so called. The individual who 
 
 6 
 
38 
 
 contemplates an establishment of this kind, takes 
 into the account the cost of the necessary num- 
 ber of slaves, in the same manner as he calcu- 
 lates the cost of the land. The uncertainty, too, 
 of this species of employment, affords another 
 ground of resemblance to commerce. Although 
 gainful, on the whole, and in a series of years, it 
 is often very disastrous for a single year, and 
 as the capital is not readily invested in other 
 pursuits, bad crops, or bad markets, not only 
 affect the profits, but the capital itself. Hence 
 the sudden depressions v^^hich take place in the 
 value of such estates. 
 
 But the great and leading observation, relative 
 to these establishments, remains to be made. It 
 is, that the owners of the soil and of the capital 
 seldom consider themselves at home in the colony. 
 A very great portion of the soil itself is usually 
 owned in the mother country ; a still greater is 
 mortgaged for capital obtained there ; and, in gene- 
 ral, those who are to derive an interest from the 
 products, look to the parent country as the place 
 for enjoyment of their wealth. The population 
 
3» 
 
 is therefore constantly fluctuating. Nobody comes 
 but to return. A constant succession of owners, 
 agents, and factors takes place. Whatsoever the 
 soil, forced by the unmitigated toil of slavery, can 
 yield, is borne lioine to defray rents, and interest, 
 and agencies ; or to give the means of living in a 
 better society. In such a state, it is evident that 
 no spirit of permanent improvement is likely to 
 spring up. Profits will not be invested with a 
 distant view of benefiting posterity. Roads and 
 canals will hardly be built ; schools will not be 
 founded ; colleges will not be endowed. There 
 will be few fixtures in society; no principles of 
 utility or of elegance, planted now, with the hope 
 of being developed and expanded hereafter. Pro- 
 fit, immediate profit, must be the principal active 
 spring in the social system. There may be many 
 particular exceptions to these general remarks, but 
 the outline of the whole, is such as is here drawn. 
 
 Another most important consequence of such 
 a state of things is, that no idea of indepen- 
 dence of the parent country is likely to arise ; 
 unless indeed it should spring up in a form, that 
 would threaten universal desolation. The inhabi- 
 
40 
 
 tants have no strong attachment to the place 
 which they inhabit. The hope of a great portion 
 of them, is to leave it ; and their great desire, 
 to leave it soon. However useful they may be 
 to the parent state, how much soever they may 
 add to the conveniences and luxuries of life, 
 these colonies are not favoured spots, for the 
 expansion of the human mind, for the progress of 
 permanent improvement, or for sowing the seeds 
 of future independent empire. 
 
 Different, indeed, most widely different, from 
 all these instances of emigration and plantation, 
 were the condition, the purposes, and the pros- 
 pects of our Fathers, when they established their 
 infant colony upon this spot. They came hither 
 to a land from which they were never to re- 
 turn. Hither they had brought, and here they 
 were to fix, their hopes, their attachments, and 
 their objects. Some natural tears they shed, as 
 they left the pleasant abodes of their fathers, and 
 some emotions they suppressed, when the white 
 cliffs of tlieir native country, now seen for the 
 last time, grew dim to their sight. They were 
 acting however upon a resolution not to be chang- 
 
41 
 
 ed. With whatever stifled regrets, with whatever 
 occasional hesitation, with whatever appalHng ap- 
 prehensions, which might sometimes arise with 
 force to shake the firmest purpose, they had yet 
 committed themselves to heaven, and the ele- 
 ments ; and a thousand leagues of water soon in- 
 terposed to separate them forever from the re- 
 gion which gave them birth. A new existence 
 awaited them here ; and when they saw these 
 shores, rough, cold, barbarous, and barren as then 
 they were, they beheld their country. That mixed 
 and strong feeling, which we call love of country, 
 and which is, in general, never extinguished in the 
 heart of man, grasped and embraced its proper 
 object here. Whatever constitutes country, ex- 
 cept the earth and the sun, all the moral causes of 
 affection and attachment, which operate upon the 
 heart, they had brought with them to their new 
 abode. Here were now their families and 
 friends ; their homes, and their property. Be- 
 fore they reached the shore, they had estab- 
 lished the elements of a social system, and at a 
 much earlier period had settled their forms of 
 religious worship. At the moment of their land- 
 
42 
 
 ii)g', therefore, they possessed institutions of go- 
 vernment, and institutions of rehgion : and friends 
 and families, and social and religious institutions, 
 established by consent, founded on choice and 
 preference, how nearly do these fill up our whole 
 idea of country ! — The morning that beamed on 
 the first night of their repose, saw the Pilgrims 
 already established in their country. There were 
 political institutions, and civil liberty, and religious 
 worship. Poetry has fancied nothing, in the wander- 
 ings of heroes, so distinct and characteristic. Here 
 was man, indeed, unprotected, and unprovided for, 
 on the shore of a rude and fearful Avilderness ; 
 but it was politic, intelligent and educated man. 
 Every thing was civilized but the physical world. 
 Institutions containing in substance all that ages 
 had done for human government, were established 
 in a forest. Cultivated mind was to act on unculti- 
 vated nature ; and, more than all, a government, 
 and a country, were to commence, with the very 
 first foundations laid under the divine light of the 
 christian religion. Happy auspices of a happy 
 futurity ! Who would wish, that his country's 
 existence had otherwise begun? — Who would de- 
 
43 
 
 tire the power of going back to the ages of fable ? 
 Who would wish for an origin, obscured in the 
 darkness of antiquity ? — Who would wish for 
 other emblazoning of his country's heraldry, 
 or other ornaments of her genealogy, than to be 
 able to say, that her first existence was with intel- 
 ligence ; her first breath the inspirations of lib- 
 erty; her first principle the truth of divine re- 
 ligion 9 
 
 Local attachments and sympathies would ere 
 long spring up in the breasts of our ancestors, 
 endearing to them the place of their refuge. 
 Whatever natural objects are associated with in- 
 teresting scenes and high efforts, obtain a hold 
 on human feeling, and demand from the heart a 
 sort of recognition and regard. This Rock soon 
 became hallowed in the esteem of the Pilgrims, 
 and these hills grateful to their sight. Neither 
 they nor their children were again to till the soil 
 of England, nor again to traverse the seas which 
 surrounded her. But here was a new sea, now 
 open to their enterprise, and a new soil, which 
 had not failed to respond gratefully to their labo- 
 
44 
 
 rious industry, and which was already assuming a 
 a robe of verdure. Hardly had they provided 
 shelter for the living, ere they were summoned 
 to erect sepulchres for the dead. The ground 
 had become sacred, by enclosing the remains of 
 some of their companions and connexions. A 
 parent, a child, a husband or a wife, had gone the 
 way of all flesh, and mingled with the dust of 
 New-England. We naturally look with strong 
 emotions to the spot, though it be a wilderness, 
 where the ashes of those we have loved repose. 
 Where the heart has laid down what it loved 
 most, it is desirous of laying itself down. No 
 sculptured marble, no enduring monument, no 
 honourable inscription, no ever burning taper that 
 would drive away the darkness of death, can 
 soften our sense of the reality of mortality, and 
 hallow to our feelings the ground which is to 
 cover us, like the consciousness that we shall 
 sleep, dust to dust, with the objects of our aifec- 
 tions. 
 
 In a short time other causes sprung up to bind 
 the Pilgrims with new cords to their chosen land. 
 
45 
 
 Children were born, and the hopes of future gen- 
 erations arose, in the spot of their new habitation. 
 The second greneration found this the land of their 
 nativity, and saw that thej were bound to its for- 
 tunes. They beheld their father's graves around 
 them, and while they read the memorials of their 
 toils and labours, they rejoiced in the inheritance 
 which they found bequeathed to them. 
 
 Under the influence of these causes, it was 
 to be expected, that an interest and a feel- 
 ing should arise here, entirely different from the 
 interest and feeling of mere Englishmen ; and 
 all the subsequent history of the colonies proves 
 this to have actually and gradually taken place. 
 With a general acknowledgment of the su- 
 premacy of the British crown, there was, from 
 the first, a repugnance to an entire submis- 
 sion to the control of British legislation. The 
 colonies stood upon their charters, which as 
 they contended, exempted them from the ordi- 
 nary power of the British parliament, and au- 
 thorised them to conduct their own concerns by 
 their own councils. They utterly resisted the 
 
 7 
 
notion that they were to be ruled by the mere 
 authority of the government at home, and would 
 not endure even that their own charter govern- 
 ments should be established on the other side of 
 the Atlantic. It was not a controling or protect- 
 ing board in England, but a government of their 
 own, and existing immediately within their limits, 
 which could satisfy their wishes. It was easy 
 to foresee, what we know also to have happened, 
 that the first great cause of collision and jealousy 
 would be, under the notion of political economy 
 then and still prevalent in Europe, an attempt on 
 the part of the mother country to monopolize the 
 trade of the colonies. Whoever has looked 
 deeply into the causes which produced our revo- 
 lution, has found, if I mistake not, the original 
 principle far back in this claim, on the part of 
 England, to monopolize our trade, and a continu- 
 ed effort on the part of the colonies to resist or 
 evade that monopoly; if indeed it be not still 
 more just and philosophical to go farther back, 
 and to consider it decided, that an independent 
 government must arise here, the moment it was 
 ascertained that an English colony, such as land- 
 
47 
 
 ed in this place, could sustain itself against the 
 dangers Avhich surrounded it, and, with other si- 
 milar establishments, overspread the land with an 
 English population. Accidental causes retarded 
 at times, and at times accelerated the progress of 
 the controversy. The colonies wanted strength, 
 and time gave it to them. They required meas- 
 ures of strong and palpable injustice on the part of 
 the mother country, to justify resistance ; the early 
 part of the late King's reign furnished them. 
 They needed spirits of high order, of great daring, 
 of long foresight and of commanding power, to 
 seize the favouring occasion to strike a blow, which 
 should sever, forever, the tie of colonial depen- 
 dence; and these spirits were found, in all the 
 extent which that or any crisis could demand, in 
 Otis, Adams, Hancock, and the other immediate 
 authors of our independence. Still it is true, 
 that for a century, causes had been in operation 
 tending to prepare things for this great result. 
 In the year 1660 the English act of Navigation was 
 passed ; the first and grand object of which seems 
 to have been to secure to England the whole trade 
 with her plantations. It was provided, by that 
 
act, that none but English ships should transport 
 American produce over the ocean ; and that the 
 principal articles of that produce should be al- 
 lowed to be sold only in the markets of the mo- 
 ther country. Three years afterwards another 
 law was passed, which enacted, that such com- 
 modities as the colonies might wish to purchase, 
 should be bought only in the markets of the mo- 
 ther country. Severe rules were prescribed to 
 enforce the provisions of these laws, and heavy 
 penalties imposed on all who should violate them. 
 In the subsequent years of the same reign, other 
 statutes were passed, to reinforce these statutes, 
 and other rules prescribed, to secure a compli- 
 ance with these rules. In this manner was the 
 trade, to and from the colonies, tied up, al- 
 most to the exclusive advantage of the parent 
 country. But laws, which rendered the interest 
 of a whole people subordinate to that of another 
 people, were not likely to execute themselves ; 
 nor was it easy to find many on the spot, who 
 could be depended upon for carrying them into 
 execution. In fact, these laws were more or less 
 evaded, or resisted, in all the colonies. To en- 
 
49 
 
 force tliem was the constant endeavour of the 
 government at home ; to prevent or elude then- 
 operation, the perpetual object here. " The laws 
 of navigation," says a living British writer, " were 
 no where so openly disobeyed and contemned, as 
 in New-England." " The People of Massachu- 
 setts Bay," he adds, " were from the first dispos- 
 ed to act as if independent of the mother coun- 
 try, and having a Governor and magistrates of 
 their own choice, it was difficult to enforce any 
 regulation which came from the English parlia- 
 ment, adverse to their interests." To provide 
 more effectually for the execution of these laws, 
 we know that courts of admiralty were after- 
 wards established by the crown, with power to 
 try revenue causes, as questions of admiralty, 
 upon the construction, given by the crown law- 
 yers, to an act of parliament ; — a great depar- 
 ture from the ordinary principles of English 
 jurisprudence, but which has been maintained, 
 nevertheless, by the force of habit and precedent, 
 and is adopted in our own existing systems of go- 
 vernment. 
 
50 
 
 " There lie," says another English writer, whose 
 connexion with the Board of Trade has enabled 
 him to ascertain many facts connected with colonial 
 history, — " There lie among the documents in 
 the board of trade and paper office, the most 
 satisfactory proofs, from the epoch of the Eng- 
 lish revolution in 1688, throughout every reign, 
 and during every administration, of the settled 
 purpose of the colonies to acquire direct inde- 
 pendence and positive sovereignty." Perhaps 
 this may he stated somewhat too strongly ; but 
 it cannot be denied, that from the very nature 
 of the establishments here, and from the general 
 character of the measures respecting their con- 
 cerns, early adopted, and steadily pursued by the 
 English government, a division of the empire 
 was the natural and necessary result to which 
 every thing tended. 
 
 I have dwelt on this topic, because it seems 
 to me, that the peculiar original character of 
 the New-England colonies, and certain causes 
 coeval with their existence, have had a strong 
 and decided influence on all their subsequent 
 
51 
 
 history, and especially on the great event of the 
 Revolution. Whoever would write our history, 
 and would understand and explain early transac- 
 tions, should comprehend the nature and force 
 of the feeling which I have endeavoured to des- 
 cribe. As a son, leaving the house of his father 
 for his own, finds, by the order of nature, and 
 the very law of his being, nearer and dearer 
 objects around which his affections circle, while 
 his attachment to the parental roof becomes 
 moderated, by degrees, to a composed regard, 
 and an affectionate remembrance ; so our ances- 
 tors, leaving their native land, not without some 
 violence to the feelings of nature and affection, 
 yet in time found here, a new circle of engage- 
 ments, interests, and affections ; a feeling, which 
 more and more encroached upon the old, till an 
 undivided sentiment, that this vms their country, 
 occupied the heart ; and patriotism, shutting out 
 from its embraces the parent realm, became 
 local to America. 
 
 Some retrospect of the century which has 
 now elapsed, is among the duties of the occa- 
 
52 
 
 slon. It must, however, necessarily be imper- 
 fect, to be compressed within the Hmits of a 
 single discourse. I shall content myself, therefore, 
 with taking notice of a few of the leading, and 
 most important, occurrences, which have distin- 
 guished the period. 
 
 When the first century closed, the progress 
 of the country appeared to have been considera- 
 ble ; notwithstanding that, in comparison with 
 its subsequent advancement, it now seems other- 
 wise. A broad and lasting foundation had been 
 laid : excellent institutions had been established ; 
 much of the prejudices of former times had be- 
 come removed ; a more liberal and catholic spirit 
 on subjects of religious concern had begun to 
 extend itself, and many things conspired to give 
 promise of increasing future prosperity. Great 
 men had arisen in public life and the liberal pro- 
 fessions. The Mathers, father and son, were 
 then sinking low in the western horizon ; Leve- 
 rett, the learned, the accomplished, the excellent 
 Leverett, was about to withdraw his brilliant and 
 useful light. In Pemberton, great hopes had 
 
53 
 
 been suddenly extinguished, but Prince ami 
 Colman, were in our sky; and the crepuscular 
 light had begun to flash along the East, of a great 
 luminary which was about to appear ; and which 
 was to mark the age with his own name, as the 
 age of Franklin. 
 
 The bloody Indian wars, which harrassed the 
 people for a part of the first century; the restric- 
 tions on the trade of the Colonies — added to the 
 discouragements inherently belonging to all forms 
 of colonial government ; the distance from Europe, 
 and the small hope of immediate profit to adven- 
 turers, are among the causes which had contri- 
 buted to retard the progress of population. 
 Perhaps it may be added, also, that during the 
 period of the civil wars in England, and the 
 reign of Cromwell, many persons, whose religious 
 opinions and religious temper might, under other 
 circumstances have induced them to join the 
 New-England colonists, found reasons to remain 
 m England ; cither on account of active occupa- 
 tion in the scenes which were passing, or of 
 an anticipation of the enjoyment, in their own 
 
 8 
 
54 
 
 country, of a form of government, civil and re- 
 ligious, accommodated to their views and prin- 
 ciples. The violent measures, too, pursued against 
 the Colonies in the reign of Charles the second, 
 the mockerj of a trial, and the forfeiture of the 
 Charters, were serious evils. And during the 
 open violences of the short reign of James the 
 second, and the tyi'anny of Andros, as the vene- 
 rable historian of Connecticut observes, '■^ All the 
 motives to great actions^ to industry^ economy^ enter- 
 prize, wealth, and 'population, were in a manner 
 annihilated. A general inactivity and langiiish- 
 ment pervaded the public body. Liberty, pro- 
 perty, and every thing which ought to be dear 
 to men, every day grew more and more insecure.'''^ 
 
 With the revolution in England, a better pros- 
 pect had opened on this country, as well as on 
 that. The joy had been as great, at that event, 
 and far more universal in JYew, than in Old Eng- 
 land. A new Charter had been granted to Mas- 
 sachusetts, which, although it did not confirm to 
 her inhabitants all their former privileges, yet re- 
 lieved them from great evils and embarrassments, 
 
55 
 
 and promised future security. More than all, 
 perhaps, the revolution in England, had done 
 good to the general cause of liberty and justice. 
 A blow had been struck, in favour of the rights 
 and liberties, not of England alone, but of descen- 
 dants and kinsmen of England, all over the world. 
 Great political truths had been established. The 
 champions of liberty had been successful in a 
 fearful and perilous conilict. Somers, and Caven- 
 dish, and Jekyl, and Howard, had triumphed in 
 one of the most noble causes ever undertaken 
 by men. A revolution had been made upon 
 principle. A monarch had been dethroned, for 
 violating the original compact between King and 
 People. The rights of the people to partake in 
 the government, and to limit the monarch by funda- 
 mental rules of government, had been maintain- 
 ed ; and however unjust the government of Eng- 
 land might afterwards be, towards other govern- 
 ments or towards her colonies, she had ceased to 
 be governed herself, by the arbitrary maxims of 
 the Stuarts. 
 
 New-England had submitted to the violence of 
 James the second, not longer than Old England. 
 
56 
 
 Not only was it reserved to Massachusetts, that 
 on her soil should be acted the first scene of that 
 great revolutionary Drama, which was to take 
 place near a century afterwards, but the English 
 revolution itself, as far as the Colonies were con- 
 cerned, commenced in Boston. A direct and 
 forcible resistance to the authority of James the 
 second, was the seizure and imprisonment of 
 Andros, in April 1689. The pulse of Liberty 
 beat as high in the extremities, as at the heart. 
 The vigorous feeling of the Colony burst out, be- 
 fore it was known how the parent country would 
 finally conduct itself. The King's representative, 
 Sir Edmund Andros, was a prisoner in the Castle 
 at Boston, before it was or could be known, that 
 the King himself had ceased to exercise his full 
 dominion on the English throne. 
 
 Before it was known here, whether the inva- 
 sion of the Prince of Orange would or could prove 
 successful ; as soon only as it was known that 
 it had been undertaken, the people of Massa- 
 chusetts, at the imminent hazard of their lives and 
 fortunes, had accomplished the revolution as far 
 
67 
 
 as respected themselves. It is probable, that, 
 reasoning on general principles, and the known 
 attachment of the English people to their consti- 
 tution and liberties, and their deep and fixed dis- 
 like of the King's religion and politics, the people 
 of New-England expected a catastrophe fatal to 
 the power of the reigning Prince. Yet, it was 
 not cither certain enough, or near enough, to 
 come to their aid against the authority of the 
 crown, in that crisis which had arrived, and in 
 which they trusted to put themselves, relying on 
 God, and on their own courage. There were 
 spirits in Massachusetts, congenial with the spirits 
 of the distinguished friends of the revolution in 
 England. There were those, who were fit to as- 
 sociate with the boldest asserters of civil liberty ; 
 and Mather himself, then in England, was not 
 unworthy to be ranked with those sons of the 
 church, whose firmness and spirit, in resisting 
 kingly encroachment in religion, entitled them to 
 the gratitude of their own and succeeding ages. 
 
 The Second Century opened upon New-England 
 under circumstances, which evinced, that much 
 
had already been accomplished, and that still 
 better prospects, and brighter hopes, were before 
 her. She had laid, deep and strong, the founda- 
 tions of her society. Her religious principles 
 were firm, and her moral habits exemplary. Her 
 public schools had begun to diffuse widely the 
 elements of knowledge ; and the College, under 
 the excellent and acceptable administration of 
 Leverett, had been raised to a high degree of 
 credit and usefulness. ,^ 
 
 The commercial character of the country, not- 
 withstanding all discouragements, had begun to 
 display itself, and five hundred vessels, then be- 
 longing to Massachusetts, placed her in relation to 
 commerce, thus early, at the head of the colo- 
 nies. An author who wrote very near the close 
 of the first century says ; " New-England is al- 
 most deserving that noble name ; so mightily hath 
 it increased; and from a small settlement, at first, 
 is now become a very populous and flourishing 
 government. The capital city, Boston, is a place 
 of great wealth and trade ; and by much the 
 largest of any in the English empire of Ameri- 
 
59 
 
 ca ; and not exceeded but by few cities, per- 
 haps two or three, in all the American world. 
 
 But, if our ancestors at the close of the first 
 century, could look back with joy, and even 
 admiration, at the progress of the country ; Avhat 
 emotions must we not feel, when, from the point 
 in which we stand, we also look back and run 
 along the events of the century which has now 
 closed ? The country, Avhich then, as we have 
 seen, was thought deserving of a " noble name ;" 
 which then had " mightily increased," and be- 
 come " very populous ;" what was it, in compari- 
 son with what our eyes behold it ? At that 
 period, a very great proportion of its inhabitants 
 lived in the Eastern section of Massachusetts 
 proper, and in this colony. In Connecticut, there 
 were towns along the coast, some of them re- 
 spectable, but in the interior, all was a wilderness 
 beyond Hartford. On Connecticut river, settle- 
 ments had proceeded as far up as Deerfield, and 
 fort Dummer had been built, near where is now 
 the South line of New-Hampshire. In New-Hamp- 
 ihire, no settlement was then begun thirty miles 
 
6d 
 
 from the mouth of Piscataqua river, and, in what 
 is now Maine, the inhabitants were confined to the 
 coast. The aggregate of the whole population of 
 New-England did not exceed one hundred and 
 sixty thousand. Its present amount is probably 
 one million seven hundred thousand. Instead of 
 being confined to its former limits, her population 
 has rolled backward and filled up the spaces includ- 
 ed within her actual local boundaries. Not this 
 only, but it has overflowed those boundaries, and 
 the waves of emigration have pressed, farther 
 and farther, toward the west. The Alleghany 
 has not checked it ; the banks of the Ohio have 
 been covered with it. New-England farms, houses, 
 villages, and churches spread over, and adorn the 
 immense extent from the Ohio to Lake Erie ; and 
 stretch along, from the Alleghany, onwards be- 
 yond the Miamies, and towards the Falls of St. 
 Anthony. Two thousand miles, westward from 
 the rock where their fathers landed, may now 
 be found the sons of the Pilgrims ; cultivating 
 smiling fields, rearing towns and villages, and 
 cherishing, we trust, the patrimonial blessings of 
 wise institutions, of liberty, and religion. The 
 
61 
 
 world has seen nothing like this. Regions large 
 enough to be empires, and which, half a century 
 ago, were known only as remote and unexplored 
 wildernesses, are now teeming with population, 
 and prosperous in all the great concerns of life ; 
 in good governments, the means of subsistence, 
 and social happiness. It may be safely asserted, 
 that there are now more than a million of people, 
 descendants of New-England ancestry, living 
 free and happy, in regions, which hardly sixty 
 years ago, were tracts of unpenetrated forest. 
 Nor do rivers, or mountains, or seas resist the 
 progress of industry and enterprise. Ere long, 
 the sons of the Pilgrims will be on the shores of 
 the Pacific. The imagination hardly keeps up 
 with the progress of population, improvement, 
 and civilization. 
 
 It is now five and forty years, since the growth 
 and rising glory of America were portrayed, in 
 the English parliament, with inimitable beauty, by 
 the most consummate orator of modern times. 
 Going back somewhat more than half a century, 
 and describing our progress, as foreseen, from 
 9 
 
62 
 
 that point, by his amiable friend Lord Bathurst^ 
 then living, he spoke of the wonderful progress 
 which America had made, during the period of a 
 single human life. There is no American heart, 
 I imagine, that does not glow, both with conscious 
 patriotic pride, and admiration for one of the 
 happiest efforts of eloquence, so often as the 
 vision, of "^ that little speck, scarce visible in the 
 mass of national interest, a small seminal principle, 
 rather than a formed body," and the progress of 
 its astonishing development and growth, are re- 
 called to the recollection. But a stronger feeling 
 might be produced, if we were able to take up 
 this prophetic description where he left it ; and 
 placing ourselves at the point of time in which he 
 was speaking, to set forth with equal felicity, the 
 subsequent progress of the country. There is 
 yet among the living a most distinguished and 
 venerable name, a descendant of the Pilgrims j 
 one who has been attended through life by a 
 great and fortunate genius ; a man illustrious by 
 his own great merits, and favoured of Heaven in 
 the long continuation of his years. The time 
 when the English orator was thus speaking of 
 
65 
 
 America, preceded, but by a few days, the actual 
 openin*^ of the revolutionary Drama at Lexing- 
 ton. He to whom I have alluded, then at the 
 age of forty, was among the most zealous and able 
 defenders of the violated rights of his country. 
 He seemed already to have filled a full measure 
 of public service, and attained an honorable fame. 
 The moment was full of dilficulty and danger, and 
 big with events of immeasurable importance. 
 The country was on the very brink of a civil war, 
 of which no man could foretell the duration or 
 the result. Something more than a courageous 
 hope, or characteristic ardour, would have been 
 necessary to impress the glorious prospect on his 
 belief, if, at that moment, before the sound of the 
 first shock of actual war had reached his ears, 
 some attendant spirit had opened to him the 
 vision of the future ; if it had said to him, " The 
 blow is struck, and America is severed from Eng- 
 land forever !" if it had informed him, that he 
 himself, the next annual revolution of the sun, 
 should put his own hand to the great Instrument 
 of Independence, and write his name where all 
 nations should behold it, and all time should not 
 
64 
 
 efface it ; that ere long he himself should main- 
 tain the interest and represent the sovereignty of 
 his new-born Country, in the proudest courts of 
 Europe ; that he should one day exercise her su- 
 preme magistracy; that he should yet live to be- 
 hold ten millions of fellow citizens paying him 
 the homage of their deepest gratitude and kindest 
 affections ; that he should see distinguished talent 
 and high public trust resting where his name 
 rested ; that he should even see with his own un- 
 clouded eyes, the close of the second century of 
 New-England, who had begun life almost with its 
 commencement, and lived through nearly half the 
 whole history of his country ; and that on the morn- 
 ing of this auspicious day, he should be found in 
 the political councils of his native state, revising, 
 by the light of experience, that system of govern- 
 ment, which forty years before he had assisted to 
 frame and establish ; and great and happy as he 
 should then behold his country, there should be 
 nothing in prospect to cloud the scene, nothing to 
 check the ardour of that confident and patriotic 
 hope, which should glow in his bosom to the end 
 of his long protracted and happy life. 
 
G5 
 
 It would far exceed the limits of this discourse, 
 even to mention the principal events in the civil 
 and political history of NcAv-England during the 
 century ; the more so, as for the last half of the 
 period, that history has been, most happily, close- 
 ly interwoven with the general history of the 
 United States. New-England bore an honora- 
 ble part in the wars which took place between 
 England and France. The capture of Louisburg 
 gave her a character for military achievement ; 
 and in the war which terminated with the peace 
 of 1763, her exertions on the frontiers were of 
 most essential service as well to the mother coun- 
 try as to all the colonies. 
 
 In New- England the war of the revolution 
 commenced. I address those who remember the 
 memorable 19th of April 1775 ; who shortly af- 
 ter saw the burning spires of Charlestown ; who 
 beheld the deeds of Prescott, and heard the 
 voice of Putnam, amidst the storm of war, and 
 saw the generous Warren fall, the first distin- 
 guished victim in the cause of liberty. It would 
 be superfluous to say, that no portion of the coun- 
 
66 
 
 try did more than the states of New-England, to 
 bring the revolutionary struggle to a successful 
 issue. It is scarcely less to her credit, that she 
 saw early the necessity of a closer union of the 
 states, and gave an efficient and indispensable aid 
 to the establishment and organization of the fede- 
 ral government. 
 
 Perhaps we might safely say, that a new 
 spirit, and a new excitement began to exist 
 here, about the middle of the last century. 
 To whatever causes it may be imputed, there 
 seems then to have commenced a more rapid 
 improvement. The colonies had attracted more 
 of the attention of the mother country, and some 
 renown in arms had been acquired. Lord Chat- 
 ham was the first English minister who attached 
 high importance to these possessions of the crown, 
 and who foresaw any thing of their future growth 
 and extension. His opinion was, that the great 
 rival of England was chiefly to be feared as a ma- 
 ritime and commercial power, and to drive her 
 out of North America, and deprive her of her 
 West India possessions was a leading object in 
 
67 
 
 his policy. He dwelt often on the fisheries, as 
 nurseries for British seamen, and the colonial 
 trade, as furnishing them employment. The war, 
 conducted by him with so much vigour, terminnt- 
 ed in a Peace, by which Canada was ceded to 
 England. The effect of this w^as immediately 
 visible in the New-England colonies ; for the fear 
 of Indian hostilities on the frontiers being now 
 happily removed, settlements went on with an 
 activity before that time altogether unprecedent- 
 ed, and public affairs wore a new and encouraging 
 aspect. Shortly after this fortunate termination 
 of the French war, the interesting topics connect- 
 ed with the taxation of America by the British 
 Parliament began to be discussed, and the atten- 
 tion and all the faculties of the people drawn to- 
 wards them. There is perhaps no portion of our 
 history more full of interest than the period from 
 1760 to the actual commencement of the war. 
 The progress of opinion, in this period, though 
 less known, is not less important, than the pro- 
 gress of arms afterwards. Nothing deserves 
 more consideration than those events and discus- 
 sions which affected the public sentiment, and 
 
68 
 
 settled the Revolution in men's minds, before 
 hostilities openly broke out. 
 
 Internal improvement followed the establish- 
 ment, and prosperous commencement, of the pre- 
 sent government. More has been done for roads, 
 canals, and other public works, within the last 
 thirty years, than in all our former history. In 
 the first of these particulars, few countries excel 
 the New-Ensfland States. The astonishing^ in- 
 crease of their navigation and trade is known to 
 every one, and now belongs to the history of our 
 national wealth. 
 
 We may flatter ourselves, too, that literature 
 and taste have not been stationary, and that some 
 advancement has been made in the elegant, as 
 well as in the useful arts. 
 
 The nature and constitution of society and 
 government, in this country, are interesting topics, 
 to which I would devote what remains of the 
 time allowed to this occasion. Of our system of 
 government, the first thing to be said, is, that it is 
 
69 
 
 really and practically a free system. It originates 
 entirely with the people, ami rests on no other 
 foundation than their assent. To judge ol Its ac- 
 tual operation, it is not enough to look merely at 
 the form of its construction. The practical cha- 
 racter of government depends often on a variety 
 of considerations, besides the abstract frame of 
 its constitutional organization. Among these, are 
 the condition and tenure of property ; the laws 
 regulating Its alienation and descent ; the presence 
 or absence of a military power ; an armed or un- 
 armed yeomanry; the spirit of the age, and the 
 degree of general intelligence. In these respects 
 it cannot be denied, that the circumstances of this 
 country are most favourable to the hope of main- 
 taining the government of a great nation on prin- 
 ciples entirely popular. In the absence of mili- 
 tary power, the nature of government must 
 essentially depend on the manner in which pro- 
 perty is holden and distributed. There Is a natu- 
 ral influence belonging to property, whether it 
 exists in many hands or few ; and it is on the rights 
 of property, that both despotism and unrestrained 
 popular violence ordinarily commence their at- 
 
 10 
 
70 
 
 tacks. Our ancestors be^an their system of 
 government here, under a condition of compara- 
 tive equality, in regard to wealth, and their ear- 
 ly laws were of a nature to favour and continue 
 this equality.* A republican form of government 
 rests, not more on political Constitutions, than on 
 those laws which regulate the descent and trans- 
 mission of property. — Governments like ours 
 could not have been maintained, where property 
 was holden according to the principles of the feu- 
 dal system ; nor, on the other hand, could the feu- 
 dal Constitution possibly exist with us. Our New- 
 England ancestors brought hither no great capi- 
 tals, from Europe ; and if they had, there was 
 nothing productive, in which they could have 
 been invested. They left behind them the 
 
 * The contents of several of the following pages will be 
 found also in the printed account of the proceedings of the 
 Massachusetts convention, in some remarks made by the au- 
 thor a few days before the delivery of this discourse. As 
 those remarks were originally written for this discourse, 
 it was thought proper not to omit them, in the publication, 
 notwithstanding this circumstance. 
 
71 
 
 whole feudal policy of the other continent. 
 They broke away, at once, from the system of 
 military service, established in the dark ages, and 
 which continues, down even to the present time, 
 more or less to aifect the condition of property 
 all over Europe. They came to a new country. 
 There were, as yet, no lands yielding rt-nt, and no 
 tenants rendering service. The whole soil was 
 unreclaimed from barbarism. They were them- 
 selves, either from their original condition, or 
 from the necessity of their common interest, near- 
 ly on a general level, in respect to property. 
 Their situation demanded a parcelling out and 
 division of the lands ; and it may be fairly said, 
 that this necessary act Jixed the future frame and 
 form of their government. The character of their 
 political institutions was determined by the funda- 
 mental laws respecting property. The laws ren- 
 dered estates divisible amons: sons and dausfhters. 
 The right of primogeniture, at first limited, and 
 curtailed, was afterwards abolished. The pro- 
 perty was all freehold. The entailment of es- 
 tates, long trusts, and the other processes for 
 fettering and tying up inheritances, were not ap- 
 
72 
 
 plicable to the condition of society, and seldom 
 made use of. On the contrary, alienation of the 
 land was every way facilitated, even to the sub- 
 jecting of it to every species of debt. The 
 estabhshment of public registries, and the simplici- 
 ty of our forms of conveyance, have greatly facili- 
 tated the change of real estate, from one proprie- 
 tor to another. The consequence of all these 
 causes has been, a great subdivision of the soil, 
 and a great equality of condition ; the true basis 
 most certain?y of a popular government. — " If 
 the people," says Harrington, " hold three parts 
 in four of the territory, it is plain there can nei- 
 ther be any single person nor nobility able to dis- 
 pute the government with them ; in this case, 
 therefore, except force be interposed, they govern 
 themselves." 
 
 The history of other nations may teach us how 
 favourable to public liberty is the division of the 
 soil into small frecliolds, and a system of laws, of 
 which the tendency is, w^ithout violence or injus- 
 tice, to produce and to preserve a degree of 
 equality of property. It has been estimated, if I 
 
/ 
 
 73 
 
 mistake not, that about the time of Henry tlie 
 VII., lour lll'ths ot" the land in England, was 
 holden bv the ffreat barons and ecclesiastics. 
 The cuects of a growing commerce soon after- 
 wards began to break in on this state of things, and 
 before the revolution in 1688 a vast change had 
 been wrought. It may be thought probable, that, 
 for the last half century, the process of subdivi- 
 sion in England, has been retarded, if not re versed ; 
 that the great weight of taxation has compelled 
 many of the lesser freeholders to dispose of their 
 estates, and to seek employment in the army and 
 navy ; in the professions of civil life ; in com- 
 merce or in the colonies. The effect of this on 
 /the British Constitution cannot but be most unfa- 
 
 vourable. A i'ew large estates grow larger ; but 
 ( the number of those who have no estates also 
 f increases ; and there may be danger, lest the in- 
 ) equality of property become so great, that those 
 { who possess it may be dispossessed by force ; in 
 I other words, that the government may be over- 
 \ turned. 
 
 V 
 
 A most interesting experiment of the effect of 
 
74 
 
 a subdivision of property on government, is now 
 making- in France. It is understood, that the law 
 regulating the transmission of property, in that 
 country, now divides it, real and personal, among 
 all the children, equally, both sons and daughters; 
 and that there is, also, a very great restraint on 
 the power of making dispositions of property by 
 will. It has been supposed, that the eifects of 
 this might probably be, in time, to break up the 
 soil into such small subdivisions, that the proprie- 
 tors would be too poor to resist the encroach- 
 ments of executive power. I think far otherwise. 
 What is lost in individual wealth, will be more 
 than gained, in numbers, in intelligence, and in a 
 sympathy of sentiment. If mdeed, only one, or a 
 few landholders were to resist the crown, like the 
 barons of England, they must, of course, be great 
 and powerful landholders with multitudes of re- 
 tainers, to promise success. But if the proprie- 
 tors of a given extent of territory are summoned 
 to resistance, there is no reason to believe that 
 such resistance would be less forcible, or less suc- 
 cessful, because the number of such proprietors 
 should be great. Each would perceive his own 
 
75 
 
 importance, and bis own interest, and would feel 
 that natural elevation of" character which IJie 
 consciousness of property inspires. A common 
 sentiment would unite all, and numbers would not 
 only add strengtb, but excite enthusiasm. It is 
 true, that France possesses a vast military force, 
 under the direction of an hereditary executive 
 government ; and military power, it is possible, 
 may overthrow any government. It is, in vain, 
 however, in this period of the world, to look for 
 security against military power, to the arm of the 
 great landholders. That notion is derived from 
 a state of things long since past ; a state in which 
 a feudal baron, with his retainers, might stand 
 against the sovereign, who was himself but the 
 greatest baron, and his retainers. But at present, 
 what could the richest landholder do, against one 
 ^regiment of disciplined troops ? Other securities, 
 therefore, against the prevalence of military pow- 
 er must be provided. Happily for us, we are not 
 so situated as that any purpose of national de- 
 fence requires, ordinarily and constantly, such a 
 military force as might seriously endanger our 
 liberties. 
 
76 
 
 In respect, however, to the recent law ol 
 succession In France, to whicli I have aHuded, I 
 would, presumptuously perhaps, hazard a conjec- 
 ture, that if the government do not change the 
 law, the law, in half a century, will change the 
 government ; and that this change will be not in 
 favour of the power of the crown, as some Euro- 
 pean writers have supposed, but against it. 
 Those writers only reason upon what they think 
 correct general principles, in relation to this sub- 
 ject. They acknowledge a want of experience. 
 Here we have had that experience ; and we 
 know that a multitude of small proprietors, acting 
 with intelligence, and that enthusiasm which a 
 common cause inspires, constitute not only a 
 formidable, but an invincible power. 
 
 The true principle of a free and popular go- 
 vernment would seem to be, so to construct it, as 
 to give to all, or at least to a very great majority, 
 an interest in its preservation : to found it, as 
 other things are founded, on men's interest. The 
 stability of government requires that those who 
 desire its continuance should be more powerful 
 
77 
 
 than those who desire its dissolution. This pow- 
 er, of course, is not always to be measured by 
 mere numbers. — Education, wealth, talents, are 
 all parts and elements of the general aggregate of 
 power ; but numbers, nevertheless, constitute 
 ordinarily the most important consideration, un- 
 less indeed there bo a military force, in the hands 
 of the few, by which they can control the many. 
 In this country we have actually existing systems of 
 government, in the maintenance of which, it should 
 seem, a great majority, both in numbers and in 
 other means of power and influence, must see 
 their interest. But this state of things is not 
 brought about solely by written political consti- 
 tutions, or the mere manner of organizing the 
 government ; but also by the laws which regulate 
 the descent and transmission of property. The 
 freest government, if it could exist, would not b« 
 long acceptable, if the tendency of the laws were 
 to create a rapid accumulation of property in few 
 hands, and to render the great mass of the popula- 
 tion dependent and pennyless. In such a case, the/ 
 popular power would be likely to break in upon the 
 rights of property, or else the influence of property 
 U 
 
78 
 
 to limit and control the exercise of popular power. 
 — Universal sulFrage, for example, could not long 
 exist in a community, where there was great ine- 
 quality of property. The holders of estates 
 would be obliged in such case, either, in some 
 way, to restrain the right of suffrage ; or else 
 such right of suffrage would, long before, divide the 
 property. In the nature of things, those who 
 have not property, and see their neighbours pos- 
 sess much more than they think, them to need, 
 cannot be favourable to laws made for the pro- 
 tection of property. When this class becomes 
 numerous, it grows clamorous. It looks on pro- 
 perty as its prey and plunder, and is naturally 
 ready, at all times, for violence and revolution. 
 
 It would seem, then, to be the part of political 
 wisdom, to found government on property ; and to 
 establish such distribution of property, by the 
 laws which regulate its transmission and aliena- 
 tion, as to interest the great majority of society 
 in the support of the government. This is, I 
 imagine, the true theory and the actual practice 
 of our republican institutions. With property 
 
79 
 
 divided, as we have it, no other government than 
 that of a rejiubhc could be maintained, even were 
 we foolish enouirli to desire it. There is reason, 
 therefore, to expect a Ions; continuance of our sys- 
 tems. Party and passion, doubtless, may pre- 
 vail at times, and much temporary mischief be 
 done. Even modes and forms may be changed, 
 and perhaps for the worse. But a great revo- 
 lution, in regard to property, must take place, 
 before our governments can be moved from their 
 republican basis, unless they be violently struck off 
 by military power. The people possess the pro- 
 perty, more emphatically than it could ever be 
 said of the people of any other country, and they 
 can have no interest to overturn a government 
 which protects that property by equal laws. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, that this state of thino-s 
 possesses too strong tendencies towards the pro- 
 duction of a dead and uninteresting level in socie- 
 ty. Such tendencies are sufficiently counteracted 
 by the infinite diversities in the characters and 
 fortunes of individuals. Talent, activity, indus- 
 try, and enterprize tend at all times to produce 
 
80 
 
 inequality and distinction ; and there is room 
 still for the accumulation of wealth, with its 
 great advantages, to all reasonable and useful 
 extent. It has been often urged against the state 
 of society in America, that it furnishes no class of 
 men of fortune and leisure. This may be partly 
 true, but it is not entirely so, and the evil, if it be 
 one, would affect rather the progress of taste 
 and literature, than the general prosperity of the 
 |>eople. But the promotion of taste and litera- 
 ture cannot be primary objects of political insti- 
 tutions ; and if they could, it might be doubted, 
 whether, in the long course of things, as much is not 
 gained by a wide diffusion of general knowledge, 
 as is lost by abridging the number of those whom 
 fortune and leisure enable to devote themselves ex- 
 clusively to scientific and literary pursuits. How- 
 ever this may be, it is to be considered that it is 
 the spirit of our system to be equal, and general, 
 and if there be particular disadvantages incident 
 to this, they are far more than counterbalanc- 
 ed by the benefits which weigh against them. 
 The important concerns of society are generally 
 conducted, in all countries, by the men of busi- 
 ness and practical ability ; and even in matters of 
 
81> 
 
 taste and literature, the advantages of mere leisure 
 are liable to be over-rated. If" there exist ade- 
 quate means of education, and the love of letters 
 be excited, that love will find its way to the ob- 
 ject of its desire, through the crowd and pressure 
 of the most busy society. 
 
 Connected with this division of property, and 
 the consequent participation of the great mass of 
 people, in its possession and enjoyments, is the 
 system of representation, which is admirably 
 accommodated to our condition, better under- 
 stood among us, and more familiarly and exten- 
 sively practised, in the higher and in the lower 
 departments of government, than it has been with 
 any other people. Great facility has been given 
 to this in New-England by the early division of 
 the country into townships or small districts, in 
 which all concerns of local police are regulated, 
 and in which representatives to the Legislature 
 are elected. Nothing can exceed the utility of 
 these little bodies. They are so many Councils, 
 or Parliaments, in which common interests are dis- 
 cussed, and useful knowledge acquired and com- 
 municated. 
 
82 
 
 The division of governments into departments^ 
 and the division, again, of the legislative depart- 
 ment into two chambers, are essential provisions 
 in our systems. This last, although not new in 
 itself, yet seems to be new in its application to 
 governments wholly popular. The Grecian Re- 
 publics, it is plain, knew nothing of it ; and in 
 Rome, the check and balance of legislative pow- 
 er, such as it was, lay between the people, and the 
 senate. Indeed few things are more difficult than 
 to ascertain accurately the true nature and con- 
 struction of the Roman Commonwealth. The re- 
 lative power of the senate and the people, the 
 Consuls and the Tribunes, appears not to have 
 been at all times the same, nor at any time accurate- 
 ly defined or strictly observed. Cicero, indeed, 
 describes to us an admirable arrangement of poli- 
 tical power, and a balance of the constitution, in 
 that beautiful passage, in which he compares the 
 democracies of Greece with the Roman Com- 
 monwealth. " O morem preclarum, disciplinamque, 
 quam a majoribus accepimus, si quidem teneremus ! 
 sed nescio quo pacto jam de manibus elabitur. JYul- 
 lam enim illi nostri sapientissimi et sanetissimi viri 
 
83 
 
 vim concionis esse voluerunt, quae scisseret plebs, 
 aid quae populus juberet ; summota condone^ distri- 
 butis partibus^ tributim, et centuriatim^ descripiis or^ 
 dinibus, classibus, mtatibiis, auditis auctoribus^ re 
 multos dies proinulgata ct cognita, juberi vetarique 
 voliienoit. Graeccrnm autem totae respiiblicae sedcn- 
 tis concionis tenisritate administrantur" 
 
 But at what time this wise system existed in 
 this perfection at Rome, no proofs remain to 
 show. Her constitution, originally framed for a 
 monarchy, never seemed to be adjusted, in its 
 several parts, after the expulsion of the kingo. 
 Liberty there was, but it was a disputatious, an 
 uncertain, an ill-secured liberty. The patrician 
 and plebeian orders, instead of being matched and 
 joined, each in its just place and proportion, to 
 sustain the fabric of the state, were rather like 
 hostile powers, in perpetual conflict. With us, 
 an attempt has been made, and so far not without 
 success, to divide representation into Chambers, 
 and by difference of age, character, qualification 
 or mode of election, to establish salutary checks, 
 HI governments altogether elective. 
 
84 
 
 Having detained you so long with these obser- 
 vations, I must yet advert to another most inter- 
 esting topic, the Free Schools. In this particular 
 New-England may be allowed to claim, I think, a 
 merit of a peculiar character. She early adopted 
 and has constantly maintained the principle, that 
 it is the undoubted right, and the bounden duty 
 of government, to provide for the instruction of all 
 youth. That Avhich is elsewhere left to chance, 
 or to charity, we secure by law. For the purpose 
 of public instruction, we hold every man subject 
 to taxation in proportion to his property, and we 
 look not to the question, whether he himself 
 have, or have not, children to be benefited by the 
 education for which he pays. We regard it as a 
 wise and liberal system of police, by which pro- 
 perty, and life, and the peace of society are se- 
 cured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, 
 the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a 
 salutary and conservative principle of virtue and 
 of knowledge in an early age. We hope to ex- 
 cite a feeling of respectability, and a sense of cha- 
 racter, by enlarging the capacity, and increasing 
 the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general 
 
85 
 
 Instruction, we seek, as far as possible, to purify 
 the whole moral atmosphere ; to keep good sen- 
 timents uppermost, and to turn the strong current 
 of feeling and opinion, as well as the censures of 
 the law, and the denunciations of religion, against 
 immorality and crime. We hope for a security, 
 beyond the law, and above the law, in the pre- 
 valence of enlightened and well principled moral 
 sentiment. We hope to continue and prolong 
 the time, when, in the villages and farm houses of 
 New-England, there may be undisturbed sleep 
 within unbarred doors. And knowing that our 
 government rests directly on the public will, that 
 we may preserve it, we endeavour to give a safe 
 and proper direction to that public will. We do 
 not, indeed, expect all men to be philosophers or 
 statesmen ; but we confidently trust, and our ex- 
 pectation of the duration of our system of govern- 
 ment rests on that trust, that by the diffusion of 
 general knowledge and good and virtuous senti- 
 ments, the political fabric may be secure, as well 
 against open violence and overthrow, as against 
 the sloAv but sure undermining: of licentiousness. 
 12 
 
96 
 
 We know, that at the present time, an attempt 
 is making in the English ParHament to provide by 
 law for the education of the poor, and that a gen- 
 tleman of distinguished character, (Mr. Brougham) 
 has taken the lead, in presenting a plan to go- 
 vernment for carrying that purpose into effect. 
 And yet, although the representatives of the 
 three kingdoms listened to him with astonish- 
 ment as well as delight, we hear no principles, 
 with which we ourselves have not been familiar 
 from youth ; we see nothing in the plan, but an 
 approach towards that system which has been 
 established in New-England for more than a cen- 
 tury and a half. It is said that in England, not 
 more than one child in fifteen possesses the means 
 of being taught to read and write ; in Wales, one 
 in twenty ; in France, until lately, when some im- 
 provement was made, not more than one in thirty- 
 five. Now, it is hardly too strong to say, that in 
 New-England, every child possesses such means. 
 It would be difficult to find an instance to the con- 
 trary, unless where it should be owing to the negli- 
 gence of the parent ; — and in truth the means are 
 actually used and enjoyed by nearly every one. 
 
97 
 
 A youth of fifteen, of either sex, who cannot both 
 read and write, is very unfrequently to be found. 
 Who can make this comparison, or contemplate 
 this spectacle, without delight and a feeling of 
 just pride ? Does any history shew property more 
 beneficently applied ? Did any government ever 
 subject the property of those Avho have estates, 
 to a burden, for a purpose more favourable to 
 the poor, or more useful to the whole commu- 
 nity ? 
 
 A conviction of the importance of public in- 
 struction was one of the earliest sentiments of our 
 ancestors. No lawgiver of ancient or modern times 
 has expressed more just opinions, or adopted wiser 
 measures, than the early records of the Colony 
 of Plymouth show to have prevailed here. As- 
 sembled on this very spot, a hundred and fifty- 
 three years ago, the legislature of this Colony 
 declared ; " For as much as the maintenance of 
 good literature doth much tend to the advance- 
 ment of the weal and flourishing state of Societies 
 and Republics, this Court doth therefore order, 
 that in whatever township in this government, 
 
88 
 
 consisting of fifty families or upwards, any meet 
 man shall be obtained to teach a grammar school, 
 such township shall allow at least twelve pounds, 
 to be raised by rate, on all the inhabitants." 
 
 Having provided, that all youth should be in- 
 structed in the elements of learning by the insti- 
 tution of Free Schools, our ancestors had yet 
 another duty to perform. Men were to be edu- 
 cated for the professions, and the public. For 
 this purpose they founded the University, and 
 with incredible zeal and perseverance they cher- 
 ished and supported it, through all trials and dis- 
 couragements. On the subject of the University, 
 it is not possible for a son of New-England to 
 think without pleasure, nor to speak without 
 emotion. Nothing confers more honour on the 
 state where it is established, or more utility on 
 the country at large. A respectable University 
 is an establishment, which must be the work of 
 time. If pecuniary means were not wanting, 
 no new institution could possess character and 
 respectability at once. We owe deep obligation 
 to our ancestors, who began, almost on the mo- 
 
89 
 
 ment of their arrival, the work of building up this 
 institution. 
 
 Although established in a different govern- 
 ment, the Colony of Plymouth manifested warm 
 friendship for Harvard College. At an early 
 period, its government took measures to pro- 
 mote a general subscription throughout all the 
 towns in this Colony, in aid of its small funds. 
 Other Colleges were subsequently founded and 
 endowed, in other places, as the ability of the 
 people allowed ; and we may flatter ourselves, 
 that the means of education, at present enjoyed in 
 New-England, are not only adequate to the diffusion 
 of the elements of knowledge among all classes, 
 but sufficient also for respectable attainments in 
 literature and the sciences. 
 
 Lastly, our ancestors have founded their sys- 
 tem of government on morality and religious sen- 
 timent. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely 
 be trusted on any other foundation than religious 
 principle, nor any government be secure which 
 is not supported by moral habits. Living under 
 
90 
 
 the heavenly light of revelation, they hoped to 
 find all the social dispositions, all the duties which 
 men owe to each other and to society, enforc- 
 ed and performed. Whatever makes men good 
 christians, makes them good citizens. Our fa- 
 thers came here to enjoy their religion free and 
 unmolested ; and, at the end of two centuries, 
 there is nothing upon which we can pronounce 
 more confidently, nothing of which we can ex- 
 press a more deep and earnest conviction, than 
 of the inestimable importance of that religion to 
 man, both in regard to this life, and that which is 
 to come. 
 
 If the blessings of our political and social con- 
 dition have not now been too highly estimated, 
 we cannot well over-rate the responsibility and 
 duty which they impose upon us. We hold these 
 institutions of government, religion, and learning, 
 to be transmitted, as well as enjoyed. We are 
 in the line of conveyance, through which what- 
 ever has been obtained by the spirit and efforts 
 of our ancestors, is to be communicated to our 
 children. 
 
91 
 
 We arc bound to maintain public liberty, and 
 by the example of our own systems, to convince 
 the world, that order, and law, religion and mo- 
 rality, the rights of conscience, the rights of per- 
 sons, and the rights of property, may all be pre- 
 served and secured, in the most perfect manner, 
 by a government entirely and purely elective. 
 If we fail in this, our disaster will be signal, and 
 will furnish an argument, stronger than has yet 
 been found, in support of those opinions, which 
 maintain that government can rest safely on noth- 
 ing but power and coercion. As far as expe- 
 rience may show errors in our establishments, we 
 are bound to correct them ; and if any practices 
 exist, contrary to the principles of justice and hu- 
 manity, within the reach of our laws or our in- 
 fluenccj we are inexcusable if we do not exert 
 ourselves to restrain and abolish them. 
 
 I deem it my duty on this occasion to suggest, 
 that the land is not yet wholly free from the con- 
 tamination of a traffic, at which every feeling of 
 humanity must forever revolt — I mean the African 
 slave trade. Neither public sentiment, nor the 
 law, has hitherto been able entirely to put an 
 
92 
 
 end to this odious and abominable trade. At the 
 moment when God, in his mercy, has blessed the 
 Christian world with an universal peace, there is 
 reason to fear, that to the disgrace of the Chris- 
 tian name and character, new efforts are making 
 for the extension of this trade, by subjects and 
 citizens of Christian states, in whose hearts no 
 sentiment of humanity or justice inhabits, and 
 over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear 
 of man exercises a control. In the sight of our 
 law, the African slave trader is a pirate and a 
 felon ; and in the sight of heaven, an offender far 
 beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt. 
 There is no brighter part of our history, than 
 that which records the measures which have 
 been adopted by the government, at an early 
 day, and at different times since, for the suppres- 
 sion of this traffic; and I would call on all the 
 true sons of New-England, to co-operate with 
 the laws of man, and the justice of heaven. If 
 there be, within the extent of our knowledge or 
 mfluence, any participation in this traffic, let us 
 pledge ourselves here, upon the Rock of Ply- 
 mouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit, 
 
93 
 
 that the land of the Pilgrims should hear the 
 shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer, 
 I see the smoke of the furnaces where manacles 
 and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I 
 see the visages of those, who by stealth, and at 
 midnight, labour in this work of hell, foul and 
 dark, as may become the artificers of such in- 
 struments of misery and torture. Let that spot 
 be purified, or let it cease to be of New-England. 
 Let it be purified, or let it be set aside from the 
 Christian world ; let it be put out of the circle of 
 human sympathies and human regards, and let ci- 
 vilized man henceforth have no communion with it. 
 
 I would invoke those who fill the seats of 
 justice, and all who minister at her altar, that 
 they execute the wholesome and necessary se- 
 verity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our 
 religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of 
 these crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the 
 authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, 
 whenever, or wherever, there may be a sinner 
 bloody with this guilt, within the hearing of its 
 voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. I call on 
 13 
 
94: 
 
 the fair merchant, who has reaped his harvest 
 upon the seas, that he assist in scourging from 
 those seas the worst pirates which ever infested 
 them. That ocean, which seeras to wave with a 
 gentle magnificence to waft the burdens of an 
 honest commerce, and to roll along its treasures 
 with a conscious pride ; that ocean, which hardy 
 industry regards, even when the winds have 
 ruffled its surface, as a field of grateful toil ; what 
 is it to the victim of this oppression, when he is 
 brought to its shores, and looks forth upon it, for 
 the first time, from beneath chains, and bleeding 
 with stripes ? What is it to him, but a wide 
 spread prospect of suffering, anguish and death ? 
 Nor do the skies smile longer, nor is the air lon- 
 ger fragrant to him. The sun is cast down from 
 heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has 
 cut him off in his manhood, or in his youth, from 
 every enjoyment belonging to his being, and 
 every blessing which his Creator intended for 
 him. 
 
 The Christian communities send forth their 
 emissaries of religion and letters, who stop, here 
 and there, along the coast of the vast continent 
 
95 
 
 of Africa, and with painful and tedious efforts, 
 make some almost imperceptible progress in the 
 communication of knowledge, and in the general 
 improvement of the natives who are immediately 
 about them. Not thus slow and imperceptible 
 is the transmission of the vices and bad passions 
 which the subjects of Christian states carry to 
 the land. The slave trade having touched the 
 coast, its influence and its evils spread, like a 
 pestilence, over the Avhole continent, making sa- 
 vage wars more savage, and more frequent, and 
 adding new and fierce passions to the contests of 
 barbarians. 
 
 I pursue this topic no further ; except again to 
 say, that all Christendom being now blessed with 
 peace, is bound by every thing which belongs to its 
 character, and to the character of the present 
 age, to put a stop to this inhuman and disgraceful 
 traffic. 
 
 We are bound not only to maintain the gene- 
 ral principles of public liberty, but to support also 
 those existing forms of government, which have 
 
96 
 
 so well secured its enjoyment, and so highly pro- 
 moted the public prosperity. It is now more 
 than thirty years that these States have been 
 united under the Federal Constitution, and what- 
 ever fortune may await them hereafter, it is im- 
 possible that this period of their history should 
 not be regarded as distinguished by signal pros- 
 perity and success. They must be sanguine, in- 
 deed, who can hope for benefit from change. 
 Whatever division of the public judgment may 
 have existed in relation to particular measures of 
 the government, all must agree, one should think, 
 in the opinion, that in its general course it has 
 been eminently productive of public happiness. 
 Its most ardent friends could not well have hop- 
 ed from it more than it has accomplished ; and 
 those who disbelieved or doubted ought to feel 
 less concern about predictions, which the event 
 has not verified, than pleasure in the good which 
 has been obtained. Whoever shall hereafter 
 write this part of our history, although he may 
 see occasional errors or defects, will be able to 
 record no great failure in the ends and objects of 
 government. Still less will he be able to record 
 
97' 
 
 any series' of lawless and despotic acts, or any 
 successful usurpation. His page will contain no 
 exhibition of provinces depopulated, of civil au- 
 thority habitually trampled down by military 
 power, or of a community crushed by the burden 
 of taxation. He will speak, rather, of public 
 liberty protected, and public happiness advanc- 
 ed ; of increased revenue, and population aug- 
 mented beyond all example ; of the growth of 
 commerce, manufactures, and the arts ; and of 
 that happy condition, in which the restraint and 
 coercion of government are almost invisible and 
 imperceptible, and its influence felt only in the 
 benefits which it confers. We can entertain no 
 better wish for our country than that this govern- 
 ment may be preserved ; nor have we a clearer 
 duty than to maintain and support it in the full 
 exercise of all its just constitutional powers. 
 
 The cause of science and literature also impo- 
 ses upon us an important and delicate trust. 
 The wealth and population of the country are 
 noAV so far advanced, as to authorize the expec- 
 tation of a correct literature, and a well formed 
 
98 
 
 taste, as well as respectable progress in the ab- 
 struse sciences. The country has risen from a 
 state of colonial dependency ; it has established 
 an independent government, and is now in the 
 undisturbed enjoyment of peace and political 
 security. The elements of knowledge are uni- 
 versally diffused, and the reading portion of the 
 community large. Let us hope that the present 
 may be an auspicious era of literature. If, al- 
 most on the day of their landing, our ancestors 
 founded schools and endowed colleges, what obli- 
 gations do not rest upon us, living under circum- 
 stances so much more favourable both for pro- 
 viding and for using the means of education ? 
 Literature becomes free institutions. It is the 
 graceful ornament of civil liberty, and a happy 
 restraint on the asperities, which political contro- 
 versy sometimes occasions. Just taste is not only 
 an embellishment of society, but it rises almost 
 to the rank of the virtues, and diffuses positive 
 good throughout the whole extent of its influence. 
 There is a connexion between right feeling and 
 right principles, and truth in taste is allied with 
 truth in morality. With nothing in our past his- 
 
99 
 
 tory to discourage us, and with something in our 
 present condition and prospects to animate us, let 
 us hope, that as it is our fortune to Hve in an age 
 wlien we may behold a wonderful advancement 
 of the country in all its other great interests, we 
 may see also equal progress and success attend 
 the cause of letters. 
 
 Finally, let us not forget the religious character 
 of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither 
 by their high veneration for the Christian Reli- 
 gion. They journeyed by its light, and laboured 
 in its hope. They sought to incorporate its prin- 
 ciples with the elements of their society, and to 
 diffuse its influence through all their institutions, 
 civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these 
 sentiments, and extend this influence still more 
 widely ; in the full conviction, that that is tlie 
 happiest society, which partakes in the highest 
 degree of the mild and peaceable spirit of Chrjs;:^^ 
 tianity. 
 
 The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and 
 this occasion will soon be passed. Neither we 
 
100 
 
 nor our children can expect to behold its return. 
 They are in the distant regions of futurity, they 
 exist only in the all-creating power of God, who 
 shall stand here, a hundred years hence, to trace, 
 through us, their descent from the Pilgrims, and 
 to survey, as we have now surveyed, the pro- 
 gress of their country, during the lapse of a cen- 
 tury. We would anticipate their concurrence 
 with us in our sentiments of deep regard for our 
 common ancestors. We would anticipate and 
 partake the pleasure with Avhich they will then 
 recount the steps of New-England's advance- 
 ment. On the morning of that day, although it 
 will not disturb us in our repose, the voice of 
 acclamation and gratitude, commencing on the 
 Rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through 
 millions of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it lose 
 itself in the murmurs of the Pacific seas. 
 
 We would leave for the consideration of those 
 who shall then occupy our places, some proof 
 that we hold the blessings transmitted from our 
 fathers in just estimation ; some proof of our 
 attachment to the cause of good government, 
 
101 
 
 and of civil and religious liberty ; some proof 
 of a sincere and ardent desire to promote every 
 thing which may enlarge the understandings and 
 improve the hearts of men. And when, from 
 the long distance of an hundred years, they shall 
 look back upon us, they shall know, at least, 
 that we possessed affections, which running back- 
 ward, and warming with gratitude for what our 
 ancestors have done for our happiness, run for- 
 ward also to our posterity, and meet them with 
 cordial salutation, ere yet they have arrived on 
 the shore of Being. 
 
 Advance, then, ye future generations ! We 
 would hail you, as you rise in your long succes- 
 sion, to fill the places which we now fill, and to 
 taste the blessings of existence, where we are 
 passing, and soon shall have passed, our own hu- 
 man duration. We bid you welcome to this 
 pleasant land of the Fathers. We bid you wel- 
 come to the healthful skies, and the verdant 
 fields of New-England. We greet your acces- 
 sion to the great inheritance which we have en- 
 joyed. We welcome you to the blessings of 
 
 14 
 
102 
 
 good government, and religious liberty. We 
 welcome you to the treasures of science, and the 
 delights of learning. We welcome you to the 
 transcendant sweets of domestic life, to the hap- 
 piness of kindred, and parents, and children. We 
 welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of 
 rational existence, the immortal hope of Chris- 
 tianity, and the light of everlasting Truth ! 
 
^pprntrlr* 
 
 The following is a lisl of the Discourses delivered on this Jinniversary. 
 Tliose marked with an asterisk hare not been printed. 
 
 1769. First publicly noticed by the Old Colony Club. 
 
 1770. Edward Winslow, jun. Esq. oi Plymouth, an Oration.* 
 
 1771. (Lord's Day) the next day (23d) a public dinner. 
 
 1772. Rev. Chandler Robbins, of Pli/riiouth, on Ps. Ixxviii. 6. 7.* 
 
 1773. Rev. Charles Turner, Duxbury, Zeck. iv. 10. 
 
 1774. Rev. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke, Gen. i. 31. 
 
 1775. Rev. Samuel Baldwin, Hanover, Heb. xi. 8. 
 
 1776. Rev. Sylvanus Conant, Middlcborotigh, Exod. i. 12. 
 
 1777. Rev. Samuel West, Dartmouth, Isai. Ixvi. 5 — 9. 
 
 1778. Rev. Timothy Milliard, Barnstable.* 
 
 1779. Rev. William Shaw, Mnrshfteld.* 
 
 1780. Rev. Jonathan Moore, Rochester, Isai. xli. 10. 11.* 
 
 From this time the public observance of the day was suspended, till 
 
 1794. Rev. Chandler Robbins, D.D. Plymouth, Psal. Ixxvii. 11. 
 
 1795. , 
 
 1796. > Private celebration. 
 1797.5 
 
 1798. Doct. Zacheus Bartlett, Ph-movih, an Oration.* 
 
 1799. The day was so near that r.ppointcd for the ordination of the 
 
 Rev. Mr. Kendall, that it was not celebrated by a public dis- 
 course. 
 1300. John Davis, Esq. Boston, an Oration.* 
 
 1801. Rev. John Allyn, Duxbury, Heb. xii. 2. 
 
 1802. John Quincy Adams, Esq., Boston, an Oration. 
 
 1803. Rev. John T. Kirkland, D.D. Boston, Prov. xvii. 6.* 
 
 1804. (Lord's Day) Rev. James Kendall, of Plymouth, preached from 
 
 Heb. xi. 13.* 
 
 1805. Alden Bradford, Esq. Wiscassel, Exod. xii. 14. 
 
 1806. Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D. Cambridge, Romans, xi. 5. 
 
104 
 
 1807. Rev. James Freeman, Boston.* 
 
 1808. Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, Dorchesler, Ps. xliv. 1, 2.3. 
 
 1809. Rev. Abiel Abbott, Beverly, Deut. xxxii. 11. 12. 
 
 1810. Private celebration. 
 
 1811. (Loid's Day) Rev. John Eliot, D.D. Boston.* 
 1812. ^ 
 
 1813. > Private celebration. 
 1814.) 
 
 1815. Rev. James Flint, Bridgewater, Ps. xvi. 6. 
 
 1816. (Lord's Day) Rev. Ezra Goodwin, Sandwich, Isai. ix. 22. 
 
 1817. Rev. Horace Hollet, Boston.* 
 
 1818. Wendell Davis, Esq. Sandwich, an Oration.* 
 
 1819. Francis C. Gray, Esq. Boston, an Oration.* 
 
 1820. Hon. Daniel Webster, Boston, an Oration. 
 

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