Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is reserved the honor of levelling the Popery of politics.  They opened the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge for himself in religion.  Are we sufficient for the comprehension of the sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal ones?  Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for eternity, and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to know from our feelings the experience that will make us happy.  “You can discern,” say they, “objects distant and remote, but cannot perceive those within your grasp.  Let us have the distribution of present goods, and cut out and manage as you please the interests of futurity.”  This day, I trust, the reign of political protestantism will commence.

We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have bowed down to, has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone.  We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient.  He reigns in heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds His subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them.  From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.

Men who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a display of words, talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for protection.  Had she a single eye to our advantage?  A nation of shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested.  Let us not be so amused with words; the extension of her commerce was her object.  When she defended our coasts, she fought for her customers, and convoyed our ships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired for her by our industry.  She has treated us as beasts of burthen, whom the lordly masters cherish that they may carry a greater load.  Let us inquire also against whom she has protected us?  Against her own enemies with whom we had no quarrel, or only on her account, and against whom we always readily exerted our wealth and strength when they were required.  Were these colonies backward in giving assistance to Great Britain, when they were called upon in 1739, to aid the expedition against Carthagena?  They at that time sent three thousand men to join the British army, although the war commenced without their consent.  But the last war, ’t is said, was purely American.  This is a vulgar error, which, like many others, has gained credit by being confidently repeated.  The dispute between the Courts of Great Britain and France, related to the limits of Canada and Nova Scotia.  The controverted territory was not claimed by any in the colonies, but by the Crown of Great Britain.  It was therefore their own quarrel.  The infringement of a right which England had, by the treaty of Utrecht, of trading in the Indian country of Ohio, was another cause of the war.  The French seized large quantities of British manufactures, and took possession of a