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Ladies and Gentlemen: I
have a very pleasant recollection of meeting our distinguished President
at the time to which he refers, and I think the episode deserves a passing
notice. The Sunday to which he refers was a very rainy day. Old Pluvius
gave us a specimen of his art that morning, and seemed determined that no
one should go to church in Lexington that day. While it was pouring the '
rumor got out that the great Bonner, of New York, had arrived in their
midst, and was now down in the Presbyterian Church. The people moved. He
was a drawing card. Everybody was there but the preacher. So your speaker
had to take the weather and put in an appearance too. And this reminds me
of an incident that I read somewhere. There was a man in England
exhibiting the skeleton of a whale, and the Pasha of Egypt happened to be
visiting the country and incautiously walked into the skeleton of the
whale. The avenues of ingress and egress were at once closed up by the
showman, who sent out boys with bills over the city announcing that the
Pasha of Egypt was there on exhibition, and if they would hurry up they
would see him where Jonah was found. [Laughter.] So the presence of our
distinguished and exemplary friend and brother was the means of furnishing
the congregation on that occasion.
Now, then, let me say that
it affords me great pleasure to be here to-day. My heart responsive beats
to your call. The accents of your orators are sweeter to me than the music
of Moore's melodies. I rejoice to look over this bright array of fair
women and brave men, representing, to some extent, the morality,
intelligence, and piety of the Scotch-Irish. Myself a native of Ulster, I
find that I am surrounded by brethren also to the manor born. There to my
left President Bonner, facile princeps, of whom we are all proud. In my
boyhood I was separated from him only by the waters of the Foyle. There to
my right, Col. Henry Wallace, who addressed us yesterday in such glowing
periods, and with so much rhetorical beauty, whose name at my father's
hearth was a household word. And there is Col. Wright before me, the
founder of this Society, to whom we owe immortal honors, and who was born
only a few miles from the spot where I first saw the light. My name is not
M'Gregor, but I had almost said I stood to-day on my native heath. I am
doubly at home; near by is my dwelling, and here I am, surrounded by
friends and countrymen. Though welcomed by our scholarly Governor and
accomplished Mayor, neither of these popular gentlemen was able to give
you the real genuine Irish, "Come to my bosom." I suppose they agreed to
leave the pleasant task for me, as they knew it would only come with a
good grace, as O'Connell used to say, through the medium of "the rich
Irish brogue." Now receive it in the spirit in which it is uttered. Caed
mille failtie—-that is, you are welcome a thousand times. You are welcome
and welcome, because you are worthy, and because you are brethren. And now
that we are here, let us rejoice together. The main element in these
meetings is the social. Indeed I had almost said, if it is not, it ought
to be a mutual admiration society; and that because there is so much to
admire in the Scotch-Irish character. To this race the world has never
fully appreciated the debt she owes. They are a picked race from the
choice races of the world. To the Scotch-Irish we are indebted for the
grand principles: "No taxation without representation; no union of Church
and state." To the Scotch-Irish we are indebted for the electric
telegraph, which converts our world into a speaking gallery. To them we
are indebted for the application of steam to navigation, with all the
wonders it has wrought; and for the reaper, with all its countless
blessings to the world. To the Scotch-Irish the colonies are indebted for
the first step to independence. Bancroft tells that the first cry for
liberty rang out from the Scotch-Irish settlements. They dreaded the
tyranny of England, even as a burnt child dreads the fire. Now was their
day for vengeance. Now was the time for the descendants of those who had
with Wallace bled, and those whom Bruce had often led to achieve another
Bannockburn, and lay the proud crest of another Edward low. By the very
oppression which old England inflicted was this people trained to
accomplish the great work which Providence placed before them. They were
charmed with the strife in which the Goth delighted. They were always
found in the thickest of the battle. Through fire and blood and smoke they
held on their high career. Asking no armistice and tolerating no
compromise, they went on from victory to victory, the last triumph
eclipsing the first in the grandeur and glory of the achievement. Where is
the great work that has been accomplished in peace or war, in arts or
arms, to which the Scotch-Irish have not furnished a liberal contribution?
But for the unconquerable stuff of which this race was formed, the stars
and stripes would have gone down in everlasting night. Like the Gulf
Stream that warms and fertilizes every land that it touches, so the stream
of the Scotch-Irish has been poured out as a benediction on the world.
[Applause.] They have made the solitary places glad and the desert to
rejoice and blossom as the rose. As the famous sculptor who, taking an
exquisite feature from each assembled beauty in the land, carved out an
image which was the pride of Greece and the glory of the world, so the
chisel of Providence has been engaged for a thousand years in fashioning
that grand and glorious race of fair women and brave men that we call the
Scotch-Irish. Shall we forget such a people? No; we will often meet, Mr.
President, and, taking each other by the hand, we will call upon this
restless, breathless age to pause and admire the glory and grandeur of our
fathers. We will often meet, and, embracing each other in the arms of our
affections, will sing "For auld lang syne, my boys, for auld lang syne,"
till the welkin rings with the music of the melody. We will often meet,
and, with the ancient Romans, bring out from their niches the statues of
our fathers and gaze upon their features with admiring eyes and loving
hearts, until, inspired with their principles and imbued with their
virtues, we will imitate their worth and follow where they have led.
[Applause.] |
