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

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46 f rther esteem it an honor to be the guest of men u Vho represent generation after generation of Cour- t age and self-sacrifice. After all, the only. enelel-ing character of the nation as well as of the 1nd1v1du1 is developed after long trial and struggle. Surely nowhere, in all the annals of the race, can we find more patient endurance, greater privation, 3 nobler bravery, a serener faith, or a more Sen- guine confidence in a final triumph than was the portion of the Dutch people who, in defence of con. science and personal freedom, maintained, for more than eighty years, against the most powerful despet of the World, that pitiless struggle lenown in history as the Eighty Years' War. At a distance of centu- ries are we able fully to appreciate the motives of those men, whose faith was not an expedient and whose liberties were not the chattels of sale? If there had been a submission to the demands of Spain, without actual resistance, if the conscience of a people had been stultified into a guilty acquies- ence, temporarily at least, there would have been little change in the usual routine of Dutch life. But there was something higher and deeper at issue than mere present physical comfort. It needed no divination to foretell the future consequences if freedom of body, mind, and soul was to be bartered. And so arose that heroism of principle which did not then and cannot now know defeat. Itis impossible for us adequately to estimate the value of that momentous struggle in the development and evolution of a character which was destined to play such an important part in the history of America and the world. In such a people, the liberty of the soul, the freedom to think and act, could never again be challenged. Thereafter throughout all I fcifft yeh 0 i, oolllriim The me resstoo' ith htm elfllb I Oil ll' duff and bg to be thC,Oi1 5 debate may fatfl! ll World who an wht? the ere the m t if,gteu,W eric, in PZ, eral old Am wltlfh l' utuboofl thanbr. Bu' ddlllll Haad carnage 3 tleuudtctall, ol ll ruffle We vmucineed tot been Sullplem Th ' 's of Peace' . uttorto th hide reat debtor fo C l teas because the lCS50 5 utanltiudfis n0W mchin tqtetuiud and hem- ll C tluerica as the 'EPM' dstiuet people, bemuif ' ttaracter and citizenship tributed, not only to our ieadvancement and secu tue in admiration Ol l tteir iueetimable stould sadly lack some gl lf'l0Yt'Sf1Pff0Ple had in t but ol Dutch theme, Q ll peace and war, Thr ttealtltof New york is in :udguteut of Dutch duh ere the dark da l5 of R glitch colonists gf Ne' , tlermined theC . Olwtllllon of I 9 9 I 54: 4,

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1 Cla w lf, .g Ig i Rf G!! . Q fS3E,si61vis9' A ADDRESS OF MR. LAWYER. Mr. P76SZbi67Zf amz' Members of like Holland Sbczkiy .- T is always a tribute to the strength and virtue of a nationthat her sons do not forget her. The people withouta history of struggle and sacrifice, victory and defeat, have little interest to remind themselves of their distinctive nationality. Men will not continue to meet together year after year to honor base deeds or in praise of the physical or moral cowardice of a race. There are instances, indeed, where men have disowned the land of their nativity because of its shame and dishonor, and have refused longer to be called her sons. It is, therefore, not only a significant privilege, but a heritage of priceless value that, as members of the Holland Society and as loyal Americans, you may gather again to-night with a just and generous pride of Dutch prowess and influence in the his- tory of the world. I lack the distinction of being a member of your honorable order, yet I do not feel altogether out of place in an assemblage of enthu- siastic' Dutchmen, for my own ancestry g0CS far back to the land of dikes and windmills. And I am especially glad to represent a section of our State 111 which has been 'retained and transmitted in its best features the true characteristics of Dutch life. I 45

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St of men ll of Court Lelldul-ing Individual Surely i can We Nation, a more San. WHS the ie of Con. f0l' more Ul degpot H histoiy Uf Celltu. utives of lent and ale? If ands of ienceol acquies- re been :ch life. at issue :ded no uces if rtered. which A ltis l value ntand o plal' 11611621 of lZllC f1eVCt' it all x ,I 47 the onward march of civilization, there could be no retrogression. The men who passed through tor. ture and blood with him who even an English Critic has declared to be the onl ma ' 11 y n in a the history of the world who may fairly be compared with Wash- ington, were the men who enriched the world in gen- eral, and America in particular, with a nobility of manhood than which the world has never ' Wlt- nessed a superior. But 'De La Marck's Ware? Beggars, Haarlem and Leyden, and a hundred fields of conflict and carnage alone' would do little to at- test the true virtues of Dutch character had these not been supplemented by the greater and surer victories of peace. The world to-day stands a great debtor to the little State reclaimed from the seas, because the lessons that Holland has taught mankind-is now teaching, have been triumphs of the mind and heart. We are here in the metropolis of America as the representatives of a peculiar and distinct people, because of the victories of Dutch character and citizenship which have so largely con- tributed, not only to our national existence, but to its advancement and security as -well. I yield to no one in admiration of the Pilgrim Fathers and their inestimable services in this new land, yet 'we should sadly lack some of the greatestblessings we enjoy as a people had it notbeen for the conserva- tism of Dutch character everywhere exhibited, alike in peace and war. The history of the Common- wealth of New York is in itself a sure and complete judgment of Dutch destiny in America. Long be- fore the dark days of Revolutionary conflict, the Dutch colonists of New York were pronounced and determined in their advocacy of freedom. From the Convention of 1754, held at Albany, down 120