Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-02
THE PILGRIMS CHARACTER.
Speeches Made at the Dedication Of the
Plymouth Monument.

speeches Made at the Dedication OF the
Plymouth Monument.
After the dedicatory services Of the pill
grims' monument at Plymouth, Mass, yes
terday the procession, together with orator.
poet and invited guests, took their places
in the great dining tent, and the feast provided
for the occasion was discussed for an hour.
Then Gov. Long, the chairman, arose
to introduce the orator of the day,
Congressman Breckenridge Of Kentucky.
When Mr.. Long had finished speaking Mr..
Breckenridge arose and amid appreciative ap-
plause began his GRAFTON.
GOV. LoNe's SPEECH.
Gov. Long, in introducing Mr.. Breckenridge,
said: 1.-THE celebration of the completion of the
national monument to the Pilgrim Fathers
would indeed be dwarfed in the grandeur Of
its purpose if every state in the
that is an element Of the Amer
lean people were not participants. in per-
son or in interest in its dedication, for the pill
grim shall live wherever the American flag
floats. He shines in every star of its constel-
lation and waves in every stripe in Its folds
His stock has spread wide across the republic
and his characteristics and influence. molding
its institutions, have spread more widely still.
The great federal union, mightiest among
the expansion Of his compact in the cabin of
the Mayfower. What then could be more fit
ting than that the Grafton of the day should be
spoken by the son OF a sister state? Let us call
him from the south! Let us call him from
Kentucky, birthplace Of Abraham Lincoln,
himself of Plymouth county descent. And
from Kentucky whom else shall we
call than her most eloquent orator, who repre-
sents in Congress the home of Henry Clay, and
who recently on the floor of the national House
de- - H,.v
tribute to Massachusetts,. Always sus-
tanning the high reputation Of the
orators Of his native state, he will to-day sustain
the reputation Of the success Of the orators Of
Plymouth Rock. And yet when you look on
his face, as have so often looked on it. with
the eyes of personal friendship and esteem,
you will say that it seems like the face not of
a stranger, but of a veritable descendant of the
Mayfower. present to you and bid hearty
old colony welcome to the Hon. VIM. C. P.
Breckenridge of Kentucky"
HON. W. C. P. BRECKENRIDGE OF KENTUCKY SAID:
'It has been urged that one of the honors to
be given to these revered men is they were at
the beginning of our industries; that they left
behind them the old forms and institutions of
the other continent and started new institutions
based on new principles and protected by new
government modes. But institutions are
growths, not manufactures. The option of
institutional material at any given time Is
limited, the choice left to states
men is narrow. The margin between
the lines of development is relatively
small and herein lies the claim to honor among
the immOrtals who have deserved well of man
kind. that at the critical moment perhaps amid
the din of perilous battle, they choose wisely
and heroically. And as the growth continues
ceaselessly there constantly recurs the necessity
for new choice, the obligation of fresh decision.
Thus it is that on the one hand each genera
ton must meet and solve its own problem, and
yet, on the other, each generation finds that
what has been done before it came into power
has limited its action and shut it up in straight
ened lines OF chance. No historian has given
to those who first suffered for the sublime,
but that human freedom was impossible except
by the separation of church and state-that
place of eminence which is by right theirs.
This was the truth to which Pilgrim Fathers
testifel l. This truth they first brought to
America; this was their true honor, there was
no civil government. These immigrants did
not believe in a theocratic state any more than
in a secularized church. 1t was necessary to
organize form of civil government, and out
of that necessity sprang that noble instrument
known as the social compact of the forefathers.
That such a compact was deemed necessary
demonstrated how scrupulously these men held
to the separation of state and church. Already
an organized church, they, by their own con-
yictions OF the province OF its powers and the
limitations of its authority, felt compelled to
form civil body polite. True emigrants do
not leave their country behind them, they carry
1t with their faith and custom; men die, these
survive. They enter into the beliefs, convic-
lions, life, and hopes Of composite people who
are born, trained, and live under their influ-
ence. These forefathers brought with them
their conception Of England, their England.
They brought no titles or ranks priestly HER
archy. no ecclesiastical ranks and orders, no
complicated system of fees. But they did
bring with them monogamic marriage, with its
" M n no iOhf
of the subject to the protection of law, the sa-
credness Of individual property, the precedent
of consent before the levying of taxes, and the
right to express in some legal and prescribed
manner their will for those who were to repre-
sent them in legislature and church.
MY countrymen, the chiefest merit OF those
to whose memory this monument has been
erected was their loyalty to the truth as they
saw the truth. This is the noblest attribute of
man, that he can love truth supremely-the
truth as we see it. To be loyal to that truth is
our sepremest duty"
John Boyle O'Reilly, the poet Of the occa-
sion, was then introduced and read his poem,
''The Pilgrim Fathers
After the reading of the poem addresses
were made by Lieut.. Gov. Bracket ON behalf
OF the state, George +. Hoar. Hon. Henry
Cabot Lodge, Hon. William Cogswell, Hon. Z.
A. Morse, Hon. James G.. Blaine and others.
SENATOR HoAR SAID:
I'm coming here to honor the Pilgrim Fathers
we do not come to honor men whose virtues
persisted with them. The generations of
whom it can truly be said that their descend
ants are degenerated are the failures Of history
The glory of men who lay the foundation of
states is that the states they build endure upon
their foundations. The glory of the founder is
the finished building. The glory of the patriot
is the country he has saved. The glory of the
ancestor is his posterity. Childrens children
are the crown of old men. The history of New
England to this hour, so far as it has been di-
rected by the descendants of the men who
founded it, has been the result and outgrowth
of Puritafism, as applied to the changing cir
cumstances which the centuries have brought
with them"
CONGRESSIONAL EVILS.
Henry Cabot Lodge said: 1.-THE House Of
Representatives was intended by the trainers Of
the Constitution to be the body which should
initiate great policies and exercise the greatest
influence In legislation. for its functions were
purely legislative, and the public purse was
confided to Its keeping. Yet the great assem-
bly, thus gifted by the Constitution, strong by
| its nature, and as the embodiment of the rep
resentative principle, has declined instead
OF rising in influence and force. By it's own
mistakes it has allowed its great powers to slip
ing of the Senate, endowed already with the
peculiar executive powers conferred upon it
by the Constitution. The House of Repre-
sentatives, from one cause and another, GER
tainly from entirely false theories of govern
ment, has tied itself up by net
work OF rules of its own making until it is
reduced to simple inaction. The majority