hat
we are able to consecrate the old South Meeting-House in Boston to the
cause of fostering this Pilgrim principle [applause], that it may be
from this time forward a monument, not of one branch of the Christian
religion, not of one sect or another, but of that universal religion,
that universal patriotism, which has made America, and which shall
maintain America. [Applause.] For myself, I count it providential that
in this Centennial year of years this venerable monument, that monument
whose bricks and rafters are all eloquent of religion and liberty, that
that monument has passed from the possession of one sect and one State
to belong to the whole nation, to be consecrated to American liberty,
and to nothing but American liberty. [Applause.] I need not say--for it
is taken for granted when such things are spoken of--that when it was
necessary for New England to act at once for the security of this great
monument, we had the active aid and hearty assistance of the people of
New York, who came to us and helped us and carried that thing right
through. [Applause.] I am surrounded here with the people who had to do
with the preservation of that great monument for the benefit of the
history of this country for ever.

Let me say, in one word, what purposes it is proposed this great
monument shall serve, for I think they are entirely in line with what we
are to consider to-night. We propose to establish here what I might
fairly call a university for the study of the true history of this
country. And we propose, in the first place, to make that monument of
the past a great Santa Croce, containing the statues and portraits of
the men who have made this country what it is. Then we propose to
establish an institute for the people of America from Maine to San
Francisco, the people of every nationality and every name; and we hope
that such societies as this, and all others interested in the progress
and preservation of the interest of our country, will aid us in the
work. [Applause.] For we believe that the great necessity of this hour
is that higher education in which this people shall know God's work with
man. We hope that the Forefathers' societies, the Sam Adams clubs, the
Centennial clubs over the land, shall make the State more proud of its
fathers, and more sure of the lessons which they lived. We mean by the
spoken voice and by the most popular printed word, circulated
everywhere, to instil into this land that old lesson