f European destruction. Toleration, in that instance, would
have been self-murder, and many other examples might be alleged, in
which their necessary measures of self-defence have been exaggerated
into cruelty, and their most indispensable precautions distorted into
persecution. Yet shall we not pretend that they were exempt from the
common laws of mortality, or entirely free from all the errors of
their age. Their zeal might sometimes be too ardent, but it was always
sincere. At this day, religious indulgence is one of our clearest
duties, because it is one of our undisputed rights. While we rejoice
that the principles of genuine Christianity have so far triumphed over
the prejudices of a former generation, let us fervently hope for the day
when it will prove equally victorious over the malignant passions of our
own.

In thus calling your attention to some of the peculiar features in the
principles, the character, and the history of our forefathers, it is
as wide from my design, as I know it would be from your approbation, to
adorn their memory with a chaplet plucked from the domain of others.
The occasion and the day are more peculiarly devoted to them, and let
it never be dishonored with a contracted and exclusive spirit. Our
affections as citizens embrace the whole extent of the Union, and the
names of Raleigh, Smith, Winthrop, Calvert, Penn and Oglethorpe excite
in our minds recollections equally pleasing and gratitude equally
fervent with those of Carver and Bradford. Two centuries have not
yet elapsed since the first European foot touched the soil which now
constitutes the American Union. Two centuries more and our numbers must
exceed those of Europe itself. The destinies of their empire, as they
appear in prospect before us, disdain the powers of human calculation.
Yet, as the original founder of the Roman State is said once to have
lifted upon his shoulders the fame and fortunes of all his posterity, so
let us never forget that the glory and greatness of all our descendants
is in our hands. Preserve in all their purity, refine, if possible,
from all their alloy, those virtues which we this day commemorate as the
ornament of our forefathers. Adhere to them with inflexible resolution,
as to the horns of the altar; instil them with unwearied perseverance
into the minds of your children; bind your souls and theirs to the
national Union as the chords of life are centred in the heart, and you
shall soar with rapid an