The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-12-26
REB ELECTRIFIES PILGRIMS
spEEoB or PROF. ". 0oRDoN M'CABE
At THE NEW ENGLAND DINNER.


town-Tbs Spanish War Knit north
and south Together Again Forever.
py,,ybody who attended tho New England
dinner on Friday night camo away from the ban
oust hall commenting tho speech OF Prof.
William Gordon McCabs Of Richmond, which
vaa the hit OF tho evening. II reminded the older
Ynombors Of tho society OF tho speech delivered by
BY tho late Henry W. Grady AT the New England
dinner In New York several years ago. Thefo
,v,,. many who said that Mr. McCabe's speech
e.oslled tho eloauencs and surely the wit Of Grady
Owing to tho lateness Of tho hour at which Mr..
McCabe spoke, only brief summary Of what no
raid got into tho papers on tho day after tho dinner
because Of tho Impression IL made and the comment
itoccasoned THE SUN prints II below In full.
Mr.. McCAbe is q veteran Of the Civil War hav-
ing commanded a battalion in Piekctt's division
Hs was educated at the University Of Virginia
and when the war was over bo travelled extern
dv,ly abroad. On one Of these trips no met
Tsnnyson and no became ono Of the poets init
mate friends He Is a classical scholar and sew
erh years ago no established fitting school for
hoys at Petersburg, Va. After a while he re-
moved tho school 20 Richmond where he still
conducts II, and II is known as tho best college
preparatory school In the South. Wherever ho
In known Mr.. McCAbo IL In great demand as an
after dinner speaker. particularly In Boston,
hut Il Ia not often that he con be brought up from
tho South 10 deliver speech. Iwas only because
Of his personal regard for eI-Judgs Henry l.
Rowland, President Of tho New England Society.
that he co ,sented 10 como TO this years New Eng
land dnntr The speech follows
Your PRESIDENT In introducing me, has with
cruel faret,ousitess spoken Of me as one Of tho
heroes Of ,ho war II In truo that down In my
country vol may hear people utterly devoid Of
Imagination, and envious perhaps, Of my re-
condY shamclessly declare that tho only people
I've ever Sian were some OF my oldest friends,
whom I've talked 10 death with stories that belong
IN IN. Pliocens period Of anecdotal development.
or which, at the very latest, may have checred
the Aryan hord.s on their weary westward march
fron, the tablelauds Of Asia. Never but once be-
fore 1 confess have ever been remotely alluded
10 by my ungra,eful co,,ntrymen as a hero Of
IN, w.r. And hat WAS years and years ago,
h.r .ons NJ n. here tonight looked at each other
onIv along the deadly barrels OF Furnished steel
ri wn,r nv widest dreams never pict,red a
,;r,. ,b.r sbopId p,,r nsI am gazing tonight
,nI ,,,o Nv England ,vrs trimming over with
such kindliness and gracious welcome as makes
even an .unrepentant rebel feel thoroughly at
bor.
~rn.rr Cod o,d .comr,dcs NJ the other side :
the onlv bead drawn here 10 night is not the bead
~ v,rv m,rksmen alone cleaning steel, but
comes bubblinr nm In sparkling beauty from these
fonminp be,kers. wherein VIC pledge not only lip
hut b.,,, III. p,osperitv and honor Of our common
.or,,,v r,e.tipsr each otb.r with th, glad hail
which mir. our hearts her, tonight AZ deeply
a. xbrn we'll nigh two thousand wears ago Iallinr
from In, Inns 81 choirine angels Il stirred the
b.. RI. of startled shepb,rds watching their Docks
on N, dim .Jude.n hills under the = Immer,nr
,t,r,-.p,,e. on earth good will toward men
nut much as I have enjoyed hearing these
s,r,ohe, one thing I confess. has puzzled mo no
ii,t,. And that 4. that urll.niVh every on, ~
you, distinpuisbed orators has insisted directly
implIeation) that tho Pilgrims really founded
and .hnped the destiuies Of our nation. and thu,
hut Tor New England patriotisn, and Puritan
.vtion u duty and u nrncipl, that little revolt
~ "A would have moved someyhat Of n fnsco
God forbid tbnt here or elsewhere shall seek 10
nbnte ono lot or one tttlo Of the debt that the ma
ton owes 10 stubborn Now England II IL nd saga
cious New England statocraft But as in mntri
mony the point Of view OF May and the point OF
view Of December arc not always easily recon.
cilnble, and sometimes end in tho divorce court
40 may IL bo In post-prandial oratory In your
December oratory as here TO night you ma turall IL
have unfolded to you tho New England point OF
view. But come down to Virginia and clnL
glasses with me in May. when We nee. to cele
brate lin far moro Purtanical fashion than this,
the Anniversary of the first permanent English
settl1ment in America yonder at jamestown
whus more than a year before the landing of III,
MayHower was convened tho first lesislatiy,
assembly in the New World. and Won will hen
our after-dinner orators unblushingly declare
that when the dun war cloud lowered in the East
and tho foolish policy of Lord North had deniec
the chartered liberties of our Old Dominion and he
sister colonies of New England. it was a Wiz
ginlan, George Mason, who drew the immortn