Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-05-05
THE SPIRIT or pArRiorIsM.
Remarks of MIR. Bayard at the Dime
of the Sons of the American Revolution

Remarks of MIR. Bayard at the Dinner
ofthe Sons of the American Revolution.
AT the dinner given by the delegates
to the National Congress of the Society
of the Sons of the American Revolu-
ton, at Delmonico's, New York, Satur-
day night, Hon. Thomas +. Bayard
spoke as follows:
Mr.. President, and you, brethren of the
Society of the Sons Of the American Reyo-
luton, to yoii tender my sincere thanks
for the kindness with which YOU greeted
my introduction. | feel it great privilege
to come into an atmosphere so thoroughly
Sympathetic with my own feelings. In
Nil well-regulated families the little sister
is the greatest pet, and so | feel sure of
your indulgence tonight when i come
from the little State that bore her full
share of the battle for independence. APP
plause. And for fear that those of us
who, by reason of your youth might go
astray, we do not propose to overwhelm
you by our numbers, but we propose to
emulate you in our good behavior: and
therefore we sent not simply delegates, but
even DR.. Littell, our chaplain, in order
that we should show you how properly
her SONS can behave.
If may venture III the footsteps Of Mr..
Depew, humbiy, would say, too, that the
time has come when the spirit of the Ameri-
can Revolution should find its expression
among the American people in their con-
troll of their public affairs. Applause.
None more than you or rejoice when we
see other and later corners enjoying the
fruits of the harvest that our forefathers
gathered. We are glad, and we welcome
them, but we should ask that neither they
or we should forget from whence came tho
opportunity and the power so to rejoice.
Applause, This society has met not to
IA IN pf in h.k met
of any man who comes here, but simply
to instruct him whence the spirit of our
liberty came Applause. | have often
wondered why the repetition by General
Washington in his farewell address, re-
peated not once or twice, but number
Of times, the fact that for four or five
generations his family had lived upon
American soil wondered why it
has not been suffered to remain
in that immortal document. He had
the feeling, for he so expressed 1t, and by
his own hand he placed it there, but in the
edition and rebellion it was left out Yet
the fact that he placed IL there is TO me
and will be to you lesson that should re-
ceive the feeling that he then expressed no
matter what was the motive which in
duced him TO take it from the document.
There WIS in what our forcfathers
struggled for the greatness of truth. They
could not restrict it to themselves or TO lis
| their lineal posterity. 1t was truth un-
trammelled and free, and once free never
| to be enchanted again. Applause. The
| barons who extorted the great charter
from King John did not continc the bene-
| fits of that labor to themselves, but it ex-
| tended to every man. So Chatham said
| that these three rude Latin words "nulius
| liber homo" were worth all the classics put
| together. 1t was not to be restrained by
| an ocean, and to-day it permeates the coun-
try [Applause.l
One thing | would say in respect to the
great function of this society, as | under.
| stand it, is that it shall remove misunder-
standing between our own countrymen
first. As history is disclosed to us under
modern methods, which are the best we
can now read, the history of the struggle
of our forefathers for independence, there
| is one fact which must impress itself upon
us and ought to instruct us. It is how
strangely ignorant the British Government
must have been TO the real feeling of the
| American colonies. IL is almost incom-
| prehensble how dense was their ignorance
| of what was passing in the hearts and
| minds of men on this side of the Atlantic
| a very great judicial authority is Ieckey,
the lrishman. Leckey declares that the
stamp act of 1765 was une of the most mo-
mentous acts in human history; and yet it
was passed in England almost without the
knowledge of the people us to what they
| were voting for. Some 80 votes recorded
| against it and only three men speaking in
| opposition to it. We spoke in the same
language we held the faith on morals of
John Milton. and how was it that such
| ignorance should prevail? And what may
we learn from this? Not that we stand re.
| GREETING that any wise Englishman in
structed by a century should understand
that il was wiser that this greater half of
the British empire should be severed from
il. And yet put to my brother Americans
this-is there not greater lack of homo
| gencity i'll our country to-day than there
was between England and her colonies
| London is not so far from New York as
| New York is from many parts of the
great republic over which our flag floats
We are called upon to legislate from cen
trail point of government and over fan
more diverse population than the British
parliament were called on to legislate fol
10 years'ago. And we do not propose tC
pass laws in Ignorance of the interests and
feelings of those over which they are to be
extended. Must you not consider til,
feelings of those and the wishes of thost
that are most to be effected BIZ the laws
which we pass? 1t is question to be de
cided by the same spirit of liberty, of jus
tice and of generosity that we asked il
vain from our British rulers. We stant
here inheritors of freedom, of right d
citizenship, which cannot be too highly
appreciated. 1t is part Of the object of thi.
association to make men conscious of thu
value of that which they possess when
they describe themselves rs American citi
Gems. And surely we have no higher
object, no higher purpose than to keeI
alive that spirit of liberty.
Norman can be Jealous of such a society
because that society is the guardian o