than to such a house of
feasting?

"For is not the spirit of that solemnity, and of this, effectively the
same? If that was the commemoration of the good deeds of your forefathers,
may not this be called the commemoration of the future achievements of
your sons? If that day was dedicated to the blessed memory of the past, is
not this devoted to the no less blessed hope of the future? It was from
schools of public instruction, instituted by our forefathers, that the
light burst forth. It was in the primary schools; it was by the midnight
lamps of Harvard hall, that were conceived and matured, as it was within
these hallowed walls that were first resounded the accents of that
independence which is now canonized in the memory of those by whom it was
proclaimed.

"Was it not there that were formed, to say nothing of him 'fit for the
praise of any tongue but mine,'--but was it not there that were formed,
and prepared for the conflicts of the mind, for the intellectual warfare
which distinguishes your Revolution from all the brutal butcheries of
vulgar war, your James Otis, your John Hancock, your Samuel Adams, your
Robert Treat Paine, your Elbridge Gerry, your James and your Joseph
Warren, and last, not least, your Josiah Quincy, so worthily represented
by your Chief Magistrate here at my side?

"Indulge me, fellow-citizens, with the remark, that I have been called to
answer to myself these questions, before I could enjoy the happiness, at
the very kind invitation of your Mayor and Aldermen, of presenting myself
among you this day.

"In conformity to my own inclinations, and to the usages of society, I
have deemed it proper, on the recent bereavement I have sustained, to
withdraw for a time from the festive intercourse of the world, and in
retirement, so far as may be consistent with the discharge of public
trusts, to prepare for and perform the additional duties devolving upon
me, as a son, and as a parent, from this visitation of heaven. To that
retirement I have hitherto been confined; and in departing from it for a
single day, I have needed an apology to myself, as I trust I shall need
one to you. Seek for it, my fellow-citizens in your own paternal hearts. I
have been unable to resist the invitation of the authorities of this my
own almost native city, to mingle with her inhabitants in the joyous
festivities of this occasion--and, after witnessing, in the visitation of
the schools, hundreds and thousands of the risi