Part 6

The rarest good fortune seems to have attended every step in this transaction.

I was fortunate in having formed the friendship of Mr. Grenfell, which secured to me so cordial a reception from the Bishop of London.

It was fortunate that the Bishop of London was Dr. Temple, an eminent scholar, kindly disposed toward the people of the United States, and a man thoroughly capable of understanding and respecting the deep and holy sentiment which a compliance with our desire would gratify.

It was fortunate, too, that Bishop Temple, who thought he must have the approbation of the archbishop before his action, when the time came had himself become Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England.

It was fortunate that Dr. Creighton had succeeded to the see of London. He is, himself, as I have just said, an eminent historical scholar. He has many friends in America. He was the delegate of Emmanuel, John Harvard's College, at the great Harvard centennial celebration in 1886. He received the degree of doctor of laws at Harvard and is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He had, as I have said, entertained President Eliot as his guest in England.

It was fortunate, too, that the application came in a time of cordial good-will between the two countries, when the desire of John Adams and the longing of George III. have their ample and complete fulfilment. This token of the good-will of England reached Boston on the eve of the birthday of the illustrious sovereign, who is not more venerated and beloved by her own subjects than by the kindred people across the sea.

It comes to us at the time of the rejoicing of the English people at the sixtieth anniversary of a reign more crowded with benefit to humanity than any other known in the annals of the race. Upon the power of England, the sceptre, the trident, the lion, the army and the fleet, the monster ships of war, the all-shattering guns, the American people are strong enough now to look with an entire indifference. We encounter her commerce and her manufacture in the spirit of a generous emulation. The inheritance from which England has gained these things is ours also. We, too, are of the Saxon strain.

In our halls is hung Armory of the invincible knights of old.

Our temple covers a continent, and its porches are upon both the seas. Our fathers knew the secret to lay, in Christian liberty and law, the foundations of empire. Our young men are not ashamed, if need be, to speak with the enemy in the gate.

But to the illustrious lady, type of gentlest womanhood, model of mother and wife and friend, who came at eighteen to the throne of George IV. and William; of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; the maiden presence before which everything unholy shrank; the sovereign who, during her long reign, "ever knew the people that she ruled;" the royal nature that disdained to strike at her kingdom's rival in the hour of our sorest need; the heart which even in the bosom of a queen beat with sympathy for the cause of constitutional liberty; who, herself not unacquainted with grief, laid on the coffin of our dead Garfield the wreath fragrant with a sister's sympathy,--to her our republican manhood does not disdain to bend.

The eagle, lord of land and sea, Will stoop to pay her fealty.

But I am afraid this application might have had the fate of its predecessors but for our special good fortune in the fact that Mr. Bayard was our ambassador at the Court of St. James. He had been, as I said in the beginning, the ambassador not so much of the diplomacy as of the good-will of the American people. Before his powerful influence every obstacle gave way. It was almost impossible for Englishmen to refuse a request like this, made by him, and in which his own sympathies were so profoundly enlisted.

You are entitled, sir, to the gratitude of Massachusetts, to the gratitude of every lover of Massachusetts and of every lover of the country. You have succeeded where so many others have failed, and where so many others would have been likely to fail. You may be sure that our debt to you is fully understood and will not be forgotten.

The question of the permanent abiding-place of this manuscript will be settled after it has reached the hands of His Excellency. Wherever it shall go it will be an object of reverent care. I do not think many Americans will gaze upon it without a little trembling of the lips and a little gathering of mist in the eyes, as they think of the story of suffering, of sorrow, of peril, of exile, of death and of lofty triumph which that book tells,--which the hand of the great leader and founder of America has traced on those pages.

There is nothing like it in human annals since the story of Bethlehem. These Englishmen and English women going out from their homes in beautiful Lincoln and York, wife separated from husband and mother from child in that hurried embarkation for Holland, pursued to the beach by English horsemen; the thirteen years of exile; the life at Amsterdam "in alley foul and lane obscure;" the dwelling at Leyden; the embarkation at Delfthaven; the farewell of Robinson; the terrible voyage across the Atlantic; the compact in the harbor; the landing on the rock; the dreadful first winter; the death roll of more than half the number; the days of suffering and of famine; the wakeful night, listening for the yell of wild beast and the war-whoop of the savage; the building of the State on those sure foundations which no wave or tempest has ever shaken; the breaking of the new light; the dawning of the new day; the beginning of the new life; the enjoyment of peace with liberty,--of all these things this is the original record by the hand of our beloved father and founder. Massachusetts will preserve it until the time shall come that her children are unworthy of it; and that time shall come,--never.

ADDRESS

OF THE

HON. THOMAS F. BAYARD.

ADDRESS OF AMBASSADOR BAYARD.

Your Excellency, Gentlemen of the two Houses of the Legislature of Massachusetts, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Countrymen: The honorable and most gratifying duty with which I am charged is about to receive its final act of execution, for I have the book here, as it was placed in my hands by the Lord Bishop of London on April 29, intact then and now; and I am about to deliver it according to the provisions of the decree of the Chancellor of London, which has been read in your presence, and the receipt signed by me and registered in his court that I would obey the provisions of that decree.

I have kept my trust; I have kept the book as I received it; I shall deliver it into the hands of the representative of the people who are entitled to its custody.

And now, gentlemen, it would be superfluous for me to dwell upon the historical features of this remarkable occasion, for it has been done, as we all knew it would be done, with ability, learning, eloquence and impressiveness, by the distinguished Senator who represents you so well in the Congress of the United States.

For all that related to myself, and for every gracious word of recognition and commendation that fell from his lips in relation to the part that I have taken in the act of restoration, I am profoundly grateful. It is an additional reward, but not the reward which induced my action.

To have served your State, to have been instrumental in such an act as this, was of itself a high privilege to me. The Bradford manuscript was in the library of Fulham palace, and if, by lawful means, I could have become possessed of the volume, and have brought it here and quietly deposited it, I should have gone to my home with the great satisfaction of knowing that I had performed an act of justice, an act of right between two countries. Therefore the praise, however grateful, is additional, and I am very thankful for it.

It may not be inappropriate or unpleasing to you should I state in a very simple manner the history of my relation to the return of this book, for it all has occurred within the last twelve months.

I knew of the existence of this manuscript, and had seen the reproduction in facsimile. I knew that attempts had been made, unsuccessfully, to obtain the original book.

At that time Senator Hoar made a short visit to England, and in passing through London I was informed by him of the great interest that he, in common with the people of this State, had in the restoration of this manuscript to the custody of the State.

We discussed the methods by which it might be accomplished, and after two or three concurrent suggestions he returned to the United States, and presently I received, under cover from the Secretary of State,--a distinguished citizen of your own State, Mr. Olney,--a formal note, suggesting rather than instructing that in an informal manner I should endeavor to have carried out the wishes of the various societies that had addressed themselves to the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury, in order to obtain the return of this manuscript.