sections in recent years.

The history of America is to me not only of deep and absorbing interest
in its every detail, but it is a romance; it is a fascinating detail of
wonderful development, the like of which cannot be found in the annals
of civilization from the remotest time. We may go back to the time when
the curtain rises on the most ancient civilization of the East, and
there is nothing to compare with it. We may take up not only the real,
but the romantic history of modern European progress, and there is
nothing like American history for myself. Taking up the story of the
Quaker invasion of Massachusetts as early as 1659, I find Lydia Wardell,
daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman of the colony, whipped in Boston,
because she had ceased to be a Puritan and had become a Quakeress.
Turning then to the history of Virginia in 1663, I find Colonel Edmund
Scarburgh riding at the head of the King's troops into the boundaries of
Maryland, placing the broad arrows of the King on the houses of the
Quakers, and punishing them soundly for non-conformity. Upon the
question of who was right and who was wrong in these old feuds, there
are doubtless men who, even to this day, have deep prejudices. Fancy how
conflicting are the sentiments of a man in 1890, as to their merits,
when he reflects, as I do, that Lydia Wardell was his grandmother, and
Colonel Scarburgh his grandfather. [Applause and laughter.]

How absurd seems any comparison between the Puritan and Cavalier
settlers of America. There they are, with all their faults, and all
their virtues. Others may desire to contrast them. I do not. I stand
ready to do battle against anybody who abuses either. Their conjoint
blood has produced a Nation, the like of which no man living before our
day had ever fancied. Nearly three centuries of intermingling and
intermarrying, has made the traditions and the hopes of either the
heritage and aspiration of us all. Common sufferings, common triumphs,
common pride, make the whole glorious history the property of every
American citizen, and it is provincial folly to glorify either faction
at the expense of the other.

We stand to-night on the pinnacle of the third Century of American
development. Look back to the very beginning. There stands the grizzled
figure of John Smith, the Pioneer--President of Virginia, and Admiral of
New England. Still united, we look about us and behold a nation blessed
with peace and plenty, crowned with hon