For My
Own Part, I Really Believe That, Had That Party And Sectarian Feeling
Proceeded In The Same Ratio Of Virulence It Has Done For The Last
Twelve Or Fourteen Years, It Must Have Exercised A Barbarising
Influence Upon Public Sentiments And Public Manners.
There are some
amongst us now, I know, who believe that the period has arrived when a
great effort
Must be made to emancipate this country from the degrading
thraldom of faction - to terminate, if possible, that extreme, that
sectarian, and limited view, in which all human conduct is examined,
observed, and criticized - to put an end to that exclusiveness, which,
in its peculiar sphere, is equally deleterious as that aristocratical
exclusiveness of manners which has produced so much evil; and, as far
as I can form an opinion, these views have met with sympathy from every
part of the country. I look upon it that to-night - I hope I am not
mistaken - we are met to consummate and to celebrate the emancipation of
this city, at least so far as the Athenaeum extends, from the influence
of these feelings. I hope that our minds and our hearts are alike open
to the true character of this institution, to the necessities which
have created it, to the benefits to which it leads; and happy I shall
be, and all, I am sure, who are assisting me this evening, if it prove
that our efforts, however humble, may have assisted in so delightful
and so desirable a consummation.
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