It is the plighted faith of our fathers; it
is the hope of our posterity. I say, then, I come not to argue questions
outside of or above the Constitution, but to plead the cause of right,
of law and order, under the Constitution and to plead it to those who
have sworn to abide by that obligation.
One of the fruitful sources, as I hold it, of the errors which prevail
in our country, is the theory that this is a Government of one people;
that the Government of the United States was formed by a mass. The
Government of the United States is a compact between the sovereign
members who formed it; and, if there be one feature common to all the
colonies planted upon the shores of America, it is desire for community
independence. It was for this the Puritan, the Huguenot, the Catholic,
the Quaker, the Protestant, left the land of their nativity, and, guided
by the shadows thrown by the fires of European persecution, they sought
and found the American refuge of civil and religious freedom. While they
existed as separate and distinct colonies they were not forbearing
toward each other. They oppressed opposite religions. They did not come
here with the enlarged idea of no established religion. The Puritans
drove out the Quakers; the Church-of-England men drove out the
Catholics. Persecution reigned through the colonies, except, perhaps,
that of the Catholic colony of Maryland; but the rule was--persecution.
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