t was Winfield Scott
and the Cockade Corps of Virginia that repelled the enemy from your
shores. Old Virginia has always been true to the Union, if you blot from
her history that recent episode which I say you have blotted generously
from your memory, and she from hers; we stand now with you, and I have
personal testimony of the fact, because coming among you, not only an
utter stranger, and having against me natural prejudices as a rebel,
nevertheless, I have been received in the State of New York with nothing
but courtesy and kindness. Mr. Benjamin, in England, is no parallel
instance, because he went among a people who sympathized with the
Rebellion, and who, if they had dared to strike would have taken sides
with the Rebellion, but I came here to those who naturally would have
repelled me, but instead of rejecting me, they have kindly taken me to
the bosom of their hospitalities and have rewarded me infinitely beyond
my merits; and to them, and especially to my brother lawyers of the
State of New York, I feel the profoundest gratitude, in attestation of
which I trust that when I go, my bones may rest under the green sod of
the Imperial State. [Applause.]

JOSIAH QUINCY

WELCOME TO DICKENS

[Speech of Josiah Quincy, Jr., at the banquet given by the "Young
Men of Boston" at Boston, Mass., February 1, 1842, to Charles
Dickens, upon his first visit to America. Mr. Quincy was the
President of the evening. About two hundred gentlemen sat at the
tables, the brilliant company including George Bancroft, Richard H.
Dana, Sr., Richard H. Dana, Jr., Washington Allston, the painter,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, George S. Hillard, Josiah Quincy, President
of Harvard College, the Governor of the State, the Mayor of the
city, and Thomas C. Grattan, the British Consul.]

GENTLEMEN:--The occasion that calls us together is almost
unprecedented in the annals of literature. A young man has crossed the
ocean, with no hereditary title, no military laurels, no princely
fortune, and yet his approach is hailed with pleasure by every age and
condition, and on his arrival he is welcomed as a long-known and highly
valued friend. How shall we account for this reception? Must we not at
the first glance conclude with Falstaff, "If the rascal have not given
me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged: it could not be
else--I have drunk medicines."

But when reflection leads us to the cause