ages with the means, the
skill, and the instruments of 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-defense
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 this 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;
instill them with unwearied perseverance into the minds of your
children; bind your souls and theirs to the national Union as the
cho