human imagination can devise. He became the patron saint of
American civilization, as much yours as ours, and as much ours as yours.
[Laughter and applause.]

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: We had one founder; we came from one
master-mind; one great spirit was the source of both our settlements;
and this initial fact in our histories has seemed to inspire the
American people through all the centuries with the sentiment that our
union should be eternal in spite of all disturbing circumstances.
[Applause.] When I said, in a light way, that old Virginia and
Massachusetts had sought to rend themselves asunder, it was scarcely
true. They have too much that is glorious in common to be aught but
loving sisters. The men who are before me will not forget that the
settlers of the London colony of Virginia, and settlers of the Plymouth
colony of Massachusetts, have been at the front of every great movement
which has agitated this nation from its birth. When it came to the
question of whether we should dissolve the political ties that bound us
to the British King, Massachusetts Bay and the colony of Virginia were
the first to form their Committees of Safety, exchange their messages
of mutual support, and strengthen the weak among their sister colonies.
[Applause.] When it came to the time that tried men's souls in the
Revolution, it was the men of Virginia and the men of Massachusetts Bay
that furnished the largest quotas of revolutionary soldiers who achieved
the independence of the American colonies.

When it came to the formation of a federal union, Virginia, with her
Washington, gave the first President, and Massachusetts, with her Adams,
stepped proudly to the front with the first Vice-President and second
President. [Applause.] In later years, when differences came--which
differences need not be discussed--every man here knows what part
Virginia and Massachusetts bore. It was a part which, however much we
may differ with each other, bespoke the origin of the two colonies, and
told that true manhood was there to do and die for what it believed was
right. When that struggle was ended, the first to clasp hands in mutual
friendship and affection were Virginia and Massachusetts. If we were to
blot from the history or geography of the Nation the deeds or territory
of the ancient dominions of John Smith, President of Virginia and
Admiral of New England, a beggarly record of area would be left, in
spite of the glorious records of other