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The fourth annual
Scotch-Irish Congress was called to order at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April
28, in the Hall of Representatives of the State Capitol, by Dr. J. N.
Craig, President of the Atlanta Scotch-Irish Society.
Dr. Craig:
We will invoke the blessing of God in a prayer
by Rev. Dr. McDonald, pastor of the Second Baptist Church of this city.
Dr. Henry McDonald:
O God, thou art the ever living God. One
generation cometh and passeth away, but thou art throughout all
generations; thy years fail not. We rejoice that thou art the great and
ever living God, that thou carest for all the workmanship of thine own
hands, thou carest for us as individuals, and thou art the God of nations
and of peoples as well. We bless thee that thou hast so appointed the
borders of our habitations as to accomplish the great purpose which thou
hast by thy people for the welfare of the world.
We come this morning and thank thee that so
many of us are permitted to meet here. Grant that with grateful, loving
hearts we may send out our supplications and give expressions of gratitude
for the memory of all thy blessings and all thy mercies. Gathered here as
this Congress is this morning, descendants of people of a common ancestry,
we pray thee that thy blessing shall rest upon each one of us, binding us
not only in the ties of fellowship, not only in ties of blood, but in ties
of a common faith in thee, of a common heritage with Christ, and may thy
name be glorified by our assembling together and by the unity of heart and
of hope and of progress which shall influence the meeting of these thy
services. We would
not forget, O God, the land from which our ancestors come, and where many
of them rest beneath its greensward; in many a kirkyard, in many a
cemetery the dust of our ancestors rests. We would not forget that land,
steeped as it has been in olden time to the very lips in suffering. We
would the more remember her in her sorrows and her woes, and while we
remember the deeds of daring and despair, the deeds of glory and of shame,
the factions which have to-day destroyed her unity and disturbed her peace
and the sad, sad century of woe which has rested upon her, we come to ask
thee, 0 God, that at the very last, out of all this seeming confusion and
faction and ill feeling, thou wilt in thine own gracious purpose restore
communion and fellowship, a broader sympathy, a wider range of thought;
and diversified as these races have been in many respects, we pray thee
that thou shalt unify and bless them and bring out, we beseech thee, the
great purpose for which thou hast preserved that people through all these
suffering centuries. We thank thee, O God, that we are permitted to turn
our faces away from the graves of our fathers with an unbroken love for
their homes, for the places where they were born, the places where they
suffered, the places where many a misery and many a period of bitterness
and sorrow prevailed, the places where their bodies rest, to this our own
glorious land. We
thank thee for all that thou hast accomplished by those that came here
filled with a strong purpose of hope, influenced not only by a living
regard for a larger freedom and a field more open for its exercise, but
impelled, many of them, by the stern demands of having an opportunity for
the unrestricted exercise of the faith in which they rested. We thank thee
for all that has been accomplished by these men; we thank thee for all
that has been done in the struggles of the past, for all their
achievements in the defense of liberty, in the prosecution of the great
purposes of statehood, for all that has been accomplished for the
spiritual welfare of the world. And, 0 God, grant that we who live now and
our descendants may turn with unabated interest and cleave to the things
which have been secured by the labors of our ancestors and by their
sacrifices, and may this large land, this great open field, this bright
new world of ours, be more and more favored as the home of civil and
religious freedom. May the Lord give us prosperity and blessing; may the
Lord unite our people more and more in clear, sincere, patriotic affection
and faith, that the disappointments here and there in any section shall
give way to a real abiding love for our whole country and every part of
it. Bless the members
of this Congress. We thank thee that they meet to-day in our capital city;
we thank thee that old friendships shall only become the stronger because
of this fresh renewal, and that new friendships shall be formed, and
though some may come here as strangers, that strangers they will never be
again. The Lord be with us and bless us, bless the homes of those men who
have come away to meet with us; may they help each other and refresh the
life and heart of each other. O Lord, grant thy blessings upon all that
shall be said and done, and attend upon all the social joys and exercises
and deliberations of this body, and may we remember, O God, that after
all, prosperity, individual and national, comes only from thee.
O thou God of our fathers, be the God of their
children and the God of their children's children, and may the truth as it
is in Christ Jesus make us free, for if the truth shall make us free we
shall be free indeed. May the glory and blessing and honor be thine, and
thine only, and thine forever through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Dr. J. N. Craig:
Ladies and Gentlemen: No words can express the
pleasure with which the Scotch-Irish people of Georgia hail the arrival of
this hour. We believe in the sentiment which was expressed by Lord
Macaulay when in his history he gives a graphic account of what our
ancestors suffered and what they did at Londonderry, and tells us then of
the manner in which their descendants to this day, after the lapse of over
two hundred years, meet every year to celebrate that siege and its
wonderful victory. Then he says that no people who fail to take pride in
the deeds of their ancestors will ever do anything in which their
posterity can take pride. [Applause.]
We accept that sentiment, and that is the
keynote of the organization of the Scotch-Irish Society of America. On the
page of history we can go back and trace our ancestry, it is not necessary
to say how far back; for all practical purposes at this moment we need
only go back to the beginning of the seventeenth century and to the siege
of Londonderry, to take the things which immediately preceded and led up
to that siege and that victory, the blessed results of which cover the
civilized world to-day. There we find Scotch people who had from time to
time come to Ireland in large numbers, and we find them imbued with that
fundamental principle that abides in the Scotchman, the principle of civil
liberty; and when the Scotchman believed in liberty, he did not believe in
license. He believed in liberty and in law. He felt that his first
allegiance was due to his God, but he could not worship in the way of his
own choosing; he must worship according to the revealed law of God. Next,
he believed in a regularly constituted civil authority, and every man
under that civil authority was bound under his obligation to God to obey
that civil law. We find that later they were not so situated as to be able
to enjoy these privileges, and they came to America, pouring over here in
streams in the last century, especially in the sixty years before the
Revolutionary War. Their principles soon worked out in America. They were
determined not only to have religious liberty, to choose their own
religious teachers, refusing to have these teachers put upon them by any
power of man; but by a next step, which was easily taken, they determined
to choose their civil rulers, and have their laws made and executed by men
of their own choice. Out of that spirit came the Mecklenburg Declaration
in 1775, followed soon after by the great American Declaration. All of
this we have in this country, the product of these Scotch-Irish
principles. The term
"Scotch-Irish," I suppose we all know, does not mean a mixture of the
Scotch and Irish blood, but the Scotchman who lived in the North of
Ireland, and who, for the reasons that I have stated, came to America and
settled Western Pennsylvania, New York, and who then came down through the
valley of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, and
passed out in great numbers to the West and Northwest. Now we have this
great American government as the outgrowth of this work in which our
ancestors were the great leaders. We have furnished, I believe, nine
Presidents of the United States and thirty-nine generals in the
Revolutionary War.
Nothing human is perfect, but the Scotch-Irishman has always been in the
front of his country's conflicts. Of his part in the late war between the
States I will say nothing except to state that the Scotch-Irishman
following his convictions on the Northern side and the Scotch-Irishman
following his convictions on the Southern side met each other on the
fields of battle, and will testify that on whichever side they were when
they met Scotch-Irishmen they met foemen worthy of their steel.
[Applause.] But all those sad days are over, the award of battle has been
accepted, and the Scotch-Irishmen have been brought together in one common
effort to make our country in its future the greatest, best country of the
world. [Applause.]
To-day, these people, intending to commemorate the deeds of their race and
to mingle in pleasant social greeting, have met in our city in their
fourth annual Congress; and the people of Georgia, through their
representatives, are here to meet and welcome them. Matrons, crowned with
the noblest honors of motherhood, are here to welcome our guests. The
beams of the sun, falling upon the hills and valleys of our State, present
on this spring morning many beautiful, glowing landscapes; but the beam's
of that sun are not purer, the beauty, the loveliness of those landscapes
are not greater than the purity and the loveliness of the Georgia girls
who are here to welcome you. [Applause.] Georgia's fathers, with their
courage and their intelligence, in the fullness of their manhood,
accompanied by their sons, to whom they have given honorable names, are
here to meet you; and now all these people of Georgia will give our guests
a welcome through the one man whom they have chosen and placed at their
head as the chief executive officer of the state. This Congress will now
be welcomed by the eloquent lips of the Hon. W. J. Northen, the
Scotch-Irish Governor of Georgia.
Gov. William J. Northen:
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the
Scotch-Irish Society: I have just come in from the most distant part of
our state to say, as I may, for all our people, that Georgia most gladly
greets you. Georgia always has a warm welcome in her homes and in the
hearts of her people for just such manhood as is represented by the
Scotch-Irish of America.
With us, men attain to worthiness and to
welcome because of purity of life, integrity of character, high purpose,
and courageous action. Some one has said that the most prominent
characteristics of the Scotch-Irish are "stern integrity, high sense of
duty, hatred of tyranny, the defense of liberty, and the love of God." The
Scotch-Irish, therefore, are the living exponents of righteous government,
the unterrified defenders of civil liberty, the strong embodiment of
virtuous manhood. and the uncompromising advocates of the Christian faith.
In all the history of the world there have been no braver defenders of
governmental right, or of the Christian faith, than the descendants of the
Ulstermen. Down through the fearful slaughter at Bothwell Bridge, in the
fierce encounter between the Covenanters and the forces of Monmouth, the
battle of Boyne, and the many other hard-fought fields which ran with the
blood of struggling forces, the Scotch-Irish have given to the world a
record of daring for liberty and for right not surpassed in the conflicts
that make men heroes.
Coming among us, the sons of such
distinguished sires, bearing in your life history the records of the faith
and of the defense of right, Georgia welcomes you as an inspiration to
higher purposes in government, broader views of human relations, and a
profounder sense of universal obligation to virtue in society,
righteousness in government, and purity in religious faith.
To-day, wherever found, the Scotch-Irish would
exalt every man to the regal dignity of his God-given right, and rebuke
and defy any and every law that would make him a slave. Always, and
everywhere, the fearless advocates of liberty, bold, courageous, and
aggressive, the Scotch-Irish are the determined foes of oppression and
misrule. [Applause.]
In the beginning of the days of American freedom and constitutional
liberty, as the Continental Congress fully realized the tremendous issues
hanging upon the supreme crisis in universal liberty, preparing and
hesitating about the final signature of the Declaration that was to be the
fatal blow to tyranny on this continent, every man sat silent and still,
as the stoutest heart doubted and the strongest hand trembled with
apprehension and fear. In the midst of that intense anxiety, a
Scotch-Irishman arose and said: "To hesitate at this moment is to consent
to your own slavery. That noble instrument upon your table, which insures
immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very moment by every
man in this house." Courage came again to doubting men. The Declaration,
under the influence of those burning words, was signed. Shackles fell from
human limbs, and the grandest political event of the ages found its place
in history, in the declared principles of constitutional liberty and local
self-control. True,
not only to political and governmental duty, but to the higher demands of
Christian obligation, the Scotch-Irish are equally devoted to religion and
learning. These make the basis of good society and the strength of a
state. Coming, as you
do, from all parts and all parties, Georgia welcomes you; bringing with
you all Christian creeds, Georgia welcomes you; coming from all
professions and all trades, Georgia welcomes you, as the builders of new
hope for the great future of our growing country. We welcome you because
of the time-honored principles you represent and your exemplification of
them. We welcome you as brave men and true men, God-fearing men, who stand
ever ready, on every field of duty and at every post of service to lift up
humanity to hope and to God.
Mr. President, that I may give some evidence
of the heartiness of this welcome, Mrs. Northen joins me in tendering to
the members of this Congress a reception at the executive mansion, from 8
to 11 o'clock this evening, that you may meet, socially, the hospitable
people of this representative city of the state. [Applause.]
Dr. J. K. Craig:
Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: If those
of you who are strangers haven't realized that you are in the city of
Atlanta, you will soon find it out. The infant who looked upon Atlanta as
a pile of rubbish and debris is to-day only twenty-seven years of age.
People said when this city had five thousand inhabitants that it was made,
and would be nothing more of a city. It reached ten thousand, thirty
thousand, fifty thousand, and grew until it had sixty-five thousand, and
they said it would grow no larger. I intended to say to you to-day that we
now have a hundred thousand people, but our Mayor says there are only
ninety thousand; but he says there will be a hundred thousand in a month.
[Laughter.] It has
been said that Atlanta is the result of Northern energy and Northern
pluck. A careful canvass of this city was made under the supervision of
the lamented Mr. Grady, and it was discovered that while we had a number
of splendid Northern people who had been welcomed and who had taken a
creditable part in making Atlanta a prosperous city, still for the most
part, in the main, it was made by the piety, intelligence, the pluck and
the energy of the people of Georgia and the surrounding states. It is
distinctly a product of Southern pluck, Southern piety, Southern energy
and intelligence [applause], and we have today the pleasure of having with
us one man who has taken a prominent part in making Atlanta a great city,
a man whom the people of the city have honored by making him their chief
executive officer, and you will now be welcomed to the city by the
hospitable hand and kind words of Mayor Hemphill. [Applause.]
Mayor W. A. Hemphill:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: It
affords me much pleasure to welcome you to our city. We have been looking
with pleasure for the coming of this propitious hour, when you would be
with us. We feel highly honored by the presence of so many distinguished
representatives of a brave and energetic race, a people who have taken
such a prominent and important part in the history of this country. The
glory of this nation is due in a great part to the wisdom and patriotism
of the representatives of the Scotch-Irish people.
I know you will pardon me if I tell you about
some of the good things we possess. Situated 1,100 feet above the sea, on
a dividing ridge —the waters on one side flowing into the Gulf of Mexico,
on the other into the Atlantic—we are insured good health and a bracing
climate. I have the
honor of representing a government that has never defaulted a dollar, and
one whose obligations are always promptly met. We never have defaulting
city officials. Honesty is the best policy, and no other policy is
permitted. Our public schools are worthy of your attention. The buildings
are constructed in the best architectural style, and are capable of
accommodating ten thousand children. The reputation of our schools extends
far and wide, and delegations from other cities frequently visit our
schools to find out the best methods of teaching and the latest style in
architecture. We have
about ninety churches of all denominations. Our people are a worshiping
people, and I believe I can say it without fear of dispute that Atlanta is
the best church-going city in this country of equal population.
Red-handed war, with blazing torch and flaming
steel, ran ruthlessly over this fair city, and hardly a dwelling was left
to tell what had been here. The indomitable energy of our citizens soon
replaced the fallen walls and burned timbers with structures that far
surpassed what were destroyed. We point with special pride and delight to
these magnificent buildings which you see on every side as evidences of
our enterprise and noble effort in making Atlanta the fairest city in the
South. We are proud of our professional men. Our merchants rank with those
of any other city, and our commerce reaches to the Pacific slope. Our
mechanics are the bone and sinew of this great and thriving city.
Our women are as fair and lovely as any that
grace and gladden with their bright and winning smiles any land on earth.
It would take me hours to tell you about all
of the good things we have. You are welcome to it all. Our hearts and
homes are yours. The ninety thousand people, all Scotch-Irish, who dwell
in this city, join me in this welcome.
Dr. J. N. Craig:
Now we shall have the pleasure and honor of a
response to these addresses of welcome by the President of the National
Scotch-Irish Society, a man so well known, so highly esteemed, so
thoroughly honored in our Southern hearts that it is only necessary to say
that it is the Hon. Robert Bonner, of New York. [Applause.]
Mr. Bonner:
It is with no ordinary feelings of
appreciation that, on behalf of the Scotch-Irish Society of America, I
thank you, Mr. Governor, for this cordial welcome to your great and
growing state, justly known as the "Empire state of the South;" and also
thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your welcome to this growing and flourishing and
enterprising city. We have many rapidly growing cities in the great West,
but in this broad land I know of no city so famous for the hospitality,
the enterprise, the energy, and the public spirit of her citizens as the
city of Atlanta. [Applause.]
It is a proud day in the history of the
Scotch-Irish Society of America to be invited to meet in this magnificent
building, and I can assure you that we all appreciate the honor; but great
as this honor is, and highly esteeming it as I do, permit me to say that I
hold in my hand an invitation to visit your city, which I received five
years ago, and which personally I value more highly than any other
invitation I ever received in my life. It is from one whom you loved and
honored, and whom we at the North also delighted to honor, and one whose
memory in common with you we will never cease to revere. I refer to the
late Henry W. Grady. [Applause.]
This is so flattering to myself that I can
read only one or two sentences of it:
Robert Bonner, New York—My Dear Sir: We have
organized a great fair and exposition in Atlanta for the Piedmont country.
I have invited President Cleveland to be present for two days during the
Exposition, dating from the 10th to the 22d of October. . . . It is the
wish of the Exposition Company, at my suggestion, to extend a similar
invitation to you to be present as our guest, and we will send for you as
we do for the President.
The remainder of this letter is so
complimentary that I do not think it would be proper for me to read it,
but I may be permitted to read the response which I made:
New York, June 3, 1887.
H. W. Grady—My Dear Sir: As you can readily
imagine, I have received many cordial and hearty invitations from the
managers of great fairs and other gatherings, but I have never received
one so cordial, so hearty, or that impressed me so much as yours. I
regret, however, that, owing to circumstances, the details of which I
cannot here enter into, I am obliged to forego the pleasure of accepting
it. If circumstances permitted, I should be glad to accept it, not only on
account of the section of the country from which it comes, but also
because it comes from the man who electrified the nation by his grand and
eloquent speech on the New South at the New England dinner last December.
Of one thing you can rest assured: I shall
never forget the manner and the spirit in which you tendered this
invitation. Very
truly yours, Robert Bonner.
We are often asked the question: What is the
object of your society? In a single sentence I would say that it is to
bring out and place on record and let the public know something of what
people of our race have done for America and American institutions. In an
article written by my friend, Mr. Hunter, our Vice President from Ohio, he
had one significant sentence—a sentence that impressed me so much that I
cut it out for the purpose of reading it to you. It reads as follows:
How often do we read in biographical sketches
that the subjects were of "good old Puritan stock!" how seldom is the fact
mentioned in the biography of a Scotch-Irishman that he was of this blood!
That fact of itself would be a sufficient
reason for organizing such a society as ours. I will mention another.
Sixty-eight years ago today, April 28, 1824, I was born in the old town of
Ramelton, in the North of Ireland. From that town came Francis Makamie,
over two hundred years ago. He is known as the father of Presbyterianism
in this country, and was the leader in organizing the first Presbytery
that convened in the United States. I will tell you why I mention this
fact. Dr. John Hall's new church in New York was dedicated in 1875. The
Moderator of the General Assembly was invited to preach on the opening
Sabbath. In his discourse he gave Scotland credit for John Knox, and
Geneva credit for John Calvin. But when he mentioned Francis Makamie, he
referred to him as a native of Virginia, thus robbing poor Ireland, as she
has been robbed many times since, of the credit of sending one of her
gifted sons to our shores.
I feel that every son and daughter having
Scotch-Irish blood in their veins is unspeakably indebted to Francis
Makamie for leading the way to this country. Over a hundred years ago Dr.
Johnson, in one of his morbid moods, said that the noblest prospect which
a Scotchman ever saw is the highroad that leads him to England. However
that might have been with Scotchmen, it may, I think, be safely said that
the noblest prospect which the poor but industrious and energetic young
man of Ulster, with Scotch blood in his veins, ever sees is the highway
that leads to America. While we all love the land that gave us birth, or
gave our fathers birth, let us never, never forget that we are Americans;
and how can we better perform our duty as American citizens than by
inculcating and handing down to our children those high principles which
characterize our race, and which we have inherited from God-fearing and
pious ancestors? [Applause.]
Dr. J. F. Craig:
A Scotch-Irish lad was taken captive by the
British army in upper Carolina and was asked to black the boots of the
British officer and refused to do it. Later he was President of the United
States. This was Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," and from a hickory tree
close by his residence in Tennessee this timber was taken and this gavel
made and presented to the Scotch-Irish Society of Atlanta, and as that
society now gives way to the National Scotch-Irish Congress, we request of
you, Mr. Bonner, that you will preside during the session with this gavel
in your hand. [Applause.]
Col. A. J. McBride:
I had the pleasure of coming with our
President from New York, and during the day yesterday, in company with
him, Dr. Macintosh, and Prof. Macloskie, it was my good fortune to read
that letter to which he has referred. I can very well appreciate the
modesty of our President in not reading it, but I feel that I would be
remiss in my duty to the Scotch-Irish of America and to one whose memory
we would perpetuate if I failed to call for that letter now. I happen to
know that Mr. Bonner has given a friend a copy of that letter, and I will
now make a motion that those two letters be read in full and afterward
spread on our minutes and also furnished to the press. I know that after
you have heard them you would think me remiss in my duty had I failed to
call for them. Dr. Macintosh has a copy of the letters, and I move that he
be requested to read them.
The motion was carried, and Dr. Macintosh
proceeded to read the letters.
Dr. Macintosh:
I think it is an exceedingly happy omen that
we are permitted to meet this morning at this hour and this day to present
our compliments to the President upon the new crown of honor that has been
with so kindly hand laid upon his head, but with no richer desert than
truly belongs to him, and I think that after I have read these letters you
will agree with me in a little token of hearty, characteristic
Scotch-Irish Georgia affection which I propose to present you. But let me
read these letters, which are the immediate demand of the moment. Mr.
Grady's letter is as follows:
The Piedmont Exposition Company,
"Atlanta, Ga., May 23, 1887.
Robert Bonner, New York.—
My Dear Sir: We have organized a great fair
and Exposition in Atlanta for the Piedmont country, and at a cost of about
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars have laid the foundations for a
great coming together of the people. It will be superior to the Cotton
Exposition, which stands unique in the history of American expositions as
entirely successful. I have invited President Cleveland to be present for
two days during the Exposition, dating from the 10th to the 22d of
October. He has agreed to be here. I shall have a special train sent for
him, with a delegation of ladies and gentlemen, to make the trip a
pleasant one. His coming will bring one hundred thousand people to the
fair and Exposition.
It is the wish of the Exposition Company, at my suggestion, to extend a
similar invitation to you to be present as our guest, and we will send for
you as we do for the President. It is doubtful if any other invitation
will be extended except to you and him, You have long had an admirer in
myself. You have many friends in this section of the country, and we all
believe that you have done more for the trotting horse of America, and for
legitimizing all that relates to the trotting horse, than any American. We
would be glad, therefore, to have you as our guest and to pay you such
distinguished honor as is in our power.
I write thus frankly and informally to know if such an invitation would be
agreeable to you and if you could accept. Pardon me for saying, for such
letters as this are so often misconstrued, that we do not desire, and
would not accept, any sort of contribution or subscription from any
outsider, much less from an invited guest. We have provided for all this
ourselves, and have more than we need. We really and sincerely want to pay
you an honor which is richly due, without any other purpose, covert or
expressed. The fair will be the greatest show of the South, with all the
usual attractions of a fair, such as races, military review, competitive
drills, prize contests between states and counties, etc. We would, of
course, expect you to select a date which it would be most convenient for
you to visit us between the 10th and 22d of October. . . .
Yours very truly, H. W. Grady.
Dr. Macintosh:
See the sweet grace of the letter I have read,
and hear an answer which I think is worthy of the invitation:
(Mr. Bonner's reply to Mr. Grady's letter was
read as it appears in Mr. Bonner's opening address.) Dr. Macintosh:
We have just heard, Mr. President, that
Atlanta is the outcome of Georgia and Alabama and the immediate ring of
surrounding states. Now if I know anything about the history of this
state, with which I am somewhat linked, and if I have studied anything
about the states that lie round about, for their stalwart manhood and for
their sweet and winsome womanhood they have to go back to this old
Scotch-Irish blood, and therefore Atlanta is a monument to the
Scotch-Irish race. [Applause.]
I deem it exceedingly fortunate—nay, it is
remarkably propitious, for it makes the day a red-letter day—for us to
convene here in the "Monumental City" of the South, whose sturdiness,
whose braveness, whose courageous defiance of adverse circumstances have
led them on to material victory, and proved them worthy of our grand race;
and to convene, too, on the birthday of our honored President. Therefore,
with the approval of Dr. Craig, I make a motion that we join together as
one happy company with hearts so big and lips so eloquent, combining those
who have welcomed us and those who would reciprocate that welcome, and
unite as citizens, as a state organization, and as a national society in
expressing by a rising vote our hearty and true congratulation to our
President on his birthday; and in this company of monarchs —for that is
what American citizens are, and their wives are empresses —we say "O king,
live forever." The
motion was carried by a rising vote with much applause.
Mr. Bonner:
Ladies and Gentlemen: I am simply overwhelmed
with this unexpected reception, but we will not dwell any more upon
personal matters, and will now have the pleasure of listening to an
address from one who needs no introduction to an Atlanta audience, Col.
Adair. [Applause.] G.
W. Adair: Mr.
President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I stand before you to-day in a spring
suit. I thought that was the way to show off the sunny South. [Applause
and laughter.] A chilly wind from the Blue Ridge has encountered me and I
think I have made a failure along that line, if I do not make one on the
balance of the programme.
I was invited by a committee of
Scotch-Irishmen to be present and make a ten minutes' speech. They have
limited me for reasons best known to themselves. I was also requested to
prepare an article on the Scotch-Irish of Atlanta, to be published in the
proceedings of this National Congress. I went to work and did my very best
in preparing the article to be read, but as I never did make a speech from
manuscript I am considerably turned around, and I don't know how I will
get through. However, I will kind of mix it up, read a little when I can
see it, and speak the balance when I can think of it. [Laughter and
applause.] That is about the best I can do, and I am only a hum--ble
Scotch-Irishman, and if he does his best there is not much of him, left.
There is no fun in this paper, but solid facts.
(For Col. Adair's paper, see Part II., page
101.)
President Bonner:
Ladies and Gentlemen: We
will now have the pleasure of listening to an address by Mr. Wallace,
editor of the Homestead, a well-known agricultural paper published in the
State of Iowa. His subject is "The Scotch-Irish of Iowa." [Applause.]
(For Mr. Wallace's paper, see Part II., page
114)
President Bonner:
I think you will all agree with me that we
have been listening to one of the most encouraging and inspiring addresses
that we have had at any of our meetings. [Applause.]
One of our distinguished friends from
Springfield, O., has a distinguished name from his state which he desires
to propose for membership in this Society. You will hear Mr. Frey.
Mr. George H. Frey:
Our Governor has spoken most pleasantly of our
meeting and its objects and has expressed a desire to become a member of
this association. I therefore move that Hon. William E. McKinley, Jr., of
Ohio, be made a member of this Society. [Applause.]
The motion was unanimously carried.
Dr. Macintosh:
On the part of the Congress, it is my pleasing
duty to move the acceptance of the invitation that has proceeded from the
honored and distinguished Governor of this state, and so beautifully
pressed by himself and by her who is associated with him in that part of
his official duty, and who lends so much grace to the discharge of his
important functions. It is only right that we should make due
acknowledgement of this invitation presented to the Congress, to its
members and visiting friends, and I understand also those who take an
interest or part in these proceedings. Therefore, as Vice President
General of the Society, I beg leave to move that with due thanks for the
honor and very hearty recognition of the kindness and courtesy of the
Governor of the State of Georgia, the Congress do now accept the
invitation for this evening, and express our great pleasure at the
prospect of being for the evening the guests of this distinguished
representative of the state.
The motion was carried unanimously.
The Society was adjourned until 10:30 o'clock
Friday morning. The
afternoon was spent by the members of the Society in visiting points of
interest in the city, and from 8 to 11 p.m. they were the guests at a
delightful reception given by Gov. and Mrs. Northen at the Executive
Mansion, for a description of which see page 4. |
