hazards of a perilous
navigation and all the labors of a toilsome distant settlement. Under
the mild protection of the Batavian Government, they enjoyed already
that freedom of religious worship, for which they had resigned so
many comforts and enjoyments at home; but their hearts panted for a
restoration to the bosom of their country. Invited and urged by the
open-hearted and truly benevolent people who had given them an asylum
from the persecution of their own kindred to form their settlement
within the territories then under their jurisdiction, the love of their
country predominated over every influence save that of conscience alone,
and they preferred the precarious chance of relaxation from the bigoted
rigor of the English Government to the certain liberality and alluring
offers of the Hollanders. Observe, my countrymen, the generous
patriotism, the cordial union of soul, the conscious yet unaffected
vigor which beam in their application to the British monarch:

"They were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother country,
and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. They were knit
together in a strict and sacred bond, to take care of the good of each
other and of the whole. It was not with them as with other men, whom
small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish
themselves again at home."

Children of these exalted Pilgrims! Is there one among you who can hear
the simple and pathetic energy of these expressions without tenderness
and admiration? Venerated shades of our forefathers! No, ye were,
indeed, not ordinary men! That country which had ejected you so cruelly
from her bosom you still delighted to contemplate in the character of an
affectionate and beloved mother. The sacred bond which knit you together
was indissoluble while you lived; and oh, may it be to your descendants
the example and the pledge of harmony to the latest period of time!
The difficulties and dangers, which so often had defeated attempts of
similar establishments, were unable to subdue souls tempered like yours.
You heard the rigid interdictions; you saw the menacing forms of toil
and danger, forbidding your access to this land of promise; but you
heard without dismay; you saw and disdained retreat. Firm and undaunted
in the confidence of that sacred bond; conscious of the purity, and
convinced of the importance of your motives, you put your trust in the
protecting shield of Providence, and smiled defian