rmament. They may attempt it; but "He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh them to scorn." The creatures formed for his worship will
be permitted to worship him with exalted faculties and full liberty
of conscience. Placed here for their common good and happiness, and
indued with minds and affections fitted for enlightened intercourse,
and the mutual interchange of kind offices, let us not be so impious
as to fear that the light which has arisen will be suffered to be put
out and the world re-plunged in darkness and barbarity.

Fellow citizens, this light was first struck in our land. The sacred
trust is still among us. Let us take care how we guard the holy fire.
We stand under a fearful responsibility to our Creator and our fellow
creatures. It has been his divine pleasure that we should be sent
forth as the harbingers of free government on the earth, and in this
attitude we are now before the world. The eyes of the world are upon
us; and our example will probably be decisive of the cause of human
liberty.

The great argument of despots against free governments is, that large
bodies of men are incapable of self-rule, and that the inevitable and
rapid tendency of such a government as ours is to faction, strife,
anarchy and dissolution. Let it be our effort to give, to the
expecting world, a great, practical and splendid refutation of this
charge. If we cannot do this, the world may despair. To what other
nation can we look to do it? We claim no _natural_ superiority to
other nations. We have not the folly to think of it. We claim nothing
more than a _natural_ equality. But circumstances have conspired to
give us an advantage in making this great political experiment which
no other modern nation enjoys. The government under which the fathers
of our revolution were born was the freest in Europe. They were rocked
in the cradle and nurtured in the principles of British liberty: and
the transition from those institutions to our own was extremely
easy. They were maturely prepared for the change both by birth and
education, and came into existence as a republic under the happiest
auspices that can ever again be expected to arise. If, therefore, our
experiment shall fail, I say again that the world may well despair.
Warned as we are by the taunts of European monarchists, and by the
mournful example of all the ancient republics, are we willing to split
on the same rock on which we have seen them shipwrecked? Are we
willing