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@@ -0,0 +1,1262 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Orations, by John Quincy Adams + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Orations + +Author: John Quincy Adams + +Posting Date: August 2, 2008 [EBook #896] +Release Date: April, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORATIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Anthony J. Adam + + + + + +"ORATIONS" + +By John Quincy Adams + + +"The Jubilee of the Constitution, delivered at New York, April 30, 1839, +before the New York Historical Society." + + + +Fellow-Citizens and Brethren, Associates of the New York Historical +Society: + +Would it be an unlicensed trespass of the imagination to conceive that +on the night preceding the day of which you now commemorate the fiftieth +anniversary--on the night preceding that thirtieth of April, 1789, when +from the balcony of your city hall the chancellor of the State of New +York administered to George Washington the solemn oath faithfully to +execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best +of his ability to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the +United States--that in the visions of the night the guardian angel of +the Father of our Country had appeared before him, in the venerated form +of his mother, and, to cheer and encourage him in the performance of the +momentous and solemn duties that he was about to assume, had delivered +to him a suit of celestial armor--a helmet, consisting of the principles +of piety, of justice, of honor, of benevolence, with which from his +earliest infancy he had hitherto walked through life, in the presence of +all his brethren; a spear, studded with the self-evident truths of the +Declaration of Independence; a sword, the same with which he had led the +armies of his country through the war of freedom to the summit of +the triumphal arch of independence; a corselet and cuishes of long +experience and habitual intercourse in peace and war with the world of +mankind, his contemporaries of the human race, in all their stages of +civilization; and, last of all, the Constitution of the United States, +a shield, embossed by heavenly hands with the future history of his +country? + +Yes, gentlemen, on that shield the Constitution of the United States was +sculptured (by forms unseen, and in characters then invisible to mortal +eye), the predestined and prophetic history of the one confederated +people of the North American Union. + +They had been the settlers of thirteen separate and distinct English +colonies, along the margin of the shore of the North American Continent; +contiguously situated, but chartered by adventurers of characters +variously diversified, including sectarians, religious and political, of +all the classes which for the two preceding centuries had agitated +and divided the people of the British islands--and with them were +intermingled the descendants of Hollanders, Swedes, Germans, and French +fugitives from the persecution of the revoker of the Edict of Nantes. + +In the bosoms of this people, thus heterogeneously composed, there was +burning, kindled at different furnaces, but all furnaces of affliction, +one clear, steady flame of liberty. Bold and daring enterprise, stubborn +endurance of privation, unflinching intrepidity in facing danger, +and inflexible adherence to conscientious principle, had steeled to +energetic and unyielding hardihood the characters of the primitive +settlers of all these colonies. Since that time two or three generations +of men had passed away, but they had increased and multiplied with +unexampled rapidity; and the land itself had been the recent theatre of +a ferocious and bloody seven years' war between the two most powerful +and most civilized nations of Europe contending for the possession of +this continent. + +Of that strife the victorious combatant had been Britain. She had +conquered the provinces of France. She had expelled her rival totally +from the continent, over which, bounding herself by the Mississippi, she +was thenceforth to hold divided empire only with Spain. She had acquired +undisputed control over the Indian tribes still tenanting the forests +unexplored by the European man. She had established an uncontested +monopoly of the commerce of all her colonies. But forgetting all the +warnings of preceding ages--forgetting the lessons written in the blood +of her own children, through centuries of departed time--she undertook +to tax the people of the colonies without their consent. + +Resistance, instantaneous, unconcerted, sympathetic, inflexible +resistance, like an electric shock, startled and roused the people of +all the English colonies on this continent. + +This was the first signal of the North American Union. The struggle was +for chartered rights--for English liberties--for the cause of Algernon +Sidney and John Hampden--for trial by jury--the Habeas Corpus and Magna +Charta. + +But the English lawyers had decided that Parliament was omnipotent--and +Parliament, in its omnipotence, instead of trial by jury and the +Habeas Corpus, enacted admiralty courts in England to try Americans for +offences charged against them as committed in America; instead of +the privileges of Magna Charta, nullified the charter itself of +Massachusetts Bay; shut up the port of Boston; sent armies and navies to +keep the peace and teach the colonies that John Hampden was a rebel and +Algernon Sidney a traitor. + +English liberties had failed them. From the omnipotence of Parliament +the colonists appealed to the rights of man and the omnipotence of the +God of battles. Union! Union! was the instinctive and simultaneous +cry throughout the land. Their Congress, assembled at Philadelphia, +once--twice--had petitioned the king; had remonstrated to Parliament; +had addressed the people of Britain, for the rights of Englishmen--in +vain. Fleets and armies, the blood of Lexington, and the fires of +Charlestown and Falmouth, had been the answer to petition, remonstrance, +and address.... + +The dissolution of allegiance to the British crown, the severance of +the colonies from the British Empire, and their actual existence as +independent States, were definitively established in fact, by war and +peace. The independence of each separate State had never been declared +of right. It never existed in fact. Upon the principles of the +Declaration of Independence, the dissolution of the ties of allegiance, +the assumption of sovereign power, and the institution of civil +government, are all acts of transcendent authority, which the people +alone are competent to perform; and, accordingly, it is in the name and +by the authority of the people, that two of these acts--the dissolution +of allegiance, with the severance from the British Empire, and the +declaration of the United Colonies, as free and independent States--were +performed by that instrument. + +But there still remained the last and crowning act, which the people +of the Union alone were competent to perform--the institution of civil +government, for that compound nation, the United States of America. + +At this day it cannot but strike us as extraordinary, that it does not +appear to have occurred to any one member of that assembly, which had +laid down in terms so clear, so explicit, so unequivocal, the foundation +of all just government, in the imprescriptible rights of man, and the +transcendent sovereignty of the people, and who in those principles had +set forth their only personal vindication from the charges of rebellion +against their king, and of treason to their country, that their last +crowning act was still to be performed upon the same principles. That +is, the institution, by the people of the United States, of a civil +government, to guard and protect and defend them all. On the contrary, +that same assembly which issued the Declaration of Independence, instead +of continuing to act in the name and by the authority of the good people +of the United States, had, immediately after the appointment of the +committee to prepare the Declaration, appointed another committee, +of one member from each colony, to prepare and digest the form of +confederation to be entered into between the colonies. + +That committee reported on the twelfth of July, eight days after the +Declaration of Independence had been issued, a draft of articles of +confederation between the colonies. This draft was prepared by John +Dickinson, then a delegate from Pennsylvania, who voted against the +Declaration of Independence, and never signed it, having been superseded +by a new election of delegates from that State, eight days after his +draft was reported. + +There was thus no congeniality of principle between the Declaration of +Independence and the Articles of Confederation. The foundation of the +former was a superintending Providence--the rights of man, and the +constituent revolutionary power of the people. That of the latter was +the sovereignty of organized power, and the independence of the separate +or dis-united States. The fabric of the Declaration and that of the +Confederation were each consistent with its own foundation, but they +could not form one consistent, symmetrical edifice. They were the +productions of different minds and of adverse passions; one, ascending +for the foundation of human government to the laws of nature and of +God, written upon the heart of man; the other, resting upon the basis +of human institutions, and prescriptive law, and colonial charter. The +cornerstone of the one was right, that of the other was power.... + +Where, then, did each State get the sovereignty, freedom, and +independence, which the Articles of Confederation declare it +retains?--not from the whole people of the whole Union--not from the +Declaration of Independence--not from the people of the State itself. It +was assumed by agreement between the Legislatures of the several States, +and their delegates in Congress, without authority from or consultation +of the people at all. + +In the Declaration of Independence, the enacting and constituent party +dispensing and delegating sovereign power is the whole people of the +United Colonies. The recipient party, invested with power, is the United +Colonies, declared United States. + +In the Articles of Confederation, this order of agency is inverted. Each +State is the constituent and enacting party, and the United States in +Congress assembled the recipient of delegated power--and that power +delegated with such a penurious and carking hand that it had more +the aspect of a revocation of the Declaration of Independence than an +instrument to carry it into effect. + +None of these indispensably necessary powers were ever conferred by the +State Legislatures upon the Congress of the federation; and well was +it that they never were. The system itself was radically defective. Its +incurable disease was an apostasy from the principles of the Declaration +of Independence. A substitution of separate State sovereignties, in the +place of the constituent sovereignty of the people, was the basis of the +Confederate Union. + +In the Congress of the Confederation, the master minds of James Madison +and Alexander Hamilton were constantly engaged through the closing years +of the Revolutionary War and those of peace which immediately succeeded. +That of John Jay was associated with them shortly after the peace, +in the capacity of Secretary to the Congress for Foreign Affairs. The +incompetency of the Articles of Confederation for the management of the +affairs of the Union at home and abroad was demonstrated to them by the +painful and mortifying experience of every day. Washington, though +in retirement, was brooding over the cruel injustice suffered by his +associates in arms, the warriors of the Revolution; over the prostration +of the public credit and the faith of the nation, in the neglect to +provide for the payments even of the interest upon the public debt; over +the disappointed hopes of the friends of freedom; in the language of +the address from Congress to the States of the eighteenth of April, +1788--"the pride and boast of America, that the rights for which she +contended were the rights of human nature." + +At his residence at Mount Vernon, in March, 1785, the first idea +was started of a revisal of the Articles of Confederation, by the +organization, of means differing from that of a compact between the +State Legislatures and their own delegates in Congress. A convention +of delegates from the State Legislatures, independent of the Congress +itself, was the expedient which presented itself for effecting +the purpose, and an augmentation of the powers of Congress for the +regulation of commerce, as the object for which this assembly was to +be convened. In January, 1785, the proposal was made and adopted in +the Legislature of Virginia, and communicated to the other State +Legislatures. + +The Convention was held at Annapolis, in September of that year. It +was attended by delegates from only five of the central States, who, +on comparing their restricted powers with the glaring and universally +acknowledged defects of the Confederation, reported only a +recommendation for the assemblage of another convention of delegates +to meet at Philadelphia, in May, 1787, from all the States, and with +enlarged powers. + +The Constitution of the United States was the work of this Convention. +But in its construction the Convention immediately perceived that they +must retrace their steps, and fall back from a league of friendship +between sovereign States to the constituent sovereignty of the +people; from power to right--from the irresponsible despotism of +State sovereignty to the self-evident truths of the Declaration of +Independence. In that instrument, the right to institute and to alter +governments among men was ascribed exclusively to the people--the ends +of government were declared to be to secure the natural rights of man; +and that when the government degenerates from the promotion to the +destruction of that end, the right and the duty accrues to the people +to dissolve this degenerate government and to institute another. The +signers of the Declaration further averred, that the one people of the +United Colonies were then precisely in that situation--with a government +degenerated into tyranny, and called upon by the laws of nature and of +nature's God to dissolve that government and to institute another. Then, +in the name and by the authority of the good people of the colonies, +they pronounced the dissolution of their allegiance to the king, and +their eternal separation from the nation of Great Britain--and declared +the United Colonies independent States. And here as the representatives +of the one people they had stopped. They did not require the +confirmation of this act, for the power to make the declaration had +already been conferred upon them by the people, delegating the power, +indeed, separately in the separate colonies, not by colonial authority, +but by the spontaneous revolutionary movement of the people in them all. + +From the day of that Declaration, the constituent power of the people +had never been called into action. A confederacy had been substituted +in the place of a government, and State sovereignty had usurped the +constituent sovereignty of the people. + +The Convention assembled at Philadelphia had themselves no direct +authority from the people. Their authority was all derived from the +State Legislatures. But they had the Articles of Confederation before +them, and they saw and felt the wretched condition into which they had +brought the whole people, and that the Union itself was in the agonies +of death. They soon perceived that the indispensably needed powers +were such as no State government, no combination of them, was by the +principles of the Declaration of Independence competent to bestow. They +could emanate only from the people. A highly respectable portion of the +assembly, still clinging to the confederacy of States, proposed, as +a substitute for the Constitution, a mere revival of the Articles of +Confederation, with a grant of additional powers to the Congress. +Their plan was respectfully and thoroughly discussed, but the want of a +government and of the sanction of the people to the delegation of powers +happily prevailed. A constitution for the people, and the distribution +of legislative, executive, and judicial powers was prepared. It +announced itself as the work of the people themselves; and as this was +unquestionably a power assumed by the Convention, not delegated to +them by the people, they religiously confined it to a simple power +to propose, and carefully provided that it should be no more than a +proposal until sanctioned by the Confederation Congress, by the State +Legislatures, and by the people of the several States, in conventions +specially assembled, by authority of their Legislatures, for the single +purpose of examining and passing upon it. + +And thus was consummated the work commenced by the Declaration of +Independence--a work in which the people of the North American Union, +acting under the deepest sense of responsibility to the Supreme Ruler +of the universe, had achieved the most transcendent act of power that +social man in his mortal condition can perform--even that of dissolving +the ties of allegiance by which he is bound to his country; of +renouncing that country itself; of demolishing its government; of +instituting another government; and of making for himself another +country in its stead. + +And on that day, of which you now commemorate the fiftieth +anniversary--on that thirtieth day of April, 1789--was this mighty +revolution, not only in the affairs of our own country, but in the +principles of government over civilized man, accomplished. + +The Revolution itself was a work of thirteen years--and had never +been completed until that day. The Declaration of Independence and the +Constitution of the United States are parts of one consistent whole, +founded upon one and the same theory of government, then new in +practice, though not as a theory, for it had been working itself into +the mind of man for many ages, and had been especially expounded in the +writings of Locke, though it had never before been adopted by a great +nation in practice. + +There are yet, even at this day, many speculative objections to this +theory. Even in our own country there are still philosophers who deny +the principles asserted in the Declaration, as self-evident truths--who +deny the natural equality and inalienable rights of man--who deny that +the people are the only legitimate source of power--who deny that all +just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed. +Neither your time, nor perhaps the cheerful nature of this occasion, +permit me here to enter upon the examination of this anti-revolutionary +theory, which arrays State sovereignty against the constituent +sovereignty of the people, and distorts the Constitution of the United +States into a league of friendship between confederate corporations. I +speak to matters of fact. There is the Declaration of Independence, +and there is the Constitution of the United States--let them speak for +themselves. The grossly immoral and dishonest doctrine of despotic State +sovereignty, the exclusive judge of its own obligations, and responsible +to no power on earth or in heaven, for the violation of them, is not +there. The Declaration says, it is not in me. The Constitution says, it +is not in me. + + + +"Oration at Plymouth, December 22, 1802, in Commemoration of the Landing +of the Pilgrims." + + +Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human +heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those of +veneration for our forefathers, and of love for our posterity. They form +the connecting links between the selfish and the social passions. By the +fundamental principle of Christianity, the happiness of the individual +is interwoven, by innumerable and imperceptible ties, with that of his +contemporaries. By the power of filial reverence and parental affection, +individual existence is extended beyond the limits of individual life, +and the happiness of every age is chained in mutual dependence upon that +of every other. Respect for his ancestors excites, in the breast of man, +interest in their history, attachment to their characters, concern for +their errors, involuntary pride in their virtues. Love for his posterity +spurs him to exertion for their support, stimulates him to virtue for +their example, and fills him with the tenderest solicitude for their +welfare. Man, therefore, was not made for himself alone. No, he was made +for his country, by the obligations of the social compact; he was made +for his species, by the Christian duties of universal charity; he +was made for all ages past, by the sentiment of reverence for his +forefathers; and he was made for all future times, by the impulse of +affection for his progeny. Under the influence of these principles, + + "Existence sees him spurn her bounded reign." + +They redeem his nature from the subjection of time and space; he is +no longer a "puny insect shivering at a breeze"; he is the glory of +creation, formed to occupy all time and all extent; bounded, during his +residence upon earth, only to the boundaries of the world, and destined +to life and immortality in brighter regions, when the fabric of nature +itself shall dissolve and perish. + +The voice of history has not, in all its compass, a note but answers in +unison with these sentiments. The barbarian chieftain, who defended his +country against the Roman invasion, driven to the remotest extremity of +Britain, and stimulating his followers to battle by all that has power +of persuasion upon the human heart, concluded his persuasion by an +appeal to these irresistible feelings: "Think of your forefathers and of +your posterity." The Romans themselves, at the pinnacle of civilization, +were actuated by the same impressions, and celebrated, in anniversary +festivals, every great event which had signalized the annals of their +forefathers. To multiply instances where it were impossible to adduce +an exception would be to waste your time and abuse your patience; but +in the sacred volume, which contains the substances of our firmest faith +and of our most precious hopes, these passions not only maintain their +highest efficacy, but are sanctioned by the express injunctions of the +Divine Legislator to his chosen people. + +The revolutions of time furnish no previous example of a nation shooting +up to maturity and expanding into greatness with the rapidity which has +characterized the growth of the American people. In the luxuriance of +youth, and in the vigor of manhood, it is pleasing and instructive to +look backward upon the helpless days of infancy; but in the continual +and essential changes of a growing subject, the transactions of that +early period would be soon obliterated from the memory but for some +periodical call of attention to aid the silent records of the historian. +Such celebrations arouse and gratify the kindliest emotions of the +bosom. They are faithful pledges of the respect we bear to the memory +of our ancestors and of the tenderness with which we cherish the rising +generation. They introduce the sages and heroes of ages past to the +notice and emulation of succeeding times; they are at once testimonials +of our gratitude, and schools of virtue to our children. + +These sentiments are wise; they are honorable; they are virtuous; their +cultivation is not merely innocent pleasure, it is incumbent duty. +Obedient to their dictates, you, my fellow-citizens, have instituted +and paid frequent observance to this annual solemnity, and what event of +weightier intrinsic importance, or of more extensive consequences, was +ever selected for this honorary distinction? + +In reverting to the period of our origin, other nations have generally +been compelled to plunge into the chaos of impenetrable antiquity, or to +trace a lawless ancestry into the caverns of ravishers and robbers. +It is your peculiar privilege to commemorate, in this birthday of your +nation, an event ascertained in its minutest details; an event of which +the principal actors are known to you familiarly, as if belonging to +your own age; an event of a magnitude before which imagination shrinks +at the imperfection of her powers. It is your further happiness to +behold, in those eminent characters, who were most conspicuous in +accomplishing the settlement of your country, men upon whose virtue +you can dwell with honest exultation. The founders of your race are +not handed down to you, like the fathers of the Roman people, as the +sucklings of a wolf. You are not descended from a nauseous compound of +fanaticism and sensuality, whose only argument was the sword, and whose +only paradise was a brothel. No Gothic scourge of God, no Vandal pest of +nations, no fabled fugitive from the flames of Troy, no bastard Norman +tyrant, appears among the list of worthies who first landed on the +rock, which your veneration has preserved as a lasting monument of +their achievement. The great actors of the day we now solemnize were +illustrious by their intrepid valor no less than by their Christian +graces, but the clarion of conquest has not blazoned forth their names +to all the winds of heaven. Their glory has not been wafted over oceans +of blood to the remotest regions of the earth. They have not erected to +themselves colossal statues upon pedestals of human bones, to provoke +and insult the tardy hand of heavenly retribution. But theirs was "the +better fortitude of patience and heroic martyrdom." Theirs was the +gentle temper of Christian kindness; the rigorous observance of +reciprocal justice; the unconquerable soul of conscious integrity. +Worldly fame has been parsimonious of her favor to the memory of those +generous companions. Their numbers were small; their stations in life +obscure; the object of their enterprise unostentatious; the theatre of +their exploits remote; how could they possibly be favorites of worldly +Fame--that common crier, whose existence is only known by the assemblage +of multitudes; that pander of wealth and greatness, so eager to haunt +the palaces of fortune, and so fastidious to the houseless dignity of +virtue; that parasite of pride, ever scornful to meekness, and ever +obsequious to insolent power; that heedless trumpeter, whose ears are +deaf to modest merit, and whose eyes are blind to bloodless, distant +excellence? + +When the persecuted companions of Robinson, exiles from their native +land, anxiously sued for the privilege of removing a thousand leagues +more distant to an untried soil, a rigorous climate, and a savage +wilderness, for the sake of reconciling their sense of religious duty +with their affections for their country, few, perhaps none of them, +formed a conception of what would be, within two centuries, the result +of their undertaking. When the jealous and niggardly policy of their +British sovereign denied them even that humblest of requests, and +instead of liberty would barely consent to promise connivance, neither +he nor they might be aware that they were laying the foundations of a +power, and that he was sowing the seeds of a spirit, which, in less +than two hundred years, would stagger the throne of his descendants, and +shake his united kingdoms to the centre. So far is it from the ordinary +habits of mankind to calculate the importance of events in their +elementary principles, that had the first colonists of our country ever +intimated as a part of their designs the project of founding a great and +mighty nation, the finger of scorn would have pointed them to the cells +of Bedlam as an abode more suitable for hatching vain empires than the +solitude of a transatlantic desert. + +These consequences, then so little foreseen, have unfolded themselves, +in all their grandeur, to the eyes of the present age. It is a common +amusement of speculative minds to contrast the magnitude of the most +important events with the minuteness of their primeval causes, and the +records of mankind are full of examples for such contemplations. It +is, however, a more profitable employment to trace the constituent +principles of future greatness in their kernel; to detect in the acorn +at our feet the germ of that majestic oak, whose roots shoot down to +the centre, and whose branches aspire to the skies. Let it be, then, our +present occupation to inquire and endeavor to ascertain the causes +first put in operation at the period of our commemoration, and already +productive of such magnificent effects; to examine with reiterated care +and minute attention the characters of those men who gave the first +impulse to a new series of events in the history of the world; to +applaud and emulate those qualities of their minds which we shall find +deserving of our admiration; to recognize with candor those features +which forbid approbation or even require censure, and, finally, to lay +alike their frailties and their perfections to our own hearts, either as +warning or as example. + + + Of the various European settlements upon this continent, +which have finally merged in one independent nation, the first +establishments were made at various times, by several nations, and under +the influence of different motives. In many instances, the conviction +of religious obligation formed one and a powerful inducement of the +adventures; but in none, excepting the settlement at Plymouth, did they +constitute the sole and exclusive actuating cause. Worldly interest and +commercial speculation entered largely into the views of other settlers, +but the commands of conscience were the only stimulus to the emigrants +from Leyden. Previous to their expedition hither, they had endured +a long banishment from their native country. Under every species of +discouragement, they undertook the voyage; they performed it in spite +of numerous and almost insuperable obstacles; they arrived upon a +wilderness bound with frost and hoary with snow, without the boundaries +of their charter, outcasts from all human society, and coasted five +weeks together, in the dead of winter, on this tempestuous shore, +exposed at once to the fury of the elements, to the arrows of the native +savage, and to the impending horrors of famine. + +Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which +difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. These qualities +have ever been displayed in their mightiest perfection, as attendants in +the retinue of strong passions. From the first discovery of the +Western Hemisphere by Columbus until the settlement of Virginia which +immediately preceded that of Plymouth, the various adventurers from the +ancient world had exhibited upon innumerable occasions that ardor of +enterprise and that stubbornness of pursuit which set all danger at +defiance, and chained the violence of nature at their feet. But they +were all instigated by personal interests. Avarice and ambition had +tuned their souls to that pitch of exaltation. Selfish passions were the +parents of their heroism. It was reserved for the first settlers of +new England to perform achievements equally arduous, to trample down +obstructions equally formidable, to dispel dangers equally terrific, +under the single inspiration of conscience. To them even liberty +herself was but a subordinate and secondary consideration. They claimed +exemption from the mandates of human authority, as militating with their +subjection to a superior power. Before the voice of Heaven they silenced +even the calls of their country. + +Yet, while so deeply impressed with the sense of religious obligation, +they felt, in all its energy, the force of that tender tie which binds +the heart of every virtuous man to his native land. It was to renew that +connection with their country which had been severed by their compulsory +expatriation, that they resolved to face all the hazards of a perilous +navigation and all the labors of a toilsome distant settlement. Under +the mild protection of the Batavian Government, they enjoyed already +that freedom of religious worship, for which they had resigned so +many comforts and enjoyments at home; but their hearts panted for a +restoration to the bosom of their country. Invited and urged by the +open-hearted and truly benevolent people who had given them an asylum +from the persecution of their own kindred to form their settlement +within the territories then under their jurisdiction, the love of their +country predominated over every influence save that of conscience alone, +and they preferred the precarious chance of relaxation from the bigoted +rigor of the English Government to the certain liberality and alluring +offers of the Hollanders. Observe, my countrymen, the generous +patriotism, the cordial union of soul, the conscious yet unaffected +vigor which beam in their application to the British monarch: + +"They were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother country, +and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. They were knit +together in a strict and sacred bond, to take care of the good of each +other and of the whole. It was not with them as with other men, whom +small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish +themselves again at home." + +Children of these exalted Pilgrims! Is there one among you who can hear +the simple and pathetic energy of these expressions without tenderness +and admiration? Venerated shades of our forefathers! No, ye were, +indeed, not ordinary men! That country which had ejected you so cruelly +from her bosom you still delighted to contemplate in the character of an +affectionate and beloved mother. The sacred bond which knit you together +was indissoluble while you lived; and oh, may it be to your descendants +the example and the pledge of harmony to the latest period of time! +The difficulties and dangers, which so often had defeated attempts of +similar establishments, were unable to subdue souls tempered like yours. +You heard the rigid interdictions; you saw the menacing forms of toil +and danger, forbidding your access to this land of promise; but you +heard without dismay; you saw and disdained retreat. Firm and undaunted +in the confidence of that sacred bond; conscious of the purity, and +convinced of the importance of your motives, you put your trust in the +protecting shield of Providence, and smiled defiance at the combining +terrors of human malice and of elemental strife. These, in the +accomplishment of your undertaking, you were summoned to encounter +in their most hideous forms; these you met with that fortitude, and +combated with that perseverance, which you had promised in their +anticipation; these you completely vanquished in establishing the +foundations of New England, and the day which we now commemorate is the +perpetual memorial of your triumph. + + It were an occupation peculiarly pleasing to cull from our +early historians, and exhibit before you every detail of this +transaction; to carry you in imagination on board their bark at the +first moment of her arrival in the bay; to accompany Carver, Winslow, +Bradford, and Standish, in all their excursions upon the desolate coast; +to follow them into every rivulet and creek where they endeavored to +find a firm footing, and to fix, with a pause of delight and exultation, +the instant when the first of these heroic adventurers alighted on the +spot where you, their descendants, now enjoy the glorious and happy +reward of their labors. But in this grateful task, your former orators, +on this anniversary, have anticipated all that the most ardent industry +could collect, and gratified all that the most inquisitive curiosity +could desire. To you, my friends, every occurrence of that momentous +period is already familiar. A transient allusion to a few characteristic +instances, which mark the peculiar history of the Plymouth settlers, may +properly supply the place of a narrative, which, to this auditory, must +be superfluous. + +One of these remarkable incidents is the execution of that instrument of +government by which they formed themselves into a body politic, the day +after their arrival upon the coast, and previous to their first landing. +That is, perhaps, the only instance in human history of that positive, +original social compact, which speculative philosophers have imagined +as the only legitimate source of government. Here was a unanimous +and personal assent, by all the individuals of the community, to +the association by which they became a nation. It was the result of +circumstances and discussions which had occurred during their passage +from Europe, and is a full demonstration that the nature of civil +government, abstracted from the political institutions of their native +country, had been an object of their serious meditation. The settlers +of all the former European colonies had contented themselves with the +powers conferred upon them by their respective charters, without looking +beyond the seal of the royal parchment for the measure of their rights +and the rule of their duties. The founders of Plymouth had been impelled +by the peculiarities of their situation to examine the subject with +deeper and more comprehensive research. After twelve years of banishment +from the land of their first allegiance, during which they had been +under an adoptive and temporary subjection to another sovereign, they +must naturally have been led to reflect upon the relative rights and +duties of allegiance and subjection. They had resided in a city, the +seat of a university, where the polemical and political controversies +of the time were pursued with uncommon fervor. In this period they had +witnessed the deadly struggle between the two parties, into which the +people of the United Provinces, after their separation from the crown of +Spain, had divided themselves. The contest embraced within its compass +not only theological doctrines, but political principles, and Maurice +and Barnevelt were the temporal leaders of the same rival factions, of +which Episcopius and Polyander were the ecclesiastical champions. + +That the investigation of the fundamental principles of government was +deeply implicated in these dissensions is evident from the immortal +work of Grotius, upon the rights of war and peace, which undoubtedly +originated from them. Grotius himself had been a most distinguished +actor and sufferer in those important scenes of internal convulsion, +and his work was first published very shortly after the departure of +our forefathers from Leyden. It is well known that in the course of the +contest Mr. Robinson more than once appeared, with credit to himself, as +a public disputant against Episcopius; and from the manner in which +the fact is related by Governor Bradford, it is apparent that the whole +English Church at Leyden took a zealous interest in the religious part +of the controversy. As strangers in the land, it is presumable that +they wisely and honorably avoided entangling themselves in the political +contentions involved with it. Yet the theoretic principles, as they were +drawn into discussion, could not fail to arrest their attention, and +must have assisted them to form accurate ideas concerning the origin and +extent of authority among men, independent of positive institutions. +The importance of these circumstances will not be duly weighed without +taking into consideration the state of opinion then prevalent in +England. The general principles of government were there little +understood and less examined. The whole substance of human authority was +centred in the simple doctrine of royal prerogative, the origin of which +was always traced in theory to divine institution. Twenty years later, +the subject was more industriously sifted, and for half a century became +one of the principal topics of controversy between the ablest and most +enlightened men in the nation. The instrument of voluntary association +executed on board the "Mayflower" testifies that the parties to it had +anticipated the improvement of their nation. + +Another incident, from which we may derive occasion for important +reflections, was the attempt of these original settlers to establish +among them that community of goods and of labor, which fanciful +politicians, from the days of Plato to those of Rousseau, have +recommended as the fundamental law of a perfect republic. This theory +results, it must be acknowledged, from principles of reasoning +most flattering to the human character. If industry, frugality, and +disinterested integrity were alike the virtues of all, there would, +apparently, be more of the social spirit, in making all property a +common stock, and giving to each individual a proportional title to the +wealth of the whole. Such is the basis upon which Plato forbids, in +his Republic, the division of property. Such is the system upon which +Rousseau pronounces the first man who inclosed a field with a fence, and +said, "This is mine," a traitor to the human species. A wiser and more +useful philosophy, however, directs us to consider man according to the +nature in which he was formed; subject to infirmities, which no wisdom +can remedy; to weaknesses, which no institution can strengthen; to +vices, which no legislation can correct. Hence, it becomes obvious that +separate property is the natural and indisputable right of separate +exertion; that community of goods without community of toil is +oppressive and unjust; that it counteracts the laws of nature, which +prescribe that he only who sows the seed shall reap the harvest; that +it discourages all energy, by destroying its rewards; and makes the most +virtuous and active members of society the slaves and drudges of the +worst. Such was the issue of this experiment among our forefathers, +and the same event demonstrated the error of the system in the elder +settlement of Virginia. Let us cherish that spirit of harmony which +prompted our forefathers to make the attempt, under circumstances more +favorable to its success than, perhaps, ever occurred upon earth. Let +us no less admire the candor with which they relinquished it, upon +discovering its irremediable inefficacy. To found principles of +government upon too advantageous an estimate of the human character is +an error of inexperience, the source of which is so amiable that it is +impossible to censure it with severity. We have seen the same mistake +committed in our own age, and upon a larger theatre. Happily for our +ancestors, their situation allowed them to repair it before its effects +had proved destructive. They had no pride of vain philosophy to support, +no perfidious rage of faction to glut, by persevering in their mistakes +until they should be extinguished in torrents of blood. + +As the attempt to establish among themselves the community of goods was +a seal of that sacred bond which knit them so closely together, so the +conduct they observed toward the natives of the country displays +their steadfast adherence to the rules of justice and their faithful +attachment to those of benevolence and charity. + +No European settlement ever formed upon this continent has been more +distinguished for undeviating kindness and equity toward the savages. +There are, indeed, moralists who have questioned the right of the +Europeans to intrude upon the possessions of the aboriginals in any +case, and under any limitations whatsoever. But have they maturely +considered the whole subject? The Indian right of possession itself +stands, with regard to the greater part of the country, upon a +questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields; their constructed +habitations; a space of ample sufficiency for their subsistence, +and whatever they had annexed to themselves by personal labor, was +undoubtedly, by the laws of nature, theirs. But what is the right of +a huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles over which he has +accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the liberal bounties of +Providence to the race of man be monopolized by one of ten thousand for +whom they were created? Shall the exuberant bosom of the common mother, +amply adequate to the nourishment of millions, be claimed exclusively +by a few hundreds of her offspring? Shall the lordly savage not only +disdain the virtues and enjoyments of civilization himself, but shall he +control the civilization of a world? Shall he forbid the wilderness +to blossom like a rose? Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall +before the axe of industry, and to rise again, transformed into the +habitations of ease and elegance? shall he doom an immense region of the +globe to perpetual desolation, and to hear the howlings of the tiger and +the wolf silence forever the voice of human gladness? Shall the fields +and the valleys, which a beneficent God has formed to teem with the life +of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting barrenness? Shall +the mighty rivers, poured out by the hand of nature, as channels of +communication between numerous nations, roll their waters in sullen +silence and eternal solitude of the deep? Have hundreds of commodious +harbors, a thousand leagues of coast, and a boundless ocean, been spread +in the front of this land, and shall every purpose of utility to which +they could apply be prohibited by the tenant of the woods? No, generous +philanthropists! Heaven has not been thus inconsistent in the works of +its hands. Heaven has not thus placed at irreconcilable strife its moral +laws with its physical creation. The Pilgrims of Plymouth obtained their +right of possession to the territory on which they settled, by titles +as fair and unequivocal as any human property can be held. By their +voluntary association they recognized their allegiance to the government +of Britain, and in process of time received whatever powers and +authorities could be conferred upon them by a charter from their +sovereign. The spot on which they fixed had belonged to an Indian tribe, +totally extirpated by that devouring pestilence which had swept the +country shortly before their arrival. The territory, thus free from +all exclusive possession, they might have taken by the natural right +of occupancy. Desirous, however, of giving amply satisfaction to every +pretence of prior right, by formal and solemn conventions with the +chiefs of the neighboring tribes, they acquired the further security of +a purchase. At their hands the children of the desert had no cause +of complaint. On the great day of retribution, what thousands, what +millions of the American race will appear at the bar of judgment to +arraign their European invading conquerors! Let us humbly hope that +the fathers of the Plymouth Colony will then appear in the whiteness of +innocence. Let us indulge in the belief that they will not only be free +from all accusation of injustice to these unfortunate sons of nature, +but that the testimonials of their acts of kindness and benevolence +toward them will plead the cause of their virtues, as they are now +authenticated by the record of history upon earth. + +Religious discord has lost her sting; the cumbrous weapons of +theological warfare are antiquated; the field of politics supplies the +alchemists of our times with materials of more fatal explosion, and the +butchers of mankind no longer travel to another world for instruments +of cruelty and destruction. Our age is too enlightened to contend upon +topics which concern only the interests of eternity; the men who hold in +proper contempt all controversies about trifles, except such as inflame +their own passions, have made it a commonplace censure against your +ancestors, that their zeal was enkindled by subjects of trivial +importance; and that however aggrieved by the intolerance of others, +they were alike intolerant themselves. Against these objections, your +candid judgment will not require an unqualified justification; but your +respect and gratitude for the founders of the State may boldly claim an +ample apology. The original grounds of their separation from the Church +of England were not objects of a magnitude to dissolve the bonds of +communion, much less those of charity, between Christian brethren of +the same essential principles. Some of them, however, were not +inconsiderable, and numerous inducements concurred to give them an +extraordinary interest in their eyes. When that portentous system of +abuses, the Papal dominion, was overturned, a great variety of religious +sects arose in its stead in the several countries, which for many +centuries before had been screwed beneath its subjection. The fabric of +the Reformation, first undertaken in England upon a contracted basis, by +a capricious and sanguinary tyrant, had been successively overthrown +and restored, renewed and altered, according to the varying humors and +principles of four successive monarchs. To ascertain the precise point +of division between the genuine institutions of Christianity and the +corruptions accumulated upon them in the progress of fifteen centuries, +was found a task of extreme difficulty throughout the Christian world. + +Men of the profoundest learning, of the sublimest genius, and of the +purest integrity, after devoting their lives to the research, finally +differed in their ideas upon many great points, both of doctrine and +discipline. The main question, it was admitted on all hands, most +intimately concerned the highest interests of man, both temporal and +eternal. Can we wonder that men who felt their happiness here and their +hopes of hereafter, their worldly welfare and the kingdom of heaven +at stake, should sometimes attach an importance beyond their intrinsic +weight to collateral points of controversy, connected with the +all-involving object of the Reformation? The changes in the forms and +principles of religious worship were introduced and regulated in England +by the hand of public authority. But that hand had not been uniform +or steady in its operations. During the persecutions inflicted in the +interval of Popish restoration under the reign of Mary, upon all who +favored the Reformation, many of the most zealous reformers had been +compelled to fly their country. While residing on the continent of +Europe, they had adopted the principles of the most complete and +rigorous reformation, as taught and established by Calvin. On returning +afterward to their native country, they were dissatisfied with +the partial reformation, at which, as they conceived, the English +establishment had rested; and claiming the privilege of private +conscience, upon which alone any departure from the Church of Rome could +be justified, they insisted upon the right of adhering to the system of +their own preference, and, of course, upon that of non-conformity to the +establishment prescribed by the royal authority. The only means used +to convince them of error and reclaim them from dissent was force, and +force served but to confirm the opposition it was meant to suppress. By +driving the founders of the Plymouth Colony into exile, it constrained +them to absolute separation irreconcilable. Viewing their religious +liberties here, as held only by sufferance, yet bound to them by all +the ties of conviction, and by all their sufferings for them, could they +forbear to look upon every dissenter among themselves with a jealous +eye? Within two years after their landing, they beheld a rival +settlement attempted in their immediate neighborhood; and not long +after, the laws of self-preservation compelled them to break up a nest +of revellers, who boasted of protection from the mother country, and who +had recurred to the easy but pernicious resource of feeding their wanton +idleness, by furnishing the savages with the means, the skill, and the +instruments of European destruction. Toleration, in that instance, would +have been self-murder, and many other examples might be alleged, in +which their necessary measures of self-defence have been exaggerated +into cruelty, and their most indispensable precautions distorted into +persecution. Yet shall we not pretend that they were exempt from the +common laws of mortality, or entirely free from all the errors of +their age. Their zeal might sometimes be too ardent, but it was always +sincere. At this day, religious indulgence is one of our clearest +duties, because it is one of our undisputed rights. While we rejoice +that the principles of genuine Christianity have so far triumphed over +the prejudices of a former generation, let us fervently hope for the day +when it will prove equally victorious over the malignant passions of our +own. + +In thus calling your attention to some of the peculiar features in the +principles, the character, and the history of our forefathers, it is +as wide from my design, as I know it would be from your approbation, to +adorn their memory with a chaplet plucked from the domain of others. +The occasion and the day are more peculiarly devoted to them, and let +it never be dishonored with a contracted and exclusive spirit. Our +affections as citizens embrace the whole extent of the Union, and the +names of Raleigh, Smith, Winthrop, Calvert, Penn and Oglethorpe excite +in our minds recollections equally pleasing and gratitude equally +fervent with those of Carver and Bradford. Two centuries have not +yet elapsed since the first European foot touched the soil which now +constitutes the American Union. Two centuries more and our numbers must +exceed those of Europe itself. The destinies of their empire, as they +appear in prospect before us, disdain the powers of human calculation. +Yet, as the original founder of the Roman State is said once to have +lifted upon his shoulders the fame and fortunes of all his posterity, so +let us never forget that the glory and greatness of all our descendants +is in our hands. Preserve in all their purity, refine, if possible, +from all their alloy, those virtues which we this day commemorate as the +ornament of our forefathers. Adhere to them with inflexible resolution, +as to the horns of the altar; instil them with unwearied perseverance +into the minds of your children; bind your souls and theirs to the +national Union as the chords of life are centred in the heart, and you +shall soar with rapid and steady wing to the summit of human glory. +Nearly a century ago, one of those rare minds to whom it is given to +discern future greatness in its seminal principles, upon contemplating +the situation of this continent, pronounced, in a vein of poetic +inspiration, "Westward the star of empire takes its way." Let us unite +in ardent supplication to the Founder of nations and the Builder +of worlds, that what then was prophecy may continue unfolding +into history--that the dearest hopes of the human race may not be +extinguished in disappointment, and that the last may prove the noblest +empire of time. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orations, by John Quincy Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORATIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 896.txt or 896.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/896/ + +Produced by Anthony J. Adam + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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