|
Second Day, Friday, April
29,1892. MORNING SESSION.
The Society was called to
order at 10:30 a.m. by President Bonner, who announced that the Congress
would be led in prayer by Rev. Dr. Barnett, of Atlanta.
Rev. Dr. E. H. Barnett:
Accept our thanks, our Father, for all the
blessings of thy providence this bright, beautiful morning. We thank thee
for all thy gracious love to us in the past. We thank thee that thou art
the God of nations, the God of the peoples of the earth, and at the same
time the God of each individual, before whom we stand and before whom we
must give account. We thank thee for all the wisdom by which thou hast led
thy people in the past, especially the people represented here this
morning. We praise thee for all the power and all the grace and all the
piety thou hast given them in the past; and we, their descendants, this
day look back over their past and praise God for the wonders of his grace
in all the way that thou hast led them; and now we ask thee to accept our
thanks also for the triumph of the principles for which our fathers
fought. We praise thee that this day the sun scarcely looks down upon a
people where civil and religious liberty are not marching forward to a
triumphant close. We worship thee and praise thee that this day there are
so many nations of the earth free because thou hast made them free.
We ask thy special blessing to rest upon this
city, we pray thee that thou wouldst bless the land whence our fathers
came, we pray thee to give wisdom to all the rulers there, and discretion
and prudence to the people, and by thy great wisdom, O God, solve the
problems that are set to the rulers of that land. Bless Scotland, bless
Ireland, and let God's richest grace, mercy, and peace rest upon her
churches and her people, upon that land, and bless our own glorious land,
and bless this Congress met together here from different parts of our
great country. We beseech thee, 0 God, grant them wisdom and discretion,
so that the means that are used shall be blessed of God to the attainment
of ends for the glory of his name and the good of this great people. Be
with us through the day and guard us from error, and from harm, and from
sin, and finally save us in thy kingdom through riches of grace in Christ
our Redeemer. Amen.
President Bonner: We
will now have the great pleasure of listening to an address from Prof.
Alexander White, of Washington and Lee University, known as the
Scotch-Irish University of the South. His subject is "The Three Ideals:
Puritan, Cavalier, and Scotch-Irish." Prof. White. [Applause.]
(For Prof. White's address, see Part II., page
120.) President
Bonner: Ladies and
Gentlemen: We have been listening with great pleasure to the achievements
of our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. It is now my
privilege to introduce to you a real live specimen of the Scotch-Irish
race, almost fresh from the sod, Prof. Macloskie, of Princeton College,
who was imported here sixteen years ago by Dr. McCosh and placed at the
head of a Scientific Department of that institution. [Applause.]
(For Prof. Macloskie's address, see Part II.,
page 220.)
President Bonner:
It is my pleasure to introduce to you another
real live specimen of the Scotch-Irish race, the Rev. Dr. Quigg,
Presbyterian clergyman, of Conyers, Ga. A year ago last February, I had a
pleasant journey in passing through this State from Atlanta to Savannah
under the guidance of Col. Echols, who owns a plantation in Oglethorpe
County. We stopped over Sunday at Lexington, and I had the pleasure of
hearing Dr. Quigg, and I think I will have equal pleasure in listening to
him make a ten minutes' speech now. [Applause.]
(For Dr. Quigg's address, see Part II., page
226.) President
Bonner: Mr. Frank L.
Stanton, of your city, has kindly written a song of welcome to the
Scotch-Irish, and will now favor us by reading it himself. [Applause.]
(For Mr. Stanton's poem, see Part II., page
vi.) President
Bonner: Ladies and
Gentlemen: It affords me very great pleasure to introduce to you Maj.
Charles H. Smith, who has a world-wide reputation as "Bill Arp." His
subject is "The Georgia Cracker." [Applause.]
(For Maj. Smith's paper, see Part II., page
126.)
President Bonner:
It seems to me not only superfluous but almost
ridiculous for a stranger to introduce Col. Adair to an Atlanta audience.
I will let his own bright and smiling countenance be the introduction.
[Applause.] Col. G.
W. Adair: Mr.
Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I thought that when I sprung this suit
yesterday morning that it could not be sprung any more this spring.
[Laughter.] I had no idea of being brought out this way, particularly
after "Bill Arp," who is a professional wit and orator and lecturer, and
known all over the face of the earth, and a good deal in Ireland and
Scotland. I don't think I can venture to speak against the dinner bell. I
am a sort of practical business man, and I never try anything like holding
a crowd against the attractions of a dinner bell. I tried it once at a
ball, and busted. Our
distinguished friend from Princeton rather attacked me for not having
mentioned our excellent Mayor, W. A. Hemphill, as being a Scotch-Irishman.
I examined the list of our Society and his name was not on it, and I
omitted him. But I can say one thing which I think will be to the
satisfaction of my friend from Princeton, and that is that from the number
of Scotch-Irish badges I see springing up around me, if Hemphill is not a
Scotch-Irishman now he will be before the next Mayor's election.
[Laughter.] In fact, this thing is sort of taking somehow. I meet people
out here who I know are Scotch-Irish as well as I know that I am, and may
be a little better, and they are beginning to take an interest in this
meeting. In fact, there is an amazing ignorance among the people on the
subject, and they need education, and they need line upon line, precept
upon precept, and they need a heap of these short, ten minute speeches,
and a great many nice paragraphs turned by our able reporters and editors
to build this thing up and let it be understood. In investigating the
subject upon which I had the pleasure of reading a paper yesterday, I was
astonished at the magnitude of the whole field. It grows—it is grand. The
fact is that when you subtract what the Scotch-Irish have done for this
country from the sum total, there is nothing left; nobody else has done
any thing. I always thought that the Plymouth Rock fellows were great men,
and I had heard something about the Cavaliers of Virginia, and I had read
something about Oglethorpe, who brought over those English gentlemen who
could not settle their tailors' bills in the old country, and I had heard
about De Soto coming over here among the Indians hunting for the " Spring
of Life," and about the Spaniards who had settled at St. Augustine, and
the Acadians and the French at the mouth of the Mississippi, and I never
heard anything about the Scotch-Irish. My father, in his good old
conversational way around the hearth of our country cabin, used to talk
about being a Scotch-Irishman, but I didn't know what it meant until this
thing was sprung on me. But now I find that we have done great things, we
have done almost everything, not only in the nation, but right here in
Atlanta, as I tried to show you yesterday; and I want to urge upon
everybody who attends this meeting to mention this matter to your
Scotch-Irish friends and tell them something about it; go to talking shop.
I am talking good sense. Get your friends and bring them up to the
captain's office and let them join the Society, and this gathering will be
the nucleus of a grand social, intellectual, and historical Society that
will go out and do a vast deal of good all over the country. If we will do
our duties as our distinguished President has done his, and Dr. Macintosh
and these other gentlemen, if we will do in our humble way what we, as
Scotch-Irishmen, ought to do, the time will come when we will have in
Atlanta, and other cities as well, Societies whose influence will go out
over the states and the interest will be such that a man may even venture
occasionally to speak against a dinner bell. [Applause.]
President Bonner:
This Congress stands adjourned until 7: 30 o'clock this evening. |
