one day to speak with the voice of a mighty prophet, then the infant just discovered in the bulrushes of the New World, he came with loins girded and all accoutred for the great work of founding a race which should create a permanent abiding place for liberty, and one day dominate the destinies of the world. [Prolonged applause.] Unlike the Spanish conqueror upon far southern coasts, the leader did not have to burn his ship to retain his followers, for when the Mayflower spread her sails for home, not a man of Plymouth Colony returned on board her.

The Puritan early saw that in the new land, liberty could not flourish when subject to the caprices of European Courts; he realized with Burke that there was “more wisdom and sagacity in American workshops than in the cabinets of princes.”  He wanted elbow-room; he was philosophic enough to recognize the truth of the adage that it is “better to sit on a pumpkin and have it all to yourself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

When the struggle for independence came, the Puritan influence played no small part in the contest.  When a separate government had been formed he showed himself foremost in impressing upon it his principles of broad and comprehensive liberty.  He dignified labor; he believed that as the banner of the young Republic was composed of and derived its chief beauty from its different colors, so should its broad folds cover and protect its citizens of different colors.

He was a grand character in history.  We take off our hats to him.  We salute his memory.  In his person were combined the chivalry of Knighthood, the fervor of the Crusader, the wit of Gascony, and the courage of Navarre. [Prolonged applause.]

* * * * *

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[Speech of Horace Porter at a dinner given by the Republican Club in honor of the ninetieth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, New York City, February 12, 1889.  Mortimer C. Addams, the newly elected President of the Club, occupied the chair.  General Porter was called upon for a response to the first toast, “Abraham Lincoln—­the fragrant memory of such a life will increase as the generations succeed each other.”  General Porter was introduced by the chairman, as one “whose long acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln, intimate relationship, both official and personal, with our illustrious chieftain, General Grant, and distinguished career as a brave defender of his country in the time of her peril, have eminently fitted him to tell the story of our great War President.”]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:—­I am encumbered with diverse misgivings in being called upon to rise and cast the first firebrand into this peaceful assemblage, which has evidently been enjoying itself so much up to the present time.  From the herculean task accomplished by the Republican party last fall we have come to