e Worship_. The great stream of religious impulse has poured through
these streets, and separated into its rills of distinctive opinion,
without trepidation and without challenge. Every man has had the
opportunity to commune with his God, and approach the Cross of his
Redeemer, with no established barriers between. Neither the cathedral
nor the chapel rest upon the patronage of the state, but in the deep
foundations of individual conviction. To be sure, here and there, there
is a little assumption; but it is dramatic rather than substantial, and
does not amount to much. Here and there breaks out an unjust prejudice
or a spiteful calumny, but it shames the source more than the object,
and soon dies away in the atmosphere of tolerance and investigation. It
looks doubtful sometimes, but I verily believe that the real spirit, as
well as the mere form of Religious equality, is beginning to prevail.
Every day, it is more and more practically acknowledged that
Christianity is profounder than any name, and exists under strange and
despised names; that there really is decent observance in every church,
and holy living in every communion; and a man finds that his neighbor
has the same essence of righteousness as himself, though he has not half
so many links in his creed. And something more than tolerance grows out
of this practical liberty. It is not easy to measure the moral
sincerity, the moral principle, which results from it; which is far more
precious than mere intelligence; which is the perennial spring and
assurance of national welfare.

But I proceed to observe, in the second place, that we may select as a
symbol of the Republic--a sign and an instrument of a great people,
having great power--whatever illustrates the principle of _Political
Equality_. I am speaking, at present, not of our deficiencies, but of
our possessions; not of the instances in which this doctrine of equality
is practically contradicted, but of those in which it is practically
acknowledged. The sovereignty of every man is a fundamental principle in
our institutions; it is essential to the conception of a Republic; and
so far as it _is_ legitimately a Republic, we shall find this principle
in operation. And, looking around for some extant symbol of this, let me
select that which is the object of so much strife and agitation--the
_Presidential Chair_. I do not, by any means, consider this the most
comfortable seat in the nation, or that the most deservi