The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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S a y Agn, . S Q l i as tl , W D y S ADDRESS OF JUDGE GILDERSLEEVE. - N1EUw AMSTERDAM THE BUDg I! NEW YORK THE FULL-BLOWN FLOWER. And if on daily scandals fed, We seem at times to doubt thy worth, We know thee still, when all is said, The best and dearest spot. on earth. Mr. President and Gentlemen : - HERE is New York? It will be con- ceded that this is a proper inquiry at the outset of a response to the toast that has been assigned to me. Some years ago, a well-known New York gentleman, trav- elling in Egypt, wished to communicate with his Wall Street office by telegram. He wrote out his message and passed it in to the clerk, Who, upon reading it, much surprised my friend by asking, Where is New York? The shocked banker pulled himself together, and the best reply he could make was, It is opposite 'jersey City. ,It is not my purpose to introduce you to-night to New York, by way of Jersey City, and Spend the evening around the Battery. I ask your kind 28 A

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. 2 7 Orange, and see again, as they tear away his shirt to staunch the wound, the Beggar's Penny around his neck, stained with his patriot blood. 0 little land of the mighty few! Again we read the truce in those eighty years of war, and see, before the ink was dry upon that treaty of peace, the Hay Moon dash bravely across the unknown sea and cast its anchor off the island of the Mana- hattoes. ,VV e see the other ships that come with hardy men and women to settle these shores. In vision their lives of struggle and privation come before us, and we see those old homes of our great- grandsires, built of stone and heavy timbers, made not for time but for eternity. To-night we see again those strong-willed men, whose eyes looked you straight,-and whose hands gripped you true. And by the hearthstones we see again the broad, benignant brows of those grand dames of ours, where love and purity and tender mercy sat on their throne I Oh, you men from Jersey hills and meadows, and the Catskills, from the Hackensack, the Rondout, the Mohawk, from Long 'Island's baysand shores, from I-ludson's mighty river- will you forget? Nogiby the God of our fathers, and these colors that float above us, we shall re- member! A A .I ks f,-Q NJ sg gfei ':'QE:ff'g.1' Zji-1-11522',33:.5y:rQ?:f 2 -j Q ..-.

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29 indulgence for a few moments, that I may state some facts and reasons that warrant an honest New Yorker in feeling proud at being able to say, I am a resident of the Metropolis of the New -World. The course of its early history is found in the political history of the Province. In 1743 it was practically the capital of the Province. Here the principles of social, political, and religious liberty were nourished, and have ever found ear- nest and capable advocates. Universal liberty was recognized as a principle incident to national prosperity, and the Empire State, adhering to this sentiment, was among the first to grant freedom to the slaves. Love of liberty and the desire of freedom from foreign dominion, on the night of july 9, 1776, caused the residents of New York to hurl from its pedestal in Bowling Green the equestrian statue of George III., and mould his leaden majesty into patriotic bullets. Its people have never been wantingin love of liberty and loyalty to their country. They have been among the first to offer their services to the Government in time of war, and many a bloody battle-field at- tests their valor. No troops in the Civil War made a better record at the front than the Excel- sior Brigade. The New York soldiers were in the hottest of the fighting at Bull Run, Antietam, Malvern Hill, Gettysburg, and other battles, and in the last struggle at Appomattox, which was more ceremony than conflict, the New York sol- diers took a conspicuous part. 4 It is indeed a fit place for our living heroes to come to receive the grateful homage of our com- mon country., It is also most appropriate that the mortal remains of our most distinguished men