America Speaks

By Norman Enger and Craig Enger

This concise and stirring collection of great speeches and writings, from the Revolutionary War era to the present, focuses on key individuals and ideas that have inspired the American people and shaped the history of the nation. Here are essential speeches and writings by leaders and statesmen, explorers and historians, writers and poets, soldiers and entrepreneurs, and men and women of varied backgrounds, from key eras of the nation's history. Together, these voices are powerful, eloquent, poignant, and uniquely American. They capture the breadth and richness of American history.

This history is remarkable - first, a few British colonies on the Atlantic coast struggling for independence. Then, the new nation overcomes challenging frontiers to expand westward across the continent. A bitter and tragic Civil War is fought to preserve the Union. Movements for social justice and the principles of individual freedom - the treatment of workers and sailors, emancipation of slaves, and woman's rights-change the nation. The ingenuity, hard work, and perseverance of self-made men drive incredible advances in industry, business, and economic growth. The United States then faces the challenges of global conflict in two world wars and the ensuing search for peace. From this inspiring tapestry of American history, we see the emergence of the United States as a world power and leader of the free world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350918144

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AMERICA SPEAKS

2nd Edition

Published by MeadowPress

Copyright © 2023 by Norman Enger & Craig Enger

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Manufactured in the United States of America

ISBN: 979-8-35091-813-7

eBook ISBN: 979-8-35091-814-4

For Marianne, my lifelong companion

– Norman Enger

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE: THE NEW REPUBLIC

Britain Is Warned, Benjamin Franklin

A Demand For Liberty, Patrick Henry

A Declaration Of Independence, John Adams

A Call To Arms, Samuel Adams

The Country At War, Thomas Paine

What Is An American?, Michel De Crevecoeur

The First President, George Washington

Principles Of Government, Thomas Jefferson

Liberty And Union, Daniel Webster

Dangers Of Sectionalism, Andrew Jackson

Edge Of The Precipice, Henry Clay

CHAPTER TWO: THE LAND AND FRONTIER

Cultivators Of The Land, Thomas Jefferson

Expanding Westward, Meriwether Lewis And William Clark

The Backwoodsman, Timothy Flint

The Trek West, Francis Parkman

The Gold Rush, Bayard Taylor

Frontier Religion, Peter Cartwright

Individualism, Henry David Thoreau

The Steamboatman, Samuel Clemens

The Frontier, Frederick Jackson Turner

The Farmer, John Burroughs

CHAPTER THREE: FAITH AND CHARACTER

New England Primer, Benjamin Harris

Articles Of Belief, Benjamin Franklin

Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Public Education, Horace Mann

The Simple Life, Henry David Thoreau

A Farewell To Friends, Abraham Lincoln

Poet Of Democracy, Walt Whitman

The Strenuous Life, Theodore Roosevelt

Principles Of Faith, Harry S. Truman

CHAPTER FOUR: INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

Limits Of Freedom, Roger Williams

Immorality Of Slavery, Thomas Jefferson

Inalienable Rights, Stephen J. Field

A Square Deal, Theodore Roosevelt

Human Liberty, Woodrow Wilson

Free Speech In Wartime, Robert La Follett

The Bill Of Rights, Herbert Hoover

Security And Freedom, Herbert Lehman

The Individual And His Government, Robert Taft

CHAPTER FIVE: INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE

Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin

Manufacturing, Alexander Hamilton

Triumphant Democracy, Andrew Carnegie

Pragmatism, William James

Social Forces, Frederick Jackson Turner

The Chain Of Progress, Henry Ford

Women And Science, Amelia Earhart

Science And Culture, Arthur Holly Compton

CHAPTER SIX: SOCIAL JUSTICE

Natural Aristocracy, Thomas Jefferson And John Adams

True Americanism, Carl Schurz

Before The Mast, Richar Henry Dana, Jr.

Ashes Of Our Ancestors, Chief Seattle

Woman’s Suffrage, Susan B. Anthony

Emancipation, Frederick Douglass

Cast Down Your Bucket, Booker T. Washington

A Wise Patriotism, Jane Addams

A Vision Of Society, Woodrow Wilson

CHAPTER SEVEN: WAR AND PEACE

With Malice Toward None, Abraham Lincoln

A Farewell To An Army, Robert E. Lee

The New South, Henry Woodfin Grady

A League Of Nations, Woodrow Wilson

The Unknown Soldier, Kirke L. Simpson

War Address, Franklin Delano Roosevelt

European Recovery, George C. Marshall

Freedom And Renewal, John F. Kennedy

Rendezvous With Destiny, Ronald Reagan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to my son, Kristofer, who researched selections in this book and worked with us to make this book possible.

– Norman Enger

INTRODUCTION

This concise anthology focuses on some of the individuals and ideas that have inspired the American people and shaped the history of the country.

United States history is remarkable—a few British colonies, with a toehold on the coast of North America, expanded rapidly across an entire continent and then emerged as the world’s greatest economic and military power.

As this anthology shows, the founding fathers made this possible by setting in place the political and moral framework for the nation’s growth. Documents such as The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with its Bill of Rights pointed to an enlightened government that protected individual liberties.

The history of the United States includes military conflicts, such as the Civil War and two world wars, and also social challenges, such as the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of women. During these times of deep crisis, truly great leaders have appeared to inspire and lead the nation—men like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt.

The history of America, as shown in this anthology, is also the history of the common man in all his occupations. When called upon by their country, these citizens have always answered the nation’s call and shown great bravery and patriotism. There are many memorials and monuments to these ordinary Americans in Washington D.C.

One of the most beautiful is the National World War II Memorial with its pillars, plaza, and fountain, set between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Although I was a young boy during the Second World War, I clearly recall that war and the rationing, victory gardens, and service stars in the windows of houses. My parents were ordinary Americans. During that war four of my father’s ships were torpedoed and my mother worked night shifts building bombsights.

Proud of their heritage, the American people have more than once shown the world their courage in war and generosity in peace.

CHAPTER ONE

THE NEW REPUBLIC

This chapter contains writings and speeches from the Revolutionary War and early Federal period that express the political and social beliefs of the founders of the Republic. These individuals broke from British rule and created an independent nation that offered its citizens political and religious freedom.

Discontent in the thirteen colonies against British taxes and the failure of colonial efforts at a diplomatic solution first erupted in scattered violence such as the Boston Tea Party in 1773, skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in 1775, and then into full rebellion. Benjamin Franklin describes the list of grievances that led to the Declaration of Independence and the subsequent war with Britain.

Men who understood the principles of self-government, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, inspired the new nation and led it to victory and independence. John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, captures the enthusiasm and anxiety surrounding the decision to become an independent nation. Thomas Paine, who was with the American troops in battle, describes the actual war.

To many of the politically and religiously oppressed peoples of Europe, the United States became a symbol of liberty, democracy, and opportunity. The new nation offered its citizens the opportunity to be free men, to work, to prosper, and to educate their children. As Michel de Crevecoeur writes, the Revolutionary War and the principles for which it was fought created a new man: the American.

After the war, the new nation, led by President George Washington, had to achieve political, economic, and social stability while it confronted and tried to reconcile regional differences. Daniel Webster, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay all dealt with the issue of sectionalism, which was intertwined with the issue of slavery. After many efforts by these statesmen to reconcile the North and the South, the issue of slavery ultimately fractured the new nation and led to the tragic Civil War.

BRITAIN IS WARNED

Benjamin Franklin

In his boyhood, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) worked with his father as a tallow chandler and soap boiler in Boston. Although he had little formal education, Franklin became a prosperous businessman, author, and inventor, as well as an acclaimed scientist and renowned statesman. Because of his accomplishments, he was a commanding figure during the period of the country’s formation.

Franklin opposed a series of acts such as the Stamp and Townshend Acts passed by the British Parliament to raise revenue from the American colonies. His satire, Rules by Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced to A Small One, was published anonymously in The Public Advertiser in 1773 to protest these acts and to warn Britain of the consequences of her oppressive actions. This satire warns Britain that if she continues her suppression of the American colonies by imposing and collecting arbitrary taxes, suspending habeas corpus and other civil liberties, ignoring property rights, appointing avaricious governors, quartering insolent troops in the colonies, and ignoring requests for relief, she will lose the colonies: Her Empire, like a great gingerbread cake produced by a baker, will be broken first at its edges, which is where the colonies were located.

Franklin at the time still believed that he could arrange reconciliation between Britain and the unhappy colonies. While in London in 1774 petitioning the Privy Council to have the disliked Governor Hutchison of Massachusetts removed from office, he was verbally abused by Lord North’s Attorney General, who represented the hardliners in the government, to the extent that he became convinced that his efforts to broker a settlement with Britain could not succeed. This decision may have been historically decisive in that Franklin, because of his prestige on both sides of the Atlantic, may have represented the last hope for a mediated peace between the colonies and Britain.

Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence and as minister to France during the Revolutionary War secured for the United States critical treaties of commerce and a defensive alliance with France. Without this crucial financial and military support from France, the American Revolution from Britain almost certainly would have failed. In 1783, Franklin and John Adams negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Britain that recognized the independence of the United States.

He was also a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention and in this capacity signed the Constitution. He also sought the abolition of slavery—he and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society submitted a petition to the House of Representatives in 1790 seeking a gradual end to slavery. Franklin was a pragmatist, a statesman, a scientist, and, most importantly, a patriot.

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An ancient Sage valued himself upon this, that tho’ he could not fiddle, he knew how to make a great City of a little one. The science that I, a modern simpleton, am about to communicate, is the very reverse.

I address myself to all ministers who have the management of extensive dominions, which from their very Greatness are become troublesome to govern, because the multiplicity of their affairs leaves no Time for fiddling.

I. In the first place, gentlemen, you are to consider, that a great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges. Turn your attention, therefore, first to your remotest provinces; that as you get rid of them, the next may follow in order.

II. That the possibility of this Separation may always exist, take special care the provinces are never incorporated with the mother country, that they do not enjoy the same common rights, the same privileges in commerce; and that they are governed by severer laws, all of your enacting, without allowing them any share in the choice of the legislators. By carefully making and preserving such distinctions, you will (to keep to my simile of the cake) act like a wise gingerbread baker, who, to facilitate a division, cuts his dough half through in those places, where, when baked, he would have it broken to pieces.

III. These remote provinces have perhaps been acquired, purchased, or conquered, at the sole expence of the settlers or their ancestors, without the aid of the mother country. If this should happen to increase her strength, by their growing numbers, ready to join in her wars; her commerce by their growing demand for her manufactures; or her naval power by greater employment for her ships and seamen, they may probably suppose some merit in this, and that it entitles them to some favour; you are therefore to forget it all, or resent it, as if they had done you injury. If they happen to be zealous whigs, friends of liberty, nurtured in revolution principles, remember all that to their prejudice, and contrive to punish it: For such principles, after a revolution is thoroughly established, are of no more use, they are even odious and abominable.

IV. However peaceably your colonies have submitted to your Government, shewn their affection to your interests, and patiently borne their grievances, you are to suppose them always inclined to revolt, and treat them accordingly. Quarter troops among them, who by their insolence may provoke the rising of mobs, and by their bullets and bayonets suppress them. By this means, like the husband who uses his wife ill from suspicion, you may in time convert your suspicions into realities.

V. Remote provinces must have Governors and Judges, to represent the Royal Person, and execute every where the delegated parts of his office and authority. You ministers know, that much of the strength of government depends on the opinion of the people; and much of that opinion on the choice of rulers placed immediately over them. If you send them wise and good men for governors, who study the Interest of the colonists, and advance their prosperity, they will think their King wise and good, and that he wishes the welfare of his subjects. If you send them learned and upright men for Judges, they will think him a lover of justice. This may attach your provinces more to his government. You are therefore to be careful who you recommend for those offices. If you can find prodigals who have ruined their fortunes, broken gamesters or stockjobbers, these may do well as governors; for they will probably be rapacious, and provoke the people by their extortions. Wrangling proctors and pettifogging lawyers, too, are not amiss; for they will be for ever disputing and quarrelling with their little parliaments. If withal they should be ignorant, wrong-headed and insolent, so much the better. Attorney’s clerks and Newgate solicitors will do for Chief Justices, especially if they hold their places during your pleasure; and all will contribute to impress those ideas of your government, that are proper for a people you would wish to renounce it.

VI. To confirm these impressions, and strike them deeper, whenever the injured come to the capital with complaints of mal-administration, oppression, or injustice, punish such suitors with long delay, enormous expense, and a final judgment in favor of the oppressor. This will have an admirable effect every way. The trouble of future complaints will be prevented, and Governors and Judges will be encouraged to farther acts of oppression and injustice; and thence the people may become more disaffected, and at length desperate.

VII. When such Governors have crammed their coffers, and made themselves so odious to the people that they can no longer remain among them with safety to their persons, recall and reward them with pensions. You may make them baronets too, if that respectable order should not think fit to resent it. All will contribute to encourage new governors in the same practice, and make the supreme government detestable.

VIII. If when you are engaged in war, your colonies should vie in liberal aids of men and money against the common enemy, upon your simple requisition, and give far beyond their abilities, reflect, that a penny taken from them by your power is more honorable to you than a pound presented by their benevolence; despise therefore their voluntary grants, and resolve to harass them with novel taxes. They will probably complain to your parliaments that they are taxed by a body in which they have no representative, and that this is contrary to common right. They will petition for redress. Let the Parliaments flout their claims, reject their petitions, refuse even to suffer the reading of them, and treat the petitioners with the utmost contempt. Nothing can have a better effect in producing the alienation proposed; for though many can forgive injuries, none ever forgave contempt.

IX. In laying these taxes, never regard the heavy burthens those remote people already undergo, in defending their own frontiers, supporting their own provincial governments, making new roads, building bridges, churches, and other public edifices, which in old countries have been done to your hands by your ancestors, but which occasion constant calls and demands on the purses of a new people. Forget the restraints you lay on their trade for your own benefit, and the advantage a monopoly of this trade gives your exacting merchants. Think nothing of the wealth those merchants and your manufacturers acquire by the colony commerce; their encreased ability thereby to pay taxes at home; their accumulating, in the price of their commodities, most of those taxes, and so levying them from their consuming customers; all this, and the employment and support of thousands of your poor by the colonists, you are entirely to forget. But remember to make your arbitrary tax more grievous to your provinces, by public declarations importing that your power of taxing them has no limits; so that when you take from them without their consent one shilling in the pound, you have a clear right to the other nineteen. This will probably weaken every idea of security in their property, and convince them, that under such a government they have nothing they can call their own; which can scarce fail of producing the happiest consequences!

X. Possibly, indeed, some of them might still comfort themselves, and say, "Though we have no property, we have yet something left that is valuable; we have constitutional liberty both of person and of conscience. This King, these Lords, and these Commons, who it seems are too remote from us to know us and feel for us, cannot take from us our Habeas Corpus right, or our right of trial by a jury of our neighbours: they cannot deprive us of the exercise of our religion, alter our ecclesiastical constitution, and compel us to be Papists if they please, or Mahometans." To annihilate this comfort, begin by laws to perplex their commerce with infinite regulations impossible to be remembered and observed; ordain seizures of their property for every failure; take away the trial of such property by Jury, and give it to arbitrary Judges of your own appointing, and of the lowest characters in the country, whose salaries and emoluments are to arise out of the duties or condemnations, and whose appointments are during pleasure. Then let there be a formal declaration of both Houses, that opposition to your edicts is treason, and that persons suspected of treason in the provinces may, according to some obsolete law, be seized and sent to the metropolis of the empire for trial; and pass an act that those there charged with certain other offences, shall be sent away in chains from their friends and country to be tried in the same manner for felony. Then erect a new Court of Inquisition among them, accompanied by an armed force, with instructions to transport all such suspected persons; to be ruined by the expence, if they bring over evidences to prove their innocence, or be found guilty and hanged, if they can’t afford it. And lest the people should think you cannot possibly go any farther, pass another solemn declaratory act, that King, Lords, and Commons had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the unrepresented Provinces IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER. This will include spiritual with temporal, and taken together, must operate wonderfully to your purpose; by convincing them, that they are at present under a power something like that spoken of in the scriptures, which can not only kill their bodies, but damn their souls to all eternity, by compelling them, if it pleases, to worship the Devil.…

XV. Convert the brave honest officers of your navy into pimping tide-waiters and colony officers of the customs. Let those, who in time of war fought gallantly in defense of the commerce of their countrymen, in peace be taught to prey upon it. Let them learn to be corrupted by great and real Smugglers; but (to show their diligence) scour with armed boats every Bay, harbor, river, creek, cove or nook throughout the coast of your colonies; stop and detain every coaster, every woodboat, every fisherman, tumble their cargoes, and even their ballast, inside out and upside down; and if a penn’orth of pins is found un-entered, let the whole be seized and confiscated. Thus shall the trade of your colonists suffer more from their friends in time of peace, than it did from their enemies in war. Then let these boats crews land upon every farm in their way, rob the orchards, steal the pigs and poultry, and insult the inhabitants. If the injured and exasperated farmers, unable to procure other justice, should attack the aggressors, drub them, and burn their boats; you are to call this high treason and rebellion, order fleets and armies into their country, and threaten to carry all the offenders three thousand miles to be hanged, drawn and quartered. O! this will work admirably!

XVI. If you are told of discontents in your colonies, never believe that they are general, or that you have given occasion for them; therefore do not think of applying any remedy, or of changing any offensive measure. Redress no grievance, lest they should be encouraged to demand the redress of some other grievance. Grant no request that is just and reasonable, lest they should make another that is unreasonable. Take all your informations of the state of the colonies from your Governors and officers in enmity with them. Encourage and reward these leasing-makers; secrete their lying accusations, lest they should be confuted; but act upon them as the clearest evidence; and believe nothing you hear from the friends of the people. Suppose all their complaints to be invented and promoted by a few factious demagogues, whom if you could catch and hang, all would be quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly; and the blood of the martyrs shall work miracles in favour of your purpose.

XVII. If you see rival nations rejoicing at the prospect of your disunion with your provinces, and endeavouring to promote it; if they translate, publish and applaud all the complaints of your discontented colonists, at the same time privately stimulating you to severer measures; let not that alarm or offend you. Why should it, since you all mean the same thing?

XVIII. If any colony should at their own charge erect a fortress to secure their port against the fleets of a foreign enemy, get your Governor to betray that fortress into your hands. Never think of paying what it cost the country, for that would look, at least, like some regard for justice; but turn it into a citadel to awe the inhabitants and curb their commerce. If they should have lodged in such fortress the very arms they bought and used to aid you in your conquests, seize them all; it will provoke like ingratitude added to robbery. One admirable effect of these operations will be, to discourage every other colony from erecting such defences, and so your enemies may more easily invade them; to the great disgrace of your government, and of course the furtherance of your project.

XIX. Send armies into their country under pretense of protecting the inhabitants; but instead of garrisoning the forts on their frontiers with those troops, to prevent incursions, demolish those forts, and order the troops into the heart of the country, that the savages may be encouraged to attack the frontiers, and that the troops may be protected by the inhabitants: This will seem to proceed from your ill will or your ignorance, and contribute farther to produce and strengthen an opinion among them, that you are no longer fit to govern them.

XX. Lastly, invest the General of your army in the provinces with great and unconstitutional powers, and free him from the control of even your own Civil Governors. Let him have troops enow under his command, with all the fortresses in his possession; and who knows but (like some provincial Generals in the Roman Empire, and encouraged by the universal discontent you have produced) he may take it into his head to set up for himself? If he should, and you have carefully practiced these few excellent rules of mine, take my word for it, all the provinces will immediately join him; and you will that day (if you have not done it sooner) get rid of the trouble of governing them, and all the plagues attending their commerce and connection from thenceforth and for ever.

Rules by Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced to A Small One,

September 11, 1773



A DEMAND FOR LIBERTY

Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry (1736–1799) was a member of the first and Second Continental Congresses, a soldier in the American Revolution, a successful lawyer, brilliant orator, and served twice as Governor of Virginia. He was a prominent and fiery advocate of the American Revolution and of independence from Britain. In his speech to the Virginia Convention of Delegates at St. John’s Church in Richmond on March 23, 1775, he declared that peace and reconciliation with Great Britain was impossible. He ended the speech with an emotional call to arms. (Because no actual copy of the Liberty or Death speech exists, the version included in this chapter is one that has been reconstructed by his biographer, William Wirt.) After the Revolution, Henry was an instrumental supporter of the efforts to amend the Constitution with the Bill of Rights to protect individual liberties.



Mr. President:

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves, and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our