Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-01-05
President Crant.

President Grant.
At the New England dinner j
New York, Secretary Robeson, i
tie course OF his response othe toast
'sThe Presidentof the United States,
said:
You are aware, Mr.. President an
e ntiemen, doubt not--and it ma
,arount for something Of your grea
kindness, for, like all people VIII
deserve appreciation, you appreciate
yourselves and your own people
that President Grant, though no
born within the limits Of New Eng
hand, is yet scion Of your race; by
right Of blood, "a Hebrew Of the
Hebrews" lie claims the proudest
ancestry an American should ever
boast; he is the grandson Of revo-
Iutionary soldier, Connecticut cap
tain, who, at Bunker Hill and
Yorktown, drew his sword for the
establishment 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 drawing many of his
characteristics from the pure fountain
Of his Puritan blood, he was born in
one Of the new settlements Of Ohio,
then in the van Of progress sweeping
to the West. Westward the course
Of empire takes its way" This is a
truth of history as well as philoso-
ply, which no doubling Easter,
even, will venture to deny. 1t is
true, I believe, that the material
world rolls ever from Occident to
Orient, but the giant intellectual,
moral and political power, climbing
over against the sweep, strides on.
ward to the West. AS from the
Steppes Of the Himalayas the earlier
waves of progress rolled TO the shores
OF Western Europe, SO each succeed
ing surge sweeps further westward,
to complete the circle.
Fion rockbound coast, from rugged
me untain side, from quiet firms and
busy villages, aye, from the very
Hub" itself, New England pours
her migratory hordes along the path
Of every progress; from the elevating
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 the New England origin,
education and character, into every
field which human enterprise dares
TO invade, or human energy avails
to conquer. Their sons, inheriting
the mental and moral qualities Of
their New England origin, develop
them in scenes of more intense vital.
i.y, and amid the struggles Of larger
clements Of natural force. Thus ii
produced a race uniting almost every
condition Of physical, intellectual
ard moral development. What
manner of men these are, who, born
Of Puritan stock, and inheriting the
energies and capacities Of Puritan
haracter, are developed in the free
mir and under the boundless horizon
of the prairies, and amid the activity
and vitality of pioneer and frontier
life, we know, and the world Is be-
ginning to realize. They make 9
new and mighty element of power
which challenges the attention of thu
world, and will command its respect
The President Is one Of the class o
men thus produced. Thoughtful, We
reticent; quiet, yet energetic; astute
yet direct; calm, yet vigorous -thes'
are characteristics drawn from TIT
Gland of steady habits" OF larg,
views, yet with clear conceptions; o
liberal ideas, yet with fixed prinei
plies; Of high aspirations, yet witt
concentrated purposes-these ar
qualities developed on broader fields
and amid the struggle &c f ssnurrrip
mental forces. Add to them, habit
Of thought and action bred within
the strict limits of an exact profession
yet recognizing with profound con
victi0n the great principles of equit,
and Justice, aaheart open as day I,
every manly sympathy, q steadfhst
ness which does not yield and q faitl
which never falters, a simpllcit.
which tells Of honor, and a courag
which Is born Of freedom, and 20,
have the character, "full orbed," q