all, that it fixed irrevocably in the country that noble security
for religious liberty, the independent system of Church Gov
ernment."
But whatever may have been the differences or disagreements
of the first planters of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, of
New Haven and of Connecticut, at the outset, we all know that
in the summer of 1643 these four original Colonies established
that noble New England Confederation, the model and pro
totype of the Confederation of 1778, which " blended the many-
nationed whole in one," and carried the thirteen American
Colonies through the War of Independence, whose grand and
comprehensive preamble is alone an ample reply to all who
would magnify one Colony at the expense of another :
u Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one
and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of
our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel
OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 121
in purity with peace : And whereas in our settling (by a wise
providence of God) we are further dispersed upon the Sea-
coasts and Rivers than was at first intended, so that we cannot
according to our desire with convenience communicate in one
Government and Jurisdiction : And whereas we live encom
passed with people of several Nations and strange languages,
which hereafter may prove injurious to us or our posterity:
And forasmuch as the Natives have formerly committed sundry
insolences and outrages upon several plantations of the English,
and have of late combined themselves against us : And seeing
by reason of those sad distractions in England which they have
heard of, and by which they know we are hindered from that
humble way of seeking advice, or reaping those comfortable
fruits of protection which at other times we might well expect :
We therefore do conceive it our bounden duty without delay to
enter into a present Consociation amongst ourselves, for mutual
help and strength in all our future concernments: That as in
Nation and Religion so in other respects we be and continue
ONE, according to the tenor and true meaning of the ensuing
Articles : Wherefore it is fully agreed and concluded by and
between the parties or Jurisdictions above-named, and they
jointly and severally do by these presents agree and conclude,
That they all be and henceforth be called by the name of The
United Colonies of New England."
The very next clause of this remarkable Ordinance provided
as follows : " The said United Colonies for themselves and their
posterities do jointly and severally hereby enter into a firm and
perpetual league of friendship and amity for offence and defence,
mutual advice and succour, upon all just occasions both for pre
serving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel
and for their own mutual safety and welfare." And another
article provided for intrusting the whole management of the
Confederation to two Commissioners from each of the four
Jurisdictions, carefully adding, " all in Church fellowship with
us," thus leaving no shadow of doubt upon the point that it
was a " Consociation " for religious as well as for political peace
and unity.
Accordingly we find among the proceedings of the Cornmis-
122 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
sioners at New Haven in 1646 a meeting at which neither
Bradford nor Winslow nor either of the Winthrops was present,
but at which all of the four Colonies were fully represented,
and to whose proceedings all of them ultimately subscribed
that most memorable Declaration as to the " Spreading nature
of Error and the dangerous growth and effects thereof," " under
a deceitful colour of liberty of conscience," which recommended,
among other things, that " Anabaptism, Familism, Antinomian-
ism, and generally all errours of a like nature," u be seasonably
and duly suppressed ; " and which concluded with that glowing
prediction for New England : u If thus we be for God, he will
certainly be with us ; and though the God of the world (as he
is styled) be worshipped, and by usurpation set upon his throne
in the main and greatest part of America, yet this small part
and portion may be vindicated as by the right hand of Jehovah,
and justly called Emmanuel s land."
I do not forget that, in reference to the clause recommending
the suppression of errors, the Plymouth Commissioners " de
sired further consideration ; " but the whole Declaration is
entered upon the Plymouth Records as agreed upon, and was
ultimately subscribed alike by the Commissioners of all the
Colonies.
I do not forget, either, that all New England was not included
in that Confederation. All that there was of New Hampshire
was indeed within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. But we
miss Rhode Island from the historic group. We miss Clarke
and Coddington and Roger Williams from the roll of the
Commissioners. It must be borne in mind, however, that it was
not because the Plantations at Providence and the Islands were
opposed to the Confederation or any of its articles, that they
were not members of it. Both of them desired and solicited
admission. " There was yet another, a fifth New England
Colony," said John Quincy Adams in 1843, " denied admis
sion into the Union, and furnishing, in its broadest latitude, the
demonstration of that conscientious, contentious spirit, which
so signally characterized the English Puritans of the seven
teenth century, the founders of New England, of all the liber
ties of the British Nation, and of the ultimate universal freedom
OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 123
of the race of man. The founder of the Colony of Rhode Is
land," adds he, "was Roger Williams, a man who may be con
sidered the very impersonation of this combined conscientious,
contentious spirit."
Rhode Island may well afford to bear with equanimity any
charges against the early contentiousness of her founders, in
view of the glory which that very contentiousness has acquired
for her on the page of history. " Roger Williams," says Ban
croft, " was the first person in modern Christendom to assert in
its plenitude the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the
equality of opinions before the law ; and in its defence he was
the harbinger of Milton, the precursor and superior of Jeremy
Taylor." The man upon whose tombstone such an inscription,
even with some allowances for rhetorical exaggeration, may
be justly written, need fear no strictures to which other peculi
arities of character or conduct may subject him. I have an
hereditary disposition, too, to be not only just but tender
towards his memory, for Williams and the Winthrops of old, in
spite of all differences, were most loving friends from first to
last. I would palliate not a particle of the persecution or
cruelty which he suffered ; from whatever source it may have
proceeded, or by whomever it may have been prompted. There
was an heroic grandeur in his endurance and fortitude ; there
was an unsparing self-devotion in his care for the Indians ; there
was a simplicity, sincerity, and earnestness in his whole career
and character, which must ever command our warmest sym
pathy and admiration.
But it would be gross injustice to our other New England
Fathers, and especially to our Massachusetts Fathers, not to
admit that the conduct of Williams, in some of its earlier mani
festations, was too precipitate and turbulent to be compatible
with the peace and safety of the infant Colonies, denying, as
Winslow says he did, the lawfulness of a public oath, refusing
" to allow the colors of our nation," and holding forth the un
lawfulness of the patent from the king ; while the condition
and temper of the Plantations of Rhode Island a State which
we now so honor and love, and to which we owe more than one
of our most valued citizens were such, at that time, as to
124 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
cause even the Plymouth rulers and elders to say: "Concerning
the Islanders, we have no conversing with them, nor desire to
have, further than necessity or humanity may require." 1
But with the exception of these Rhode Island Plantations,
which were still very small and scattered, New England was
then one ; one, not only as the multiplied States of our Ameri
can Union are one at this day, for civil, political, and military
purposes ; but one, also, in a unit} to which our Federal Consti
tution presents no counterpart ; one for the preservation and
propagation of Religion ; a Union for the defence and diffusion
of pure, Protestant Christianity, such as the world had hardly
ever witnessed before, and may hardly ever witness again. It
was a grand Experiment, conceived and instituted for the glory
of God and the welfare of man s estate. But a higher than
human power had long ago emphatically declared, " My King
dom is not of this world ; " and the result gave abundant evi
dence that, on this Continent at least, the Temporal and Spiritual
power were not destined to be wielded successfully by the same
hands. Church and State were never meant to thrive together
on American soil. It remains to be seen how long they are to
thrive together anywhere.
I hasten to the conclusion of this discourse. I may not at
tempt to pursue the thread of Pilgrim history further on this
occasion. We all know what New England has been doing
since the days of that Confederation. We all know how her
sons and her daughters, besides founding and building up noble
institutions within her own limits, have sought homes in other
parts of the country, near and remote, and how powerfully their
influence and enterprise have everywhere been felt. It may
safely be said that there is hardly a State, or county, or town,
or village, on the Continent, in which New England men and
women are not turning their faces towards Plymouth Rock to
day with something of the affectionate yearning of children
towards an ancestral, or even a parental, home. We all know
1 See communication of Charles Deane, LL.D., in Proceedings of the Massa
chusetts Historical Society, 1873, pp. 341-358, and the elaborate and exhaustive
monograph, "As to Roger Williams," by the Rev. H. M. Dexter, D.D., 1876.
OP THE LANDING OP THE PILGRIMS. 125
what contributions they have made to the cause of Education,
of Learning, of Literature, of Science, and of Art. We all
know what they have done for Commerce on the ocean, and for
Industry on the land, vexing every sea with their keels, and
startling every waterfall with their looms. We all know what
examples of Patriotism and Statesmanship they have exhibited
in every hour of Colonial or National trial. We do not fail to
remember that New England led the march to Independence at
Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, and that the bones of
her sons were mingled with almost every soil on which the bat
tles of the Revolution were fought. Still less can we forget
with what alacrity and heroic self-sacrifice her bravest and best
rushed forth, so many of them, alas ! never to return, for
the defence of the Union, in the great struggle which has so
recently terminated.
But we are not here to-day to boast of our own exploits, or to
deal with the events of our own da) 7 . It becomes us rather to
remember our own shortcomings and our own unworthiness, in
view of the sublime examples of piety, endurance, and heroic
valor which were exhibited by those " holy and humble men of
heart " by whom our Colonies were planted. We sometimes
assume to sit in judgment upon their doings. We often criti
cise their faults arid failings. There is a special proneness of
late years to deride their superstitions and denounce their intol
erance. And certainly we may well rejoice that the days of
religious bigotry and proscription are over in our land. But is
it not even more true at this hour, than when no less liberal a
Christian than John Quincy Adams uttered the warning, thirty
years ago, that the intensely religious feelings and prejudices of
our infancy have not only given way to universal toleration, but
" to a liberality of doctrine bordering upon the extreme of a
faltering faith " ? God forbid that our own religious freedom
should ever be described as Gibbon described that of the age of
Antoninus, from which he dates the decline and fall of the
Roman Empire : " The various modes of worship," says he,
" which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the
people as equally true ; by the philosophers as equally false ;
and by the magistrates as equally useful. And thus toleration
1-6 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious con
cord." Such a spirit of toleration, such religious liberty as
that, even in an age of Paganism, gradually led to the over
throw of the great Empire of the Old World. What else but
overthrow can it accomplish in a Christian age for the great
Republic of the New World ?
May it not be wise and well for us all sometimes to reflect
and may I not be pardoned for concluding this discourse by
summoning the sons and daughters of New England, here and
everywhere, to reflect this day what judgment would be pro
nounced upon us by our Pilgrim and our Puritan Fathers, could
they be permitted to behold and to comprehend the grand ex
pansion and development which we now witness of the institu
tions which they planted ? Could they descend among us, at
this moment, in bodily presence, and with organs capable of
embracing at a glance a full perception and understanding of
every thing which has been accomplished on this wide-spread
continent, since they were withdrawn from these earthly scenes
and entered into their rest, what would they think, what
would they say ?
It is not difficult to imagine the surprise with which they
would contemplate the existing condition of New England, and
of the mighty nation of which it forms a part. It is not diffi
cult to imagine the astonishment with which they would regard
the great inventions and improvements of modern times. It is
not difficult to imagine the eager and incredulous amazement
with which Miles Standish, for instance, would listen to the
click of a little machine, almost at his own old doorway, which
could supply him daily and hourly with the latest phases of the
big wars in Europe, which in his lifetime he could only have
studied in bulletins, or broadsides, or " books of the news," not
much less than half a year old. 1 It is not difficult to conceive
the wonder of Edward Winslow, as he should see, or be told of,
some noble ship traversing the wide Atlantic, from Land s End to
Cape Cod, with undeviating regularity, without sails and against
the wind, in far less time than he could have relied on crossing
1 The American end of the French Cable was not far from the residence of
Miles Standish, at Duxbury, Mass.
OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 127
from one little island to another of the Caribbean Sea, before
he sunk so sadly beneath its waters. It is not difficult to pict
ure the bewilderment of Brewster and Bradford as they should
listen to the rattling and whistling and thundering, by day and
by night, of cars bringing more passengers than the whole pop
ulation of Plymouth in their day, and more freight than would
have sustained that whole population for a winter, not merely
from Boston in not much more than an hour, but from the
shores of the Pacific Ocean in not much more than a week ! It
is eas} r to conceive the consternation of them all, could they see
this whole assembly, by an almost instantaneous flash of sun
light, grouped and pictured with an exactness which the most
protracted labors of ancient or modern art could never have
reached. It is easy to conceive their rapture should they wit
ness the intensest physical agonies of the human frame charmed
to sleep by the inhalation of the vapor of a few drops of ether.
It is easy to understand how astounded they would be, not
merely at learning that all those phenomena of the celestial
bodies which had so often perplexed and alarmed them were
now familiar to every school-boy ; but at being specially in
formed that to-morrow there should be a great eclipse of the
sun, total in some parts of the world though hardly visible here ;
and that Science, not satisfied with calculating, by the old
processes of which they may have heard something before, the
precise instants of its beginning and end, had equipped and
sent out formal expeditions to many distant lands to observe
and record all its phases and incidents !
We can readily suppose that such marvels as these would not
be taken in by them without reawakening something of their old
superstitious fear and awe ; and we might expect to hear from
their lips some exclamations, if not about " the old Serpent,"
certainly about " wonders and more wonders of the invisible
world." But we need not resort to these miracles of science
and art in order to illustrate the surprise and amazement with
which our Fathers would contemplate the condition of their
posterity. The mere extent, population, and power of our
country, its great States, its magnificent cities, its vast wealth,
its commerce, its crops, its industry, its education, its freedom,
128 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
no longer a slave upon its soil, all, all of all races, equal
before the law, what else could they desire to fill up the
measure of our development, or of their own delight ! What
more could they possibly wish to complete and crown the vision
of glory vouchsafed to them ?
Ah, my friends, have you forgotten, or can you imagine that
they would forget for an instant, the cause in which they came
here ? Can you believe that they would be so dazzled and
blinded by the glare of mere temporal success and material
prosperity, or by the grandeur of intellectual triumphs and
scientific discoveries and philosophical achievements, as to lose
sight and thought of that which animated and, I had almost
said, constituted their whole mortal existence? Can we not
hear them inquiring eagerly and earnestly, as they gaze upon
all around them, " Is the moral welfare of the country keeping
pace with its material progress ? Has religion maintained the
place we assigned it, as the corner-stone of all your institutions ?
Is the Bible, the open Bible, which we brought over in our
hands, still reverenced of you all as the Word of God ? Is the
Lord s Day still respected and observed as a day of religious
rest, as we observed it on that desolate island before our feet
had stept upon yonder consecrated rock ? Are your houses of
worship proportionate to your population ? Are there worship
pers enough, Sunday by Sunday, to fill the houses which you
have? Are there no temples of false prophets no organized
communities of licentiousness, under the color of religion in
your land ? Are there none among you who seek unto them
that have familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and lhat
mutter, for the living to the dead ? Are you doing your
full part in carrying the Gospel to the heathen ? Or are you
waiting until the heathen shall have come over into your inheri
tance, bringing their idols with them, to cheapen labor and to
dilute your own civilization and Christianity ? Are your schools
and colleges still dedicated, as we dedicated at least one of them,
4 to Christ and the Church ? Is there no fear that your science
has been emboldened by its triumphant successes to overleap
the bounds of legitimate investigation, putting Nature to the
rack to wring from her, if it were possible, some denial, or some
OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 129
doubt, of that great Original, whom she has always rejoiced,
and still rejoices, to proclaim ? Is there no fear that your phi
losophy has been tempted to transcend the just 4 limits of relig
ious thought, and to set up some material theory, or some
self-styled positive system, which may seduce the deluded soul
from its hope of immortality, and weaken, if not destroy, its
sense of the need of a Saviour ? Is there no fear that a senti
mental, sensational, licentious literature is corrupting the tastes
and sapping the morals of your children, and rendering the uni
versal appetite for reading an almost doubtful blessing ? Are
your charities, public and private, numerous and noble as they
are, altogether commensurate with your wealth ? Or is the
larger half of your surplus incomes absorbed in a cankering and
debasing luxury, destructive alike to the physical, intellectual,
and spiritual energy of all who indulge in it ? Are integrity
and virtue enthroned in your hearts and homes ? Have they a
recognized and undisputed sovereignty in the market-place and
on the exchange ? Or are vice and crime making not a few
days dark, and not a few nights hideous, in your crowded cities ?
Is there purity and principle and honor in your public servants?
Or are corruption and intrigue and fraud threatening to make
havoc of your free institutions, rendering all things venal, and
almost all things, except mere party disloyalty, venial, in your
State and National Capitals ? "
Such questions as these, I am conscious, if coming from any
living lips, or, certainly, from any living layman s lips, might be
jeered at as savoring of sanctimoniousness and fanaticism. I do
not presume to ask them for myself ; much less would I pre
sume to answer them. Make what allowance you please for
the rigid austerity and excessive scrupulousness of those for
whom I am only an interpreter. But does any one deny or
doubt that they are the very questions which would be asked
first and most eagerly and most emphatically, by those whom
we this day commemorate, and by those who were associated
with them in founding and building up New England ?
Can we not hear them, at this moment, solemnly warning us,
lest, in the pride of our prosperity and greatness, " when our
silver and our gold is multiplied, and all that we have is multi-
9
130 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
plied," our hearts be lifted up to say, each for himself, " My
power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth,"
while the great lesson of our stewardship, to Him to whom we
owe it all, is forgotten or neglected ?
Can we not hear them, at this moment, solemnly warning us,
lest, in the pride of our freedom and independence, we forget
that " the liberty we are to stand for, with the hazard not only
of our goods, but of our lives if need be," is " a liberty for that
only which is good, just, and honest," and not a liberty to be
used as a cloak of maliciousness and licentiousness ?
Can we not hear them, at this moment, from yonder hill of
graves, solemnly and affectionately warning us lest, in the
pride of our science, while a thousand telescopes and spectro
scopes are ready to be levelled, on the morrow, at the orb of
day, to reveal its chromosphere and its photosphere, to meas
ure its tornadoes, to detect the exact nature of its corona, and
to mark the precise instants of its partial or total obscuration,
the Sun of Righteousness, all unobserved, be dimmed and
darkened in our own hearts, and an Eclipse of Faith be suffered
to steal and settle over our land, whose beginning may be im
perceptible, and its end beyond calculation ?
Oh, let us hear and heed these warnings of the Fathers to the
children, as they come to us to-day, enforced not only by all
the precious memories of their faith and piety, their virtues and
sacrifices and sufferings, but by all the lessons and experiences
of the times in which we live ! We need not look beyond the
events of the single year which is just closing, this Annus
Mirabilis, compared with which that of Dryden and Defoe was
without significance or consequence ; a year more marvellous in
its manifestations than almost any which has preceded it since
the great year of our Lord, and from whose calendar no form of
physical, political, or religious convulsion seems to have been
wanting to startle and confound the nations ; a year, whose
Christmas, alas ! is clouded and saddened by the continuance,
in a land bound to us by memories not yet obliterated, of a con
flict and a carnage which must fill every Christian heart with
horror, and for the termination of which we would devoutly
OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 131
invoke the only Intervention which has not been, and which
cannot be, rejected ; we need not, I say, look beyond the
events of this single jubilee year of the Landing, to find evi
dence of the vanity of all human ambition and the impotence
of all human power, and to see renewed and startling proof that
while
" A thousand years scarce serve to form a State,
An hour may lay it in the dust."
Let us not be deaf to the warnings of the Fathers. Let us