associations with our early history; to this hall of which you are so
justly proud, and the memories of which are part of the inheritance of
every American citizen; and feel, as I remember how many voices of
patriotic fervor have here been heard; that in it originated the first
movements from which the Revolution sprung; that here began that
system of town meetings and free discussion which is the glory and
safety of our country; that I had enough to warn me, that though my
theme was more humble than theirs, (as befitted my poorer ability,)
that it was a hazardous thing for me to attempt to speak in this
sacred temple. But when I heard your statesman (Gen. Cushing) say,
that a word once here spoken never dies, that it becomes a part of the
circumambient air, I felt a reluctance to speak which increases upon
me as I recall his expression. But if those voices which breathed the
first instincts into the Colony of Massachusetts, and into those
colonies which formed the United States, to proclaim community
independence, and asserts it against the powerful mother country, --if
those voices live here still, how must they feel who come here to
preach treason to the Constitution, and assail the Union it ordained
and established? [Applause.] It would seem that their criminal hearts
should fear that those voices, so long slumbering, would break their
silence, that the forms which look down from these walls behind and
around me, would walk forth. and that their sabres would once more be
drawn from their scabbards, to drive from this sacred temple fanatical
men, who desecrate it more than did the changers of money and those
who sold doves, the temple of the living God. [Loud cheers.]

And here, too, you have, to remind you, and to remind all who enter
this hall, the portraits of those men who are dear to every lover of
liberty, and part and parcel of the memory of every American citizen.
Highest among them all I see you have placed Samuel Adams and John