their wanton idleness, by furnishing the savages with the
means, the skill, and the instruments of European destruction.
Toleration, in that instance, would have been self-murder, and
many other examples might be alleged, in which their necessary
measures of self-defence have been exaggerated into cruelty,
and their most indispensable precautions distorted into
persecution. Yet shall we not pretend that they were exempt
from the common laws of mortality, or entirely free from all
the errors of their age. Their zeal might sometimes be too
ardent, but it was always sincere. At this day, religious
indulgence is one of our clearest duties, because it is one of our
undisputed rights. While we rejoice that the principles of
genuine Christianity have so far triumphed over the prejudices
of a former generation, let us fervently hope for the day when
it will prove equally victorious over the malignant passions of
our own.

In thus calling your attention to some of the peculiar features
in the principles, the character, and the history of our
forefathers, it is as wide from my design, as I know it would be
from your approbation, to adorn their memory with a chaplet
plucked from the domain of others. The occasion and the day
are more peculiarly devoted to them, and let it never be
dishonored with a contracted and exclusive spirit. Our
affections as citizens embrace the whole extent of the Union,
and the names of Raleigh, Smith, Winthrop, Calvert, Penn and
Oglethorpe excite in our minds recollections equally pleasing
and gratitude equally fervent with those of Carver and
Bradford. Two centuries have not yet elapsed since the first
European foot touched the soil which now constitutes the