gress so steady, a growth so wonderful, a reality so important, a promise yet to be fulfilled, so glorious?

Such, in a very inadequate statement, are some of the circumstances under which the settlement of our country began. The historian of Massachusetts, after having given a brief notice of Carver, of Bradford, of Winslow, of Brewster, of Standish, and others, adds, These were the founders of the colony of Plymouth. The settlement of this colony occasioned the settlement of Massachusetts Bay; which was the source of all the other colonies of New-England. Virginia was in a dying state, and seemed to revive and flourish from the example of New-England. I am not preserving from oblivion,' continues he, 'the names of heroes whose chief merit is the overthrow of cities, of provinces, and empires; but the names of the founders of a flourishing town and colony, if not of the whole British empire in America.'* This was the judicious reflection of Hutchinson, sixty years ago, when the greatest tribute to be paid to the Fathers of Plymouth was, that they took the lead in colonizing the British possessions in America. What then ought to be our emotions, as we meet on this anniversary, upon the spot where the first successful foundations of the great American republic were laid?

Within a short period, an incident has occurred, which of itself connects, in the most gratifying association, the early settlement of New-England with the present growth and prosperity of our wide extended republic. Within the past year the sovereign hand of this great confederacy of States has been extended for the restoration and security of the harbor, where, on the day we celebrate, the germ of the future growth of America was comprehended within one weather-beaten vessel, tossing upon the tide, on board of which, in the words of Hutchinson, the fathers of New-England by a solemn instrument, formed themselves into a proper democracy.' Two centuries only have elapsed, and we behold a great American representation convened, from twenty-four independent and flourishing republics, taking under their patronage the local interests of the spot where our fathers landed, and providing in the same act of appropriation, for the removal of obstacles in the Mis

* Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. II. Appendix, p. 463.

sissippi and the repair of Plymouth beach. I know not in what words a more beautiful commentary could be written, on our early infancy or our happy growth. There were members of the national Congress which made that appropriation, I will not say from distant states, but from different climates; from regions which the sun in the heavens does not reach in the same hour that he rises on us. Happy community of protection! Glorious brotherhood! Blessed fulfilment of that first timorous hope, that warmed the bosoms of our fathers!

Nor is it even our mighty territory, to which the influence of the principles and example of the fathers of New-England is confined. While I utter the words, a constitution of republican government, closely imitated from ours, is going into operation in the states of the Mexican confederation, a region more extensive than all our territories east of the Mississippi. Farther south, one of the provinces of central America, the republic of Guatimala, has sent its envoys to solicit a union with us. Will posterity believe, that such an offer was made and refused, in the age that saw England and Spain rushing into war, for the possession of a few uninhabited islets on the coast of Patagonia? Pass the isthmus of Darien, and we behold the sister republic of Colombia, a realm two thirds as large as Europe, ratifying her first solemn treaty of amity and commerce with the United States; while still onward to the south, in the valleys of the Chilian Andes, and on the banks of La Plata, in states not less vast than those already named, constitutions of republican government are in prosperous operation, founded on our principles, and modelled on our forms. When our commissioners visited those countries in 1817, they found the books most universally read among the people, were the constitutions of the United States and of the several states, translated into the language of the country; while the public journals were filled with extracts from the celebrated Defence' of these constitutions, written by that venerable descendant of the Pilgrims, who still lives to witness the prosperous operation of the governments, which he did so much to establish.

I do not fear that we shall be accused of extravagance in the enthusiasm we feel at a train of events of such astonishing magnitude, novelty, and consequence, connected by associations so inti

mate, with the day we now hail; with the events we now celebrate; with the pilgrim fathers of New-England. Victims of persecution! how wide an empire acknowledges the sway of your principles ! Apostles of liberty! what millions attest the authenticity of your mission! Meek champions of truth, no stain of private interest or of innocent blood is on the spotless garments of your renown! The great continents of America have become, at length, the theatre of your achievements; the Atlantic and the Pacific, the highways of communication, on which your principles, your institutions, your example are borne. From the oldest abodes of civilization, the venerable plains of Greece, to the scarcely explored range of the Cordilleras, the impulse you gave at length is felt. While other regions revere you as the leaders of this great march of humanity, we are met on this joyful day, to offer to your memory our tribute of filial affection. The sons and daughters of the Pilgrims, we have assembled on the spot where you, our suffering fathers, set foot on this happy shore. Happy indeed, it has been for us. O that you could have enjoyed those blessings, which you prepared for your children! Could our comfortable homes have shielded you from the wintry air; could our abundant harvests have supplied you in time of famine; could the broad shield of our beloved country have sheltered you from the visitations of arbitrary power! We come, in our prosperity, to remember your trials; and here, on the spot where New-England began to be, we come, to learn of you, our pilgrim fathers, a deep and lasting lesson of virtue, enterprise, patience, zeal, and faith!

ORATION

DELIVERED AT CONCORD, APRIL 19, 1825.

FELLOW CITIZENS,

THE subject which the present occasion presents to our consideration, is of the highest interest. The appearance of a new state in the great family of nations is one of the most important topics of reflection, that can ever be addressed to us. In the case of America, the magnitude and the difficulty of this subject are immeasurably increased. Our progress has been so rapid, the interval has been so short between the first plantations in the wilderness and the full development of our political system; there has been such a visible agency of single characters in affecting the condition of the country, such an almost instantaneous expansion of single events into consequences of incalculable importance, that we find ourselves deserted by almost all the principles and precedents, drawn from the analogy of other states. Men have here seen, felt, and acted themselves, what in most other countries has been the growth of centuries.

Take your station for instance on Connecticut river. Every thing about you, whatsoever you behold or approach, bears witness, that you are a citizen of a powerful and prosperous state. It is just seventy years, since the towns, which you now contemplate with admiration as the abodes of a numerous, refined, enterprising population, safe in the enjoyment of life's best blessings, were wasted and burned by the savages of the wilderness; and their inhabitants by hundreds,-the old and the young, the minister of the gospel, and the mother with her new born babe,-were wakened at midnight by the warwhoop, dragged from their beds, and

marched with bleeding feet across the snow-clad mountains,—to be sold as slaves into the cornfields and kitchens of the French in Canada. Go back eighty years farther; and the same barbarous foe is on the skirts of your oldest settlements,-at your own doors. As late as 1676, ten or twelve citizens of Concord were slain or carried into captivity, who had gone to meet the savage hordes in their attack on Sudbury, in which the brave Captain Wadsworth and his companions fell.

These contrasts regard the political strength of our country; the growth in national resources presents a case of increase still more astonishing, though less adapted to move the feelings. By the last valuation, the aggregate property of Massachusetts is estimated at something less than three hundred millions. By the valuation made in 1780, the property of Massachusetts and Maine was estimated at only eleven millions!

This unexampled rapidity of our national growth, while it gives to our history more than the interest of romance, leaves us often in doubt, what is to be ascribed to the cooperation of a train of incidents and characters, following in long succession upon each other; and what is to be referred to the vast influence of single important

events.

That astonishing incident in human affairs, the Revolution of America, as seen on the day of its portentous, or rather let me say, of its auspicious commencement, is the theme of our present consideration. To what shall we direct our thoughts? On the one hand, we behold a connexion of events; the time and circumstances of the original discovery; the system of colonization; the settlements of the pilgrims; their condition, temper, and institutions; their singular political relation with the mother country; their long and doubtful struggle with the savage tribes; their collisions with the royal governors; their cooperation in the British wars; with all the influences of their geographical and physical condition; uniting to constitute what I may call the national education of America. When we take this survey, we feel that we ought to divide the honors of the Revolution with the great men of the colony in every generation; with the Winslows and the Pepperells, the Cookes and the Mathers, the Winthrops and the Bradfords, and all who labored and acted in the cabinet, the desk,