. But our gratitude must
not rest in the men of that period. They were but the instruments of a
higher will, the agents of a mightier strength than their own. Those
patriots of the revolution, and their progenitors who planted the seed
of liberty wherever they took up their habitation on this soil, were
the last men to have claimed for themselves the praise, as if in their
own self-derived wisdom or force they had achieved the works which
history will connect with their names. "Not unto us, not unto us,"
would have been their cry, if they could have foreseen the sentiments
of their posterity, "but to thy name, O Lord, be the glory." Nay, such
_was_ their language. The Pilgrims, with all their faults--for
faultless they were not--were men of an ardent piety, whose faith rose
up to heaven with an almost profane confidence and laid hold on the
arm of God as their sustaining and guiding power. The heroes of the
revolutionary struggle--that struggle which began long before blood
was shed on yonder height--looked up to Heaven to approve their cause,
and when He whom they invoked had crowned it with success poured out
their thanksgiving at his altars. And shall we, their sons, forget the
God whom our fathers acknowledged? It is a good thing to celebrate
their deeds and keep their memories hung round with fresh tributes of
love; but let them not receive our final homage. Oh no! Let that pass
beyond them to the Eternal Fountain of good, from whom our liberties
and our institutions have been received through these channels which
his Providence selected. Look abroad, my hearers, upon this great
land, with its spreading population. See what a country is
yours,--washed by two oceans, and stretching from the arctic to the
torrid zone. Note its immense resources; its mountains reaching to the
skies, its vallies nestling in the bosom of sunshine, its rivers on
which a nation's traffic may be borne, and its lakes on which the
navies of the earth might ride. Mark its capacities in their as yet
incipient state of development; its various fertility, its mineral
wealth, its gigantic promise of support for future generations. Survey
the people of this Union, pursuing their several branches of
enterprise and industry, with none to hinder or molest. Ponder the
statistics of your country's growth. See the iron rods of
communication along which the electricity of life will be transmitted
from the Atlantic shores to the distant West. Examine the a