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Proceedings of the Fourth Congress at Atlanta, GA., April 28 to May 1, 1892
Second Session


Second Day, Friday, April 29,1892. MORNING SESSION.

The Society was called to order at 10:30 a.m. by President Bonner, who announced that the Congress would be led in prayer by Rev. Dr. Barnett, of Atlanta.

Rev. Dr. E. H. Barnett:

Accept our thanks, our Father, for all the blessings of thy providence this bright, beautiful morning. We thank thee for all thy gracious love to us in the past. We thank thee that thou art the God of nations, the God of the peoples of the earth, and at the same time the God of each individual, before whom we stand and before whom we must give account. We thank thee for all the wisdom by which thou hast led thy people in the past, especially the people represented here this morning. We praise thee for all the power and all the grace and all the piety thou hast given them in the past; and we, their descendants, this day look back over their past and praise God for the wonders of his grace in all the way that thou hast led them; and now we ask thee to accept our thanks also for the triumph of the principles for which our fathers fought. We praise thee that this day the sun scarcely looks down upon a people where civil and religious liberty are not marching forward to a triumphant close. We worship thee and praise thee that this day there are so many nations of the earth free because thou hast made them free.

We ask thy special blessing to rest upon this city, we pray thee that thou wouldst bless the land whence our fathers came, we pray thee to give wisdom to all the rulers there, and discretion and prudence to the people, and by thy great wisdom, O God, solve the problems that are set to the rulers of that land. Bless Scotland, bless Ireland, and let God's richest grace, mercy, and peace rest upon her churches and her people, upon that land, and bless our own glorious land, and bless this Congress met together here from different parts of our great country. We beseech thee, 0 God, grant them wisdom and discretion, so that the means that are used shall be blessed of God to the attainment of ends for the glory of his name and the good of this great people. Be with us through the day and guard us from error, and from harm, and from sin, and finally save us in thy kingdom through riches of grace in Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

President Bonner:

We will now have the great pleasure of listening to an address from Prof. Alexander White, of Washington and Lee University, known as the Scotch-Irish University of the South. His subject is "The Three Ideals: Puritan, Cavalier, and Scotch-Irish." Prof. White. [Applause.]

(For Prof. White's address, see Part II., page 120.)

President Bonner:

Ladies and Gentlemen: We have been listening with great pleasure to the achievements of our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. It is now my privilege to introduce to you a real live specimen of the Scotch-Irish race, almost fresh from the sod, Prof. Macloskie, of Princeton College, who was imported here sixteen years ago by Dr. McCosh and placed at the head of a Scientific Department of that institution. [Applause.]

(For Prof. Macloskie's address, see Part II., page 220.)

President Bonner:

It is my pleasure to introduce to you another real live specimen of the Scotch-Irish race, the Rev. Dr. Quigg, Presbyterian clergyman, of Conyers, Ga. A year ago last February, I had a pleasant journey in passing through this State from Atlanta to Savannah under the guidance of Col. Echols, who owns a plantation in Oglethorpe County. We stopped over Sunday at Lexington, and I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Quigg, and I think I will have equal pleasure in listening to him make a ten minutes' speech now. [Applause.]

(For Dr. Quigg's address, see Part II., page 226.)

President Bonner:

Mr. Frank L. Stanton, of your city, has kindly written a song of welcome to the Scotch-Irish, and will now favor us by reading it himself. [Applause.]

(For Mr. Stanton's poem, see Part II., page vi.)

President Bonner:

Ladies and Gentlemen: It affords me very great pleasure to introduce to you Maj. Charles H. Smith, who has a world-wide reputation as "Bill Arp." His subject is "The Georgia Cracker." [Applause.]

(For Maj. Smith's paper, see Part II., page 126.)

President Bonner:

It seems to me not only superfluous but almost ridiculous for a stranger to introduce Col. Adair to an Atlanta audience. I will let his own bright and smiling countenance be the introduction. [Applause.]

Col. G. W. Adair:

Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I thought that when I sprung this suit yesterday morning that it could not be sprung any more this spring. [Laughter.] I had no idea of being brought out this way, particularly after "Bill Arp," who is a professional wit and orator and lecturer, and known all over the face of the earth, and a good deal in Ireland and Scotland. I don't think I can venture to speak against the dinner bell. I am a sort of practical business man, and I never try anything like holding a crowd against the attractions of a dinner bell. I tried it once at a ball, and busted.

Our distinguished friend from Princeton rather attacked me for not having mentioned our excellent Mayor, W. A. Hemphill, as being a Scotch-Irishman. I examined the list of our Society and his name was not on it, and I omitted him. But I can say one thing which I think will be to the satisfaction of my friend from Princeton, and that is that from the number of Scotch-Irish badges I see springing up around me, if Hemphill is not a Scotch-Irishman now he will be before the next Mayor's election. [Laughter.] In fact, this thing is sort of taking somehow. I meet people out here who I know are Scotch-Irish as well as I know that I am, and may be a little better, and they are beginning to take an interest in this meeting. In fact, there is an amazing ignorance among the people on the subject, and they need education, and they need line upon line, precept upon precept, and they need a heap of these short, ten minute speeches, and a great many nice paragraphs turned by our able reporters and editors to build this thing up and let it be understood. In investigating the subject upon which I had the pleasure of reading a paper yesterday, I was astonished at the magnitude of the whole field. It grows—it is grand. The fact is that when you subtract what the Scotch-Irish have done for this country from the sum total, there is nothing left; nobody else has done any thing. I always thought that the Plymouth Rock fellows were great men, and I had heard something about the Cavaliers of Virginia, and I had read something about Oglethorpe, who brought over those English gentlemen who could not settle their tailors' bills in the old country, and I had heard about De Soto coming over here among the Indians hunting for the " Spring of Life," and about the Spaniards who had settled at St. Augustine, and the Acadians and the French at the mouth of the Mississippi, and I never heard anything about the Scotch-Irish. My father, in his good old conversational way around the hearth of our country cabin, used to talk about being a Scotch-Irishman, but I didn't know what it meant until this thing was sprung on me. But now I find that we have done great things, we have done almost everything, not only in the nation, but right here in Atlanta, as I tried to show you yesterday; and I want to urge upon everybody who attends this meeting to mention this matter to your Scotch-Irish friends and tell them something about it; go to talking shop. I am talking good sense. Get your friends and bring them up to the captain's office and let them join the Society, and this gathering will be the nucleus of a grand social, intellectual, and historical Society that will go out and do a vast deal of good all over the country. If we will do our duties as our distinguished President has done his, and Dr. Macintosh and these other gentlemen, if we will do in our humble way what we, as Scotch-Irishmen, ought to do, the time will come when we will have in Atlanta, and other cities as well, Societies whose influence will go out over the states and the interest will be such that a man may even venture occasionally to speak against a dinner bell. [Applause.]

President Bonner:
This Congress stands adjourned until 7: 30 o'clock this evening.


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