.
And now, sir, let us hope that our distinguished friend, Amin Bey, may
return home with some not less favorable impressions of our own land. Of
our enterprise, of our industry, of our immense material production, of
our rapid progress in arts and improvements of every kind, of our vast
territorial extent, he cannot fail to testify. Let us hope that he may
be able to speak also of internal order, of domestic tranquillity, of
wise and just laws, faithfully administered and promptly obeyed, of a
happy, contented, and united people, commending by their practice and
example, as well as by their principles and precepts, the institutions
under which they live.
The distinguished gentleman who preceded me [Mr. Webster], and whom I
have been under the disadvantage of following in other scenes as well as
here, has spoken of the Union of these States. There is no language so
strong or so emphatic, which even he can use, as to the importance of
preserving that Union, which does not meet with a prompt and cordial
echo in my own bosom. To the eyes of Amin Bey, and to the eyes of all
foreign nations, we are indeed but one country, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. To them there is no Boston or New York, no Carolina or
Louisiana. Our commerce goes forth under one and the same flag, whether
from the Bay of Massachusetts or from the "Golden Gate" of California.
Under that flag, it has been protected, prospered, and extended beyond
example. Under that flag, new fields are opening to it, and new triumphs
are before it. May our distinguished guest take home with him an
assurance, founded upon all that he has seen and all that he has heard,
of the resolution of us all, that the flag of our Union shall still and
always remain one and the same, from ocean to ocean, untorn and
untarnished, proof alike against everything of foreign assault and
everything of domestic dissension! [Great applause.]
JOHN SERGEANT WISE
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
[Speech of John S. Wise at the eleventh annual dinner of the New
England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 20, 1890. The
President, Willard Bartlett, occupied the chair. He called upon Mr.
Wise to speak to the toast, "Captain John Smith, the Ruler of
Virginia, and Admiral of New England," saying: "It was not without
a purpose that your committee arranged the order of speaking this
evening. I am sure that the gentlemen who have already addressed
you w
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