3i9 
 
Qass 
 
 Book_.^a. 
 
bELIVERED BEFORE THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 
 IN CHARLESTON, (S. C.) ^ <^V 
 
 AT THEIR ' 
 
 ANNIVERSARY MEETING, 
 
 DECEMBER 20th, 1819, 
 
 By benjamin FANEUIL DUNKIN, Esq^ 
 
 [published at the REaUEST OF THE SOCIETtJ 
 
 CffJRLESTOJV, (S. C.) 
 
 ?binted at the courier office. 
 

 
 /C,-dJ^^^ 
 
(x> 
 
 AWSS^Ya^^^ &c* 
 
 ^b. 
 
 Gentlemen of the New-England Society, 
 
 w 
 
 E are assembled to celebrate the actions 
 and the sufferings of our forefathers. To reverence 
 the virtues of the good, is one step towards our own 
 improvement. It was the custom of the ancients, to 
 excite their youth to acts of heroism, by narrating 
 the valorous achievements of departed worthies ; 
 and the American savage is frequently roused to en- 
 thusiasm, by the song of their warriors' triumph. — 
 Ours is not the celebration of martial glory. The 
 deeds of our ancestors, who landed at Plymouth, 
 merit more sober approbation, claim a higher re- 
 ward. Their march was over a trackless ocean, the 
 enemies whom they left, were intolerance and perse- 
 cution, those whom they encountered, w( re famine 
 and disease, the savage and the tomahawk ; their 
 fight was the good fight of faith, their victory the 
 triumph of the cross. 
 
 ^' There are few States," says a foreign writer, 
 ^^ whose origin is so respectable as the Americans-— 
 none, whose history is sullied with so few crimes '^ 
 No sin, moral or political, drove the puritans of 
 New-England from the parent country. They were 
 offensive to a priesthood, whose religion consisted 
 
in forms and rituals ; who, like the Dominican friar, 
 could recognize Christianity, only when shrouded in 
 the scapular and the cowl. They preferred freedom 
 of conscience to all temporal blessings ; and volunta- 
 rily relinquished every earthly comfort in abandon- 
 ing the land of their nativity. It is not easy to con- 
 template this act without emotion. There is in it 
 that energy of despair which we regard with a min- 
 gled feeling of admiration and reverence. It marks 
 a decision of character whose resolves the power 
 of the Almighty alone could frustrate. It was 
 enough that duty commanded them to go. To obey 
 the voice of c nscience was the only passion of 
 their soul, the single object of their ambition. This 
 spirit kept them unmoved in storms and tempests ; 
 this supported them in sickness and in sorrow ; this 
 €nc turaged them in toil and in hardship ; this 
 guarded with vestal vigilance, their primitive habits 
 of piety, and morality, and industry. 
 
 On the twentieth day of December, 16S0, their 
 company landed qn the rock at Plymouth. All 
 the evils to which man is su])ject seemed in conspi- 
 racy against this band of pilgrims. Pestilence and 
 famine assumed new horrors in a climate to whose 
 severty they were hitherto strangers. I'hey were 
 dejected but not in despair. The exposure of the 
 first winter carried off half their number. Still 
 their zeal was unabated, their fortitude undismayed. 
 They est^iblished settlements, they erected temples 
 to (xod ; they extended the blessings of civilization 
 to the savage of the wilderness. To these hardy 
 and en^erj.rizing adventurers, NeAV-England owes 
 her origin. More---to them she is indebted for a 
 high example of moral habits, of general intelli- 
 g^Hice, of sturdy independence, of devoted patriot- 
 ism, JSone love their country so dearly as those 
 
5 
 
 who have shared her struggles for existence, who 
 have grown with her growth, antl strengthened with 
 her strength: None cherish liberty so fondly, as 
 those who have bled to preserve it. Two centuries 
 have nearly passed away, since the arrival of Stan- 
 dish and Carver. In the single state of Massachu- 
 setts this handful of men has become a body of 
 seven hundred thousand. We are not prepared to 
 say that this increase of numbers has never been 
 equalled ; but may we not truly boast that so rapid 
 advancement in population, knowledge and practical 
 morality combined, has no precedent in history, no 
 parallel in experience. 
 
 "Time rolls its ceaseless course." Where the 
 wolf prowled unmolested and the wild yell of the 
 savage echoed among the hills civilization and so- 
 ciety now smile. The eye is relieved by flourish- 
 ing towns, the ear cheered by the busy hum of in- 
 dustry. Population overflows, and the avenues to 
 success in all the employments of life are so crowd- 
 ed that the sons of N ew-England direct their views 
 to other climes where the range is more extensive 
 and the prospect more alluring. We, too, are wan- 
 derers from the land of our nativity ; some cf us in 
 boyhood, some in maturer years, have been " torn 
 from all we knew, from all we loved ;'^ still with 
 melancholy joy we look back to our country. What 
 heart among us is so cold as not to be softened by 
 iha remembrance of home ? whose imagination is 
 not sometimes gladdened by recurrence to the scenes 
 of his youth to the joys that are past ? In the still 
 hour of night, when darkness and solitude reign, 
 when the turbulent passions of the day are hushed, 
 and man is alive to all that is good and holy in his 
 nature, fancy then 1 ves to wing her way to tlie 
 abodes of our fathers^ the companions of our child' 
 
6 
 
 liood, the objects of our earliest aflpections, the birth- 
 place of our purest h pes. It is a luxury of feeling 
 which wealth cannot purchase ; an ench^intment of 
 imagination which reality can never repeat. They 
 are moments of pleasure, whicli enliven and redeem 
 the sad age of existence; precious are they as the 
 dews of Hermon, sacred as the joys of angels. 
 These visions are transitory, and however refresh- 
 ing, are still dreams. But destiny has not dealt 
 unkindly with us. " Our lines have fallen in pleasant 
 places.'^ We came to a land of stran2;ers, we were 
 received with welcome, we have been cherished as 
 brothers. I cannot think of Car^^lina witli coldness, 
 I cannot speak of her with indifference ; but grati- 
 tude is never eloquent ; nature, when she gave the 
 feeling, denied the power of adequate expression. 
 The virtues of our adopted coun ry are tiiose of the 
 heart; they cannot be unknown., they cannot be for- 
 gotten. Where is the sick whom they do not visit? 
 where the sfflicfed whom they do not relieve? 
 where the desolate wh m they do not conj^ole ? 
 which of us canj^ot testify Jo some act of magnani- 
 mity? whose soul hasu'-t been sometimes dissolved 
 by the affectionate manifestations of their friend- 
 ship? (h! there is a praise which sppaks louder 
 than the language of men ! Their actions require 
 no panegyric! *^They are rocrrded in tlie heart 
 ^* from whence tlipy sp u?ig, and in tie h.our of ad- 
 " verse vicissitude, il it ever sljould arrive, sweet 
 " will be the .dour of their memory, and precious 
 ^^ the balm of ilieir consohition.^' 
 
 It were happy for us, if the dim te breathed the 
 hospitality of its inhabitants. Every season sw^ eps 
 some from our numbers. The p stilence, which 
 stfvlks unseen, discrimin tes and destroys our devo- 
 ted countrymen. During the past summer scenes 
 
of distress were of daily recurrenee ; the hearse and 
 the pall, the sable habiliments of woe, the silent tear 
 of grief, the funeral peal that rung the knell of de- 
 pn^ted happiness — these wtre the only varieties 
 which reminded us of life, which admonished us of 
 death. The name of our young Society proclaimed 
 us strangers and marked us for pi cuiiar exposure. 
 "V^'e have cause for gratitude that so few haye fal- 
 len ; yet our numbers have been lessened, our ener- 
 gies reduced. Several have been prematurely taken 
 away, who were respectable in life and are lament- 
 ed in death. But we remember with singular sor- 
 row the untimely fate of an officer of our society 
 whose labors were indefatigable, whose attention 
 was devoted, whose zeal was unremitting ; in the 
 morning his expectations were high, his exertions 
 ardent 5 at noon, he was stretched on the bed of sick- 
 ness and of death, with blighted prospects and bro- 
 ken hopes. The virtues of Mr. Crocker were silent 
 and unobtrusive ; to be useful was his great ambi- 
 tion ; those, who knew him best, loved him most 
 loudly, lament him most sincerely. 
 
 *' ^o marble marks his couch of lowly sleep, 
 ** But living statues here are seen to weep ; 
 " Affliction's semblance bends not o'er his tomb, 
 " Affliction's self deplores his youthful doom." 
 
 ^ This year d^ath has not left to strana-ers the 
 miserable c^aisolation of beirg alone in calamity.— 
 i he fairest trees of the native forests have been 
 scathed and destroyed; those who were accustomed 
 tf solace our trouble, themselves required our condo- 
 lence. We mourned too for ourselves ; their friends 
 had become our friends : their suffei ings were our 
 sutterings ; their bereavements our bereavements ~ 
 
s 
 
 Tlie visitations of the past year have fallen heavily 
 on some of us ; they liave caused i pang for which 
 the heart neither asks nor will receive consolatioa 
 
 *' A fatal remembrance, a sorrow that throws 
 " It's bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes, 
 •' To which life nothing brighter nor darker can bring, 
 " For which joy hath no balm and affliction no sting." 
 
 I have dwelt longer on serious topics than is usu- 
 al — perhaps longer tinn is season ihle ; I trust many 
 years msy roll over before we have again such abun- 
 dant cause for sombre reflections. 
 
 The aunivernary of the landing of our forefathers 
 should be hailed with triumph, by every son of New- 
 England; on that d iy no cloud should obsure his 
 happiness ; though far from the land of our birth 
 we will not ^^hang our harps on the willows ;'' but 
 with thoughts and feelings fondly turned to our coun- 
 try let us weave the song of joy and congratulation. 
 In taking the mantle may we imbibe the spirit of 
 our ancestors ; may their hatred of oppression be 
 hereditary, the remembrance of their enterprize 
 and perseverance preserve in us kindred virtues, 
 and the Rock of Plymouth, be to their posterity, a 
 perpetual monument, of hardihood that knew not 
 fear, of independence that would not succumb, of 
 conscientious Christianity that dared not temporize. 
 
 Vc^,'