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

Page 187 text:

139 . l1iS W00d6I1 leg and fierce countenance, the im- mortal Peter Stuyvesant, and our accomplished chairman who knows how to win with his Smile and delight with his banter. And the unlinkable distancebetween the past and the present is ac- centuated by the Speech of this goodly company. Not a word of Dutch have I heard, save in the anteroom, where a gentleman approached our honorable and honored guest and said to him, I am glad to see you, Mr. Van Bryan, and Mr. Bryan took it, with the smile that so becomes him, and appropriated it, feeling that, possibly, he had met, indeed, a long-lost friend. laughter cmd apjylcmsexj And how is it possible for me to deliver a eulogy in Dutch when you would not understand the tongue ?--and I would not under- stand it either. L QApj5lause.j r . It is one of America s most cherished memories that in her struggle for independence she enlisted the sympathy and often the personal support of the noblest spirits of the age. This was to some extent due to the hostility felt against' England. The expansion of Great Britain that was then taking place, leading to commercial as well as political antagonisms, and the usurpations of the kingly power, had stimulated enmity on the con- tinent of Europe. But this was not all. Friends of the American cause were not exclusively the produce of hate-the hatred of British tyranny- they were also the product of love-the love of freedom everywhere. The times were times. of restlessness, of aspirations, of theories concerning the rights of man and of the possible emancipation of humanity. France was seething with excite- ment. Rumbling and ominous noises could be

Page 189 text:

I4 I i11gtQ11 at Valley Forge, there was the Polish Pa'C1'10t, K0SCi11SkO, WhO at last fell when strug4 gling against the tyranny of Rusgiag A Hope for a season bade the world farewell, V And freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell. And there were the Frenchmen, Baron de Kalb who lost his life at the battle of Camden for the rights of the people, and La Fayette, the hero of two worlds and the Bayard of Liberty. QGreat applausej Q ' y But these were men of war-and not less de- serving of renown than the men of' peace who labored with their governments that the Amer- ican cause might triumph. There were leaders in England, of whom Burke may be taken as a lofty example, who championed the principles under- lying the Revolution. p How inspiring his declaraa tion: T o govern according to the sense and agreeably to the interests of the people is a great and glorious object of government, -a sentiment that may have to be learned anew on this aside of the Atlantic. Also immortal the saying: 0ur constitution stands on a nice equipoise with steep precipices and deep waters upon all sides of it. In removing it from a dangerous leaning towards one side there may be risk of oversetting it on the other. But while similar friends may he found in France and Prussia, it was in Holland--the country we are concerned with-where they 'were most numerous and where their services were most vital to the cause of freedom. QAppZcmse.D Among these menwho stretched out their hands across the sea were Noodt, Van der Kessel, Van der Kemp, John Luzac, and Baron Van der