Let our object be, OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration for ever! FOOTNOTES [53] An Address delivered at the Laying of the Corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 17th of June, 1825. [54] An interesting account of the voyage of the early emigrants to the Maryland Colony, and of its settlement, is given in the official report of Father White, written probably within the first month after the landing at St. Mary's. The original Latin manuscript is still preserved among the archives of the Jesuits, at Rome. The "Ark" and the "Dove" are remembered with scarcely less interest by the descendants of the sister Colony, than is the "Mayflower" in New England, which, thirteen years earlier, at the same season of the year, bore thither the Pilgrim Fathers. [55] Mr. Webster was at this time President of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, chosen on the decease of Governor John Brooks, the first President. [56] That which was spoken of figuratively in 1825 has, in the lapse of a quarter of a century, by the introduction of railroads and telegraphic lines, become a reality. It is an interesting circumstance, that the first railroad on the Western Continent was constructed for the purpose of accelerating the erection of this monument. [57] See President Monroe's Message to Congress in 1823, and Mr. Webster's speech on the Panama mission, in 1828. [58] It is necessary to inform those only who are unacquainted with the localities, that the United States Navy Yard at Charlestown is situated at the base of Bunker Hill. [59] See the North American Review, Vol. XLI. p. 242. [60] Among the earliest of the arrangements for the celebration of the 17th of June, 1825, was the invitation to General Lafayette to be present; and he had so timed his progress through the other States as to return to Massachusetts in season for the great occasion. THE COMPLETION OF THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. INTRODUCTORY NOTE.*