n the soldiers of freedom--the "Beggars"--chose rather to
let in the merciless ocean waves than to surrender to the ruthless
invader. [Applause.]

We love to say that we can see in the glory of free institutions in this
century the steady outgrowth of that germ of human liberty which was
planted by the sturdy labor, which was watered by the tears and blood,
and fructified by the precious lives of those who fought by land and sea
in the battles of the sixteenth century. [Applause.]

Although we make our boast of the indomitable courage, the many
self-denials, the homely virtues of our forefathers, think you that we
in America are degenerate sons of noble sires? I trow not! [Renewed
applause.]

That irascible old Governor who stamped his wooden leg on the streets of
New Amsterdam, who ruled with his iron will and his cane the thrifty
burghers of this young city, did he not, when called upon to show a
soldier's courage, wage a successful contest with savage foes, with the
testy Puritans of Connecticut and with the obdurate Swedes on
Christiana Creek?

Before the old Dutch church in Millstone on the Raritan River, in the
summer of 1775, a hundred of the young men of the village were drilled
every night. They had on their long smock-frocks, broad-brimmed black
hats, and leggings. Their own firelocks were on their shoulders,
twenty-three cartridges in their cartouches, the worm, the priming-wire,
and twelve flints in their pockets. These were the bold minute-men of
New Jersey, and Frederick Frelinghuysen was their gallant Dutch captain,
who stood ready to march, in case an alarm bonfire burned on Sourland
Mountain, to fight any enemy. [Applause.]

When fighting under Bradstreet on the Oswego River in the old French
war, when laboring against great odds at Fort Edward, when retarding the
British advance after the evacuation of Ticonderoga, when urging on a
force to the relief of Fort Stanwix, when planning the campaign which
ended in the capture of Burgoyne, and placing laurels, now faded, on the
head of Gates, the character of our own Knickerbocker General, Philip
Schuyler, the pure patriot, the noble soldier, is lustrous with
evidences of his sagacious counsels, his wonderful energy, and his
military skill. [Renewed applause.]

The good blood of the patroons never flowed purer or brighter than when,
as soldiers, they battled for a nation's rights. In the fight at
Saratoga, Colonel Henry Kiliaen Van Rensselaer greatly