Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-12-29
PRESIDENT GRANT AND NEW ENG
LAND.

At the annual dinner of the New England
society of New York, at Delmonicos, OF
Thursday night, the Secretary of the Navy
Mr. Robson, was called upon to respond to
the toast, ''The President ofthe United States
In his remarks he spoke as follows OF Presi-
lent Grant and New England:
You are aware, Mr.. President and gentle
men, doubt not.-and it may account fo,
something of your great kindness, for, like all
people who deserve appreciation, you appre
ciate yourselves and your own people-t'la'
President Grant, though not born within tn
limits of New England, is yet scion OF YOU
race; by right of blood "a Hebrew of the He
brews.' He claims the proud ancestry ar
American should ever boast; he is the grand
son Of a Revolutionary soldier, Connecticut
captain, who, at Bunker Hill and ut York
town, drew his sword for the establishmt MT OF
those principles of free government which his
grandson has preserved to Connecticut, to
New England, to our country and to the world
Sprung in part from such ancestry, and draw
ing many of his characteristics from the pure
fountain OF his Puritan blood, he was born in
one of the new settlements of Ohio, then Ill
the van of progress sweeping to the West
Westward the course of empire takes it,
way" This is a truth of history as well as
philosophy which no doubling Down Easter,
even. will venture TO deny. ltis true, be-
lieve, that the material world rolls over from
Occident TO Orient, but the giant intellectual
moral, and political power, climbing ovei
against the sweep, strides onward to the West
As from the steppps of the Hima'ayas the
earlier waves of progress rolled to Inc shores
OF Western Europe, so each succeeding surge
sweeps further westward to complete the cir
Gle.
From rock bound coast, from rugged noun
tain side, from quiet farm and busy villages
aye, from the very club" itself New Eng
land pours her migratory hordes along the
path of every progress. From the ehvatlnR
influences of her noble social system, from
her clustering churches, from her teeming
school-houses, from her free town meetings.
they carry the trails of their New England
origin, education, apd character INTO every
field which human enterprise dares to invade
or human energy avails to conquer. Theil
sons, inherting the mental and moral quail
ties of their New England origin, dev, lop
them in scenes of more intense vitality and
amid the struggles of larger elements OF nat
ural force. Thus is produced race uniting
almost every condition of physical, intellect
ual and politial development. What man
ner of men these are, who, born of Puritan
stock, and inheriting the energies and capae-
tiles of Puritan character, are developed in
the free air and under the boundless horizon
of the praries, and amid the activity and vi
tally of pioneer and frontier life, we know,
and the world is beginning to realize. They
make new and mighty element of power,
which challenges the attention of ME world,
and will command its respect The President
is one of the class of men thus produced
Thoughtful, yet reticent; quiet, yet energetic:
astute, yet direct; calm, yet vigorous-these
are characteristics drawn from the Gland of
Steady habits" OF large views, yet with clear
conceptions; of liberal ideas. yet with fixed
principles; of high aspirations, yet with con-
centrated purposes-,hese are qualities de-
veloped on broader fields, and amid the strug-
gle of more elemental forces. Add to them
habits of thought and action bred within the
strict limits of an exact profession, yet rec
ognizing with profound conviction the great
principles of equality and justice, heart
open as day to every manly sympathy,
steadfastness which does not yield, and
faith which never falters, simplicity which
tells of honor, and a courage which is born OF
freedom, and you have the character. full
orbed," OF soldier, statesman, and leader