he objects of
distrust and contempt. Ay! shut them out if you will, and from that
moment New England becomes the Switzerland of America, the home of great
ideas and great men, the temple where Freedom shall take up her
everlasting abode, and the altar fires of Liberty shall never die away.
And her people will become the priests of that great religion which,
taking its rise in a lofty appreciation of the true end of human
existence, is already bursting out all over the Christian world, in
fitful flames, which shall yet become the devouring element that shall
wither and consume away oppression and kingcraft from the face of the
earth. Shut her out, then, if you will, but you cannot shut out the
flame which she shall kindle; you cannot shut out the tones of her
trumpet voice, proclaiming to the world the doctrines of eternal truth.
Self-reliant, possessing within themselves every element of success, her
people can and will make their way, as heretofore, alone and unaided.
Asking no favors of the world, they will pursue the even tenor of their
way, undisturbed by the mutterings and growlings of their impotent foes,
while their little republic, like a city set upon a hill, continues to
reflect from her glittering pinnacles the sunlight of heaven to all
quarters of the earth. The petty vengeance which the disunionists of
to-day are attempting to wreak upon her will recoil upon their own
heads, and they themselves may yet be forced some day to look to little
New England as their redeemer from anarchy. A purely commercial people,
her interests are not circumscribed by her narrow geographical limits,
but are, as well as her tastes and sympathies, cosmopolitan. She
stretches out her feelers to all parts of the earth, wherever her
wandering sons may have betaken themselves, and fastens there a little
vine or creeper whose roots are still in her own bosom. It is a part and
a necessity of her very existence, to handle and direct catholic
interests. This, as well as her position in other respects, has made her
the arbiter of this nation and country, and you can no more shut her out
from participation in the affairs of this continent than you can shut in
the mighty river from its outlet to the ocean. And if you cut her off,
see to it that she does not become the little Rome whose conquering arms
shall reduce all the nations of the continent to her sway.

No! New England has planted herself too deeply in the hearts of the
American peop