12 had combined. We all have learned how slowly the sentiment of independence, and the principle of republicanism, ripened in these colonies during the early stages of the revolutionary contest, and how these free institutions rose suddenly under the hands of a people who were even'yet protesting an enduring loyalty to the Throne and Parliament of Great , Britain. It was not so, however, with’ the master spirit’s,, Adams, Otis, and Jefferson. Nof was it so, in the ease of the Puritans, with Hilton. “No man, (said he,) Who knows aught, can be so stupid to:deny, that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of.God himself, and were, by privilege, above all the creatures, born to command,'and not to obey. The power of kings and magistrates is nothing else but w:hat is ohly derivative, transferred,'arid committed to them'in trust from the people, to‘ the common good of them all, in Whom. dhe. power yet .fundamentally remains, and cannot be taken from them without a violation of their natural birthright.” How, then, has it happened that civil consequences so vast have followed the merely religious action of the Puritans t The apparent mystery is easily, explained. Civil Liberty isdan object fof universal and intense desire. The , cause of the Puritans identified itself with the cause of ■ Civil Liberty in England, and ultimately, though on their part unconsciously,- became the leading, element of that cause; both in Europe and America,. Thus identified/ and eminent, the Puritan cause effected the establishment of a Republic which endured through a short but glorious period in England. Though the British nation soon relapsed, and monarchy was restored, yet the Puritan principle,, nevertheless, modified the constitution, and gave to it the popular form which it now bears. A throne yet,towers above that edifice, but-it is no longer the throne of the Stuarts, .or of the Tudors, or even of the Plantagenets. It is simply ornamental. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal still’ constitute distinct estates, and retain their ancient dignity. But their real political power and influence have -passed away, and the Commons, no longer contesting inch by inch for their constitutional rights, are virtually the rulers of the British Empire. France oscillates so uneasily and tremulously between the republic and military despotism, that no one who is hopeful of progress doubts where the needle will settle at last. It has become a proverb, that Europe must soon be either Republican or Despotic. When the compromise system of limited monarchy shall have retired, and only the two systems of Republicanism and Despotism are left to confront each other on that continent, in an age of still increasing intellectual and moral energies, the triumph of the former, though uncertain in the points of time and manner and field of contest, will nevertheless be assured. The Puritan principle is shaping, already, future. Republics on the islands and continents of the Pacific Ocean, and on the heretofore neglected coasts” of Africa, while the American Continent is everywhere crowned with free institutions, due to its still more direct and potential influence. From Plymouth Rock to Labrador, to Magellan, and around, by bay, gulf, and headland, to Nootka“Sound, the Republican system, more or less developed, and more or less firmly established, pervades this hemisphere. Such are the already ripening and ripened fruits of the vigorous plants of Puritanism, gathered equally and promiscuously from the parent stock in England, and from the exotic one so carefully transplanted on this rugged coast, and so sedulously watered, watched, cherished, and reared, by the Pilgrim Fathers. Behold how the unfolding, justly and naturally, as I trust, of a theme primarily local, sectional, and even sectarian, has brought us to the solution of the great problem of the progress of mankind towards social happiness and beneficent government. That higher stage of social happiness, that purer form of republican government, to which we are tending, are but faintly shadowed forth in the disturbed transition scenes through which we are passing, and even in the most perfect institutions which have yet been framed from the confused materials of dilapidated and decaying systems. Present defects and imperfections no more warrant conclusions against that better future which has been indicated, than the incompleteness of the development of Christian principles justifies a fear of the ultimate failure of Christianity itseK.
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