USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > The truth about the Pilgrims > Part 14
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"We have come to this Rock, to record here our homage for our Pilgrim Fathers; our sympathy in their sufferings; our gratitude for their labors; our admiration of their virtues; our veneration for their piety; and our attachment to those principles of civil and religious liberty, for which they encountered the dangers of the ocean, the storms of heaven, the violence of savages, disease, exile and famine, to enjoy and to establish.
"The first scene of our history was laid on this spot. Here Christianity and civilization and letters made their first lodgement, in a vast extent of country, covered with a wilderness, and peopled by roving barbarians. Thanks be to God that this spot was honored as the asylum of religious liberty. May its standard, reared here, remain forever. May it rise up as high as heaven, till its banner shall fan the air of both continents, and wave as a glorious ensign of peace and security to the nations.
"At the moment of their landing they possessed institu- tions of government and of religion; they were a group of friends and families, knit together by social bonds, estab- lished by consent; founded on choice and preference. How nearly do these fill up our whole idea of country. Here they were, on the shore of a rude and fearful winderness, unprotected and unprovided for; yet politic, intelligent, and educated.
"They established, in the forest, institutions containing,
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in substance, all that the ages had evolved. Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature; and, more than all, a government and a country were to commence, with the very first foundations laid under the divine light of the Christian religion. Our first breath, the inspirations of liberty. This was our origin. Happy auspices of a happy future.
"We cannot well over-rate the responsibility and duty which these blessings impose upon us. These institutions are to be transmitted, as well as enjoyed. We are in the line of conveyance, through which whatever has been obtained by the spirit and efforts of our ancestors, is to be communicated to our children.
"We are bound to maintain public liberty, and by the example of our own systems, to convince the world, that order and law, religion and morality, the rights of con- science, the rights of persons, and the rights of property, may all be preserved and secured, in the most perfect manner, by a government entirely and purely elective.
"Advance, then, ye future generations. We would hail you, as you rise, in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration. We bid you welcome to the pleasant land of the Fathers. We greet your accession to the great inher- itance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting Truth."
THE VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER From the Oration Delivered at Plymouth December 22, 1824, by Edward Everett
"I see it now; that one, solitary, adventurous vessel, the Mayflower, of a forlorn hope; freighted with the prospects of a future State, and bound across the unknown sea. I
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behold it pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncer- tain, the tedious voyage. Suns rise and set; the weeks and months pass, and Winter surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the wished-for shore.
"I see them; crowded, almost to suffocation, in their ill-stored prison; delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route; and now driven by the fury of the raging tempest, on the high and giddy waves. The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging. The laboring masts seem strain- ing from their base. The dismal sound of the pumps is heard. The ship leaps, madly from billow to billow. The ocean breaks, and settles, with engulfing floods, over the floating deck, and beats with shivering, shattering force, against the staggering vessel.
"I see them, escaped from these perils, still pursuing their all but desperate undertaking; landed at last, after three months passage, on the ice-clad Rock of Plymouth; weak and weary from the voyage; poorly armed; scantily provisioned; without shelter; without means; in the grip of pestilence; surrounded by hostile tribes.
"Shut now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human probability; what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers? Tell me, man of military science, how soon were they all swept off by the thirty savage tribes, enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on that distant coast? Student of his- tory, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures of other times, AND FIND THE PARALLEL OF THIS!
"Was it the Winter's storms, beating on the houseless heads of women and children; was it hard labor and spare meals; was it disease; was it the tomahawk; was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprise, and a broken heart, aching in its last moments, at the recollection
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of the loved and left, beyond the sea; was it some, or all of these. united, that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate?
"And is it possible that not one of these causes; that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope? Is it possible, that from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, not so much of admiration as of pity; there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, a reality so important, a promise, Yet To Be Fulfilled, SO GLORI- OUS?"
ROBERT C. WINTHROP, 1839 From his oration before the New England Society of New York at the Broadway Tabernacle
"The Pilgrim settlement exerted a paramount influence on the early destinies of this Continent, and gave the first unequivocal assurance that virtue and industry and free- dom were here to find a refuge and here to found them- selves an empire.
"A feeble company of exiles, quitting the strange land to which persecution had forced them to flee. Entering with so many sighs and sobs and partings and prayers, on a voyage so full of perils at the best, but rendered a hundred fold more perilous by the unusual severities of the season and the un-sea-worthiness of their ship.
"Arriving in the depth of winter, on a coast to which even their pilot was a perfect stranger, and where famine, exposure, the wolf, the savage, disease and death seemed waiting for them. Yet accomplishing an end which Royalty and patronage, the love of dominion and of gold, individ- ual adventure and corporate enterprise had so long essayed in vain.
"Founding a Colony which was to defy alike the ma- chinations and the menaces of Tyranny, in all periods of its history. Higher than human was the Power which presided over the Exodus of the Pilgrim Fathers.
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"Conscience was the nearest to an earthly power which the Pilgrims possessed, and freedom of Conscience the nearest to an earthly motive which prompted their career.
"It was Conscience which emboldened them to launch their fragile bark upon a merciless ocean, fearless of the fighting winds and lowering storms.
"It was Conscience which stiffened them to brave the perils, endure the hardships, undergo the deprivations of a howling, houseless, hopeless desolation.
"It was Conscience, inspiring a courage, confirming a resolution, and accomplishing an enterprise, of which the records of the world will be searched in vain to find a parallel."
RUFUS CHOATE From his oration before the New England Society of New York, Forefathers' Day, 1843
"It is a great thing for a nation to be able to look to an authentic race of founders and an historical principle of institution, in which it may admire the realized idea of true heroism. It is a great and precious thing to be able to ascend to an heroic age and an heroic race which it may call its own. An heroic age and race, the extent and permanence of whose influences are of a kind to kindle the moral imagination and justify the intelligent wonder of the world. Freedom hovered over the rock-bound coast of New England and set the Stars of Glory there.
"To found a state upon a waste of earth, wherein great numbers of human beings may live together, and in succes- sive generations, socially and in peace; knit to one-another by innumerable ties, light as air, yet stronger than links of iron, which compose the national existence,-wherein they may help each other, and be helped in bearing the various lots of life,-wherein they may enjoy and improve, and impart and heighten enjoyment and improvement,- wherein they may together perform the real social labors,
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may reclaim and decorate the earth, may disinter the treas- ures that grow beneath its surface; may invent and polish the arts of usefulness and beauty; may perfect the loftier arts of virtue and empire, open and work the richer minds of the universal youthful heart and intellect, and spread out a dwelling for the Muse on the glittering summits of Freedom ;- to found such a State is the first of heroical labors and heroical glories.
"The Pilgrims were moved by a thirst for freedom from unnecessary restraint, which is tyranny,-freedom of the soul, freedom of thought, a larger measure of freedom of life. These were the motives, from which the current of our national fortunes has issued forth. You can look around you today, and see into how broad and deep a stream that current has expanded; what accumulations of costly and beautiful things it bears along; through what valley of happiness and rest it rolls towards some mightier sea.
"Silently adopted was the grand doctrine that all men are born equal and born free-born to the same inheritance exactly of chances and of hopes; that every child ought to be equally with every other, invited and stimulated to strive for the happiest life, the largest future, the most conspicu- ous virtue, the fullest mind, the brightest wreath. How skillfully these have been adapted to the nature of things and the needs of men; how well the principle of perman- ence has been harmonized with the principle of progress.
"From all this rich heritage, a wise, moral and glorious future should evolve. These heroic men and women should not look down on a dwindled posterity. We take from them in whom the loftiest sense of duty blended itself with the fiercest spirit of liberay. Yet, our past is nothing, but as you, quickened by its examples, warned by its voices, shall reproduce it in the life of today. Its once busy existence, fiery trials, dear-bought triumphs; its dynasty of heroes, all its pulses of joy and anguish, hopes and fears, love and praise, are now with the years beyond the flood. Yet, gazing
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on these, long and intently and often, we may pass into the likeness of the departed,-may emulate their labors, and partake of their immortality.".
CHARLES SUMNER From his oration on the Embarkation Anniversary, Plymouth. August 1, 1853
"The Pilgrims were among the earliest of Separatists. As such, they knew, by bitter experience, all the sharpness of persecution. Against them the men in power raged like the heathen. Against them the whole fury of the law was di- rected. Some were imprisoned; all were impoverished. For safety and freedom the little band sought shelter in Hol- land, where they continued in indigence and obscurity for more than ten years, when they were inspired to seek a home in this unknown Western world.
"By a covenant with the Lord, they had vowed to walk in all His ways, according to their best endeavors, whatso- ever it should cost them. Repentance and prayers; patience and tears were their weapons. Self-sacrifice is never in vain, and they foresaw, with clearness of phophecy, that out of their trials should come a transcendent future. Governor Bradford said: 'As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled in some sort shrine, even to the whole nation.'
"These are the men whom we have met in this goodly number to celebrate; not for any victory of war; not for any triumph of discovery, science, learning or eloquence; not for worldly success of any kind. How poor are all these things by the side of that divine virtue which made them, amidst the reproach, the obloquy, and the harshness of the world, hold fast to Freedom and to Truth.
"Plymouth Rock is the imperishable symbol that shall forever proclaim their deviation from received opinions, their self-sacrifice, their un-quenchable thirst for Liberty. We see clearly what it has done for the world, and what it .
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has done for their fame. From gushing, multitudinous hearts we now thank these lowly men that they dared to be true and brave. In vindication of a cherished principle, they stood alone, against the madness of men, against the law of the land, even against their King. They won the battle for human freedom; therefore they will be enshrined in the hearts of all true men till time shall be no more."
These stirring words aroused the Nation anew to a sense of its debt to the Pilgrims, which was finally expressed in the magnificent monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth.
WILLIAM M. EVARTS From his oration before the New England Society of New York, Forefathers' Day, 1854
"Upon the Rock of Plymouth was pressed the first foot- step of that energetic and creative power in human affairs which has since over-run this Continent. Through the scene of debarkation, made up of wintry sea and gloomy sky, and bleak and desolate coast, we see breaking the light and hope which have ever since shone bright as the source of those radiant glories of freedom in whose glad light we live; warm with the fervent glow of that beneficent activity which pervades and invigorates the life of this whole nation; which has secured the progress of the past, and forms the hope of the future.
"The Pilgrims never valued liberty as an end. But, as a means to duty, it was dearer than life itself. They sought it only that they might subject themselves to a more thorough discipline. Loyalty to a ruler they replaced by obedience to law. They threw off the yoke of their king only to pursue the stricter service of their God. The fair flower of liberty they watered with their tears and with their blood, but only that they might feed upon its sober fruit, Duty.
"In their enterprise, the culture and development of the individual was the controlling object. It recognized the
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brotherhood of all men; raising them to the very threshold of heaven. In their establishment of the Christian faith upon this un-peopled Continent, the Pilgrims were the bearers of a new mission, than which there had been none greater since the time of the Apostles.
"They established liberty and law; civilization and re- ligion; for a habitation to posterity to the latest generation. If we are guided by the same high motives, imbued with the same deep wisdom, warmed with the same faithful spirit as were they; no evil however great, can withstand us; no peril, however dark, can dismay us."
WILLIAM T. DAVIS From his oration on the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims, Plymouth, December 21, 1870
"The battle-field on which you have this day trod is more sacred than any other which history records. The decisive battles of the world sink into insignificance beside the battle which our Fathers fought along the hillside and round the Rock of Plymouth. No armed hosts, with shining helmet and waving plume met here in battle array; no trumpet sounded the charge; no warrior's lance or bristling steel met the opposing foe; no royal hand crowned the victorious chief. No new division of regal power, no readjustment of imperial lines, no fate of potentate or prince, depended on the issue.
"But in the battle a new civilization asserted its claim against the insolent pretentions of the old; the rights of man stood up against the domination of kings; the human conscience fought to free itself from the shackles of servi- tude. This was the battle which our Fathers fought; and neither hunger nor hardship, nor the terrible uncertainties of the future, nor the allurements of their distant home, nor pestilence nor death, could check their courage or shake their faith.
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"With the battle still raging, ay, well-nigh lost; with one- half their number sleeping in their graves, - they sent their only refuge back across the seas, and sought, with a serene confidence, the guidance and protection of their God. A brighter page and a sweeter song shall proclaim to nations yet unborn, as the noblest typification of faith in God, that sublime incident in Christian history, the return of the Mayflower to England.
"Welcome to this hallowed field. Inhale, with fullest breath, the atmosphere of this sacred spot. Drink long and deep at this fountain of our Nation's greatness. Go back to your homes with the vow recorded in your hearts to make yourselves worthier of this heritage. Let us remember that fidelity to duty-duty to ourselves, to our country and to our God-will be the noblest monument that we can rear in memory of the virtue and the sacrifices of the Pilgrims."
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS
From his oration at the Dedication of the Statue "The Pilgrim" by J. Q. A. Ward, Central Park, New York, June 6, 1885
"The Pilgrim emigration to America is a story of achieve- ment unparalleled in the annals of the world for the majesty of its purpose, the poverty of its means, the weakness of the beginning, and the grandeur of the results.
"Behold the frail settlement at Plymouth, clinging to the bleak edge of America; harassed by Indians, beset by beasts, by disease, by exposure, by death in every form; beyond civilization and succor, beyond the knowledge or interest of mankind. Yet taking such a vital hold that it swiftly overspreads and dominates a continent, covered today with a population more industrious, more intelligent, happier, man for man, than any people upon which the sun has ever shone.
"The winds that blew the Mayflower over the sea were
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not more truly airs from heaven than the moral impulse and the moral heroism which inspired her voyage.
"Banished by the pitiless English persecution, exiles and poor in a foreign land, before they were a colony in Amer- ica, they were compelled to self-government, to a common sympathy and support, to bearing one another's burdens. So, by the stern experience of actual life, they were trained in the virtues most essential for the fulfillment of their august but unimagined destiny.
"Here, in this sylvan seclusion, we raise the statue of the Pilgrim, that in this changeless form, the long procession of the generations which follow us, may see what manner of man he was who walked, undismayed, the solitary, heights of duty and of everlasting service to mankind. Here let him stand, the builder of a free state, serenely con- fronting the continent which he shall settle and subdue.
"The unspeaking lips shall chide our unworthiness, the lofty mien exalt our littleness, the unblenching eye invigo- rate our weakness; and the whole poised and firmly planted form reveal the unconquerable moral energy-the master- force of American civilization. So may our Nation stand, forever and forever, the mighty guardian of human liberty, of God-like justice, of Christ-like brotherhood."
HON. EDWIN D. MEAD, 1893
"There is no other church in which all New Englanders and all Americans feel a sense of possession, of which all are in a manner members, to the extent which is true of the First Church in Plymouth. We forget all creeds and all changes of creeds; we care little what preacher is in the pulpit or what title is on the hymn-book, what title was there yesterday or what title will be there tomorrow. We remember only that this was the church of the Mayflower congregation and of Elder Brewster, the church of Bradford and Carver and Winslow, the church of the pioneers sent into the New England wilderness by John Robinson with
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the charge never to 'come to a period in religion,' but ever to keep their minds open for 'more light and truth.' It was the first purely democratic church in modern times, which means that it was the first purely democratic church in history. It was the church of the men who signed the com- pact on the Mayflower, that great first word in the history of American liberty and independence. The signers would have found it hard, many of them, to tell whether they signed it in their capacity as members of the church or as members of the 'civil body politic.' They would have found it hard to the end of their days to tell whether they were doing this and that in their capacity as members of the Church of Christ or as citizens of Plymouth: for they looked upon the end and aim of citizenship and the churchman- ship as the same.
"It is the trustee of the great Pilgrim traditions; and its high office is to act with the public to keep the sacred mem- ories fresh and give them power."
GOVERNOR ROGER WOLCOTT OF MASSACHUETTS From his address on receiving the Bradford History, Boston, 1897
"There are places and objects so intimately associated with the world's greatest men or with mighty deeds, that the soul of him who gazes upon them is lost in a sense of rever- ent awe, as it listens to the voice that speaks from the past.
"On the sloping hillside of Plymouth such a voice is breathed. For here, not alone did godly men and women suffer greatly for a great cause, but their noble purpose was not doomed to defeat, but was carried to perfect victory.
"They established what they planned. Their feeble plan- tation became the birthplace of religious liberty, the cradle of a free Commonwealth. To them a mighty Nation owes its debt. Nay, they have made the whole world their debtor.
"In the varied tapestry which pictures our national life,
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the richest spots are those where gleam the golden threads of conscience, courage and faith, set in the web by that little band.
"May God, in his mercy, grant that the moral impulse, which founded this Nation, may never cease to control its destiny; that no act of any future generation may put in peril the fundamental principles on which it is based: - of equal rights in a free state, equal privileges in a free church and equal opportunities in a free school.
"In this precious volume is told the noble, simple story 'Of Plimoth Plantation.' In the midst of suffering and pri- vation and anxiety, the pious hand of William Bradford has set down the history of the enterprise. May we learn from him: 'that all great and honourable actions are ac- companied with great difficulties, and must be both enter- prised and overcome with answerable courages.'
"All the sadness and pathos of the narrative are lost in victory. The triumph of a noble cause, even at a great price, is theme for rejoicing, not for sorrow. The story here told is one of triumphant achievement.
"For countless years to come, and to untold thousands, these mute pages shall eloquently speak of high resolve, great suffering and heroic endurance, made possible only by an absolute faith in the overruling providence of Al- mighty God."
SENATOR GEORGE F. HOAR
From his address at the return of the Bradford Manuscript to Massachusetts. Boston, 1897
"The first American Ambassador to Great Britain comes here to deliver to the lineal successor of Governor Bradford, the only authentic history of the founding of this Common- wealth; the most important political transaction that has ever taken place on the face of the earth.
"Few Americans will gaze upon this manuscript without a little trembling of the lips and a little gathering of mist
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in the eyes, as they think of the story of suffering, of sorrow, of peril, of exile, of death and of lofty triumph which this book tells, - which the hand of the great leader and founder of America has traced on those pages.
"There is nothing like it in human annals since the story of Bethlehem. These English men and English women going out from their homes in beautiful Lincoln and York, wife separated from husband and mother from child in that hurried embarkation for Holland, pursued to the beach by English horsemen; the thirteen years of exile; the life at Amsterdam 'in alley foul and lane obscure;' the dwelling at Leyden; the embarkation at Delfthaven; the farewell of Robinson; the terrible voyage across the Atlantic; the Com- pact in the harbor; the landing on the Rock; the dreadful first Winter; the death roll of more than half their number; the days of suffering and famine; the wakeful night, listen- ing for the howl of wild beast and the war-whoop of the savage; the building of the State on those sure foundations which no wave or tempest has ever shaken; the breaking of the new light; the beginning of the new life; the enjoyment of Peace with Liberty, - of all these things, this is the origi- nal record by the hand of our beloved father and founder. Massachusetts will forever preserve it."
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