history of our fellow-beings is unquestionably among the most interesting. But

not all the chapters of human history are alike important. The annals of our

race have been filled up with incidents which concern not, or at least ought not

to concern, the great company of mankind. History, as it has often been written,

is the genealogy of princes, the field-book of conquerors; and the fortunes of

our fellow-men have been treated only so far as they have been affected by the

influence of the great masters and destroyers of our race. Such history is, I

will not say a worthless study, for it is necessary for us to know the dark side

as well as the bright side of our condition. But it is a melancholy study which

fills the bosom of the philanthropist and the friend of liberty with sorrow.

 

But the history of liberty--the history of men struggling to be free--the

history of men who have acquired and are exercising their freedom--the history

of those great movements in the world, by which liberty has been established and

perpetuated, forms a subject which we cannot contemplate too closely. This is

the real history of man, of the human family, of rational immortal beings....

 

The trial of adversity was theirs; the trial of prosperity is ours. Let us meet

it as men who know their duty and prize their blessings. Our position is the

most enviable, the most responsible, which men can fill. If this generation does

its duty, the cause of constitutional freedom is safe. If we fail--if we

fail--not only do we defraud our children of the inheritance which we received

from our fathers, but we blast the hopes of the friends of liberty throughout

our continent, throughout Europe, throughout the world, to the end of time.