occasion will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children can expect to
behold its return. They are in the distant regions of futurity, they exist
only in the all-creating power of God, who shall stand here, a hundred
years hence, to trace, through us, their descent from the Pilgrims, and to
survey, as we have now surveyed, the progress of their country during the
lapse of a century. We would anticipate their concurrence with us in our
sentiments of deep regard for our common ancestors. We would anticipate and
partake the pleasure with which they will then recount the steps of New
England's advancement. On the morning of that day, although it will not
disturb us in our repose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude,
commencing on the rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through millions
of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of the
Pacific seas. We would leave, for the consideration of those who shall then
occupy our places, some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from
our fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the cause
of good government, and of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a
sincere and ardent desire to promote everything which may enlarge the
understandings, and improve the hearts, of men. And when, from the long
distance of a hundred years, they shall look back upon us, they shall know,
at least, that we possessed affections, which, running backward and warming
with gratitude for what our ancestors have done for our happiness, run
forward also to our posterity and meet them with cordial salutation, ere
yet they have arrived on the shore of being.

Advance, then, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise in
your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste
the blessings of existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have
passed, our human duration. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and
the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great
inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good