LXIX. THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF

THE ORIGIN OF NEW ENGLAND.

WEBSTER.

[Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18, 1782. He was one of the greatest men our country has ever produced, having been equally eminent as a statesman, a lawyer, and a writer. His style is remarkable for strength, dignity, simplicity, and manly eloquence. He died October 24, 1852.

The following extract is the closing part of a discourse pronounced by him at Plymouth, December 22, 1820, in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of th: landing of the Pilgrims.]

1. OUR fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate1 its principles with the elements. of their society, and to diffuse its influence through. all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.

2. Let us cherish these sentiments,2 and extend this influence still more widely, in the full conviction that that is the happiest society which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceful spirit of Christianity.

3. The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and this occasion will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children can expect to behold its return. They are in the distant regions of futurity, they exist only in the all-creating power of God, who shall stand here a hundred years hence, to trace, through us, their descent from the Pilgrims, and to survey, as we have now surveyed, the progress of their country during the lapse 3 of a century.

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4. We would anticipate their concurrence 5 with us in our sentiments of deep regard for our common

ancestors. We would anticipate and partake the pleasure with which they will then recount the steps of New England's advancement.

5. On the morning of that day, although it will not disturb us in our repose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude, commencing on the rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through millions of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it loses itself in the murmurs of the Pacific Seas.

6. We would leave, for the consideration of those who shall then occupy our places, some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the cause of good government, and of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a sincere and ardent desire to promote everything which may enlarge the understandings and improve the hearts of men.

7. And when, from the long distance of a hundred years, they shall look back upon us, they shall know, at least, that we possessed affections, which, running backward, and warming with gratitude for what our ancestors have done for our happiness, run forward, also, to our posterity, and meet them with cordial salutation, ere yet they have arrived on the shore of being.

8. Advance, then, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise, in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence where we are passing, and shall soon have passed our own human duration.

9. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We

greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings. of good government and religious liberty.

10. We welcome you to the treasures of science and the delights of learning. We welcome you to the transcendent 10 sweets of domestic life, to the happiness of kindred, and parents, and children. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting truth.

[Robert Charles Winthrop is a native of Boston, a graduate of Harvard College in 1828, and has always resided in Boston or its immediate neighborhood. He was for many years a member of the House of Representatives in Washington, and Speaker of the House from December, 1847, to March, 1849. He is an accomplished scholar and an elegant and vigorous writer.

The following extract is from a discourse at the unvei ing of a bronze statue of Franklin. The statue stands in front of the City Hall in Boston, and was erected by the citizens of Boston in honor of their illustrious townsman. It was kept covered till the c'ose of the second paragraph, when the drapery was removed, amid the exulting shouts of an immense audience.]

1. THE calm, dispassionate 1 Muse of History has pronounced her unequivocal and irrevocable3 award, not only assigning to Franklin no second place among

the greatest and worthiest who have adorned the annals of New England, but enrolling him forever among the illustrious benefactors of mankind; and we are here, this day, to accept, confirm, and ratify 4 that award, for ourselves and our posterity, by a substantial and enduring token, which shall no longer be withheld from your view!

2. Let it be unveiled! Let the Stars and Stripes no longer conceal the form of one who was always faithful to his country's flag, and who did so much to promote the glorious cause in which it was first unfurled!

3. And now behold him, by the magic power of native genius, once more restored to our sight! Behold him in the enjoyment of his cherished wish"revisiting his native town, and the grounds he used to frequent when a boy." Behold him reappearing on the old school-house green, which was the playplace of his early days.

4. Behold the man to whom Washington himself wrote for the consolation of his declining strength-a consolation more precious than all the compliments and distinctions which were ever showered upon him by philosophers or princes.

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5. Other honors may grow cheap, other laurels may fade and wither, other eulogiums may be for gotten; the solid bronze before us may moulder and crumble; but the man of whom it may be said that he enjoyed the sincere friendship, and secured the respect, veneration, and affection of Washington, has won a title to the world's remembrance which the lapse of ages will only strengthen and brighten.

6. Behold him, children of the schools, boys and

girls of Boston, bending to bestow the reward* of merit upon each one of you that shall strive to improve the inestimable advantages of our noble free schools! Behold him, mechanics and mechanics' apprentices, holding out to you an example of diligence, economy, and virtue, and personifying the

*Franklin medals.