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Proceedings of the Fourth Congress at Atlanta, GA., April 28 to May 1, 1892
An Address by Rev. Henry Quigg, D.D.


Ladies and Gentlemen: I have a very pleasant recollection of meeting our distinguished President at the time to which he refers, and I think the episode deserves a passing notice. The Sunday to which he refers was a very rainy day. Old Pluvius gave us a specimen of his art that morning, and seemed determined that no one should go to church in Lexington that day. While it was pouring the ' rumor got out that the great Bonner, of New York, had arrived in their midst, and was now down in the Presbyterian Church. The people moved. He was a drawing card. Everybody was there but the preacher. So your speaker had to take the weather and put in an appearance too. And this reminds me of an incident that I read somewhere. There was a man in England exhibiting the skeleton of a whale, and the Pasha of Egypt happened to be visiting the country and incautiously walked into the skeleton of the whale. The avenues of ingress and egress were at once closed up by the showman, who sent out boys with bills over the city announcing that the Pasha of Egypt was there on exhibition, and if they would hurry up they would see him where Jonah was found. [Laughter.] So the presence of our distinguished and exemplary friend and brother was the means of furnishing the congregation on that occasion.

Now, then, let me say that it affords me great pleasure to be here to-day. My heart responsive beats to your call. The accents of your orators are sweeter to me than the music of Moore's melodies. I rejoice to look over this bright array of fair women and brave men, representing, to some extent, the morality, intelligence, and piety of the Scotch-Irish. Myself a native of Ulster, I find that I am surrounded by brethren also to the manor born. There to my left President Bonner, facile princeps, of whom we are all proud. In my boyhood I was separated from him only by the waters of the Foyle. There to my right, Col. Henry Wallace, who addressed us yesterday in such glowing periods, and with so much rhetorical beauty, whose name at my father's hearth was a household word. And there is Col. Wright before me, the founder of this Society, to whom we owe immortal honors, and who was born only a few miles from the spot where I first saw the light. My name is not M'Gregor, but I had almost said I stood to-day on my native heath. I am doubly at home; near by is my dwelling, and here I am, surrounded by friends and countrymen. Though welcomed by our scholarly Governor and accomplished Mayor, neither of these popular gentlemen was able to give you the real genuine Irish, "Come to my bosom." I suppose they agreed to leave the pleasant task for me, as they knew it would only come with a good grace, as O'Connell used to say, through the medium of "the rich Irish brogue." Now receive it in the spirit in which it is uttered. Caed mille failtie—-that is, you are welcome a thousand times. You are welcome and welcome, because you are worthy, and because you are brethren. And now that we are here, let us rejoice together. The main element in these meetings is the social. Indeed I had almost said, if it is not, it ought to be a mutual admiration society; and that because there is so much to admire in the Scotch-Irish character. To this race the world has never fully appreciated the debt she owes. They are a picked race from the choice races of the world. To the Scotch-Irish we are indebted for the grand principles: "No taxation without representation; no union of Church and state." To the Scotch-Irish we are indebted for the electric telegraph, which converts our world into a speaking gallery. To them we are indebted for the application of steam to navigation, with all the wonders it has wrought; and for the reaper, with all its countless blessings to the world. To the Scotch-Irish the colonies are indebted for the first step to independence. Bancroft tells that the first cry for liberty rang out from the Scotch-Irish settlements. They dreaded the tyranny of England, even as a burnt child dreads the fire. Now was their day for vengeance. Now was the time for the descendants of those who had with Wallace bled, and those whom Bruce had often led to achieve another Bannockburn, and lay the proud crest of another Edward low. By the very oppression which old England inflicted was this people trained to accomplish the great work which Providence placed before them. They were charmed with the strife in which the Goth delighted. They were always found in the thickest of the battle. Through fire and blood and smoke they held on their high career. Asking no armistice and tolerating no compromise, they went on from victory to victory, the last triumph eclipsing the first in the grandeur and glory of the achievement. Where is the great work that has been accomplished in peace or war, in arts or arms, to which the Scotch-Irish have not furnished a liberal contribution? But for the unconquerable stuff of which this race was formed, the stars and stripes would have gone down in everlasting night. Like the Gulf Stream that warms and fertilizes every land that it touches, so the stream of the Scotch-Irish has been poured out as a benediction on the world. [Applause.] They have made the solitary places glad and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. As the famous sculptor who, taking an exquisite feature from each assembled beauty in the land, carved out an image which was the pride of Greece and the glory of the world, so the chisel of Providence has been engaged for a thousand years in fashioning that grand and glorious race of fair women and brave men that we call the Scotch-Irish. Shall we forget such a people? No; we will often meet, Mr. President, and, taking each other by the hand, we will call upon this restless, breathless age to pause and admire the glory and grandeur of our fathers. We will often meet, and, embracing each other in the arms of our affections, will sing "For auld lang syne, my boys, for auld lang syne," till the welkin rings with the music of the melody. We will often meet, and, with the ancient Romans, bring out from their niches the statues of our fathers and gaze upon their features with admiring eyes and loving hearts, until, inspired with their principles and imbued with their virtues, we will imitate their worth and follow where they have led. [Applause.]


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