First Settlement of New England
December, 1820.
The "Old Colony Club," formed for social intercourse in 1769, was the first to celebrate Forefathers' Day. Although the club was dissolved in 1773, the anniversary celebrations were continued until 1780; between this time and 1820, when the "Pilgrim Society" was founded, they were held with but few interruptions.
The foundation of the "Pilgrim Society" in 1820 gave a new impetus to the celebrations, and in that year Mr. Webster was chosen to give the address.
[1.] P. 64, l. 17. 1. The allusion is to the painting by Sargent; it was presented by him to the Society in 1824.
[2.] L. 22. 2. Cf. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
[3.] L. 30. 3. Cf. the report of the Pilgrim Society on the correct date of the landing of the Pilgrims. The 21st is now considered to be the date.
[4.] P. 66, l. 31. 1. Cf. Herodotus, Ch. VI., § 109.
[5.] P. 70, l. 23. 1. Cf. "The Start from Delfshaven," by Rev. D. Van Pelt, in the New England Magazine, November, 1891. For a through treatment of the whole subject read Chapter II., "The Puritan Exodus" in Beginnings of New England, by John Fiske.
[6.] P. 77, l. 13. 1. Cf. Beginnings of New England, by John Fiske, pp. 12-20, "The Roman Method of Nation-Making."
[7.] P. 81, l. 18. 1. Cf. Beginnings of New England, pp. 20-49, "The English Method of Nation-Making."
[8.] P. 82, l. 30. 1. Cf. Hutchinson's History, Vol. II., App. I. "The men who wrote in the cabin of the Mayflower the first charter of freedom, were a little band of protestants against every form of injustice and tyranny. The leaven of their principles made possible the Declaration of Independence, liberated the slaves, and founded the free Commonwealths which form the Republic of the United States."-- C. M. Depew, Columbian oration.
[9.] P. 83, l. 15. 1. Cf. Germanic Origin of New England Towns, H. B. Adams.
[10.] P. 108, l. 7. 1. Cf. Cicero's Oratio pro Flacco, § 7.
[11.] L. 29. 2. The first free public school established by law in Plymouth Colony was in 1670.
[12.] P. 111, l. 17. 1. Cf. Beginnings of New England, p. 110, "Founding of Harvard College." Lowell's "Harvard Anniversary."
In 1647 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay passed the law requiring every town of one hundred families to set up a grammar school which should prepare youth for the university.
If Mr. Webster by his handling of the Dartmouth College Case founded a new school of constitutional law, by the Plymouth Oration he founded a new school of oratory. This field of occasional oratory was a new and peculiar one for him. He had never before spoken upon a great historical subject demanding not only wealth of imagination, but the peculiar quality of mind and heart which unites dignity and depth of thought with ease and grace of manner. But he was equal to the task. The simplicity and beauty of the thought, the grand and inspiring manner of presentation, gave evidence of commanding genius, and gave Mr. Webster a place in the front rank of orators and stylists.
"I never saw him," says Mr. Ticknor, "when he seemed to me to be more conscious of his own powers, or to have a more true and natural enjoyment from their possession."
John Adams, who had heard Pitt and Fox, Burke and Sheridan, says: "It is the effort of a great mind, richly stored with every species of information. If there be an American who can read it without tears, I am not that American. Mr. Burke is no longer entitled to the praise--the most consummate orator of modern times. What can I say of what regards myself? To my humble name 'Exegisti monumentum ære perennius.' The oration ought to be read at the end of every century."
"It is doubtful," says Edward Everett, "whether any extra-professional literary effort by a public man has attained equal celebrity."
Cf. Curtis's Life of Webster, Ch. IX.; Lodge's Webster, Ch. IV.; De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Vol. I.; Whipple's American Literature, "Webster as a Master of English Style"; Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. I., Chs. XII., XIII., XIV.; Burke's Orations on the American War, edited by A. J. George; Fiske's Beginnings of New England.