their memory sacred. Pope, emperor, king, sultan, grand-duke, duke,
doge, margrave, landgrave, count--what are they all by the side of the
humble company that landed on Plymouth Rock? Theirs indeed, were the
ensigns of worldly power, but our Pilgrims had in themselves that inborn
virtue which was more than all else besides, and their landing was an
epoch.

Who in the imposing troop of worldly grandeur is now remembered but with
indifference or contempt? If I except Gustavus Adolphus, it is because
he revealed a superior character. Confront the _Mayflower_ and the
Pilgrims with the potentates who occupied such space in the world. The
former are ascending into the firmament, there to shine forever, while
the latter have been long dropping into the darkness of oblivion, to be
brought forth only to point a moral or illustrate the fame of
contemporaries whom they regarded not. Do I err in supposing this an
illustration of the supremacy which belongs to the triumphs of the moral
nature? At first impeded or postponed, they at last prevail. Theirs is a
brightness which, breaking through all clouds, will shine forth with
ever-increasing splendor. I have often thought that if I were a
preacher, if I had the honor to occupy the pulpit so grandly filled by
my friend near me, one of my sermons should be from the text, "A little
leaven shall leaven the whole lump." Nor do I know a better illustration
of these words than the influence exerted by our Pilgrims. That small
band, with the lesson of self-sacrifice, of just and equal laws, of the
government of a majority, of unshrinking loyalty to principle, is now
leavening this whole continent, and in the fulness of time will leaven
the world. By their example, republican institutions have been
commended, and in proportion as we imitate them will these institutions
be assured.