now gazed upon the shores of the New World; and by the hasty retrospect we have taken, we may discover the moral elements which gave dignity to the scene, hastily sketched in the opening of this address, and which we this day celebrate-a scene in itself so destitute of all those external accompaniments, which impress the imagination, and give promise of great results.

A vessel of about one hundred and eighty tons burden, containing one hundred and one men, women, and children, from the middle classes of English life, without resources, without wealth, exiles and refugees, amid the freezing atmosphere of a northern winter, approached the shores of an unexplored continent, and floated upon its unfrequented waters. Her little band of passengers, surrounded by icy desolation, amidst unsurpassed sufferings and hardships, proceed to build rude huts to shelter their wives and children from the pitiless blast; and there, amid those inhospitable wilds, surrounded by savages, exposed to all the inclemency of nature in those northern latitudes, in three short months, they bury half their number, leveling the graves to conceal their weakness from the tribes of the wilderness.

Our compassions are excited; we are moved to tears, by the contemplation of such miseries. We

wonder what oppressions or crimes have driven these poor wanderers to this sad extremity - why Europe has thus cast them forth to die.

But behold the sublimity of truth! — the power faith!—the supremacy of moral causes!

of

This poor covering of external power contained the germ of freedom to the world. These men were the founders of Empire. The New World is even now vibrating to its inmost extremity, beneath the tread of the Pilgrim; its mountain echoes are just ready to become vocal with the busy hum of populous nations; its forests tremble to their fall, and the northern blast that passes their dwellings, as it rushes through the forests and over the prairies of this vast continent, sings triumphant anthems to the stars.

Citizens of the Republic thus founded, it is ours to contemplate the result of these principles, as developed upon the theatre prepared by God for their reception; a theatre worthy the sublime and glorious scenes which, during a period of nearly two and a half centuries, have been enacted upon it; marked out by nature as the seat of Empire, and impressed by the finger of the Almighty with ideas of vastness and sublimity.

Anything like a historical sketch of this development, is not within the scope of this address. As the

mind glances over the past, a rapid succession of important and interesting events is presented.

We see the infant colony, slowly, amid severe and continued difficulties and sufferings, laying deep its foundations in the rocky soil; increasing in population by successive emigrations from the persecutions of the House of Stuart, and gradually extending its settlements over the adjacent forests. We trace the rise and progress of those municipal and local institutions, which made every settlement a little Republic, and which constitute the elementary principle of American freedom.

We see the glorious galaxy of New England colonies emerge into existence, one after another, like planets in heaven at the approach of night. We hear the forests ring with the voices of Hooker and his little band, on their way to the beautiful valley of the Connecticut, there to lay the foundations of a pure Republic.

We witness the co-equal growth of religious and civil institutions, each reflecting strength and beauty on the other, and, in their combination, securing to man a liberty sustained by law; a religion enfranchised by the spirit of freedom.

We trace the growth of towns and cities, and the successive encroachments of Christian civilization

upon the forests. We see industry covering the earth with harvests; enterprise whitening the ocean with the sails of infant commerce; liberty planting the seeds of future independence, and religion crowning every hill-top, and decorating every valley with her altars.

We observe, with deep interest, a determined and continuous resistance to the encroachments of the British Crown, and perceive the embryo of this great confederation, in the combinations to which that resistance led. And thus, following the stream of history through scenes of surpassing interest, amid the immortal struggles of the revolutionary contest, along blood-stained battle fields, at last the towering battlements of the "American Constitution" burst upon our sight, and a mighty nation rises before us. A nation composed of thirty States and twenty-five millions of inhabitants; free, enterprising, and intelligent; a nation ocean-bound, vast; whose years are centuries, if measured by the ordinary progress of States; whose institutions, while they bless her own people with rational liberty, offer protection to the oppressed of all nations, and diffuse through the world an influence friendly to the dearest rights of man.

How wonderful is this history; how surpassing conception the progress of our country; and how is

every step of that progress illustrated by the character and principles of the men who settled New England. Without derogating from the just claims of the other colonies, it may with truth be said that, for the most essential and valuable features of our institutions, social, civil, and religious, the most effective elements of our national character,— we are indebted to the Puritan.

This influence has not been confined to New England. It has not only made her barren rocks and bleak mountains to smile, but it has scattered beauty and fertility over our whole country. Everywhere, as we look around us, may be seen germs planted by those men, developed into life, beauty and power; and as the statesman contemplates the future destinies of our country, where, but in the great moral elements of the Puritan character, will he discover the best guarantees for the permanence of our institutions, and the perpetuation of our liberties.

The influences which have gone out from New England, at every period of our history, have been most effective. Of the part she took in the revolutionary drama, it is unnecessary to speak. Her own distinguished orator, the intellectual luminary of his age, has vindicated her fame. On her soil was shed the first blood of the Revolution.