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the descendants of that sturdy Puritan chivalry whose exploits will find a worthy remembrance on that day. They honor their ancestry, not only with their lips, but in their lives.

With the expression of my highest respect for the Society, and my thanks to the Committee, I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours, JOHN P. Kennedy.

RICHARD WARREN, Esq., Chairman of Committee of Arrangements, &c.

New York, July 12, 1853.

DEAR SIR: :

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You do me no more than justice when you speak of me as who delights to honor the fathers," and it would afford me great pleasure to express my sense of their personal worth, and the great work which they achieved for future ages "on the spot where they landed." But my engagements are such, that it will not be convenient for me to accept the invitation with which you have honored me, and I must respectfully decline. Hoping for that personal acquaintance to which you allude, I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours, E. H. CHAPIN.

Philadelphia, July 15, 1853.

SIR:

Nothing short of advanced years, now numbering eighty-two, would discourage me from taking a journey to Plymouth, for the purpose of joining your intended Celebration of the coming Anniversary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims at Delft Haven in 1620.

For your invitation thereto, please to accept my thanks; and the assurance of my regret at being obliged to decline it.

I am the lineal descendant of an early immigrant, who arrived at Boston in 1630; probably with Winthrop. The bones of this great-great-grandfather, Edward Breck, repose in a graveyard at Dorchester. Many of his children and children's children were born in Boston; among them I am privileged to call Boston my native town and I may claim, likewise, the right to boast of being allied almost to the brave and pious and enterprising company,

who, under Carver, promulgated the grand principles of republicanism, which have, by their blessed influence, been the main cause of this nation's rapid growth, and quiet, steady progress from the small beginning in your city to its present greatness.

Penn's Constitution, equally wise, and equally free, must, nevertheless, yield the merit of priority, and perhaps originality, to the Mayflower compact.

Governor Carver undertook to plant his colony, he tells us, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith. Penn took charge of his Province, he says, "for the Lord's sake; to raise a people who shall be a praise in the earth for conduct, both in civil and religious liberty, and to show men, by his frame of government, the way to freedom and happiness."

Those two virtuous leaders laid down principles of government, so broad in constitutional freedom, and so acceptable to every colonist, that it was but an easy step from colonial to independent rule.

Please to present me, affectionately, to my highly respected friend, Thomas H. Perkins, should he attend your festival. Many years ago, when I was in Congress, I saw Mr. Everett occasionally at my brother-in-law's, Mr. James Lloyd's. He will, however, scarcely remember me. In any event, I shall feel flattered, if he will allow me (small as our acquaintance was) to offer him the assurance of my most distinguished regard.

For yourself, Sir, please to accept my renewed thanks and cordial respect,

SAMUEL BRECK.

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ., Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.

MY DEAR SIR:

:

Barnstable, July 18, 1853.

I regret that the continuance of ill health will prevent my attending the "great Pilgrim Celebration."

It will be a great entertainment, indeed. The assembling of the descendants of the pioneers of human rights! How vast the occasion, and how noble the lineage!

I am happy, yea, proud, to be of such a race; and gladly would I be a participant in the family scene were my physical condition equal to the task.

Yours, very truly,

ZENO SCUDDER.

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ., Plymouth.

Washington, D. C., July 18, 1853.

MY DEAR SIR:

The President has received your kind and flattering invitation to participate with the Pilgrim Society, on the 1st of August, in commemorating the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven in 1620, and directs me to express to you his deep regrets that pressing public engagements compel him to deny himself the pleasure of accepting it.

With high regards, your obedient servant,

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ.

MY DEAR SIR:

SIDNEY WEBSTER.

Providence, July 20, 1853.

Upon my return from a short absence this day, I found your kind invitation, on behalf of the Committee of the Pilgrim Society, to be present at the Celebration on the 1st of August. Thanking you and the Committee most sincerely for the kind invitation, I much regret that business engagements of some importance in Cleveland, Ohio, will deprive me of the honor as well as pleasure of participating in a celebration which I hope will be perpetuated to the latest posterity.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ.

JOHN WHIPPLE.

MY DEAR SIR:

Boston, July 20, 1853.

I have delayed your letter of the 23d ultimo, in the hope that I might see my way clear to accept your kind invitation. But I am

reluctantly compelled to decline it. The labors and confinement of the Convention have left me in an indifferent state of health, and in a condition to require absolute rest, and abstinence from every thing in the shape of intellectual excitement.

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I have purposely postponed replying to your own of the 23d of June, because I continued to hope, even to the last moment, that circumstances and duties might yet permit me to join you on the 1st of August. Both conspire to deny me this privilege! But no combination can suppress the feelings which the occasion is so well calculated to inspire. I have always regarded the landing of the Pilgrims as the true foundation of republican liberty; and I have never doubted that the choicest freight of the Mayflower was the sentiment which one hundred and fifty years after found its embodiment in the Declaration of Independence. We should never have heard of the tea being thrown overboard, if the piety of the Puritans had not furnished the authority. And the battle of Bunker Hill might never have been recorded, but for the spirit which animated your ancestors on the Rock of Plymouth, and now gives character to our common country throughout the world! It is not the right to fight, but it is the right to think, which makes a nation free.

Permit me to offer you : —

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"The American people! North and South, and East and West! they sometimes differ in adjusting their family matters,' but they are sure to be friends in the presence of an enemy."

With many thanks for your kindness, I am, dear Sir, very faith, your obedient servant,

fully,

ALFRED HUGer.

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ., Pres. Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Mass.

DEAR SIR:

New York, July 23, 1853.

My friend, Mr. Everett, had already sent me a kind invitation to the Anniversary at Plymouth, but I explained to him that I am obliged to leave the United States by the Arabia steamer, which sails on Wednesday next.

I assure you it would have given me great pleasure to have attended such a meeting, where I should have had an opportunity of seeing many persons for whom I have a great regard, and who will be assembled to commemorate an event of high historical interest, and to express their sympathies in a glorious cause. Believe me, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

RICHARD WARREN, ESQ.

CHARLES LYell.

MY DEAR SIR:

Worcester, Mass., July 25, 1853.

I had the honor to receive, some days since, your most kind letter, inviting me to attend the anniversary commemoration by the Pilgrim Society of the "Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven, in 1620," and I have delayed its acknowledgment only that I might feel an assurance of being able to participate in the observance of so deeply interesting an occasion. I have now greatly to regret, that the state of my health, and that of my family, discourage the hope of this enjoyment.

You do but justice to my sentiments in believing, that, as a descendant from an Old Colony ancestry, I hold in highest reverence the history and character of the fathers of New England. I should go to Plymouth, as the pilgrim to the tomb of the Prophet, that I might offer my devotions on the altar of their virtues and their great sacrifices. I know of no oblation more grateful to their memory, than this spontaneous gathering of a late posterity on the spot first consecrated by their landing to religious freedom, and this outpouring of the heart in joyous commemoration of that firmness of principle and heroism of purpose which sent them hither. With a sense of high personal obligation to the Committee of Arrangements for the honor of their kind remembrance of me, I am, dear Sir, most faithfully, their and your obliged and obedient servant, LEVI LINCOLN. RICHARD WARREN, Esq., President of the Pilgrim Society.

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