"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"

Before the Lexington, Massachusetts, Historical Society
Tuesday, December 20, 1898
In a word, many wise men thought it a time wherein those two miserable adjuncts, which Nerva was deified for uniting, imperium et libertas , were as well reconciled as is possible. — Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, B. 1. § 163.
I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble. — Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America.
BOSTON DANA ESTES & COMPANY 210 SUMMER STREET 1899
What the feast of the Passover was to the children of Israel, that the days between the nineteenth of December and the fourth of January—the Yuletide—are and will remain to the people of New England. The Passover began in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month at even, and it lasted one week, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. It was the period of the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, and the feast of unleavened bread; and of it as a commemoration it is written, When your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And thus, by their yearly Passover, were the Jewish congregations of old put in mind what farewell they took of the land of Egypt.
Is there any better use to which the Passover anniversary can be put than to retrospection? And when your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this service? ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. So the old story is told again, being thus kept ever green in memory; and, in telling it, the experiences of the past are brought insensibly to bear on the conditions of the present. Thus, once a year, like the Israelites of old, we, as a people, may take our bearings and verify our course, as we plunge on out of the infinite past into the unknowable future. It is a useful practice; and we are here this first evening of our Passover period to observe it.