Supreme Ruler
of the universe, had achieved the most transcendent act of power that
social man in his mortal condition can perform--even that of dissolving
the ties of allegiance by which he is bound to his country; of
renouncing that country itself; of demolishing its government; of
instituting another government; and of making for himself another
country in its stead.

And on that day, of which you now commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary--on that thirtieth day of April, 1789--was this mighty
revolution, not only in the affairs of our own country, but in the
principles of government over civilized man, accomplished.

The Revolution itself was a work of thirteen years--and had never
been completed until that day. The Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States are parts of one consistent whole,
founded upon one and the same theory of government, then new in
practice, though not as a theory, for it had been working itself into
the mind of man for many ages, and had been especially expounded in the
writings of Locke, though it had never before been adopted by a great
nation in practice.

There are yet, even at this day, many speculative objections to this
theory. Even in our own country there are still philosophers who deny
the principles asserted in the Declaration, as self-evident truths--who
deny the natural equality and inalienable rights of man--who deny that
the people are the only legitimate source of power--who deny that all
just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed.
Neither your time, nor perhaps the cheerful nature of this occasion,
permit me here to enter upon the examination of this anti-revolutionary
theory, which arrays State sovereignty against the constituent
sovereignty of the people, and distorts the Constitution of the United
States into a league of friendship between confederate corporations. I
speak to matters of fact. There is the Declaration of Independence,
and there is the Constitution of the United States--let them speak for
themselves. The grossly immoral and dishonest doctrine of despotic State
sovereignty, the exclusive judge of its own obligations, and responsible
to no power on earth or in heaven, for the violation of them, is not
there. The Declaration says, it is not in me. The Constitution says, it
is not in me.

"Oration at Plymouth, December 22, 1802, in Commemoration of the Landing
of the Pilgrims."

Among the sentime