prosperity of our wide-extended republic. Within the past year, the liberal 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 weatherbeaten 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 Mississippi 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. 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 San Salvador, 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, (John Adams,) still living in our neighborhood, 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 intimate 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!' 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 and 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 * This oration dates in 1824. The interval between that period and the present has furnished many other instances of the influence of American precedents in the political reforms of the age. Perhaps the most astonishing is the fact, that within the current year (1849) a constitution of representative government has been proclaimed in the Austrian empire, of which it was said in the British House of Lords, that it was modelled on that of the United States, rather than on that of England 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, an abiding lesson of virtue, enterprise, patience, seat, and faith! THE FIRST BATTLES OF FELLOW-CITIZENS : us. 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 In the case of America, the magnitude and the difficulty of the subject are greatly increased by peculiar circumstances. 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 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 belong to a powerful and prosperous state. But it is only 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 * Oration delivered at Concord, 19th April, 1825. -- of the wilderness; and their inhabitants, in large numbers, the old and the young, the minister of the gospel, and the mother with her new-born babe, were wakened at midnight by the war-whoop, dragged from their beds, and marched with bleeding feet across the snow-clad mountains, to be sold, as slaves, to 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 Indians 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 of dollars. By the valuation made in 1780, the property of Massachusetts and Maine was estimated at only eleven millions. 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 connection of events; the time and circumstances of the original discovery; the settlements of the Pilgrims, and their peculiar principles and character; their singular political relations with the mother country; their long and doubtful struggle with the savage tribes; their collisions with the royal governors; their coöperation 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, as far as Massachusetts is concerned, 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, the Dummers, and the Mathers, the Winthrops and the Bradfords, and all who labored and |