I do not, however, mean to drift into that line of thought.  I do not think that it is really in place here to-night, but I want you to know how we feel at the South.  Mason and Dixon’s Line is laid down on no map and no longer laid down in the memory of either side.  The Mason and Dixon’s Line of to-day is that which circumscribes this great Union, with all its advantages, all its hopes, and all its aspirations.  This is the Mason and Dixon’s Line for us to-day, and as a representative of the South, I am here to speak to you on that account.  We do owe—­these two sections do owe—­each other a great deal.  But I will tell you what we owe each other more, perhaps, than anything else.  When this country was settled for us it was with sparsely scattered settlements, ranging along the Atlantic coast.  When the first outside danger threatened it, the two sections immediately drew together.  New England had formed her own confederation, and at the South the Carolinas and Virginia had a confederation of their own, though not so compact; but the first thing formed when danger threatened this country was a committee of safety, which immediately began correspondence among the several colonies, and it was the fact that these very colonies stood together in the face of danger, shoulder to shoulder, and back to back, that enabled us to achieve what we did achieve.

Standing here, on this great anniversary at the very end of the century, facing the new century, it is impossible that one should not look back, and equally impossible that one should not look forward.  We are just at the close of what we call, and call rightly, a century of great achievements.  We pride ourselves upon the work this country has accomplished.  We point to a government based upon the consent of the governed, such as the world has never seen; wealth which has been piled up such as no country has ever attained within that time, or double or quadruple that time.  It is such a condition of life as never existed in any other country.  From Mount Desert to the Golden Gate, yes, from the islands which Columbus saw, thinking he had found the East Indies, to the East Indies themselves, where, even as I speak, the American flag is being planted, our possessions and our wealth extend.  We have, though following the arts of peace, an army ready to rise at the sound of the bugle greater than Rome was ever able to summon behind her golden eagles.  We are right to call it a century of achievement.  We pride ourselves upon it.  Now, who achieved that?  Not we, personally; our fathers achieved it; your fathers and my fathers; your fathers, when they left England and set their prows westward and landed upon the rock-bound coast; when they drew up their compact of civil government, which was a new thing in the history of the world.  We did our part in the South, and when the time came they staked all that they had upon the principle of a government based only upon the consent of the governed.