Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-12-24


| of the general conviction collected by the
State andestablished aslaw, it may also right
1 fully resist the law BIZ force, which would pro-
| duce disorder, and lead to anarchy. 1t was
| argued, also, that insomuch as civil govern
| ment is of divine appointment, 1t must be
| competent TO act as an arbiter between con-
| f;cting conseiences, and, that implicit obedi-
enee TO its decrees as such arbiter, is therefore
| a religious duty. AS might well have been
foresecn, there arose, on the side of the Pud-
tans. contestants worthy of the majestic prin-
ciple they defended, contestants whose voices
then silenced by persecution, or drowned by
public clamor, have reached this more congo
NAL age, and are now giving firm and con-
densation to the whole science of political
/ ethics. Nat again recalling the names of
| Locke and Sydney, there Edwards, the
/ profoundest metaphysician of all ages, and
Milton, always discontinued and distrusted
among men, but familiar with angels, and
learned in the eounsels Of heaven. 1t was
| their sufficient reply. that unenlightened and
| unsanctifed consciences viii never disturb
! despotism with their responsiveness, and that
] censeiences Illuminated and purified cannot
be perverted to error that God has delegated
to no human tribunal. authority 20 interfere
| between Himself and the monitor which He
| has implanted in the bosom of every moral
being, and which is responsible to its author
| alone; and that the boundaries of human au-
| thoritv are the boundaries of eternal justice,
ascerfalned by the teachings of that monitor,
| which, where it is free and fully awakened,
| must always be the same They answered
further, and with decisive energy, that tradi-
tons and compacts subversive of freedom,
were altogether void, because the masses OF
men living at one timena State, must always
havs supreme control over their own conduct,
in NIL INF hair dufy 70 Hod
their own happiness.
When the services in the church were con-
Guided. the company repaired to the dinner
table, in the Assembly Rooms, where, after
satiating the animal wants, the feast Of rea-
son and flow of soul was resumed, in speeches
and sentiments appropriate to the OCCASION
Ex-Governor Boutwell,, Wendell Phillips, the
orator OF the day, and others, made eloquent
/ speeches in response to toasts, and letters,
were read from Governor Gardner, Edward
Everett, Robert c. Winthrop, George Ban
croft, and David Sears, President of the Cape
! Cod Association.
To a sentiment which was given compli-
mentary to the fidelity to truth of the Pill
grim Fathers, Wendell Phillips was called
upon and introduced to respond. He was re-
ceived with great applause, and spoke in SUBJ
stance as follows:
| Wendell PhtIIips's Speech.
The line OF Thought of the oration-2the
deep resounding ltarch with which the ora
| tor passed in reyidy the centuries, and point.
! ed cut their signiiication-hsd full possession
1 OF all their minds, and he could not depart
from II. 1t was not thought, but action,
which distinguished the Puritans, an made
them what they were. They originated moth
| ing. The glory of all men is not SO much
what they have actually produced, as what
they enable Others to produce. Tho claim of
the Pilgrims upon their age, was that they had
acted while others speculated, and instead of
letting Il dare not wait upon 50 would
launched boldly upon the Atlantic and trust
| ed God. They can claim every free altar and
/ free home their work, for they taught men
| to be free. Ihe Pilgrims, if they had lived
| in 1866, instead of 1920, would be in Kahzas,
not in Plymouth. If Elder Brewster were
alive now, do you think he would be content
/ with the Congregational Church and the Eve
| points of Calvin: No! He would add to
his creed the Maine Liquor Law, the Under
| ground Railroad, and G Thousand of Sharpe's
/ rifles, addressed to Kanzas" and labelled
I" Books, applausel and if he were to effect
an exchange OF pulplls the speaker surmisei
that he would be found in the Music Hall in
Boston, where Theodore Parker preaches7 or
the Pilgrim Church in Brooklyn Henry Ward
| Beecher's.
He would not acknowledge the right of
| Plymouth to the whole rock; it underlles the
w ole country, and only crops out here. 1t
croppedIout, TOO. where Putnam said-''Don't
| fire, boys, until you see the whites Of their
eyes, [Cheers. 1t showed itself when In
| graham rescued Martin Kotsza from Austrian
| despotism, Jefferson used it for his writing
| desk. and Lovejoy leyelled his musket across
it at Alton, Illinois. He recognized the clink
| of it to-day when the great apostle Of the
/ higher law laid his beautiful garland upon
! the sacred altar. Mr.. Seward remarked that
he was not descendant of the Pilgrims, of
the Mayfower. He says he is not descend.
ed from the Mayfower, said Mr.. Phillips; it
4 is mistake. There isNsuch thing as pedi-
| gree of mind, as well as of body, and he
knows SO much about the Mayhower, that l
rm snre, as Western man would say, he was
"thar." [Cheers and laughter
| 1t was proposed to raise a monument to the
| Pilgrims, and he would suggest that ore cor
| ner stone be placed upDn the Rock, and the
| other upon that spot where lie the fifty of that
noble band who persisted the first winter
Every second man OF them went down to the
grave, but they only closed up their ranks,
shoulder to shoulder. They stood between
the tempest and the English sovereign, but
they chose death rather than compromise
Who struck the strongest blows for religious
liberty: Was it those reformers who stood
nearest the English throne, or was it the un-
compromising band whose strength was de-
veloped in American Carver and Bradford
| did not stop to criticise; like Michael Angea
10 they criticized by creation. The Edin-
burgh Reriew calls them intolerant but it
gets its yard suck to measure their intoler.
ance from the very institutions which these
men have given them. He would select as
notices to be placed on the Pilgrim monu-
ment-oyer the rock, The Right-itis More
than Our Country" and over the graves of
the fifty, "Death Rather than Compromise"
He distrusted that word Compromise and
would kick it out of doors. He had no doubt
our fathers talked for Buncombe sometimes,
as, for instance, in their expressions Of allie.
glance, to Elizabeth, and King George but
underlying this language of courtesy, was
deep earnestness of purpose, Governor Bout
well talked about taste, but he remembered
that the Pilgrims voted that each man build
his own house. and he hoped that each one of
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