DEAR SIR:

Williams College, June 29, 1853.

I am greatly indebted to you for your kind invitation to me to be present at the Celebration of the 1st of August, at Plymouth. No one can honor the memory of our fathers more than I do. Whatever incidental faults they may have had, theirs was the true spirit, and only as that shall be perpetuated and diffused is there hope for the country and for the world. I should rejoice to join in any celebration that would tend to keep alive that spirit, but regret to say that I shall not be able to be with you on that occasion. With great respect, yours,

RICHARD WARREN, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR:

MARK HOPKINS.

Frankfort, July 1, 1853.

I have had the honor to receive the invitation which you, as President of the Pilgrim Society, was pleased to convey to me by your note of the 23d ultimo, to attend their Celebration of the 1st of August, as the Anniversary of "the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven in 1620."

Indeed, Sir, I feel myself honored by your remembrance of me on such an occasion, and by your kind invitation. I know that I could sympathize with you, and enjoy the commemoration of your Pilgrim Fathers, with all my heart. They were a peculiar and wonderful race of men, to be remembered with pride and gratitude and reverence.

I very much regret that the distance, and the thousand little difficulties in the way, prevent my acceptance of your invitation. It only remains for me, Sir, to offer to you and the Society my very sincere acknowledgments for the honor done me.

I am, with great respect,

HON. RICHARD WARREN.

Yours, &c.

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

DEAR SIR: :

Cambridge, July 1, 1853.

I have had the honor to receive the kind invitation of the Committee of Arrangements to attend the Celebration by the Pilgrim Society of the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft, on the 1st of August. It would give me great pleasure to be present on so interesting an occasion, but my absence from home at that time will prevent my attendance.

Please to express to the Committee my acknowledgments and thanks for their invitation, and accept the assurance of the respect and sincere regards of

Your very kind invitation to attend a meeting of the descendants of the Pilgrims has safely reached me. I am equally affected by the privilege of participating in this Celebration, and by the remembrance of those friends who made my youth what it was. Declining health, with the disposition to gratify my family, are the motives which in a few hours will carry me away. I am just embarking for Europe with my youngest daughter, but when the 1st of August arrives, the anniversary of the greatest political event of this vast empire will be full in my thoughts, and the remembrance of those who in earlier days commanded my highest respect and warmest affection will occupy my heart. Have the goodness to offer at the festive board in my behalf :

"The passengers in the Mayflower, who two hundred and thirty-three years ago held, on the Rock of Plymouth, America's first Convention in the cause of Liberty."

With great esteem and regard,

I remain your obliged and obedient servant,

B. HUGER, M. D.

Auburn, July 4, 1853.

DEAR SIR:

I feel that it is a great honor to be invited to go up with the Pilgrim Society to Plymouth, on the occasion of their great Anniversary, and I regret exceedingly that my engagements are such as to deprive me of the instruction and pleasure which an acceptance would secure to me.

Be pleased to express to the Association my thanks and my apology, and believe me, dear sir, most respectfully, your humble servant,

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ., Chairman.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Pittsfield, July 5, 1853.

DEAR SIR:

I feel very much obliged by the kind invitation of the Committee of Arrangements of the Pilgrim Society to attend the Celebration of the Anniversary of the Embarkation. I fear that it will hardly be in my power to be present, fixed as I am for the summer at the western edge of the State. It would have given me much pleasure to be with you, had the old territory of the Massachusetts kept within any reasonable limits; but Plymouth Rock is so much nearer sunrise than Saddle Mountain, that one feels like a Pilgrim at the mere thought of the journey between them. I suppose toasts are all done with in these times, or I would send you one. I think the Judge will be ahead of me in the pottery line, or I would have made something out of this :— "The good people of Delft, — They were known to all the rest of the world by their ugly mugs; but we shall always remember them for sending us a cargo of Chosen Vessels."

HONORED SIR:

Yours very truly,

O. W. HOLMES.

July 8, 1853.

Your official communication, dated June 10th, inviting the Pastor and delegates of the Pilgrim Church at Southwark to be present, and to unite in the Celebration of the Embarkation of the Pil

grim Fathers at Delft Haven, on the 1st day of August, reached its destination on June 27th.

The Rev. John Waddington is at this time in the South of France, seeking restoration of health and strength under the Divine guidance, for both his partner in life and himself.

On account of his absence, therefore, and time not allowing of any communication with him in the interval between the receipt of your letter and the date of this reply, it falls upon me to acknowledge, on Mr. Waddington's behalf, how deeply he will feel the token of your respect to him, as the pastor of a flock whose antecedents in church history prove them to be more intimately allied to the faithful band of exiles to your distant shores, than any religious society can lay claim to, in this particular location, wherein they sought statedly to worship their God, in conformity to his will, so nearly as they could discern it in his revealed word.

Impracticable as compliance with your invitation, which we cannot too highly estimate, is, under all the circumstances, I may be allowed, I trust, to remark upon the interest which has been raised and warmly reciprocated since our first approach to the late representative from your country to ours, in the person of the Hon. orable Abbott Lawrence. That gentleman's sympathies were awakened at once, for he seemed to feel that his country derived and would reflect additional glory from the information it was our privilege to impart to him at successive interviews, or by writing. Indeed, he was so alive to the value of what he learned, that he generously gave command that he would not be denied to Mr. Waddington when it was possible he could see him; he is consequently ever in our grateful remembrance, and followed by our most respectful salutations.

Besides Mr. Lawrence, we have been favored with frequent interviews with other influential friends from the United States. In 1851, we were specially honored by a visit of inquiry and research from Dr. L. Bacon of New Haven, and the Rev. Seth Bliss, accompanied by the Rev. Hovey of Boston, and Mr. Morse of New York. The result gave satisfaction alike to them and to us. And since that opportunity, a correspondence has several times. passed between our pastor in particular and some of your divines

in whom he has excited a keen interest, either personally or by the transmission of copies of unpublished original letters with other information relating peculiarly to our common ancestors, the Pilgrim Fathers and their immediate successors.

For the measure of success which has followed my own efforts in helping to extend a knowledge of the inestimable worth of that illustrious band of exiles whose embarkation at Delft Haven the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth is about again to commemorate, I cannot but indulge and express grateful emotions, under the everpresent conviction, that it was my Heavenly Father who sustained and directed me through a period of such intense application and of such weighty responsibility. My aspirations and my heart are often on the other side of the Atlantic, but Providence has herein put an interdict upon me: seventy-five years past admonish me that another and "better country " demands my incessant solicitude. That Mr. Waddington may never visit your shores, is far from improbable, except that his ailing companion at home is an impediment.

In the name of the church in Union Street, Southwark, and their pastor, I am, honored Sir, your greatly obliged servant,

BENJAMIN HANBURY, Senior Deacon,

138 Blackfriars Road.

Mr. W.'s private address is No. 9 Surrey Square, Southwark. TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE PILGRIM SOCIETY, Plymouth, Mass.

DEAR SIR:

Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, July 12, 1853.

I beg to return you my kindest thanks for the invitation of the Pilgrim Society to partake in their Celebration on the 1st of August.

My movements are too uncertain to enable me to promise myself the pleasure of being with the Society on that occasion. If it should so fall out, however, that I may be able to allow myself this gratification, I shall be most happy to profit by the opportunity. But whether present or not, I hope you will believe that I take a lively interest in the subject of your celebration, and justly esteem