Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.

Excerpt from An Oration Delivered on the Fourth of July, 1861, Before the Municipal Authorities of the City of Boston I do not forget that the recognitions of our pecu liar advantages which the return of this day invite, are apt to run into boasting and harmful self-glorification. I would remember this and avoid it. But I must not refrain from expressing to you my belief, my most deliberate, long and carefully considered, and most profound conviction, that it has been, and is, the purpose of Him who holds in His almighty hand the destinies of men and nations, to establish, here, a prosperous nation, under a better form of govern ment than has ever before existed, or now exists elsewhere. But all the purposes of Providence which are wrought through the instrumentality of men, are to a certain extent delivered to their free agency, and may therefore be retarded and obstructed by the wrongful exercise of that free agency. And it will be my endeavor to-day to direct your attention to a few, and only a few, of what seem to me the footsteps of Omnipotence along the pathway to the great pur pose I have indicated; to point out to you some of the obstacles which resist, and some of the perils whichthreaten this great purpose, and some of our duties in relation to them. Let us begin with the inquiry, what the best gov ernment must be; and the answer may be, in one word, self-government. On this topic, as on so many others, we may be helped by remembering that as a nation is composed of men, it cannot contain any other elements of national character than those which are contributed by the men of the nation. And when we look at men individually and from the study of human character, reach certain definite laws and con elusions concerning human life in the individual, we may well hope that these laws and conclusions will throw some light upon analogous questions as they exist in reference to a nation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.