assachusetts. [Laughter and applause.]

The first son of a Forefather I ever fell in with was a nine-months
Connecticut man at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the spring of '62. Now,
I was a guileless and generous lad of nineteen--all Pennsylvanians are
guileless and generous, for our mountains are so rich in coal, our
valleys so fat with soil, that our living is easy and therefore our wits
are dull, and we are still voting for Jackson. [Great laughter.] The
reason the Yankees are smart is because they have to wrest a precarious
subsistence from a reluctant soil. "What shall I do to make my son get
forward in the world?" asked an English lord of a bishop. "I know of
only one way," replied the bishop; "give him poverty and parts." Well,
that's the reason the sons of the Pilgrims have all got on in the world.
They all started with poverty, and had to exercise their wits on nutmegs
or notions or something to thrive. [Laughter.] Yes, they had "parts."
Why, they have taken New York from the Dutch; they are half of Wall
Street, and only a Jew, or a long-headed Sage, or that surprising and
surpassing genius in finance, Jay,[2] can wrestle with them on equal
terms. Ah! these Yankees have "parts"--lean bodies, sterile soil, but
such brains that they grew a Webster. [Applause.] Well, this Connecticut
man invited me to his quarters. When I got back to my regiment I had a
shabby overcoat instead of my new one, I had a frying-pan worth twenty
cents, that cost me five dollars, and a recipe for baked beans for which
I had parted with my gold pen and pencil. [Continued laughter.] I was a
sadder and a wiser man that night for that encounter with the
Connecticut Pilgrim.

But my allotted time is running away, and, preacher-like, I couldn't
begin without an introduction. I am afraid in this case the porch will
be bigger than the house. But now to my toast, "The Clergy." Surely, Mr.
President and gentlemen, you sons of the Pilgrims appreciate the debt
you owe the Puritan divines. What made your section great, dominant,
glorious in the history of our common country? To what class of your
citizens--more than to any other, I think--do you owe the proud memories
of your past, and your strength, achievements, and culture in the
present? Who had the first chance on your destiny, your character, your
development? Why, the Puritan preacher, of course; the man who in every
parish inculcated the fear of God in your fathers' souls, obedience to
law, ci