ss, the Dutchman's idea of the old Puritan. He has stated, at the
close of his address, the modern opinion of the old Puritan. He was an
uncomfortable man to live with, but two hundred years off a grand
historic figure. If any one of you, gentlemen, was compelled to leave
this festive board, and go back two hundred years and live with your
ancestor of that day, eat his fare, drink his drink, and listen to his
talk, what a time would be there, my countrymen! Before the Puritan was
fitted to accomplish the work he did, with all the great opportunities
that were in him, it was necessary that he should spend two years in
Leyden and learn from the Dutch the important lesson of religious
toleration, and the other fundamental lesson, that a common school
education lies at the foundation of all civil and religious liberty. If
the Dutchman had conquered Boston, it would have been a misfortune to
this land, and to the world. It would have been like Diedrich
Knickerbocker wrestling with an electric battery.

But when the Yankee conquered New York, his union with the Dutch formed
those sterling elements which have made the Republic what it is. Yankee
ideas prevailed in this land in the grandest contest in the Senate of
the United States which has ever taken place, or ever will, in the
victory of Nationalism over Sectionalism by the ponderous eloquence of
that great defender of the Constitution, Daniel Webster. And when
failing in the forum, Sectionalism took the field, Yankee ideas
conquered again in that historic meeting when Lee gave up his sword to
Grant. And when, in the disturbance of credit and industry which
followed, the twin heresies Expansion and Repudiation stalked abroad,
Yankee ideas conquered again in the policy of our distinguished guest,
the Secretary of the Treasury. So great a triumph has never been won by
any financial officer of the government before, as in the funding of our
national debt at four per cent., and the restoration of the national
credit, giving an impulse to our prosperity and industry that can
neither be stayed nor stopt.

When Henry Hudson sailed up the great harbor of New York, and saw with
prophetic vision its magnificent opportunities, he could only emphasize
his thought, with true Dutch significance, in one sentence--"See here!"
When the Yankee came and settled in New York, he emphasized his coming
with another sentence--"Sit here!"--and he sat down upon the Dutchman
with such force that he