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

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26 , dinner, a loving cup, and a friendly jest, their prime Object is to recognize and perpetuate the contribu- tion made by the Dutch Republic to the life and liberties of the AmC1'iC3U PCOPIQ' This was a service much needed. For fifty years or more people had been taking Irving's ex. cellent fooling with the Knickerbockers as a serious history. Boston had presented itself as the hub, and the spokes, and the rim, and the tire, of America. Plymouth Rock was described as the source of the corner-stone, the cap-stone, and all the other stones of the building. We know better now. We know that the Pilgrim Fathers, in twelve years of Dutch education, grew more, in breadth of mind and girth of waist, than they had grown in two-score years before. Plymouth Rock pants were made in Holland! The first public school, the first public hospital, the first practical establishment of re- ligious liberty on this. continent came from old Amsterdam to New Amsterdam. When the little Half Moon sailed into Manhattan. Bay 292 years ago, with the banner of orange, white, and blue flying at her mast, she brought the threefold gift of popular education, public charity, and re- ligious freedom. The white and the blue remain with us. The orange has been deepened into red, with the blood of heroes who could die, but could not surrender liberty. This passionate and unconquerable love of freedom has always shed a ray of glory upon the character of the Dutch. They may be slow, they may be conservative, they may be fond of Comfort? but try to subjugate them, and whether Y0l1I: Conquering empire be Roman, or Spanish,.or British, you will find that the sons of Holland do T fandt b w ww rofdl30,mrd sh yfiofllh Standing ,Carle monilfiseiindants e imma? flood 3PPlaulii But l Shou d. t0'nighr,1f l r amber. aS In mwmmm done during lliimoti0H of ife C L lf has Calle dresses, from sp? ooios a low burions to civrlrz. world, and CSPCC' 2, lt has begu ol the records 0 :documents relatin i 3. It has bro generosity of Dr. Roosevelt, of N es the efforts of the sc books than was es llftt part of then library of Columbi I 4' M185 establi so Dutch Literatur for two years by D, 0 e C0lltlIlue i Pitts, in th Street' e Dutch xt L, , ' xr., 'E' - 1 'f U-. m ix .

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J'0Pf1eari0,, DC of thes 0 anfriend, 3-ClClllZl0n to S a Son ora C lofty anceg. cl compare 'S us of the C attended a little of in he came k, what did Something IC inquired. El man, and ught not to rad, and he So he kept .ail dropped H is mother ? Why, rn,-that is ies in this is and have n of family ntl remem- md nation- ing of the sophie, and iblic is I10f ous effortS 25 made by many races to restore human rights to -man as man. True Americanism is not a strange, wild project, emerging from the soil like a fungus, per. haps edible, perhaps poisonous. It is the flower of a score of civilizations struggling to be free, It is the crown and consummation of three centuries of noble aspirations in Holland and Scotland, in Eng- land and Ireland, in France and Germany, in Swit- zerland and Sweden. No one country can claim the United. States as her child, either for purposes of approbation, or re- buke, patronage or corporal punishment. The Republic has many szlsteaf nations, but her only moilzeff is that heaven-born ideal of Liberty, for whom many a land has provided hospitality, but this land a settled home and a lawful dominion. Her children are not the aborigines, nor even the first settlers, but all who have come hither to claim her protection and acknowledge her sway. Our own history should teach us the narrowness, the falsity, the folly of know-nothingism in all its forms. America does not belong to a tribe, even the tribe of Tammany, but to a people of kindred spirits, gathered from the four winds of heaven. And thou, my country, write it on thy heart, Thy sons are they who nobly take thy part g Who consecrates his manhood at thy shrine, Wherever born, is born a son of thine : Lovers of Liberty, and haters of disorder, They shall be built in strength along thy border. It is for the service of this kind of Americanism that the Holland Society was founded. It lives .by eating, like the rest of mankind, but it does H0tl1VC for eating. While its members enjoy 3' good

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r Prime bntflbu. Life and DI' ngls ex. Serious 1.6 hub, ure, of HS the all the 1' now. C years fmind -score ade in public of re- old little 292 , and eefold d re- emain o red, could C of upon slow, nd of ether' h,.or d do 27 not know how to bend their necks to the yoke, To-day, amid the sun-burned hills and weary veldtg of South Africa, the two tiny Dutch Republics are standing up alone against the world's mightiest monarchy, fearless, desperate, indomitable, because the descendants of the old Beggars of the Sea would rather perish than part with their liberty. QLoud applause and cheers.j C But I should fail in my duty as presiding officer to-night, if I did not make an attempt to remind you, as members of the Holland Society, of some of the quiet and valuable work -which your society has done, during the sixteen years of its life, for the promotion of its objects. Let me enumerate briefly. 1. It has called out a number of eloquent ad- dresses, from speakers of authority and distinction, paying a long withheld tribute to I-lolland's contri- butions to civilization and freedom throughout the world, and especially in America. I 2. It has begun the translation and publication of the records of Early Dutch Churches, and of .documents relating to our own city. 2 3. It has brought to America, through the .generosity of Dr. Coster, of Holland, I-Ion. R. B.. Roosevelt, of New York, and others, and through the efforts of the society, a better collection of Dutch books than was ever here before, and has made a large part of them accessible to the public in the library of Columbia University. 4. It has established our first public lectureship in Dutch Literature, a course of lectures delivered for two years by Dr. L. C. Van Noppen at C0lUH1b1H, 'and to be continued this year, under the same aus- pices, in the Dutch Church at 5th Avenueand 43th Street.