es emblematical of the principles upon which the
Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth--Morality, Education, Law, and
Freedom. Each was wrought from a solid block of granite. On the
face of the buttresses, beneath these figures are alto-reliefs in
marble, representing scenes from Pilgrim history. Upon the four
faces of the main pedestal are large panels for records. The right
and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the
Mayflower. The rear panel is plain, being reserved for an
inscription at some future day. The front panel is inscribed as
follows: "National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a
grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and
sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty."]

Thanks to Almighty God, who from that distressed, early condition of our
fathers, has raised us to a height of prosperity and of happiness, which
they neither enjoyed, nor could have anticipated! We have learned much
of them; they could have foreseen little of us. Would to God, my
friends, would to God, that when we carry our affections and our
recollections back to that period, we could arm ourselves with something
of the stern virtues which supported them, in that hour of peril, and
exposure, and suffering. Would to God that we possessed that
unconquerable resolution, stronger than bars of brass or iron, which
nerved their hearts; that patience, "sovereign o'er transmuted ill,"
and, above all, that faith, that religious faith, which, with eyes fast
fixed upon Heaven, tramples all things earthly beneath her triumphant
feet! [Applause.]

Gentlemen, the scenes of this world change. What our ancestors saw and
felt, we shall not see nor feel. What they achieved, it is denied to us
even to attempt. The severer duties of life, requiring the exercise of
the stern and unbending virtues, were theirs. They were called upon for
the exhibition of those austere qualities, which, before they came to
the Western wilderness, had made them what they were. Things have
changed. In the progress of society, the fashions, the habits of life,
and all its conditions, have changed. Their rigid sentiments, and their
tenets, apparently harsh and exclusive, we are not called on, in every
respect, to imitate or commend; or rather to imitate, for we should
commend them always, when we consider that state of society in which
they had been adopted, and in which