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assembled? Who summoned yonder aged sire, and who invited that dignified matron? Wherefore come these intelligent and stalwart young men, and these delicate and accomplished young ladies? And here we see even the "wee ones," who might be more comfortable in the nursery. And I hear the sound of sweet music and the sound of loud cannon. I see, too, the display of banners and flags, some with plain, and some with deciphered inscriptions and devices. And yonder I behold the substantials and the delicacies, prepared in sumptuous profusion. But what is most attractive, and least within the range of my comprehension, is that splendidly decorated circle of thirty-one accomplished beauties, so tastefully adorned with seemingly appropriate badges! That little boy, whose heart now big with patriotism is ready to laugh the eastern potentate to scorn, could unravel the mystery, and relieve the mind of the royal visitor. Methinks I almost hear him say, with childlike simplicity and eagerness, "Permit me to inform your royal highness that this is the Fourth of July-- our national sabbath -- the birthday of a nation's freedom-- the day on which our ancestors, eighty-one years ago, resolved that they and their posterity would forever be kings and queens of equal dignity."
And now allow us to discourse to you, of the source to which they looked, the principles which they adopted, and the spirit by which they were animated in accomplishing their purpose. Their wisdom is attested by their success; their success, by a nation's dignity. The Declaration just read reveals the fact that our fathers, with an unwavering and confiding faith, looked to the superintendence of an overruling Providence, as taught in the Bible. The principle adopted by them was entire disenthrallment of religious thought and action, perfect and unrestrained freedom of conscience in matters of religious concernment, untrammeled by political alliances, and uncontrolled by legislative enactments-- other-wise called the "Republicanism of the Bible." The spirit with which they were animated grew from necessity out of the circumstances by which they were surrounded, and that spirit was one of union, equality and harmony, be they ever so many, or few; and hence the adoption of the motto of the United States, "E Pluribus Unum." It was to the recognition of these three great truths, practically illustrated in their lives, that their success, and our freedom and happiness this day, is attributable; it is upon the theoretical and practical recognition and exemplification of these truths by us and our posterity, that the prosperity of our free institutions, the glory of our nation, and the hope of the world for political freedom and religious toleration depends. Hence, the reason is obvious for the abortive efforts of the nations of Europe. They, dazzled by the splendor of our achievements, thirsting for liberty, and intoxicated with the anticipated benefits resulting from the establishment of republican forms of government, rush into revolution and are forced to retire from the battlefield, or fall amid the gleaming of steel and the thunderings of the deep-toned and death-dealing artillery, disgraced, disappointed and destroyed. Is it not true, ye Hollanders by birth, but welcome, thrice welcome, citizens of this great republic by adoption, that though your ancestors waged a successful warfare against proud Spain, that at the very zenith of her glory, so soon as they abandoned these great truths, the great Napoleon was made the instrument in the hands of divine providence, of their subjection, and they now groan under the influence of a monarchial government united with a heretical church. While you, in this, your adopted country, "the home of the brave and the land of the free," bathe in the laver of genuine republicanism, inhale the gentle zephyrs of pure and undefiled religion unrestrained, and drink from the fountain of pure and unadulterated political equality.