Kirkland, C. M. 428 Murdoch, J. E. 441 | Rush, R. 424 Thornas, Robert 430 Knapp, S. 410 Murray, John . 447 Russell, Benj. . 426 Thornton, M. 384 Knox, Kenry 429 Murray, L.. 412 Russell, C. T. . 418 Toucey, Isaac. 412 Kossuth, Louis 409 Napoleon, 446 Russell, John. 447 Trumbull, John 425 440 Rutledge, E. 415 Saltonstall, L. 387 Santa Anna . 418 Sargent, Epes. 428 441 Sawtelle, Cullen 412 432 Saxe, John G.. 104 Lafayette, 422 390 Trumbull, Jos. 411 417 Schoolcraft, H.R.436 Van Buren, M. 415 423 Scott, Walter. 430 Vanderlyn, J.. 418 Otis, James 426 Scott, Winfield 420 Verplanck,G.C. 446 448 Otis, William F. 424 Seaton, W. W. 414 Walker, Amasa 416 432 Paca, William. 386 Sedgwick, C. M. 114 Walker, R. J. 425 Lewis, Francis 386 Packenham, R. 447 Sergeant, John 133 Walley, S. H. . 440 Lincoln, Levi 435 Paine, Robert T. 383 Sewall, Samuel 433 Walton, R. .391 Lind, Jenny 424 Palfrey, J. G. 430 Seward, W. H. 413 Warren, J. 431 Livingston, E. 411 Palmerston 423 Seymour, T. H. 430 Warren, J. C. . 436 Livingston, W. 441 Park, J. C. 431 Sharp, D. 446 Washington, G. 409 Livingston, P. . 386 Parmenter, W. 442 Shaw, Lemuel. 436 Washing'n,G.C. 425 Longfel'w,H.W.409 Parsons, T. 410 Sherman, R. .385 Washington, M. 417 Lowell, J. R. 416 Paulding, J. K. 418 Shields, James 431 Watts, Isaac Lumpkin, W. . 434 Peabody, A. P. 421 Shirley, W. 444 Wayne, A. Lyell, C. 418 Peaslee, C. H. 431 Wayland, F. .414 Lynch, T., jr. . 390 Peel, Robert 409 Webb, Jas. W. 432 Macaulay, T. B. 446 Penn, John. 414 Webster, D. .421 Mackintosh,Jas.425 Penn, Wm. 412 Smith, Gerritt 433 Webster, Noah 423 434 Weld, H. H. 426 417 Wellington, .447 447 Soulé, Pierre 431 Wells, J. J. .438 419 Southard, S. L. 437 Wesley, John .428 444 Southey, Robert 418 West, B. 438 413 Sparks, Jared. 423 Whipple, E. P. 411 435 Sprague, C 432 Whipple, Wm. 384 436 Whitefield, G. 410 431 Whittier, J. G. 432 412 Stark, John. 441 Steuben, Baron 437 Williams, W. . 385 414 Stewart, C. 434 Willis, N. P. 426 443 Stockton, R. 387 Wilmot, David 410 Miller, William 415 Prescott, W. H. 420 Stone, Thomas 386 Wilson, A. . . 436 M'Kean, T... 385 Pulszky, T. 427 Story, Joseph . 435 Wilson, Henry 442 Monroe, James 432 Pulszky, F. 425 Strong, Caleb .440 Wilson, James, 389 Montgomery, J. 447 Putnam, Israel 424 Stuart, Alonzo 433 Winslow, E. 443 Moore, Thomas 427 Quincy, Josiah 434 Stuart, Gilbert 411 Winslow, Josiah 443 More, Hannah 432 Quincy, T. de 446 Stuart, Moses 419 Winthrop, R. C. 416 Morehead, J. T. 429 Quitman, J. A. 416 Sullivan, J. . 442 Wirt, William, 409 Morgan, D. 427 Randolph, John 412 Sumner, C. 414 Wise, Henry A. 435 Morris, G. P. 432 Rantoul, R., jr. 422 Sumner, I. 446 Witherspoon, J. 387 Morris, Gouv. . 426 Revere, Paul .419 Tallmadge, N.P.409 Wolcott, Oliver 385 Morris, Lewis 368 Ritchie, Thomas 411 Taney, R. B. . 412 Woodbury, L.. 422 Morris, Robert 388 Rives, Wm. C. 412 Toombs, Robert 432 | Woods, Leonard 415 Morton, John. 389 Rodney, Cæsar 384 Taylor, Bayard 413 Wool, John E. 435 Morton, Marcus 431 Rogers, S. 415 Taylor, Zachary 429 Worcester, J. E. 304 Morse, S. F. B. 414 Ross, George .389 Thackeray,w.M. 447 | Wordsworth, W. 439 Moultrie, Wm. 416 Rush, Benj. . .389 Thomas, Isaiah 430 Wright, S., jr. 417 | SPECIMENS OF AMERICAN ELOQUENCE. IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND.—D. Webster. LET us rejoice that we behold this day! Let us be thankful that we have lived to see the bright and happy breaking of the auspicious morn which commences the third century of the history of New England! Auspicious, indeed, - bringing a happiness beyond the common allotment of Providence to men, full of present joy, and gilding with bright beams the prospect of futurity, is the dawn that awakens us to the commemoration of the landing of the Pilgrims. Living at an epoch which naturally marks the progress of the history of our native land, we have come hither to celebrate the great event with which that history commenced. Forever honored be this, the place of our fathers' refuge! Forever remembered the day which saw them, weary and distressed, broken in everything but spirit, poor in all but faith and courage, at last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, and impressing this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man! We have come to this rock to record here our homage for our Pilgrim Fathers; our sympathy in their sufferings, our gratitude for their labors, our admiration of their virtues, our veneration for their piety, and our attachment to those principles of civil and religious liberty, which they encountered the dangers of the ocean, the storms of heaven, the violence of savages, disease, exile and famine, to enjoy and to establish. And we would leave here, also, for the generations which are rising up rapidly to fill our places, some proof that we have endeavored to transmit the great inheritance unimpaired; that in our estimate of public principles and private virtue, in our veneration of religion and piety, in our devotion to civil and religious liberty, in our regard to whatever advances human knowledge or improves human happiness, we are not altogether unworthy of our origin. There is a local feeling connected with this occasion, too strong to be resisted, a sort of genius of the place, which inspires and awes us. We feel that we are on the spot where the first scene of our history was laid; where the hearths and altars of New England were first placed; where Christianity, and civilization, and letters, made their first lodgment, in a vast extent of country, covered with a wilderness, and peopled by roving barbarians. We are here at the season of the year at which the event took place. The imagination irresistibly and rapidly draws around us the principal features and the leading characters in the original scene. We cast our eyes abroad on the ocean, and we see where the little bark, with the interesting group upon its deck, made its slow progress to the shore. We look around us, and behold the hills and promontories where the anxious eyes of our fathers first saw the places of habitation and of rest. We feel the cold which benumbed and listen to the winds which pierced them. Beneath us is the rock on which New England received the feet of the Pilgrims. We seem even to behold them, as they struggle with the elements, and, with toilsome efforts, gain the shore. We listen to the chiefs in counsel; we see the unexampled exhibition of female fortitude and resignation; we hear the whisperings of youthful impatience, and we see, what a painter of our own has also represented by his pencil, chilled and shivering childhood, houseless but for a mother's arms, couchless but for a mother's breast, till our own blood almost freezes. The mild dignity of Carver, and of Bradford; the decisive and soldier-like air and manner of Standish; the devout Brewster; the enterprising Allerton; the general firmness and thoughtfulness of the whole band; their conscious joy for dangers escaped, their deep solicitude about dangers to come, their trust in Heaven, their high religious faith, full of confidence and anticipations, all of these seem to belong to this place, and to be present upon this occasion, to fill us with reverence and admiration. The settlement of New England by the colony which landed here on the 22d of December, 1620, although not the first European establishment in what now constitutes the United States, was yet so peculiar in its causes and character, and has been followed, and must still be followed, by such consequences, as to give it a high claim to lasting commemoration. On these causes and consequences, more than on its immediately attendant circumstances, its importance as an historical event depends. Great actions and striking occurrences, having excited a temporary admiration, often pass away and are forgotten, because they leave no lasting results, affecting the prosperity and happiness of communities. Such is, frequently, the fortune of the most brilliant military achievements. Of the ten thousand battles which have been fought, of all the fields fertilized with carnage, of the banners which have been bathed in blood, of the warriors who had hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest to a glory as bright and as durable as the stars, how few that continue long to interest mankind! The victory of yesterday is reversed by the defeat of to-day; the star of military glory, rising like a meteor, like a meteor has fallen; disgrace and disaster hang on the heels of conquest and renown; victor and vanquished presently pass away to oblivion, and the world goes on in its course, with the loss only of so many lives and so much treasure. But if this be frequently, or generally, the fortune of military achievements, it is not always so. There are enterprises, military as well as civil, which sometimes check the current of events, give a new turn to human affairs, and transmit their consequences through ages. We see their importance in their results, and call them great because great things follow. There have been battles which have fixed the fate of nations. These come down to us in history with a solid and permanent interest, not created by a display of glittering armor, the rush of adverse battalions, the sinking and rising of pennons, the flight, the pursuit, and the victory; but by their effect in advancing or retarding human knowledge, in overthrowing or establishing despotism, in extending or destroying human happiness. When the traveller pauses on the plain of Marathon, what are the emotions which most strongly agitate his breast? What is that glorious recollection which thrills through his frame, and suffuses his eyes? Not, I imagine, that Grecian skill and Grecian valor were here most signally displayed; but that Greece herself was here saved. It is because to this spot, and to the event which has rendered it immortal, he refers all the succeeding glories of the republic. It is because, if that day had gone otherwise, Greece had perished. It is because he perceives that her philosophers and orators, her poets and painters, her sculptors and architects, her governments and free institutions, point backward to Marathon; and that their future existence seems to have been suspended on the contingency whether the Persian or the Grecian banner should wave victorious in the beams of that day's setting sun. And, as his imagination kindles at the retrospect, he is transported back to the interesting moment, he counts the fearful odds of the contending hosts, his interest for the result overwhelms him; - he trembles, as if it were still uncertain, and seems to doubt whether he may consider Socrates and Plato, Demosthenes, Sophocles and Phidias, as secure, yet, to himself and to the world. If the blessings of our political and social condition have not been too highly estimated, we cannot well overrate the responsibility and duty which they impose upon us. We hold these institutions of government, religion and learning, to be transmitted as well as enjoyed. We are in the line of conveyance, through which whatever has been obtained by the spirit and efforts of our ancestors is to be communicated to our children. We are bound to maintain public liberty, and by the example of our own systems to convince the world that order and law, religion and morality, the rights of conscience, the rights of persons, and the rights of property, may all be preserved and secured, in the most perfect manner, by a government entirely and purely elective. If we fail in this, our disaster will be signal, and will furnish an |