The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1900-01-18
Capt. MCCabc'S Admirable Address
DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY IN
NEW YORK.
'Our Re-United Country His Subject the Eloquent
Vir5inlan Captures and Captvates His Hearers-The
Address Favoraby Received and Highly Praised by New
York and New England Papers.
(Atlan.a Constitution }

herring to cherished convictions of
constitutional right. they serve 70
open the eyes of the North to the
actual condition Of affairs which exist
in the South; while. on the other
hand. in the cordial reception ac-
corded them in the North, they serve
TO open the eyes of the South to the
frank and honest spirit with which
the North stands ready to hear the
truth when told in Straightforward
terms.
The New York Tribune in comment
ing on Capt. McCabe's addres. said
this:
Responding to the toast, Our Re-
united Country" Captain McCabe
said, in part: Much as | have en-
lOved these speeches, one thing | con-
fess has puzzled me no little. And
that is, that wellnigh every one of
your distinguished orators has in
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 devotion to duty and to
principle, that little revolt of 1776
would have proved somewhat of a
tiasco. God forbid that here, or else
where, | shall seek to abate one jot
or little Of the debt that the nation
owes to stubborn New England grit
and sagacious New England state
craft.
In your December oratory here to-
night you naturally have unfolded to
you the New England point of view.
But come down to Virginia and clink
glasses with me in May, when we meet
to celebrate lin far more Puritanical
fashion than this) the anniversary Of
the first permanent English settle
ment in America, yonder at James
town, where more than year before
the landing of the Maytower was con-
vened the first Legislative assembly in
the New World, and you will hear our
after-dinner orators unblushingly de-
clare 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 Eng
land, that ic was a Nirginian, Grorge
Manson, who drew the immortal '.Bill
of Rights'': that it was Nirginian,
Richard Henry Lee, who first moved
in the Continental Congress that
''these Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent
States"; that it was Virginian,
Thomas jefferson, who drafted the
Declaration of Independence, and that
it was that glorious rebel and great
Virginian, George Washington, who
made it good by his sword
Come to us with your memories Of
Lexington, where that shot was fired
that went echoing round the world ;
come to US with the story of Bunker
Hill, where the old Puritan spirit
blazed high and defeat wore the mantle
Of glory, and we will stand uncovered
before yonder noble monument in
Richmond, from which looks down
upon us in imperishable bronze 1.-The
counterfeit presentment" of the ma
tiOn's greatest son-seated in easy
majesty on his mettled steed, serene
and resolute, such as he may have
seemed to his ragged New England
soldiery and his own ''Eirginia Rifle
men" in deer-skin leggings and
fringed hunting shirt, as he rode
slowly down his lines under the Cam
bridge elms on that summers morn
ing more than 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 mar
row bondage of royal tyranny into
the broad sunlight of republican
freedom.
| can but think, sir, that blend
ing of the two points of view gives us
the truer perspective as to our ma
tional development. What you call
the Puritan spirit, of which you are
justly proud, has never. | think, been
confined to 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
object lessons given by Southern men
in the Spanish war to silence forever
the caviis and doubtings of many
austere patriots. who for thirty years
and more had proved them las in
vincible in peace as they had been
fierce .mutterinrs of the coming storm
rose high and clear yonder at Havana
the voice of Fitzhugh Lee, demanding
with soldierly dircctness prompt
Spanish recognition of the sanctity Of
American citizenship.
Then. when the die WAS cast, and
the Olympia on that memorable May
morning stood into Manila Bay, Ion
the bridge" close alongide OF George
Dewey. OF Vermont, stood Tom +
Brumby, Of Georgia God rest his
noble souD; and 80. when the Ameri-
can flag was first unfurled to the
+. breeze over the first American pos
session in the Eastern world. the son
of an old Confederate colonel stood at
the halyards-
Ten day, later. at Cardenas, the
first crimson libation of the war was
poured out on the altar Of Cuban
liberty, and the brave young blood Of
that gallant lad, Worth Bagley, Of
the .'OId North State. son. too, of an
old Confederate soldier. cementing
forever the reconciliation between
North and South.
And as in quick succession the
names OF Hobson and Blue and
"Fightihg Joe" Wheeler blazed in
official dispatches. the thunderous
shouts OF 4 reunited people drowned
even the '.ironthroated plaudits Of
the guns.
God forbid that war. civil or for