God bless them!  Here’s to the health and success of the California Society of Pilgrims assembled on the shores of the Pacific. [Prolonged applause.] And it shall yet go hard, if the three hundred millions of people of China—­if they are intelligent enough to understand anything—­shall not one day hear and know something of the Rock of Plymouth too! [Laughter and cheers.]

But, gentlemen, I am trespassing too long on your time. [Cries of “No, no!  Go on!”] I am taking too much of what belongs to others.  My voice is neither a new voice, nor is it the voice of a young man.  It has been heard before in this place, and the most that I have thought or felt concerning New England history and New England principles, has been before, in the course of my life, said here or elsewhere.

Your sentiment, Mr. President, which called me up before this meeting, is of a larger and more comprehensive nature.  It speaks of the Constitution under which we live; of the Union, which for sixty years has been over us, and made us associates, fellow-citizens of those who settled at Yorktown and the mouth of the Mississippi and their descendants, and now, at last, of those who have come from all corners of the earth and assembled in California.  I confess I have had my doubts whether the republican system under which we live could be so vastly extended without danger of dissolution.  Thus far, I willingly admit, my apprehensions have not been realized.  The distance is immense; the intervening country is vast.  But the principle on which our Government is established, the representative system, seems to be indefinitely expansive; and wherever it does extend, it seems to create a strong attachment to the Union and the Constitution that protects it.  I believe California and New Mexico have had new life inspired into all their people.  They consider themselves subjects of a new being, a new creation, a new existence.  They are not the men they thought themselves to be, now that they find they are members of this great Government, and hailed as citizens of the United States of America.  I hope, in the providence of God, as this system of States and representative governments shall extend, that it will be strengthened.  In some respects the tendency is to strengthen it.  Local agitations will disturb it less.  If there has been on the Atlantic coast, somewhere south of the Potomac—­and I will not define further where it is—­if there has been dissatisfaction, that dissatisfaction has not been felt in California; it has not been felt that side the Rocky Mountains.  It is a localism, and I am one of those who believe that our system of government is not to be destroyed by localisms, North or South! [Cheers.] No; we have our private opinions, State prejudices, local ideas; but over all, submerging all, drowning all, is that great sentiment, that always, and nevertheless, we are all Americans.  It is as Americans that we are known, the whole world over.  Who asks what State you are from, in Europe, or in Africa, or in Asia?  Is he an American—­is he of us?  Does he belong to the flag of the country?  Does that flag protect him?  Does he rest under the eagle and the Stars and Stripes?  If he does, if he is, all else is subordinate and worthy of little concern. [Cheers.]