These consequences, then so little foreseen, have unfolded
themselves, in all their grandeur, to the eyes of the present age.
It is a common amusement of speculative minds to contrast the
magnitude of the most important events with the minuteness of their
primeval causes, and the records of mankind are full of examples for
such contemplations. It is, however, a more profitable employment
to trace the constituent principles of future greatness in their
kernel; to detect in the acorn at our feet the germ of that majestic
oak, whose roots shoot down to the centre and whose branches aspire
to the skies. Let it be, then, our present occupation to inquire
and endeavor to ascertain the causes first put in operation at the
period of our commemoration, and already productive of such
magnificent effects; to examine with reiterated care and minute
attention the characters of those men who gave the first impulse to
a new series of events in the history of the world; to applaud and
emulate those qualities of their minds which we shall find deserving
of our admiration; to recognize with candor those features which
forbid approbation or even require censure, and, finally, to lay
alike their frailties and their perfections to our own hearts,
either as warning or as example.

Of the various European settlements upon this continent, which have
finally merged in one independent nation, the first establishments
were made at various times, by several nations, and under the
influence of different motives. In many instances, the conviction of
religious obligation formed one and a powerful inducement of the
adventures; but in none, excepting the settlement at Plymouth, did
they constitute the sole and exclusive actuating cause. Worldly
interest and commercial speculation entered largely into the views