Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1846-01-17

sure up ever mGulehlo VI lheli lol Iulo0'
The instincts of our nature bind US indIs
solubIy to them and link our iates with
theirs. Men cannot live without a past;
it is as essential to them as future. In
to its vast confines we will journey to-day
and converse with our Pilgrim Fathers.
We will speak TO them and they shall an
swcr us.
Two centuries and quarter ago, -
tie tempest-tost, weather-beaten bark,
barely escaped from the jaws Of the wild
Atlantic, landed upon the bleakest shore
CT New England. From her deck dlsem-
barked hundred and one care.worn ex-
lies. To the casual observer no event
could seem more Insignificant. The con-
temptuous eye of the world scarcely
deiened TO notice it. Yet the famous yes
sci that bore Caesar and his fortunes car
ried but an ignoble freight compared with
that Of the May.aower. Her little band
of pilgrims brought with them Meth
er wealth nor power, but the principles OF
civil and religious freedom. They plant
ed them for the first time in the Western
Continent. They che rshed, cultivated
and developed them to a full and luxu-
RANT maturity; and then furnished them
to their PROSPERITY as the only sure and
permanent foundations for free govern
ment. Upon those foundations rests the
fabric Of our great Republic; upon those
PRINCIPLES depends the career OF human
liberty. Little did the miserable pedant
and bigot who then welded the sceptre Of
Great Britain imagine that from this lee
bic settlement of prosecuted and desp
sed Puritans, in q century and half
would arise a nation capable Of coping
with his own mighty empire in arts and
arms.
1t is not my purpose 10 enter into the
history of the Pilgrims; TO recount the
bitter prosecutions and ignomnious SUI,
(erings which drove them from England
to tell of the eleven years of peace ane
quiet spent in Holland, under their below
ed pastor; nor to describe the devoted pa
triotism which prompted them to plant t
colony in some distant and, where the.
could remain citizens of their natv
countryund at the same time be removes
from It's expressions, where they coul'
enjoy liberty without violating allegiance
Neither shall speak Of the perils o
their adventurous voyage; of the hard
ships of their early settlement; Of tn
famine which Frustrated, and the pest
|, oh o,ncupiad than
| With all these things you are familiar
: both from the page Of history and iror
the lips Of tradition. On occasions sim
, lar to this, the abIest and most honore
sons of New England have been accu'
toned to tell, with touching eloquence tn
4 story Of their suherngs, their Iortltud'
their perseverance and their success
a With pious care they have gathered an
: preserved the scattered memorials
s those early days, and the names OF ga
r YER, Bradford, WinSIow, Slandish, an
e their noble companions, have long sine
J. become with US venerated househol
n words ~,
n There we're, however, some traits tni
), distinguished the enterprise oil the II
v rims from all others, and which are we
If worthy of continued remembrance:
n founding their colony they sought neith'
o wealth nor conquest, but only peace an
t freedom. They asked but for reglt
where they could make their own law
. and worship God according to the dl
} :ates of their own consclences. FRO
d the moment they touched The shore, the
k labored with systematic and perseverlT
IS industry. They cultivated, without
e murmur, a poor and ungratelul so
e which even now yields but stubbo
5. obedience to the dominion Of the ploug
III They made no search for gold, NJ
!. tortured the miserable savages to wrlt
II from them the discovery Of imaglhai
t, mines. Though landed by treachero
!. pilot upon barren il hosptable coa
n they sought neither richer fields nor
ID more genial climate. They found llbert
,e and for the rest it mattered little. T
1t more than eleven years they had me(
e tated upon their enterprise, and It was
If small matter could turn them from
,e completion. On the spot where they III
rs rested from their wanderinss, with ste
ntI and high resolve, they built their III
81 CITY and founded their young repubI
m There honesty, lndusty, knowledge a
e piety grew up together in happy Unic
m There, in patriarchal simplicity and
ID publican equality, the Pilgrims lathf
u. and mothers passed their honorable da,
h. leaving to their posterity the invaua
,e legacy Of their principles and example
ar How proudly can we compare tn
an conduct with that of the adventures
re other nations who preceded them. TIC
dc did the Spaniard colonize? Let Mex
&C. Peru and tiispaniola answer. lie lollo
"A In thu trnin Of the great Discover