The State of North Carolina is always talking about having had a Declaration of Independence in Mecklenburg County, about six months before they had one in Philadelphia.  Why, the Dutch farmers up in the Mamacotting Valley of Ulster County signed a Declaration of Independence in April, 1775, and they would have signed it six months before if the New York Council of Safety had given it to them! [Laughter.] This same New England gentleman to whom I have alluded—­I have it rather mixed up in my mind which gentleman said it—­but some one said that the New Englanders were very unwilling to part from the English, who were patronizing them with tea and stamps.  Why, the liberty boys of New York had made up their minds many months before the Declaration of Independence.  The Dutch, and notably the Scotch-Irish, had made up their minds.  As I say, up in Ulster County they circulated that Declaration of Independence a year and three months before it was really signed in Philadelphia.  They knew what they meant.  They said, “We shall never be slaves.”  If you will excuse the fact that I did have a great-grandfather—­I am happy to say that my great-grandfather signed that paper and he had a commission in the Continental Army, which I possess, signed by John Hancock, and he was at Saratoga.  He was in the 2d New York Line.  The Dutch knew that what we wanted was to be a free and independent people, even if our friends over there had not made up their minds.  The Dutch are satisfied with a very modest position in the world—­so that they have the goods and control its destinies. [Great laughter.] Others may call it New York, if they like, or Manhattan, but we call it Dutch.

Now this Society, gentlemen, has a great work before it; our President, who is very much like the President of the French Republic, goes around with a big ribbon, but he has no authority of any kind whatever.  He might have some at the Board of Trustees meeting, but that is such an orderly set that there is no use for authority there, and as for the dinner, Judge Van Hoesen and Mr. Van Schaick manage it very well.  But the President does not wish any authority, and glories in the great honor, which it seems to him to be one that any one in this Society might be proud of.  We have, however, work to do, and in that your President, by your grace, as a private member and as a trustee, hopes to co-operate with you.

It is a strange thing that this great city of New York has allowed the Puritans first to commemorate the virtues of their heroic race which we all admire, and all love to speak of in terms of praise in our serious moments.  It is strange that Central Park is adorned by them with that beautiful statue, while the Dutch have no monument.  I well remember the day that that silver-tongued orator, George William Curtis, made the dedication address.  But why is it that on this Hudson, which was first ploughed by a Dutch keel, over which first of all a Dutch flag floated, along this Hudson which was first discovered