, when
they left England and set their prows westward and landed upon the
rock-bound coast; when they drew up their compact of civil government,
which was a new thing in the history of the world. We did our part in
the South, and when the time came they staked all that they had upon the
principle of a government based only upon the consent of the governed.

We pride ourselves upon the fact that we can worship God according to
the dictates of our own conscience. We speak easily of God, "whose
service is perfect freedom," but it was not we, but our fathers who
achieved that. Our fathers "left us an heritage, and it has brought
forth abundantly."

I say this to draw clearly the line between mere material wealth and
that which is the real wealth and welfare of a people. We are rich, but
our fathers were poor. How did they achieve it? Not by their wealth, but
by their character--by their devotion to principle. When I was thinking
of the speech I was to make here to-night, I asked the descendant of a
New Englander what he would say was the best thing that the fathers had
left to the country. He thought for a second and made me a wise answer.
He said, "I think it was their character." That is indeed the heritage
they left us; they left us their character. Wealth will not preserve
that which they left us; not wealth, not power, not "dalliance nor wit"
will preserve it; nothing but that which is of the spirit will preserve
it, nothing but character.

The whole story of civilization speaks this truth with trumpet voice.
One nation rises upon the ruins of another nation. It is when Samson
lies in the lap of Delilah that the enemy steals upon him and ensnares
him and binds him. It was when the great Assyrian king walked through
his palace, and looking around him said in his pride, "Is not this great
Babylon that I have built for the honor of the kingdom and for the honor
of my majesty?" that the voice came to him, even while the words were in
the king's mouth (saith the chronicle), "Thy kingdom is departed from
thee." It was when Belshazzar sat feasting in his Babylonian palace,
with his lords and ladies, eating and drinking out of the golden vessels
that had been sacred to the Lord, that the writing came upon the wall,
"Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." Not only in the
palace, but all through the great city there was feasting and dancing.
Why should they not feast and why should they not dance? They were
secur