How gloriously this prediction has been verified! God has blessed it, and the seed which the founder sowed has borne the richest fruit. We are indeed a nation, confederated with thirty other sovereign nations or States by the most sacred political instrument in the annals of mankind, called the Constitution of the United States. Besides, we are truly the keystone of this vast confederacy, and our character and position eminently qualify us to act as a mediator between opposing extremes. Placed in the centre, between the North and the South, with a population distinguished for patriotism and steady good sense, and a devoted love to the Union, we stand as the days man, between the extremes, and can declare with the voice of power to both, hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. May this Union endure forever, the source of innumerable blessings to those who live under its beneficent sway, and the star of hope to millions of down-trodden men throughout the world! Bigotry has never sacrificed its victims at the shrine of intolerance in this our favored State. When they were burning witches in Massachusetts, honestly believing at the time they were doing God’s service, William Penn, in 1684, presided at the trial of a witch. Under his direction, the verdict was: “The prisoner is guilty of the common fame of being a witch; but not guilty as she stands indicted.” And “in Penn’s domain, from that day to this,” says the gifted historian, “neither demon nor hag ever rode through the air on goat or broomstick.” From the first settlement of the province until the present moment, the freedom of conscience established by the founder, has been perfect. Religion has always been a question exclusively between man and his Creator, and every human being has been free to worship his Maker according to the dictates of his own conscience. Bigotry, madly assuming to itself an attribute belonging to the Almighty, has never attempted to punish any one of his creatures for not adapting his belief to its own standard of faith. We have great cause to be proud of the early history of Pennsylvania.