Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-12-24
CAPTAIN GORDON MCABE.
His Speech at the New England As
sGcintiOn Dinner.

SCcintlOn Dinner.
The following. from the New York
Tribune. IS much fuller than the telegram
published by the Dispatch yesterday.
Responding to the toast, "Our Reunited
Country Captain McCabe said, In part:
Much as I have enjoyed these speeches.
one thing 1 confess has puzzled me no
little. And that is. that wellnigh every
one of your distinguished orators has i'm
sisted directly or by implication that the
Pilgrims really founded and shaped the
destinies Of our nation, and that but for
New England patriotism and Puritan de-
votion to duty and TO principle, that lit
tie revolt Of 1776 would have proved some
what Of a fiasc0 God forbid that here. or
elsewhere. ! shall seek 90 abate one jot
or title of the debt that the nation owes
to stubborn New England grit and saga
cious New England statecraft
In your December oratory here tonight
you naturally have uniolded to- you the
New England point of view. But come
down TO Virginia and clink glasses with
me in May, when we meet 10 celebrate
dn far more Puritauical fashion than thiD
the anniversary of the first per-
manent English settlement I'm America,
y0nder at jamestown. where more than
q year before the landing of the May
flower was convened Che hrst legislative
assembly in the New World and you will
hear our after-dinner orators unblush-
ingly declare that when the dun war
cloud lowered in the east and the foolish
policy of Lord North had denied the
chartered liberties of our Old Dominion
and her sister colonies of New England,
that IT. was a Nireinian, George Mason,
who drcw the immortal "BM of Rights" +;
that 10 Vas "a Nirginian, Richard Henry
Lee who first moved I'm the Continental
Congress that these Colonies are. and
of right ought TO be- free and independent
States, that 30 was Nlrginian. Thomas
jefferson. who drafted the Declaration of
lnGc Ienoence, and that il was that
glorious rebel and great Viigniau George
Washington. who made it good by his
SWORD.
Come 10 us with your memories OF Lex
ingtOn where that shot was fired that
went echoing round the world; come 10
us with the story of Bunker Hill, where
the old Puritan spirit blazed high and
defeat wore the mantle of glory. and we
viii stand uncovered before yonder noble
monument IN Richmond. from which looks
down upon as in imperishable bronze
"the counterfeit presentment" of the ma
tiou's greatest sOn-seated in easy ma
jesty ON his mettled stecd, serene and
resOlute, such as he may have seemed 10
his ragged New England soldiery and his
own Virginia Riflemen" in deer-skin leg
gings and frinsed hunting shirt. as he
rode slowly down his lines under the
Cambridge elms on that summers morn
ing more than a century agO--while
grouped beneath him stand the heroic
figures of those great Nirginians who
shared with him and with your fathers
the peril and the glory Of guiding the new
nation out OF the dark and narrow bond
age of a royal tyranny into the broad
sunlight OF republican freedom
1 can but think. sir. that a blending OF
the two points OF view gives Us the truer
perspective as 10 our national develop
ment What you call the Puritan spirit.
OF which you are justly proud. has never.
] think been confined ro New England
alone nor do ] believe that Virginia can
claim exclusive heritage in the gracious
and generous qualities Of the Cavalier.
But it needed. think. the splendid OBJ