lieve in the mission of nations for the elevation of mankind to a
better future.

And, my countrymen, it is equally significant that we stand above all
nations in our origin. We started where other nations left off.
Unrivalled for luxury and oriental splendor, the Assyrians sprung from
a band of hunters. Grand in her pyramids, and obelisks, and sphinxes,
Egypt rose from that race despised by mankind. Great in her
jurisprudence, giving law to the world, the Romans came from a band of
freebooters on the seven hills that have been made immortal by martial
genius; and that very nation, whose poets we copy, whose orators we
seek to imitate, whose artistic genius is the pride of the race, came
from barbarians, cannibals; and that proud nation beyond the sea, that
sways her sceptre over land and ocean, sprang from painted
barbarians--for such were the aborigines of proud Albion's Isle when
Caesar invaded those shores.

Our forefathers stood upon the very summit of humanity. Recall our
constitutional convention. Perhaps no such convention had ever
assembled in the halls of a nation. That convention, composed of
fifty-five men, and such men! They were giants in intellect, in moral
character; all occupying a high social position; twenty-nine were
university men, and those that were not collegiates were men of
imperial intellects and of commanding common sense. In such a
gathering were Franklin, the venerable philosopher; Washington, who is
ever to be revered as patriot and philanthropist; and Madison, and
Hamilton, two of the most profound thinkers of that or of any other
age. It is one of those marvels that we should recall of which we have
a right to be proud; but in our pride we should not fail to ascertain
why the Almighty should start us as a nation at the very acme of
humanity--redeemed, educated, and made grand by the influences of a
divine Christianity. Those men were not mere colonists, nor were they
limited in their patriotism. "No pent-up Utica" could confine their
patriotism, for those men grasped the fundamental principle of human
rights. Nay, they declared the ultimate truth of humanity, leaving
nothing to added since, though a century has passed. Great
modifications have come to the governments of Europe. Some changes
have taken place in our national life. Yet I appeal to your
intelligent memory, to your calm judgments, if anything has been added
to our declaration of rights, those declarations founded upon the