ment gave us a home; that to their separation from every thing which is dear and pleasant in life, we owe all the comforts, the blessings, the privileges, which make our lot the envy of mankind.

These are the well known titles of our ancestors to our gratitude and veneration.

But there seems to me this peculiarity in the nature of their enterprise, that its grand and beneficent consequences are, with the lapse of time, constantly unfolding themselves, in an extent, and to a magnitude, which, till they are witnessed, are beyond the reach of the most sanguine promise. In the frail condition of human affairs, we have generally nothing left us to commemorate, but heroic acts of valor, which have resulted in no permanent effect; great characters, that have struggled nobly, but in vain, against the disastrous combinations of the age; brilliant triumphs of truth and justice, rendered unproductive, by the complication of opposite events, and by the stern resistance of that system of destiny, of which even the independence of our wills seems an obedient member.-At best, it is a great blessing, when we can point to some bright unclouded character; or some prosperous and well ordered institu

tion; fortunate in rise and progress; grand and glorious at maturity; majestic, peaceful, and seasonable in decay, and piously lamented when no more; and it is to the few spectacles of this kind in human history, that our minds so constantly and fondly revert from the chequered scene of intermediate and troubled times and conditions.

But it is the peculiar character of the enterprise of our pilgrim forefathers-successful indeed in its outset-that it has been more and more successful, at every subsequent point in the line of time.-Accomplishing all they projected; what they projected was the least part of what has been accomplished. Forming a Forming a design, in itself grand, bold, and even appalling, for the sacrifices it required, and the risks it involved; the fulfilment of that design is the least thing, which, in the steady progress of events, has flowed from their counsels and their efforts.Did they propose to themselves a refuge beyond the sea, from the religious and political tyranny of Europe? They achieved not that alone, but they have opened a wide asylum to all the victims of tyranny throughout the world. We ourselves have seen the statesmen, the generals,

the kings of the elder world, flying for protection, to the shadow of our institutions.

Did

they wish only to escape to a remote corner, where the arm of oppression could not reach them? They founded a great realm, an imperial patrimony of liberty, the first effectual counterpoise in the scale of human right. Did they look for a retired spot, inoffensive for its obscurity and safe in its remoteness, where the little church of Leyden might enjoy the freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions over which in peaceful conquest-victoria sine clade

-they have borne the banners of the cross. Did they seek, beneath the protection of trading charters, to prosecute a frugal commerce in reimbursement of the expenses of their humble establishment? The fleets and navies of their descendants are on the farthest ocean; and the wealth of the Indies is now wafted with every tide to the coasts, where with hook and line they painfully gathered up their little adventures.—In short, did they, in their brightest and most sanguine moments, contemplate a thrifty, loyal, and prosperous colony-portioned off, like a younger son of the imperial household, to an humble, a dutiful distance? Behold the

spectacle of an independent and powerful Republic, founded on the shores where some of those are but lately deceased, who saw the firstborn of the pilgrims.

And shall we stop here? Is the tale now told; is the contrast now complete; are our destinies all fulfilled; have we reached the meridian; are we declining; are we stationary? My friends, I tell you, we have but begun; we are in the very morning of our days; our numbers are but an unit; our national resources but a pittance; our hopeful achievements in the political, the social, and the intellectual nature, are but the rudiments of what the children of the Pilgrims must yet attain. If there is any thing certain in the principles of human and social progress; if there is any thing clear in the deductions from past history; if there is any, the least, reliance to be placed on the conclusions of reason, in regard to the nature of man, the existing spectacle of our country's growth, magnificent as it is, does not suggest even an idea of what it must be. I dare adventure the prediction, that he who shall stand where I stand, two centuries hence, and look back on our present condition from a distance,

equal to that from which we contemplate the first settlement of the Pilgrims, will sketch a contrast far more astonishing; and will speak of our times as the day of small things, in stronger and juster language, than any in which we can depict the poverty and wants of our fathers.

But we ought to consecrate this day, not to the promise, nor even the present blessings of our condition, except so far as these are connected with the memory of the Pilgrims. The twenty second of December belongs to them; and we ought, in consistency, to direct our thoughts to the circumstances, under which their most astonishing enterprise was achieved. I shall hope to have contributed my mite towards our happy celebration, if I can succeed in pointing out a few of those circumstances of the first emigration to our country, and particularly of the first emigration to New England,* from which, under a kind Providence, has flowed not only the immediate success of the undertaking, but the astonishing train of consequences auspicious to the cause of liberty, humanity, and truth.

* See Note A.