The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-23
NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY BANQUET
Henry Watterson Speaks on the Puri-
tan and the Cavalier.

Ne~~A e~A~A sA@N NSsF eNAAtA'
New York, Dec. 22.-The seth annua.
dinner of the New England Society, which
was held this evening at sherry's eclipsed
its predecessors in brnliancy The large
banqueting hall was set for 400 covers.
arrangement being one main table with
seven smaller tables. with the exception
of the main table on which at intervals
there were banks Of roses, there We're no
decorations.
Elihu Root presided, and seated with
him at the main table were Henry Wat
terson, Charles A. Boutelle, Maj. Cen.
| Nelson A. Miles, John DalZell, Chauncey
NJ. Depew, James c. Carter and Corne-
Illus n. Bliss.
Among other prominent guests were
Seth +. Thomas, Coils p Huntington
and John II. lnman.
The orators were Congressman Boutelle
of Maine. who spoke upon The Puritan
Leaven in America Character DR.. Ed
ward W. G. Bolle upon THE Plymouth
Rock of the Puritan Foundation" Con-
gresham Dalzell, upon 1.-The Pilgrim of
Puritan and the Cavalier"
Mr.. Watterson's speech was as follows
Eight years ago, tonight, there stood
where | am standing now young Geor-
gian, who, not without reason, recognized
the "significance" of his presence here
the first southerner to speak at this
board "a circumstance, let me add not
very creditable to any of us-and who, in
words whose eloquence l can not hope to
recall, appealed from the new south to
New England for united country.
l mean to take up the word where
Grady left il off; but shall continue the
sentence with a somewhat larger conf
dence, and perhaps, with somewhat ful-
Ter meaning; because, Notwithstanding the
Puritan trappings, traditions and associa-
tions which surround me-visible illus
trations of the self-denying fortitude of the
Puritan character and the somber simplic-
ity of the Puritan taste and habit never
felt less out of place in all my life.
To tell the truth, | am afraid that
have gained access here on false pre-
lenses for | am no Cavalier at all; just
plain Scotch-Irish; one of those Scotch
Irish southerners VINO ate no fire in the
green leaf and has eaten no dirt in the
brown, and who. accepting, for the mo-
ment, the terms Puritan and Cavalier in
the sense an effete sectionalism once
sought to ascribe to them--descriptive
labels at once classifying and separating
north and south-verbal redoubts along
that mythical line called Mason and Dixon
over which there were supposed by the
extremists of other days to be no bridges
i am much disposed to say, "A plague
o. both your houses!
Each was good enough and bad enough,
I'm its way, whilst they lasted; each in its
turn filled the English-speaking world
with mourning; and EACH If either could
have resisted the Infection OF the soil and
climate they found here, would be to-day
striving a the swords point to square life
by the iron-rule of Theocracy. or to round
it by the dizzy whirl of a petticoat! 1t IS
Virginia and very edifying and inspiring
to celebrate the deeds Of the Pilgrim
fathers But there IS not Cavalier blood
enough left in the Old Dominion to pro-
duce a single crop of first families, whilst
out in Nebraska and Iowa, they claim that
they have so stripped New England Of her
Puritan stock to spare her hardly
enough for farm-hands. This | 10 know,
from personal experience, that IT is inn
possible for the stranger-guest, sitting be-
Meath a bower Of roses in the Palmetto
Club at Charleston, or by mimic log-heap
in the Algonquin Club at Boston to tell
the assembled company apart, particularly
after 10 o'clock in the evening" Why, in
that great, final struggle between the
Puritans and the Cavaliers-whch we still
hear sometimes casually mentioned-al-
though it ended nearly thirty years ago
there had been such a mixing up of Puri-
tan babies and Cavalier babies during the
two or three generations preceding it-that
the surviving grandmothers Of the com
hatants could not, except for their uni
forms, have picked out their own on any
field Of battle!
Turning to the encyclopaedia of Ameri-
can biography, / find that Webster had all
the vices that are supposed to have sig
naltzed the Cavalier, and Calhoun all the
virtues that are claimed for the Puritan.
During twenty years three statesmen Of
Puritan origin were the chosen party lead